Formula 1 has now got too complicated if you have race control having to sort of press buttons here and there to make the cars work, 'cause what you get is, uh, basically an embarrassing shambles, as we've seen now for the past two weeks.

I, [sighs] I mean, you can't defend Malaysia, really.

It, it was pretty embarrassing.

But the overall criticism of F1 this year, the software problems, obviously the, the artificial overtaking, energy management in general, you know, some of that is absolutely justified, and it's proven to be because Formula 1 is changing the regulations.

But I...

There is a part of me that wonders whether we have reached a point where we know so much about Formula 1 that it is actually diminishing our enjoyment of it, because we live in an age where absolutely everything is on our fingertips, right? AI is right there to answer all of our quest- questions, team radio, telemetry, tech analysis.

Social media is dissecting every single bit of the race.

[laughs]

Can you explain to people, I suppose, who maybe don't have an understanding of what this is, what exactly happened and why it's reflecting so badly on these new regulations?

Yeah, so, I mean, essentially, there was obviously an initial delay because it was just wet.

That was the initial delay.

And then we got a formation lap behind the safety car.

So the race hadn't technically started yet.

It was a formation lap behind the safety car.

And on that formation lap, suddenly, Max Verstappen is running quite slowly, Lewis Hamilton as well.

And even taking aside the element of we shouldn't be having these technical difficulties and it's a bad look on the sport to have to spend 20 minutes updating the software of a car, are we reaching a stage now where between the boosts that drivers can deploy in mid-race, the software that the teams have, the software that the FAA have, are we losing more and more of the control that a driver has over the car? And what does that mean for the sport going forward?

What has been going wrong the last few races with Ferrari?

I mean, that's a good question.

I mean, Bonza was an absolute disaster class, wasn't it, for the two Ferrari drivers? I think I saw someone term it like that, and it was.

I mean, for Charles Leclerc's huge crash, obviously great that he's okay, but I just...

There seems to be, I think...

They came out of the blocks pretty well this year, which is actually a Ferrari trait.

They actually start years pretty well, and then it tends to go downhill.

To just skip ahead briefly, is there any indication of what teams think that this will be a track that will suit them or is it very much going into the unknown?

So yeah, I, I think he's still in the fight.

Yeah.

I don't care what Lando Norris says, he is absolutely in this title fight.

I understand the downplay.

And look, I understand as well there will be tracks that suit and don't suit, but that's the nature of, of Formula 1.

That's what we see throughout every single season.

I think, what, 13 wins now, 10, 10 of them, um, from pole position for Lando Norris.

You would've been a sitting duck after the VSCs.

What do you remember, Harry, about those day, that day?

Well, I probably got a slightly different perspective, 'cause I was at home on the sofa and I was having...

I was 19 years old, so I was only actually only a few months older than Max when he got that first win.

So a bit of a bizarre scenario to be in.

I was having a, a year out before going to university, but I was...

I remember the season vividly and the r- and the run-up to the Spanish Grand Prix and i- with China, the few races before that.

You had Daniil Kvyat getting on the podium and getting his elbows out in the Red Bull, the new kid having been promoted and was doing well, and then suddenly you had the turmoil that we got in, uh, Sochi at his home race, another punts into the back of Sebastian Vettel.

Two number ones, two equal drivers in a team.

So how significant then is the arrival of Cadillac? What do you think that can do for the sport in the USA?

I think it's huge.

I mean, already the sport has, as you say, gained in popularity, particularly in the States, thanks to things like Netflix's Drive to Survive program, which is how many people in the United States consume their Formula One.

They might not actually watch it live.

They consume it through that programming.

And now coming into this year, Apple TV over in the United States.

have the rights to broadcast Formula One, which is an absolutely massive thing.

What have you

Or chromium.

Oh, very nice.

Okay, I'll go with that.

I'll go with that.

It's all that wisdom.

But, yeah, I mean, I...

I suppose I first started properly pursuing it and knowing that I kind of wanted to be in motorsport in some form when I was 17 years old.

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