Mercedes-Benz

Yeah.

To secure a place that is very close to Mercedes Benz.

We have two options.

OK. Yeah.

It's a rarity that that happens anyways, but Yeah, I expect a much closer contest, but I do expect the Buccaneers to come out and play with their hair on fire, much like they did today, and I think it's going to be a battle.

I believe it's in Atlanta, so it'll be in Mercedes-Benz.

We'll see what time that ends up.

It's probably going to be one, but it's going to be a great game.

He's going to be starting behind the likes of Cadillac, Williams, and Aston Martin, and we could see a 15- to 20-point day from Gabby, and that would be a big differential for teams to take the gamble on him.

Onto free practice one, where it was Leclerc, Verstappen, and Norris in the top three, with Mercedes rounding out the top five in P4 and P5.

So a good omen for Ferrari's upgrades as we start the weekend, and a little bit worrying for those of us that were running Mercedes.

Nico Hülkenberg complained of some power unit issues throughout the session, but we talked with director Alan McNish after the session, and he said that Hülkenberg and Bortoletto were running different setups, and he expected some complaints from Nico throughout FP1.

They changed Hulkenberg's setup to match Bortoletto's in FP2, and Hulkenberg completed both sessions without any complaints.

An interesting fact from Friday was that Alex Albon didn't set a representative lap time in either of the sessions due to track limits.

So Williams are struggling a lot, but I wonder if track limits is going to come into play in qualifying.

One thing I'm looking at in the battle between Mercedes versus Red Bull is how George Russell looks against Isaac Hadjar.

I mean, it happens sometimes.

And he was a Mercedes junior driver.

And I think he has got a good opportunity there that he ends up there at Mercedes.

We have, although this is probably the only time that I have not seen Anthony wearing a McLaren hat, but we have a big McLaren fan in Anthony.

So we want to talk to you about Lando, him crashing into his teammate and also Andrea Stella and the way that they handle that.

But then Hamilton and Toto were like the good guys.

So you have this like connotation of like creativity.

Horner's Darth Sidious and then you've got Obi-Wan and Luke in Mercedes and I think it's just that thing of like anytime he pops up you're like he's got a plan he knows something's going to happen and I just I think it's quite funny anytime he does pop up because you're like you have something in your back of your head and I want to know what it is and I was wishing that you knew as well

You want to be in the airport.

You want to be in Mercedes Benz.

You want to be here.

But you also want to have multiple streams of income in the fundraising.

[gentle music] The Athletic.

[upbeat music] The race is on, and as F1 heads to Austin's Circuit of the Americas, Mercedes faces a huge test, not only of its troubled upgrade, but also of its 2027 prospects.

But what should we expect from the Austin weekend, and what does the latest driver market news mean for Ferrari's future lineup? I'm Ed Straw, and joining me to look ahead to the United States Grand Prix are Samarth Kanal and Ben Anderson.

Welcome to the RaceF1 podcast, sponsored by SkinCeuticals.

... to be at.

I'll be heading off there very, very shortly.

So Ben, we're gonna start off talking about Mercedes.

Yeah.