SPAnish Domination

So to launch things off, at Spa, we had Kimi Antonelli take the win in impressive form.

And so my question to kick us off, Louis, is, is there any stopping him? Is there a weakness? Is he just inevitable now?

If things stay as they have been, he's got the proper machinery under him right now.

He's driving pretty well.

Basically, it's all about luck now.

So long as his luck stays...

Good, as in no random issues with energy deployment software or reliability issues.

I think it's his to lose.

I know that Lewis Hamilton is kind of sticking around behind him, but I mean, that Mercedes has just got the advantage over everyone right now.

Yeah, and you mentioned the whole software thing, which that is.

I was just listening to the Races episode about, I think it may be on their Patreon, but still worth checking out if you can.

It may be a YouTube video.

Either way, they're discussing about how the AI information fed to the engine determining deployment.

And I'm like, can I claw my ears off? This is not my F1.

Yeah.

I know we can get into this a little bit later, but yeah, the comments from the drivers, the criticisms of this current regulation set, you know, those criticisms are... becoming more um obvious or they're just communicating them more publicly now than before uh and uh it's i don't know if you're in the uh executive suites at the fia if you're happy to hear that or not probably not but i mean they hate they were making their voices heard hoping to get some changes probably over um this upcoming summer break i'm not sure what else can be done for this season, but at least for next season, I think that's what they're kind of communicating now to kind of get pushed into the changes being made for next season.

Yeah, you know it's bad when Oscar Piastri is actually, like, bluntly speaking his mind and, like, being pretty harsh and ruthless about how much he dislikes these regs and how it's not real racing, and I'm like, Oscar's pretty temperate.

He very seldom, especially when he's out of the cockpit, just lambasts anything, so you know it's bad when Piastri's pissed about something.

Yeah, exactly.

His personality and him being openly critical.

He's not the kind of driver that strikes you as being more vocal like Max, but he's slowly getting there.

So if you have someone like Oscar Piastri speaking up, you've got a problem, I think.

Yeah, that's a new level of messing things up when you've aroused Oscar to actually speak publicly at length about something to the press.

But yeah, back to Kimmy, because so many people going into Spa was like, oh, he's going to struggle here because he didn't do well last year, which has been a repeating refrain that people have had to say about Kimmy Antonelli.

And he keeps proving them wrong.

So to launch things off, at Spa, we had Kimi Antonelli take the win in impressive form.

And so my question to kick us off, Louis, is, is there any stopping him? Is there a weakness? Is he just inevitable now?

If things stay as they have been, he's got the proper machinery under him right now.

He's driving pretty well.

Basically, it's all about luck now.

So long as his luck stays...

Good, as in no random issues with energy deployment software or reliability issues.

I think it's his to lose.

I know that Lewis Hamilton is kind of sticking around behind him, but I mean, that Mercedes has just got the advantage over everyone right now.

Yeah, and you mentioned the whole software thing, which that is.

I was just listening to the Races episode about, I think it may be on their Patreon, but still worth checking out if you can.

It may be a YouTube video.

Either way, they're discussing about how the AI information fed to the engine determining deployment.

And I'm like, can I claw my ears off? This is not my F1.

Yeah.

I know we can get into this a little bit later, but yeah, the comments from the drivers, the criticisms of this current regulation set, you know, those criticisms are... becoming more um obvious or they're just communicating them more publicly now than before uh and uh it's i don't know if you're in the uh executive suites at the fia if you're happy to hear that or not probably not but i mean they hate they were making their voices heard hoping to get some changes probably over um this upcoming summer break i'm not sure what else can be done for this season, but at least for next season, I think that's what they're kind of communicating now to kind of get pushed into the changes being made for next season.

Yeah, you know it's bad when Oscar Piastri is actually, like, bluntly speaking his mind and, like, being pretty harsh and ruthless about how much he dislikes these regs and how it's not real racing, and I'm like, Oscar's pretty temperate.

He very seldom, especially when he's out of the cockpit, just lambasts anything, so you know it's bad when Piastri's pissed about something.

Yeah, exactly.

His personality and him being openly critical.

He's not the kind of driver that strikes you as being more vocal like Max, but he's slowly getting there.

So if you have someone like Oscar Piastri speaking up, you've got a problem, I think.

Yeah, that's a new level of messing things up when you've aroused Oscar to actually speak publicly at length about something to the press.

But yeah, back to Kimmy, because so many people going into Spa was like, oh, he's going to struggle here because he didn't do well last year, which has been a repeating refrain that people have had to say about Kimmy Antonelli.

And he keeps proving them wrong.