Episode 391 - Going Slightly Mad(Ring)

Sorry about the 2 week layoff after we thought we'd come back, but it was work commitments this time that held things up. But we finally made it! Quite a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks, so we've tried to compress it all into a 90 minute digest with minimal tangents (only said minimal, not none!)There was the Italian Grand Prix with an incredible last(ish) to first drive from this year's champpion elect, Kimi Antonelli, then the utter pointlessness of the parade around the newly build MadRing on the outskirts of Madrid's city centre, and what an utter thrill-a-week that "race was"There's bits of news too, including the latest attempt by MBS to dictate not only how F1 is run, but who's driving the cars, and a load more waffle too, At least there's Baku to look forward to this weekend, and don't forget everything is a day earlier than usual with the race on Saturday and don’t forget to see how you did in the ⁠Prediction League⁠ and ⁠Official F1 Fantasy League⁠ too.And if you want to join in with the chat during the races (along with testing, practice and qualifying) head over to our ⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠ where there’s always a great crowd of people to watch along with. And on the socials we’ve got our ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠BlueSky⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠Twitter (or is it X)⁠⁠ and Paul’s attempts at Sim Racing on our ⁠⁠Twitch⁠⁠ channel. And if you want to support us you can donate to our ⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠ as well from as little as £/$/€ 1 per monthEnjoy 

So it's farewell to Zandvoort for the time being then. The Dutch Grand Prix was a welcome return to the F1 calendar in 2021, a tyear later then planned, but we don't talk about that! It's chucked up a few interesting races over the last few years and this year's wasn't an exception to that either.This week (it's getting a bit regular again isn't it!) on the pod we take a look at a race that turned out to be interesting in ways that we hadn't expected. Nobody thought that Max would be done before the end of the 1st lap, Oscar Piastri wasn't expecting to be called into the pits every few minutes on a strategy that even Ferrari in their prime would call "a bit daft" and Hulk made possibly the best save of his career in avoiding his spinning team-mate, Gabriel PirouettoThere's a load of other F1 related nonsense as we get back into talking rubbish in public again on a weekly basis and don’t forget to see how you did in the ⁠Prediction League⁠ and ⁠Official F1 Fantasy League⁠ too.And if you want to join in with the chat during the races (along with testing, practice and qualifying) head over to our ⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠ where there’s always a great crowd of people to watch along with. And on the socials we’ve got our ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠BlueSky⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠Twitter (or is it X)⁠⁠ and Paul’s attempts at Sim Racing on our ⁠⁠Twitch⁠⁠ channel. And if you want to support us you can donate to our ⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠ as well from as little as £/$/€ 1 per monthEnjoy

Hello and sorry! We thought that after that one show we managed to do in May, we'd be able to make a full comeback for this season, but sadly ill health raised its ugly head and that put all our plans on hold for a while. But after only doing a small handfull of podcasts in 2026, it now looks like things are on the up and we're ready to roll again for the 2nd half of this F1 season and beyond.This month on the show (it'll be back to being "this week" from next week) we take a look at what's been going on over teh summer break as it turned out there were a few talking points with contracts, team principle changes and just before we started recording, a substitute appearance for both RedBull backed teams.Of course there was Thursday News as this one got recorded on a wednesday night, so we missed the Max contract extension announcement, but you already knew about that anyway didn't you?Anyway, F1 is now back and so are we, so pull up a comfy seat and strap in for the 2nd half of what's turning out to be an interesting season!Also don’t forget to see how you did in the Prediction League and Official F1 Fantasy League too.And if you want to join in with the chat during the races (along with testing, practice and qualifying) head over to our ⁠Discord⁠ where there’s always a great crowd of people to watch along with. And on the socials we’ve got our ⁠Facebook⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠BlueSky⁠ & ⁠Twitter (or is it X)⁠ and Paul’s attempts at Sim Racing on our ⁠Twitch⁠ channel. And if you want to support us you can donate to our ⁠Patreon⁠ as well from as little as £/$/€ 1 per monthEnjoy

It's been way too long since we've been able to do this thanks to the new mixing desk deciding to stop working half way through recording episodes 3 times (It's going back to get fixed or replaced ASA-bloody-P)  But we've finally managed to cobble something together to make a comeback 10 weeks and 4 Grands Prix after the last succesful attempt at recording something!And what a great race to come back to. We've seen the new order at Mercedes with Kimi Antonelli living up to the hype and taking the lead in the championship with 4 straight wins, a resurgent Ferrari (although McLaren acting like they were the team in red with their Sunday strategy helped) and a tweak to the regulations that we'd still not managed to get used to from the start of the sesason already coming into force!This week (month?) on the podcast we do a bit of a free-form look at the Canadian GP weekend just to ease us back into doing this pod-thingy and see if anyone still wants to listen to us ramble about F1. We still enjoy it, when technology allows, so it's a start!All being well, we're back to a weekly schedule again (until the old mixing desk conks out anyway) so once again, we're back and sorry!Also don’t forget to see how you did in the Prediction League and Official F1 Fantasy League too.And if you want to join in with the chat during the races (along with testing, practice and qualifying) head over to our ⁠Discord⁠ where there’s always a great crowd of people to watch along with. And on the socials we’ve got our ⁠Facebook⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠BlueSky⁠ & ⁠Twitter (or is it X)⁠ and Paul’s attempts at Sim Racing on our ⁠Twitch⁠ channel. And if you want to support us you can donate to our ⁠Patreon⁠ as well from as little as £/$/€ 1 per monthEnjoy

So the new season is finally here, with the new regulations, new teams, new driver (singular), returning drivers (X2) and new worries about the cars being fast enough, stable enough, capable of lasting for an entire qualifying session (let alone a race) and a whole new order up and down the grid.Well we got a half decent opening to 2026 at least, overtakes with the new moveable aero (don't call it DRS, even though that's what it looks like) and drivers seemingly having to do hardcore maths while working out batter levels and charging/clipping/superclipping levels.This week on the podcast we look back at the Australian Grand Prix, where the new order appears to be the last order but 2 with Mercedes taking the top 2 steps on the podium this time out, but was it as clear-cut as the results say? There was a recovering Max thanks to an issue with the car in Q1 that sent him into the barriers, and some questions over Ferrari's strategy call under a VSC (at least some things don't change!)There's also a look at the other stories circulating round the paddock at the moment, especially concerning the Bahrain & Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and if they're going to happen at all this year, or will the current conflict in the Middle-East leave us without F1 for the entire month of April?Also don't forget to see how you did in the Prediction League and Official F1 Fantasy League too.And if you want to join in with the chat during the races (along with testing, practice and qualifying) head over to our ⁠Discord⁠ where there’s always a great crowd of people to watch along with. And on the socials we’ve got our ⁠Facebook⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠BlueSky⁠ & ⁠Twitter (or is it X)⁠ and Paul’s attempts at Sim Racing on our ⁠Twitch⁠ channel. And if you want to support us you can donate to our ⁠Patreon⁠ as well from as little as £/$/€ 1 per monthEnjoy

It's the eve of the 2026 season (Seasonmas Eve?) and 10 teams are poised to launch into 2026 with new cars, with new aero and engine regulations, but wait... Who's that clunking round at the back with bits falling off the car at half the speed of everyone else? It's the new Aston Martin Honda powered donkey!As we all wait in anticipation for the start of the latest new era of F1, good old Honda have done it again, they've managed to create an engine that vibrates itself practically to pieces and has done so, so many times that they've run out of spare parts and it looks like they might only make the first few laps when when the season opens in Melbourne this weekend!This week on the pod we take a brief look back at the 3 testing sessions that took place in Barcelona and Bahrain where, as usual, we learnt next to nothing over who is going to be quick and reliable, but did learn who isn't!Bit of a hurridly thrown together show this week, but we've still managed to cram as many tangents in as possible, along with the launch of this season's Prediction League and Official F1 Fantasy League too.And if you want to join in with the chat during the races (along with testing, practice and qualifying) head over to our ⁠Discord⁠ where there’s always a great crowd of people to watch along with. And on the socials we’ve got our ⁠Facebook⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠BlueSky⁠ & ⁠Twitter (or is it X)⁠ and Paul’s attempts at Sim Racing on our ⁠Twitch⁠ channel. And if you want to support us you can donate to our ⁠Patreon⁠ as well from as little as £/$/€ 1 per monthEnjoy

Happy New Regulations everyone! Yes it's 2026 and the new F1 rules are coming into force very soon, even if the teams, F1 themselves and even the FIA aren't 100% sure of what they are and how they'll work. What could go wrong? (We'll find out soon, Scarbs will be joining us to explain all that!)This week on the first podcast of 2026, we take a look back at the major F1 stories that have happened since we last got together a couple of months back. We've seen Friend of the Podcast Lando Norris become World Champion, the end of the Helmut Marko era at RedBull, rumours about the return of Christian Horner to the grid (with Alpine this time) and we wildly speculate about when we'll see the Renault name back in F1 again after they left, not for the first time, this year.There's a load of tangents as well as we just generally have a catchup as it's the first time all 4 of us have spoken to each other at the same time since before Christmas, so it's a bit of a freeform, all over the place kind of show. But we have got an Is That Glock for a change!And if you want to join in with the chat during the races (along with testing, practice and qualifying) head over to our ⁠Discord⁠ where there’s always a great crowd of people to watch along with. And on the socials we’ve got our ⁠Facebook⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠BlueSky⁠ & ⁠Twitter (or is it X)⁠ and Paul’s attempts at Sim Racing on our ⁠Twitch⁠ channel. And if you want to support us you can donate to our ⁠Patreon⁠ as well from as little as £/$/€ 1 per monthEnjoy

It was all lined up. The penultimate race weekend of the season at a track that isn't exactly condusive to overtakes. Lando  just needed to outscore both his rivals by 2 points over the sprint and the Grand Prix to claim his first World Driver's crown, he was starting ahead of Max Verstappen in both races and he's had the measure of Oscar Piastri recently. It's a sure thing isn't it?This week on the podcast we look back at the race weekend where Lando Norris could well have lost the championship after McLaren took a gamble on strategy straight out the Ferrari playbook and managed to keep the 3 way title fight alive right up to the final race of the season next weekend in Abu Dhabi (and we all know how that's gone before don't we). How did they manage to get everything so wrong and be the only team not to pit under a safety car with 50 laps to go when there were compulsory stops after a maximum of 25 laps on a set of tyres?At least for the likes of us we've got another season where the finale isn't a dead rubber/lame duck and we're not going to know who the 2025 World Champion is until Sunday afternoon (unless something goes badly wrong in qualifying of course!) So of course we're speculating like nobody's business on that and on what the 2026 RedBull & VCARB lineups are going to be along with which one of the 5 prosepective drivers is going to be left without a seat (spoiler, it's Yuki) until someone messes up and gets demoted/fired! Obviously we've got a good few tangents as well as it wouldn't be an episode of 3L4W without them!And if you want to join in with the chat during the races (along with practice and qualifying) head over to our ⁠Discord⁠ where there’s always a great crowd of people to watch along with. And on the socials we’ve got our ⁠Facebook⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠BlueSky⁠ & ⁠Twitter (or is it X)⁠ and Paul’s attempts at Sim Racing on our ⁠Twitch⁠ channel. And if you want to support us you can donate to our ⁠Patreon⁠ as well from as little as £/$/€ 1 per monthEnjoy

As the saying goes; what happens in Vegas, stays In Vegas. And that was true about Lando Norris's 24 point lead over 2nd place in the World Driver's Championship after a double dq for McLaren and an imperious win for (former, but on longer title outsider) Max Verstappen. Could Max actually do it this season, from an over 100 point deficit to taking the title in the last 2 race weekends? If he does manage to pip both papaya clad drivers to the title, this will probably go down in history as just about the greatest championship win ever. So get your popcorn ready, we're at the sharp end!This week on the podcast we look back at a Las Vegas Grand Prix that had more tha a few shocks. A wet track, an utterly abysmal Ferrari qualifying strategy, even by their own, already low, standards. Lance Stroll ending up as the victim of a move from Bortaletto that could only be described as "Strollesque" And a reault that's keeping the championship a three way scrap for far longer than anyone thought possible at the Summer break.You might notice that we recorded this on Wednesday this week and thanks to a huge stroke of luck when it comes to F1 news, the Adrian Newey appointment as team principle at Aston Martin from next year was still doing the rounds of shocking and confusing everyone. What is Lawrence Stroll playing at? Is he actually a genius or will this come crashing down like his last few TP appointments did? (We're going to be going through a LOT of popcorn in the future)And if you want to join in with the chat during the races (along with practice and qualifying) head over to our ⁠Discord⁠ where there’s always a great crowd of people to watch along with. And on the socials we’ve got our ⁠Facebook⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠BlueSky⁠ & ⁠Twitter (or is it X)⁠ and Paul’s attempts at Sim Racing on our ⁠Twitch⁠ channel. And if you want to support us you can donate to our ⁠Patreon⁠ as well from as little as £/$/€ 1 per monthEnjoy

Said the greatest driver ever to come out of Brazil. Sadly a few too many of the current grid took that to heart this weekend and a few teams were left with serious repair jobs, penalties and wasted weekends.This week on the podcast we look back at the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend where a combination of a drying track, soaking kerbs (hey, we're British OK!) and quite possibly a lack of spatial awareness from some drivers gave us both an entertaining sprint and a Grand Prix that showed us that you cannot count out Max Verstappen when there's even the faintest sniff of a podiumAs usual, we go team by team for who did what, who didn't do what and what the hell were they doing throughout the weekend after 2 races that have firmly tipped the balance for the World Driver's Championship very much onto Lando's side.And if you want to join in with the chat during the races (along with practice and qualifying) head over to our Discord where there’s always a great crowd of people to watch along with. And on the socials we’ve got our Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky & Twitter (or is it X) and Paul’s attempts at Sim Racing on our Twitch channel. And if you want to support us you can donate to our Patreon as well from as little as £/$/€ 1 per monthEnjoy