Sean and Andy are joined but one but TWO special guests as we tackle the burning issue in formula one…. what exactly is Grosjeaning?
The crew start to define the F1 dictionary, decide who won the most undeserving 1st place in F1, th proposed new Miami Grand Prix and the new regulations for 2019
Copyright Andrew Pearson & Modernfanatical.co.uk
Sean and Andy are joined but one but TWO special guests as they review the Azerbaijan grand prix.
Tackling the crash-tacular first lap, Alonso’s miracle recovery, the Red Bull implosion and which car was the best car on the day. All these plus all the fallout before we head to spain.
Copyright Andrew Pearson & Modernfanatical.co.uk
Welcome everybody to the third episode of #F1Banter, part of the new look scheduling for The Last Lap Podcast!
#F1Banter is the show where we and our guests can talk about any aspect of F1, whether that’s a particular incident from a race, general F1 news or a specific topic that has the F1 world talking. Whatever F1 thinks is happening we’ll be talking about it.
This episode Sean and Andy tackle a question sent in from a listener that will make you question EVERTYHING! They also look at the upcoming regulation changes for 2019 and talk about how really benefits.
We also discuss our fantasy F1 surprise return! More importantly we want YOU to tweet us @lastlappodcast and let us know who you want back in F1 and which seat they should get!
Copyright Andrew Pearson & Modernfanatical.co.uk
The regular team of Sean and Andy tackle the latest grand prix action from Shanghai as we follow to fortunes of the teams and drivers in China!
With the race turning on several specific incidents in the race find out what the guys made of Max Verstappen’s race, Daniel Ricciardo’s surprise finish, what happened to Lewis Hamilton and all the mixed up action in the midfield.
Copyright Andrew Pearson & Modernfanatical.co.uk
Welcome everybody to the second ever episode of #F1Banter, part of the new look scheduling for The Last Lap Podcast!
#F1Banter is the show where we and our guests can talk about any aspect of F1, whether that’s a particular incident from a race, general F1 news or a specific topic that has the F1 world talking. Whatever F1 thinks is happening we’ll be talking about it.
This episode Sean and Andy tackle questions sent in by our wonderful listeners! Discussing the fortunes of Force India, the Red Bull/Torro Rosso driver line ups, will Mercedes match Lewis’s contract demands and more.
We also put together our fantasy F1 broadcast team! Find out who we think should be bringing you F1 on telly! Amazingly we didn’t just say us!
Copyright Andrew Pearson & Modernfanatical.co.uk
Back with our dynamic duo of Sean and Andy this week and they couldn’t have picked a better race to be able to discuss the fall out from!
Bahrain not noted as one of F1’s most stellar tracks produced a “barnstormer” of a race with a tense up front battle, surprise pace in the mid field and controversial retirements. All of these points and what we can expect from Torro Rosso in future, whether the lengthing day affected Mercedes strategy and more!
Copyright Andrew Pearson & Modernfanatical.co.uk
Welcome everybody to the first episode of #F1Banter, part of the new look scheduling for The Last Lap Podcast!
#F1Banter will be a show where we and our guests can talk about any aspect of F1, whether that’s a particular incident from a race, general F1 news or a specific topic that has the F1 world talking. Whatever F1 thinks is happening we’ll be talking about it.
This episode Sean, Andy and Nicky Haldenby cover things from the fortunes of Force India and Williams in 2018, how Liberty Media and the FIA could restructure the season and what Ferrari’s Formula E entry should be called!
So tune in and don’t forget to tweet @lastlappodcast with the hashtag #F1Banter if you want to talk about anything we’ve discussed or raise a topic you think we should cover on a future episode. If it’s a good one we might even invite you on the show!
Copyright Andrew Pearson & Modernfanatical.co.uk
The first Grand Prix of the 2018 season is over and that means it is the return of the Last Lap Podcast! A new revised format this means you’ll get a short 30-40 minute race review after each race plus more episodes covering specific topics or just general discussions on Formula One.
We’ll also be trying to get more guest co-hosts on the show to compliment Sean and Andy’s opinions and bring some diversity into the show. Starting this week with Nicky Haldenby from Lights Out Blog!
So join the guys as we tackle the most important issues stemming from the Grand Prix, who has impressed from the rookies and that “controversial” virtual safety car.
Copyright Andrew Pearson & Modernfanatical.co.uk
There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.
Donald Rumsfeld
The new season is days away and as we prepare to launch ourselves full force into another titanic championship battle why don’t you let the Last Lap Podcast help take you through some of the variables of the season before us?
Mercedes still look to be the front runners this year. After a flawless testing only really mired by the fact they didn’t take any Ultra Soft tyres to set the top testing time the Mercedes seems to have shaken off the diva tag given to it last year. Seemingly fast whatever compound it ran on and with no technical difficulties it’s hard to see them having been caught by the pack
Ferrari and Red Bull are close in performance again. Following a slightly disappointing 2017 for the Austrian outfit Red Bull seem to have turned up with a highly competitive package for 2018. Ferrari also look to have improved their lot since last year with good speed and reliability through the winter test. Both will hope to e closer to Mercedes whilst hoping to outpace each other comfortably
Charles Le Clerc is going to have a long old season in the Sauber by the look of things. The incredible talent Le Clerc has demonstrated may be a little wasted this year as the Sauber looks to rebuild with it’s first current season engine for a while. Though it doubtless will not harm him long term it could be a frustrating debut for the Monégasque.
Exactly how good is the McLaren? Testing was a mixed bag for the all papya McLaren. Seemingly fast in places but then spending a fair amount of time on the back of a truck heading back to the pits. There’s clearly speed to be had and the speed traps would suggest the car hasn’t been fully wrung out as yet but those reliability issues could dent any early season charge.
Exactly how bad is the Williams? Williams seems to have slipped under the radar for having what should equate to a rotten test by the relative success/failure of McLaren and Torro Rosso team. In the hand of Stroll and Sirotkin the Williams seemed to be well off pace and in fact it took Kubica to start really pushing in semi-decent times. They’ve lost Martini and don’t seem to have developed the car since they shoved a Mercedes in the back of it. Should we be fearing for their future?
The Honda powering the Torro Rosso looks like it might be a massive improvement on the paper weight that was being lugged around in last years McLaren but do we really know this? Sources say Honda changed the engine 3 times across the initial days of testing and then only one for the last day or so. Are they deceiving everyone that the unit is more reliable? Is there truly speed in it for a full race run at 100%? Is the Torro Rosso simply not built to the extremes a top team like McLaren push for and so it’s hiding the issues better?
Is Liberty’s new streaming service the answer we’ve been waiting for? The first real foray into the world of digital broadcasting for F1 after years of Bernie scoffing at the internet and sticking with massive pay wall restricted deals is launching just before Australia. Currently launching is the territories without exclusive TV deals it could be an massive leap for F1 coverage… or it could be an utter shambles given how little real world testing has been done on it.
Are we going to have any closer on track action? Fans have been complaining for years now that F1 is full of processional races were cars can get close but not pass. The seeming performance difference between the cars in the hybrid era has only intensified the problem. The convergence of performance in the current rule set plus the oulawing of certain set up might mean the cars are actually much closer on track and we’ll have some proper on track action instead of Undercut/Overcut passes…. Or nah.
How many grid penalties are we going to get come the end of the season? Teams are down to just three, yes three power units this season. Honda used that many in the first three days of testing! As Renault proved at the end of last season the quest for performance can lead to choppy waters and with one less unit to play with last years record grid penalties could be eclipsed in quick order…. or all the engine manufacturers could have upped their game and the testing issues are just related to new components going into new cars and we’ll see 2 car finishes all seasons
Perhaps on reflection whether we think we know what’s in store of our favourite teams and drivers this season we can take solace on this quote from American physicist Brian Green
Exploring the unknown requires tolerating uncertainty.
Brian Greene
Copyright Andrew Pearson & Modernfanatical.co.uk
Although the new season is still a few months away excitement is already growing now that we’re starting to see the shape of how F1 may look in the new year. So what is there to look forward to after a so-so ending to the last season? Here’s the Last Lap’s take on the top 5 things you should be looking forward to in the F1 season ahead!
New (and Newish) Drivers
Ok so technically we’re only getting two new drivers who have not raced an F1 event but it feels like the grid has had a little bit of a shake up, at least outside of the big three teams currently.
Charles Leclerc and Sergey Sirotkin join an increasingly young grid alongside relative newbies in Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley. Leclerc ran away with the F2 title last season and joins the newly revamp Sauber/Alfa Romeo team whilst Sirotkin has impressed in the junior category and beat out Robert Kubica to drive alongside another relative rookie in Lance Stroll.
Gasly and Hartley meanwhile make up a newly reformed Torro Rosso line up and perhaps is the most interesting pairing on the grid. Gasly is also an F2 winner whilst Hartley has been making waves outside of the traditional single seater feeder series in WEC and has won the Le Mans 24 hour race among other series.
Plus we have the rookies of last season looking to build on fairly promising first seasons with the aforementioned Lance Stroll, Stoffel VanDoorne and Esteban Occon. All three will be looking to show their improvement and consistency.
And of course Robert Kubica is going to be around the paddock as the reserve/test driver for Williams so there is still a chance the Polish fan favourite man make a return should one of the other Williams drivers falter.
New Rules and New Tyres
As is becoming usual for an F1 season we’re getting a new set of rules to play by of which the most controversial seems to be the reduction of power units to just three full units per car for the entire season. Reducing engine consumption has been the primary way the FIA have attempted to reduce the spend of F1 teams over the last few years but with the Grid Penalty system seeming to be under constant attack for the sky high numbers of places lost and potentially race ruining penalties for front runners it seems odd the FIA have stuck with this one.
Along side less engines we get more tyres! 7 compounds will be introduced by Pirelli in an attempt to spice up the racing by having faster and less durable compounds available. The same 3 compound rule applies to each event though so fans only have to understand there will still be a fastest, middle ground and durable option available with two having to be run.
The cars should also look a little different as we’re losing the Shark Fin and T-wings from the back end and replacing them with the much maligned Halo around the cockpit. Overall the cars should be relatively similar elsewhere though Ferrari are rumoured to be increasing the wheel base of their entry just as Mercedes are shortening there’s. Both teams are also looking toward a Red Bull style High Rake set up too.
The Return of Two Classic Tracks
Personally I’m going to miss the Malaysian grand prix, I thought the track was a good one and produced decent racing in its time on the calendar. To replace it we have the return of the French Grand Prix which will be hosted at the Paul Ricard track near Marseilles. Whilst the return of the French Grand Prix is definitely something to look forward to I feel F1 has missed a trick by not returning to Magny Cours. Paul Ricard is a great place to test F1 cars with it’s “bit of everything” layout but as Barcelona has proved, test tracks don’t always make good race tracks.
Also positively we get the return of the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, again maybe not the purists first choice for a German venue but I feel it’s better having some German GP than none as the sport looks to dominate motorsport globally. The middle part of the season, visiting the classic tracks of F1 history is an important part of the heritage of F1, a nod back to the pioneering days of the sport and should be integral to any calendar.
New ways to enjoy watching F1
Although Liberty Media maybe haven’t returned F1 to Free to Air programming immediately there still seems to be a big push into getting F1 into the digital age as soon as possible. Sean Bratches, Liberty’s Commercial Chief, has been very publicly stating Liberties aims in this area and 2018 could start to see the formation of those plans coming to life.
Expect a new F1 app to enjoy with the races as well as potentially providing an OTT platform for streaming. Zac Brown of McLaren also mentioned the hiring of industry experts to revamp the graphics in F1 so the actual viewing experience on television could also be pretty different in 2018.
The Resurgence of Red Bull and McLaren (and maybe Renault)
Maybe the biggest change to F1 2018 could well be the battle for the podium positions. Although most fans expect the seasons to be another dog fight between the juggernauts of Ferrari and Mercedes the form of Red Bull as the 2017 season wore on suggested they could well be in the position to challenge both teams should they get the last few BHP out of their power units.
McLaren have pulled the trigger on the Honda dream and now partnering with Renault they should have a base engine that is capable of competing at the sharp end of the grid. Given that their chassis was able to put the team in positions to fight Mercedes and Renault powered then 2018 could well see the Woking based team go from fighting to get to Q3 to battling for the front row.
Credit: Sean Bull Design
Renault will admit that engine wise the end of last season was a spectacular failure. Chasing what seems to be a research and design dead end they introduced parts to the engine that failed repeatedly costing several Red Bull and Torro Rosso drivers decent finishes and grid positions. However Renault admitted they had made a mistake and with a decent base to fall back on the engine this season could go back to being reliable and make gains on the top two engines. A a tea, itself Renault will also be looking to move on from their current mid-field position with updates hopefully pushing them away from the troublesome Lotus based chassis they inherited on their return to the sport.
So all in all a season witch much promise to look forward to so Sean and I hope to see you tuning into the newly relaunched podcast when we return with out testing review and season preview episodes as soon as the cars touch tarmac again.
See you then!
Copyright Andrew Pearson & Modernfanatical.co.uk
