The primal scream heard around the world. Charles Leclerc while leading the French Grand Prix on Lap 18, spins out and puts it in the wall. And just like that, Charles is now 63 points behind in the Championship with just 10 races left, as Max Verstappen would go on to comfortably win his 7th race of the year. Ferrari gets another deep dive on this edition of the show, where they weren’t directly responsible for this one, but we still have a go over Carlos Sainz race. Man could have had a podium from the back of the field, but an Unsafe Release penalty and some questionable strategy calls put pay to that. Is this the end for Ferrari’s 2022 challenge?!

We also talk Mercedes after Lewis Hamilton’s 300th GP was celebrated with his best result of the year in 2nd, with teammate George Russell in the wars with Sergio Perez for 3rd. Is the double podium a sign the win is coming? Dre was NOT kind about their chances here, but an honest assessment of Mercedes is in this one too.

Also a chat about France’s future on the calendar. F1 is continuing to expand, we have China and Qatar rejoining into 2023 and there’s been talk that Paul Ricard gets dropped, and maybe Spa too to accommodate a 24 race 2023 calendar. Is that feasible? Should the historical rounds get pushed for the street circuits like Qatar and Saudi Arabia? Should there be bi-annual rotating slots? We talk about it at the back end of the show!

That’s our French GP report, check back in for IndyCar on Sunday!

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Hey now, it’s been a while, but welcome back to Formula E! And we had some surprises in store when the series returned to New York City!

It was a double header weekend, and in Race 1, the story was Nick Cassidy! He won the pole position final duel against Stoffel Vandoorne by 8 thousandths of a second and would then go onto control the race from the front… until rain came down with 10 minutes to go! A torrential downpour had Cassidy, Vandoorne and Mortara all hit a puddle and go flying off into the escape road, red flagging the race, and because the race was called, Cassidy got to keep the win on countback! Should we have had a restart? Jaguar were pissed they didn’t, we discuss it!

We also had a crazy end to Race 2 with a pileup at the end with Lucas Di Grassi, a spun around Jean-Eric Vergne and Oliver Askew’s car in the wall. Race Director Scot Elkins though… didn’t call for a Full Course Yellow as Antonio Felix Da Costa held on for his first win of the season from Stoffel Vandoorne second. All this after Nick Cassidy qualified on pole AGAIN, but was sent to the back live on TV for a battery change we all saw coming after yesterday’s wreck. Again, we break it all down on the show.

And finally, Season 9’s calendar was released for 2023, and we got some interesting changes. Provisionally, the series largest ever calendar at 18 races, new rounds in Hyderabad in India, with rumours of Cape Town and a return to China also on the bill. We discuss all the changes and whether we like the direction the series is going in.

All that and more on Motorsport101!

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Well, that was a shocker. The dust is only just settling on the biggest single silly season story in Motorsport. Out of nowhere, just hours of Chip Ganassi confirms they take the third year option on reigning series Champion Alex Palou’s contract, Alex himself denies it on Twitter, declares he doesn’t want to be there anymore for “personal reasons” and five minutes later, it’s announced he’s signed a deal with McLaren. But we don’t know where yet.

We try to make full sense of the situation, from Palou signing two deals at once. Has Chip Ganassi undersold the value of its reigning Champion by NOT renegotiating his deal after his shock sophomore title win? IS Zak Brown using his F1 team as leverage to coax the sport’s younger drivers into moving over there? Pato O’Ward, Colton Herta and now Alex Palou, all 25 or younger, all actively making moves for an F1 seat that Daniel Ricciardo is still holding onto? Is this a good look for the series that is revelling in its own youth movement? It’s a half hour plus discussion that included some fair disagreement about the future of IndyCar too. Well worth a listen!

We talk IndyCar’s return to Tornoto as well, as Scott Dixon made some more history with a huge win to get himself back in the title race. Not only that, it was his 52nd IndyCar win to tie him with the great Mario Andretti, and his 18th straight season with a victory. Dixon’s winless streak can drink in the UK. It’s older than Facebook becoming publicly accessible. Older than YouTube and Twitter. Older than Pedro Acosta. Older than the iPhone. And yet, here we are, Dixon at 41, back in another title fight. We break that down, as well as Felix Rosenqvist’s first series podium with McLaren, despite shoving Alex Rossi into the wall. It’s a fun time.#

First time I think we’ve gone over an hour with a purely IndyCar episode, and it was great fun, listen in back on Motorsport101!

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WARNING: Like the British GP episode, this is a Podcast that’s going to include discussions of a discriminatory nature, including sexual harassment. You may find this episode upsetting. If you want to skip this discussion, you can fast forward to 20:00. Look after yourselves.

F1 returned to Austria, and the weekend was overshadowed by multiple reports of horrific abuse by fans at the track including racism, misogynistic language, to full blown sexual harassment. We discuss the awfulness of these incidents, and what the sport, promoters and fellow fans can do about it.

We talk the race itself and how Ferrari gave their fans another headache despite winning – Charles Leclerc nursing a car home in a dominant display after his throttle was stuck open, and Carlos Sainz’s car caught fire when on the brink of sealing a 1-2 finish. It meant Ferrari not really doing massive damage to Red Bull’s mammoth title lead. How big a missed opportunity was this?

We also talk the stewarding again! Sebastian Vettel copped a 25 grand suspended fine for walking out of a drivers meeting where everyone complained about the consistency of penalties after Britain. So how did the drivers respond? 43 laps being chalked off the board for track limits! We break down the tug of war there too!

All that, and more on Mick Schumacher’s excellent weekend on Motorsport101!

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“He’s an absolute idiot” – Romain Grosjean.

What a Greek tragedy. Honda’s Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio was infamous for all the wrong reasons, especially if you’re Andretti Autosport. Alex Rossi essentially, went rogue, hit Romain Grosjean three times over the course of the race in actions so toxic, it lead to Michael Andretti calling an emergency meeting, journalists getting stiff armed out of deleting audio and drivers getting pulled from media. We try to make sense of an absolutely massive meltdown.

We also talk about the state of the title race – Scott McLaughlin became just the second repeat winner of the season, taking the Bus Boys count to 5 on the year! He held off Alex Palou yet again for the win! We also had Will Power spin out on the opening lap, drop to 27th, but came back to finish an unthinkable 3rd! 7 more points gained in an another title swing!

We also talk McLaren, who had a smaller, less publicised meltdown… of their engines. Felix Rosenqvist had an engine blowout just three laps in, and Pato O’Ward’s car dying despite qualifying on pole! Is their title fight over too?

All that and more in a stacked IndyCar episode on Motorsport101…

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WARNING: This episode of the Motorsport101 Podcast contains conversations regarding racism, transphobia and bigoted behaviour. You may find this upsetting. If you feel this might be harmful, you can skip to 36:08 where we move onto other topics. Look after yourselves.

This is one of the longest modern shows we’ve done, and for good reason. In the time between Formula 1 races, we’ve had Naomi Schiff racially abused on Twitter, Juri Vips lose his Red Bull Academy job after dropping an n-bomb on Twitch, Nelson Piquet Sr. was exposed in a 2021 interview to having used a racial slur to describe Lewis Hamilton. And Jamie Chadwick was caught in a Daily Telegraph interview claiming that trans women shouldn’t be allowed to take part in women’s sports, a take in line with her team boss Caitlyn Jenner.

In a frank, open and raw 35 minute conversation, Dre, RJ and Cam break down all the incidents, relate it to their own personal lives, and ask what F1 can and should do regarding incidents of such bigotry and racism, and where the sport is at two years to the week since #WeRaceAsOne became the sport’s apparent “call to action”.

We also talk about the departure of our own legendary producer, host, and staple of the network, Ryan Erik King, who’s leaving us to become a fully fledged member of Jalopnik’s writing staff. We couldn’t be prouder of him moving up in the world and while he’ll still be here for the occasional episode when he works from home, he’s not going to be on anymore, so we talk about some of our favourite moments of his on the show and give our thanks to the man himself. King, we’re gonna miss you, we’ve never done it without you, but we’re sure as hell going to try in your honour.

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MotoGP’s Assen TT is one of the flagship rounds on the calendar, and one of the most important given the Summer Break falls in right afterwards. And we had another major Championship flashpoint right before the holidays as Fabio Quartararo made his first mistake of the year, crashing into Aleix Espargaro on a divebomb he was probably never going to legitimately make. Fabio was given a Long Lap Penalty by the stewards for it, and after years of political headbutting, Yamaha and Fabio FLIPPED out, even considering the Court of Arbitration for sport as a potential method of appeal.

Should Fabio have been punished? Isn’t this exactly what we wanted as biking fans? And why Dre thinks there’s a deeper political reason as to why Yamaha has kicked up such a stink – He thinks they want Freddie Spencer gone altogether as chief steward. Listen in!

We also talk Aleix Espargaro’s astonishing comeback. He was 15th after the contact with Fabio put him in the gravel, but he came surging through the field to finish an incredible 4th, including a DOUBLE overtake on Brad Binder and Jack Miller at the final chicane on the final lap. It was a ride of the year candidate.

Oh, and Francesco Bagnaia won too, that’s gotta be worth a mention right? Oh, and Marco Bezzecchi finished a career high 2nd as a rookie. That’s insane, and yet it feels like it’s a pub quiz question waiting to happen! All of that and much more on a loaded MotoGP episode of Motorsport101!

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Well, this was a dramatic one. Formula 1’s next move as the travelling circus was Montreal for the first Canadian Grand Prix in 3 years, and in it, we had a classic late Safety Car sprint finish from Max Verstappen and… “checks notes”… Carlos Sainz? Yep, with Charles Leclerc starting from the back with a fresh power unit, it was up to Carlos to try and restore some pride for Maranello… even if he just came up short. We break it down here!

We also talk about judgement day for the porposing issue. The FIA did indeed step in and issue a technical directive about how the issue will be managed going forward. Floors will be monitored and discussions will be held about a maximum force of bounce allowed. Is this the right move going forward?

And we also talk about a loaded midfield, with Fernando Alonso, Zhou Guanyu, Valtteri Bottas and more all involved as “El Plan” nearly came to pass for the man starting from the front row for the first time in nearly a decade. All of that and more on a loaded Motorsport101!

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Not going to lie to you folks, this was not a classic. Round 10 of the MotoGP 2022 World Championship brought the sport to Germany for the German GP at the Sachsenring and Fabio Quartararo broke the one man who could beat him over his knee. Francesco Bagnaia had the pole and the fastest ever lap of the track, but lost the lead at Turn 1, and by Lap 3, was in the gravel. We break it down and ask if his Championship is over? (Probably)

We talk about why Germany was such a difficult race to watch. A combination of the sports technological problems dulling the product like ride-height devices (Ignoring the fact that two of them failed mid-race), the front tyre pressures playing a hand in the Aleix Espargaro/Jack Miller fight as passes were at a premium, and asking whether the sport is a bit too fast for its own good.

We also talk about an all-time bad weekend for Honda Racing Corporation. For the first time in FORTY years, they left a MotoGP round without a point, and it’s only that recent because that round they boycotted. Alex Marquez had a ride-height failure, Taka Nakagami crashed again, and Pol Espargaro had to withdraw because a rib injury suffered in a crash in FP1 meant he couldn’t breathe properly while racing in 35 degree heat. Stefan Bradl was their only finisher, last, and with a burnt foot because the bike reached over 100 degrees celsius. So hot, water would evaporate on it.

Sounds like a healthy team right? So we have a look at everything that’s led to Honda being at arguably their lowest ever point as a MotoGP brand.

All that on Motorsport101!

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What better incentive to win again for Josef Newgarden than a million dollar bonus on one of his favourite tracks? Because that’s what the man did at Road America, the half way point of the 2022 IndyCar Series!

He didn’t have it easy, pushed nearly all the way by a back-in-form Alexander Rossi who used every trick in the book to close the gap, from undercuts to late cautions, but Josef held on to get back within a race of the Astor Cup standings, and bag a sweet $500k bonus for the IndyCar Triple Crown. Amazing when you consider, he’s won 3 races and no-one else has won more than once this season. We break it all down!

This was also a race of title implications. Will Power was put in the wall by Devlin DeFrancesco who completely misjudged his angle of attack. Power actually retaliated towards the end of the race too. The Rinus Veekay got hipchecked into the grass again. And Marcus Ericsson collided with Alex Palou that put the Spaniard in the gravel. Are the driving standards in the season something to question?

And is the Sneaky Swede now a contender for the cup? That was a very quiet but very solid 2nd place by the time it was all said and done? With a 27 point lead in the standings, can it be done for the #8? All that and more on Motorsport101!

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