🇨🇳 F1 Chinese GP Preview | Sprint Weekend Chaos & Mercedes vs Everyone Else

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1:03National debt relief has already helped bring debt relief to over 550,000 U.S. consumers, earning thousands of five star reviews and an A-plus rating with a better business bureau. You're stronger than your credit card debt. Let today be the day you start turning things around. Take the first step and visit nationaldebtreleaf.com to see what debt relief you may qualify for. It's nationaldebtreleaf.com. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to the Formula America podcast where your host, Curtin Dillon, over the ones heading to Shanghai. They're going to China. The China. It's an interesting track, China. It is one of the more unique tracks on the calendar. It's got... It's supposed to be reminiscent of the Chinese character for Shang upward, which is upward, which is half of Shang high.

2:03That's cool, I guess. It's got that super unique first turn that gets tighter as you go through it, which is first three turn, first two, it's a hell of a turn. It is. This one's very much an abusive track on the front tires. Last year, it had some huge graining issues. Be interesting to see what happens this year. I think that the energy deployment is going to be a little awkward on this one. I've been reading a little bit on it, and it seems like the consensus is, at least that I've seen, is that there's more opportunities to recharge your battery throughout the lap on this one. We might not have as big of issues with the clipping as we did in Melbourne. But I think it's still all speculation at this point. We'll see once the car's good on track for their one practice session, since this is the sprint weekend. Yeah. It'll be really interesting, because obviously on turns 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, all these really

3:07tight ones, it's just going to be harvesting. Then you've got these fast, the S turns of 7 and 8. You could maybe play with that. I don't know why it'll be interesting. I think there's going to be a lot of strategy going on. Oh, that's not good for the Ferrari boys, if last week tells us anything. Well, the good news for the Ferrari boys is this is generally a one-stopper. So you have less opportunity to screw it up seven ways to Sunday. Well, just hope there's no more red flags or VSCs or anything. So on that, I guess, C2 through C4 tires, same as it's been every year since China's been back on the track. We've kind of talked about the corners. This is demanding on the tires a lot of front-graining last year. Yet we say that, and everyone did a one-stopper, like 17 of the cars started on mediums. They pitted around 15, 16, put hards on and went to the end of the race.

4:09So it's like, oh, there's a lot of graining. Well, last year, your tires are not allowed to do great if you don't let them say no. Just say no. So yeah, we'll see. I think it's a question mark. Yeah, like who, again, who knows? I think it's funny how last year, Pirelli was like, oh, this should be a two-stop race, for sure. And every time they said that, it was a one-stop race. It's guaranteed. And now we've got to go. Yeah, now we've got smaller tires and it's, I don't know. I hope that we get multiple stops. I think that we're going to be forced to have a couple stops when we get to my predictions. We'll get into that, but who knows? Yeah, so that's where, you know, we're talking about predictions. I don't have any wild cards yet, because the easy button is DNFs and red flags right now. And I'm like, no, I can't do that. But I got burned last time and said, you know, Alpine is going to beat him up on Mercedes. Yeah, I didn't work either. You know, I think you should go with that one again, because I think the Alpine's going to be doing it

5:11this weekend. Yeah, that's what you think. Well, let's see, what do we got? What's the weather like? I think I heard it was going to be cold or cool this weekend, cooler than last and cooler than general. Normally, it is here. So what does that mean? I don't know. Last year, we could have made a prediction that that might have been benefited the Mercedes, but will it benefit the Mercedes more this year? Who knows? I don't think they need it. Who knows? You know, if you've noticed, everybody's air intake on top of the head is massive this year. There's so much cooling that all that battery stuff needs. So I bet it will help everyone in general, maybe some more than others. Yeah, well, see, speaking of Mercedes and battery, I remember last week, it was an issue, which Russell was stating that when they got to the starting line, they had basically zero batteries stored up. So and I didn't think about that. Matt was saying that too. Yeah, I didn't think about that until before. So I mean, I guess you kind of got to get some aggressive breaking in to kind of generate

6:13some battery power on your formation. That I wonder if that's what tried that Oscar, Oscar did, you tried that a little too early. Too soon, junior too soon. So I wonder, I haven't seen or heard much about anybody else. So I wonder what the other cars were looking like and what they, what the strategy is to try to get more battery energy so that you have it at the start to try to do something to keep up with those for hours. Yeah, you know, everyone and who knows if it's true because nobody has confirmed anything. But, you know, that Ferrari has that smaller turbo on top specifically to help with getting off the line real fast and getting it spooled quickly, which you're obviously going to sacrifice top-end speed, but that didn't seem to be too big of a deal to them. So not, we'll see what happens this weekend. All right, well, you want to get into these predictions? Sure. As you shake your head and know, all right, I'll start off.

7:13I have a lot of question marks next to mine because I thought they were too boring, but I'm going too safe. Mine are boring. So I was writing them going, this is awful, but I got no other ideas. I know, all right. And so on the pole for the sprint race, I am going to put the Italian stallion, Kimi Antonelli. I'd like it. I seriously contemplated putting him on pole and then I went, man, George Russell. The safe bet so far. The safe bet. All right. So P3, I am going to go with the man from Monaco, Charlotte Claire. Ooh, you're not betting on your homeboy, huh? See how that is. Who's that? Was he my homeboy? I thought Claire was your Ferrari boy right now. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, no, I'm safe bet, safe bet. Safe bet, safe bet. Well, I've got Max for staffing in P3. Oh, okay. I'm interested to see what happens. I feel like that Red Bull is kind of still a question mark, but I don't know.

8:14I didn't feel confident enough to put him up there. So. Yeah, I don't know, but frickin' as a catcher, I put it in P3 in quality. So I'm like, he did. He did. All right. P2, I'm going to go with everybody's favorite, Britt, George Russell. Yeah. Yeah. Huh, do you think they're going to name a piece of Silverstone after him like they did Lewis? Uh, probably. They've already got the, what, the Lewis, the Hamilton Strait or no, is that Canada? Yeah, the Hamilton Strait. That's Silverstone. Then they've got the Norris grandstand. What's the, the Russell, what, the Russell Rumble Strip, the Russell background bathroom? I think it's called a Lou. The Russell Lou. Oh, I like that. Okay. Uh, I've got Lewis Hamilton in P2.

9:15Oh, I would be happy with that. I told you, man, I'm becoming more and more of a Tafosi this year, so I would be happy with that. Sure. I don't have them on my podium. I got P1, give me it to Nelly, taking it from the lights out to the checkered flag. I've got same thing, but George, same as all right. The Russell Lou, taking P1, the Russell Lou, that would be hilarious. If we ever want to have drivers on this podcast, we're going to have like three options by the end of the day. They're going to be like, Hey, yes, John Ocon called, we're going to act like we're fancy or something. Oh, they're hilarious. All right. Going on to the wild cards, I know you said you didn't have any. I'll put one in while we were talking. Okay. Okay. I know you also mentioned the easy button. Uh, well, I guess you'll have to let me know if you'll allow my wild card because this is kind of an easy button, but I was thinking my wild card would be zero DNFs for the sprint race.

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11:17that work with your skin. Not against it. And for every product purchased, thrive cosmetics don't need to help communities thrive. So every time you use your favorite thrive cosmetics product, you're helping communities you care about too. Amplify your everyday, go to thrivecosmetics.com slash shine 26 for an exclusive offer of 20% off your first order. That's thrive cosmetics, C-A-U-S-E-M-E-T-I-C-S.com slash shine 26. You know, so what I wrote down is Cadillac finishes this. But I think those are along the same line for the first part. I mean, Cadillac, what I had one day enough in the race, but we've got so many wild cards with the Aston Martin's, with the Cadillacs. We've got like issues that are going on with, I'll change mine from Caddy to Aston Martin. Both Aston Martin's will finish the sprint race. I think that's a wild card worthy right now. I think you got to be careful about that because of the last race.

12:17You got to be careful with the wording because with Melbourne, Lance Stroll crossed the finish line, but he was unclassified because he was so far behind, 15 laps behind. So technically, I don't think it counts. And I will concede that. Both Aston Martin's will finish the race and it will count. Okay. Okay. All right. I like it. I'll give you your ZOD and F. I don't see that. I think that's pretty wild. That's what's happening. Two cards are going to break down on the starting line for all we know. I got a shit. There it goes. All right. Grand Prix. Moving on to Sunday or Saturday night here in America, late night, early morning, whatever. Sunday. Whole position. Yep. Who do you have for Paul? I got Russell again. I don't see how any way it's not. The Russell Lou. Well, once again, I'm slightly, it tears my heart out. All right. I'm not happy about this prediction, but grudgingly, begrudgingly, I carried over the young

13:19Italian stallion. I think this is going to be a good weekend for Kimmy. I'm putting it into the universe that he is going to put George Russell on notice this weekend. And Russell's going to get a little shaky. I like it. I don't have to just put him up sitting here looking at it. I like where your head's at. Send it. P3. I got Hamilton's. Okay. I will change mine because I too had Hamilton. So I am going to swap my P3 and my P2. I am going to put Charlotte Claire in P3. Okay. I've got Charlotte Claire in P2. So. Okay. I am naturally now going to put Hamilton in P2. Cool. I got a decision to make. All right. Who's your P1? It's just Russell. Like. Okay. I said it's boring. I wasn't lying.

14:19I don't have Max on here, though. I feel bad. Last time I didn't put Max on the podium. He won the race. All right. Like. Max is an unknown quantity right now and I rephrase that that red bull is an unknown quantity right now. Can Max overcome the deficit, the deficiencies of that red bull? I don't know. So. There's a bit of a reliability issue. Yeah. P1. I am going to now change out because I had Russell. I'm going to put the Italian boy there again. Antonelli. Damn. I got him taking both polls. Yeah. Victory. So. Yes. Okay. I'm sticking with it. I don't have wild card over here yet. So you go ahead. Okay. My wild card. This is a combination wild card. And again, you said the easy button was DNFs and red flags. So. Here goes my other one. My wild card is at least two safety slash virtual safety cars, at least two, plus at least one red flag. I would have said no if it was just two safety cars, but plus the red flag. I had to put the kicker on there. So. You see, when I say that the DNFs are the easy wild card, I mean, that's the easy things for

15:30you and I to pick like I had a feeling you were picking that. So I was like, I got to do something different. Now, is are those numbers hard? It will be two safety cars, VSCs and one red flag. If there's two red flags, it doesn't count. Is there's hard numbers? No, I said, I said at minimum, I learned my lesson last season. I mean, you can always do like Lance Droll in the points. No, I'm not willing to do that. Go ahead and throw those two red flags. Throw those two points away. Well, that's what I'm sitting here. I'm like, I can sit like Arvin Lynn Blad will make points. Well, I guess not even all that wild by racing bulls look pretty good. And I'm not willing to put Aston Martin or Cadillac in the point. So. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how me out Kurt. I think you should go with double McLaren top five. Top six. What do we negotiating here?

16:30Yeah. All right. Top six. I'll do it. Double McLaren top six. Double McLaren top six. It's done. All right. Let's hope that what's the name Oscar gets to the line this time. Okay. What? Okay. So I feel like we're putting a lot of negative connotation on this in general, because it's nerve wracking. But I think that's really, I'm excited about this weekend. It is a total unknown. I do think Mercedes is going to be relatively dominant. But Ferrari could come out of left field. Max should come out of left field. Red Bulls are complete unknown right now. Like this is doing the prediction pot is like stressful for me right now. I don't know what's going to happen. But this is a fun track. It can lend some really fun racing. That first set of turns is really wild, too. It's so technical. It is. And I mean, you've got Lewis Hamilton's always mostly historically done well here.

17:32I feel like a lot of the Sprint likes here. He did win the sprint. The only victory that Ferrari had all year. And unfortunately, yeah, that. Well, Max won in a Ferrari at Nordslif. I don't know. That's, you know, that's pretty bad when the Formula One F one team. That's their only stat that they can count as a win. Well, they won the world endurance championship, too, by a country mile. So basically just the F one team sucks. Basically, yeah, that sucks for them. But not this year. There's a new rejuvenation around them. But let's see. So we got coming up. We've got one practice session on Lake Thursday night here. Basically, Sprint quality is 3 a.m. I think here on the east coast. 230. Yeah. And then the sprint, at least we get to watch that. Kind of a normal time and nighttime at least on Friday. 10 p.m. 10 p.m. on Friday. Yeah. So yeah. And so it's going to be good weekend. A lot of entertainment. A lot of running. A lot of on track action. And then straight to Japan.

18:33Well, not straight. Actually, we got a week off. So double header. Then a break. And then we get to go to Suzuka. And oh, yeah. Also, we're supposed to find out this weekend. A final verdict on the two Middle Eastern races. So we'll see what happens. I've already been seen. So I saw a rumor mill from a relatively reputable online source that was at the Hadjar. Someone was flying. One of the two of the drivers were flying first class. And someone overheard them saying that those Middle East races were already canceled. That was, that's this, that's total rumor mill, here's say. But I read that. Yeah. I think I'm continuing to spread the rumor basically. So the first one is what, Katar, right? Don't get me blind. Let's see. I've got it open right here. So full schedule. So we have China, Japan, Bahrain. Bahrain. Bahrain. Yeah.

19:33So the first one's Bahrain. That one is probably, I would say, a safe bit going to get canceled. Kim Ilman did put out a video saying that they are trying to see if they can salvage Saudi Arabia because it is slightly farther away. And it's Saudi. Saudi is going to make sure that that's, they want to, I'd imagine that. They're going to really push for Saudi. So that one will probably not come down this weekend. But hopefully they find out something about Bahrain. I bet Bahrain's off though. Yep. All right. Cool. It's an interesting track. If I remember correctly, the race that last year there wasn't anything to write home about. I will be honest, I don't even remember the race last year. I'd have to see some highlights. Is it, is it Bahrain or Qatar that is like made for motorcycles? That's guitar. Okay. That was the one that was like, this isn't very good. Oh, Bahrain's where they do the testing at. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, do you, do you have anything else for this weekend?

20:34No. Okay. Well, I guess if you like this podcast, make sure you leave us a rating and review. Share with a friend, follow us on Instagram, formula underscore America. And if you don't have anything else, Dylan, I think that might be it. So on that note, stay classy America. We'll see you next time.