We honestly are just here for the racing here on the Dirty Side.

Yup, good racing action is what we crave.

Although…

From time to time we can see that a turn of events would play beautifully into the episode title. If certain events could take place then we’d be home and dry.

That was the case this week. After Brian saw that our most viewed YouTube video is his Miami Vice mashup from last year that got the cogs whirring.

If McLaren could win both the sprint and the main race then they would have won in Miami…..Twice.

As you may listen to our pod without knowing the race results we won’t confirm what happened here in the preamble but you should be warned that the title and artwork may be a mild spoiler!

What we will say is that we really enjoyed the whole weekend and that it ranks up there as one of the best if not the best race weekend so far this season!

There is also an epic three part review from Pitlane Paul and there is a “slight” chance he may have had a few drinks when he recorded one of them.

These are the main stories we covered this week but obviously you need to listen to the episode to hear what our thoughts were on them all

Bruno Senna says the JPS Lotus 97T is the best livery ever in F1, flying in the face of the Dirty Side bracket result!

Formula 1 bosses agree to a mechanism to allow for teams to catch up if they face performance shortfalls in the power units next season

Rally team boss Malcolm Wilson has been nominated by Mohammed Ben Sulayem to replace Robert Reid who resigned last week

F1 signs PwC as an official consulting partner

Williams are apparently the first team to focus 100% on the 2026 car now

Checo & Zhou rumored to be in contract talks with Cadillac

However, Mick Schumacher and Valtteri were first on the scene to follow the new Instagram page

Lawson and Hadjar are apparently under pressure from Arvid Lindblad who Red Bull see as the next Max

Mexico GP extended until 2028

Miami trump that extension with a renewal until 2041!!!

What’s in the vault this week?

Diving into the marbles that make up the dirty side of the track is where you’ll find some subscriber only content!

Just as I was sitting down to write the newsletter the news about Briatore and Doohan broke.

I was going to write a piece here on that but it all makes me too angry so I’ll save it for a Rob’s Rant this weekend.

What I’ll do instead is reflect on the day that was Star Wars day this past weekend.

Yes, I’m a Star Wars geek and do enjoy the May the 4th be with you thing. In fact I was a little annoyed my daughter held on to be delivered a few days late and has a May 7th birthday when she could have been a Star Wars baby!

Anyway, felt we needed to celebrate F1 and Star Wars coming together in Miami this weekend.

It occurred to me that Valtteri’s facial hair and mullet would work perfectly alongside a Jedi robe. He is also kinda playing the master to the young Jedi of Antonelli so it works on many levels. A quick trip to ChatGPT and Photoshop gave us this…

Given the current AI scene and how people feel about using photos of real people you’ll be pleased to know we ran this picture by Pitlane Paul first.

That set me off on a few livery designs which I’ll just leave here.

Finally, if there is something you would like to see us cover in the news letter please get in touch and let us know.

Cheers

Rob & Brian