OK, new format time as we split into website only posts for the episode recaps and the newsletter will mainly be for a bit of a look ahead to the coming week and also to give you easy access to the riches of Brian’s video vault.

First things first, I (Rob) have had family over from UK this week and pretty much been out and about all week so am just sitting down to do this edition between FP1 and sprint qualy. Then I have to edit our predictions that were recorded prior to practice but have also fallen victim to my summer visitors. How can we be taken seriously as an F1 podcast when half of our outfit has such a blatant disregard for staying on top of things ;-)

Anyway, this weekend will see one of our fav tracks on the calendar make it’s 2025 appearance before it goes off into rotation hell.

We tend to see some rain and racing inchidents here so don’t be surprised if the Safety Car puts in an appearance or two.

On that note, this weeks special content is all about the history of said vehicle.

Will be interesting to see if McLaren dominate here and if so, will the pendulum swing back to Oscar’s side of the garage or will Lando keep his recent form going?

The tires being taken to Spa see the lesser spotted “non-sequential” range from Pirelli with the hardest C1 popping up and the C2 being skipped.

We tend to not enjoy one-stop races where it turns into a tire management snooze-fest so we’re hoping this move towards a harder tire does not encourage this strategy across the grid.

Oh well, time to quickly edit the prediction video and then settle in for Sprint Qualy.

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!