Thoughts from the Dirty Side
So the summer break is finally upon us and we have to endure what feels like eons until we see cars go racing again.
However, it was only a few races ago that we had what some called a mini-summer break where there were multiple weeks off between races.
That was not an official break though and quite what the rules are of this break can be heard on the pod this weekend when we pull apart quite what this downtime entails for the teams.
As we have nothing on track to report on then it’s that time of year when we have to dig deep into the recesses of our notes and see what we have left on the page labelled “Off season ideas” (we use Notion by the way and think it’s quite splendid).
It’s fair to say that we haven’t been topping that up recently so when we opened it up we saw a heap of ideas with strike throughs as they’ve already been done.
Then Brian, to his credit, came up with the idea of looking ahead to the 2026 tracks and giving them our ratings of 1 through 26.
Tune in this week to see what our combined ratings look like and also hear us debate some of the tracks where we had the biggest difference of opinion.
In other news it seems hash browns are trending on Threads because why not. Even the team admin accounts have got in on the act.
Speaking of team admins, we had this little interaction with the Mercedes account which basically confirms that George, Kimi, & Toto listen to us while they travel around the world. Valtteri probably passed the pod onto them.
You’ll notice we redacted the track info as to not spoil the episode this weekend so don’t go looking for this post!!!
Right, that’s it for this part - Next up are last weeks video vault entries then join us down in the marbles for a few random thoughts from this first part of the season.
Oh, and tell your friends about the pod……pretty please :-)
Brian’s Video Vault
What’s in the vault this week?
F1 Driver Alex Albon Rates Food From Thailand And The UK | Snack Wars | SPORTbible. 8 mins. This is like the 3rd installment of this edition. This was a variety of foods Thai v Brit. He just seems such a good guy.
Max Verstappen And Chris Harris Drive ALL NEW Ford Mustang GTD! | Ford Performance. 38 mins!! Loved this. These two are the combo I never knew I needed! His view on whether he likes the RB the way it is setup is very interesting as are all the insights. Track part is epic.
Which Driver would make the BEST Strategist? | Bernie Collins F1 Unpacked. Sky Sports F1. 7 mins. This was way more fun than I anticipated and i was shocked by two things when Bernie asked who her driver turned strategist would be. That i assumed the answer and that I forgot she worked with the person she picked.
“It’s Great to Walk Away with 11 More Points!” | The Vowles Verdict | Belgian GP. Atlassian Williams Racing. 9 mins. This was great. Love the access to folks like James so he can have a Vowels movement for us all to listen to.
In the marbles
Diving into the marbles that make up the dirty side of the track is where you’ll find some subscriber only content!
We are into the summer break and have 14 out of 24 races in the bag.
So what do we know so far?
Here is a non-ordered list of things we have learned along the way…
Papaya is the new purple (or whatever color the Red Bull is!)
We all had a feeling that McLaren would be good this year given how they ended last year…..BUT….maybe just how far clear they seem to be caught us by surprise
Next year is gonna be their year
Yup, Ferrari & Merc fans need to lean into this hope yet again as the huge multi-team and driver battle we all hoped for in this final year of the regulations has just not come to pass. It was supposed to be the ultimate convergence of performance across the top teams but hasn’t happened. On a positive note though…..
We have a real title fight on our hands
Last year we all tried to big up the late surge by Lando and had our calculators out to work out what sequence of results needed to happen for him to reel in Max. In truth it was never really likely to happen but it kept a dream of title fights going to the wire alive. This year actually stands a very real chance of going to the last race. Now, of course, it may end up being decided before then but as we head into the summer break Oscar leads Lando by just 9 points. Given that there is a 7 point difference between first and second alone that is a gap that can close at any moment.
Max is the Black Knight from Monty Python.
He refuses to go quietly and has been able to grab wins & podiums when it has not looked on the cards. It won’t be enough to get him into the title fight but he’s gonna have a good go at holding onto 3rd.
Alpine are not in good shape on multiple fronts
Their car does not seem competitive almost anywhere and their handling of their second seat almost rivals Red Bull. Jack was dropped way too soon and now, his replacement, Franco looks a shadow of the driver who burst onto the scene last year
Aston can’t make up their mind where they should finish in the WCC
They’ve looked like tractors and steadily fallen down the order only to bounce back in Hungary
Sauber and Racing Bulls have been a pleasant surprise
We’ll admit to beating up a lot on Sauber mainly as we blame them for giving Valtteri and Zhou a poor car which we think ultimately led to neither of them being on the grid this year. That makes us sad as don’t know if you’ve heard but we had Valtteri on the pod.
Anyway, this year they have had some great results and none better than the Hulk finally grabbing a podium
Racing Bulls have quietly gone about their business and Lawson is recovering from his doomed Red Bull stint and Hadjar continues to impress.
George and his odd relationship with Merc
George has delivered the only win for Mercedes this year (we were in Canada to see it!!) and is closing in on Max for third in the WDC. Yet somehow his future at the team was a constant source of discussion and at one point it seemed Max was coming for his seat. Not sure what else George can do with that car to show he is their number one?
Finally, spare a thought for the execs at Netflix
Their main character/pantomime villain will be making an exit from Drive to Survive this year.
We’re pretty sure the Horner exit will be an entire episode in the next season, maybe even two. However, beyond that they are going to have to come up with a new plot.
With that, have a great weekend and please tune into our latest episode!
Would appreciate if you can subscribe, rate, and leave us a review and maybe even tell your friends about us!
