Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Chuck Hayes and David Gould cover George Russell, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, and Lando Norris on this episode of The Chequered Flag Report.
The Chequered Flag Report is the fastest hour in Formula 1 — a weekly podcast and radio show built for fans who want more than the highlight reel.
Co-hosts David Gould and Chuck "Iron Man" Hayes break down every Grand Prix the way it's talked about in the paddock: race previews and predictions, post-race analysis, driver market rumors, betting lines, sponsorship and the business of the sport, and the storylines the mainstream coverage doesn't get to. Bahrain to Abu Dhabi, Monaco to Vegas — wherever the lights go out, the Chequered Flag Report is calling the race.
David brings 30+ years across business, radio, and the worlds of luxury and sponsorship — the voice behind the business of Formula 1. Chuck brings three decades in Las Vegas media, a CBS Sports Radio chair, and a deep motorsport pedigree from a family that co-owned race teams alongside legends like Dale Earnhardt and Mark Martin.
New episodes every race week. Broadcast on KMET 1490 AM in Southern California and K-DAWN 101.5 FM in Las Vegas. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
The Chequered Flag Report Transcript
AssemblyAI transcript ID: 644eef5d-71dc-4cc5-b8f1-0f9b3eceb5d3
Status: completed
Duration: 2408 seconds
Speaker mapping: A = Chuck Hayes, B = David Gould
[0:00] Chuck Hayes: Welcome to the Checkered Flag Report. This is Chuck Hayes with David Gould, and we're here talking Formula 1. David, great to be with you today. And I have to say, the week before the race, the weekend of the race, and then the postmortems of the race when it's on the United States of America soil. Yeah, just feels a little more personal. It seems a little more, hey, okay, we've taken this journey, here we go. But ultimately, we're looking 3 weeks out for Las Vegas, and it's coming clear and clear as we drive 15 North.
[0:28] David Gould: That's true. And it was a very Interesting race. I had mixed feelings about it overall. I thought the race was very, very good. Um, you know, great to see Kimi getting inching closer and closer and closer to that championship, and it looks like, uh, he'll be taking it next week— or, uh, the next race, I should say— uh, in Mexico. So—
[0:51] Chuck Hayes: And we want to thank our presenting sponsor, Chavez Realty Development Apartments Business Affairs. Real estate assessment, 626-440-1545. That's 626-440-1545 for Chavez Realty Development. Okay, so let me just be straightforward in regards to, uh, Mr. Antonelli, and congratulations on his great win. Uh, he beat Charles Leclerc by 13 seconds, Max Verstappen by 17, Lewis Hamilton by 18. the world champion Lando Norris by 30, Isaac Hadjar by 34, Oscar Piastri by 52. So all along the whole time, as they were at probably past the midpoint where there was a little bit of a push and pull for the 3 big dogs— Mm-hmm. Verstappen, Hamilton, Norris, Hadjar. That was all going on. And it was the most exciting part of the whole deal because they couldn't see Antonelli because he was running away and hiding. And I think the only thing that I was thinking that was going through his head was not only, okay, don't mess up the track limits, but man, this has to be a Sunday drive like no other.
[2:11] David Gould: What do you mean by the Sunday drive like no other? Just because of the interaction between the 3 guys?
[2:16] Chuck Hayes: No, I meant by Antonelli going like, I don't care about the rest of you guys. I'm gonna be the world champion.
[2:22] David Gould: Yeah.
[2:23] Chuck Hayes: It's just a matter of math today.
[2:24] David Gould: Yes.
[2:25] Chuck Hayes: And you guys can fight it out because I'm so much better than you right now.
[2:29] David Gould: Yes.
[2:29] Chuck Hayes: And it's no disrespect to those other competitors, but I'd be hard-pressed in a Formula 1 race on a track as phenomenal as COTA—
[2:40] David Gould: Yes.
[2:41] Chuck Hayes: How one car could be 13 seconds ahead—
[2:44] David Gould: Yes.
[2:45] Chuck Hayes: When the amount of money that Ferrari spends, Red Bull spends and McLaren spends to not be able to touch that. And where his teammate George Russell is 54 seconds behind.
[2:59] David Gould: Yeah.
[2:59] Chuck Hayes: Now if I'm George Russell and I go look in the mirror and I see him up on the podium again, and I look and they— I talk to my engineers and they go, what's the deal? 54 seconds, it's almost a full minute.
[3:11] David Gould: Well, plus he, uh, he got a 5-second penalty, which I thought was kind of You know, and then which brings up another subject about F1 and their— and how they manage these races, because I, I didn't think it was necessary to do this. And you got to wonder whether these guys have their— they're just manipulating too much. And I'm starting to believe that they are. I think that this is a problem. And you're right, there was a lot of tension, a lot of stuff going on. And then you see a 13-second gap between he and second place, between Kimi and second place. Which is absolutely mind-blowing. But I don't understand why F1 feels the need to—they're not doing this; they're not doing this carefully. It's like they're dinging everybody for every little thing, and it's I think perhaps making things worse. You know, did you see the virtual safety car where they bring it out for like ten seconds or whatever? I'm It's hyperbole, of course, but, you know, they bring it out for a short period of time. And what ends up happening is, is they don't get the debris cleared. And, and Max runs over this particle of, uh, of, uh, of, of a car. Uh, and it was just like, what are you guys doing? What are you doing? So.
[4:29] Chuck Hayes: Check A's with David Goulds. Follow us on X @LVCheckeredFlag, @LVCheckeredFlag.
[4:36] David Gould: And, you know, give us a like, give us some love. Give us a comment and be sure to check us out on all the, uh, all the, uh,
[4:42] Chuck Hayes: multiple platforms.
[4:43] David Gould: Multiple platforms. We're on all of them.
[4:46] Chuck Hayes: We are. And, uh, enjoying the fact that now we are, uh, in year 4. This is show 26 of the run and having a great time. And want to thank everybody out there, especially Coach Harvey Hyde, Football Promotions of Nevada, for powering the fastest sound on radio. So I guess what I'm saying In regards to the enthusiasm of what went on, uh, they talked about the record, uh, crowd that came in. And really, uh, when I broke it down on race day, it's about 140,000 people in Austin. And, you know, they have the big macro number for the weekend.
[5:23] David Gould: Yes.
[5:24] Chuck Hayes: But the actual Sunday attendance is about 140,000.
[5:28] David Gould: What?
[5:28] Chuck Hayes: That's what the number says. When you break it down and they look at 3 days and they sell them in tickets in their packages, that's what it comes down to.
[5:37] David Gould: That's it?
[5:38] Chuck Hayes: That is it. Now, 140,000 is a lot of people.
[5:41] David Gould: Yeah, but we got, we got race weekends where we're having 400,000 and 500,000 at a race.
[5:46] Chuck Hayes: Well, Sunday, when you break it down and if you multiply it times 3, yeah, but that's where you—
[5:51] David Gould: Is that what they're all— they're doing that for all the races? That's what they do? That's what you're telling me?
[5:55] Chuck Hayes: That's what I do. It is not Woodstock. It might look like Woodstock in Europe, but when you look at the numbers and you look how things are, that's basically where we're at. And I want to say that I've not been to COTA. I've been to Austin, Texas. I love Austin. If I wasn't in LA, I'd be living in Austin, Texas. Okay. You know, part-time perhaps. But what I saw there is a phenomenal grandstand.
[6:18] David Gould: Yeah.
[6:19] Chuck Hayes: I see all the little elements of viewing, which in F1 is key.
[6:23] David Gould: Lots of Americana.
[6:25] Chuck Hayes: There is. And again, that trophy, Uh, again, congratulations to Kimmy.
[6:30] David Gould: That is the coolest.
[6:31] Chuck Hayes: Add it to your collection, Kimmy. It is probably one of the more unique ones, although I will always go back to Silverstone. Silverstone as one, and then the other one is the porcelain one that, uh, Lando broke that time that belonged to Max. So as we're talking about this, we're, we're, we're lightening the mood up a little bit because while we're on there, David, we can actually see the checkered lot, checkered flag. And how about Sophie Cunningham?
[6:57] David Gould: Yes.
[6:57] Chuck Hayes: With the checkered flag.
[6:59] David Gould: She looked great, man.
[7:00] Chuck Hayes: How about that? I mean, this is a different kind of deal. I would have— when I saw that, I was really surprised. I have to tell you, I just didn't know where they were going or what's going to happen next in regards to Miami, Austin, Vegas. I mean, you know, what is this something that we're, you know, we don't have to have the green flag because the lights go out.
[7:23] David Gould: Okay.
[7:24] Chuck Hayes: So checkers are much more important because that's the win. Well, it's not the start, it's the finish.
[7:29] David Gould: Yeah, I understand. There was a green flag. They did.
[7:32] Chuck Hayes: No, they don't. No, behind.
[7:33] David Gould: Right.
[7:34] Chuck Hayes: That guy, that just means it's okay to put the lights up.
[7:37] David Gould: Oh, okay.
[7:38] Chuck Hayes: In my mind. Yeah. You might look at it a little more optimistically.
[7:41] David Gould: No, I know. I was just looking. You said there's no green flag and it's like
[7:45] Chuck Hayes: behind the safety
[7:46] David Gould: car. Yeah, behind the safety car.
[7:47] Chuck Hayes: And where they go, it's okay to go, you know, where everybody's set.
[7:50] David Gould: Actually, it's in front of the safety car.
[7:52] Chuck Hayes: It is placed right. And then he runs off and I don't know where he runs to. his flag. I don't know, but he goes to a safe spot. Yeah. And, uh, Chuck Hayes with David Gould. We're having a little bit of fun as we talk F1. Why? Because Antonelli won again.
[8:04] David Gould: Yes.
[8:05] Chuck Hayes: And it wasn't just that he won, he dominated. And again, the guy that has to feel the worst in the whole deal is George Russell. There's no doubt in my mind, even though George Russell is sitting there in the world championship race at 2nd, but you know who's coming very quickly, and, uh, he can be at the rear tailpipe of Russell in Mexico very quickly, is Lewis Hamilton. And with that said, so is Max Verstappen, and so is Charles Leclerc.
[8:34] David Gould: Yes.
[8:35] Chuck Hayes: And hitting a, a, a late home run will be Lando Norris, uh, because I think Lando could get,
[8:42] David Gould: yeah,
[8:43] Chuck Hayes: to be number 2, and it would be a great accomplishment for him.
[8:46] David Gould: Yeah,
[8:46] Chuck Hayes: don't know if it'll happen that way, But let me, from your standpoint, and you have been analyzing this for the last 4 years as we do this, sure, what is George Russell going to do to get there? And then once Kimi clinches, will we see anything different to help George out? Is there anything going on that George can benefit from, or do you just think it's going to be in that situation?
[9:13] David Gould: I think that's some of the questions we're going to have To cover in the next sec.
[9:17] Chuck Hayes: Inside Dave's brain, right? It's self-promote, Dave.
[9:20] David Gould: But, but, but I will say that, you know, George is still in it. And as long as he's within striking— as long as he's within second place and holding second place. But man, Lewis is right on his rear, one point away. And Max is right. They're all there. They're all within striking distance of each other. And that's at least going to make it somewhat competitive. Because he's going to clinch the— he's going to clinch the title well before Vegas.
[9:46] Chuck Hayes: Chuck Hayes with David Gould. Follow us @LVCheckeredFlag. We're going to box, box, box for 4 fresh Pirellis. We come back, we go inside Dave's brain. Chuck Hayes with David Gould. We're talking Formula 1. Welcome back. Segment 2, Checkered Flag Report. This is Chuck Hayes with David Gould. And we want to thank our presenting sponsor, Chavez Realty Development Apartments, Business Affairs, Real Estate Assessment at 626-440-1545. That's 626-440-1545. Okay, now it's time to go inside Dave's brain.
[10:19] David Gould: Yeah, well, Chuck, as we were discussing, uh, Kimi is sure to, uh, clinch the world championship in Mexico, which is kind of a cool place to do it, actually. Um, I think he has to come in 9th or less in order to mathematically make enough points to, uh, eliminate everybody else. And the question I got to ask is, is that too soon? In other words, does it take the air out of the sails for the fan who wants to see a competitive nature in regards to that throughout the racing year or have it closer to the end? I don't know. And does that, you know, does, and it does beg the question, at least in my mind, you know, like, Is he a better— does that make him a better racer, a better driver than Max? Now, in my opinion, it does not. I think still— I still think Max is the, uh, is the best driver out there right now. But think about this. If you traded places, let's say, let's say you had Max in Kimi's car, would this be a different— would we be having a different discussion right now? What do you think?
[11:28] Chuck Hayes: Well, I think it's interesting that Mr. Antonelli Uh, gets this done. First of all, they had a race get canceled.
[11:36] David Gould: Yes.
[11:36] Chuck Hayes: So then you add in, you know, with what's gonna be, uh, 5 more races left.
[11:43] David Gould: Yeah,
[11:44] Chuck Hayes: that's a pretty impressive feat. I don't think Max has ever done that. Correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think he ever picked up a clinch with 6 races.
[11:55] David Gould: No, I think
[11:56] Chuck Hayes: in the
[11:56] David Gould: package, I think Lando did. that one year where he was dominating everything. I think he might have equaled it or bettered that because he was just running away with everything.
[12:08] Chuck Hayes: But that is really, really impressive.
[12:10] David Gould: Yeah, it's very impressive when you look at it. And you got to wonder, does it really throw a wrench into the fans, you know, letting the air out of the thing? Because now everyone's fighting for— now they're fighting for second place, which is no small feat, but it's not the big trophy. It's not the potential.
[12:26] Chuck Hayes: Right. And I think what would be interesting with that If we really broke it down to really what the economics were and that there was not only with the wins and laps led and fastest laps and all the things that go along with this.
[12:39] David Gould: Yes.
[12:40] Chuck Hayes: There was also a dollars earned that we never see.
[12:43] David Gould: Yeah.
[12:43] Chuck Hayes: And that being really the bottom line. The trophies are beautiful, don't get me wrong, but unless you sell them on eBay and get somebody to buy them for you, really don't have a value.
[12:54] David Gould: No,
[12:55] Chuck Hayes: but prize monies,
[12:57] David Gould: I think it's
[12:58] Chuck Hayes: like $1 million or something. I think it's more than that. I really believe it's more than that.
[13:03] David Gould: Wow, man.
[13:04] Chuck Hayes: And when you look at the breakdown through the rest of the grid to know what those guys are going for, um, you know, NASCAR's got 2 races left.
[13:14] David Gould: Yeah,
[13:14] Chuck Hayes: they go to Martinsville and then they go to, uh, down in Florida, uh, to finish the, the deal in Miami. And I always felt that at NASCAR, once you get to that point where you only have 2 people from a point standpoint competing for the championship, that really what they should do is they should run the first 200 miles of the 400-mile race that they're doing at Miami Homestead. And then at the 200-mile mark, have all the competitors leave the track. and just go mano a mano for the last 200 miles and let them deal it out. I think that would be really exciting, like a match race.
[13:58] David Gould: Right. And that's— that was your point and what we've been discussing about putting a sprint race for every race, because it just makes it that much more competitive. And let's say a guy who wins a sprint race doesn't necessarily win the race or win the championship. There could be a whole other level of competition. I think that's what we're after here is when, when the world championship is decided so soon, what does it take? You know, and think about it like Vegas is like, oh man, we're just going to be another, we're just going to be another race just like everybody else. And I would like to, I would like to believe that it's more than that anyway. Um, there's also this idea that, uh, George Russell was a Penalized on the course for for impeding Oscar Piastri in lap one. I thought that was a very petty thing for F1 to do. I didn't think it needed to be done, and it brings in the whole question—the whole question of—is are the stewards at F1 just meddling too much? Are they just you know because they made this mistake where they brought out a virtual safety car for like. Less than a minute. And they didn't end up getting the, getting the, the, you know, the stuff that was impeding drivers off the, off the racetrack. And Max Verstappen ran right over a piece of, a piece of, a piece of another car. And it's like, what is the point of doing this? Because when you put out a virtual safety car and you stop the momentum of the guy who's leading, it's— it can cause a big, you know, gigantic mess.
[15:35] Chuck Hayes: Well, when you look at that, and the stewards are Gary Conley, Matthew Selle, Pedro Lamy, and Steve Pence.
[15:42] David Gould: Of course.
[15:43] Chuck Hayes: Just want to let everybody know who they are. So when David, you know, Inside Dave's Brain is taking this apart, you have the chance to watch. And I think there's been a lot more, um, I would say openness because of, uh, Drive to Survive. I think you start seeing more But we haven't seen that part where the officiating is being critiqued as much as you do in the NFL now.
[16:07] David Gould: Right.
[16:08] Chuck Hayes: You know, uh, the stewards do what they do. They have a driver with them to give his input in regards to what was good or not in regards to track limits or, you know, and the electronic sensors that are in the cars. They know when a, when a guy's going into a corner too fast.
[16:27] David Gould: Yeah.
[16:27] Chuck Hayes: And whether or not he brakes at the right time or that. But I think the other part of this and what you're speaking of, there's— there are some steps in this was that Max is really going through some major issues mentally during the course of the race and expressing them along with his teammate Isaac Hadjar. There was like some back and forth in regards to Red Bull. And if those guys are struggling, that badly in dealing with the car part of it. Again, I wonder, why is it you don't ever hear Kimi complain about the same thing that Max and maybe Charles and Lewis are going through?
[17:08] David Gould: That opens up a whole other litany of questions, which of course is, is it the car? Is it the driver? Now, Max does have a long history of complaining about things. He is, he is a complainer. That's what he does. And my opinion, it does not detract from the fact that, in my opinion, again, he is the best out there. But I don't know. I just can't— I can't understand why. It's like it's racing, man. You want to see— you want to see mano a mano. You want to see tough stuff.
[17:43] Chuck Hayes: Well, we see it on the first lap. That's pretty much—
[17:45] David Gould: Well, that's— well, that's it. And then once everything spreads out, but, but You know, these guys are like, ah, you can't do that. Oh, you can't do this. It's like, you know what, man? You go back to the old days. Like you were watching— I was watching that video of Nigel Mansell.
[17:57] Chuck Hayes: Right.
[17:58] David Gould: And he was talking about— who was he? Oh, Senna. He was driving against Senna and he passed him. And it looked, you know, he was worried it was going to get ugly, man. And those guys were going— I think he said, if I'm not mistaken, he said they were going 240 Now, these guys are not approaching anything near 240 miles an hour.
[18:20] Chuck Hayes: No, I think the top is about 212, 215 at the most when you see it. Chuck Hayes with David Gould. We're talking Formula 1 right now. We're inside Dave's brain. Why? Because the world championship is basically clinched. Kimi Antonelli is going to have that opportunity in Mexico. And just want to remind everybody, when they go to Mexico, it's 71 laps, a little bit shorter track, David. 2.674 miles, 189.738 miles. And guess who has the fastest lap in Mexico in the history of the track?
[18:50] David Gould: Is it Checo?
[18:52] Chuck Hayes: No, it's Valtteri Bottas, his teammate back in 2021. So interesting. When Bottas takes that Cadillac down there, he says, hey, I know, I know how to get around this place. But what you're saying and where you're at in regards to this, The more that we get into it and the more analytical we are about this, we start seeing there's 22 drivers, there's 11 teams, and there's a lot of questions in certain areas. And then there's some areas that you just say, these people seem like they're just holding on. But when you look at it and you see the not classified DMF was Bottas, Colapinto, and Biermann. So a Cadillac, an Alpine and a Haas. And then you see Sergio Perez 19th, Carlos Sainz 18th, Alonso— Alexander Albon 17th, Fernando Alonso 16th, Lance Stroll beat his teammate 15th, Ocon in the Haas was 14th, Bortoletto was 13th, Arvid Lindblad 12th, Nico Hülkenberg 11th, Pierre Gasly 10th, Liam Lawson in Racing Bulls was 9. And then we have the normal cast of characters that are always going to be in the top 8. And from your standpoint, when you see that, the battle for the rest of this year, is there— there's enough money out there to be able to maybe segment things out a little bit where you have these standings and you say, okay, let's— Let's put some money in places where people can, can get to it. Now they're highly compensated and the monies are there.
[20:34] David Gould: Yeah,
[20:34] Chuck Hayes: but wouldn't it make— I'm not calling it a bounty or anything. I'm saying let's give us some goals to get to that everyone can learn from. Because right now it's— you're going to hear Kimi Rantanen, world champion, and Lando Norris is going to go into a depression because he just lost his title.
[20:50] David Gould: Right. And Think about what's going on too. The car, the, the, the drivers are already fighting the cars themselves. Then now they're fighting team orders as well because the team, you know, McLaren said, okay, Lando, let Oscar by, let him, let him go by. And he did. He complied. And then Hadjar, same thing. Let Max go by. So are we going to see Racing, or are we going to see corporate politics? What are we going to see?
[21:20] Chuck Hayes: Interesting to see team orders when there's no championship on the line,
[21:24] David Gould: right?
[21:25] Chuck Hayes: So basically, uh, Max getting what he wanted and Lando getting what he wanted, or with Oscar, however that was, was flipped. How about let the fastest man get to it and don't get in their way, if you will?
[21:40] David Gould: Yeah, yeah, well, that I understand, but then again, it's counter to racing.
[21:45] Chuck Hayes: Chuck Hayes with David Gould. We're loving talking Formula 1. Why? We're getting ready to go to Mexico City for, uh, round 19. Chuck Hayes with David Gould. Follow us @LVCheckerFlag. Welcome back, segment 3, Checkered Flag Report. This is Chuck Hayes with David Gould, and we're loving talking Formula 1. And David, so everyone knows the world championship, like you mentioned, Kimi Räikkönen with 365 points just needs 2 points to be able to clinch. But let's look at constructors. When you've got Mercedes at 607, Ferrari 474 at 2nd, Red Bull 355, McLaren with 355, Racing Bulls 102, Alpine with 69, Haas with 30, Audi with 23, Williams with 12, Aston Martin 7, Cadillac 0.0.
[22:40] David Gould: I have a question.
[22:40] Chuck Hayes: Yeah.
[22:42] David Gould: When McLaren and Red Bull are both 355, which one do they list as 3rd and which one is 4th?
[22:47] Chuck Hayes: That's very interesting. I did that because it was in order based upon how things were. I guess McLaren evened it up by there. So that's a great, great point.
[22:58] David Gould: That was interesting.
[22:59] Chuck Hayes: You know, technically, I guess, remember when you, when you see these things, there's a formula involved with it, but Right now they're tied. So, right, we'll, we'll follow that. And don't think that when you go in the offices of Red Bull and McLaren this week, they're like, wait a minute, why are we here? What are we going to get? What are we going to get? Right? Where's my cookie? Exactly. Well, because ultimately there's money involved. Yep. And that's big money.
[23:26] David Gould: Yeah.
[23:27] Chuck Hayes: Because there's incentives for, uh, finishing where they're finishing. Well, let's go to Ferrari, David. 474.
[23:34] David Gould: Yes,
[23:35] Chuck Hayes: very impressive in regards to where we're at in regards to Charles with 233 and Lewis with 241. So internal battle there as you see it playing out. Hamilton's been consistent, a lot more consistent than I expected him to be. Yes, Leclerc's been up and down but still in the battle.
[23:55] David Gould: And they're, they're both about even. I mean, Lewis is 1 point Actually, no, I take that back. Charles has 233 and Lewis has 241. So they're both in the running for second place. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know how to analyze that because those guys, there seems to be a lot of— it's level. I don't see a lot of disparity between the two. They seem to— it seems to be working out for that, for Ferrari. And Ferrari, uh, is technologically wise, has, uh, mechanically has seemed to have cleaned up their act, and they're, they're running quite well. They're running certainly in, in, in, uh, in quali, they were, they were the fastest in quali. So, uh, by far.
[24:43] Chuck Hayes: Well, let's look into the David Gould crystal ball as we go to Mexico. This will be the 25th race. Yes, since 1962. Max Verstappen has 5 wins.
[24:54] David Gould: Yes.
[24:54] Chuck Hayes: In the Max championship closet, there's 5 Mexico trophies: 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, and 2023. Sir Lewis Hamilton has 2: 2016 and 2019. Carlos Sainz won in 2024 in a Ferrari, and then Lando Norris won last year in a McLaren. So if you were to look at this And you're looking at where things are at. Let's just say we take Kimi out of the
[25:24] David Gould: equation,
[25:25] Chuck Hayes: equation, not because he's going to do something bad, but probably because he's going to do something great.
[25:31] David Gould: Sure.
[25:31] Chuck Hayes: Who among these drivers, with the way things are going and the history of the track, is going to be the one to break the mode— mold to get up there, to be in that top 3? Because I think,
[25:46] David Gould: well, historically,
[25:47] Chuck Hayes: that's an amazing battle between George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, and Lando Norris. I, I think that's a phenomenal storyline.
[25:56] David Gould: Yeah. And I think, uh, the guy, at least historically, is going to be Max. I think Max could— I think Max could take the whole thing. I think he could move up in the ranks and also win the race, but it all depends on how they do in quali. And, um, you know, uh, Ferrari's— Ferrari seems to have all the momentum as far as that's concerned. Uh, Red Bull's doing well, but, you know, that's, uh, you gotta win, man. You gotta win.
[26:22] Chuck Hayes: You gotta be very surprised. I was a little bit surprised because the fact that Leclerc was so strong and finished so strongly.
[26:29] David Gould: Yes.
[26:30] Chuck Hayes: Uh, beat basically Max by 4 seconds and beat his teammate, um, Lewis Hamilton by 5 seconds. So you got to think that Leclerc is feeling really good coming down to Mexico. And yet, you know, Max says, okay, I know my way around here better than anybody. Uh, you just— is this the place, David, where, you know, they only give points for finishing in the top 10? Okay.
[26:56] David Gould: Yeah.
[26:57] Chuck Hayes: You get— if you finish 10th, you get 1 point.
[26:59] David Gould: Yeah.
[27:00] Chuck Hayes: What are the— how would you handicap Sergio Perez getting to 10th for Cadillac in his home country. What do you think might that be if he gets 1 point? What that will do for Cadillac?
[27:14] David Gould: Based on— it would go against every level of momentum that Cadillac has shown. They have just not been able to get there. They just need to figure it out. And I don't know if it's experiential because it's certainly not about money. They have— they have just thrown a ton of money at this thing. But they need different engineers, perhaps. I don't know. I don't think it's necessarily the drivers. I just think the cars are not that good. I will say that there's such a drastic difference between last year and this year as far as the cars going 50/50, which means that the computers are involved more. The stewards, as I said before, seem to be much more involved in to a fault. I mean, it's just like everything is holding these drivers back. I want to see more competitive racing. And it looks like, like it's lap 1, everything kind of gets a little crazy and then it smooths out. And then there's a little bit of passing here or there, but there's— it's just, it's not as exciting as like Nigel Mansell was saying when, uh, You know, they're going 240 miles an hour. It's all gas. It's a V12 engine and you are just on fire and nobody, you know, there's none of this kind of stuff going on.
[28:34] Chuck Hayes: Would you say, David, that clean air is worth almost 13 seconds with Kimi beating Leclerc by that? I mean, clean air. I mean, you heard Max talking about it. Yeah, he was indignant.
[28:49] David Gould: Yeah.
[28:49] Chuck Hayes: Oh, he was— why are you putting me in this situation? Right. I've got to deal with this air. I mean, I'm like, you know, it reminded me of like, okay,
[28:58] David Gould: the situation that you
[28:58] Chuck Hayes: want to move over a little bit and get out of the dirty air, or if that's not the pathway.
[29:03] David Gould: I think he started on softs too. And I think that that was the bigger issue is the fact that he started on softs and they had, they had to pull him in, uh, get the tires changed out and they changed them to softs. And then he had, you know, he made it into a 2-stop race. And I think Kimi was only a one-stop race. Uh, I can't remember, but I believe Kimi was just a single stop. Um, it's pretty crazy.
[29:26] Chuck Hayes: I mean, he just ran away and hid. And again, I, I don't know, and I don't know if you can beat this into the ground anymore, but in a Formula 1 race, to beat the field, because that's the field behind you,
[29:40] David Gould: of course,
[29:41] Chuck Hayes: by 13 seconds. is unheard of at that level of speed.
[29:46] David Gould: Yeah,
[29:46] Chuck Hayes: it just really is something that when you start looking at how close that race was a couple weeks ago—
[29:53] David Gould: yep,
[29:53] Chuck Hayes: it was a blink of an eye.
[29:55] David Gould: Yeah,
[29:55] Chuck Hayes: how that was. That's the way I think it's supposed to be the whole way. Well, people dueling it to the end.
[30:01] David Gould: That's what I'm talking about, because all these obstacles are there now, and it's, it's, it's, it's kind of driving me nuts. I don't want to— I want to see racing where, you know, occasionally somebody could be 13 seconds ahead perhaps, but I want to see it tight. And the cars are just not responding. They're totally responding differently for every, every driver. And I don't like that. I don't want to see that. I wanted to see, you know, level, level the playing field. So it's really about man and machine.
[30:29] Chuck Hayes: Well, we only saw that in a little bit of a race where Max and and Lewis and, and, um, and Charles were dealing, and it was the best racing that I've seen in a long time, and the crowd was loving it.
[30:42] David Gould: Oh yeah.
[30:43] Chuck Hayes: Even the announcers were saying, this is what we've come to see.
[30:46] David Gould: Yeah.
[30:47] Chuck Hayes: And, and I think one of the things that is very difficult when you're a play-by-play person, uh, you're getting the crowd hyped because you're there in the environment, and then that first corner happens and you're trying to go through that and then they revisit it on lap 3 where they get the blimp shot or the drone shot of the start. Yeah. And we can see the mayhem in the back and who cut who off and how that's going to go. But then it goes into this thing like, okay, when are we going to box, box, box? And then those pit stops are so pristine.
[31:22] David Gould: Yeah.
[31:23] Chuck Hayes: At 2.1 or 2.3 or someone goes a 4-second stop.
[31:28] David Gould: Oh, for God's sake.
[31:28] Chuck Hayes: People lose their minds.
[31:29] David Gould: Well, That's how little margin there is for getting in and out of those, getting out of the pits, because the pit is a 24-second deal all in all. So you want to get out of there as fast as possible and get your position back, get into— maybe you've lost 3 spaces, 3 or 4 spaces, and then you can pick it up and catch up to where you were because your tires are fresh. I don't know, man. I'm just— I'm not— they got to sort this out. I'm not digging it.
[32:01] Chuck Hayes: And when the car comes out of pit road and then the other car's coming at full song.
[32:06] David Gould: Yeah.
[32:07] Chuck Hayes: And there's that, will he or will he not? And they get all excited about that. And then they kind of flow back into where the race pace was.
[32:15] David Gould: Well, they feather in. Yeah, they feather in because it's a gross violation when you're coming out of the pits if you You know, side by side or force someone off the racing line.
[32:24] Chuck Hayes: And I, I think it was at, um, yeah, it was lap 48, Bottas, when his Cadillac died and they were trying to figure out where they were going to move it. And the car pick, uh, car—
[32:36] David Gould: they couldn't—
[32:36] Chuck Hayes: they trained— they couldn't position it right because they couldn't lean it down. And right, stewards— not the stewards, the, uh, the people that were the support staff on the track were trying to roll it back.
[32:46] David Gould: Oh, they were. And it was jammed in gears like Hey, look guys, how long have we been doing this?
[32:51] Chuck Hayes: I mean, it reminds me sometimes when I've had a car trouble and I'm waiting and somebody comes to get me. Do I stay with the car? Do I get out of the car? Am I safe? Am I in an area that's okay? And then, you know, you're on the hook and then virtual safety car comes off. Oh, and then you have, you know, because when you look at it, uh, basically 56 laps And Bottas was at the end of that at 48. So you basically had 4 laps of live hard racing at the end of it.
[33:23] David Gould: Yeah.
[33:24] Chuck Hayes: To be able to get there.
[33:24] David Gould: I don't know. Like I said, I'm not happy with how they're handling things.
[33:30] Chuck Hayes: In the words of many people, timing is everything. Yes. And that's just the way it was. Chuck Hayes with David Gould. Follow us on X @LVCheckeredFlag.
[33:39] David Gould: And give us some love. Give us a like. Give us a comment and retweet. Also remember, we're on all the major platforms, podcasts platforms, every one of them.
[33:51] Chuck Hayes: And we thank Coach Harvey Hod football promotions of Nevada for powering fastest hour radio. We're going to box box box. We come back, we'll talk about schedule. Welcome back, segment four checkered flag report. Chuck Hayes with David Gould. Want to thank our presenting sponsor Chavez Realty Development Apartments Business Affairs Real Estate Assessment. 626-440-1545. And we especially want to say thank you, our friends at IMAX, where F1 live on Apple TV and IMAX had another great experience. And we encourage that as they conclude their season of IMAX coverage.
[34:25] David Gould: So I saw it. It was great.
[34:27] Chuck Hayes: Dave, when you talk about CODA, and we're setting this up because we know what we're getting ready for.
[34:33] David Gould: Sure.
[34:33] Chuck Hayes: CODA debuted at Paragon Dolas. and a 4-story clubhouse, making the latest in a long line of developments at COTA since opening in 2012 as America's first purpose-built F1 track. It's grown in much more than a race circuit. Okay, we're going down to Mexico, old school. We're going to be in that stadium. Then we go to Brazil, São Paulo, and then we get to Vegas.
[34:55] David Gould: Yeah.
[34:56] Chuck Hayes: And if anything, when you look at this storyline, From Australia, China, Japan, Miami, Canada, Monaco, Spain, Austria, Great Britain, Belgium, Hungary, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Baku, Malaysia, Singapore, and this past weekend in Austin. Vegas brings the most unique experience in Formula One. It is hands down when I watch these people in Europe. Pack in from where they got to go and how they get there. And once they're in, what they sit through in regards to weather, uh, huge crowds. You know, we, we talked about, uh, Austin having 467,000 fans the weekend. That averages out to about 140K. If you divide it by 3, it's 155,000 a weekend.
[35:53] David Gould: Yeah.
[35:54] Chuck Hayes: Vegas is used to handling big-time events that way.
[35:57] David Gould: Oh yeah.
[35:57] Chuck Hayes: And the amount of food choices, beverage choices, hotel choices, viewing choices, atmosphere, and entertainment—
[36:08] David Gould: yeah,
[36:09] Chuck Hayes: I look on this list, I would think that probably Monaco would be the only one that would even really challenge that, only because it's in the principality.
[36:20] David Gould: Well, yeah, and, and that's the point. Vegas basically creates the experience. It's— I mean, I say this with the greatest respect, it's almost synthetic because they, they, they create the space, they create the world that you live in while you're, while you're doing, while you're doing the race. And it's awfully fun, man. I was— we were running around there going, oh my God, the sushi bar and Gordon Ramsay's running around, running all over the place, and lots of celebrities. It's, it's, it's just wild, man.
[36:52] Chuck Hayes: You know what's an underrepresented part of any motorsport experience is ice. And it's whether you have enough in the bucket or in the sculptures or how it's used. And let's give credit to those people out there who are in the ice business. Yeah, because everyone's always calling for more ice. I don't know if they say we don't need any more ice. No, no, it's always more ice.
[37:14] David Gould: And plus there's a double entendre these days when you mention that. So We got to be careful. All
[37:18] Chuck Hayes: right. Chuck Hayes with David Gullis. We're talking about this, David. When you go to Mexico and we know that 467,000 people over the weekend in Austin, that Mexico is going to say, here, hold my sombrero. We're going to go for it because Sergio Perez is back in a Cadillac.
[37:37] David Gould: Yeah. And I'd love to see it. I mean, it'd be great to see him at least finish in the top 10. It'd be great. I mean, It would be like, uh, the second coming, man. It'd be great.
[37:46] Chuck Hayes: Well, it's all part of this, and it's one of those storylines that it's not only about the winning part about, but it's about— and this is as we develop this for people out there who are listening to this who maybe you said, you know, I'm not hip to F1, I hear a lot about it, I don't really get it. Well, one thing you can get is it has great cars. And when you look at whether you like McLaren or you like Ferraris, or you like Mercedes, or you like Aston Martins, or you like Caddies, or you like a number— Vegas is about numbers— there's something for everybody in this.
[38:19] David Gould: Yeah.
[38:19] Chuck Hayes: So go in there, take a look and see, and there's going to be a lot of great storylines coming in because they're gonna have to work to do that. Antonelli will be crowned the king. And by the way, David, so you know, uh, for all you fans out there who love this, Alberto Ascari is the first Italian to clinch an F1 championship, and that was in 1953. So this is going to be his storyline, Antonelli, all the way through. Sure. He will never, ever, ever have to worry about anything again in the country of Italy. He will be the man forever. And I could see right now Ferrari looking at contracts and wondering when that first opportunity would be to lure him over to Ferrari.
[39:03] David Gould: Yeah, it would be a great storyline for him to go to Ferrari. But right now Mercedes seems to be doing so well, I doubt he would want to change.
[39:11] Chuck Hayes: What an interesting point. And we're wrapping this up.
[39:14] David Gould: Sure.
[39:14] Chuck Hayes: He's 20 years old now.
[39:16] David Gould: Yeah.
[39:17] Chuck Hayes: When could you see him in a Ferrari?
[39:18] David Gould: Probably in his— have to be in his mid-20s at the earliest. Maybe his— maybe late, late 20s.
[39:25] Chuck Hayes: Chuck Hayes with David Gould. We want to thank you for following us on X @LVCheckerFlag. We want to thank Coach Harvey Hyde Football Promotions of Nevada for powering the fastest hour in radio. David, can you give us a podium for Mexico in 20 seconds?
[39:40] David Gould: Well, I'm going to say— I'm going to say Max is going to be on the podium. I'd like to see him win it to kind of solidify his position. And I do see— I see Lewis coming in maybe third, and second is a kind of a crapshoot. I'm going to go for Hadjar on there too.
[40:00] Chuck Hayes: Chuck Hayes with David Gould. Follow us. We'll be back next week. Same time, same channel. Thank you so much.