The new F1 Nation podcast features McLaren’s Lando Norris and Mercedes’ James Allison as they touch on multiple topics.
- On this week’s episode of the new F1 Nation podcast, the hosts’ respective weekly highlights were Lando Norris’ discovery of a new fruit, for Alex Jacques, and for Tom Clarkson, it was covering Murray Walker’s famous lines for a documentary about the 1999 season, as well as a new show he’s found, and an interview with Chase Carey.
- Interestingly, Clarkson added that he finds the news of Williams’ sale to be positive, as he delved into who might buy into the team, or even take over.
- After further discussion on this topic, where the two hosts weighed options like Michael Latifi, Dimitry Mazepin, and even Porsche, they switched to discussion about the new calendar’s release, and for this they played Rosanna’s interview with Norris.
- The Brit spoke on what he’s been up to, his gaming, and how tough it’s been to wrap his head around the sudden halt of his racing activities, and even his simulator work at McLaren, which will resume shortly, as per his comments when talking to Tennant.
- Of course, they also talked about the return to racing to come, and whether he looks at the triple-header in a positive light, or a negative one. With a hint of banter, Norris also covered what he’ll give his current teammate Carlos Sainz as a going away gift.
- The interview with Norris drew to a close, and then the hosts spoke on the upcoming Virtual GP, as well as the F1 Rewind race for this weekend at Baku.
- This discussion between hosts, though, was short-lived, as a chat with Mercedes’ James Allison ensued. Jacques and Clarkson were the two moderating the interview, as they and the Brit talked about what’s going on at his house, what the feeling is like inside the factory, the coming commencement of the 2020 F1 season, who the shortened season will favor, the new regulations, whether they are anti-innovation, whether Mercedes would consider Sebastian Vettel and more.
- Allison did criticise the ‘lag’ that inadvertently results in a team’s car in 2020 playing into their success in 2022, because they will not have to focus so much on their 2021 car, and will just be able to carry it over directly.
- After Allison gave his take on the most influential innovation in F1 history, both hosts did the same, with Jacques saying that the wheel is the most important, and Clarkson saying that carbon fibre changed the game the most.
- Lawrence Barretto then joined the chat, and he sided with Jacques in saying that the wheel, steering or otherwise, was the most important.
- He stated that this year could swing in favor of Max Verstappen, beginning with three consecutive races at the tracks at which the Dutchman is strongest.
- Barretto added that Mercedes have yet to be truly ‘under pressure’ from any other team over the last few years, and that they therefore will be on the back foot in the shortened season. There was also a debate about reverse-grid sprint races, that Barretto was against, and the other hosts were all for
- Next, the mailbag was opened, and after reading out a few questions from fans, ‘Challenge Rosanna’ came up, where she had to do a pop quiz
- She won what was an admittedly lopsided quiz, and retained the Challenge Rosanna title, before the episode ended.
Here’s the link of the F1 Nation podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzUwMjQzOTYucnNz/episode/dGFnOmF1ZGlvYm9vbS5jb20sMjAyMC0wNi0wNTovcG9zdHMvNzU5OTY2OA?hl=en-IN&ep=6
Here’s the last episode of F1 Nation
Here’s the last F1 Beyond The Grid podcast with Heikki Kovalainen