Valtteri Bottas in a fast Cadillac F1 car is FRIGHTENINGLY GOOD…
Yes. Yeah. It was a very strong performance for Cadillac last time out. We’re up to second place in the constructor’s championship and we were winning races. So, we just need to try and continue that to put the pressure on to Red Bull who have been very strong. Aston are there. We’ve overtaken them, but they have been really really impressive to me. So, there’s, you know, a lot of pressure to keep things up and to keep upgrading because this is the R&D chart. It’s looking good right now. We’re in the mixer. Things are so close, but very quickly we could, you know, lose out if we don’t keep our level of upgrading the same. I feel I feel like because everything’s so close, even like one upgrade, you know, a few percentage points is going to make a huge difference here compared to maybe previous series, previous seasons we’ve done on this game. We’ve got a rear wing being made. I I don’t know exactly what the ATR is like right now. Now, I think we’ve still got some good amount of ATR left, so we’re going to put some of that in to some other upgrades. We’ve got 4 days till Barcelona, so not too much time to get anything in for this upcoming race. We are going to invest in Alexander Dunn for 600k. This is We’ll do that. We’ll do that. Uh, obviously, we ended last episode with that engine issue for Valtry Botas, so we are going to rectify that with the components changes. In terms of the races we’ve got coming up, we’ve got Barcelona, Silverstone, Budapest, and Spar. I am actually going to for the first time ever, I think in the in the manager series. I’m not going to manage the British Grand Prix. Usually I do cuz it’s like the home race, but we’re Cadillac. You know, our home races are the US GPS. And I actually fancy ourselves around Barcelona returning to the calendar for this season. Don’t think we had it in season 1 of this Cadillac series. And there is obviously tire wear being a big factor around here. That’s been a strength of our car. It’s always a strength of of the car I’m I make because I always kind of skew things always to tire wear because I think it’s a massive advantage you can gain on the AI. So, I’m going to manage Barcelona. We’re going to manage Budapest as well cuz that’s usually a good one for that. I would have said Spar as well, but Spar was really difficult for us last season. So, going to go with uh Budapest. I feel good about that as well. Um and also it gives us a nice kind of managing sim managing sim pattern for the four races in this episode. Got a front wing failure here. we’re going to manufacture that. So, I think now it’s just really about doing upgrades and where are we weakest at? I mean, there’s not a lot of places, but this is the thing. One, this is what I mean. One, it looks great here on paper. One upgrade and we could be like fourth in terms of this ranking. So, um, dirtier tolerance, I would say let’s improve that, but it really doesn’t matter on this game. Maybe DRS effectiveness if we’re, you know, looking to be in the mix with overtakes. Where is a real weakness of ours? I think maybe I I think top end speed and duros effect I think we need to do for that. That’s rear wing but also chassis as well. So let’s go for a chassis upgrade. Don’t actually have many engineers. Going to confirm that. I swear we I think we had some upgrades in the pipeline that maybe are ready to be done. I’m doing suspension as well cuz that also affect the drag reduction. Just going to check through. Have we got parts to be made or front wing we need to make? Rear wings on the way. Side pods are fine. Under floors f under floor needs a spare though. Um, am I going to do an under floor upgrade soon? Probably not. Let’s do two spares of that suspension. We got new ones on the way. So, rear wing. Okay, cool. I think we’re good. I I think we’re actually good. We just need that front wing to come in. Uh, and oh, there we go. Rear wing’s done. Only one rear wing is going to get done in time. I’m going to give that to Bot Ash to sort of apologize for what happened in Canada because ultimately that was on me for not checking the engine parts, but I was also quite baffled at how his parts got so worn out. But I think it was altered because of the one of you guys pointed out very rightly probably because of the crash he had that’s actually probably why that was so worn out. So I’m going to give it to car 2 which is Botass. So with a slight upgrade there maybe we could see Botas back on on terms with Russell as obviously Russell was really the star of the show for us in the team. We’re jumping on into Q2. We are through obviously but Russell only P9 in in Q1. So you know Red Bull looking pretty good. Pashri up there stroll as well. So let’s see. Let’s see. Maybe Q3 isn’t a guarantee and that is why we must manage it right here as our lovely and glorious blue Caddy goes out for a lap in the sunshine around Cataloonia bot us out as well. Let’s speed this through and let’s see how these first laps go. Hopefully no traffic here as we watch. No, we’re I think we’re good. I think we’re good in terms of the timing there. Oh, little bit of traffic, but Alonzo gets out the way. He’s experienced enough not to block. And Russell coming through. First lap on the board. Let’s see what it is. 119 710 quicker than the Alpine, but the Alpine’s been pretty meh this season, hasn’t it? even despite despite being up there. I mean, you can say that about a lot of teams, you know, uh it’s just so so close that it really just is pot luck really every race, which I think I guess makes things interesting for you guys and for me is we really don’t know if we’re going to be competitive at each race. Um I think last episode was really good. I have I just have a bad feeling that we may not be as on it this episode and others may be catching a little bit in terms of how competitive they are. I mean, it’s looking good right now, but it’s only Q2. Q3 is when it’s going to get really interesting as a CLA has a car issue of sorts and he’s a bit slow. Both Red Bulls look fine and they definitely look like the strongest competition I would say in this second season, which is scary cuz it’s Vstappen and Antinelli. What a what a insane generational dream team that is uh to come up against. But I think we’re fine into into the top 10 shootout here. Others put in some quick laps at the end there. Vstappen has actually topped stroll up there along the zone as well. So there could be a bit of an actual fight going on here in this top 10. Um so far the pattern has been though our car actually seemingly is a really good qualifier. Maybe in the race that’s where it doesn’t have the exact same pace is uh you know we locked out um so well in the in the previous episodes. So both cars out now. Botas just behind Pashri, but I imagine he’ll be going quick enough that that’s not an issue. So, let’s see. Russell gets just ahead of his old teammate, his old pal. The Alpine gets out of the way. Good. Thank you, man. Through to the final corner. What’s it going to be lap time wise? 1118. Quicker than he did in Q2, which is promising. What can Botas do? 0.094 off. Good stuff. That rear wing’s working well to me. Bring him a little bit closer perhaps. Right. Pash’s a bit slow, but we know McLaren’s not been right. right up there. I’m curious to see what Antonelli can do. 5/10 off. What about Vstappen or even the Aston? In fact, they’re the real threat. Alon Alonzo 110th off. They’re honestly here, man. They are here. Aston Martin Honda is here to fight us. Uh along with Red Bull. Right, we’re going to re reset ourselves on the lap. We’ve used all the tires up it would seem, apart from Botas. Botas is You know what? We’re going to save that tire for the race just in case. All right, send Russell out. bot ass out just behind the stappen. That’s all good, right? Let’s see what the sectors are saying. Russell, yellow, yellow. This is not looking too insane for Russell who’s already on poll, so maybe not too much uh else to find in terms of time. Small small improvement. Small improvement. P1 at the moment. Yeah, P1 at the moment. Can Botas do anything? It’s a yellow first sector, green the middle. Whereas Vistappen, I think he was ahead, wasn’t he? Crosses the line, doesn’t go quicker. Botas doesn’t go quicker. Alonzo, I think he’s finished his lap. So, I think that is us confirmed for a front row lockout here in Catalunia, but the home favorite in third in the Aston Martin. And I think Red Bull will be stronger in the race um with the tire wear kicking in and just general pushing. But that is very, very solid. Good stuff, lads. Good stuff. Could this be maybe the first episode where we take the lead of one of the championships? Two stop, medium, medium, soft. I would I would say that kind of, you know, that that fits into my assumption of what the race was going to be. Do we have another medium with We don’t have another medium with Botass. That’s a bit frustrating. I’m going to go me uh medium hard soft. Let’s see how that goes for him. Maybe going later into the race with the soft tire might help out. Going one less lap of fuel. No rain forecast. So, there should be, you know, in in terms of that aspect straight forwards. But, I think it’s uh it’s going to be very tough to manage like going quick enough to to keep the guys behind us at bay whilst also protecting the tire. Especially for Botas, they’re going a little bit longer in the race. But, let’s do this. Uh hopefully for Valtry’s sake making up for Canada and Russell just continuing the fine form he’s in. The anticipation is really building here. The fans in attendance are absolutely buzzing with excitement. As we get to this race, our focus shifts to Valkyrie Botas. A second place start for them today. They’ll be aiming for a podium, but could they even sneak the win? Right, let’s get to it then. One of the oldest races on the Formula 1 calendar. This is the Spanish Grand Prix. And it’s lights out and we’re underway from the front row. Russell, good start. Botas as well. Let’s go aggressive. Aggressive at the start, lads. Keep it one. Oh, no. Botas is down to fifth. I was going to say keep it one, two. He’s down the order. No, the two Oh my god, the two Aston are up here. Stroll, is he about to do a Allonzo and go around the outside? No, not quite. But Strolls up to third, Alonzo second. Potass retaking P3 maybe. Actually, I thought he was just P5, but he’s he’s back down the inside of Stroll, but both Aston’s on softs. Interesting. Red Bull as well. Most people on softs. That’s going to make us vulnerable for the first part of the race as Lewis Hamilton slings through into P6 and the Ferrari. Botas up to third, which is good from him. But for how long can we carry this on? Because eventually that soft tire will just be quicker. But we’ve broken the DRS for Russell to Alonzo. So that’s good. But we are going to start calming things down as we look to set ourselves up better for the race to come. Not just his first in three wide between Hamilton. The two red balls. Oh, Vapam with a double pass on the outside. Is it? Oh no, not quite. He tried it though. He tried it. That was nearly insane from Vistappen as Alonzo takes the lead. Alonzo take it’s a checkerboard of Cadillac and Aston as Aston are genuinely coming for us and Red are nowhere. What’s happening to them? Alonzo leads. Okay. Interesting. Interesting. Right. We carry on. We carry on. We can keep Stroll at bay. But can we close up? Oh, Botas has got Russell. Botas has got Russell despite actually Russell push. I accidentally had Russell pushing a bit harder than Botas. Um, okay. The Finn is flying then. Maybe the rear wing’s working a bit better. I don’t know. They’re swapping again. Don’t let let Alonzo walk away with this though, lads. Please. Okay. Things have changed rapidly. But Stappen out of nowhere is now in second whereas Anthony seventh. So I don’t know how that’s happened. He’s just decided to wake up I guess. Russell’s in third. Botas in fourth. Alonzo leading and controlling this race. But what’s the tire wear saying? Yeah, we’re good. We’re good. We’re good. We can push a bit on later. I reckon lap 10 start pushing a bit more because then their softs are going to start crying out a little bit. And Russell here is right up behind the stappen anyway. Oh, the stappen going for the move. Alonzo’s got an issue with his car and the Stappen goes sailing around the outside for the lead of the race. Alonzo down to second. Okay, soon come soon. Push. Let’s go. Push, push, push. All right, there we go. Are we going to make a move here? Let’s go. Bit of deploy. Same for Valtry as well. Go on, lads. Go on, Russell. Up to second. Might be first soon through this next section. Let’s go. Let’s go. Not yet. Okay. On the main straight surely. Oh. Oh. Botas. Botas has cooked all of them. He’s overtaken Bappen and then he’s gone for the double pass. It’s a one two though for us. But can we see a replay of that please? Game. Yes. Here we go. So he got he already got Vistappen at the final corner and then made a double pass on the straight. Crazy work there for Botas. Right, we’re pushing now. Using the tire a little bit more. Right now going standard passes up of the race from Botas, but it’s been taken by Okong weirdly is there’s some infighting going on. Llon for 14th. This is uh but we’re now in control this first stint because those softs are wearing off. But to be fair, both Aston are keeping in check. The stappen maybe drop back just to protect the tires. Hamilton gets Antonyelli. Okay. Don’t really know how this is going to go to be honest because the Aston are impressing impressing me by keeping up with us. So, let’s see. Let’s see. Let’s see. Let’s see. Bos is controlling this race in the lead. Oh, the two are swapping to be fair. So, uh Oh, was that Stroll making a pit stop? Yes, he has. And he’s gone quickest. He’s going to undercut us, isn’t he? Keep to the plan. Don’t get Don’t get shickened in to coming in earlier. We’re going to stick to the game plan. They can get an undercut going. They can get trapped position. Keep going. Yellows. Alonzo’s just pit. Is that going to be anything? Oh, what’s happened? Something’s happened here. Someone span. Limblad has spun in the RB with the rumors swirling that he is confirmed for Var. Wonder could they is that is that what we’re going to see in the future? Him spinning in the RB. Right. Carry on. Carry on. Optimal pit stop for Russell. He’s going to come in on this lap. We’re pushing in with Valtry. We carry on. We carry on. Good pit stop. 2.2. Lovely pit stop. Coming out behind Vistappen and Alonzo and Strolls ahead of all of us, but that’s fine. We’re still right on the back of them. So, we didn’t really lose that much time. Lap 27. You can see we are still going on with Botas. I I want to try something. I want to see something as Russell up to third. He’s got stroller. Alonzo. Alonzo’s got a car issue. And Russell on the inside. Fantastic. Insane overtake there. Mechanical issue. Oh, Alonzo. Mechanical issue. Oh, he’s going to be out. He’s going to be so pissed. He’s going to be so pissed. He could probably taste the victory at some point. Please go pit stop. We need a good pit stop. 2.2. I’ll take it. I’ll take it. Right. bought us up to P9 on hards looking to maybe go a little bit long maybe. Alonzo, Stroll, and Gastley all with mechanical issues. This is bad for Aston. It was a looking like a strong race, but are they going to make it to the end? I don’t know. Russell right now is locked in. This guy is a demon. Absolute demon, it would seem. Russell’s coming in from the lead. Botas is second. He’ll take the lead. Russell in onto Softs. We’ve saved a lot of fuel with him because I knew we had to try and chase back after Vistafen cuz Vistafen pit so much earlier. He pit like like 40 10 laps ago cuz he’s on the hards. We’re on softs, but we’ve got a lot of fuel to burn to catch him and we should be good. Alonzo, he his his laps are atrocious. They’re like well well they’re fine right now cuz you’re on new tires. At the end of the stint he was like 3 seconds slower and he’s down in ninth place. So, I think Lonzo is already complete out of the podium fight. Stroll maybe, I don’t know, is still kind of in there. His car no longer has issues. Gassley has big issues. Um, and then for Botas, we’re in the lead and I’m going to see if he can get to the end here. I want to see if we can get to the end maybe and pull off some sort of miracle. Right. There’s a lot of traffic, a lot of lapped cars. A lot of lapped cars. The Mercedes, they’re being lapped here by us. This is the team Russell left last season. They’re being lapped. That is ember rousing for them. They are in the mud. Absolute mudded. And Botass with 11 laps to go. He’s actually holding this amazingly. And I think I think lap I want to say 59. I’m going to give Russell seven laps of full out attack because the problem with softs is they might be quite quick but they wear out so quickly and you go too early letting them attack then you’re so screwed at the end of the race. So I think Russell still has a chance of of winning this race to be honest. But I need to time the pushing right. But to be honest, I’m not going to lie. If we could get Botas a win here to make up for Canada, that would be insane. And Russell’s already got the snappen on the outside. Oh, he’s got him. He’s got him. He’s up to second. Not even pushing there. 6 seconds. 10 laps to go. It’s Well, it’s now an inter team battle here. It’s the final lap of the Spanish Grand Prix. Botas and Russell leading a one two. Literally nose to tail. Vstappen is in third. He’s done well. Stroll fourth. And Alonzo, well, he’s retired. Bman’s out. Alonzo’s out. He’s going to be fuming at his home race, but I have decided on the last lap. We’re bringing it home, lads. We’re bringing it home in formation here. Uh, you can say what you want. I I I had to make up for Canada. I really did because that was my bad in the end of it of not managing the components right. And so, this is a bit of payback for Canada. We lead Homer one, two in emphatic fashion. Yes. Yeah. Bass. Very happy with that. As he should be. As he should. He did really well. He He did really well. He managed a one stop. Proud of you. Yeah. We’re proud of you too, mate. We’re proud of you, too. Brilliant. Brilliant stuff. And really now it’s a question of if people can take the fight to us cuz I think we’re in a really good strong position now where finally Russell and Botas are clicking with the car. Things are going well. Um, but I don’t want to get too ahead of myself because things can change very quickly in this game. One, two, beautiful. Versappen still leading the championship by the way. So, even after that, all the success we we’ve felt recently, we’re 23 in the drivers. Constructors for the first time though, we take the lead of the constructors. That’s awesome. That’s really good. But let’s carry on. Let’s see. We’re going to sim the British Grand Prix. That could be devastation for us. Let’s see. That’s a really tough Grand Prix. Oh, Target missed for our sponsorship. How do we even manage that? I swear we filled out everything. Okay. Uh, that’s surprising. Okay, we’re definitely filling everything out there, but that’s um I didn’t think we were in an issue with that last time. Right. How did the boys do around Silverstone in qualifying? Ah, what? Eighth for Russell. Botas on a high though. Second place. Okay. Uh, that’s peculiar. Okay, maybe the the win really boyed our flying fin there. Um I mean confidence levels not that different. Um interesting. Okay, how we were going to do in the race though? That’s the big question. He didn’t did he did he didn’t disappoint. Oh, second place for Botas. Russell not on the podium down to third. But Charles, hang on a minute. Charles Lllair won Ferrari I think with their first race win this whole season. That’s a that’s definitely a shock in this simulated race. Science in eighth as well, up eight places. Norris went up 14 in the McLaren. Um that’s very surprising then. So Vstappen maintains first place. Red Bull we actually marginally gain on Red Bull which is good. So we we’ve grown the gap a little bit. Aston had a how Oh, Aston are imploding. Aston are imploding. Zero points on the board and Ferrari are level pegging with them with that race win. Oh. Oh no. Is this the capitulation of Aston Martin? They were doing so well up to this point. Maybe I cursed it. I praised them too much at the start of the episode. Oh dear. Oh dear. I’ll take the results there. That’s pretty okay uh for us gained on Raid Ball or or grown the gap I should say to Raid Ball. So can’t ask for much more to be honest. And board attendance. Uh that was a good one to come to. Uh, as we’ve got contracts ending, let’s renew this guy’s contract then. Three seasons. We’ll do it from next season. Uh, what are we paying him right now? We’re paying him 3 million. Yeah, we can bump that up. Get that done immediately. Send proposal. He’s going to He’s going to be happy with it, isn’t he? He loves this place. Yeah, he loves it. Renew contract sorted. Thank you very much. New chassis and suspension is in the pipeline to be made. Uh, let’s just check this out. Let’s do a bit of uh gym training to bring down. Oh god. More get that estimated pit stop down. We got to There we go. Cool. That’s all right. It’s not It’s not great, but it’s all right. It’ll do. Uh let’s do a bit of resting here in the middle. You know what? We can probably do get that better. Still zero. Really? Okay. Okay. 0 point 0 0.01. That’ll have to do. Yeah, that’ll do. Um, right. Are you Wow. Okay. You need all the rest you can get apparently. Okay, there we go. Getting there. Getting there. Okay, great. Well rested. Well rested. Beautiful. I’m going to vote for this regulation change. More CFD to the bottom teams. Yeah, why not? Why not? Bring it on. Bring it on. Make it even more competitive and crazy. Uh, what? You’re joking me. I simulated Q1 because we we we’ve been fine doing that since the first episode. The car’s good enough. And Russell’s been knocked out. Oh no. 18th. What? He must have got held up in traffic. 18th to 7th is a ridiculous difference. Jeez, this really is the the Valtry Boss show in this episode. He is cooking and uh well we might have man we might have artificially manufactured it in terms of uh giving him the win in Spain but then he he’s taken a life of his own now with that win he’s he’s gone on and just become more motivated or quicker I don’t know but okay single car and goalie just bought right botas with the green first sector middle yellow he’s down in ninth so this needs to be a little bit better but it may not be there for Bry What’s happened from from Silverstone to now? There was a bit of difference of a few days. We’ve brought upgrades to the car. We’ve got a new chassis, new suspension, but other teams, like I said, they’ve maybe brought one more upgrade and that’s made a difference for them as H are in the top 10 here. Ferrari are looking great now apparently. Oh, don’t tell me we’re about to get double knocked out. Are we not making Q3? Oh my. What did I say guys? What did I say to you? We cannot get ahead of ourselves. We’ve just gone from winning races to now we have both been we’ve neither of us made Q3. Pastry is on pole. Both Ferraris 23. What is going on? Vistafen’s P5 still. So the the drivers um leader, championship leader is looking calm. Audi up here now as well. What’s going on here? What is going on? And now in Q. Oh, sorry. That was the Q2 results. But Stapen’s on pole. That’s not great for either of our drivers. That’s really not. Okay. Difficult Hungarian Grand Prix coming up perhaps. Uh three stop for Russell. Absolutely not. I I I I don’t think that’s the motive to be honest. Um I think we’re going to get rid of that and we’re just going to move that over. I think soft at the end is fine. We we we’ve done that before around Hungary and I’m happy with that. It’s just about trying to gauge this stint and also not going too late onto the softs. I think I think 18 laps on softs is pretty good. I think that’s calm. 23 and 52. I like that. 23 and 52. Uh for Valtry, we could do the opposite and go soft, medium, hard. Why don’t we try that? Why don’t we try that? 18 laps. All right, let’s try that with Valtry. a bit of a different spectrum for both drivers, but hopefully they meet in the middle somewhere. And hopefully the middle is not the actual middle of the grid based off the performance today. Oi oi. And here we go with the Hungarian Grand Prix. And it’s lights out. Lights out. Away we go for the Hungarian Grand Prix from 11th and 17th. What a drop this is from just one race ago that we were managing our way to a one two and now we’re here in the sticks it would seem compared to what we’re used to as Bothas gets up into P9. Russell I think making his way up to 16th at least but we need more. We need more from our drivers as Vstafen is dominating this one. Botas up to P8 now it is good stuff. Keep pushing and let’s go down to standard though. And the fuel. Yeah. Okay. And then we can go off the deploy onto neutral. Neutral. Now with Valtry, you’re going to have to be a bit careful with that tire. Whereas with Russ, we can push maybe a little bit harder as it’s a bit of a different strategy. But he’s in the thick of it. He’s 14th though. It’s overcast. Is there any rain? No. But the track grip is not as ideal as you’d want, which maybe helps Botas on the soft, you would say. I don’t know. Russell’s making good progress though. Up to 14. Let’s carry on Botas. As you are. As you are. And he’s behind the Audi, I think. Yeah. Getting that Audi hopefully on this straight. DRS open. Come on. Good on Bortalto. Cadillac versus Audi. Two of the newer teams in Formula 1. Beautiful. Get it done on the exit. Nice now on the Aston maybe soon. Might be a double overtake if the McLaren’s weak. Russell. Oh, big dive. What? Oh, wow. What timing that was to go on ball with Russell. Big dive. Big big dive. And he got it done. All right. Come on, Botass. You need to get it done now. Deploy. Oh, Russell’s used all his energy up. My bad. Right, Botass. Here he goes. Fakes to the right. goes to the left and on the outside gets the Aston. Yeah, Botas is doing a great job and he’s going to close on Pastri as the sun comes out. Russell still trying to get the H. And Botas not finishing the move until then on Pastri. And Russell’s got Bareman as well. Let’s watch that. Let’s watch that. See how it was just on the straight then, is it? Yeah, just on the straight. Cool. Sweet. Looking good. Okay, pace is looking a bit better and not as shocking as it was in quali, but Vistappen’s probably I to be honest I think sewn up this race already maybe. Let’s see. Let’s see. Russell up to 12th. He’s got Okon. This is good. Going to push a little bit with bot ass here. Go deploy. Temperatures are going up. Can he get that Ferrari soon? He’s got DRS. Is it? No, not yet. Not yet. No. No DRS yet. Get inside. One second, man. Okay, there we go. There we go. He’s inside. One second. Surely. Yes. There we go. That is what we need. That is what we need. Russell, calm that down, Botas. Oh, big dive. Big big dive from Botas. And he’s got it. Windows opening soon for Russell. Uh for for Botas. Russell. I need to do a void risk herbs to be honest and try and ek this tire out a little bit more. I think we can push harder with Valtry. Yeah, I’m going to go flat out with Botas. Really give it some. Let’s see what he can do. Hamilton pits. Doesn’t want the smoke. doesn’t want the smoke from his old teammate. And we’re gaining on Alonzo now. Come on. Going to pit soon as well. Next lap. A pit stop. Yep. Next. Next lap coming in onto mediums. Yeah. Cool. Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s use this. Push. Push. Push. Oh, Alonzo. Alonzo spun it. Bought us up to second. Oh, bad spin. Bad, bad spin, huh? Yeah, you’re telling us, right? Boss is in the pits then. Good. 2.1. Beautiful pit stop. Really good. We come out in a bit of traffic though. That’s unfortunate. That is very unfortunate. Right, Russell’s carrying on and doing what he needs to do to extend this stint. I’m going to tell him to not fight Botas. Get out of the way. Get out the way. Get out of the way. Botas is on a completely different strategy, mate. Right. both drivers and avoid risk curbs in pushing. Just uh well, Russell needs to get to his pit stop window and Botas needs to make sure this stint goes to plan. Bottom pit stop. Okay, push. Go, go, go, go, go, go. Yeah, Russell’s in. Going to come out P15. It’s fine. It’s fine. We’re coming back through in this race. We are. So, sit rep is Pri leading for now, but this happens right there. Hamilton is the next target for Botas. We’ve pulled away from Llair. So, we’re at least minimum P4 today with Botass with Russell P15. I really don’t know. He has a lot of cars over there. There’s a lot of traffic, but maybe also out of sync a little bit with the pit stops and Pre’s pit. So, we’re up to third with Votas. So, minimum podium for for Valtry. So, that’s really really solid actually. Russell still down in P12 outside the points. He’s just he nearly got overtaken by science there for a moment. Right, he’s up to P9. up to P9. Bot ass. What we saying? We are maybe slowly gaining on Hamilton, but not that much. Going to save fuel now with both drivers. This is the time to save fuel. Right. Russell’s P8. Next up is Stroll. 2 seconds. I think he can get that. Got a bit of deploy. He can get that. And then Botas Hamilton’s actually keeping us at a at an arms distance here. And Alonzo is now creeping back up to us after that spin. So maybe third is in jeopardy from Fernando Alonzo. Brussels closing on stroll under 1 second. He’s going to get him here surely. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Come on. Come on. Come on. Let’s get him. Alonzo might get us. That’s close. So whilst we overtake one Aston, the other Aston might overtake us as Russell goes through from the right to the left. Long way round. Nice. Good overtake that. Good overtake. Yeah. Botas under pressure. I’m going to extend this just a little bit longer just to frustrate Alonzo if we can. Alonzo might frustrate us. We have to go defensive. Alonzo on the outside. Long way round. Oh, good overtake. That’s going to be a good overtake if he gets this done. Yeah. Okay, we’ll come back at him. Don’t worry. But not yet. We’re going to pit in. Safe fuel entry. Let’s go. And box. We box. Alonzo carries on. Interestingly, And now we’ve got plenty of gap to push whereas Russell still carrying on. He’s up to P5 though. Right, we’re closing on Hamilton. We’re actually closer now with Botas 2.6. Russell’s P6 now. And he’s going to come in in one more laps time. 52, wasn’t it? I think. Yeah, there we go. Come in for the softs. New set of softs. He’s going to be flying, I hope. And there’s a good amount of space I think that you can come into. Oh wa just ahead of Cenoda and and Antonyelli. That is a good amount of space he’s come into. Just about just get those tires up to temperature and then go go like the Clappers and then Botas into When did Botas get Hamilton? What? When did that happen? Oh, we missed it. We missed it. I was too focused on Russell at some point. Botas up to second. Is it okay? When did that happen? As both Merc are 2122. Dismal stuff for them. Oh my lord though. The stappen’s 20. What are they feeding him in this race? He’s got a mechanical issue though. Oh, things are about to get very lucky for Vry Botas. I don’t know. Russell’s up to P6. It’s been a great great determination and recovery race. This is Russell’s up to P5. Just got Llair. Alonzo is going to fall away, I think. Well, I hope kind of he’s he’s uh what’s his tire wear? Oh, no. To be fair, Alonzo is actually very good on tires. So maybe P5 is the maximum to hope for today for Russell, which would still be amazing from what 16th place or 18th I think it was. Uh Botas in second, but Max is in a world of his own. His car’s now fine. So I think that’s going to be him sewing that up. And for us, I think we’re sewing up second place. So it’s a it’s another second for Botas as will be. And Alonzo is up to third. He’s got Hamilton. Final laps here. Botas, we’re just pushing hard now. But it is going to be Vstappen winning this by a massive margin. Russell has got Hamilton. He’s fallen away. So it’s P4. P4 1.6 the gap. Oh, maybe there was a universe where Russell catches back for for for third place. Botas with a great second, but Russell’s close. Maybe we should have gone sooner on the pushing and we could have got could have got third place there. But fourth’s pretty damn good considering everything. And he’s just run out of fuel on the line there. Both of them have. Brilliant. They’re gonna run out of fuel in formation. Is it? Yeah. Lovely stuff. Well, it’s a great second, but Vstappen wins again and gains in the driver’s championship, but constructors we gain on Red Bull. So, very kind of similar vibe to real life where Red Bull personally Vstappen’s doing well, but Red Bull very much not. Aston needed that to get back ahead of Ferrari by one measly point. But we have one more race to simulate now in the episode and that’s going to be a pot luck of course and there’s driver tension apparently between bot ass to be honest he might be he might drive better when he’s angry. Um I’m going to intervene though cuz that usually helps things doesn’t it done growing to 79. He could nearly be at 80 and at that point I would be comfortable putting him in the car for next season to be honest. So that’s going to be quite exciting as a development but oh we got car parts missing. Is it okay is fine. Uh oh. Do we need an emergency? Oh, no. We’re good. No, we’re good. We’re good. We’re good. It’s a wet one in Spa. I think there was rain in practice there. So, let’s see how this uh simulation to the race goes. Looks dry for the race. So, that should be fine and probably better for us. Let’s see. Again, Botas in the simulation is cooking second to Russell seventh. Interesting. What’s it going to be, boys? To round out the episode, is it going to be bot? Is it really going to be an all bot ass? It might be. It might be, but oh no, Russell comes back. It’s a win in the simulation. Fantastic. And the snappen down to P5. That’s brilliant for us. Pia does well to be on the podium. McLaren looks stronger. Botas third and it means Botas is now five points. Oh no, sorry. Russell’s five points off Vappen. Um, but in the constructors, we’ve gained big on Red Bull. Big on Red Bull 40 to8. That’s huge. But Russell at the end of the episode brings it back through for a race win after a few difficult races there in the middle. But to be honest, overall, I think that was Valtry’s episode. Uh wasn’t off the podium once, was he? Really strong stuff from our Flying Finn, but Russell still our main man nearest to Vistappen in the championship. And we are taking hold of the constructors just because of our two drivers up here because Max is up there, Alonzo’s up there, Lllair, but their teammates are flagging a bit. You know, Antonelli, Antonyelli needs to pick up just a little bit and he can make a massive difference for Red Bull. But that’s a really strong way to end out this episode. Guys, if you have enjoyed this one, be sure to hit the like button. Let me know what you thought in the comments below. And if you’re around here, then do get subscribed for weekly full on content. I’ll see you guys next time. Goodbye.
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