Motorsport101

Congratulations to Red Bull Racing for winning F1 Championship Number 74, it is their sixth Superbowl win. It's coronation time at Red Bull after Max Verstappen took his Singapore defeat personally and won the Japanese GP by 20 seconds ahead of a double McLaren podium of Norris and Piastri. But it was marred by Sergio Perez stinking up the joint again, breaking two front wings, passing under a Safety Car and eventually crashing out to Kevin Magnussen. Is HE the secret bottleneck for Red Bull's driver management? We also try to make sense of the evolving fight for second as Mercedes cross paths via some weird George Russell strategy shenangians, Ferrari being undercut (Again), and McLaren scoring their five podium in the last 7 weekends. Big Larry Bird: "So which one of y'all are finishing second?" energy.

I love that Singapore just ended up being a Red Bull-themed episode, even if Carlos Sainz won a classic GP to end Red Bull's 15-race winning streak! But yeah, did we mention Red Bull DIDN'T win! It was a brilliant finale to an intriguing tactical race in Singapore as the unique nature of the track and setup concerns for the energy drink firm opened the door for Carlos Sainz to win from pole and dictate the terms of engagement. We talk how he used 2nd place runner Lando Norris as a "pick" to make sure he could hold off the 2-stopping Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. And that was before Russell hit the wall on the final lap to cost himself another podium. We also talk the confusing situation at AlphaTauri as Liam Lawson continues to make headlines, this time with his first Q3 appearance and P9 finish, Alpha's best of the year. With Daniel Ricciardo still not 100% fit and Yuki Tsunoda controversially seemingly at the front of the queue, who should be in their seats... and why is Sergio Perez off

It wouldn't be an IndyCar season without an absolute mess of a finale! In a 95-lap race at Laguna Seca in Monterrey, we had 35 laps of caution over eight separate incidents, 17 penalties handed out, 8 of which were for avoidable contact, and race winner Scott Dixon won despite having to do a drive-through penalty after less than 10 laps. Make it make sense. Well, the boys will certainly try to do just that as they break down while trying to break down the Laguna Seca race as IndyCar's season finale. Was this a good or bad example of a s***show race? Was the track partially to blame? And is it wild if a pace car has to get refuelled in the middle of a race? We also talk about the Leader's Circle payout system as Agustin Canapino and Juri Vips both earned their team over a million bucks after scraping into the Top 22 and how Devlin, didn't. It's a wild story within a wild race! And finally... should IndyCar have an all-star race? The series is adding a new $1m dollar challenge at The Thermal Club for 2024, a

This was a bizarre episode to record, because how often does the race itself take a complete back seat? (No, not Catalunya) But the main event was another Marc Marquez crisis meeting as the rumours really started to fly around that a Gresini Ducati might be on the table. The talk has cooled somewhat, but with Marquez not happy about his first run of the 2024 Honda, he's opened the door for the first time on the record that he may bail early. Is it panic stations for Honda? We also had Jorge Martin take a dominant double win over the weekend with completely insane pace, ahead of a mangled hand thayt belonged to Marco Bezzecchi, and a Francesco Bagania that finished third despite barely being able to walk just 7 days after being run over! And don't forget that Dani Pedrosa was back with a pair of 4th places too! Some impressive performances all round, and a warning ahead of India next week, all on another Motorsport101!

The coronation of IndyCar's returning King. Alex Palou dominated Portland for his 5th win of the 2023 IndyCar series and his second Astor Cup in three years, with Scott Dixon the only man in the same postcode! We break down Portland as a race and talk about the brilliance of Palou's season. We also talk Romain Grosjean, with it all but confirmed the Frenchman will be leaving Andretti at the end of the season. How did it all go so wrong for one of the genuine feel good stories in Motorsport? We also talk the relegation battle. No, not Burnley and Everton - Tjhe fight for the 22nd place of the Leader's Circle, with potentially big ramificaitons for those outside of the guaranteed $1m bucks of funding that comes with it! All that and more on another Motorsport101!

Content Warning: A fatal incident is discussed in this episode. Be careful. Not going to lie folks, this isn't the easiest of listens, as Dre Cam and RJ review the Catalunya GP, with a shocking first lap incident where Francesco Bagnaia miraculously went practically uninjured after being run over at Turn 2 by Brad Binder. There was also a six rider pileup into Turn 1 as Enea Bastianini broke his ankle after tucking his front. This is one of those: "What the hell are we doing here?" kind of episodes where we break down the accident, discuss some of the harrowing broadcast footage and wonder just how lucky we got, as well as the general state of the sport. We also breakdown the aftermath as Aleix Espargaro won in Aprilia's banner day in MotoGP, with Maverick Vinales close behind for a 1-2 finish, and Miguel Oliviera finishing in the Top 5 too. Is there something in the other Italian brand? All that and more on another Motorsport101.

Sometimes you have to give it the ol' college try. And it's hard to argue that Carlos Sainz didn't give it a bloody good go. The 14 laps Carlos led against Max Verstappen at Monza was the most anyone's managed against Red Bull this season. He's now third on the laps led count for the season after just one race. He tried. He failed, but man Ferrari was fun, with Carlos desperately defending himself against Red Bull and his own teammate Charles Leclerc to finish third. But should Ferrari have let them race? We also discuss Max Verstappen's record-breaking 10th consecutive win, and the, rather sassy statements from the Mercedes camp on the matter, with Hamilton taking barbs on Max's teammates, Max saying Lewis is jealous, and Toto Wolff saying winning records are for Wikipedia users. Y'know, the world's 7th most visited website. We also talk Williams. Alex Albon is flying after another points finish, the first time he's gone back-to-back since joining them. But after another sloppy race from Logan Sargeant,

Scott Dixon won an Oval Race by 22 seconds. Why? Because Scott Dixon, that's why. It was a staretgic and fuel saving masterclass from the IndyCar legend as literally no-one else could run his strategy enroute to his second straight win, and the first man to beat Josef Newgarden on an oval in a calendar year. And most importantly, keeps his slim title hopes alive. And yes, we talk Josef Newgarden, who finally lost his oval winning streak and ended his title campaign after getting caught in the marbles and hitting the wall. Is it frustrating that the Indy 500 will go a fourth straight year without an Astor Cup. Weird. We also joke about the upcoming beef between disowned Bus Cousin David Malukas and Scott McLaughlin and Marcus Ericsson completing his move to Andretti Autosport in another IndyCar edition of Motorsport101

The racing Gods were determined to stop Verstappen's winning streak after two deluges of rain during the Dutch Grand Prix. And Max decided to beat them too. Another moment of history for the World Champion as he became just the third person in F1 to ever win nine races in a row and just the second to do it in the same season. Can anything stop him from closing out the season? We also break down who made the best and the worst of the wet conditions. Pierre Gasly shocked everyone with a podium from 12th on the grid, Sergio Perez slipped out of the podium spots, Alonso's back in 2nd, and McLaren had Lando Norris miss his rain switch again. A familiar tale. And what the hell were Mercedes doing? And what is going on at AlphaTauri - Liam Lawson coming in at the 11th hour to replace a now-injured Daniel Ricciardo after breaking his metacarpal in his hand. Will this have an effect on Red Bull's driver scouting?! All that and more on another Motorsport101!

Sorry this was a little late, editor Dre's been ill for a little bit with a chest infection! But here's a mid-season F1 review, but not as we know it! It was RJ's idea to have a special buy-or-sell edition of an F1 mid-season review! Because saying Max Verstappen wins, lol for 50 minutes wouldn't be very interesting! So we came up with a bunch of semi-interesting F1 takes and Dre and RJ would decide what to buy and what to sell on the statement. There's some fun ones in there! Such as: - “The team with the greatest upside in the Formula One paddock, right now, is Williams Racing.” - “Nico Hulkenberg is a Driver of the Year contender.” - “Who cares if Formula 1’s surge of fan interest is waning after the DTS boom or that American interest has peaked? The sport has thrived through the strength of its hardcore fans, not its casual supporters, and has done so without any significant American presence for years - F1 doesn’t need any of it in the future.” See what I mean? Dre and RJ review F1 in 2023 so far in

It's happened again. Alex Palou has caused another big contract dispute, or it's continued on from last year depending on who you ask - And we called in our super-sub Ryan Erik King to fill in for Cam Buckley to try and make sense of this hot mess. So the latest chapter of the Palou dispute has now had the Champion-Elect Spaniard tell Zak Brown he's backing out of his agreement to join McLaren in 2024 despite having an agreement in place. It's caused yet more tension as Zak's kicked up a stink and ran to Jenna Fryer, Chip Ganassi has commented on the story for the first time ever and rips into McLaren, and even Palou's old management has severed ties with Palou as a fall out of the drama. What the fuck is going on here and what the heck happens next?! We also talk about the Gallagher GP of last weekend and Scott Dixon shocked the world to pull off the Spin-And-Win from the back of the field and the opening lap of the race to win by getting back on sequence via a 2-stopper in a race of 3's. And he had to sto

IndyCar is often full of surprises. Just when you think Nashville was going to be another crash-fest, third time was the charm and everyone largely behaves themselves. At the front, a game of strategy was in order as Kyle Kirkwood in combination with team strategist Bryan Herta outworked pole-sitter Scott McLaughlin and passed him in the pits and never looked back to his second win of the season. And hosts Dre Harrison, Cam Buckley and RJ O'Connell breakdown just how we got there. We also have to talk about Alex Palou again, who being caught dead to rights on a strategy that was going to have him run out of fuel, only for the late cautions to save him in 3rd! And we also talk Simon Pagenaud's future. Linus Lundqvist filled in for the 5th race that Simon's missed in his Meyer Shank drive since his horrifying brake failure at Mid-Ohio. Is he healthy enough to return? Or is this another Kurt Busch situation? And finally, is Nashville (now including Broadway), a good fit for the series new decider?

What do you mean Francesco Bagnaia didn't win a last lap decider again? Welcome to the Motorsport101 British GP Podcast Review, with a difference! You get to hear from Dre, who was there in person covering the event on the behalf of M101, The Race and as a guest of Monster Energy! From interviewing some of the best bike riders in the world to a sit down with Randy Mamola, Dre goes in detail about what it's like to cover a MotoGP race in person! Also, Aleix Espargaro won the race in dramatic, final lap, rain-affected fashion, from 12th on the grid! We go into detail about a superb fight for the win, a big crash for Marco Bezzecchi, and why can't Aprilia do this more often after all four of their bikes hit the Top 10 for the first time ever! We also talk some big silly season news as Marco has a big decision to make about his future Ducati and the ramifications that could come from it - Is Zarco going to Honda? And where does Franco Morbidelli end up as Alex Rins heads to Yamaha across enemy lines? And fin

It wouldn't be Formula E without a final chapter full of carnage right? Mitch Evans gave it everything he had in the first half of the weekend, but Jake Dennis would survive two Red Flags and a huge team orders scandal to take the Formula E World Championship! The struggles are over! But Envision seemingly had a hand in their own demise by refusing to play team orders with Nick Cassidy destroying his car as Sebastien Buemi swiped across him! Who was in the wrong? We also talk about the tame Race 2 as the rain led to a 90-minute delay, and then a race that had next to no action in it at all as Nick Cassidy would dominate to take 2nd in the Championship and the Teams Title for Envision Racing, one of the originals getting their big moment! We talk about all of that as well as Porsche's place in the title race, some of the silly season moves like Cassidy joining Jaguar, the rumours of Sam Bird at McLaren, as well as a shock return for Oli Rowland? All on another M101!

Another manic F1 weekend and yet again, in the end, Max Verstappen wins. He becomes just the second man in history to win eight races in a row, and in this episode, we break it all down! We talk about the very nature of wet racing as yet another rain-affected weekend played a big role as the Sprint got delayed by 35 minutes and then shortened on Saturday. Is the Extreme Wet tyre now useless? Chaos at Alpine as well as a shock departing for Otmar Szefnauer in the middle of the race weekend with Bruno Famin taking over and 34-year sporting director Alan Permane also leaving. Just what the fuck is going in that team? And a shoutout to Max for leaving it all the way until Lap 17 until taking the lead against Sergio Perez... and winning by 22 seconds. So easy he was even joking about taking an extra stop towards the end. Just how do you beat this man? And what did we make of the Checo/Hamilton and Sainz/Piastri clashes? All that and more on another Motorsport101!

Can there be any worse feeling for Josef Newgarden after winning both Iowa races in such dominant fashion than seeing Alex Palou shake his hand after finishing on the podium? In a scene straight out of The Office, that's exactly what happened! M101 recount the tale as Josef Newgarden and Penske completely restablished their short oval dominance, leading literally 99.4% of all the Iowa laps across the weekend. And with Josef taking 340 of those laps and reducing the lead down to just 80 points - Can Josef make another late comeback and gun Palou down? Also, is it time the series push for more ovals? Would we like to see Milwakuee and other Ovals back on the calendar after a 30% increase in TV ratings? And a live reaction to the news that Nashville is becoming the season finale, all on another M101!

It's the hope that always gets you. Lewis Hamilton scores his first pole position in 33 race weekends, and only the second time all year a Red Bull isn't starting from pole... and he led the race for about 400 metres. It was the biggest beating of the field yet by Max Verstappen, a 33.7 second dominant display by the Red Bull, leaving Lando Norris in the dust, with Sergio Perez back on the podium too. We try to make sense of just how dominant this Red Bull is. We also talk about the F1 Juniors broadcast and some disappointing comments made by Danica Patrick, who implied that her "un-feminine mindset" was the reason she won... to a child-friendly broadcast. We break down why her comments were so wide of the mark and how they may end up doing more harm than good for an important cause of trying to get women into Motorsport. And we try to make sense of the midfield battle in F1. McLaren are on a rampage, tripling their points haul in the last two weekends. Aston Martin thought they could win this one... and

Well, that was a wild one alright. Christian Lundgaard, after a good year of teasing a big day on a road or street track, dominates the entire Toronto weekend enroute to his first IndyCar win! And somehow he only had the second most incredible drive of the day. Because despite Alex Palou's winning streak coming to and end, he finished 2nd despite having a broken nosecone that led to his front wing dragging against the ground for half the race. HE FINISHED SECOND. HOW?! We also have a deep dive about the Road to Indy and it's place in the series as it becomes more and more clear they're in direct competition with the European ladder with recent success stories like Callum Illot, Lundgaard himself, Alex Palou coming from Europe and Super Formula and Marcus Armstrong too. Can the 2023 Indy NXT crowd compete with what Europe's offering? All that and more on another Motorsport101!

NOTE: This was recorded before the news of the Nyck De Vries, Daniel Ricciardo deal. More on that next week! But this was a weird British GP. The weather largely behaved itself. Instead of being a typical tyre shredder, it ended up a one-stopper with as little an amount of tyre reg, or delta that we've seen all year. And while Max Verstappen continued to make history with his 6th straight win and the 11th in a row for Red Bull.... a new challenger approached! McLaren had a brilliant 2nd and 4th, with Norris' strongest drive in an F1 car to date, and Oscar Piastri pretty much matching him stride for stride, only missing out on a podium due to the late Safety Car. A marvellous performance from the Woking team and yet another conundrum for who's got the 2nd best car in F1. Does anyone know? We also talk Cara Delevingne knocking back Martin Brundle's interview request at the British GP. Dre and Cam break down why so many fans don't seem to understand the basic concept of "No means no.", and what's led to such

Well... this was a wild one. Formula E had a scandal on its hands before the Portland ePrix had even started, with DS Penske given a 25,000 euro fine and a double pitlane start after the stewards got the word that the team had been placing RFID Scanners like you get at a Supermarket, in the pitlane to scan the barcodes on their competitors tyres. And when JEV was called out on the cheating, the man kinda doubled down on the severe dose of cheating. Inevitably, Dre, Cam and RJ weigh in on the drama, joke about it immensely, but seriously wonder how the heck they weren't thrown out of the weekend! And of course, the race itself, which was equally carnage filled, as Nick Cassidy won from 14th on the grid in a race that more resembled a cycling Sprint stage than Formula E. Over 400 overtakes across the race (Yes, basically two Berlins), but not a lot of it actually mattering until a late brakeaway from Cassidy resulting in the win after the second Safety Car. Was it fun? Sure? Was it chaotic? Definitely. Shou