In The Paddock F1 Podcast

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No race this week, but plenty of news. Greeny and Cheese cover the FIA’s announcement that V8 engines return to Formula 1 in 2030, and the 10-year deal that brings F1 back to Africa for the first time since 1993, with a new track in Rwanda. They also dig into Haas signing 21-year-old Ferrari Academy driver Rafael Camara for 2027, and why Jack Doohan’s time ran short.
Kimi Antonelli could wrap up the world championship at the U.S. Grand Prix, and Ferrari is bringing an upgrade to Austin (Greeny and Cheese have thoughts).
In Quizmaster’s Cockpit, Cheese gets three questions: his preseason Greenybucks championship picks, the episode that started the Slap Yourself in the Face award, and which four countries have never downloaded the show. Monaco is one of them.
Next week the show returns after the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, so expect a late one Sunday night.
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 Max Verstappen won the Sprint on Saturday, took pole a few hours later, and led the Singapore Grand Prix from lights to flag. His 73rd career win, his 250th Grand Prix start, and the first time he has ever won at Marina Bay. Charles Leclerc finished second, Kimi Antonelli third. But the argument of the episode is about George Russell. He crashed out of the Sprint lead on lap one, took an engine penalty, started nineteenth and finished ninth — and Greeny and Cheese ask whether a season that began with him as the odds-on title favorite has broken him for good. Also: Lewis Hamilton stayed out on old softs through a virtual safety car, dropped from third to sixth, and took the blame on the radio — and why he no longer trusts the Ferrari pit wall. McLaren leave points on the board again and are now 105 behind Ferrari. The FIA admit a human error that left cars running in different power modes during Sprint qualifying. The Quizmaster's Cockpit goes three for three on Marina Bay history. And a Greenybucks ledger where both hosts lost money and the gap still closed. Plus Max on the paddock being more relaxed without Christian Horner, eleven days before Horner's book lands. Next week: an In The News special. Then Austin, and the United States Grand Prix on October 25. In The Paddock is published within hours of almost every Grand Prix podium. 
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 Formula One held the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, delayed it an hour and forty minutes for rain, and then watched half the grid crawl down the main straight at walking pace because a software bug took the power away. Lewis Hamilton called it a Lego race. Max Verstappen won it — his first victory in eleven months and the 72nd of his career — after losing the lead at Turn 1 and taking it back at the lap-nine restart. Kimi Antonelli finished second and extended his championship lead to 84 points, because George Russell's power unit failed while he was running third with five laps remaining. Lewis Hamilton started on slicks in the wet, fell to the back, and climbed all the way to the podium. Greeny and Cheese cover the FIA's software fix, the Quizmaster's Cockpit on Sepang and the Malaysian Grand Prix, Winners and Losers, the Slap of the Week, and a Greenybucks ledger that changed hands for the second week running. In The News is all Christian Horner: the tell-all memoir "Drive," what he writes about Adrian Newey and Helmut Marko, and the Ferrari job he floated and then denied to Martin Brundle. Next up: Singapore, Sunday October 11, and the first Sprint ever held at Marina Bay. In The Paddock is published within hours of almost every Grand Prix podium. 
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Baku did what Baku does. In Episode 206, Cheese and Greeny break down a chaotic 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix that ended with the closest finish Formula 1 has seen since Indianapolis in 2002.
George Russell took pole by eight tenths, built a ten-second lead, and then watched two safety cars take the whole thing away from him. He held off Max Verstappen over the final thirteen laps to win by 0.196 seconds. Verstappen, who started eighth on a fresh power unit, took Driver of the Day for the charge that fell just short.
Then there is the lap-30 restart, where four cars ended their afternoons in one corner. Franco Colapinto locked up trying to pass his own teammate Pierre Gasly, hit him, and Gasly collected Lando Norris. Racing Bulls teammates Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson tangled trying to avoid it. Colapinto has since been given a ten-second penalty, converted to a five-place grid drop in Malaysia, with the stewards saying he entered the corner at a speed that did not allow him to make it in a controlled manner.
Elsewhere: Isack Hadjar took his first career podium in his first race back after six weeks injured. Kimi Antonelli crashed in Q1, started sixteenth, finished fifth, and extended his championship lead to 66 points. Oscar Piastri ran second and finished fourteenth. And Aston Martin recorded their fourth double DNF of the season.
Plus in the news: Christian Horner calls Ferrari his dream job and says it is the only team he would join without an equity stake. Lando Norris is reportedly ruled out of Le Mans in 2027 despite McLaren solving the calendar clash. And Esteban Ocon has no seat for 2027, with an F3 champion carrying up to €20 million in sponsorship set to take his place at Haas.
And in the Greenybucks Gambling Ledger, the lead changes hands for the first time this season.
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Formula 1 dropped the 2027 calendar this week and it gave us plenty to argue about. In Episode 205, Cheese and Greeny go through all of it before heading to Baku.Ten sprint races are coming in 2027, and one of them is at Monaco. A track where nobody passes is getting two races in a weekend where qualifying decides everything. Greeny makes the case that the whole hybrid approach is the problem: either every Grand Prix weekend gets a sprint, or none of them do, and F1 should stop easing fans into a change it decided on years ago. We also get into what happens the day a World Championship gets clinched at a sprint race, and why cutting race mileage is madness in a season that has produced this much drama in the final three laps.Then the part that really set us off. Spa-Francorchamps is going onto a rotation. The Belgian Grand Prix will not be on the calendar every year. Greeny calls it a goddamn travesty and a slap in the face to Formula 1 itself, and asks the obvious question: what other sport drops its most legendary venue? Imagine IndyCar skipping Indianapolis.Plus: Portimão and Istanbul return, Barcelona and Zandvoort are out, the Antonelli title math that says his eight worst races of the season would still be enough, and Max Verstappen against 100 go-kart drivers — given 75 minutes, done in 35 — which turns into a full debate about professionals versus the best amateur you personally know.⚠️ The Azerbaijan Grand Prix is on SATURDAY, September 26, because of Azerbaijan's Remembrance Day. We will be back with the full Baku recap Saturday, live by around noon Eastern.In this episode:
0:00 – Intro: why we're early this week
1:14 – The title is basically over: the Antonelli math
2:10 – The 2027 calendar is out: ten sprints, including Monaco
3:25 – All sprints or no sprints: why the hybrid schedule fails
10:31 – Portimão and Istanbul return, Barcelona and Zandvoort out
11:05 – Spa on rotation: "that is a goddamn travesty"
16:45 – Max Verstappen vs 100 go-kart drivers
23:51 – Outro: back Saturday Follow the show, and tell us in the comments: should Spa be on the F1 calendar every single year?

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