Wolff and Horner on F1’s Abu Dhabi duel

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

This episode is brought to you by La Quinta, by Wyndham.

Wherever your work takes you, you know it's going to be a good time, because you're staying at La Quinta by Wyndham. They have free breakfast, fully equipped gyms, and free high-speed Wi-Fi, to help you take care of any last-minute business, or help keep you in the know on all things sports. Tonight, La Quinta, tomorrow you triumph. Book your stay today at lq.com.

Tom Clarkson (0:29)

That's what a Grand Prix. Have you ever seen anything like that before?

Natalie Pinkham (0:32)

Never, never, never, never. Actually, I've never written so many notes. I can't read any of them, but I made plenty.

Tom Clarkson (0:39)

Let's just recap very briefly. Two red flags, three standing starts, multiple virtual safety cars to clear up debris, and goodness knows what. Two title rivals who are driving brilliantly, and their gloves are off, aren't they now?

Natalie Pinkham (0:56)

They are. And would you believe it? After all that chaos and madness and drama, they're level on points going into the last race.

So it's almost as if, forget what we've done for the last 22 races. It all comes down to Abu Dhabi.

Tom Clarkson (1:11)

You're listening to the F1 Nation podcast with me, Tom Clarkson.

Natalie Pinkham (1:14)

And me, Natalie Pinkham, and quite soon, Damon Hill as well, if we can find him, unless he's in a little sweaty puddle somewhere.

SPEAKER_4 (1:20)

Max Verstappen's hopes of coming here and stealing his first world title. Well, they're on the back burner. He's going to have to wait. Hamilton is going to give us level pegging in the championship as he comes home to win the first Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Tom Clarkson (1:38)

Damon's going to join us shortly, as you say.

Natalie Pinkham (1:40)

In the meantime, though, thank goodness, we're joined by superstar David Coulthard to shed some light on the chaos. When you step back, look in, reflect, what do you take away from that race?

David Coulthard (1:52)

Well, an incredible race. I don't think I've ever seen the likes, and I think we can all agree on that. We've been covering a few races over the years. But to me, clearly, the elbows have been out by both our main championship rivals, and the mistakes were evident in terms of them running wide. And I don't think anyone is flawless in this Grand Prix.

Tom Clarkson (2:11)

Do you actually think it was the right result in the end? Lewis winning this Grand Prix from Max, given everything you've just said?

David Coulthard (2:18)

You know, I wish I could just give a black and white, but I can't say that. Because I think that if you analyze Max's race, his overtake to go down the inside of both cars, Hamilton and Ocon, and still make the corner was brilliant.

His use of allowing Lewis to overtake just before the DRS and then re overtake him again and then get DRS was a brilliant piece of lateral thinking. I think there's a lot of things that would give, for me, would say that Max deserved to win this Grand Prix. Of course, you can start analyzing Lewis's race. And he is still remarkable when it comes in wheel to wheel racing. It gets away with, he had contact with Ocon, but yet not really that damaged. He managed to run into the back of Max and although he damaged his front wing, anyone else would have knocked their entire front wing off.

He is incredible at close quarter racing and ultimately has come through and won this race.

Natalie Pinkham (3:09)

What was your initial reaction to that moment when he did run into the back of Max? And has that opinion changed when you've seen it again and heard the various bits of evidence?

David Coulthard (3:19)

Well, given my experience of, was it 1998, 1999, when Michael ran into the back of me in Spa, when I was told that I had to let Michael pass, I slowed down to allow Michael past and then he ran into the back of me.

So there was a lot of criticism of me at that time that did I break test them, did I do something to try and help Mika and the championship? No, I just followed the instructions of the team which was let him pass.

Max has been told to let Lewis past. He slowed down strategically in a place. And if you actually look, Lewis is slowing down and there's no contact initially. And then when he's a little bit uncertain, I think he probably got confused as to whether there was a virtual safety car or, and of course you can look at your cockpit and dash to get that information and look out the cockpit. And those, all of those things have come together where he's then hit the back of Max.