Luke Smith, Jake Boxhall, Hayden Cobb discussed on The Autosport Podcast

Automatic TRANSCRIPT

New rule set and regulations changes. Join on the podcast tonight for a look back at not only the first day of testing slash shakedown. Like I said, we'll get into that and why it's called a shakedown in a moment, but also it's the first time that we really saw the secrets revealed of the Red Bull RB 18 and so in the second half of the podcast we're gonna get onto that properly and have a good look at that car and some of the things that we've seen just on the first day and give that some analysis. I'm joined on the podcast and I'd buy Jake boxhall leg our technical editor and also Hayden Cobb. He is the auto sport dot com editor, right? Hayden, kick us off if you will and actually before we even get into talking about what it's like being in the paddock once again in the media center and being in the F one circus. Talk us through what you guys are doing and just paint a picture for the listeners of the auto sport podcast about the kind of coverage that we're providing this year of testing here Bahrain and then leading into the first race. Obviously you guys are out there, Alex, call in orchestra at Grand Prix editor. Luke Smith, of course, Matt queue joins the Formula One team this year as well. Just talk us through what it's like and the kind of coverage that we're going to be making for our listeners our viewers our readers over the next few days and weeks. Yeah, so it's quite literally a 5 a side football team. So I've got 5 of us here. Jake and I, of course. And as you mentioned there, Alex and Luke Smith. And of course, Matt Q, who had been for a time, obviously covering formula E and now is moving into the world of F one from this season. And it's basically full on attack on this, as you say, test that's not a test, but it's a shakedown, but they put it very plainly. It is a test in every way. It sort of run in everything we've been familiar with. There are no fans. Of course, there's been cry out for it to be broadcast as well, but hopefully we're providing enough coverage of this shakedown contest for the readers and the listeners and the viewers, however you take on your auto sport media. Full live text coverage on every single minute and everything before and after of the test of three days, regular updates, Twitter, q-and-as, of course, the podcast that we're currently speaking on right now, post day videos, I've probably forgotten tiktoks. There's going to be a few tiktoks I've seen as well. So that's basically and of course the magazine. How could I even forget? I will be in trouble with Kevin Turner for getting them last, but yes, pretty much every base is covered that we could possibly think of for this for this week. And what was it like this morning, I presume it was you didn't go yesterday, you walked into the circuit this morning, crack a dawn first thing. What was that like? The atmosphere. That's right, so yes, we weren't allowed in yesterday because a couple of teams were doing the filming filming day and sort of private stuff. We could hear them. We're lucky enough to be in a hotel that is literally next door to the circuit. And when I was working from the hotel, I could hear the cars or a car go around the circuit yesterday. So that was actually quite a nice buzz and turning out this morning. A lot of anticipation, a little bit quiet. As I said before, because there are no fans often when I've been to these tests over the years, even at that time in the morning, there will be Formula One fans milling about in the grandstands, trying to have a look into the garages to get a first glimpse of the cars. But of course, there's none of that there. So not that you're sort of teaming with fans for these sorts of tests in normal times, but it does sort of missed that sort of attention and that buzz. So yeah, apart from that, it felt very normal. And then when we got cars on track and everything sort of felt very normal and very familiar. And then for our listeners who, like me, were following from back in the UK with the auto sport live feed, which YouTube guys were in charge of today. And it was interesting looking at some of the pictures. One of our colleagues, Adam Cooper, posted a picture from top down, like you're taking it from the media center as it were. Is that the access that we're allowed at the moment, how close can you guys get to the cars? Because there's a great piece on autosport plus from Alex kalanos. I Grand Prix editor who talks about walking around the circuit and watching the cars from corner to corner. So is that something that they're restricting? Could you guys have done that if you were allowed and kind of what access in this coming out of COVID time is Formula One app with you guys? It is, as you say, slowly getting back to normal. Of course, they don't want to open everything up and create problems of 2020 scale. But yes, pit lane is open, journalists and media can get down there. Obviously, there's the various restrictions not to overload it. Otherwise everyone would just be sitting outside your Red Bull or your Ferrari garage waiting for the car to come out and it would look a bit messy and probably quite dangerous. But yes, so restricted on numbers purely from a safety point of view, nothing to do with COVID necessarily. Alex went trackside for most of the day to watch the cars in the flesh what people what we all love to do and see how they're behaving where they're strong where they're weak and these sort of early times. And yeah, very fascinating watching is if you were sort of a photographer, that sort of area or part of the TV crew, obviously you're not literally track siders and you can't go high 5 land on earth when he's flying past turn one, but if you had a long pole and you wanted to cause a lot of travel, you probably could, but I highly recommend not doing that. Like the best access is often our colleagues at motor sport images. We're part of the same company. They've got the tabards, they've got just the best access. So yeah, and they really see it all probably in far more than we'll ever see because they know that by and large they won't sort of reveal the dirty secrets they don't want to be seen, but paddock itself also feels a bit more normal, I would say as well. There's still a combination of your Zoom calls and going up to drivers and physics sort of checking the hands, asking how they are. But it's normal as it's ever been for COVID times. I mentioned at the beginning as well, Jake box or LEGO technical editor. This year wearing two hats because hey, I mean, we're just rinsing you for a little bit more. About ten days ago, you were finishing up the Mexico E Prix because you are our man at formula E this year..

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