LISTEN | Max Verstappen seeing red ahead of Saudi Arabia Grand Prix
Charles
Leclerc outsmarted Max Verstappen to take the season opener in Bahrain. Has Red
Bull been able to fix the cars ahead of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand
Prix, or will Ferrari be able to bring the same 'energy?' Motorsport commentator and
‘Track This’ podcast host Kriya Gangiah is joined by racing experts Tschops
Sipuka, Tasmin Pepper and Avon Middleton to find out if the Prancing Horses are
up to the task.
The season
opener saw 20 of the world’s best drives under the lights at the iconic desert
track in Sakhir, Bahrain.
The
dramatic race saw Scuderia Ferrari finish on top for the first time since
Singapore in 2019. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz secured a one, two finish
after Red Bulls dismal performance seeing both cars DNF with two laps to go.
Mercedes punched
above their weight class showing underwhelming performance and amateur mistakes
but capitalized on Red Bull’s misfortune with a 3rd and 4th
finish.
“Who makes
a mistake like that? This is Mercedes, these are World Champions, and they put
a hard tire on that car?” says Track This host Kriya Gangiah in the latest episode of the podcast.
What does
this mean going into Saudi Arabia this weekend? Is the tire degradation going
to continue to affect Mercedes? Will Red Bull be able to fix their performance
issues in just a week?
“Hamilton
complained a lot about his straight-line speed, and yes it was quite obvious,” says
race car driver Tasmin Pepper.
Kriya is
joined by racing drivers Tschops Sipuka and Tasmin Pepper and motorsport
journalist Avon Middleton to find out if the Prancing Horses will have a straight shot at the podium once again. Click below to listen.
Kriya's no stranger to the South African F1 scene and is a massive petrol-head. She hosted Absolute F1 on Supersport, recently hosted the 2022 Kyalami 9-hour event, and currently presents ‘Tuned In SA’ on Ignition TV.
Joining the podcast panel is race car driver Batshobonke "Tschops" Sipuka. Tschops famously competed in the Formula Volkswagen class in Germany, saloon car racing in Malaysia, and Super Truck racing in South Africa. Tschops was also South Africa's first black motorsport champion, winning the Volkswagen Polo Cup Series twice.
Tasmin Pepper - who made headlines as the first woman to win a Formula VW championship race in South Africa and competed in the Wseries as one of the top 18 female drives chosen from around the world, also joins the podcast panel.
The third panelist is Avon Middleton, Motorsport Analyst and Publisher and Director of TopGear SA. Avon's career took off in 2003 with CAR Magazine before moving into sports broadcast journalism with SABC Sport, covering local and international motorsport. Since then he’s journaled motoring and motorsport stories for a number of publications including Forbes Africa, Destiny Man and most recently as publisher of the new TopGear South Africa.
Connect with Kriya on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Subscribe to Track This today so you never miss an episode. Just visit the podcast page on JacPod and click on the Subscribe button. You'll also find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.