(Note: Extra Heat was originally a series with me, Charley Williams and Hannah Atkinson. Their opinions have been removed from this version as I didn’t want to publish anyone else’s opinion without their consent)
It’s time for another edition of our weekly series, Hot Takes Wednesday: Extra Heat!
As you may know, Dre hosts our WTF1 podcast show, Hot Takes Wednesday. On the show, we take your spiciest F1 takes, and we rate them on a scale of 1 to 5 – 1 being that we strongly disagree and 5 that we strongly agree.
On this week’s show, Dre was back with WTF1 Talent member and Instagram star Caroline Smith to sit down and discuss your takes! If you want to listen to it in full, the episode is down below, and don’t forget the show can be found where all major podcasts are available, especially as it was a Sprint special! (Apple, Spotify, Google, you get the drill)
Here on HTW: Extra Heat, we’re going to take a handful of the takes from the show and get the whole team to weigh in on your spiciest F1 opinions!
Take #1 – Move GP qualifying back to Saturday afternoon, and the sprint race on Saturday morning, re-open parc ferme in between
Dre: A bit conflicted on this one. On the one hand, I like the teams only getting an hour of practice and the potential for them to get it wrong on setup choices. It rewards effective execution. But the Saturday of a sprint weekend now feels disjointed with the 45-minute Shootout session followed by the four-hour wait for the sprint race. Moving the shootout to Friday evening makes more sense to me as you ramp up the stakes on Saturday. Leaning towards saying this is an improvement. Rating: 4
Take #2 – Because Drive to Survive focuses on the newer f1 audiences, the Brawn documentary will be better than any DTS season for longer-term f1 fans who want a more authentic narrative
Dre: I get the logic behind this take. Brawn’s story is 15 years old now and a lot of the newer fans that have come into the sport via DTS are likely to have missed it. But I think Brawn is a great story for everyone. Who doesn’t love a good underdog tale with F1’s politics, drama and spice interwoven in it? I’m not the biggest fan of DTS’s constructed narratives, but reality TV is what it is because it works. It’s why I watch Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares even when I know the restaurant’s definitely closing at the end. And who doesn’t love Keanu Reeves?! Rating: 2
Take #3: Las Vegas will either be the greatest race in years or a worse farce than Indianapolis 2005
Dre: I want to like Vegas, I really do. I’m a massive Americana guy, I can’t help it! This race is a massive self-promoted half-billion dollar gamble for F1 to keep trying to crack the US. And while I don’t think we’re getting an Indy 2005 disaster, there are a lot of ways this could go down like a lead balloon. It likely won’t be a sell-out, it’ll be cold, it’s going to have that US pomp and pageantry that can split the room, and I’m not sure the “Spiderpig” layout will be a hit. But I think we’ll be fine once the action starts. At worst, it’ll be just like most of 2023’s races. Rating: 2
Don’t forget to listen to the full episode for even more takes, and sound off in the comments if there’s anything you agreed or disagreed with! See you back here next week for another HTW: Extra Heat!
