BBV10s S11 E7: Vettel stuns for 'Minardi' at Monza '08 (early access)
Added 2025-02-06 09:40:02 +0000 UTCBring Back V10s makes its regular detour into F1's V8 era to look back on Sebastian Vettel's sensational first grand prix victory in the 2008 Italian Grand Prix.
Glenn Freeman is joined by Jonathan Noble and Karun Chandhok (who was racing in GP2 that weekend at Monza) to reflect on how Vettel was able to take such a commanding victory for Red Bull's second team Toro Rosso, only three years on from it racing as Minardi!
We look back on why McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen offered no threat despite starting from the front row, and how the other McLaren of Lewis Hamilton was more of a victory contender despite starting 15th on the grid.
Also on the agenda: Robert Kubica's conflict with his BMW team over his fading title hopes, Kimi Raikkonen signing a contract extension that he wouldn't see out with Ferrari, Fernando Alonso's floating role in the driver market, Adrian Newey's wisdom on F1's overtaking debate, and Williams's Sam Michael making an incredibly accurate prediction about how the 2009 season would play out under F1's incoming rule changes.
We then dive into the fallout from Vettel's win for Toro Rosso, including the role it played in the political battle over customer cars in F1, and how it heaped pressure and embarrassment onto Red Bull Racing.
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Comments
Absolute brilliant episode. That hour and a qtr just flew past. Loved the contributions by Jon as well. Looking forward to a debrief on this one.
Michael Holden
2025-02-10 11:05:08 +0000 UTCWhen I was working as a journalist in 2020, I asked Steiner in Barcelona whether customer cars could be an option again in light of the ‘Pink Mercedes’ controversy, he laughed it off in a way, but unfortunately thanks to Covid I couldn’t follow up in Silverstone when I might have been able to come back. MotoGP makes it work to a point, but it’s something F1 should consider in the right circumstance as a new manufacturer perhaps, but not as a way to go racing full-time.
Stephen Camp
2025-02-08 10:41:58 +0000 UTCLooked at the laptimes. What would've happened had Bourdais started from P4? Considering his pace, he could well have stayed in P4, holding up the pack behind him (MAS, TRU, ALO, ROS, ...) and they'd all pitted before Bourdais did (lap 21), his pit stop was not great and he'd have fallen behind that pack to P12. From then on it depends whether he'd pit again. If not, Kovalainen would likely have come out just behind Bourdais when KOV made his second stop. Had Bourdais pitted again (which in reality he did), he'd have slotted in behind Webber in P9, just ahead of Kimi. As it was, once the race got going and both Toro Rossos clocked 51 laps under green, Bourdais lost 54 seconds to Vettel. In the 47 laps neither pitted, Vettel was quicker by 1,02 seconds on average.
Philipp Eitzinger
2025-02-07 18:54:25 +0000 UTCJust goes to show how much luck is involved in a successful racing career isn't it?
Cardiff Giant
2025-02-07 12:42:25 +0000 UTCBourdais was one of those luckless drivers. Would have been 4th on debut in Melbourne (attrition-aided of course) but had a car failure right at the end. Pretty much set the tone for the rest of his time in F1.
Mathew McCarthy
2025-02-07 10:08:26 +0000 UTCI still remember this race as a Hamilton master class for how to overtake. He was brilliant that day and would have won had the rain lasted a little longer.
moggoon
2025-02-07 08:34:42 +0000 UTCEpisode comments / question: The Sam Michael quote was spot on. What little we knew of DRS back then, even today, I still preferred the role to be that of more like a tool to be used to catch up rather than facilitate an overtake. I remembered Gary Anderson stating this multiple times in his podcasts and my girls and I have some of our "What If" sessions on the special overtakes and race results if DRS was meant to allow cars to catch up but not facilitate an overtake. Many of us saw what SebV did during the stand-in session at Indy 07 and how his season was panning out in 08. That realization came true when we saw his pace in the wet and I kept picturing Michael Schumacher in his 96 Ferrari at Barcelona. All of us were going through emotions like we were having puppies that day (similar to Japan 00 - sorry for the episode hint again) and hearing the German and Italian National Anthem combinations since China 06 was worth the emotional trauma.
Xerxes Balsara
2025-02-07 02:06:14 +0000 UTCGreat episode! Remind me I have a question for the debrief regarding Formula E.
Daniel Hayes
2025-02-06 20:58:22 +0000 UTCYes I remember the same interview. I didn't warm to him at the time, but watching old races back he's actually really good. Jonathan Legard (who proceeded him when F1 moved to the BBC in...2009?) I thought was terrible at the time and still is now on rewatches. But they're both far superior to Sky's shouty man which is why I watch Sky's pictures but listen on Radio 5Live today.
Daniel Hayes
2025-02-06 20:50:17 +0000 UTCPodcast suggestions are always welcome! And Sam Michael doesn’t tend to do many interviews, so this is a great find 👏
The Race
2025-02-06 19:41:47 +0000 UTCI agree.
Cardiff Giant
2025-02-06 18:15:19 +0000 UTCI remember being furious after the spa race because of that Hamilton penalty. I still to this day think it was more to do with Mosley Vs. Dennis battle than anything that happened on the track and fans were victims of this.
Mark Martin
2025-02-06 17:05:32 +0000 UTCI remember him almost crying after Spa race because he had been running ahead of Vettel, Alonso and Heidfeld before the rain near the end of the race. He made the wrong tyre choice and it cost him. He performed much better than was appreciated at the time because Vettel hadn't yet proven how good he was.
Mark Martin
2025-02-06 17:04:03 +0000 UTCGlad to hear bourdais being mentioned. Always think if a few more results had fallen the right way for him, he could have had a decent f1 career. Even when he got chucked out in 2009, he wasn't doing that badly, Red bull with Sergio levels of tolerance and he would have survived.
Padraig Reilly
2025-02-06 13:49:47 +0000 UTCYeah, James Allen is very underrated. His biggest "crime" is not being Murray. I remember an interview with him where he was advised to "be the bloke who replaces the bloke who replaces Murray, not the bloke who replaces Murray".
Simon Emms
2025-02-06 13:45:20 +0000 UTCAs a Vettel fan, this is my fav race. I watch it back on a weekly basis. Anyone else think James Allen is an underrated F1 commentator btw? love the pod <3
Benjamin
2025-02-06 12:55:02 +0000 UTCI love this race. The two things I remember is how rightly excited that James Allen (UK TV commentator) was when he crossed the line. The other thing I remember is a growing realisation that we were going to get the German followed by Italian anthems on the Italian podium.
Simon Emms
2025-02-06 12:44:14 +0000 UTCAbsolute all timer race.
Nicholas Langdon
2025-02-06 12:35:14 +0000 UTCProbably not kosher to post other podcast links? I found this Sam Michael interview very interesting. Loved the decision tree’s that Ross Braun had over Williams https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/rustys-garage/id1355538998?i=1000433341550
Hamish Mac
2025-02-06 10:02:39 +0000 UTCSo very much looking forward to this! As an STR fan, this is definitely my favourite race
Neil Condie
2025-02-06 09:42:25 +0000 UTC
