The crew dives right into the big news from the Mercedes team that George Russell has been signed to a three year contract starting in 2022. Nicholas Latifi will remain with Williams and Alex Albon, formerly of Red Bull Racing, will take Russell's place in the second Williams car. That leaves just the one remaining question mark on the grid as Alfa Romeo has yet to resign Antonio Giovinazzi.
Next, we discuss the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. The first of two big storylines from this race was the huge victory for McLaren with Daniel Ricciardo taking p1 and Lando Norris taking p2 for the first team 1-2 of the entire season. Valterri Bottas, looking reborn since his announcement that he'll be leaving Mercedes for Alfa Romeo, finished p3 and enjoyed his 64th career podium. Bottas was the only one on the podium who did not take part in the drinking of champagne from Daniel Ricciardo's race boot as the Aussie carried on the "Shoey" tradition. Yuck!
The second big story from the Italian GP was the accident between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. It can be chalked up to bad timing (Lewis exiting the pit lane right alongside Max) and two very stubborn racecar drivers not wanting to back down, but we have a lively discussion concerning the many nuances that led to this and other recent crashes between the two 2021 championship contenders. Huge congratulations to Ricciardo on his first F1 win since 2018, and thanks for listening!