05/10/2016
NEWS STORY
Despite the quick turnaround between the Malaysian and Japanese Grands Prix, the team finds time to sneak into the studio to record the latest Pitpass Podcast.
Chris Balfe and Max Noble once again join Mat Coch to discuss a race which, according to Balfe, induced some serious nail-biting. Indeed it scored a 'Full Packet' on the Biscuit Board and would have left our editor giving it two thumbs up if only he hadn't bitten one off in all the excitement.
With a nod to the antics of some of Coch and Noble's countrymen in Sepang, Balfe sports a pair of albatross smugglers for the fuller figure, better known as Saddos.
While there were moments too exciting to chow down on a shortbread biscuit, there were points that had one absent-mindedly munching away while pondering the enigma that has become Felipe Massa.
Set to hang up his boots at the end of the season, boots which will not smell even remotely of Champagne on current form, the Brazilian's performance has left Noble at odds with Coch and Balfe. A stellar career he might have had, but one cannot help feel that he's gone on too long and that Williams is currently battling Force India handicapped by the fact that it effectively only has one driver. Consequently, as the Grove outfit looks towards 2017, the short-term solution proposed by Balfe is so obvious nobody yet nobody else has mentioned it.
One thing the team does agree on is that Malaysia was perhaps the race of the year for Nico Rosberg, an event in which it seemed he finally started to believe he could be champion. Where once he'd roll over and sulk, at Sepang he drove the race of a champion, refusing to give up and stealing third place at the flag as a result.
But if it was the race of the year for Rosberg, what does it mean for Lewis Hamilton as the team discusses the fall out of the world champion's (latest) engine failure, and good lord they pull no punches in that regard.
Dismissing any though of bias or favouritism at Mercedes, a suggestion Balfe claims "demeans everybody", the team ponder Sebastian Vettel's first corner silliness and the sheer joy of witnessing Daniel Ricciardo's turn to camera in the ante-room and subsequent podium celebrations.
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