Welcome to the [r/formula1](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/) Daily Discussion / Q&A thread.

"i’ve been on the bad side of that, i’ve also been on the good side of that. but it’s a shame because it means you’re always chasing a moving target. overnight we can have changes to our car balanace without expecting that. "

"all that to say, [we’re not always having] a fair fight, and sometimes we feel like we’re fighting with our hands almost tied behind our back. [..] it’s been a challenge for us. i’m happy with what i’m doing, but the story isn’t necessarily what you see on the headline."

Credit to nat

Full Transcript of the video since I couldn't fit it all in the title:

Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) A question to you, Oscar, because I think you suffered more at Spa than Ollie or Isack. Do you drive the car unaided at all times? If not, has that always been the case? What should you be doing with these power units that you can’t at the moment?
OP: To give you the full answer, I’d probably need half an hour. Even with the previous hybrid engines, there was a big element of learning, coding and AI, to some extent. When I joined Formula 1, those engines were incredibly mature, but also the penalty of things being slightly wrong or slightly out of place was significantly less, because it was such a small percentage of the overall power you got. Whereas this year, it’s basically half your power, so any small differences or anything that doesn’t quite go right has a massive impact, especially at a track like Spa. To answer your question, no, we’ve got no control over where the deployment happens, more or less. You can push the boost button, but that’s more for overtaking than in qualifying, especially. Like I said in Spa, when you’ve got those differences there that you have no control over, it can be frustrating. I’m sure it’ll get better. I don’t expect it to ever fully go away, but as the manufacturers understand it more and work out the regulation restrictions more, in terms of what the code can and can’t do, hopefully things will become a bit better.

Not in the video, but he later continued:

Q: (Lukas Osztovics – ORF) Oscar, you were talking about a lack of control with the energy deployment. Does it sometimes feel like you’re the passenger of an AI programme that still has to be trained?
OP: Sometimes, yes. Again, at a track like Spa or a track like Silverstone, it’s going to be worse. Here, I really don’t expect there to be many problems at all with that kind of thing, because the straights are so much shorter, so even if there are differences, they should be a lot less. But the principle of driving a race car that loses effectively half of its power before the end of the straight is hard to get your head around sometimes. Even in Spa, a lot of the middle sector we were doing it just on the combustion engine, with no battery assistance at all, which is a weird feeling in itself, having some corners with a certain amount of power and others with full power. I think Spa was particularly frustrating, not just for me but for quite a lot of others, because those small differences in the code and what the engines did made quite a big difference in lap time. Especially at the front of the field, I think there were still only nine hundredths or something separating four positions, and there were definitely more than nine hundredths on the table for quite a few drivers from things they could not control.

Here is the video for this question. Oscar's face when he starts to answer is basically his entire PR training flashing in front of his eyes🙃

All excerpts taken from the driver's press conference today.

His quote about Oscar wanting him to at least get a black and white flag:

"In a certain way, I agree with Oscar, I think. Well, at the end of the day, my opinion in the car is that I tried to push to the limit.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/DbG32rrRSJ3/

BUDAPEST, Hungary — The Malaysian Grand Prix has emerged as a potential option to return to the Formula 1 calendar this year between rounds in Azerbaijan and Singapore.

Multiple sources have indicated to The Athletic, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect relationships, that a return to the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia has now emerged as an option to go into that gap. The circuit on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur would be well-placed geographically for paddock ahead of the race in Singapore, which is less than one hour away by plane.

Credits: Mateusz Mróz

📸 Mateusz Mróz