The race is on, and with a Formula One season in full swing, there's been plenty of talk about the success stories, but there have also been some disappointments, with Fernando Alonzo and Alpine, among those having a difficult start of the season.

I'm Ed Straw, and joining me to explain why

and discuss some of the other strugglers

are Scott Mitchell and Mark Hughes.

Well, Scott, hello, you're back in your cupboard again.

Is that where you regularly live now after your recent back injury?

No, my back's all fine.

I'm good.

I'm good as a fiddle again.

This is just because I have my little set up in here when I'm recording voiceovers for

the race YouTube channel.

And the podcast that we did from here, the other episode, was so pleasant doing it stood up. I thought I thought I'd

come back for more. But the actual honest answer is that I've got limited room in my flat and my

desk is currently overrun with sim racing equipment and I didn't have time to take that all down before we recorded this podcast.

So laziness is the reason I am in my cupboard.

Mark Hughes, you're having a bit of fun, aren't you?

Because you're heading to Portugal shortly.

But you've been having the fun of traveling in COVID times with all sorts of fun forms and

bureaucracy and weird routes to be factored in.

Yeah, it's not the most straightforward of things to do to travel at the moment, as you can

probably appreciate.

And to get from Manchester to Faro, the Portuguese Grand Prix involves me going to Amsterdam, Dusseldorf and then Farrow,

...