Latest / Pit Talk / F1 2026 calendar announced, but what about the driver market? Canadian GP Preview

Transcript

F1 2026 calendar announced, but what about the driver market? Canadian GP Preview · Pit Talk

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:03
Speaker 1: On today's episode, Formula one announces it's twenty twenty six calendar,
0:07
Speaker 1: with Australia as the first round and the twenty twenty
0:10
Speaker 1: six Silly Season hots up ahead of this weekend's Canadian
0:14
Speaker 1: Grand Prix. My name's Michael Amonado. It's great to have
0:17
Speaker 1: your company and the company of my co host. You
0:20
Speaker 1: knows exactly where he'll be on the eighth of March
0:22
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. It's Matt Clayton.
0:23
Speaker 2: Hello, Michael, good to join you, Good to join everybody,
0:26
Speaker 2: and happy Australia Day. Has I'm calling today because yes,
0:30
Speaker 2: we are first place on the calendar for twenty twenty six,
0:32
Speaker 2: our righteous place on the calendar, where we like to be,
0:35
Speaker 2: and of all the years to have the first Grand
0:37
Speaker 2: Prix the season, I don't think there's been a better
0:39
Speaker 2: one to have the first Grand Prix this season for
0:41
Speaker 2: quite some time. The next year where we've got effectively
0:44
Speaker 2: a brand new formula that's going to debut at Albert
0:47
Speaker 2: Park and a new team and all sorts of newness.
0:50
Speaker 2: So it's a good year to be in pole position
0:53
Speaker 2: and very much looking forward to it once we get
0:55
Speaker 2: through the remaining three hundred and forty seven races of
0:57
Speaker 2: this season.
0:59
Speaker 1: It is weird how that Formula one announces these calendars
1:01
Speaker 1: so early. We get this little bit of all twenty
1:04
Speaker 1: twenty six, you get all the little sugar hits from it,
1:06
Speaker 1: the first race in Madrid. If they finished building the
1:09
Speaker 1: circuit in time, I hope they've only just started and
1:11
Speaker 1: all that kind of thing, and then you're gonna go, oh,
1:13
Speaker 1: hang on, there's still more than half of this year
1:15
Speaker 1: to go. It's the championship to decide.
1:18
Speaker 2: As you would say, it's the entire two thousand and
1:20
Speaker 2: six season still remaining in twenty twenty five. That's always
1:24
Speaker 2: one of your favorites, and you actually say it because
1:26
Speaker 2: it's correct, such as the expectionon of Formula one these days.
1:30
Speaker 1: Yes, it'll be the earliest Australian Grand Prix since almost
1:32
Speaker 1: thousand six five, actually no longer than that was the
1:35
Speaker 1: last time we held a race. This year, it'll be
1:37
Speaker 1: interesting because we've got used to we're just talking about
1:39
Speaker 1: this before we started recording. We've got used to later
1:43
Speaker 1: certainly Australian Grand Prix considering it had that run where
1:46
Speaker 1: it wasn't really the first race of the season, but
1:48
Speaker 1: also seasons generally starting a little bit later in the year.
1:51
Speaker 1: We're not talking about a lot couple of weeks here
1:53
Speaker 1: or there, but as I am at you're based in Melbourne,
1:57
Speaker 1: you know that a couple of weeks in March can
1:58
Speaker 1: make a tremendous difference in climatic conditions at Albert Park.
2:02
Speaker 1: We've got used to kind of well, obviously this year
2:04
Speaker 1: was very mixed conditions for the Grand Prix, but it
2:06
Speaker 1: can be very up and down. But you know, to
2:08
Speaker 1: my mind, an eighth of March, first weekend of March
2:11
Speaker 1: debut brings much greater risk of really quite a hot.
2:14
Speaker 2: Race, oh massively. So when we're talking about this off air,
2:17
Speaker 2: I couldn't remember the exact year, but it was when
2:20
Speaker 2: Honda had its second team, super Aguri, one of the
2:22
Speaker 2: great motorsport names in Formula One for a while there,
2:26
Speaker 2: and they turned up for the first race in Melbourne
2:28
Speaker 2: with an all black livery and all black overalls. And
2:31
Speaker 2: I think it was about thirty seven degrees on race
2:33
Speaker 2: day and I remember looking at Takubasato as coming back
2:37
Speaker 2: from the driver's parade and just shook my head. I said, you,
2:39
Speaker 2: poor bastard, because this is going to be a very,
2:41
Speaker 2: very difficult Sunday. And he just looked and said who
2:43
Speaker 2: decided this? We both laughed about it. I think both
2:46
Speaker 2: their drivers melted by about half distance. But yeah, I
2:50
Speaker 2: mean Melbourne. Melbourne summers tend to skew later, I reckon
2:53
Speaker 2: as the decades have gone on. So yeah, packtic onscreen
2:57
Speaker 2: for next March. It's going to be hot.
2:59
Speaker 1: Yes, I like the idea that maybe teams will need
3:01
Speaker 1: a regular livery and a Melbourne livery if we're going
3:03
Speaker 1: to move deeper and deeper towards summer where everyone just
3:06
Speaker 1: runs white reflective cars and everyone just as cool as possible.
3:11
Speaker 2: Good luck with that.
3:12
Speaker 1: There's something in that. But at a timely moment, as
3:15
Speaker 1: we are in this weekend break between the Canadian between
3:19
Speaker 1: the triple Head we just had and this weekend's Canadian
3:21
Speaker 1: Grand Prix, to reflect on well the significance of twenty
3:25
Speaker 1: twenty six, because while it's still a long way to go,
3:27
Speaker 1: the significant changes coming next year to the regulations. We're
3:30
Speaker 1: talking obviously the chassis regulations, also the engine regulations are
3:35
Speaker 1: things the teams are already well turning their attention to
3:38
Speaker 1: some teams Williams most publicly aren't even thinking about this
3:41
Speaker 1: year's car anymore. So you see there is reason to
3:43
Speaker 1: start talking about twenty twenty six early. For the front runners,
3:46
Speaker 1: the decision making is very much in our front of mind.
3:48
Speaker 1: How much are we going to allow the tap to
3:51
Speaker 1: continue running on twenty twenty five, how many weeks perhaps
3:54
Speaker 1: even days for some of them, and how much are
3:56
Speaker 1: we going to simply commit to getting ahead next year?
3:59
Speaker 1: Because the changes are that big it means the Australian
4:02
Speaker 1: Grand Prix will be the first round for these big changes.
4:05
Speaker 1: A lot of uncertainty about the effect that's going to
4:07
Speaker 1: have on the racing. There always is that kind of
4:10
Speaker 1: trepidation or cautious cautiousness for some teams that had of
4:14
Speaker 1: big rule changes. That's part of the politics of F one.
4:16
Speaker 1: But Matt, these are really pretty significant changes to the
4:19
Speaker 1: way we understand formula and today. The ground effects here certainly,
4:23
Speaker 1: but even if we think about the regulations before that,
4:25
Speaker 1: because we're having this new concept of movable body work,
4:29
Speaker 1: depending where you are on the circuit, really different idea
4:32
Speaker 1: about what these cars should.
4:33
Speaker 2: Look like from next year well, and even how they race,
4:36
Speaker 2: and I think that's the key thing for me is that,
4:38
Speaker 2: you know, we always talk about Albert Parkers being a
4:41
Speaker 2: bit of an outlier, and that's a semi permanent street
4:43
Speaker 2: circuit in a public park. The only one that's kind
4:46
Speaker 2: of equivalent is Canada. Funny that we're mentioning Canada before
4:49
Speaker 2: because it's a similar setup in terms of being close
4:52
Speaker 2: to the city, semi permanent street circuit and what have you.
4:54
Speaker 2: It's definitely not representative of modern day Formula one. And
4:58
Speaker 2: as much as we like in Australi season opener, you
5:01
Speaker 2: look at the way this calendar has shaken out, it's
5:03
Speaker 2: going to take some time for the early returns on
5:06
Speaker 2: what these twenty twenty six rule changes have done, simply
5:09
Speaker 2: because I think these first three rounds are pretty unusual
5:11
Speaker 2: as far as Formula one goes. We know that China's
5:13
Speaker 2: an unusual circuit for a modern track Suzuka. Part of
5:17
Speaker 2: what we love about Suzuka is that it is so
5:18
Speaker 2: odd school and Melbourne's a really unusual street track. So
5:22
Speaker 2: I think we you know that there's going to be
5:25
Speaker 2: some sort of overreaction positive or negative to how the
5:27
Speaker 2: Australian Grand Prix plays out as far as these twenty
5:30
Speaker 2: six rules go, and who's good and who's not, who's
5:32
Speaker 2: got the concept right and who's got the concept wrong.
5:35
Speaker 2: I think what we've now got is next year will
5:37
Speaker 2: be this sort of slow burn. You'll come out of
5:39
Speaker 2: the back end of testing. Everyone thinks they've got a
5:42
Speaker 2: bit of an idea as to everyone sits. I don't
5:44
Speaker 2: think that picture is going to emerge until probably four
5:47
Speaker 2: or five rounds in. Now. Melbourne's such a strange track
5:49
Speaker 2: to open the season as far as getting a red
5:52
Speaker 2: on a your rule set goes. So, yeah, you were
5:54
Speaker 2: talking before, how there's some teams that I was going
5:56
Speaker 2: to say, turn the tap off a twenty twenty five
5:58
Speaker 2: and not even sure it was turned one Aston Martin
6:01
Speaker 2: or Williams after about round three when they went ooh,
6:04
Speaker 2: our car's fast. But it's going to take us some
6:07
Speaker 2: time to understand what Melbourne means next year. It's going
6:11
Speaker 2: to take us some time later in the season to
6:12
Speaker 2: look back at Melbourne and go, ah, that was a
6:15
Speaker 2: portion of what was to come, or that was such
6:17
Speaker 2: an outlier that it bears no relevance to the season
6:20
Speaker 2: that follows. So super interesting to see how that shakes out.
6:23
Speaker 2: But one of the other things you mentioned before is
6:26
Speaker 2: that Melbourne's been this debut site for so many of
6:31
Speaker 2: the great drivers over the history of the Australian Grand
6:33
Speaker 2: Prix at Albert Park. But it's not often that we
6:35
Speaker 2: get a new team and that's going to be super
6:38
Speaker 2: interesting and I dare say there'll be a rather large
6:41
Speaker 2: contingentive hotel rooms being booked by Cadillac Credit Cards in
6:45
Speaker 2: the short term in Melbourne because now that we know
6:48
Speaker 2: that it's going to be the it's going to be
6:50
Speaker 2: the first race of twenty twenty five, I'm sure all
6:52
Speaker 2: the good and great of Cadillact will be down there
6:53
Speaker 2: for that very very big moment when they become this
6:55
Speaker 2: Wealth team.
6:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly right, and means we'll have a cross at
7:00
Speaker 1: least two categories, with Supercars being on the calendar as well.
7:02
Speaker 1: The General Motors and Ford Rivalry continuing forward partnering with
7:06
Speaker 1: red Bull Power Trains next year for red Bull's in
7:10
Speaker 1: house power unit project. And it seems like over the
7:13
Speaker 1: last year or so, for as long as Ford's been
7:15
Speaker 1: involved there, they've been increasingly involved there. I think it's
7:19
Speaker 1: fair to say, having started at what looked like really
7:21
Speaker 1: just a bit of a branding exercise. It's increasingly become
7:24
Speaker 1: a technical partnership. Don't know how much will be interesting
7:27
Speaker 1: to see actually once they do start, how much where
7:30
Speaker 1: that division sits for me at the moment, and the
7:32
Speaker 1: way they still try and salad is it's more advisory
7:36
Speaker 1: and using their tools and their knowledge there rather than
7:38
Speaker 1: actually being hands on in the construction of these engines.
7:42
Speaker 1: I'll be interested to see when we get to next
7:43
Speaker 1: year how much real involvement Ford has and whether we
7:46
Speaker 1: do start to consider this or of a fifty to
7:48
Speaker 1: fifty project or where that division lies. That's its own
7:52
Speaker 1: sort of fun element of next year, because the engines
7:54
Speaker 1: will be a big part of this. You know, we
7:55
Speaker 1: could cast our minds back quite a long time now
7:57
Speaker 1: to when we last change the engine formula and it
8:00
Speaker 1: was I mean that was much more significant naturally ASPIRATEDB
8:03
Speaker 1: eights that had been the same for quite a long time,
8:05
Speaker 1: to the power units we know today. And it was
8:07
Speaker 1: all over the shot, which is why they're banking on
8:10
Speaker 1: so much testing next year. And it'll be interesting to
8:12
Speaker 1: see if the same thing happens.
8:14
Speaker 2: Well, you remember twenty fourteen we got to the Australian
8:17
Speaker 2: Grand Prix and very famously Red Bull hadn't completed a
8:20
Speaker 2: race distance. Yes, that's a four preseason testing. The car
8:24
Speaker 2: just kept blowing itself to pieces. And that was Daniel
8:26
Speaker 2: Ricardo's first year with Red Bull, and I think one
8:29
Speaker 2: of the most surprising aspects of him finishing second in
8:31
Speaker 2: that twenty fourteen Australian Grand Prix and then losing that
8:34
Speaker 2: podium was I think they were all astonished the car
8:36
Speaker 2: even got to the end because during preseason testing, you
8:39
Speaker 2: remember Sebastian Vattal I think retired about three laps into
8:42
Speaker 2: that race, and everyone said, well, of course, because that's
8:44
Speaker 2: what they've done the whole way through a very extensive
8:46
Speaker 2: preseason testing program. We'd come off four seasons of Red
8:50
Speaker 2: Bull domination. Sebastian Battle won the last nine races of
8:53
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen for Red Bull. Then we get to Melbourne
8:56
Speaker 2: to restart this new engine formula. Red Bull's absolutely nowhere
8:59
Speaker 2: and Mercedes wipes the floor with everybody for a year,
9:02
Speaker 2: which we certainly didn't see coming twelve months prior. So
9:05
Speaker 2: I think that's really interesting when you look at it
9:06
Speaker 2: in the context of what's going to happen for twenty six.
9:09
Speaker 2: And we talk about this being a clean sheet of paper,
9:12
Speaker 2: there's recent history that does show you that the whole
9:15
Speaker 2: thing can be completely turned upside down season on season
9:18
Speaker 2: for whichever manufacturer gets it right in the background now
9:22
Speaker 2: and then deploys that on the track. For twenty six
9:24
Speaker 2: Mercedes weren't winning, you know, they won a race. They
9:27
Speaker 2: weren't winning races plural In twenty thirteen and then for
9:30
Speaker 2: what the best part of the next three seasons, they
9:32
Speaker 2: basically won every single Grand Prix that Daniel mccardino didn't
9:36
Speaker 2: win over those couple of seasons. He was the outlier
9:39
Speaker 2: and it was became a Hamilton Rosberg World Championship for
9:41
Speaker 2: a couple of years, just overnight. So that's what makes
9:44
Speaker 2: next year so interesting, the start of the story. But
9:47
Speaker 2: it could be a really different story to what we've
9:49
Speaker 2: become accustomed to in recent times.
9:51
Speaker 1: And Melbourne will get the right to host all of
9:53
Speaker 1: that at the start of the calendar. The calendar, just
9:55
Speaker 1: to sum this one up, looks pretty similar this year's one.
9:57
Speaker 1: It is missing Imola, as had been for s shadow.
10:00
Speaker 1: No one wants to talk about that openly for whatever reason,
10:02
Speaker 1: but its contract has not been renewed, at least at
10:04
Speaker 1: this point. It will be the final Grand Prix in Barcelona,
10:07
Speaker 1: though we expect that race in Madrid to get the
10:09
Speaker 1: Spanish Grand Prix title if in fact it happens. I suppose,
10:12
Speaker 1: and also the final Dutch Grand Prix, organizer of Zandward
10:16
Speaker 1: electing not to have the contract extended beyond next year,
10:19
Speaker 1: largely because of the cost of hosting a Grand Prix,
10:21
Speaker 1: so that'll be a more significant party than it already is.
10:25
Speaker 1: Looking at how that race is run, I suspect next year,
10:29
Speaker 1: although we still of course get their second last race
10:31
Speaker 1: later this year.
10:32
Speaker 2: I'm still curious as to, you know, what that paddic
10:35
Speaker 2: at Zandvortz, like, how they're going to fit a twelve
10:36
Speaker 2: four Bula one team and then they can barely fit
10:38
Speaker 2: eleven of the bed there at the moment, so they
10:40
Speaker 2: might have to take turns or something. I'm not sure
10:42
Speaker 2: what's going to happen there, but it would be the
10:44
Speaker 2: smallest paddic on the f on calendar I would have thought,
10:47
Speaker 2: and it's an effort to get everything in there at
10:48
Speaker 2: the best of time, so Cadillac might be under a
10:51
Speaker 2: tarpaull it out in the car park, but they can
10:53
Speaker 2: deal with that next year.
10:54
Speaker 1: Let's move on now to Move of the Week, brought
10:57
Speaker 1: to you by Shannon's Man. Now, it's funny how a calendar,
11:00
Speaker 1: speaking of calendars, have been moving in some kind of
11:03
Speaker 1: alignments this year. F one off MotoGP and supercars on.
11:07
Speaker 1: It's the opposite. This weekend, just F one and then
11:09
Speaker 1: we're back to it the following weekend. I know you
11:11
Speaker 1: kept a keen eye on MotoGP proceedings over the course
11:14
Speaker 1: of the weekend, So what's your move of the week.
11:16
Speaker 2: You can always tell whether we've come off a motor
11:18
Speaker 2: GP weekend or an F one weekend when we're doing
11:21
Speaker 2: one of these podcasts, because you're the guy that's looking
11:22
Speaker 2: bright eyed and bushytail today and I look like a
11:24
Speaker 2: man who didn't really sleep for three days, which is
11:27
Speaker 2: pretty much correct after doing Moto GP at Aragon last weekend.
11:30
Speaker 2: But Move of the Week, I could say that moving
11:33
Speaker 2: Aragon three months forward in the calendar for where it
11:35
Speaker 2: normally is probably deserves Move of the Week. But I'm
11:38
Speaker 2: going to go with I'm getting a little bit lateral
11:40
Speaker 2: with these moves. I'm going with a move from hopeless
11:44
Speaker 2: I'm going with a move from hopeless to hopeful because
11:47
Speaker 2: that was pretty much Piccabanyaya's Aragon Grand Prix. Now, you
11:50
Speaker 2: would have seen this on the weekend. He qualified reasonably well,
11:53
Speaker 2: started in fourth place, He finished twelfth in the sprint
11:57
Speaker 2: on complete merit. Nothing strange happened run off, no one
12:01
Speaker 2: punted him, nothing like that. He was just really really
12:04
Speaker 2: slow and really really uneasy with the way that bike
12:07
Speaker 2: was handling. And we've seen over the course of this
12:09
Speaker 2: year he's really struggling for front end feel on that bike.
12:12
Speaker 2: And Peco's one of those riders that I've said this before.
12:15
Speaker 2: He needs to understand what's beneath him in order to
12:17
Speaker 2: push it, and he's not prepared to push it when
12:19
Speaker 2: he doesn't, and he's been completely lost with that Decati
12:22
Speaker 2: for the best part of this season. What a difference
12:25
Speaker 2: twenty four hours make. They put a bigger front brake
12:27
Speaker 2: disc on his bike for the race day, which came
12:30
Speaker 2: about four hundred grams heavier apparently, and the disc is
12:34
Speaker 2: fifteen millimeters smaller. The weight distribution of that bike and
12:37
Speaker 2: his ability to push it into the corners. All of
12:40
Speaker 2: a sudden, he's fighting for podium places. He's up there
12:42
Speaker 2: with Alex Marquez, he's fighting off Pedro Costa. He finishes
12:46
Speaker 2: a very, very credible third in the Grand Prix. Now
12:49
Speaker 2: I'm not saying a fifteen millimeter to break disc turns
12:52
Speaker 2: him from being it also ran into a championship contender,
12:54
Speaker 2: but he actually looked like Peco Baniel this weekend for
12:57
Speaker 2: the first time all season, and he's two far behind
13:00
Speaker 2: Mark Marquees to probably challenge for this year's championship without
13:03
Speaker 2: Mark helping him. But now I seem to think there
13:06
Speaker 2: might be a roadback for him to be more like
13:08
Speaker 2: he was in twenty twenty four when he was absolutely fantastic.
13:11
Speaker 2: And he won't win the championship, but I think he's
13:13
Speaker 2: going to be challenging for race wins because he's got
13:15
Speaker 2: his confidence back, and a confident Peko is a very
13:18
Speaker 2: very fast Peko. And so that's my move of the week.
13:20
Speaker 2: It's a move back to a guy who's a two
13:22
Speaker 2: time world champion being a contender for race wins again,
13:25
Speaker 2: because we've not really seen that all season. So I
13:28
Speaker 2: know that's taking the move of the week a little
13:30
Speaker 2: bit left field for this podcast, but that's why I'm here.
13:33
Speaker 2: You probably won't have something as convoluted as that in mind,
13:36
Speaker 2: but I'm curious to see where you're going.
13:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was tempted to go with the Moto GP
13:40
Speaker 1: move because I really enjoyed watching the sprint when Mark
13:42
Speaker 1: Markez didn't have a great start but inevitably gotten to
13:44
Speaker 1: the lead. The commentary line that's the end of the
13:46
Speaker 1: competition with den Labs still to go on to go
13:49
Speaker 1: to the lead. He's really appreciated that. But no, I
13:51
Speaker 1: will stick with Sufikse and I've got a couple of contenders,
13:54
Speaker 1: and I think I've said a lot of leader. I
13:55
Speaker 1: think in a really close second place. I want to
13:57
Speaker 1: go with Ryan Woods, pass on teammate Chas Mosta in
14:00
Speaker 1: race one of the weekend on the polsit of chasms
14:03
Speaker 1: that I should say, as well as his teammate for
14:05
Speaker 1: his first win. I thought it was a really great
14:07
Speaker 1: which was a great breakthrough weekend in fact, couple of
14:10
Speaker 1: rounds because it was his first podium last time out
14:13
Speaker 1: in Tasmania as well, but this weekend obviously the first
14:15
Speaker 1: poll and the first victory on a weekend it was
14:17
Speaker 1: otherwise pretty significantly compromised by technical problems, but I thought
14:21
Speaker 1: that was a great moment for him. Obviously he's a
14:23
Speaker 1: young gun rising through the ranks. Were really starting to
14:25
Speaker 1: see his potential this year. An emotional win as well,
14:28
Speaker 1: but I think beating him on purely the emotional stakes
14:31
Speaker 1: and going with old hand at the sport. James Courtney's
14:34
Speaker 1: podium finish at the end of the weekend iigus for
14:37
Speaker 1: a couple of reasons. One not really expecting to see
14:40
Speaker 1: him on the podium very much this year racing for BRT,
14:43
Speaker 1: although they're slowly on the up, getting to grips with
14:46
Speaker 1: the gentry regulations as well. But I really liked in
14:49
Speaker 1: particularly his description of this moment after the race, which
14:52
Speaker 1: was it was a safety card that brought him into contention,
14:54
Speaker 1: so that that's part of it. Then obviously needed the
14:56
Speaker 1: pace from there, but he passed Ryan Wood as it happens,
14:59
Speaker 1: to get into third plays but then kind of played
15:03
Speaker 1: with him a little bit to make sure cam Waterers
15:05
Speaker 1: could come and then battle Ryan and allow James Courtney
15:08
Speaker 1: to get away and hold onto that third place. He
15:10
Speaker 1: said that racecraft that comes with experience was really crucial
15:14
Speaker 1: to make sure that could happen, because cam Water is
15:15
Speaker 1: obviously quick enough over the course of this weekend. And
15:18
Speaker 1: he was also super emotional about it, not just because
15:20
Speaker 1: of his contribution to getting the team out of the podium,
15:22
Speaker 1: but also this is his last season. It's a very
15:24
Speaker 1: long goodbye to with this year. He knows every time
15:26
Speaker 1: he goes to a racetrack it's his last one. I
15:28
Speaker 1: thought that was a really nice moment for him and
15:30
Speaker 1: for the supercars, and I really liked again his description
15:33
Speaker 1: of the way he executed it. So for me, that
15:35
Speaker 1: is move of the week.
15:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good one, and I like an old
15:39
Speaker 2: guy still got it story. That's one of my favorite
15:41
Speaker 2: things in motorsport where someone you know that the clock
15:44
Speaker 2: is about to strike twelve, but they've still got that
15:46
Speaker 2: one magic performance left in them, or you know, using
15:49
Speaker 2: their brain to get a result that perhaps the younger
15:51
Speaker 2: version of themselves might not have been able to achieve.
15:54
Speaker 2: I love that sort of stuff. So very good, very
15:56
Speaker 2: good suggestion by you. Enjoyed that.
15:58
Speaker 1: Yes, he was a good one. Let's move on now, Matt,
16:00
Speaker 1: to a subject completely different. We have already talked a
16:03
Speaker 1: little bit about twenty twenty six in the sense of
16:05
Speaker 1: the calendar and what we're expecting, but we're now getting
16:07
Speaker 1: into silly season territory, I think because we can just
16:10
Speaker 1: a outspy the mid season break at the end of
16:12
Speaker 1: July typically when we start talking about a lot of
16:15
Speaker 1: driver contracts. Now there aren't a lot of seats open
16:17
Speaker 1: in Formula One, but some really key ones and perhaps
16:20
Speaker 1: more to the point, some key drivers who are on
16:22
Speaker 1: the sidelines looking to get back onto the grid. Veltri
16:25
Speaker 1: Botas and Sergio Perez at the very top of that list.
16:29
Speaker 1: About five hundred odd Grand Prix starts between them. I
16:31
Speaker 1: think it's sixteen wins between them if memory serves as well.
16:35
Speaker 1: So a lot of experience there that has been sidelined
16:38
Speaker 1: on a year that I think we've seen maybe a
16:40
Speaker 1: little bit of an over correction in terms of how
16:41
Speaker 1: much youth entered the sport this year after last year.
16:44
Speaker 1: Absolutely note, nobody on the grid to start the year.
16:48
Speaker 1: All good to see. Nonetheless, the advantage for them is
16:51
Speaker 1: that there are two new seats on the grid next
16:53
Speaker 1: year with Cadillac. As we've already mentioned, it seems like
16:57
Speaker 1: they are in pretty tight competition for potentially just one seat,
17:01
Speaker 1: depending on whether or not the team wants to go
17:02
Speaker 1: with youth in the mix there. I want to start
17:06
Speaker 1: with Cadillac because then we can look perhaps at LP
17:08
Speaker 1: in a second where it seems like the second seat
17:10
Speaker 1: might be very much in play, depending on how you
17:13
Speaker 1: want to read it. But Cadillac clearly does need some
17:16
Speaker 1: experience there, doesn't it. This is something that they've been
17:18
Speaker 1: increasingly open about that they want an experienced hand to
17:21
Speaker 1: help guide them. They've got a lot of experienced personnel
17:23
Speaker 1: in the team. But is there any one of these
17:25
Speaker 1: two drivers between bot Ass and Pairs that stands out
17:28
Speaker 1: to you as a leader in contention for this seat.
17:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny, it's an a orb question, and my
17:34
Speaker 2: answers seat just to be awkward for you mostly, I
17:37
Speaker 2: think so. So much of this will come down to
17:40
Speaker 2: what is their philosophy on the second seat. Does it
17:43
Speaker 2: need to be a young driver and an experienced driver,
17:46
Speaker 2: does it need to be an American? What is the
17:48
Speaker 2: makeup of the second seat? And then that, to me
17:51
Speaker 2: determines which of the two veterans that are available that
17:54
Speaker 2: are in contention for this that you take. Because I
17:57
Speaker 2: think you know, there's a certain commercial appeal I guess
17:59
Speaker 2: that comes with Sergio Perez that we've seen before where
18:02
Speaker 2: the whole raft of Mexican related businesses that are ready
18:05
Speaker 2: to jump on board that will give the project some
18:07
Speaker 2: credibility and a good kicker log than the cars will
18:09
Speaker 2: look terrific, and so on and so forth. Valterie botas
18:12
Speaker 2: to me, is a guy who the speed depends on
18:17
Speaker 2: whether you're whether you've got an arm round his shoulder
18:19
Speaker 2: or not. I think if he's made to feel wanted
18:23
Speaker 2: and loved in an integral part of the project, I
18:25
Speaker 2: still think that his potential pace is probably greater. Now.
18:30
Speaker 2: Whether that ticks the box of being a team leader
18:32
Speaker 2: and a front man, which is almost more important for
18:34
Speaker 2: a startup like this is remains to be seen. But
18:37
Speaker 2: to my mind, I think they almost need to employ
18:39
Speaker 2: the second driver first, if that makes sense. I know
18:41
Speaker 2: it sounds a little bit convoluted, but depending on the
18:44
Speaker 2: identity of your second driver, I think that will you
18:47
Speaker 2: know that second driver is not going to have all
18:48
Speaker 2: the boxes ticked, and I think what boxes are left
18:51
Speaker 2: unchecked will then determine which of those two veterans is
18:53
Speaker 2: probably best suited for the first the first driver role,
18:57
Speaker 2: you do need an experience head that's pretty clear gives
19:00
Speaker 2: you some instant credibility, but I think each of them
19:02
Speaker 2: have divergent strengths, and the second driver identity for me,
19:06
Speaker 2: probably answers the question of the first one. So I
19:08
Speaker 2: know I haven't answered your question, So now'll throw it
19:10
Speaker 2: back on you. If you're if you've got the check
19:13
Speaker 2: book at Cadillac, where are you going here? Because they're
19:16
Speaker 2: both in a similar age and range of their careers,
19:18
Speaker 2: they've done a similar amount of winning. But they're not
19:21
Speaker 2: the same driver, are they?
19:22
Speaker 1: No, they're not' The've got some pretty significant differences between them.
19:25
Speaker 1: To my mind, Feltrie Bodas, if you're getting him, you're
19:27
Speaker 1: getting him because he's got really great pure speed over
19:30
Speaker 1: a one lap really was for me to We've got
19:32
Speaker 1: twenty pole positions, I think, all of them against Lewis Hamilton.
19:34
Speaker 1: Don't think you had any before you arrive in Mercedes
19:37
Speaker 1: and Lewis Hamilton the most prolific qualifier of all time.
19:40
Speaker 1: That's nothing to sneeze at. Where Sergio Perez, certainly in
19:43
Speaker 1: his midfield days, I think they're sort of now we're
19:46
Speaker 1: looking a little bit back on his Red Bull tenure
19:48
Speaker 1: in a slightly different light now that it's clear that
19:50
Speaker 1: almost no one is able to race in the second scene,
19:53
Speaker 1: and that team doesn't totally discount everything that happened there.
19:56
Speaker 1: But I think it means we can perhaps bring to
19:58
Speaker 1: the four a little bit more those great midfield performances
20:01
Speaker 1: we saw before he turned up to Red Bull Racing,
20:03
Speaker 1: or maybe even some of those performances we saw in
20:05
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one when he was kind of thereabouts for
20:07
Speaker 1: most of the year, certainly didn't have those kind of
20:09
Speaker 1: form slumps we saw more reasonably so those race performances.
20:13
Speaker 1: Really squeezing a lot out of a midfield car and
20:16
Speaker 1: limited opportunities is sort of his strength in that equation.
20:20
Speaker 1: You know, there's a reason you would pick either of them,
20:22
Speaker 1: because you do want to know. If you want to
20:24
Speaker 1: exactly where a car is, you'd go with Botas, right, Like,
20:26
Speaker 1: if you want someone to absolutely validate the developments putting
20:29
Speaker 1: being placed on that car, or in this case of
20:31
Speaker 1: the first car you've ever made, you'd go Botas. But
20:33
Speaker 1: if you want to make the most of your opportunities
20:35
Speaker 1: in the race, you'd kind of pick pairs. So why
20:38
Speaker 1: I think this is such an interesting position. It seems
20:41
Speaker 1: to me that Paris has been the front runner for
20:42
Speaker 1: a little while. You know, we talked to Mario and
20:44
Speaker 1: Dready about this on the podcast a couple of weeks
20:46
Speaker 1: ago now, and he didn't say it, but he said,
20:48
Speaker 1: you'd absolutely he absolutely has to be in the mix.
20:51
Speaker 1: I think where his words said your pairs or words
20:52
Speaker 1: to that effect, not least because if you're big selling
20:56
Speaker 1: yourself as the American team, obviously by the America that
20:58
Speaker 1: means the United States, it obviously tremendous Mexican population in
21:04
Speaker 1: the US, Mexico as borders the US. Like there's an
21:07
Speaker 1: affinity there that works, that makes sense when you're considering
21:10
Speaker 1: Perez is not only support a base, but sponsorship dollars.
21:14
Speaker 1: So for me, I can kind of see the argument
21:16
Speaker 1: for pairs maybe being a little bit stronger. Pretty lineball call.
21:20
Speaker 1: But what I think is kind of interesting here is
21:21
Speaker 1: there's this second seat option now opening up potentially at
21:25
Speaker 1: Alpine with Flavio Butore for the first time he said, well,
21:28
Speaker 1: I go Colopindo hasn't been that great so far in
21:32
Speaker 1: replacing Jack Dow And maybe that means Jack comes back.
21:34
Speaker 1: Who knows, Maybe that means they put Paul Aaron the
21:36
Speaker 1: car later on, who knows. So there's a long way
21:38
Speaker 1: to go on that road, but it clearly means that
21:41
Speaker 1: there's a bit more up in the air for next year,
21:43
Speaker 1: doesn't it. And it kind of also means that if
21:45
Speaker 1: one of these two drivers misses out next to year,
21:47
Speaker 1: Perez or Botas, there's this additional option. I thought it
21:50
Speaker 1: was interesting Botas talking to Beyond the Grid the F
21:52
Speaker 1: one podcast saying it was an option, saying there had
21:55
Speaker 1: been talks there last year and a little bit this
21:57
Speaker 1: year as well, but then also mentioned, well, I don't
22:01
Speaker 1: have heaps of personal spongor, but I have some for
22:03
Speaker 1: the right opportunity. Is this sort of I think even
22:05
Speaker 1: between Paris and Botas a little bit of uncertainty about
22:08
Speaker 1: taking the plunge there.
22:09
Speaker 2: It's also super interesting with Alpine as a team is
22:12
Speaker 2: of course they're going to be running Mercedes power units
22:14
Speaker 2: next year. We talked before about twenty fourteen where it
22:17
Speaker 2: became this engine formula overnight where all of a sudden,
22:20
Speaker 2: rebel weren't winning anything because they had a I can't
22:24
Speaker 2: even remember what the branding of an Infinity tag or
22:27
Speaker 2: something or other. I mean, I know that it broke
22:29
Speaker 2: a lot, and so that wasn't really helping them at
22:31
Speaker 2: that point, and Mercedes became the engine to have, so
22:34
Speaker 2: being an Mercedes customer next year with the potential upside
22:38
Speaker 2: that that could bring for someone like Alpine. You remember
22:41
Speaker 2: in the early days of the V six turbo hybrids
22:43
Speaker 2: that Williams that have been pretty much know where the
22:44
Speaker 2: old Martini liveried Williams with Massa and Botas. Funnily enough,
22:48
Speaker 2: they suddenly were really competitive in the early stages of
22:51
Speaker 2: that new engine formula. The chassis was fine, it was
22:55
Speaker 2: no better than a midfield chassis. The engine was so
22:57
Speaker 2: good relative to everything else. All of a sudden they're
22:59
Speaker 2: sniper for podiums where they hadn't been for years. So
23:02
Speaker 2: you're thinking, okay, yes, it'd be nice to get in
23:05
Speaker 2: on the ground floor where a brand new start up
23:07
Speaker 2: and you can put your imprint on that team. If
23:09
Speaker 2: you end up at Alpen, you might have a car
23:12
Speaker 2: that all of a sudden is sniping for potential podiums
23:14
Speaker 2: and you could perhaps look a little bit better than
23:16
Speaker 2: the team potentially is so for either of these two drivers,
23:19
Speaker 2: I don't know if there's necessarily a wrong answer, but
23:22
Speaker 2: one of them is going to be more right than
23:23
Speaker 2: the other. And that's the hardest part to try. And
23:26
Speaker 2: you know you've got to thread the needle with these two,
23:27
Speaker 2: don't you. If I was framing the market, I would
23:30
Speaker 2: say that Perez would be the favorite for all of
23:32
Speaker 2: the reasons that you mentioned, plus perhaps the commercial appeal
23:36
Speaker 2: and something you just said then I think is really
23:38
Speaker 2: relevant in that when Sergio Prez was so poor next
23:42
Speaker 2: to Max Fstappen last year and even in twenty twenty three,
23:44
Speaker 2: to a degree, everyone just shrug their shoulders and said, look,
23:47
Speaker 2: he's washed, it's done with him. But as time has
23:50
Speaker 2: gone on by, his stocks have risen through obsensia in
23:54
Speaker 2: a lot of ways because he's not been there. And
23:57
Speaker 2: now you get to see how much all of the
23:59
Speaker 2: other drivers that have the misfortune of b Max Vestappen's
24:01
Speaker 2: teammate struggle in a car that's really, really difficult. So
24:05
Speaker 2: Perez has almost looked better by not doing anything, and
24:09
Speaker 2: perhaps that puts him in the box seat, But to
24:11
Speaker 2: my mind, I'm actually more interested, I've got to say
24:14
Speaker 2: in who gets the second seat and what that means
24:16
Speaker 2: going forward, because whoever you choose out of Botas and Perez,
24:19
Speaker 2: they're only a short term solution. They're not going to
24:22
Speaker 2: be there for the long haul. They might help to
24:24
Speaker 2: shape the future of that team, but they're not going
24:26
Speaker 2: to be part of it necessarily.
24:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, it'll be really interesting to see with this one.
24:29
Speaker 1: Lands Pot has has suggested by August some of these
24:31
Speaker 1: decisions will be made, so we'll have to wait too
24:33
Speaker 1: long to find out. But maybe you'd like to predict it,
24:35
Speaker 1: Matt in the Crystal Ball for to you buy complete
24:38
Speaker 1: home filtration before we wrap this one up Formula one
24:41
Speaker 1: in action this weekend, you can predictor in twenty six
24:44
Speaker 1: you could have predicted the calendar last week. Neither of
24:46
Speaker 1: us did. That's fine, what are you going with?
24:48
Speaker 2: We couldn't even predict when the calendar was coming out.
24:50
Speaker 2: Thet's where we're going, But well, I'm gonna the crystal
24:54
Speaker 2: ball is pointing me towards Montreal and it's the sphere
24:57
Speaker 2: at the hairpend That looks a bit like a crystal ball,
24:59
Speaker 2: doesn't it. But I'm going to I'm going with the
25:05
Speaker 2: Redux of Suzuka and Imola here, and I'm saying Max
25:08
Speaker 2: Ofstapan's going to win the Canadian Grand Prix. He's won
25:10
Speaker 2: the last three, so that's not exactly going out on
25:12
Speaker 2: a limb. But it feels that this is a weird
25:16
Speaker 2: track and that look, McLaren hasn't won here since twenty twelve.
25:19
Speaker 2: How's this for a stat? Ferrari has won in Canada
25:21
Speaker 2: once in twenty eighteen, since the last of Michael Schumacher's
25:25
Speaker 2: hat trick in two thousand and four. As that for
25:27
Speaker 2: a stat for you? So you know that's a four
25:30
Speaker 2: to three TV standard death. That's how far back that's going.
25:33
Speaker 2: But so I have a feeling that this is a circuit.
25:37
Speaker 2: It's a weird circuit Canada. It's all about how you
25:39
Speaker 2: ride the curbs on so many points of this track.
25:42
Speaker 2: Max has been tremendous around here in the past. It's
25:44
Speaker 2: also really narrow. It's a really hard track on which
25:48
Speaker 2: to pass big drs zone down the back straight there,
25:51
Speaker 2: but we've known that car has been strong in that
25:53
Speaker 2: regard in the past. Now it's an asterisk. I think
25:56
Speaker 2: if Max kulath I was on pole, which he certainly can,
25:58
Speaker 2: I think he wins the race in a sauzuo Uca
26:00
Speaker 2: slash Imla style Grand Prix win. I don't think it
26:03
Speaker 2: means he's in the fight for the Championship. I just
26:05
Speaker 2: don't think he is at all. But he's going to
26:07
Speaker 2: win occasional races for the rest of twenty twenty five,
26:09
Speaker 2: and this strikes me as being one of them. But
26:12
Speaker 2: what is the spherical ball telling you?
26:16
Speaker 1: Well, last week I predicted that it was going to
26:17
Speaker 1: be Filipe Drugovich in the Aston Martin car. That doesn't
26:20
Speaker 1: seem like it's going to happen. Sounds like Blancetroll is
26:23
Speaker 1: going to make it back for his home race, and
26:24
Speaker 1: good for him if that's the case. My prediction, bold
26:28
Speaker 1: as it is, is that he's going to come back
26:29
Speaker 1: and be triumphed. It's gonna be a little bit of pain.
26:31
Speaker 1: That's okay, less pain than he apparently was last time.
26:33
Speaker 1: He's going to qualify sixteenth on the grid. I going
26:36
Speaker 1: to forget that he was even involved Grand Prix. Pity
26:40
Speaker 1: for him, but at least he gets to participate. But
26:43
Speaker 1: that's where he's on average been qualifying this year, just
26:46
Speaker 1: a head or just out of Q one, I should say,
26:49
Speaker 1: so good things in store for him.
26:52
Speaker 2: Always good to aim high for your home races.
26:55
Speaker 1: Well maybe you can get into Q two. Let's see
26:57
Speaker 1: how he goes. Good luck to hear my hope. Of
26:59
Speaker 1: course he is feeling better. The surgery has been a
27:01
Speaker 1: success on that risk. But that's all the time we
27:03
Speaker 1: have for pit Talk today. You can subscribe to pittok
27:06
Speaker 1: wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you can leave
27:08
Speaker 1: us a rating and review as well. This weekend is
27:10
Speaker 1: the Formula one Canadian Grand Prix, with lights out at
27:14
Speaker 1: four am Eastern Time on Monday. If it makes you
27:17
Speaker 1: feel any better, qualifyings at six am on Sunday, so
27:19
Speaker 1: if you really want to watch something live, that might
27:21
Speaker 1: be best. But you can keep up to date with
27:23
Speaker 1: all the lates stef One, Supercars and rodogp news at
27:26
Speaker 1: Foxsports dot com dot Au from Matt Clayton and me,
27:29
Speaker 1: Michael Amanato. Thanks very much for your company. We'll catch
27:31
Speaker 1: you next week.