Latest / Pit Talk / Did McLaren botch Oscar Piastri's race? Hungarian GP Review

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Did McLaren botch Oscar Piastri's race? Hungarian GP Review · Pit Talk

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to pitt Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:02
Speaker 1: On today's episode, Lando Norris heads into the mid season
0:05
Speaker 1: break on a high after claiming a strategic victory over
0:09
Speaker 1: Oscar Piastre in Hungary, and after slumping from pole position
0:12
Speaker 1: to fourth. What does char Leclair's roller Coaster Race tell
0:16
Speaker 1: us about Ferrari. My name is Michael Lamonado. It's great
0:19
Speaker 1: to have your company and the company of my co host,
0:22
Speaker 1: Toto Wolf was photographed leaving the Ferrari motor home at
0:24
Speaker 1: the weekend, and in the absence of any information, I'm
0:26
Speaker 1: going to speculate that he was talking about Matt Clayton.
0:29
Speaker 2: Almost certainly, Michael, Toto and I we're in each other's
0:33
Speaker 2: conversations quite a lot, if you believe what you read
0:35
Speaker 2: on social media, which of course is complete garbage. But
0:38
Speaker 2: I did enjoy your preamble before where you said made
0:41
Speaker 2: it to the mid season break, and that's kind of
0:43
Speaker 2: how you and I are making it to the mid
0:44
Speaker 2: season break. I'm not sure we've made it there that well,
0:47
Speaker 2: but it is funny when you get fourteen rounds into
0:49
Speaker 2: a twenty four round season and you realize there's not
0:52
Speaker 2: a race or a couple of weekends. There's the collective exhale,
0:55
Speaker 2: which is when we all realize that we're about to
0:57
Speaker 2: get sick and we're all going to button up and
0:59
Speaker 2: get ready for the last ten rounds. I'm kind of
1:02
Speaker 2: happy there's not a triple header, I will say that.
1:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, so a realization of sickness came very early for me.
1:06
Speaker 1: It didn't have me thinking this is fairly off topic.
1:09
Speaker 1: In struct me during the week the end of every season,
1:11
Speaker 1: or the last couple of seasons, anyway, we have had
1:14
Speaker 1: the paddock wide illness. Oh yeah, strike really in those
1:18
Speaker 1: last three races. What normally does it is the silly
1:20
Speaker 1: time zones of Las Vegas, which is getting slightly less
1:22
Speaker 1: silly this year, it's still pretty silly. And then that's
1:25
Speaker 1: in a triple header with Katar and Abu Dhabi, and
1:27
Speaker 1: that has affected personnel and even driver. I think George
1:29
Speaker 1: Russell last year was quite sick. Perhaps was the year before.
1:32
Speaker 1: I wonder if that'll play a role in this championship fight.
1:34
Speaker 1: You know, if we're talking less than ten points, we're
1:36
Speaker 1: talking less than a race win to second place in
1:39
Speaker 1: the last race. Someone's got a bit of a sniffle
1:41
Speaker 1: that could make the difference.
1:42
Speaker 2: Well, and it's not even the fact that it's so
1:44
Speaker 2: compact at the end of the year. It's where you're going.
1:46
Speaker 2: I mean, Vegas is notoriously cold. You've got Qatar in
1:49
Speaker 2: and around there, which is usually roasting even to that
1:51
Speaker 2: time of year. And then Abu Dhabi is its own
1:53
Speaker 2: bizarre sort of microclimate anyway, So it is it is
1:56
Speaker 2: certainly a strange one. But maybe you just need to
1:59
Speaker 2: sit out FP and then go well for the rest
2:01
Speaker 2: of the weekend. It worked out for Fernando also, maybe
2:03
Speaker 2: that's maybe that's the tactic, just don't practice.
2:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe that is it. Who knows. Everyone says it
2:08
Speaker 1: lacks the testing in the middle of the year, maybe
2:10
Speaker 1: it actually is even less and get her off. Landa
2:14
Speaker 1: Norris completed the full complement of practice sessions and he
2:16
Speaker 1: did win the Grand Prix, so he's got his own
2:18
Speaker 1: theories on that one. And he won the Grand Prix
2:20
Speaker 1: despite qualifying behind Oscar Piastre and being well behind him
2:23
Speaker 1: early on in this race. This was a strategic victory,
2:26
Speaker 1: a one stop versus a two stop in some senses.
2:29
Speaker 1: The second chapter to Belgium, where he also had a
2:32
Speaker 1: different strategy to Oscar Piastre. He had the one stop
2:35
Speaker 1: a Piastre pulled off a one stop despite the tire
2:37
Speaker 1: choice and managed to prevail. There. Here it went Norris's way.
2:42
Speaker 1: A couple of things I want to unpack from this one.
2:44
Speaker 1: I guess let's start with the big question. It's the
2:46
Speaker 1: one everyone's asked in the aftermath from Sunday night till now,
2:49
Speaker 1: which is do you think Oscar Piastre has a right
2:51
Speaker 1: to feel a little bit aggrieved by this? There's no
2:54
Speaker 1: team orders, no one speculating that it's old. This is
2:56
Speaker 1: a sign that McLaren's obviously favoring Lando Norris, but he
3:00
Speaker 1: had almost similar to Silverston, obviously very different circumstances. But
3:03
Speaker 1: he had this race, at least from the Interra team
3:05
Speaker 1: point of view, well covered very early in the Grand Prix,
3:09
Speaker 1: and yet emerges second best again.
3:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know about aggrieved. Annoyed, yes, Aggrieved maybe not
3:16
Speaker 2: so much because it wasn't a race where he had
3:20
Speaker 2: the high ground and then was stitched up by a
3:22
Speaker 2: strategy that meant that he had absolutely no chance to
3:25
Speaker 2: win the race. You could see the way those final
3:28
Speaker 2: ten laps were playing out it was a matter of
3:30
Speaker 2: when he was going to catch Norris, not if, and
3:32
Speaker 2: with about five laps to go, I messaged you and
3:34
Speaker 2: said last lap, first corner, because I figured that's probably
3:37
Speaker 2: where it was going to be. I was a lap
3:38
Speaker 2: too late at that point, but he put himself in
3:43
Speaker 2: a legitimate position to win this Grand Prix. Now it
3:46
Speaker 2: wasn't able to pull it off on the penultimate lap
3:47
Speaker 2: going into the first corner. So I think you would
3:50
Speaker 2: be more aggrieved if the contrast strategy which Norris was
3:55
Speaker 2: rolled the dice on because he was fifth on lap
3:57
Speaker 2: one and had absolutely nothing to lose at that point
3:58
Speaker 2: where it had a pretty ordinary first quarter and got
4:00
Speaker 2: shuffled behind Russell and shuffled behind Alonzo's Aston Martin. I
4:05
Speaker 2: think Piastre will be more annoyed that he wasn't still
4:09
Speaker 2: able to convert despite being on them or advantageous tire
4:13
Speaker 2: and the last five laps, and aggrieved by it. I
4:15
Speaker 2: don't think it was any sort of you know, sort
4:18
Speaker 2: of cunning decision or something that was going to put
4:19
Speaker 2: him on the back foot, but it does bring into
4:21
Speaker 2: questions something that we spoke about a couple of episodes ago,
4:23
Speaker 2: where it was at four one, two's McLaren in the
4:26
Speaker 2: last five rounds. There's ten rounds to go. I will
4:28
Speaker 2: be absolutely shocked if McLaren don't win nine of those
4:32
Speaker 2: ten the way it's looking at the moment, particularly with
4:33
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six and this rule change looming. You remember
4:37
Speaker 2: earlier in the season they were very very open about saying, look,
4:40
Speaker 2: these guys are going to be on the same strategies.
4:41
Speaker 2: We're not going to try and play strategic games within
4:44
Speaker 2: the team because we feel that's the fairest way to
4:46
Speaker 2: go motor racing. And you mentioned it was an extension
4:50
Speaker 2: of Belgium. Yes, it was a little bit in that
4:53
Speaker 2: Norris made that decision in Belgium from a relative position
4:56
Speaker 2: of strength and was it able to pull it off.
4:57
Speaker 2: Piastre drove that last stint on them brutal tie really
5:01
Speaker 2: well there here. The Norris strategy that he basically lucked
5:06
Speaker 2: into was a product of him being so poor on
5:08
Speaker 2: the first lap, and I think if he had held
5:10
Speaker 2: grid position, if he'd been third on lap line, or
5:12
Speaker 2: even if he'd been a little bit higher on that one,
5:14
Speaker 2: that strategy doesn't come into play. So I'm not sure
5:17
Speaker 2: aggrieved is quite the right word. But annoyed definitely, because
5:20
Speaker 2: this is a day where Piastre was the better McLaren
5:23
Speaker 2: driver for the vast majority of this weekend and yet
5:27
Speaker 2: ended up seeding seven points to his teammate in the championship.
5:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a good way to sum it up.
5:32
Speaker 1: I think what's an interesting element to all of this
5:34
Speaker 1: is we've talked a lot this year about how, for
5:37
Speaker 1: a long time this has clearly been a straight championship
5:39
Speaker 1: fight between the two McLaren drivers, but that the field
5:42
Speaker 1: is not so spread out. McLaren's advantage isn't so massive
5:46
Speaker 1: that there can't be other winners and therefore other influencers
5:50
Speaker 1: in how this championship has decided. And this it came
5:52
Speaker 1: from an unusual place, came from Charla Clair in the
5:54
Speaker 1: Ferrari that still surprises me was there. But this was
5:58
Speaker 1: an example of that where like a god, a pole
6:00
Speaker 1: position that was unexpected and then had enough pace in
6:03
Speaker 1: the right well for the first two thirds of the
6:04
Speaker 1: race anyway to lead the Grand Prix. That had a
6:08
Speaker 1: direct impact on the strategic thinking of Oscar Piastro in
6:11
Speaker 1: his side of the garage, and as a result of that,
6:14
Speaker 1: Piastre lost the race, but to Lando Norris, because Norris
6:18
Speaker 1: had no need to be thinking about who was ahead
6:19
Speaker 1: of him, only that there were cars ahead and he
6:21
Speaker 1: needed to pass them with a different strategy, to try
6:24
Speaker 1: something different. And I think that's interesting because I don't
6:26
Speaker 1: think that's the last time that's going to happen. I mean,
6:28
Speaker 1: I think you're probably right to say McLaren is probably
6:30
Speaker 1: going to win in the vicinity of nine more races.
6:33
Speaker 1: I know this is the second biggest margin between McLaren
6:36
Speaker 1: and the next big tea, the next team on the
6:38
Speaker 1: road this season, after Miami being the biggest. So there's
6:42
Speaker 1: that tells you that advantage is still as large as ever.
6:45
Speaker 1: But you know, Ferrari was clearly within striking distance for
6:49
Speaker 1: reasons we might get to a little bit later on.
6:51
Speaker 1: There'll be some tracks where EDWULLD racing will be competitive
6:54
Speaker 1: again with high speed corners maybe cut up. For example,
6:57
Speaker 1: Mercedes might win in Las Vegas like they did last year.
7:00
Speaker 1: How will that influence the points picture? I think that's
7:02
Speaker 1: very interesting because that's the and it was summed up
7:05
Speaker 1: by a radio message late in the race from Tom
7:09
Speaker 1: stellar Oscopiastri's race engineer. I confused between them sometimes talking
7:14
Speaker 1: about what was you like your last stop to be
7:16
Speaker 1: directed at? Do you want to beat Lando Norris or
7:18
Speaker 1: do you want to beat Charlotte Clair? And it seems
7:20
Speaker 1: very obvious, it's not even retrospect coould to be obvious.
7:23
Speaker 1: At the time. There's only one driver that he's racing
7:25
Speaker 1: for the championship, that's Lando Norris. But that question becomes
7:28
Speaker 1: very interesting now after him having lost this race, not
7:32
Speaker 1: because he chose Charlot Clair, but it's just by then
7:33
Speaker 1: it was too late to do anything other than try
7:35
Speaker 1: and respond to Lando Norris. But if a similar situation
7:39
Speaker 1: comes up where there's another team that's competitive, another driver
7:41
Speaker 1: could be in contention for the race, do we actually
7:43
Speaker 1: see McLaren for the first time in years or at
7:46
Speaker 1: least eighteen months, not target victory but target intra team victory,
7:51
Speaker 1: because that's a very different state of mind.
7:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's interesting because the constructor's championship is
7:56
Speaker 2: basically over and the driver's championship as far as it
7:59
Speaker 2: going to another team, is clearly over as well at
8:01
Speaker 2: this point, So it is an interesting one. You look
8:03
Speaker 2: at the races left to come on the calendar where
8:07
Speaker 2: someone through by a virtue of the way they set
8:10
Speaker 2: the car up, or just the nature of the circuit,
8:12
Speaker 2: or as you mentioned Katar, there was a good one
8:13
Speaker 2: Vegas with it being called Singapore is one of those
8:16
Speaker 2: ones that if someone like Leclaire, who is a magician
8:19
Speaker 2: over one lap as we know, produce an absolutely unbelievably
8:22
Speaker 2: good lap in Singapore and then have the track position
8:26
Speaker 2: on a circuit where it's incredibly difficult to pass it.
8:28
Speaker 2: There are some tracks for the rest of the calendar
8:31
Speaker 2: where you could see similar races to Hungary playing out. Now,
8:34
Speaker 2: not many of them, but there are some of them.
8:37
Speaker 2: And given this is so finely poised, you do wonder
8:41
Speaker 2: if that idea of intra teem fairness I'm using air
8:46
Speaker 2: quotes here comes into play, but it is. This is
8:50
Speaker 2: one of those situations. I always think that you can
8:52
Speaker 2: tell McLaren hasn't won a driver's championship for a very
8:55
Speaker 2: long time when we're debating things like this, because I
8:58
Speaker 2: get the feeling other teams, you know, edies where they
9:00
Speaker 2: were winning championships for fun or I mean, I was
9:02
Speaker 2: going to say Red Bull, but they already have one driver.
9:04
Speaker 1: Motion.
9:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, anyway, but I think there's a little bit of
9:08
Speaker 2: as much awkwardness because I think McClaren know they're going
9:10
Speaker 2: to win both championships this year. It's just the identity
9:13
Speaker 2: of the driver's championship is the one that's up in
9:15
Speaker 2: the air. There's a little bit of almost ring rust
9:18
Speaker 2: with all of this because they're not used to being
9:19
Speaker 2: in this position, and there's a lot of I found
9:21
Speaker 2: that Tom stale art message really odd, to be honest,
9:23
Speaker 2: because is that even a question of course you're raising
9:26
Speaker 2: the guy you're fighting for the championship with. He just
9:29
Speaker 2: happens to be in the same car. The rest of
9:32
Speaker 2: the drivers in terms of championship terms are kind of
9:34
Speaker 2: irrelevant at this point. Nobody's in it, so I thought
9:36
Speaker 2: it was really odd. But I'm super curious to see
9:41
Speaker 2: we've now had two Grand Prix where Norris, by virtue
9:44
Speaker 2: of being the second of the two McLaren's on the road,
9:46
Speaker 2: has probably been overtly or inadvertently placed on the superior
9:51
Speaker 2: of the two strategies. It's just that Piastre was good
9:54
Speaker 2: enough to make what he had work in Belgium, and
9:57
Speaker 2: then wasn't quite good enough in order to make what
9:59
Speaker 2: he had to make work in hungary work. So there's
10:02
Speaker 2: a couple of races in a row now where the
10:03
Speaker 2: perception is well Norris, by being the second McLaren has
10:06
Speaker 2: actually kind of lucked his weight in probably being in
10:08
Speaker 2: the best situation. It's just that it's one all in
10:11
Speaker 2: those two races. But given that we have ten rounds
10:13
Speaker 2: to go, I'll be super curious to see how many
10:15
Speaker 2: more times this comes up.
10:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you're right, and if we assume, and
10:19
Speaker 1: like you said, I don't think every race is going
10:21
Speaker 1: to be like this, but let's just assume for a
10:22
Speaker 1: second that every race, after a few lapse it's clear
10:25
Speaker 1: there are two McLaren's out front, no one else is
10:27
Speaker 1: going to threaten. You can argue that it is a
10:30
Speaker 1: real disadvantage being in the lead because whoever's second can
10:33
Speaker 1: respond more easily. If McLaren's drivers are really allowed to
10:38
Speaker 1: not pull any punches strategically or the way they want
10:40
Speaker 1: to approach it, you can just simply respond to the
10:44
Speaker 1: other time. You know. The most extreme visceral example of
10:47
Speaker 1: this is, of course, oh dear, we mentioned this race
10:49
Speaker 1: again twenty twenty one, and abo it was an advantage
10:51
Speaker 1: to be second when that safety car came out because
10:53
Speaker 1: you could do whatever was everything, get you ahead, or
10:55
Speaker 1: give you the better tires for.
10:56
Speaker 2: The restart, everything to gain, nothing to lose.
10:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. So there's that, there's that that interesting element.
11:03
Speaker 1: So I think that's what that's this this extra spice
11:06
Speaker 1: to this championship of you like, is that we talk
11:08
Speaker 1: about it being a straight fight, and in terms of
11:09
Speaker 1: pace it will be, and there's so little between them.
11:12
Speaker 1: But because there's so little between them, there's so much
11:15
Speaker 1: go for circumstances to affect outcomes of each rays. Just
11:19
Speaker 1: before we move on, I think it's probably worth reflecting
11:21
Speaker 1: here as well that race by race, circuit by circuit
11:24
Speaker 1: is going to be really affecting. I thought it was interesting.
11:26
Speaker 1: You know, Oscar Piastri had a pretty good handle and
11:28
Speaker 1: everything in Belgium. That's long been one of his favorite tracks.
11:31
Speaker 1: He calls it one of his favorite tracks. But even
11:32
Speaker 1: in terms of performance, every year has been in Formula One,
11:35
Speaker 1: he's been the better perforre McLaren here. This was in
11:38
Speaker 1: the Norris column. He's never been out qualified by a tear.
11:40
Speaker 1: He had never been qualified by a teammate until this
11:43
Speaker 1: weekend input a pest did emerge with the victory, though,
11:47
Speaker 1: I think that kind of at least reflects again where
11:49
Speaker 1: those tracks would have been in each column. But I
11:51
Speaker 1: want to look briefly and we will do again when
11:53
Speaker 1: the season resumes. But the next two races I think
11:55
Speaker 1: is again one apiece. The Dutch Grand Prix is a
11:58
Speaker 1: pretty good track for Norris, but Piastre, as he showed
12:00
Speaker 1: last year, is very quick in Monds and I think
12:03
Speaker 1: that's that additional way of looking at that last ten
12:06
Speaker 1: race breakdown is actually it could just be the tracks
12:08
Speaker 1: we're visiting.
12:09
Speaker 2: Well, and it might come down to know what results
12:12
Speaker 2: can you glean at tracks that are not necessarily on
12:15
Speaker 2: the topic of your shopping list. It'll be, you know,
12:17
Speaker 2: make it making the best of your worst days if
12:19
Speaker 2: you like. It strikes me as being one of those
12:21
Speaker 2: sorts of championships, and you look at where the gap
12:25
Speaker 2: is between the two of them and the moment effectively,
12:27
Speaker 2: they both had a dn F. I'm you know, Pastre's
12:29
Speaker 2: Australian crand Prix was more or less a d an F.
12:31
Speaker 2: Given the points that he was going to be scoring.
12:33
Speaker 2: He ended up with two that day. It was too
12:35
Speaker 2: wasn't it. Yes, it was two and Norris obviously had
12:37
Speaker 2: the DNF in candidate. So it kind of feels that
12:40
Speaker 2: this is because of how tight it is, and because
12:42
Speaker 2: of how dominant, how good the car is, and because
12:45
Speaker 2: it's so hard to really pick a favorite over the
12:50
Speaker 2: other in terms of the ebbs and flow of this.
12:53
Speaker 2: This is going to come down to what do you
12:54
Speaker 2: do on those worst days that maybe some of your
12:57
Speaker 2: not so great circuits? So do you need to have
12:59
Speaker 2: an outlier result at a good track? Like you mentioned
13:01
Speaker 2: good tracks? Qutars won for PSTRE. Isn't it that there's
13:03
Speaker 2: certain circuits where you know that he's going to be strong.
13:07
Speaker 2: I don't want to say this out loud, but I
13:09
Speaker 2: just did think it, so I man as well. I
13:10
Speaker 2: don't think ab aber Dave he's not a fantastic PSTRE track,
13:13
Speaker 2: is it?
13:13
Speaker 1: I don't think historically No, Well he was wiped out.
13:17
Speaker 1: Was he second on the good last year? No? But
13:19
Speaker 1: he was second on the grid. So I knows. We've
13:22
Speaker 1: said it out there. Save it for the crystal ball. Yes,
13:27
Speaker 1: let's move on now to Move of the Week, brought
13:29
Speaker 1: to you by Shannons. This was, as we talked last week,
13:34
Speaker 1: look hungry It ebbs and flows but it's usually a
13:36
Speaker 1: pretty reliably interesting race these days, at a minimum, and
13:40
Speaker 1: we did get that. Even though there's a long stretch
13:41
Speaker 1: in the middle of the race, race thought, oh, my
13:43
Speaker 1: race reports complete and I have nothing to do for
13:45
Speaker 1: the next one five minutes famous last words. Yeah, absolutely.
13:48
Speaker 1: I did end up being really quite an exciting climax
13:50
Speaker 1: to the race, even though there was no overtake for
13:52
Speaker 1: the lead. But what's your move of the week? Now?
13:55
Speaker 2: I'm only going to mention this person and this team
13:58
Speaker 2: because they're probably not going to get podcast otherwise, and
14:00
Speaker 2: I would like to shoehorn them in there just for
14:02
Speaker 2: the sake of it, and also because you know that
14:04
Speaker 2: I like to go a little bit left of center
14:05
Speaker 2: with move of the week. My move of the week
14:08
Speaker 2: is Aston Martin being the worst team in Formula One,
14:11
Speaker 2: and then seven days later you.
14:15
Speaker 1: Are kidding.
14:17
Speaker 2: Seven days later as amazing. We've not discussed this seven
14:19
Speaker 2: days later finishing fifth with Fernando a lot So and
14:22
Speaker 2: seventh with lad Stroll. And the reason I enjoyed this
14:25
Speaker 2: so much is there's a there's a degree of mischief
14:30
Speaker 2: that comes with Fernando a lot So being higher in
14:32
Speaker 2: the top ten than he probably should and that I
14:36
Speaker 2: literally had the giggles earlier on the race where you
14:38
Speaker 2: could see that, you know, after Norris had retaken him
14:40
Speaker 2: and he'd settle back into his natural position of fifth,
14:43
Speaker 2: the way he was managing the pace of every single
14:46
Speaker 2: driver behind him in the race, so there was this
14:48
Speaker 2: absolutely enormous DRS trade going on, that he was backing
14:52
Speaker 2: everybody up to best advantage his own position when he
14:55
Speaker 2: wants it to go. And then there came a point
14:57
Speaker 2: in that first stip where it's like, all right, now
14:58
Speaker 2: I'm just going to start driving properly and started gapping
15:00
Speaker 2: everything to preserve that league before he went into the pits.
15:03
Speaker 2: It's just this, and it's what happens when you're forty
15:06
Speaker 2: four years old. You've done the Hungarian Grand Prix twenty
15:08
Speaker 2: times or have many times. A lot so has done it.
15:10
Speaker 2: But I do love the sense of mischief that comes
15:12
Speaker 2: with Fernando and the upper areas of the top ten,
15:15
Speaker 2: where he hasn't spent too much time this year unfortunately.
15:17
Speaker 2: But move of the week from the from the outhouse
15:22
Speaker 2: to the penthouse, I was thinking of the polite way
15:24
Speaker 2: to call that it deserves some consideration, but also move
15:28
Speaker 2: of the week. I cannot believe of all the things
15:31
Speaker 2: you could have come up with on your short list
15:32
Speaker 2: to talk about, that is we are spending far too
15:34
Speaker 2: much time together.
15:35
Speaker 1: Remarkable, isn't it? But literally from the tenth order of
15:39
Speaker 1: the fastest lap in qualifying the slowest car in Belgium
15:42
Speaker 1: to the second fastest remarkable turn around, incredible, barely anything
15:47
Speaker 1: off the fastest lap as well less than three tenths
15:50
Speaker 1: the fastest McLaren lab just for no There there were
15:53
Speaker 1: reasons this second was very beneficial to the car, and
15:56
Speaker 1: there's clearly a configuration of the upgrades they've brought in
15:58
Speaker 1: the last month or so work depending on the circuit.
16:01
Speaker 1: But a really remarkable turnaround. But I'm still going to
16:03
Speaker 1: I'll look, I'll give a different one, but I'm still
16:05
Speaker 1: going to be Alonzo centered. I'm going to go for
16:07
Speaker 1: a Lonzo's move off the line. That was also which
16:09
Speaker 1: Tolonso saw an opportunity capitalized on a driver, in this
16:13
Speaker 1: case Norris getting a good start but ensuring he was
16:17
Speaker 1: boxed in and had to yield and had to lose places.
16:19
Speaker 1: It's exactly what he did ground the outside to turn one,
16:22
Speaker 1: then in the down the inside to turn two almost
16:25
Speaker 1: got Russell exiting turn too as well and would have
16:27
Speaker 1: been up to third place, which had been really remarkable.
16:29
Speaker 1: Didn't hold him up for too long because he knew
16:31
Speaker 1: his race wasn't holding up Norris, but in holding up
16:33
Speaker 1: everybody else and good for him and got a really
16:36
Speaker 1: great result out of it. Maximize his result, and it's
16:39
Speaker 1: it's interesting. I was looking back at the season. I'm
16:41
Speaker 1: putting together the driver ratings, which will be up on
16:43
Speaker 1: the Fox Sports website sometime this week. How he had
16:46
Speaker 1: a relatively quiet start to the year, but once the
16:49
Speaker 1: car began to get a little bit more go about it,
16:54
Speaker 1: suddenly his tails in the air and he's pulling off
16:55
Speaker 1: some I don't want to say they're absolutely vintage Alonso
16:58
Speaker 1: performances because they deserve pod and victories, not just fifth
17:01
Speaker 1: places or points, but they are. They show you that
17:05
Speaker 1: he's still got that or how much his experience counts for.
17:08
Speaker 1: I think that's why he's so valuable to Aston Martin.
17:10
Speaker 1: It's obviously that the prestige that he's fundamentally a very
17:12
Speaker 1: good driver, but it's his experience that is delivering results
17:16
Speaker 1: in this car. And this was just not a great
17:18
Speaker 1: example of it.
17:19
Speaker 2: And off the start. There's always been something magical about
17:21
Speaker 2: him because I feel that he always sees opportunities that
17:24
Speaker 2: split second before anybody else does, and he's so decisive.
17:27
Speaker 2: You mentioned that move there where he basically gave not
17:30
Speaker 2: us an impossible situation to have to resolve in real time,
17:34
Speaker 2: and knowing that he could put him in that situation
17:36
Speaker 2: before he did. But this is one of those conversations.
17:38
Speaker 2: I remember having this chat with Daniel Ricardo Watson. We're
17:40
Speaker 2: talking about starts to races, and he would always say,
17:43
Speaker 2: know who's besides you know the row in front of you,
17:46
Speaker 2: know the row behind you, and know where Fernando is.
17:49
Speaker 2: And that was almost like one of his is because
17:50
Speaker 2: he knew that, you know, that little gap appears down
17:53
Speaker 2: the middle of two cars and a group, Fernando's probably
17:55
Speaker 2: in it. You've seen over the years the amount of
17:58
Speaker 2: brilliant starts where he's had two wheels on the grass
18:00
Speaker 2: and done all sorts of absolutely miraculous things in cars
18:02
Speaker 2: that shouldn't be up the front. That was a vintage start.
18:05
Speaker 2: But I'm still shaking my head that we've got the
18:07
Speaker 2: same entry to this category.
18:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought for sure that I was in the clear,
18:12
Speaker 1: but I was like, I gets the first one, but
18:14
Speaker 1: I've got it.
18:15
Speaker 2: On this I think next week you just need to
18:18
Speaker 2: take the first one and stop being such a gracious host.
18:22
Speaker 1: Let's look to one other element of this Grand Prix now, Matt,
18:25
Speaker 1: and that is Ferrari. Before we get to the results
18:28
Speaker 1: on track, I think we should actually start with what
18:30
Speaker 1: happened last week, which was that long last the team
18:32
Speaker 1: announced that it had re signed team principal Frederick Masser.
18:36
Speaker 1: The hyphen was there was nothing else and for other
18:40
Speaker 1: it is the best kind of Formula One contract, a
18:43
Speaker 1: multi year contract. Paddick ri is another three years, which
18:46
Speaker 1: would take him to six years, which would make him
18:48
Speaker 1: remarkably the equal longest serving Ferrari team principle since Stefana
18:52
Speaker 1: Tamenicali back into the two thousands. I guess now runs
18:56
Speaker 1: Formula One, so that's interesting in its own right. It
18:58
Speaker 1: took a little bit of time to get there. It endured,
19:01
Speaker 1: he had to endure some rumors that weren't fully swatted
19:04
Speaker 1: away by the team. I think it's fair to say
19:05
Speaker 1: a month or two ago, but they've stuck with him.
19:08
Speaker 1: It would have always been a strange time to change
19:11
Speaker 1: team boss they had of a big regulatory change, but
19:13
Speaker 1: at least this gives the team a bit of medium
19:16
Speaker 1: term stability to move forward.
19:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, completely, And you know you mentioned the timing of
19:21
Speaker 2: twenty six coming in and the effectively the hard reset
19:24
Speaker 2: for next year. We don't need to add another element
19:27
Speaker 2: of chaos here or you know, an unknown quantity into
19:30
Speaker 2: a time of such change elsewhere. To my mind, there
19:34
Speaker 2: was a lot of noise about a lot not much
19:36
Speaker 2: with this situation here because I'm you always think, well, okay,
19:40
Speaker 2: if that is not the guy in the job, then
19:42
Speaker 2: someone else needs to be in the job, or someone
19:44
Speaker 2: else should be in the job already. Are they going
19:45
Speaker 2: to do anything better and or different? That was always
19:49
Speaker 2: the that was always the thought for me in that
19:53
Speaker 2: it just seemed, what are we doing a change for
19:56
Speaker 2: change's sake here? Allah alping when things don't go well
20:00
Speaker 2: or or is there actually something legitimate here? There's been
20:03
Speaker 2: a lot of change behind the scenes there.
20:04
Speaker 1: Obviously.
20:05
Speaker 2: The Hamilton acquisition hasn't really been something that neither team
20:09
Speaker 2: nor driver has been particularly happy about so far, and
20:12
Speaker 2: I'll caveat that with so far because we do need
20:14
Speaker 2: to play with a longer lens here. But to my mind,
20:17
Speaker 2: I think it's the right move. I think it was
20:18
Speaker 2: a sensible move. I was a little bit surprised to
20:20
Speaker 2: some degree that it was such an issue in the
20:23
Speaker 2: lead up to him being re signed include the hyphen
20:26
Speaker 2: but then again, this is Ferrari, and this is the
20:27
Speaker 2: Italian press, and we should know how this works by now.
20:29
Speaker 2: But I don't know if you thought that it was
20:32
Speaker 2: the correct or incorrect decision. But to my mind, it
20:36
Speaker 2: seemed that having a pillar of stability, given there's going
20:39
Speaker 2: to be so much change next year, seemed to be
20:40
Speaker 2: the sensible move.
20:41
Speaker 1: I think so. And it's the I think you summed
20:43
Speaker 1: it up well as like, what is the purpose of
20:45
Speaker 1: the change? If there's no purpose of it other than
20:47
Speaker 1: what we're Ferrari, it seems like the thing he would do.
20:50
Speaker 1: Then I think that that's a good summary, and I
20:52
Speaker 1: think he was going to consider the building a successful formulae.
20:56
Speaker 1: Team is a project, and the project here is that
20:59
Speaker 1: You've got Charlot Claire probably entering his peak. You've got
21:02
Speaker 1: Lewis Hamilton, maybe we'll talk about a second, might be
21:05
Speaker 1: past his peak, but nonetheless brings extreme experience to the team,
21:08
Speaker 1: like you have a lineup that is ready to win,
21:12
Speaker 1: and you've got a technical team that's that's shown itself
21:14
Speaker 1: capable of some innovative solutions to the regulations that got
21:18
Speaker 1: very close to an Inconstructors Champion Championship last year, and
21:21
Speaker 1: you've got this chance with new rules that you know
21:24
Speaker 1: you could take that step that every team wants to
21:26
Speaker 1: next year. It would be silly to disrupt that for
21:29
Speaker 1: no reason. Do it next year if you like, if
21:31
Speaker 1: the team is six in the championship with no hope,
21:33
Speaker 1: then go for it. But it seems silly to do
21:36
Speaker 1: it now and based on what and then who will
21:38
Speaker 1: you get? You know, it's it would be nonsense. So
21:41
Speaker 1: I think it's the right call. I think any Ferrari,
21:43
Speaker 1: any Ferrari fan must surely be satisfied there's not just
21:46
Speaker 1: more unnecessary bloodshed at that team, just as things might
21:49
Speaker 1: be kind of getting good and for a time mat
21:52
Speaker 1: it looked like actually there would be a little signature
21:54
Speaker 1: bounce there with Charlote Clair getting pole position at the
21:56
Speaker 1: Hungary and grown free most unexpectedly. He is in the
21:59
Speaker 1: fourth fastest car, but the conditions were just so in
22:02
Speaker 1: Q three that he was able to put together a
22:04
Speaker 1: clean lap to get it done. A nice reminder, and
22:07
Speaker 1: you know, I think it was after the British Grand Prix.
22:08
Speaker 1: Wasn't more recently that he talked about how he felt
22:10
Speaker 1: like he had lost his that little qualifying magic dust
22:14
Speaker 1: that he seems to have had throughout his whole career.
22:15
Speaker 1: He's just so superb over one lap that he couldn't
22:17
Speaker 1: access it this year. But he got in a big
22:20
Speaker 1: way in Hungary and then led the first two thirds
22:22
Speaker 1: of the race with pace that certainly surprised me. I
22:25
Speaker 1: didn't expect the Ferrari to be that competitive in the
22:26
Speaker 1: Grand Prix, and then he finished fourth, forty two seconds
22:30
Speaker 1: off the lead. Forty two seconds off the lead. I'm
22:34
Speaker 1: quite frustrated as well. There have been a lot of
22:37
Speaker 1: reasons Matt given as to why that might have happened,
22:40
Speaker 1: but Ferrari, as is its way, hasn't really confirmed any
22:42
Speaker 1: of them or said for sure what they are. What's
22:45
Speaker 1: your take on this or is this just Ferrari being Ferrari?
22:48
Speaker 2: A little bit of Colin Boe. I think when it
22:51
Speaker 2: comes I like you, I thought amazing and got popposition fantastic.
22:56
Speaker 2: You will be fifteen seconds behind both McLaren's body till
22:59
Speaker 2: we get to the first and that was all very
23:01
Speaker 2: nice on Saturday, but congratulations, you might be able to
23:03
Speaker 2: get a podium. I think if you'd said coming into
23:05
Speaker 2: the weekend, hey, charloa clare is going to finish fourth
23:07
Speaker 2: in Hungary, you go geez, you said a good weekend,
23:09
Speaker 2: doesn't he That's probably where overachieved. So it's all being
23:13
Speaker 2: looked at through the lens of qualifying on pole and
23:16
Speaker 2: leading for a good chunk of this race. But the
23:19
Speaker 2: entire thing just completely unraveled after that second pit stop.
23:23
Speaker 2: It's unbelievably slow. I mean you mentioned the forty two
23:25
Speaker 2: second deficit to the winner. There's a five second penalty
23:29
Speaker 2: there for driving erratically while he was trying to defend
23:31
Speaker 2: third place against George Russell, so that factors into the
23:33
Speaker 2: equation as well. But it all seems to come down
23:36
Speaker 2: to how high or not they can run this car.
23:40
Speaker 2: And you know we're talking about plank. Were as far
23:42
Speaker 2: back as China, it was about two Still haven't really
23:46
Speaker 2: got on top of that, and so much of the
23:48
Speaker 2: way they're setting that car up is trying to keep
23:51
Speaker 2: it in a decent performance window but also not fall
23:54
Speaker 2: for out of these plankware regulations that they've skirted around
23:57
Speaker 2: the edges of now for the best part of what
23:59
Speaker 2: five months, So I don't necessarily think that's going to change.
24:02
Speaker 2: But his lap times in that last twenty odd laps
24:06
Speaker 2: were alarmingly bad, and I'm sure he wasn't driving any worse,
24:10
Speaker 2: but yeah, he was, to use a David croftism, he
24:13
Speaker 2: was very het up over.
24:14
Speaker 1: The rate he was. And yes, there is the speculation
24:19
Speaker 1: that it is all related that actually the upgrades that
24:23
Speaker 1: the team had broad in the last couple of rounds,
24:25
Speaker 1: or ending with that package, the suspension package brought at
24:27
Speaker 1: the Belgian Grand Prix, which had appeared or had seemed
24:30
Speaker 1: to have been targeted at being able to run the
24:32
Speaker 1: car and its happy place more effectively, perhaps hasn't been.
24:36
Speaker 1: The hung car ring has been resurfaced. It was partly
24:38
Speaker 1: resurfaced as part of its reconstruction efforts since the last race,
24:40
Speaker 1: but memory serves, was resurfaced entirely not that long ago either,
24:44
Speaker 1: in the last few years. So was by no means
24:48
Speaker 1: rough and tumble saved by a pre iron curtain circuit.
24:52
Speaker 1: That yes, so this shouldn't have been a track while
24:55
Speaker 1: it does undulate a little bit. That really made that
24:57
Speaker 1: a massive risk. Perhaps it was a calculated risk whereby
25:00
Speaker 1: they hope they'd be far and up ahead, they'd be
25:02
Speaker 1: able to absorb some of the pain later on. But
25:04
Speaker 1: now I know you're like a statistic and I've put
25:06
Speaker 1: together some of these after Sunday. But Claire has twenty
25:09
Speaker 1: seven pole positions. It was him eleventh eleventh on the
25:12
Speaker 1: all time pole list. Only two menel fandre Quid equal
25:15
Speaker 1: that later this year. Who knows only five of those
25:18
Speaker 1: have ended with victories. From his last sixteen pole positions,
25:23
Speaker 1: only one of them has ended in a win. That's remarkable.
25:26
Speaker 1: That's very upsetting.
25:28
Speaker 2: I mean, uncharitably, you could say, well, he should be
25:30
Speaker 2: used to it, so I can't be that upset anymore
25:33
Speaker 2: because this is just part of the course. He'd be
25:36
Speaker 2: more like, oh, I won imagine that. But it's always
25:39
Speaker 2: been the story of his career. And you mentioned it before.
25:42
Speaker 2: He's one of the better, particularly where the cars a
25:44
Speaker 2: little bit better than this year is, but maybe not
25:46
Speaker 2: the absolute class of the field. He's one of the
25:49
Speaker 2: best one lap drivers we've seen in a very very
25:52
Speaker 2: long time. And there's certain Q three sessions that I
25:55
Speaker 2: always look forward to each year if he is in
25:57
Speaker 2: it in a car that's not the gold standard, because
25:59
Speaker 2: you know that he's going to produce something special. The
26:01
Speaker 2: one that I always think of is Asvajan. I love
26:03
Speaker 2: watching him around there in that middle section where they
26:06
Speaker 2: go past the castle and across the top of the city.
26:08
Speaker 2: There he's absolutely electrifying through there, and he's just got
26:12
Speaker 2: this ability to completely transcend his machinery. But then, of
26:15
Speaker 2: course over the full race distance it reverts to the meme.
26:17
Speaker 2: But what one of the last sixteen is And don't
26:22
Speaker 2: think that he and the team and everyone doesn't know
26:24
Speaker 2: that that's one of those that's not a you know,
26:26
Speaker 2: that's not a monkey on your back, that's a gorilla
26:28
Speaker 2: at this point, is it?
26:29
Speaker 1: Yes, he has the worst I think I did the
26:31
Speaker 1: statistics recently. I believe they still hold up the worst
26:34
Speaker 1: poll to victory conversion rate, but five he's in the
26:38
Speaker 1: bottom five. The only drivers with worst pole conversion rates
26:41
Speaker 1: is renhe Hanu had two poles or two varies. David Coulthard,
26:46
Speaker 1: Jean Pierre Jabouille and Ralph Schumacher the only ones. And
26:51
Speaker 1: then it's char Leclair, so he's got a little bit
26:53
Speaker 1: of work to do. But I think, as we've probably
26:55
Speaker 1: said in the past, and as we've sort of summed
26:57
Speaker 1: up here, it's not really on him failing to can victories.
27:00
Speaker 1: It's normally on him qualifying higher by which I'm in
27:03
Speaker 1: pole than that car belongs. And I think that was
27:06
Speaker 1: very much the case this weekend. The fourth fastest car well,
27:09
Speaker 1: I finished fourth on the roads there you go. In
27:10
Speaker 1: fact finished it as the third best car ahead of
27:12
Speaker 1: the red Wall racing cars. In some senses, he still overachieved,
27:15
Speaker 1: although I'm sure that won't make him feel any better.
27:17
Speaker 1: I want to talk about Lewis Hamilton before we wrap
27:19
Speaker 1: this one up, though, because this was another disappointing weekend
27:22
Speaker 1: for him. Is it related to me predicting he would
27:24
Speaker 1: win again? Maybe? Maybe not, Let's say no. But he
27:29
Speaker 1: qualified outside of the top ten, it was lockdown Q
27:32
Speaker 1: two in twelfth and he finished twelfth. So unlike at
27:35
Speaker 1: the Belgian Grand Prix, where at least in race trim
27:37
Speaker 1: he was more competitive, particularly in the wet and I
27:39
Speaker 1: was able to recover from pretty much the back of
27:41
Speaker 1: the grid to score points, this weekend he went nowhere.
27:44
Speaker 1: He was as we said last week where he still
27:46
Speaker 1: is the most successful driver ever in Hungara Ring history.
27:50
Speaker 1: He has pretty much every meaningful record at this circuit,
27:52
Speaker 1: but could not score points this weekend. His worst ever
27:55
Speaker 1: finish here and he's worst ever qualification here without a
27:57
Speaker 1: technical problem, And he sounded pretty grim about everything at
28:03
Speaker 1: all times. Man, I think they were say after qualifying,
28:06
Speaker 1: after the race, not a lot of words from him,
28:09
Speaker 1: but the few words he did give away sounded pretty despondent.
28:13
Speaker 1: Is that I mean that's part of Hamilton, isn't that
28:15
Speaker 1: he comes out of the car his heart's on his sleeve.
28:18
Speaker 1: But do you feel like this is a new level
28:20
Speaker 1: of disappointment from him? And is it because it's this
28:23
Speaker 1: circuit and it's his teammate on Pole.
28:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a few factors coming into play there. I
28:28
Speaker 2: think the only person that wants her mid season breaking
28:31
Speaker 2: a few weeks off more than you is probably Lewis
28:32
Speaker 2: Hamilton at this point, like he one hundred percent needs
28:35
Speaker 2: to just get his head out.
28:36
Speaker 1: Of it for a little bit.
28:37
Speaker 2: It must be particularly galling when you know that you
28:40
Speaker 2: have been very good on this circuit in the past,
28:42
Speaker 2: when you've had the best car, and when you haven't
28:44
Speaker 2: had the best car. You've been able to really create
28:47
Speaker 2: some magic at this track. Then to see your teammate
28:50
Speaker 2: pull a lap out of the bag to be on pole.
28:52
Speaker 2: The gaps were so tight in qualifying that there wasn't
28:55
Speaker 2: a lot between them when they were in Q two. Anyway,
28:58
Speaker 2: Laclare was just on the right side of it, Hamilton
28:59
Speaker 2: on the wrong side of it. We know that it's
29:01
Speaker 2: a track position circuit and if you get stuck in
29:03
Speaker 2: a DRS train, that's where you will stay. It's the
29:05
Speaker 2: way it works out there, But he just seems the
29:10
Speaker 2: wearing his heart on his sleeve is one of the
29:12
Speaker 2: things that we've enjoyed about him, and he's been doing
29:14
Speaker 2: this for a very, very long time. This was one
29:16
Speaker 2: of the things he did, but he was a very
29:17
Speaker 2: young driver where people thought, oh wow, that's a bit
29:19
Speaker 2: confronting that he's prepared to be so blunt about his
29:21
Speaker 2: own performances. Maybe he'll grow out of that, or as
29:24
Speaker 2: he becomes older and wiser that will stop, and it hasn't. Really,
29:27
Speaker 2: it's just the way that he tends to roll. He
29:30
Speaker 2: rides the emotional highs better than anybody, so you'll guess
29:34
Speaker 2: the contrast to that is that you're going to have
29:35
Speaker 2: those lows as well. But I think it was a
29:38
Speaker 2: combination of this circuit, his teammate doing an amazing lap
29:40
Speaker 2: in the same car which is clearly not a fantastic
29:43
Speaker 2: car right now, and coming off the back of Belgium,
29:46
Speaker 2: and it's just been a bit of a blah start
29:49
Speaker 2: to life at Ferrari really, And you know, there's a
29:53
Speaker 2: lot of questions now. It's like, well, is he past
29:55
Speaker 2: his best? Which you would expect a driver at his forties,
29:57
Speaker 2: it's usually past his best, but also doesn't mean that
29:59
Speaker 2: he'sh puts and he shouldn't be on the grid. But
30:02
Speaker 2: you just wonder what is the ability like to be
30:06
Speaker 2: able to dig in here when things are really getting bad?
30:09
Speaker 2: And is it only going to be the potential of
30:12
Speaker 2: a fresh start for twenty six and he's been through
30:14
Speaker 2: so many rule changes that he knows that things can
30:16
Speaker 2: flip very very quickly. Is it the at least potential
30:20
Speaker 2: for things to change pretty rapidly next year? Is going
30:22
Speaker 2: to be the thing that gets him through these remaining
30:24
Speaker 2: ten races because twenty twenty five as it stands right
30:27
Speaker 2: now is a bit of a write off. I can
30:29
Speaker 2: only see it sort of flattening out and maybe neutralizing.
30:33
Speaker 2: From here, I can't really see it getting a hell
30:34
Speaker 2: of a lot better.
30:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a bit of a shame because it had
30:37
Speaker 1: felt like in the races before Belgium that he'd started
30:40
Speaker 1: to turn a bit of a corner there. You know,
30:41
Speaker 1: our qualified Charlie Clair I think three times from the
30:44
Speaker 1: previous four or five races, and in terms of the
30:48
Speaker 1: pace difference that had come right down I think on
30:50
Speaker 1: average in that run of races in Europe, let's say
30:52
Speaker 1: to less than a tenth of a second, so perfectly
30:54
Speaker 1: respectable for a driver's change teams in a regulatory year
30:57
Speaker 1: that I think we can probably say doesn't really suit
30:59
Speaker 1: Lewis Hamilton that well. And then these two really poor
31:02
Speaker 1: at least qualifying. In Belgium again the race was okay,
31:04
Speaker 1: but in Hungary the race was pretty ordinary as well.
31:08
Speaker 1: Overtaking it is difficult, but whatever, it just felt just fields.
31:12
Speaker 1: I mean, I probably underlines the problem this year, which
31:14
Speaker 1: has just been inconsistency. It's not as if he's been
31:17
Speaker 1: just bad in every session. He's been so up and
31:18
Speaker 1: down that it's been hard to grab a handle on anything.
31:22
Speaker 1: And I think he'll be very much looking forward to
31:23
Speaker 1: next year. But you can't go into next year. It's
31:26
Speaker 1: almost a likeness to be made here to the way
31:29
Speaker 1: Sauber has approached this year. You can't go into your
31:31
Speaker 1: your time is oudy. Having finished last with no points.
31:34
Speaker 1: I don't feel like it'll be right for Lewis Hamilton
31:36
Speaker 1: to go into next year, the year that his contract
31:38
Speaker 1: was predicated on being successful, and it wasn't about this.
31:40
Speaker 1: He was always going to be back next year. But
31:42
Speaker 1: having been absolutely smacked by char Leclair in every session,
31:46
Speaker 1: constantly in qualifying, finishing last one on the front run
31:49
Speaker 1: was all that kind of thing. So his response next
31:52
Speaker 1: year I think will be very interesting for him because
31:56
Speaker 1: it's a you know, like I say, it's a big
31:58
Speaker 1: one for him. Now let's wrap up that, but we
32:02
Speaker 1: have to visit the crystal ball by complete home filtration.
32:05
Speaker 1: For me, it's proved absolutely cursed. It's curse Lewis Hamilton's end.
32:09
Speaker 1: Babs attended his career. Who knows, But why don't you
32:12
Speaker 1: kick us off with your prediction for the next how
32:15
Speaker 1: long you like?
32:15
Speaker 2: Well, given what happened earlier in this episode, my crystal
32:18
Speaker 2: ball is telling me that I actually need to give
32:20
Speaker 2: you first crack at the crystal ball, and then I'll
32:22
Speaker 2: come back behind mine. So my crystal ball is going
32:24
Speaker 2: to be one hundred percent right on this because I
32:26
Speaker 2: don't want to steal your answer this time. I think
32:27
Speaker 2: that would be very uncharitable of me. So I'd like
32:29
Speaker 2: you to come up with something, and I guarantee you,
32:31
Speaker 2: I absolutely guarantee you that it's not going to be
32:34
Speaker 2: when I come up with here, So crystal ball the way.
32:37
Speaker 1: So all right, well, let's we're at the mid season break.
32:40
Speaker 1: McLaren has a pretty comfortable lead in the Constructor's champion
32:43
Speaker 1: It's two hundred and ninety nine points ahead of forer Ori,
32:47
Speaker 1: more than double Ferrari's points. The average advantage over the
32:51
Speaker 1: course of the first fourteen races. This statistic, I do
32:53
Speaker 1: know is twenty one points per round. My crystal ball
32:57
Speaker 1: tells me that trajectory continues and McLaren and win the
33:00
Speaker 1: Constructors Championship in Azerbaijan, which would be just three races
33:04
Speaker 1: from now, which will be seven rounds to spare, which
33:07
Speaker 1: will be the earliest championship win in the history of
33:09
Speaker 1: Formula One for a team. That's incredible. It struck me.
33:13
Speaker 1: We talked about I don't think we mentioned today, but
33:14
Speaker 1: it was talked about in the aftermath of the race.
33:16
Speaker 1: This is the fourth consecutive one to finish for McLaren.
33:19
Speaker 1: The last time they achieved that was in nineteen eighty eight.
33:23
Speaker 1: Nineteen eighty eight was until Red Bull Racings run in
33:26
Speaker 1: two and twenty three, the most dominant season in Formula
33:28
Speaker 1: One history. I think by some metrics you can still
33:30
Speaker 1: call it that, but by percentage Red Bull Racings every
33:33
Speaker 1: win but one in a twenty four race season or whatever
33:35
Speaker 1: it was, does surp it. But the idea that this
33:38
Speaker 1: McLaren team is now starting to be mentioned in the
33:40
Speaker 1: same breath as the nineteen eighty eight team on some
33:43
Speaker 1: statistics and could in this particular category you surp it.
33:47
Speaker 1: I think, is just a reminder of how remarkable a
33:49
Speaker 1: year this is. And much like the Senna and Prost's rivalry,
33:54
Speaker 1: we have two McLaren drivers that are probably going to
33:56
Speaker 1: take this title down to the wire, hopefully with less aggression,
34:01
Speaker 1: but you never know. But that's what why Crystal Ball
34:04
Speaker 1: is telling me that in just three races time we'll
34:06
Speaker 1: have a new Constructors champion.
34:07
Speaker 2: And I think that one has stuck up on us
34:09
Speaker 2: a little bit. It feels like a stat that we
34:11
Speaker 2: knew the Red Bull dominance as it was happening, and
34:13
Speaker 2: obviously anyone that was covering a sport back in eighty
34:16
Speaker 2: eight I knew exactly what McLaren we're doing, given that
34:18
Speaker 2: driver lineup and what that car looked like and how
34:20
Speaker 2: good it was. But it feels that it's obvious but
34:24
Speaker 2: surprising at the same time, and that we've been watching
34:26
Speaker 2: these races and we've seen the McLaren dominance. Yet a
34:28
Speaker 2: stat like that is still quite startling when you consider
34:32
Speaker 2: seven races to go, they could have this completely wrapped up.
34:34
Speaker 2: I think that's also a function of the entire year.
34:37
Speaker 2: It's not actually been that obvious who the second best
34:39
Speaker 2: team is because it's really waxed and weighing through three
34:42
Speaker 2: different teams. When it started the year red Bull winning races,
34:44
Speaker 2: they all looked fine and it was all going semi
34:47
Speaker 2: okay at least with a Stappen, and then Ferrari had
34:49
Speaker 2: a bit of a turn, and then Mercedes won with
34:50
Speaker 2: George Russell, and so the identity of the challenger in
34:54
Speaker 2: air quotes has changed quite a bit throughout the course
34:56
Speaker 2: of the season, McLaren's just been there. It's been the constant,
35:00
Speaker 2: so that probably explains it. But that has snuck up
35:02
Speaker 2: on me a little bit. But you're not going to
35:04
Speaker 2: believe this, But I had exactly that I didn't have.
35:08
Speaker 2: I didn't have exactly the same thing. The reason I
35:11
Speaker 2: mentioned before that there are ten races to go. I'm
35:14
Speaker 2: not looking for ex for reasons here to try and
35:16
Speaker 2: give race wins to anybody else over the remaining ten rounds.
35:19
Speaker 2: But I'm going to put on record right now we're
35:20
Speaker 2: ten rounds to go that there are going to be
35:23
Speaker 2: two rounds that McLaren don't win.
35:24
Speaker 1: Oh okay, there we go.
35:26
Speaker 2: One of them is going to be Brazil because I
35:27
Speaker 2: think Max Forstappan's going to win there because it's going
35:29
Speaker 2: to rain. It's going to be my big prediction. And
35:30
Speaker 2: there'll be another insert random one here at some point.
35:34
Speaker 2: I wonder if at the end of the season, when
35:37
Speaker 2: the crystal balls packed up and put in the box,
35:38
Speaker 2: we'll look back at the couple of races that McLaren
35:41
Speaker 2: don't win between now and the end of the year,
35:43
Speaker 2: and given how tight this championship is, it might be
35:45
Speaker 2: who does best out of Norris and Piastri on those
35:48
Speaker 2: days that they can't win. That might determine which one
35:52
Speaker 2: is center and which one is prossed at the end
35:53
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty five.
35:55
Speaker 1: Yes, and you know what, I think, we do want
35:58
Speaker 1: to a couple of big this up. We do want
36:00
Speaker 1: liken it to the nineteen eighty eight season. How close
36:02
Speaker 1: this is Prost won that championship. I'm pretty sure no
36:06
Speaker 1: Cena won that championship, but Prost had more points. But
36:08
Speaker 1: it was the drop score rule, So that's how close
36:11
Speaker 1: it was. That it was a funny rule change the
36:13
Speaker 1: change that the winner of the championship, so it could
36:15
Speaker 1: be so close that whoever finishes fifth instead of seventh
36:19
Speaker 1: at a wet Brazilian Grand Prix later in the year
36:22
Speaker 1: could design the championship.
36:24
Speaker 2: Wins the title on countback. Wouldn't that be?
36:26
Speaker 1: Wouldn't that be? Excited? I spreadsheet, It's gonna be working
36:30
Speaker 1: very well for me, that's all very I like a long, good, long,
36:34
Speaker 1: couple of long range predictions. Very good to send us
36:37
Speaker 1: out from this part of the season. That's all the time.
36:38
Speaker 1: We have a bittalk today, though you can subscribe to
36:41
Speaker 1: bittalk wherever you get your favorite podcast and you can
36:43
Speaker 1: leave us a rating and review as well. Formula One
36:45
Speaker 1: is on it's mid season break, but this weekend is
36:47
Speaker 1: the Supercars Ipswitch Super four forty, with two races on
36:51
Speaker 1: Saturday afternoon and another on Sunday at quarter past three
36:54
Speaker 1: that's Eastern Standard time. You can keep up to date
36:57
Speaker 1: with the Lateste f one, Supercars and Botochipy news at
36:59
Speaker 1: Fox Sports dot com dot Au from Matt Clayton and
37:02
Speaker 1: me Michael Lomonado. Thanks very much for your company and
37:04
Speaker 1: we'll catch you next week