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Is Spa Still Worth Coming to After Another Rainy Mess? - 2025 Belgium Grand Prix Review · The Undercut

• 0:09
  Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the undercuts review of the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and enjoy the show. By being a racing driver, you are under risk all the time. By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you're no longer a racing driver. All right, so we are back for another. Well, the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix, Spa, as it is known and where it is located, and another wet one. And it was looking like we're potentially gonna have maybe another, you know, train amazing race. Yes, right.
• 0:57
  Speaker B: We were all super excited.
• 0:58
  Speaker A: Right, Exactly. You know, I mean, you don't get much racing here when it's dry. There's lots of Drs Train and we don't see much. And there's been a lot of talk of should Spa still be on the circuit or still be on the calendar, whatever. But it was looking like rain and this would be exciting. And then we waited an hour and a half and. And then it was dry and they waited. Racing.
• 1:25
  Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, this. Well, first of all, like, I think Spar is going to go on rotation. It's going to be. Because now there's so many tracks, so many countries that want a race, and I think Spa is. Is one of the ones which is going to go to alternate years. And there's. Now we're at a critical point in F1. Right. 24 races is a lot. I mean, obviously not as much as nascar, but, you know, you think about the US Series, they're only in the US and that mostly they're around here, which isn't far to go. And, you know, it. It is. It is a. It is a stress on the people that work in Formula One. Sure to be away for 24 weekends a year, which is essentially half the weekends of. Of a whole year, people away from their families. And it used to be that when it was like 16 or 18, everyone went everywhere.
• 2:21
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 2:22
  Speaker B: But once it got over 20, then you started having people, you know, going in for some races, out for some races. And we've seen this in the, you know, just in the TV coverage. It used to be that it was always Crofty, it was always Martin. Right. It was always Simon Lazenby doing the press presenting. But now it's gotten to the point where it's like, you can't ask this of the TV people, the teams, whatever, to be, because they arrive places on the Tuesday or the Wednesday, and then they Leave on Sunday after the race.
• 2:55
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 2:56
  Speaker B: And in some cases that, you know, they're flying 12 hours to get back to their home countries and all of that. So it's, you know, anything that needs to be added, it need from a circuit perspective needs to be. They need to look at what they can take out or what they can rotate in. And I think Spar is, it's one of those ones which is. It's a classic circuit, dude. I mean, it is when I think of circuits that I want to drive, what I would love to drive. Spar is top of the list. Absolutely. With Suzuka and Silverstone as well. But Silverstone's not going anywhere because of where it is and the, you know, the number of teams that are in the uk, the number of British drivers and all of that. But these old, you know, like I said with Suzuka, these classic drivers, tracks, it's, these cars are just not compatible and especially in the wet. And I get that. I mean, in some ways I was like, well, why are they not getting, getting off the mark sooner? But then you kind of get it because race director has to make a decision to send people up to the top of Radion and you know, through a rouge over Radion and down the Kemel straight where visibility is going to be awful.
• 4:17
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 4:18
  Speaker B: When four, three, four years ago in an F2 race, Antoine Hubert died because there was a big crash. Right.
• 4:27
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 4:28
  Speaker B: My brother has a. My brother's unpopular opinion is that, well, if they don't want people to be going over Radiant up Camel straight, then they should just change the track. I completely disagree with him. But you kind of go, yeah, I mean, it's. Spray's bad. But I mean, I think in this case it wasn't a case that it. They wait. Well, they did wait too long. But they've got to do something about how long it takes to get the race going. You say, oh, we're going to start the race again. Oh, it's a 15 minute countdown. Why is it a 15 minute countdown?
• 5:07
  Speaker A: Right.
• 5:08
  Speaker B: You know, they know that they're going to think about starting the race. So get the people in their cars, give them the heads up going, all right, guys, we're going to do a track check in like 10 minutes. We're going to send the car out, get your drivers in their cars ready to go. Because if Bert Maylander says, I think we're in decent shape to go, we're going to be going in like five minutes.
• 5:27
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 5:29
  Speaker B: Anyway, I'll get off my, my soapbox on that but it's like it could have started. But I think a lot of that is structural.
• 5:37
  Speaker A: I mean, I, I agree, but at the same time, like, I understand. How do I say this without sounding like a dick?
• 5:49
  Speaker B: Say it and I'll tell you if you sound like a dick.
• 5:52
  Speaker A: Yes, good, good, good. They're race car drivers. And being a race car driver is not safe. And if they don't want to do that, they don't have to do that. But they chose to be race car drivers, especially if they're going to a track like this where there's no racing unless there's rain. And if it's too dangerous to drift to race in the rain, then why there's no reason to be racing here at all.
• 6:24
  Speaker B: And they've also moved it forward like three or four weeks in the year to try and get it in. Well, not that you actually have summer in Belgium.
• 6:32
  Speaker A: Right, right.
• 6:33
  Speaker B: No, I completely agree. But the. And that was where I was on Sunday when I was like, come on, get going. But at the end of the day, Rui Marquez, who is now the race director, is like, he gives the call to go, if he gives the call to go and something happens. Like Antoine Hubert.
• 7:00
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 7:02
  Speaker B: He. I can put it this way. I can understand why he's a little bit risk averse, because that's a shit. That's a, that's a call to make if it ends up wrong. So I get it, I guess.
• 7:13
  Speaker A: And it's coming off of the Hajar crash where, I mean, you could see that he couldn't see the person in front of him and you couldn't really fault him for that. But I don't know. You ever see Gunther's podcast that he does?
• 7:30
  Speaker B: No, I don't. I've not seen that one yet.
• 7:32
  Speaker A: It's pretty good.
• 7:34
  Speaker B: I keep meaning to listen, but, you know, it's just, it's, it's very good.
• 7:40
  Speaker A: And after every race they do a rock star and a Wanker San section, you know, instead of winners and losers, Rockstar and, and Vanka, as they say. And he gave the race director the, the Vanka of the week. So I get it. I get why he made that decision.
• 8:00
  Speaker B: But yeah, I mean, I think we all rather that they went 15 minutes earlier. 10, 15 minutes earlier, because then a good portion of the race would have been under somewhat wet condition, drying condition, and we'd have got a lot better spectacle.
• 8:21
  Speaker A: Yeah. Or at least just get them out there under a safety car.
• 8:25
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 8:26
  Speaker A: And that will dry the track and at least we, we get Something going and they're not just waiting for it to dry.
• 8:36
  Speaker B: Yeah, but I, but to the, what I said earlier, it's like they have, they have to be more efficient at getting things going again because the cars are in the pit lane, they're ready to go. They've already been out on the track, the car is ready to go. They just need to start it up, get them on their way. So why does it take 15 minutes?
• 8:59
  Speaker A: Right. So why aren't the drivers just waiting to get in the car? What, what do they need 20 minutes to do to get ready? Why don't like they should just be ready to go? Yeah, I would think.
• 9:11
  Speaker B: I think.
• 9:12
  Speaker A: But anyway, there are.
• 9:14
  Speaker B: Let's go for it. Good.
• 9:17
  Speaker A: I was, I was gonna say there, there were some drivers at the back that were supposed to start from the pit lane that ended up benefiting from how everything went down. Yeah, no, particularly Lewis.
• 9:27
  Speaker B: Yeah. And because even after they waited so long, they delayed the start, it took them a long time to get going. They went around a couple of times and it was fine. But then they, they went with a rolling start. Why did they go with a rolling start?
• 9:45
  Speaker A: I don't know.
• 9:46
  Speaker B: And it, I mean, you know, Lando was saying how the, that side of the grid was wetter than the even numbered side of the grid. It's like. Oh, that's. Yeah, that's kind of interesting.
• 10:04
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 10:04
  Speaker B: But give them another lap to go round and let the people on the odd numbered side of the grid try and clear a bit of the water by driving over it for an extra lap and then you start them going. I mean, as it was, how much of a difference would it make? Well, maybe it would have made a much more interesting start to the race than a rolling start, which basically means that there's very little that's going to happen.
• 10:29
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 10:29
  Speaker B: Right now. But one thing I will say is that what was super interesting about the rolling start with Oscar is because they were all lined up behind each other. He was. Oscar was able to just jink to the inside a little bit halfway down the straight and make Lando think that he needed to cover a little bit, which meant that he was slightly tighter on the entry to turn one of the race on lap five. Right. Lap one, lap five, whatever. And I think ultimately that's what meant that he was a little compromised on the exit. He got a. And he was tighter than he really would normally have been. And that caused him to just have that little bit of twitch come out in the gas and that really set him up for the run down to oou at a disadvantage to Oscar, who, after having jinked inside to try and fake him out, actually went out wide and had a much better line through La Source, and that put him in the position to get to O with all the speed. And. And then I think, importantly, Piastri didn't lift through Eau Rouge, or he lifts slightly earlier, but then gunned the throttle again to kind of get through. Whereas I think Lando was a little bit too conservative, and that's ultimately what. What won Oscar the race.
• 11:51
  Speaker A: Yeah. And apparently Lando blew his whole entire, you know, stored battery pack on the safety car restart before the lap even started.
• 12:01
  Speaker B: So, yeah, he went way too early. He went too early.
• 12:06
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 12:07
  Speaker B: You know, if he'd have gone or out of the chicane, but he went way before the chicane. I don't. I. That was a bit of a. An odd one for me.
• 12:20
  Speaker A: It's just time and time again where we've seen Lando make these little mistakes and chances where he has, you know, in an area where he has a great chance to win. And Oscar doesn't make those mistakes, and Lando does make those mistakes time and time again. And that's ultimately what. What is happening in this championship is. Lando's probably had better chances to win races that he's lost where Oscar is just kept where he's at.
• 12:47
  Speaker B: Yeah, but. But I think the mistakes that he made in the race in the dry when he was on the wet tire, I don't blame him for those mistakes because, you know, yes, he. He ran wide at Pouhon one time, and then he locked up into the first corner hairpin a couple of times, and between them, that probably cost him three or so seconds. Right. But at the end of the day, he was on. He was pushing the harder, less grippy tire as far as it would go. Versus. Because there were two steps, remember, between the hard and the medium.
• 13:29
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 13:30
  Speaker B: Versus Oscar, who was driving within the tire so as not to destroy it and not making any mistakes. Well, if you're on a less grippy tire and you're pushing. You're pushing it as far as the tire, of course, you'll get to the edge a little bit more often or so. But I think it was totally the right decision based on the pit strategy for Lando to have picked the harder tire. It's just that when it's such a long lap, if you don't nail it in terms of the lap that you pit on, you've got 7km of being on the wrong tire with the track evolution, and you lose six seconds or whatever. Right, That's. That's just how it goes. But I think that, you know, I don't think that. And if you listen to Lando in the pen afterwards and do his interviews, he was not disappointed. And I think that that's, you know, quite right. He lost it on the first lap because he messed up the first corner. Oscar got the better draft and he got ahead of him. But after that, he did everything right. He was pushing. Yeah, he. He ran wide and he locked up a couple of times, but he was pushing and he was driving really well. He was pushing ahead, and on the harder, slower time, he was making time up on the. On the faster tire.
• 14:49
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 14:51
  Speaker B: So. But all in all, I think that, you know, obviously McLaren are in that they can just put a car out there and whatever they're doing in terms of upgrades is working, and there's no doubt that it's going to be the fastest car in every. On any weekend.
• 15:10
  Speaker A: Yeah. Pretty crazy from where we were a couple years ago to. Yeah, man. This situation we're in now. But I'm not going to complain about it.
• 15:21
  Speaker B: No, I mean, I. I mean, say you're wearing the merch right now. Yes. And I know where McLaren were. I know that we. What they went through in, like, the mid-50s, you know, the mid teens.
• 15:34
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 15:34
  Speaker B: You know, if you go back to, like, 2016, they were dead last when it was Fernando Alonso and Jensen Button, like, with three world championships between them. And they were at the back of the grid because Martin Whitmarsh made some terrible decisions after Ron Dennis got booted, which I guess we can maybe come to in the context of Red Bull. But it's taken, you know, Zak Brown coming in just commercially doing a great job, and they've. I mean, Andreas Seidel, who was supposed to be a really good guy, really smart, great leader, from a technical perspective, he couldn't pull them through. Is taken to Andrea Stella, who's like, you know, he's done an amazing job. And I think that part of what Red Bull are maybe looking at with Lauren Mekies in, you know, to replace Christian Horner, is like, we need someone technical running the team. And, you know, whatever the commercial thing is, I don't know, but whoever's gonna run that, hopefully not Helmut Marko, but it's like, you can see with. With Stella and this new, you know, it's definitely gone towards team principals being much more engineers rather than, like, you know, The Horners or the Steiners. That's right, yeah. Yeah.
• 16:59
  Speaker A: And I mean, but then you have like Alpine who seems to have gone the, the other direction. Right.
• 17:04
  Speaker B: Well, principle.
• 17:07
  Speaker A: That's, that's, that's true. Probably Christian Hoarder and not, not too long a time, but.
• 17:12
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, this, this big Flav. No, they just brought in Andy. I forgot. Yes.
• 17:24
  Speaker A: Whatever his name is. Yeah.
• 17:26
  Speaker B: Again. But he's a, you know, I, I think he could be good. But then I don't know. When you look at where Christian Horn is going to end up, he's not going to Ferrari. He'll definitely want to be back. But what's out there? Well, he'll want equity and the only, the only options are basically going to be alpine or a 12th team.
• 17:58
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's hard to envision how long, how hard it was to just get an 11th team on the grid to be thinking about a 12th team now. But, I mean, we'll see how successful this 11th team is and maybe that'll become way more enticing.
• 18:12
  Speaker B: Yeah. But I mean, the precedent is there and it's like you can, you know, you pay that, your dilution fee and, and then, you know, be interesting what happens. But let's. Shall we cover the Red Bull situation?
• 18:28
  Speaker A: I think we should. Yeah.
• 18:29
  Speaker B: Because, you know, I, I wasn't, I was actually in England for the British Grand Prix. I didn't go primarily because it's so expensive to go to the British Grand Prix. It's crazy expensive. Yeah.
• 18:46
  Speaker A: Or any race these days.
• 18:47
  Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Although actually when you look at how much the promoters lose, you kind of realize that's not too bad. But. Yeah, but I couldn't kind of justify it, but I watched it in a pub in England with my brother. It was great. But so much has happened since then, particularly in the world of Red Bull. Right.
• 19:07
  Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, Yuki looks like a new person now. I mean, the race didn't end up being great, but he had the best qualifying, I think, since he's joined the, the A team. And obviously he knows Lauron very well. I, I like, I like the move, obviously. I mean, I, I was never a fan of Christians. I don't know. It seems like the right move to me. Who knows if it'll be long term or if it's just like an interim kind of thing, but.
• 19:40
  Speaker B: Yeah, but, but I, you know, I look at Lauren, he, he's obviously got a great pedigree. He was at Ferrari, he was at the FIA for a period. Yeah.
• 19:50
  Speaker A: He's at Toro Rosso back in the day, too.
• 19:53
  Speaker B: Back in the day. And then he went back to Faenza and he's. And then he was the principal there. And look at the car that they've produced. It's a very drivable. Not. I mean, the ceiling is not very high on that car. It's not going to break into the top four. But, you know, you look at what Isaac Hajar's done, you look at what Yuki was doing in the car, you look at what Liam is now doing now that he's got his mojo back a little bit, and he. The thing for me about Lorem going in there this week was that, like, there were piece. So there are new parts, there's new flaws, and there are two of them, right. One is on Max Verstappen's car, and the other one is sitting there waiting in case Max Verstappen messes up that one, right? Rather than being, here's one for you, and here's one for you. And so they've got, like, basically the third or fourth piece off the production line is for Yuki, right? Which of course, is gonna hit him in. In the. In the mind, right? Is it like he's not just a second class it Isn't it in that he gets the parts second? It's like, no, they need to produce another couple of sets of that before you even get a look in, because they need. They need spares for Max, right? So that was the fact that they pulled spare parts from Max to put on Yuki's car this weekend. Was. Was basically. Was very much a. Okay, Yuki, you're the second driver. No arguments there. But we. We're gonna do what we, as a team can do to make you be as successful as you can be. We're not setting you up for failure by disadvantaging you. It's like, yeah, you're gonna be second. You're gonna be second out of the parts bin, but you're gonna get the parts. Yeah. And the one thing I didn't actually see it, but when I was listening to, you know, some. Some reviews and. And other things that were happening over the weekend, is that after qualifying, where Yuki done a great job, he was like, you know, two ten, not. Not quite three tenths behind on a seven kilometer track, right. It's not like we're in Austria here. It's like a couple of tenths away. And he came in and. And as Yuki was coming down the pit lane, Lauren turned around from the pit wall, gave him a thumbs Up. You know, Horner never did that. No, it was all about Max. Was. And it'd be interesting to see where they go from here in terms of their driver decisions, and we can maybe talk about that. But for me, the takeaways from this weekend were Laura Mickey's first racing charge, Max Verstappen wins the sprint race. But I think that that was also a really smart engineering decision in that, like, it was going to be dry. So they put him in low downforce and then gave him a bit more for the. What was supposed to be a wet race.
• 23:03
  Speaker A: Right.
• 23:04
  Speaker B: And so I think management wise, it's been pretty good.
• 23:09
  Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, I don't even know what to think about the driver lineup going forward, if I'm being honest with you. I have no idea. I mean, are they going to go back to Liam again? Are they going to look outside, or are they going to go to Hajar? Like, is Yuki going to get another shot now that Laurent's there? I mean, I hope that last one is what it's going to be.
• 23:27
  Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I think that, you know, obviously Yuki didn't end up with the race result that we wanted, but I think it's also not the race result that he deserved. He was in a very similar position to. To Lando in that he had to go a lap longer. The. The thing there was that, from what I understand, is that they decided they were gonna double stack. I hate that term, double stack. If I could, like one of those click, you know, kitschy terms that they use. They were going to bring them both in on the same lap. There was enough gap between them that they could bring in Max, do his pit stop, and then bring in Yuki and do his pit stop. But they were all thinking how smart they were about how this is the strategy that we're going to do, that they brought Max in and forgot to tell Yuki that he was coming into, which is like. It's like a huge operational error. And basically, Yuki was just in the last chicane when they told him to come in, and he was already committed to the exit, so he had to go round again. And that put him back, I think. 4. Four places or so on the grid. Sure. Which was not ideal, but it just ultimately meant that Yuki's result was not what it should have been. But you look at the rest of his weekend, his qualifying and all of that. Good. So I'm hoping that this is going to be the springboard for him to, you know, really, you know, feel like the team are behind him. And they're giving him a car that will equip him to do his job, which I don't think they had. He didn't feel that when he was under Horner and, and push him on it. Because I would love to see Yuki get another year in the second Red Bull just to see what with all this shaking out what he can do and if it doesn't. Because the thing is, next year is a whole different ball game with the rules. Right. And so what is it to be gained by messing with things? Arvid Lindblad. I know they want to give him a seat, but now that Horner's out of the equation, maybe there's going to be less of a rush to put him in. You look at with Kimmy Antonelli and how his things have not performed well the first quarter of the season. He did really well this last few. I mean, like in the last seven races he's only scored points once and that was his podium in Montreal. And it's like, you know, maybe Laurent coming in is like, maybe we shouldn't rush him in. Do you want to put him in the pressure cooker of going back into F2 and compete and trying to win the championship? Assuming he doesn't win it this year. But I don't think he will. But, but going back and doing that or do you take him in and make him the test and reserve driver and give him the testing and give him what he needs to be in a, in a position to go into F1 next year. For me, Red Bull should just keep the same drive line driver lineup next year, keep Liam and Isaac and Yuki and Max. Because now we know that Max isn't going anywhere.
• 26:48
  Speaker A: Right. And who knows what's going to happen after 2026. I mean, that's how, that's when Max's contract is up and.
• 26:54
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, he's actually, I think he's contracted to 28. The Helmut Marco went as soon as the race was over, pretty much he was like, all right, well he's 28 points behind George Russell now. So I can tell everyone that he's staying because the exit clause was that he is that he had to be fourth or lower in the championship to be able to get out of his contract. And so he's in contract and so he's staying. But I think that next year he has to be in the top two of the championship by I guess this sign there is a date and I think it's the summer break. But if he's 28 points behind George, he's not going to, he's not going to be able to get past that at the next race mathematically and like, not mathematically, but actually. Right. But next year I think the term changes and he has to be in the top two to get out. But in real life, I mean, he's at Red Bull. They're going to try and frame everything around him. Who knows what Mercedes is actually going to be like because, yeah, they have the best engine, but McLaren have that engine in, Alpine have that engine in. So, you know, Mercedes have to build a chassis for him.
• 28:13
  Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, Williams could be the team next year for all we know. I mean, they've been putting everything, it seems towards next year.
• 28:23
  Speaker B: So I, I, I would enjoy that. I'm obviously, I'm a big Williams fan, my buddy there, and, and what they did for us in Suzuka last year. But you know, Carlos in the Sprint finished sixth, Alex in the Grand Prix finished six. And you know, they, they've, they've had some tough races lately, but it feels like they're kind of getting back on things. They've had reliability issues more than anything, I think.
• 28:54
  Speaker A: Yeah, but engine issues.
• 28:59
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, and break issues. That was Austria, right, with, yeah, with Carlos. But yeah, I mean, it's, you know, I'd love Williams to do better. Obviously, for me, the story, the driver of the weekend was Lewis just, he called it, he came in a lap before everyone else. I think a couple of other guys came in at the same time, like Pierre, I think, came in the same lap and he, he had a great result and, but it was again the case where you had guys that ran low downforce and higher downforce in anticipation of a wet race that we never got because the race director didn't set people up. And you know, just like Pierre had a, like a shallower wing and everyone kind of backed up behind him. They couldn't get him on the straight, which is how obviously in the sprint, Verstappen, you know, they couldn't catch him because he had less downforce. But Lewis, who started from the pit lane, he didn't actually start from the pit lane because like we talked about earlier, it was a rolling start. So he probably gained five or six seconds at the start of the race just by virtue of not having to go to the pit lane. Yeah, but making that stop at the exact right time propelled him up. But he just got to Alex Albon's Williams, which had less downforce and could just, you know, stretch it out on the straight and Stop him from moving up.
• 30:38
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, we had a couple. It looked like we could have a couple showdowns at the end of the race, and none of them ended up becoming anything. I mean, we had. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we had Lando potentially hunting down Oscar at the end with the tire differential, but that didn't happen. And we had Max potentially catching up to George, which didn't happen, and Lewis catching up to Albon, like you said, which didn't happen. So it was just like all this potential and then nothing happened.
• 31:13
  Speaker B: Yeah, it was, it was, it was actually quite a dull race. The first lap was exciting and then you kind of, you looked at the different strategies and it was all exciting from an intellectual perspective. But in racing terms, you know what the, the most, the best thing about this race was the first lap where Oscar overtook Lando and then lap like 11 through 14 or whatever where Lewis just charged up the field and he made up so many places and he overtook like three people in a lap and all of that. But then the last 30 laps of the race were not that interesting.
• 31:59
  Speaker A: No, not, not at all. And just, just so frustrating with what could have been. But ultimately, like you said, there were guys that were able to take advantage of the situation, I guess, where if, well, Liam was up there, but in. On the flip side, Hajar was another guy that had to go, I believe, had to go around again and again.
• 32:23
  Speaker B: And he and his race got totally compromised. He did pick up some damage, I think on laps six, they said okay. And that, that meant that he, I think he damaged his floor. He finished last on the road. And I think we're, we're all in agreement that Hajar's had the best of the rookie season so far. It was just. This was a bad weekend, which is a shame. But I still think he, you know, there was, there was damage and that was that him.
• 32:59
  Speaker A: Well, I honestly, like, I think we've pretty much covered it. I don't think there's much that we.
• 33:05
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think we've been going what, like 33 minutes. I think we've maybe spoken for like four and a half minutes about the actual race. It's just been talking about what's actually happened in the world of Formula One. Yeah, particularly with, with Horner. We see with Max staying put at Red Bull, it means that George isn't going anywhere. I expect to. To hear that he's going to be re signed. Kimmy. They, they've put their, you know, they've set their stall out with him. They they can't cut him. They can't cut bait after one year. It'd just be totally unfair on the kid.
• 33:51
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 33:52
  Speaker B: So I think it's going to be interesting to see how things shake out next year. But, you know, through all of the Max Verstappen conversations, I think it's entirely right that he stays in Red Bull, because Red Bull are going to do whatever they can to get him where they need to. And if it's not enough, he can look at, you know, he's not going to be in the top two in the championship next year. He can look around and say, oh, I want to be at Aston Martin, or I want to be at Mercedes, or potentially controversially, he could say, I want to be at McLaren. That would be an interesting one. I don't know how. What the contract situation is there, but. Or if Zach Brown would even entertain having him. Sure, it's going to be interesting. It's going to be super interesting. But I think that the point is that Max can now just show that he's loyal and try and galvanize the people around him and then look and see how things shape out next year.
• 34:48
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I really hope that doesn't happen. Max at McLaren. I mean, I guess if the situation came, I would probably be happy about.
• 34:57
  Speaker B: It, but, you know, I don't. I don't know. When I think about Max at another team, it's different to Lewis. Right. Lewis has gone to Ferrari. He spent the time between the last race in Silverstone and this one breaking down and documenting what he sees as being things that were working well, what got results at Mercedes that are different here. And maybe he doesn't think to be the same. So he had meetings with people and he wants to drive the thing forward. I can't see Max doing that. Not that I'm saying that Max is a terrible individual. He's like a racer and he's a phenomenal talent. But I think that the difference is that Lewis in Ferrari knows that I time is short. He's, like, literally got a couple of years left to try and win that title. Max, he's like, oh, if I don't win anymore, I'm okay. But at the end of the day, he. If he wants to stick around and try and work on something, he can. Lewis is all in there. He wants to win.
• 36:05
  Speaker A: Right.
• 36:05
  Speaker B: Wants to get that eighth title that was loved up in.
• 36:10
  Speaker A: Yeah, well, I guess. I guess we will. We'll see. And obviously we should get into coupse F1, so.
• 36:19
  Speaker B: Oh, I haven't even looked after the sprint race. I was like, man, that, that's a great strategy to put the, the lower downforce on and, and all of that until I think I put. I think I put Verstappen to win. Yeah.
• 36:35
  Speaker A: Martin is trying to convince me to do that.
• 36:37
  Speaker B: How are we looking? I haven't even looked.
• 36:40
  Speaker A: Well, it's still me in first and you in second. I was able to pull away a bit. I mean it was, it was really tough to decide for this one. I was struggling, especially the last, you know, like three or four guys. Like obviously it's a sprint race weekend so we only have the one practice and then a qualifying and then the sprint race to decide and I just had no, no idea where it was going to go. But yeah, ultimately it's still US 2 in 1 2. Look at us fighting it out. Yeah, but let's see.
• 37:21
  Speaker B: I mean I'm at 24, 57, 17 points behind me is ymm F1. And then you've got a like behind him. R. Heatley, Jay von Taro, Toro, Russo too like within 10 points. It's kind of tight. It's really anyone's win and prediction consensus.
• 37:43
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 37:43
  Speaker B: Is. Is intense. Yeah.
• 37:46
  Speaker A: So I mean as, as we. As. As whenever Martin put that on. I don't remember if it was last year or the year before, but as a group of all the coops pickers, we're all pretty smart.
• 37:58
  Speaker B: So I think.
• 37:59
  Speaker A: So that's good.
• 38:03
  Speaker B: And, and, but you know when, when you look at. Particularly in the midfield. Yeah, we've all kind of got that. The first four or six cars in the right order. But they say midfield battle and complain that it's like. Well, it could be anyone, it could be the. It's really the race for the back. No, it's not because like literally anyone, any team can be finishing with solid points. Alpine are on. I don't know what Alpine's points are at the moment, but their last place with 20, 40, I forget where, but they've got a ton of points. Yeah. It's not like the bottom three teams are on zero points like it was maybe three, four years ago. Every team is scoring on their day. Nico Hulkenberg with a podium. Finally that podium. I know I wasn't here to share that with you. Like the Sauber getting podiums and Alpine. Pierre is doing a phenomenal job.
• 39:01
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 39:02
  Speaker B: You know, Colapinto. I mean we can all agree that they. It's hugely unfair on Jack Doohan because Franco's not. Not really that much better. But you know, we're starting to see Franco getting his mojo back a little bit, but at the end of the day, it's still just PS scoring the points. But they're scoring points. Everyone's scoring points on their day. And that's, you know, if it wasn't for. I mean, it sounds weird to say it, but if it wasn't for McLaren, just like we used to say, if it wasn't for Red Bull, it'd be great. Championship, right? There's always one team that gets it righter than the rest. He has to give up the corner. I had the nose ahead. What is wrong with these people?
• 39:54
  Speaker A: Thanks for listening to the undercuts review of the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. Please rate review and subs wherever you get your podcasts and join us next time for our review of the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix. We'll see you.