Latest / Pit Talk / Where does Lando Norris go from here? Canadian GP Review
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannons.
- 0:03Speaker 1: On today's episode, Lando Norris crashes out of the Canadian
- 0:06Speaker 1: Grand Prix after rear ending teammate and title leader Oscar
- 0:09Speaker 1: Piastri and George Russell wins in Montreal, but it takes
- 0:13Speaker 1: nearly six hours through his victory to be confirmed. In
- 0:15Speaker 1: the latest Mercedes Red Bull Racing spat, my name is
- 0:18Speaker 1: Michael Lomonato. It's great to have your company and the
- 0:21Speaker 1: company of my co host. He knows to always keep
- 0:23Speaker 1: a safe distance to the car ahead.
- 0:25Speaker 2: It's Matt Clayton.
- 0:26Speaker 3: Now, Michael, thank you for the intro. I do like
- 0:28Speaker 3: to drive safely, but I need to let you know
- 0:30Speaker 3: just ahead of time here if I don't like the
- 0:32Speaker 3: way you finish this podcast, I think you might be
- 0:35Speaker 3: trying to coax me into some sort of mistake. They're
- 0:37Speaker 3: back into this podcast. I am going to protest, and
- 0:40Speaker 3: I am going to delay the release of this podcast
- 0:42Speaker 3: for at least the next six hours with about zero
- 0:45Speaker 3: point six of an actual percent of an actual valid
- 0:47Speaker 3: reason to protest it, because that's how we roll in
- 0:49Speaker 3: Formula one these days, and to take our listeners behind
- 0:52Speaker 3: the curtain. I was so thankful that this was an
- 0:55Speaker 3: early morning Monday Grand Prix here in Australia, because if
- 0:58Speaker 3: that's a European Grand Prix, you're probably getting to bed
- 1:01Speaker 3: at about six am on a Monday morning, and I'm
- 1:03Speaker 3: probably in the same timeframe. So good times for us,
- 1:06Speaker 3: not good times for anybody else.
- 1:08Speaker 1: Yes, well, no one's crying over Europeans complaining about the
- 1:10Speaker 1: time zones for Formula one, so I.
- 1:12Speaker 3: Think that's fine, thank you very much.
- 1:13Speaker 1: Indeed, Yes, as ever, I think point six is probably
- 1:16Speaker 1: a bit generous as a percentage of success of that protest.
- 1:18Speaker 1: I talk about that a little bit later on, I think,
- 1:22Speaker 1: and how George Russell was eventually confirmed as the winner
- 1:25Speaker 1: of this Grand Prix on a Mercedes double podium not
- 1:28Speaker 1: featuring a McLaren carr. Well, let's start with a big
- 1:31Speaker 1: talking point of this weekend, which is, of course the
- 1:33Speaker 1: inevitable run in between the title leaders Oscar Piastre and
- 1:37Speaker 1: Lando Norris. McLaren has been telling us all year, going
- 1:39Speaker 1: out of their way in some circumstances to tell us
- 1:42Speaker 1: that they would crash at some stage, and that stage
- 1:45Speaker 1: was the Canadian Grand Prix. Round four laps to go,
- 1:47Speaker 1: Lando Norris rear ended Oscar Piastre, but in what I
- 1:51Speaker 1: suspect McLaren wouldn't have foreseen. It wasn't even really a
- 1:56Speaker 1: racing incident, wasn't a little bit too much aggression from
- 1:59Speaker 1: either driver. It was really quite a clumsy and costly
- 2:03Speaker 1: mistake from Lando. Norris admitted immediately afterwards that it was
- 2:06Speaker 1: all his fault in fact, and I mean immediately it
- 2:08Speaker 1: was a team rate didn't.
- 2:09Speaker 2: Even need to get out of the car.
- 2:11Speaker 1: It's so hard to say that this was a controversial moment,
- 2:15Speaker 1: but tell me about your immediate reaction to this crash,
- 2:19Speaker 1: because it just came across as I mean, I didn't
- 2:22Speaker 1: see it coming. They were racing very hard, but very
- 2:24Speaker 1: cleanly up to that point, and seemed very unnecessary a
- 2:26Speaker 1: little bit.
- 2:27Speaker 3: I think if you're McLaren and you've been talking all
- 2:29Speaker 3: season about this being inevitable, this is almost a perfect
- 2:33Speaker 3: way to get that box ticked and move on with it.
- 2:35Speaker 3: Because they weren't fighting over a race win. You know,
- 2:37Speaker 3: neither McLaren was in contention for a race win. Here
- 2:40Speaker 3: Norris immediately put his hand up. Piastre was still able
- 2:44Speaker 3: to finish the race and get some points, so it
- 2:45Speaker 3: wasn't like he completely skewed his teammates race as well,
- 2:48Speaker 3: So there's a bit of nothing to see here, but
- 2:51Speaker 3: everything to see here. At the same time, as for
- 2:53Speaker 3: McClaren management, it's almost like, well, we kind of got
- 2:56Speaker 3: away with that one. The first thing I thought when
- 2:58Speaker 3: it happened is I tried to imagine the roles being
- 3:00Speaker 3: reversed in this situation. So let's say that Norris hays
- 3:03Speaker 3: the championship lead, Piastre's behind him. I'm not necessarily sure
- 3:07Speaker 3: that's a move that Piastre makes. It was a really
- 3:09Speaker 3: low percentage move and it seemed a little bit unnecessary.
- 3:13Speaker 3: It wasn't the last lap. Norris was clearly quicker at
- 3:15Speaker 3: that point because he'd made that sort of ambitious dive
- 3:19Speaker 3: at the hairpin at the end of the lap previously,
- 3:21Speaker 3: which I do think caught Oscar by surprise a bit,
- 3:23Speaker 3: and it was very clean. It was very well done.
- 3:25Speaker 3: Just overshot a little bit enabled Oscar to get back
- 3:27Speaker 3: into the ascendency. But the whole thing seemed a little
- 3:31Speaker 3: bit unnecessary in terms of its timing. I thought Norris
- 3:35Speaker 3: had probably the time left in that race to gain
- 3:37Speaker 3: the position of the two points that came with, but
- 3:40Speaker 3: it also spoke so much to the mindset of both drivers.
- 3:43Speaker 3: And this is the way I looked at this, and
- 3:45Speaker 3: I tried to imagine Piastre in a similar situation and
- 3:48Speaker 3: what he would have done. Now, we don't know what
- 3:50Speaker 3: Oscar would have done in that situation, but I don't
- 3:52Speaker 3: know if you would have done that. And to my mind,
- 3:54Speaker 3: that is where you look at the difference between these
- 3:57Speaker 3: two drivers and where they are mentally. We know Norris
- 4:00Speaker 3: is very he's not backward in giving himself a clip
- 4:03Speaker 3: around the years, but he doesn't think he's done something right,
- 4:05Speaker 3: and he's the self flagellation that we've talked about before.
- 4:08Speaker 3: I don't know about you, but I just kept thinking, Wow,
- 4:10Speaker 3: in a similar situation here, if Piastre is the trailing
- 4:13Speaker 3: car eight, does he go for a low percentage move
- 4:15Speaker 3: and be how does he actually actually handle that situation?
- 4:18Speaker 3: I think it spoke a lot about both drivers. Yeah,
- 4:21Speaker 3: it didn't cost McLaren a race win or even a podium,
- 4:24Speaker 3: so that, I guess is the good news for them,
- 4:26Speaker 3: But it revealed a lot about each driver. I think
- 4:28Speaker 3: in a high pressure situation and if this championship plays out,
- 4:32Speaker 3: the way we think it's going to If it's going
- 4:34Speaker 3: to be a race between these two, there's inevitably going
- 4:37Speaker 3: to be more high pressure situations between the two, and
- 4:40Speaker 3: this was a little bit of an insight as to
- 4:42Speaker 3: how each of them may handle it. But I'm not
- 4:44Speaker 3: sure what your thoughts were, but there was a lot
- 4:46Speaker 3: going on in those last few laps. But man McClaren
- 4:48Speaker 3: got away with it because it was a controversy with
- 4:51Speaker 3: small sea rather than a capital one.
- 4:53Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 4:53Speaker 1: I mean my first instinct was I was sure both
- 4:55Speaker 1: cars were out because there's Piastre powered out of the
- 4:57Speaker 1: frame of the TV sit I was like, oh, it's
- 4:59Speaker 1: clearly he's going to a punkcho spents could be damage,
- 5:01Speaker 1: is going to be disaster. But no, it was just
- 5:02Speaker 1: Lando Norris self damaging his own race. I mean kindly
- 5:06Speaker 1: agree with that, and I think absolutely it's difficult to
- 5:09Speaker 1: imagine Oscar Piastri having tried on a similar move. But
- 5:11Speaker 1: what I think is interesting is that the precious situation
- 5:16Speaker 1: should have been reversed here because it was Oscar, who,
- 5:20Speaker 1: as you said, looked a little bit slower at that
- 5:21Speaker 1: point in the race. They were both roughly at the
- 5:23Speaker 1: maximum that their car wasn't really a podium getting car,
- 5:26Speaker 1: or certain it was not a race winning car, at
- 5:27Speaker 1: least starting off the podium or being off the podium
- 5:30Speaker 1: at the end of the first lap, as was the
- 5:31Speaker 1: case with Piastri didn't have the kind of pace to
- 5:33Speaker 1: simply walk to the front, as it has at so
- 5:36Speaker 1: many races. So there's that element of it. But in
- 5:38Speaker 1: this situation, surely was Oscar, who started further ahead, had
- 5:41Speaker 1: already lost a place on the first lap, A should
- 5:44Speaker 1: have had from the grid a four place advantage over Niratt,
- 5:46Speaker 1: seeing him in his mirrors, having recovered with a different strategy,
- 5:49Speaker 1: looking quicker, he should have been the one feeling more
- 5:52Speaker 1: pressure and committing mistakes in defense. That's the way you'd
- 5:55Speaker 1: normally think about this situation going. Instead, it was Norris,
- 5:58Speaker 1: who'd had a great recovery. It was going to minimize
- 6:00Speaker 1: the damage. Two points lost to Pistre would have left
- 6:03Speaker 1: him twelve points off the championship lead, which is still nothing.
- 6:05Speaker 1: Twenty two points are still not that much, considering there
- 6:07Speaker 1: are so many races to go, But nonetheless, it's just
- 6:10Speaker 1: strange that it was the guy who'd already had such
- 6:12Speaker 1: a good race who'd done exactly what was expected. You know,
- 6:16Speaker 1: we know he's qualifying mistakes or it's costing him this year,
- 6:19Speaker 1: but his race performances always help him selvage, and that's
- 6:21Speaker 1: why he's still so close in the title fight. It's
- 6:24Speaker 1: just strange that he should have been the one feeling
- 6:26Speaker 1: enough pressure or being not perfectly in the right mindset
- 6:30Speaker 1: to make an error like this, because you say low
- 6:32Speaker 1: percentage is almost being a bit generous. There was no
- 6:34Speaker 1: gap there when he made the move, There was no
- 6:36Speaker 1: gap there when he arrived there, and there obviously still
- 6:39Speaker 1: was no gap there when he made the contact. So that,
- 6:42Speaker 1: for me is what's interesting. I think that also does
- 6:44Speaker 1: speak to their mindsets at this stage of the season.
- 6:48Speaker 1: I can't help but wonder. You know, we joke every
- 6:49Speaker 1: week matter really how many races there are still to go.
- 6:51Speaker 1: I think there were one hundred and fifty at last count,
- 6:53Speaker 1: which means is still a long time, way too long
- 6:56Speaker 1: to really be thinking about the championship. And you always
- 6:58Speaker 1: get the sense that Oscar is of that mind said,
- 7:00Speaker 1: you know, there's so many races still to go, he's
- 7:02Speaker 1: just going to get the max amount of car.
- 7:03Speaker 2: You may not win every race. That's fine, which it feels.
- 7:06Speaker 1: Like already Norris is feeling a little bitout pressure, and
- 7:08Speaker 1: I think the inevitable conclusion from that must be that
- 7:10Speaker 1: he's feeling that looking at the season over all, ten
- 7:13Speaker 1: races is not a small sample size anymore. It's almost
- 7:15Speaker 1: halfway almost not quite that the power dynamic in McLaren
- 7:19Speaker 1: is no longer in his favorites Oscar who's leading the
- 7:21Speaker 1: way here, and he needs to make a statement, and
- 7:23Speaker 1: he attempted to make one and he didn't pull it off.
- 7:26Speaker 1: But I'm sort of interested in the team aspect of
- 7:28Speaker 1: this as well, Matt, because, like we said, Andrea Stella
- 7:31Speaker 1: Zack Brown, I've been saying all season it was inevitable,
- 7:33Speaker 1: and Andrea Stella said afterwards, well, it's probably going to
- 7:35Speaker 1: happen again because there are so many races this year.
- 7:38Speaker 1: But they've been preaching this strategy that their approach is
- 7:42Speaker 1: going to enable them to have these two number one
- 7:44Speaker 1: drivers there's going to be total equality between them, and
- 7:47Speaker 1: we've seen that play out in a team order sense
- 7:50Speaker 1: so far this year. They've been allowed to race, even
- 7:52Speaker 1: in some situations where it's arguably detrimental to the team's interest.
- 7:55Speaker 1: Then again, teams leading the championship by so much doesn't
- 7:57Speaker 1: really seem to matter. Do you think this it was
- 8:01Speaker 1: too unusual an incident to judge the success of that strategy.
- 8:04Speaker 1: Was actually this proving the way that Norris took full accountability.
- 8:07Speaker 1: They cleared the air immediately that actually, maybe this McLaren
- 8:10Speaker 1: approach doesn't have to end in two years by the
- 8:13Speaker 1: end of the year.
- 8:14Speaker 3: The thing I thought when it happened was McLaren going
- 8:17Speaker 3: to be content with absolutely nailing the constructors Championship, which
- 8:21Speaker 3: they did last year after the first time in a
- 8:22Speaker 3: very long time. They got that sorted. That's all completely fine.
- 8:25Speaker 3: They are going to win the Constructors Championship this year,
- 8:28Speaker 3: you would imagine. So my bigger question is does this
- 8:32Speaker 3: actually accelerate the need to prioritize one of the two drivers?
- 8:37Speaker 3: The driver and the ascendency in this case is pastre
- 8:39Speaker 3: because you look at the points standings and despite the
- 8:43Speaker 3: gulf in performance between these two teams and two cars,
- 8:45Speaker 3: Max the Stappans still hovering at an uncomfortably close distance
- 8:48Speaker 3: here for the driver's championship, transcending what he's doing, you know,
- 8:52Speaker 3: second place on the weekend bank the points that he
- 8:54Speaker 3: could with what he had. Will get to subsequent silliness
- 8:57Speaker 3: and protests and things later on, but to my mind,
- 9:00Speaker 3: Verstappan's still uncomfortably close. And I don't know if you
- 9:04Speaker 3: want to be in a live head to head championship
- 9:06Speaker 3: fight with a guy who's won four straight world titles
- 9:09Speaker 3: and we know there's a different level of performance and
- 9:11Speaker 3: aggression with him, if he's able to sustain this now,
- 9:15Speaker 3: Formula One being what it is, there's still fourteen rounds
- 9:17Speaker 3: to go. But if we're having this conversation and there
- 9:20Speaker 3: are six rounds to go and for Stapans at a
- 9:22Speaker 3: similar distance, and all that's going to take is a
- 9:25Speaker 3: McLaren dnf an incident here or there, and for Stappan
- 9:29Speaker 3: just keeps banking these outsized results relative the equipment is in.
- 9:33Speaker 3: Does this actually accelerate McLaren's decision on Well, maybe we
- 9:36Speaker 3: do need to prioritize one of our drivers over the
- 9:39Speaker 3: other in order to secure this driver's championship that's eluded
- 9:42Speaker 3: us for so long. We tick the constructor's championship box
- 9:45Speaker 3: last year, so if they get that again, great, but
- 9:47Speaker 3: it's not going to mean as much as it did
- 9:49Speaker 3: last year. The driver's title is the big one they
- 9:52Speaker 3: want this year. They're in a position of advantage to
- 9:54Speaker 3: get it. You don't want to hand an opponent like
- 9:57Speaker 3: Max verstappin. You don't want to crack that door open
- 9:59Speaker 3: even an for someone like that as a potential weakness.
- 10:02Speaker 3: And yeah, Canada has been a bit of rope circuit
- 10:05Speaker 3: for McLaren in the past. Not a great track for
- 10:07Speaker 3: them this weekend, But to my mind it almost means
- 10:11Speaker 3: if you have another one or two of these incidents,
- 10:12Speaker 3: depending on when you have them, that might actually mean
- 10:15Speaker 3: that McLaren have to do the thing they don't want
- 10:16Speaker 3: to do and not have drivers on the same plane
- 10:19Speaker 3: competing for the world championship. Because we've seen what happens
- 10:22Speaker 3: when McLaren does things like this in the past. When
- 10:24Speaker 3: you try and prioritize you know too, you try and
- 10:27Speaker 3: have two drivers with equal priority, you can throw a
- 10:29Speaker 3: championship away. We've seen it in modern day Formula One
- 10:32Speaker 3: as recently as two thousand and seven, because they did
- 10:34Speaker 3: that with Gibby Reichen, because they had a lot so
- 10:37Speaker 3: in Hamilton, you know, knocking chunks out of each other
- 10:40Speaker 3: week after week, and they left the door open and
- 10:41Speaker 3: Ferrari walked straight through it. So you do wonder if
- 10:44Speaker 3: past history is going to be any guide, but whether
- 10:46Speaker 3: it does change the management decision on how they run
- 10:49Speaker 3: these two drivers based on where the opposition is, not
- 10:52Speaker 3: what they're necessarily doing themselves.
- 10:53Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting because I think earlier this year Zach
- 10:56Speaker 1: Brown suggests that he'd be he'd prefer to lose the
- 10:59Speaker 1: drivers then have to pick a winner. And I think
- 11:02Speaker 1: that that's an interesting position to take, first of all,
- 11:04Speaker 1: because it seems pretty countertuitive. But second of all, I
- 11:08Speaker 1: think that's relatively easy to take that position when your
- 11:11Speaker 1: drivers are very close in the standings. I think he
- 11:13Speaker 1: said this when there was still five points between them
- 11:15Speaker 1: or something, maybe before Monaco. From the top of my head.
- 11:18Speaker 1: If we do get to those, like you say, the
- 11:19Speaker 1: final six rounds, when the sport leaves Europe, that's usually
- 11:21Speaker 1: as was the case last year, and we started to
- 11:23Speaker 1: talk about this even though Norris's title hopes were a
- 11:26Speaker 1: real long shot against Verstappan. And if there's a twenty
- 11:29Speaker 1: five point gap between them, so a race win and
- 11:31Speaker 1: Vastapan is also twenty five points off, let's say it
- 11:34Speaker 1: like that. Does that change the calculus where one driver
- 11:37Speaker 1: is much less likely. But then form comes into that,
- 11:40Speaker 1: isn't it doesn't it? Because then this time last or
- 11:42Speaker 1: rather late last year, the difficulty trying to prioritize Norris
- 11:45Speaker 1: was that actually Piastre was in better form than him,
- 11:47Speaker 1: really until we had a couple of races outside of Europe,
- 11:50Speaker 1: and then Norris regained that ascendency and it became slightly
- 11:53Speaker 1: easier to try and make those calls. So I think
- 11:56Speaker 1: that will be interesting to see. Like you say, it's
- 11:58Speaker 1: really it's too early. I get this question a lot
- 12:00Speaker 1: so far in the last couple of weeks. Surely they've
- 12:01Speaker 1: got a sub Prioritizing Piastre would have avoided the crash.
- 12:04Speaker 1: For example, they just made a call this weekend, but
- 12:07Speaker 1: there's just so long still to go that it's too
- 12:09Speaker 1: early to make that call. And they still have that buffer,
- 12:11Speaker 1: like they still got that points buffer. They do. But
- 12:13Speaker 1: Staffan and if you were being extremely ambitious also George Russell,
- 12:16Speaker 1: that it doesn't have to be made now, it's not
- 12:20Speaker 1: at risk, and maybe by not making the decision earlier
- 12:22Speaker 1: it will bite them later. But I mean to intervene
- 12:25Speaker 1: in the title fight now would be very difficult.
- 12:27Speaker 3: Well, yeah, and what's interesting now is we've talked about
- 12:29Speaker 3: a lot of the Piastre Norris results this year through
- 12:33Speaker 3: the context of the fact that Piastre only scored two
- 12:35Speaker 3: points in Australia, so he had this tough race in Australia.
- 12:38Speaker 3: Points wise, Lando won that race. There was the big gap,
- 12:41Speaker 3: and then we're like, well, look at what Oscar has done.
- 12:43Speaker 3: He's not only arrested that gap, he's actually taken an
- 12:46Speaker 3: advantage over Norris in the races since. So now Norris
- 12:49Speaker 3: has had his no score or low scoring race, so
- 12:52Speaker 3: it's kind of even at this point, like they both
- 12:54Speaker 3: had their mulligan. If you're like, you look at the
- 12:56Speaker 3: points table, Piastre's twenty two points ahead. That feels to
- 12:59Speaker 3: me like the natural gap in performance between these two drivers,
- 13:03Speaker 3: not where Norris was after Australia and not where Piastre
- 13:06Speaker 3: has been incloring all of these results back since this
- 13:09Speaker 3: now feels like an equal fight between the two of them,
- 13:12Speaker 3: because each of them have had their virtually non scoring
- 13:14Speaker 3: race and we see Pastre twenty two points ahead. So look,
- 13:18Speaker 3: we're not even at the halfway point. We say this
- 13:20Speaker 3: all the time, but it certainly throws an interesting question
- 13:23Speaker 3: there because Vastapan's just not going to go away of
- 13:26Speaker 3: his own free will. It all depend on how much
- 13:29Speaker 3: red Bull keep the development tap going on that particular
- 13:31Speaker 3: car for a set of regulations that's going in the bin.
- 13:34Speaker 3: And because Red Bull's entire existence is to please Max,
- 13:37Speaker 3: to Stappan to stop him from leaving, they will keep
- 13:39Speaker 3: the development tap on. So I don't think they're going
- 13:41Speaker 3: to fall off in terms of their commitment and their pace.
- 13:44Speaker 3: And we know that Max is like a dog with
- 13:45Speaker 3: a bone in these sorts of situations. Adds another little
- 13:48Speaker 3: curveball to the championship narrative, though, doesn't it, because there's
- 13:51Speaker 3: no one else pushing up from behind that should get
- 13:53Speaker 3: in the way here. So it comes down to how
- 13:55Speaker 3: McLaren managed these two drivers and when this inevitably happens again,
- 13:59Speaker 3: and going to what their stances after that. It's yeah,
- 14:04Speaker 3: it's become a subplot that's become more interesting, isn't it
- 14:06Speaker 3: in the last three days?
- 14:07Speaker 1: And worth remembering you've only just made me think about
- 14:09Speaker 1: this now. Last time we had a major rule change,
- 14:11Speaker 1: which was twenty twenty two, red Bull pressed hard on
- 14:14Speaker 1: development in twenty twenty one to make sure Max got
- 14:17Speaker 1: to the title, and then messages I think turned development
- 14:19Speaker 1: on a little bit again late, but it was red
- 14:21Speaker 1: Bull to push hardest because they really wanted that driver's
- 14:23Speaker 1: ten year. Circumstances are different, theydn't want the driver's titled
- 14:25Speaker 1: than a while. Maybe things are a little bit more
- 14:28Speaker 1: circumspect now that Max has gone on a four title run.
- 14:30Speaker 1: But they have formed there and Anna Major knew me
- 14:33Speaker 1: to do it. But it's still to be seen how
- 14:36Speaker 1: they're going to manage that one. So plenty is still
- 14:38Speaker 1: to run obviously on this driver's championship. But an interesting
- 14:41Speaker 1: talking point. Nonetheless, let's look back at the race now
- 14:45Speaker 1: from an action perspective. Matt with Move of the Week
- 14:48Speaker 1: brought to you by Shannon Now. Despite the plethora of
- 14:51Speaker 1: talking points, it was not a similarly luxurious amount of
- 14:56Speaker 1: overtaking in the Canadian Grand Prix. I think it's fair
- 14:58Speaker 1: to say there's a lot of management and then everyone said, oh.
- 15:00Speaker 2: The race has finished.
- 15:01Speaker 1: The strange so what's your pick from this week's Race
- 15:04Speaker 1: of the week?
- 15:05Speaker 3: Management and DRS train are two things I don't like
- 15:08Speaker 3: to hear early in TV broadcast. It's fair to say,
- 15:10Speaker 3: but you've been very generous allowing me to do this.
- 15:13Speaker 3: I was going to be a little bit cheeky and
- 15:15Speaker 3: say that Lando Norris's move on Oscar Piastri that wasn't
- 15:17Speaker 3: on that was the move of the week.
- 15:18Speaker 2: But it doesn't have to be a good move of
- 15:20Speaker 2: the week. I guess doesn't It could be bad.
- 15:22Speaker 3: Well, yes, yeah, there's no context of this. I'm going
- 15:26Speaker 3: to leave the low hanging for it for you this
- 15:27Speaker 3: week because I'm a kind co host. I am actually
- 15:30Speaker 3: going to go with a move lower in the pack
- 15:33Speaker 3: on the first lap that completely transformed the race. This
- 15:36Speaker 3: is Nico Holkenberg passing Franco Colapinto and Alex alban on
- 15:39Speaker 3: lap one that got Holkeenberg inside the top ten and
- 15:42Speaker 3: then he basically didn't leave the top ten for the
- 15:45Speaker 3: rest of the race. And yet again Hulkeenberg and Sauerber
- 15:49Speaker 3: scoring really significant points towards the tail end of the
- 15:52Speaker 3: top ten, and they've actually kicked clear in the Constructor's
- 15:55Speaker 3: Championship over Alpine. As a result, it's back to back
- 15:59Speaker 3: weekends where everything you signed Holgenberg for, the experience, the opportunism,
- 16:04Speaker 3: the ability to convert on an opportunity, that presents itself unexpectedly.
- 16:09Speaker 3: This is why you have Nico Holkenberg in Formula one
- 16:11Speaker 3: in twenty twenty five. So I think he got our
- 16:14Speaker 3: move of the week last time for what he did
- 16:16Speaker 3: to Lewis Hamilton in Spain. So it's back to back
- 16:20Speaker 3: of Nico Holkenberg, which is not something I'm expected to
- 16:22Speaker 3: say on this particular podcast. I've left an obvious one
- 16:25Speaker 3: for you, but to my mind that was a transformative
- 16:28Speaker 3: move at the beginning of the race that set up
- 16:29Speaker 3: everything that followed. So curedos to him, Curedoster Soubert, They're
- 16:33Speaker 3: actually not cast a drift in this sort of pathetic
- 16:35Speaker 3: category of one at the back. Now they actually look
- 16:37Speaker 3: pretty legit after the last couple of races. But I
- 16:40Speaker 3: suggest the one I've left for you, you're going to
- 16:43Speaker 3: slot the open goal here.
- 16:44Speaker 1: Yeah, but look just before that, let me say soalbur
- 16:46Speaker 1: nine points off the bottom oh Helpeen last in the championship,
- 16:49Speaker 1: and Souber only eight points off sixth from which is
- 16:52Speaker 1: being held by Hearts, which to my mind feels like
- 16:54Speaker 1: it's going backwards a little bit where Sauerber's moving forwards.
- 16:57Speaker 1: That I did not see this coming even only a
- 17:00Speaker 1: couple of rounds Ago, really impressive work with him, and
- 17:02Speaker 1: like you say, great to have signed Hogberg not only
- 17:04Speaker 1: for sour. But suddenly it feels like that lineup for
- 17:07Speaker 1: when it becomes ourdy doesn't feel as well.
- 17:11Speaker 2: These are the drivers that were available and we slapped
- 17:13Speaker 2: him together.
- 17:14Speaker 1: Is suddenly a lineup that has a little bit of
- 17:16Speaker 1: something in it for that foundation driver pairing next to you,
- 17:20Speaker 1: and it becomes audy. But yes, low hanging fruit. There
- 17:22Speaker 1: are only a couple of other pieces of fruit from
- 17:23Speaker 1: this race. I was tempted to actually pick Norris's move
- 17:26Speaker 1: at the hairpin because I thought that was a great
- 17:28Speaker 1: moose and well played by both of them, in fact,
- 17:30Speaker 1: because then Piastric saw it coming at some point cross
- 17:32Speaker 1: back under him, got that great wheel to wheel moment
- 17:35Speaker 1: down the back straight, So I was as well executed
- 17:37Speaker 1: as it got for Norris until he threw it all
- 17:39Speaker 1: the way later. But I am of course going to
- 17:40Speaker 1: go Andre Kimi Antonelli a great move on the first
- 17:43Speaker 1: lap to take third of Oscar. Piastre just well managed,
- 17:46Speaker 1: I think, because this is we've seen lots of and
- 17:49Speaker 1: we will talk about this, we'll expand about this, maybe
- 17:50Speaker 1: a little bit later as well, considering to use first ponent.
- 17:53Speaker 1: But we've seen lots of great flashes of everything we've
- 17:56Speaker 1: known about his potential, great qualifying speed. He got that
- 17:58Speaker 1: spin pole in Miami, good race pace even in Melbourne,
- 18:01Speaker 1: obviously survived really tricky conditions there to come home from
- 18:04Speaker 1: a pretty ordinary qualifying result. This was a really good,
- 18:07Speaker 1: comprehensive weekend from him, and a really just a solid
- 18:09Speaker 1: first lap lining up against the leading championship leader. Clung
- 18:13Speaker 1: on the outside at turn one because he knew that
- 18:15Speaker 1: meant the inside for the next two corners, needed Piastre
- 18:18Speaker 1: not to fight him super hard. I think Piastre obviously
- 18:21Speaker 1: was aware of the fact that it's probably low percentage
- 18:23Speaker 1: to hold that place and obviously had the title lead
- 18:26Speaker 1: to defend. But that made his race because much like
- 18:29Speaker 1: Kulckenberg never left the top ten, Antonine never left the
- 18:31Speaker 1: top three and in fact gave him some opportunities to
- 18:33Speaker 1: even race with Max Vistappen later on. So a great
- 18:37Speaker 1: move from him, a great start that capped off a
- 18:39Speaker 1: great weekend.
- 18:39Speaker 3: Yeah, agreed. I like the mention of who he was
- 18:42Speaker 3: fighting against. The number one rule in these situations, know
- 18:45Speaker 3: your opponent, and you know, when you're in a fifty
- 18:48Speaker 3: to fifty situation and you're not a championship contender against
- 18:51Speaker 3: a guy who's leading the world championship, who has way
- 18:53Speaker 3: more to lose than you. I think Piastre made a
- 18:58Speaker 3: reluctant but a business is you're nonetheless. It's like, I
- 19:01Speaker 3: could fight this and potentially risk my car, I'm already
- 19:04Speaker 3: several spots ahead of my teammate and my closest championship
- 19:06Speaker 3: challenger on the grid. It's not worth it, and I
- 19:09Speaker 3: think Antonelli really played into that. But it was very
- 19:12Speaker 3: coolly and cleanly executed for a guy that was in
- 19:14Speaker 3: his tenth foot with the one Grand Prix start, and
- 19:16Speaker 3: you'd have to say that we haven't seen the absolute,
- 19:18Speaker 3: like wow, look at that qualifying la pace from him
- 19:21Speaker 3: that we might have thought we'd seen this year. But
- 19:24Speaker 3: he's been super impressive and it feels like he's taken
- 19:27Speaker 3: advantage of most of the opportunities that he's got. He's
- 19:30Speaker 3: you know, he's clearly going to be here for a
- 19:31Speaker 3: very very long time, but wy be the last time
- 19:33Speaker 3: he gets moved of the week on this podcast, or
- 19:35Speaker 3: however long this podcast lasts but yeah, very impressive. Nonetheless,
- 19:38Speaker 3: and you were right. There were only two other pieces
- 19:40Speaker 3: of fruit, but I thought i'd leave them for you.
- 19:42Speaker 2: Yeah, very good.
- 19:44Speaker 1: Well, let's look at that Mercedes weekend and the weekend
- 19:46Speaker 1: a little bit more broadly overall, because while the talking
- 19:49Speaker 1: point was over the battle for fourth, George Russell was
- 19:52Speaker 1: pretty serenely leading this one from pole position made up
- 19:54Speaker 1: for the win he should have had here last year
- 19:57Speaker 1: from pole, but too many mistakes cost him to Max
- 20:00Speaker 1: Staffen in a pretty tricky race in the end. No
- 20:02Speaker 1: such mistakes this weekend led from pol. The sizzle about
- 20:06Speaker 1: the combat with Max Mustaffan off the line didn't even worthy.
- 20:09Speaker 1: I wasn't even worthy of a mentioned, considering his start
- 20:11Speaker 1: was just so good and controlled the race from there.
- 20:13Speaker 1: There were moments where it looked like Mustafan was getting closer,
- 20:16Speaker 1: but it was all management from Russell, who scored one
- 20:20Speaker 1: of his more comprehensive victories. There have been other good
- 20:22Speaker 1: ones as well in there. I think back to that
- 20:23Speaker 1: victory that doesn't count in Belgium last year. I think
- 20:25Speaker 1: it's probably his most impressive, ironically, but I think this
- 20:28Speaker 1: is a really big tick a for Mercedes because it's
- 20:30Speaker 1: their first win of the season in a year that
- 20:32Speaker 1: they started sort of optimistic about but then felt like
- 20:36Speaker 1: they lost their way in the last month or so.
- 20:37Speaker 1: So it gets them back on track, particularly considering they
- 20:39Speaker 1: use an upgrade that they temporarily had in the bin
- 20:42Speaker 1: only a week or two ago. But also, I feel
- 20:45Speaker 1: like I am in your position on this, Russell. This
- 20:48Speaker 1: been quite a good and comprehensive weekend for him, which
- 20:52Speaker 1: is great, But then particularly in contrast to Canada last
- 20:55Speaker 1: year one year ago, where he fumbled his chances in
- 20:58Speaker 1: a way that I think had become quite characteristic of
- 21:00Speaker 1: him at that point. Really good in qualifying, often would
- 21:02Speaker 1: qualify high up or even on pole position, but then would.
- 21:05Speaker 2: Almost get too excited, over excited to be.
- 21:08Speaker 1: On pole in a position he's not meant to be
- 21:10Speaker 1: in because the Mercedes never been a race winner, and
- 21:12Speaker 1: then do something sillier and not win the race. There
- 21:15Speaker 1: was no sign of that this weekend, and I don't
- 21:18Speaker 1: think it's something that had happened ahead of this weekend,
- 21:19Speaker 1: but it certainly happened in the last twelve months, and
- 21:21Speaker 1: I think it just emphasized that position he has now
- 21:24Speaker 1: as the team leader at Mercedes arriving at just the
- 21:26Speaker 1: right time.
- 21:27Speaker 3: Yeah, and this is the evolution of a driver that
- 21:30Speaker 3: you know, he statistically was the stronger Mercedes driver last year,
- 21:33Speaker 3: but it always felt like he was driving in Lewis
- 21:35Speaker 3: Hamilton's team, which is understandable because of the success Hamilton
- 21:38Speaker 3: had had there and how long he'd been there, and
- 21:39Speaker 3: he was part of the furniture. It was always like, oh, yeah,
- 21:42Speaker 3: and our other drivers George Russell, which is a little
- 21:44Speaker 3: bit unfair because the guy's very, very good and very accomplished.
- 21:47Speaker 3: So there was there were two things for me. It
- 21:49Speaker 3: shows you the evolution of him as a leader and
- 21:52Speaker 3: a driver and a senior person within the sport. But
- 21:55Speaker 3: there's also that taking and like acing the big moments
- 21:58Speaker 3: and I think you know Q three was like that
- 22:01Speaker 3: absolutely fantastic qualifying that you mentioned. There's all this tension
- 22:05Speaker 3: off the start and Verstappans got penalty points to worry about,
- 22:07Speaker 3: and he's got the car angled at Russell. It was
- 22:09Speaker 3: a complete non story because Russell totally nailed the start
- 22:12Speaker 3: Forstappan didn't get a look at him in the first corner,
- 22:15Speaker 3: and then for the rest of that race he just
- 22:17Speaker 3: he controlled that race in a manner that we've not
- 22:20Speaker 3: seen George Russell control the race probably before, didn't overreach.
- 22:24Speaker 3: There weren't any lurid moments or things that we're going
- 22:26Speaker 3: to trip him up. He was totally in control. And
- 22:30Speaker 3: Canada's a funny one because it's one of those races
- 22:33Speaker 3: that sometimes when not a lot happens, you always watch
- 22:36Speaker 3: the race at Canada through the lens of there's a
- 22:39Speaker 3: lot of tripwise and things that can spoil your day
- 22:42Speaker 3: there because of the nature of the track and how
- 22:44Speaker 3: close the walls are and even the configuration of the track.
- 22:46Speaker 3: It's a pretty unusual circuit and the way that you
- 22:48Speaker 3: run it. And he took a stressful situation and just
- 22:52Speaker 3: took all the stress out of it. I thought he
- 22:53Speaker 3: was incredibly composed and in control. But the other thing
- 22:57Speaker 3: I loved about this, and we'll probably get onto this
- 22:58Speaker 3: in a second, was that he saw he knew that
- 23:02Speaker 3: he could stir Red Bull and Max for stapping up
- 23:04Speaker 3: this weekend, and he took the opportunity to bait them
- 23:08Speaker 3: and annoy them and just sort of be ever present
- 23:11Speaker 3: with that niggle the entire weekend. I actually love that
- 23:14Speaker 3: because it would have been very easy, just oh no, Look,
- 23:16Speaker 3: we're just focusing on ourselves and we're just doing our
- 23:18Speaker 3: own thing, and we're trying to maximize our opportunity. He
- 23:21Speaker 3: saw an opportunity there to twist the knife a little bit,
- 23:23Speaker 3: knowing how much his opponents were going to hate it,
- 23:26Speaker 3: and actually baiting them into a response, which is probably
- 23:28Speaker 3: why we waited six hours for a Steward's verdict. But
- 23:31Speaker 3: that's another story. But I did enjoy the fact that
- 23:34Speaker 3: he saw an opportunity to be a little bit mischievous
- 23:38Speaker 3: and decided to wrap up the volume on that so
- 23:40Speaker 3: great drive, very very well managed, very accomplished Grand Prix win,
- 23:44Speaker 3: and for a bit of bustardy as well. We'll give
- 23:47Speaker 3: him a tick for that as well.
- 23:48Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think that is a great call
- 23:49Speaker 1: because I think, as we've learned in the last i
- 23:51Speaker 1: don't know, let's just say twelve months, he's certainly not
- 23:55Speaker 1: above the politics. Now. Mercedes isn't. Even if they preck
- 24:00Speaker 1: that they are the cleaner team in some senses that
- 24:01Speaker 1: you could say they were the cleaner team, they're not
- 24:03Speaker 1: totally clean team when it comes to politics. But Russell
- 24:06Speaker 1: certainly isn't. He's a clever guy. He's one of the
- 24:08Speaker 1: smarter guys on the grid, and he knows how to
- 24:10Speaker 1: stir people up and he's got in that sense, at
- 24:13Speaker 1: least I think he has Max with Stapfen's number, he
- 24:15Speaker 1: can get under his skin. We've learned this like probably
- 24:18Speaker 1: no other driver on the grid, which is pretty remarkable
- 24:22Speaker 1: considering Max has had several run ins with lots of
- 24:23Speaker 1: drivers over his time and played that to perfection after qualifying.
- 24:28Speaker 1: And I think there's a legitimacy to it now as well,
- 24:31Speaker 1: because as Red Will sort of slides backwards into the
- 24:33Speaker 1: pack Mercedes, it's probably too early to say they're in
- 24:36Speaker 1: the ascendency. They've said this is not a breakthrough, and
- 24:38Speaker 1: I think that's absolutely right. There's a track that suited
- 24:39Speaker 1: the car, condition that suited the car. We don't expect
- 24:41Speaker 1: them to suddenly be winning races regularly, but they're pretty
- 24:45Speaker 1: closely aligned now, those two teams in terms of their capacity,
- 24:48Speaker 1: so it's not, you know, the little guy just having
- 24:50Speaker 1: a crack at the big guy for the headline. I
- 24:51Speaker 1: think there's there some legitimacy in there, and I think
- 24:54Speaker 1: that they are generally the team and driver under Red
- 24:58Speaker 1: Bull and the staff and skin because we saw the
- 24:59Speaker 1: st and snap in the post qualifying press conference when
- 25:02Speaker 1: he's asked about the penalty points situation. And I think
- 25:04Speaker 1: that is a site you know, as much as some
- 25:06Speaker 1: people will say, well, you know, MAXI just doesn't have
- 25:07Speaker 1: time for whatever. I think he does snap like there
- 25:11Speaker 1: is that is a sign of him getting a little
- 25:13Speaker 1: bit irritated by it. And then let's talk about that
- 25:16Speaker 1: post race investigation that went for twice as long, no
- 25:19Speaker 1: more than three times as long, more than three times
- 25:21Speaker 1: as long as I think the race. Yes, red Bull
- 25:24Speaker 1: lodging a couple of protests against the result, for Russell's
- 25:27Speaker 1: alleged behavior behind the safety car and sporting erratic dangerous
- 25:31Speaker 1: against the rules. It always seemed like a long shot.
- 25:35Speaker 1: I think we were talking after the race when we
- 25:36Speaker 1: was just such a low percentage at best play. They
- 25:40Speaker 1: were clearly entitled to make it accord of the rules.
- 25:42Speaker 1: But what I really liked, Matt, and maybe you can
- 25:44Speaker 1: tell us about this total wolf's comments the day after
- 25:47Speaker 1: actually at the F one movie premiere. Even there's no
- 25:51Speaker 1: break for politics, even when you go to the movies.
- 25:53Speaker 1: I just thought he nailed it so perfectly.
- 25:55Speaker 3: Get the popcorn out when you have an open mic
- 25:57Speaker 3: in front of a total wolf after they've just won
- 25:59Speaker 3: to one o Grand Prix. This quote is funnier if
- 26:03Speaker 3: you read it in his accent, which I know sounds
- 26:05Speaker 3: like a ridiculous thing to say, but talking about the
- 26:08Speaker 3: way that you know obviously read Red Bull was questioning
- 26:12Speaker 3: the gamesmanship and Toto Wolf's comment was about the protest.
- 26:16Speaker 3: It's so petty and so small and the words small.
- 26:20Speaker 3: Actually maybe giggle when I read it when it came
- 26:22Speaker 3: out after the movie premiere, because A it's such a
- 26:25Speaker 3: Toto Wolf thing to say, and it's so dismissive. It's like,
- 26:28Speaker 3: this is pathetic, like what a small effort to try
- 26:31Speaker 3: and spoil and a like what is wrong with you people?
- 26:34Speaker 3: But it does sort of also speak to the there's
- 26:38Speaker 3: something with Red Bull with the way they handle situations
- 26:41Speaker 3: like this. There's this cross between a little bit of
- 26:45Speaker 3: desperation to try and make it look like they're doing
- 26:48Speaker 3: everything possible to keep verstapan on side. It sounds like
- 26:52Speaker 3: from what you read after the event, that Verstappen was
- 26:54Speaker 3: less bothered about this than Red Bull actually were, and
- 26:56Speaker 3: that he was probably halfway home on the private jet
- 26:58Speaker 3: by the time you realized that he had. She retained
- 27:00Speaker 3: second place at this point. So there's this desperation from
- 27:04Speaker 3: Red Bull management to make it like we're in your cornerbacks.
- 27:06Speaker 3: We're in your cornerbacks. Everyone knew what was going on.
- 27:09Speaker 3: Verstappan knew that Russell was trying to stir him r
- 27:11Speaker 3: Russell knew exactly what he was doing. Christian Horner came
- 27:14Speaker 3: out and said that they'd spoken to the stewards and
- 27:16Speaker 3: made them aware that they know there might be a
- 27:17Speaker 3: bit of gamesmanship and things going on here. But I
- 27:20Speaker 3: don't understand how that would be different to any other
- 27:22Speaker 3: team against any other driver in a similar situation. Let's
- 27:25Speaker 3: just say Orlando Norris had one point from being suspended
- 27:28Speaker 3: for a race because of a bunch of penalty points.
- 27:30Speaker 3: Do you think Red buller would have done the same
- 27:32Speaker 3: and stirred the pot for the entire week and they
- 27:33Speaker 3: would have taken a bigger spooed out the Mercedes did
- 27:36Speaker 3: and stirred the pot, knowing the way Red Bull usually
- 27:37Speaker 3: roll with these things. So I thought it was completely
- 27:40Speaker 3: legitimate from Mercedes to tweak Red Bull about it, and
- 27:43Speaker 3: the whole protest thing. You might want to sort of
- 27:46Speaker 3: take our listeners inside this a little bit. But the
- 27:48Speaker 3: problem with protests is that there they can be launched.
- 27:53Speaker 3: The financial outlay for a team to launch a protest
- 27:56Speaker 3: for something as tenuous as this is not enough to
- 27:59Speaker 3: just weigh them from doing its two thousand euro or
- 28:02Speaker 3: something ridiculous. So it's a drop in the ocean. For
- 28:05Speaker 3: some of these teams, there's no disincentive for them to
- 28:08Speaker 3: not launch a protest and waste everyone's time for six hours.
- 28:11Speaker 3: But I wonder if the procedure needs to change, both
- 28:14Speaker 3: in terms of how much a team needs to cough
- 28:16Speaker 3: up to initiate one of these things, and also can
- 28:19Speaker 3: we have a decision within like two hours? Is it
- 28:21Speaker 3: really that hard?
- 28:22Speaker 1: I think they're both great calls, because I think the
- 28:25Speaker 1: deposit on the protest was only introduced not that long ago.
- 28:28Speaker 1: If memory serves to ward off these really spurious protests,
- 28:32Speaker 1: or a team would lodge a protest not really believing
- 28:34Speaker 1: a rule had been broken, but just to make a
- 28:36Speaker 1: point in the wording of their protests, like well we
- 28:38Speaker 1: don't think this is right. Whatever is the case, I
- 28:40Speaker 1: think it was only a couple of years ago it
- 28:42Speaker 1: was brought in, But two thousand euros is hardly anything.
- 28:45Speaker 1: You know, it might make the most ridiculous of protests,
- 28:49Speaker 1: give it a second thought, but clearly not enough in
- 28:51Speaker 1: this situation. So I think there is that element of it,
- 28:53Speaker 1: and then I do think that it's probably time, it
- 28:56Speaker 1: has been time for a while for the FIA to
- 28:58Speaker 1: look at the way that these strace investigations going now.
- 29:01Speaker 1: To be fair, there were quite a few, probably an
- 29:03Speaker 1: unusual number of post race investigations to undertake, featuring quite
- 29:08Speaker 1: a lot of drivers. There was a safety car based
- 29:10Speaker 1: investigation that I think involved six drivers off the top
- 29:12Speaker 1: of my head, five or six drivers after the race.
- 29:14Speaker 1: So there was that element. But I think the requirement
- 29:17Speaker 1: to look at things chronologically probably needs to be rethought,
- 29:20Speaker 1: because no one really cared about with due respect to
- 29:23Speaker 1: what happened to Oliver Berman, considering you finished outside the points,
- 29:26Speaker 1: if you've got a post race penalty or whatever, it
- 29:28Speaker 1: didn't matter, whereas obviously with George Russell that could have
- 29:32Speaker 1: affected the outcome of the Grand Prix, the winner of
- 29:35Speaker 1: the Grand Prix. So I think there's an element of that,
- 29:38Speaker 1: But then we've heard a lot. We're going to understand.
- 29:40Speaker 1: The system is important that you have this group of
- 29:43Speaker 1: stewards and they're the ones that make the decision because
- 29:44Speaker 1: they're from a pool of stewards. That's the only way
- 29:46Speaker 1: you can ensure any kind of consistency, not only within
- 29:48Speaker 1: a race, but from race to race. But we've heard
- 29:51Speaker 1: a lot about the Remote Operations Center in Geneva of
- 29:54Speaker 1: the FIA. We've heard about it likened to var and
- 29:57Speaker 1: that it assists during the race. And I'm sure it
- 29:58Speaker 1: does assist during the race when it comes to things
- 30:00Speaker 1: like track limits whatever, because it's.
- 30:02Speaker 2: Just more eyes.
- 30:03Speaker 1: But there's got to be a way to use more
- 30:06Speaker 1: of the resources that are apparently on offer to speed
- 30:08Speaker 1: up these situations, whether it comes to just riding out
- 30:11Speaker 1: these documents fastucause I'm sure that's part of it getting
- 30:14Speaker 1: them out there. I think there's also part of the
- 30:17Speaker 1: reason there's a delay is that teams have to acknowledge
- 30:19Speaker 1: the receipt of every time a document is sent out
- 30:21Speaker 1: before the next stage can happen, and there's probably some
- 30:23Speaker 1: slowness there when that might be five hours later and
- 30:25Speaker 1: they're all going home or on their debts already. But
- 30:28Speaker 1: there's just has to be a way to expedite this process,
- 30:30Speaker 1: particularly when we're talking about a protest against the winner
- 30:32Speaker 1: of a race.
- 30:34Speaker 2: It's just not a no.
- 30:35Speaker 1: Because imagine how to change Imagine the people who would
- 30:37Speaker 1: have gone to bed and assuming that George Russell was
- 30:39Speaker 1: the winner, or if you were an Australia you've already
- 30:41Speaker 1: gone to work.
- 30:42Speaker 2: You're not going to find out till you get home.
- 30:43Speaker 2: It's just not practical.
- 30:45Speaker 3: Well, and the one I always think of with this
- 30:47Speaker 3: was the Daniel Ricardo podium that wasn't at the two
- 30:50Speaker 3: fourteen Australian Grand Prix. And I remember this because you
- 30:52Speaker 3: were probably sitting in the same press room as me.
- 30:54Speaker 3: I think that final Steward's verdict came through about five
- 30:57Speaker 3: minutes to midnight for a race that had finished at
- 30:59Speaker 3: half past four, and so we all knew Ricardo was
- 31:02Speaker 3: going to get disqualified. There was nothing official, and then
- 31:04Speaker 3: it was announced Daniel Ricardo has been stripped of his
- 31:06Speaker 3: second place. It changed the podium, it changed all the points.
- 31:09Speaker 3: McLaren had two drivers on the podium. I remember I
- 31:11Speaker 3: had the story basically ready to go, hit send and
- 31:14Speaker 3: walked out of the press room at midnight for a
- 31:16Speaker 3: race that finished at help us four. And that was
- 31:18Speaker 3: eleven years ago, so the more things changed, the more
- 31:20Speaker 3: they stayed the same.
- 31:21Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, So hopefully some change there. And just quickly,
- 31:24Speaker 1: I know we already talked about Andrea Kimi Antonelli, but
- 31:26Speaker 1: I just want to mention again first podium for him
- 31:28Speaker 1: ten races into his career, third youngest podium getter in
- 31:31Speaker 1: Formula one. I feel like you already know this, but
- 31:33Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you the question anyway, do you
- 31:34Speaker 1: know who's ahead of him on that table?
- 31:36Speaker 2: Now?
- 31:36Speaker 3: I did read this yesterday and then I got stuck
- 31:38Speaker 3: in six hours of Stuart's Stewart's notes, so you can
- 31:42Speaker 3: you can enlighten the listeners while I try and pick
- 31:43Speaker 3: my brain here.
- 31:44Speaker 1: Yeah, so undeniably and obviously Maxwastaffan is in there. Obviously
- 31:48Speaker 1: his first victory at eight I was also the youngest.
- 31:49Speaker 1: Window'm pretty sure hasn't he had eighteen?
- 31:51Speaker 2: And whatever? Day's two hundred days?
- 31:53Speaker 3: Oh, I know where you're going here. I've just worked
- 31:55Speaker 3: this out.
- 31:55Speaker 1: Yes, Yeah, so I would say fifty percent of them.
- 31:58Speaker 1: It's a good sign to being company of the other
- 32:00Speaker 1: one though, is Lance Stroll who got that podium in
- 32:04Speaker 1: was as I think, wasn't it?
- 32:06Speaker 2: Dum finished the.
- 32:07Speaker 3: Daniel Riccardo won that race. Speaking of Daniel Riccardo, it
- 32:09Speaker 3: was seventeen was.
- 32:10Speaker 1: The Riccardo race. It wasn't both, but there was Botas
- 32:12Speaker 1: who passed him off the line. But there you go, Oh,
- 32:13Speaker 1: there you go. I figured it out in the end.
- 32:15Speaker 1: It was my own got tripped up with my own
- 32:17Speaker 1: question this week remarkable.
- 32:18Speaker 3: This is the most enthusiastic either Orus have been about
- 32:21Speaker 3: Lance Stroll the entire season so far, and probably more
- 32:24Speaker 3: enthusiastic than Lance Stroll has been about Lance Stroll for
- 32:26Speaker 3: most of the part of this season. For anyone out
- 32:28Speaker 3: there that hasn't listened to or read the Thursday FIA
- 32:32Speaker 3: press conference with Tom Clarkson and Lance Stroll was there.
- 32:35Speaker 3: I wouldn't say that he participated, but he was in attendance,
- 32:38Speaker 3: and it was kind of the beginning of a home
- 32:41Speaker 3: grownd Prix weekend where you forgot that he was there.
- 32:43Speaker 3: But if you're into one word answers to press conference questions,
- 32:47Speaker 3: then that's right.
- 32:48Speaker 1: Daniel Alley, Yeah, I think so participation probably sums up
- 32:52Speaker 1: his whole weekend. I think finished lay out of the
- 32:54Speaker 1: points for Fernando a. Lonzo's scored points again forgettable performance,
- 32:58Speaker 1: copped a penalty as well for crashing into Pierre And
- 33:00Speaker 1: I mean, if you liked his press conference performance, if
- 33:02Speaker 1: you can find his post race interview from F one TV,
- 33:06Speaker 1: it's even better and perhaps more infuriating to spending on
- 33:09Speaker 1: your defety and your perspective. So clearly worthwhile for him
- 33:13Speaker 1: to come back this so quickly after his wrisk surgery,
- 33:16Speaker 1: because I'm sure the home fans are very pleased with
- 33:18Speaker 1: his result, but a great performance by Andrea Kimi antonelli'vill
- 33:21Speaker 1: undoubtedly be more to come from him, because I thought
- 33:24Speaker 1: it was interesting about as well. Listening to Total Wolf
- 33:25Speaker 1: after the race, he said, a lot of this year
- 33:27Speaker 1: has been about, but will increasingly be about now expectation management,
- 33:31Speaker 1: because here's a young guy who's done nothing except when
- 33:35Speaker 1: on his way to FORMUD one had great expectations coming
- 33:38Speaker 1: and even if we knew it was such a big step.
- 33:40Speaker 1: But again in ten races, I know it's felt like
- 33:42Speaker 1: a long time because I guess ten races is quite
- 33:44Speaker 1: a while, but it's not really that long. It's only
- 33:46Speaker 1: a couple of months. Has already got onto the podium
- 33:48Speaker 1: for the first time, and not in a lucky way.
- 33:50Speaker 1: Not in a fluke deserved to be. Their performance was great.
- 33:54Speaker 1: This might be one of the few weekends Mercedes has
- 33:56Speaker 1: this level of performance in it, and he took that
- 33:59Speaker 1: opportunity to Stier. Wasn't that far behind Georg Russel any
- 34:02Speaker 1: point this weekend as well. So expectation management now becomes
- 34:05Speaker 1: part of the game because we can't expect that necessarily
- 34:07Speaker 1: every week, but clearly it's becoming increasingly frequent.
- 34:10Speaker 3: Well, And the key thing is he's eighteen years old.
- 34:13Speaker 3: You know, there's so much headroom and so much time
- 34:16Speaker 3: for growth here. I don't think it's going to take
- 34:17Speaker 3: very long, and I don't think this will be the
- 34:19Speaker 3: last time we're having that podium conversation. He's he's been
- 34:22Speaker 3: just about as good as advertised. And the crazy part
- 34:25Speaker 3: about it is he might be what eight years from
- 34:27Speaker 3: his peak in Formula one of him, it's completely wild
- 34:29Speaker 3: to think that he might have a decade ahead of him,
- 34:31Speaker 3: but he still might be still improving.
- 34:33Speaker 2: So yeah, lots to like. Yeah, alarming, isn't that.
- 34:35Speaker 1: Jackie Steward's used to say a driver peaked at thirty
- 34:38Speaker 1: It's a long time.
- 34:39Speaker 3: Not man, So what you're saying is lant Stroll's nearly there.
- 34:43Speaker 2: He's nearly there. He's just hag on to keep the faith. Canadians,
- 34:46Speaker 2: keep the faith. We know you can still be there
- 34:49Speaker 2: at thirty always.
- 34:49Speaker 1: Certainly before we wrap this one up, about the crystal
- 34:52Speaker 1: ball brought to you by Complete home Filtration. What are
- 34:56Speaker 1: you foreseeing in the next week or more of motorsport?
- 35:00Speaker 3: The key thing for me this weekend we have the
- 35:01Speaker 3: Italian motor GP at Magello, one of the great race
- 35:05Speaker 3: tracks for any sport, but particularly motor GP. Incredibly high speed,
- 35:10Speaker 3: incredibly undulating, fantastic quarter names. No thanks to you all
- 35:15Speaker 3: the things that I love about motor GP. But my
- 35:18Speaker 3: crystal ball this weekend is I don't think that the
- 35:22Speaker 3: twenty twenty five motor GP World Championship is necessarily up
- 35:25Speaker 3: for grabs here, but I think if it's going to
- 35:27Speaker 3: be a run to the finish that we all want,
- 35:30Speaker 3: this is almost must win for Peco Banyaya at his
- 35:32Speaker 3: home Grand Prix on Decati's home Grand Prix against Mark Marquez.
- 35:37Speaker 3: He's got to stand his ground here and the good
- 35:39Speaker 3: news for Peco in the next ten days we go
- 35:41Speaker 3: to Magello, where he's won the last three years in
- 35:43Speaker 3: a row, and then we go to Asen, where he's
- 35:44Speaker 3: won the last three years in a row, and we
- 35:47Speaker 3: know that it's been a struggle for him this year
- 35:48Speaker 3: relative to his teammate. Unlocked something at the last race
- 35:51Speaker 3: at Aragon that should that transform his season. He's coming
- 35:57Speaker 3: to probably his strongest two tracks in the space of
- 35:59Speaker 3: a fortnite. This shapes to me as a super important weekend.
- 36:02Speaker 3: I think he's going to win his fourth Italian Grand
- 36:04Speaker 3: Prina Row. I don't think he's necessarily going to challenge
- 36:06Speaker 3: for the title, but I think this is the weekend
- 36:08Speaker 3: where he plants his flag and says, all right, I'm
- 36:10Speaker 3: still here. I'm still really really good on this bike.
- 36:13Speaker 3: And you also know psychologically that Marquez, being the Spaniards
- 36:17Speaker 3: in the Italians backyard, he would love to create a
- 36:19Speaker 3: little George Russell mischief and win this race this weekend.
- 36:22Speaker 3: But I think we might get the Intra team to
- 36:25Speaker 3: caddy fight that we've wanted all season. But I think
- 36:26Speaker 3: it's Spanya who wins it.
- 36:28Speaker 1: Oh look, we'd all love to see it as well.
- 36:29Speaker 1: Very popular victory and Italian winning on Italian soil, Fingers crossed, what.
- 36:33Speaker 2: Have you go?
- 36:33Speaker 1: I'm going to go over to Supercars Land. We've got
- 36:36Speaker 1: the Darwin triple Crown. I'm usually close to the previous race,
- 36:38Speaker 1: only a fortnight between them, and the rules have change
- 36:42Speaker 1: this year. For anyone who's been keeping track of the
- 36:43Speaker 1: triple Crown, I don't think of you if you're not,
- 36:45Speaker 1: because it's proved almost impossible to win. I think it's
- 36:47Speaker 1: just because winners ever, and so the criteria has changed.
- 36:50Speaker 1: Supercars organizers have said, or Darwen organizers said, look, no
- 36:53Speaker 1: one can do it. No one can win all three races.
- 36:55Speaker 1: It's unlikes and not like supercars for one driver to
- 36:58Speaker 1: sweep an entire weekend of victories. So now if you
- 37:02Speaker 1: get the most points, so a conventional perpetual trophy rule,
- 37:05Speaker 1: and I think that's almost certainly means it's going to
- 37:07Speaker 1: be brock Phene's. He has been so good at Darwin
- 37:09Speaker 1: the last couple of years, so he've been the sport
- 37:11Speaker 1: for a couple of years, but he's been so good there.
- 37:12Speaker 1: It's really it's not his home territory, but on the
- 37:15Speaker 1: quality home territory for the purposes of his level of performance.
- 37:18Speaker 1: So he's actually going to finally win this. We're actually
- 37:21Speaker 1: going to finally find out. I know you, do you
- 37:23Speaker 1: think if you have got twenty twenty and there was
- 37:25Speaker 1: a previous winner of the triple crown, perhaps I'm actually
- 37:27Speaker 1: going to find out what that trophy looks like. And
- 37:29Speaker 1: I personally hope it is a real crown. If anyone's
- 37:31Speaker 1: been thinking about this, if the winner does not get
- 37:34Speaker 1: an actual three pointed crown, then they've missed a trick.
- 37:36Speaker 3: Well, they've had five years to get it right, so
- 37:38Speaker 3: you would hope so that that's a good call. Because
- 37:42Speaker 3: how he's how he's not worn the aforementioned crowd previously
- 37:45Speaker 3: based on his results, there is a little bit of
- 37:47Speaker 3: a mystery, but yeah, you might be right. This could
- 37:49Speaker 3: be the weekend that he rights that particular wrong.
- 37:52Speaker 1: It's got to be a crown, guys, it's right in
- 37:53Speaker 1: the name. Come on, that's all the time we've got
- 37:55Speaker 1: for Fittalk today. You can subscribe to bittog reev. You
- 37:58Speaker 1: get your favorite podcast and you can leave us rating
- 38:00Speaker 1: and a review as well. This weekend is the Motorcycle
- 38:03Speaker 1: Italian Grand Prix Italian Motorcycle Grand Prix even with lights
- 38:06Speaker 1: out at ten pm on Sunday, and the Supercars Dar
- 38:09Speaker 1: and Triple Crown from Friday until Sunday. You can keep
- 38:11Speaker 1: up to date with all the latest F one, supercars
- 38:13Speaker 1: and MOTODP news at Foxsports dot com dot Au. From
- 38:16Speaker 1: Matt Clayton and me Michael Lomonato. Thanks very much for
- 38:18Speaker 1: your company. We'll catch you next week.