Latest / The Undercut / Max Jumps Ahead Early and Takes the Win in Imola! - 2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix Review

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Max Jumps Ahead Early and Takes the Win in Imola! - 2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix Review · The Undercut

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:09
  Speaker B: Thanks for tuning in to the Undercuts review of the 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and enjoy the show. By being a racing driver, you are at risk all the time. By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for.
• 0:31
  Speaker A: A gap that exists, you're no longer a racing driver.
• 0:34
  Speaker B: All right, so I guess is this is the. The first race in Europe, right? The very first race in Europe, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola. And I heard there were lots of rumors that this might be the. The last one here, which I did not realize that they hadn't filled out a contract going forward, but they seem to be talking about a lot how it might be the last race at Imola. And of course, there's been some not great history at Imola and some great history at Imola. So, you know, I mean, it's a.
• 1:15
  Speaker A: I guess that said, it's a classic circuit, isn't it? You know, it's been. Has it been on the calendar pretty much every year, like recently? Like, like. Or.
• 1:24
  Speaker C: Yeah, well, it was. It was off the calendar for a good chunk of years. I'm actually just trying to work out how. How long it was off the calendar for before it came back in 2020. Because it came back in 2020, as, you know, when they were looking for circuits to host races around the world because they couldn't travel, like, to Asia, and they were looking to. So if you recall, they went back to Portimao in Portugal because when there were no crowds, they didn't need a lot of the infrastructure that is kind of necessary for F1 in the 2000 and 20s. Then you've go, so Portimao fell off. But they liked being in Imola, but in terms of a facility, it's not really big enough backstage to host all of the media, all of the VIPs, and all the kind of things that, that they need in F1 these days. And they can't actually expand it in any way, really, because there's a river that runs right there. So that's. That's what's hampering. That's what's standing in the way of growing, growing the infield section, essentially. So.
• 2:34
  Speaker A: And that river played a part last year, I guess, right, when it flooded and the whole race got called off, right?
• 2:40
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 2:41
  Speaker C: Yeah. Well, I mean, the race was essentially called off mostly because they didn't want to put, like, all the cops to work Directing traffic when they should be saving people.
• 2:52
  Speaker A: Right, yeah, of course.
• 2:53
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 2:53
  Speaker A: Right. There was a flood. It was a flood. So, you know, the whole. The whole area was just a disaster zone. So, yeah, it would be a shame if they lose it. It's definitely a circuit that. One of the few circuits that I know well from my days of playing, like, the old video games and stuff like that. Another one. Sad to see it go, but I saw a lot of signs in the stand saying, Save Imola. We'll see.
• 3:20
  Speaker C: Yeah. And with. With Kimi Antonelli being from the area as well, you know, people want to keep it, but when you really think about it, how far is Monza away? Not that far, really. So, yeah, two. Two Grand Prix in Italy, especially when they, you know, they didn't have an Italian F1 driver for a few years.
• 3:39
  Speaker B: True.
• 3:39
  Speaker C: It was a bit, you know, a bit ripe for losing one of them.
• 3:43
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 3:45
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 3:45
  Speaker B: I don't know if you saw the picture. Obviously, Crofty. This is the one race where he was not there for the weekend. So it was Harry Benjamin and Anthony Davidson. They showed a picture of the two of them standing in the booth and Harry Benjamin's head is, like, at the ceiling, pushing on the ceiling. I don't know if it's just the room is small and Anthony is really small, so it makes him look way bigger or if he's actually that big.
• 4:11
  Speaker C: But he looks very tall, man. And it kind of reminds me of the. The picture of Yuki and that basketball player that we were sharing on the. On the WhatsApp.
• 4:24
  Speaker B: That's so funny.
• 4:25
  Speaker C: But, yeah.
• 4:25
  Speaker B: Anyway, let's get into the race. It was a difficult start coming from a McLaren fan perspective, because it was looking good. Oscar looked to have a really great jump, but Max just being Max, and, I mean, I. I can't say he was too aggressive. It was just like the perfect move the outside into turn one and taking P1, and he just kind of like, stormed away at that point. I mean, we had the safety car period where it looked like it was going to get bunched up, but Oscar and Lando were fighting each other for the whole rest of the race. So it was just Max in the lead the whole time?
• 5:03
  Speaker C: Pretty much, yeah. I mean, it was. And Max didn't really get a great start. I mean, Right. It looked like. It looked like if Piastri had moved over a little bit more and squeezed Max, George was the one who was probably, you know, gonna get, you know, challenge into the first corner. I think Piastri thought, oh, Max is Way back. And he was staying tight to cover George going up the inside, which put himself having to break early to get round the corner. And he broke. He break too early. And that gave Verstappen the chance to put a sweet move.
• 5:44
  Speaker A: I mean, that's.
• 5:45
  Speaker C: And get around the outside.
• 5:46
  Speaker A: That's when Verstappen's in the Piastri position. He doesn't let people go around the outside. Right. He pushes them wide at that point and pushes them off. But you're right, Piastri also was kind of covering off George because George definitely got the better start. But he was ultimately boxed in with Piastri in front of him and Max enough alongside him. And yeah, Russell came on the radio complaining about Piastri immediately, basically breaking too soon and giving Max the lead. But that was absolutely key for Max, right, to be in front.
• 6:23
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, like we said, like we said, George had the amazing jump. I mean, honestly, I don't. I feel like if he had gone one way, Max would have got by and if he had gone the other way, George would have got by. So, I mean, maybe it looked like George had the better jump, so, you know, maybe he would have had the better. The better shot at making the pass. But, I mean, I guess we'll. We'll never know.
• 6:45
  Speaker C: Yeah. But watching the in car from. From Max Verstappen, you really see how much later Max breaked into that corner. Yeah, he just. He was a full car length behind and then. Oh, he got by. It was.
• 6:57
  Speaker A: Yeah, it was a bit weird just to see the car, just to see Piastro even give him that much room to get around the outside or he just had the pace or. And then, of course, it's a chicane, so he had the inside for the second half of it and he was. He was through.
• 7:12
  Speaker C: Yeah. I think also everyone sees the McLaren as being a faster car for the race. So is it a part of him being just a little bit too conservative now, obviously learning his lesson for doing that. You know, seeing other moves that have been made, and especially last week, Lando's attempt to go around the outside, which put him in the gravel and ultimately cost Lando probably the race in Miami. The, you know, thinking that they're going to have an opportunity later in the stint, towards the end of the stint, or even with an undercut to get by and not have to make that pass on track. Essentially underestimating how good the Red Bull was going to be at Imola. You know, the, the fast corners, which are Red Bulls which suit the Red Bull car more than the lower and medium speed, which is really where the McLaren is by far the strongest.
• 8:12
  Speaker B: Right.
• 8:13
  Speaker C: The track suited Red Bull a lot more than they thought. And, and Max, once he was in the lead, really stayed there on pace. It's a very narrow track. You don't really get a whole lot of overtaking opportunities. But that's not why they couldn't get by. They legitimately couldn't keep up.
• 8:33
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I, I also. McLaren also made, like, every mistake that they could make in this race. It felt like, I mean, they had three pit stops that were slower than they should have been. One of Lando's pit stops came the lap before a safety car came out or a virtual safety car. I mean, obviously coming out of the.
• 8:55
  Speaker C: Pits when, when the yellow flag came.
• 8:57
  Speaker B: Out, I think it was. Ocon had retired at that point.
• 9:01
  Speaker A: I mean, you could hardly call that a mistake, though. That's just. That's just unlucky. You know, we know that Lando has had luck with safety cars in the past, so maybe this is, you know, karma evening out. But that was, that was. Must have been very frustrating. And, yeah, it just fell into the lap of who was it that hadn't pit at that point? Verstappen and Albon was still out at the front. So they just got these super cheap pit stops, which just absolutely solidified their position at the front of the race.
• 9:32
  Speaker B: But, yeah, I mean, go ahead, go ahead.
• 9:35
  Speaker A: Well, I was just going to say that, and I'm just reiterating what you guys said, is that I was kind of surprised how McLaren really couldn't make any inroads into the Red Bull lead. You know, this is the first. Well, it's been the first race because Max won a race earlier on in the season, but it just couldn't. It was just driving away from them. Right. So there was no. All the action was further back. And there was some good action, too.
• 10:00
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, absolutely. The one team that stuck out to me throughout the whole race was Ferrari. I mean, from where they were starting from qualifying and how they were able to just make so many passes and just get all the way up, Ferrari looked the best team out there today.
• 10:21
  Speaker A: Saturday. The Saturday qualifying was definitely very disappointing. And they both went out in Q2. But yeah, you're right. For once, the Ferrari made the. Made the best of it that they could. I think maybe at the end there, there was a little bit of issue with the overtake of Albon, and leclerc had to give it Back because they deemed he pushed him off the road, but everything else was great. Yeah, Hamilton made some great moves. Good strategy and. Yeah, what did they end up? 4th and 6th in the end after starting 11th and 12th and 11th or something like that?
• 10:56
  Speaker B: Yeah, I think so.
• 10:57
  Speaker A: So. Yeah, that's really good. In front of the home crowd.
• 11:01
  Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, Lewis, I haven't seen him look this happy since he's joined Ferrari and I mean, the crowd was. Was the Tifosi were happy to see him there too, which was. Which was good to see.
• 11:11
  Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, he actually, Lewis had a great race. I mean, obviously his best Grand Prix as a Ferrari driver. He looked like a new man. I don't know why. I guess maybe just being in Italy as a Ferrari driver kind of put a pep in his step and he, you know, but he was there battling for a good chunk of the race with Kimi Antonelli, really. I mean, even through the pit stops. But then did manage to get past him. I don't know, it seemed like he found a way to get way more speed coming down to Tamburello than anyone else because there was a stretch where he took Kimmy and someone else like a lap or two later. I forget exactly who it was, but yeah, same place. And, yeah, good traction, I guess, on the new tires.
• 12:03
  Speaker B: Yeah. Did you guys see the. Fernando came in to the pits and both of his wheels caught on fire.
• 12:12
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 12:12
  Speaker C: What was up on his way. On his way out? The brakes. Yeah, they were super hot, which didn't really. I didn't really kind of confuse me a little because it's not really a heavy. There's not a heavy braking zone on the core on the circuit at all, really.
• 12:27
  Speaker B: Right.
• 12:27
  Speaker C: Because it's, you know, it's into fast chicanes mostly.
• 12:32
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 12:32
  Speaker C: So maybe it was a cooling. Maybe they. Maybe that's why the Astons were pretty good. Maybe they had like, small cooling packages on and they could. They could run their car hotter and that helped. I don't know. But it was surprising to see, you know, because Aston Martin had been terrible the last few races. But, you know, Fernando had a, you know, great qualifying, ran really strongly in the race and Stroll did okay too well.
• 13:01
  Speaker A: But they ended up kind of dropping back in the end, though, didn't they? They finished out of the points. I think they did finish out the.
• 13:06
  Speaker C: Points, but they had a, you know, it was just really. Maybe it was that. That final tyre compound, they couldn't get working. But, you know, certainly through the earlier phases of the weekend, they did okay.
• 13:18
  Speaker A: There was, there was definitely something weird going on because I think this is one race where we actually managed. Watched it together, Nick and I. But Alonso, yeah, he qualified fifth, but then kind of was going backwards, which is a bit strange. But you mentioned the tires as well. There didn't seem to be a massive difference. Right. Between the hards and the mediums, or the mediums would. Would go off and then they would come back again on certain cars. Yeah, it would. You know, people on hards were overtaking people on mediums, which you don't.
• 13:46
  Speaker C: Yeah, they would. They are the three softest compounds. They brought the new C6, which is the softest of the soft.
• 13:54
  Speaker A: Right, right.
• 13:56
  Speaker C: So in other places, these, you know, they would have been the soft tire.
• 14:00
  Speaker B: Right, right.
• 14:01
  Speaker C: And, and, and that's, you know, good point on the, you know, conservation on the people bidding on mediums or the mediums getting soft, getting harder to, to deal with and, you know, graining. That's probably what triggered those early pit stops, like Piastri, seeing that the tyres were going away, but there was blistering there. But then it seemed that the guys that stayed out managed to push through that and were able to run longer and then get to the point at which the VSC came out and then make that stop. And that's one less pit stop. And this is one of the longest pit lanes, that slow pit lane speed limit here as well. It's like 28 to 29 second loss compared to normally, like about a 20 second loss. So that's a lot of time to leave on the table for the likes of Piastri.
• 14:56
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Which is. We're not used to seeing that this year. Right. Everybody's talking about how McLaren is managing its tyres so well, getting heat into them, getting into the operating window and holding them there. And what sort of black magic are they using to make that happen? But it was the McLarens that came in. Well, at least Piastri came in to change his tires. But Verstappen did half the Grand Prix on his mediums.
• 15:21
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 15:21
  Speaker A: Before he, before he pitted. So maybe this is a sign of things to come. Maybe, you know, Red Bull's found something. But it could also be that, as Nick said, that Imola, just the way it lays out, the types of corners that it is, the type of track it is, favors the Red Bull handling more than the McLarens. They certainly seemed at least evenly matched. If not, the Red Bulls definitely had an advantage.
• 15:46
  Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, that's what I found so frustrating about Lando coming in before Max, because if we're really that much better on the tire, I would have just kept going and going and going until Max bit and just waited. I mean, ultimately the safety car came out the next lap, so they both would have come in anyway. But, you know, you lost the opportunity to use what is supposedly the better car on the tires in that instance. So it is. It is what it is. But I mean, we ended up getting a. Another safety car for Kimmy. Right. And that was when, you know, it looked like there was a chance that we could see another fight, but that was not the case. Well, there was a fight, just not for the lead.
• 16:31
  Speaker A: Yeah. Verstappen just put the moves on everybody in a once again enjoyable way. And you ended up with the two McLarens fighting each other. Right. Which probably put your heart in your mouth a little bit when they were getting very close together.
• 16:42
  Speaker B: I was mad. I was so mad.
• 16:45
  Speaker A: What were you mad about? You just wanted them to hold station or let. Let the.
• 16:49
  Speaker B: No, second. I wanted them to swap. I wanted. I wanted him to let Lando in. Oscar was on 19 lap old tires. Lando was on 4 lap old tires. And you have a chance with Max right in front of you. Swap it right away and fight for the win.
• 17:04
  Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, the chance to get the win was always going to be the restart, so you couldn't switch before then.
• 17:12
  Speaker B: Right.
• 17:13
  Speaker C: And then Max was still the fastest. It wouldn't have made a whole lot of difference anyway, but he would have still continued to drive away. But it would have been good to see if they could hang and, you know. Yeah. Piastri was never be able to hang with 19 lap hole tyres. The virtual safety car for the first Ocon and a full safety car for Antonelli, even though they stopped in exactly the same spot, is that right? Yeah. They stopped in exactly the same spot. However, whereas they were able to push Ocon's car through a gap in the barrier, they couldn't do that to Antonelli's car because Ocon's car was there. So that's why. So they had to bring on a vehicle to get him. And that's why, obviously straight away, as soon as you bring any sort of recovery vehicles on track, then you've. You've got a full. You've got to put out the full safety car. And apparently it was a little bit longer than they expected, or we expected it. I don't recall exactly how long the safety car was out, but they had to move some stuff out of the way to clear space. To put Antonelli's stricken Mercedes when they did take it to the next hole in the fence, like some signs or cones or stuff that they had to move.
• 18:32
  Speaker A: Oh, dear. You can't always get the best people, I guess, but.
• 18:38
  Speaker B: Well, I guess, you know, the tights around the track is very tight. So this kind of stuff I guess happens, right?
• 18:45
  Speaker C: Yeah, but it's great on some of those aerial shots. Yeah, it's tight, but you know, when you see the aerial shots and it's really just in this small Italian town, you got the little houses and all that and the country streets, it's just. Yeah, you're really in a town. It's not like you go to like Silverstone or, you know, like in the UK or in. Even in Austria, where it's just in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, it's pretty and everything, but it's just in the middle of nowhere here. It's actually in town.
• 19:17
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 19:21
  Speaker B: But I mean, another. Another team that really looked great on, on the weekend was Williams again. I mean, it seems like the two teams that have like the. The most equal drivers, at least in my opinion, is the McLarens and the Williams right now just look to be so impressive and very close. I mean, Albon up until that point with the Ferrari is looking like, you know, maybe he has a chance at a podium. It didn't seem entirely likely, but it was possible he was sitting there in fourth. And they're both able to stay in the points and get good points for the team.
• 20:01
  Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I'm sure that, you know, there were people out there praying that Lando and Oscar crashed into each other while they were battling to try and. Yeah, yeah.
• 20:12
  Speaker A: That would have done it, but would have been, you know, it would have been a lot of merit for the Williams team. Right. They have been consistent. This isn't luck that they're up there. They're definitely performing. That is real performance that they've had like race after race. So I wouldn't be surprised if some things can fall their way later on in the season. Maybe they could pick up that podium. I think Alex hasn't been up there five years or so since he was on the podium, I guess before he joined Williams. Yeah, I'm guessing, but.
• 20:41
  Speaker C: But, yeah, I mean, yeah, but another 14 points for Williams.
• 20:46
  Speaker A: This, oh, massive this week.
• 20:48
  Speaker C: That's a huge amount of points. And now I don't have the standings up in front of me. But like, you know, you've got the bigger teams that are all like, well ahead and then You've got a. Williams are just like in this spot where they're not going to be able to catch but I don't think anyone's going to catch them, so.
• 21:07
  Speaker A: Right.
• 21:08
  Speaker C: You know, I think they're pretty much locked in in the standings to. What is it, fifth?
• 21:14
  Speaker A: Fifth? Yeah. Behind the big four or whatever. Ferrari.
• 21:18
  Speaker C: Yeah. Here we go. Yeah. Yeah. You got Ferrari with 114 points in fourth, Williams with 51 and then Haas with 20.
• 21:28
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 21:30
  Speaker B: And then nasty Martin with Lance Troll leading the way with all 14 points for the team.
• 21:37
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 21:38
  Speaker C: That's future world champion.
• 21:43
  Speaker B: Oh, I hope not. I hope not. But I mean it. At least on the constructors side of the championship. McLaren is looking pretty far and away already to be kind of running away with this.
• 22:00
  Speaker A: Yeah, for sure, for sure. But not so much in the drivers now. Like Max is putting himself back in the mix. It's absolutely a three horse race right now.
• 22:10
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 22:10
  Speaker A: And see what's going to happen.
• 22:13
  Speaker B: Yeah. I mean what's the gap between the three of them now? Like 22 points or something like that.
• 22:19
  Speaker C: Oscar on 146, Lando on 133 and Max on 124.
• 22:25
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 22:26
  Speaker B: Wow.
• 22:27
  Speaker A: I mean Russell could put himself in the mix but he needs some of those guys to DNF and pick up a race or something. Maybe he can be relevant, but it'll take a lot of luck based on what we've seen. I mean another similar race from, from Russell right after that amazing start that gave him an opportunity but ultimately couldn't, you know, got boxed in. But he didn't. Did he do too much after that? I didn't see too much.
• 22:51
  Speaker B: He went backwards.
• 22:52
  Speaker A: Him making any moves. Yeah. Or big overtakes or anything like that. But I know another solid performance from him, I guess. Yeah, I liked. Sorry, go on.
• 23:05
  Speaker B: No, yeah. I was just gonna say it's, it's probably been the toughest weekend for Mercedes on the season. Right. With Kimmy not finishing the race and George starting in P3 and ending up in P7.
• 23:18
  Speaker A: Yeah. I guess that's Russell's worst performance. He's been in the top five pretty much every race. Right.
• 23:23
  Speaker C: So yeah, he dropped and, but he was, he was with Piastri. Right. He, he pitted before the virtual safety car and so fell behind those that, you know, that hadn't, that, you know, had not already pitted. He got, I think the, the first, the earliest stop was Charles leclerc. Right. And they saw that the undercut was, was really strong because I think Piastri, when When Piastri pitted, he was actually behind leclerc.
• 23:52
  Speaker A: Right.
• 23:53
  Speaker C: When he came back out, that was right, right?
• 23:58
  Speaker B: I think so.
• 23:59
  Speaker C: Edit. Yeah. But, yeah, so seeing that the undercut was actually pretty strong, you can understand why, you know, guys who are struggling on their tyres a little bit made the call to come in early. Obviously they weren't to know that there was going to be a virtual safety car a few laps later.
• 24:18
  Speaker A: I. I thought Hajar continued to impress as well. He had, like, a. A solid race. He was. Yeah. Up in the top five or something. You know, obviously with all the pit stops and everything working, messing the positions up a little bit, but very solid race. You know, I was definitely personally, like, concerned after he, you know, got crashed on the formation lap in the first Grand Prix and, like, was he gonna be able to pull it together? But since then, he's done amazingly well. Yeah.
• 24:47
  Speaker C: Yeah. Started P9, finished P9, just doing a really solid job.
• 24:53
  Speaker A: I mean, he's. He's. He's beating Lawson every which way. Right. Every race. His teammate, which is what you can ask for a lot of these guys, like, if they're in similar. Similar machines or the same machine. Who. Who's faster than who. It's. It's definitely Hajar.
• 25:09
  Speaker C: Yeah. And he finished ahead of Yuki as well, obviously. Yuki in 20. Sorry, in. In 10th. But Yuki did start right at the back. Yeah, I mean, he started from the pit lane. Yeah, that's right. So for him to come back to 10th, really good. But, you know, finishing ahead of the Red Bull, which was the fastest car in the. In the hands of Verstappen, is still probably something that Hajar's pretty happy with.
• 25:37
  Speaker A: I mean, Yuki's just happy to be there right after his crash on. On Saturday. That. That was pretty scary to see. You see cars sliding off all the time, but then it. I guess it was in the gravel and dug into the gravel and flipped. Flipped over. You never want to see a car upside down, but luckily all the safety equipment worked properly. Is that an argument for getting rid of gravel? Gravel traps? Because sometimes the drivers like it just to be all asphalt. Right. So the car will just slide and maybe stop or hit the wall, but.
• 26:08
  Speaker B: And then they can not break at corners and be safe.
• 26:12
  Speaker A: Well, yeah, I mean, there's pros and cons. A hundred percent. It doesn't slow you down if you're going in a straight line. Yeah. And if something's broken on the car, so, yeah, maybe I'll shut up. But the gravel. The gravel contributed to the car Flipping. No question. Right?
• 26:29
  Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I just know Max will take advantage of that. If that were what they decided to do.
• 26:35
  Speaker A: Max will just create his own circuit.
• 26:38
  Speaker B: Right.
• 26:39
  Speaker A: Edges.
• 26:39
  Speaker B: This is my line.
• 26:40
  Speaker A: Edges. Wherever he wants it to be.
• 26:44
  Speaker C: Just. Just put nails there. Right.
• 26:47
  Speaker A: Burst all the tires. Yeah. When you go off.
• 26:50
  Speaker C: So then you get. You get it. Burst your tires if you go off. But then if you do go off, then you don't flip over.
• 26:57
  Speaker A: Yeah. There you go. I think we fixed it, guys.
• 27:00
  Speaker B: I like it. We'll send it to F1, see if they. They approve it. I mean, there wasn't really much else that happened during the race. I mean, I guess we spoke about it in the last episode that it was likely Jack Doan wasn't going to be on the team anymore. And obviously Franco Cal Pinto came in this weekend. And I'm not forgetting. Right. He did crash the car.
• 27:26
  Speaker A: Yes. Qualifying.
• 27:28
  Speaker C: Yeah, the crash. Yeah, the crash. Bill is already racking up and he hadn't even started pace before binning it. Right. Yeah. I mean, obviously we want him to do well. You want to see. I like to see young drivers come through. And he was. He seems like quite a cool. Cool guy. You want to see him do well. But he's got to cut out the crashes, make better risk management decisions. I think that's how he described his accident in Vegas. Poor risk management.
• 28:00
  Speaker B: That's funny. But I mean, did you see that? They also, as soon as the crash happened, they put the camera on Jack Doohan walking through the paddock just smiling from ear to ear.
• 28:12
  Speaker C: I didn't see that.
• 28:14
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 28:14
  Speaker A: Correlation isn't always causation, but. Yeah, that's. The director is trying to make something.
• 28:20
  Speaker B: That's how they made it look.
• 28:22
  Speaker A: He's writing a story. I mean, that's formula one for you, right? Somebod else's screw up could be somebody else's opportunity. So.
• 28:31
  Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, it happened the other way around, so.
• 28:33
  Speaker A: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, they still only got Colapinto on what. He's got four more races on his contract, so they're not. They're definitely not married to him, are they? Yet. So.
• 28:44
  Speaker B: Well, his contract's three years, but I guess they. They said he has five races to prove himself, whatever that means.
• 28:51
  Speaker C: What?
• 28:52
  Speaker B: It's like a rotation or supposedly.
• 28:54
  Speaker A: I see what you mean. Right. Yeah.
• 28:57
  Speaker C: They're kind of doing what the Cleveland Browns are doing with quarterbacks this year.
• 29:04
  Speaker A: Maybe they should come up one of Those dual seated F1 cars again and like send them both out at the same time or something. I don't know.
• 29:11
  Speaker B: Yeah. Or they could just hire Mario Andretti to come do it for them. You know, he's the one that drives those, right?
• 29:16
  Speaker A: He does. He. Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 29:20
  Speaker C: One thing they did show, Daniel Kvyat was there. He was.
• 29:24
  Speaker B: Oh, I did notice that.
• 29:26
  Speaker C: And I saw a thing on Twitter today. It's, like, typical that he shows this race to come to and Max has won that, you know. Yeah.
• 29:34
  Speaker B: Of course.
• 29:36
  Speaker A: He's always in his shadow.
• 29:37
  Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I think that's. That's really it from this race. I mean, let me look at my notes real quick. I feel like we've hit on most of it. I guess the people that struggled that we didn't talk about really were. Well, I guess we talked about Aston, who started in both cars in the top 10 and ended up not scoring any points. And then Gasly, at least for Alpine, started in the top 10 as well and was not able to get points. I feel like he got called out with. Oh, no, he went wide and lost a bunch of places.
• 30:11
  Speaker A: Right. He went lap three or something.
• 30:14
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, he was. He was trying to go around Piratella on the outside, and that didn't work out too well. And, yeah, he went off. Yeah. Being so early in the race, three or four cars got by while he was hopping across the gravel trap.
• 30:31
  Speaker A: Yeah, I think Lando did that a little bit, too, when he was having. I'm not sure who he was trying to overtake at the time. I don't remember. But he went onto the grass a little bit, but he held it together. Didn't lose all the time like Gasly did. But there was a. Yeah, it is a very narrow track, I think, Nick, you were saying that to me. So it is hard to overtake, and there is no hard breaking zone from a long straight or something like that. So you have to be brave to go around the outside at these chicanes. People were able to get it done, but it made for some. Some good racing, for sure.
• 31:02
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 31:03
  Speaker C: Yeah. One great thing about this circuit, one of my favorite things about the. The older circuits and the ones in Italy in particular, the corner. The corners have names, not numbers. That's the one thing that is. You know, all these new circuits, they. They don't really have any history. They're just kind of grown up in the middle of nowhere, and they have corner names. But here we've got, like, the, you know, Aqua minerale is. Is always the one. Right. That they. They can't help but mentioning. But, like, Tamburello and Rivazza you sound.
• 31:36
  Speaker A: You sound. You're sounding like a bit like an old man now though, Nick. You know, like. Oh, they don't make. They don't make circuits like too.
• 31:44
  Speaker C: But I. I like. I like corner names. You know, like you go to Silverstone. They. They've got names.
• 31:49
  Speaker A: Cops, Beckett, Stow, Luffield. Yeah, all that. Exactly. Exactly.
• 31:55
  Speaker B: Well, I guess that takes us into coops. F1. Martin.
• 31:59
  Speaker A: Oh geez. You two. You two boys, you. You're like you've been waiting for this part at the end of the pod, but yeah, some. Some good. Some names known to me this time. Some of my friends. So top score this week from box box. 275 points. But second. Candy Benson, friend of mine, she got second highest score 263. And then. Yeah. The overall standings. Jason, you. You're holding on to top spot but Nick barely. But Nick moved up with just four spots to be right behind you. Top two. I mean if the FIA is going to get. You talked about collusion. Are you we going to trust Coops? F1. Do you guys have like you've been checking by logins or something? Adjusting things in the background? I don't.
• 32:49
  Speaker C: The conspiracy theorists will, you know, they'll be looking at this with a fine tooth, with some cynicism.
• 32:58
  Speaker B: Yeah, I'm sure Christian Horner's got something to say.
• 33:01
  Speaker C: It's all above board.
• 33:03
  Speaker A: It's all above board.
• 33:04
  Speaker C: Well, it's all above board. Honest gov.
• 33:07
  Speaker A: Jackal moved up to third. So it's quite a top heavy leaderboard actually because I have the little icons that show past winners of the of Coup's F1 and 4. Three of the top four have all had, you know, first, second or third place finishes overall in. In the history of this website. So I guess it goes to show if you know what you're talking about, the cream rises to the top. How did I do?
• 33:31
  Speaker B: If I hadn't gone crazy two years ago, I probably would have had a silver trophy on there too. But picked Lando to win when Max was obviously win.
• 33:39
  Speaker A: You are betting with your. Your.
• 33:41
  Speaker C: You've got to speculate to accumulate, haven't you? Right? It was getting late in the season and you thought you'd put like all. You went all in.
• 33:48
  Speaker B: Put all the chips all in for the win. Yes.
• 33:52
  Speaker A: Well, it's a. The less the. The less said about me, the better. I did go up one place, but it was just from 178th to 177th, so.
• 34:01
  Speaker B: Well, right direction, right direct.
• 34:03
  Speaker A: Okay, I appreciate that.
• 34:07
  Speaker B: Well I guess next week is the quote unquote Monaco race. I guess the quote unquote would be around the race word, not the Monaco word.
• 34:19
  Speaker A: It's definitely going to be in the city called Monaco. Yes.
• 34:23
  Speaker B: Right.
• 34:24
  Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, yeah, we'll see how much overtaking there is there. Probably not much, as usual.
• 34:31
  Speaker B: Yeah. But we do have the new rule, right. With. They have to pit twice now at the Monaco Grand Prix. Right.
• 34:38
  Speaker A: So they're trying to generate some interest. We'll see how that changes things. They should maybe think about putting some nails down on the corners then, you know.
• 34:50
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 34:50
  Speaker C: Just water the track. Get a hose pipe out.
• 34:53
  Speaker A: Just tip, just break the side of the swimming pool, whatever that chicane is, and like, have it flooding across the track.
• 35:02
  Speaker B: I think that for Monaco, they should only for this race, go back to the cars from, like, the 80s that are way smaller and they'd be able to pass each other also.
• 35:13
  Speaker A: Just.
• 35:13
  Speaker C: Yeah, just have, like, Monaco specific cars.
• 35:16
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 35:17
  Speaker A: It's only money.
• 35:18
  Speaker B: That's what IndyCar does for the Indy 500, which is also next Sunday.
• 35:23
  Speaker A: Yeah. Big, big weekend of racing.
• 35:25
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 35:26
  Speaker A: Although the Indy stuff's already started. Right. They do qualifying over multiple days.
• 35:31
  Speaker B: That just finished yesterday. Yeah.
• 35:33
  Speaker C: Robert Schwartzman. Right.
• 35:34
  Speaker B: Did he get on pole?
• 35:36
  Speaker C: Former Ferrari Academy driver. Ferrari reserve driver. Yeah.
• 35:42
  Speaker B: Taking his first ever oval.
• 35:46
  Speaker A: What?
• 35:46
  Speaker B: He's never raced on an oval before and he got pull at the Indy 500.
• 35:50
  Speaker A: Wow. Impressive.
• 35:53
  Speaker B: Yeah. Should be exciting. He has to give up the corner.
• 35:58
  Speaker C: I had the nose ahead.
• 35:59
  Speaker A: What is wrong with these people?
• 36:02
  Speaker B: Thanks for listening to the undercuts review of the 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you listen. And join us next time for our review of the Monaco Grand Prix. We'll see you.