Latest / The Undercut Podcast / What Weather Will Albert Park Bring? - 2023 Australian Grand Prix Preview

Transcript

What Weather Will Albert Park Bring? - 2023 Australian Grand Prix Preview · The Undercut Podcast

0:00
Ellie May, you're starting this one. Do you want any sort of inane chatter for a cold open or are we just going to go straight in?
0:04
I assume we just go straight in.
0:06
Alright then, play the title music.
0:13
Hello and welcome to the Undercut Podcast. I'm one of your hosts Ellie May Taylor and we're back to preview this weekend's Australian Grand Prix.
0:21
Joining me as ever are the thorns in my side, one of them more so than the other but I'll let you figure that one out.
0:28
Jesse Billington and Timo Albers-Daly, how are you both?
0:31
I'm doing very well. I'm a busy weekend, been up at the NEC in Birmingham covering the Classic Car and Restoration show,
0:39
looking at all things restoring and mending classic cars. Something I ended up partaking in,
0:43
albeit not on purpose from the start with my little classic where things just broke on the drive up and then as soon as I got it home another thing broke.
0:52
So currently have no cars that work which is good fun.
0:55
And Timo?
0:56
I'm good as well thank you and mercifully not having the same issues that Jesse is having because I don't have any classic cars and you know what,
1:03
I'm alright with that at the moment because he's just proving all those Top Gear episodes right.
1:07
It's fun though, it's fun. There's an innate level of challenge trying to drive from Flitwick to Birmingham in the rain with no windscreen wipers.
1:16
It's fun, a bit dangerous and a bit hair raising at times but fun. Anyway, Ellie Mae, how are you?
1:23
I'm good thank you and plus Timo said that he doesn't own a classic car but he doesn't own a car at all so.
1:31
Yeah, neither do you.
1:32
I may do.
1:36
You may be owner car.
1:38
Yes, I am being given one.
1:41
Anytime soon?
1:43
Yes.
1:44
Well for now you still don't own a car so you don't have one.
1:46
This is an interesting development.
1:49
It's being gifted to me but basically my grandad's giving up his driving licence so I get the car.
1:56
What's the car?
1:58
A Hyundai Getz.
2:00
That's not a classic.
2:03
It's 2005 I think.
2:05
That's not a classic.
2:08
It's just an older vehicle.
2:10
Bear in mind Jesse, she could have lied to us and we wouldn't have known.
2:13
Yeah, I was expecting her to say she was giving up, like her aunt was giving her one of her MGBs or something but nothing.
2:19
Gladly not no but it has only done 70,000 miles so it's good going.
2:25
It would be only 70,000.
2:26
40 years maybe it'll be a classic.
2:28
My midget's 1979, it's only done 36.
2:33
Yeah but you're finding out why that is now.
2:35
Yeah, electrical components that are original are starting to fail but that's not, we're not here to talk about my car's failure.
2:43
We'll move on to what the hell has happened and we'll talk about perhaps the failure at McLaren.
2:49
Well, yes, and McLaren have decided that they're having a restructure.
2:55
They've essentially decided to move away from a single executive technical director meaning that James Key has now left the team.
3:02
They will instead have three specialised technical director roles.
3:06
They will now have Peter Padromu.
3:09
I guess this is how you pronounce his last name?
3:13
I haven't had a look at any names yet.
3:15
He will be the technical director of aerodynamics.
3:20
David Sanchez returns to McLaren after a decade at Ferrari.
3:24
He will be the technical director of car concept and performance but he won't start this role until January next year so I assume he's currently on gardening leave at the moment.
3:32
And Neil Holdy, something like that.
3:38
Say it with confidence and then we'll just believe you.
3:40
Okay, Neil, we'll just go by five names.
3:44
It's been promoted to technical director of engineering and design.
3:48
There has also been promotions and restructures in other areas of the factory as well that I won't go into.
3:54
But McLaren have stated that the reorganisation has been brewing for a number of months and takes place ahead of several new key infrastructure projects which are due to come out online in phases throughout 2023.
4:06
The reason behind the organisational restructure, new infrastructure and expansion in workforce is to create the foundations for a stronger and more innovative F1 team to enable future success.
4:18
Do you see this as a positive step forward or do you think it's too many cooks in the kitchen?
4:24
I think we won't know the answer to that until a couple of years time at the earliest because this isn't something that they've just spurred the moment thing after the first two races and decided to sod this.
4:33
We're just going to restructure. This has all been in the making for a while. You can't have these kind of decisions just made overnight.
4:39
And I think the ex-Ferrari chap is on gardening leave at the moment suggesting that that's probably the reason for his gardening leave.
4:46
And to be honest, I'm intrigued with him the most. I think that's where the most potential is because if you look back at his time with Ferrari,
4:55
he, for all their faults at the moment, did help get the car back up to at least being quick and moving technically in the right direction in a lot of ways.
5:04
So if he can do that for McLaren, that could be very helpful for them.
5:08
But it's kind of a wait and see. I'm cautiously optimistic because as F1 fans, you want to see McLaren up there because it's another team that's up there and fighting for stuff.
5:18
And with the history that they've got, we're all attached to McLaren in one way or the other.
5:21
I think most of you are working through some stuff, but she loves them really. And you want that.
5:26
But I don't think we're going to see anything until, I mean, maybe next year at the very, very earliest.
5:32
But even then, they still need to get an awful lot right in a short amount of time for that to be.
5:36
It depends how much we expect from them for next year and what we deem as a good improvement, depending on how badly they do this year.
5:44
I mean, at the moment, they're the bottom ranked team in the standings with zero points.
5:48
The only other people on zero points at Alfa Tauri, but Alfa Tauri have at least come close to sniffing at points.
5:53
Obviously, Uki was P11 in Saudi. So Alfa Tauri has at least proved it's got something that might be able to get a point this season.
6:00
In McLaren's defence, though, the first two races were not great for them.
6:04
You had a rookie for Oscar straight out of the box, his first race.
6:07
And OK, you have Uki and people like that who did well in the first race, but still you had Orlando with his obvious issue.
6:15
And then in Saudi, you had them both kind of gaslead immediately that compromised them for the rest of the race.
6:21
And it would be nice to see at least what they could do with a clean race before we say that they won't get anywhere near it.
6:27
But again, I still suspect a clean race might not guarantee points.
6:31
Oh, yeah, I think they definitely need time. I don't think they got gaslead as such.
6:34
I think Oscar was a bit audacious in going for a gap that wasn't really there, especially with a wall closing.
6:40
That gap wasn't going to be around long enough for him to get through.
6:42
And I think Gasly was right to defend it. But when it comes to this new team, obviously, it love, we said David Sanchez from the Frenchman from Ferrari, he's going to be on gardening leave until start of 2024.
6:54
So obviously, by that point, McLaren will ideally had their car designed and planned out for 2024.
7:00
His input isn't really going to be felt until halfway through that season or 2025.
7:05
But Padromu and Holdi are both moving up from within McLaren's, they've at least got this sort of familiarity with the goings on at the team.
7:13
But equally, I don't think familiarity is going to be a key part that they're expecting from these people.
7:18
I think they're looking for a big shake up. So familiarity isn't going to be so much of a problem.
7:22
There's been a couple of other people shuffled around as well within the team to fill the roles that people have moved up from.
7:27
But one of the interesting things that's 100% not even like performance related is the fact that Lando Norris wants McLaren to go back to being in silver, which is quite interesting.
7:38
And he's raised it. He's raised the sort of question several times.
7:42
He wants them to go back to a livery from their most recent title success, which would have been the Vodafone Silver McLaren's, which would look quite nice, actually.
7:50
I think it would look quite good on the current cars. But it's a decent but I feel like he's focusing on the wrong issues.
7:56
I don't think Lando's really too cared about performance. He's probably just going to go to Audi.
8:01
Well, we can see that from his performances from the end of last year as well as a driver. So there we go.
8:06
Yeah, but I think the McLaren restructure heralds the fact that maybe they've realised that just as much the fact that each week they can hoover up another seven sponsors, that doesn't necessarily make the car go any faster.
8:17
So I think maybe they've been listening and have realised that having presences in several motorsport series is cool and everything, but you still need to be able to do well in them, especially your main one.
8:27
And maybe you need to refocus on that a little bit. Yeah, I like the idea of it being like a breakdown.
8:34
So then there are you can as a technical director, you can then be more specialised in your area, which then hopefully then provides better performance.
8:44
The only problem is, is even just looking at these titles, how do you really determine who does what?
8:55
Because I think there are some overlaps in the title, so I think you have to be there often be very careful in how you communicate channels between all the three of them for that to work really well.
9:07
And that's not going to be something that they can establish overnight either.
9:11
No, I don't know what exactly the role that David Sanchez is coming into, but it's been announced that Padromu is coming into technical director for aerodynamics.
9:23
Then Holdi is coming in for engineering and design. Then obviously people are shuffling up to take their old places.
9:29
So I think I'm assuming that Sanchez is going to be some sort of collaborator at the top of it, pulling together the work from Holdi and Padromu.
9:38
He is technical director of car concept and performance, so he does kind of fall into the other two.
9:46
So it's going to be overarching, I assume.
9:48
Well, they haven't really said that he will be sort of in a hierarchy over the other two.
9:52
It seems more that they'll all be kind of separate.
9:55
Otherwise, I think they would have said Sanchez will be replacing Key with two key supporting people beneath him, as it were.
10:04
We'll have to see how it pans out. Only time will tell.
10:09
Another thing that's possibly set for change is Stefano Dominicali has come out and said that he wouldn't be against scrapping FP1 sessions, which is a big call.
10:21
It's a stupid call. It's what it is.
10:24
His whole thing is, oh, fans don't like practice. We should replace it with more racing, essentially.
10:31
It was the Portuguese MotoGP race this weekend just gone, and they've just been trialling sprint format there, which admittedly worked a lot better than FP1's first sprint did.
10:42
But I think that's because you already get close racing for the most part in MotoGP anyway, from the limited stuff of it I've seen.
10:51
It was a very close race, and you had some great overtakes and everything.
10:53
But it's a whole different kettle of fish there.
10:56
So it's just because it works here doesn't mean it's going to work there.
10:59
And it says that you've got, in a normal weekend consisting of three practice, one and two on Friday, each session should put up for grabs either points or a single qualifying lap,
11:09
qualifying for a different shorter Saturday race instead of a third free practice, perhaps with the reverse grid.
11:16
In theory, that all sounds kind of all right, maybe, but at the same time, as an old school F1 fan and even for the newer fans, you're there for the race on Sunday.
11:24
You think of Formula One, you think of a big Grand Prix, you think of an endurance race of sorts,
11:31
and you have the whole weekend building up to that with the feeder series or other support races being in kind of filling the void beforehand.
11:39
But the Grand Prix on Sunday is the main event, and you don't need anything else really.
11:43
You're not going to get... the weekend is busy enough without putting stuff on a Friday as well that would be giving you points.
11:53
So either you adopt some kind of extreme E, Formula E kind of format where you do everything, practice, qualifying race on a Saturday,
12:03
and then you do all again on a Sunday and you kind of weirdly scrap the Grand Prix idea, or you just leave it the hell alone because just let it be.
12:11
Because you don't have any in-season testing anyway.
12:13
You need the practice sessions to test some things out.
12:16
And I don't think you're going to be that popular overall if you kind of start rejigging stuff that doesn't need rejigging.
12:22
I mean, I'd be interested to see what you do think, but I suspect we're along similar lines.
12:27
I think you go first.
12:30
I'm not for it.
12:34
I think that drivers don't get enough sort of practice in.
12:41
I mean, they only get to really practice in the cars in the free practice sessions.
12:46
They don't get to, you know, it's not a case of that they're then going back home and going to their nearest track and practicing lap after lap.
12:55
I think, you know, this sport is incredibly dangerous and it's fast and they kind of need time to get up to speed with the cars and the track.
13:08
And I just, yeah, I don't really.
13:11
From the same point of view as well, you want less is more for something like Formula One because you're there for the big event on Sunday.
13:17
You're not there for, I mean, as diehard fans, we enjoy practice.
13:21
And if we don't see it, we will happily watch the highlights.
13:23
We'll be there for qualifying. We love that.
13:24
But everyone is there for the Sunday race.
13:27
You don't really give a toss about the rest of it if you have to be brutal about it.
13:33
So just try and focus on making Sunday somehow better and do that through closer racing and being able to actually overtake.
13:41
Folks on that and just have a if you have such a knockout show on a Sunday, who cares about the rest of it?
13:48
Because he's saying that he wants to get rid of it more for the fans, isn't he?
13:53
So I'd love to see the research he's done that says that.
13:58
Well, yes, but if it is for the fans and if OK, they're not getting the views in free practice sessions, then just don't.
14:06
Put them live, you know, just have maybe like highlights or something.
14:12
Well, you already have highlights anyway, so you can choose what you watch and what you don't.
14:17
I think the key thing they're forgetting is one, the technical worth of free practice sessions,
14:22
how much that's worth to the teams in harnessing data about new parts they're trying out in their cars.
14:27
While that does in the long run make races less interesting, because, of course, you know exactly how your car is going to perform.
14:33
You can make the optimum strategy calls and assuming you have a race that goes pretty straightforward, you end up with a relatively dull race.
14:41
It also has the effect of giving camera operators, TV direction teams,
14:46
chance to practice and find angles on circuits, get camera operators in the right way, get them used to shooting on a circuit,
14:51
especially if it's a circuit they've not been to before.
14:54
You've only got a few sessions, especially if you've not got a feeder series there, for camera operators and TV directors to pull together a production.
15:02
You've only got X amount of hours, you only got four hours before a Grand Prix to get used to filming cars going around in circles.
15:08
Can you imagine Monaco a couple of years ago if they'd had all of this format in there, it was bad enough during the race, watching the race direction and everything there.
15:14
Can you imagine what it would have been like with this?
15:16
And then the further thing you've got to think about is the impact that will have on junior drivers, on drivers that are coming through.
15:21
If you've no longer got testing sessions, where are you going to do your FP1 drives, which are worth a huge amount of points for your super license?
15:28
And in an age where we're trying to not only move through more junior drivers, but open up a greater diversity of drivers coming through and doing these junior runs,
15:36
and then we're wiping out the opportunities for it, that's like going, oh, yes, all of you can come and do it, but we're not actually running the sessions where you do them.
15:43
Great. So what's the net result here? We still don't end up doing them. It's one step forward, two steps backwards in that regard.
15:49
It's arguably going to be hugely destructive for the actual productivity of the sport.
15:55
From a visual standpoint, you're going to end up with more chaotic races because teams won't know what tyres are going to do over a long period of time on that circuit with that level of abrasion and so on and so forth.
16:04
The races are going to get more exciting, but ultimately, at the risk of the racing getting worse.
16:09
Some of these lower teams as well, where the budget is already tight for them.
16:14
If you have a bad weekend and you've got two or three races over that weekend, it's already costly now if you cock it up in the sprint,
16:22
you're then going to have teams like it's not worth it for the chaos that's here. We'll go and do something else and we'll need F1.
16:28
Also expanding on Jesse's point of how key they are to teams and drivers or young drivers coming into F1 or want to come into F1.
16:41
It's also key, I guess, for the FIA for them to practice red flags, yellow flag of safety car or whatever.
16:50
So if you're taking away free practice, are you taking away that as well? Because they're quite key to be practiced as well.
16:58
We see them do the virtual safety car practices at the end of most FP1s.
17:03
All the sort of the light panels around the circuit are tested and it's tested that all the cars, wherever they're on circuit, get the signal and the VSC shows up on the steering wheel.
17:11
So again, there's broader things that appeal to or apply to FP1s and FP2s than simply car go around in circles, tests out basic setup in FP1.
17:23
And then FP2 is usually a long run practice where you figure out what fuel load you're going to need, what consumption is going to be like, what tyre wear is going to be like.
17:31
And it seems like an interesting, a clever way of increasing the basic entertainment factor of a race without doing the sort of Bernie Ecclestone.
17:41
Oh, we'll just have sprinklers come on randomly through a race idea.
17:44
I'd rather have sprinklers at this bloody rate.
17:46
That's the thing. It's working towards that case of trying to improve the entertainment factor of a race.
17:51
But by any way you try and do that at the moment with Formula 1, all that seems to do is actually degrade the quality of the racing.
17:58
But we'll wait and see. A more interesting point and one that's definitely in the works now is Mercedes.
18:06
And this is probably the first time in a while we've seen a B-spec car come to Formula 1.
18:11
Generally speaking, teams rock up and then just stick with their design through the year.
18:15
Mercedes have confirmed that there will be changes coming to the W14 this season and they're going to be big ones, arguably making it a B-spec car.
18:24
We haven't had one of those since at least the 90s. So this is going to be interesting.
18:27
And I think if Mercedes get this right, A, they're going to look absolutely fantastic for doing so, for being able to pull off a complete car redesign halfway through a season,
18:38
but also for being able to do that and then it also become competitive. If it's good, they're going to look the absolute dogs.
18:47
A little bit like Aston Martin and they can get something that maybe can't beat Red Bull,
18:51
but can at least challenge them occasionally, take on the Ferraris and that kind of thing.
18:56
Then that'll be a mission accomplished, essentially considering they have had half a season to do all of this.
19:03
And if anyone could do it, Mercedes can. We know that they're extremely determined over there.
19:07
But again, like you say, not seeing this kind of thing in a very long time is going to be fascinating to watch what happens there.
19:13
And yeah, it's a big gamble, but at the same time, they're clearly in a position where they're thinking it's worth the risk.
19:21
And again, you've not seen that kind of thing.
19:23
I mean, you'd think Ferrari would have done that a few years ago, maybe with some of their designs, they would have thought something.
19:29
So it's interesting that they're the ones to pull the trigger on this.
19:34
It's kind of been in the pipeline for a while, them thinking of having sort of a B concept car and.
19:42
That's usually a junior team, though, or something, isn't it?
19:47
I mean, I keep going on about it.
19:48
Obviously, last year, Aston Martin, not on as grand a scale as Mercedes are going to be doing it till this year,
19:56
but they were able to turn it around with the new stuff that they put in halfway through the season.
20:02
So if they can do it, why can't Mercedes, I guess?
20:07
Mercedes have got all the scope and engineering now to do it.
20:10
It's just a matter of time to see when they're able to pull that cat out the bag and quite how good it is.
20:16
Speaking of upgrades, though, Ferrari and Red Bull are coming to Australia with upgrades this weekend.
20:21
Ferrari's arguably are more important than Red Bull's as they've got more to gain from it, so to speak.
20:27
Ferrari said that while they're qualifying isn't amazing, they want to work on their race pace a lot more.
20:32
They need to work on their race pace a lot, don't they?
20:35
Yeah, generally in general, they are miles off anyone else and need to really figure out why their car isn't fast over a long period of time.
20:44
They're just about able to extract lap time in one hit, but they just can't seem to keep that up over a race.
20:51
I don't know whether it's cooling, whether it's the way it's attacking its tires or quite just how intense the car might be to drive.
20:57
But there's something going on there that really ought to be narrowed down.
21:02
I think it's partly down to set up of their car because they always had a higher downforce than Red Bull last year, which is why it's a lot harsher on its tires.
21:12
Because in one lap last week or two weeks ago in qualifying in Saudi, they weren't that bad.
21:18
It's their race pace and it's like the Haas as well.
21:21
You see that with them. They're great for the qualifying, but you come to the longer race distances and they're just absolutely no.
21:26
They're fine where they are, but they can't really advance.
21:29
They're enough. They're doing enough to keep most of the people behind them behind, but they can't do anything about progressing.
21:36
They're sort of very stuck in a performance rut as to where they are.
21:39
And I don't know if this comes down to the design of their engine and the cooling packages that have to come with it.
21:44
That means that it is essentially almost already at its performance cap.
21:48
But we'll have to see what they were able to bring out in Australia and how far forward this moves them in the general scheme of things.
21:56
Though Timo, you've got an interesting point about Formula E.
21:59
Yes, I was watching the Brazilian E-Prix over the weekend, first time in Sao Paulo.
22:04
And it's an interesting comparison at the moment that we can do between Formula E and Formula 1,
22:09
because Formula E is in its Gen 3 era now, which has just started this year.
22:14
And it's probably as close we're going to get to F1 and Formula E being in new eras for themselves at roughly the same time.
22:22
F1 has gotten season more experience on that one, but hasn't worked as well as we would have expected it to considering the beginning races from last year.
22:32
And interestingly, you had 31 laps plus some change in Brazil for Formula E over the weekend.
22:39
And over that time, you had 114 overtakes in that race, which when you compare it to Bahrain and Saudi, you had 73 in both combined, 37 and 36 respectively,
22:52
which is kind of showing that we're getting close racing Formula 1, but close is bugger all useful if you can't actually get past the car in front of you.
23:00
Whereas Formula E, this new generation has just seemingly nailed it on the head immediately.
23:05
And you had the top three covered with half a second over the finish line,
23:10
which is exactly the kind of stuff that we all want and what Dominic Ali and Liberty and all of those people want as well.
23:16
So I just an interesting note, I'm not sure what Formula 1 can necessarily learn that they could apply from Formula E,
23:23
but in terms of which one's doing the better racing at the moment, I know which one it is.
23:28
Formula E also has the advantage of street circuits, which seems to cause more safety cars.
23:32
You end up with a bunched up field far more regularly.
23:35
And equally, Formula E, especially in Brazil, if I'm thinking about the circuit correctly,
23:39
it's huge long straights into very big heavy braking zones, which are great for dive bomb overtakes.
23:44
So you're going to get these overtakes happening at these key spots.
23:48
And again, you've got this unpredictable, unproven street circuits always on their calendar.
23:52
They're not especially paved or anything. They'd simply rock up and race.
23:56
So you end up with these more chaotic... No, but from two circuits with Formula 1, with Bahrain and Saudi,
24:00
which last year and traditionally, traditionally for both, to be fair, even though Saudi has a short history,
24:05
have been very good races or very entertaining races and street circuit with Saudi, new experimental, they've evolved that slightly.
24:13
You would still be hoping for more if you compare it directly into each other on that one.
24:18
And again, you've had the majority of a great racing Formula E all of this year.
24:22
So I'm just making the observation there.
24:25
Yeah, I'm not arguing against the Formula E thing, but it's again, it's got far more elements in its sort of composition
24:32
that add up to this sort of greater racing idea on the grounds that there's more overtakes.
24:37
But equally, they all do keep crashing a lot more.
24:38
So that's why you end up with these more safety cars, more VSC periods.
24:42
At one point in Brazil, the safety car ran over a piece of carbon that was left on the road, causing an increased safety car time,
24:49
which again, I wouldn't argue is great racing.
24:53
It's great television, yes, but not necessarily great racing.
24:58
The other thing with Formula E is that the cars are very similar in terms of their infrastructure.
25:05
They all share quite a lot of the same sort of specs.
25:11
So because their cars are a lot similar, there is going to be closer racing.
25:17
Whilst with Formula One teams, yes, there are sort of specifications that they have to stick to and rules and regulations.
25:27
But you see the interpretation of all these rules in each team and how different the car concepts then are whilst with Formula E share a lot.
25:40
That's maybe something that Formula One should learn from, because ultimately, whenever you get a tech regs overhaul,
25:47
you have these different interpretations and then all the teams see which team did it best and they all slowly migrate towards that over the period of time.
25:55
And you see that with Aston Martin, specifically this year, moving more towards a red bull idea.
25:59
So why not just skip the middleman a little bit and just go straight towards that?
26:03
It'd be more interesting and you get your closer race, you get your better overtakes.
26:06
And you could still have technical developments and still be interesting in a lot of ways.
26:11
There'd be a way to find that balance there.
26:14
So I'm just thinking there'd be something maybe for F1 to look at instead of messing around with stuff that doesn't need fixing.
26:20
I don't think you'd get it in the same way that you do in modern Formula One.
26:23
When you look at the way that Formula One as a constructor's title has been approached over the years,
26:28
you end up with the teams going, like Elie May said, radically different routes and eventually it converges.
26:33
But Formula One has been such a very technical base.
26:36
You end up with teams doing very different things at different points in time.
26:39
You look at Brabham BT82, the Fang car, you look at the six wheeled Williams and the Tyrrell that came through at different points in time.
26:46
The fact that you had these very unique technological advances that not necessarily had road sort of worthiness at points,
26:54
but often sort of eventually trickled down to it.
26:56
Formula E so far has not had that great an impact on sort of either technological development or sort of road applied sort of technology,
27:05
much beyond its batteries and its motors and its fast charging when it comes to its aerodynamics and stuff.
27:10
It's still exceptionally rudimentary.
27:13
And I don't think it allows for the same technical prowess that Formula One is known for.
27:19
You look at the tech of Formula One and you say to someone, what is the most high tech motorsport in the world?
27:24
You say it is Formula One.
27:26
And I don't think you could have that if you made it a spec series in something similar to the way you see Indy car,
27:31
because arguably Indy car is to all intents and purposes a spec series.
27:35
You just pick an engine, you either go Chevrolet or Honda.
27:39
Everything else is pretty much to spec and Formula E is again pretty much to spec.
27:44
And both of those produce good racing because you by nature have closer fields because you've got so few variables.
27:51
But Formula One's big selling point is technology.
27:53
That's why you get these OEM brands of Ferrari, Mercedes, Audi, Aston Martin looking at coming into the sport Porsche,
28:01
looking to come into the sport, because as an OEM manufacturer, that's your sort of your proving ground for your technologies.
28:08
And you look at what Mercedes have done with hybridisation with their project one,
28:11
you look at what Ferrari have done with their more recent sports and super and hyper series.
28:15
McLaren, the same thing with their sports and hyper series,
28:17
road cars is they've been able to take this hybridisation technology and move it to road appliedness.
28:23
And you don't get that in the same way, that same technological draw with Formula E or by any means Indy car.
28:32
It's it's meritable. Yes, it produces good racing by having spec cars.
28:35
But at the end of the day, one of Formula One's big selling points is its tech.
28:40
And if you eradicate that, it it's going to lose a bit of its sparkle.
28:45
I think a lot of people would be out of a job if you decided to go for, say, like Formula E has they all have the same batteries,
28:52
don't they? They're produced by Williams.
28:54
So then you would have to have, I guess, in the instance of F1, I guess the same engines.
29:01
So you'd only have one engine manufacturer or maybe two like they do in Indy.
29:05
And that's going to put a lot of people out of the job.
29:09
Yeah, that's going to wipe out most of the industry of the South Midlands in the UK, at least.
29:14
Yeah, it would have such broad reaching consequences that F1 would be irreversibly changed.
29:20
Or you want to immediately make sure you reverse it properly and go back to making your own engines.
29:26
It would it would change Formula One.
29:29
But equally, speaking of different motorsports, there was one thing I did want to chuck in,
29:32
and that's Moto GP is likely to be the only place Tifosi fans will get to hear the Italian national anthem this season
29:39
after Francesco Bagnaio won for Ducati in Portugal over the weekend.
29:43
The Italian rider for the Italian team is looking to take back to back titles after cleaning up the championship last year.
29:50
He's hoping to do it again this season.
29:53
So, yeah, we'll hear it twice.
29:56
Yeah, they usually only play it once if it's if it's the same driver and constructor.
30:00
I know they do that for Formula One, they just play it once.
30:03
You'll hear it at the opening of the race as well.
30:05
Oh, yeah, true. We'll hear it there.
30:07
The opening two races. That's when you'll hear it.
30:09
We won't hear it on the podium, though. We won't hear for podium celebrations.
30:13
That's sad.
30:15
Also, whilst we're just talking about other motorsports for a brief second,
30:17
Kimi and Jensen made their NASCAR debut at Cota this weekend,
30:21
and Kimi went and rightly kind of drove into Jensen a little bit.
30:24
Yeah, Jensen also said he died of heatstroke, which again, Joe's just a rudimentary NASCAR as a series on the grounds of,
30:32
look at this, we're a motorsports racing series.
30:34
One of your drivers is dying of exhaustion.
30:36
That's fine. That's perfectly that's normal.
30:38
How is that normal, my guy?
30:40
Amusingly, it was the British guy, though, and not.
30:43
Yeah, the British guy, the guy from the cold weather.
30:46
Again, I don't know. Finland.
30:48
Yeah, there was a bit of a rave that went, yeah, Kimi, I was like the ice man.
30:51
I don't know. He's always cool. Who knows?
30:54
Before we shuffle into the preview for the Australian Grand Prix, though, it's time for Ellie May's Fun Fact Corner.
31:01
Yes, I'm going to. It's sadly probably not as popular as Clements Wine Corner, but, you know, we'll have a go.
31:10
Start introducing drink to us.
31:13
We should. I've currently. A pint of water, but it is in a sila glass.
31:18
Sort of counts. Yeah.
31:19
Tasting notes. What's the bouquet to that?
31:23
Minerally.
31:26
I mean, strong chlorine, is it?
31:31
Maybe. It depends what the water's like down in your part of the country.
31:34
Very hard water.
31:36
It's a bit chalky, lime scaly.
31:39
Yeah, it has to be filtered, otherwise there's just lime scale everywhere.
31:43
Delightful. Anyway.
31:47
Yes, this is the 37th Australian Grand Prix and the 26th to be held in Melbourne.
31:52
McLaren are the most successful constructor here, winning 11 times, the last being Jensen Button in 2012.
31:59
Ferrari are the second with 10, their last being last year with Charles Leclerc and Williams are the third with five victories,
32:06
their last being Damon Hill in 1996.
32:09
And that's actually the only win they have this track or the others were Adelaide.
32:16
As an engine manufacturer, Mercedes are the most successful with 11 wins, all at Albert Park.
32:21
They've done it under McLaren, Braun and Mercedes.
32:24
Ferrari have 10 with nine being Albert Park and Renault have seven.
32:28
And that was with Williams, Renault and Red Bull, was four of the set of those sevens being at Albert Park.
32:34
Howerton also has the most poles here with eight.
32:38
However, he's only managed to convert this into two wins, once with McLaren in 2008 and the other for Mercedes in 2015.
32:46
He also has eight poles in Hungary, meaning he shares the record for the most pole positions at a single Grand Prix.
32:52
But do you know who he shares this record with?
32:56
Oh, I think it's like Alan Prost or something, isn't it?
33:00
Hello.
33:01
Gretel.
33:02
Senna.
33:03
Senna and someone else.
33:06
Schumacher, I think.
33:07
Yeah.
33:08
Holds it for the German Grand Prix.
33:10
Michael Schumacher is Japan.
33:12
And Ers and Senna, of all places, is actually Imola.
33:17
Fortuitous.
33:19
But sticking with Hamilton, despite just the two wins, he does have the most podiums here with nine.
33:25
Sebastian Wetter is second with seven and Michael Schumacher is third with six podiums.
33:30
He has four wins in two second places, making him the most successful driver at Australia.
33:35
But if you want to count the non-championship races, then Lex Davison also has four wins at his home Grand Prix.
33:43
When was also a non-championship race?
33:46
In 1954, 57, 58 and 61.
33:50
And a lot of other times, because I think Alan Prost also has like four wins, but three of them are like non-championship or something.
33:56
It's something like that.
34:01
Pretty much all of Australia's grandstands are named after drivers.
34:06
Do you know how many there are?
34:08
What, this circuit alone that has got names?
34:11
Yeah.
34:13
Six.
34:16
Add ten to that?
34:18
Jesus.
34:20
I was trying to think, I was sort of working on the grounds of them all being named after Aussie drivers, but...
34:25
No, so you've got Brabham, Button, Clark, Fangio, Hill, which is Damon Hill.
34:32
Jones, Lauda, Moss, Prost, Ricciardo, Schumacher, Senna, Stewart, Vettel, Waite.
34:40
I had to look up him. He's Arthur Waite and he won the 1928 Australian Grand Prix.
34:46
And then there's Webber.
34:49
Not one for that one, we're Australian in Bottas then.
34:52
Sadly not, but they might in the future. And I guess you need another one maybe for Piastri.
34:58
I wonder if Bottas gets one before Piastri.
35:02
That would be iconic. Bottas has one here though, hasn't he?
35:06
He did, yeah, because that was when everyone thought it was going to be Bottas version 2.0 and he was going to win the championship.
35:11
But it was ultimately, was that when it was still the first race of the season?
35:16
And it was that first race of the season, sort of clause of a case. If you win the first one, you're not winning the championship.
35:23
Which only goes back so far as I think 2015 or maybe starting somewhere in Vettel's era, I think, because I did have a look at that recently.
35:34
And it wasn't that long, I mean, OK, nearly 10 years, I think, but it's not a foolproof method.
35:40
It's not foolproof, but of the modern era Formula One, it seems pretty foolproof.
35:44
Depends how modern we're going. At least since Braun.
35:49
Then it's not 100 per cent, but yeah.
35:52
And our last fun fact, which to Timo's delight, two drivers have had their 250th Grand Prix take place here.
36:02
Do you know who they are? Why am I delightful about this?
36:07
They achieved this in, well, one of them achieved it in 2008 and one of them achieved it in 2010.
36:13
Kimi and Jenson? No. Alonso? No.
36:18
Are they still on the grid? No.
36:24
Oh, who was Alonso's second driver when he was at Renault?
36:32
Oh God, not him, really? Is it him, Elime? No.
36:36
OK, good, good, good. Still don't know why he's allowed at Formula E races, different questions.
36:45
250th race. In 2008 and 2010.
36:51
Think of, you know, who did Kimi Räikkönen overtake for most races?
36:57
I was thinking Rubens, but it seems that's a lot of races to still do after that to get to where he is now.
37:03
2008, Rubens? 250.
37:07
When did he retire, though? Didn't he retire? When did you retire?
37:11
I'm just thinking that's a lot of races to still pack in to be getting into the 300 club.
37:18
2010. How the hell did he manage that then?
37:25
250 and you're doing 2008. Oh, would have been Weber, would it? No.
37:31
Who's the other one anyway?
37:34
Heikki Kovalainen is one of the ones I was trying to think of.
37:40
It's not Massa, is it? The other one, the really left of field one is Nick Heidfeld.
37:46
I don't think it's going to be him either. No.
37:48
You'll have to tell us. Put me out of my misery. But he's not Kubica, is it? No, it's Michael Schumacher.
37:54
Of course, yeah, because he'd sort of come back in and leave with Mercedes. Yeah.
37:58
So we're saying that in 2008 in Australia, Rubens Barrichello hit 250.
38:07
I'm just checking this out now. So 250, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, two, sixty, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, two, seventy.
38:19
It does work out, actually. I've just checked. It does work. Somehow.
38:26
I don't quite get how.
38:30
Oh, that would explain it. To be fair, you went from 2009 having 17 races to.
38:35
Yeah, the fact that we then added two. Yeah.
38:39
And you doubted me. To be fair, it was, I was trying to figure out how you got that many races in such a short time.
38:47
So, yeah, I doubted you. Can you please apologise? No. Why?
38:55
Stubborn. You're not getting an apology out of that, boy.
38:59
Anyway, have you got any more fun facts from your Fun Fact Corner?
39:03
I haven't. We've ended it on a domestic. That sounds about right for this podcast.
39:07
We'll move on to looking ahead to the Australian Grand Prix and what weather can we expect?
39:13
And when I wrote this this morning, at least Friday has a high chance of some showers through the day,
39:18
which would see our first wet running in these cars, if so.
39:22
So it could be interesting and again, probably worth watching every one of the two for Saturday is set to be dry,
39:28
but not stellar weather overcast and mild with Sunday looking like a properly sunny day with some warmer weather,
39:35
but crucially not blistering, which is going to be ideal for teams looking to prolong tire life, which you can get away with around Albert Park.
39:42
When it comes to which on track battles we should look for.
39:45
Well, we've got the form of two races now to work from with this.
39:48
And unless Red Bulls suffer another reliability issue, they'll likely be starting near the front of the field and could well race off.
39:55
It's up to Aston Martin to keep pace with them.
39:57
Hopefully, Stroll has a better weekend of things, especially now he's had plenty of time to recover from his early injuries.
40:03
Assuming there's no mechanical issues, he should run well alongside Alonso.
40:07
Mercedes and Ferrari still have a lot to prove, one working towards a B-Spec car in the second, just hoping to find some form and pace.
40:13
Further back, Alpina are in a bit of a world of their own. Saudi saw them come home 10 seconds adrift of the Ferraris ahead, but also 10 seconds ahead of the Haas behind.
40:22
If they can elevate beyond being overwhelmingly mid, they could begin to worry Ferrari.
40:28
Haas and Alfa Romeo are likely to have a scrap again for the last places if they are in good form.
40:33
Wouldn't be surprised to see an Alfa Taury challenging for 10th either.
40:36
If Williams don't have any brake issues, they could be ahead of McLaren, I want to say.
40:43
They were shown to have some fairly decent pace through the first two races of the season, and certainly more so than that Williams.
40:48
As it stands, the Woking outfit are the only team left to score alongside Alfa Taury, though the Red Bull subsidiary is likely to beat the Pire team to points this season.
40:57
Though again, despite being a month into the season, we've only seen two races, so it's all still to play for in reality.
41:04
The question is, what do we make of all that when it comes to predictions?
41:08
Timo, who's your poll prediction?
41:12
So I was just getting my notes up to check who I'd boresally predicted, and Charles Leclerc appears to be the name I've written down, which...
41:20
Yeah, boresally predicted is the correct phrase for that one.
41:24
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why not? Why not have a Ferrari poll? He's not going to win, so give him a poll position.
41:29
He's good at poll positions and not winning his Charles.
41:32
Yeah, actually, Max Verstappen does like converting Charles Leclerc polls into wins.
41:37
Although he won't do that if we go for my podium, but yes.
41:40
This is very true. Elin, may your poll position please?
41:45
I've gone for Max Verstappen. This is such a quick circuit.
41:49
Drivers only really have to heavily brake at turns three and 13, where they'll probably go down for about third gear.
41:55
But apart from that, it's almost full throttle or just slight lifts.
41:59
Those with the strongest engine power, I think, are going to do well here.
42:02
So I think it's Red Bull are going to cruise.
42:05
I'm hoping for some wet weather and for Jesse's prediction on the weather front to be damper than he's saying it will be.
42:11
And we'll have some spicy timing, maybe that will help my wild prediction later.
42:16
But I'll say more on that then.
42:18
Wet through the weekend is what you're aiming for.
42:21
Not so wet that we get red flagged, but moist.
42:25
Suitably damp. I joined Elin May in predicting Max Verstappen will be on pole position come end of Saturday, start of Sunday.
42:32
So what about the end of Sunday when we get to a, I say end of Sunday here in the UK, it's going to be about eight o'clock in the morning.
42:38
What are we predicting the podium is going to be for eight o'clock on Sunday morning?
42:42
Well, I'm keeping up with my pattern of we'll go with whatever the result was last time out.
42:46
So Perez, Verstappen, Alonso.
42:49
Pretty solid. Again, ultimately not unlikely.
42:52
That is kind of going to be the interesting thing about this experiment I'm trying.
42:55
It's not out of the wheelhouse so far yet.
42:58
It's when we get a crazy race or if we get a crazy race this year that that starts to become tricky for me.
43:05
The weekend where you're predicting Gasly Ocon, Stroll or something.
43:09
For a second week running.
43:10
Yeah, I wouldn't mind that.
43:14
Elin May, your podium, please.
43:17
So really the same reasons as my pole position, I've gone for Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and then Fernando Alonso in third.
43:26
It's not bad. I think you're almost certainly guaranteed points for Alonso third.
43:31
It's OK. I should have which way around the two red balls.
43:33
I really want him to get further up the podium now.
43:36
He's had two thirds now, you know.
43:37
They're technically free because he got third place twice last weekend out.
43:41
We're not counting that. He got a third once and it should have stayed that way.
43:46
I've been a lot bolder with my Fernando Alonso prediction.
43:49
I've said he's going to win the race because most other drivers who racked up 101 podiums win on that.
43:56
They're 101st.
43:58
So this if he gets on the podium, it would be his 101st podium.
44:02
And I think the statistics show that he is likely to win.
44:06
I don't know. He could do. I've then gone for Perez second, Sainz third.
44:11
So really spliced that one up a bit.
44:15
See how that one pans out, I think.
44:17
I don't think you're going to get many points this weekend, but I'll have fun not getting them.
44:22
Oh, yeah. Join me in my in my musings.
44:24
You're coming over to my side of things.
44:26
Welcome me to your insanity.
44:28
You'll have even more fun if they do pan out to be like that.
44:32
Exactly. It's a win win from where I'm sitting.
44:35
Fastest lap, Timo.
44:36
Still George Russell. It's going to happen at some point this year.
44:39
We're just going to keep plugging away.
44:41
Yeah, when they unveiled the B-Spec car.
44:43
Ellie May, your fastest lap.
44:45
I've gone for Sergio Perez because he has a point to prove from last race.
44:50
So it would be fun to be fair.
44:51
Yeah, I'd love for him to steal it off Max.
44:54
I've gone for Max Verstappen fastest lap.
44:56
I think somewhere in my mind, the idea of not being on the podium, we'll see him pit for softs or fresh enters or something and go for that fastest lap.
45:06
So we'll see what happens there.
45:09
Wild prediction. Timo, yours contradicts your actual podium.
45:13
Yes, but it guarantees I'll get points.
45:15
Hopefully, as long as one of them is right, then I'll get points somewhere.
45:20
And goes back to what I was saying, if we have a dampish weekend, then cars could be squirreled on track.
45:25
Maybe there's a bit of a loopsy for one of the Red Bulls and the medics are like, you're fine, but not fine enough that we're going to let you drive.
45:33
So who do they bring in for the Australian Grand Prix?
45:35
Daniel Ricciardo, subs in last minute for either one of the drivers at Red Bull and then finishes on the podium.
45:41
If it rains, turn two is where they're most likely to crash.
45:47
I don't mind where it happens, to be honest.
45:49
Going off fast backwards into the barriers at turn two.
45:53
If it's such a big enough loopsy that a medic says you can't drive, I'm probably going to assume that unless they've got a spare chassis, like an entire tub, that car is going to be very comfortable at the entry.
46:05
That'll be the thing. They'll crash in a way that the car is somehow all right, but they just, you know, they launch droll it, they get their hand in a bit of loopsy and it's unbearable pain, you know.
46:15
Got a broken thumb.
46:18
I can see that. Max might sit that out if that's the situation because he knows that it's ultimately not going to impact his season.
46:26
Perez would probably go for it. I don't know.
46:29
It seems like it's wild for a reason.
46:31
Yeah, it's a wild prediction. I'll let you have the fact that it is certainly wild.
46:36
Ellie May.
46:36
My ultimate thing for these wild predictions, sorry, is that we all should make things wild enough that none of us get any points throughout the year for it, or we always get points for it because we've been so wild, but then F1 gods have listened to us and have delivered a crazy
46:48
race to us.
46:50
I think it's more likely to be the former when none of us get points because we're too wild.
46:54
That's more fun though.
46:55
Yeah.
46:56
Ellie May, your wild prediction.
46:58
I've gone for that a safety car will be deployed in the first third of the race. I need to work out a third of 58 then.
47:03
It is. I worked it out and I put it on a big spreadsheet. Two seconds. It is, the first third of the race means within the first 19 laps if we round it down to the nearest whole one, if it not is 19.3 or something.
47:14
Now I really want a safety car on lap 20.
47:17
We round it up to lap 20?
47:19
No, because that increases your odds. This way we keep it wild if we reduce your odds by one lap.
47:27
Keeps it spicy. My wild prediction meanwhile is Alpine top five has top 10.
47:34
Both have to happen, I take it.
47:37
Both have to happen. I'm not awarding halves. Points awarded will be integers. It is a whole number or nothing. I need both an Alpine in the top five and a Haas in the top 10 to award myself that point.
47:51
Good.
47:52
I think you should have gone Alcatarie top 10.
47:55
He's not fucking crazy Ellie May.
47:57
Yeah.
47:58
No, I think they're going to get a top 10. That was going to be my...
48:02
Are you predicting that for this race this year, 10 years time, just so we know how realistic you're being here?
48:10
This race.
48:12
She's off on meds I think.
48:14
She said it on air so it's going in the edit but we can laugh at her about it later when it doesn't happen but ultimately it's not going to impact the fact that when the safety car happens on lap 20 she's still not getting a point.
48:27
That's true.
48:28
Anyway, that sums up our predictions for the Australian Grand Prix. Has anyone else got anything to chuck in before we hit stop on the record button?
48:38
It's nice that we've got the spiritual start to the season at last after what is essentially a prologue because Australia should always just be the start of the season.
48:45
Bahrain's fine but it was never meant to start off the season and Saudi Arabia's not meant to do it either. Australia is when you think, yeah.
48:52
You just have those memories if you've been watching it long enough that you're waking up stupid o'clock on a Saturday and Sunday to watch the Australian Grand Prix and then it's all done before nine o'clock in the morning and you can go back to bed.
49:03
That's when you know Formula One's back so it's nice to have that spiritual return.
49:10
This is true.
49:12
Excuse the odd, very tired.
49:14
You sort of get past the prologue section that's sort of welcome to this is to this year's Formula One season, now we're getting down to the nitty gritty of it.
49:24
It does feel like the season.
49:25
Which is why I'd be happy for an Alonzo win because now we're getting down to proper business.
49:29
It's still weather like in Azerbaijan in a month's time.
49:34
Probably warm because it's Azerbaijan.
49:36
It sits on the Caspian Sea so it could be wet.
49:42
We've not had a wet race in Baku though have we?
49:45
Is this the last sort of really warm race that we get? Does the sort of the temperatures die down a bit?
49:55
Will we see anything kind of change then at sort of Azerbaijan or?
50:02
Let me see how far forward.
50:04
I suppose depending on when we get into the summer it'll be hot for new European races.
50:08
Spain's always going to be hot and that's going to be in June this year so that's going to be a bit hotter.
50:13
Canada should be hot if it's dry.
50:17
Imola will be hot if it's not pissing it down.
50:20
I was going to say Imola you often get a fairly mixed bag with.
50:23
I was going to say Imola didn't they last year? I mean I'm not sure when it was on last year compared to this year.
50:30
They had only just taken off the snow tyres in the Emilia-Romagna range so it was a lot cooler.
50:39
Yeah it was very it was barely sort of double figures Celsius wise.
50:45
Okay so the weather forecast for the 28th of April.
50:49
This is FP1, FP2, no FP1 and qualifying in Azerbaijan.
50:56
20 degrees and sort of sunny spells.
51:00
The Saturday 20 degrees with a 59% chance of rain for the sprint.
51:07
This is also a month out.
51:10
Yeah then Sunday is sunny spells 19 degrees Celsius but still 25% chance of rain.
51:17
So Baku could be soggy although again this is a month out but I'm on a website called AccuWeather
51:23
which is one I've always used for doing my weather predictions and they're always pretty damn accurate.
51:27
You're pushing it though.
51:29
I'm pushing it by being a month out. Usually two weeks out is about as good as it will get.
51:33
So we'll wait and see.
51:37
Round yourself early Mae.
51:38
Oh well we find you Jessie.
51:41
If we're jumping straight to this one you can find me across all the social medias on Twitter,
51:47
on Instagram as at Jessie on Cars. You can also find the podcast on Twitter as at undercutpodcast.
51:53
You can also find me in a more physical format of paper print with Classic Car Weekly.
51:59
We've just gone to print this evening, it's Monday, so there'll be an issue on shelves on Wednesday.
52:03
You can read all about the Classic Car Show at the NEC, you can read about me driving a Lotus Esprit
52:09
and loads of other interesting things aside.
52:12
Timo?
52:15
You can find me over on Isitfast, on the kerbs, the Nitroperics podcast, Paddock Passion, Paddock Sorority and Instagram.
52:20
Most of which are just chock-a-block full of interviews at the moment with various racing drivers.
52:26
Because there's just a lot of them. So go and enjoy them all.
52:32
And you can find me co-running our Instagram page and I also run our TikTok account.
52:39
But that is all we have time for this week's episode. Join us again soon when we will be
52:44
reviewing the Australian Grand Prix and the Fedia Series action from across the weekend.
52:48
So make sure you've liked, subscribed and got notifications turned on to not miss out on anything.