Latest / Pit Talk / Antonelli wins again, Russell under pressure and F1's V8 engine plan: Miami GP Review

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Antonelli wins again, Russell under pressure and F1's V8 engine plan: Miami GP Review · Pit Talk

0:05
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:08
Speaker 1: On today's episode, Andrea Kimi Antonelli wins again, this time
0:12
Speaker 1: in Miami, to extend his championship lead to twenty points
0:16
Speaker 1: on a tough day for teammates George Russell and FIA
0:19
Speaker 1: president Muhammad Ben Sulam says Formula one will return to
0:23
Speaker 1: be eight engines by twenty thirty one at the latest.
0:27
Speaker 1: My name's Michael Lamonado. It's great to have your company
0:30
Speaker 1: and the company of my co host. He knows his
0:32
Speaker 1: flippy flappy wings from his battery milligrams. Thanks very much. Indeed,
0:36
Speaker 1: it's Matt Clayton.
0:37
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Michael. Great to join you. Not so
0:39
Speaker 2: great to listen to that at six o'clock or three
0:41
Speaker 2: o'clock or whatever god forsaken time that was on a
0:43
Speaker 2: Monday morning. That's a separate podcast that perhaps no one
0:46
Speaker 2: else except us will listen to. But I have prepared
0:49
Speaker 2: for today's podcast, mind you. I went to my nearest
0:52
Speaker 2: sporting stadium and drove around the car park a few
0:54
Speaker 2: times and feel that I'm very very well versed to
0:59
Speaker 2: talk about the race that happened in a stadium car
1:01
Speaker 2: park over the weekend and primed and ready to go
1:04
Speaker 2: flippy flappy wings or not.
1:06
Speaker 1: Every flappy wings in flat mode, or but they've been
1:08
Speaker 1: calling them very exciting, or love your preparation, always enjoy
1:12
Speaker 1: your preparation. This might be the best prepared episode yet.
1:15
Speaker 1: The Miami Grand Prix Formula's first race in five weeks,
1:18
Speaker 1: and it's last one for another three weeks. So hope
1:20
Speaker 1: everyone soaked up every minute of it, because it's all
1:23
Speaker 1: we're getting for a little while. Such is the schedule.
1:26
Speaker 1: But another victory for Kimmy Antonelli twenty points. As I said,
1:30
Speaker 1: he's his championship lead. It's funny to say that I
1:33
Speaker 1: think this was his best win yet because he's only
1:35
Speaker 1: had three of them, so the ranking is not so
1:38
Speaker 1: large and the difference between best and worst not so big.
1:41
Speaker 1: But this felt like confirmation almost of everything we'd seen
1:46
Speaker 1: in those last couple of wins. The speed obviously something
1:48
Speaker 1: we've known for a little while, but now also the
1:50
Speaker 1: composure and the ability to soak up pressure. Having had
1:54
Speaker 1: roughly as quick equally quick Lando Norris and McLaren behind
1:58
Speaker 1: him for most of the race, and having to pass
1:59
Speaker 1: up cars as well at the start after perhaps his
2:02
Speaker 1: only weakness the start, but a really I think not
2:07
Speaker 1: perhaps only his best race, but maybe his most important
2:10
Speaker 1: victory again to date, but a really important marker in
2:12
Speaker 1: this season.
2:13
Speaker 2: Agreed, I think you know, we needed to see him
2:16
Speaker 2: win another way. And I'm not saying it's easy when
2:19
Speaker 2: you've got the best car and you're starting on the
2:20
Speaker 2: front row, as he has with the other victories, but
2:23
Speaker 2: this was one that genuinely had to be fought for.
2:25
Speaker 2: I mean, we know that Mercedes didn't exactly empty the
2:28
Speaker 2: chamber when it came to upgrades for this event relative
2:31
Speaker 2: to some of the other teams at the front of
2:33
Speaker 2: the field, so their advantage that we saw across the
2:35
Speaker 2: first three rounds was definitely eroded in Miami. It was
2:38
Speaker 2: one he had to fight for. He wasn't in a
2:40
Speaker 2: particularly advantageous position. A couple of times you mentioned the
2:44
Speaker 2: composure thing, and I still think there were elements of
2:47
Speaker 2: the race where that is still a work in progress,
2:50
Speaker 2: and that's just testament to his age and he's inexperience
2:53
Speaker 2: and this whole oh, I'm leading the Grand Prix type stuff,
2:56
Speaker 2: which is he's clearly getting used to because he's done
2:58
Speaker 2: it three times in a row now, but an important
3:01
Speaker 2: win in the way that it was taken as much
3:03
Speaker 2: as the points that he got from it. But there
3:06
Speaker 2: is something just really sustainable and believable about what he's
3:10
Speaker 2: doing at the moment. Forget you know, if you try
3:12
Speaker 2: to separate what he's doing from how old he is
3:14
Speaker 2: and how it experienced he is, this looks like something
3:17
Speaker 2: that's repeatable and as a bona fide Grand Prix winner.
3:19
Speaker 2: Then you add those other elements back in that he
3:21
Speaker 2: is so young, and he is so inexperienced, and he's
3:23
Speaker 2: doing it against a very seasoned and highly favored teammate
3:27
Speaker 2: I think you'd have to say coming into the season,
3:29
Speaker 2: and then certainly McClaren were much more in the game
3:32
Speaker 2: than they have been at the previous three rounds. So
3:34
Speaker 2: a really well taken win, an important one in the
3:37
Speaker 2: context of his journey. And isn't it refreshing to see
3:41
Speaker 2: something a bit new and just a bit I feel
3:45
Speaker 2: like a story we don't really know yet with him,
3:47
Speaker 2: it's just a newness to it that's really enjoyable right
3:50
Speaker 2: now seeing someone come in and do what he's done
3:52
Speaker 2: the first time he's had a chance to fight with
3:54
Speaker 2: a really good car.
3:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the you never know where a championship is
3:57
Speaker 1: going to go in any given season, or most given seasons.
4:00
Speaker 1: I guess we all lived through twenty twenty three, but
4:03
Speaker 1: you really don't know where this one's going because everything
4:05
Speaker 1: about this, as you say, is new. We've only got
4:07
Speaker 1: one year of data on him, and last year was
4:10
Speaker 1: a very rookie season, if we can describe it like that,
4:13
Speaker 1: you know, felt like a guy who was thrown into
4:15
Speaker 1: the deep end. Remarkable how much difference an off season makes,
4:20
Speaker 1: and a particularly short one at that. And I think
4:22
Speaker 1: repeatability was a really great way to describe it, because
4:25
Speaker 1: we knew from I guess a handful perhaps of races
4:28
Speaker 1: last year, that things could click for him, or he
4:31
Speaker 1: could make them click, and you'd have a great weekend
4:33
Speaker 1: like Brazil last year was the standout, even Canada last year,
4:36
Speaker 1: even in some elements Miami last year, but never or
4:41
Speaker 1: rarely was it sustained for an entire weekend, and rare
4:44
Speaker 1: was it weekend to weekend. Now we've seen that strung together.
4:47
Speaker 1: I mean, these have been three very comprehensive weekend performances,
4:51
Speaker 1: not without their faults. The track limits in the sprint
4:53
Speaker 1: in Miami, completely avoidable incident. In that case, the starts
4:58
Speaker 1: are an ongoing question or that are less about him
5:00
Speaker 1: this weekend, by the sounds of it, than they were
5:02
Speaker 1: about them the way the car was being configured. But
5:05
Speaker 1: this feels like, yeah, as you say, it could be
5:07
Speaker 1: any other driver, and I want to compare him now
5:09
Speaker 1: to George Russell on the other side of the garage,
5:11
Speaker 1: that the driver who many had penciled in as the
5:15
Speaker 1: championship favorite if not used the full on pad. We
5:18
Speaker 1: shouldn't say that things have changed. We are only four
5:21
Speaker 1: rounds in, it is only twenty points with about a
5:23
Speaker 1: million rounds still remaining, and Mercedes car remains the quickest car,
5:27
Speaker 1: even if it's by less of a margin at this point.
5:29
Speaker 1: But three defeats in a row at circuits where look,
5:33
Speaker 1: he's been in and out of competitiveness in Miami, certainly not,
5:37
Speaker 1: but also I think it's fair to say it's never
5:39
Speaker 1: felt as though he's had overwhelming performance advantage and it's
5:43
Speaker 1: simply been circumstances prevented him from exercising it. I wonder
5:47
Speaker 1: what George Russell must be thinking after this race, considering
5:50
Speaker 1: he hasn't really had a look in at a win
5:52
Speaker 1: for a little while now.
5:53
Speaker 2: No, and the three races and a row things interesting
5:55
Speaker 2: because to my mind we suspected Mercedes had a pretty
5:59
Speaker 2: significant car advantage the way I since the season might
6:03
Speaker 2: go based on last year and just the sediority of
6:06
Speaker 2: Russell within that team of the incumbency, would be that
6:09
Speaker 2: it wouldn't have surprised me if Antonelli had strung together
6:11
Speaker 2: three race wins in a row, but maybe that would
6:13
Speaker 2: have been a second half of the season thing in
6:16
Speaker 2: that once he got his head around having a front
6:18
Speaker 2: running car and what have you. I since this season
6:20
Speaker 2: would be not that Antonelli is going to be the tortoise,
6:24
Speaker 2: but I think that Russell was going to be the hair. Here.
6:26
Speaker 2: He strikes me as the guy who might run out
6:28
Speaker 2: early and then it's up for everyone else to try
6:30
Speaker 2: and peg him back. So that's the interesting part for me,
6:32
Speaker 2: not that Antonelli has strung together as succession of races.
6:35
Speaker 2: It's more how quickly it's happened, and that would have
6:39
Speaker 2: been the expectation for Russell, truth be told, possibly even
6:42
Speaker 2: Antonelli within the team, within the sport. So you've got
6:44
Speaker 2: this surprise narrative and four rounds into it, Russell he's
6:49
Speaker 2: twenty points off the lead, so he's hardly it's hardly over.
6:51
Speaker 2: There's seven million points to go, as you were saying.
6:55
Speaker 2: But it's more than narrative of the season now in
6:57
Speaker 2: that Antonelli's got this enormous momentum. It's really interesting to
7:01
Speaker 2: see the dynamic within that garage. And we've seen this
7:04
Speaker 2: with several teams in the past, when someone feels like
7:07
Speaker 2: they're homegrown, they're part of the furniture, and they have
7:11
Speaker 2: some success against the established star. I mean, we live
7:14
Speaker 2: this with Daddiel Ricardo a couple of times. You know,
7:17
Speaker 2: you know how this story goes. Yeah, it's interesting, just
7:21
Speaker 2: the dynamic, and I'm wondering. I don't think Russell's been
7:24
Speaker 2: doing a particularly poor job, and it just surprises me
7:26
Speaker 2: that it's felt at several places over these last couple
7:29
Speaker 2: of weekends that the gap has been pretty significant, and
7:33
Speaker 2: it was a very significant gap on Sunday in the race.
7:36
Speaker 2: So yeah, curious one because I would not have predicted
7:41
Speaker 2: this storyline perhaps happening in this order at the beginning
7:44
Speaker 2: of the season. And now we're going to get to
7:46
Speaker 2: see whether Russell has another side of it, it's like,
7:48
Speaker 2: how does he arrest this? Because momentum within a team
7:51
Speaker 2: is a thing. We know this, we've lived this, we've
7:53
Speaker 2: watched this. The fact this is happening so soon, that's
7:56
Speaker 2: the really interesting part for me, And you would assume
8:00
Speaker 2: once they start bringing some upgrades to that car. I
8:02
Speaker 2: don't know if they're going to go back to their
8:03
Speaker 2: Australia level of dominance, but they're in a position of
8:06
Speaker 2: authority as it is that should only be stretched slightly
8:09
Speaker 2: by whatever they bringed, irrespective of what McLaren or Ferrari
8:12
Speaker 2: or perhaps Maxi with Stappen and red Bulldoo. But yeah,
8:15
Speaker 2: dynamic within that team. It's the storyline perhaps we didn't
8:19
Speaker 2: see coming for Racey to this year.
8:21
Speaker 1: But Daniel Riccardo analogy is a really good one. Not
8:23
Speaker 1: to just sound like the Fox Sports podcast who are
8:26
Speaker 1: going to link it back to Daniel Ricardo somehow, but
8:28
Speaker 1: because Daniel Ricardo, much like George Russell, was also a
8:31
Speaker 1: product of the junior program of the team, and in
8:34
Speaker 1: a weird way, Kimi Antonelli has been a Mercedes junior
8:38
Speaker 1: for driver for a long time, dating back to I
8:39
Speaker 1: think his last year in carting yes, whereas Max with
8:42
Speaker 1: Staffin was never really a Red Bull junior driver until
8:44
Speaker 1: they wanted to put him in the F one car.
8:46
Speaker 1: But I think the parallel between him is they both
8:48
Speaker 1: had the backing of an important senior figure in the team.
8:51
Speaker 1: Maxim Staffin's case it was Helmut Marco, who was at
8:54
Speaker 1: that time particularly influential in the way the drivers we
8:56
Speaker 1: can figured across those teams. In this case, Antonelli's sort
8:59
Speaker 1: of a bit of a wolf total wolf protege I guess,
9:03
Speaker 1: or almost a hand picked a captain's call if you like. Yeah,
9:07
Speaker 1: and that while you know, and I'm sure there is
9:09
Speaker 1: no favoritism from Wolf per se, that will mean something
9:13
Speaker 1: when you know Russell's back against the wall has just
9:15
Speaker 1: come off a year in which there was a prospect
9:18
Speaker 1: of him not getting a new contract just because Max
9:20
Speaker 1: with Staffan was on the market. Yes, that'll all add up.
9:23
Speaker 1: I think if really his back is against the wall
9:25
Speaker 1: for an extended period of time, it.
9:27
Speaker 2: Is funny like you mentioned, you know, you mentioned the
9:29
Speaker 2: contract thing. That's a really good call. That is, for
9:31
Speaker 2: all of the how data driven Formula one is, sometimes
9:35
Speaker 2: it's good just to go by the vibes the feel
9:37
Speaker 2: of these sorts of things. You know, something gets unquantifiable,
9:40
Speaker 2: and I'm kind of living in this at the moment.
9:42
Speaker 2: I have just written a retrospective piece of Max for
9:45
Speaker 2: Stappen's first win for Red Bull Racing, which was one
9:47
Speaker 2: week ago, one week from now. It was ten years ago, remarkably,
9:52
Speaker 2: and I remember at the time, because I was obviously
9:54
Speaker 2: talking to Daniel a lot in that period, just what
9:57
Speaker 2: that meant for Stappen stepped in for his first race,
10:00
Speaker 2: that scene we've read ball racing and won it in Barcelona.
10:03
Speaker 2: It's like, all okay. And then from then on the
10:07
Speaker 2: power dynamic in that team began to slowly shift to
10:11
Speaker 2: a point where at the end of twenty eighteen Daniel
10:13
Speaker 2: had many reasons to leave, but that was clearly one
10:16
Speaker 2: of them. And you wonder if we're sort of watching
10:18
Speaker 2: a version of this in real time here with Antonelli.
10:20
Speaker 2: The thing about Antonelli I just wanted to go back
10:22
Speaker 2: to really quickly. You mentioned before. I'm not going to
10:26
Speaker 2: say that I saw this level of performance coming, but
10:29
Speaker 2: you remember last year we were talking about the fact
10:31
Speaker 2: that he was bizarrely no good at tracks that he knew,
10:34
Speaker 2: but it was very good at ones that he didn't
10:36
Speaker 2: and as much as everyone was trying to paint it, oh,
10:38
Speaker 2: look at this run where he scored one point in
10:40
Speaker 2: seven rounds and it's all terrible and is he up
10:42
Speaker 2: to it? And don't listen to the skycoverage and so
10:44
Speaker 2: and so forth. Part of me was thinking, but hang,
10:47
Speaker 2: on the other side to this, is he's turning up
10:49
Speaker 2: to places he doesn't know in his rookie season. In formulae,
10:52
Speaker 2: I'm actually doing quite well. And they weren't all the
10:54
Speaker 2: back end of the season either. You mentioned Brazil was
10:56
Speaker 2: particularly strong, but Miami last year was good too, And
10:59
Speaker 2: that was one of those things where I thought, huh,
11:01
Speaker 2: that's really interesting for a rookie as young as he
11:04
Speaker 2: is to turn up to places he doesn't know and
11:06
Speaker 2: be actually very good. And I saw that as being
11:08
Speaker 2: something to be optimistic about, rather than being pessimistic of
11:12
Speaker 2: the fact that he had this run of just terrible
11:14
Speaker 2: results at places he probably should have been better. And yeah,
11:18
Speaker 2: it's interesting now how you look back at that. I
11:20
Speaker 2: don't think anyone's going to be referencing the one point
11:22
Speaker 2: in seven weekends anymore.
11:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, it will be interesting to see what happens when
11:25
Speaker 1: we get to Europe. But I think there are a
11:27
Speaker 1: lot of elements, obviously in retrospect that went into that
11:29
Speaker 1: Barren run, and we can't just say it was all
11:32
Speaker 1: whatever being a rookie or anything like that. So a
11:35
Speaker 1: fascinating prospect, really big step, a lot of things. Actually
11:37
Speaker 1: we've been talking about with Oscar Piastri from the last
11:40
Speaker 1: couple of years. These big steps they make these drivers
11:43
Speaker 1: who were clear in their junior category something special and
11:46
Speaker 1: then when they put it together in F one, it's
11:48
Speaker 1: very impressive to watch and I think we all look
11:50
Speaker 1: forward to seeing where this one goes. When a tangent
11:52
Speaker 1: a little bit here, we mentioned upgrades. That was a
11:54
Speaker 1: big story from the Miami Grand Prix. Most teams for
11:57
Speaker 1: fairly significant upgrade packages. Measeades wasn't one of those. They're
12:00
Speaker 1: saving them the Canada McLaren was and looked a lot
12:03
Speaker 1: more competitive. They have also a second step in their
12:05
Speaker 1: upgrade package in Canada that feels like a very McLaren
12:08
Speaker 1: thing to do from the last two years for this
12:10
Speaker 1: to happen over multiple weeks. So this isn't to say
12:13
Speaker 1: that Mercedes is, as you mentioned, just going to step
12:15
Speaker 1: back out to a Melbourne scale advantage. It'll be interesting
12:18
Speaker 1: to see how they shake out. I think there's there's
12:20
Speaker 1: something in that idea that if the field is to
12:23
Speaker 1: get closer, that could work also to Antonelli's advantage, because
12:26
Speaker 1: now they could be cars between him and Russell vice
12:28
Speaker 1: versus as well. Russell can catch up more quickly. But
12:30
Speaker 1: I want to go to McLaren a double podium, their
12:32
Speaker 1: first of the season. They scored forty eight points this weekend.
12:35
Speaker 1: It made them the highest point scorer of the weekend,
12:37
Speaker 1: more than doubled their points score for the year to date.
12:40
Speaker 1: This is I think more indicative of how found the
12:43
Speaker 1: year had been, rather than how good This weekend was
12:45
Speaker 1: also a one two in the sprint through at a
12:47
Speaker 1: moment where it felt like everything was coming of a
12:49
Speaker 1: very twenty to twenty five. Lando Norris was pretty vociferous
12:54
Speaker 1: on team radio after the race, lamenting or wondering allowed
12:58
Speaker 1: why did he not win this? Should he have won
13:01
Speaker 1: this race?
13:01
Speaker 2: Match?
13:01
Speaker 1: Should this have been McLaren's victory.
13:04
Speaker 2: I don't think so. I think the way we would
13:07
Speaker 2: have got to the same result would have just been different.
13:10
Speaker 2: I think I think Mercedes. I still think Mercedes ha
13:12
Speaker 2: have McLaren covered. I mean, now McLaren possibly denied themselves
13:16
Speaker 2: a better chance to win the race through some operational shoddiness.
13:20
Speaker 2: I guess you could say it's interesting that you know,
13:21
Speaker 2: they've been the benchmark team for the last couple of years,
13:24
Speaker 2: and you see this sometimes with teams that have these
13:26
Speaker 2: protracted runs of success. They're just not quite as operationally
13:29
Speaker 2: sharp as maybe they need to be in situations when
13:32
Speaker 2: it's a bit tight, because they don't have to be.
13:34
Speaker 2: You lose that living on the razor's edge type of thing.
13:37
Speaker 2: But you mentioned the upgrades and what it did for McLaren.
13:40
Speaker 2: I mean you almost could not have very close to
13:44
Speaker 2: the perfect weekend when you think they came one two
13:46
Speaker 2: in the Sprint, which is about the only time will
13:47
Speaker 2: reference to sprint on this podcast because precisely nothing happened
13:50
Speaker 2: in it, and then in the Grand Prix. I mean, look,
13:53
Speaker 2: Norris was in contention to be to Mercedes, and that's
13:55
Speaker 2: something that no one's really said for the first four
13:58
Speaker 2: rounds of the season. From where they've come from, I
14:01
Speaker 2: think it's a really, really good result. They clearly separated
14:04
Speaker 2: themselves from the so who's the next best team? Question?
14:08
Speaker 2: And the fact you mentioned before they've got this. This
14:10
Speaker 2: is an upgrade in two parts. Now we don't know
14:12
Speaker 2: whether it's a fifty to fifty or whatever it is,
14:14
Speaker 2: but the fact that there's still more performance coming onto
14:17
Speaker 2: this car Canada this early in a season. I know,
14:19
Speaker 2: it's like the normal stage of the calendar, but Canada
14:23
Speaker 2: round five and I think it is something we've been
14:24
Speaker 2: talking about before. But it's a bit of an outlier
14:28
Speaker 2: of a track, and it's obviously an old, established racetrack,
14:30
Speaker 2: but it's not really like anywhere else. I can't really
14:32
Speaker 2: think of anywhere else that it is like. So it'll
14:34
Speaker 2: be curious to see whether the performance that they and
14:37
Speaker 2: Mercedes have in Montreal carries on for the rest of
14:40
Speaker 2: the season. But in terms of you know, you said
14:42
Speaker 2: it before, the fact that they scored war points this weekend,
14:45
Speaker 2: that they'd scored the first three is probably testam. It's
14:47
Speaker 2: how bad the first three was rather than how good
14:49
Speaker 2: this was. But certainly a step in the right direction
14:53
Speaker 2: for Australian fans. I guess a little bittersweet because it
14:56
Speaker 2: never really felt at any point of the weekend that
14:58
Speaker 2: anyone other Thanland Know Not was McLaren's best driver over
15:01
Speaker 2: the course of the weekend, but for Osco Piastri to
15:03
Speaker 2: finish on the podium a couple of times over the
15:05
Speaker 2: course of the weekend and sort of breeds some life
15:08
Speaker 2: into a season that well for the first year, Rounds
15:10
Speaker 2: didn't actually drive his car, didn't in a race, so
15:13
Speaker 2: it does feel like things are on the improved, But
15:15
Speaker 2: it did feel also like Norris was clearly the better
15:18
Speaker 2: McLaren over the weekend.
15:19
Speaker 1: It's funny that it feels like momentum at this circuit
15:21
Speaker 1: for McLaren driver's swings one way or the other year
15:25
Speaker 1: and year, doesn't it Norris winning his first couple of
15:27
Speaker 1: years ago. Last year, I think it was clearly Piastre,
15:29
Speaker 1: even if the sprint didn't go his way, and then
15:31
Speaker 1: this year it fell back in Norris's direction, And it's
15:34
Speaker 1: kind of like you say, it's too it's too early
15:36
Speaker 1: in McLaren's season, weirdly not everyone else's season to know
15:40
Speaker 1: how that team's going, how those drivers are going in
15:43
Speaker 1: relation to one another. Obviously, off the back of last
15:45
Speaker 1: year's title campaigns a bit too early to read too
15:48
Speaker 1: much into anything, particularly given even from the Piastre perspective,
15:53
Speaker 1: to a lesser extent Norris because he's also missed race,
15:55
Speaker 1: but he's still I guess he's still kind of in
15:58
Speaker 1: China in terms of his ability to understand how this
16:02
Speaker 1: car is going. Right.
16:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, completely, I mean the China things really know even
16:05
Speaker 2: but they both got wheeled off the green and didn't
16:06
Speaker 2: do a lap in the Grand Prix in Shanghai, so
16:09
Speaker 2: it does almost feel like they set out the first
16:11
Speaker 2: two Grand Prix because I'm a coind of nowhere in
16:12
Speaker 2: Melbourne as well. Really, so yeah, still really early in
16:17
Speaker 2: TBC in terms of where they sit right now. Not
16:20
Speaker 2: one hundred percent sure, but certainly move in the right direction.
16:23
Speaker 2: And yeah, it's funny as you say, like this particular
16:25
Speaker 2: track has been really important for both of them in
16:29
Speaker 2: successive years. I think from Piastri's perspective, just actually seeing
16:34
Speaker 2: their checkered flag and having a relatively normal if you
16:37
Speaker 2: could use normal in twenty twenty six quotation marks race
16:40
Speaker 2: was something he probably diedded to do two rounds ago,
16:43
Speaker 2: but at least we got them.
16:44
Speaker 1: I think. So I just want to go to two
16:46
Speaker 1: other teams before we move on, and they are the
16:48
Speaker 1: other front runners for ARI and Red Bull Racing Let's
16:50
Speaker 1: start with Red Bull racing. This felt like a more
16:54
Speaker 1: normal weekend for them in a couple of different ways.
16:56
Speaker 1: Maximstappen was more competitive. He was a pole contender this
16:59
Speaker 1: week weekend I think probably would have been a podium
17:02
Speaker 1: contender had he not spun out. That was very Unmax
17:04
Speaker 1: with stapping thing to do I suppose on the first lap,
17:06
Speaker 1: although very Max was stapping to somehow survive that incident
17:09
Speaker 1: and continue pointing in the right direction. I had a
17:12
Speaker 1: crack at a long shot strategy. Had the rain arrived
17:14
Speaker 1: at the right time, could have won big in the
17:16
Speaker 1: Anti finished just off the podium in fifth in the end,
17:20
Speaker 1: wasn't it after Charlotte Claire's penalties en after getting through
17:23
Speaker 1: on that final lap, looked happier, sounded happier. The second
17:27
Speaker 1: way in which I think is a very Red Bull
17:28
Speaker 1: weekend is that the driver of the other Red Bull
17:30
Speaker 1: car was nowhere all weekend. Felt very I mean insert
17:33
Speaker 1: name here. Was at Yuki Snoda? Pierre Ghastly? Was it?
17:35
Speaker 1: Sergio Perez? Was Alex Albon? Any one of them? Liam
17:38
Speaker 1: lawsoning get him just miles off the pace, crashed out
17:42
Speaker 1: in the first five laps, feels like Red Bull's.
17:44
Speaker 2: Back, Red Bull Back. Nothing like a bit of nostalgia
17:47
Speaker 2: one car team, one of them up the front, the
17:50
Speaker 2: other one not on your TV screen or in a
17:52
Speaker 2: fence somewhere. It's so nice to have a bit of
17:54
Speaker 2: a bit of tradition in Formula one with everything changing,
17:57
Speaker 2: isn't it. But with Max, I thought, look, I mean,
18:01
Speaker 2: he my goodness, he's hard to overtake. And I kind
18:04
Speaker 2: of love it as well, because there's just a degree
18:07
Speaker 2: of sort of accepted bastardry with the way that he
18:09
Speaker 2: goes racing and wheels or will combat that. You know
18:12
Speaker 2: that if anyone else did it, you'd be like, oh man,
18:14
Speaker 2: that's a bit on the edge. With him. I'm kind
18:16
Speaker 2: of glad that he sticks to the bit in some respects.
18:18
Speaker 2: It's like, yeah, this is what I'm doing. And they
18:20
Speaker 2: all know that too when they go and pass him,
18:22
Speaker 2: like some of the stuff he was doing, just diving
18:23
Speaker 2: down the inside and just well, you can elect to
18:25
Speaker 2: turn in, but I'm not going anywhere. I do enjoy it,
18:29
Speaker 2: that ass. I do enjoy a feisty Max. But he looked,
18:32
Speaker 2: he looked alive. I've got to say, over the course
18:34
Speaker 2: of the weekend. He was so miserable through the first
18:37
Speaker 2: three rounds and we heard mostly about it. The car
18:40
Speaker 2: was nowhere. They've made a lot of progress again, had
18:43
Speaker 2: a lot of progress to make, but that looks he
18:47
Speaker 2: looks much more sustainable. And the fact that you know,
18:50
Speaker 2: and Haja sort of mentioned it himself after qualifying, didn't
18:52
Speaker 2: He's like, well, he didn't think he'd done a particularly
18:55
Speaker 2: bad job, but clearly Max was doing something pretty amazing
18:57
Speaker 2: in the rebooted car because the gap was so big,
19:00
Speaker 2: and you know, like you said, very retro, you're a
19:03
Speaker 2: red bull here. I don't really know what the solution
19:05
Speaker 2: is for that, but in terms of look, they've had
19:08
Speaker 2: virtually no one at the races for the first three rounds,
19:10
Speaker 2: so to have their four time world champion back and
19:12
Speaker 2: fighting for something meaningful in a Grand Prix and looked
19:16
Speaker 2: like it was kind of sustainable too, So I think
19:18
Speaker 2: a big tick for them all in all. But yeah,
19:19
Speaker 2: the second the second driver, it's just an ongoing saga,
19:24
Speaker 2: and I like that Isaac Hadjar cares there can never
19:27
Speaker 2: be any there can never be any doubt that he
19:31
Speaker 2: is invested in his own performance. But how many times
19:34
Speaker 2: do you need to thump your own steering wheel to
19:36
Speaker 2: sort of get the frustrations out. Is there a limit
19:38
Speaker 2: to this? Is it twenty five? Is it thirty five?
19:40
Speaker 2: I mean any hard surface within reach. Our prey chucked
19:43
Speaker 2: it in the fence there early, and the race was
19:45
Speaker 2: going to cop it. And I do wonder if temperamentally
19:48
Speaker 2: that's the right approach to being MaxV Steppen's teammate. But
19:51
Speaker 2: perhaps that's another story.
19:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a story that has to unfold
19:54
Speaker 1: and finally, Ferrari a weekend. It started with some promise,
19:58
Speaker 1: I think, with them declaring them most upgrades of the weekend.
20:01
Speaker 1: It's a bit of a nebulous concept of things they
20:03
Speaker 1: put on the forms, but that's what they said, that
20:06
Speaker 1: there was eleven new pieces to the car, and seemed
20:08
Speaker 1: like initially that there'd been a little bit of a
20:10
Speaker 1: step forward there. In pure pace terms, they are still
20:12
Speaker 1: closer to the front, but they left this weekend being
20:15
Speaker 1: the fourth fastest team, having been closer in ranking order,
20:18
Speaker 1: I guess if you want to say it like that
20:20
Speaker 1: in previous rounds. Also, obviously the result was nowhere. No
20:23
Speaker 1: podium finished for Charlotte Claire's essentially spun himself out of
20:26
Speaker 1: the race, limped home in sixth, and then was devoted
20:31
Speaker 1: to eighth by a penalty A little bit confusing penalty.
20:34
Speaker 1: The stewards acknowledging on the one hand that the car
20:36
Speaker 1: was damaged. On the other hand, that's no excuse for
20:38
Speaker 1: not being able to turn into corners and was subsequently
20:42
Speaker 1: twenty seconds That said, is the way whatever, It's only
20:44
Speaker 1: a handful of points, I suppose, but felt indicative somehow
20:47
Speaker 1: of the way Ferrari's expectations collapsed towards the end of
20:52
Speaker 1: the weekend as well.
20:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit. I mean I think best case scenario,
20:55
Speaker 2: Leclair fought the good fight for the last podium spot
20:58
Speaker 2: was never going to quite get it. Hard to hard
21:02
Speaker 2: to put finger on Ferrari at the moment in the
21:05
Speaker 2: because of the first couple of rounds this year where
21:07
Speaker 2: we were all going, oh watch the Ferrari off the startlight.
21:09
Speaker 2: Here we go. I mean, we were talking about this
21:10
Speaker 2: in Australia. It's like, how far before the first quartera
21:12
Speaker 2: will the Ferraris be in the lead and we know
21:14
Speaker 2: they've got this amazing ability to get off the line.
21:17
Speaker 2: So maybe sometimes that realistically raises our expectations for how
21:21
Speaker 2: good we think they might be. It's like, oh, look
21:22
Speaker 2: at them up the front, but it's not really sustainable.
21:26
Speaker 2: Hamilton Lewis Hamilton had damage early in that race as well,
21:29
Speaker 2: so that was a little bit of a didn't really
21:32
Speaker 2: quite get an example of the pace that he had,
21:34
Speaker 2: but it felt that, it felt that the stap and
21:37
Speaker 2: had the Ferraris measure over the course of the weekend,
21:39
Speaker 2: and yeah, maybe they needed twelve upgrades to weather it.
21:42
Speaker 2: So we'll see what they bring to Canada where we
21:46
Speaker 2: get to a bit more of an unusual circuit.
21:49
Speaker 1: So let's move on now to Move of the Week,
21:51
Speaker 1: brought to you by Shadnons. Plenty of overtaking artificial otherwise
21:55
Speaker 1: not a lot of the sprint though. Actually that did
21:57
Speaker 1: surprise me a little bit. You mentioned that earlier. But
21:59
Speaker 1: where you taking us some Moves of the week.
22:01
Speaker 2: I'm going to go somewhere I've never been before on
22:04
Speaker 2: Mover of the Week. I'm going to offer some praise
22:06
Speaker 2: for someone that has usually just copped a fair bit
22:08
Speaker 2: of eye rolling for me in his short tenure in
22:10
Speaker 2: Formula one. Frico Colopinto had a really really good weekend.
22:14
Speaker 2: I thought and you know, he was seventh in the
22:17
Speaker 2: Grand Prix, and a pretty comfortable seventh like that. Alpine
22:20
Speaker 2: is clearly a pretty decent car. This year, Pierre Gasley
22:22
Speaker 2: didn't get to finish the race because he was upside
22:24
Speaker 2: down early in it after getting tagged by Liam Lawson.
22:27
Speaker 2: But Colopinto a couple of top tens in qualifying, ran
22:30
Speaker 2: really well in the Grand Prix. No real doubt that
22:33
Speaker 2: he was going to finish behind the slowest runner in
22:38
Speaker 2: the big teams. I guess if you were going to
22:39
Speaker 2: put it that way, really polished performance, and we know
22:44
Speaker 2: that it's been you know, had that initial first few
22:46
Speaker 2: races with Williams where everyone's like, wow, I look at
22:48
Speaker 2: this guy, and then last year it was just and
22:50
Speaker 2: it was all a bit a bit sad and a
22:52
Speaker 2: bit glumb and nothing much happened. And yeah, so send
22:56
Speaker 2: all your fan mail to me from Buenos Aires or
22:58
Speaker 2: whatever else you bucks send it, because hooray Franco colopinto
23:02
Speaker 2: move of the week, into a legitimate top ten finish
23:04
Speaker 2: and probably his best weekend in Formula One so far.
23:07
Speaker 1: I'd say, yes, it really just surprised me. This is
23:09
Speaker 1: his first Q three appearance as well, yes, Azerbaijan twenty
23:13
Speaker 1: twenty four, and also his best results since then was
23:15
Speaker 1: going to equal that until the penalty for the Claire
23:17
Speaker 1: dropped him or moved a colop into rather upper place.
23:21
Speaker 1: Did see, it's easy to forget. I suppose maybe it
23:23
Speaker 1: was in the middle of last year that last year
23:25
Speaker 1: was so ordinary for him. But he looks a little
23:27
Speaker 1: bit more, looks a little bit more up for it
23:29
Speaker 1: so far as here, I think.
23:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think the expectations were probably a little
23:33
Speaker 2: bit unrealistic last year because of how good those few
23:35
Speaker 2: races were at Williams, until he started hitting stuff in
23:38
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four and then twenty twenty five. I mean, frankly,
23:40
Speaker 2: the Alpine was such a dog that no one was.
23:42
Speaker 2: I mean, the fact that back at Ghasly did what
23:45
Speaker 2: he did in at last year is probably testament to
23:46
Speaker 2: how good Pierre Ghastly is. But yeah, he was. He
23:50
Speaker 2: was back and it was convincing and he was really impressive.
23:52
Speaker 2: So move of the week into a comfortable top ten position.
23:55
Speaker 2: That's probably the most sensible move of the week I've
23:57
Speaker 2: ever had in the history of this category. I'll try
24:00
Speaker 2: not to make it last for next week. But given
24:02
Speaker 2: that I've taken something sensible, I'm hoping that you might
24:05
Speaker 2: up the silliness quotient this week.
24:07
Speaker 1: I was going to select the moving of the race
24:09
Speaker 1: for the avoiding of the rain, but actually in my
24:11
Speaker 1: mo in my books as a terrible move, at least
24:14
Speaker 1: three personally considering me how it was, No didn't end
24:17
Speaker 1: up raining during the original race window. Anyway, I think
24:20
Speaker 1: it was a good idea for what it's worth, because
24:23
Speaker 1: obviously you prefer to get a race than not. We
24:25
Speaker 1: all remember the twenty twenty one Belgium Droum pre sadly,
24:27
Speaker 1: sadly but no good for my sleep schedule. No, I'm
24:31
Speaker 1: going to a series of moves. On the first lap,
24:35
Speaker 1: five places gained by Alex Albon and two by Carlos Science,
24:38
Speaker 1: which became five for Alex Albon at the flag and
24:41
Speaker 1: four for Science by the time the race finished. For Williams,
24:44
Speaker 1: a double points finish, a result much needed, I think
24:47
Speaker 1: for this team that is still underperforming relative to where
24:50
Speaker 1: they should have been or expected to be this year.
24:52
Speaker 1: But this is they say, the car they intended to
24:54
Speaker 1: bring to Melbourne. That's just how far behind they were
24:57
Speaker 1: in the build process, and what is it now, it's
24:59
Speaker 1: the start of base it was a couple of months late.
25:01
Speaker 1: I guess that does demonstrate it. And the car at
25:04
Speaker 1: least looked like a not quite front of midfield I
25:07
Speaker 1: guess because that really is LP now, isn't it? But
25:09
Speaker 1: a front of midfield excluding Alpine car I guess. So
25:12
Speaker 1: that's second best in the midfield, but a car that
25:15
Speaker 1: looked genuinely like it belonged at the top of Q two.
25:19
Speaker 1: I think b again because of LPNE. Maybe not a
25:21
Speaker 1: Q three contender yet, but one that might be able
25:23
Speaker 1: to get there sooner rather than later, and a genuine
25:26
Speaker 1: points contender as well, which is something we haven't been
25:28
Speaker 1: able to say about Williams for the last couple of rounds.
25:31
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that just takes a little bit
25:33
Speaker 1: of pressure off because the questions were serious. You know,
25:35
Speaker 1: a team that devoted so much resource and energy last year,
25:38
Speaker 1: pretty much all of last year to this year's car
25:41
Speaker 1: to have been so late, so undercooked, and so uncompetitive.
25:44
Speaker 1: A lot of the lack of performance still relates to weight,
25:46
Speaker 1: but they're slowly chipping that away. But I think this
25:48
Speaker 1: is an important result for their season.
25:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's where they should be quite frankly as where
25:53
Speaker 2: we thought they'd be is where they should be. I think,
25:55
Speaker 2: you know, we look at it last year, they pulled
25:57
Speaker 2: the plug so early when things are actually going quite well,
25:59
Speaker 2: and that's not something we've been able to say about
26:01
Speaker 2: Williams for a really long time. So you sort of
26:04
Speaker 2: said at the time, well, it's nice that they're doing this,
26:06
Speaker 2: and if they're actually switching their focus to twenty six
26:09
Speaker 2: and man, they're going to log run up here, this
26:11
Speaker 2: will end up being really good and just felt so
26:13
Speaker 2: flat for the first couple of rounds, so it feels
26:15
Speaker 2: like it's a move back to the space they should
26:18
Speaker 2: be occupying rather than some traumatic move forward. But the
26:21
Speaker 2: fact they've done that in round four and they've sort
26:24
Speaker 2: of a joined that whoever is the next in the
26:26
Speaker 2: pecking order behind Alpine fight when you can see how
26:29
Speaker 2: groom it wasn't those first couple of rounds. The car
26:31
Speaker 2: was heavy, it was slow, it was unreliable. We know
26:34
Speaker 2: they've got some really really solid performance in the car,
26:37
Speaker 2: So yeah, a move back to where they should be
26:39
Speaker 2: rather than anything dramatically seismic, but at least they got there.
26:43
Speaker 1: At least they got some points as well. Very exciting
26:46
Speaker 1: for Williams. Let's move on now to one of the
26:49
Speaker 1: other talking points from the last weekend, all the last
26:52
Speaker 1: couple of days in fact, and that is can you
26:54
Speaker 1: believe it? The engine rules, Matt, something we haven't talked
26:57
Speaker 1: about all year, literally every week almost this whole yeh can't.
27:01
Speaker 1: I didn't even know there were engines in the cars.
27:04
Speaker 1: This has been brought back up by the FIA president himself,
27:08
Speaker 1: Mohammad bensul Am, who in an interview with Reuters reported
27:11
Speaker 1: by Reuters, has said that V eight engines will be back.
27:14
Speaker 1: In fact, he said it all quite let me read
27:15
Speaker 1: you something quotes because I said it quite dramatically.
27:18
Speaker 2: I love it.
27:19
Speaker 1: I love his quote. It's coming at the end of
27:21
Speaker 1: the day. It's a matter of time and then it
27:25
Speaker 1: will be done. V eight is coming. It's like a
27:29
Speaker 1: movie trailer.
27:30
Speaker 3: It's exactly what I was about to say you could
27:32
Speaker 3: imagine doing in twenty thirty one. It's like he's doing
27:37
Speaker 3: his big sort of you know sell, like he's doing
27:39
Speaker 3: the movie poster for you know something, part three or whatever.
27:42
Speaker 2: It's coming back into the into theaters near you. But yeah,
27:45
Speaker 2: he speaks in movie poster, a sound bites, doesn't he,
27:48
Speaker 2: But man, what are we look? A return to V
27:53
Speaker 2: eight's golf clap from me. I don't know if I
27:56
Speaker 2: want to wait until I don't know if I want
27:57
Speaker 2: to wait till twenty thirty one for this, but I
28:00
Speaker 2: they cannot believe that we are in a place where
28:03
Speaker 2: we are four races in to an engine cycle. And
28:06
Speaker 2: I know you've done this story so you can probably
28:08
Speaker 2: quote the eye watering money that's been spent on this
28:11
Speaker 2: sort of thing over the past couple of years. We're
28:13
Speaker 2: four races into a regulation set we're going to be
28:16
Speaker 2: stuck with for the next five years, and we're already
28:18
Speaker 2: talking about how we're going to bid the whole thing off.
28:21
Speaker 2: I mean, look, it's interesting that Formula one has been
28:26
Speaker 2: so and the FI has been so forthright about this,
28:28
Speaker 2: because the sentiment and the drivers themselves and the fans
28:33
Speaker 2: that who are super engaged with this sort of thing
28:35
Speaker 2: have just been rolling their eyes at this from day one. Australia. Still,
28:39
Speaker 2: it was good and bad that Albert Park was the
28:40
Speaker 2: first race this year because we got to just see
28:43
Speaker 2: the sheer ineptitude of this with our own eyes in
28:46
Speaker 2: real times. Oh my god, what have we done here.
28:48
Speaker 2: So the fact they're talking about possibly going to something
28:50
Speaker 2: else good. The fact that that's a lot of long
28:52
Speaker 2: way away not so good. And may I just say
28:56
Speaker 2: that I know a lot of these rules were brought
28:58
Speaker 2: in to keep certain and in your manufacturers in the
29:01
Speaker 2: sport or enticeon to come to the sport in the
29:02
Speaker 2: first place. Did you see an Audi or a Honda
29:06
Speaker 2: powered car on your TV screen during Monday mornings fifty
29:09
Speaker 2: seven laps from Miami? Because I did see Lance Strong
29:12
Speaker 2: getting lapped at one point, and other than that, I
29:15
Speaker 2: don't remember seeing either Aston Martin or either Audi on
29:18
Speaker 2: my coverage, or either Cadillac for that matter. And you
29:22
Speaker 2: do wonder if that was perhaps the greatest decision.
29:26
Speaker 1: Yes, you do. Well, you do see Audi a little bit,
29:28
Speaker 1: to be fair, normally that the car's on fire is
29:30
Speaker 1: being wheeled off the grid, So do they do get
29:32
Speaker 1: a bit of coverage that way the coverage are anticipating?
29:36
Speaker 1: It is remarkable, isn't it? Because this is at a time.
29:38
Speaker 1: You know, we talked about F one CEO Stefano Dominicarta,
29:41
Speaker 1: I think a couple of weeks ago giving some interviews,
29:43
Speaker 1: one of which was to the race in which he
29:46
Speaker 1: sort of removed himself from the managerial ways of Bernie Eckleston,
29:50
Speaker 1: one of his predecessors, who, for those who remember twenty
29:53
Speaker 1: fourteen when the first hybrid engines or heavily hybrid eysed
29:56
Speaker 1: engines came in, was very critical of the sport that
29:59
Speaker 1: he rand you really talked down quite a bit, and
30:02
Speaker 1: to Mendical said, I would never do that. That's why
30:03
Speaker 1: he's pumping it up so much, even to the point
30:05
Speaker 1: of sounding a little bit unhinged about the state of
30:07
Speaker 1: the sport. But you do have on the other hand,
30:09
Speaker 1: and he's doing this as well, less explicitly than Bensulam is.
30:13
Speaker 1: But I was talking very openly and actively about whatever
30:16
Speaker 1: the next engine is going to be, even though it's
30:18
Speaker 1: five years ago away, which does you know ninety percent
30:21
Speaker 1: of the same thing, I guess without the negative talk,
30:23
Speaker 1: but the inference is clear. It is really remarkable as well.
30:27
Speaker 1: To go back to a point you made considering the
30:30
Speaker 1: money spent on these engines. This is based on the
30:34
Speaker 1: cost caps in place for the engine manufacturers, and I'm
30:37
Speaker 1: sure a lot of them are glad that cost gap
30:38
Speaker 1: is in place, considering how much these engines cost any
30:42
Speaker 1: manufacturer by the end of this year will have spent
30:45
Speaker 1: each six hundred and sixty million Australian dollars or development
30:49
Speaker 1: on these engines. That's not including general motors because they've
30:52
Speaker 1: only just sort of decided to sign up, so they'll
30:54
Speaker 1: be spending We'll have spent about one hundred they would
30:56
Speaker 1: be allowed to spend about one hundred million. I think
30:57
Speaker 1: I've topped my head last year and this year, so
31:00
Speaker 1: that's three point three billion dollars collectively by the end
31:02
Speaker 1: of the year that'll been spent on these engines. The
31:05
Speaker 1: reason they're talking about it so openly, well, one is
31:07
Speaker 1: bensul Am, this is almost becoming a bit of a
31:09
Speaker 1: pet project. Is you'll remember at the start of last year,
31:12
Speaker 1: before these engines under me have had even debuted, he said, well,
31:17
Speaker 1: why don't we just not debut them and have v
31:19
Speaker 1: tens instead. So clearly say this is a bit of
31:21
Speaker 1: a personal project. But it's also clearly you know, it's
31:24
Speaker 1: like the politicians rule, right, don't talk about something you
31:26
Speaker 1: haven't already agreed to do already, or there's not already
31:29
Speaker 1: some momentum for I think it's fair to say, and
31:32
Speaker 1: we did hear from Toto Wolf in Miami, SA Mercedes
31:34
Speaker 1: would be supportive of moving back to V eights at
31:36
Speaker 1: the end of this regulation cycle. Twenty thirty one is
31:39
Speaker 1: the EARLIESTI can happen without agreement from all the manufacturers
31:42
Speaker 1: or from four of the six manufacturers, So around about
31:45
Speaker 1: the end of the decade, let's say, which says probably
31:48
Speaker 1: all you need to know about the direction this is going.
31:50
Speaker 1: This isn't to say we're going to go back to
31:53
Speaker 1: pure naturally aspirated V eights and that's it, I think
31:56
Speaker 1: Domnicarli said in particular, but Toda Wolf did as well.
31:59
Speaker 1: There will be a hybrid component, but not like what
32:01
Speaker 1: we've come to expect this year with fifty to fifty.
32:03
Speaker 1: It'll be something a little bit more conventional.
32:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, completely. And look, I mean, at least Martin
32:08
Speaker 2: Brundle won't have to stumble over Mega Jules for too
32:10
Speaker 2: many more years in his commentary, but I did. I
32:14
Speaker 2: thought Oscar Piastri's post race debrief was really interesting simply
32:18
Speaker 2: because this is all very new to him because he
32:20
Speaker 2: didn't get to participate in the first two Grand Prix,
32:22
Speaker 2: crashed on the way to the grid in Australia, and
32:24
Speaker 2: then obviously at the DNS in China. But there's a
32:27
Speaker 2: big slab of quotes here that I was just going
32:28
Speaker 2: to cherry pick from. I don't want to sound like
32:30
Speaker 2: I'm just reading a bunch of quotes here, but I'm
32:32
Speaker 2: just going to cherry pick from some of these because
32:33
Speaker 2: it's quite interesting because he is relatively inexperienced in racing
32:37
Speaker 2: these things, and he said on Sunday after the race,
32:40
Speaker 2: the races are basically exactly the same. Today was my
32:43
Speaker 2: first proper experience of overtaking people and then having to defend.
32:48
Speaker 2: It's pretty crazy, to be honest. At one point George
32:51
Speaker 2: Russell was one second behind me and managed to overtake
32:53
Speaker 2: me by the end of that straight It's all a
32:56
Speaker 2: bit random. And then later on in his debrief he said,
33:01
Speaker 2: I think the collaboration from the FIA and f one
33:03
Speaker 2: has been good, but there's only so many things you
33:05
Speaker 2: can change with the hardware that we have, and that's
33:09
Speaker 2: really you know. I I enjoyed the honesty and the
33:14
Speaker 2: just the thoughtful nurse of you know, you've just stepped
33:16
Speaker 2: out of a car, You've been in the middle of
33:18
Speaker 2: this race. And there were a couple of times on
33:19
Speaker 2: the coverage where it was quite jarring, where Russell's not
33:23
Speaker 2: really even in the TV shot, and then by the
33:24
Speaker 2: end of that long, twisty backstraight bit at Miami, if
33:27
Speaker 2: it's a straight Russell was buying before the breaking zone,
33:30
Speaker 2: It's like, well, that's not driver related or car performance related,
33:34
Speaker 2: that's just who's deployed when and where, who's on the
33:36
Speaker 2: back foot, and so Pastri is it now it getting
33:39
Speaker 2: to experience what everyone else has from Australia onwards, and
33:41
Speaker 2: it's like, I don't know if I really like this,
33:44
Speaker 2: And I don't know what your thoughts were over the
33:47
Speaker 2: Miami weekend in terms of we knew there'd been a
33:49
Speaker 2: lot of change in terms of the way these cars
33:51
Speaker 2: were going to be operated from Japan to Miami. Qualifying
33:54
Speaker 2: was better, very low barklearly, but it was better. It
33:59
Speaker 2: was much more like aqualifying that I felt reasonably invested in.
34:02
Speaker 2: It wasn't just going to be completely random. The race
34:05
Speaker 2: was Yeah, I don't know, I was just the ease
34:08
Speaker 2: at some of the overtaking. One, well, there's two things here.
34:12
Speaker 2: One you don't know whether it's a legitimate overtake or not,
34:14
Speaker 2: whether it's just because the way the story is being
34:17
Speaker 2: broadcast is difficult and not particularly well done right now,
34:20
Speaker 2: but it's just a little bit unedifying. With these drive
34:22
Speaker 2: by passes and repasses. There was less of it than
34:24
Speaker 2: we'd seen in other races, but it's still very confusing.
34:28
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, there's an element now, and I think
34:30
Speaker 1: this is what I've adjusted to over the first couple
34:32
Speaker 1: of races, is when an overtake's made, you kind of
34:34
Speaker 1: have to wait to know if it's going to stick,
34:37
Speaker 1: like there's a sugar hit of overtaking, and then after
34:40
Speaker 1: a couple like it's normally two or three passes, and
34:42
Speaker 1: then the fourth one is the decisive one if it comes.
34:45
Speaker 1: Is sort of the way that I've been assuming, and
34:47
Speaker 1: that's the way my notes are reflecting it as I'm
34:49
Speaker 1: writing race reports now as well. Is all right, they're
34:51
Speaker 1: starting the battle now, and we'll wait and see in
34:53
Speaker 1: the lap of whether or not it's going to stick. Which, look,
34:56
Speaker 1: I there's definitely it's obviously different way forward to one
35:00
Speaker 1: used to be. And I think that that hybrid element
35:03
Speaker 1: is too strong, it's having too much of an influence
35:05
Speaker 1: on the way actually is happening. What what I'm taking
35:09
Speaker 1: from it though, as the I guess the positive takeaway
35:13
Speaker 1: if you like, or the thing that that means I'm
35:15
Speaker 1: at least indifferent about it is that I feel like
35:18
Speaker 1: we see a lot of that early in the race,
35:20
Speaker 1: which is naturally enough, is when all the cars are
35:22
Speaker 1: pretty close together. But by the second half of the race,
35:24
Speaker 1: normly after the first pit stop and there's usually anyone
35:27
Speaker 1: pitch stop at the moment, it sort of looks more
35:30
Speaker 1: like a normal Grand Prix, like once the order is
35:32
Speaker 1: established itself. And I think the other thing is we're
35:35
Speaker 1: not obviously if we're getting completely random race results, right,
35:37
Speaker 1: you know, Franco Colveno won this race after having a
35:40
Speaker 1: great performance, I'd be going, well, that seems a bit
35:43
Speaker 1: unusual because that shouldn't have happened. But we're still getting
35:45
Speaker 1: the fastest car and the best drivers finishing in the
35:48
Speaker 1: right order, I think for a Grand Prix and having
35:52
Speaker 1: to work. You know, Lando Norris for example, was never
35:54
Speaker 1: able to make a move on Anton Now in the
35:55
Speaker 1: second half of the race. Now, his car was probably
35:57
Speaker 1: fractionally slower, admittedly, but it was for most of that
36:01
Speaker 1: second stint was within a second and a half to
36:03
Speaker 1: two seconds of Antonelli, which should be under these the
36:06
Speaker 1: wacky rules enough for him to do at least launch
36:09
Speaker 1: to have a crack, you know, press the boost button,
36:11
Speaker 1: make it, but he was never able to because it
36:14
Speaker 1: feels like in the second half of these races, it
36:16
Speaker 1: just is more like a normal race. And you know,
36:18
Speaker 1: I think, well, obviously we're heading towards V eight, this
36:21
Speaker 1: is going to have to be traded away, right because
36:22
Speaker 1: they're not going to accept anything close to fifty percent
36:25
Speaker 1: electrical power. It's going to be less total. Wolves talked
36:27
Speaker 1: about having a lot, but it being supplementary, so working
36:31
Speaker 1: not in the way these current engines do, and that's
36:33
Speaker 1: obviously something that's up a debate. But you know, in
36:36
Speaker 1: the coming seasons, when we talk about what little hardware
36:39
Speaker 1: changes can be made for twenty seven or twenty eight,
36:41
Speaker 1: whether that's increasing the fuel flow and detaing the electrical
36:44
Speaker 1: mode or whatever, if you can retain a little bit
36:46
Speaker 1: of it, I wouldn't be adverse to it, because I
36:49
Speaker 1: think it as we probably suspected before the first race,
36:52
Speaker 1: are after the first race as well. The more we
36:53
Speaker 1: race with these engines, the less wacky and random it's
36:57
Speaker 1: getting because everyone just kind of gets it, and it'll
37:00
Speaker 1: it might actually end up becoming the overtaking aid it
37:03
Speaker 1: was in visage dats as a replacement to drs rather
37:06
Speaker 1: than something that just randomly shakes up the field.
37:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, agreed, And I guess the question is how long
37:12
Speaker 2: does it take for everyone to converge on the same solution,
37:14
Speaker 2: Because this is how formula one works. I mean, someone
37:16
Speaker 2: will have an advantage in a particular area, and in
37:19
Speaker 2: traditional formula one style, if people don't think it's legal,
37:23
Speaker 2: they'll protest it while simultaneously working on their own version
37:25
Speaker 2: of it in the background for when it actually gets
37:27
Speaker 2: past is being normal. So you know, generally people will
37:30
Speaker 2: tend to converge on the same solutions to things. It's
37:33
Speaker 2: why you end up with quite good title fights in
37:35
Speaker 2: years of mature regulation, because you've squeezed about as much
37:39
Speaker 2: out of the lemon as you can. At that point,
37:41
Speaker 2: there's no more dused to get out of it. Everyone's
37:43
Speaker 2: arrived at the same conclusion. So I think Miami was
37:47
Speaker 2: very much the race of two halves of me, unlike
37:49
Speaker 2: the others this year in that Yes, the first half
37:51
Speaker 2: of was hang on, is this a legitimate overtake? What's
37:53
Speaker 2: actually going on here second half. Oh, this is an
37:55
Speaker 2: old school Formula one race where it feels like someone's
37:57
Speaker 2: out in the front and it's theirs to lose, and
37:59
Speaker 2: the guy in second place needs more than pushing a
38:01
Speaker 2: button at a certain time to get him through to
38:03
Speaker 2: the front. So that, to me, it felt it was
38:06
Speaker 2: the most normal of the four we've had so far,
38:09
Speaker 2: and that could just be a track characteristic thing. Perhaps,
38:12
Speaker 2: I don't know. We need a greater sample size. So
38:15
Speaker 2: it was more edifying from that point of view, but
38:17
Speaker 2: I'm still finding I'm not unentertained. Don't get me wrong,
38:20
Speaker 2: The first few laps of these races have all been fun,
38:24
Speaker 2: but I'm not sure the sugar hit was a good
38:26
Speaker 2: term that you just used, and who doesn't like some
38:28
Speaker 2: sugar early on a Monday boarding. I certainly enjoyed it
38:31
Speaker 2: from a spectacle point of view, but I still think
38:33
Speaker 2: the understanding of what it is that we're watching it
38:36
Speaker 2: the story either needs to be better told or we
38:38
Speaker 2: need to get more used to wrapping our head around it.
38:40
Speaker 2: And now you give me the magic formula, I need
38:42
Speaker 2: to only consider the fourth thad to take the first
38:45
Speaker 2: the first three, it's a bit, you know, boxing, bit
38:47
Speaker 2: of parrying that sort of everyone just had a bit
38:50
Speaker 2: of shadow boxing at the start, and then someone lays
38:52
Speaker 2: the haymaker with the fourth one. So I'm going to
38:53
Speaker 2: take that into account now, and if that doesn't happen
38:55
Speaker 2: in Montreal, then I'm clearly blaming you.
38:57
Speaker 1: Yes, so you should. I think more track this is important.
39:00
Speaker 1: It's always been the case, hasn't it, especially because Miami
39:02
Speaker 1: is a very particular track and a relatively easy one
39:05
Speaker 1: for these engines. Canada is more in the opposite direction.
39:08
Speaker 1: They are quite a few big breaking zones there, but
39:10
Speaker 1: the long straits will make it a bit of a struggle.
39:13
Speaker 1: And there's one other thing that I sort of enjoyed
39:15
Speaker 1: about this, well it's probably not, let's say, specific to
39:18
Speaker 1: this engine formula, but about the engines being new, is
39:21
Speaker 1: that McLaren was doing something better than Mercedes with these
39:24
Speaker 1: engines for the first time year and in the sprint,
39:27
Speaker 1: which I thought was very interesting considering McLaren for the
39:29
Speaker 1: first few races were saying how they weren't able to
39:31
Speaker 1: get as much out of a Mercedes engine. I wonder
39:34
Speaker 1: had this not been a sprint weekend, whether Mercedes would
39:36
Speaker 1: have been able to catch up by essentially doing what
39:39
Speaker 1: McLaren was doing in time for the race. That's the
39:42
Speaker 1: storyline we didn't get to see because it was a
39:43
Speaker 1: sprint weekend. But if that's something that can happen from
39:46
Speaker 1: weekend to weekend because teams just you haven't simulated it
39:49
Speaker 1: correctly or you just have a better idea, that could
39:52
Speaker 1: be an interesting additional element, especially if McLaren is roughly
39:56
Speaker 1: as competitive for Mercedes for the rest of the unit
39:58
Speaker 1: becomes a part of the title fight.
39:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, you've got this the big four, you know, the
40:02
Speaker 2: four teams at the front that are clearly in a
40:03
Speaker 2: category of their own at the moment, and McLaren's the
40:06
Speaker 2: interesting one because they are the only customer in there,
40:08
Speaker 2: and you know the fact that Red Bull's doing its
40:10
Speaker 2: own Enginity in the house now and obviously are Ferrari
40:12
Speaker 2: powered by Ferrari. The McLaren is the one outlier in
40:15
Speaker 2: that top four, So to see what they might be
40:18
Speaker 2: able to extract out of an engine that is actually
40:20
Speaker 2: being purchased from another one of their rivals is really
40:24
Speaker 2: interesting going forward. And yeah, look, sprit weekends, for the
40:29
Speaker 2: most part, they can get in the bin. As far
40:31
Speaker 2: as i'm concerned. I'm not super I don't know if
40:34
Speaker 2: they add a hell of a lot, to be perfectly honest,
40:36
Speaker 2: but yeah, we've got another one in Canada coming up.
40:38
Speaker 2: But the first time we get a proper race weekend
40:41
Speaker 2: with a bit more mature ruleset, I think it's going
40:43
Speaker 2: to be on a normal circuit. I think Monico as well.
40:46
Speaker 2: But yeah, it'll be like August the way this calendar
40:50
Speaker 2: is going. But I'll be curious to see how this
40:53
Speaker 2: McLaren story shakes out because they are the different team
40:57
Speaker 2: in that top four, and therefore could they unlock some
41:00
Speaker 2: things that Mercedes perhaps haven't.
41:01
Speaker 1: Just coming back to the v ad Engines and I
41:02
Speaker 1: want to end here before we wrap this one up.
41:04
Speaker 1: It's something that I've been thinking about. We think about
41:07
Speaker 1: it from time to time, I guess, but the fact
41:08
Speaker 1: that the FIA's come out and pretty much said, well,
41:11
Speaker 1: this is going to happen. They do write the rules,
41:13
Speaker 1: and if it's twenty thirty one, they can rite the
41:15
Speaker 1: rules they like and people will have to accept it
41:16
Speaker 1: or I guess not compete, which is always possible. But
41:20
Speaker 1: it's now by the time, well, by the time we
41:22
Speaker 1: get to twenty thirty one, it'll have been nearly two
41:25
Speaker 1: decades that if one's used hybrid engine will be seventeen
41:27
Speaker 1: years And yeah, that's is correct by the time we
41:29
Speaker 1: get to by time the end of twenty thirty. Anyway,
41:32
Speaker 1: these engines are very similar in sounded appearance of the
41:35
Speaker 1: previous generation engines. Obviously performance wise a very different, but
41:39
Speaker 1: that's you know, realistically, some fans by twenty thirty one,
41:43
Speaker 1: established fans will have been born in the hybrid Europe alone,
41:47
Speaker 1: will they've never heard of v AD engine, never mind
41:49
Speaker 1: V ten engine that some people are calling for, or
41:52
Speaker 1: any of the previous power units. Formula has changed a
41:55
Speaker 1: lot as well in the last five or six years.
41:56
Speaker 1: Certainly the fan base has increase massively and diversified massively
42:00
Speaker 1: as well. As one example, a lot of families that
42:02
Speaker 1: go to Formula One, at least the ones that don't
42:04
Speaker 1: charge one hundred dollars for a hot dog, is going
42:08
Speaker 1: back to V eight engines the way that I think
42:09
Speaker 1: a lot of long term fans like you and I
42:12
Speaker 1: who do remember the VI eight engine days fondly or
42:15
Speaker 1: even those previously, is it still the right move for
42:19
Speaker 1: Formula One? Probably? And I'd love to know the percentage,
42:21
Speaker 1: And I'm sure someone in F one headquarters might be
42:23
Speaker 1: able to at least estimate it that a pretty significant
42:27
Speaker 1: percentage of F one'es fans today are probably new, probably
42:31
Speaker 1: from the last ten years.
42:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you and I and plenty of people listening
42:34
Speaker 2: to this podcast, we might be in the minority here.
42:37
Speaker 2: It's quite a massable and that's a confronting thing to
42:39
Speaker 2: think about. And you just have to be really interested
42:42
Speaker 2: to see some data, as you were saying, as to
42:43
Speaker 2: the age and the age of those fans and how
42:48
Speaker 2: long they've followed it for and even the gender you
42:50
Speaker 2: know you mentioned before. You know, a lot more female
42:52
Speaker 2: fans of Formula one now, a lot more families. You
42:54
Speaker 2: do wonder how that's going to play out. And then
42:56
Speaker 2: by perhaps solving one problem, I wonder if you, I
43:00
Speaker 2: wonder if you open the account of worms on another one.
43:02
Speaker 2: I mean, we'll be up to drive to survive season
43:04
Speaker 2: twenty three by that point or whatever will be. So
43:06
Speaker 2: I'll be curious to see how they spin the story.
43:08
Speaker 2: But it's a long way away. And yeah, there is
43:11
Speaker 2: a whole section of the fan base now that only
43:14
Speaker 2: knows Formula one a certain way, And you know, as
43:17
Speaker 2: much as you know, you and I enjoyed the V
43:20
Speaker 2: eights and the V tense that came before them. It
43:21
Speaker 2: is a very very different sport to watch, just from
43:24
Speaker 2: a sensory overload point of view, and I'll be curious
43:27
Speaker 2: to see whether that's a turn off or a turn
43:29
Speaker 2: on for certain pockets of fans, because there might be
43:33
Speaker 2: some what's the word I'm looking for, what lapsed Formula
43:35
Speaker 2: one fans perhaps that come that may come back, you
43:38
Speaker 2: don't know. But the other question is by twenty thirty one,
43:41
Speaker 2: how many races will there be on the calendar?
43:43
Speaker 1: Michael, I better not to ask that question. I think
43:46
Speaker 1: we'll contemplate that in the podcast in twenty thirty one.
43:49
Speaker 1: Not now too much to think about in that question,
43:53
Speaker 1: but I thought that was an interesting one. You know,
43:55
Speaker 1: it's obviously much quieter Formula one these days than it
43:58
Speaker 1: used to be, and the sensory overload, I think, is
43:59
Speaker 1: a way to describe a very different kind of sport.
44:02
Speaker 1: And I wonder if that's something that will come up
44:04
Speaker 1: in the formulating of the regulations as they do this year,
44:08
Speaker 1: in the next couple of years. But that's all the
44:09
Speaker 1: time we have for BIT talk. This week you can
44:12
Speaker 1: subscribe to Pittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and
44:14
Speaker 1: you can leave us a rating and a review as well.
44:17
Speaker 1: This weekend it's the French Motorcycle Grand Prix with lights
44:20
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44:24
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44:25
Speaker 1: Moto gp F one and supercars news at Fox sports
44:28
Speaker 1: dot com dot auve From Matt Clayton and me, Michael Lomonato.
44:31
Speaker 1: Thanks very much for your company as always as ever,
44:33
Speaker 1: and we'll catch you next week.
44:37
Speaker 2: Wo