Latest / The Undercut / Kimi Wins Fourth Consecutive Race, and Cements Himself as the Early Championship Favorite - 2026 Canadian Grand Prix Review

Transcript

Kimi Wins Fourth Consecutive Race, and Cements Himself as the Early Championship Favorite - 2026 Canadian Grand Prix Review · The Undercut

• 0:10
  Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the undercuts review of the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you listen and enjoy the show.
• 0:20
  Speaker B: By being a racing driver, you are under risk all the time. By being a racing driver means you, you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you're no longer a racing driver.
• 0:33
  Speaker A: Well, Martin, what, what round is this? The Canadian Grand Prix. What are we Round five?
• 0:39
  Speaker B: Round five.
• 0:40
  Speaker A: Okay. And this is the second or third. I think it's the third sprint race already. Right. Because we had China, Miami and now Canada.
• 0:48
  Speaker B: Wow. Seems to be they're coming thick and fast, that's for sure. An action packed weekend.
• 0:54
  Speaker A: Yeah, it was surely action packed this weekend. I mean just from the get go, it was like people could barely stay on track. But it made for it looking like the grid could be mixed up other than at the front. The Mercedes still look the best of the field, but it's closer.
• 1:13
  Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, for sure. I mean, yeah, Mercedes is still like the car to beat. No question. I guess maybe the Groundhogs needed to target some different cars when they were out on track. They took out Albon right straight away.
• 1:30
  Speaker A: Yeah, that was brutal. I mean I saw something, I believe it was. Albon has not finished the race at this racetrack for three years now.
• 1:41
  Speaker B: Oof. That's a tough. I mean Albon just got beaten up all over the place right straight away, uh, he hits a groundhog. Was that in practice or was that in qualifying for sprint?
• 1:53
  Speaker A: That was the first practice and then he missed the qualifying for the sprint.
• 1:56
  Speaker B: He missed the qualifying and he end and it ended up costing him an engine and a gearbox, I think.
• 2:00
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 2:01
  Speaker B: I mean that's, that's an expensive. I mean.
• 2:04
  Speaker A: Oof.
• 2:05
  Speaker B: And then, and then. Yeah, he just basically got t boned out of the race by Piastri as well, didn't he? So, yeah, I mean if he didn't have bad luck, you'd have no luck, as they say, Mr. Albon.
• 2:17
  Speaker A: But I'm not sure if his luck was worse or McLaren. Aaron's luck was worse, but it was just.
• 2:23
  Speaker B: What, what bad luck did McLaren have? Explain to me, Jason, where luck was involved or not just bad decision making.
• 2:30
  Speaker A: Well, it started with bad decision making, that's for sure. But I mean Lando did do a good job recovering but then ultimately had to retire. But where was he when he retired from the race? He was already in the top five or maybe top ten.
• 2:45
  Speaker B: Yeah, he was. No, he, they, he did that. You're right, you, you're talking about after they started on Inters for the main race.
• 2:52
  Speaker A: Embarrassing. That was Ferrari esque.
• 2:57
  Speaker B: It was a head scratcher. I mean they weren't the only team to do it. Right. I think Audi's did it as well and some others. But it is the kind of move that like a backmarker team makes, you know, to try and, you know, what have we got to lose? Kind of thing.
• 3:12
  Speaker A: Some backmarkers did, but nobody in the top 10 did other than that.
• 3:16
  Speaker B: But no. Yeah, but it's not the move that like a McLaren team makes. I did read something on Reddit and it was something along the lines of it was an extreme generalization. But it's like Mercedes strategy doesn't matter where they are. Mercedes strategy is like they're winning the race, but McLaren's is like they're losing the race and Ferrari's like they're not watching the race or something like that.
• 3:38
  Speaker A: Wow, nice spot on.
• 3:42
  Speaker B: But yeah, McLaren didn't need to. What they were going to gain from that was minimal compared to what they were, they could lose.
• 3:51
  Speaker A: And Lind Vlad didn't help though. I mean him. How many formation laps did we get because of that? I mean maybe we would have had a little bit. The track might have been a little bit wetter if they hadn't done four laps around the track drying it. You know, it's like here, let's make the shot in the foot even worse. Let's make it a bazooka in the foot instead.
• 4:12
  Speaker B: You know, I mean, I think you can go back and watch. There's some onboards that I saw from Piastri basically about 20 times, him saying this is the wrong decision, like I want to come in and change. I mean at some point he could have just driven into the pits maybe and forced their hand. But not, not necessarily what the driver does disobeys the team, what the structure of the team is.
• 4:34
  Speaker A: But it was good off the start for Lando. I mean he jumped all the way to the front on those intermediate tires, right on, right into lap one.
• 4:42
  Speaker B: So yeah, but yeah, no McLaren. Yeah, it was, it was all over for them pretty much. Like not, not, not lap one, but yeah, after a few laps when, when there was no downpour, yeah, it was over.
• 5:00
  Speaker A: And I mean Lando came in to retire twice during the race. Right.
• 5:04
  Speaker B: I mean, I'm not exact. What was the reason? Just technical difficulties.
• 5:08
  Speaker A: I think they, yeah, they called him in. Let me see what lap it was. It was early on. They brought him in to pit on lap 16 they said they were going to retire, but he ended up going back out and then retired on lap 40 in the end.
• 5:21
  Speaker B: Right. I mean, eventually sometimes you just gotta protect the car. Right. Because you don't because of the engine changes and so many gearboxes you have and things like that. If you see something particularly bad, you, you don't leave them, leave them out there. Yeah. Bad news.
• 5:37
  Speaker A: But I mean, is George the most unlucky? Because to me it looked like he had the best chance to win. He looked the best all weekend. But I mean Kimmy is unstoppable. I mean did Kimmy push.
• 5:51
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 5:51
  Speaker A: Push his car to that by, by being so aggressive?
• 5:54
  Speaker B: I don't think so. I mean, in the sprint race they were, they were battling hard. You know, it's, it's, you know, the rules and regulations around getting to corners first and who has the racing line and who pushes off who. It's, it's fine margins. And Kimmy, you know, lost it a little bit on the radio. Right. He was complaining so much Toto had to step in on public radio and shush him. Which is, you know, good for the people who write the articles because we like a little bit of, you know, conjecture. Sorry, controversy, but drama. Exactly. But, you know, I guess they took that conversation internally. But I mean it. Russell won the sprint, but it spilled over to Sunday with Kimmy and Russell. For the first 30 laps they were just miles ahead. Even fighting when you would think, when you think when the cars are fighting, you think they're actually going to be slower in the current format and so the teams behind could at least stay in touch, but they were pulling away whilst fighting each other, which does not bode, does not bode well for the, for the others.
• 7:07
  Speaker A: Yeah. And then I'm curious to hear what, what Nick feels after that race because there I understand his concerns with the new regulations, but I felt like this felt more like old, old like last few years racing. Other than them being able to battle back and forth. It wasn't like you didn't see like the drastic deceleration that we had seen in some other places.
• 7:32
  Speaker B: We didn't see that Suzuka esque like speed differential, you know, down straights and stuff like that. There was definitely a little bit of it, but they have adjusted the power ratios, haven't they, slightly to try and combat that. So maybe that is having an impact. But yeah, the Mercedes was just able to pull away and then eventually, yeah, Russell's car just died. So, you know, it has to be Bad luck.
• 7:59
  Speaker A: Right.
• 7:59
  Speaker B: I don't, you know, you can't, you don't think that's going to happen. How long they would have battled for? Was it inevitable that one of they were going to like touch each other or. Right.
• 8:09
  Speaker A: I mean, they, one of them was going to at least once. I mean, luck. I think they did have one moment where they, they touched, but very close.
• 8:17
  Speaker B: So maybe it was inevitable that something was going to happen. I mean, you can see Russell is, you know, I mean, just by his body language was very unhappy.
• 8:28
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 8:29
  Speaker B: Obviously he threw the, not the hands device, that's what they wear, but all the additional padding that they have around the. He took that off as you have to, to get out the car, but he threw it forward onto the track, which. That is not. That's not good. George.
• 8:47
  Speaker A: It was already a red flag, right?
• 8:50
  Speaker B: No, no, no, no. Never, never red flagged. It was just a safety car.
• 8:53
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah, that's right.
• 8:55
  Speaker B: And he should have gotten better. I've seen some people online, you know, saying, oh, you know what, you know, why are we fining George €5,000? Why is he making a public apology for doing that? But he honestly doesn't know where that headrest is going. If he throws it, it could bounce off a groundhog. I don't know, it could go anywhere into the path of an oncoming car and then who knows what's going to happen? Yeah, I mean, I know it's unlikely, but it could easily be avoided by not throwing it. Yeah. So he knows he was in the wrong.
• 9:26
  Speaker A: But, but the point swing because of that was crazy. I mean, it was what, a 16 point gap to a 40 something point gap or something like that.
• 9:36
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's, it's as, it's as good as a, you know, it's, it's zero point. I mean, it's, it's the worst it could possibly be. Right. Kimmy picks up the win 25 points and 0 for George and now he's 44 behind. You know, he, he might have won the sprint race, but that only put a very marginal dent because obviously gave
• 9:56
  Speaker A: him two points because Kimmy had to finish third in the sprint race, so.
• 10:00
  Speaker B: Exactly. And then 25. So, yeah, Kimmy's already got a full Grand Prix gap and you know, close to two. Yeah, you know, but, and George is saying as much now, which is a bit strange. After the race he has said it's Kimmy's to lose, which it's not a bad thing to say because he's not wrong. In one respect, because Kimmy's won four in a row. Maybe it puts a bit more pressure on Kimmy and takes the pressure off him potentially, if that's what he's trying to do. There's such a long way to go, though. Piastri was in a similar spot last year. Right.
• 10:42
  Speaker A: Yeah. I don't remember what this exact number was, but it, it did seem at one point we were definitely saying, like, this is Oscars to lose, so. And then it's so early.
• 10:55
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's so early. And then he started to make a few mistakes, you know, Oscar, what was it? Was it Baku or something? Or he just basically. Or one of those city races in. In Europe. He just drove it off this, off the track effectively. And a few of those results open the door for. For Lando and Max to come back, so.
• 11:14
  Speaker A: Yeah, but talk about. I mean, talking about Max, I mean, he's sitting seventh in the driver's championship right now.
• 11:21
  Speaker B: Yeah. And it. And fight. Was it. What did we say? This is the fifth race in his first podium of the season.
• 11:27
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 11:29
  Speaker B: And that's only because, yeah. George didn't finish, otherwise he would have been, you know, forced.
• 11:33
  Speaker A: Didn't finish real well. Lana didn't finish and Oscar was awful. So.
• 11:38
  Speaker B: Yeah. So, I mean, he's. Max is still complaining, it seems, you know, threatening to retire or walk away if they don't fix the regs. I mean, I don't know. No drivers bigger than the sport.
• 11:51
  Speaker A: No.
• 11:51
  Speaker B: But, you know, they'll always find somebody to sit in those seats. But. Yeah, it just goes to show that it's a driver car combination, isn't it? But we, we know that he's a great driver. There's no, there's no doubt that he's. He's getting the most out of that car. It's just not good enough.
• 12:10
  Speaker A: He's probably. I mean, he's. He's likely the best driver in the world right now. Right. I mean.
• 12:16
  Speaker B: Right. Sure.
• 12:18
  Speaker A: He can go into any. It seems he's. He's testing waters in other. In other disciplines.
• 12:25
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 12:25
  Speaker A: Frequent pretty frequently now.
• 12:27
  Speaker B: So amazing that they even allow him to do that. You would think that the threat of him getting injured in a crash in some other series would be detriment to, you know, him driving in them. But what are they going to do, fire him? I guess so. I mean, I know in other sports they certainly have those clauses. I know. I think Schumacher was actually a very good soccer player, but they banned him from playing soccer whilst he was driving. Yeah. In case he got hurt, but yeah, we'll see. But I mean. Yeah, and then Hamilton, Great weekend for him. I mean, again, he got second place. Slightly inherited maybe, but, you know, you've got to be in it. In it to win it. Like Max and he was great. I mean, and he put. Put the moves on. Yeah, yeah, put. Put the moves on. Max got it done. We are definitely seeing more overtaking. Yeah, great job. I mean, Charles, though.
• 13:25
  Speaker A: Charles. Yeah.
• 13:26
  Speaker B: Yeah. I think Mark posted like, why. Why he dropped back early on. I'm not quite sure what the reason was. Did he have a mistake?
• 13:36
  Speaker A: I know he did have one spin moment, but I can't remember if when in the race that was. So. Yeah, let me check in my notes if there's anything but another winner on the day. I mean, the alpine team is looking really good right now. Yeah, they're the best right now for sure.
• 14:02
  Speaker B: Kalapinto is like a regular in the points now from, like, not being in the sport. Well, he was sort of a backup driver, wasn't he? And it was. He would step in couple of years ago and then do. Was their choice. At the beginning of last year, he was doing nothing. They brought in Colapinto, but he wasn't able to even get in the points for the rest of the season. But now he's. He's up there.
• 14:27
  Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And not. Not crashing into everybody. So that's a plus.
• 14:33
  Speaker B: Absolutely. Absolutely. He. Well, yeah, he finished, what, P9 in the sprint and then P6. Yeah. Career best in the. In the race. So. Awesome, awesome finish. I mean, we. We just. We can just. Just have our regular segment of just saying about how terrible the Astons are and then move on.
• 15:01
  Speaker A: I mean, a very poor showing in his home grand prix.
• 15:07
  Speaker B: Yeah. What did Stroll say? I'm just driving for Lawrence, his dad, which is a bit Gordon Lawrence.
• 15:13
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 15:14
  Speaker B: He said, I'm just finishing the race for Lawrence. That was a bit strange.
• 15:17
  Speaker A: That is really odd. I miss that. What an odd thing to say. It's time to get him out of there. Why don't they call Seb back?
• 15:25
  Speaker B: I mean. Yeah, yeah, he's not doing anything, but Alonso's not doing anything either, so.
• 15:32
  Speaker A: Uh, no, it's.
• 15:34
  Speaker B: It's tough.
• 15:35
  Speaker A: Um, yeah, they're awesome.
• 15:37
  Speaker B: I mean, Alonzo Alonso said he had some problem with his seat. Um, and it said Aston Martin later acknowledged it may have gone too far with its reclined seat position. That's interesting.
• 15:48
  Speaker A: What are they going to the movie theater?
• 15:51
  Speaker B: Yeah. The lazy boys. Yes.
• 15:55
  Speaker A: They're getting a little too comfortable Back there.
• 15:58
  Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
• 16:00
  Speaker A: That's weird.
• 16:01
  Speaker B: And then Hajar, he got P5 even with two penalties, which is. That's. You know, usually that second Red Bull seat has been a nightmare. Right. The last couple of years. But he's actually had a good showing.
• 16:17
  Speaker A: Yeah, but he was a lap down on the leader.
• 16:20
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 16:20
  Speaker A: D5. That's pretty crazy.
• 16:22
  Speaker B: It just shows how dominant like Kimmy was.
• 16:24
  Speaker A: Right? Yeah. And then who else? I mean, Liam and Carlos ended up scoring some points, so that's good. And Bearman got points. Got a point too.
• 16:35
  Speaker B: Yeah. So, I mean, what. What could have been.
• 16:38
  Speaker A: Right.
• 16:38
  Speaker B: You know, with. With Albon, you know, dnfing because he got hit by Piastri. You know, the McLaren's retiring and Russell retiring. All these other guys are there to pick up points, which is good for them. Yeah, I mean, Audi had the same problem with as McLaren by starting on intermediate. So once that happened, they don't have the ability, unlike the McLarens, to do a. Do a recovery drive and get back in the points. Yeah, no, and then Cadillac. I mean, Perez, what is. Oh, that was weird for Perez. Right. His. His front left suspension broke.
• 17:16
  Speaker A: That's right.
• 17:17
  Speaker B: But he didn't hit the wall. I saw the picture of it or the. And I was like, oh, he must have hit the wall somewhere. And then they showed the replay. He was just driving into the pits
• 17:25
  Speaker A: and it fell off.
• 17:27
  Speaker B: Like exploded or something. It reminds me of that. Do you remember the Is. I think it was a Red Bull. I can't even ask when you need.
• 17:35
  Speaker A: When their rear wing fell off.
• 17:37
  Speaker B: No, there was another one. Nick would know exactly what it was. When they're going down the front looking forward on the car and the front two wheels just flew off simultaneously.
• 17:48
  Speaker A: No, I don't remember that.
• 17:49
  Speaker B: I'll have to look up that video. Yeah, but yeah, I mean, I mean, maybe Perez tagged the wall and weakened it and it just sort of finally failed as he was coming into the pits. But you know, they're. It's their. It's their first season. So we give a Cadillac a break, don't we? You know. Yeah, give him a chance. We're still. Give him a chance to catch up.
• 18:10
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, they're technically ahead of Aston Martin in the standings even though they both have zero points, but.
• 18:18
  Speaker B: Right. Based on like laps completed or something like that.
• 18:22
  Speaker A: Yeah. And like places finished. I don't know how it works when you have both have zero points. Who gives a. Honestly qualified.
• 18:29
  Speaker B: I mean, maybe sponsors too or something. You know, I'm not sure sure.
• 18:37
  Speaker A: It's possible Cadillac, if any team would have something like acid wouldn't have this probably. But if Cadillac might have something that's like don't finish last and you'll get certain amount of money for next year. So.
• 18:49
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, sure. I mean, wait, when you're down the bottom, like every point counts? Every point counts, that's for sure.
• 18:56
  Speaker A: Well, I think that's, that's pretty much it from, from the, from the race. But yeah, we got to talk about coops because you're, you're our, our only hope for the show. Nick doesn't even, I mean is his lineup. So it's just you and me, right?
• 19:13
  Speaker B: I mean it was a low scoring weekend. You know, when you have so many, you know, top guys, you know, finishing all over the place, you know, Russell not, not finishing at all. You know, the McLarens, you know, out which people put in means that's going to depress the score. So wheels come off. Was the top score with exactly 200 points.
• 19:31
  Speaker A: That's apropos that name.
• 19:34
  Speaker B: Yeah. Packers Unser Jr. 194 points. I mean overall. New leader, Toto. Toto's under was. I don't know if that's a. I don't know if that's a swear word in German or something.
• 19:51
  Speaker A: I don't either. It must probably mean. Does it mean underwear?
• 19:54
  Speaker B: Who knows, maybe something like that. Up five places to lead, fight to win. Down one to second and Formula E down one to third. Yeah, I've managed to fight my way back up to 20th overall. Yeah. The next closest out of our group is you in 80th.
• 20:16
  Speaker A: Yeah. So it does mean underwear, by the way.
• 20:19
  Speaker B: Oh, okay. All right.
• 20:20
  Speaker A: Well, we're under laundry technically, but yeah.
• 20:26
  Speaker B: Toto's dirty laundry. Maybe. I don't know,
• 20:31
  Speaker A: that might be headline. You never know. We might be breaking news here without even knowing it, is there?
• 20:37
  Speaker B: I mean, I'm trying to make a segue between that and like Mercedes airing their dirty laundry. As you know, Russell and Kimmy continue their feud.
• 20:48
  Speaker A: The gloves are off, it seems.
• 20:50
  Speaker B: We'll see. I mean Kimmy is, you know, he's doing his talking on the track to some degree, you know, over the radio and with his performances, I mean four wins in a row and this and this possibly unbreakable record now of the first. How do you say it? I want to say it as concisely as possible that his first four wins come consecutively. Consecutively. Consecutive wins after your first win or something like that. Yeah. How many that will be. Who Knows. I mean, it's Monaco next, which.
• 21:29
  Speaker A: Oh, boy.
• 21:30
  Speaker B: So it's just our annual, like, should we even have this race discussion? And then, well, how can you race discussion. How dare you suggest that we don't even have this race, you know? And then, you know, unless something happens with the weather or something else, maybe these new regs will mean something in. In Monaco. I don't know.
• 21:55
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, we'll see. I. I think that it should be something like they do an Indy car where it's essentially like, when they do ovals, it's almost a completely different car. Why don't they just give them different. They should just, like, shrink the cars for one race. Budget for Monaco. Like, it's not part of the budget. Cactus. All right. It is good to make one Monaco car. She just drive go karts. That would be. That would be exciting.
• 22:25
  Speaker B: I feel like we've had this discussion every year for the past, like, four years. And every year our theories become more unhinged.
• 22:33
  Speaker A: We'll just let them do the LEGO cars. They can drive the LEGO cars around Mexico.
• 22:38
  Speaker B: That's right. Yeah. Like the flag football of Formula one, where a little tap and the whole car just explodes into a brick.
• 22:46
  Speaker A: Exactly.
• 22:47
  Speaker B: That would be great across the circuit.
• 22:50
  Speaker A: So did you watch the Indy 500 at all?
• 22:53
  Speaker B: Well, I watched the last two laps because that's kind of all that matters. That was fun racing at the end there. How the. I forget the. I don't know the guy's name. I don't know any of the drivers,
• 23:06
  Speaker A: but it was Felix Rosenquist.
• 23:09
  Speaker B: Svid how he came through to win with the drafting and stuff like that.
• 23:15
  Speaker A: Yeah, it was the closest finish in Indy 500 history.
• 23:19
  Speaker B: Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. Looked good. Looked good, but. Yeah, No, I didn't. I didn't watch the race itself.
• 23:25
  Speaker A: Roman Grosjean was in there towards the end.
• 23:29
  Speaker B: Oh, okay. Yeah. There's some crossover, isn't there?
• 23:32
  Speaker A: Yeah, I don't think he did. He ended up finishing even in the top five, but he was up there.
• 23:38
  Speaker B: Who's the other IndyCar driver that keeps getting talked about for Formula One? Herta.
• 23:44
  Speaker A: Yeah, well, he's an F2 now.
• 23:46
  Speaker B: Oh, okay. All right. So he's on.
• 23:48
  Speaker A: He's trying to get his license points up because IndyCar they should. They should give it more status.
• 23:55
  Speaker B: Right, right.
• 23:56
  Speaker A: For. Because are the cars. I mean, I know they're not technologically as advanced as F1 cars, but they're.
• 24:04
  Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it's open wheel downforce racing, isn't it?
• 24:07
  Speaker A: It's got to be pretty comparable to F2 at least. Thanks for listening to the Undercuts review of the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you listen and join us next time for our review of the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix. We'll see.