Latest / Pit Talk / Does McLaren's latest driver ruling stack up? Singapore GP Review

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Does McLaren's latest driver ruling stack up? Singapore GP Review · Pit Talk

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:03
Speaker 1: On today's episode, George Russell wins the Singapore Grand Prix
0:06
Speaker 1: after another contentious race for McLaren's management of the title
0:10
Speaker 1: battle between Oscar Piastre and Lando Norris. Rookie furman Aldegaer
0:14
Speaker 1: wins his maiden Grand Prix at the indonaes at the
0:17
Speaker 1: Indonesian Motorcycle Grand Prix, and we look ahead to this
0:21
Speaker 1: weekend's Bathist one thousand. My name is Michael Lomonado. It's
0:25
Speaker 1: great to have your company and the company of my
0:28
Speaker 1: co host. He's one of the few non injured people
0:30
Speaker 1: involved in Moto GP. It's Matt Clayton.
0:33
Speaker 2: Give it time, Michael.
0:34
Speaker 3: In the next like half an hour, I might, you know,
0:36
Speaker 3: have a paper cut or you know, staple myself to
0:38
Speaker 3: the desk or something.
0:39
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's been a little bit like that in
0:41
Speaker 2: Motor GV.
0:42
Speaker 3: At this stage they haven't quite caught me up for
0:43
Speaker 3: a wild card for Philipilon, which is probably advisable for
0:46
Speaker 3: everyone's sake, but we're not far off at this point.
0:49
Speaker 1: No, only one or two more fractures or perhaps paper cuts,
0:52
Speaker 1: and you I think will in fact be on the grid.
0:56
Speaker 1: Great news for you, Bill Less, good news for the
0:58
Speaker 1: writers who are increasingly missed end this season. We'll touch
1:02
Speaker 1: on whether GPE a little bit later, of course, the
1:03
Speaker 1: Indonesian Motorcycle Grand Prix having just passed us, but we
1:07
Speaker 1: start with the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix at the weekend.
1:11
Speaker 1: Six rounds to go now in the championship, and for
1:13
Speaker 1: the third weekend in a row, Oscar Piastri's title lead
1:16
Speaker 1: has been cut. It's down to twenty two points over
1:20
Speaker 1: Lando Norris sixty three points over Max Forsappen, depending on
1:24
Speaker 1: whether or not you think he's in the title fight.
1:26
Speaker 1: We will touch on that in just a second. But
1:27
Speaker 1: the overriding talking point was not George Russell's second victory
1:31
Speaker 1: of the season for reasons he could not explain. It
1:33
Speaker 1: was Lando Norris beating Oscar Piastri to third place in
1:37
Speaker 1: this race after contact on the first lap and then
1:40
Speaker 1: no action from the team on the grounds of fairness
1:44
Speaker 1: or as they increasingly call it, values and principles of
1:47
Speaker 1: the team. Slightly less catchy or better, depending on whether
1:51
Speaker 1: or not you liked the papayah rules, Monika. But let's
1:56
Speaker 1: start with that incident Matt because that has been the
1:57
Speaker 1: contentious one. Oscar Piastric clearly didn't agree with the team
2:01
Speaker 1: not intervening. Lando Norris said if he didn't go for
2:04
Speaker 1: him paraphrase that ed and said a quote that gets
2:06
Speaker 1: way too much coverage that if a driver would not
2:09
Speaker 1: go for that gap, they do not belong in Formula one.
2:12
Speaker 4: Was his take on it.
2:13
Speaker 5: What's yours?
2:16
Speaker 3: I am simultaneously completely bored and riveted by this entire
2:21
Speaker 3: thing at the same time at this point, because it
2:23
Speaker 3: feels like we have very similar conversations but they get
2:25
Speaker 3: more ridiculous on a weekly basis.
2:27
Speaker 2: So let's let's try.
2:29
Speaker 3: And unpack this as best as we can. Let's just
2:31
Speaker 3: take forget all the context in the background and everything
2:34
Speaker 3: that preceded it. The Norris move itself. It was robust,
2:38
Speaker 3: it was Lap one of a Grand Prix. It was fine.
2:40
Speaker 3: It's also track where you can't overtake, as the next
2:43
Speaker 3: sixty one lap showed us. You know, it's just a
2:45
Speaker 3: sweatier version of Monaco, really, isn't it. So I didn't
2:48
Speaker 3: mind the fact that he saw an opportunity went for
2:51
Speaker 3: a little bit clumsy tag the stab and bouncing to
2:54
Speaker 3: his teammate. The move in and of itself was fine.
2:58
Speaker 3: It's because of all the content that has preceded it
3:01
Speaker 3: that we spent the remaining sixty one laps talking about it,
3:04
Speaker 3: and god knows we needed to, because not a hell
3:05
Speaker 3: of a lot else happened. And I just think, you know,
3:08
Speaker 3: Oscar Piastre was straight on the radio here as you
3:11
Speaker 3: knew that he was going to be. And I don't
3:13
Speaker 3: know about you, but is there a sense of people
3:16
Speaker 3: misinterpreting Pstre's radio at this point because you see the
3:21
Speaker 3: reaction of some people that are consuming in this. No,
3:23
Speaker 3: he's just winging about this, this and this. But surely
3:26
Speaker 3: this is just the easiest way for him to make
3:28
Speaker 3: his dissatisfaction public while simultaneously turning up the heat on
3:34
Speaker 3: the team because of the way McLaren has just created
3:38
Speaker 3: an absolute mountain out of a molehill here. I mean, look,
3:41
Speaker 3: perhaps we should be thankful they have because it wouldn't
3:43
Speaker 3: be hell of a lot going on otherwise. But you
3:45
Speaker 3: can't look at the move in isolation as just a
3:48
Speaker 3: move for a position in a race, which was fine.
3:52
Speaker 3: All the pastre radio commentary and everything about this only
3:55
Speaker 3: comes about because of what happened in the brace before
3:57
Speaker 3: and the race before that and the race before that.
4:00
Speaker 3: Both things can be true. Here, am I oversimplifying this now?
4:04
Speaker 1: I think that that I really think it's important to
4:06
Speaker 1: delineate between the two aspects of this entire situation. One
4:10
Speaker 1: was the move as a vanilla move between let's say
4:13
Speaker 1: three totally unrelated driver. Imagine if it was estebahnock on,
4:16
Speaker 1: Oliver Bearman and Yuki Sonoda. You know, no one would
4:20
Speaker 1: care to begin with, but the move would be fine
4:23
Speaker 1: and non contentious. The reason that this is a talking
4:26
Speaker 1: point is because of everything McLaren has set us up
4:28
Speaker 1: for this season about the fact the team is willing
4:31
Speaker 1: to intervene to preserve its understanding of fairness, to ensure
4:36
Speaker 1: that no as it increasingly feels like that, no outside
4:41
Speaker 1: influences affect the title battle that is somehow exclusively about
4:46
Speaker 1: just wheel to wheel racing or whoever's faster and nothing else,
4:51
Speaker 1: which gets only harder than more other drivers and cars
4:53
Speaker 1: are in contention to win or take podiums or to
4:55
Speaker 1: finish around it's two drivers.
4:57
Speaker 4: So that's where the problem is.
5:00
Speaker 1: If we talk about Piastre's radio in particular, probably the
5:03
Speaker 1: most vociferous has been this season orerhaps his entire career,
5:06
Speaker 1: I guess, and that is worth noting. But I think
5:09
Speaker 1: it's less about him having a winge, and it's more
5:13
Speaker 1: about two things. One is that and McLaren has said
5:15
Speaker 1: this several times, not just in the aftermath of this,
5:17
Speaker 1: that Andrea Stella and the team has encouraged these drivers
5:21
Speaker 1: not to leave the radio closed if they have thoughts
5:23
Speaker 1: or opinions. This is part of the strategy of ensuring
5:27
Speaker 1: there's nothing that can bubble up without realizing that then
5:30
Speaker 1: blows up at a later point. I think that perfectly fine,
5:32
Speaker 1: makes sense, gives TV broadcast the mornings to put on
5:35
Speaker 1: the radio as well. But it is also then about
5:38
Speaker 1: from the Piastre perspective, and I think back to the
5:40
Speaker 1: British Grand Prix for example, where he was I wouldn't
5:43
Speaker 1: say necessarily trying to convince the team to tell Norris
5:45
Speaker 1: to give him back the lead after his penalty, but
5:47
Speaker 1: just putting it out there that it means a Piastre's
5:50
Speaker 1: position in every case is out there, is listed, it's clear,
5:55
Speaker 1: it's public, which forces a discussion afterwards because the oldtive
6:00
Speaker 1: risk and who knows if this is how McLaren would
6:02
Speaker 1: work behind the scenes as a counterfactor here. But is
6:04
Speaker 1: that if he didn't say anything, then after the race
6:06
Speaker 1: there'd be nothing to debrief, even though he feels like
6:08
Speaker 1: something maybe is not quite right, or even just purely
6:11
Speaker 1: in the political sense that a driver has to be
6:13
Speaker 1: fighting their own corner because the team and Stella, I
6:16
Speaker 1: think really importantly said this after the race. The team's
6:19
Speaker 1: interests are not the driver's interests. I think it's the
6:21
Speaker 1: first time he sort of said it in this way.
6:24
Speaker 1: The interests are not aligned. At this point of the season,
6:26
Speaker 1: teams won a Constructor's title. It still wants the team
6:29
Speaker 1: to do well, but he recognizes that Norris and Pastre
6:33
Speaker 1: are fighting for different things now, so it's important for
6:35
Speaker 1: Piastre to fight for them. So I think that covers
6:37
Speaker 1: off the radio thing. But Matt, I want to ask you,
6:40
Speaker 1: we've got quite a few examples for precedence over the
6:45
Speaker 1: last two years. I think of the way McLaren handles this,
6:48
Speaker 1: do you think Piastre had a point? Do you think
6:49
Speaker 1: this is aligned the non decision McLaren ultimately took with
6:53
Speaker 1: how you understand how McLaren understands fairness?
6:58
Speaker 3: Do you think I have any idea of what McLaren
7:01
Speaker 3: doesn't think about things at this point. I mean, there's
7:04
Speaker 3: two things you mentioned there. Now that the Constructors Championship
7:07
Speaker 3: inevitable as it was. Now it's actually done, it can't
7:10
Speaker 3: be taken off from claren. I wonder if that gives
7:12
Speaker 3: us very different six rounds moving forward. That's probably a
7:14
Speaker 3: narrative for another time, but I'm looking at the Piastre
7:17
Speaker 3: situation here. What happened in Singapore in and of itself
7:21
Speaker 3: is not really a story, but it comes after the
7:25
Speaker 3: race in Hungary where Norris kind of lucked into a
7:29
Speaker 3: strategy and able him to win that. So Piastre felt
7:31
Speaker 3: agrieved by that. And then where this really jumped the shark,
7:35
Speaker 3: let's be honest, is when we started litigating about what
7:38
Speaker 3: bad luck entails with Monza, with the Norris pit stop
7:41
Speaker 3: that went wrong, and then asking them to address that
7:43
Speaker 3: position on track. That was the overreach for me. And
7:47
Speaker 3: it just feels like whenever there's these fifty to fifty situations,
7:51
Speaker 3: be it through being put on a strategy that lucks
7:54
Speaker 3: into a wind or the pit stop stuff, it feels
7:56
Speaker 3: that there's a cumulative Piastre deficit in all of these decisions.
8:01
Speaker 3: It always feels like, to use a very Australian term,
8:04
Speaker 3: he's getting the wrong.
8:04
Speaker 2: End of the pieport Michael, and.
8:09
Speaker 3: In and of itself, maybe not a big deal. But
8:11
Speaker 3: if you're Piastre, you're probably looking at this game. My god,
8:14
Speaker 3: this is like the third time now that there's been
8:16
Speaker 3: something that's a little bit contentious and it hasn't gone
8:19
Speaker 3: my way. But I had a couple of hypotheticals that
8:22
Speaker 3: I wanted to bounce off you.
8:24
Speaker 4: Yes, we can leave.
8:25
Speaker 3: I love a good game of hypotheticals. We can talk
8:27
Speaker 3: about these in as much or as little detail as
8:29
Speaker 3: you want. So my list of three hypotheticals. Does Norris
8:33
Speaker 3: make that move knowing full well what the team response
8:37
Speaker 3: is going to be.
8:38
Speaker 2: That's hypothetical one. Hypothetical two. Does McLaren ask.
8:41
Speaker 3: For penalty or redress positions? If it was any other
8:45
Speaker 3: driver who were clattered into Piastre or Norris, do you
8:49
Speaker 3: think they would have been on the radio? Vastappan's got
8:50
Speaker 3: to give that place back, so on and so forth.
8:52
Speaker 3: And then the other point b to that is, so,
8:55
Speaker 3: whatever it's Piastre hitting Norris, are we having the same
8:57
Speaker 3: response at this point and for the first time since
8:59
Speaker 3: he's not been in Formula One, Michael I actually missed
9:01
Speaker 3: Christian Horder this weekend because you know, Red Bull would
9:04
Speaker 3: have Red Bull would have been on the radio and
9:06
Speaker 3: they would have said Norris needs to be penalized. He
9:08
Speaker 3: ran into Max at the first quarter. You know that
9:10
Speaker 3: would have happened if Order was on the pitwall, so
9:12
Speaker 3: that would have been quite funny. But the third hypothetical
9:15
Speaker 3: for me is that it just feels like week by
9:17
Speaker 3: week at the moment, McLaren's just taking a bigger shovel
9:20
Speaker 3: and digging a bigger hole for itself, not just for
9:22
Speaker 3: this season, right for however long this Norris Piastre partnership lasts,
9:28
Speaker 3: and to me, like this almost guarantees that when it
9:30
Speaker 3: does split, as all partnerships in Formula One do, at
9:33
Speaker 3: some point, Piastre is the one that doesn't stay. It
9:37
Speaker 3: was very, very hard to imagine Norris driving for another
9:39
Speaker 3: team before Piastre does. If the way this settles out
9:42
Speaker 3: in the future is that they have to be apart
9:44
Speaker 3: from one another, and so yeah, you could look at
9:46
Speaker 3: the next six races to the end of the season
9:48
Speaker 3: and what that does to the narrative, but they've got
9:50
Speaker 3: a front up next season as well, and for however
9:52
Speaker 3: long the partnership lasts. And as I went back five
9:55
Speaker 3: minutes ago, it just feels like they're making something so
9:58
Speaker 3: unnecessarily difficult with trying to pursue something that was based
10:03
Speaker 3: that is basically impossible unless the race contains two McLaren's
10:07
Speaker 3: and no other cars at this point.
10:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that is the thing, isn't it that
10:12
Speaker 1: when the team beget the sense for us at least,
10:15
Speaker 1: is that when the team began to come up with
10:17
Speaker 1: more and more rules this year, it was when it
10:19
Speaker 1: seemed like there would be no other cars ever involved,
10:22
Speaker 1: and that's not really working so well now. You do
10:26
Speaker 1: wonder as well, is if you've had a time machine
10:28
Speaker 1: you had a chance to take Andreas Stella back to
10:30
Speaker 1: the first round, whether or not he'd tell himself to
10:34
Speaker 1: not commit to this considering how much more complicated it's
10:38
Speaker 1: become as the year has gone on, and whether or
10:40
Speaker 1: not those rules just get wiped clean, whether they put
10:42
Speaker 1: the book in the biden at the end of the year.
10:45
Speaker 1: I don't think they can do it now though, because
10:48
Speaker 1: this season's been mostly run to those rules, and you know,
10:50
Speaker 1: imagine if Monza is repeated the pit stops thing, but
10:53
Speaker 1: it was the other way around all of a sudden
10:54
Speaker 1: and Piastrian end up behind and they said, well, actually no,
10:56
Speaker 1: we've thrown rules in the bin now, it just wouldn't
10:58
Speaker 1: be wood works. They've kind of got live by these
11:00
Speaker 1: rules somehow.
11:01
Speaker 5: Now.
11:03
Speaker 1: But I want to go back to some of your hypotheticals.
11:04
Speaker 1: I think some of them are particularly interesting for me.
11:07
Speaker 1: I think one of the things, thinking about the way
11:10
Speaker 1: the team, that the team communicated, the impression I got
11:16
Speaker 1: at McLaren and among the Piastre camp I guess you
11:19
Speaker 1: could or this is my impression anyway, is one of
11:21
Speaker 1: the things that is somewhat an irritant, and Monza is
11:25
Speaker 1: the irritant. We know that now, right, the Monza situations
11:28
Speaker 1: really didn't sit well with them, and didn't sit well
11:30
Speaker 1: with a lot.
11:30
Speaker 5: Of people in fact.
11:32
Speaker 1: But the fact that after Norris hit Piastre here there
11:36
Speaker 1: was no warning to Norris, no communication. When several times
11:40
Speaker 1: this year Piastre has been publicly warned by a team radio,
11:43
Speaker 1: it subsequently become a talking point in the media. It
11:45
Speaker 1: became part of the narrative for the next week or
11:47
Speaker 1: two weeks or until the next race happened, that had
11:50
Speaker 1: he overstepped the mark? Was he the one who was
11:52
Speaker 1: going to, you know, break the harmony team whatever, it
11:56
Speaker 1: became a talking point, not this week. There was no
11:58
Speaker 1: message at any point to Norris about hey, you've just
12:01
Speaker 1: you know, even if it was an accident, just kind
12:03
Speaker 1: of broke the one rule we said you can't, which
12:05
Speaker 1: is don't hit your teammate even if and I acknowledge
12:08
Speaker 1: you as the team said afterwards that he hit Piastre
12:11
Speaker 1: as a result of hitting Verstappen while he still put
12:13
Speaker 1: his car in a dangerous position where he could hit Piastree.
12:16
Speaker 1: And I think back, actually Matt to last year's Italian
12:19
Speaker 1: Grand Prix. But Piastre made that move on the first lap,
12:22
Speaker 1: great move, one of the moves of the year round
12:25
Speaker 1: the outside, no contact made and was told after the race,
12:29
Speaker 1: don't do that again, like this is not allowed under
12:31
Speaker 1: the rules for you to put on an aggressive move
12:33
Speaker 1: like that for me. For me, that's why this move
12:37
Speaker 1: doesn't sit right, more so than the various other precedents
12:41
Speaker 1: we've had this year, because in McLaren's favor, I guess
12:43
Speaker 1: in this argument is that no two incidents are ready
12:45
Speaker 1: the same, and you can argue they all have different
12:47
Speaker 1: reasons to be decided upon. For me, if that Monza
12:50
Speaker 1: move was too aggressive, Norris getting laid on the brakes
12:54
Speaker 1: to the point where he's rear ending for Stappitt and
12:56
Speaker 1: hitting his own teammate surely has to be out of
12:59
Speaker 1: the rule of McLaren. Perhaps that's what they will be
13:02
Speaker 1: saying behind closed doors this week. Fine, but it just
13:05
Speaker 1: adds up to this. I don't want to say it
13:07
Speaker 1: adds up to a picture because I'm not certainly not
13:08
Speaker 1: on the you know, the idea that McLaren is quietly
13:12
Speaker 1: preferring Norris to win, I don't buy that. But it's
13:15
Speaker 1: adding up to a position where if your piastre suddenly
13:19
Speaker 1: the waiters you mentioned, of all these little decisions going
13:21
Speaker 1: against you does become annoying. And I do just want
13:24
Speaker 1: to add one other point. Listening to to Andrea Stella
13:27
Speaker 1: talk on Sunday night, I thought actually said a couple
13:30
Speaker 1: of things he hadn't said before that we're interesting. One
13:32
Speaker 1: was that he recognizes a that it's time to keep
13:35
Speaker 1: making these decisions. And again I think perhaps he wishes
13:38
Speaker 1: they hadn't got themselves quite into this position, but that
13:41
Speaker 1: he recognizes these are important not for this year's title,
13:45
Speaker 1: but for the next few years. As you mentioned everything
13:48
Speaker 1: that happens this year, every time a team decision on
13:51
Speaker 1: non decision takes points or adds points to the championship deficit,
13:56
Speaker 1: that will come back next year. You know, that will
13:57
Speaker 1: come back to buy the relationship and the long term.
14:00
Speaker 1: If one driver feels like they've been stitched over to
14:02
Speaker 1: the other. There's a lot more at stake than simply
14:05
Speaker 1: just the outcome of this year's championship.
14:08
Speaker 3: One more asterisk gone that that's super important that you
14:10
Speaker 3: just mentioned. Then we keep talking about twenty twenty six, like, well,
14:14
Speaker 3: you know the established order will be the same, blah
14:16
Speaker 3: blah blah. The other thing that adds another layer to
14:19
Speaker 3: this is that you know, yes, if it comes down
14:22
Speaker 3: to the last round and either of them can win
14:24
Speaker 3: the World Championship and they might need to go outside
14:26
Speaker 3: the god forsaken papyah rules the worst two words together
14:29
Speaker 3: in Formula ones and srs trained, by the way, But
14:32
Speaker 3: if one of them has to go outside of that,
14:34
Speaker 3: we know what happens when we have these big rule
14:36
Speaker 3: resets if you're ever going to tip.
14:38
Speaker 2: Formula one on its head.
14:39
Speaker 3: It tends to happen when things like this happen and
14:41
Speaker 3: you think of you know, I always go back to
14:43
Speaker 3: twenty fourteen, which is probably the biggest change before the
14:45
Speaker 3: one we've got for next year. Red Bull went from
14:47
Speaker 3: being completely dominant winning the last nine races of twenty thirteen,
14:50
Speaker 3: to be completely hopeless for most of twenty fourteen. And
14:53
Speaker 3: so what if you have a situation next year unlikely
14:56
Speaker 3: as it sounds, We're McLaren's just not in contention for anything,
15:00
Speaker 3: and then so does that you know, the potential for
15:02
Speaker 3: that present a situation where one of these drivers might
15:06
Speaker 3: go a little bit rogue outside of the Papaya rules
15:08
Speaker 3: to get a world championship, because what if there's not
15:10
Speaker 3: another chance for one with this car and this team.
15:13
Speaker 3: It's not so long ago that McLaren were absolutely hopeless
15:16
Speaker 3: through the last part of the big engine change, you know,
15:19
Speaker 3: a GP two engine, all that sort of stuff. It
15:20
Speaker 3: was it actually that long ago, and it's been so
15:23
Speaker 3: long since McLaren's faught for anything relevant that you wonder
15:25
Speaker 3: if that even sort of subtly on the back of
15:28
Speaker 3: someone's mind. Becomes a storyline because if we had the
15:31
Speaker 3: same rule set as we did between twenty four and
15:34
Speaker 3: twenty five, then perhaps you could say, well, you know,
15:37
Speaker 3: you kick kick the can down the road and we
15:39
Speaker 3: can see how this plays out in the future. What
15:41
Speaker 3: if they're nowhere near the front next year. That adds
15:43
Speaker 3: another lay out of all of this. But I just
15:46
Speaker 3: the one you mentioned there about Monza. That's such a
15:48
Speaker 3: good point about the fact that there was no contact
15:50
Speaker 3: and yet the Pastre move was seen to be too harsh.
15:53
Speaker 3: The other one I can't help but think about last
15:56
Speaker 3: year was Hungary, where it took so long and so
16:01
Speaker 3: much cajoling and so much pleading, almost like a bit
16:04
Speaker 3: pathetically to be honest, to get Norris to hand back
16:08
Speaker 3: the position to Piastre that he had inherited effectively because
16:11
Speaker 3: of a pit stop in Hungary, which you know, Piastre
16:14
Speaker 3: won that race, but geez, there was some angst until
16:16
Speaker 3: we got to that point. And every time this year
16:18
Speaker 3: when Piastre has been asked to do something like he's
16:20
Speaker 3: not been thrilled about it, Like you know, your teammates
16:22
Speaker 3: at a crap pit stopping monsick and you please jump
16:24
Speaker 3: out of the way. Please he's yeah, all right, not
16:26
Speaker 3: thrilled about it, but just didn't did it.
16:28
Speaker 2: We had to put up with.
16:29
Speaker 3: Half an hour of Norris winding about it on the
16:32
Speaker 3: radio in Hungary before they actually convinced him to do it.
16:34
Speaker 3: So you add all of these things up and it
16:36
Speaker 3: just adds more. I don't even know what the top
16:38
Speaker 3: of a pine apple is called. They leave or they fronz,
16:40
Speaker 3: whatever they are, but it just adds more of those
16:42
Speaker 3: to the piastre pine apple.
16:44
Speaker 2: And right now he's been left holding the wrong end
16:45
Speaker 2: of it.
16:46
Speaker 5: Yeah, I do.
16:47
Speaker 1: I'm just discussing this with a couple of people in
16:49
Speaker 1: the paddock, random people. I suppose no particular inside line
16:53
Speaker 1: on this, but there was a consensus that had McLaren
16:56
Speaker 1: decided that Norris has done the wrong thing, I think they.
17:00
Speaker 5: Would have known that.
17:01
Speaker 1: He probably wouldn't have listened to the team order, or
17:03
Speaker 1: he would have made a much bigger fuss about it,
17:05
Speaker 1: and that would have been blown up in the team space.
17:07
Speaker 1: Even if he'd done it after thirty minutes after, you know,
17:09
Speaker 1: on the last lap of the race, given the position back,
17:13
Speaker 1: it became I think less damaging for McLaren to do
17:16
Speaker 1: nothing and cop questions about it afterwards than to do something.
17:19
Speaker 1: Realize Norris wasn't really in the mood to listen saying
17:21
Speaker 1: he's behind the championship. My pit stop has always been
17:24
Speaker 1: worse this, so that whatever you would have said, you
17:26
Speaker 1: may not have may have proved us wrong, may proved
17:27
Speaker 1: team wrong.
17:28
Speaker 5: Whatever.
17:28
Speaker 1: But the impression I got is I wonder whether or
17:31
Speaker 1: not that hungry incident. Maybe it actually it was a
17:33
Speaker 1: good long term politics for Norris, so that he's less
17:35
Speaker 1: likely to get a team order like this.
17:36
Speaker 4: Who knows, there's a.
17:38
Speaker 3: Question for you before I go onto a bit of
17:39
Speaker 3: useless trivia. By the way, you're obviously in paper on
17:41
Speaker 3: the weekend when that happens. The press room is always
17:45
Speaker 3: an interesting place to be when there's any sort of
17:47
Speaker 3: flashpoint in Formula one, What was the mood of the
17:50
Speaker 3: press room like? And obviously taking people behind the curtain
17:54
Speaker 3: a little bit here, A very very large percentage of
17:57
Speaker 3: a Formula press room is English press, right, So how
18:00
Speaker 3: was the how was it received? And how was the
18:03
Speaker 3: pastre dialogue on the radio received as it was being broadcast.
18:08
Speaker 1: I think you probably wouldn't be surprised to hear, dear listener,
18:11
Speaker 1: having read you know, he's presuming you read a lot
18:14
Speaker 1: of content out there beyond just to our sports that Actually,
18:18
Speaker 1: while there were some English sections who simply said, you know,
18:22
Speaker 1: I think you noted immediately that what Oscar just doesn't
18:25
Speaker 1: have the pace doesn't need to de let pass anyway,
18:27
Speaker 1: which wasn't strictly speaking true. He thought he was going
18:29
Speaker 1: to go on a much bigger offset strategy of saving
18:31
Speaker 1: his tires in the first stint, which is why he
18:33
Speaker 1: lost contact earlily. But actually, I think most people were
18:37
Speaker 1: in agreement that this is McLaren's fault at the end
18:40
Speaker 1: of the day regard, I think most people saw the mover,
18:42
Speaker 1: as we've already talked about, pretty innocuous at the end
18:44
Speaker 1: of the day, and ignoris there's any malice in there.
18:46
Speaker 4: It was clumsy.
18:48
Speaker 1: You can't argue that any teammate probably shouldn't put their
18:50
Speaker 1: teammate in that kind of position by getting so late
18:52
Speaker 1: and going for a gap that was closing. But nonetheless
18:55
Speaker 1: that aside, I think everyone is on the same page
18:58
Speaker 1: that McLaren set themselves up for this situation. We've said
19:00
Speaker 1: it every time they've made a contentious called Onto being
19:02
Speaker 1: the last major one that there's going to be another
19:04
Speaker 1: time where this is going to be in the spotline's
19:05
Speaker 1: going to get even harder because they've chosen to intervene here.
19:09
Speaker 1: And I think that was the consensus that this is
19:11
Speaker 1: now on McLaren, regardless of what the drivers think, regardless
19:14
Speaker 1: of whether or not you think Piastric should have been
19:16
Speaker 1: calling or not calling to be given that place back.
19:19
Speaker 1: McLaren kind of owns this situation now and they've got
19:21
Speaker 1: to figure out how to get themselves out of it.
19:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, And the only given here is that because you've
19:25
Speaker 3: got this ticking clock of six rounds to go, and
19:27
Speaker 3: don't forget three sprints, that's three more race starts and
19:29
Speaker 3: three more times for them to trip over each other,
19:31
Speaker 3: you're going to have nine race starts now where they're
19:34
Speaker 3: going to be occupying similar parts of the grid. And
19:36
Speaker 3: this sort of thing will probably increasingly happen between now
19:39
Speaker 3: and the end of Abu Dhabi. And the useless trivia
19:41
Speaker 3: fact I was going to give you is that the
19:43
Speaker 3: top of a pineapple is called a crown.
19:46
Speaker 4: There you go, There you go.
19:48
Speaker 3: Pistre is left holding the crown of the pineapple. I've
19:51
Speaker 3: been able to complete my very tortured analogy.
19:53
Speaker 1: Holding the crown of the Pineapple of motorsport very good.
19:56
Speaker 2: And maybe the World Championship in six rounds time, yes.
20:01
Speaker 1: Quite Now, Before we move on from formul on entirely,
20:03
Speaker 1: there are a couple of things we have to mention,
20:04
Speaker 1: at least briefly touched some one already McLaren one. The
20:07
Speaker 1: Constructors Championship again back to back for the first time
20:11
Speaker 1: since the early nineties. Depends on whether you want to
20:14
Speaker 1: call the four peet eighty eight to ninety one or
20:16
Speaker 1: just ninety one big achievement. I think Plando Norris pointed
20:19
Speaker 1: out actually even before they'd won it, but it's only
20:21
Speaker 1: two years ago, the car was pretty crap and they
20:24
Speaker 1: are winning two titles in a row, so that's pretty remarkable.
20:26
Speaker 1: But we should talk about the broader championship Pickture, I
20:29
Speaker 1: want to mention Max with Staffan briefly here. This was
20:31
Speaker 1: going to be a big test of whether or not
20:32
Speaker 1: Red Bull Racings recent resurgence was real. Should could have
20:37
Speaker 1: maybe depending on your opinion, should have qualified on pole
20:41
Speaker 1: and then finished second. The car was pretty hamstrung, so
20:44
Speaker 1: I don't think we've got necessarily a true picture of
20:46
Speaker 1: pace but I don't think it's also outlandish to say
20:48
Speaker 1: probably the car wasn't as quick as the McLaren and
20:50
Speaker 1: the race in general, but this was certainly much better
20:53
Speaker 1: than let's say, what Singapore probably would.
20:55
Speaker 5: Have looked like a month ago before those upgrades arrived.
20:58
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, absolutely, I mean it's a huge for them,
21:00
Speaker 3: and it was so close to being that much better
21:02
Speaker 3: because hadd he have qualified on pole. I think that
21:04
Speaker 3: means he starts on a different tire because he sort
21:06
Speaker 3: of threw the hail weary at the start trying to
21:08
Speaker 3: get off the line and get into turn one ahead
21:10
Speaker 3: of George Russell. Because we know that nothing ever happens
21:12
Speaker 3: in this race after the first lap unless you get
21:14
Speaker 3: a safety car.
21:15
Speaker 2: Everyone finished again, by the way in Singapore, like what
21:17
Speaker 2: are the chances?
21:18
Speaker 3: But yeah, look, I mean, really good weekend for them,
21:21
Speaker 3: given this track has been difficult for Red Bull generally
21:24
Speaker 3: and really difficult for for Stappen, particularly for him to
21:27
Speaker 3: have outscored both McLaren's in Singapore, not by lot, but
21:31
Speaker 3: he still did. That probably gets their weakest race of
21:35
Speaker 3: the year the rest of the year out of the
21:37
Speaker 3: way now. So if you can outscore the two McLaren
21:40
Speaker 3: who you're nominally fighting for a world championship with at
21:42
Speaker 3: your worst circuit in the last seven I still think
21:45
Speaker 3: this thing's alive, simply because there's just proof of concept
21:49
Speaker 3: that you know, last year we kept saying, oh, Norris's
21:52
Speaker 3: X number of points behind the Stapan and the championship
21:54
Speaker 3: fight is on. I never really believed it, simply because
21:57
Speaker 3: of the order in which those two drivers were in
21:58
Speaker 3: the championship, had never been in a title fight before.
22:01
Speaker 3: Vastapen knows how to do these things with his eyes closed.
22:04
Speaker 2: At this point.
22:04
Speaker 3: The fact that you've got Verstapan is the hunter rather
22:07
Speaker 3: than the huntered now adds another element that last year
22:11
Speaker 3: didn't have. And I still think it's a long shot,
22:13
Speaker 3: but it's not no shot. And I think the fact
22:15
Speaker 3: they've got Singapore out of the way and there's going
22:17
Speaker 3: to be better races for them ahead. It's a big
22:20
Speaker 3: win for red Bull and for Verstappen, even though the
22:22
Speaker 3: points gap over the two McLaren's was pretty minimal.
22:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's I think he's really only one
22:28
Speaker 1: big result, so a win and a low score from
22:31
Speaker 1: the McLaren drivers, and I guess piastri in particular from
22:34
Speaker 1: really being in well, he's only one big result I
22:36
Speaker 1: think from actually being able to close the gap without
22:39
Speaker 1: needing results from other drivers or all other circumstances. So
22:43
Speaker 1: again that would need be one big result. But that
22:45
Speaker 1: just shows you how close it is. And like you say,
22:47
Speaker 1: six races and three sprints, there's a lot of.
22:49
Speaker 3: One hundred and seventy four points maximum to go.
22:51
Speaker 1: I just did the maths, Oh, very good, there you go.
22:54
Speaker 1: So he only needs about a third of those points.
22:56
Speaker 1: It's not too bad. And George Russell won this Grand
22:59
Speaker 1: Prix second win of the season. Enjoyed that he managed
23:03
Speaker 1: to take it was great pole lap, in fact, two
23:04
Speaker 1: laps good enough for pole after crashing in F two
23:07
Speaker 1: FB two, So quite the turnaround for him and quite
23:10
Speaker 1: the turn around for Mercedes, which he said this would
23:12
Speaker 1: probably be the bottom of list of tracks he thought.
23:14
Speaker 4: He'd win at. And can't explain why he.
23:16
Speaker 3: Won Mercedes twenty twenty five. Everybody they occasionally fast, no
23:22
Speaker 3: idea why they are, but yeah we're here. We are
23:24
Speaker 3: twenty three minutes into the pot and where Oh by
23:26
Speaker 3: the way, George Russell won really well executed. He's his season.
23:31
Speaker 3: It's both it's underrated and properly rated. At the same time.
23:35
Speaker 3: I think he's having an absolutely outstanding season, and I
23:39
Speaker 3: do think we should probably be talking about it more
23:41
Speaker 3: because he's been so so good this year. And what's
23:44
Speaker 3: interesting is that because this is now Air quotes his
23:47
Speaker 3: team because Lewis Hamilton is no longer there, he has
23:50
Speaker 3: more than stepped up to the plate in terms of
23:52
Speaker 3: proving that he can lead a team and do all
23:55
Speaker 3: of the right things. He's had a quietly outstanding year
23:57
Speaker 3: and I'm kind of glad that he did win another one,
23:59
Speaker 3: because like, if you got to the end of the
24:02
Speaker 3: season and Canada was the only win that he'd had,
24:03
Speaker 3: it would feel a little bit incomplete to some degree.
24:06
Speaker 3: So the fact that he won another race good. The
24:09
Speaker 3: fact that came in Singapore probably a bit of a surprise,
24:11
Speaker 3: but yeah, a nice, happy surprise.
24:12
Speaker 1: I guess let's move on now, I Matt to Move
24:15
Speaker 1: of the Week, brought to you by Shannon's couple of
24:18
Speaker 1: Grand Prix to choose from here, even if one of
24:20
Speaker 1: them featured not much overtaking, where are you going to
24:24
Speaker 1: take us to first?
24:26
Speaker 3: I'm going to the one, go to the one they
24:28
Speaker 3: didn't have much overtaking. Twenty six overtakes, according to the
24:30
Speaker 3: official stats, happened in Singapore.
24:32
Speaker 4: There was one of them, particularly live where I can
24:34
Speaker 4: tell you that much.
24:36
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, you probably don't remember twenty four of them.
24:39
Speaker 3: But the other one, not the Norris one, the other
24:42
Speaker 3: one that has to be referenced here for thirteenth place
24:45
Speaker 3: on lap thirty seven, Fernando also on Isaac Hadja both
24:49
Speaker 3: you know, the theater of the sort of thrust and
24:51
Speaker 3: parry of the battle and for the Fernando a lot
24:54
Speaker 3: so latest installment in the Quotes Hall of Fame, the
24:57
Speaker 3: trophy for the hero of race, and the quote itself
25:02
Speaker 3: was something that only a Lozzo could say and make
25:04
Speaker 3: me a laugh. It was just it was it was unnecessary,
25:08
Speaker 3: but it was amusing. At the same time they were
25:09
Speaker 3: fighting like hell for thirteenth place. But I'm going to
25:13
Speaker 3: give bonus points. This is part of the reason I've
25:15
Speaker 3: gone for this is that after the race, when he
25:18
Speaker 3: was being asked about it, Fernando a Lotto was asked that,
25:20
Speaker 3: you know, racing bulls have got seventy two points into
25:22
Speaker 3: constructors this year, four more than Aston Martin and a
25:25
Speaker 3: lots of his quote was they have a very fast car,
25:27
Speaker 3: but they don't have many points, so it's more their
25:29
Speaker 3: problem something it's just something about Fernando just being deliberately
25:34
Speaker 3: mischievous that that's at a point. I mean, look, I'd
25:36
Speaker 3: also like to point out that racing bulls do have
25:38
Speaker 3: a very fast car, but aston do have large strolls,
25:40
Speaker 3: so maybe these things.
25:41
Speaker 2: Sort of balance out.
25:42
Speaker 3: But I did enjoy Fernando a lotso just unnecessarily coming
25:46
Speaker 3: up with a great piece of radio for what was
25:48
Speaker 3: a very nice pass, but one that took far too
25:50
Speaker 3: long in a race where there was precious little else
25:52
Speaker 3: going on on track. But I've probably stolen the only
25:55
Speaker 3: other one other than Norris on Piastri at the first quarter,
25:58
Speaker 3: So I'm wondering where you're going with this.
26:00
Speaker 5: That was a good one.
26:01
Speaker 1: Did enjoy Fernando Alonso, and the timing of that comment
26:03
Speaker 1: just sort of broke up nicely a race that seemed
26:05
Speaker 1: like not much is going on, but there was one
26:07
Speaker 1: thing going on, and this was I highlight. No particular pass,
26:11
Speaker 1: but the general progress made by Carlos Science, who started
26:15
Speaker 1: the race disqualified from qualifying with the technical infringement for
26:18
Speaker 1: both Williams cars not a great look for them and
26:20
Speaker 1: finished tenth, scored a point from eighteenth on the grid,
26:24
Speaker 1: ran really long, hoping for the safety car that never
26:26
Speaker 1: turned up. For the second year in her own mind
26:28
Speaker 1: you something about maybe this new layout not having enough
26:30
Speaker 1: corners to cause problems, and scored one point for Williams.
26:34
Speaker 1: The only year in which and we talked about this
26:36
Speaker 1: after Azebaijahan, he hasn't had great results on the Sunday,
26:40
Speaker 1: probably not reflective of his ultimate pace. This was another
26:43
Speaker 1: well executed race for him, with much less on the
26:45
Speaker 1: line and many fewer points on the table. Just really
26:48
Speaker 1: well done for him. His face is actually pretty good
26:50
Speaker 1: on quite old medium tires in that first long stint
26:53
Speaker 1: and that's what made it, you know, by stopping really late,
26:55
Speaker 1: managed to scrounge a point coming home in tenth and
26:59
Speaker 1: a great result from him.
27:01
Speaker 3: Were a race where there's no in Singapore, where there's
27:03
Speaker 3: no safety cars and no retirements, and you start that
27:06
Speaker 3: far back and you end up in the points you will.
27:09
Speaker 2: I doubt that he.
27:10
Speaker 3: Would have sweated more or exerted more energy to call
27:13
Speaker 3: one point in his entire Formula One career, but yeah,
27:16
Speaker 3: hugely satisfying from where he started, and well, not quite
27:19
Speaker 3: the highest of Azerbaijar, but still probably pretty satisfying. He's
27:22
Speaker 3: just the consuma's professional with a job sheet like that
27:26
Speaker 3: one is.
27:27
Speaker 1: Yes, the sweatiest point. I like that as a good
27:29
Speaker 1: summary of where he was at. Let's move on to
27:34
Speaker 1: other matters away from Formula one because we're approaching quite
27:37
Speaker 1: an exciting time on the domestic motorsport calendar between the
27:40
Speaker 1: Baptist one thousand this weekend and on the following weekend
27:43
Speaker 1: the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix down at Phillip Island, where
27:47
Speaker 1: motor GP comes to us in the ultimate time zone,
27:50
Speaker 1: the best time zone there is our time zone. Unless
27:53
Speaker 1: you're in w A and you don't have data saving time.
27:55
Speaker 5: Then you'll figure it out.
27:57
Speaker 1: So in this edition of Expert versus Interested, Matt, I'm
27:59
Speaker 1: very interested in what happened in the past week though,
28:01
Speaker 1: to set us up with Phillip Island, which was the
28:04
Speaker 1: Grand Prix in Indonesia. Quite the wacky weekend and in
28:07
Speaker 1: what is always a good thing for all motorsport categories,
28:11
Speaker 1: it is what makes motorsport, I think, a new winner
28:14
Speaker 1: in Motorcycle Grand Prix racing.
28:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, a first time race winner in Ducati rookie Fermin Aldegaer,
28:20
Speaker 3: and I think their most amazing part about this is
28:23
Speaker 3: that it's the first time we've had a rookie winner
28:25
Speaker 3: for four years in s Juje Martin won in Austria
28:27
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty one. Aldegaer is twenty years and one
28:31
Speaker 3: hundred and eighty three days old he was when he
28:33
Speaker 3: won the race on Sunday, the second youngest winner in
28:37
Speaker 3: Motor GP history, is about three to four months older
28:39
Speaker 3: than Mark Marquez was when Mark won in the Grand
28:42
Speaker 3: Prix of the Americas in twenty thirteen.
28:44
Speaker 2: It's one thing.
28:45
Speaker 3: To put yourself ahead of guys like Freddie Spencer and
28:47
Speaker 3: Valentino Rossi and Juhala Renzo on an all time list,
28:50
Speaker 3: but it was more the way that he won it.
28:52
Speaker 3: He absolutely annihilated everybody at Mandalika on Sunday, and I
28:58
Speaker 3: mentioned to you off air that this would be equivalent
29:00
Speaker 3: to Kimmi Antonelli turning up at the next race and
29:03
Speaker 3: slaughtering everybody by his the executive and making them look
29:06
Speaker 3: like they were driving Formula two cars. He was unbelievable
29:09
Speaker 3: how they get and it was one of those races
29:12
Speaker 3: where it was at the same time. It was a
29:14
Speaker 3: complete shock but predictable at the same time. And without
29:18
Speaker 3: getting mega technical here and maybe I'll teach you something
29:20
Speaker 3: here we're going through this. There is Michelin bring a
29:24
Speaker 3: very specific rear tire for Indonesia and also Thailand because
29:28
Speaker 3: of how hot it is and how hot the track is.
29:31
Speaker 3: The track temp at Race Star My God's Sunday in
29:34
Speaker 3: Indonesia was sixty degrees and so absolutely melting the rubber.
29:40
Speaker 3: So they bring this special reinforce rear carcass. It's got
29:42
Speaker 3: a stiffer construction. So when you're riding a motor GP
29:47
Speaker 3: bike with a tie a rear tire that's that much stiffer,
29:49
Speaker 3: It squishes less. It doesn't offer the same performance under
29:53
Speaker 3: breaking it in the traction zones. And we know how
29:55
Speaker 3: motor GP bikes are ridden these days. It's all about
29:57
Speaker 3: getting the bike stopped, dropping the bike, riding out of
30:00
Speaker 3: the next corner. And aldegaerrez in experience with motor GP
30:04
Speaker 3: was actually a bit of a benefit here because he
30:06
Speaker 3: still rides like a motor II rider. He's still all
30:08
Speaker 3: about massive corner speed, probably not great in the heavy
30:11
Speaker 3: breaking in the hard accelerations, but his whole style is
30:14
Speaker 3: corner speed. You've got a track that's got a lot
30:16
Speaker 3: of very fast corners and an absolutely baking hot track service.
30:21
Speaker 3: You combine all of those things. His pace through the
30:25
Speaker 3: high speed sections of the lap there at Mandlika was
30:28
Speaker 3: just absolutely crazy. And to show you how fast he was,
30:31
Speaker 3: he got to the lead on lap seven and then
30:34
Speaker 3: he did nine consecutive laps in the one minute thirty bracket.
30:38
Speaker 3: For the rest of the race, every other rider combined
30:40
Speaker 3: did three of those laps in the one thirty Wow,
30:43
Speaker 3: So he basically built a nine second lead in no
30:47
Speaker 3: time whatsoever. That nine seconds covered everybody from Pedro Costa,
30:51
Speaker 3: who was second for most of the race, back to
30:53
Speaker 3: about twelve. So he was just in this complete category
30:56
Speaker 3: of one. And you're looking at this as like, this
30:58
Speaker 3: is a twenty year old kid who never ridden a
31:00
Speaker 3: motogpi like around this circuit. He's doing something that you
31:04
Speaker 3: would expect somewhat of massive experience to be able to do.
31:07
Speaker 3: But conversely, it was the fact that he doesn't have
31:10
Speaker 3: the motor GP experience. He still rides a motor GP
31:12
Speaker 3: like a little bit like a Moto two bike, concentrates
31:14
Speaker 3: on corner speed and this stiffer rear tire. The reason
31:18
Speaker 3: maybe we saw this coming. The last time Michelin bought
31:21
Speaker 3: a stiffer than usual reartire to a Grand Prix was
31:23
Speaker 3: Austria back in about what that was around twelve or so.
31:27
Speaker 3: It can get warm there. But as you know from
31:29
Speaker 3: the Formula one side of things, the Red Bull Rings
31:31
Speaker 3: such a specific layout because it's long, straight, hardbreaking square corner,
31:35
Speaker 3: long straight, hardbreaking square corner, so again not a circuit
31:39
Speaker 3: where you're looking at so much that the traction zones.
31:43
Speaker 3: He's able to preserve his rubber because of the way
31:45
Speaker 3: he rides like a Moto two rider. And in the
31:47
Speaker 3: back end of that race he hunted down and passed
31:49
Speaker 3: Marco Bozeki for second and was just tearing chunks out
31:53
Speaker 3: of Mark Marquez in the last three laps of that race.
31:55
Speaker 3: If that race had gone for one lap longer back
31:57
Speaker 3: at Red Bull Ring, he would have won that because
31:59
Speaker 3: he literally had the rear tire.
32:00
Speaker 2: Of anybody else.
32:01
Speaker 3: So when you saw that Micheline were bringing this reartire
32:04
Speaker 3: to Coke with the heat in Indonesia, thought all right,
32:06
Speaker 3: this might be something that favors him. But for him
32:09
Speaker 3: to go and do what he did on Sunday, and
32:11
Speaker 3: to put your name in that sort of company as
32:14
Speaker 3: the second youngest race winner of all time. It was
32:17
Speaker 3: absolutely astonishing. But a little side note for you that
32:20
Speaker 3: I really enjoyed. He probably should have won the sprint
32:23
Speaker 3: race on Saturday. Bozeki had made a mess of the start,
32:27
Speaker 3: and Aldegaerre spent the first twelve and a half laps
32:29
Speaker 3: of the thirteen laps in the lead and was overtaken
32:32
Speaker 3: by Marco Bozeki on the last lap. And he said
32:34
Speaker 3: afterwards he kept looking at his pit board and saw
32:36
Speaker 3: that it was Berzeki behind him and the gap was
32:38
Speaker 3: coming down. Bizeki had been on Poli, made a mess
32:41
Speaker 3: of the start. He was clearly the faster rider. He
32:43
Speaker 3: asked the team for Sunday's race, I want you to
32:45
Speaker 3: put what position I'm in on the pit board. I
32:47
Speaker 3: want you to put the margin that I'm ahead of
32:49
Speaker 3: the next person, But I don't want you to tell
32:50
Speaker 3: me who it is, because he had a visit that
32:53
Speaker 3: he'd made some mistakes on the Saturday in the sprint
32:56
Speaker 3: because he knew that it was Berzeki and he knew
32:58
Speaker 3: Bozeki was closing, so he was blisful out ofware that
33:00
Speaker 3: Berzeki had crashed out on the first lap of the
33:02
Speaker 3: race and he was just barely along, just setting all
33:04
Speaker 3: these crazy one minute thirty lap times, not knowing who
33:07
Speaker 3: it was behind him, and just waiting for Berzeki to
33:09
Speaker 3: turn up.
33:10
Speaker 2: And as he said after the race, he don't arrive.
33:13
Speaker 3: He never featured because he was in the gravel and
33:17
Speaker 3: Ferminald again made everybody look absolutely ridiculous in his seventeenth
33:22
Speaker 3: Grand Prix start. It was a pretty wild story for
33:24
Speaker 3: a guy who'd never won a motor GP race before.
33:27
Speaker 1: Yes, a great way to claim your first win in
33:29
Speaker 1: quite wacky circums. Was a memorable first win and people
33:32
Speaker 1: would be forgetting that one in the history of his career.
33:35
Speaker 1: Speaking of people who don't arrive, Mark Marquez will not
33:38
Speaker 1: arrive at Phillip Island. No Juge Martin, probably no Maverick Benalez. Anyway,
33:44
Speaker 1: you'll be there though, which is good news for anyone
33:45
Speaker 1: looking for a last minute wild card.
33:48
Speaker 4: We'll be there.
33:49
Speaker 1: Philip Island punters that the reigning world champion and the
33:52
Speaker 1: new world champion. Can you still call him reiinning world
33:55
Speaker 1: champion after the title has been one? It's up to
33:56
Speaker 1: you will not be there.
33:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Marquez one, what to talk about? You here
34:02
Speaker 3: at zero in seven days? You know, a week before
34:04
Speaker 3: he won his seventh world title in Japan, and he'd
34:07
Speaker 3: had this long run back from all these injuries that
34:09
Speaker 3: we talked about on the previous episode. And then seven
34:12
Speaker 3: days later, so he's got a right shoulder fracture. So
34:14
Speaker 3: he's going to miss Australia and Malaysia. No surgery, which
34:17
Speaker 3: I think is really important given he's had so many
34:20
Speaker 3: surgeries on that right arm. But just one of those
34:23
Speaker 3: was incredibly unfortunate in that he was in the firing
34:27
Speaker 3: line after Bozeki had made this really poor start in
34:29
Speaker 3: the Grand Prix Pozeki was so much fast and literally
34:32
Speaker 3: ran straight into the back of Marquez and as Mark
34:35
Speaker 3: slid along with the tarmac and then towards the gravel trap.
34:38
Speaker 3: It was one of those ones he probably could have
34:39
Speaker 3: got away with, but there was a lip in the
34:41
Speaker 3: gravel trap that effectively flipped Mark over and then of
34:44
Speaker 3: course the first part of him that hit the ground
34:46
Speaker 3: after he was tumbling, he landed directly on the point
34:48
Speaker 3: of that right shoulder. And so look, the fact there's
34:51
Speaker 3: no surgery is a good thing. If we had a
34:53
Speaker 3: live World Championship, would he try and get back for
34:56
Speaker 3: Philip Island, a circuit where we know he's incredibly good
34:59
Speaker 3: and would go in the favorite anyway, I think the
35:02
Speaker 3: fact the championship's done, and the fact that it's the
35:04
Speaker 3: right side of his body that's been battered and stable
35:07
Speaker 3: together so many times over the years makes it a
35:09
Speaker 3: pretty easy decision to sit out these last two fireways.
35:12
Speaker 3: But a great shame for the Australian GP because watching
35:17
Speaker 3: market an anti clockwise track on a World Championship winning
35:20
Speaker 3: bike is always quite fub We've seen it many times before,
35:22
Speaker 3: but sadly not next weekend.
35:25
Speaker 1: Yes, a pity impact that he could get a fifth
35:28
Speaker 1: surgery on that right arm, because I think his next
35:29
Speaker 1: one would have been free after that, So unfortunately here.
35:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, while we're doing interested versus expert, though you mentioned
35:37
Speaker 3: we've got this pretty massive fortnite coming up on the
35:40
Speaker 3: domestic Australian Motorsport calendar the weekend before the Australian Motorcycle GP.
35:45
Speaker 3: Of the course is Bathist this weekend and I'm going
35:47
Speaker 3: to take the role of interested now and you can
35:49
Speaker 3: put your expert hat on but two things for me.
35:53
Speaker 3: We've got berths for the finals on the line here obviously,
35:55
Speaker 3: but who's looking good here? Because you know we had
35:59
Speaker 3: the bad and a few weeks back Brodiekstecki won that.
36:03
Speaker 3: The Bend's never been part of the endurance season season
36:05
Speaker 3: of endurance, however, we're framing it before. So I'm wondering
36:08
Speaker 3: if that particular event and the form of that event,
36:11
Speaker 3: the form line out of that event, is that particularly
36:13
Speaker 3: relevant for Bathists or should we not really consider it
36:16
Speaker 3: given it's the first time we've seen it, Because I
36:18
Speaker 3: wouldn't imagine that Brodi Kisteki would be the favorite going in,
36:21
Speaker 3: would he.
36:22
Speaker 1: Well, so this is the interesting thing, isn't it. You're
36:24
Speaker 1: right the bend is not the traditional I suppose endurance
36:27
Speaker 1: round open. It's never been that role. And the bend
36:30
Speaker 1: is a real outlier on the supercars calendar. We have
36:33
Speaker 1: a couple of them. Bathist itself, in fact an outlier
36:35
Speaker 1: compared to most of the rest of the tracks, and
36:36
Speaker 1: I guess Albert Park would be your other unusual track.
36:39
Speaker 1: Long tracks, quite high corner speeds, flowing circuits, that kind
36:43
Speaker 1: of thing is not really characteristic of most of the
36:45
Speaker 1: rest of the calendar, so there is that element of it.
36:48
Speaker 1: But I'm I actually asked Brodie this couple of weeks ago,
36:51
Speaker 1: and I think he disagreed with me, but I'm adamant nonetheless,
36:54
Speaker 1: but I think you can peek at the right time.
36:56
Speaker 1: He said, well, you can't do it in the finals, Zne.
36:57
Speaker 1: You've got to be good all the time. And look
36:58
Speaker 1: at brock Feeni. I guess he's in that sense. But
37:01
Speaker 1: it seems to me you got to remember the context
37:04
Speaker 1: of Brodie Casteki season and he switched teams this year.
37:06
Speaker 1: He's turned up the DJR, which is a team that's
37:08
Speaker 1: been a little bit in the doldrums, considering it's a
37:10
Speaker 1: lustrous history and it's outgoing status as the Molligation did before.
37:14
Speaker 1: And it feels like they've been you know, they've occasionally clicked,
37:17
Speaker 1: but in the last month maybe feels like that upward
37:20
Speaker 1: trajectory is really getting there. One in Townsville first victory there,
37:24
Speaker 1: that was two rounds of awo I think for the
37:26
Speaker 1: bend and then came out in the bend and okay,
37:29
Speaker 1: it required a little bit of misfortune from Brockveeni's garage
37:32
Speaker 1: with the refueling problem there that knocked him out, but
37:35
Speaker 1: was very good with a combination with Todd Hazelwood, which
37:38
Speaker 1: is a successful combination. So the chance at Bathist is
37:41
Speaker 1: they go back to back, but not just in the
37:43
Speaker 1: Durance rounds, but back to back at Bathists as well.
37:45
Speaker 1: So we shouldn't forget that he is the reigning winner. Yes,
37:47
Speaker 1: with a different team, but I'm convinced about the context
37:52
Speaker 1: of that team change when you get to Bathist, because
37:54
Speaker 1: last year Erebus was kind of a little bit nowhere
37:56
Speaker 1: as well.
37:56
Speaker 4: It was really Brodie.
37:57
Speaker 1: He was punching in these big results in a in
37:59
Speaker 1: a or a team that wasn't really at the level
38:02
Speaker 1: of his championship winning season the year before. So I
38:04
Speaker 1: think that that combination goes in as at least on paper,
38:08
Speaker 1: the one to beat. But really for me it's brock
38:10
Speaker 1: Phoeni that remains the favorite year because he's been in
38:13
Speaker 1: such good form. His form did not stop at the Bend,
38:16
Speaker 1: despite the refueling problem, despite his co driver. Have you
38:20
Speaker 1: heard him Jammuoncup who crashed into sister car, didn't he?
38:24
Speaker 1: I think it was Scott find the car during practice,
38:26
Speaker 1: So he had quite a scrappy weekend overall. But for me,
38:29
Speaker 1: that remains the combination. You know, they love to say
38:34
Speaker 1: things like you know, the mountain chooses the winner.
38:36
Speaker 5: Whatever.
38:36
Speaker 1: Well, mountain for a long time has been choosing not
38:38
Speaker 1: to give brock Fini the win. It feels a bit
38:40
Speaker 1: like I don't want to say's due for it, because
38:43
Speaker 1: I also feel like that'll jinx the whole thing, and
38:45
Speaker 1: with my fault, but he's been close, he's had paced here,
38:48
Speaker 1: he's been here several years now. Versus a co driver,
38:50
Speaker 1: obviously seen that as a full time driver, he's really
38:53
Speaker 1: fast here. I think, considering the form he does carry
38:57
Speaker 1: into this weekend, it's hard not to call him the favorite.
39:01
Speaker 1: But given Bathist is such an unusual race, and like
39:03
Speaker 1: we've said, Brodie Castek's there, I think Matt Pain also
39:06
Speaker 1: can't be discounted. That combination with Garth Tander. I think
39:09
Speaker 1: it was really quick last year, but is that bit
39:12
Speaker 1: more mature now, and so is Matt Pain is third
39:14
Speaker 1: or fourth year in the sport. I think they've got
39:17
Speaker 1: to be considered. Will Brown we haven't mentioned weirdly enough
39:19
Speaker 1: as that the reigning champion, he's got to be in
39:20
Speaker 1: that mix. But for me, it's Brody versus Brock I
39:23
Speaker 1: like that that's almost emerging as a little bit of
39:25
Speaker 1: a Bathist specific rivalry, and maybe that's going to be
39:28
Speaker 1: the next chapter here.
39:30
Speaker 2: Sounds like a good hashtag.
39:32
Speaker 3: The only guarantee for Bathist is that we know that
39:34
Speaker 3: it will be referred to as the grand Final of
39:36
Speaker 3: our sport multiple times across the weekend, which always slightly
39:40
Speaker 3: confuses me because normally the grand Final should be the
39:42
Speaker 3: last round of anything, and it's not. So That's why
39:45
Speaker 3: just the no inflatter of that gets me a little
39:46
Speaker 3: bit confused. But I will say, as someone who is
39:49
Speaker 3: a more interested than expert in the supercar space, it's
39:53
Speaker 3: the best day of the year in a supercar space
39:55
Speaker 3: is the shootout at Bathist.
39:56
Speaker 2: I absolutely love it.
39:57
Speaker 3: Whenever I think of one shot qualifying that I'd love
40:00
Speaker 3: to see in certain F one races, the thing I
40:02
Speaker 3: always think about is to shoot out with Bathists. It's
40:04
Speaker 3: the best what forty five minutes of TV probably in
40:07
Speaker 3: any qualifying in any motorsport discipline all year, because of
40:10
Speaker 3: the danger and the peril and the history, and I
40:12
Speaker 3: mean the track in and of itself is fantastic. It's
40:15
Speaker 3: fantastic TV, and it is the template for other motorsports
40:18
Speaker 3: series to follow if they'd like to change up their
40:20
Speaker 3: qualifying for Formula One, we are speaking to.
40:23
Speaker 1: You, Yes, absolutely right. Well, I don't know will it
40:27
Speaker 1: be referred to the Grand Fight. We've actually got a
40:29
Speaker 1: real Grand final this year, so anyone who's referring it
40:31
Speaker 1: historically to as the Grand Final. But I'm even more
40:35
Speaker 1: confusing this year because there's a literal one in Adelaide.
40:38
Speaker 1: And that's the other element of Bathists that I want
40:40
Speaker 1: to talk about, because for me, there's sort of two
40:41
Speaker 1: bathists happening this weekend. There's the one for the victory
40:45
Speaker 1: of the Bathist one thousand's usually pretty big deal, and
40:47
Speaker 1: the other one is the drivers who needed a birth
40:50
Speaker 1: in the finals. Because we're now this is the last
40:51
Speaker 1: race of the I guess we call it the regular
40:54
Speaker 1: season now like other sports too, I haven't come up
40:56
Speaker 1: with that.
40:57
Speaker 2: How many grand finals can we have in one sport?
41:00
Speaker 1: You'd be surprised, because there are three races at the
41:02
Speaker 1: Grand Vile in Adelaide, So make of that what you will.
41:05
Speaker 1: But this is the last chance, the last chance to
41:07
Speaker 1: get into the top ten. Is this weekend the last
41:09
Speaker 1: chance to make them the finals. We've been talking about
41:12
Speaker 1: this periodically over the year of who's in and who's
41:14
Speaker 1: out seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth Antony DiPasquale, Ryan Wood,
41:18
Speaker 1: Thomas Randall and Kay Allen. They're separated by one hundred
41:20
Speaker 1: and seventy three points in total one hundred and seventy
41:22
Speaker 1: three points, but deep Asquale is in my opinion pretty safe. Admittedly,
41:27
Speaker 1: anything can happen at bathist Is one big points paying race,
41:29
Speaker 1: so you can get big swings in a way you
41:31
Speaker 1: wouldn't have a normal round. And then all under one
41:34
Speaker 1: hundred points out andre Heimgartner, Nick Perkat and Cam Hill
41:39
Speaker 1: and then Jack of the Box one hundred and seventy
41:41
Speaker 1: points out for Airbra So for me that would also
41:43
Speaker 1: require a pretty wacky big result. Don't rule it out
41:46
Speaker 1: obviously against Bathis, but there your contenders. I think it's Randall, Allen, Himgartner,
41:50
Speaker 1: Perkat and Hill. They're all all between them. What's that
41:54
Speaker 1: that's one hundred and thirty two points all separating just them,
41:57
Speaker 1: So there's enough scope there for some movement. And Alan
42:00
Speaker 1: obviously is the one most on the bubble in tenth
42:02
Speaker 1: place to be remarkable if he made it considering the
42:04
Speaker 1: late charges had as a rookie. There's a little bit
42:07
Speaker 1: of a twist here as well, though, don't forget because
42:09
Speaker 1: if you win the Enduro Cup, you also get in automatically.
42:13
Speaker 1: There are only two drivers in i say, the Enduring
42:16
Speaker 1: Cup rankings. It's just what the results are at the bend.
42:18
Speaker 1: There are only two races in the Insura Cup. Obviously
42:21
Speaker 1: it's led by Brodick is sick. He therefore, but there
42:22
Speaker 1: are two drivers in that top ten of the Enjura
42:24
Speaker 1: Cup who are not in the top ten of the championship,
42:27
Speaker 1: and they are Nick Perkat on two hundred and fifteen points,
42:30
Speaker 1: so it's that seventy five points out. And then also
42:33
Speaker 1: Cooper Murray of course, who had that weekend or that
42:35
Speaker 1: season best result weekend, and he's seventh one hundred and
42:38
Speaker 1: eighty two points. So they and it's interesting because Perkat
42:41
Speaker 1: can make it into the ten on pure points alone.
42:44
Speaker 1: As we sort of said, Murray card is mathematically out
42:46
Speaker 1: of contention for the ten, but not out of contention
42:50
Speaker 1: to win the Endura Cup. Now that would be a
42:51
Speaker 1: spectacular result for the rookie, but it could happen. Who's
42:56
Speaker 1: to say it's not going to happen. So there's this
42:58
Speaker 1: parallel race happening at Bath where a bunch of these drivers.
43:01
Speaker 1: Of course, everyone ons to out there and win, and
43:02
Speaker 1: some of these drivers are sort of victory contention drivers,
43:05
Speaker 1: let's call them. But really they need to be keeping
43:08
Speaker 1: an eye on their points tally's relative to those other
43:10
Speaker 1: rivals around ten because if they don't, the season effectively
43:15
Speaker 1: kind of stops this weekend. Otherwise they can raise on.
43:18
Speaker 3: We've got multiple grand finals, multiple races, multiple bubbles. I'm enjoying.
43:22
Speaker 3: I'm enjoying all of it. But yeah, look, I think
43:25
Speaker 3: them the myriad elements, and I like the way because
43:28
Speaker 3: it's such a long race obviously in terms of duration,
43:31
Speaker 3: the narratives of these will twist and turn throughout the coverage.
43:34
Speaker 3: I think that makes it really interesting for a you know,
43:37
Speaker 3: you're watching three things simultaneously here, right, So yeah, bring
43:40
Speaker 3: it on.
43:40
Speaker 2: I think it's gonna be super interesting.
43:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's just another element to keep bathist
43:45
Speaker 1: going because sometimes it is just a bit of a
43:47
Speaker 1: six hour sprit race, but this makes them a little
43:50
Speaker 1: bit more intriguing. Before we wrap up, though, let's go
43:53
Speaker 1: to the crystal ball brought to you by complete home filtration.
43:56
Speaker 5: As we said, pretty big.
43:57
Speaker 1: A couple of weeks of motorsport, both domestically and overseas
44:00
Speaker 1: between baths this weekend, the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix and
44:03
Speaker 1: then of course the US Mexico back to back in
44:05
Speaker 1: Formula one.
44:07
Speaker 3: What are you predicting the insomnia back to back? Looking
44:10
Speaker 3: forward to that, We're quite good for us. There's more Brazil.
44:13
Speaker 3: That's the complete our day. Let's not talk about Brazil.
44:15
Speaker 3: But I'm going to go two wheels here for the
44:18
Speaker 3: Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, not this coming weekend, the following weekend.
44:22
Speaker 3: So my crystal ball, well this is the facts are
44:24
Speaker 3: telling me one thing which leads into my crystal ball prediction.
44:27
Speaker 3: Did you know that we've had at least one Marques
44:29
Speaker 3: on every single Grand Prix podium this year, every single one,
44:34
Speaker 3: at least one Marquees. So the crystal ball is telling
44:36
Speaker 3: me we're not going to have any marques Is on
44:38
Speaker 3: the podium in Australia for the Grand Prix because well A,
44:41
Speaker 3: the one who's most likely to be there is not
44:43
Speaker 3: going to be there. At Mark Marquez. Alex Marquez has
44:45
Speaker 3: never finished better than ninth in a Motor GP race
44:48
Speaker 3: Solo Island. So look, don't ask me who's going to
44:50
Speaker 3: be who is going to win there, because we've got
44:52
Speaker 3: Mark Marquez and Martine and probably Vinalez and probably some
44:55
Speaker 3: others are not going to be there. But I think
44:57
Speaker 3: we're going to have our first Marques LUs grandp repodium
45:00
Speaker 3: of the season at Phillip Island.
45:02
Speaker 2: That's what the crystal ball is telling me.
45:05
Speaker 3: So yeah, a little bit of vibe check in a
45:07
Speaker 3: little bit of fact there. But what's your crystal ball
45:09
Speaker 3: telling you? And I'm suggesting probably two more wheels than
45:12
Speaker 3: mine does.
45:13
Speaker 5: There's a lot of pressure on Alex Markez.
45:14
Speaker 4: To uphold the family name, family honor. Very good.
45:19
Speaker 1: I like it well in the spirit of ferm and
45:21
Speaker 1: aldigare sort of winning for the first time.
45:24
Speaker 5: It's very ten years. I think actually probably didn't need it.
45:27
Speaker 1: I'm predicting you a new winner in Bathist because new
45:30
Speaker 1: Wind is great. I think new Wind is what makes
45:32
Speaker 1: my sport. I said this was going to be between
45:34
Speaker 1: Brock Feenie and Brodie Costeki. I'm going to pick Matt
45:37
Speaker 1: Payne to win this one with Garth Tander. Like I said,
45:40
Speaker 1: I've already sort of alluded to it. I think this
45:41
Speaker 1: combination hasn't be obviously last year the result wasn't there,
45:44
Speaker 1: but the pace is there. Garthtander's obviously already a Batist winner,
45:48
Speaker 1: So I guess that's sort of why did I intro
45:51
Speaker 1: it in that way.
45:51
Speaker 5: Matt Payne hasn't want to know. That's why as the
45:53
Speaker 5: full time driver here.
45:55
Speaker 4: The form is good.
45:56
Speaker 1: The form is good also going into this weekend more importantly,
45:58
Speaker 1: not just sort of the vibe of speed, but Paine's
46:01
Speaker 1: been in great form this year. He's second in the championship.
46:04
Speaker 1: Can actually because Feeni had such a rough time in
46:06
Speaker 1: the band could if results really when he's way finished
46:09
Speaker 1: top of the championship, which earns him a couple of
46:11
Speaker 1: bonus points or extra points relative to second in the
46:14
Speaker 1: finals campaign, So a bit to playful still for him
46:16
Speaker 1: in that sense, I think he could be the winner
46:19
Speaker 1: this weekend.
46:21
Speaker 3: Well, let's let me introduce a supplementary third crystal ball
46:24
Speaker 3: in here. My third crystal ball thinks that both of
46:26
Speaker 3: our crystal balls are actually going to come true, and
46:27
Speaker 3: that would be the first to all season that's actually
46:29
Speaker 3: probably happened.
46:30
Speaker 4: So I like the.
46:32
Speaker 3: Chances of both of those crystal ball and if neither
46:34
Speaker 3: of them come off, then you never actually listen to
46:36
Speaker 3: the last thirty seconds of this podcast.
46:38
Speaker 1: Yes, oh wow, that would be truly unprecedented, isn't that remarkable?
46:43
Speaker 1: And on that note, before we have time to say
46:44
Speaker 1: anything else that's going to be wrong, that's all the
46:46
Speaker 1: time we have for pit Talk today. You can subscribe
46:48
Speaker 1: to Pittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you
46:50
Speaker 1: can leave us a rating and review as well.
46:52
Speaker 4: This weekend it is the Bathist one thousand.
46:54
Speaker 1: You can catch all the action from Thursday to Sunday
46:57
Speaker 1: live and adrip pri on Fox Sports and KO with
47:00
Speaker 1: lights out on the Great Race at eleven forty five
47:02
Speaker 1: precisely am on Sunday, and that's daylight time. Before you forget,
47:07
Speaker 1: you can keep up todate with the latestef one MOTOGPN
47:09
Speaker 1: Supercars news at foxsports dot com dot Au from Matt
47:12
Speaker 1: Peyton and me Michael Lomonato. Thanks very much for your company.
47:15
Speaker 1: We'll catch you next week.