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What's going on at Audi and Aston Martin? + Japanese GP Preview · Pit Talk

0:05
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:08
Speaker 1: On today's episode, Ourdie Team principal Jonathan Wheatley leaves his
0:12
Speaker 1: job less than a year after joining and does this
0:15
Speaker 1: switch to Aston Martin. Now on the cards and we
0:18
Speaker 1: look ahead to this weekend Japanese Grand Prix. My name's
0:22
Speaker 1: Michael Lamonato. It's great to have your company and the
0:25
Speaker 1: company of my co hosts. This week he'll be hydrated
0:28
Speaker 1: exclusively by canned cold coffee. It's Matt Clayton.
0:32
Speaker 2: How is that different to any other week, Michael, This
0:34
Speaker 2: is just like the life of someone covering international motorsport
0:38
Speaker 2: in Australia for thirty million years. But yeah, cold coffee,
0:41
Speaker 2: warm coffee, any coffee is good. But I must admit
0:44
Speaker 2: this is one of those ones that I think I've
0:47
Speaker 2: done this Scrand Prix. Other than Australia. This is a
0:50
Speaker 2: Grand Prix that I've done the most. I think it
0:52
Speaker 2: was about eighteen or twenty Japanese Grand Prix. And when
0:55
Speaker 2: I'm not going like this year, it's yeah, break out
0:58
Speaker 2: the sand trombone for me because I would love to
1:01
Speaker 2: be there, of course, but one of the world's great
1:03
Speaker 2: race tracks and also, I mean, you know what this
1:04
Speaker 2: is like, It's just one of the great races to attend.
1:07
Speaker 2: I always say to anyone, if you ever want to
1:08
Speaker 2: go to an inch National Grand Prix, go to this
1:10
Speaker 2: one because there's nowhere quite like it.
1:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's absolutely right. Plus a race in the Australian
1:15
Speaker 1: time zone if you are going, very convenient flight normally
1:18
Speaker 1: get there in one stop only ten hours, which for
1:20
Speaker 1: Australia is pretty good as well. So all round one
1:24
Speaker 1: of the season highlights. I think the Japanese Grand Prix
1:27
Speaker 1: and it's new time slot returned in its new time
1:30
Speaker 1: slot at the start of the year as well, which
1:32
Speaker 1: means less typhoon risk. So we'll definitely get a race
1:36
Speaker 1: on Sunday, he would have thought, which is very exciting
1:38
Speaker 1: as well, before we get to the Japanese Grand Prix,
1:40
Speaker 1: though we'll talk about that a little bit later on.
1:42
Speaker 1: The news of the week is undeniably at What's Audi
1:46
Speaker 1: and Aston Martin, isn't it, But let's start without the
1:48
Speaker 1: only confirmed news of the week because they've lost their
1:51
Speaker 1: team principal, Jonathan Wheatley, who joined only last April and
1:55
Speaker 1: it's still March this year, so less than a year ago,
1:57
Speaker 1: eleven months ago, he's left with immediate effects. And that
2:02
Speaker 1: happened only we're at about twenty four hours. I think
2:05
Speaker 1: it was after rumors really began to surface in the
2:08
Speaker 1: media that he'd been entertaining an offer from Aston Martin.
2:12
Speaker 1: Now that seems to be pretty clear that you quit
2:14
Speaker 1: one team and then perhaps you go to another. But
2:16
Speaker 1: just to finish setting the scene, mat, I want to
2:18
Speaker 1: read you some of the statement that Aston Martin subsequently issued.
2:22
Speaker 1: I did enjoy that, madd You would obviously be very familiar, yes,
2:26
Speaker 1: with what I think we could probably call like actually,
2:29
Speaker 1: I think you used this phrase in a mystery earlier
2:31
Speaker 1: the media release ping pong table tennis preferred form where
2:36
Speaker 1: one team will make an announcement and then another team
2:38
Speaker 1: will make announcement and the conclusion will happen after that.
2:40
Speaker 1: But the Aston Martin announcement had no conclusion in it,
2:43
Speaker 1: and I read with the current speculation surrounding Adrian Newey's
2:47
Speaker 1: role in our team, I want to take the opportunity
2:49
Speaker 1: to set the record straight. This is Laurence Stroll, the
2:51
Speaker 1: team owner. There's a little bit of fluff here, but
2:55
Speaker 1: I get to the point, which is whether or not
2:57
Speaker 1: Adrian Newe will be remaining as team principle. We do
3:01
Speaker 1: things differently here, and while we don't currently adopt the
3:04
Speaker 1: traditional team principal role that you see elsewhere, it is
3:08
Speaker 1: by design. And then no news on Adrian Ui is
3:11
Speaker 1: staying in the role or not. No news on Jonathan Wheatley,
3:13
Speaker 1: but he did quite conveniently conclude with we're regularly approached
3:18
Speaker 1: by senior executives from other teams who wish to join.
3:20
Speaker 1: Aston Martin no comment. So I feel like we can
3:24
Speaker 1: see where this one's going, Matt.
3:27
Speaker 2: We do things differently here that much it might be
3:30
Speaker 2: an accurate summation of where that team is at right
3:33
Speaker 2: now and just where that team is generally. But I
3:36
Speaker 2: did like your emphasis in reading that press release because no,
3:39
Speaker 2: that was not in full caps and bold. That was
3:41
Speaker 2: just you doing your best impersonation of Lawrence Stroth thumping
3:44
Speaker 2: the table Gennaro Gatuso style, because that's the way it
3:47
Speaker 2: would actually take place. Let's be perfectly honest. But where
3:50
Speaker 2: do we start to unpack this. There's an interesting sliding
3:53
Speaker 2: doors with Jonathan Wheatley that we should probably touch on,
3:56
Speaker 2: given that it looked very much like he was going
3:58
Speaker 2: to be the team principle at Red Ball Racing for
4:01
Speaker 2: a while. That's sort of sem to be the logical
4:02
Speaker 2: part that he was on at one point. But this
4:05
Speaker 2: aston Martin thing. I mean, look, we're heading into Honda's
4:07
Speaker 2: home race. The results on the track so far this
4:10
Speaker 2: year have I think even calling them disastrous might be
4:13
Speaker 2: kind Right now it's baderline embarrassing with what's going on
4:16
Speaker 2: there and yet more instability and whatso Adrian Newey's tenure
4:21
Speaker 2: as team principal. He was there in the role track
4:24
Speaker 2: side for one Grand Prix, which was Australia, because he
4:27
Speaker 2: wasn't actually even in China, was he?
4:29
Speaker 1: No, he wasn't, despite despite his justification for taking the
4:33
Speaker 1: team principal or all last year been And I like
4:36
Speaker 1: this was the summary of the justification, albeit the first
4:39
Speaker 1: few races, so I may as.
4:41
Speaker 2: Well couldn't even tick that box.
4:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly couldnt even tick that box. But how's the
4:45
Speaker 1: enthusiasm for you? It seems no wonder that Adrian Nui
4:49
Speaker 1: could be poised to step down. That is the report
4:51
Speaker 1: worth emphasizing here. Some people, i think I've got the
4:53
Speaker 1: wrong idea here, not step down from the team in
4:55
Speaker 1: all capacity correct, just return to the capacity he was
4:58
Speaker 1: originally signed for, which was to be managing technical partner,
5:02
Speaker 1: which essentially is the head of the design team. They
5:04
Speaker 1: do also have a Chief Technical Officer and I think
5:06
Speaker 1: a technical director as well, but he manages all of
5:09
Speaker 1: them and is a shareholder, which I think is part
5:11
Speaker 1: of the reason he's ended up in this position in
5:13
Speaker 1: the first place. But it has been decided, or it
5:16
Speaker 1: seems like that it's been decided that's the way it's
5:17
Speaker 1: going to go. I want to get to the Aston
5:18
Speaker 1: Martin side of the equation in just a second. Let's
5:21
Speaker 1: stick with what we know for certain, which is that
5:22
Speaker 1: Audi has no team principal this weekend, or at least
5:25
Speaker 1: hasn't announced right at the time of recording. We don't
5:27
Speaker 1: know if they're going to find one before the Japanese
5:29
Speaker 1: Grand Prix. We know that Mati Bonnotto, the former Ferrari
5:32
Speaker 1: team principle and now the slightly awkwardly titled head of
5:36
Speaker 1: our DF one project, will be stepping in this team
5:40
Speaker 1: principle until they get a real one, or a permanent one,
5:43
Speaker 1: I should say, but this feels like it feels like
5:46
Speaker 1: such a pity for Audy doesn't it. Not just because
5:48
Speaker 1: obviously they've lost a key member of staff, but I
5:51
Speaker 1: feel like the way they've started this year has been
5:54
Speaker 1: pleasantly surprising considering the stories we've heard out of AUDI
5:57
Speaker 1: for the last couple of years about the way that
5:59
Speaker 1: project was going. It feels like with Bonotto and with
6:02
Speaker 1: Jonathan Wheatley in position, the team actually looked pretty competent,
6:06
Speaker 1: and now one of the key pillars that appear to
6:08
Speaker 1: have helped turn that ship has gone.
6:10
Speaker 2: The reason it looked competent as I thought that their
6:13
Speaker 2: skill level and background, and the fact they complimented each
6:16
Speaker 2: other quite well in that they were working in parallel
6:19
Speaker 2: rather than getting crossed up in each other's space the
6:22
Speaker 2: entire time. I think something operationally about Sober slash AUDI
6:27
Speaker 2: that has got Jonathan Wheatley's fingerprints all over it, Like
6:30
Speaker 2: you've seen that. You remember when they couldn't do a
6:32
Speaker 2: pid stop to save their lives at the beginning of
6:34
Speaker 2: was that twenty four and one of Wheatley's calling cars.
6:38
Speaker 2: He was obviously at repull racing for basically the entire duration.
6:41
Speaker 2: And they were always so sharp operationally, weren't they? That
6:44
Speaker 2: was their difference maker and you could see some signs
6:48
Speaker 2: of that going into the way that they operated on
6:50
Speaker 2: race data were quite sharp there and it felt like
6:52
Speaker 2: a good partnerships. So many of these senior level leaders
6:56
Speaker 2: in these teams, there's always a degree of tolerance sometimes
6:59
Speaker 2: I think, I think in terms of not wanting to
7:01
Speaker 2: get in each other space the entire time. But those
7:03
Speaker 2: two seem to actually have the right combination of skill
7:06
Speaker 2: sets that work together. Now the reasons why would Jonathan
7:10
Speaker 2: Wheatley want to leave? I mean, you know you've heard
7:12
Speaker 2: this and that Switzerland maybe not the easiest place to
7:17
Speaker 2: relocate to. It's outside of that UK motorsport valley that
7:20
Speaker 2: we love to hear about, and sometimes you will hear
7:23
Speaker 2: about people that go over there work for a short
7:25
Speaker 2: while and go, oh, maybe this is not for me.
7:27
Speaker 2: It is a different place to work, kind of complicated,
7:30
Speaker 2: it's the right word, but it's definitely different. But going
7:33
Speaker 2: back to where I mentioned Wheatly before, is that when
7:38
Speaker 2: he joined sauberslash Audi, it felt like the right move
7:42
Speaker 2: because it felt like the logical progression where he was
7:44
Speaker 2: probably stopped in terms of when we had the Christian
7:48
Speaker 2: Horner photo scandal thing at the beginning of twenty twenty four.
7:51
Speaker 2: That kind of made me think at the time, it's like, oh,
7:53
Speaker 2: so that Jonathan Wheatley will be the new team principle then,
7:56
Speaker 2: and that kind of felt like that where the way
7:58
Speaker 2: that was angling. And so when that did happen and
8:00
Speaker 2: Horner managed to escape himself from the cauldron for a
8:03
Speaker 2: short time before he was prompably put back in it again,
8:07
Speaker 2: it felt like he needed to move to get what
8:09
Speaker 2: it was that he wanted to do. In Formula one.
8:10
Speaker 2: He's obviously been around for a really long time, but
8:13
Speaker 2: it was curious at the time that he went there,
8:15
Speaker 2: And to me that always feels like when you see
8:18
Speaker 2: a particularly British senior person in Formula one go to
8:21
Speaker 2: Sawbo slash Audi, I always sort of have that snagging
8:24
Speaker 2: feeling like, so, how long is this going to last then,
8:27
Speaker 2: because it does seem to be a bit of a
8:29
Speaker 2: trend with guys that go there and maybe don't stay
8:30
Speaker 2: super long. So I mean, look, it'll come out in
8:33
Speaker 2: the fullness of time. Wide is that he's leaving. But
8:36
Speaker 2: sometimes b does come from a, doesn't it. And obviously
8:39
Speaker 2: there is a vacancy at Aston Martin that needs to
8:41
Speaker 2: be filled because there's always a vacancy at that team
8:44
Speaker 2: that needs to be filled for one reason or another,
8:46
Speaker 2: and so he just becomes You've probably written this, how
8:49
Speaker 2: many team principles or heads of that team has there
8:52
Speaker 2: been in the past five years? It's a team principal
8:56
Speaker 2: bingo at this point, isn't it.
8:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, So that's the Martin he'll be, presumably is where
9:00
Speaker 1: he goes and presuming it's this year as well, because
9:03
Speaker 1: gardening leave would remain a question even if he does
9:05
Speaker 1: sign up there, he'll be the fifth at the moment
9:08
Speaker 1: less than five years in four and a bit of years,
9:10
Speaker 1: which is a pretty remarkable qua turnaround. Obviously, Hadred knew
9:13
Speaker 1: he's one and a half race tenure. I don't all
9:16
Speaker 1: we want to call it yet. I guess it could
9:17
Speaker 1: theoretically be more if he's got to keep that position
9:20
Speaker 1: for a little while longer brings down that average significantly,
9:23
Speaker 1: But there were a lot of short runs in the
9:25
Speaker 1: team principalship at Aston Martin, which is its own story
9:30
Speaker 1: just on audio. I think what's interesting here as well
9:33
Speaker 1: is just that the question of where the team goes
9:36
Speaker 1: from here, because as much as I think we've become
9:39
Speaker 1: very accustomed to obviously think you have this team with
9:41
Speaker 1: sowbo for its entire life pretty much, particularly in the
9:44
Speaker 1: recent years, and how every move it made was positive,
9:47
Speaker 1: Any move that looked solid was a positive move. We're
9:50
Speaker 1: now in a position where they've lost a team principle.
9:52
Speaker 1: It is a works team now, even if it's still
9:54
Speaker 1: competing in the midfield. It has much greater aspirations than
9:57
Speaker 1: it has. But there's no obvious person to replace that
10:02
Speaker 1: level of profile or even I hesitate to use the
10:05
Speaker 1: word a little bit of almost credibility that Jonathan Wheatley had.
10:08
Speaker 1: I think part of the reason he was so good
10:09
Speaker 1: for that role, for all the reasons you said on
10:11
Speaker 1: top of that, was that he was poached from a
10:14
Speaker 1: major title winning team. He was, in the minds of
10:17
Speaker 1: many the guy who was going to run RENVL Racing
10:19
Speaker 1: when something felled Christian Horner. He wasn't there when the
10:22
Speaker 1: thing that eventually felt Christian Horner did. He was a
10:25
Speaker 1: high profile team boss, still is a high profile team boss,
10:28
Speaker 1: but probably for another team. Now, where do they find
10:30
Speaker 1: someone of a similar caliber, And if they don't, because
10:33
Speaker 1: of course, well gardeningly will be a problem for Jonathan Wheatley,
10:37
Speaker 1: he's attempting to join Acid Martin. It'll be the same
10:40
Speaker 1: if they attempt to poach anyone else of a similar
10:41
Speaker 1: caliber from any other team, if they hire internally, Is
10:45
Speaker 1: that enough for a works team to have someone that
10:47
Speaker 1: maybe no one's ever really heard of, or someone who
10:49
Speaker 1: hasn't been proven in that field to lead The.
10:52
Speaker 2: Point you made there was really valid in terms of
10:54
Speaker 2: when that signing was announced. There was a bit of
10:56
Speaker 2: a oh, okay, these guys really are getting seriously, they're
10:59
Speaker 2: coming as a works team, and they've recruited from upstream.
11:03
Speaker 2: You know, sometimes you will give someone in a more
11:06
Speaker 2: junior position from one of the bigger teams a chance
11:08
Speaker 2: to prove themselves, like, oh, they've gone and got this guy. Okay,
11:11
Speaker 2: these guys are actually really serious now. And it is
11:14
Speaker 2: funny because they occupy that same physical space in Switzerland,
11:17
Speaker 2: there is a tendency, like you were just saying before,
11:19
Speaker 2: to oh that's nice, that's so, but this isn't that good,
11:21
Speaker 2: Like anything is seen as being a bit of a
11:23
Speaker 2: bonus because we look at them as being this. Oh
11:25
Speaker 2: they're just a small team and they are a team
11:27
Speaker 2: that's been around for a long while. And so on
11:29
Speaker 2: and so forth. The stakes are raised now and as
11:32
Speaker 2: signing like Wheatley at the time seemed to me to
11:35
Speaker 2: sort of marry with the expectations, like, all right, these
11:37
Speaker 2: guys are getting serious. They need a heavy hitter from elsewhere.
11:39
Speaker 2: They've got one. This is step one into them becoming
11:42
Speaker 2: a really credible big team. And yeah, that's all evaporated
11:47
Speaker 2: really quickly. And the point that you may just then
11:48
Speaker 2: is yeah, they might have someone tabbed from another team,
11:51
Speaker 2: but these things are not the work of a moment.
11:53
Speaker 2: And you know this whole term of gardeningly which is
11:55
Speaker 2: a bizarre thing in twenty twenty six, by the way,
11:57
Speaker 2: who tends to their guard than twenty twenty six, I said,
12:00
Speaker 2: But it's one of those things that there's no sort
12:04
Speaker 2: of set period here, is there, Like it's almost like, well,
12:06
Speaker 2: we just agree to make it this. Whoever that person
12:09
Speaker 2: is is not going to have a massive impact on
12:11
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six, and is going to even struggle to
12:15
Speaker 2: have a major impact on what goes on next year.
12:17
Speaker 2: So it's got a knock on effect that goes far,
12:19
Speaker 2: far beyond the short term here. And that's even if
12:21
Speaker 2: they employ someone from internal who may not have the
12:25
Speaker 2: name or the experience that Wheatley does and give them
12:28
Speaker 2: a chance to prove themselves. I mean, that's a risky
12:30
Speaker 2: business in itself, isn't it. And so that's a decision
12:32
Speaker 2: that you might make if you're Salba, But I don't
12:34
Speaker 2: know if that's the decision that you make if you're Oudy,
12:36
Speaker 2: because the demands are going to be far greater.
12:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's worth remembering that Jonathan Wheatley was originally meant
12:41
Speaker 1: to have six months noncompete, which is gardening leave when
12:44
Speaker 1: you left Red Bull Racing. That was shortened by negotiation.
12:47
Speaker 1: I guess three months because he joined in April, the
12:49
Speaker 1: fourth month of the year, So let's say six months
12:50
Speaker 1: for anyone of a similar caliber. You're talking about rocking
12:53
Speaker 1: up in November and maybe attending your first race being
12:56
Speaker 1: what's that Brazil perhaps somewhere around there, which is very late.
13:01
Speaker 1: Obviously that you have no impact on this year. You
13:04
Speaker 1: miss the chance to have an impact on these again,
13:07
Speaker 1: so was obviously already been in existence. But these days
13:10
Speaker 1: of audi in formula one of setting the tone of
13:13
Speaker 1: hiring people as well, because there's a team that's still
13:15
Speaker 1: hiring a lot of people it's still quite small obviously
13:17
Speaker 1: by works team standards, you missed that opportunity, So pretty
13:21
Speaker 1: big decision for Audi coming up on which direction they
13:23
Speaker 1: go on, and then a pretty big task of heever's
13:25
Speaker 1: going to take it sooner or later depending on who
13:28
Speaker 1: they go for. Let's look now at Aston Martin though,
13:31
Speaker 1: because this is the at least at the time of
13:34
Speaker 1: recording again, the uncertain time, the unertain part of the equation.
13:37
Speaker 1: I feel like, and this may come back to Biden
13:40
Speaker 1: by the time the episode's online, we should be relatively
13:43
Speaker 1: confident we won't hear about any new team principle this week,
13:46
Speaker 1: simply because of the way Lawrence Stroll came out an
13:49
Speaker 1: attempt to control the narrative with a statement that would
13:52
Speaker 1: imply that there's going to be no change to aideh
13:54
Speaker 1: knew his responsibilities. But then again, this is Aston Martin.
13:57
Speaker 1: They do things to quote him in their own way.
14:01
Speaker 1: But it seems like this whole situation is very interesting
14:05
Speaker 1: to me at Matt actually, because there's there was and
14:07
Speaker 1: I'm sure you thought the same thing at the time
14:09
Speaker 1: when Adrian knew he was made team principal, when we
14:12
Speaker 1: told he was going to be made Team principal late
14:13
Speaker 1: last year and took the job at the start of
14:15
Speaker 1: this year. It was a surprise because obviously he's already
14:18
Speaker 1: the technical or technical boss there the managing technical partner,
14:20
Speaker 1: so it's another job with the team. It's not something
14:22
Speaker 1: he's done before. It's not something that he appeared to
14:25
Speaker 1: express any interest in having done before, and it would
14:28
Speaker 1: seem to be, as he's since admitted the Australian Round,
14:30
Speaker 1: for a bit of a distraction from the main job
14:32
Speaker 1: of making the car fast. It seemed like it was
14:35
Speaker 1: always going to be, let's say, interim in nature, and
14:39
Speaker 1: yet the team has been consistent that he's the boss
14:42
Speaker 1: and we've made him the boss because it gets the
14:44
Speaker 1: most out of him. I think the phrase they used
14:45
Speaker 1: was unleash his abilities in the best way, and the
14:49
Speaker 1: team seems to still be of that opinion, despite the
14:51
Speaker 1: fact they have had a small window of opportunity to
14:55
Speaker 1: argue that it was always meant to be interim, but
14:56
Speaker 1: instead they've come out and doubled down on the decision making,
14:59
Speaker 1: which presumably he's only going to lead to a backflip
15:02
Speaker 1: in perhaps a week two weeks.
15:04
Speaker 2: It was weird at the time because obviously you he's
15:06
Speaker 2: been around for so long, and he's been so success
15:08
Speaker 2: successful doing things in a particular lane of expertise, right,
15:12
Speaker 2: And never, at any time during that tenure in Formula
15:15
Speaker 2: one did you think, oh, this guy is a team
15:16
Speaker 2: principal in waiting. Just wait for the opportunity, wait for
15:19
Speaker 2: the opportunity. And you said before, it's always like one
15:22
Speaker 2: of those meetings like, well, who wants to go first there?
15:24
Speaker 2: And never I just looks at the floor. No one's
15:26
Speaker 2: going to put their hand up, but he's like, oh, yeah, right,
15:28
Speaker 2: I'll do it. And so at the time, it was
15:30
Speaker 2: a curious appointment, and it always felt like he was
15:34
Speaker 2: going to be the guy before the guy whoever that
15:36
Speaker 2: person happens to be. And you know, no, never can
15:39
Speaker 2: use the word interim, but they have they've got myriad problems,
15:44
Speaker 2: we know that. But he is clearly best deployed at
15:49
Speaker 2: the moment in trying to get a troubled, problematic car
15:53
Speaker 2: out of off the ground. I mean, they're so far
15:56
Speaker 2: behind right now, and the dilution of anything that takes
15:59
Speaker 2: him away from where his primary skill set is, and
16:02
Speaker 2: he's what he CEV suggests. It's just weird that it's
16:06
Speaker 2: taken us. It's been short, but it's weird that it's
16:08
Speaker 2: taken us this long to come to this conclusion, if
16:09
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. It's just a matter of
16:11
Speaker 2: finding the right person. So this feels to me like
16:14
Speaker 2: they could have had this conversation months ago, right, they
16:17
Speaker 2: could have saved themselves several months when they've got enough
16:19
Speaker 2: other things on the stove at the moment bubbling away.
16:22
Speaker 2: The question is, and I'm sure you've written this, and
16:26
Speaker 2: I know you have written about this data I deliberately
16:28
Speaker 2: haven't read it because I didn't want to skew my
16:29
Speaker 2: conversation with you here. But anyone that comes into that role,
16:33
Speaker 2: but it Jonathan Wheatley or anybody else with a CV
16:36
Speaker 2: like that. At the end of the day, you're working
16:39
Speaker 2: with Adrian Neue who has a very very aosyncratic way
16:42
Speaker 2: of working which has proven to be successful in the past,
16:46
Speaker 2: and you're also working for Lawrence Stroll. And you know,
16:49
Speaker 2: we can laugh about this, like imagine being the PR
16:51
Speaker 2: guy having to write that press release when it came
16:53
Speaker 2: out last week. But by the same time, by the
16:55
Speaker 2: same token, is there another environment in formula one that
16:58
Speaker 2: presents to challengers like that necessarily, so who they attract
17:05
Speaker 2: in this case, we think we know who that is,
17:06
Speaker 2: and are they going to be given the free reign
17:09
Speaker 2: to try and turn this team into a successful entity.
17:12
Speaker 2: It's a question you have to ask because the track
17:14
Speaker 2: record so far it doesn't really indicate that there's a
17:17
Speaker 2: little success for anyone that does that role.
17:19
Speaker 1: Is there? Yeah? And it's a little bit confusing because
17:22
Speaker 1: if we took this from Wheatley's perspective, like let's say, okay,
17:25
Speaker 1: the push to go back to the UK seems to
17:26
Speaker 1: have probably been an element. Remarkable that it's such a
17:29
Speaker 1: big element less than a year into the job. But nonetheless,
17:32
Speaker 1: but if it has anything to do with the idea
17:34
Speaker 1: that you know in the setup, like Audi, he works
17:37
Speaker 1: while they works well together, and there's no report there's
17:39
Speaker 1: any tension or anything like that with Materi Bonotto, I
17:42
Speaker 1: think having a CEO style figure, which is what Banoto
17:45
Speaker 1: the role he was ultimately having, which is pretty common
17:47
Speaker 1: in F one, but someone who had a technical background
17:49
Speaker 1: and was clearly capable of being hands on with the
17:51
Speaker 1: NPO set. If that stifled him in any way, and
17:54
Speaker 1: that played any kind of role in pushing him, it
17:57
Speaker 1: feels like he's taking a step backwards in that front
17:59
Speaker 1: by going to us Martin because while Adrian knew he
18:01
Speaker 1: is perhaps for one of a better phrase back in
18:04
Speaker 1: his technical box. Now he's clearly as a shareholder there
18:08
Speaker 1: to have maximum influence in as many spheres as he likes.
18:12
Speaker 1: That's part of the reason why Andy Cowe was moved
18:14
Speaker 1: on to the Chief strategic officer because they just couldn't
18:17
Speaker 1: get along with the way the team was running. And
18:19
Speaker 1: then you have, as you say, you have Lawrence Stroll
18:21
Speaker 1: who maybe hands on is not exactly the right word,
18:24
Speaker 1: but clearly wants to be involved in the way the
18:26
Speaker 1: team is running. He's not a hands off He's not
18:28
Speaker 1: a step back away from the limelight team owner. He
18:31
Speaker 1: wants to be there in his team success. There's some
18:34
Speaker 1: there's some good there, and there's there's potentially some difficulties
18:37
Speaker 1: there if you don't have the right setup. So that
18:39
Speaker 1: in itself is also interesting. But perhaps it is a
18:43
Speaker 1: case of him, you know, going into that with his
18:45
Speaker 1: eyes open and understanding these remit is going to be limited.
18:47
Speaker 1: He's essentially I mean, they already have a chief track
18:50
Speaker 1: site officer because it's one of the former team principles Crack,
18:53
Speaker 1: but he's effectively a bit of a like chief chief
18:56
Speaker 1: track site officer and steroids almost or something like that.
19:00
Speaker 1: How he fits into that hierarchy is interesting. I think
19:02
Speaker 1: there's also though, thinking about the concept of him going
19:05
Speaker 1: there like surface level before you consider the team and
19:08
Speaker 1: what this team has been through and the number of
19:10
Speaker 1: highs they've been through. Good appointment, good appointment for all
19:13
Speaker 1: the same reasons. It was a good appointment at Sauber,
19:15
Speaker 1: which is now Owdy, But he's the latest in a
19:18
Speaker 1: long line of people who I think I've also said
19:21
Speaker 1: seems like a good appointment. Adrian Newick, it was a
19:23
Speaker 1: good appointment. Andy Cow's a good appointment. Mike Cracker didn't
19:26
Speaker 1: know him very much, but I thought he actually has
19:28
Speaker 1: done pretty well. Is a good forward facing figure for
19:30
Speaker 1: the team, as he was in China where there was
19:31
Speaker 1: no team principal there. What a good appointments and yet
19:35
Speaker 1: it's not working. And I couldn't help but think, you know,
19:37
Speaker 1: when knew he got the team principal role, it just
19:40
Speaker 1: felt so much like all eggs in the new e
19:43
Speaker 1: basket for success, right, like we've got the technical director.
19:45
Speaker 1: You know what will make him a shareholder as well,
19:47
Speaker 1: you know, what will make him the team principal as well?
19:50
Speaker 1: Is this, like, how does Wheatley fit into that idea?
19:53
Speaker 1: Is he really just there to support Adrian Newey? Is
19:55
Speaker 1: he going to be the guy that they put their
19:56
Speaker 1: eggs in the basket as well? What does this team
19:59
Speaker 1: actually think is going to make it success? Because it
20:02
Speaker 1: has more than enough winning pieces, if you like, there's
20:05
Speaker 1: sort of no other ways to understand why. I know,
20:09
Speaker 1: there's the engine problems and we shouldn't judge the team
20:11
Speaker 1: immediately based on the performance, but there's no reason obvious
20:14
Speaker 1: reason why they should be in this position based on
20:16
Speaker 1: the personnel they have, Or.
20:17
Speaker 2: Perhaps there is, because you just mentioned before that the
20:20
Speaker 2: eggs are in one basket. Who's holding the basket? Maybe
20:24
Speaker 2: that's the question that we need to answer here, because
20:28
Speaker 2: you've just gone through a laundry list of you know,
20:31
Speaker 2: like guess who Formula one two principle types. You know,
20:33
Speaker 2: for anyone that played that game back in the day
20:35
Speaker 2: is just name after name after name, all of whom
20:37
Speaker 2: are completely competent and have had success elsewhere. And there's
20:40
Speaker 2: one constant here amid the churn, And you do wonder
20:46
Speaker 2: what point is there going to be a realization that
20:49
Speaker 2: if you keep doing the same thing over and over
20:52
Speaker 2: and over again, the only guarantee is that nothing's going
20:54
Speaker 2: to change and you're going to get the same outcome. Right,
20:56
Speaker 2: So I do wonder, at what point how many team
20:59
Speaker 2: principles in do we realize on maybe there needs to
21:02
Speaker 2: be a change in the way that we're operating it.
21:03
Speaker 2: What's the magic number is at eight? Is a twelve?
21:05
Speaker 2: I don't know, But we're going through a whole list
21:08
Speaker 2: of people here, and we keep coming back to the
21:10
Speaker 2: same thing. Who's the person holding the basket? And to
21:14
Speaker 2: my mind, it's a tough one because it's clearly it's
21:18
Speaker 2: Laurence Stroll's money, it's Laurence Stroll's team, it's Laurence Stroll's
21:21
Speaker 2: son that's in the second seat in that team, which
21:24
Speaker 2: is its own podcast, I would think. But you do
21:27
Speaker 2: wonder if unless something in that part of things changes,
21:32
Speaker 2: are we just destined to make the same mistakes over
21:34
Speaker 2: and over again and then in August we'll be doing
21:37
Speaker 2: It's another emergency Aston Martin Team Principal podcast when they
21:40
Speaker 2: invite someone else into the position that no one seems
21:42
Speaker 2: to be able to stay into. But yeah, I do
21:45
Speaker 2: wonder if sometimes I wonder if we look at these
21:47
Speaker 2: things from the wrong perspective. But it's easy for me
21:49
Speaker 2: to say because I don't own the team.
21:51
Speaker 1: Spoken to no one, none of us are investing any
21:53
Speaker 1: big money in Aston Martin. So it is what it
21:55
Speaker 1: is from that perspective. Just before we move on, I
21:58
Speaker 1: guess the interesting final part for Aston Martin here is,
22:02
Speaker 1: I mean, this year already looked like a write off
22:03
Speaker 1: immediately really considering me that car is notwithstanding Adrian Nui
22:07
Speaker 1: insisting in a somewhat awkward press conference that it was
22:09
Speaker 1: a top five chassis and by the end of the
22:11
Speaker 1: year would be a race winning chassis if only the
22:13
Speaker 1: engine is competitive. So think of that what you will,
22:16
Speaker 1: and whether or not that's something a team principle was
22:18
Speaker 1: best off saying at the start of the year. But
22:21
Speaker 1: how much more does this just set back the Aston
22:24
Speaker 1: Martin project, the idea that if it is Jonathan Wheatley's
22:27
Speaker 1: going to be running the team, we've got to assume
22:29
Speaker 1: he's probably not going to get there before the mid
22:30
Speaker 1: season break because of the noncompete clause, unless there's negotiation.
22:34
Speaker 1: I guess Lawrence stroll could pay out you a lot
22:36
Speaker 1: of money and maybe that'll make them happy. Who is
22:37
Speaker 1: to say, but that's a long time to be missing
22:41
Speaker 1: a key component. Okay, team principle doesn't have to be
22:44
Speaker 1: the be all and end all anymore, the way that
22:45
Speaker 1: Formula One teams are big in the way that they
22:47
Speaker 1: also already have so many other former team principles there
22:50
Speaker 1: that could probably pick up the slack between them. But
22:53
Speaker 1: it does. Just I think this entire episode, when it
22:56
Speaker 1: does eventually conclude with the presumed announcement that Jonathan Watney
22:59
Speaker 1: is going to go there at some point, just reframe
23:02
Speaker 1: that Aston Martin isn't It's not at the beginning of
23:06
Speaker 1: the Golden era that I thought it would be. But
23:07
Speaker 1: he's really back at the building stage. It feels like
23:11
Speaker 1: a building stage with an uncertain timeline to success.
23:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's space camp, isn't it. I Mean you were
23:16
Speaker 2: saying before about how far you know, how far back
23:19
Speaker 2: do you need to go? Is there any further back
23:20
Speaker 2: than where they are now? Quite frankly, it sounds a
23:23
Speaker 2: little harsh, Bud. I mean, there's only so far you
23:26
Speaker 2: can plump it here, right, this is where they are.
23:29
Speaker 2: We know where they are at the start of this
23:30
Speaker 2: season so much. I think the disappointing part. I think
23:34
Speaker 2: if you're them and anyone that was watching this with
23:36
Speaker 2: an eye like you and I, is that last year,
23:39
Speaker 2: the whole thing was wait till next year, Wait till
23:41
Speaker 2: next year, wait till next year. That was just the mantra.
23:43
Speaker 2: I'm not saying that they just you know, completely through
23:45
Speaker 2: last year in the bin, but it was always this,
23:47
Speaker 2: you know, wait until next year, once we've got Honda,
23:50
Speaker 2: once Adrian gets to do his first car, so on
23:52
Speaker 2: and so forth. There was so much hope sold on
23:55
Speaker 2: this year for twenty twenty six, and it was hoped
23:58
Speaker 2: that it was believable because of the names that were
24:01
Speaker 2: in the positions that they were. I think that was
24:02
Speaker 2: where it seemed more realistic and more believable. It was like, Okay,
24:06
Speaker 2: you can see how this could become pretty potent pretty quickly.
24:09
Speaker 2: And instead it's gone the absolute opposite direction. And here
24:12
Speaker 2: we are after two races and the things just completely spiraled.
24:16
Speaker 2: And then you look at the teams that are around
24:18
Speaker 2: the same area of the Constructors Championship that they have
24:22
Speaker 2: been have all sort of kicked onto various screens. I mean,
24:25
Speaker 2: you look at someone like Alpine, for example, you wouldn't
24:28
Speaker 2: have had you wouldn't have been very confident thinking that
24:30
Speaker 2: Alpine would have got off to a better start to
24:32
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six than Aston Martin, where we were predicting
24:35
Speaker 2: the season back in January, and yeah, here we are.
24:38
Speaker 2: And then you look at the spend and the investment
24:40
Speaker 2: and the publicity, I mean, racing balls. You can keep
24:42
Speaker 2: going here, Halsh, We're going to say we can keep
24:45
Speaker 2: going here. That's no slight on any of those teams
24:47
Speaker 2: who are doing the absolute best with what they have,
24:50
Speaker 2: but comparatively for the expectations that we had of Aston
24:52
Speaker 2: Martin versus those three teams that I just mentioned, it's
24:55
Speaker 2: not even a conversation, is it.
24:56
Speaker 1: No. I mean Cadillac you could have put in there
24:58
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, yeah, sorry, Battle it's going to end
25:02
Speaker 1: up by the end of the year. But maybe that's
25:03
Speaker 1: a bit more watch this space. Let's move on now. Though.
25:06
Speaker 1: To Move of the Week, brought to you by Shannon's
25:10
Speaker 1: Moto GP was an action at the weekend new circus
25:13
Speaker 1: in Brazil or a revitalized circuit, perhaps fully revitalized, perhaps not, Matt,
25:17
Speaker 1: but I suspect that's where you'll be taking us for Move.
25:19
Speaker 2: Of the Way. Yes, Move of the week anyone that
25:21
Speaker 2: owns a concrete or Ashvelt company and goyanea, because you're
25:24
Speaker 2: going to get the phone call. We've got a sinkhole
25:27
Speaker 2: that needs filling, We've got a track that needs resurfacing.
25:30
Speaker 2: Is anybody available? I could say so much about what
25:35
Speaker 2: an absolutely half asked Moto GP race that was. It
25:37
Speaker 2: was great that we've got a race away, fantastic, very entertaining.
25:40
Speaker 2: All of the side show and everything else not so much.
25:43
Speaker 2: Just read Fox sports dot com dot au for more.
25:45
Speaker 2: I'm not going to tell you the full chapter and
25:47
Speaker 2: verse here my move of the week. Let's stick to
25:49
Speaker 2: something good that happened on track. I now, I don't
25:52
Speaker 2: know whether you've watched the race. I urged you to
25:54
Speaker 2: go and find the race. Long fight for the podium
25:57
Speaker 2: between Mark Marquez and Fabio de jan Antoni, including a
26:01
Speaker 2: pass that this is when you know that Marquees is
26:03
Speaker 2: getting back to full fitness again. There was a pass
26:06
Speaker 2: into surprise surprise, a left hander when he was fighting
26:08
Speaker 2: with the jan Antonio for third in that race where
26:11
Speaker 2: you may not have got a credit card between the
26:13
Speaker 2: two bikes, fully leaned over into a left handed quarter.
26:17
Speaker 2: It was absolutely it was brutal Marquez. It was right
26:21
Speaker 2: tiptoeing the line of acceptability. And I love the fact
26:25
Speaker 2: that the jen Antonio didn't back out, didn't pull up,
26:28
Speaker 2: didn't gesticulate, He just hung in there and made Mark
26:30
Speaker 2: earn it. And it's one of those great examples when
26:33
Speaker 2: you see the super slow mo that sport does such
26:35
Speaker 2: a great job with their camera shots, you just marvel
26:38
Speaker 2: at the skill and bravery of these two guys. I
26:41
Speaker 2: loved how clean it was, I loved how ferocious it was.
26:44
Speaker 2: And as overtaking moves, Marques is not undred percent right
26:47
Speaker 2: because he's still nursing the shoulder surgery from last year
26:49
Speaker 2: and he's not quite been himself yet. But on the
26:52
Speaker 2: evidence of that particular pass and my nomination for move
26:55
Speaker 2: of the week, it's not far away, that's for I'm
26:58
Speaker 2: sure we're about to head to Kocho and we're not
26:59
Speaker 2: happen with Mark Marquez now Dakota he wins, So yeah,
27:03
Speaker 2: he could be back sooner than later. But that was
27:06
Speaker 2: my move of the week. Now, limited amount of on
27:09
Speaker 2: track for you to actually pour into this week, and
27:10
Speaker 2: I'm not going to steal your move of the week
27:12
Speaker 2: like I did last week. I'm hoping you have something
27:14
Speaker 2: else for me.
27:15
Speaker 1: Yes, which is very exciting I do. This is a
27:17
Speaker 1: little bit, a little bit more inside baseball, I guess,
27:21
Speaker 1: which was public and for all to see, and I
27:22
Speaker 1: applaud it. But in the height of this speculation, when
27:27
Speaker 1: one of the greatest designers of all time is poised
27:30
Speaker 1: apparently to step down as team principal, and Jonathan Wheatley,
27:34
Speaker 1: who was going to be next in line for the
27:35
Speaker 1: Red Bull Racing top job, was at Audy and Audi,
27:38
Speaker 1: the New Works teams lost their team principal. My move
27:40
Speaker 1: of the week goes to Mercedes, who, in the height
27:42
Speaker 1: of that speculation announced that Bradley Lord will become the
27:46
Speaker 1: deputy team principal. But Toto will the worst possible timing
27:50
Speaker 1: for any team to make such a high profile not
27:54
Speaker 1: restructuring modified structure announcement. I remember the phrasing they exactly used.
27:59
Speaker 1: No change to was readmit to be clear. So really
28:02
Speaker 1: Bradley Lord is just doing what effectively he seems to
28:05
Speaker 1: have always been doing, which was representing the team when
28:07
Speaker 1: total can't be bothered or as somewhere else. Good, good, well,
28:10
Speaker 1: well done to him. Congratulations to Bradley Lord to miss
28:13
Speaker 1: the Lord. But I mean the timing, The timing could
28:15
Speaker 1: not have been much worse.
28:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's one of those ones that pops into your
28:18
Speaker 2: inbox and you go, oh yeah, you're still probably sitting
28:21
Speaker 2: there unread. There's nothing to see here. We've got something,
28:25
Speaker 2: We've got something else to go on with. So as
28:27
Speaker 2: much as I had sympathy for the poor person writing
28:29
Speaker 2: the Lawrets Stroll press release, I have a little bit
28:31
Speaker 2: of sympathy for the person writing the Bradley Lord press release.
28:33
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe it was Bradley from the falling up, because
28:36
Speaker 2: it's it's one of those things that precisely one and
28:39
Speaker 2: a half people read.
28:40
Speaker 1: So there you go.
28:41
Speaker 2: But I do like, I do like the left field
28:44
Speaker 2: and the fact that this is an announcement of a
28:46
Speaker 2: non announcement. Nothing will change carry.
28:47
Speaker 1: On, yes exactly. Maybe that was the intention. Just berry
28:50
Speaker 1: it somewhere and no one needs to know any difference.
28:53
Speaker 1: Maybe they can get away without paying him, giving a
28:55
Speaker 1: bump in pay as a result of this, because no
28:56
Speaker 1: one recognized tell Bradley that the move to the deputy
28:59
Speaker 1: team can bull ship better, not was the head of communication,
29:02
Speaker 1: so you should no better. Let's move on now, map
29:05
Speaker 1: to the Japanese Grand Prix before we wrap this one up.
29:07
Speaker 1: It is this weekend Formula One resumes after a fortnight
29:10
Speaker 1: off and then hibernates for five weeks, which is a
29:13
Speaker 1: better favorite. Will you can, is what I'm saying. It's
29:16
Speaker 1: the last bit of Formula one racing will have in
29:18
Speaker 1: a little while. This race will I suppose it should
29:21
Speaker 1: be unsurprising, but considering the talk of last couple of
29:23
Speaker 1: weeks will take place under exactly the same rules for
29:25
Speaker 1: the first two races of the season, which some would
29:28
Speaker 1: say is good for consistency. Max with staffand would say
29:30
Speaker 1: it's awful because he doesn't like the rules very much.
29:32
Speaker 1: But those crunch meetings to potentially tweak the rulebook have
29:36
Speaker 1: been postponed until, of course, that massive break after the
29:38
Speaker 1: Japanese Grand Prix, which I think probably makes sense given
29:41
Speaker 1: how long that break is, But it does mean we
29:44
Speaker 1: can kind of make some predictions about how we expect
29:48
Speaker 1: this weekend to go in terms of the spectacle, because
29:50
Speaker 1: we understand to some extent anyway, how these cars perform
29:54
Speaker 1: in this block of three races, with no disrespect to
29:57
Speaker 1: Albert Bark or to Shanghai. Tzuku's comfortably, in my opinion,
30:00
Speaker 1: most iconic of those tracks, the most important of those tracks.
30:03
Speaker 1: And I think as well, when we're talking about this
30:05
Speaker 1: a little bit off air despite this being in the
30:08
Speaker 1: same categories Shanghai in terms of how hard it is
30:10
Speaker 1: on the battery, so we shouldn't be seeing it's an
30:12
Speaker 1: extreme spectacle for energy regeneration. Remarking sentence, but I think
30:18
Speaker 1: it has a significant quantity of corners that could be
30:22
Speaker 1: quite negatively affected by the way these engines want to
30:25
Speaker 1: be driven.
30:26
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean it's one of the truisms of modern
30:27
Speaker 2: day Formula one in that you know, you're saying it's
30:29
Speaker 2: not quite Suzuka is not in the same conversation necessarily
30:32
Speaker 2: as Albert Park in Shanghai. I think it's not really
30:34
Speaker 2: in a conversation with pretty much any other Formula one track.
30:37
Speaker 2: I think it's the best track on the calendar in
30:38
Speaker 2: terms of pure racetrack. The interesting slash potentially alarming thing
30:43
Speaker 2: for me is that this is often a fantastic qualifying
30:47
Speaker 2: and a not so great race for exactly the same reason.
30:50
Speaker 2: It's an old track. It was built memory serves. I
30:52
Speaker 2: think it was built in nineteen sixty two. Check Wikipedia
30:55
Speaker 2: if you don't believe me. And it's very, very narrow.
30:59
Speaker 2: It's one of the things that's TV. He doesn't really
31:00
Speaker 2: do this circuit justice is super super narrow and it's
31:03
Speaker 2: super one line, which in qualifying is fantastic when everyone's
31:06
Speaker 2: going full Ban's iron, really going for it, and it
31:09
Speaker 2: often produces processional races where not a great deal happens,
31:13
Speaker 2: and we saw that last year when Max Vestappen was
31:15
Speaker 2: able to clearly hold off too fast McLaren's to win
31:18
Speaker 2: the Grand Prix there because he nail qualifying, got an
31:20
Speaker 2: incredible start and they didn't make a mistake for fifty
31:23
Speaker 2: three laps. So it's often one of the great qualifyings
31:26
Speaker 2: and one of the well they look great, but I'm
31:28
Speaker 2: not so sure there's a fantastic race going on here.
31:31
Speaker 2: I'm a little concerned about the two words that I
31:34
Speaker 2: don't like in bodern day Formula one put together super clipping.
31:37
Speaker 2: Not a big fan of those two words. Qualifying, particularly
31:40
Speaker 2: through the first sector, could be a bit underwhelming. It's
31:43
Speaker 2: one of the great sectors of any racetrack in Formula one,
31:46
Speaker 2: what I'm curious about is that we've seen two pretty
31:51
Speaker 2: interesting opening stints to the first Grand to Grand Prix
31:54
Speaker 2: of the year at albert Park and in Shanghai with
31:57
Speaker 2: the new term yo yo racing as people deploy and
32:00
Speaker 2: then don't have any battery and so on and so forth.
32:03
Speaker 2: You could see how those two tracks could lead themselves
32:06
Speaker 2: to that level of racing. Particularly like the first fifty
32:09
Speaker 2: or first ten laps I think at albert Park were
32:11
Speaker 2: pretty manic. We didn't really know we're watching at the time,
32:14
Speaker 2: but they were entertaining. Nonetheless, now that we know a
32:17
Speaker 2: little bit more about what we're watching, and because of
32:19
Speaker 2: that Suzuka circuit layout where passing is difficult even with
32:22
Speaker 2: the significant speed advantage, what are you anticipating we're going
32:26
Speaker 2: to see in the race, Because I think we know
32:28
Speaker 2: what qualifying is going to look like, but I've got
32:29
Speaker 2: question marks about the race. It might be more entertaining,
32:32
Speaker 2: but I'm not as confident about that as I was
32:35
Speaker 2: maybe for Melbourne and for Shanghai.
32:36
Speaker 1: I think that's a good call because the risk is
32:39
Speaker 1: just so much higher running side by side here, regardless
32:42
Speaker 1: of power differentials, that should see you easily passed even
32:46
Speaker 1: compared to Melbourne, which is semi street track. Balls are
32:48
Speaker 1: very close, no time maak runoff pretty much anywhere, there's
32:53
Speaker 1: still much more risk here. The average speed actually, he's
32:55
Speaker 1: the average speed higher compared to New Olper Park. It's
32:57
Speaker 1: a good question. Average speed certainly feels higher. I can
32:59
Speaker 1: see during the way that the track is laid out
33:02
Speaker 1: and the danger of this circuit. So I think that's
33:04
Speaker 1: an interesting element that we just might find those sort
33:07
Speaker 1: of push button passes, if you like, a little bit
33:10
Speaker 1: less prevalent to the track like this where drivers have
33:12
Speaker 1: to think about that risk reward ratio a little bit more.
33:16
Speaker 1: I also wonder the key breaking zone, the slowest breaking
33:20
Speaker 1: where there are two really undre There's the hairpin, which
33:23
Speaker 1: could be very interesting because there's not a massive straight
33:25
Speaker 1: out of the deckners to get there. That could be
33:27
Speaker 1: actually quite a good and relatively conventional style overtaking zone.
33:32
Speaker 1: Then the other being the Chicanne, which comes at the
33:34
Speaker 1: end of a long strait that includes one thirty r
33:36
Speaker 1: How will that play out because battery power should be
33:39
Speaker 1: depleted by then, so do we just get a pure
33:41
Speaker 1: breaking move? Is it even possible? I think that's what's
33:45
Speaker 1: one interesting element of these rules, and I guess it
33:47
Speaker 1: is a little bit of a side show in many respects.
33:48
Speaker 1: But every track gets raced a little bit differently because
33:52
Speaker 1: of the weighting tracks with the engine in a way
33:55
Speaker 1: that wasn't the case with the old rules, where you
33:56
Speaker 1: just knew the biggest breaking zone that was pretty much
33:58
Speaker 1: the best overtaking opportunity for a few exception. So that's
34:02
Speaker 1: interesting to me. But I mean, I'm concerned for the
34:04
Speaker 1: qualifying speculating, as you already said, but the race could be.
34:08
Speaker 1: You know, we're on a bit of a trajectory here,
34:10
Speaker 1: or I think we are anyway, because albert Park was
34:12
Speaker 1: very manic, partly though because yes the track layout, but
34:16
Speaker 1: no one really knew what they were doing there, right,
34:18
Speaker 1: Everyone was just having a go racing needs for the
34:19
Speaker 1: first time to better or worse effect, China felt more controlled,
34:24
Speaker 1: even though I think we got a longer spectacle, like
34:27
Speaker 1: the racing continued for pretty much the entire Grand Prix
34:29
Speaker 1: opposed to just the first ten or so lapse. Not
34:31
Speaker 1: having the badly time safety co gets helped, But despite
34:35
Speaker 1: that felt more. There was more breaking zone action, didn't
34:39
Speaker 1: feel as random, the bigger the pack maybe less so,
34:42
Speaker 1: but certainly like the Ferrari Battle as an example, I
34:44
Speaker 1: thought was genuinely great, really enjoyed that, and I thought,
34:47
Speaker 1: I don't think it could be accused of being too artificial.
34:49
Speaker 1: Maybe considering both Suzuka's layout style for all the things
34:53
Speaker 1: I've already said, plus the fact this will be the
34:55
Speaker 1: third race, so more lessons in the bank, we might
34:59
Speaker 1: get something that looks much more like a traditionally good
35:03
Speaker 1: race rather than an unusual or whacky one. That's what
35:06
Speaker 1: I'm optimistic for. I don't know if it'll come to pass,
35:09
Speaker 1: but I think we could see everything kind of level
35:12
Speaker 1: out a little bit more at a track like this.
35:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, i'd agree. Obviously, the more races we have under
35:17
Speaker 2: this rule set the sheer amount of data and understanding
35:20
Speaker 2: about how to go racing, and not just from an
35:23
Speaker 2: attacking perspective, as like how do you defend better when
35:26
Speaker 2: you're potentially a power disadvantage and when do you deploy
35:29
Speaker 2: what you have? That's the interesting part for me. And yeah,
35:33
Speaker 2: because of the layout of this particular track, the part
35:36
Speaker 2: of the track that I thought you were going to
35:37
Speaker 2: there incidentally, and I reckon this could be quite interesting
35:41
Speaker 2: from a bit of a cat and mouse point of
35:42
Speaker 2: view is the long run out of Spoon up the
35:45
Speaker 2: hill when you're going towards that final chicne there, because okay,
35:50
Speaker 2: so right now, do you want to be the car
35:52
Speaker 2: chasing or do you want to be the car in front?
35:54
Speaker 2: And if there's a train of cars, particularly early on
35:56
Speaker 2: in the race, we might see some fairly or dacious
36:00
Speaker 2: passes that like one thirty hors just become a kid
36:03
Speaker 2: in a straight basically for modern day Formula One, that
36:05
Speaker 2: used to be a fearsome, fearsome corner. You did not
36:08
Speaker 2: have small accidents there. But you might see some interesting
36:13
Speaker 2: tactical plays going up the hill there, and maybe someone
36:15
Speaker 2: will get a little bit brave going around the outside
36:18
Speaker 2: Fernando a lot so in two thousand and five style
36:20
Speaker 2: around there. I'm actually interested in that particular part of
36:23
Speaker 2: the track because that's just been very follow the leader
36:25
Speaker 2: for a while now it might not be with the
36:27
Speaker 2: way these cars race, so that could be a little
36:30
Speaker 2: something to watch, particularly early when the pack's pretty close.
36:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. I think there's still you know,
36:35
Speaker 1: as the drivers will understand what they've got at their
36:37
Speaker 1: control better, there's more room for those tactics we were
36:41
Speaker 1: kind of promised pre season because it feels less like
36:43
Speaker 1: everyone's having a go and more. But you know whoever,
36:46
Speaker 1: Let's say Lewis Hamilton understands better how the Ferrari works,
36:49
Speaker 1: and Max staff and presumably understands better how the red
36:51
Speaker 1: LL Racing car works, and they have their different strengths
36:53
Speaker 1: and weaknesses, and it works out in a more interesting
36:56
Speaker 1: battle as opposed to just everyone pressing the button whenever
36:58
Speaker 1: they've got some charge in there and running out immediately.
37:01
Speaker 1: So I think there's something interesting in that. So I'm
37:04
Speaker 1: interested to see. I'm curious to see how it's all
37:06
Speaker 1: going to play out. I do one day, and there
37:07
Speaker 1: is a little bit of a developing narrative because it
37:09
Speaker 1: feels like we know for certain now that at least
37:11
Speaker 1: one Ferrari will be at the front of the queue
37:14
Speaker 1: on that first lap, presuming they qualify well. Of course,
37:18
Speaker 1: does a track like this make we're overtaking as harder?
37:20
Speaker 1: Mean that this is their best opportunity for a win?
37:22
Speaker 1: You know, I think we've all penciled in races like
37:23
Speaker 1: Monaco because overtaking even these cars, I think will probably
37:28
Speaker 1: still be impossible. So as long as they're leading at
37:29
Speaker 1: their first turn, that's good, and they'll probably even have
37:32
Speaker 1: a shot at qualifying on pole there considering the strengths
37:34
Speaker 1: and weaknesses of their car. But could a track like this,
37:37
Speaker 1: if overtaking does prove to still be difficult, be the
37:40
Speaker 1: sort of circle where Ferrari could maybe target a win well.
37:43
Speaker 2: And what would be interesting actually is, because of the
37:45
Speaker 2: nature of this track, as you were just saying there,
37:47
Speaker 2: if Ferrari can get to the front with perhaps both cars,
37:50
Speaker 2: how does that play out tactically, Because you know, it
37:53
Speaker 2: was great that they allowed them to race in China,
37:55
Speaker 2: and it was thoroughly fantastic. It was also for third
37:57
Speaker 2: place for the most part, but it was great they
37:59
Speaker 2: allowed them to do it. But at a circuit where
38:01
Speaker 2: you know, I'm not suggesting you just have someone play,
38:04
Speaker 2: you know, someone be this hortise and someone be their
38:06
Speaker 2: heir here and just go and break the pack up.
38:08
Speaker 2: Because of the nature of Suzuka, there are very high
38:10
Speaker 2: probabilities of safety cars because if you're going to go
38:12
Speaker 2: off at Suzuki, you're going to hit something. So maybe
38:15
Speaker 2: you can't play the race tactically that way. But could
38:18
Speaker 2: they work together in order to maximize a circuit layer
38:22
Speaker 2: that might allow them to get an outlier result that
38:25
Speaker 2: normal in inverted Coobas the circumstances being the case, you're
38:29
Speaker 2: probably not going to beat Mercedes on pace right now,
38:31
Speaker 2: but there's a chance for you to do something here
38:33
Speaker 2: if you work together, and that's going to be super
38:35
Speaker 2: interesting for me. If they can make their standard say
38:38
Speaker 2: standards happen twice, but they can make their standard jack
38:40
Speaker 2: Rabbit start to races like they have so far in
38:42
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six, then there's a I just feel this
38:45
Speaker 2: more strategic and more tactical element to this weekend's race
38:49
Speaker 2: than perhaps we've seen in the first two and that,
38:51
Speaker 2: combined with that particular track, makes it pretty interesting viewing
38:54
Speaker 2: for me.
38:54
Speaker 1: Yes, I think there is still plenty to learn about
38:57
Speaker 1: these rules. I think there's still a lot of uncertainty
38:59
Speaker 1: about well race to race really, To be honest, I'm
39:03
Speaker 1: and it makes it exciting. I think the only certain
39:04
Speaker 1: thing is really, you know, Max with Steffan's not gonna
39:06
Speaker 1: like it at the end of it, but we'll see
39:08
Speaker 1: how that all balances out in that long five week
39:11
Speaker 1: break we've got afterwards. But that's all the time we
39:13
Speaker 1: have for Pittalk this week. You can subscribe to Pittalk
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Speaker 1: us a ranging and review as well. This weekend is
39:20
Speaker 1: the Formula one Japanese Grand Prix at four pm Eastern
39:23
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39:26
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39:29
Speaker 1: United States Motorcycle Grand Prix from seven am. You can
39:32
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39:37
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39:42
Speaker 1: Matt Clayton and me Michael Lomonado. Thanks very much for
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Speaker 1: your company and we'll catch you next week. Wo