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Lewis Hamilton's first win + the rotating Monaco podium: Barcelona-Catalunya GP Review · Pit Talk

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: On today's episode, Lewis Hamilton scores his first win for
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Ferrari in a strategic showdown in Spain. But is the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: surging seven time champion in the title fight? And why
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: don't we know the result of the Monaco grond pre
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: podium Yes, more than a week after the race. My
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: name's Michael Lamonado. It's great to have your company, and
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the company of my co host, or he was my
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: co host before Alpine protested the results. It's Matt Playton.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Look, Michael, you know that if I don't like the
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: way this podcast goes, I'm going to wait till about Friday,
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: and then I'm going to protest it. It was not
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: long enough or too long or something or other, and
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: we'll get the result reversed in next week. Either I'll
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: be here or you won't be here, or maybe neither
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: of us will be here, but everything will be very
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: different because this is what formula one has become. I'm
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: sure we'll touch on it later in this episode. My
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: analysis might just be to sigh a lot. But yeah,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: that's for another segment a bit later in this podcast.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: But Yes, the Lewis Hamilton Ferrari win. It has finally happened.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Yes, six hundred and eighty six days since his last victory,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Lewis Hamilton is winner again in Formula One. It's been
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: even longer if you want to count back to the
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: last time he crossed the checkered flag first, cross the
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: finishing line first, because it win was inherited for his
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: teammate was disqualified. But he is a Ferrari winner, and
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: that is the important part. It's the longest wait any
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Ferrari driver has had since winning their first Grand Prix
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: because he had that long wait for the podium as well,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: only a couple of weeks ago. And that's sort of
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the interesting element of this, isn't it. This is a
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: This is an upturn in performance. This is not just
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: a random victory. But from the Hamilton perspective, it is
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: an enormous pressure relief, even if it does feel like
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: he's been building towards it.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: This is what the project was about.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: It's easy to forget a year after talking about how,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: let's be honest, badly he was doing last season. This
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: is what the move to Ferrari was about, building up
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: to this year. Succeeding a matching and in some cases
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: beating Charlott Clair. It's all finally coming together for.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Him, it is, and I think, you know, maybe we
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: should have in retrospect to look at last year's struggles
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: a bit more through the context of, well, these new
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: cars are go to be the chance for the hard
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: reset that everyone needs, particularly someone like him. And you've
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: written numerous times on the Fox Sport side about the
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: previous iteration of cars. There were certain drivers that just
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: didn't really gell with them, and it was interesting that,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: you know, in some cases it was some of the
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: more veteran drivers that just didn't really get used to
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: the ground effect cars and the way they needed to
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: be driven, and it didn't seem very likely we'd be
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: talking about Lewis Hamilton winning a Grand Prix again after
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: last year was just so it's hard to say for
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: a seven time world chair, and he was just so
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: anonymous last year. He was a footnote in every story
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: and we didn't really notice him, and you did have
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: to wonder, you know, is this just the long slow
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: wave goodbye to Formula One? And maybe we wouldn't be
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: saying that so much if he was of a different age,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: but it's undeniable now that he's into his forties, and
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: you know, the last eighteen months hasn't been great, but
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: as you said, this is what it was all about.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: And the thing I really enjoyed was we love bit
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: business and nostalgia and Formula one don't. And there was
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: something that was something great about him being menacing the
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: whole weekend and then being able to come through and
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: actually get that victory. And I'm sure we'll get into
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: the virtual safety car element of that victory a little
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: bit later down the track here, but there was something.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: There's a nostalgic piece about seeing that driver do what
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: he does. We've seen it for so so long now
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: every time it happens, you do wonder are we going
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: to see it again? And in what quantities just because
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: of the age and stage of his career that he's in,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: but very very well deserved, and I think there's a
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: wider story here on Ferrari. I can't believe I'm saying this.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Ferrari looked really really good and really really accomplished and
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: really really operationally slick. And we know that they bought
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: a very very big upgrade to this circuit so I
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: guess they got return on investment for that, and there'll
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: be other teams that bring their upgrades at other points,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: but that car right now, particularly at that track, because
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: it's kind of the litmus test for Formula one car,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: isn't it. Barcelona? It looked so good through the orders,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: and that really bodes well for what's coming, because you know,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: if you're good at Catalonia, it's a truism for Formula One.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: If you're good at that circuit, you'll go to be
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: good at most circuits. And yeah, it does add another
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: element to the championship fight, doesn't it.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: It's also I don't know if satisfying is the right word.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Surprising might almost be a better word. But it's what
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Ferrari has been saying all year that this is a
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: development year. It's not about who starts fastest, it's about
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: how quickly you can develop the car. And they've taken
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: at least one very big step that had a big
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: upgrade package in Miami. But I'm I'm inclined to discount
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: some of the development results prior to now because the
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: season's been so disrupted and so many sprint weekends means,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: and then Monica of course, means honing these cars has
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: been really difficult. And it's not only just that we're
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: at Barcelona, as you say, such a good litmus test,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: but the start of a pretty good run of races
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: now that will allow the teams to really find out
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: what these cars are made of. That means I think
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: we can have more faith in this result, or more
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: faith in the development trajectory of this team. It was
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: interesting as a note of caution, I guess think George
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Russell sort of nailed it afterwards. He said it seems
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: like every time a front running team brings an upgrade,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: they moved to the front essentially, and he pointed out
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: in Miami it was McLaren that bought a big upgrade.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: They won the sprint, Norris came very close to winning
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: that Grand Prix. McLaren, for what it's worth. Not sure
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: how much we need to talk about them this week.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: We can just dissect them a little bit next week.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: But close ish to Mercedes still at this track, but
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: it's Ferrari that certainly had moved ahead. Let's go to
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: how that result was decided now, because I think some
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: people will be tempted to say it was all about
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the virtual safety car. Certainly that was pretty important in
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: the race outcome. Fernando Alonso's stoppage putting him out of
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: his misery is probably the better way to describe it.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: In that aston, Martinka was forty laps for the leaders
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: into the Grand Pribram. Not sure what lap Alonzo was on,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: it wouldn't have been forty I imagining just in time,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: essentially after the Mercedes drivers had already made their last
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: pit stop, so Hamilton was in the lead. He hadn't
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: yet made his last pit stop. He was on a
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: three stop, but it was perfect timing for him to
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: stop and retain the lead with fresher tires able to
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: sprint off to an almost twenty second victory, the largest
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: victory of the season so far, which was a statistic
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: that really surprised me. But matter it wasn't all about
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: the VSC because the pace was clearly there. I like
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: the way you described it as a menacing performance from him.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I think victory was still on the cards without that interruption.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. I mean it is one of those
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: circuits because it is difficult to pass and there's only
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: a few places where you can pass. But I think
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: you saw you saw in that middle stint of the
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: race before the VSC that it was clearly going to
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: be on if we'd had a normal green flag running
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: to the finish. Now the virtual safety car confirmed the victory.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: I guess you could say, but I certainly don't think
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: it was out of the realms that he would have.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: He just seemed to have something laid in that race
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: where I don't think there would have been much of
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: an issue getting up onto the back of the Mercedes pair.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Now how long it takes to clear them? And then,
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: of course the answer we never really got was what
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: were Mercedes going to do in response, because in terms
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: of the driver that looked the strongest in that final
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: third of the race was not the lead driver on
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: the track at that point, So that would have been
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: another really interesting curve war because we know that Antonelli
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: and Russell spent a few laps squabbling with one another.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Antonelli clearly better towards the end of the race. So
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: we never got the answer to the mer sad He's
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: going to switch their drivers around to preserve a victory
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: or are they just going to let them fight it
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: out and deal with potentially losing one just to keep
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Team Harmony seven rounds into a twenty two or twenty
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: four round season, so that was really interesting. I don't
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: buy the argument that Hamilton only won this because of
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: the VSC. I think it took some of the in
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: the intrigue out of the back end of the race. Unfortunately,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: because we never got to see how the convergence point
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: of the two stops versus three stops played out, it
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: did confirm it. But I think the mood that he
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: was in, and more importantly, the way that car was
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: on Sunday in Castaloonia, I do believe that race win
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: was probably still there. It might have been a little
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: bit fraught in the last five laps. We didn't get
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: the grand stand finished that we perhaps hoped for. But
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: to solely attribute the victory to the timing of the VSC,
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: I'm not really buying it. The Fernando a lot So thing.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: The stunning part about that is whatever lap that Aston
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Martin was on, and it definitely wasn't forty, it was
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: probably about thirty seven. The fact that at Aston Martin
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: did thirty seven laps at a Grand Prix, that's almost
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: caused for a parade for a lot so it's incredible news.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: They'll be celebrating in Silverston this week that they made
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: it that far into a race. I think you're right.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: I think it's if you do some of the maps,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: he would have caught because we know degradation was high
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: enough you could put a real solid number on it
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: would have caught Russell with a round nine laps remaining,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: but of course would have had to pass Lando Norris
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: and Kimmie Antonelli first, so we would have probably been
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: set up for or picking number. Maybe last three laps,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: four laps, showdown, maybe last one lap, but he was
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: clearly there. George Russell certainly thinks that it was inevitable.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: After the race, he said that Hamilton was coming through
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: whether he liked it or not, which is I mean,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: this is interesting on a couple of different levels as well.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: After he took second place in the championship Hamilton at
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: the Monaco Grand Prix, of course, following Russell's non score
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: from penalty, as we might talk.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: About a little bit later.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Remarkably, you know, it seemed temporary, inevitably, you know he
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: was in second place, a bit about luck from Russell
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: and all the result that was not going to last.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Not only has it lasted, but it's become somewhat more emphatic.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: He's now forty one points off the title lead, which
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: continues to be held by Antonelli. It's fifty points for
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: us all because, of course Antonelli retired in the last
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: couple of laps with another mysterious Mercedes engine problem. But
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: forty one points with one hundred thousand races to go,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: I think it is more or less you'll take. That's
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: not a huge margin. It's funny because we're talking about
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: a lot of questions that we're used to talking about
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: towards the end of a year, when you normally got
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: seven six races, think back to last year, what decisions
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: you're going to make. We've still got so much of
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: the season to go that if Ferrari's progress is real,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: and I guess that is the question, this can't be
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: out of the equation, right, a title title contention for Hamilton,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Lewis Hamilton, Childlicker's another forty points behind, so he's more
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: theoretical at this point. But for Lewis Hamilton, there is
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: a championship hope here all of a sudden.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: I think there is. I mean, there's fifteen rounds to go.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: I do wonder about the context of the names rather
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: than the points gap that we're looking at here, because
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: you're looking at a teenager who's never been at the
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: lofty altitude of leading the Formula Wide World Championship before,
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: and the guy immediately behind him in the standings is
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: the most successful Formula One driver of all time, and
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: I do wonder if that slightly clouds the way we
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: look at it in that would we be talking about
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: this if it was George Russell that was the lead
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Mercedes in the championship right now and not Kimmi Antonelli,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: which is probably the narrative we thought was going to
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: happen at the start of the season. So I think,
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: you know, subconsciously, I'm not that's got to play into
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: it to a point. But you mentioned before about this
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: season shapes as being a bunch of developmental surges I
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: think from the major teams, and one thing you did
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: mention before about McLaren, I'm always really wary of these
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: big developmental upgrades on sprint weekends. I think it's really
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: hard to ascertain whether they're actually legitimate or not because
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: they're just so not the norm and we've had what
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: three sprint rounds out of seven so far, so the
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: percentage of sprint races based on the percentage of the
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: rest of the season is going to reduce. Thank goodness,
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: no one cares about as we know that. Sorry Stefano
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Domenic earlier, but yeah, I do wonder look is he
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: in the championship mix? Yes. What I think is so
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: interesting about this is if we were to frame at
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: the start of the season, well it might come down
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: to a Mercedes versus Ferrari championship fight, we probably would
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: have both said, well, that's going to be George Russel
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Againt Charla Clair. There isn't it And the fact that
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: it's the other two super interesting, But you answered it
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: yourself initially. There are so so many races to go,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: and given that there are going to be pretty significant
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: ebbs and flows in this season because everything's so new,
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: and you know right now you can't really say with
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: any confidence in for races time which team might have
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: the fastest car, and then it comes down to operationally
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: can you convert on that pace? What circuits have we've got.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: But the fact that we're talking about Lewis Hamilton in
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: championship contention is not something I expected to be on
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: my biing Go card in twenty twenty six, and quite frankly,
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: I don't think I'm the only one, given the way
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty five went.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Yes, I think even he probably doubted it, to be honest,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: during the off season, but he's talked a lot about
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: the work he's had to do to shape that team.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: It's not just work ambiguous work, training hard or whatever.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: It is a lot of personnel changes, even breaks changes,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: something that's been talked about a lot in the last
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks, and sort of half breaking up the
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: relationship between Ferrari and Brembo, which has been a relationship
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: that's lasted more than half a century, to bring in
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: his own form of breakdos because his entire careers those
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: kinds of changes that have made him more comfortable in
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: a car that in a regulatory cycle he's already.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: More comfortable with. It's contributing there.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: I want to go to that Mercedes side now because
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: we do need to wait. Look, all of this comes
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: with the asterisk obviously that Ferrari's had one very good
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: weegain so far, but there are reasons, as we've already
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: said the circuit. The fact that it's based on upgrades
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Lewis someone's in good form to think that there's at
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: least a little bit more to this than just a
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: fluke result. But it does put Mercedes in an interesting position,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: I think because while prior to this, the gap between
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Antonelli and Russell was academic in many respects. I mean,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: obviously the championship was at the end of it, but
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: it kind of didn't matter when championship was going to
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: just be between them. It's up to them to figure
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: it out between themselves. The idea that there's a third
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: party in the mix is very interesting.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: I thought.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: This is also interesting that this weekend Toto Wolf mused
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: that maybe had the team been more team orders focused
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: rather than allowing Antonelle and Russell to fight each other
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: around the middle of the race and then towards towards
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: the end, it was Hamilton's already won anyway, but nonetheless
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: whether or not they'd have had a better shot at
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: protecting the victory. Of course, the victory for the team
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: regardless of who was there, but the subtext there is
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: it would have been Antonelly going ahead of Russell on
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: the weekend that Russell was meant to be making his
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: big recovery that some broadcasters were very pumped up about
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: that didn't ultimately eventuate because Antonelli passed him before his
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: engine his engine failed. That is an interesting question for
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Mercedes to contemplate because not only would they have been
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: not expecting Antonelli to be the lead driver, they wouldn't
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: have been expecting a possible situation where they had to
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: make him the lead driver.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, completely, and that the interesting strategic pinch point for
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Sunday that we never got in Castleoudia was that it
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: was a two versus one. This is not a This
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: is not a two versus two head to head where
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: both teams could deploy the other driver strategically to influence
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: the result because Charlotte Clair was not really in the
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: mix for anything significant that he had his own car
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: troubles towards the end. So yeah, I do think that
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: is interesting because you know, it's funny, like we're sitting
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: here talking about Mercedes. They have one six of seven
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: gold through this year. Is not exactly you know, crisis
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: right now, but the very fact that they were beaten
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: on merit and the fact that the internal narrative within
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: that team continues to confuse a lot of people. I
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: don't think anyone doubted the fact that Antonelli was going
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: to be a very good Formula One driver. I just
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: didn't think anyone saw it just yet. And that's the
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: key part to.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: All of this.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: There's so much of this season to go, but we're
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: coming at the you know, we've got twenty five percent
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: of the way through, We're coming at the remaining seventy
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: five percent from a position we did not expect to
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: be coming from. And I think that's interesting for them
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: and interesting for us. And then how sustainable is this
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Ferrari challenge? You know that Charlot Clair is not just
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: going to be a bit part player in this there is.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: He's very susceptible in a good way to getting on
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: a roll, and we've seen that previously with his time there.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: I don't think this is some sort of you know,
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Lewis Hamilton metronomic march to championship contention here. It was
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: a very very good weekend. It's put him in an
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: extremely good position. But there's so much of this narrative
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: that's still to be played out. I think Ferrari will
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: be a lot more involved with two cars, and then
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: the Mercedes question. Now, I mean the unreliability. It goes
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: from you know, what is it a coincidence that it
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: has a trend, and then you start to worry about
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: you know, this is going to be something that ends
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: up deciding these seasons. But yeah, a gap of forty
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: odd points with as you said, approximately ten thousand still
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: to go. Is it's not insignificant, but it's it's worried
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: the insignificant basket than the significant one.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what I like about this season so far is
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: that it's felt really difficult to get your hands on
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: a form guide. Yes, right, but every weekend I feel
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: like we're learning a lot. And this is it's funny
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: because it feels like it's almost a bit of a
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: slow burn in that respect, in that we've expected so
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: much change this year. We expected a lot of uncertainty
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: this year because the rule changes were so significant. Of course,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Mercedes being at the front wasn't totally unexpected. We had
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: a lot of rumors about that. You don't know until
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: you get there, but that certainly seemed predictable. But every
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: weekend since then, there's something unusual has happened. Or something
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: different has happened, and you know McLaren's form is a
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: good way that sometimes it looks like it's going to
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: be great and then it isn't. Ferrari though, you know,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: I go back to this point to be fair to them,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: somewhat surprisingly perhaps, but I mean they've been insistent of
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: the whole time that this year would be about development.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: That's what they said. It's easy to say that when
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: you start slow, to say that it's not important how
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: you start, and I think that's the way I sidently
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: interpret it at the time. But development is clearly making
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: as big a difference this year as it did in
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: the ground effect era, and we became used to McLaren
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: being another good example here upgrades being able to materially change.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: But you are un the pecking order in a way
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: that didn't ever really feel possible in previous regulatory years
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: or was much rarer. It feels like this year we
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: could be set for these long spells of a team
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: being near or at the front based on who upgraded
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: their car most recently and how much they'd saved up
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: for that upgrade.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would argue that this year, particularly in this
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: early out of the year where we're still not really
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: understanding when we understand it better than we did min Australia,
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: which now seems like a different category quite frankly, in
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: terms of how the cars race and how we go
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: about racing in this area a litt alone the performance
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: of the cars, it kind of feels to me that
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: it was interesting. I don't really feel we spend a
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: lot of time about cattaloon. You're talking about the way
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: the cars are racing for once, which was plus. But
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: I think that's part of the narrative. This new rule
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: set is so new still it's still got the new
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: car smell about it that perhaps these bigger upgrades are
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: going to play an outsized part in momentum for the
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: first part of the season. There will come a point
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: where as with all of these rule sets, as we've
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: seen in the past, there tends to be a convergence
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: on the acceptab way to go about it, and therefore,
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: just by a circumstance, you're not going to have these
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: massive swings or huge potential gains of a team coming
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: and bringing something like Ferrari has. So this is part
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: of the evolution of the regulation set as much as
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: the season I don't expect that the big jumps race
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: to race, weekend to weekend, fortnite to fortnite will be
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: as big as a season goes on. It will be
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: very much the season of two halves, because you get
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: into the second half of the season, it will be
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: a little bit more predictable. And then it comes down
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: to execution operation and all of the little one percent
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: is that usually swing championships, not what we're getting at
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: the moment, yep.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: And there's a there's a there's a good unknown quantity
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: here as well, I think, which is remarkable to talk
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: about if we're talking about Mercedes and Ferrari in particular,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: because historically, very in recent history in Mercedes, since it's
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: very successful, it's been a while since Mercedes has been
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: a regular winning position battling other teams, you could argue
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: they never really they did very little of that impacting
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: their historically successful run. And Ferrari, I mean, he's in
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: the longest titled rought in its history. So we actually
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: have two fresh ish teams battling here, certainly from Ferrari's perspective,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: and I can't believe I'm going to say this bit
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: the weekend Ferrari executed better strategically and in general this weekend.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Ferrari was the better operator, which is something I can't
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: remember the last time I said so, certainly unprecedented and
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: fascinating times in form middle one but one race dwaye
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: and see how it goes. We have four more European
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Grand Prix till the middle of the season, if my
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: math is correct, so we've got a little bit of
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: a run before we have to take stock on how
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: that first half of the season has gone. There is
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: an engine to mention here. We'll talk about that a
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: little bit later because there's quite a lot going on
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: in the engine space now though we have to go
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: to Move of the Week, brought to you by Shannons.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: We've put some nice change of pace after Monaco where
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: there weren't too many Moves of the week should be
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: had at that street circuit, a little bit more of
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: a conventional track this weekend. Where are you going to
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: take us for Move of the week.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: There was a bit to choose from, which is something
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: that you know sometimes Barcelona can be a bit of
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: a store fest mere, particularly with a very mature rule set.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: It's the case where we get the Noah's ark grid.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: A lot of the time, the animals line up in
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: pairs and then proceed to go around in a nice
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: formation and everyone falls asleep and writes their race report
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: on lap one. But the move of the week for me,
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: and we just simply because I couldn't find a reason
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: to include this anywhere else in the podcast. I'm not
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: going to lie. Can we talk about the Nico Holkenberg retirement?
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: Yes? Good, since please simply.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Because it's one of the the strangest things I have
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: ever seen in Formula one. So for anyone that hasn't
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: seen it, Niko Holkeenberg's running behind Liam Lawson about midway
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: ish bit before midway through the race, and Lawson goes
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: why to turn who's in the last complex? It was
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: twelve sprays some gravel towards Hlgenberg, and a piece of
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: gravel hits the roll hoop on Holkenberg's audi and manages
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: to trigger the kill switch. So if you look at
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: a Formula one car, if you see there's always a
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: red circle with the letter E in it, which is
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: basically a kill switch for the marshals to get to
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: to basically stop a car from running so they can
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: drag it off into behind a fence or whatever they
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: need to do. This rock that laws it has fired
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: up behind in Mario cart style, is actually clattered into
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: the It's basically hit the kill switch of Hulkenberg's Audi.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: And you see, because that last section is downhill, Holkeenberg's
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: car has absolutely no power and he just rolls into
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: the pit late and retires. It's completely shut the entire
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: thing down. You could not do that intentionally in a
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: million years. And Lawson's response afterwards, he was absolutely gobsmacked
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: that that was what it was that led to Holkeenberg's retirement.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: So incredibly bad like for Holkeenberg and Audi because he
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: was having a very good weekend for a team that
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: quite frankly hasn't had too much to cheer about. But
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: I don't know about you. I have never seen something
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: quite as bizarre of that. And the move of said
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: pebble into Holgenberg's kill switch on the Audi. It's an
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: unconventional move for Move of the week, but this is
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: why I'm here. I like to bring the unconvention, but
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: that is where I'm going for Move of the Week.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: And I don't know about you. I've never seen something
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: weirder than that, I think in being in Formula one
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: for twenty five thirty years.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: No, we've certainly seen because the other element of this
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: is that not only does it kill every system in
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: the car, but it also lets off the fire extinguisher. Yes,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: and because it assumed it's designed for the marshals to use,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: so it assumes that your car is undergoing some kind
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: of disaster and needs to be shut off and made
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: safe as quickly as possible. So we've seen fire extinguishers
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: go off. It's very rare, but occasionally at random for
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: no obvious reason, but never never the whole cast shutting
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: down because a rock has triggered that that device on
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: the last car, it's a little they're all always like
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: pul tams, and on the half start it's sort of
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: a loop on a string.
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: Almost more scientific than that. I don't know what it's
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: made out of.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: So the idea that it's almost like the it's like
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: a reverse rock coming out of a slingshot is essentially
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: what that's the odds. A rock going back into the
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: cradle of a slingshot is what's happened here with enough
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: force that that's killed In Tiger remarkable and like you say,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: it's a pity because Holgenberg's yet to score a point
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: this year. He was running inside the top ten. It
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: was his first Q three appearance of the season as well.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: It seemed like Audie was going to get haven't scored
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: since Australia, when it seemed like maybe they were going
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: to be sort of theareabouts in the middle of the
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: midfield in terms of qualifying pace. They still are, but
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: in the race they just can't catch a trick because
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: their starts are so bad. As usually the problem lots
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: more places than anyone else across all starts, but very
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: unfortunate for poor old Nico Holgenberg. You got a feel for, man,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: that's one of those ones. Yeah, I'm gonna take us
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: go on. What do you got somewhere somewhere a little
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: bit different. I'm sure this one caught you right. This
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: was another one I couldn't find space for in the
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: podcast worth talking about that for the first time in
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: forty two Grand Prix last stroll outqualified Fernando Alonso and
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: they were both in Q one. Obviously there were there
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: was no really joy anywhere, but that's how long the
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: streak was. Lance Stroll was totally whitewashed last year by Alonso,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: relatively rare occurrence in Formula one. This dates back to
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: the twenty twenty four British Grand Prix. That was the
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: last time Stroll that qualified Alonzo. He did it again
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: this weekend twenty twenty four British Grand Prize. It happens
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: was the previous time Lewis Hamilton took the ticket flag
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: in first place. So maybe there's something incidents or numerology,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: who do there? But I draw you, in particular your
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: attention to two things. One is the slender margin just
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: fifty seven milliseconds zero point zero five to seven. But
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: his response was enthusias astic, as you can imagine. For
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Lance Stroll asked what it meant to him to break
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: that qualifying deficit. His answer was, I don't care. I
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: don't give a shit, So that sums up I think.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: Well.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: The mindset, first of all, obviously does have Lance Stroll,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: but it does also speak to and I want to
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: speak about this only very briefly, just how bad Aston
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Martin's going at the moment. This is a car that's
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: becoming increasingly distant from the pack. It qualified more than
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: a second behind Cadillac, the team that didn't exist last year.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: They have no upgrades. That's obviously part of the problem.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: They're saving all their upgrades, they're saying around the middle
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: of the year. I'm not sure if it's going to
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: before the break or after it. But this was also
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: another weekend in which they had engine reliability problems, drive problems,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: problems of every description. It feels somehow like this is
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: getting worse.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: Yes, just when you think you've touched rock bottom, there
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: is another layer. But the I don't care, I don't
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: give a shit. Is the career effortah for Lance Strong really,
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: isn't it. Let's be perfectly honest. The most notable thing
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: about Aston Martin this weekend was a very long shot
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: of a very perturbed Lawrence Stroll on the coverage before
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: the race started. He's wearing a very nice jacket. That's good.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: It didn't look very very pleased otherwise because he knew
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: what was going to happen. Because what was what was
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: going to happen is what happens every single weekend to
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: this team. And I'm sure you've picked up on this
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: as well. The Honda press releases that come out after
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: the race talking about the performance and I use that
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: term loosely of the Aston Martin car this year, they
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: are getting shorter and shorter, but yeah, degrees of grimness.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: But por Fernando Altso this is his last race at
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: that particular circuit, a track where he's had some really
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: magical moments over the years. It was thoroughly depressing. And
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: we were saying before it was good that the car
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: last of thirty seven laps. Maybe he would have preferred
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: to have been out a lap four like Stroll was.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: But yeah, you're right. They are just getting more and
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: more detached from the back of the grid. And when
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: you look at who is at the back of the
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: grid and has every reason to be at the back
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: of the grid, it's actually probably worse than we even thought,
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: and I don't think we thought it was very good.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a remarkable occurrence.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: There's so much now riding on that upgrade package because
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: if it doesn't have any material effect, then that's when
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: you that's when you really do drop the word crisis, right, Like,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: we know why they're getting worse because they're focused on
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: the mechanics of the car whatever, not that they seem
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: to be improving but if they can't progress by the
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: end of the year, then I mean where you take
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: this huge spending team next is really quite a significant question.
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: This is a little bit of a tangent before we
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: move on.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Do you remember when Honda returned to the sport previously
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen, and this is a little bit of
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: a big scure one. They created Twitter as it was
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: their known accounts for their engines for.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: It, Fernando A.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Lonso and Jensen Button was in the Hunter of course
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: before Stoffel vandort Yes and memory Sir, I had start.
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: I haven't made up.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Every time they'd have an engine failure, they'd come up
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: with a new name for the account, as if it
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: was a different first and taking over. I think they
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: should being that back because we have We've met a
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: lot of characters so far, and I think that I
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: just think it's a great social social media play.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: This needs to be the subject of a very very
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: long deep dive feature for you on the Fox Sports website,
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: perhaps inclusive, perhaps inclusive of a pole of what names
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: would you like to see you used? If this is
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: brought back, I'll come up with some suggestions for you.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: But yes, I do vaguely remember this. I don't think
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: you're having sort of some random fever dream right now.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: But man Man is and that Adrian knew he appointments
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: going well, isn't it. Yeah, I'm sure they're getting their
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: money's worth out of that lot at absolute debarcle.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: The whole thing is the debarcle.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Let's turn our minds to a dibarcle of a different kind, though,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: because off the track in Formula One it's been a
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: funny old time. I think it's fair to say between
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: appeals of results in Monaco and also whether or not
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: which team has the best engine and why they don't
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: want that, we'll talk about the engine stakes in just
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: a second. I want to start with Pierre Gasley's third
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: place in Mono. Where's that Isaac Adges third play? Was
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: it Bosco Piastri's third place? Maybe it's Georg Russell's third
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: place and not Ago. Hard to be certain. There are
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: a lot of appeals potentially afoot. At the time of recording,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: there was a deadline for McLaren and Red Bull Racings
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: appeal against the appeal later on Tuesday Australian time, so
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: there may be updates to take us back a step.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Of course, Isaacadja finished on the podium in Monte Carlo.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: That was after though Pierre Gasli was penalized twice for
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: twice speeding in the pit lane, demoted ten seconds, which
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: dropped him to seventh, something Lpne appealed, which is pretty
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: unusual to do. It's one of those penalties you can't
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: traditionally appeal that they managed to prove over in the
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: build up to the Barcelona weekend. In fact, so a
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: few days ago that the pit lane had been incorrectly
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: measured by a factor of seventy seven centimeters, which meant
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: the average speed calculation, which is how they calculated speeding
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: in the pit lane, was wrong, and the stewards accepted that.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: They said, you know what, you're right, take your ten
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: seconds off because it was a post race penalty.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: You can have your podium back.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Now. This remarka well, I really didn't expect this to happen,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: notwithstanding that there seems to be pretty concrete evidence that
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the penalty wasn't deserved. But there were five drivers pined
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: for speeding. Three of them were served their penalties during
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: the race. They were Lewis Hamilton, the Oscar Piastre. George
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Russell didn't quite but he eventually served some penalties during
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: the race. The only other driver who served post race
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: was Franco colo Pinto, Gazzi's teamate. They didn't appeal that
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: one though, because when he's outside the points and the mess.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: This is created subsequently by the stewards recognizing this and
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: giving Gazly his podium back, which I certainly understand. Like
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: I say that the evidence is that he wasn't speeding.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Is that What do you do about all the other
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: drivers who weren't speeding? And what does it mean for
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: the result sheet that says underneath in an asterisk that
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Gasly's penalty was rescinded because the pit lane speed limited
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: it was faulty. Speed gun essentially was faulty. But everyone
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: else it's fine if they were penalized in the race.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: What does that mean for the results overall? And that's
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: why we've got at least three teams appealing, between Red
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Bull Racing, McLaren and also Mercedes now lodging an intention
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: to appeal.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: The first thing I think in all of this is
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: can we measure an if one pit lane incorrectly? It
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: can't be that difficult. Let's get the what's it called
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: a trundle wheel or whatever someone was marking. So someone
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: was marking out the one hundred meters on the school
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: oval for the school sports day. Let's get one of
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: those out. And I think too, there's a couple of
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: parts of this, like I don't think Alpine did anything
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: wrong quite frankly, because they they are one hundred percent
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: in the right. It was proven that they were one
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: hundred percent in the right. The tricky part about this
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: is people who have served penalties already during the race,
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: and particularly somewhere like Bodico, where if you serve a
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: penalty it fundamentally changes your race because it throws you
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: in a part of the track that you shouldn't be in,
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: and you know your race can unravel pretty spectacularly from there.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: The protests and counter protests, I mean, by the same methodology.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: If the pit lane has been measured incorrectly, which has
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: been proven now, then why wouldn't some of these other
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: appeals be successful? And then what do we do with
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: the race? Because to my mind, you either change none
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: of them what you change all of them. You can't
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: just change some of them. And that's the difficult part
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: in all of this because the can of worms has
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: been open and the worms are all out of the
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: floor at this point, like you're not getting u back in,
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: so what so what do we do with this? Because
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: I just don't think that you can't look at the
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: ghastly decision in isolation and say, well, that's all fine them,
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: We're not going to listen to any of these other
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: protests to me and see that they've either all got
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: to be heard or none of them have got to
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: be heard. And so I don't think we've heard the
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: last of this story. And that's probably the saddest part
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: of all of this, because, I mean Oscar Piastri mentioned
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: this at Cattaloon. You're over the weekend. It's like the
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: precedent that this sets if you're just going to be
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: changing race results five days after the event. I mean, yeah,
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: it affects world championship positions and what have you, but
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: it's more the precedent that, Okay, so you have other
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: races in the future. Now you get a penalty you
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: have about you just don't serve them and then see
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: if there's subway to protest them after the race and
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: if you copp a penalty, then you copper penalty. But
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, hey, if they're going to change race results
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: five days afterwards, and you may as well have a crack, right.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's remarkable and you've got and Pastri set it
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: as well in his comments. You know, he lost a
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: fourth place, but what's of way technically? He says he
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: lost a third place because, of course his five second
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: penalty which he served in the race, dropped him behind ghastly.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: But in the final shakeout of this he lost what
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: was a fourth place after the flag. But he said,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: what must to trust him? I think his race was
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: catastrophically dropped to outside the points because he failed to
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: serve his five second speeding penalty. I put that almost
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: in the basket. And this cast some minds back to
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Felipe Massa. It's a pit lane incident of the two
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: thousand and Singapore gran PRII he shouldn't have been the
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: pit lane because of the cheating, but it was for
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Ari's mistake to send him out with the fuelo still attached.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: It's sort of a similar situation, isn't it. It's sort
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: of Its hard to know how you feel about that one.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: In particular, but it does. I mean the concerning thing
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: for me is that it sort of throws that whole
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Grand Prix a little bit into doubt. Yes, because they
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: affected podium positions, and I include Russell in that because
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: he would have almost certainly finished on the podium without it.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Lewis Halmilton did serve one, but because of the way
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Ferrari served it, he didn't lose any places. These are
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: important positions. This is just a bunch of drivers outside
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: the points, so we can kind of forget about like
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Alpine has with Meranca Colopinto. In this case, this is
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: significant to the race result to everyone pretty much behind.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: Antonally puts a massive asterisk over a race that could
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: really be decisive in the points count back at the
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: end of the season. Considering as I said, it's all
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: title contenders two or the three at the moment. If
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: we count include Hamilton in that and Russell, I guess
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: it's an important result. It really makes Formula One look
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: quite silly that they can't measure their pit lane correctly.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: It doesn't happen at every race, obviously, because usually the
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: pit lane is straight and it's pretty straightforward. But this
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: is a little bit different because the pit lane has
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: so many curves in it, but the whole situation is
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: very unedifying. Also, the idea that Mercedes boss Toto Wolf
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: during the weekend sort of threatened legal action said he
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: was lawyers were looking at what could be done. I mean,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: this is just I can't understand why, because of course
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: you've got to go into bat for your drivers. And
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Russell's obviously pretty disappointed by the whole thing. But they've
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: really through a little bit of sloppiness on the Thursday
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: or the Wednesday of the Grand Prix by not measuring
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: the pit lane correctly. He's really exposed to sport looking
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: quite silly.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: Are you suggesting that Monico is not fit to host
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: a for Ula one Grand Prix in twenty twenty six? Mical,
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: that is that what you're insinuating here?
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: Maybe F one doesn't deserve Monaco.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: Actually you can't measure the Monaco pit lane right then,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: we just left it to Formula ever happens.
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's the way.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: Indeed, by a tape measure and send it to uh.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: We're a ver fiite hq is these days.
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: They clearly Yes, I like the idea.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: Wasn't it precision to draw an AFL comparison, but isn't
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: it nol filin You'll get a bunch of membership shipped
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: to HQ dumped on the door. As a side of protests,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: everyone just dumped a bunch of tape measures our plane
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: oorviousags just dumb a bunch of tape measures at the
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: door of Stefan a men Carli's office. I think it'd
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: be quite an effective protest. Certainly we're interesting in the
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: protesting we're getting. That's still to be decided. As I say,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: in the next certainly twenty four hours for a couple
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: of the teams, and that could kick on for a while.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Mercedes might have a little bit more time to decide
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: their protest. But hopefully by the time we go racing
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: in Austria next week, Ken will know what the Monoco
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: podium was. This is happening at the same time that
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: the FIA has told the teams what it thinks of
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: their engines and which is the most powerful. This is
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: after the conclusion of the first period of ad Duo,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: which is the engine concession program that allows engines that
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: are too slow to catch up rather than being locked
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: in for the course of the season. Reports suggest rather
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: shockingly that it's Red Bull Power Trains that have developed
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: the best engine this year. This happened on the Sunday
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: of the Monaco Grand Prix, so it was all being
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: unraveled over the last week. You can read about that
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: on the Fox Sports website. Red Bull not happy to
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: have done such a good job. They've asked for clarification
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: from the FIA. They want the FIA to show their
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: working because they don't believe their engine is the best.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Important to say that it only measures the combustion engine
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: part of the hybrid unit, not everything else. That's what
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: the teams agreed to. We have this really interesting situation,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: Matt where no team, including Mercedes, which I think probably
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: has the best engine, wants to accept that they have
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: a good engine, which seems contrary to what Formula one's
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: about now.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: Generally, in Formula one, the idea is to be for
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: at something. That's one of the truisms of this sport
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: over seventy odd years or whatever it is. But this
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: is a classic case of self interest. With Formula One.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: No one wants to be first because that means that
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: everyone else gets a leak up to catch up, and
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: it's one of those things, you provide a loophole for
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: the teams. They're all running away from the check and
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: flag to be first in the engine race. I guess
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: the thing for me is how you come to the conclusion.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'd like someone to explain this to me,
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: but how you come to the conclusion that red Bull
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: has the greatest engine for a team that has developed
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: its own engine for I don't know, seven Grand Prix.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: It does make you wonder what all the others are
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: actually doing if that is the case. But the responses
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: of all of the other teams, was red Bull doing
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: the no, no, it's not us. We're definitely we definitely
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: don't have the best we were banking on getting all
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: these upgrades, and all of the other teams pointing at
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: red Bull like a kid in the school yard and
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: see see it was then it was all and it's
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: sort of Actually it marries to the incorrectly measured pit
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: lane part of Formula One. We shouldn't be talking about
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: two stories in the absolute pinnacle of motorsport in this way.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: That makes so little sense in one case and just
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: complete amateur hour and the other unetified was a good
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: word that you used before. I hope to see that
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: in some copy this week. But it doesn't make any
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: sense on its face because if you look at the
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: results of the engine measurements and then you look at
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: the World Championship standings, and I'm sure Maxim Stafford would
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: be a little bit shocked to find out that he
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: actually has the best engine in Formula One, because right
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: now he has positioned nowhere in the World Championship. So yeah,
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: a very very strange one. I don't think we've heard
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: the last of this, but just classic Formula One in
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: that everyone's looking to perhaps avoid the truth in order
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: to get into advantage over everybody else. So in that sense,
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: it's very very classic old school Formula One. In another sense,
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: what on earth are we doing?
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: I like that?
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: Of course, in the build up to this, when we
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: all assume Mercedes would be the benchmark and everyone else
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: would get lots of upgrades. For aur he's been saying
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: they're expecting upgrades and they'll get two out of his
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: turns out total Wolf went from saying, well we've got
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: a l let's hip a little This was designed really
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: just for brands like Honda that are clearly struggling, not
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: for teams that are a bit behind. Now that he's
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: got an upgrade, he's saying, well, no, this seems about right.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: This is what I think, This is what I was expecting. Actually,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: that really speaks to the level of self interest involved
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: in this. I think what's really ironic or funny about
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: this is that you can only qualify for upgrades once.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: This is the thing, right, you can't if you're still
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: behind in the next quarter, you don't get more upgrades.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: This is it for the at least the next two years,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: I guess, or the least next year. Is that Mercedes
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: clearly having what seems to be the best engine, and
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: that's speculation suggest that even turn their engine down because
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: of the reliability concerns better than it looks. You can
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: now knowing you already have the advantage to sit on
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: your upgrade as the team judged closest to Red Bull
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: Racing by the FAA Queens Reports and not introduced until
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: the end of the year, thereby preventing Red Bull from
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: ever getting an upgrade, ensuring it remains behind the curve,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: potentially then triggering Max was having to quit the team,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: maybe joining Mercedes. Who's to say that, obviously, with rumor
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: and speculation while continuing to win in Formula One. Ferrari
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: meanwhile an upgrade E engine that could be very important,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: and Nora suggested, well, you can see in the data
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: in fact that Ferrari was the most effective team in
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: all the corners here it was lacking down the straits.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: If the engine catches up, then that could be the
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: best car in the sport. That's a fascinating proposition, and
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: there are some rumors, i think in the Italian media
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: that they could have their first engine upgrade ready sooner
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: rather than later before the mid season break. So that's
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: a fascinating twist there. But it's certainly been busy off
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: track in Formula One, and not in positive ways.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: I think it's fair to The thing I'm looking forward
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: to is the incredibly authentic scene in the next series
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: of Drives to Survive where they announce they announced the
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: engine findings and a meeting where all of Mercedes are
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: sitting around at a meeting and Toto Wolf looks over
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: the table and raises his eyebrows and just goes, look,
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: we are just about to find out about the engines. Oh,
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: this is a surprise, as Toto's eyebrows go towards the sky.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to that great recreation of what actually
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: didn't happen in the next series of Drive to Survive.
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: But yes, that'll be episode two.
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: Probably powerful television. I think I certainly look forward to it.
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: But for now, that's all the time we have for
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: pit Talk this week.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: You can subscribe to Pittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts,
• 40:14
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• 40:15
  Speaker 3: Us a rating and review as well.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: This weekend it's the Supercars Darwin Triple Crown with races
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: on all three days, hence the Triple Crown. Friday, Saturday
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: and Sunday. You can catch all of the action live
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: on Fox Sports and KO, and then on Sunday night
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: it's the Check Motorcycle Grand Prix with lights out at
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: ten pm. You can keep up to date with all
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: the latest F one, Moto GP and Supercars news at
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: foxsports dot com. Dot are you from Matt Payton and
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: me Michael Lamonado. Thanks very much for your company and
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: we'll catch you next week.