Latest / Pit Talk / Is it Piastri's title to lose? Dutch GP Review

Transcript

Is it Piastri's title to lose? Dutch GP Review · Pit Talk

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:03
Speaker 1: On today's episode, Oscar Piastree takes a thirty four point
0:07
Speaker 1: lead in the championship after victory at the Dutch Grand Prix,
0:10
Speaker 1: and after Lando Norris retires with a power unit problem,
0:14
Speaker 1: and Isaac Hadjar collects his first Formula One podium to
0:18
Speaker 1: reassert himself as the second best Red bull Backs driver
0:21
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five. My name is Michael Lamonado. It's
0:24
Speaker 1: great to have your company and the company of my
0:26
Speaker 1: co host respectfully. He has his Union Jack flying at
0:29
Speaker 1: half mast. It's mac Clayton.
0:31
Speaker 2: Michael. I would like to say at this point that
0:33
Speaker 2: Oscar Piastre won the Grand Prix, and if you look
0:35
Speaker 2: at the Digi flag behind the podium, there is a
0:38
Speaker 2: Union Jack on the podium, ha ha, just above just
0:41
Speaker 2: with all of those stars that make up the rest
0:42
Speaker 2: of the Australian flag. But yes, there was a slightly
0:46
Speaker 2: black armbands tone going on with the Sky Sports coverage.
0:50
Speaker 2: After things have gone a little bit of rifle landover.
0:53
Speaker 2: I'm sure we'll get to discuss that in the next
0:55
Speaker 2: what six hundred thousand milliseconds of this podcast that are
0:58
Speaker 2: coming up, or if we're measuring things in milliseconds, or
1:01
Speaker 2: as the rest of the motor racing world likes to
1:02
Speaker 2: call it, thousandths of a second. But no matter how
1:05
Speaker 2: you addressed it up, Oscar Piastre was the dominant man
1:07
Speaker 2: in Zandwort and yeah, what a turn in the championship table. Huh.
1:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a remarkable series of events after a week
1:14
Speaker 1: of building up. How this championship was definitely going down
1:16
Speaker 1: to the wire and be lucky to get back to
1:18
Speaker 1: double digit differences in the championship tally. Well, here we
1:22
Speaker 1: are more than one race victory ahead for Oscar Piastre
1:25
Speaker 1: and Lando Norris, with it all to do, as they
1:27
Speaker 1: might say, to reclaim the lead, to get back into
1:30
Speaker 1: contention with nine rounds to go. I want to start
1:33
Speaker 1: with Piastre though, before we consider the state of the championship,
1:36
Speaker 1: because he now has nine career victories, equaling Mark Weber's
1:40
Speaker 1: career tally in about a third of the time. As
1:42
Speaker 1: it happens, Thur to the race starts very well, he said,
1:46
Speaker 1: I got seven wins Tonoris's five for the season, five
1:48
Speaker 1: poles to four, and he's collected his first Grand Slam
1:52
Speaker 1: or for the traditionalists among us his first Grand shalem
1:56
Speaker 1: Hove pronounced that correctly, victory from Pole. That's after victory
2:00
Speaker 1: for Pole, having led every lap, fastest lap of the race,
2:02
Speaker 1: and then of course winning the Grand Prix. Matt, you
2:04
Speaker 1: love a good statistic, and this is rare for Australians,
2:08
Speaker 1: rare than I expected.
2:10
Speaker 2: Very rare, and so rare that at about one point
2:12
Speaker 2: fifteen or Monday morning Australian time, I was pinging you
2:15
Speaker 2: this on WhatsApp because I couldn't quite believe what my
2:17
Speaker 2: eyes were showing me. Last time at Australian did that,
2:20
Speaker 2: So pol let every lap won the race, Sir Jack Brabham,
2:24
Speaker 2: Great Britain, nineteen sixty six. That's how far back we're
2:28
Speaker 2: going since an Australian has had a level of dominance
2:31
Speaker 2: over one particular Grand Prix that Piastre had on Sunday.
2:34
Speaker 2: And I think maybe I'm partly surprised that it's been
2:37
Speaker 2: that long, and I'm also partly surprised that it happened
2:39
Speaker 2: here because we spent a lot of last week's podcast,
2:42
Speaker 2: and you spent a lot of time writing for Fox
2:44
Speaker 2: Sports dot com dot Au that this was like an
2:46
Speaker 2: away game for Oscar Piastre in a lot of respects.
2:49
Speaker 2: It's a circuit where Norris has been so good, he's
2:51
Speaker 2: been so fast, and even the course the way the
2:54
Speaker 2: weekend played out, if you looked at the opening practice sessions,
2:57
Speaker 2: it looked very much part of the course in that
3:00
Speaker 2: it felt to me like it was going to be
3:01
Speaker 2: a damage limitation weekend for Piastre in that yes, okay,
3:04
Speaker 2: if you can qualify on the front row, that's great.
3:07
Speaker 2: If he can only seed seven points in a Lando
3:09
Speaker 2: Norris this weekend, that's actually a pretty good result because
3:12
Speaker 2: there will be races that tracks that suit him better.
3:15
Speaker 2: And then in the end, absolutely brilliant first lap in
3:18
Speaker 2: Q three, those twelve milliseconds at SkySports were wishing could
3:22
Speaker 2: go away, but which meant that Lando Norris started second,
3:25
Speaker 2: and then that just unlocked everything that happened in the race.
3:28
Speaker 2: With Norris not holding that position off the start and
3:31
Speaker 2: Piastri being completely perfect. You would have to say, I'm
3:36
Speaker 2: struggling to think of a wobble or something that went
3:39
Speaker 2: wrong or a safety car restart. He's just absolutely lights
3:43
Speaker 2: out when he gets into this sort of position, and
3:45
Speaker 2: we've seen that over the course of this season. I
3:47
Speaker 2: guess the surprising part for me and I'm sure for
3:49
Speaker 2: you was that he was doing it here because he
3:51
Speaker 2: hasn't had a particularly good track record at Zambault in
3:53
Speaker 2: the past.
3:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is the thing I've been saying. The
3:56
Speaker 1: aftermath of this race is, of course the championship points
3:58
Speaker 1: is significant, like that's going to be the big takeaway
4:00
Speaker 1: from this grand pre perhaps to the end of the season.
4:03
Speaker 1: But it's actually the victory he was on track for
4:05
Speaker 1: even before Norris retired, that I think was the most impressive, because,
4:08
Speaker 1: like you said, this is a track that, relative to Norris,
4:11
Speaker 1: he's been weak at. He's only been the sport for
4:13
Speaker 1: three years, but the last couple of years, and last
4:14
Speaker 1: year in particular, when he was coming to the end
4:17
Speaker 1: of what was actually really quite a successful run through
4:19
Speaker 1: the European rounds, he was the highest scoring driver in Europe.
4:23
Speaker 1: And yet this race was was a pretty big weakness.
4:25
Speaker 1: It was a race where you could sort of see
4:26
Speaker 1: the pace last year but couldn't string it together this
4:29
Speaker 1: year completely the opposite. Despite starting on the back foot,
4:32
Speaker 1: with Norris having looked to me between two and three
4:35
Speaker 1: tenths of a second advantage, through the practice sessions. He
4:38
Speaker 1: peaked at the right time. I think those were his
4:40
Speaker 1: words in qualifying and I liked actually the way that
4:43
Speaker 1: he talked about how he closed that gap because the
4:46
Speaker 1: assumption has been and the reality has been as well.
4:48
Speaker 1: And this is the case in teammate battles that you know,
4:51
Speaker 1: you get to the end of Friday, you look at
4:53
Speaker 1: the deficit, you are two tenths. You look at what
4:55
Speaker 1: the other guy in the next door garage is doing differently,
4:57
Speaker 1: and you try to incorporate that into your game the
4:59
Speaker 1: next and make those gains and close that gap. Gastri
5:03
Speaker 1: tried that through Friday, couldn't really do what Norris was
5:06
Speaker 1: doing this particularly turns nine and ten and a little
5:08
Speaker 1: bit the Chicane after Friday, and then decided, actually, what
5:11
Speaker 1: I'm going to do is see what I'm doing well
5:13
Speaker 1: and just do them better. And the result was We've
5:16
Speaker 1: got two drivers setting fundamentally the same lap time but
5:18
Speaker 1: in different ways, with different strengths and weaknesses. And I
5:21
Speaker 1: thought that was really interesting because that's sort of what
5:23
Speaker 1: we want to see for the rest of the year.
5:24
Speaker 1: Two different drivers, different approaches battling for the championship. That
5:28
Speaker 1: made the difference for him.
5:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, completely all the way you phrase that, you know,
5:32
Speaker 2: do the good stuff better, And it's not this case
5:35
Speaker 2: of absolute it's like, well, I have done the best
5:37
Speaker 2: possible job that I can do in this particular corner
5:40
Speaker 2: or this particular sector. It's like, rather than trying to
5:42
Speaker 2: chase something that you may not be able to attain
5:44
Speaker 2: because of car set up and driving style, let's just
5:47
Speaker 2: shave around the edges of the stuff that I'm doing
5:49
Speaker 2: really well. That's one aspect of this. The second aspect
5:53
Speaker 2: is the delivery of it. And we know now there's
5:55
Speaker 2: enough evidence to show that when the spotlight is super
5:59
Speaker 2: super bright, he's not normally the guy that waivers or
6:02
Speaker 2: buckles or has an emotional response. You know, we've joke
6:05
Speaker 2: in the past that there is a slightly robotic nature
6:07
Speaker 2: to the way that he goes about his racing and
6:10
Speaker 2: the way that he reacts to his racing. But in
6:12
Speaker 2: the situations like that where it seems that you have
6:15
Speaker 2: everything to lose and may well have already lost that,
6:18
Speaker 2: I think that temperament aspect of what it is that
6:20
Speaker 2: he does is super impressive and also just not surprising anymore.
6:24
Speaker 2: It's not surprising to him, it's not surprising to us.
6:27
Speaker 2: We expect this to happen now, and you know, yes, obviously,
6:31
Speaker 2: it's incredibly unfortunate luck for Norris to have a failure
6:35
Speaker 2: so close to home where he was a nailed on
6:37
Speaker 2: second place and McLaren are just you know, they think
6:39
Speaker 2: they were going to be onto their fifth straight one too.
6:41
Speaker 2: They're in a different category at the moment. But this
6:44
Speaker 2: wasn't a win that went begging for Norris. There's none
6:47
Speaker 2: of this. We're not going to use the word robbed
6:49
Speaker 2: on this podcast, but I think Sky Sports have robbed
6:51
Speaker 2: that used the allocation of the word robbed for this
6:54
Speaker 2: week for use that one. This was done, This was
6:57
Speaker 2: done before Norris had the DNF, and I think that's
7:00
Speaker 2: the most impressive part about all of this. But we
7:02
Speaker 2: did touch on this last week, and we also touched
7:05
Speaker 2: on with Alex Jakes in our mid season podcast. You
7:08
Speaker 2: look at the tracks where Piastre was weak, and I am
7:10
Speaker 2: using air quotes here because some of them he was
7:12
Speaker 2: actually perfectly fine, just not as good as his teammate.
7:15
Speaker 2: The gap that he's been able to bridge this year,
7:18
Speaker 2: thinking places like China where he was a bit lost
7:20
Speaker 2: the first time we went there. That's a pretty weird
7:22
Speaker 2: sort of a track, let's be honest, but so so
7:24
Speaker 2: much better there this year. And this is just another
7:26
Speaker 2: example of that where it feels like his learning curve
7:30
Speaker 2: at the perceived week points has been almost vertical this year.
7:34
Speaker 2: That's a good sign for the future because he's able
7:36
Speaker 2: to make really really big gains really really quickly. But
7:39
Speaker 2: I think it also accentuates the tracks where we know
7:41
Speaker 2: he's going to be strong. It's very hard right now
7:44
Speaker 2: to what's the weakness you can pick at, and yeah,
7:49
Speaker 2: we know he's on this unbelievable run of reliability. Now
7:52
Speaker 2: it's now the second longest finishing streak of races in
7:55
Speaker 2: Formula one history. He's finished his last forty three Grand
7:58
Speaker 2: Prix and obviously if he was to get to the
8:00
Speaker 2: end of the year without a DNF, then that's going
8:02
Speaker 2: to break the all time record, which is forty eight
8:03
Speaker 2: that Lewis Hamilton had a few years ago. So there
8:06
Speaker 2: is a degree of fortune in all of that, and
8:08
Speaker 2: that the same issue that Befel Norris could have Befallen
8:11
Speaker 2: pat Piastri or may do in the future. But in
8:13
Speaker 2: terms of the things that he can control where's the
8:16
Speaker 2: weakness right now? There doesn't really seem to be one.
8:19
Speaker 2: In the past, it was time management, then it was
8:21
Speaker 2: ultimate qualifying pace. Every year he just puts another one
8:24
Speaker 2: of these weaknesses to bed. And you know, is a
8:27
Speaker 2: thirty four point championship lead a little bit unrepresentative. Yeah,
8:30
Speaker 2: you'd have to say so. But in terms of the
8:32
Speaker 2: fact that he has the lead and he's had it
8:33
Speaker 2: since Saudi Arabia, then that's absolutely as the championship should
8:37
Speaker 2: be right now.
8:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's something in the fact that many of his
8:41
Speaker 1: wins this year have been the tracks that he's been
8:43
Speaker 1: so poor at relatively in previous years. You mentioned China
8:47
Speaker 1: there one this weekend Japan was another one, because that's
8:49
Speaker 1: a high tie wear track. Finished in that lead group.
8:52
Speaker 1: Nim McLaren won, but finished in that lead group of
8:54
Speaker 1: three behind Max withstaff and so did well enough at
8:57
Speaker 1: a minimum to show those difficulties had been eliminated. Spain
9:00
Speaker 1: he won quite comfortably. Their Netherlands he's won now and
9:05
Speaker 1: one pretty comprehensively or on a trajectory that was clear,
9:08
Speaker 1: that was not fortunate, that was not circumstantial. That in
9:11
Speaker 1: itself is quite interesting when we consider assessing where any
9:14
Speaker 1: weaknesses are. And I think the flip side of this
9:16
Speaker 1: as well. This is his first pole position since the
9:18
Speaker 1: Spanish Grand Prix, which is a little while in that
9:20
Speaker 1: period of time was when Norris appeared. Thanks to that
9:24
Speaker 1: McLaren changed the front suspension that that's helped him regain
9:26
Speaker 1: some feeling, has stopped making those qualifying areas. We haven't
9:29
Speaker 1: seen a Norris qualifying era for a while, and that's
9:32
Speaker 1: interesting to me because there was this perception I suppose
9:36
Speaker 1: not totally incorrect, but that Norris would be that little
9:39
Speaker 1: bit ahead in the way many people expected if he
9:41
Speaker 1: stopped making mistakes, and he stopped making mistakes in Piastre's
9:45
Speaker 1: lead hasn't been has been eaten into before this weekend,
9:48
Speaker 1: hasn't been eliminated, and is now much larger and would
9:51
Speaker 1: have been larger regardless of the DNF because Piastrew is
9:55
Speaker 1: on track to win a race that Norris should have
9:57
Speaker 1: in his one hundred percent form, let's call it should
10:00
Speaker 1: have been able to win. And it also makes you
10:02
Speaker 1: think about the outlook for this season now, something we
10:04
Speaker 1: did talk about last week, but if Norris no longer
10:07
Speaker 1: has strongholds like this circuit, in the context of him
10:10
Speaker 1: now needing to win quite a few Grand Prix to
10:12
Speaker 1: get back level, it's hard to imagine that part. He
10:15
Speaker 1: could come out and win several races because it is
10:17
Speaker 1: still close between them, and if every situation is roughly
10:20
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty, then you could by luck win a
10:22
Speaker 1: lot of them. But it's hard to chart a course.
10:26
Speaker 1: I guess in a logical way if you like to
10:28
Speaker 1: see how Norris can get on that role when he
10:31
Speaker 1: can't be overwhelming at a track like Zandvort.
10:35
Speaker 2: The two things that he has in his favor. As
10:37
Speaker 2: I done my sky Sports Blazer here, you mentioned there's
10:41
Speaker 2: still nine rounds to go. There's so long to go,
10:44
Speaker 2: and there's so many points up for grabs. That's one thing,
10:46
Speaker 2: and realistically on pace there's no one in the same
10:49
Speaker 2: conversation right now. It's funny, isn't it that Max Forstappen,
10:52
Speaker 2: four time reigning world champion, Max for Stappan, he's now
10:55
Speaker 2: what I'd call a disruptor. That's literally what he's become.
10:58
Speaker 2: He's just become Formula one's great up to in that
11:00
Speaker 2: he knows and we know and Red bullno, and everyone
11:03
Speaker 2: knows that on actual merit and on pace. He hasn't
11:06
Speaker 2: got a prayer of beating these two McLaren's right now,
11:08
Speaker 2: but he can make it interesting and he can throw
11:11
Speaker 2: you know, a couple of monkey wrenches in there, and
11:12
Speaker 2: you know, we'll talk about it a little bit later.
11:14
Speaker 2: I thought he maximized every opportunity that he had, and
11:17
Speaker 2: there weren't many of them over the course of the
11:18
Speaker 2: weekend to get himself where it got himself. But he's
11:21
Speaker 2: now cast in the role of disruptor and there's no
11:24
Speaker 2: one else anywhere else that's got a car or form
11:27
Speaker 2: or the ability to be able to muscle in on that.
11:30
Speaker 2: So Piastre, there's a roadmap to the title here where
11:34
Speaker 2: he can't back his way into the title. Piastre, there's
11:36
Speaker 2: still too many races still to go, but the chance
11:38
Speaker 2: of other teams and drivers being real interlopus and really
11:41
Speaker 2: getting in the fire, other than maybe a few races
11:44
Speaker 2: that could be track specific or you know, somewhere like
11:47
Speaker 2: Brazil when it rains. Wherever Stappens has just been a
11:49
Speaker 2: complete genius for years. There's so many races still for
11:52
Speaker 2: Norris to go, but there's not enough other cars potentially
11:54
Speaker 2: to upset Piastre. So Piastre can have an inverted Cobbas
11:57
Speaker 2: not great race and probably fifty second a few times.
12:01
Speaker 2: And now because he has a thirty four point championship lead,
12:03
Speaker 2: he can actually afford one or two of those. But
12:05
Speaker 2: you look at the approach for Piastre from now on,
12:08
Speaker 2: and this is not We're too far away from the
12:11
Speaker 2: end of the season for him to start sort of
12:12
Speaker 2: plagued defensively to sort of play out time. If there
12:16
Speaker 2: were four to five races to go and we're still
12:18
Speaker 2: in this position, then maybe, But right now the approach
12:22
Speaker 2: has just got to be Okay, great, I've got this
12:23
Speaker 2: thirty four point championship lead. I had that race one anyway.
12:27
Speaker 2: So Monza, to use a favorite McLaren press, really saying,
12:30
Speaker 2: we go again, and that's what we'll do. Just keep
12:33
Speaker 2: doing the same thing, the same thing, the same thing,
12:35
Speaker 2: because it's led him to a pretty advantageous position right now.
12:38
Speaker 1: I want to throw some maths at you. I do
12:40
Speaker 1: like writing these sorts of pieces. I'm not convinced we're
12:42
Speaker 1: ready to write this piece yet, but it's interesting nonetheless
12:45
Speaker 1: in the context, because let's assume that McLaren can or
12:48
Speaker 1: does finish one two for the rest of the season
12:50
Speaker 1: the majority of races. I think it probably will, but
12:52
Speaker 1: there are a couple of curveball tracks coming up. Vegas
12:54
Speaker 1: in my mind's probably the biggest one, and maybe Brazil
12:57
Speaker 1: and to a lesser extensing Repoor. Well, we'll talking about
13:00
Speaker 1: a little bit later on. But assuming those one two finishes,
13:03
Speaker 1: Piastre needs to win three more Grand Prix and then
13:07
Speaker 1: Norris's fate will be out of his hands. Piastri can
13:09
Speaker 1: finish second for the rest of the season, for the
13:10
Speaker 1: rest of the year and win the title. This excludes sprints,
13:13
Speaker 1: but I think from my mats the you know, it's
13:16
Speaker 1: only three points between one and two in the sprints,
13:18
Speaker 1: and I think it's still accounts for that. I think
13:19
Speaker 1: it still works.
13:20
Speaker 2: So are you trying to make sprints sound you're trying
13:21
Speaker 2: to make sprints sound relevant?
13:22
Speaker 1: Day is that we're doing more non effectual and all
13:26
Speaker 1: the sprints, of course are backloaded right at the end
13:28
Speaker 1: of the season, which is frustrating. But Norris to do
13:31
Speaker 1: the same, we'll need to win seven Grand Prix. That
13:33
Speaker 1: would be him with one hand on the trophy. You
13:36
Speaker 1: need to win five just to level up. It would
13:38
Speaker 1: be one point ahead. I think if you won the
13:39
Speaker 1: next five Grand Prix with Piastre in second, so that's
13:42
Speaker 1: the mountain to climb to win the championship. We now
13:44
Speaker 1: can count our way towards the title the various parts.
13:47
Speaker 1: That's a big difference in the number of wins. Like
13:49
Speaker 1: you say, it's too far into the future, and there
13:52
Speaker 1: are enough chances for at least Backs to stappen, and
13:55
Speaker 1: maybe it's some circuit some other drivers to interfere, and
13:59
Speaker 1: then suddenly you know, the difference between first and third
14:01
Speaker 1: is ten points, which is quite a lot when you
14:02
Speaker 1: start to think about it. That's part of the reason
14:04
Speaker 1: Piastre is able to close the gap at the start
14:05
Speaker 1: of the year as well, so quickly, one or two
14:07
Speaker 1: cars is enough to make a massive difference.
14:09
Speaker 2: Well, and the other thing before you get off this
14:11
Speaker 2: real quick, the stat that I mentioned before about the
14:14
Speaker 2: pastre finishing record that he's got. I'm a little bit
14:17
Speaker 2: surprised how underplayed that is being at the moment, because
14:21
Speaker 2: it feels to me, like, you know, it's that odd
14:23
Speaker 2: saying in most sports, it's like, you know, with every
14:25
Speaker 2: consecutive win, you're closer to your next loss. It feels
14:28
Speaker 2: a little bit like that, And it's if you're going
14:30
Speaker 2: to have the loss the DNF in this instance, when
14:33
Speaker 2: do you want to have it? Because if you're talking
14:35
Speaker 2: about you know, there's nine rounds left to go, and
14:38
Speaker 2: if Piastre was to finish every one of those races,
14:40
Speaker 2: that is the longest run of consecutive race finishes in
14:43
Speaker 2: the history of Formula one. That's what we're talking about here.
14:46
Speaker 2: We're not just talking about for one or two seasons.
14:48
Speaker 2: We're talking about seventy five years of Formula one here.
14:51
Speaker 2: So you know, assuming that he doesn't set a historical
14:54
Speaker 2: marker here, when do you want the dn F? Because
14:57
Speaker 2: it be one of those things like it wouldn't be
14:58
Speaker 2: the worst thing ever happened, suitor, to be honest.
15:01
Speaker 1: Yes, well, I mean the good thing, because I can't
15:02
Speaker 1: remember if we were talking about this in last week's
15:04
Speaker 1: podcast or just between you and I mat during the week.
15:07
Speaker 1: But you do get that sense that, well, that's now
15:10
Speaker 1: hanging over his head a little bit, that that statistic
15:12
Speaker 1: could be coming, but now he has it in his pocket.
15:15
Speaker 2: Right.
15:15
Speaker 1: The fact that Norris has had the DNF first takes
15:18
Speaker 1: the pressure off that statistic a little bit. Whether or
15:21
Speaker 1: not it's fulfilled completely.
15:22
Speaker 2: You've got the Mulligan. You can just choose when to
15:24
Speaker 2: play it.
15:25
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly right, and you don't know. Maybe you played
15:27
Speaker 1: at that one race McLaren, much like a Norris's DNF
15:29
Speaker 1: in Canada, the one race where McLaren isn't winning and
15:32
Speaker 1: the points difference is minimized. So it will be interesting
15:35
Speaker 1: to see if that plays out, or whether piastrian a
15:38
Speaker 1: title in a season that would presumably deliver him the championship.
15:41
Speaker 1: If he gets to the end of the year without
15:43
Speaker 1: a DNF or a failure to score sets records along
15:46
Speaker 1: the way. Already setting many Australian records, could well set
15:50
Speaker 1: the Australian record for all time victories. I think'm wrote
15:52
Speaker 1: and saying because he's nine ye now, yes he could,
15:54
Speaker 1: absolutely he could. Plenty of races to go. It will
15:57
Speaker 1: be fascinating to see where he ends this sea. Let's
16:01
Speaker 1: move now, Matt to Move of the Week brought to
16:03
Speaker 1: you by Shannons for the Dutch Grand Prix. Not traditionally
16:06
Speaker 1: a track where there are many moves to in Move
16:09
Speaker 1: of the Week, but I think there were enough to
16:11
Speaker 1: my mind. In fact, there were two that could qualify
16:14
Speaker 1: here and there are two of us, so why don't
16:16
Speaker 1: you go first?
16:17
Speaker 2: Well, I'm going to cave out this by saying, when
16:19
Speaker 2: you go through the classification for this race, a lot
16:24
Speaker 2: of stuff happened in this Grand Prix to a lot
16:26
Speaker 2: of people. It's not one of those races we go
16:28
Speaker 2: that guy finished twelfth, nothing happened to him. That's fine.
16:31
Speaker 2: Now you're saying that there's two of us, and there's
16:33
Speaker 2: at least two moves. I actually have one normal move
16:35
Speaker 2: and one very left field one. So I think you
16:36
Speaker 2: should go first because if you choose the one that
16:38
Speaker 2: i'm because I've got a left field one for you
16:40
Speaker 2: that I'd like to deploy if it lends itself to
16:43
Speaker 2: that way. So what have you got?
16:44
Speaker 1: Very good? I can take my pick between them. In
16:47
Speaker 1: that case, I'm going to go for Charlotte Clair on
16:49
Speaker 1: George Russell. Technically an illegal move in my opinion, yes,
16:53
Speaker 1: but a great one. It was all four wheels off
16:56
Speaker 1: the line at the Chicane. But what I liked about this,
16:59
Speaker 1: and it almost the second part of it is almost
17:01
Speaker 1: when lecler gets taken out of the race by Andrea
17:03
Speaker 1: kim Antonelli afterwards, but wasn't too angry about it, because
17:06
Speaker 1: he said, at a track like this, you just have
17:08
Speaker 1: to try something on and they're not all going to
17:10
Speaker 1: be pulled off. He was quite sanguine about it, I
17:12
Speaker 1: suppose you could say, but I like the way that
17:15
Speaker 1: he knowing he knew, had the pace. You can't just
17:17
Speaker 1: rely on the DRS at the end of turn one
17:19
Speaker 1: because it's not always going to work the way this
17:21
Speaker 1: track's laid out. It's not one of the more effective
17:24
Speaker 1: DRS zones round the outside better on the brakes. I
17:28
Speaker 1: think the reason why this probably could have been allowed legal,
17:31
Speaker 1: other than the fact that neither driver bothered to really
17:33
Speaker 1: push the point because of what happened afterwards, is that
17:35
Speaker 1: I think he was still in control and would have
17:37
Speaker 1: made the track had Russell not beither I know the
17:39
Speaker 1: racing rules or like Carla signs some opinions on the
17:42
Speaker 1: application of the racing rules, suggests still he should he
17:44
Speaker 1: was in the role. But I just thought it was
17:46
Speaker 1: so well pulled off and so aggressive and such a
17:49
Speaker 1: great move for this track and showed a little bit
17:52
Speaker 1: in one week before once I just showed a little
17:54
Speaker 1: bit of life in the Ferrari. I enjoyed that move.
17:57
Speaker 1: I thought it was great. I thought it was a
17:58
Speaker 1: highlight of the race, and that's my movie of the week.
18:00
Speaker 2: I enjoyed that he went for it. I think it's
18:03
Speaker 2: almost like it's the thought that co outs see him, Michael,
18:05
Speaker 2: because I like that, you know this is it always
18:07
Speaker 2: serves up an interesting race because of weather and corner
18:10
Speaker 2: configurations and what have you. Just quietly it's a bit
18:13
Speaker 2: of a rubbish racetrack because you can't actually race there
18:15
Speaker 2: with modern day Formula line cars because the car's too
18:18
Speaker 2: big and the circuits too narrow and so on and
18:20
Speaker 2: so forth. Looks wonderful on TV. So when you get
18:23
Speaker 2: one of these moves, even the prospect of a move
18:25
Speaker 2: like this, you oh, look at this, because that's not
18:27
Speaker 2: something you would expect to see at this particular track.
18:30
Speaker 2: So I do enjoy that it didn't actually make my
18:32
Speaker 2: short list of too funnily enough, as good as it
18:34
Speaker 2: was interesting, because in the honorable mentions category, I'm going
18:38
Speaker 2: to say Max Forstappen's lap one where he got past
18:41
Speaker 2: Lado Overs into second place and just about lost the car.
18:45
Speaker 2: And I thought at the time, the audaciousness of the
18:48
Speaker 2: audacity audacious, So speak English in a minute the audacity
18:52
Speaker 2: of being able to pull that move off. I'm not
18:54
Speaker 2: sure that's a move that too many other drivers would
18:56
Speaker 2: have actually had the balls to go for a little
18:59
Speaker 2: load the skill to be able to so that was
19:00
Speaker 2: absolutely outstanding. But you probably are going to like where
19:04
Speaker 2: I'm going to go here. Move of the week for
19:06
Speaker 2: me is Lance Stroll go on. This is a move
19:11
Speaker 2: of the week for me because he was so bad
19:13
Speaker 2: that he crashed twice as started last and so that
19:16
Speaker 2: springboarded him to naturally a seventh place finish and ahead
19:19
Speaker 2: of his teammate in the World Championship standings despite being
19:22
Speaker 2: down fifteen zero in qualifying for the season. Somehow Lance
19:26
Speaker 2: Stroll is ahead of Fernando a lot. So with the
19:28
Speaker 2: driver's standings, may I remind you there's another driver that's
19:31
Speaker 2: fifteen zero up on their teammates this year in qualifying
19:34
Speaker 2: and team mates is the key there, because it's been
19:35
Speaker 2: two of them, Max for Stappan. The points gap between
19:38
Speaker 2: Max for Stappen and his teammates this year is two
19:40
Speaker 2: hundred and five points to twelve. So the fact that
19:43
Speaker 2: Lance Stroll has basically just had his backside handed to
19:46
Speaker 2: him for fifteen straight weekends crashes twice, lucks out, finishes
19:49
Speaker 2: seventh in the race and is ahead of Fernando a lot.
19:51
Speaker 2: So with the standings that my friend is move of
19:54
Speaker 2: the week, possibly move of the season.
19:56
Speaker 1: That's very good. I like that. And if you want
19:58
Speaker 1: to know how Fernando Alonzo took it, just on find
20:00
Speaker 1: his post and he didn't take it well. I think
20:03
Speaker 1: it would be fair to say, despite of course him
20:06
Speaker 1: being contractually obliged to describe Lancetroll regularly as a world
20:09
Speaker 1: champion in the making, wasn't happy to finish behind him
20:13
Speaker 1: in the contract in which he finished behind him. And yes,
20:16
Speaker 1: I really loved the Vistaffan move as well. That was
20:17
Speaker 1: my other one, and I reckon out of the twenty
20:20
Speaker 1: drivers on the grid, nineteen other ones would have lost
20:23
Speaker 1: it immediately and possibly wiped out Piastri if Fiastri was
20:26
Speaker 1: one of the nineteen in the process. So I think
20:28
Speaker 1: with staff an absolutely great contender. But I look, you
20:31
Speaker 1: know what I'm willing if we would have to vote
20:33
Speaker 1: between them every week, I'm willing to give it to
20:35
Speaker 1: Lancetroll remarkably, this im perpetuity. Let's look at the racing
20:40
Speaker 1: a little bit more detail now, because it was one
20:43
Speaker 1: other highlight among the results, and that was Isaac Kadja,
20:46
Speaker 1: who finished third for his first Grand Prix podium, just
20:49
Speaker 1: fifteen rounds into his career. We know he has the
20:53
Speaker 1: speed that's been clear all season and was clear in
20:55
Speaker 1: the junior categories as well, and we know as well
20:58
Speaker 1: from the season, to be fair, that he has the racecraft,
21:00
Speaker 1: but this was such an assured performance at a track. Okay,
21:03
Speaker 1: we're overtaking his difficult but had much faster cars behind
21:06
Speaker 1: you and it was possible to overtake if you had
21:08
Speaker 1: a big pace difference, as there should have been him
21:10
Speaker 1: between let's say a Mercedes in a racing bulls car
21:13
Speaker 1: a Ferrari in a rasing bulls car. But he managed
21:15
Speaker 1: to hold on to fourth, which became third of course
21:18
Speaker 1: when Lando Norris retired. And mad's probably worth reflecting on
21:22
Speaker 1: where his season started, which was in the barriers on
21:25
Speaker 1: the formation lap, and here he is on the podium.
21:27
Speaker 2: Yes, you said fifteen rounds. Of course that's fourteen Grand
21:30
Speaker 2: Prix because he didn't start his debut in Australia because
21:32
Speaker 2: he managed to bin it on the way to the grid.
21:34
Speaker 2: And we were half joking on Sunday saying, well, fourth
21:37
Speaker 2: on the grid, fantastic qualifying lap, but you might get
21:40
Speaker 2: a bit dizzy being that high on the grid and
21:42
Speaker 2: you've got Max Fastappan next to you, which if you're
21:44
Speaker 2: planning on being a Red Bull driver in the future,
21:46
Speaker 2: you might give him a fairly wide berth at tw
21:48
Speaker 2: one and you've got two title contending McLaren's ahead of
21:50
Speaker 2: you and nothing else on the grid. Oh boy, this
21:52
Speaker 2: could be interesting. But he he never put a foot
21:56
Speaker 2: wrong end. Look, yes, the podium was slightly inherited because
22:00
Speaker 2: of what have happened to Norris, but in terms of
22:02
Speaker 2: being able to cope with being that high up and
22:06
Speaker 2: withwithstanding pressure and clearly the racing Bulls is not as
22:09
Speaker 2: good of a car as some of the cars that
22:10
Speaker 2: were behind him, just so very very assured and so
22:15
Speaker 2: the potentially bad news for isaat Kajaris. He's now being
22:17
Speaker 2: considered as the second driver at Red Bull, which is
22:19
Speaker 2: where most Formula One careers go to die at this point.
22:22
Speaker 2: But he was absolutely fantastic and I love the I
22:27
Speaker 2: always love the enthusiasm of a first time podium finisher.
22:30
Speaker 2: There's just something quite cool and raw about the whole thing.
22:33
Speaker 2: I did enjoy that. I did not enjoy the Racing
22:37
Speaker 2: Bulls press release, which I'm sure you've seen, and I
22:39
Speaker 2: hope you've managed to block out of your mind. This
22:42
Speaker 2: is trend, as we know, in a lot of social
22:44
Speaker 2: media things these days, to just staple two completely unconnected
22:47
Speaker 2: words together and come up with a brand new word.
22:49
Speaker 2: So when I saw the word hadge odium written at
22:53
Speaker 2: the top of the Racing Bulls press release, I was swearing.
22:57
Speaker 2: I was reading that in Hungarian or something, and I
22:59
Speaker 2: had to ble a couple of times and go, oh, no,
23:01
Speaker 2: they've stapled his part of his surname and the fact
23:04
Speaker 2: he's been on the podium together and come up with
23:06
Speaker 2: a word that I would never like to see or
23:08
Speaker 2: say ever again. So bad form by Racing Balls on
23:11
Speaker 2: that front. But we'll give them a we'll give them
23:13
Speaker 2: a mulligan here, because they don't get on podiums very often.
23:15
Speaker 1: No, they don't have a lot of practice for that.
23:17
Speaker 1: We'll just wait till he wins it and we get
23:19
Speaker 1: them had victory.
23:23
Speaker 2: Yes, wonderful, tremendous. I am so old at this point.
23:28
Speaker 2: I cannot tolerate this.
23:31
Speaker 1: It is very good. It does a little a little
23:33
Speaker 1: damp it on the end there and he broke his trophy,
23:35
Speaker 1: which I didn't like either, because some of the we
23:37
Speaker 1: should one day do a ranking of the trophies of
23:40
Speaker 1: the Formula one calendar, because this is comfortably among the
23:42
Speaker 1: top ones to break it. Oh dear, that is not
23:45
Speaker 1: the hadjodium.
23:46
Speaker 2: You'd want a rookie mistake.
23:47
Speaker 1: Induede, that's quiet. It was a good result for him, obviously, unless,
23:53
Speaker 1: of course, he's promoted to Red Bull racing anytime, and
23:55
Speaker 1: it could possibly be bad result for him because he's
23:59
Speaker 1: firming in that position now, isn't he, or at least
24:01
Speaker 1: he is in the minds of those who are observing.
24:03
Speaker 1: Because it was another weekend which he was the second
24:05
Speaker 1: best red Bull backed driver behind Max Verstaffan Yuki Sonoda.
24:09
Speaker 1: I didn't have his worst weekend, to be fair to him,
24:10
Speaker 1: I suppose, but also didn't have a particularly great one.
24:13
Speaker 1: Didn't make it into Q three again. The gap to
24:16
Speaker 1: Maxwistappen was half a second in Q two, which is
24:19
Speaker 1: much larger than obviously he'd hoped for, but much larger
24:21
Speaker 1: than the trend of the previous two rounds had suggested.
24:24
Speaker 1: This is, of course, despite him having the upgrades that
24:27
Speaker 1: or having most of the upgrades that Maxwis Staffin has.
24:30
Speaker 1: In any case, did score points though for the first
24:32
Speaker 1: time since the Emilia Romania cranfree in May, which is
24:36
Speaker 1: just a remarkable statistic, but not great, not on the
24:40
Speaker 1: level of Maxistappin. I guess you could say it's like,
24:42
Speaker 1: in a global sense, a little bit improved to the trend.
24:46
Speaker 1: But certainly considering we know and he's sort of said
24:48
Speaker 1: as much for the second part of the season, is
24:51
Speaker 1: him fighting to be retained next year? This wasn't the
24:53
Speaker 1: start he would have hoped for.
24:55
Speaker 2: No, And I'm looking at the Haja thing here in
24:57
Speaker 2: the context of Christian Hauner not being at Red Bull
24:59
Speaker 2: and and I'm just wondering if that this new Red
25:03
Speaker 2: Bull era here you look at Lawson and you look
25:05
Speaker 2: at Sonoda and whatever team they're driving for, they feel
25:09
Speaker 2: a little bit just damaged by the whole experience because
25:12
Speaker 2: Lawson was in, then he was out, and then he
25:13
Speaker 2: was promoted, then he was demoted, and Sonoda's been up
25:16
Speaker 2: and down and that even wants him in Formula one.
25:18
Speaker 2: And then you've got you know, Sergio Brews taking your
25:20
Speaker 2: victory lap for how terrible the second how terrible the
25:23
Speaker 2: car has been, and my career was much better in retrospect,
25:26
Speaker 2: and so on and so forth. Hadja because he came
25:28
Speaker 2: in with the second team and he hasn't gone up
25:30
Speaker 2: and down yet, And now you know, it's a new
25:33
Speaker 2: Red Bull to a degree, I wonder if there's almost
25:36
Speaker 2: like you're not sort of tainted by a lot of
25:38
Speaker 2: the failures of some of these other guys in the past,
25:40
Speaker 2: where they've gone up and down a little bit. There's
25:41
Speaker 2: something a little bit more I don't know if innocent's
25:44
Speaker 2: quite the right word, but it feels a little bit
25:46
Speaker 2: more sustainable. And maybe the pressure point there is the
25:50
Speaker 2: fact that the other cars now not winning races and
25:52
Speaker 2: world championships, and maybe that's the difference here. Whoever ends
25:56
Speaker 2: up in that second Red Bull seat next year, maybe
25:59
Speaker 2: there's not this direct comparison to well, you better step
26:02
Speaker 2: up because the guy on the other car has just
26:03
Speaker 2: won every Grold pre nearly for a season, or he's
26:06
Speaker 2: won four World championships in a row. Wonder if that
26:08
Speaker 2: changes a job description a little bit, And you do
26:11
Speaker 2: wonder if Sonoda now had Lawson before him, were a
26:14
Speaker 2: little bit hamstrung by the fact that the expectations were
26:17
Speaker 2: so high because of what the other car was doing,
26:19
Speaker 2: and the weight of recent history and red Bull and
26:22
Speaker 2: Horner presiding all over these World championships. You do wonder
26:25
Speaker 2: if the job descriptions a little bit different. But we
26:27
Speaker 2: said this last week that Haja, of all the rookies
26:30
Speaker 2: that came on this year, and there was an unusually
26:32
Speaker 2: large number of them, he was probably the one that
26:35
Speaker 2: we had the lowest expectations for. I would say not unfairly.
26:39
Speaker 2: I think it's just the way it shook out. And
26:41
Speaker 2: even before the hadj odium he was ticking most boxes.
26:46
Speaker 2: He's done a really, really good job the entire year.
26:49
Speaker 2: So this result is yeah, bit of an outlier, but
26:51
Speaker 2: probably in keeping with the fact that he's just been
26:53
Speaker 2: seriously impressive the longer this season's gone on. Yeah, absolutely right,
26:58
Speaker 2: we say had jotidium. I will never say it again.
27:04
Speaker 1: No, please feel free. In fact, I think we should
27:06
Speaker 1: anytime anyone finishes on the podium used that naming convention.
27:10
Speaker 2: Whatever their name is.
27:12
Speaker 1: Yes, I think that should work. I want to look
27:13
Speaker 1: a little bit further down the order as well, because
27:15
Speaker 1: this weekend, of course, is the Italian Grand Prix. It's
27:17
Speaker 1: back to back. This concludes the European season, unless you
27:20
Speaker 1: consider as a jant to be part of Europe. It's
27:22
Speaker 1: up to you. I'm not going to wait until politics
27:25
Speaker 1: very good. I think that's probably a fair conclusion. Not
27:28
Speaker 1: a great weekend for Ferrari started quite poorly on Friday
27:31
Speaker 1: with a total lack of pace. By Saturday, in qualifying
27:34
Speaker 1: they'd found some pace but were never really in contention
27:37
Speaker 1: for pole or even the first couple of rows. But
27:39
Speaker 1: at least both got both cars into Q three and
27:42
Speaker 1: at least Lewis Hamilton looked a little bit back to
27:44
Speaker 1: normal this weekend. He was in fact ahead of Charlotte
27:47
Speaker 1: Claire for most of the weekend, was only just pipped
27:49
Speaker 1: to a better position in qualifying in Q three, but
27:52
Speaker 1: nonetheless was very close between them, pleasingly so, I suppose,
27:55
Speaker 1: considering where Hamilton ended the first part of the season.
27:58
Speaker 1: Then both drivers failed to finished the Grand Prix, Hamilton
28:01
Speaker 1: on his own accord getting slipped up on the slippy
28:04
Speaker 1: part of the track. One might say, if one were
28:07
Speaker 1: in commentary at the turn three, banking on the advertising
28:10
Speaker 1: paint there out of the race, and Charlotte their out
28:12
Speaker 1: of the race at almost exactly the same place, but
28:14
Speaker 1: after being punted by Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who will receive
28:17
Speaker 1: a penalty the next race for his next home Grand
28:20
Speaker 1: Prix as well for causing that collision. So quite a
28:23
Speaker 1: poor result. Still retain second in the constructors Championship, but
28:26
Speaker 1: only just by a little bit ahead of Mercedes. This
28:30
Speaker 1: isn't you know? We shouldn't forget when now a couple
28:32
Speaker 1: of rounds into the team's upgrade schedule, the upgrades that
28:35
Speaker 1: were meant to help this car, he returned to the
28:38
Speaker 1: level of competitiveness that enjoyed early in the season before
28:40
Speaker 1: it was disqualified in the Chinese Grand Prix, and this
28:43
Speaker 1: weekend certainly didn't show much for that argument.
28:46
Speaker 2: No, I mean, look, if you were a Marshall and
28:48
Speaker 2: you had a dustpan and brush it turn three, he
28:49
Speaker 2: could almost build yourself a replica Ferrari, given there were
28:51
Speaker 2: bits of a scattered all over the place. But yeah,
28:55
Speaker 2: I know, obviously very disappointing. They've had a double DNF
28:58
Speaker 2: first D and F for each drive by the way
29:00
Speaker 2: here to growlbriy this year. It has fifteen rounds to
29:02
Speaker 2: get to that. But it's such a it's such an
29:06
Speaker 2: unusual outlier of a track ZANDVOT that it's almost like
29:09
Speaker 2: I need more of a sample size. It's obviously very
29:11
Speaker 2: unfortunate that need a driver finish the race, one through
29:14
Speaker 2: their own fault, one through somebody else's. But you know,
29:17
Speaker 2: you know, you mentioned mons are coming up. There is
29:20
Speaker 2: a little something that Ferrari always tend to find there,
29:24
Speaker 2: and I think we need probably a greater spread of
29:26
Speaker 2: circuits now before we decide whether Ferrari is really just
29:29
Speaker 2: limping to the finish line of this regulation set or
29:31
Speaker 2: whether they'll do the very standard Ferrari thing have been
29:33
Speaker 2: really really good at the end of the season where
29:35
Speaker 2: there's absolutely nothing to fight for for a rule set
29:39
Speaker 2: that's about to go in the same skip as the
29:40
Speaker 2: two cars from last weekend. So yeah, look disappointing on
29:44
Speaker 2: its face because Mercedes has really only got one cast
29:46
Speaker 2: scoring at the moment, so there's a chance to build
29:49
Speaker 2: a greater advantage there. But I do know about you,
29:51
Speaker 2: But because I mentioned twenty twenty six in this rule reset,
29:55
Speaker 2: I'm almost not other than the Lewis Hamilton narrative, like
29:58
Speaker 2: is this going to get any better? I'm not super
30:01
Speaker 2: interested in what Ferrari do now for the rest of
30:04
Speaker 2: the season, simply because of this hard reset for next year,
30:08
Speaker 2: and we've gone through another rule set and another red
30:10
Speaker 2: set where they have one championship, and they've showed intermittent
30:12
Speaker 2: flashes and they've fought for some things, and they've had
30:14
Speaker 2: some poor years. It almost doesn't matter how they finish
30:17
Speaker 2: this season to a degree, because it has to all
30:20
Speaker 2: be about twenty twenty six right now, doesn't it. You know,
30:23
Speaker 2: you've got the drivers with the pedigree, and you know,
30:26
Speaker 2: you know, someone like Charla Clerk still feels to me
30:28
Speaker 2: like he's a wheel champion in waiting. Is it always
30:30
Speaker 2: going to feel like that to me? Because I think
30:31
Speaker 2: he's that good. Do we really care that much about
30:34
Speaker 2: the rest of the year other than just see if
30:36
Speaker 2: Hamilton concerned things around, because surely the bigger prize is
30:40
Speaker 2: if we get twenty twenty six right then no one's
30:42
Speaker 2: going to care about the last nine rounds of twenty
30:43
Speaker 2: twenty five, are we.
30:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really a matter of how hard they're willing
30:47
Speaker 1: to brace for the rest of the season. I think
30:50
Speaker 1: how much they're willing to cop just to get through
30:53
Speaker 1: the year, because unfortunately, with them. The season so long,
30:55
Speaker 1: nine races, it's a lot of time to just say, well,
30:58
Speaker 1: it's all about next year, isn't it time to keep
31:00
Speaker 1: morale up? That has been part of the equation for
31:02
Speaker 1: a lot of teams. You know, I'd always like to
31:04
Speaker 1: point to sobur in this situation, because they really decided
31:06
Speaker 1: not to throw in the towel on this year's car
31:08
Speaker 1: when all logic suggests they probably shouldn't have done any
31:11
Speaker 1: work on it and just focused on next year. But
31:13
Speaker 1: think about the effect that that upturning performance has had
31:16
Speaker 1: on that team, making them look look not only just credible,
31:19
Speaker 1: but actually make the audi outlook look a little bit
31:22
Speaker 1: more positive. Ferrari has tried to develop this car, obviously
31:25
Speaker 1: brought upgrades as recently just before the mid season break.
31:28
Speaker 1: I don't think they're any more coming, but I think
31:30
Speaker 1: there is some motivation and some understandable motivation to at
31:34
Speaker 1: least have a couple of better results for the rest
31:37
Speaker 1: of the year. Can't just rely on that sprint victory
31:39
Speaker 1: at the start of the season. It remains me said
31:42
Speaker 1: whether that can happen. Like you say, we need a
31:43
Speaker 1: bigger sample size. Zandword is a really particular track I
31:46
Speaker 1: thought it was interesting. On Friday, Charlott Claire said it's
31:48
Speaker 1: a track laud as well that just happens to bring
31:51
Speaker 1: out the very specific weaknesses in.
31:53
Speaker 2: The car and highlight them.
31:55
Speaker 1: So maybe we should look at that the way that
31:57
Speaker 1: the team kind of turned things around over the course
31:58
Speaker 1: of the weekend or improve them as actually quite a
32:01
Speaker 1: good sign. And Charlottelaire was in contention for fourth, probably
32:04
Speaker 1: would have finished fourth as well, that you're not been
32:06
Speaker 1: eliminated by Andrea Kimi Antonelli and then may finished third
32:11
Speaker 1: or potentially it was in the range for that kind
32:14
Speaker 1: of result, so reasonable, I guess at the end for him,
32:19
Speaker 1: And maybe that does give us a little bit of
32:20
Speaker 1: optimism or Ferrari fans a little bit of optimism for
32:23
Speaker 1: the end of the season or at a minimum their
32:25
Speaker 1: home Grand Prix this weekend. They do tend to, like
32:29
Speaker 1: you say, find a little bit extra for that. But
32:31
Speaker 1: let's look ahead now with the crystal Ball for complete
32:34
Speaker 1: home filtration before we wrap this one up, or you
32:37
Speaker 1: can look ahead to what is a pretty frenetic time
32:39
Speaker 1: in the motorsport calendar across all of our series. In fact,
32:42
Speaker 1: as we head towards the end of the year. Why
32:43
Speaker 1: don't you kick us off?
32:45
Speaker 2: Well, I'd just like to point out that my crystal
32:47
Speaker 2: ball reverse chinks of last week worked absolutely beautifully because
32:50
Speaker 2: I said that Oscar Piastre would relinquish the leader the
32:53
Speaker 2: World Championship for the first time since Saudi Arabia when
32:56
Speaker 2: he finishes at zandvort So I did also say that,
32:59
Speaker 2: now how my crystal ball usually works, that'll be completely wrong,
33:03
Speaker 2: and so at least I've got one thing right. I
33:05
Speaker 2: was right about being wrong. But look my crystal ball
33:08
Speaker 2: this weekend, and I think it's off the back of
33:09
Speaker 2: what we're talking about here. Charla Claire has finished no
33:13
Speaker 2: worse than fourth at Monza for the past four runnings
33:16
Speaker 2: of the Italian Grand Prix. We know he's won it twice.
33:18
Speaker 2: I'm saying that Charla Clire splits the McLaren's at Monza
33:21
Speaker 2: and finishes second this weekend, and all will be right
33:24
Speaker 2: in the Ferrari world, because we'll then leave Monza and
33:27
Speaker 2: go to the final eight rounds of the year where
33:28
Speaker 2: they will do absolutely nothing, but everything will be completely
33:30
Speaker 2: fine because the Toofosi get to invade the track and
33:33
Speaker 2: Charlotte Cliff finishes second at Monza. But I don't know
33:37
Speaker 2: what's in your crystal ball, but mine's glowing nice and
33:39
Speaker 2: red this week.
33:40
Speaker 1: Yes, very good. I like that a lot dovetails very
33:42
Speaker 1: well with mine, which was simply that Ferrari was going
33:45
Speaker 1: to win this weekend, or for no reason other than
33:47
Speaker 1: the fact that seems like the kind of thing that
33:49
Speaker 1: would happen in such a bleak and hopeless season that
33:52
Speaker 1: they will win one race. It'll happen to be their
33:54
Speaker 1: home race. Because I suspect and Matt, you've been watching
33:58
Speaker 1: the sport obviously long enough longer than I have, would
34:00
Speaker 1: follow this trend as well. That I think when they
34:02
Speaker 1: have poor years, unless they're really really poor, like I'm
34:05
Speaker 1: thinking back to twenty twenty, which is really bad, at
34:08
Speaker 1: some point they go, well, we've got to do well
34:10
Speaker 1: in Monza at least, and they think about what's going
34:13
Speaker 1: to happen in Monza. They turn their attention to Monza,
34:15
Speaker 1: they turn up they have a really good result there.
34:17
Speaker 1: Second would be very good for them. But I think
34:20
Speaker 1: in this championship season, unusual things sometimes happened at this
34:23
Speaker 1: magic track. I think we're going to get a victory.
34:25
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say who I'd be tempted to
34:27
Speaker 1: say Lewis Helpton, but I think that's just too outlandic
34:29
Speaker 1: even for this segment. But a victory for Ferrari at.
34:32
Speaker 2: Home, How would Sky Sports cope if it was Hamilton
34:35
Speaker 2: beating Norris for first versus second? How many Union flags
34:39
Speaker 2: have you got and be with? Oh, but the other
34:41
Speaker 2: guy needs to win the championship. But you know what's
34:43
Speaker 2: really interesting you mentioned that that Ferrari wins this weekend.
34:46
Speaker 2: You forgot to add is that they would win and
34:48
Speaker 2: they wouldn't know why, or they wouldn't know how, and
34:51
Speaker 2: that's the best.
34:52
Speaker 1: Win and they'll be disqualified. It'll be one of those two.
34:54
Speaker 2: It'll be one of those ones where if you ask
34:56
Speaker 2: them where they found the extra performance and place over
34:58
Speaker 2: the course of the weekend, the response would be so
35:00
Speaker 2: like just because just as vibes. But I do like that.
35:04
Speaker 2: But look, we love Monza because again outlier of outliers.
35:08
Speaker 2: It is such an unusual track in modern day formula.
35:11
Speaker 2: But I think it because of the way the cars
35:14
Speaker 2: now race and how wide they are, and we're looking
35:16
Speaker 2: at the chicanes there. There's a ferocity to the racing
35:19
Speaker 2: there that I remember last year, like Carlos Science last year,
35:22
Speaker 2: it was like I've never seen him so Fastyart a
35:24
Speaker 2: Grand Prix, fantastic to watch, and there's just something about
35:28
Speaker 2: the energy and the fact that this race is the
35:30
Speaker 2: shortest race in terms of giration. It's all over very
35:33
Speaker 2: very quickly. There's this intensity about Monzoa that I love
35:36
Speaker 2: and that's only magnified when Ferrari does well. So by
35:39
Speaker 2: me putting a Ferrari and second and new having them
35:41
Speaker 2: on the top step, perhaps we're just cheering for the
35:43
Speaker 2: narrative of a nice intense weekend because there'll be a
35:46
Speaker 2: lot of other weekends when we go to tracks with
35:49
Speaker 2: less passionate fans or eddy fans at all. Quite frankly,
35:51
Speaker 2: when we get towards the end of the year, that yeah,
35:54
Speaker 2: that we won't quite have the same we won't quite
35:56
Speaker 2: have the same enjoyment.
35:58
Speaker 1: Perhaps yes, so I mean if it is a one too,
36:01
Speaker 1: it's can be interesting. Or perhaps that means it's another DNF.
36:04
Speaker 1: Considering our run of predictions on the crystal ball. We'll
36:07
Speaker 1: wait and see next week because that's all the time.
36:09
Speaker 1: We have a pit talk today. You can subscribe to
36:11
Speaker 1: Pittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts and you can
36:14
Speaker 1: leave us a rating and review as well. This weekend
36:16
Speaker 1: it's the Catalan Motorcycle Grand Prix in Barcelona with lights
36:20
Speaker 1: out at ten pm on Sunday, and then it's the
36:22
Speaker 1: Formula one Italian Grand Prix in Monza with lights out
36:25
Speaker 1: at eleven pm. You can keep up to date with
36:27
Speaker 1: all the latest F one, Moto GP and supercars news
36:30
Speaker 1: at Foxsports dot com dot au from Matt Clayton and
36:32
Speaker 1: me Michael Lomonato. Thanks very much for your company and
36:35
Speaker 1: we'll catch you next week