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Did Max Verstappen get off lightly? Spanish GP review · Pit Talk

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pittalk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:03
Speaker 1: On today's episode, Max Verstappan is one penalty point away
0:06
Speaker 1: from a race ban after crashing into George Russell in
0:09
Speaker 1: a moment of madness, and Oscar Piastre wins again to
0:13
Speaker 1: take a ten point championship lead into the weekend break.
0:17
Speaker 1: My name is Michael Lomonato. It's great to have your
0:19
Speaker 1: company and the company of my co host. If he
0:22
Speaker 1: were ever to have a tantrum, he'd know to protect
0:24
Speaker 1: his injured wrists. It's Matt Clayton.
0:25
Speaker 2: Michael. Lovely to join you, but I will say if
0:28
Speaker 2: we're halfway through this podcast and I'm just not feeling
0:30
Speaker 2: a vibe, i might just leave for the rest of
0:32
Speaker 2: it and leave, just leave you as a one car
0:35
Speaker 2: operation for the remainder of the pod. But always good
0:38
Speaker 2: to join you. And well, we've done many Spanish Grown
0:41
Speaker 2: Prix pods over the year where it's like, yeah, who
0:44
Speaker 2: was on pole, they won, that's all fine, nothing happened,
0:46
Speaker 2: But yes we had a pulseeat a winning but there
0:48
Speaker 2: was a bit going on in the last part of
0:50
Speaker 2: that race. So I think we've got more than enough
0:52
Speaker 2: content for one podcast.
0:53
Speaker 1: I would have thought, yes, many evolving race reports were
0:56
Speaker 1: written and rewritten and written again in the last twenty
1:00
Speaker 1: minutes of that.
1:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, stick your hand up if you were doing that.
1:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, sadly, but I was quite the interesting conclusion. MAXW.
1:07
Speaker 1: Staffan obviously the biggest talking board. He actually had really
1:10
Speaker 1: quite a good race up until the last twelve or
1:12
Speaker 1: so laps. The safety car is what undid his race
1:16
Speaker 1: from the pure results perspective, but then everything else was
1:19
Speaker 1: really down to him. I mean, this is the in
1:22
Speaker 1: my mind, Matt, and correct me if you feel like
1:24
Speaker 1: this is wrong or missing anything, But the chronology is
1:26
Speaker 1: this safety car comes out, he gets hard tires, a
1:28
Speaker 1: bit unhappy about that, then has a big snap out
1:30
Speaker 1: of the last corner. Charlotte Claire passes him, touches him
1:33
Speaker 1: on the way. It's pretty unhappy about that. Gets into
1:35
Speaker 1: the first corner, George Russell tags him pretty He's quite
1:39
Speaker 1: unhappy about that, and then his engineer tells him, well,
1:41
Speaker 1: maybe you should give that position back to Russell because
1:44
Speaker 1: we're not confident about the rules. And he's apoplectic about that,
1:47
Speaker 1: and then decides he's going to crash into George Russell.
1:50
Speaker 1: Just because I mean, they are a lot of buttons
1:53
Speaker 1: pushed to be fair, but in a very specific order
1:55
Speaker 1: in a very short amount of time. I thought it
1:57
Speaker 1: was remarkable how quickly this fuse.
1:58
Speaker 2: Blue Welling, as you had said out before him. What
2:02
Speaker 2: he'd done before that was that he and Red Bull
2:05
Speaker 2: had come up with this three stop strategy to I mean,
2:07
Speaker 2: they knew that if they did exactly what McLaren did,
2:09
Speaker 2: they were going to lose that race. So you do
2:12
Speaker 2: the only thing you can do when there's a podium
2:14
Speaker 2: at worst and probably something better on the line. You
2:17
Speaker 2: do what the other team with the better card doesn't do.
2:20
Speaker 2: And they'd done it absolutely brilliantly, to the point where
2:23
Speaker 2: I think Vastappen's pace on the three stop were actually
2:25
Speaker 2: caught McClaren by surprise a bit in that there was
2:27
Speaker 2: that radio message about halfway through saying to piastri NIC's like,
2:31
Speaker 2: you guys need to get on with this because Max
2:34
Speaker 2: clearly is more of a threat than they were expecting. Yes,
2:38
Speaker 2: the safety car and then the decision to be put
2:41
Speaker 2: on hard tires, they were the only ones that he
2:43
Speaker 2: really had, or certainly new ones that he had to
2:45
Speaker 2: put on. He wasn't particularly pleased with that, but you're right,
2:48
Speaker 2: it unraveled so fast, and I guess the irony of
2:52
Speaker 2: all of this is that the team told him to
2:54
Speaker 2: hand the position back to George Russell, where the Stewarts
2:57
Speaker 2: came out after the race and said there was nothing
2:59
Speaker 2: to see here. He didn't have hand it back anyway,
3:01
Speaker 2: So all of this could have been avoided for something
3:03
Speaker 2: to happen four corners before, because if Max's engineer is like, no,
3:06
Speaker 2: stay where you are, then we don't have the situation
3:09
Speaker 2: with George Russell. We don't have the penalty at the
3:10
Speaker 2: end of the race. We don't have him dropping from
3:12
Speaker 2: fifth that the checkered flag down to tenth, which had
3:15
Speaker 2: ramifications in the Constructors Championship race, which we'll talk about.
3:19
Speaker 2: But yeah, in the space of what five corners coming
3:22
Speaker 2: out of the last corner at the restart to turn
3:24
Speaker 2: four on the first lap of the restart, the whole
3:27
Speaker 2: thing went completely haywire. And it does undo a lot
3:32
Speaker 2: of the good that Max did in this race, because
3:34
Speaker 2: a lot of it was terrific, make no bones about it,
3:37
Speaker 2: but our lasting memory of this race was this loss
3:40
Speaker 2: of composure. And this is not the first time we've
3:43
Speaker 2: seen him just railing against everything he can possibly rail against.
3:47
Speaker 2: And I guess there's a wider play here in that
3:50
Speaker 2: there's so much to admire about the way he goes
3:52
Speaker 2: about it. He's almost a better underdog that he is
3:53
Speaker 2: a champion, if you know what I mean. And watching
3:56
Speaker 2: the level that he's driving at this year, clearly driving
3:58
Speaker 2: a card that's inferior to the McLaren's pretty spectacular. But
4:01
Speaker 2: then you have days like this and it's just it's
4:04
Speaker 2: I'm disappointed, mil I'm disappointed for me, and disappointed to view,
4:06
Speaker 2: and disappointed for everybody because he can be better than this,
4:10
Speaker 2: but he chose not to be yes.
4:12
Speaker 1: And he often is better than this. He makes the
4:14
Speaker 1: point that he's better than this through his driving. I
4:16
Speaker 1: think what there's so many things I find remarkable about this.
4:19
Speaker 1: That it happened on its own probably is the least
4:22
Speaker 1: remarkable part of it, because, as you say, we have
4:24
Speaker 1: seen it before, not exactly this. Obviously, we've seen these
4:26
Speaker 1: blow ups, you know, we saw it even in I
4:29
Speaker 1: suppose the most recent or the two most recent I
4:31
Speaker 1: was of Mexico last year, where he was doing all
4:32
Speaker 1: sorts of silly things in battle with Lando Norris and
4:35
Speaker 1: then in Austria last year, which I think was maybe
4:37
Speaker 1: the reemergence of it after having things relatively his own
4:40
Speaker 1: way in twenty two and twenty three of this kind
4:43
Speaker 1: of I'm not even sure how exactly I want to
4:45
Speaker 1: describe it. Impetuousness maybe, or a little brain snap in
4:48
Speaker 1: the heat of battle. But the common thread in the
4:50
Speaker 1: last few years, at least, when he's sort of established
4:53
Speaker 1: himself as the title winner who can set the standards,
4:55
Speaker 1: but obviously he is not without his flaws, is it's
5:00
Speaker 1: It seems to me, it's when he feels like races
5:01
Speaker 1: get away from him, when things are suddenly going against
5:04
Speaker 1: him in a way he didn't expect. He thrashes around
5:06
Speaker 1: a little bit and really searches at the bottom of
5:08
Speaker 1: the toolbox for what he's got left, which is essentially
5:10
Speaker 1: a hammer. And I think that that is interesting in
5:14
Speaker 1: this race, because the story of the season for the
5:18
Speaker 1: first eight rounds was that, all right, red Bulls on
5:20
Speaker 1: the back foot. Max defending his title is probably a
5:22
Speaker 1: little bit of a long shot. We don't know how
5:23
Speaker 1: the season's going to evolve, but nonetheless he's going to
5:26
Speaker 1: do it. He needs to rely on McLaren making some
5:28
Speaker 1: mistakes but him being perfect, and he has been perfect
5:32
Speaker 1: right rounds this season. I don't think we can look
5:34
Speaker 1: back at any particular race and say he's got anything
5:36
Speaker 1: other than the maximum of his car out of the
5:38
Speaker 1: circumstances from it. And this weekend he gave away a
5:42
Speaker 1: lot of points in a totally unnecessary moment of red
5:46
Speaker 1: mist of rage. How we want to decide exactly his
5:50
Speaker 1: brain snapped in that moment, And I think that's interesting
5:53
Speaker 1: because until that collision, and I've been when I've written
5:57
Speaker 1: this week on the Fox Sports website, I think this
5:59
Speaker 1: weekend did finally snuff out his championship defense, now fifty
6:02
Speaker 1: points behind or forty nine points behind, And it's not
6:05
Speaker 1: the points margin so much as it is the context
6:08
Speaker 1: of his car is just not competitive enough to come
6:10
Speaker 1: back from that much, and at least what we've seen
6:12
Speaker 1: so far, there was a title on the line in
6:15
Speaker 1: my mind before that incident, and he blew it. And
6:18
Speaker 1: I don't I don't think that should be blown up
6:20
Speaker 1: too much because obviously he's won four titles, so we
6:22
Speaker 1: know he can win them. But that just to me
6:24
Speaker 1: seems so contrary to what we kind of understand to
6:27
Speaker 1: be how he drives when a title is actually up
6:29
Speaker 1: for grabs when he has a goal.
6:31
Speaker 2: And also too, you know, yeah it was it was
6:34
Speaker 2: a long shot, but it was still a shot. Yeah,
6:36
Speaker 2: And I think that's the context of what you're saying there,
6:39
Speaker 2: and that, yes, a lot of things would have needed
6:41
Speaker 2: to have gone wrong outside of anything he could necessarily
6:44
Speaker 2: do something about to remain in title contention for this
6:47
Speaker 2: enormously long season that we're only nine rounds into. But
6:50
Speaker 2: there's a couple of points here, this whole thing of
6:54
Speaker 2: basically fighting one on two every single weekend against McLaren
6:58
Speaker 2: and an occasional Ferrari or an occasional Mercedes. But the
7:01
Speaker 2: fact that it's him and him alone having to fight
7:04
Speaker 2: this battle, you know, fighting two cars off with you know,
7:07
Speaker 2: one with each hand over the course of these races.
7:10
Speaker 2: That's got to be wearing to a degree. But the
7:13
Speaker 2: other part of all of this is how much of
7:16
Speaker 2: the behavior when things spiral like this, is a product
7:20
Speaker 2: of the environment that he's in, Because you know that
7:24
Speaker 2: if the shoe had been on the other foot and
7:26
Speaker 2: he the team had felt that he'd done something wrong
7:29
Speaker 2: or something on Sunday, Christian Horner would rock up to
7:31
Speaker 2: the post race debrief with a bunch of print outs
7:33
Speaker 2: and telemetory and grabs and do a whole there. Let
7:35
Speaker 2: me show you what actually happened here. When something like
7:38
Speaker 2: this happens, when Max is completely banged to rights, we
7:41
Speaker 2: get absolutely nothing from Red Bull management at alls and
7:45
Speaker 2: Max finished tenth and we squat at some points today,
7:47
Speaker 2: there's no It's like having a child, right that just
7:52
Speaker 2: behaves in a certain way, and you make allowances and
7:55
Speaker 2: excuse that and enable that level of behavior, and when
7:58
Speaker 2: they do something that is completely egregious, you turn the
8:01
Speaker 2: other cheek. You know, when they've drawn with crayon all
8:03
Speaker 2: over the wall, you start talking about how nice the
8:04
Speaker 2: paint is rather than what the kid's done to it.
8:07
Speaker 2: And so part of the way he reacted on Sunday
8:11
Speaker 2: in Spain was, yes, that moment in an isolation, but
8:15
Speaker 2: it's every other moment that you know, we have print
8:18
Speaker 2: outs being brought to post raced reson. You think of
8:20
Speaker 2: Mexico last year as a classic case with Lando Norris
8:22
Speaker 2: and arguing the toss on those sorts of things. I've
8:25
Speaker 2: forgotten which race it was earlier this year that Horner
8:27
Speaker 2: did turn up with a bunch of prints. I think
8:28
Speaker 2: it was Saudi guess with Piastri at turn one. That's right,
8:31
Speaker 2: So you know that he's good for that. Once every
8:33
Speaker 2: five or six races, the office photocopier gets a bit
8:36
Speaker 2: of a bit of a bit of a run. But
8:39
Speaker 2: you do wonder how much of this is the incident
8:42
Speaker 2: in isolation and the frustration with a really good afternoon
8:46
Speaker 2: going to waste through a circumstance that was triggered through
8:49
Speaker 2: no fault of his own, no safety car. Is finishing
8:51
Speaker 2: third at worst, and perhaps even second because he was
8:54
Speaker 2: hunting down Norris quite nicely. How much of that is
8:57
Speaker 2: frustration with the moment? And then how much of that
8:59
Speaker 2: is knowing that you can behave a certain way because
9:02
Speaker 2: you've been enabled to behave that way over a number
9:04
Speaker 2: of years.
9:05
Speaker 1: Yes, Because as the one cast status of that team
9:08
Speaker 1: tells you, the team needs him a lot more than
9:11
Speaker 1: he needs the team. Yes, and that's enabled that environment.
9:14
Speaker 1: There's one other element that I think is interesting that
9:16
Speaker 1: I've sort of only struck me yesterday thinking back on
9:19
Speaker 1: the race on Monday, and that is the George Russell
9:22
Speaker 1: element of this. It's been the sort of quiet. I
9:26
Speaker 1: don't even know if rivalry is the word I want
9:28
Speaker 1: to use here. Quite feuge perhaps that we'd all forgotten about.
9:31
Speaker 1: That kicked off last year in Kata, where he we've
9:34
Speaker 1: a stap and blocked Russell on a qualifying lap. Wasn't
9:36
Speaker 1: even actually on a qualifying lap. They're both on warm
9:38
Speaker 1: up laps, but got a penalty that demote him to second.
9:41
Speaker 1: Russell got onto Pole happened up winning the race, but
9:44
Speaker 1: some really strong words exchanged between them. I actually went
9:47
Speaker 1: back and had a look to remind myself of them,
9:49
Speaker 1: and they were even stronger than I remember. George Russell's
9:51
Speaker 1: talking about total loss of respect. Someone needs to stand
9:54
Speaker 1: up to this bully. It's not the way this and
9:56
Speaker 1: that and the staff and had his own responses there
9:58
Speaker 1: as well. Clearly things have patched over. Is not really
10:02
Speaker 1: what's happened. You know, they haven't fought each other again since,
10:05
Speaker 1: but there's clearly still something simmering in the background. I
10:07
Speaker 1: can't help but wonder had Russell hit him on the
10:10
Speaker 1: straight and Lecler bumped him at the first corner, would
10:13
Speaker 1: any of this have happened? And I think that's the
10:15
Speaker 1: interesting element, not because of the well, we've got a
10:18
Speaker 1: great fun rivalry. Maybe if Russell ever gets in the car,
10:20
Speaker 1: it's good enough to compete with Maxim has happened. But
10:23
Speaker 1: the fact that that probably was in his head and
10:25
Speaker 1: influenced his decision making so long after the fact, I
10:29
Speaker 1: think he is probably telling of the way he goes
10:32
Speaker 1: about his business.
10:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, completely, And because it was the third element of
10:35
Speaker 2: a chain of things going wrong, because you had you know,
10:38
Speaker 2: why am I on these hard tires? And then you're
10:40
Speaker 2: having the side by side with Leclaire on the straight
10:42
Speaker 2: after he miraculously save that snap coming out of the
10:45
Speaker 2: last corner. And then when you're that, to quote David
10:48
Speaker 2: Croft het up words that nobody else actually ever uses
10:51
Speaker 2: bad thing to say to you, and you've got a
10:52
Speaker 2: mouth of the coffee. But when you're that annoyed about
10:55
Speaker 2: everything that's going on and then you get nerved off
10:57
Speaker 2: at the first corner by George Russell, as in Tarlie
11:00
Speaker 2: last year, George Russell, there was an incident in bak
11:02
Speaker 2: who you remember where they had that conversation. In part
11:05
Speaker 2: for me, there's a long history between these two so
11:07
Speaker 2: that was a bit of a red rag to a
11:09
Speaker 2: bull there for Stappen, But I don't know. I mean,
11:12
Speaker 2: you do wonder. A lot of the greats in f
11:15
Speaker 2: On history. This is another podcast. Quite frankly, I won't
11:18
Speaker 2: go too long on this, but a lot of the
11:19
Speaker 2: greats in f On history they have these sort of flaws,
11:22
Speaker 2: of these gray areas in that you know, there's sporting
11:25
Speaker 2: things or behavioral things, or temperamental things in that respect.
11:28
Speaker 2: If Max is going to be one of the greatest
11:30
Speaker 2: in the history of the sport, which I guess he's
11:31
Speaker 2: in a conversation for in a career that's still active,
11:34
Speaker 2: he actually fits in with a lot of these guys
11:36
Speaker 2: because they all had their own their own foibles in
11:38
Speaker 2: this regard. But I just find it incredibly unbecoming for
11:42
Speaker 2: a guy who is as good as he is and
11:44
Speaker 2: has been proven to be a winner as much as
11:46
Speaker 2: he is. I just don't know if you can keep
11:49
Speaker 2: lashing out like this. But I also think you look
11:51
Speaker 2: at someone like Russell, like Russell knows he can wind
11:53
Speaker 2: Max up at this point, Let's be honest, he just
11:56
Speaker 2: has to be there and look at it and to
11:57
Speaker 2: wide part and that is something that you know more
12:01
Speaker 2: often than not, you know, axis in position to win
12:04
Speaker 2: races or get podiums and it's not really really an issue,
12:06
Speaker 2: but it can wind him up and it can be exploited.
12:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. I think that element comparing him,
12:13
Speaker 1: and yeah, I don't propose to sick on this for
12:15
Speaker 1: too much because it is really its own podcast from
12:18
Speaker 1: of Max's position in the greats and why it's telling
12:21
Speaker 1: that he has this one very serious flaw like they
12:23
Speaker 1: all do. I get that because they're all world champion.
12:27
Speaker 1: None of them are absolutely perfect. That's obviously clear. But
12:31
Speaker 1: you know, so he's been liking, for example, other drivers
12:33
Speaker 1: who have hit other drivers deliberately, which is what happened
12:35
Speaker 1: to here. You know, you think back to Michael Schumacher,
12:37
Speaker 1: and you think back to Aden Sener, right, but he
12:40
Speaker 1: was fighting for fourth place in a race that has
12:43
Speaker 1: no championship consequence. All those examples of drive of center
12:47
Speaker 1: and Schumacher and striking other drivers were all at the
12:50
Speaker 1: very minimum, to be fair to them, if you want,
12:53
Speaker 1: in the heat of a championship battle, championship deciders usually
12:58
Speaker 1: with your direct arrival, battling for the lead or for
13:00
Speaker 1: the championship victory, not George Russell round nine to fourth
13:04
Speaker 1: to keep yourself within one victory.
13:07
Speaker 2: That's completely right. And you think you know a race
13:09
Speaker 2: that you and I often mentioned that we both sort
13:11
Speaker 2: of hid behind our respective couches and watch the twenty
13:13
Speaker 2: twenty one Saudi Arabia GP where that was completely unhinged
13:18
Speaker 2: that race, But there was a title at stake with
13:20
Speaker 2: all of the silliness that was going on with Max
13:22
Speaker 2: and Lewis Hamilton that night, and I absolutely hated it,
13:26
Speaker 2: but I understood it at the same time because the
13:29
Speaker 2: stakes were so high Max was under siege from Hamilton
13:34
Speaker 2: and Mercedes coming on at an incredible rate of knots,
13:37
Speaker 2: and you know, Abu Dhabi and so on and so forth,
13:39
Speaker 2: and then we all cry into our keyboards and then
13:42
Speaker 2: we go with the rest of our lives. But as
13:44
Speaker 2: you said, like it's round night and you're fighting for
13:46
Speaker 2: fourth at the Spanish Grand Prix, Like what do we
13:48
Speaker 2: actually do again?
13:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, So it'll be interesting to see where this moment
13:53
Speaker 1: shakes out over the course of the year. I mean,
13:54
Speaker 1: like I say, I suspect that he'll play no real
13:56
Speaker 1: role in the championship beyond probably interfering with the front.
14:00
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll be proven wrong and be spectaculally if I were.
14:02
Speaker 1: But yeah, where this fits into the Verstappa narrative is
14:05
Speaker 1: a question for another time well down the road. Just
14:09
Speaker 1: unfortunate this ended up coloring what had been such a
14:11
Speaker 1: good race for Max Matt. Let's look now to move
14:15
Speaker 1: of the week, brought to you by Shannon's Spanish Grand Prix,
14:18
Speaker 1: the only race over the course of the weekend. And
14:21
Speaker 1: like we've said several times, I was pleased with the
14:23
Speaker 1: amount of racing we've got for a race that doesn't
14:24
Speaker 1: offer a lot of racing usually, so very exciting there.
14:29
Speaker 1: I've got a couple in my mind, but I'll let
14:30
Speaker 1: you kick us off.
14:32
Speaker 2: I reckon this will be on your list, so giving
14:34
Speaker 2: you you've got a couple on going to steal probably
14:35
Speaker 2: the best one. I'm looking at the lap chart here
14:39
Speaker 2: on FOREX. Thank God for FORX when you haven't remembered
14:41
Speaker 2: exactly what was going on in a race. But lap
14:44
Speaker 2: sixty five, Nico Holkeenberg overtakes Lewis Hamilton, so I'll just
14:49
Speaker 2: say that again. Nico Holkeenberg and a Souba overtakes Lewis
14:52
Speaker 2: Hamilton in a Ferrari for sixth on the road at
14:56
Speaker 2: the time which you're looking at it going, is this
14:59
Speaker 2: just an Aston Marsham with some sun coming off?
15:01
Speaker 1: It?
15:01
Speaker 2: Is that? Why this green car is scrapping up the
15:03
Speaker 2: front with a Ferrari. Unbelievable race by Hulkenberg generally, But
15:07
Speaker 2: to get that done two laps from the end of
15:09
Speaker 2: the race in a car that I'm il only thinking
15:11
Speaker 2: it's his best race results in proudly nineteen or twenty
15:15
Speaker 2: twenty something along those lines, and not a race result
15:19
Speaker 2: or that owed itself to a heap of retirements or
15:22
Speaker 2: a bunch of luck. He had an awesome first lap
15:25
Speaker 2: and maintain the pace in that car. And these are
15:28
Speaker 2: the races why you sign a Nicico Holkenberg towards the
15:31
Speaker 2: end of his career, because once or twice a year
15:33
Speaker 2: he's good for something like this. But to put a
15:36
Speaker 2: move on a Lewis Hamilton driven Ferrari to take a
15:39
Speaker 2: place at what ended up becoming fifth, becoming fifth after
15:43
Speaker 2: Everstappen was penalized, extraordinary performance, but the absolute highlight of
15:47
Speaker 2: his race. Now I know that was on your list
15:49
Speaker 2: because I can see you nodding here. You clearly have
15:52
Speaker 2: another candidate, So what have you got?
15:54
Speaker 1: He started fifteenth dis Deever, it wasn't even the best
15:56
Speaker 1: sou of qualified.
15:57
Speaker 2: Unbelievable race.
15:59
Speaker 1: Trefenders also involves Nico Holkenberg, but his way earlier in
16:03
Speaker 1: the race on lap two, in a battle with Fernando
16:06
Speaker 1: or Alonso, was Alonso passing Holkenberg, although I do think
16:08
Speaker 1: Hokenberg got him back immediately afterwards. But this was Alonso
16:11
Speaker 1: around the outside of turn three, and it was just
16:15
Speaker 1: if you look up a definition of what what does
16:17
Speaker 1: an Alonso overtake look like, I think this is it.
16:20
Speaker 1: He'd been, he had not had a great start, he
16:22
Speaker 1: was pointless. This year is his home Grand Prix. I
16:25
Speaker 1: think he's an ambassador of this race as well, just
16:27
Speaker 1: in time for it to fall off the calm the
16:29
Speaker 1: next year. I don't know what that says about, but anyway,
16:32
Speaker 1: just this great move set up through turn two. I
16:35
Speaker 1: mean we think in your mind you might think, well,
16:37
Speaker 1: the Aston Martin, obviously that's a better car than this hour.
16:39
Speaker 1: It's not really this year. In fact, the tied on
16:41
Speaker 1: championship points at the moment. It's not that good a
16:43
Speaker 1: car for him to hang on around the outside early
16:46
Speaker 1: in the race. Not a lot of grip, a lot
16:48
Speaker 1: at stake. I just thought there was such a gutsy
16:50
Speaker 1: and great move, and it was great because you know,
16:53
Speaker 1: this year we've been talking a lot about Alonzo looks
16:55
Speaker 1: a bit down and out and has he a bit
16:57
Speaker 1: passed it, Like is his motivation still there for a
16:59
Speaker 1: car that's no good? And this was like, no, it's there,
17:01
Speaker 1: He's still got it well.
17:03
Speaker 2: And I got all nostalgic about it, because if you
17:05
Speaker 2: think about some of Fernando's most audacious overtakes and particularly
17:09
Speaker 2: starts over the years, there's an absolute highlight reelmit magical
17:12
Speaker 2: things he's done in that particular circuit. You remember him
17:15
Speaker 2: in a Ferrari going down the out, going down the
17:17
Speaker 2: inside with two wheels on the grass to overtake a
17:19
Speaker 2: couple of red Bulls one year. But the best part
17:21
Speaker 2: about it is that he had said that the Aston
17:22
Speaker 2: Martin drs is not particularly good, so they can't pass
17:25
Speaker 2: anybody on the strait. So it's almost like so I
17:27
Speaker 2: just had to invent something, and you know you've beat
17:30
Speaker 2: it that so you know what it's like, that is
17:32
Speaker 2: no joke that corner there, that they are absolutely pinned,
17:35
Speaker 2: and seeing him on the outside putting a move on
17:38
Speaker 2: there because he figured that's the only place I can
17:41
Speaker 2: get this done. Fernando in that sort of mode is
17:45
Speaker 2: still one of my favorite things in Formula One because
17:46
Speaker 2: it's so opportunistically cunning, and it's been a dreadful season
17:51
Speaker 2: because they haven't managed to score any points. So for
17:52
Speaker 2: him to put that overtake on and score some points
17:56
Speaker 2: for the first time this season and do it at
17:57
Speaker 2: home yet full marks.
17:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, very good, A great one of the highlights of
18:03
Speaker 1: the Spanish Grand Prix, undoubtedly, though if you're Oscar Piastre,
18:06
Speaker 1: the whole race, whole weekend was really a highlight, because
18:08
Speaker 1: this was a very strong weekend for him. He re
18:11
Speaker 1: extended his title lead to ten points after controlling the
18:14
Speaker 1: Grand Prix, not really any point after FP one, if
18:17
Speaker 1: you want to be generous, I guess, in which he
18:19
Speaker 1: wasn't in total control, maybe with the exception of the
18:22
Speaker 1: very first lap of Q three when Landon Norris just
18:24
Speaker 1: pipped him thanks to a in Pastre's words, chiefy slipstream.
18:28
Speaker 1: But this felt to me a lot like a return
18:31
Speaker 1: to regular programming at the end of this triple header
18:33
Speaker 1: after Monaco being well, Monaco really quite an outlier, and
18:37
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting that hearing Pastri speak afterwards
18:40
Speaker 1: about obviously quite a good, comprehensive performance whatever, but talking
18:45
Speaker 1: about how he's at the stage now where him and
18:48
Speaker 1: team are just putting together the percentage points now, like
18:51
Speaker 1: just trying to perfect this little thing here, this little
18:52
Speaker 1: bit there, pulling them together, and suddenly you have these
18:55
Speaker 1: weekends where he just really looks unbeatable, and I think,
18:59
Speaker 1: correct me, I'm I'm trying to think back through the
19:01
Speaker 1: course of the season, probably the first race in a
19:03
Speaker 1: while where we've had a pretty direct head to head
19:07
Speaker 1: between the two drives. I guess Miami we kind of did,
19:09
Speaker 1: but there was a much bigger delay between them getting
19:12
Speaker 1: past with staff and that influencing. This felt like a
19:14
Speaker 1: much more head to head. Norris's on form, Piastre's on form,
19:17
Speaker 1: and there was just no doubt.
19:18
Speaker 2: Well, and that's those little increments. This is how you
19:20
Speaker 2: build a world championship, isn't it? And it's the recipe
19:24
Speaker 2: for anyone who's built a world championship in a season
19:27
Speaker 2: where they're clearly is one dominant car. But isn't it funny?
19:30
Speaker 2: Like we're eighteen minutes into the podcast and we've got
19:33
Speaker 2: oh yeah, the Australian guy. And you know we've got
19:36
Speaker 2: to a point now where you know we're not taking
19:38
Speaker 2: this for granted. I mean, I think we were talking
19:40
Speaker 2: about that stat yesterday. He's won five races this year.
19:42
Speaker 2: It's the first time in Australian's won five races in
19:45
Speaker 2: a year since nineteen eighty with Alan Jones, and I
19:48
Speaker 2: think the only other time was nineteen sixty when so
19:50
Speaker 2: Jack Brabham did it. So and we still have if
19:53
Speaker 2: I'm doing my maths correctly, fifteen rounds remaining, which was
19:56
Speaker 2: you know, twice the length of the twenty nineteen sixty season.
19:58
Speaker 2: But anyway, but the point you made never in doubt.
20:01
Speaker 2: It just never felt that once we got through Saturday,
20:05
Speaker 2: and yes, Norris had that lap in Q three where
20:08
Speaker 2: he got a bit of assistance from inadvertently from Piastre
20:11
Speaker 2: down to Main Strait, but biggest pole margin of the
20:13
Speaker 2: year and fantastic start. It was his race to lose,
20:19
Speaker 2: but it never looked like he was going to lose it.
20:21
Speaker 2: And to my mind, the only real threat was I
20:24
Speaker 2: was thinking, look, ve Stappan's been so good on this
20:26
Speaker 2: three stopper here there is an outside chance he can
20:28
Speaker 2: get Norris here or at least make Norris think about it,
20:31
Speaker 2: But there was never really a suggestion that Norris was
20:34
Speaker 2: anywhere near Piastre. Once we got through, once Verstappan got
20:38
Speaker 2: between the McLaren's off the start, this felt like a
20:42
Speaker 2: race only Oscar could lose. But you never felt at
20:44
Speaker 2: any point like he was going to lose it. And
20:46
Speaker 2: yes you have to go through the late race complications
20:48
Speaker 2: with the restart and the safety car and everything else,
20:50
Speaker 2: but he handled that like an absolute pro as well.
20:53
Speaker 2: It was just pretty much a mistake free weekend. And
20:57
Speaker 2: the tiny increments you mentioned I couldn't help but think
20:59
Speaker 2: about it when I heard that on Sunday. This is
21:03
Speaker 2: the small pieces of the jigsaw that you just keep
21:05
Speaker 2: putting in week by week by week from a position
21:08
Speaker 2: of advantage. And I think the thing we keep forgetting
21:10
Speaker 2: here is that he started this season effectively. After one race,
21:14
Speaker 2: he was on the back foot in a two driver
21:16
Speaker 2: fight for the championship because of what had happened in Melbourne.
21:18
Speaker 2: I mean, he's been on podium everywhere now except Melbourne.
21:21
Speaker 2: The Melbourne curse lives, but to redress that imbalance, So
21:27
Speaker 2: what did he finish ninth? In Melbourne. So he's twenty
21:29
Speaker 2: three points behind his teammate after one round and to
21:32
Speaker 2: do what he's done in the eighth round, since even
21:34
Speaker 2: with Norris winning Monaco, we knows the outlier of all outliers.
21:37
Speaker 2: This just feels like the perfect, step by step, methodical,
21:41
Speaker 2: very Oscar Piastre way of building a world championship league,
21:44
Speaker 2: doesn't it. Yeah?
21:45
Speaker 1: I like we say being able to do that from
21:47
Speaker 1: a position of advantage. I don't really I've never really
21:51
Speaker 1: liked the phrase scoreboard pressure. It it's just pressure. It's ahead,
21:56
Speaker 1: it's a point. But I think there is something in that,
21:58
Speaker 1: isn't there where there's no pressure on him after that start,
22:01
Speaker 1: after the being in twenty three points down now for
22:03
Speaker 1: him to do anything, there's no catching up. And you
22:06
Speaker 1: can even say his level, look regardless, ten points is
22:08
Speaker 1: not very much, but it means he can really focus
22:11
Speaker 1: on himself. Now there's nothing that he needs to focus
22:13
Speaker 1: on other than his own game, and this was a
22:14
Speaker 1: great weekend of him doing that and executing and finding
22:17
Speaker 1: some additional little games. A little gains there, and I
22:20
Speaker 1: think as well, I want to flip this around on
22:23
Speaker 1: the Lando Norris perspective, because we talked about, yes, Monaco
22:26
Speaker 1: being such an outlier of a Grand Prix in terms
22:28
Speaker 1: of the way the cars work there, there's also an
22:30
Speaker 1: element of a being a little bit of a driver's
22:32
Speaker 1: outlier as well. You often see drivers excel there because
22:34
Speaker 1: they're always very good at that kind of extreme track,
22:36
Speaker 1: or some that just struggle. I mean, Piastre a great
22:38
Speaker 1: race there last year, not so much this year. Norris
22:41
Speaker 1: had a good race the year. This year we saw
22:43
Speaker 1: a lot of the same Norris tropes this weekend, didn't
22:45
Speaker 1: we We got to Q three, he looked pretty quick up
22:47
Speaker 1: till their final Q three lap. He fumbles and he
22:50
Speaker 1: can't continue to hold provisional. He loses his pole position,
22:53
Speaker 1: falls behind Max. With Stappen at the start of the race, okay,
22:56
Speaker 1: he was probably it was probably wise him not to
22:57
Speaker 1: fight it too hard because he's got a lot more
22:58
Speaker 1: to lose than Max does, clearly, but nonetheless that had
23:01
Speaker 1: an influence him not being able to contend for the
23:03
Speaker 1: rest of the race, and then all he could do
23:04
Speaker 1: was finish second. It feels like we're back to where
23:07
Speaker 1: we started this triple header, which is all the same
23:09
Speaker 1: questions are being asked and all the same answers are
23:11
Speaker 1: being given.
23:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, completely, And this is the way this championship is
23:14
Speaker 2: going to play out in that I think there's going
23:17
Speaker 2: to be more variance in what Norris does race by race,
23:21
Speaker 2: week by week, simply because of the way that he
23:24
Speaker 2: goes about it. And you do feel that of the
23:26
Speaker 2: two of them, he is the one more susceptible to
23:29
Speaker 2: drop the ball from a position of advantage, whereas I'm
23:32
Speaker 2: not saying that Piastre is going to go mistake free
23:34
Speaker 2: for the rest of the year. That's clearly not going
23:35
Speaker 2: to happen, but it feels like a lower percentage chance
23:38
Speaker 2: that that's going to happen. And I always think of
23:41
Speaker 2: you know, I'm old enough and gray enough to have
23:43
Speaker 2: covered Weber's career, and obviously Mark Weber's Piastre's manager. One
23:46
Speaker 2: of Mark's many famous sayings was I will give nothing,
23:51
Speaker 2: and that was something that Mark said all the time,
23:53
Speaker 2: particularly when he was fighting with Sebastian Vattal and Oscar Piastri.
23:55
Speaker 2: Gives you absolutely nothing to ship away out. Just rock sol,
24:00
Speaker 2: keep pumping the results in. And yes, you mentioned that
24:02
Speaker 2: championship leads back up to ten points. The way I
24:05
Speaker 2: like to look at that is, he's outscored Norris by
24:07
Speaker 2: thirty three points in eight rounds. And then you think
24:10
Speaker 2: about the fact that they're in this car that clearly
24:12
Speaker 2: is the best car on the grid, and I think
24:14
Speaker 2: that margin's only going to be accentuated as the season continues,
24:17
Speaker 2: because we've got the rule changes for twenty six and
24:20
Speaker 2: the Stapham will opportunistically win some races because he's brilliant
24:24
Speaker 2: and he's Max of Staphaen. But to my mind, any
24:26
Speaker 2: other team winning a race right now would seem like
24:29
Speaker 2: a massive outlier to me. So if Piastre really is
24:32
Speaker 2: going to give nothing, and then you look at the
24:33
Speaker 2: fact that some of these teams, some of whom have
24:35
Speaker 2: already turned the tap off for twenty six and some
24:37
Speaker 2: of whom will certainly start to before too long, it's
24:40
Speaker 2: probably only going to accentuate that advantage. And then it
24:43
Speaker 2: comes down to small margins between drivers in one dominant team,
24:46
Speaker 2: and I just think Piastre has less variance. That's not
24:49
Speaker 2: to say that he will be in front of the
24:51
Speaker 2: rest of the way. There may be peaks and troughs
24:53
Speaker 2: in that dnf's mechanicals getting involved in other people's accidents,
24:56
Speaker 2: bad time, safety car, all sorts of things. So many
24:59
Speaker 2: races still to go, so many races still to go,
25:02
Speaker 2: but I feel there's less chance that he drops the
25:04
Speaker 2: ball than Norris. To be honest, a.
25:05
Speaker 1: Couple of things we should clean up on before we
25:08
Speaker 1: wrap this one up, and that this was a significant
25:11
Speaker 1: and he is a significant race in the championship because
25:13
Speaker 1: he's where the FAA clamped down on what had become
25:15
Speaker 1: the latest development rouphole, the flexibility of the front wings.
25:18
Speaker 1: It's something that has been going on for a while,
25:20
Speaker 1: but they decided over the off season that enough was
25:22
Speaker 1: enough and the threshold for how much a wing could
25:25
Speaker 1: flex was tightened up. All very technical, but some teams,
25:29
Speaker 1: Red Bull Racing in particular, was hopeful that this would
25:32
Speaker 1: be a turning point in the championship, not necessarily throw
25:35
Speaker 1: the order completely upside down, but level it up and
25:37
Speaker 1: suddenly they'd get their shot at McLaren and maybe haul
25:40
Speaker 1: them back in in the way that McLaren had haled
25:42
Speaker 1: Red Bull Racing in, or at least from MAXA. Stapfen's perspective,
25:44
Speaker 1: give him a better shot at it. This was also
25:46
Speaker 1: a track that should have suited Red Bull based on
25:48
Speaker 1: the way they performed a dimlar in Saudi Arabia, Japan,
25:51
Speaker 1: a lot of fast corners, but like you already said,
25:53
Speaker 1: Piastri had the biggest poll advantage in qualifying and the
25:58
Speaker 1: clap between McLaren and Red Bull was the biggest bit
26:00
Speaker 1: between two teams in qualifying at the front since Australia.
26:03
Speaker 1: And in the race. Okay, Max Fatham did really great
26:05
Speaker 1: with the three stop strategy, but never challenged for the lead.
26:09
Speaker 1: Maybe challenge for a second place and that would have
26:11
Speaker 1: been an opportunistic one. Where does Red Bull go from here?
26:15
Speaker 1: Is this the last shot for Red Bull Racing? Now?
26:17
Speaker 1: I mean we've always talked about how Maxistappen's fallen so
26:20
Speaker 1: far behind, and of course the other element of that
26:22
Speaker 1: was Ferrari also hopeful they've got one big upgrade package
26:24
Speaker 1: coming they reckon this season. It could yet be the answer,
26:27
Speaker 1: but there wasn't a lot of I didn't seem much change,
26:31
Speaker 1: to be honest.
26:31
Speaker 2: Did you hear no? Sorry that sounds you. Here is
26:34
Speaker 2: me printing lots of photos of front wings and sending
26:37
Speaker 2: them to a Christian horner at Milton Keynes. It was funny,
26:41
Speaker 2: wasn't it. It was seen as this in wa wait till
26:43
Speaker 2: we get to Barcelona, it's all going to change and
26:45
Speaker 2: all this McLaren advantage. I actually felt a little bit
26:48
Speaker 2: sorry for you because I reckon you wrote thirty thousand
26:50
Speaker 2: words on front wings last week and it turned out
26:52
Speaker 2: to be the most irrelevant copy that No, not bagging
26:56
Speaker 2: you here, but it was the most irrelevant suff you've
26:57
Speaker 2: probably written. LL you quite frankly, because it made apps
27:00
Speaker 2: absolutely no difference to the pecking order. It was a
27:02
Speaker 2: combination I think of Well. I was interested because it
27:06
Speaker 2: was Spain, because, as we discussed last week, like this
27:09
Speaker 2: seems to be the track where a car's weaknesses are
27:15
Speaker 2: really magnified. It's, you know, it's what the circuit of
27:18
Speaker 2: Barcelona Cataluna is. If you've got something that's deficient on
27:21
Speaker 2: your car, this circuit exposes that. So I thought we'd
27:24
Speaker 2: get a pretty instant tell on what these new front
27:27
Speaker 2: wing REGs were going to do. But the key thing
27:31
Speaker 2: here that probably we should have considered more is we
27:33
Speaker 2: knew this TD was coming in from Spain ages and
27:36
Speaker 2: ages and ages ago. This is not one of those
27:39
Speaker 2: things where you know there's a race two weeks earlier,
27:42
Speaker 2: and so after this race this is all happening now,
27:44
Speaker 2: and teams have got to scramble. Everyone knew this was
27:46
Speaker 2: coming and everyone prepared accordingly. So what we ended up
27:50
Speaker 2: with was a pretty similar order than we've seen most
27:53
Speaker 2: of the year. Obviously a bit of so outlier business
27:55
Speaker 2: going on, which was fun to watch, but in terms
27:58
Speaker 2: of the whole hierarchy of the best team, the team
28:02
Speaker 2: snapping at their heels and what happened after that was
28:04
Speaker 2: a huge amount of difference, and it wasn't the great
28:08
Speaker 2: catch all that Red bull were hoping for. And I
28:12
Speaker 2: use the word hope because I'm not sure they really
28:15
Speaker 2: believed it was going to be that much of a difference.
28:16
Speaker 2: But you know, while there's life, there's hope, right, And
28:20
Speaker 2: so you do wonder if a combination of Max dropping
28:24
Speaker 2: so far behind pastre now in the Driver's Championship, the
28:28
Speaker 2: fact that this hasn't had some massive reset of the order,
28:31
Speaker 2: I wonder what it does for Red Bulls priorities for
28:33
Speaker 2: the rest of twenty twenty five in that yes, they're
28:37
Speaker 2: certainly going to be encouraging and doing everything they can
28:40
Speaker 2: for a step and to win Grand Prix, and I'm
28:41
Speaker 2: sure he will wins some but they've got bigger issues
28:44
Speaker 2: for next year with a new engine supplier, and can
28:47
Speaker 2: they actually find a competent driver in the second car?
28:49
Speaker 2: Do they even know they have a second car? All
28:52
Speaker 2: of the conundrums that come with Red Bull that the
28:55
Speaker 2: next era they need to solve. If this season, as
28:58
Speaker 2: far as winning anything meaningful as kind a wash. They're
29:00
Speaker 2: our fourth in the constructors Championship. As we mentioned earlier,
29:03
Speaker 2: you wonder what this race does for what they do
29:06
Speaker 2: going forward, because this might be the race you look
29:08
Speaker 2: back at and go, all right, we can't really win
29:09
Speaker 2: anything this year. Maybe we need to start thinking further afield.
29:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean maybe in a weird way. It takes
29:15
Speaker 1: at least a little pressure off Yuki suod who qualified
29:17
Speaker 1: last twentieth this weekend, because if there's no championship on
29:22
Speaker 1: the line, I guess it doesn't matter that much if
29:24
Speaker 1: he's not there supporting Max for staff. And but the
29:26
Speaker 1: first time a Red Bull Racing cars qualified twentieth since
29:29
Speaker 1: Liam Lawson in China, which was the race before he
29:32
Speaker 1: was dropped back to Racing Bulls. I do just want
29:34
Speaker 1: to wrap up on the championship position because I really
29:37
Speaker 1: had to do a double take on this, Like we've said,
29:38
Speaker 1: red Bull racing down to fourth, Okay, maybe not that
29:40
Speaker 1: surprising as the Erring Max squad on any one point,
29:42
Speaker 1: and there has been almost no points coming from the
29:45
Speaker 1: other car at all. But Ferrari ufter second doesn't really
29:49
Speaker 1: tally for me at all. A team that's scored I think,
29:53
Speaker 1: just three podiums for the year, I'm right in saying
29:56
Speaker 1: or with charl Leclair. Obviously Blewis han't got that sprint victory,
29:59
Speaker 1: but springs aren't even worth that many points, and Lewis
30:02
Speaker 1: Hamilton had another shocker this weekend was really despired. Morrey
30:06
Speaker 1: has a desponded to we've seen him all year after
30:08
Speaker 1: this race was overtaken, as we've highlighted, or any boy
30:11
Speaker 1: Nico Hovesal at the very end. I'm sure there's clearly
30:15
Speaker 1: something not quite right in the car, but that's not
30:17
Speaker 1: necessarily a judgment on him having bad luck. The car
30:19
Speaker 1: is also clearly not always that great. But I mean
30:22
Speaker 1: the comparison to Leclair week to week now is is
30:26
Speaker 1: pretty damning. I think it was this weekend as well.
30:29
Speaker 1: I don't know what to make of that. I don't
30:30
Speaker 1: know what to make of all of these teams behind McLaren,
30:33
Speaker 1: I mean, all of them seemed to have some pretty
30:34
Speaker 1: significant flaws in the overall season makeup. But for me,
30:37
Speaker 1: Hamilton was the standout disappointment I suppose of this weekend.
30:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you know you cash that by saying
30:43
Speaker 2: that Ferraro is now second in the constructors. It's bizarre
30:46
Speaker 2: is that we've had what merced has had. Kemmi Antonelli
30:48
Speaker 2: not finished the last two races, so that certainly doesn't help.
30:52
Speaker 2: Red Bulls are one car team. Williams didn't score a
30:54
Speaker 2: point first time all season, second time all season, rather
30:58
Speaker 2: in in Spain, so there are lot of things going on.
31:00
Speaker 2: But yeah, you look at that Constructor's Championship means Soba
31:03
Speaker 2: scored ten of at sixteen points in one race Weekend Alpine.
31:07
Speaker 2: Now last, you know, the Franco Colopinto question is probably
31:11
Speaker 2: another podcast because right now he's contributing about as much
31:14
Speaker 2: as Jack do and did, which is not very much.
31:16
Speaker 2: And so you know what is he three races into
31:19
Speaker 2: his five year deal, five race deal, Michael apparently, But
31:22
Speaker 2: so yeah, lots of changing going on. But I was
31:24
Speaker 2: like you when I saw the Constructor's table on Sunday night,
31:27
Speaker 2: I looked at Ferrari being second and figured that I
31:29
Speaker 2: hadn't refreshed the page or something had gone gone haywire.
31:33
Speaker 2: But you look at it and yeah, there's what twenty
31:35
Speaker 2: one points between second and fourth in the constructors. But
31:38
Speaker 2: each of them have fundamental flaws that they need to address.
31:41
Speaker 2: And McLaren just sales on serenely with two cars bagging
31:44
Speaker 2: big results.
31:45
Speaker 1: Yes, without one hundred and ninety seven point advantage. That
31:48
Speaker 1: is the difference two cars make ten is it it?
31:52
Speaker 1: Let's drop up now, Matt with the crystal ball brought
31:55
Speaker 1: to you by complete home filtration. Really in the thick
31:59
Speaker 1: of the European seas and three international categories with PUS
32:01
Speaker 1: race coming up this weekend in Perth, what are you
32:03
Speaker 1: going with?
32:05
Speaker 2: All right, I am going to look at two wheels
32:08
Speaker 2: here because this is kind of my wheelhouse at the moment.
32:10
Speaker 2: I'm looking at Aragon for Motor GP this weekend, very
32:13
Speaker 2: very early for Aragon, this is normally August September time.
32:17
Speaker 2: Of course, this is where Mark Marquez won his first
32:19
Speaker 2: race for I think it was one thousand and forty
32:21
Speaker 2: three days. I think I rose to one thousand and
32:23
Speaker 2: forty three times last year when he won that first race,
32:27
Speaker 2: motor GPS odd this year, and that you've got this
32:30
Speaker 2: category that it still feels like a Ducati benefit. You've
32:33
Speaker 2: had five different riders win the last five Grand Prix.
32:35
Speaker 2: There's been all sorts of weirdness going on, raining at
32:38
Speaker 2: Lemon Jones, Zarco winning, Marco Betzeki winning in Silveston. I'm
32:41
Speaker 2: saying we're going to put an end to all of
32:43
Speaker 2: that nonsense this weekend. And it's a track that turns
32:45
Speaker 2: left and it's going to be Mark Marquees's territory and
32:48
Speaker 2: I think he may look may make the others look
32:50
Speaker 2: a little bit silly at Aragon this weekend as he
32:53
Speaker 2: did last year. So I think order will be restored
32:55
Speaker 2: and we'll see Marquees at the front of the field
32:57
Speaker 2: in the Sprint and the Grand Prix. But it's a
33:00
Speaker 2: weird time in the calendar because we've got the European
33:02
Speaker 2: swing for Formula one and brackets insert Canada for some
33:05
Speaker 2: random reason in the middle of that. So your crystal
33:08
Speaker 2: ball could be very global here. So where are you going?
33:11
Speaker 1: Yes? So, in fact, let me throw another sport into
33:13
Speaker 1: the mix here, which is the Lamon twenty four hour,
33:15
Speaker 1: which is in two weeks clashes with Canada, and the
33:18
Speaker 1: reason I bring this up is, of course there's a
33:20
Speaker 1: question mark over Lance Strolls involvement in the Canadian Grand
33:23
Speaker 1: Prix because he's apparently having surgery on that arm that
33:27
Speaker 1: he had surgery on a couple of years ago, following
33:29
Speaker 1: whatever exactly happened to his arm over the course of
33:32
Speaker 1: this weekend that forced him to withdraw from the Grand Prix.
33:35
Speaker 1: The reserve driver is Felipe Dragovich, the Formula two champion
33:38
Speaker 1: from a few years ago, has been the reserve driver
33:40
Speaker 1: for a long time and boys he desperate to drive
33:42
Speaker 1: in Formida Art. He's also racing in Lamont, which would
33:45
Speaker 1: eliminate him from contention for this. I believe that means
33:49
Speaker 1: that Aston Martin would prefer if Lance Stroll is not
33:52
Speaker 1: going to be racing next week, to make a call
33:53
Speaker 1: before this weekend, because I think that's when Dragovic needs
33:56
Speaker 1: to confirm whether or not he's in Lahman the following weekend,
33:58
Speaker 1: of course, probably the biggest definition motor race in the world.
34:02
Speaker 1: This is what I'm predicting is going to happen. Man
34:03
Speaker 1: larnstro is gonna have surgery. It's can go well. I
34:05
Speaker 1: hope it goes well for him, But he's going to
34:07
Speaker 1: admit he's not a Moto GP writer. He can't drive.
34:10
Speaker 1: Felife Dragons is going to get in the car in Canada.
34:14
Speaker 1: It's going to score one point. He's going to get
34:17
Speaker 1: a phone call immediately from Helmut Marco. Oh, he had
34:19
Speaker 1: racing balls after that, and then he's going to be
34:22
Speaker 1: sacked six months later.
34:23
Speaker 2: As silly as that sounds, that is so in the
34:27
Speaker 2: realms of possibility. Somewhere Nick de Freese is nodding his head.
34:31
Speaker 1: Yes, his oldest time.
34:33
Speaker 2: See, this is where I thought you were going with this.
34:35
Speaker 2: You were going to say Drugovic was going to say,
34:37
Speaker 2: I'm going to stay at lamm and the reserve reserve
34:40
Speaker 2: driver is Stoffel van Dorn and he's also competing at Lamon,
34:43
Speaker 2: and he was going to stay at Lamont. And because
34:45
Speaker 2: there was nowhere else available, Valfrey Bothaus was going to
34:47
Speaker 2: do a what off in the aston at Canada list.
34:51
Speaker 2: That is the list. Yes, Daniel Kiveat is probably around
34:53
Speaker 2: somewhere if you'd like to bring him in. But I
34:56
Speaker 2: do like your crystal ball because there actually is a
34:59
Speaker 2: slim percentage possibility, but a possibility nonetheless that this could
35:02
Speaker 2: actually happen and you and I will just go, yeah,
35:04
Speaker 2: of course I'll do that.
35:06
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, So I think it cale has to be
35:07
Speaker 1: made on that. I think it is this week because
35:09
Speaker 1: I think there's some pre empty lemon stuff that happens
35:12
Speaker 1: this weekend. There is, so we will know sooner rather
35:15
Speaker 1: than later on how that is all going. But on
35:17
Speaker 1: that note, it's all the time we've got for bittalk today.
35:20
Speaker 1: You can subscribe to bittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts,
35:22
Speaker 1: and you can leave us a rating and a review
35:24
Speaker 1: as well. This weekend it is the Aragon Motorcycle Grand Prix,
35:27
Speaker 1: with lights out at ten pm Eastern on Sunday. There's
35:30
Speaker 1: also the Perth Super four forty with racing on both
35:33
Speaker 1: Saturday and Sunday. Two races on Saturday, one on Sunday
35:36
Speaker 1: to wrap up the weekend. You can also keep up
35:38
Speaker 1: to date with the latest F one, Supercars and MURDODP
35:40
Speaker 1: news at Fox sports dot com dot Au. From Matt
35:43
Speaker 1: Clayton and me, Michael Lomonado. Thanks very much for your
35:45
Speaker 1: company and we'll catch you next week.