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The Motorsport Brief: 2024 F1 Season Preview with Ted Kravitz · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:04
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:06
  It's Thursday the 29th of February 2024.
• 0:08
  Formula One is about to launch into a massive season.
• 0:12
  There's been some big news over the break, even in the last few hours actually.
• 0:17
  We will cross to the Middle East shortly for a preview.
• 0:21
  Hi everybody, welcome to another edition of the Rusty's Garage Shortcast.
• 0:24
  In a moment, Sky F1's Ted Kravitz in Bahrain on the eve of round one of the World Championship.
• 0:32
  A quick reminder that our latest feature F with David Reynolds dropped in recent weeks.
• 0:36
  He
• 0:37
  Actually came into the studio for that one just before the 12 hour and round one of supercars at Bathurst.
• 0:43
  It was a well overdue chat from the alternative approach he took to dealing with tragedy to the fine that he thinks he should have appealed.
• 0:53
  and the cool car that he's kept from his youth that he's now restoring, as well as some insight into what went wrong in 2018 when he tried to defend his Bathurst 1000 win from the previous year and the enormity of the week's building up to that moment, to the defence, what he learned and why it happened.
• 1:14
  Tomorrow morning, we'll go green on a new feature F2 with West Surrey Racing's Dick Bennett, who grew up in this part of the world, but has now had a 50-year career on the other side of the equator, engineering some great names and running a successful team in the British Touring Car Championship.
• 1:33
  Prior to his BTCC chapter, he guided the likes of Ayrton Senna,
• 1:38
  Mika Hakkinen and many more on the path to Formula One.
• 1:42
  There are some very cool memories in that one.
• 1:45
  Sorry, we sound like we're name dropping, but we hope you enjoy it.
• 1:49
  The 2024 F1 season starts this weekend in Bahrain.
• 1:53
  They're in Melbourne in less than a month's time.
• 1:55
  So this is a timely short cast.
• 1:57
  That's for the Australian Grand Prix, of course.
• 1:59
  China returns to the calendar.
• 2:01
  There's all the big races in the United States.
• 2:04
  24 Grands Prix, it's a record number of races in one season.
• 2:09
  The 75th running of the World Championship will wrap up in Abu Dhabi on the 8th of December.
• 2:16
  A friend and colleague from Sky Sports F1 coverage, Ted Kravitz, is on the line with some observations from the three days of pre-season testing over the past week and some of the headlines recently too.
• 2:30
  Hello mate, welcome to the show.
• 2:32
  Hi Rosti, how are you doing?
• 2:33
  Very good.
• 2:34
  I hope you've had a nice summer break.
• 2:35
  Boy, you have launched straight back into it literally in the last few hours.
• 2:41
  So some massive news.
• 2:42
  Let's kick off with that.
• 2:43
  Christian Horner has been cleared of allegations of inappropriate behaviour that were levelled against him by a colleague.
• 2:50
  Just give us a sense of the reaction there.
• 2:54
  Yes.
• 2:55
  So this is an investigation from his own company.
• 2:57
  It was Red Bull Austria, Red Bull GmbH, Austrian for limited company, who'd received an allegation of inappropriate behaviour and looked into it.
• 3:08
  They hired a specialist lawyer from the UK who did a big report, spoke to everybody, and they...
• 3:18
  The report cleared Christian Horner of any run doing, and he continues as team boss.
• 3:25
  So the reaction has been, it sort of raises a lot of questions, but also is the sort of simplest way to say, okay, well on the very, very simple face of it, there was a due process.
• 3:41
  There was an independent process, say Red Bull, and it was looked into and they found him
• 3:48
  clear of any wrongdoing.
• 3:49
  So that's, in a sense, the simplest way you can look at it.
• 3:52
  There's not any more complicated than that.
• 3:55
  Red Bull didn't find that, you know, after a proper King's counsel, a KC lawyer who obviously knows what they're doing, looked into it and found that, then that's the result.
• 4:08
  And I must say,
• 4:10
  I was increasingly convinced that this would be the case after day three of testing.
• 4:19
  So days one and two, Christian looked distracted when he came to testing because he was still in his job.
• 4:25
  He was still performing his role in the race team.
• 4:28
  And day three,
• 4:29
  Something happened where he even came out the front of the garage and met my eye, came over, shook my hand and said, hello.
• 4:39
  And I said, hello back.
• 4:40
  I was like, you know, thinking, you meant to be talking to me.
• 4:44
  I was like, I'm sure you are.
• 4:47
  We had a nothing conversation about the car.
• 4:49
  It was so, you know, what do you think of the car?
• 4:51
  I said, wow, the car looks great.
• 4:52
  Amazing they've made it so fast.
• 4:54
  He was like, yeah, you know, credit to our design team.
• 4:57
  Conversation about nothing.
• 4:59
  And then I kind of went...
• 5:02
  okay, see you later.
• 5:03
  And he was like, bye-bye.
• 5:05
  But we could have been having a conversation about, you know, favorite ice cream flavors.
• 5:11
  But it was something about his, he was more comfortable in himself.
• 5:16
  His demeanor.
• 5:16
  His demeanor, exactly.
• 5:19
  That made me think, okay, maybe as the Americans would say, there's not much there, there.
• 5:28
  Is that a phrase?
• 5:29
  You know that phrase?
• 5:30
  There's not much there, there.
• 5:33
  Or he managed to convince everybody that there was no foundation to these allegations.
• 5:44
  So I don't think, to answer your question, I don't think many people are massively surprised.
• 5:52
  I think it's been looking like headed for exoneration for a few days now.
• 5:58
  The frenzy was insane around this, all the social media activity, which you don't believe necessarily anyway.
• 6:06
  And then, you know, the sports governing body, you know, FOM, even Ford entering the conversation and so on.
• 6:14
  Did it take its toll on him?
• 6:17
  Based on what you've just relayed, it seemed as though not so much as this went on.
• 6:22
  And what about the team?
• 6:22
  Because from a testing perspective, it seemed like business as usual, rather, and they seem...
• 6:27
  Yeah, I think it's a great question.
• 6:48
  F1 motorsport, lots of sports love a bit of gossip.
• 6:53
  And the only bit of conversation was, what's happening with this Red Bull investigation into their own boss?
• 6:59
  That was the only topic of conversation in the paddock.
• 7:02
  We didn't know any details.
• 7:04
  It's all confidential.
• 7:05
  So as is right.
• 7:06
  So, you know,
• 7:08
  People were saying, is it this?
• 7:10
  Is it that?
• 7:10
  I don't know.
• 7:11
  Nobody knows.
• 7:12
  And they've still said, Rebel have still said that they're going to keep it confidential to protect the confidentiality of everybody concerned.
• 7:21
  So I'm not sure we are going to know.
• 7:22
  But no, I don't think it was any more than kind of the team feeling, oh, everybody's talking about us.
• 7:29
  We know what they're talking about us.
• 7:30
  Nobody can say anything.
• 7:31
  So let's just carry on.
• 7:34
  let's run a rule if we can over the kind of year ahead massive season in in formula one look at a couple of the teams and so on firstly while we're on this subject of red bull is there still a cloud over sergio perez over checo do you think heading into this year and what will these opening i don't know five or six rounds look like for him
• 7:52
  I don't know whether it's a cloud so much as, is it just a sort of nice working relationship?
• 7:59
  And I wonder whether if he continues a nice working relationship, if he continuously finishes second and backs Max up and wins the race where Max doesn't, which he's shown he's totally capable of doing, there shouldn't really be any cloud and he should be able to carry on.
• 8:15
  You know, he's a great little driver, Sergio Perez.
• 8:18
  I don't think they seem any other than
• 8:22
  the drive is his to lose.
• 8:24
  I mean, they like Daniel Ricciardo and would like to have this romantic idea of the guy who went away, sought pastures new, they did not bear fruit, comes back to the parent company where his heart really is and gets a drive again.
• 8:37
  That's a kind of romantic notion, but you know, if Checo doesn't do anything wrong, there's no reason why he shouldn't keep the seats.
• 8:43
  But yeah, it's, so I don't think he should be worried.
• 8:47
  And I also think there was some story going around where,
• 8:50
  Helmut Marko, the Rebel advisor, was saying, well, you know, Checo just needs to do what we need him to do, which is finished second in the championship again.
• 8:57
  Well, that's assuming Max Verstappen is going to win the championship.
• 8:59
  We don't know yet.
• 9:00
  The car seems fast, but certainly not the eight tenths of a second per lap quicker than anything else.
• 9:06
  It's quick, but it's not that quick.
• 9:09
  And we don't know where, you know, Checo is going to finish in relation to Max.
• 9:12
  So, but the car does look good.
• 9:15
  It's incredible in terms of its design.
• 9:17
  They've tried some very different ideas and made them work while everybody is still trying to chase up their original ideas, last year's ideas, and make them work.
• 9:25
  They've stepped over again.
• 9:27
  So, yeah, I mean, you know, credit to them.
• 9:30
  Adrian Newey and his team are geniuses, aren't they?
• 9:32
  But, yeah, no, I think Sergio Perez is a... As long as he doesn't...
• 9:39
  In a sense, don't you think the issue started when Checo was like, well, I'm going for the championship as well.
• 9:47
  And Max was, uh...
• 9:49
  Are you?
• 9:50
  I thought that was my job in the team.
• 9:53
  I thought I did that.
• 9:54
  And so, you know, if Max has a stronger start to this year than he had last year while they were figuring last year's car out, then I think all of that will be sort of largely academic.
• 10:04
  The other big story in your part of the world over the break –
• 10:07
  Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari in 2025.
• 10:11
  Did you see that coming?
• 10:12
  What do you think of that?
• 10:14
  When he went to Mercedes, it was a masterstroke move and it set up an unbelievable chapter of his career.
• 10:20
  Probably hard to tell 12 months out, but do you think it will bear the same kind of fruit?
• 10:25
  Not sure about that last bit.
• 10:27
  Only time will tell whether Ferrari will become championship winners within Lewis's racing career span.
• 10:36
  We'll see.
• 10:36
  It's not impossible, but we'll see.
• 10:39
  And no, I didn't see it coming, not least...
• 10:42
  because the same reasons that Mercedes didn't see it coming was because in Abu Dhabi and at the end of the year, Lewis went to the Mercedes factory near Silverstone, stood up in front of everybody and said, listen, have a great Christmas, everybody.
• 10:53
  I'm really looking forward to coming back and challenging with you for 2024.
• 10:57
  So they were like, oh, nice, you know, good old Lewis.
• 10:59
  You know, happy Christmas, Lewis, have a nice one.
• 11:01
  He went away, spent some time in Colorado.
• 11:04
  He spent some time in Brazil.
• 11:06
  And I had this romantic notion that...
• 11:09
  you know, while looking around Brazil, he felt the spirit of Ayrton Senna, who always said that after his time at Williams, he might've ended his career at Ferrari, had things not of course worked out so tragically different in the case of Senna.
• 11:21
  And Lewis had thought, well, maybe I should do, what complete what Ayrton, his hero, Lewis's hero, never did and end my career at Ferrari.
• 11:29
  But what Lewis did say today on that was that, while the approach, the initial approach from John Elkann, the Ferrari,
• 11:37
  chairman in the summer had been like, well, not now, no thanks.
• 11:42
  Something changed over the winter.
• 11:44
  He did a lot of introspection and said, you know what, ask me again, because it's going to be a different answer.
• 11:50
  And it was.
• 11:51
  Wow.
• 11:52
  But Lewis Hamilton, Sir Lewis Hamilton...
• 11:54
  you know, becomes one of the many, actually, British drivers who've driven for a Ferrari, not for an awful long time.
• 12:02
  Eddie Irvine, British driver, of course, with Michael Schumacher.
• 12:05
  Nigel Mansell, going back.
• 12:07
  And then the likes of, you know, Mike Hawthorne, Peter Collins, and way back when, in the 50s and 60s.
• 12:16
  So it's not unusual for British drivers to race for the scooter.
• 12:20
  Huge thing.
• 12:21
  Very big thing.
• 12:21
  That leads us to both Mercedes and Ferrari then looking at 2024.
• 12:26
  Just from what you've observed over testing, what do you think we can expect from them this year and who perhaps in that pecking order is ahead of the other?
• 12:36
  Well, at the moment, it seems that Ferrari ahead of Mercedes, which seems incredible because of the very few changes that Ferrari have outwardly made to their car.
• 12:45
  But it seems like the aerodynamics were good.
• 12:47
  They just needed to sort out the mechanicals, which they've done to make it a much easier car to drive.
• 12:52
  And that seems to be all Charles Leclerc needed when he turned in.
• 12:56
  to the corner, he'd actually knew what the back end of the car was going to do, rather than it flip round on him and throw him off, and he'd be constantly scared of what the car was going to do.
• 13:05
  It doesn't bite him.
• 13:06
  It's a lovely car to drive, he says.
• 13:08
  And so I think Ferrari are the closest challenges to Red Bull, closely followed by Mercedes.
• 13:13
  But let me tell you something interesting, Rusty.
• 13:15
  George Russell said today, and that was that there have been some changes to this car, the Mercedes, that Lewis asked for.
• 13:24
  that have come to it.
• 13:25
  And, you know, we're going to have to see how I go with that.
• 13:29
  And he said it twice.
• 13:30
  And there's kind of, whoa, okay, well...
• 13:33
  They must have been important if Lewis asked for them.
• 13:35
  Are they no good for you?
• 13:38
  Are you kind of telling us at the moment, well, you know, it's not my car.
• 13:42
  I didn't ask for this.
• 13:43
  But, yeah, George Russell said that a couple of times.
• 13:45
  I didn't quite know what to make of it.
• 13:47
  We did ask and picked up on it afterwards and said, what do you mean by that, George?
• 13:50
  You know, you're saying that you're not down with it.
• 13:52
  I mean, specifically, it's about moving the driver 10 centimetres back in the car, something Lewis felt he wasn't happy.
• 13:59
  Remember last year's car, he was saying, I'm a bit too forward.
• 14:01
  It feels like I'm over the front wheels.
• 14:04
  And why can't you move, can you move me back a bit?
• 14:08
  George didn't have a problem with that with the way it felt driving.
• 14:11
  He said, I'm fine with that.
• 14:12
  I mean, Lewis, but yeah, he was quite clear about, you know, Lewis has asked for two things on this car and he's got them.
• 14:18
  So they're not my changes, but you know, they'll be, that's gonna be a very close fight.
• 14:23
  And I think I'd be surprised if we got to the end of the year and both Ferrari and Mercedes hadn't won a race each.
• 14:33
  We've got 24 of them.
• 14:34
  They've got to win one.
• 14:37
  But yeah, that remains to be seen.
• 14:39
  But they're very close together.
• 14:41
  Just before we move on to a couple of other teams, I'm glad you've raised George there.
• 14:44
  I mean, you know, from the heartbreak of Singapore last year, for example, we know that Lewis is going to depart.
• 14:50
  What sort of year ahead is he going to have within that sphere?
• 14:55
  Is this, you know, his year to take another step?
• 14:58
  What are you sort of anticipating from him, given that you feel like they are a chance of winning some races?
• 15:04
  Well, George says that he needs to do better than last year.
• 15:07
  He was so disappointed with last year, not just for Singapore, as you know, you were there, but as much of just not getting enough podiums that he wanted.
• 15:17
  It was important for George to finish the year on the podium in Abu Dhabi.
• 15:21
  That was absolutely crucial and has given him a nice springboard into this season.
• 15:26
  Yes, he's moving up to the undisputed team leader in 2025.
• 15:31
  Yes.
• 15:33
  except for possibly if Fernando Alonso joins the team, then maybe they'll be joint leaders.
• 15:39
  But everybody else, I think, is George is going to be the number one.
• 15:43
  And he just needs to move it on, really.
• 15:47
  He's recently celebrated his 26th birthday, and he thinks he should be winning many more races or would have had many more race wins by now in his Formula 1 career.
• 15:57
  But he's a quality operator, George Russell.
• 16:00
  and I think he's taken a lot of confidence from how last season ended and brought it into this year.
• 16:06
  What is the likelihood of that happening of what you've just talked about there with Fernando and them?
• 16:11
  And then can I expand that question, Ted, because last year Aston came out of the blocks unbelievably well, first few races.
• 16:18
  Can we expect similar form from Aston Martin this year?
• 16:21
  Absolutely.
• 16:22
  I did ask Fernando and Lance Stroll this, and they said, no, not sure.
• 16:27
  It's realistic to be on the podium straight away.
• 16:31
  I'm a bit more optimistic than they are because it seems to be a nice car.
• 16:36
  It's well, it's well handling.
• 16:38
  It looks good out on track, but they say, no, we're missing a bit of pace.
• 16:42
  We'll see how that goes.
• 16:44
  I think it is possible for Alonso to be a kind of one year stop gap.
• 16:48
  Wow.
• 16:49
  Because if
• 16:51
  Mercedes are after their junior driver, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the young Italian driver.
• 16:58
  And if he wins, blitzes the Formula 2 championship that he's giving his, you know, starting his debut season in this year, then he'll be into that Mercedes, no question.
• 17:08
  But if he doesn't, if Antonelli doesn't do that and wants to have another year going for it, and it's a very close series, that F2,
• 17:16
  then I think they'd certainly look at Alonso for one year while they prepare their young hotshot.
• 17:23
  But then he's got a lot of competition.
• 17:25
  Carlos Sainz, the man who Lewis actually replaced at Ferrari, Alex Albon, Esteban Ocon.
• 17:33
  In fact, most of the grid would want that Ferrari seat, that Mercedes seat.
• 17:37
  Mercedes seat.
• 17:38
  And have already texted Toto to say, look, if Lewis is off to Ferrari, can we have his Mercedes seat?
• 17:44
  So, yeah, tough question for Toto to answer.
• 17:47
  We'll grab a quick break here.
• 17:48
  We are not done yet, though.
• 17:50
  Our F1 season preview continues in just a few moments.
• 17:57
  For this episode of the Rusty's Garage Shortcast, we are delighted to have Sky Sports F1 pit reporter Ted Kravitz.
• 18:03
  Lots of you love his debrief show, Ted's Notebook, which has been around for over a decade.
• 18:08
  He's on the line with us as we get excited for the season opener in Bahrain.
• 18:13
  Let's get back to the convo now.
• 18:16
  Right, Ted Kravitz, I want to put on the Aussie patriotic cap for a little moment.
• 18:20
  Let's go McLaren.
• 18:21
  Let's go Oscar Piastri.
• 18:24
  We know, we believe he's got the talent.
• 18:27
  Is the car, the situation, everything right for a GP win this year for him?
• 18:31
  Yeah.
• 18:33
  Yes, but not yet.
• 18:35
  That seems to be what's going on at McLaren.
• 18:40
  In a sense, winter testing was the worst place to do it in Bahrain because they've never gone particularly well here.
• 18:46
  Ironic because they're part owned by the Bahraini Investment Fund.
• 18:52
  And also because it's...
• 18:57
  A circuit that didn't suit last year's car, doesn't really suit this year's car, even with the changes they've made to it.
• 19:04
  And they didn't have a great test.
• 19:05
  There were a couple of unreliability problems that they had.
• 19:09
  And I've had nothing but playing it down from Oscar Piastri today, who was more keen to talk about the game of paddle he had with...
• 19:18
  with George Russell and Alex Albon and some friends of theirs where Oscar didn't win that either.
• 19:24
  So while he's not going to win the Bahrain Grand Prix, although nothing's impossible, I don't think that means that when they get to some circuits that are a little bit more suited to the McLaren that Oscar and Lando won't be in with a shout.
• 19:36
  I think they've got to be in with a shout of winning a race.
• 19:39
  Lando thinks he's going to be able to win a race this year.
• 19:42
  And if we know now that Oscar is just as fast as Lando,
• 19:46
  And if you judge it that Lando is just as fast as Max Verstappen, so Oscar is as fast as Max Verstappen.
• 19:55
  I'm going to go there.
• 19:56
  Can I go there?
• 19:56
  Are you going to go there?
• 19:57
  Yes, you can.
• 19:58
  You just have.
• 19:59
  You just have.
• 20:00
  How are you and the commentary team going with the pronunciation of the team that Daniel Ricciardo is with, given the change in the off-season?
• 20:09
  Maybe you've got a little acronym or a nickname for that.
• 20:11
  And what does that car look like?
• 20:16
  points, perhaps even a podium.
• 20:18
  What is the reality there?
• 20:20
  The good chance of a podium.
• 20:22
  A lot of people are saying that RB, we're calling them RB, not the US fast food joint, ARBY, Arby's.
• 20:32
  They're called Arby's.
• 20:33
  This is Arby's.
• 20:36
  they have got a chance of doing what I call doing an Aston Martin.
• 20:40
  So doing what Fernando Alonso did last year, this year.
• 20:46
  So being in there, if Ferrari and Mercedes have a bad day,
• 20:51
  then the car seems reliable.
• 20:53
  Daniel knows how to drive the car to get on the podium.
• 20:56
  And I think it's entirely possible Daniel could join Oscar at some point challenging for the podium.
• 21:03
  I think they're in the right cars to do it.
• 21:05
  And wins maybe out of Daniel's reach.
• 21:09
  But yeah, he's definitely got a great podium shout.
• 21:14
  And...
• 21:15
  It's super simple, as they say down at RB.
• 21:20
  It's a sponsor.
• 21:23
  If you want to call the car...
• 21:28
  Oracle, if you want to call the Red Bull Oracle, or call the Mercedes Petronas, then we'd call the RB Visa or Cash App, which are their financial sponsors.
• 21:38
  And great, by the way, big company Visa, big company Cash App, fantastic for Red Bull and Toro Rosso, the second Red Bull team in Italy, to get big sponsors like Visa and Cash App.
• 21:52
  Hat tip.
• 21:53
  Well done to them.
• 21:54
  Firstly, to get Visa, who I don't think has done a new sports sponsorship in 15 years, I think I read the other day, to come into Formula One A and then B, to choose Red Bull's second team.
• 22:05
  So well done to them.
• 22:08
  But that doesn't mean that we have to call them...
• 22:12
  uh visa cash app rb in the same way that we call petronas amg mercedes we call them mercedes so it's super simple for me um they say they did think about racing bulls because there is some heritage in uh red bull where they have the flying bulls which is uh the late dietrich matches is um uh amazing collection of you know dc3s and uh
• 22:38
  stunt helicopters and stunt planes, they called them the flying bulls.
• 22:41
  And they thought, well, the flying bulls, we call them the racing bulls.
• 22:43
  I think the racing bulls would have been a better name, I think, all around.
• 22:46
  That's a good name.
• 22:48
  But they thought it would be a bit of a mouthful.
• 22:50
  So they did our abbreviation for us.
• 22:53
  And they said, well, if you don't like racing bulls, which nobody said, we'll call it RB.
• 23:00
  So now we're all stuck with RB.
• 23:03
  And I don't know whether they can say, well, you can call us racing bulls.
• 23:08
  But I think both will do.
• 23:11
  Massive year for everyone in the paddock, for you and your colleagues in television as well.
• 23:16
  I think some people doing, you know, split team arrangements when it comes to broadcasting and so on, which makes great sense.
• 23:22
  How is everyone going to cope with this huge commitment?
• 23:28
  Well, it's a funny start to the season because we have a bit of time off.
• 23:32
  You're right.
• 23:32
  We're all taking a few races off just to not make our families forget completely who we are and to have a bit of a break.
• 23:40
  So actually, I'm not doing the next race in Saudi because I did this doubleheader in testing of Bahrain and the race in Bahrain.
• 23:46
  So I've got Saudi off.
• 23:48
  So the next race I'll see is Melbourne, Australia.
• 23:50
  Awesome.
• 23:50
  Really, really looking forward to it.
• 23:53
  And then we've got two weeks between that and China, and then we've got two weeks between that and Japan.
• 23:59
  Or is it the other way around?
• 24:01
  I forget.
• 24:02
  So, you know, you go out there for four days, come back, and then you're at home for 10 days, and then you go back out.
• 24:08
  So, you know, there is a lot of travel, no doubt about it.
• 24:12
  And then it's Miami, and then it's Imola, and then you're into the European...
• 24:15
  season um but uh yeah if you think it's hard for for the people who work in it ask the drivers and in fact max verstappen and fernando alonso were asked just that today and both amazingly came out and said that they think 24 is pretty much on the limit or even over the limit and too much and it's not sustainable so um yeah big words from alonso and verstappen there but um i don't know
• 24:45
  a race off do we put kind of you know can we can we put liam lawson in max's car oh there's a story there's a story yeah let's take a race off he'll probably still win the championship liam can do the reserve driver liam can do a race in the rb20 and we get more of it maybe yeah yeah and then max will still win the championship and he'll have a race off why not
• 25:08
  Awesome.
• 25:09
  You've been fantastic with your time.
• 25:10
  Before we let you go, are there any other surprises you think in the rest of the field that we should be a little mindful of in this wonderful preview that we've done?
• 25:18
  And Gunter Steiner is going to do a bit of television with different networks, including even Channel 10 in Australia.
• 25:24
  How good is that going to be?
• 25:26
  That's fantastic.
• 25:27
  I mean, I'm pleased.
• 25:29
  I'm pleased for Haas because they've cured some of their tyre problems.
• 25:33
  They were chewing through tyres like they were bubblegum last year, and it was a nightmare.
• 25:37
  So I'm pleased for them.
• 25:39
  I'm disappointed that Gunter isn't there to enjoy the results of that.
• 25:43
  But he will be joining various people on TV.
• 25:47
  We'll even grab a word with him.
• 25:48
  So, yeah, great to see him.
• 25:49
  I'm glad to hear he's joining on Channel 10, and he'll be with us.
• 25:52
  on some sky channels as well as German TV.
• 25:55
  We do miss him around the place.
• 25:56
  He was a great character, but he won't be gone for long.
• 26:01
  Watch out for what's going on with Alpine.
• 26:03
  Of course, they had a management change dropped off.
• 26:05
  Malzaff now went with Bruno Famine, who was the French team boss.
• 26:11
  And we'll see if it really is a famine of points for this year, because they're looking a bit dodgy.
• 26:20
  It's a new car concept.
• 26:22
  It's taking them a bit of time to understand.
• 26:24
  And they're looking like the big surprise, not in a great way for the season, is that Alpine, which of course is the Works Renault team, under a different name, is really struggling towards the back and might struggle to get out of Q1.
• 26:38
  But yeah, RB, that's my big tip for the season.
• 26:43
  See what circuits might suit them, see how it goes in practice, and then, yeah, wow your friends with a bold prediction on Danny Rick for the podium.
• 26:51
  I love it.
• 26:52
  Perfect way to finish this.
• 26:53
  Thank you very much for your time.
• 26:55
  You're already into it with excellent coverage of testing, which I know the fans have loved.
• 27:00
  It's a huge year for Sky fans in Australia.
• 27:02
  We'll be able to see the Sky coverage, of course, on Fox Motorsport, on Sky Sport in New Zealand.
• 27:07
  Have a terrific year, my friend, and thank you very much for talking to us today.
• 27:11
  Thanks very much.
• 27:11
  See you soon.
• 27:13
  Sky continue to innovate with their coverage, really looking forward to seeing what's new for 2024.
• 27:20
  A couple of good things came out of that conversation, didn't they?
• 27:24
  Particularly Daniel Ricciardo, an RB, having a car that looks to be a podium contender.
• 27:30
  That rumour of Fernando Alonso maybe being a short-term solution for Mercedes when Lewis Hamilton heads to Ferrari.
• 27:38
  How surprised Ted was by that announcement and that maybe some time in Brazil for Lewis during the off-season where Ayrton Senna grew up made him think possibly about doing what his hero had talked about.
• 27:52
  That very romantic dream that many drivers have of racing for the famous Red Squad before he hangs the helmet up.
• 27:59
  Just on the Horner story, you can find more on that news that broke this morning by going to trusted sources too.
• 28:06
  Motorsport.com, Joe Saywood, the Sky Sports F1 website, naturally, locally at Speed Cafe.
• 28:13
  In short, he's been cleared of the allegations of inappropriate behaviour after an internal investigation by the drinks company, the details of which have remained private.
• 28:24
  The complainant can appeal if they choose to.
• 28:27
  There has been some pressure from Formula One management, the governing body, the FIA and Ford, who Red Bull Racing will partner with in 2026 to get this whole inquiry completed.
• 28:39
  And they've done that prior to the season opener.
• 28:42
  Horner has been at the team's car launch recently during the testing.
• 28:46
  And he's obviously eyes forward from this point.
• 28:49
  Yeah.
• 28:50
  The supercars season opener at Bathurst didn't work.
• 28:53
  I'd love your thoughts on this.
• 28:54
  They tried to fill the gap left by Newcastle, but like many of you, I just think that we can't dilute Bathurst.
• 29:02
  I actually had people come and ask me, oh...
• 29:05
  Isn't that race on in October?
• 29:06
  I thought it was October.
• 29:07
  The 12-hour was awesome.
• 29:09
  That should stand alone in its own space in February, the 1,000 in its traditional spot in October, and a couple of other events sprinkled throughout the year.
• 29:19
  So we look forward to going to the mountain and seeing what's on up there.
• 29:23
  Hopefully, a solution for the international in November can be found too.
• 29:28
  We loved having the TCR World Tour with us last year.
• 29:32
  Nice start there for Red Bull and Brock Feeney and Will Brown enjoying the spoils as far as the Supercars round is concerned.
• 29:39
  Brown leads the point standings by nine over B. Feene.
• 29:43
  Good weekend for Chas Mostert and Walkinshaw and Dready United with their Mustang and visits to the podium as well.
• 29:50
  Chas is third on the ladder.
• 29:51
  Behind Mozzie is Richie Stanaway who is tied on 192 points.
• 29:56
  with David Reynolds, who we spoke to recently.
• 29:58
  Pretty good way to open the account for both of those two at their respective new homes, Grove Racing and Team 18.
• 30:06
  And well done to Nick Perkat and Matt Stone Racing as well.
• 30:10
  Only six points shy of Richie and David.
• 30:14
  ARC champion Harry Bates and Neil Bates Motorsport have their 2023 winning car for sale.
• 30:21
  He is upgrading to a very cool new Toyota GR Yaris Rally 2 machine.
• 30:28
  Round one is in Canberra in April.
• 30:30
  I cannot wait to see that car.
• 30:31
  And finally, on the subject of rally, we were very saddened to learn of the passing of Brooklyn Horan and Tyson Jemmet, who died in a crash at a rally sprint north of Auckland less than a week ago.
• 30:43
  Brooklyn was just 15 and had the world at his feet.
• 30:47
  He also did some circuit racing in New Zealand.
• 30:49
  Tyson was a renowned co-driver too.
• 30:53
  Our thoughts are very much with their families and the motorsport community as they all try to process this right now.
• 31:01
  We're also thinking of their teammates and their many friends that they had in both the paddock and service park who are hurting right now.
• 31:09
  There are some great words on this on social media by Hayden Padden.
• 31:14
  I'd encourage you to go and find that and have a read.
• 31:17
  That is it for today.
• 31:18
  Take care, everyone.
• 31:19
  Bye for now.