Latest / The Undercut / Lando Holds on to Take His First Drivers Championship! - 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Review

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Lando Holds on to Take His First Drivers Championship! - 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Review · The Undercut

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:09
  Speaker B: Thanks for tuning in to the Undercuts review of the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and enjoy the show.
• 0:20
  Speaker C: By being a racing driver, you are at the risk all the time. By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you're no longer a racing driver.
• 0:34
  Speaker D: Well, boys, we made it to the end of the season and Lando was able to hold on by two points. And it was not easy throughout the race, but he was able to hold on and win his first driver's championship.
• 0:51
  Speaker A: How do you feel, Jason?
• 0:56
  Speaker A: Did you ever doubt it?
• 0:59
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 1:02
  Speaker A: Did you ever. At which point during the race was the most. Was the most stressful? Did the stress go down or up as the. As the race progressed?
• 1:10
  Speaker D: I felt stressed the whole entire race until the last lap started.
• 1:17
  Speaker A: Right. Oh, and then you never know. You never know. I guess that's true. You know, anything can and has happened in the past, but Nicholas Latifi could.
• 1:28
  Speaker E: Have just run across the track in front of him.
• 1:34
  Speaker A: Michael Massey could have been on the phone trying to bring out a safety car. But, I mean, it was pretty clear to me that Norris was. Race was racing for third. Right. He wasn't doing anything to. To jeopardize him finishing on. On the podium. But Max did, you know absolutely everything that he could to make himself world champion. And you could see that he. He knew exactly where he was. Max, I'm talking about, knew where he was and what he needed to happen for him to be champion. Asking about leclerc closing on Piastri towards the end to see if there's any chance that he could sneak by. But it wasn't to be.
• 2:16
  Speaker E: Yeah, I mean, in reality.
• 2:19
  Speaker E: They needed. He needed both Charles and George to get past Lando.
• 2:25
  Speaker A: Right. I thought fourth place, it wouldn't have been enough, but it.
• 2:29
  Speaker E: He needed both of those because.
• 2:32
  Speaker E: Oscar would have fallen back to fourth.
• 2:35
  Speaker A: Oh, you mean like, because. Yeah, the whole, like, McLaren are going to switch the drivers around. They had, like, extra insurance.
• 2:41
  Speaker E: Yeah, they had insurance. So I think Charles did a much better job than I was expecting for all of the tractor memes that I sent to this group chat earlier today. But I don't. He had a great race. I mean, Charles was nowhere earlier in the weekend and then was putting pressure on Lando for a good chunk of the race. Lando really had to kind of push on.
• 3:11
  Speaker E: To make a gap. And even then, I think at the pit stop, it was only about 5 seconds or so. So it was really good, really good race from Charles. But like I said, they needed George. Well, Max needed George to also get past Lando to prevent Oscar falling back and giving.
• 3:32
  Speaker E: Giving Lando a podium he needed.
• 3:36
  Speaker A: Yeah, I guess they. It never really. That never came up, did it? That the commentators had to sort of get into the weeds of, yeah, McLaren team orders and stuff like that, because, yeah, Charles had to get. Charles had to get by Lando first, which didn't happen. But, yeah, you're probably right. They would have done that.
• 3:54
  Speaker E: So, yeah, I mean, the one thing that going into the weekend, if he'd watched, like, F1TV, Julian Palmer very much of a, you know, trying to figure out ways to make things interesting, I guess. But was, you know, the talk was about, well, is Max going to try and back them up? You know, because through that last sector, you can drive pretty slowly. I mean, what like this? The Mexican Minister of Defense, cho Perez, in 20, 21, right, was driving like three seconds a lap slower just from that final sector, holding up Lewis and held him up for like three laps and cost him like eight, nine seconds, whatever.
• 4:31
  Speaker D: Right.
• 4:31
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 4:32
  Speaker E: So that could be done until Red Bull saw the tire blankets come off and Oscar had the hard tyre on McLaren. I don't know if you guys noticed this, but McLaren split their strategy. The only way that Oscar was going to be able to win the title was to get off after Max. So what they were trying to do there was put Oscar on the hard tire to push Max and try and get his tires to grain.
• 5:02
  Speaker E: Then potentially gives him a chance to. To get by, win the race. But what it also meant was that they're being on a different strategy.
• 5:15
  Speaker E: Max couldn't drive slowly, right, and try and back him up because he'd lose out. So a lot of. A lot of back and forth. But I think ultimately.
• 5:28
  Speaker E: Lando didn't need to finish in second. So when Oscar put the move on him on the outside of turn nine, he just didn't. He just didn't battle. He didn't want to.
• 5:39
  Speaker A: Yeah, there wasn't a fight he needed to have right there and then. Yeah.
• 5:42
  Speaker E: And not that it was an engineered pass, but it was a case of don't fight it. And if he needs to give a. A place back to you at the end, he will. Because if you're in a position to be one point, you know, one place behind your teammate, then he's not going to win the title and you are. So there you go.
• 6:00
  Speaker A: I mean, you can count Back and, you know, I don't want to play this game too much, but it was only last week when Kimmy went wide and gave Lando a place. Right. And a couple of extra points.
• 6:12
  Speaker E: Exactly how critical was that?
• 6:15
  Speaker D: But, yeah, but Lando had the tie break, right?
• 6:21
  Speaker E: Not really race win. Max won an eighth race.
• 6:25
  Speaker A: Yeah, he got the eighth race win. So Max had more wins than anybody this season. He had less second places. But I guess when you win races, that goes with the territory. But, yeah. Seven wins for Norris and Piastri, eight for Verstappen. I mean.
• 6:42
  Speaker A: A masterclass of driving from Verstappen. I mean, we all knew he was great, but we've seen him do it from the front, you know, in. In the best car. But to put in the second half that he did, you know, that Norris couldn't do to try and chase down Verstappen last year. To see Verstappen, you know, nearly come. Come through was just. Yeah. I must admit, there was a small part of me that would like to see Verstappen do it. You know, I was pulling for Lando, but it would have been won for the ages, wouldn't it?
• 7:15
  Speaker E: A championship win. And you can look at all these different scenarios that emerged over the course of the year that ultimately swung the title one way versus another. You know, you look at that Kimmy running wide last weekend and giving. Giving a position to Lando that. Not giving, but, you know, ceding a position to. To Lando that ultimately gave him the two points that he won the title by.
• 7:41
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 7:42
  Speaker E: You go back, obviously there's the. The disqualification in Vegas, which obviously swings it way, way the other way. It would have been wrapped up last week by Lando. But then you go back and you look at Max Verstappen in Spain. That cost him 11 points. Crashing intentionally, crashing into George.
• 8:00
  Speaker A: Right.
• 8:01
  Speaker E: And then you have, you know, the change of position in Monza.
• 8:05
  Speaker A: Yeah. The other year when they watched three points.
• 8:08
  Speaker E: I mean, it was a net six points between the teammates, but it was three points that Lando got on that occasion that he wouldn't have otherwise. So all these different things, and it's like that's, you know, every weekend, every point, I mean, it came down to two points, 400 and something. That's like half of a percent.
• 8:28
  Speaker E: In terms of points over the entire season. So every race, every point, every position counts.
• 8:33
  Speaker A: Yeah. I mean. Yeah. And what if it was like, we got rid of the fastest lap point this year? Right. What if that was in play, you know?
• 8:42
  Speaker E: ChatGPT it or something, I don't know or do some quick side of table.
• 8:47
  Speaker A: I've got all the answers in my. I've got all the fastest laps in my coops F1 database actually I should take a look but nobody was pitting for soft tyres in the last lap to sneak that point. But that's also true so not necessarily.
• 9:05
  Speaker E: It's not an exact science definitive answer.
• 9:07
  Speaker A: But maybe something to look into but yeah, it's been what since 2010 they adopted this point system, you know, 25 for a win and this is the closest margin, you know, even closer than as was 20, 21. Right. When it was.
• 9:24
  Speaker E: Yeah, they were fine going into the.
• 9:26
  Speaker A: Final race so by coming first and second the margin was actually bigger. Yeah than the two points but.
• 9:35
  Speaker A: Yeah, but I mean the race itself though wasn't particularly apart from the storylines of, you know, the world championship but there wasn't too much going on in the race. Right.
• 9:44
  Speaker E: Well if there was something to watch in the rest of the race, we didn't see it. All we ever saw was the front three. I can't remember. I mean I don't really know what happened in the rest of the race other than the fact there wasn't even a single yellow flag during the whole race.
• 10:01
  Speaker D: Yeah, really they do pump Lewis into the broadcast. I tend to notice even when he's non existent in the race they'll still give Lewis updates when he's tooling around in 17.
• 10:14
  Speaker A: I don't know if Lewis, I don't know if Lewis wants to know that he's on TV at the moment to be honest. He's having a nightmare. Yeah, he just can't wait for the season to be over and he's happy that.
• 10:27
  Speaker A: So he made it. I mean he went out, he went out on soft tires I think. Right. Just trying to make something happen early on but didn't really make much, much headway.
• 10:40
  Speaker D: We didn't talk about the Yuki of it all.
• 10:45
  Speaker D: So I watched the broadcast on Sky Sports obviously and then I watched the 30 minute version which is the F1 TV broadcast and they both saw it completely different ways which is odd. Sky Sports was like completely slamming Yuki as soon as it happened where in the F1TV broadcast they were more talking about Lando should have to give the place back immediately or else he's gonna get a penalty.
• 11:16
  Speaker E: But well, I think it was a case of should they give the place back just to.
• 11:22
  Speaker E: Relieve themselves of the stress of having to find out.
• 11:26
  Speaker D: Right.
• 11:26
  Speaker E: But I think ultimately Yuki moved left then moved right Then moved left and then moved left again, right. So, yeah.
• 11:38
  Speaker E: I mean, you can move. You can move more than once to break the toe, right? You're allowed to do that. You're not allowed to weave.
• 11:48
  Speaker A: But.
• 11:48
  Speaker E: So the fact that he went left, then right, then left, but then went left again. That's what sealed his fate. I mean, it was. He was weaving intentionally to try and stop the progress of the car behind, which he can't do. And the fact that he moved left, paused for a bit, and then moved left again. And that's what took Lando off the track, really, was that he was forced off the track and that was that.
• 12:16
  Speaker A: Yeah, I saw it exactly the same way you did, Nick. You can't. Yeah. Yuki was not driving in a. You're allowed to do things unpredictably, but not that unpredictable. Like. Yeah. What did you think, Jason? You were just shouting.
• 12:33
  Speaker E: What do you think I thought.
• 12:34
  Speaker A: What do you think I thought I.
• 12:36
  Speaker D: Was screaming at Yuki. I was like, I vouch for you so many times, you fucking piece of shit.
• 12:43
  Speaker E: This is how you repay me, right?
• 12:47
  Speaker A: It's like, I love you, man. How can you do that?
• 12:54
  Speaker A: Passion. We do like the passion, Jason.
• 12:59
  Speaker D: But all was okay in the end, right? And Yuki was all the way in the back, so what did it matter?
• 13:07
  Speaker E: Yeah, I mean, but it. It's. It just highlights the fact that. That the Red Bull car is really, really quick if you can drive it, but only one man seems to be able to be able to, you know, to be able to drive it. Yuki is a better driver than 20th when his teammate is winning it. There's something about that car, and I'm sure that Isaac Hajar is super happy that that car's going in the bin before he gets to sit in the big team.
• 13:40
  Speaker A: True. Very true.
• 13:44
  Speaker A: What do you think, Jason? What do you think Piastri's thinking at this. At this moment? That. That he had it and he. And he threw it away or.
• 13:53
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 13:53
  Speaker A: You know, is it a learning experience.
• 13:55
  Speaker D: Thinking that for a couple weeks now, Right?
• 13:57
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 13:58
  Speaker D: I mean, you can see it in his face.
• 14:00
  Speaker E: He's.
• 14:01
  Speaker D: He. He's been resigned to not winning it for at least the past two race.
• 14:06
  Speaker E: Yeah. I think in Vegas after the race, you kind of realized that he knew that his chant had pretty much gone through that whole stretch, really, from Baku, but in particular in the US.
• 14:25
  Speaker E: In Austin, in Mexico, and then in Brazil. That run really cocked him.
• 14:33
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 14:34
  Speaker E: He just, you know, couldn't get it into the window that he could do what he needed to. I think that absent that stretch, he would have been very much in the conversation. I mean, he was in the conversation anyway, but he could, he would have been, you know, really strong, be champion right now without that run, you know, just as Lando had had a bad run in the sort of the second quarter, so to speak.
• 15:02
  Speaker E: But the thing is, that's.
• 15:08
  Speaker E: The reason that he didn't do very well in those two races was really just because of the low grip nature of the track, which is quite specific. Now those tracks are going to be on the calendar every year. He's got to figure out, if I was him, I'd be on the sim every day trying to understand what it is about the nature of that type of track, that grip surface that he needs to understand. Because if he can nail that next year, he could have Lando's number.
• 15:40
  Speaker E: Wherever they may fall.
• 15:42
  Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, he's seemed to be able to improve on different areas every year. Like when he first came in, it was. Qualifying was really the issue, but he seemed to come in with pretty good race pace immediately. And then coming into this year, you know, he, he's just gotten better every single year. So, yeah, it was.
• 16:01
  Speaker E: Tire degradation was another thing that, when I think back a year or two, that was one thing that he struggled with. He tried, you know, he, he'd get a lot more tire wear than Lando, but this year you would never have known that They've. They've worked the car just equally as well as each other. So that's, you know, another example of something that he struggled with, that he learned and overcome and, you know, hopefully he can do the same for that stretch because especially coming so late in the year, you don't have the time to make it up afterwards. You, you could be in a lead, but you have that stretch and it puts you behind to the point at which it's too late. You know, it wasn't a great end to the season for the Williams. They, they. No, just for largely Anonymous in this race, which was somewhat unexpected, obviously they'd done enough to seal fifth place in the constructors already. Even further back, I don't think anything really changed in the order of who which team was finishing where. So that was relatively uneventful with.
• 17:07
  Speaker E: Racing balls in sixth and then.
• 17:12
  Speaker E: Aston Martin seventh, pass eighth.
• 17:16
  Speaker E: Sauber ninth, and then Alpine coming, Coming in the rear.
• 17:23
  Speaker E: Yeah, Alpine did nothing as well. So, yeah, I must have.
• 17:28
  Speaker A: I don't. I'm not a hate. I'm not a real like hater of a person or. I try not to Be, but I'm not the biggest Flavio Briatore fan. So the fact that he's down there with 22 points and I don't think his name was barely mentioned at any point during any Formula one broadcast, pretty much, yeah.
• 17:46
  Speaker E: I'm. Have they even mentioned him for like the last half of the season even?
• 17:51
  Speaker A: Not really.
• 17:52
  Speaker D: Which is probably for the best.
• 17:53
  Speaker A: They barely mentioned Flav for the second half of the season. And I think once Christian Horner left as well, like, nobody mentioned him either. Like, you know, his name pops up every so often. Like, will he resurface at some team or something? But yeah, I don't know if that's gonna happen.
• 18:08
  Speaker D: Yeah, I was watching.
• 18:10
  Speaker D: Because Zach Brown just released a book. So on top of them just winning the championship, he's obviously been doing rounds for his, his book.
• 18:20
  Speaker E: And he was on some, I don't.
• 18:22
  Speaker D: Know, British or Scottish sports show, Real Talk, right. And they were talking about Flavio and Christian and how if the sport misses Christian.
• 18:37
  Speaker D: And he kind of like danced around the question. But one of the other guys that was the, the host of the show was like, yeah, I did some stuff with Flavio that I don't really want to talk about. And Zach Brown was like, I can guess what you guys did.
• 18:50
  Speaker A: So, yeah, probably not. Yeah, not, not family friendly, but yeah, those guys, they're a little bit too like old guard for me. We've, we've moved on, moved on. Now it's more about the racing and.
• 19:06
  Speaker E: I think that, you know, with Laurent McKees there, the whole ethos of the team is changing. I won't say big news, but the news of the day today has been that Helmut Marko has been retired. The wording of the Red Bull statement sort of made it sound like it was his choice, but obviously it wasn't because an 82 year old man who's been doing that for so long and, you know, don't get me wrong, he's obviously contributed a. But he's become the Prince Philip of motorsport lately, which our British listener will understand. But maybe.
• 19:45
  Speaker E: Our other listeners, Prince Philip, the Queen's late husband.
• 19:52
  Speaker E: He was notorious for saying highly inappropriate and insensitive things, putting his foot in his mouth constantly in a way very similar to what Helmut Marko has done by saying things like, well, Sergio Perez is not a very good driver because that's the Mexican in him, I think was one thing that he said, which is a very Duke of Edinburgh thing to say. But then I think it probably came to a head at the way that he Spoke about Kimmy Antonelli letting. Letting so to speak Lando by for that position last week and obviously.
• 20:32
  Speaker A: The.
• 20:32
  Speaker E: Vitriol directed towards a 19 year old that resulted from that was. I think the board kind of made a decision that it's like you know what he's done enough for us. Let's especially with Christian going Dietrich Bataschitz obviously he passed away a couple of years ago. With this new direction under mekies in the F1 team it you know let's. We don't really need helmet anymore. They've got Guillaume Rokalan running the driver academy and that's doing its thing. So what's the point of Marco?
• 21:09
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 21:12
  Speaker D: And maybe they'll have a driver be able to try staying in that seat.
• 21:17
  Speaker E: For more than one two weeks season in some cases.
• 21:26
  Speaker A: Yeah, I think. I mean I think I put on the chat that maybe Liam Lawson's the biggest winner out of all the the drivers. I mean Max has got his seat. You know we'll see what Isaac can do. But you know Liam did you know, after not getting anywhere in the Red Bull seat, I think he drove pretty, pretty well for you know V carb for the all the racing bulls as it was for the. The second half of the season. But I mean next year's cars are going to be so different anyway. The idea that it's going to be impossible for somebody else to drive might not be the case anymore. We'll have to see.
• 21:58
  Speaker E: It would have been quite harsh to fire the same guy twice in the same season. I think.
• 22:04
  Speaker E: Sort of like Jalen hurts having two turnovers in the same play last night.
• 22:10
  Speaker A: Oh, I did see that too. That was impressive.
• 22:14
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 22:17
  Speaker D: Luckily I was against him in fans in one place.
• 22:19
  Speaker E: I have him in fantasy so I.
• 22:23
  Speaker E: You know it may have cost me he.
• 22:25
  Speaker D: But he kept me. He. He let me into the playoffs last night. Jalen hurt so like I'm. I'm pissed that we didn't win the game but I would not have made the playoffs if he had played better than negative points.
• 22:37
  Speaker A: So stay on target guys. It's a Formula one podcast.
• 22:42
  Speaker D: That's right. I mean like we said, what else is there really to talk about in the race? I mean, yeah, Helmut Marco is really the end of it and I, I'm scared to go into coops talk already.
• 22:55
  Speaker A: Well, I could give you a. I, I do actually owe quite an apology in. In the coupes or F1 space because we spent the majority of the season tracking Jason and and Nick's assault on. On the Top three places.
• 23:11
  Speaker A: Especially with R. Heatley at the top. But I, I, I, I. Every week we stared at R. Heatley's name at the top of the pile with the two cups that he's got or she or I don't know if it's a he or she that they have next to their name. I did not realize that Art Heatley was, was third in 2003 and first last year. So they're defending champions. So in a Max Verstappenesque run for the ages. I don't trophy if I had a repeat coupse F1 champion. But R. Heatley back to back champions in coups F1 and you know, three podiums in a row, two gold trophies.
• 23:50
  Speaker D: Or is it gonna be a gold trophy times two or how's that gonna work?
• 23:55
  Speaker A: Oh, just a big no, I'll get. There'll be another, there'll be another trophy next to the name. I think the code will handle it. It should. I think they're the first person to get that. We'll see. But yeah. Tablet id. Congratulations, R. Heatley.
• 24:08
  Speaker E: Congratulations.
• 24:09
  Speaker A: Yes, exactly. Congratulations R. Heatley. You know, well done, well deserved and like. Please email me your tips each week. Maybe there's money to be made with your internal F1 knowledge.
• 24:22
  Speaker D: I can tell you one thing.
• 24:23
  Speaker A: Tabla id do.
• 24:24
  Speaker D: Ferraris @ the.
• 24:26
  Speaker A: Top. Yeah, exactly. I made the front page this week as well as the Biggest loser went down to 33 places. So not after one of the top scores last week. I gave it all. I gave it all back. Tablet ID came in second. And then Schumacher's list popped up. Two spots to claim the last spot on the podium. Two people with first time top three finishes. So I'll update the website for next year. And a shout out to Red Edit. They reached out to me this week as well. They had the top score of the whole season. 350 points. I'm not sure which race it was one of the American races. A near perfect prediction. Perfect would be 420, I think so very.
• 25:14
  Speaker D: Close. I leave with.
• 25:16
  Speaker A: Nothing. And you leave with. And you leave with just on the outside looking in by five points. You know, as a percentage wise even closer than you know, Norris and, and Verstappen. Five points out of.
• 25:32
  Speaker E: 4,200.
• 25:36
  Speaker E: It's the small.
• 25:37
  Speaker A: Margins. That's.
• 25:38
  Speaker E: Right. It's a game of.
• 25:39
  Speaker D: Inches.
• 25:41
  Speaker D: I picked, I picked McLaren too many times when Max was winning races is the.
• 25:45
  Speaker A: Problem. Yeah, you got to be ready to, to give up. But it was very clear in the sec the second half of the Season was a lot harder to predict. The scores were definitely significantly depressed once Max came roaring back. Who pivoted quickest to pick up on that? And also some of these guys in the lower levels, you know, coming up, it's not just about getting first. You know, Bortoletto thrown in a few points and, you know, Sainz got on the podium and things like that. There's points to be made all over the.
• 26:13
  Speaker E: Place. All right, so let's get. You mentioned Bortoletto, one of, One of the rookies. Who's your rookie of the.
• 26:18
  Speaker A: Year?
• 26:21
  Speaker A: It's gotta be Kimmy, right? How is it not.
• 26:24
  Speaker E: Kimmy? How is it not Hajar? How is it not.
• 26:28
  Speaker A: Bearman? Kimmy. Kimmy. What did Kim. I mean, Kimmy's in the better car, I guess, but he, you know.
• 26:37
  Speaker A: I think, you know, for his age, what he did, handling, the pressure, he was very consistent. I didn't see him make too many mistakes. I mean, he did make mistakes, we know, but nothing too outrageous. I mean, Hajar put it in the wall on the, on the, like the, the formation lap in his first.
• 26:55
  Speaker E: Race. Nothing like holding a grudge, eh.
• 26:58
  Speaker A: Martin? He's not even turned a wheel.
• 27:00
  Speaker E: In a race and he stacked.
• 27:02
  Speaker A: It.
• 27:04
  Speaker A: I mean, we've seen that before from Cool Todd and, and. And others in the past, stacking it on the formation lap. So it's not unheard of. I think all the. I think all of the rookies did a good accountant accounting of themselves, except for maybe, you know, doing. And I guess Colapinto isn't technically a.
• 27:24
  Speaker D: Rookie. We're doing. Why don't they take him off the leaderboard? Like, why. Why keep them there in 21st place every single time? It's like, come.
• 27:37
  Speaker A: On.
• 27:38
  Speaker E: Wow. You know, the color Pinto didn't score any more points than doing.
• 27:42
  Speaker A: So. Yeah, he didn't make any. Any progress. Yeah, that's. That's the worst. But. Yeah, no, but Bortoletto didn't start out that great, but they improved the car, you know, and Sauber had some great results towards the end and like, sorry, Bortoletto was, Was part of that. I mean, Hulkenberg's podium saber. Yeah, I mean, Hulkenberg getting his podium in. When was that? In Great.
• 28:04
  Speaker E: Britain? Hulkenberg at.
• 28:06
  Speaker A: Silverstone. Yeah, that was amazing. That was definitely a highlight of the.
• 28:10
  Speaker D: Season.
• 28:12
  Speaker D: Ever.
• 28:12
  Speaker E: Right? Yep. Peter Sauber was there at the weekend. I think it's like 30 something years that Saba was a team. I do remember them coming in with Heinz, Howard, friends, and I think was. Was One of the first Saba drivers, they had a black. Maybe Petro Deniz, I don't know. I remember their black car. And it did have Red Bull livery on it at one point, I think. But long history. Was BMW works team for a while, won a race with Robert Kubitzer. We were.
• 28:41
  Speaker A: There. That's.
• 28:43
  Speaker E: Right. Martin and I in Montreal in 2008.
• 28:50
  Speaker E: Something like.
• 28:51
  Speaker A: That. Yeah, Yeah. I think Chelsea was a big sponsor of theirs at one point. That's right. As well. Yeah. On Sauber. But.
• 29:02
  Speaker A: Yeah, when I was there.
• 29:03
  Speaker D: To watch the races, I was really confused. When Chelsea was all of a sudden on delivery of the car, I was like, what is going on? Like, why are they.
• 29:12
  Speaker E: There? I mean, money, I.
• 29:15
  Speaker A: Suppose. They're always looking. They're always looking for cash. There's been some very interesting sponsors down the years. Who was that? Who was that energy drink guy? He was a big. Just a big scam. Wasn't he the guy for Haas.
• 29:28
  Speaker D: For like half a.
• 29:29
  Speaker A: Season? The Haas guy? Yeah. Yeah. Oh. Anyway, less said about him the better, but.
• 29:34
  Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, so. But in terms of rookies, who are you going with?
• 29:38
  Speaker A: Martin? I'm just going with. I'm just going with Kimmy. I mean, how can you not love the kid, you know, next year still. He's still got to wait a year before he can drink the champagne in America. You know, he's still not allowed to drive these super fast cars in Italy that they keep giving him because he's not old enough. You know, it's just great. You know, and he's handling the pressure well. I.
• 29:57
  Speaker E: Think.
• 29:58
  Speaker E: I think I'm gonna go with.
• 30:00
  Speaker A: Hajar.
• 30:01
  Speaker E: Yeah.
• 30:03
  Speaker E: I had very low expectations of him coming into the season. I think I maybe said it on the first podcast, like when we were gonna have a sort of a. Did we have a season.
• 30:12
  Speaker A: Preview?
• 30:12
  Speaker E: Yeah. And we were kind of talking about what we were thinking about, or maybe it was the end of last season. I was like, I don't. I don't think it's gonna do very well. Well, I stand corrected. I think I softened to him, I think, on the Australian weekend because, you know, he. All the expectation of getting in his first race and he did something embarrassing and. But he's gone and done some really good things. Podium in his first season in a racing ball. Right. And a lot of six places, which is really, really good. And he's been rewarded with a seat in the big team. So as much as I wanted to say Ollie Bearman, because he's a Brit and he's Gone up against an established teammate in Esteban Ocon, who's won a race.
• 30:55
  Speaker E: Versus Hajar, who's been up against Yuki for a couple of races. But then, you know, Liam Lawson, who's been trying to find his feet again. That car is a good car, easy to.
• 31:05
  Speaker A: Drive.
• 31:05
  Speaker E: Is. And he's done well in it. So I think he's going to edge it just from BMAN for.
• 31:10
  Speaker A: Me.
• 31:11
  Speaker D: Yes. I think Fernando Alonso was the rookie of the year.
• 31:20
  Speaker D: You guys aren't going to do.
• 31:21
  Speaker A: That. Sorry.
• 31:25
  Speaker A: Fernando Alonso has gone all the way around. He's so old. He's young again.
• 31:28
  Speaker D: Now. Exactly. Exactly. Honestly, I guess I have to say. Kimmy, right?
• 31:34
  Speaker E: Yeah. But he was world champion when Kimmy Antonelli was.
• 31:37
  Speaker A: Born. Oh, my.
• 31:39
  Speaker E: God. Or he won his championship just after Kimmy. Kimmy Antonelli was born. Something like that. It was. It's that bonkers that he's. He's that.
• 31:49
  Speaker A: Old. Well, he's gonna, he's gonna be driving the. Maybe. My. I just keep making my prediction that Adrian knew he's gonna bring Aston Martin back to, to, to glory. So maybe, you know, Fernando will be the beneficiary of that next year. That it's all gonna suddenly come together and all of these predictions I've been making of and Aston resurgence will come true. But, well, don't hold your breath.
• 32:13
  Speaker D: To show it this, this time.
• 32:15
  Speaker B: Around.
• 32:15
  Speaker D: Right. He's got the big.
• 32:16
  Speaker A: Jab. When will we. When do we get to see the new cars on the track for the first time? It's February.
• 32:23
  Speaker E: Ish. It's going to be February. Yeah. They had some new cars running.
• 32:26
  Speaker A: Today.
• 32:28
  Speaker E: Yeah. Some crazy mock ups on the Mercedes and the Ferrari of this front wing.
• 32:33
  Speaker B: Thing. I don't.
• 32:35
  Speaker E: Know. I'm going to wait and.
• 32:36
  Speaker A: See. We'll wait and.
• 32:37
  Speaker E: See. I'm a.
• 32:38
  Speaker A: Pessimist. It's all up in the air. But I mean, it was only two, three years ago in the very first race when McLaren were like running around dead last pretty much.
• 32:50
  Speaker A: And look what you can do. So the first race and the first times will tell us a lot, but it won't be the whole story. There'll still be plenty to.
• 32:59
  Speaker D: Write.
• 33:01
  Speaker D: He has to give up the corner. I had the nose.
• 33:03
  Speaker C: Ahead. What is wrong with these.
• 33:05
  Speaker B: People? Thanks so much for listening to the Undercuts review of the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And thanks again so much for all our listeners this season. And we will see you at the beginning of the 2026 F1 season.