Latest / Pit Talk / Does Piastri still have the title momentum? Belgian GP Preview

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Does Piastri still have the title momentum? Belgian GP Preview · Pit Talk

0:01
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:04
Speaker 1: On today's episode, Formula one is back for the Belgian
0:07
Speaker 1: Grand Prix, with Oscar Piastre leading Landon Norris by just
0:11
Speaker 1: eight points in the driver's Championship, and can the season's
0:15
Speaker 1: third sprint weekend help inject some optimism back into Ferrari
0:19
Speaker 1: and Lewis Hamilton. My name is Michael Lomonado. It's great
0:22
Speaker 1: to have your company and the company of my co host.
0:24
Speaker 1: If you think you have strong views about sprint racing,
0:26
Speaker 1: just ask him about half points. It's Matt Clayton.
0:29
Speaker 2: Oh, now, come on half points, Michael Lamonado as a
0:32
Speaker 2: man who likes an orderly spreadsheet. It's funny you bring
0:36
Speaker 2: this up ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, because it
0:38
Speaker 2: was the Belgian Grand Prix that wasn't in twenty one.
0:41
Speaker 2: I believe that was where you and I were waiting
0:44
Speaker 2: for a two lap race to finish at four o'clock
0:45
Speaker 2: in the morning, where we were adorning us there We're
0:48
Speaker 2: going to be half points and your beautifully symmetrical spreadsheet
0:50
Speaker 2: was going to be a mess for the rest of
0:52
Speaker 2: the season because of it. But if you have strong
0:55
Speaker 2: views on half points. I have several strong views on
0:59
Speaker 2: sprint races. Perhaps that's something we should get to a
1:01
Speaker 2: little bit later, I think so.
1:02
Speaker 1: But the twenty twenty one Belgian Grand Prix should never
1:04
Speaker 1: be mentioned again, I think, And it won't be my me, No,
1:09
Speaker 1: certainly not. But I thought it'd be good to reset
1:11
Speaker 1: the scene a little bit because we're coming off her
1:13
Speaker 1: mini mid season break just two weeks before the actual
1:16
Speaker 1: mid season break. Not sure who made the decision on
1:18
Speaker 1: the sessions with this one, but that's the way it was,
1:20
Speaker 1: and I don't think anyone in Formula One was too
1:22
Speaker 1: upset though to have an extra weekend off in this
1:25
Speaker 1: early summer time. But we resume with Formula One in
1:28
Speaker 1: a pretty delicate championship position. After victory the British Grand Prix,
1:32
Speaker 1: Landon Norris has slashed his title deficit to Oscar Piastri
1:35
Speaker 1: to just eight points. It was his second win in
1:38
Speaker 1: a row as well, Matt off the back of that
1:40
Speaker 1: pretty straightforward Austrian Grand Prix, at least after that first
1:44
Speaker 1: stint battle with Oscar Piastre. So what's your appraisal of
1:48
Speaker 1: I guess the status of the momentum between these two
1:50
Speaker 1: title contenders heading into this next two races before the break,
1:53
Speaker 1: do you feel like Norris has a real bit of
1:55
Speaker 1: a run here.
1:56
Speaker 2: It's interesting in that because we've had the two weeks between,
1:59
Speaker 2: there's more time for more opinions and more podcasts and
2:02
Speaker 2: more written content. And I've read a lot of views
2:06
Speaker 2: that seemed to think this was some sort of, you know,
2:08
Speaker 2: seismic shift in the piastre versus Norris battle. I wasn't
2:12
Speaker 2: prepared to go that far, and that might be a
2:15
Speaker 2: product of my passport relative to the passports of the
2:17
Speaker 2: people that I was reading or listening to, because you
2:20
Speaker 2: have to remember that the British Grand Prix was won
2:23
Speaker 2: by Oscar Piastri until he committed a safety car infrigement
2:25
Speaker 2: and then basically lost a race with his ten second penalty.
2:28
Speaker 2: He had that race one, Let's be honest. The one
2:31
Speaker 2: thing I will say about Norris is I've been really
2:34
Speaker 2: impressed with the bounce back after Canada because Canada and
2:38
Speaker 2: the mistake he made there, and it wasn't just a mistake,
2:40
Speaker 2: it was a mistake in battle with his teammate where
2:42
Speaker 2: he scored zero points. That felt like a very sort
2:45
Speaker 2: of Lando Norris thing to do quite frankly, and you
2:48
Speaker 2: did wonder, given what's happened with him in the past
2:50
Speaker 2: and similar situations, how long that was going to linger for.
2:54
Speaker 2: And the answer is that it hasn't linked at all,
2:56
Speaker 2: because he was the best McLaren driver at the Red
2:58
Speaker 2: Bull Ring, and he had the winning the British Grand
3:00
Speaker 2: Prix even though he was probably the second fastest of
3:03
Speaker 2: the two McLaren drivers. And as this championship effectively becomes
3:07
Speaker 2: a two car fight for the title, with everybody either
3:10
Speaker 2: having their own struggles or looking ahead to twenty twenty six,
3:14
Speaker 2: I'm impressed by the fact that he's managed to arrest
3:16
Speaker 2: the momentum because to my mind, Canada felt like one
3:18
Speaker 2: of those real tenth pole. Okay, this is a self
3:22
Speaker 2: inflicted wound here, how is he going to recover from that?
3:26
Speaker 2: We know that he beats himself up publicly quite a bit.
3:29
Speaker 2: He wears his heart in his sleep with these sorts
3:30
Speaker 2: of things. What was interesting to me with Sylveston. I
3:33
Speaker 2: don't know that you thought about this as well, but
3:35
Speaker 2: Piastre is very much a product of his manager, Mark Webber,
3:39
Speaker 2: and one of Mark Weber's famous comments used to say
3:41
Speaker 2: all the time was I will give nothing, and it
3:44
Speaker 2: says better in Mark's accent with a very good Adam
3:46
Speaker 2: Zapple as well, but Piastre is very similarly cut in
3:51
Speaker 2: that respect. He's giving you absolutely nothing. And yes there
3:54
Speaker 2: was the points lost from what happened at Sylveston, but
3:57
Speaker 2: the fact that it was something that he whether he
3:59
Speaker 2: agreed penalty or not, it was something that he gave Norris,
4:02
Speaker 2: and I think that really stuck in his craw. The
4:05
Speaker 2: disappointing part about it for us is that we didn't
4:07
Speaker 2: get that immediate chance to see the response because there
4:10
Speaker 2: hasn't been a race for a couple of weeks since.
4:13
Speaker 2: So in terms of the momentum within the championship, this
4:16
Speaker 2: margin now feels about right to me, and it feels
4:20
Speaker 2: like it's been rebalanced a little bit by what's happened
4:22
Speaker 2: in these past two races. Sets us up for a
4:24
Speaker 2: fantastic second half of the season. But I'm not prepared
4:27
Speaker 2: to buy the narrative that, look, Norris has won two
4:29
Speaker 2: races in a row, this is this huge momentum shift
4:32
Speaker 2: here he comes, get your royal family details out. I'm
4:34
Speaker 2: not quite prepared to do that, but I do think
4:37
Speaker 2: it sets up the remainder of the season really nicely
4:39
Speaker 2: and coming to a run of circuits now where I mean,
4:44
Speaker 2: you can't imagine another car necessarily being able to lay
4:47
Speaker 2: a glove on McLaren at this particular layout ASPA this weekend.
4:51
Speaker 2: So if it comes down to an intense head to
4:53
Speaker 2: head with these two again, then bring it up, because
4:55
Speaker 2: we've seen some good examples of it already. But it
4:57
Speaker 2: feels like the reset. This does feel like the second
5:00
Speaker 2: half of the championship starts now. I know we've got
5:02
Speaker 2: the break coming up very shortly, but it feels like
5:04
Speaker 2: this is like ground zero for the rest of the
5:07
Speaker 2: championship and it's a championship that only evolves to McLaren cars.
5:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's sort of funny. I don't think anyone INFORMUTA
5:12
Speaker 1: one wishes any more triple headers, but it felt like,
5:15
Speaker 1: if you were ever going to have one, it would
5:16
Speaker 1: have been good to have another race after Silverstone to
5:19
Speaker 1: see that play out a little bit, because it's the
5:21
Speaker 1: first time we've really seen Piastre feel aggrieved by anything
5:26
Speaker 1: or feel not wronged I suppose, or he felt wrong
5:28
Speaker 1: by the penalty, but like you say, he'd given something away.
5:31
Speaker 1: It's very rare that that happens, and was as strong
5:35
Speaker 1: as this word sounds, probably not really exactly a good
5:38
Speaker 1: match for Piastri, but emotional about it. Not a lot
5:40
Speaker 1: of emotions in there, but as emotionals I've ever seen him.
5:43
Speaker 1: Would have been good to see how that would have
5:45
Speaker 1: affected him with an immediate race afterwards, you feel a
5:48
Speaker 1: little bit like with two weekends off, I don't know
5:51
Speaker 1: how motivating that incident will be now. It just feels
5:54
Speaker 1: like we're starting from scratch after a long break, so
5:58
Speaker 1: that doesn't necessarily play a point. Think something that perhaps
6:00
Speaker 1: we mentioned at the time is that momentum. We use
6:04
Speaker 1: this word a lot, probably overstated it a little bit,
6:07
Speaker 1: but it doesn't have to be zero sum. You know,
6:10
Speaker 1: Norris getting a bit of a roll and he does
6:12
Speaker 1: feel like he's got a bit of a run out
6:14
Speaker 1: doesn't have to come at Piastre's expense. And that's actually
6:17
Speaker 1: how I feel like after these two races, because while
6:19
Speaker 1: he won in Austria dominated that weekend, in the race,
6:22
Speaker 1: Piastre was probably at least as quick as him, unexpectedly so,
6:26
Speaker 1: considering how far behind relatively he was all the way
6:29
Speaker 1: up until the start of the Grand Prix and then,
6:31
Speaker 1: as you say, the British Grand Prix should have won
6:33
Speaker 1: that race, had that race one, until he made a
6:35
Speaker 1: mistake of his own and then finished behind his team.
6:38
Speaker 1: And it does feel like they start as far apart
6:41
Speaker 1: in momentum terms as they are in the championship table,
6:43
Speaker 1: which is eight points practically nothing effectively with twelve rounds
6:46
Speaker 1: still to go. I think that is really exciting because
6:49
Speaker 1: we've seen so many ups and downs this season, particularly
6:53
Speaker 1: for Norris. You know, boscar has been pretty consistently good.
6:56
Speaker 1: Norris has been up and down, had some really great
6:58
Speaker 1: weekends and some really ordinary ones, but in ways that
7:01
Speaker 1: I don't want to say they're separate to Norris's ability,
7:04
Speaker 1: because his ability to get the most out of the
7:06
Speaker 1: car is integral to winning a championship. But there's always
7:09
Speaker 1: been this idea that he's not quite jelling with the car,
7:11
Speaker 1: and maybe now actually he's solved that, and now maybe
7:14
Speaker 1: for the last twelve rounds of this season, we see
7:17
Speaker 1: as close as you can get to a pure head
7:18
Speaker 1: to head of two drivers pretty comfortable with the where
7:21
Speaker 1: they are in the car, understanding how to get the
7:23
Speaker 1: most out of it, and just racing head to head.
7:25
Speaker 1: Maybe we circuit will suit someone the next will suit
7:27
Speaker 1: someone else. Should be really fascinating.
7:29
Speaker 2: Well, and this is one of the great parts about
7:31
Speaker 2: this in that you've got a car that's clearly the
7:33
Speaker 2: best in the field. You've got a team that's prepared
7:35
Speaker 2: to let us drivers race, which we can appreciate that.
7:38
Speaker 2: And you mentioned the thing about momentum. It's not one
7:41
Speaker 2: driver has it and the other one doesn't. You can
7:43
Speaker 2: have degrees of momentum, and I think both of them
7:46
Speaker 2: do have that. The thing that's so fascinating about how
7:49
Speaker 2: this should run into the rest of the season given
7:51
Speaker 2: the car advantage they have in the fact that team's
7:53
Speaker 2: going to let them race, They're both trying to achieve
7:56
Speaker 2: the same end from very very different means, and you know,
7:58
Speaker 2: both in terms of their emotional makeup and even their
8:01
Speaker 2: respective strengths and weaknesses as drivers. I think the contrast
8:05
Speaker 2: of styles, given that all of the other parameters in
8:09
Speaker 2: all of this are going to be pretty actualized. You know,
8:10
Speaker 2: we know what the car is going to do.
8:12
Speaker 3: We know that.
8:13
Speaker 2: You know there's a you look back at the British
8:15
Speaker 2: Grand Prix, there was a chance for perhaps PSTRE to
8:17
Speaker 2: be put on a different strategy that would have mitigated
8:19
Speaker 2: that penalty, but McLaren is like, no, no, we're not
8:21
Speaker 2: going to start changing strategies here. They're going out of
8:24
Speaker 2: their way to try and be fair and even handed
8:27
Speaker 2: and you know, may the best drive a win sort
8:29
Speaker 2: of maxim which I actually really appreciate, Like it's really
8:31
Speaker 2: simple to say that, but it's harder to do when
8:35
Speaker 2: you know your odds on to win your first Driver's
8:37
Speaker 2: Championship since two thousand and seven.
8:38
Speaker 3: It's been a very very long time.
8:41
Speaker 2: I like the way they've set this up, and so
8:43
Speaker 2: this points gap between the two of them right now
8:45
Speaker 2: feels accurate. There were times during the season where it
8:48
Speaker 2: felt a little bit skewed one way or the other
8:50
Speaker 2: because Pastre had put himself on the back foot because
8:53
Speaker 2: of what had happened in Australia, and then he took
8:55
Speaker 2: that you know, advantage to that big run of races
8:57
Speaker 2: he won those three in a row there. I think
8:59
Speaker 2: this feels like an appropriate reset. If you were to
9:01
Speaker 2: ask me which has been the better McLaren driver over
9:03
Speaker 2: the bounce of the season so far, I would say
9:06
Speaker 2: Piastre just and that's what the points table represents.
9:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a good call. It'll be interesting
9:11
Speaker 1: to see how it all unfolds from here, particularly given
9:14
Speaker 1: that there is this little frenetic doppleheader and then we've
9:16
Speaker 1: got a break, how that might affect the narrative whether
9:19
Speaker 1: there'll be any change at all by the time week
9:21
Speaker 1: to the end of the Hungarian Grand Pray in a
9:23
Speaker 1: week or so. I want to move on to Red
9:25
Speaker 1: Bull Racing now, obviously quite a big talking point over
9:27
Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks. With Christian Horner sacked shortly
9:30
Speaker 1: after the British Grand Prix, Laura Mechiez has taken his
9:33
Speaker 1: place as CEO and team principal at Red Bull Racing.
9:35
Speaker 1: This will be his first weekend in charge, the team's
9:37
Speaker 1: first weekend without Christian Horner running the show. I don't
9:42
Speaker 1: expect to see any real changes this weekend, obviously in
9:44
Speaker 1: the way this team performs, because there's not really It's
9:47
Speaker 1: something I've been asked a couple of times. It's not really
9:49
Speaker 1: such a thing as a new manager bounce in Formula One,
9:52
Speaker 1: because our sport is too complex for one man to
9:55
Speaker 1: come in and make a big change on one weekend,
9:57
Speaker 1: short of changing drivers. I guess maybe that one would
9:59
Speaker 1: have effect, but that's not happening.
10:01
Speaker 3: But what do you.
10:02
Speaker 1: See as the early days of this new era of
10:06
Speaker 1: Red Bull Racing, Because it really is a new era
10:08
Speaker 1: with not only a new team principle, but departing from
10:10
Speaker 1: the guy who's are on the show the entire time,
10:12
Speaker 1: what feels like it must be a little bit of
10:15
Speaker 1: a strategic change in the way that Red Bull sees
10:18
Speaker 1: its Formula One asset. Obviously the background being Max Forstappen
10:22
Speaker 1: could leave the team if he's not satisfied. What are
10:25
Speaker 1: you going to be looking for? Not just obviously this
10:26
Speaker 1: weekend because then he's going to be so much there,
10:28
Speaker 1: but in the next few months. In this Mechias era.
10:31
Speaker 2: I'm not even necessarily looking at what Mechiez is doing,
10:34
Speaker 2: or necessarily even what the car is doing. The car
10:36
Speaker 2: has proven to be hugely problematic. As we know, they're
10:39
Speaker 2: not going to win either championship this year, so they'll
10:41
Speaker 2: go championship list for the first time in a long time.
10:44
Speaker 2: I think the thing that quietens the noise around this team,
10:47
Speaker 2: and then they can just get on with seeing out
10:49
Speaker 2: this season and therefore the rules set and get that
10:52
Speaker 2: chance to reboot for twenty twenty six. Once there is
10:55
Speaker 2: some sort of clarity or even leaning either way on
10:58
Speaker 2: the verstap and decisions staying or he's not, it's a
11:01
Speaker 2: yes no question. Once we get the answer to that,
11:04
Speaker 2: it's like, well, he's leaving it is a complete hard
11:06
Speaker 2: reset for this set of regulations, or he's staying, which
11:11
Speaker 2: I think is the more likely outcome at this point,
11:13
Speaker 2: and that just turns the volume down on their season
11:15
Speaker 2: because there's not really a whole lot to talk about
11:18
Speaker 2: now because a head at the top of the story
11:22
Speaker 2: has rolled with Christian Horner. The timing of it's interesting
11:26
Speaker 2: because as you said, there's not that new manager bounce.
11:28
Speaker 2: I think you'll more see the impact of Horna not
11:31
Speaker 2: being there for twenty twenty six and beyond. I think
11:33
Speaker 2: this season the narrative is kind of told to a point.
11:36
Speaker 2: The only intrigue for me is there going to be
11:39
Speaker 2: any sort of inkling one way or the other in
11:41
Speaker 2: does the Hornet departure confirm that Verastapan is staying and
11:45
Speaker 2: or going. Once that decision happens, I think they just
11:48
Speaker 2: go along with being frankly the fourth best team in
11:51
Speaker 2: Formula One and with someone like Vastapan that will turn
11:54
Speaker 2: in a ridiculous performance and win a race or two
11:56
Speaker 2: before the end of the season when it rains it
11:59
Speaker 2: into Lagos, or if he's at Zanvor and he's got
12:01
Speaker 2: that sorted, or there'll be a track somewhere where the
12:04
Speaker 2: circumstances will conspire that he will be able to transcend
12:08
Speaker 2: the machinery and win races. And I say that pretty
12:11
Speaker 2: confidently because we've seen it this year. You look at
12:13
Speaker 2: things like Suzuka, that race looks even better now in retrospect.
12:16
Speaker 2: He probably had absolutely no business winning that but one
12:19
Speaker 2: with a brilliant lap on the Saturday and then didn't
12:21
Speaker 2: make a mistake on the Sunday. So there's a chance
12:23
Speaker 2: that's going to happen in these final twelve races. But
12:26
Speaker 2: the is he staying? Is he going question with Verstapan
12:28
Speaker 2: to me is the final sort of domino in quite
12:31
Speaker 2: frankly level of interest in this team because it is
12:34
Speaker 2: not a front running team right now. It's a team
12:35
Speaker 2: that can occasionally snipe for wins, but that's about it.
12:38
Speaker 2: They're not in the championship picture. Once we get an
12:41
Speaker 2: answer on for Stappan, then I think they start to
12:43
Speaker 2: not fade from a view, because they're a big presence
12:45
Speaker 2: in Formula One, but they're certainly not going to be
12:47
Speaker 2: the headliner, particularly as this McLaren Championship battle intensifies, as
12:51
Speaker 2: the racist stick down.
12:52
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I think that's a good call. I
12:54
Speaker 1: think as well, what will be interesting to observe as
12:57
Speaker 1: this season goes on is how Mechi and the team
13:00
Speaker 1: interacts with Yuki Sonoda, because that's really the sort of
13:03
Speaker 1: side story of their campaign. Because we say they have
13:06
Speaker 1: the fourth fastest or the fourth best team, and that's accurate.
13:10
Speaker 1: That fourth in the Constructors Championship, that's what their points
13:12
Speaker 1: score says. That is because the second car just is
13:15
Speaker 1: not scoring most weekends. That's literal down, it is not
13:18
Speaker 1: scoring points. If it was scoring even I think at
13:21
Speaker 1: three quarters of verstapans rate, they'd be intersecond in the
13:24
Speaker 1: Constructor's Championship, still way off McLaren, but they'd be thereabouts
13:27
Speaker 1: even with a problematic car. The relationship Mechiez has with Sonoda,
13:31
Speaker 1: it was a big backer of him at Racing Bulls
13:33
Speaker 1: last year and early this year, was really on the
13:36
Speaker 1: front foot in congratulating him publicly and presumably privately. When
13:40
Speaker 1: that promotion came so it he's very proud to see
13:42
Speaker 1: his hard work rewarded, all that sort of thing, but
13:44
Speaker 1: also seems to have really quite a let's just say,
13:48
Speaker 1: Unhorner like relationship with the drives. And I don't mean
13:50
Speaker 1: that to be critical, but really it does feel very
13:52
Speaker 1: different to the way Horner dealt with his drivers. If
13:55
Speaker 1: we go back and remember the way he welcomed Leam
13:56
Speaker 1: Lawson back into the team at Japanese Grandfrit like has
13:59
Speaker 1: been going out of his way in that first month,
14:01
Speaker 1: let's say, but that first race, in particular to make
14:03
Speaker 1: laws and feel welcomed back to try and brush over
14:06
Speaker 1: those bad memories of the first two rounds. I wonder
14:09
Speaker 1: what effect he can have a on maybe Sonoda's confidence
14:12
Speaker 1: if that is starting to become a factor at this team,
14:15
Speaker 1: particularly if now that he's in that seat and has
14:18
Speaker 1: presumably a significant say on the drivers next year without
14:22
Speaker 1: it probably being a total say on the driver's next year,
14:24
Speaker 1: whether that also buys him time and then time equals confidence.
14:28
Speaker 1: Knowing that Mechi has knows how good Sonoda can be,
14:31
Speaker 1: knows that this is not his potential theory's ceiling because
14:35
Speaker 1: before this, this this management change, so before the recent weeks,
14:39
Speaker 1: the assumption had been that Sonoda would probably be out
14:42
Speaker 1: of the team by the end of the year, simply
14:44
Speaker 1: because we now assume that he's probably not going to
14:46
Speaker 1: get the terms with his car. That I think is
14:48
Speaker 1: an interesting side story to all of this driver market
14:50
Speaker 1: that's focused on Max with Stafford.
14:52
Speaker 2: So how much of this then, and this is a
14:54
Speaker 2: coming I've openly ponded, so Imo as we'll share it
14:56
Speaker 2: with you, how much of this is going to be
14:58
Speaker 2: the difference between having a data driven team head in
15:02
Speaker 2: Laura Meckey's, who is an engineer by trade, that's what
15:04
Speaker 2: he is, as opposed to someone who is a personality
15:08
Speaker 2: driven and often a personality that's as big or bigger
15:10
Speaker 2: than his drivers, in Christian Horner. Because I look at
15:13
Speaker 2: the way McLaren are running at the moment, the Andrea
15:15
Speaker 2: Stellar element to McLaren in terms of him being a
15:19
Speaker 2: public facing spokesperson and someone that we always hear from
15:23
Speaker 2: with the team. That's a management style that's created out
15:26
Speaker 2: of data and being an engineer first and then being
15:29
Speaker 2: a media performer second. And that's certainly not Christian And
15:33
Speaker 2: that's just the truth. I mean, that's certainly not Christian Horner,
15:35
Speaker 2: and it's certainly not lots of team principles. So getting
15:37
Speaker 2: back to your point about Sonoda, perhaps there'll be a
15:41
Speaker 2: more data driven appraisal of what it is that Sonoda
15:44
Speaker 2: is doing. And it may not even be data that's
15:46
Speaker 2: public accessible or something that we see. It might be
15:50
Speaker 2: something that they're noticing internally. To my mind, I think
15:53
Speaker 2: it strengthens his case because the last element you need
15:57
Speaker 2: for Red Bull right now is even more turnover and
15:59
Speaker 2: more turmoil. There's enough of that going on as it is,
16:02
Speaker 2: with key people leaving the team, and they've got a
16:04
Speaker 2: new engine coming in for next year, you've got a
16:06
Speaker 2: new rule set, and for the first time ever, you've
16:08
Speaker 2: got another team principal in charge of this team. Sonoda
16:12
Speaker 2: right now is a fixed element, and yes the performances
16:14
Speaker 2: have not been good, but you do wonder if the
16:16
Speaker 2: performances of anybody in that second car would be good,
16:18
Speaker 2: and the aswer is probably no. Is that another element
16:22
Speaker 2: they could change but perhaps shouldn't change, given that there's
16:26
Speaker 2: so much change going on elsewhere, And to my mind
16:29
Speaker 2: that goes back to the Verstappen question. If the Stappin
16:32
Speaker 2: is staying, why would you not just roll that driver
16:35
Speaker 2: lineup out roll out their driver line it rather for
16:39
Speaker 2: the first season of a new set of regulations in
16:41
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six, because that takes other variables out of
16:43
Speaker 2: the equation. Now, what happens after twenty six if the
16:46
Speaker 2: car's no good and vstap and leaves or so on
16:48
Speaker 2: and so forth, that's up for debate. But right now,
16:51
Speaker 2: perhaps the drivers should be the fixed focus and the continuity,
16:55
Speaker 2: and you try and fix all of the other stuff,
16:57
Speaker 2: because goodness knows, there's a long list of other stuff that.
16:59
Speaker 1: The Yeah, I think so, because I think unless you
17:02
Speaker 1: can get your hands on a genuine, race winning, proven driver,
17:08
Speaker 1: the answer to this question actually sailed last year.
17:10
Speaker 3: Carlo Science was bad to say.
17:13
Speaker 1: But they're not going to get him for next year
17:14
Speaker 1: because there's no real driver that meets that criteria on
17:16
Speaker 1: the market next year. I don't see the point in
17:19
Speaker 1: changing Sonoda, knowing as Mechiaz does, and really as anyone does,
17:22
Speaker 1: that he's much better than this, because we have evidence
17:25
Speaker 1: not just from previous seasons but from earlier this season
17:27
Speaker 1: that that is the case. I don't see any value
17:30
Speaker 1: in changing him, or preemptively deciding to change him as
17:33
Speaker 1: felt like the team was moving towards So I think
17:36
Speaker 1: that's a good news, not just obviously for the driver,
17:38
Speaker 1: but for the team as well that, like you say,
17:39
Speaker 1: that stability element can lead into next year if they
17:42
Speaker 1: are going to have a slow start to the regulation,
17:44
Speaker 1: which is a rumor that obviously cannot be substantiated until
17:47
Speaker 1: next year, but it will help to have stability, to
17:50
Speaker 1: have someone who already knows how to work with key
17:51
Speaker 1: elements of the team. And as before we even consider
17:54
Speaker 1: whether or not Mechiez by the end of the year
17:55
Speaker 1: might make changes to the team that don't involve the drivers.
17:58
Speaker 1: Whether that staff, personnel, bringing people, letting people go, we
18:01
Speaker 1: don't know. So I think there's value in that. It
18:03
Speaker 1: will be interesting to watch just seeing a different face
18:06
Speaker 1: on the pitwall for the first time ever at red
18:08
Speaker 1: Bull Racing. Yeah, this weekend, let's change tack now and
18:12
Speaker 1: move to Move of the Week, brought to you by
18:15
Speaker 1: Shannon's There's been no Formula One last couple of weeks,
18:17
Speaker 1: no Supercars this weekend either, but there was Moto GP
18:20
Speaker 1: with their final race before their real mid season break,
18:23
Speaker 1: and while you could predict what happened, Markes won, but
18:26
Speaker 1: move of the week isn't about who won't necessarily, it's
18:29
Speaker 1: about best move and Matt, why did you kick us off?
18:31
Speaker 2: Move of the week for me? He came in the
18:33
Speaker 2: sprint at the Czech Republic GP. Also amazing to see
18:36
Speaker 2: Motor GP back at Bruno, just one of the great
18:39
Speaker 2: Moto GP tracks, big and wide and open and undulating
18:43
Speaker 2: and just fantastic to see those bikes around there for
18:45
Speaker 2: the first time in five years. But Mark Marquez in
18:48
Speaker 2: the sprint gave up the lead because he thought he
18:51
Speaker 2: was about to breach Burder GP's tire pressure regulations, which
18:54
Speaker 2: is a separate podcast in itself, and sat behind Pedro
18:57
Speaker 2: Acosta to get his front tire temperature up and then
18:59
Speaker 2: decide with a lap and a half to go or
19:01
Speaker 2: I've had enough of this. I'm not going to be penalized. Now,
19:04
Speaker 2: here's nine tenths of a second on you in one
19:06
Speaker 2: lap because I can, And that to me was the
19:09
Speaker 2: This is the evolution of Mark.
19:11
Speaker 3: Now.
19:11
Speaker 2: In the past, you know, the old Mark would have
19:13
Speaker 2: just tried to beat you by a sheer speed. He's
19:16
Speaker 2: got this amazing combination now of speed and smart and
19:20
Speaker 2: when to deploy the pace, not just deploying it for
19:23
Speaker 2: the sake of deploying it, And to my mind, that
19:25
Speaker 2: was just it summed up the way he's approaching twenty
19:27
Speaker 2: twenty five in a nutshell. He's writing smarter than he's
19:29
Speaker 2: ever ridden, and he's writing just as fast as he
19:31
Speaker 2: ever has. And that was movie of the Week for
19:34
Speaker 2: me because of the inevitability of it, but also the
19:36
Speaker 2: sheer cunning and execution of something that we saw coming
19:41
Speaker 2: a mile off. But it still takes a pretty special
19:43
Speaker 2: writer to execute it.
19:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, not the first time he's had to do something similar.
19:46
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, Alex was it early in this season
19:48
Speaker 1: all Thailand? Yes now, but yeah, Thailand. So it's remarkable
19:52
Speaker 1: considering that that hasn't really had to be part of
19:54
Speaker 1: what it's relatively new part of any writer's repertoire. I
19:56
Speaker 1: guess this tire management. It's very specific tire pressure management.
20:00
Speaker 1: But he's clearly nailed it, and he's got the confidence
20:02
Speaker 1: that he can do pretty much whatever he likes to
20:04
Speaker 1: make sure those tires are under control. I was going
20:07
Speaker 1: to pick a Marcus move as well, taking the lead
20:09
Speaker 1: from Bedzechi in the race, just because it was muscular
20:12
Speaker 1: in a way that it didn't have to be Like
20:14
Speaker 1: you've said, the pace was clear there all weekend, but
20:16
Speaker 1: I enjoyed it. But I actually going to pick Bedzechi
20:18
Speaker 1: for the move of the week, and this was him
20:20
Speaker 1: into the lead, threading the needle between Marquees and Banyaya,
20:23
Speaker 1: and then getting really enjoyed it because watching it really
20:29
Speaker 1: looked like if you're playing a video game, any racing
20:31
Speaker 1: video game, and you've set the difficulty just a little
20:34
Speaker 1: bit easier than the AI is, and every move just.
20:37
Speaker 3: Looks kind of easy.
20:38
Speaker 1: Just the way he slots between them makes it look
20:40
Speaker 1: very straightforward, very under control. A little bit like on
20:43
Speaker 1: the brakes that came a little wabble, but just really
20:45
Speaker 1: great judgment, and I think particularly given them more recently
20:48
Speaker 1: now we're talking about this resurgence of Bears and a
20:50
Speaker 1: pretty good looking now like the second best bike out there,
20:54
Speaker 1: long way behind the Ka Even nonetheless, I just thought
20:56
Speaker 1: that was a great little moment where some people might
20:59
Speaker 1: have been like, oh, maybe he maybe he'll win it,
21:01
Speaker 1: and then he didn't fat and still I thought it
21:03
Speaker 1: was great well.
21:04
Speaker 2: And also to see the Ducati riders have their nose
21:07
Speaker 2: bloodied for the first time in a while, because it
21:08
Speaker 2: doesn't often happen to see one of them. To see
21:11
Speaker 2: a non Ducati muscle through to take the lead and
21:14
Speaker 2: then scamper off for a bit of that race was
21:16
Speaker 2: really good to see. And as you said, like, yes,
21:18
Speaker 2: it's a distant race for second place in Motor GP,
21:21
Speaker 2: but it's a race right now that a Prillier is winning.
21:23
Speaker 2: And now that Jorgey Martinez back because perhaps he's realized
21:26
Speaker 2: that the Aprellier actually is quite decent after all, or
21:28
Speaker 2: all is forgiven, it would not surprise me at all
21:31
Speaker 2: to see a Prellier riders win one or two races
21:33
Speaker 2: before the end of this season. I don't think this
21:35
Speaker 2: is going to be a Ducatti sweep for the rest
21:36
Speaker 2: of the year. And I can see Jorge Martine once
21:40
Speaker 2: he gets back up to full fitness. We're seeing what
21:42
Speaker 2: Bozeki's doing on that bike, and ninety nine people out
21:45
Speaker 2: of one hundred would say that Jogey Martine is a
21:47
Speaker 2: superior rider. So I think once he gets back up
21:49
Speaker 2: to speed, I think that's that bike's going to fight
21:51
Speaker 2: at the front with Ducatties more often. But I do
21:54
Speaker 2: like your move.
21:54
Speaker 1: I want to move on to Ferrari briefly, We'll come
21:56
Speaker 1: back to Ferrari a little bit later on as well
21:58
Speaker 1: when we talk a bit about the Sprint week prospects.
22:00
Speaker 1: But this could be a big weekend the Italian team,
22:03
Speaker 1: considering that they're bringing what I think will be the
22:05
Speaker 1: last major upgrade for this car. It's getting late in
22:08
Speaker 1: the day for big upgrades anyway. I don't think we'll
22:09
Speaker 1: see too many after this next double header. But this
22:12
Speaker 1: is rear suspension which has been pretty significant and the
22:15
Speaker 1: team struggles, particularly since the Chinese Grand Prix. The last
22:18
Speaker 1: weekend they looked good for both cars were just qualified,
22:20
Speaker 1: and that is related here. A lot of hope is
22:23
Speaker 1: being pinned on this, particularly after that floor upgrade in
22:26
Speaker 1: Austria seemed to deliver a little bit more than they
22:28
Speaker 1: were expecting at the time. How important I think it
22:31
Speaker 1: is or is it important at all what Ferrari does
22:34
Speaker 1: for the rest of this year, considering he hasn't been
22:35
Speaker 1: a championship winning year. To see some kind of some
22:38
Speaker 1: kind of success this weekend, well.
22:40
Speaker 2: This is all part of the late season charge to
22:42
Speaker 2: an honorable second in the Constructors Championship, isn't it.
22:45
Speaker 3: This is how Ferrari rolls.
22:46
Speaker 2: It's like, hey, look how good we are at the
22:48
Speaker 2: end of the season, how the season's over, Whereas this
22:50
Speaker 2: season it'll be, oh, look how good we are at
22:52
Speaker 2: the end of the season and the rule set is
22:54
Speaker 2: over and we start again. So it would be a
22:56
Speaker 2: very Ferrari thing to do to suddenly become the best,
22:58
Speaker 2: second best team before one for the remaining twelve rounds
23:01
Speaker 2: of the season and then who they hell knows once
23:03
Speaker 2: we get to Melbourne next year. But it is significant,
23:06
Speaker 2: I think in isolation for what Ferrari are doing, and
23:09
Speaker 2: like you said, China was the last weekend they looked
23:11
Speaker 2: legitimately quick and legitimately in the fight for something meaningful
23:15
Speaker 2: before the let's mutter a disqualification of both cars for
23:18
Speaker 2: the first time ever. I think that's significant in isolation
23:23
Speaker 2: for Ferrari, but I think it's also significant in the
23:25
Speaker 2: wider context of what everyone else is now doing, because
23:28
Speaker 2: there's an established order now that McLaren's clearly the best
23:31
Speaker 2: car in Formula One, and if you're anyone other than McLaren,
23:34
Speaker 2: not to say that McLaren aren't looking at twenty twenty six,
23:36
Speaker 2: but everyone else now there's something about this season slipping
23:39
Speaker 2: into its second half where it's like, all right, this
23:42
Speaker 2: rule set is just about over, and we've seen very
23:46
Speaker 2: publicly teams like Williams turned the tap off quite a
23:48
Speaker 2: while ago. There'll be other teams higher up in the
23:50
Speaker 2: Constructor's table that it was like, why are we throwing
23:53
Speaker 2: good money and resource and effort behind a rule set
23:55
Speaker 2: that's going to be expiring very soon And there'll be
23:58
Speaker 2: this sort of status quo that's settles at some point
24:01
Speaker 2: in these last twelve races. So by virtue of Ferrari
24:04
Speaker 2: bringing performance upgrades and everyone else either choosing not to
24:08
Speaker 2: or really turning the tap off, it wouldn't surprise me
24:10
Speaker 2: at all to see them rise up and finish the
24:13
Speaker 2: I was taking the piss before, but the honorable second
24:15
Speaker 2: in the Constructor's Championship. It is a bit what they do,
24:18
Speaker 2: but it's very much in play this year. If they
24:19
Speaker 2: are going to go down this road, it would be
24:23
Speaker 2: nice to see them in the fight, simply because I
24:25
Speaker 2: think we haven't really seen what that driver lineup can deliver.
24:30
Speaker 2: When there's something really, really meaningful. That's one of the
24:32
Speaker 2: great intrigue points at the start of this season. We've
24:35
Speaker 2: not quite seen it for many reasons. So yeah, significant
24:39
Speaker 2: in and of itself, but perhaps significant in what everybody
24:42
Speaker 2: else is choosing to not do as we get closer
24:45
Speaker 2: towards the end of this season and the clean sheet
24:47
Speaker 2: of paper that is twenty twenty six.
24:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think as well. I mean, not that
24:50
Speaker 1: it really matters so much at the end of the day,
24:52
Speaker 1: considering there's so much change next year, and considering that
24:55
Speaker 1: there's nothing substantive on the line this year, now that
24:58
Speaker 1: the championships pretty much rather than dud, at least from
25:01
Speaker 1: the Ferrari perspective, I do want to see something finally
25:04
Speaker 1: click there for a change. I want to see this
25:07
Speaker 1: Hamilton Vassa Leclair relationship work a little bit, if not
25:12
Speaker 1: just because I think it is important to particularly considering
25:15
Speaker 1: Lewis Hamilton is there now. I think this is an
25:16
Speaker 1: important storyline for Ferrari to achieve something, because I think
25:20
Speaker 1: the risk is that if the team does, as has
25:22
Speaker 1: been rumored quite heavily in the Italian press, decide to
25:25
Speaker 1: make a move on the team principle if results are
25:28
Speaker 1: not forthcoming. I don't think anyone informud one really sees
25:31
Speaker 1: that as a path to anything other than another few
25:34
Speaker 1: years backward step success. Later down the line rather than
25:38
Speaker 1: next year as it could potentially be, or at least
25:41
Speaker 1: in the first few years of this regulatory set. And
25:43
Speaker 1: I don't you know, I don't think Hamilton has that
25:46
Speaker 1: kind of time. And while I'm not, I don't feel
25:49
Speaker 1: I'm particularly attached Hamilton either way. I just think that
25:52
Speaker 1: for him to go to Ferrari and to just fizzle
25:54
Speaker 1: out into nothing because the team's a bit no good
25:56
Speaker 1: just doesn't really satisfy in any way. I mean much
26:00
Speaker 1: such more satisfied either obviously he's seeing him win an
26:02
Speaker 1: eighth title would be pretty spectacular, or just seeing him
26:04
Speaker 1: definitively beaten in a car that is good, beaten through
26:07
Speaker 1: the championship by Charlot Clair would at least tell us
26:10
Speaker 1: something out of this experiment. Seeing him retire after Ferrari
26:13
Speaker 1: finished third a few times the constructors chamis he gets
26:15
Speaker 1: a winnie or there just doesn't do anything for me.
26:18
Speaker 1: You know, it's not a great story. You know, I'm
26:20
Speaker 1: interested in the story, so I'd like to see something.
26:22
Speaker 2: He's saying that he didn't win an eighth World Championship
26:25
Speaker 2: depends on which flag you're flying outside your house. What
26:29
Speaker 2: you're basically setting up there is it's going to be
26:31
Speaker 2: a Ferrari one too at Monza, and then I'll probably
26:33
Speaker 2: do nothing for the rest of the season.
26:34
Speaker 3: That's pretty much what you're asking for, Rothie.
26:38
Speaker 1: Let's talk about me Sadi's briefly before we move on.
26:41
Speaker 1: Won this race last year with both drivers I think
26:44
Speaker 1: I'm allowed to see. Of course, took the check a
26:46
Speaker 1: flag and was disqualified. Lewis Hamilton inherited the win. He
26:50
Speaker 1: was probably the fastest driver on the weekend, but we
26:51
Speaker 1: said he's accident. They gave George Russell the fastest strategy
26:54
Speaker 1: they didn't think would work. It did work. He executed
26:56
Speaker 1: it very well. We should say too well, it turns
26:58
Speaker 1: out because the car ended up being underweight for not
27:00
Speaker 1: having enough diet changes and he was disqualified. Oscar Piastri
27:05
Speaker 1: a close second in the end. But this was in
27:08
Speaker 1: that period last year when Mercedes was unexpectedly and it
27:12
Speaker 1: turned out inexplicably competitive, because they stopped being competitive shortly
27:15
Speaker 1: after this, except for Las Vegas.
27:18
Speaker 3: What do we feel like It's hard to get a.
27:20
Speaker 1: Grip on Mercedes in the first half of the season.
27:22
Speaker 1: They've had some good weekends where you felt like they're
27:24
Speaker 1: going somewhere then more of those anonymous weekends we've become
27:27
Speaker 1: used to really in this rule set where they don't
27:29
Speaker 1: really know why they're not performing, and dre Kimi Antonio,
27:31
Speaker 1: I guess as a rookie wood I said some really
27:33
Speaker 1: big ups and downs. Hard to know exactly where he's
27:36
Speaker 1: on that progress trail. I think he's doing okay, though.
27:39
Speaker 1: Do you expect anything much this weekend or you're just
27:41
Speaker 1: going to be keeping an eye on the weather forecast
27:42
Speaker 1: To answer that question.
27:43
Speaker 2: Well, probably the weather forecast and the actual temperature, because
27:46
Speaker 2: we know it's still a good car in the cool weather.
27:48
Speaker 2: But I've looked at Mercedes the whole year through a
27:50
Speaker 2: really different lens and it's amazing what's swapping out one
27:53
Speaker 2: driver for another. The most successful driver in the history
27:56
Speaker 2: of Formula One with a teenage rookie does for the
27:59
Speaker 2: way US sess a team and how it's going. And
28:02
Speaker 2: you look at the seasons of their two drivers. George
28:04
Speaker 2: Russell has become one of the most consistent, professional, dependable
28:09
Speaker 2: drivers in Formula One and Kimmie Antonelli has been really
28:12
Speaker 2: good some weekends and really anonymous other weekends and a
28:15
Speaker 2: bit crashy and a bit rookie and a bit eighteen
28:16
Speaker 2: year old because that's what he is. So I've looked
28:19
Speaker 2: at their entire season through a really different lens last year,
28:22
Speaker 2: because I think you looked at the track record of
28:24
Speaker 2: that particular outfit and the drivers they had last year,
28:27
Speaker 2: you were always left a little bit disappointed or wanting
28:31
Speaker 2: more because you look at it and this should be better.
28:35
Speaker 2: Whereas to my mind, this year, we've looked at it
28:37
Speaker 2: a bit more like, well, okay, like it makes a
28:40
Speaker 2: little bit more sense with what they're doing. They've been
28:42
Speaker 2: good in some places, a bit in some other places.
28:45
Speaker 2: Russell has been really really good. I think he's I
28:48
Speaker 2: think he has been really the team leader in all
28:50
Speaker 2: but name there for the last couple of years, and
28:51
Speaker 2: he's really proven that this season. But the way I've
28:54
Speaker 2: looked at Mercedes this year, and I know this doesn't
28:56
Speaker 2: answer the question of what we expect for the rest
28:58
Speaker 2: of this year, I just keep thinking back to rule
29:00
Speaker 2: changes and when they've got it right in the past.
29:02
Speaker 2: And I've looked at a lot of what they're doing
29:04
Speaker 2: in twenty five as okay, but what are they going
29:06
Speaker 2: to do in twenty six? And that's the team whether
29:10
Speaker 2: it's blind faith or whether it's just history telling me this.
29:12
Speaker 2: If I was to have to, you know, set the
29:14
Speaker 2: market for who I expect to get a rule set
29:17
Speaker 2: more right out of the ten teams in Formula one
29:19
Speaker 2: by twenty twenty six, if Mercedes is not the top
29:21
Speaker 2: of my list, it's very, very close. And so that's
29:25
Speaker 2: maybe clouded a lot of by judgments and views on
29:27
Speaker 2: how they've gone in twenty twenty five, because I feel
29:29
Speaker 2: like it's a bit of a waiting room for twenty
29:31
Speaker 2: twenty six where perhaps they might not become the absolute
29:34
Speaker 2: top dog again, but I can see them moving forwards.
29:37
Speaker 2: So that's kind of how I've seen their season. But
29:40
Speaker 2: going back to where we started this question, you know,
29:42
Speaker 2: it was you're right about Russell. Last year they literally
29:46
Speaker 2: lucked into the winning strategy by him playing an absolute
29:48
Speaker 2: blinder and doing what everybody else didn't do, and it
29:51
Speaker 2: was one of those weekends like, oh, that's actually worked,
29:53
Speaker 2: and it went completely against it, It went completely against
29:56
Speaker 2: convention before he lost the win for the car being underweight.
30:00
Speaker 2: This has been a good circuit for them in the past,
30:01
Speaker 2: so it wouldn't be surprising if we saw one of
30:03
Speaker 2: them on the podium this weekend, but I don't think
30:05
Speaker 2: it's a great portent of things to follow. I think
30:07
Speaker 2: they'll have occasional flashes and it could be weather dependent.
30:10
Speaker 2: Maybe a few tracks further on in the season that
30:12
Speaker 2: will suit them, But I think as the season progresses
30:15
Speaker 2: they seem to me to be a pretty nailed on
30:17
Speaker 2: third best team behind Ferrari.
30:18
Speaker 1: Let's have a more specific look at this weekend's Formula
30:21
Speaker 1: one Belgian Grand Prix now, because matter surprised me and
30:24
Speaker 1: maybe it surprised you a little bit, and maybe that
30:26
Speaker 1: says something about the format, but it's a sprint weekend,
30:29
Speaker 1: the third sprint weekend of the year. Formula one still
30:32
Speaker 1: does save up most of them or half of them
30:34
Speaker 1: right at the end of the season, so they are
30:35
Speaker 1: long stretches without a sprint, maybe fitting that. We were
30:38
Speaker 1: talking about Voter Gpe just a few moments ago in
30:41
Speaker 1: mo of the week as well, because it is a
30:42
Speaker 1: sport that at the time was perceived to have copied
30:46
Speaker 1: the Formula one sprint move. But to my mind does
30:48
Speaker 1: it much better because we get these random weekends in
30:50
Speaker 1: Formula one and we were like, oh, yes, that's right,
30:52
Speaker 1: it's a sprint race. It's fun. They'll get me wrong
30:54
Speaker 1: a little bit more racing. No one's going to say
30:56
Speaker 1: no to that. No one's going to say no toe
30:57
Speaker 1: some competitive sessions replacing otherwise largely publicly meaningless practice sessions.
31:03
Speaker 1: But I'm still not convinced that in the grand scheme
31:06
Speaker 1: of the storyline of a season that they make any difference.
31:10
Speaker 1: But maybe that doesn't matter.
31:12
Speaker 2: Well, let's peel back the curtain here. In the pre
31:14
Speaker 2: podcast production meeting, which is basically our WhatsApp chat, I
31:17
Speaker 2: said to you, it's a sprint weekend, and you went, oh, yeah,
31:20
Speaker 2: it's a sprint weekend. And that's kind of how I
31:22
Speaker 2: feel Formula one feels about sprints. It's a it's like
31:25
Speaker 2: a noise where you sort of just shrug your shoulders
31:27
Speaker 2: and go, it's a sprint weekend. That's kind of how
31:30
Speaker 2: I feel about sprint weekends in Formula One. The funny
31:32
Speaker 2: part about it is when Motor GP decided to bring
31:34
Speaker 2: sprints in in twenty twenty two, they had no sprints.
31:37
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty three they had sprints all the time,
31:40
Speaker 2: so they went from zero to one hundred. Whereas Formula
31:43
Speaker 2: One's done this like we'll have a few sprints because
31:45
Speaker 2: some promoters will pay a bit more money for them,
31:48
Speaker 2: and there's a bit of TV product on the Saturday,
31:50
Speaker 2: but there's only going to be six of them in
31:52
Speaker 2: a twenty four race schedule, which is why they do
31:55
Speaker 2: become forgettable. And so we have to go all the
31:57
Speaker 2: way back to Miami since the last sprint, And if
32:00
Speaker 2: you're remembering the Miami Sprint, then congratulations to you, because
32:03
Speaker 2: it was about two o'clock in the morning Australian time,
32:06
Speaker 2: the only one. The other one other than that was China.
32:08
Speaker 2: And you're right, we have four of the six sprint
32:10
Speaker 2: shoehorn into this back half of the season. There's certain
32:14
Speaker 2: sprints that I've grown to really enjoy, like I can't
32:17
Speaker 2: imagine the Brazilian Grand Prix now without one. That seems
32:19
Speaker 2: to me like a classic place to have a sprint,
32:21
Speaker 2: And the races there have been really good on the Saturday,
32:25
Speaker 2: but there's a lot of them where there's just a
32:26
Speaker 2: bit of a collective shrug. And part of it for
32:29
Speaker 2: me is that the points, the points for the risk
32:35
Speaker 2: that you need to get them for the top eight
32:37
Speaker 2: in the sprint are so negligible that I think it
32:40
Speaker 2: discourages proper racing. It becomes a little bit precessional, maybe
32:43
Speaker 2: after the first lap and you might have gained yourself
32:45
Speaker 2: a position or two. There's too much jeopardy for the
32:49
Speaker 2: points that are on offer. But to my mind, if
32:52
Speaker 2: there was a slightly different format to the sprints, and
32:56
Speaker 2: I have a solution for this, if Formula one's listening
33:00
Speaker 2: would just add another element to set the sprinter part as,
33:03
Speaker 2: oh yeah, this is a bit different, and this is
33:05
Speaker 2: a bit special, and it's no format is perfect. But
33:08
Speaker 2: what if we just had one shot qualifying for the sprints,
33:11
Speaker 2: just to differentiate it from regular qualifying, Because all you
33:15
Speaker 2: end up having is a qualifying session on Friday and
33:17
Speaker 2: then another quali qualifying session on Saturday, where the times
33:21
Speaker 2: are slightly different in terms of how long you've got
33:23
Speaker 2: in each segment, but it's effectively the same session. Right,
33:26
Speaker 2: we get to see it twice over the course of
33:27
Speaker 2: a weekend. If the sprints are going to be this
33:30
Speaker 2: outlier and set aside as something special, and given that
33:33
Speaker 2: there's only six of them, so it doesn't completely change
33:35
Speaker 2: the championship picture, maybe we should experiment with a different
33:39
Speaker 2: qualifying format. I don't want to start going down through
33:41
Speaker 2: reverse grids and changing reversing the top ten on the
33:44
Speaker 2: grid like you do in GP two or something like that,
33:46
Speaker 2: orry F two, something like that, but just a different
33:48
Speaker 2: qualifying session to give the weekend a bit of a
33:51
Speaker 2: different cadence. Is to separate it as being something inverted
33:54
Speaker 2: Cobb as special wouldn't be the worst idea, I reckon.
33:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I'm sympathetic to some extent to organizers, although
34:02
Speaker 1: having sprints at all was that their behets and maybe not,
34:04
Speaker 1: But because I do think we've now arrived at the
34:08
Speaker 1: least offensive format. You know, We've gone through a variety
34:12
Speaker 1: of them, and they're all they're all problematic in different ways,
34:14
Speaker 1: but I think the format they've arrived a now is,
34:16
Speaker 1: you know, is the least interrupting to the weekend overall.
34:20
Speaker 1: You still get what feels like a pure Grand Prix
34:23
Speaker 1: result in terms of qualifying, and the race doesn't feel
34:25
Speaker 1: like that affects that and the flow of the weekend too.
34:27
Speaker 1: I think it's fine, but it does alternatively mean you
34:30
Speaker 1: just have something that feels like it needs to be
34:33
Speaker 1: got out of the way so we can get to
34:35
Speaker 1: the real Grand Prix later on.
34:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, completely and I think you know.
34:38
Speaker 1: I wonder whether or not you know, notwithstanding that, and
34:41
Speaker 1: notwithstanding like you say it does, a little bit of
34:43
Speaker 1: differentiation might be good because obviously the sprint differentiates itself enough.
34:47
Speaker 1: It's a very short race, but qualifying does feel pretty
34:51
Speaker 1: much exactly the same. It's just a bit shorter the fine.
34:55
Speaker 1: But we could do with it. But I wonder whether
34:57
Speaker 1: or not just implementing maybe you won't like to said,
34:59
Speaker 1: do you so much, but just more sprints. I don't
35:01
Speaker 1: think we're ever going to get to a place where
35:02
Speaker 1: we have one at every weekend, because you just simply
35:05
Speaker 1: wouldn't want one at some way like Monaco, even for
35:08
Speaker 1: the same even though I like you in my brain,
35:10
Speaker 1: the consistency of having one at every weekend is appealing. Realistically,
35:15
Speaker 1: that wouldn't contribute anything to any spectacle. I'm not a
35:18
Speaker 1: qualifying session, but I guess. But just more of them
35:20
Speaker 1: so that it doesn't feel like every few months we
35:23
Speaker 1: have to re establish the rules and purposes of a
35:25
Speaker 1: sprint weekend. If we talked about them every two or
35:28
Speaker 1: three or even four weekends, at least, we'd say, okay,
35:31
Speaker 1: every month, you've got a sprint, and then that at
35:34
Speaker 1: least contributes to the narrative in a way that at
35:36
Speaker 1: the moment they just don't really I guess the way
35:40
Speaker 1: they've done it where they've got I think, is it
35:41
Speaker 1: three sprints in the last I'm going to sort of
35:43
Speaker 1: make up this number last five or six.
35:45
Speaker 3: Races mainly, that's correct.
35:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, the championship does go down to the why, then
35:48
Speaker 1: those sprints do become meaningful, But even then that feels
35:52
Speaker 1: a bit like you're injecting jeopardy a little bit too
35:55
Speaker 1: artificially because you've put them all there for a reason.
35:57
Speaker 3: At a it doesn't even matter.
35:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. I agree with you. You'll be
36:02
Speaker 2: surprised with my take on sprints here because you kind
36:04
Speaker 2: of preempted what I was going to say. The biggest
36:06
Speaker 2: problem with them in a lot of respects is that
36:08
Speaker 2: there aren't enough of them. So we either need to
36:10
Speaker 2: have twelve of them or none of them, not sort
36:13
Speaker 2: of halfway house of being six, where you have to
36:16
Speaker 2: re equate yourself with the points and the rules and
36:19
Speaker 2: why is this important and why should I care? And oh,
36:21
Speaker 2: certain promoters have got deeper pockets than others, so they're
36:24
Speaker 2: prepared to pay for them I don't know if it
36:26
Speaker 2: necessarily changes with the way Formula one races are the
36:30
Speaker 2: patronage of races these days, I don't know if having
36:32
Speaker 2: a sprint race on a Saturday necessarily moves the needle
36:35
Speaker 2: in terms of spectator numbers either. I remember reading something
36:38
Speaker 2: about Kota deciding why they weren't going to have a
36:42
Speaker 2: sprint after they'd had a few before because it didn't
36:43
Speaker 2: really make much difference on the gate for them. And
36:46
Speaker 2: so given that, the spectator numbers are probably going to
36:49
Speaker 2: be what they are regardless of whether you have a
36:50
Speaker 2: sprint or not. Because this is Formula one in twenty
36:52
Speaker 2: twenty five, six feels too few and twenty four is
36:57
Speaker 2: clearly too many.
36:58
Speaker 3: Could we just set a lot? Is it forty? Is
37:00
Speaker 3: it fifty percent? What is it?
37:01
Speaker 2: So that's perhaps more of them would help us to
37:04
Speaker 2: embrace the format a little bit more. But I'm with
37:07
Speaker 2: you here that stacking the deck of them later in
37:10
Speaker 2: the season, where okay, you may not have a championship
37:12
Speaker 2: up for grabs, this year we're clearly going to have
37:14
Speaker 2: a championship up for grabs between the two McLaren drivers.
37:17
Speaker 2: It's a little bit, you know, put sprinklers on the
37:19
Speaker 2: side of the track to whet the tracks, so fake
37:21
Speaker 2: jeopardy here, like it's a little bit contrived for mine.
37:24
Speaker 2: And so it's where they're placed as much as how
37:27
Speaker 2: many of them there are. I'd be all for there
37:29
Speaker 2: being six to me is too few. Twelve is about
37:33
Speaker 2: the absolute limit that you'd want to go. I reckon
37:35
Speaker 2: somewhere between six and twelve. But you also have to
37:38
Speaker 2: remember that so many of the decisions and where these
37:40
Speaker 2: are aren't necessarily based on where they are in the
37:43
Speaker 2: calendar or what the race tracks are like. And if
37:45
Speaker 2: they're good for sprint racing, it's who's prepared to pay
37:47
Speaker 2: for them, And that's part of the reason that perhaps
37:50
Speaker 2: we have this unbalanced view of where they are and
37:53
Speaker 2: when they're held at the moment. So I can't believe
37:55
Speaker 2: I'm actually saying this. I'm an advocate for more Formula
37:58
Speaker 2: one springs, but not too many more. So maybe the
38:01
Speaker 2: sweet spot is I don't own nine or something. Maybe
38:03
Speaker 2: we can have nine.
38:03
Speaker 1: Sprints, yes, enjoy in moderation, I think the point of view,
38:07
Speaker 1: but you can afford to have a few more than
38:09
Speaker 1: that we do at the moment. Yeah, I think that
38:11
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to see how this evolves, if in
38:12
Speaker 1: fact it does evolve over the next few seasons, because
38:15
Speaker 1: I mean, this will be off the top of my head,
38:16
Speaker 1: second or third year in a row with this format,
38:19
Speaker 1: since we moved from the all Saturday waste of time
38:22
Speaker 1: nonsense a sprint sweet day that you could just forget about,
38:26
Speaker 1: to being sort of, you know, part of the part
38:28
Speaker 1: of the weekend build up. So it'll be interesting to
38:30
Speaker 1: see if there any changes in the next couple of years,
38:32
Speaker 1: particularly with maybe with new regulations of cars, maybe the
38:35
Speaker 1: racing will be so much more improved that we will
38:37
Speaker 1: be able to feel more comfortable about sprint racing at
38:40
Speaker 1: more circuits that typically maybe at the moment we feel
38:43
Speaker 1: like wouldn't be appropriate for a short race. But just
38:45
Speaker 1: briefly related to the sprints, I said we'd mentioned this again.
38:49
Speaker 1: Ferrari's position on sprints must be certainly pro sprint. Yes,
38:53
Speaker 1: the team and Lewis Hamilton particularly has been doing quite
38:55
Speaker 1: well in these short races.
38:56
Speaker 3: This year.
38:56
Speaker 1: We have only had two, but of course Lewis Hamilton
38:58
Speaker 1: one the sprint in Chi only the second week end
39:01
Speaker 1: of the season, and then Miami was on the podium
39:03
Speaker 1: finished third behind the McLaren drivers. I think I haven't
39:06
Speaker 1: done the calculation on this, but off the top of
39:07
Speaker 1: my head, that would make him the current leader of
39:09
Speaker 1: the sprint championship.
39:11
Speaker 3: I think they used the phrase speed king, didn't they.
39:14
Speaker 3: I certainly did.
39:14
Speaker 1: He would be the speed king of Formula One at
39:17
Speaker 1: the moment. Remarkable phrase, and I wonder whether or not
39:21
Speaker 1: will see that again because while it seems a little
39:23
Speaker 1: bit well, why would he be, there is something about
39:25
Speaker 1: that Ferrari car that performs reasonably out of the box,
39:28
Speaker 1: perhaps when other cars are just not really up to speed.
39:31
Speaker 1: But then again, considering those sprints were so early in
39:33
Speaker 1: the year, where so much further down the road. Now,
39:35
Speaker 1: maybe that first mover advantage, if you want to call it,
39:38
Speaker 1: that doesn't really exist by now.
39:40
Speaker 2: Well, look at how much the competitive picture has changed
39:42
Speaker 2: since Miami, and not just at the front of the field,
39:44
Speaker 2: up and down the field. I mean, were we talking
39:46
Speaker 2: about sober in Miami. It wo certainly worked, and so
39:49
Speaker 2: there's a lot that's changed right the way through the
39:52
Speaker 2: order since we last had a sprint. So I'd be
39:53
Speaker 2: curious to see whether that translates and makes the product
39:57
Speaker 2: a little bit better perhaps, but I just think the
40:00
Speaker 2: format there's too much similarity to the rest of a
40:03
Speaker 2: Formula one normal Formula one weekend that we're trying to
40:06
Speaker 2: position sprints as being something special and different, and it's
40:08
Speaker 2: just a shorter version of the same thing. And I
40:11
Speaker 2: think while we continue to go down that path, then
40:13
Speaker 2: I don't know if they're really going to differentiate themselves
40:16
Speaker 2: as something that we're really going to be that keen
40:17
Speaker 2: to tune into other than just occasionally.
40:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's it, but it'll be the performance.
40:22
Speaker 1: I mean, it's only middlingly interesting, I suppose, but the
40:25
Speaker 1: performance difference between sprint and the race is at least
40:28
Speaker 1: something to keep an eye on this weekend, particularly if
40:30
Speaker 1: we do get an unusual result in the Saturday short race.
40:34
Speaker 1: But let's wrap this up now, Matt, with the crystal
40:36
Speaker 1: ball brought to you by Complete Home Filtration, let's forecast
40:40
Speaker 1: the weekend or next subsequent weekends, whatever you like really
40:43
Speaker 1: in motorsports thanks to Complete Home Filtration, Matt, why don't
40:46
Speaker 1: you kick us off.
40:47
Speaker 2: I am going to give the crystal ball a rub,
40:50
Speaker 2: and it's going to show me that George Russell is
40:52
Speaker 2: going to finish second in Sunday's Grand Prix splitting the
40:55
Speaker 2: McLaren drivers. Now, I'm not going to the crystal ball
40:57
Speaker 2: seems to have a glitch in it won't tell me
40:58
Speaker 2: which McLaren driver is winning, So I can't run down
41:00
Speaker 2: the cav after this. But I have this feel I
41:03
Speaker 2: think you know George Russell was he made a very
41:06
Speaker 2: a topical strategy work very very well last year. I
41:09
Speaker 2: think that car has been he and that car have
41:11
Speaker 2: been proven to be quite good at SPA over time.
41:14
Speaker 2: I can see him having a very strong qualifying and
41:16
Speaker 2: being able to perhaps strategically Shoehorn's way in between the
41:20
Speaker 2: two McLaren's in the race. And to me that's doubly
41:23
Speaker 2: interesting because as and Mercedes on the podium. But the
41:26
Speaker 2: gap between first and third in the point standing is
41:29
Speaker 2: pretty significant, particularly we're on a race weekend here where
41:33
Speaker 2: if the McLarens don't finish first and second, you could
41:36
Speaker 2: potentially have a championship league change this weekend because of
41:38
Speaker 2: how narrow it is between Piastri and Norris. So whichever
41:42
Speaker 2: order those McLaren's finished the race with Russelling between them,
41:45
Speaker 2: of course, could determine the championship picture. And that's where
41:48
Speaker 2: I'm going out to the crystal walls telling me. But
41:50
Speaker 2: I suspect, judging by the look on your face, which
41:52
Speaker 2: is great audio content for everyone listening, that you have
41:56
Speaker 2: something different in the crystal world.
41:58
Speaker 1: Better audio condt Generally you don't see the face, though,
42:01
Speaker 1: I think it's just the rule of this podcast. Mine's
42:04
Speaker 1: two part prediction. Mine says that Lewis Hamilton's going to
42:09
Speaker 1: clock up his second sprint victory of the year that
42:12
Speaker 1: new suspension package brought to the Ferrari car. He is
42:15
Speaker 1: the equal second most successful driver I think in Belgium,
42:19
Speaker 1: one win off the all time record, which is Michael Schumacher.
42:22
Speaker 1: I think he's got correct six and he's in Hamilton's
42:25
Speaker 1: five off the top of my head, obviously having one
42:28
Speaker 1: last year sometime after the flag fell, but still the
42:30
Speaker 1: wind counts. So I think he's going to do well
42:32
Speaker 1: on the sprint, but as is Ferrari's way, not to
42:34
Speaker 1: as well in the Grand Prix. But I think, and
42:36
Speaker 1: I've looked at the forecast, Matt, as of you, there's
42:38
Speaker 1: a little bit of rain on the radar on Sunday,
42:40
Speaker 1: although this being spar Franko Schamp that almost doesn't mean
42:43
Speaker 1: anything could rain any day, could rain every day, could
42:45
Speaker 1: rain none of the days. But I think that that
42:49
Speaker 1: new manager bounds I said didn't exist is going to
42:51
Speaker 1: happen this weekend and Max with staffan is going to
42:53
Speaker 1: get another great wet weather victory. He does do very
42:56
Speaker 1: well at He's got four victories here. I think, off
42:59
Speaker 1: the top of my head, he does well here. It's
43:02
Speaker 1: a track where okay, it is a compromise circuit in
43:04
Speaker 1: terms of set up, but that might be a little
43:06
Speaker 1: bit more amenable to the changes or the compromises Red
43:09
Speaker 1: Bull Racing has to make to get any kind of
43:10
Speaker 1: performance out of its car, as we saw in Silverston.
43:13
Speaker 1: Unlike in Silverston, there will be parts of this track
43:15
Speaker 1: where I low down force back it's does work for example.
43:18
Speaker 1: So I think in the rain this will be a
43:20
Speaker 1: Max with staff and ultimately meaningless. But for Red Bull Racing,
43:23
Speaker 1: heartening victory.
43:25
Speaker 2: Well and a home win ge giving a kick and cool.
43:28
Speaker 2: This is one of his two home Grand Prix. Of
43:29
Speaker 2: course he's always done particularly well there. But yeah, I
43:31
Speaker 2: think you're right when you've got a this is a
43:34
Speaker 2: track by its nature that you're going to be compromised
43:36
Speaker 2: in one sector or another based on how you set
43:39
Speaker 2: your car up. So it's all about being able to
43:41
Speaker 2: mitigate the damage of the parts of the track that
43:43
Speaker 2: you're supposedly not strong in. And I think he and
43:46
Speaker 2: Red Bull have done that in previous years because he
43:48
Speaker 2: is just a master it sometimes making the most of
43:51
Speaker 2: having the least. And yeah, he had a few sprinkles
43:54
Speaker 2: of rain, which is go to have it at some point,
43:56
Speaker 2: let's be honest at SPA. I do like that as
43:58
Speaker 2: a call, but it's probably better than I call. But
44:00
Speaker 2: we'll soon see who's right on Sunday night.
44:02
Speaker 1: Huh No, two very different race predictions though, so I
44:05
Speaker 1: like that one of us will have to be well, well,
44:07
Speaker 1: maybe not. Neither of us could be close.
44:08
Speaker 2: One of us will have a smug look on their
44:10
Speaker 2: face for next week's podcast.
44:11
Speaker 1: Yes, which you also be able to see. But that's
44:13
Speaker 1: all the time we have for bit talk today. You
44:15
Speaker 1: can subscribe to Pittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts,
44:18
Speaker 1: and you can leave us a rating and review as well.
44:20
Speaker 1: This weekend is the Formula one Belgian Grand Prix, and
44:23
Speaker 1: I will give you the sprint time because it's eight
44:25
Speaker 1: pm on Saturday. That's very pleasant before lights are out
44:28
Speaker 1: on the Grand Prix at eleven pm on Sunday. You
44:31
Speaker 1: can keep up to date with all the latest Formula One, Murder,
44:33
Speaker 1: GP and supercars news at Foxsports dot com dot Au.
44:37
Speaker 1: From Matt Clayton and be Michael Lomonado. Thanks very much
44:39
Speaker 1: for your company. We'll catch you next week.