Latest / Pit Talk / Max wins the title; F1 braces for Cadillac joining in 2026: Las Vegas GP Review

Transcript

Max wins the title; F1 braces for Cadillac joining in 2026: Las Vegas GP Review · Pit Talk

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, a Fox Sports and
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Speed Cafe Formula one podcast. On today's episode, Max Verstappen
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: wins his fourth consecutive World championship after finishing fifth behind
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: a dominant George Russell led Mercedes one two in Las Vegas,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: and General Motors is set to join the grid in
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six with its Cadillac brand. Just don't call
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: it ANDRETTI. My name's Michael Lomonato, motorsport writer for Fox
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Sports Australia. It's great to have your company and the
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: company of my co host from Speed Cafe. He likes
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: to think of himself as the Cadillac of Australian motorsport journalists.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: It's not gosh, I don't know quite what that means,
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: but we'll go it. Does that make me like the
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: luxury varieties, isn't it? Yes?
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I feel like. I mean, it only really applies in
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: America because I don't think Cadillacs are sold anywhere else.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: But it's sort of like it's the answer to the
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Rolls Royce, isn't it if you're a Cadillaca whatever, you know,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: it's a thing.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Yes, I like that. Yes, I'm the I'm the Cadillac
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: in Australian motorsport journalism just a bit in Australia.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, leather, interior, wood paneling probably, Yeah, you know, one
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: of those weird gearboxes that are on the side of
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: the steering column. They've understood that that's all about.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Because I don't drive it that they drive it. Could
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: you drive a stick, yes, versus a well what else
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: do you drive?
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Hopefully that's an innovation they bring to Formula One in
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: two twenty six, so we will talk about that a
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: little bit later on. Let's catch you up though, before
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: we get into the Las Vegas Grand Prix title winning
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: antiques and of course the big news about the expansion
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: of the grid in twenty twenty six. To the five
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: top news stories you might have missed in the last week.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: And let's start with a story close to home. It's
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Jack Dowan who's confirmed the race number he'll be competing
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: with next year. He's adopting Kimmy reichen AND's former number
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: of seven, though that wasn't his first choice.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: No, he wanted number twelve, didn't he, And that was
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: being taken by Kimmy Antonelli. You've got the paperwork in
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: first sofa rules, first come, best dressed. But I love
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: that doing has gone. That kim me such an idol
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: of mine. I want to sort of represent. So ye,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be number seven. KIMMI chose seven because well,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: that's the number that you already had.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: So without I forgot about that. That's very good. Let's
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: go home at a Red Bull now. Well, Helmut Marco,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: the Red Bull Motorsport advisor, has confirmed there'll be a
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: meeting of F one shareholders at the end of the
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to finalize the brand's four car
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: driver lineup. And this is of course with Sergio Peer
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: is still very much in the spotlight after another disappointing
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: qualifying and Grand Prix.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting because I don't think frankcolor Pinto did
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: himself any favors during qualifying in Vegas either, so I
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: think his stocks dropped a little bit. Yeah, it's funny
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: that there's now where was where there was once really
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: easy solution. There's not so many easy solutions there, so
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: to be curious to see exactly what happens at Milton
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Keynes in the weeks around Christmas.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Let's go over to Mercedes now and picking up off
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: something we mentioned last week, comments from Toto Wolf in
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: an official Mercedes Behind the Scenes book linking Lewis Hamilton's
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: short term contract and eventual departure to him nearing the
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: end of his shelf life. Toto Wolf's insisted those comments
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: were taken out of context, and he since clarified that
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: he made everyone has a shelf life, including himself, and
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: that both him and Hamilton have since spoken and cleared
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the air.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, he's not wrong. Everyone does have a
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: shelf life, of course, but when you put it in
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: black and white like that, then it's printed in a
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: effectively an authorized book, Mercedes authorized book, then it just
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: stings a little bit. So yeah, he sort of moved
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: to clarify that when he tried to clarify it on
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: Radio four during the week as well, and again over
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: the weekend when he was asked about it. So ultimately
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: I went, Lewis has got two more races with with Mercedes,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: and then he changes color. He'll go off wearing red,
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: and Toto's got the opportunity to build the next Lewest,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: so to speak. So it's all sort of worked out
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: the way he almost saw it.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Sticking with Lewis Hamilton as well. Now it's been confirmed
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: that he won't be getting his first taste of a
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Ferrari car until next year, with Mercedes absolutely holding on
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: to him through the end of December for what it
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: says will be an enormous parade of postseason celebrations of
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: one of the most successful single stints with the team
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: in Formula One history. That will deny him, of course,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: appearance in the postseason Test with Ferrari. Not so though,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: for Science, which Ferrari is happily allowed to race for
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Williams in that postseason test.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, slightly different arrangement science from Ferrari to Williams as
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: opposed to Hamilton to Ferrari. But it makes sense as well.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: If you get a blockbuster signing like Hamilton, you want
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: to make a big deal of it. You don't want
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: to put him in white overalls and a nondescript Tolmot
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: and a sponsorer's car like I did with Aston Martin
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: did with Fernando Alonzo a year or two back. You
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: want to make a big song and dance about it.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: You'll want you want that PI hit. So that's one
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: reason even if you could get him not to test him.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: But there was not even any attempt to buy Ferrari
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: to go and get him because they just knew it
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: wasn't really going to be an option. And Hamilton equally,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: you know, he briefly had a conversation with Toto Wolf
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: and he's going to stop. Really an option, isn't That's
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: not really an option. So everyone's sort of on the
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: same page with it. It's not it's not that he's
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: been denied, it's just they're a bigger commercial interests out
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: there and it didn't serve anyone's best interest to make
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: a move. What three weeks earlier then he'd otherwise be
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: able to jump in a Ferrari.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Yes, and can you imagine the hype Ferrari will be
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: able to build that first private test in an old cars.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: I think they've already foreshadowed. It's always great. I always
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: liked seeing, you know, the Ferrari test track when people
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: gather around the fences, not in the track because they're
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: always closed, but there's always a way to see the
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: car going around so well.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: That there's this bridge that runs over one end and
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: you can stop there jump a fence, and I've never
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: done it obviously because you can't stop. You can't there,
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: but yeah, you can see actually quite a fair bit
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: of the Actually, you know, the best place to watch
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: the Ferrari test track. I can't remember all bates name now,
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: but so many restaurant has his office. Whoever's now in
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: his office, it looks out over over two thirds of
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: the circuits. Makes magnificent view. That's where you want to go.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: And I've got no idea how you yourself in there,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: but best seat in the house.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Become a technical director for obvious you get there, all right,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: that's all you need if you just want to watch
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: some promotional.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Light that over. By early January you'll.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Be sorted and coming back close to the home. Former
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: if One driver Tim Schenkin and former race Supercars race
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: director as well. We'll depart the role of Clark of
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: the Course for the Australian Grand Prix. It's a role
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: he's held since the eighties, that's spanning back to the
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Adelaide edition of the Grand Prix. Very long tenured career,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: essentially being one of the senior officials of Australia's biggest motorrate.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's held all sorts of positions with the FAA
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: as like a circuit inspector and Safety Commission member and
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: all sorts of things. Doesn't hold any of those commission
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: memberships now. But yeah, he was deputy race director of
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: the Australian Grand Prix in that eighty five and eighty six,
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: took the sorry deputy clerk of course in eighty five
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: and eighty six, became clerk of course from eighty seven
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: and held that threw up until this year and then
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: next year he will no longer hold that role. The
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: word I'm hearing is it will be David Murray, which
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: makes sense because he's been the clerk of course in
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: aby Daby for the last couple of years, so he's Australian.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: He's already doing the job in other regions.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: A little indicator there of the different states where from
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: our pronunciation of clerk and clerk isn't it?
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Is it lego lego? This is this is the big one.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: I didn't even know that was up for dispute because
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: it's not. It's the story we left out is of
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: course the Formula one Lego sponsorship. You would have seen
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: it on the Giants for you, you're very excited about it.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Man I'm going to need a bigg bookshel oh I
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: have my hot wheelsion one lego and the other.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Let's move on there to the Las Vegas Grand Prix,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: and before we talk about, of course, the race itself,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: which does have some pretty interesting permutations with the Constructors
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Championship and maybe even the form guide going into the
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: last two rounds of the season. The big story, of course,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: to come out of Formula one's premier event is that
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Max for Staffan is a four time world champions the
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: championship we've seen coming for quite a while now, but
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: expt as good relief. In fact, that was his word,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: relief to get it finally sealed and done. It took
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: him only fifth place on the road despite running as
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: high as second at one point in the race. All
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: you needed to do was finish ahead of Lando Norris
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: and with McLaren have. I think it's least competitive round
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: in months in the start of the year. Really was
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: as good as done by the time we got to
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: the end of the Grand Prix. It's it's sort of
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: interesting that I was thinking about this today because he's
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: won four in a row. It just feels like the
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: status quo in some respects, and I think it's important
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: to recognize that four world titles is not only a
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: big number of world titles, actually is extremely rare. He's
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: now one of only six who have won that or more.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: He is in the elite of the elite Formula One
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: drivers club.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he now surpasses in center Jackie Stewart, Nikki Lauder.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: All these three time world champions and three time champions
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: has nothing to seize that at all. Winning a Grand
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Prix full stop is a hard enough feat. Tag on
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: the podium is if you. But what's what's great is
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: that this championship has been different to his previous three.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: Twenty one obviously very combative all the way through, had
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: to get the elbows out and muscle is way by
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: at points with Hamilton, and that was great. Twenty two
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: he came back from a sluggish start, reeled in Leclair
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: and then ran away with it, sort of from a
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: French Grand Prix on which really wasn't it last year
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: obviously it was the Red Bull World Championship and everyone
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: else just competed. And then this year, yeah, he had
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: that really strong start, but he'd been playing a reguard
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: action pretty much since what the Spanish or austring Or
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: or pri He said post race that for sort of
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: seventy percent of the season he's not had the fastest car.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: It's just he's made the most of the opportunities he's
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: had and then he's lucky that others haven't done that.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: And if you look at it, he's definitely got a
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: point because McLaren should have had a one two in Silverston.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: There's a couple of other instances where they have had
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: better results than what they did, probably Austria where they retired,
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Lando as well, where Max stayed on track and got
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: a couple of points. It's those sorts of things that
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: in the moment don't look that significant, but the cumulative
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: effect can be astronomical. And it's doing that. It's that consistency,
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: just doing what you have to do, making sure you maximize.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: It's that word. It's maximized. I always talking about maximizingal happen.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: It's maximizing the opportunity. If that opportunity can only bring
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: you fifth, which is what it could do on Saturday
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: night for Max, you take fifth. So yeah, I think
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: of the four World Championships that he's one, I think
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: this is probably the most mature, it's the most composed,
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: just not the most impressive, because nothing is going to
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: top last year, but it just shows another side to Maxims.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: There's still flashes of the old Max but it just
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: showed that he's now more mature, more rounded, more complete
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: racing driver than what we saw in twenty one and
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: twenty two.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: It was interesting to hear him sort of try to
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: compare titled, because of course nothing lives up to the first,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: because your first world championship win, the emotions of that unmatchabum.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Obviously he won that in not just the controversial circumstances
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: but in a real bare knuckle fight with Lewis Hamilton.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Over the course of the season. There's not literally nothing
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: between them going into that last race, a really harder
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: earned championship victory. The second one, for me was always
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: sort of like one off a wave of Red Bull's
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: momentum in the new title ear and I say that
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: not to minimize his efforts there, but sort of just
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: was the championship the defense that felt inevitable as Ferrari's
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: challenge collapsed last year, though I thought it was really
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: interesting to hear him continue to say and as he
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: is entitled to that. It remains an underratedly difficult title win,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: and I think it is worth remembering how hard it
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: is to be so close to perfect, for Red Bull
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: to win all races but one, for him to win
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: all but two of those races as well to set
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: the records that he did. Obviously, we have more Grand
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Prix now to win to accumulate those big numbers, but
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: just that the mental and physical toll of being so
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: close to perfect shouldn't be underestimated. But I do think
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: you're right, and it was interesting to hear he's an engineer.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Jean Pierre Lambias said GP talk afterwards about there is
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: this different element of him now not needing to win everything.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: I think that was almost his exact words. He doesn't
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: feel like he needs to go out in every race
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: and throw his car around and really get his shoulders
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: out to win every Grand Prix. He's happy to play
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: the numbers game more. I think this is really the
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: first time we've seen that, and as you mentioned, we
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: do still sometimes see the old I have to win
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Max for Stafford, particularly in some of those battles at
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Lando Norris. I think he's one also, we talked about
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: at the time He's one sort of almost joker race
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: of the year was the Hungarian Grand Prix where he
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: just kind of got stoppy. He wasn't happy, But I
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: also think that was kind of the race he had
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: to have because afterwards, I think he accepted that the
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: car couldn't not that it could win Anymorks. It has
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: obviously won since, but it wasn't the car from the
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: start of the year, and he went into that mode subsequent,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: which was that I've got to win this championship by
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: playing this defensive game. Just worth pointing out. You're talking
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: about the Spanish Grand Prix and that was the last
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: race he won before Brazil. So before that ten race
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: victory drought his lead after the Spanish Grand Prix was
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: sixty nine points. His lead now is sixty three points.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: So over the last twelve races he's lost six points
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: to Lando Norris. And that's the period really in which
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Ian McLaren was arguably the faster as faster car. A
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: little bit before that, dating back obviously to the Miami
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Grand Prix we remember, but in that period of time,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: obviously McLaren was ahead of Red Bull Racing pretty much
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: in every race I think I would say every race
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: in that period, and the margin was six points. And
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: that's not just as tempting as it's going to be
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: in the wash up just about McLaren and Lando Norris
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: missing chances that that's undoubtedly part of the story. It
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: is the fact that Max mistappened to use your word maximized,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: to use his name maxed. He maxed his opportunities to
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: play that defensive game, and I think that is something
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: that is the way he's not won a championship before,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: and I think that is to obviously, to his credit
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: is the world champion, but it's another stringing his bow
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: that'll be fascinating to see deployed overcoming years, particularly next
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: to you, when we expect the title to be more competitive.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm now really excited about next year because we
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: do have three or four teams that genuinely seem to
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: have a chance mersaities that still sort of comes and goes.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: I'm sure we'll talk about them in a little bit,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: but yeah, it's this year has been a little bit
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: prost esque from Max and Prost. For those that aren't
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: as old and nerdy as I am, alarmed, Prost used
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: to basically work out what he needed to do and
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: do that, do no more? Well, why risk the car?
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Why go out and try and set the fastest lapping
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: qualifying when fourth was good enough? Why go out there
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: and try and risk passing Center or Mansel or whoever
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: it might be to get third when the points are
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: fourth was good enough. It do that routinely through his career.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: I think I think he damaged one chassis during his
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: entire time with McLaren. I can't think of too many
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: cars he damaged, but that was the sign of a
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: really mature, composed driver, and that there's a reason he
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: was called the professor. And I just got a little
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: hint of that, particularly the back half, not Mexico. Put
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: that one aside, because that was that was more of
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: the old brash Max. But okay, that one weekend out
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: of it, and I think you've got a really different
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: looking Max with Staffan. And that's a frightening thought because
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: if he's as fast as he was, as canny on
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: track as he's always been, and now this composed, this mature,
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: the sure himself, that's a hell of a combination.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: The only thing left really now and there is there
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: is no gap in Max with Staffan's legacy, this no
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: one becomes a full time world champion and leaders going, oh,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: but what if you know this se that good? Like obviously,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: we can rank world champions in ways that aren't simply
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: the number of titles they won. People will have opinions,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: for example about Sebastian Vettle being a four time world
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: champion I had instead of having three. You may rank
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: them in a different way, and that's perfectly fine, and
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: you may r bax this happen a different way. I
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: don't think he's anything we need to see from him
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: to know how good he is. I think he's obviously
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: in that generational talent category. I think the last thing
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: we need to see now, and this goes back to
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: the point about twenty twenty five, is how does he
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: manage potentially a multiple car title fight, because we've seen
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: him head to head with Lewis Hamilton, but there's not
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: a not an asterisk come back to me. I'm not
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: talking about AVDB again, just that it was his first title.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: He's clearly much more mature now. I've no doubt he
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: would approach that season a different way now. But then
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: there was also the angst of that bit of feud
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: as it became by the end of the year, particularly
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: in the between the teams, almost more between the teams
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: and the drivers themselves. That really colors how that title
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: panned out, like it was such a rivalry, almost more
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: than that a pure on track battle, if you like,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: the the subc two to one, because he had a
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: performance advantage and need to execute that. But that's how
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: they were this year's defensive. As we said, next year,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: if it's a multiple car battle, that's going to be
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: a fascinating test of all the qualities we know about
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: him Because we haven't seen him in that situation yet.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: I think we're still unlikely next year, regardless of his teammate,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: to see how he goes up against a competitive teammate.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: I guess that will be another element that we haven't
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: seen yet. But then again, not every World champion champion
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: has to deal with that. In fact, often we find
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: that the drivers who really dominate don't have particularly competitive teammates.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: And that's not necessarily a slide on the teammates as
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: much as it is a pump up of how good
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: these drivers are. But that's going to be that fascinating
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: final chapter, particularly because inevitably, with the exception of I
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: suppose if Lewis Hamilton ends up in that mix, which
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: he may well, he obviously won't have gone head to
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: head over the course of a season against any of
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: these guys because in his competitive era, none of them
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: have been competitive.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's going to be really interesting. It'll give you
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: an idea of who the most complete driver is, who
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: can drive around the inherent weaknesses and strengths of their
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: caro to flatten that curve out and produce week in
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: week out the most consistent performances. Because that's what next
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: year is going to be. It's it's not going to
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: be winning on your good days, it'll be minimizing your
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: losses on the bad days.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: All Right, let's change tack now Matt to the Las
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Vegas Grand Prix broadly, because while Max with Staffan obviously
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: was the story for winning the title, would have on
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: any other weekend been the biggest story as well. McLaren Mercedes,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: where did that come from? A one two finish, not
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: just a one two finish, but a dominant one to finish.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: George Russell once he' fended off Carlos char Leclair early
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: in the race, and that battle last there only a
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: couple of laps before the Ferrari's tires absolutely went off.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: The cliff was totally unchallenged. Could have done this race
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: without stopping twice, really only stopped twice because everyone else
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: did and wanted to cover off the possibility. Lewis Hamilton
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: rose from tenth on the grid to finish second and
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: was only five seconds behind the last few laps before
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: that gap grew slightly larger after that showed the pace
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: he had to be able to cut through the field comfortably.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: The team's most convincing weekend of the year, and this
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: is after probably his least convincing weekend of the year
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: in zau Palla. Weekend so bad that Louis Hamilton suggested
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: he didn't want to I didn't want to come back
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: to finish the season. That's how bad it was. I mean,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: where did this come from? We talk about the cold conditions,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: the smooth track, but at several points this weekend I
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: certainly got the sense that even the team wasn't totally
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: convinced what was going on.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: So I remember after FP one, I wrote the session
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: report and I wrote that Mercedes was fast, but let's
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: not put anything in that. Ferrari McLaren is where it's
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: going to be, and then we'll work out what red
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: Bull was doing. Then after FB two, Ferrari's fast, McLaren's there.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Still don't know what red Bull are doing, but Mercedes
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: has started to look interesting. FP three Mercedes is kind
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: of looking good, but Ferrari's still fast, McLaren's still fast.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: Still don't know what red Bull was doing. Then quality
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: and then the race. They did it all, even though
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: they topped every session. They also managed to do it
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: somehow by going under the radar because no one expected
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: that form to continue. Ferrari, by rights is a faster
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: Carria's just in those conditions it wasn't. And I think
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: it's got a lot to do with tires and graining
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: and everything else. We know the Mercedes is very good
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: when the conditions are cool. The conditions were very cool
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: in US Vegas, and that's we've seen now sort of
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: two extremes. At one end, you see the extreme heat
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: where tires grain, and one nge you see the extreme
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: cold where tires grain, and at some point in that
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: spectrum in between, there is a happy place for every team.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: For some it's very narrow. For some it's a lot broader,
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: but Claren's, for instance, seems to be quite broad somewhere
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: in the middle of that, maybe towards the hotter end,
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: but messages we know it's an arrow towards the bottom
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: end of that range. So all the raw ingredients and
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: in hindsight look back on, it was obvious Mercedes was
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: always going to be fast there. I don't know why
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: I didn't consider them more seriously heading in, because once
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: you stepped back and realized what was happening, there's obviously
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: this place to what we saw in even sour Palla,
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: if you take the red flag out of it. There.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: George was very quick cooler conditions given the rain in
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: Belgium it was cooler that weekend. Even the British Grand
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Prix was cooler again, so there's a trend here. Now
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: we're going to Katar next weekend that's not going to
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: be cool and funnily enough, George still seems to think
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: it'll go well there, but that's a different one for Vegas.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: I don't know how we all missed it. It was
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: there right in front of us. That has been all
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: season for our Mercedes was going to absolutely decimate everyone
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: and we all, every single one of us. I feel,
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: mister Well to be fair. So did Mercedes. I say
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: this just because they seemed confused as the week went on.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: But to go back to those comments of George Russell,
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: at one point he was saying he didn't want to
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: take a new engine this weekend. He wanted to save
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: it for Katar because he didn't expect to be competitive.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: He does expect to be competitive in Ktar because the
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: layout should suit the car, which is high speed and smooth.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: Though the heat element is the big unknown there obviously,
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: or would appear not to be unknown, it wouldpep to
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: be known that it won't be good. But nonetheless he
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: seems to think it'll be okay this weekend. While the
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: cold conditions were in place, the layout shouldn't have suited
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: the car because it hasn't typically been good in these
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: sort of short duration traction zone, all that kind of stuff.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: It's normally Ferrari territories. Isn't really where Mercedes has been competitive.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: But it was cold enough that and they got the
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: set up right enough. That's the other element. They really
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: set the car up well. It's a little bit more
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: downforce but that turned out to be exactly what was
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: needed to print the tize from graining up in the
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: way Ferraris did that made the car work, So they
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: really did surprise themselves there. So don't don't feel you
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: are still the car lack of Australia.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: You're okay. It's all right. Sadies didn't know either. What
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: was interesting about Mercedes winning this though, was that have
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: been Ferrari obviously did not recovered to third and fourth,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: despite after qualifying sounding pretty confident both Carlos Science and
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Charlotte Clair that they would win this race because for
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: all the reasons we expected them to be competitive here
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: that it was going to be well. The call was
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: actually the twist in this because they typically aren't not
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: as strong in cool conditions to see like they were
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: last year. But the layout should have been all Ferrari
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: in the same way that Baku was very much Ferrari race,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: even monster similarities there because of all the high speed
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: nature of it, but couldn't manage the tires this weekend,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: didn't set up the car properly. Three and four is
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: still pretty good behind such a dominant Mercedes team, but
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: it means crucially that they did not outscore McLaren by
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: very much in the Constructors' Championship, was just twelve points
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: I think it was. It's what is the twenty odd
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: points now between them? Twenty four points with two rounds
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: to go, so damage still done. And in fact, if
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: you go back and look at how many points they've
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: outscored McLaren by in this America's leg the last four races,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: it is twelve point seven points around I think. So
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: if they continue that trajectory, actually they will win the
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: constructors Championship. We do have two very different races coming
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: up compared to everything we've seen before. But what do
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: you feel like is the vibe around Ferrari after this weekend,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: because it is in a sense job done. Did comfortably
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: outscore McLaren, not by as much as they would have accepted,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: but it turns out that was never on the cards
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: because the ads were so good. But two more difficult
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: rounds coming up. How do you think they'll reflect on
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: this weekend and the points scored against McLaren.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: I think we've got a really interesting insight into Ferrari
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: at the moment on the cool down lap and Charla
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: Clair's comments to his race engineer Brian Bozzi the response
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: to Carla science and disobeying team orders allegedly, but then
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: he refused to be joining it. It was bizarre. He's
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: had a long ran and then immediately afterwards Carlos has
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: been spoken about something completely different when when he was
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: asked why Charles might be unhappy, and then when Charles
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: was asked he refused to speak about it, So that
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: there's something bubbling away behind the scenes there. I wonder
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: if there's this growing sense that Carlos doesn't need to
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: drive for Ferrari anymore because he doesn't He's not going
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: to drive for Ferrari anymore, so he may as well
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: drive for Carlos and therefore he doesn't need to worry
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: about team orders, who just worry about Carlos orders. So
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: there's that winter of discontent bubbling away behind the scenes.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: You know, those sort of comments from from Charles talking
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: about how you know, being the nice guy always screws
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: him of paraphrase, there tactical that's not the work of you.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: That's not one on track pass, that's not one disobeyed
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: team order, that's the culmination of a number of them.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: So I wonder if that's growing pressure, growing concern that
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: it is starting to slip away. They need to close
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: up on McLaren maybe a little bit more quickly than
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: they have done, to really make sure that they've got
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: a good shot of the Constructor championship. And also I
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: wonder if it's just a frustration thing that Carlos and
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Ferrari thought they would win that race and shot up
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: for that matter, thought that they would win that race
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: and then got their pants bean off them by by Mercedes.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: So they was sort of bruised ego on a few
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: different fronts. Wrap that all together and you've got a
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: team that heading into the weekend had a degree of
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: swagger about it, coming out of the weekend just doesn't
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: feel like it's got that same confidence. And even though
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: it beat McLaren, you still look at McLaren, I think, yeah,
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: they're probably gonna be world champions, don't you.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because this is a track that just absolutely didn't
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: suit McLaren and the next one absolutely will. Kat Arts
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: where Osco Piastre won the sprint last year, and Abi
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Dhabi maybe I think might be a bit more of
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: a toss up the McLaren probably still just simply because
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: McLaren's been so good at so many tracks this year,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: probably ahead, but could be a fascinating conclusion. The ferrari
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: thing for me. The more I've been thinking about it,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: the more interesting I feel it is because there is
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: the team orders element. I think you're right, there's a
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: degree of Carlos science feels relatively unencumbered by team orders.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: He didn't do it in any aggressive way. If he
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: in fact did ignore team orders, it's unclear. I had
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: gone back and looked through the on bards to try
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: and hear all the radio but there is an element
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: of that for me, though Charletclair's outburst, there's a little
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: bit of the fact that this has sort of happened before.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: I think was it was it Silverston, I was earlier
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: this year. I have to go back and remember the
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: race where there was sort of a little bit of
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: unhappiness as well around the way that the drivers had
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: responded to team orders. So there's clearly something that's happened
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: before around Charlot Clair's under standing of whether or not
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Carlos has been obeying what he believes to be the
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: rules of engagement or whatever. Is that element of it.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: But I think there's also a degree of and we
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: saw it a lot in this race from Carlos that
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: he's really able to take the race on himself, and
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: that includes the strategy role, the pit roll he saw
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: before Ferrari seemed to this was going to need to
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: be a two stop race. For Ferrari felt like he
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: lost time waiting for that to happen. Did execute a
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: team order, I thought really well by letting char Leclair
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: through while Lewis Hamilton was behind both of them without
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: letting Lewis through it it was really quite masterfully done
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: as much as a team order can be done. And
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: it seems like the unhappiness actually stems from the fact
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: that after Carlos signs had made so many of the
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: strategy calls, had sort of run the race for himself
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: emerged as the faster to kind of that last stint,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: and when Charles was told he wasn't going to be passed,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: just barged passed rather than lose lap time waiting to
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: be told he could go through, or waiting for Charles
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Ties to warm up after that pit stop. Part of
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: for me, part of that frustration we see from Charles
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: from time to time in relation to science is the
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: fact that he doesn't have that in his game, that
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: Carlos Science may not be faster than him, although they're
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: pretty close, but let's say outright speed, he's not quite
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: as fast as him, be kind of better at managing
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: these complicated races where things don't go to plan, where
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Ferrari can't just win the one two in the way
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: they expected them to. It's not surprising to me that
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Carlos Science ended up ahead, even though Charlotte Claire was
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: ahead on that first lap and looked quicker. I think
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: the frustration is there and sort of and this is
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: maybe a question for us later in the year when
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: we do a season wrap up or look forward to
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: next year or whatever. But I'm also not sure that
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Lewis Hamilton is that guy either, And that's going to
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: make it a really interesting line up for me, because
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: how many times do we hear at Mercedes Lewis Hamilton
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: will occasionally argue back around strategy calls, but it's usually
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: after the factory he goes, ah, this was the wrong goal,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: rather than in Carlos Seins's case, he'll tell them beforehand
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: and maybe nine times out of ten they'll change their
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: mind and do whatever he says, because they kind of
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: trust him. That's kind of interesting to me because I
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: do think that Ferrari was pushed to a two stop strategy,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: that the strategy that ultimately got them the three to
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: three four OLO. I think they might have got it
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: anyway because of Carlos's insistence. If they don't have a
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: driver like that next year, they'll lack a little bit
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: I think for that. So I just thought that was interesting.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: I think that just a real little bit of mindset.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's a little bit of Charles also recognizing, and
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: he's very good at recognizing his weaknesses, that he'll be
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: lacking something next to your relative to Lewis. So I
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: find that that that situation sort of interesting in a
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: broader perspective. Let's just talk really quickly that I wrap
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: this up before we move on about McClaren, because this
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: was it was his worst qualifying performance of the year
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: by pure pace. I wasn't the lowest starting position, but
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: worse by pure pace. And then I think probably it's
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: least competitive race since bah Rain. Looking back at it,
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: I have to go back and look at the numbers.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: It was the first time they've gone two races in
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: a row without getting a podium, that's for certain. Since
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: Bahrain and Saudi at the start of the year, they
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: are really talking about this being a one off and
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: in fact, weirdly bit of a profitable one because they learned.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: They think why the car didn't work this weekend. Are
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: you confident that the last two races they can bounce
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: back or in this really weird and wild season where
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: we've seen form swing so dramatically for every team except McLaren, really,
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: is this the moment where McLaren's form starts to swing
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: a little bit?
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: Well, I think firstly, let's not put too much on
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: a single result. Every team has an achilles heel. You know,
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: we saw Singapore last year for the all conquering red ball,
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: so let's keep it in context a little bit. We
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: know the guitar on paper should suit that, you know,
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: the McLaren so we should see an improved result. You know,
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: it was the team's worst result since round four. What
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: was that? Japan? Off the top of my head, Bahrain, Saudi, Australia, Japan.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Yet so it was the worst result since Japan, the
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: third worst result of the season fall and the worst
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: being the Bahrain grow on pre So it's been a
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: long time since I've had a performance like this, and
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: that's I think what's jarring, especially when you consider that
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: Mercedes has often had up and down results. Ferrari to
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: an extent that has had up and down results. I've
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: been more consistent of late, of course, and Red Bulls
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: were very consistent in the side of the year, but
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: they've dropped off a little bit, so I've almost sort
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: of become accustomed to seeing swings from the other teams,
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: not McLaren. So now we see a little bit of
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: a wobble from McLaren It stands out to us, and
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: that's why I don't think we need to rate take
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: too much from it. They still scored fifteen points, so
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: they did go home empty handed, by by any stretch
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: of the imagination. They're still leading the Constructors Championship, still
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: comfortably in the points. You know, it's not like they
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: were scraping through in ninth and tenth. So if that's
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: one of the worst races of the year for them,
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: then you kind of take that, don't you.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's a it's a rare race in
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: which they were the fourth quickest car, but emphasizes that
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: it was a rare race and they're still didn't leader
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: the championship. They've still got some points to defend, so
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: not at but it'll be interesting to see how they
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: respond to what should be one of the strongest tracks
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: of the year for them in Kata. Let's change tack
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: now again, Matt, to wrap this up to the big
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: news of the week. In fact, just before we recorded
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: this it broke, so it gave us a good chance
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: to talk about all of the details, and that is
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: that Cadillac will be joining Formula One in twenty twenty six.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: Is the eleventh team, don't call it Andretti, even though
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: that is the team that will be entering fundamentally, but
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: in a rearranged structure. And this is a couple of
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: different interesting elements to this one. I think it's worth
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: reminding people how we got to this point because this
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: team that will be entering has been that long running
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: saga that has been the Andretti squad for the last
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: couple of years. Really will be based out of Silverston,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: the factory that Andrettie has been building up and hiring
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: people for and developing a car for. And I think
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: you wrote earlier this year that they're going to have
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: their first twenty twenty six shassis before the end of
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: the year, so they're well ahead of the curve on
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: that one. But it will now be a team owned
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: by General Motors, a critical difference worth thirty. Then Formula
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: One announcing this team, they did not mention the name
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Andretti at all. Is that what this is about, was
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: it Andretti the sticking point the entire time, The irritant
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: in the process for Formula One to accept this team
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: is that the change that was needed to be made.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: There's a couple of different factors at play, and the
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: truth will probably be somewhere in a mix of all
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: of them. There is the Andrettie element. Michael Andretti, for
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: some reason had enemies, Greig Mafe, Liberty Media CEO notably
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: one of them. But if you remember back to when
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: Michael Antretti was an F one driver, he tried to
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: do it from the US. He'd jet in for events,
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: even though that's thirty years ago. Memories in in Formula
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: one along for whatever reason, him coming in being bright
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: and brash about all of this just it got people
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: off site. He didn't win any friends so that has
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: been a little bit anti Michael. But it's important also
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: to realize that Andretti Global and Michael Andretti was only
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: ever really a front for Dan Towers anyway. The Towers
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: is where the money is. He's Gamebridge and Group of
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: thousand and one and the rest of it. He's got
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: the money, he's got the connections. So by the restructure
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: that's taken place at Andretti in recent months, Michael's gone
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: off into a different advisory strategic sort of role. Towerist
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: is running at day to day, So basically where you
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: see TWG Group just superimposed Andretti Global over the top
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: of that. Because the same thing, there's also been a
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: little bit of window dressing happening about how this team
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: is structured. The entrant, i understand is still TWG Group.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: That's the entrant that applied to the FAA and we
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: had its application approved. This isn't a new application. There's
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: not been a second expressions of interest process that's been opened.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: That happened last February. Four applicants were received, one of
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: them the Andrette. The Andretti application that was approved last
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: October got passed on to Formula one for commercial approval.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: We got rejected in January. Ten months on, it's now
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: been accepted. It is the same project. You can change
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: the name above the door, you can put a different
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: sticker of it, you can paint in the carr a
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: different color if you like, but it's the same project.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: Many of the reasons that Formula one said Andretti cannot
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: come into Formula one still exist. This is hypocritical of
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: Formula one to be living the team in now rather
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: than ten months ago, and that speaks to me that
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: being a personal issue rather than any way commercially founded.
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: There's a whole Department of Justice investigation. There were FBI
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: agents on the ground in Vegas investigating this, right. There's
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: some serious stuff happening behind the scenes. In addition to this,
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: this is part of quelling some of the concern that
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: surrounds that Greg Mafey is leaving Liberty Media at the
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: end of the year. Year Who will be replaced by
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: John Malone, Liberty Media's founder. If I have been there
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: for nineteen years there is no replacement. That's odd, isn't it?
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: Nineteen years or nearly two decades of service and you
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: don't future proof, you don't have a succession plan, you
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: just right off into the sunset. I don't think he's
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: riding off into the sunset at all. There's also been
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: changes that Liberty media is such as Formula one is
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: basically the only business left there. This stinks to me.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: I've been across the story in great detail for a long,
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: long long time. I know more about this than I
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: know more about the Andretti story and everything else, and
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: I do my own children's birthdays. I really wish I
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: was joking when I said that this is a complicated thing.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: What we've been sold this morning Australian time is fabulous news.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: Formula one first and foremost. It is amazing to have
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: an eleventh team. We need it. An American team is
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: good news. It's a shame it's not gonna have the
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: in Jurney name because I think that would be a
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: good selling point. But it's gonna be general motives and
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: that's still amazing from Australia. We're gonna have GM versus
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: Forward in Formula one pretty soon, so we're gonna have
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: that red versus Blue rivalry sort of thing. This is
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: good news and Formula one because it will bring him
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: in new sponsors. Yes, it'll be competition for sponsors in
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: the market, but that's that's a free market economy. You
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: get that anywhere. But General Motive is going to pump
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: in some money. But you don't think it's going to
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: take up some tracks on advertising and some corporate hospitality
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: and the rest of it. Of course, it is what
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: do you think this is going to do for viewership
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: in America? Do you think TV figures just went up? Absolutely,
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: they did. The money that's going to come into Formula
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: while off the back of this, I think it's going
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: to be phenomenal. Hence I don't see the other team's
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: arguments against it. Winding back six or eight months. I
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: really want to see how this plays out. Don't get fulled.
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: This is not General Motives in Cadillac designing a Formula
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: one car and then in a couple of years time,
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: putting their own power in it and going racing. This
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: is Dan Towers and the Andretti project doing what they
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: were already doing, selling naming rights or however they've structured
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: that so that it looks like it's General Motors. It's
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: exactly the same project, and it pisses me off that
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: most people aren't seeing that and that there are people
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: who think that we're stupid enough not to see that.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: You've summed it up well and it is. It's sort
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: of interesting because it's a little bit different to most
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: Formula One teams. Isn't it the idea that you have
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: a brand that has actually another company operating the team.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: It's maybe a little bit more familiar. I think it
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: happens in Formada a little bit. But certainly the World
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Endurance Championship. In fact, Cadillac in the World Durance Championship
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: is chip Ganassi right like.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: That, I disagree. Look at Mercedes, Yes, look I suppose,
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: isn't it Mercedes has run under license Aston Martin has
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: run under license Olpean it's turn by group when no,
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: but it's effectively its own entity running a Formula One
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: team on behalf of the of the factory, say most teams.
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: Most teams do it, so I would disagree with you
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: on that one.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good point, I suppose, But they are
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: their own. Where it's different is that it's not as
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: if Mercedes is licensing its name to a racing organization
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: that then that also does other stuff, right, It's not
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: licensing it to an independent specialist that then runs the
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Mercedes car, right like Mercedes owns a percentage of the business.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: That is Mercedes' Formula One team and its job is
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: to race Mercedes F one cars. It's not like in
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: Wild Students Championship, Chip Nassi, which is a huge independent
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: racing organization, has been chosen to operate the Cadillac cars,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: or even in again in week af course are running
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: the Ferrari car like. It's different in that way, is
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: what I mean? Is that what it is is that
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: General Motors has gone to market. Essentially, it happened actually
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: in the reverse of this way, but it's gone to market,
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: and said and Dreddi the team, the company and Dreddi Global,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: which runs all these teams, is going to be the
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: independent race team that operates a car with our name
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: on it. And that's the way that I mean it
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: is a little bit different, because you're right, it is
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: for most manufacturers and formula it's not exactly what it
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: looks like. But this is a little bit different. Again,
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: it's a little bit of a different model. And the
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: reason I emphasized that is that because that is how
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: this is essentially still exactly the same project that it
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: was last year with a little bit of tweaks, maybe ironically.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: One of the tweaks is that it seems like the
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: power unit may come online later than twenty twenty eight.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: That was the promise originally by Andretti, but now the
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: Cadillac press release is only by the end of the decades.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: That gives it another I guess a year or two,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: depending on your interpretation of what that means before it
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: builds its own power unit, which means one of the
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: major criticisms of Formula one in January and it denied
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: the team, which is that it would be a customer
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: and theref will bring no value. It still stands because
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: it will be a customer for a couple more years.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: It also doesn't have, as it did last year, a
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: pre existing agreement as it did with Reno to supply
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: because Reno is folding its engine supplied year between twenty six.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: It's now tipt to be Ferrari or the backup being
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: Honda of course, which is the supplying the fewest teams.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: So I believe it will be high. There are two arguments.
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: If it's a Ferrari deal, it's a commercial agreement, and
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: TWG Group has gone out and secured that supply deal
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: with Ferrari. If it's Honda, it's obligation to supply of regulations.
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: Obligation to supply regulations. Basically, any existing power unit manufacturer,
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: should a new team come in and not have a
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: power unit suppier, or an existing team and not have
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: a power unit supplier, has an obligation to supply that team. Now,
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: the FIA decides which manufacturer is that does that based
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: on a criteria that's outlined, which basically is the team
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: that supplies the least number. Honda is an existing supplier,
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: even though it's dressed up with RedBull power trains. At
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: the moment, it's still considered to be a Honda power
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: unit in the eyes of the FIA. In twenty twenty
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: six and beyond, its only team is Acid Martin, so
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: Honda will supply one team. It'll be interesting come to
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty eight should that change. But for twenty two
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: twenty six, when GM CADILEC comes in, if he is
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: obligation to supply, it will be a hond of power unit.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: But every other manufacturer should be fighting tooth and narrator
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: get that supply deal because another team is more data,
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: and in a new power unit regulation cycle, data is
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: gold dust. It's why Mercedes is so smart in signing
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: our pen.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: But there would be an interesting question there because you
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, I know there are obviously a lot of
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: intellectual property, fireworlds and all that kind of thing. But
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: if you know you're entering a two year deal and
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: General Motors is going to be the team that takes
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: over the power unit supply, there, I wouldn't blame another
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: manufacturer from being a little bit worried that all you're
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: doing is giving people two year access to how your
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: new power unit works. It's not forget, it's not the
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: current power units where everyone kind of knows what's going on.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: Essentially a brand you've very similar but brand new formula
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: from twenty twenty six. There is that element of it
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: there which I do think is interesting. This is a
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: final note before we wrap up and move, of course,
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: to the Alternative Championship. I was thinking about driver lineups
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: because training twenty six, fifteen months away to the first
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: race or probably we don't know what the country is,
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: probably fifteen months ago. Probably a January start now, won't it,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: which is even sooner til the first race of twenty
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: twenty six. Next year, in contrast to this year, actually
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: quite a low key contract year for drivers. In fact,
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: I counted only four drivers who are out of contract
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: next year. The two Mercedes drivers, George Russell and Chimi Antonelli,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: who will almost certainly be resigned. There's the best risk
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: over whether the Maxim staff joined is very hypothetical, so
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: that's not worth thinking about. Jack Douan is the other.
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: But if he is not resigned by Alpine, we can
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: probably take it as read that he's not going to
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: be on the market because he hasn't seized his f
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: one chance. We all hope that's not the case and
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: he gets retained by Alpine. The only one really is
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: Yuki Sonoda, which certainly tallies with the idea that maybe
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: it becomes a Honda supplied team. It's the only driver
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: I think has the reputation to go to market and
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: actually be sought out. Who may well be on the
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: market because the Hondre engine deal with the Red Bull
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: teams ends at the end of next season. He's a
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: Honda backed driver doesn't necessarily mean you can't continue there
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: or potentially at Red Bull Racing. Since he's really still
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: pushing hard to replace the pairs with and all that
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: that happens. He's really the only driver who emerges as
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: an active, experienced F one candidate to become one of
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: Andretti's drivers. Then after that you have to look at
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: drivers who've either recently retired or drivers from outside the sport,
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: So it does put them in a little bit of
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: a difficult position.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: I yeah, to an extent, but looking around that there's
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: a really good driver, experienced choice. We are on the
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: sidelines next year battery Botas.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: Yes, I think he's a good choice. He would be
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: a good choice.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: You know, what a new team wants is some experience
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: to just bring a little bit of calmness to the
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: garage and to help settle down what's going to be
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: a chaotic place at times. And then it's an American team,
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: it's going to want an American driver. You know, you
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: go out there and you try and get someone like
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: a Jack Crawford. I think he's tied up with Williams Disney,
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: but he's looking at doing Formula two next year. You know,
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: thinking ahead to kids who are in Formula three this year,
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: you know, I'll be looking at some of the Americans,
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: maybe even somebody the the IndyCar Kids, a Colon Herder.
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: There's a Max Esterston. I don't know much about Max,
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: and that I don't know much about him suggests that
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: he's probably not high on that that that list, but
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: you could. Hurd has been long linked with a move
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: into Formula one. Need didn't give a super license for
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: I didn't qualify for a super license when they tried
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: to get him one before so and then could they
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: go on could they go and raid the cupboard elsewhere
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: and bring them like a Patoy Award, someone who's got
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: some some good but clarity experience. So there's some some
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: experience out there, and there's some American with Asterix options
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: out there as well that I don't think that they
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: will be coming into Formula one with a couple of wabblers.
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: All right, Alternative Championship time. This episode's going on. Funny,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: longest championship winning episode's gone on pretty long, the Alternative
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: championshpcause we're heading towards the final weeks. In fact, this
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: could be there. We could only have more two more
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: weeks after this of the Alternative Championship.
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: It's yeah, it's it's been a thing. It's it's been
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: a roller coaster, it's been. It's been my favorite part
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: of the the pod half of your intros, which get
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: more and more elaborate every week. I do see here,
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: as you're doing the intro, I want to what's the
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: I'm Australia's leading hot air balloonist or something. Yeah, the
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: complish swords swallower. Right, So alternative championship where we just
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: give random points for random reasons, because why not. So
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: I'm I'm I'm going to start positively nice. So I'm
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: going to give fifty points to Simon Lesmbie. Oh okay,
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: the sky Scary off One host for describing the Las
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: Vegas Strip circuit as spider pigs. That I genuinely laughed
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: at that. I thought, you know what, there's some points
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: right there, Son, You've deserved that.
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: Like because the outline does look like a little bit
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: like the silhouette of a pig. I do like that.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: In some people's minds, circuits can't be rotated like it
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: could just be a regular sided pig. It doesn't have
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: to be upside out. You just turned it around.
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: I like it, but it's hungry. He's a camel.
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: Oh Okay, that's interesting. Thought about that one. Okay, you've
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: never really kind that's what.
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: There's the hump. I don't know what his legs are doing,
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: but you know, maybe it's riding a surfboard or something.
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yes, I kind of do. Said, yeah, yes,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: the legs are a bit of a question mark, but
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: it's not the craziest one I've seen. Yeah, okay, that's good.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: The only one I really can really think of is
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: that Monza and Monza and Hockenheim have always looked like
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: a sock to me. It's not very exciting out like.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: It's a fairly sort of ambiguous shape. Sock can really
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: kind of look like anything.
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: Well, it sort of makes sense because Italy is a boot.
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, there you go. It's all continues in that
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: feet realm. All right, I'm going to start well, in fact,
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: I'm exclusively taking points off today. I really should think
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: more positively, but I feel like it has to be done.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: I'm starting with a big one, four million points of
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: chief F one, Chief Operating Officer Emily Praser, first entry.
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: I believe it feels harsh, but there's a reason for it.
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: For saying that Las Vegas doesn't need a sprint because
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: it's already so fast, even though it's not even the
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: fastest race in Formula one, and notably neglected that it
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: would have nothing that it might have, although apparently would
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: have nothing to do with the reported four million US
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: dollar hosting fee for a sprint. Of course, the F
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: one is the promoter of Las Vegas can't charge itself
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: that money, obviously can't, and we'd have to take that
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: money out of the kitty from some other race. So
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: I think that the four million dollars off, Maybe I'll
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: just take it off F one. I feel bad taking
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: it off as specific person.
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's a lot less exciting, but okay.
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: Yes, well, I mean just go for F one. Just
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: take it off F one, because I do think that
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: Las Vegas would be an obvious and good candidate for
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: a sprint. I think this particularly if you looked at
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: some of the shots of the attendance, the audience in
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: any of the practice sessions. I know they're just practice sessions,
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: but even qualifying was not sold out this year the
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: race they was year. Yes, well, obviously improvement, improvement is improved.
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: You can't argue with that, But I look, I say
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: the argument that it's only practiced and it's ten pm,
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: but it's ten degrees outside. Who wants to be sitting
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: around watching that? But if it's a sprint, people will
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: be motivated to go and you might sell those last
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: tickets that weren't sold. But of course you can't charge
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: Las Vegas is for a sprint SOT it probably never happen.
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah and yeah, yeah, basically when you can fleece some
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: other promoter for them, why wouldn't you. I'm being positive
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: here again.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: Good if we never need maybe that's how we can
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: stick with that. You can be positive.
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: I'm giving seven points to Jack Dowan for having a
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: reason to choose number seven because it's the first time
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: at number seven has been used in Formula one for
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: a legitimate reason, even if the reason is I'm doing
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: it because the last bloke didn't have a win. I
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: thought it was but he was cool.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: It's a real pity, isn't it that Elphane dropped the
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: ball at the paperwork again? Did not get that because
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: Jack Dowan was obviously long ago confirmed for as a
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: driver for next year, they should have just got in
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelle, who rocked up late and
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: just said, yeah, I want that number, and.
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: He got it. It's that German efficiency, is what it is. Yeah,
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: well is it?
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: Or is it alphane? Anyway, I'm going to continue by
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: taking three hundred and fifty two points off Toto Wolf.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: Undred fifty two points is the page number of the
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: Inside Mercedes F one book, and I take the points
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: off for claiming, as we mentioned earlier, that the comments
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: he made about Lewis Hamilton were taken out of context,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: despite the fact this was a heavily authorized and surely
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: approved book, that the marketing material would have been approved
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: ahead of time, probably by Toto Wolf himself. I just
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: thought it was rather a little bit silly for him
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: to walk back, try to walk back comments that he knew,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: he knew what he was saying now, probably in a
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: formal interview and everything, trying to walk them back slightly
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: to take some of the heat off. I think the situation,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: particularly as they came the week after probably Lewis's worst
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: race of the year.
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was all a little bit awkward that it's
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: going to shelf lap her outside milk. Yeah yeah, yeah,
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: he can try and explain that one away all his likes,
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: but he put it in print a Mercedes book less
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: Mercedes say his book. All right, I'm joining the negative club.
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, and if you knocked them over, I'm kicking
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: them while I'm down. Oh you hit F one with
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: four million, I'm taking two hundred million off them.
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: Wow, all right, that's huge.
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: I'm taking the anti dilution fee from Formula one for
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: allowing the Andrette entry in now when ten months ago
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: it wouldn't and the project basically hasn't changed. So I'm
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: taking the anti dilution fee from them. It seems quite serious. Actually,
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: now I do this, these are all imaginary points. Keep
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: your mind.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: Yes, they won't have to pay, but.
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's that.
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: Probably end up paying more than that as well, I suspect,
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: because depending on whether or not they're paying the new
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: anti dilution fee after the new Concorde agreement comes to
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: effect or a negotiated fee, I think there are reports
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: from the BBC that it'll be somewhere in the middle.
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've read those as well. I don't see how
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: it could be something in the middle, because you sign
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: up to a Concord agreement. The probably is at the
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: moment they can't sign up. You can't sign up to
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty six because the entries haven't opened. So it
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: can be approved to enter, but it can't actually enter
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: because entries haven't opened for twenty twenty six yet. And
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: part of that also means that the Concord agreement needs
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: to be in Concord agreements. There's not one, there's there's
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: two agreements. There's a regular trend commercial side. That document
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: needs to be in a position to be signed at
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: the moment. We know conversations ongoing. They're going to be
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: resolved reasonably soon. But until that's resolved, they can't, you know,
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: they don't actually know what they're on the hook for.
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: So let's go with what we know, which is the
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: two hundred million dilution fee for the moment, and everyone
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: should count themselves lucky. Then it's not twenty twenty six already,
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: and I've not taken six hundred million off them.
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: Yes, imagine that they'd have no hope at all. And finally,
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: I'm going to take just a minor twenty seven points
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: off the Las Vegas Grand Prix organizers. I know that
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: is technically formula one. Well that's create a difference here
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: and that's for every minute between the end of the
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: race and the podium ceremony, because this year, contrary to expectations,
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: they persisted with that silly car ride to the fountains
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: out the front of the hotel, and it just killed time.
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: I think it kills the vibe, kills a little bit
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: of the like hype of the thing. They didn't even
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, I suppose that you could look at it
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: two ways. At least this time they didn't all stop
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: and look at the fountain like they did last year,
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: so they saved a bit of time, but it still
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: was just some massive delay. Just do the interviews somewhere
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: else like it it's not necessary, or do them after
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: the podium, take them, make it a PostScript. I just
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: thought that was a bit of just I found it
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: to be a bit of a mood killer, But I
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: am pleased. I can't get points with this already done
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: my three and I hadn't thought about this earlier that
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: they did include Max with Staffan and all of it.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: So I do think it's always been quite an awkward
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: and frustrating thing for Formula One when the title winner
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: wins not on the podium. You just don't really see
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: or hear from them for the rest of the night.
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: And I think that's always been underwhelming. Brother, So I'm
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: glad they did that, but god, they could have goodness,
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: they could have done it a little bit quicker.
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. It was a really awkward thing to watch,
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: particularly when you've got Max and GP. You know, you
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: got look, w's a table and then you've got the
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: three other blokes huddled together, you know, without room to
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: swing a cat in there in their car. And then
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: they drove a walking speed like seriously, they could have
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: gotten there. They could have had that by driving twice
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: as fast, and they.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: Should have got managed to drive the other podium finishes
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: would have been good, wouldn't it. I would have been
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: supportive of that.
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: I reckon what the is the thing? What they need
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: is the winner of the support category gets to drive
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: the F one winners to the interviews. But then I think,
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: here we go. We need to get more vegas on this.
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: Just having even walk up to the fountains, that's not
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: good enough. We need some red carpet, we need we
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: need a big line of photographers there. We need to
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: be asking them who they're wearing. These are the questions
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: that aren't being asked. If we're going to do this
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: American style, we're going to do it properly. Let's let's
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: let's turn that into some sort of reality TV show
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: for the chance to be in the support race to
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: drive the winners to that and then have this big
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: long red carpet thing and awards ceremony at the end.
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: There maybe envelopes. I like it. The envelopes a bit
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: of Billy Crystal Rickey Chavas. Let's do this properly, Vegas,
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: stop half asking it.
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: Yees. So well, there you go. I like that a lot.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: Advice for next year. Now, no, no, that is all
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: the time. We have a bit talk today. We'll be
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: back next week to wrap up all the action from
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: the cut out Grand Prix. You can subscribe to bittalk
• 58:47
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• 58:49
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• 58:51
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• 58:53
  Speaker 1: throughout the week and the round at Fox Sports dot
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: com dot Au and Speedcafe dot com. From Matt Cosh
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: me Michael Lomonato. Thanks very much for your company. We'll
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: catch you next week.