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Does F1 need shorter races? Azerbaijan GP Preview · Pit Talk

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannons.
0:03
Speaker 1: On today's episode, if One, CEO Stefano Domenicali moves provocatively
0:08
Speaker 1: several contentious possible changes to the Formula One format and
0:12
Speaker 1: we look ahead to this weekends Azerbaijan Grand Prix and
0:16
Speaker 1: the next chapter of the title Battle. My name is
0:19
Speaker 1: Michael Lomonato. It's great to have your company and the
0:22
Speaker 1: company of my co host. He knows Azerbaijan isn't a
0:26
Speaker 1: European race and it never was.
0:28
Speaker 2: It's Matt Clayton, never was, never will be, Michael, And
0:32
Speaker 2: as I always go back to the European Grand Prix
0:35
Speaker 2: that was there at what twenty sixty or whatever it was,
0:38
Speaker 2: The speeds are higher in the land of Fire. One
0:41
Speaker 2: of the great slogans for any sporting event.
0:44
Speaker 3: It's a resonation with me.
0:46
Speaker 2: More than well done backer at the time because they've
0:48
Speaker 2: gone to such an effort, but good for them, and
0:51
Speaker 2: the speeds will be higher because this is so shud
0:53
Speaker 2: become a really really fun Grand Prix, This one, isn't it.
0:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's generally you can't say categorically about any circuit
1:00
Speaker 1: that it delivers action every weekend just a temper expectations,
1:02
Speaker 1: but this one is a highest strike rate than most,
1:05
Speaker 1: I think, and if nothing else, you're always liable to
1:07
Speaker 1: get something random happen over the course of the weekend,
1:10
Speaker 1: whether it's a crash and qualifying, weird safety car in
1:12
Speaker 1: the race, or a support truck hitting a hoarding over
1:15
Speaker 1: the track untilaying practice by several hours, it's going to
1:19
Speaker 1: happen here in the land of fire. Which I could
1:21
Speaker 1: have comet with a rhyme for that, but look, I'm
1:24
Speaker 1: not as good as them, so I'm happy to accept that.
1:27
Speaker 1: A couple of weeks off between races mad since the
1:30
Speaker 1: Italian Grand Prix, when you have time to decompress from
1:32
Speaker 1: the end of the European season. Eight rounds to go,
1:35
Speaker 1: one third of the championship remaining, still a little bit
1:38
Speaker 1: to go, but it means we're moving on to Azerbaijan.
1:41
Speaker 1: But in the week, a couple of weeks break, I
1:43
Speaker 1: should say. One of the stories that has been doing
1:45
Speaker 1: the rounds is some quotes from F one CEO Stefano Domenicali,
1:49
Speaker 1: who did a long press conference with the Italian media
1:52
Speaker 1: at the Italian Grand Prix in which he's done something
1:55
Speaker 1: he's done a few times before, perhaps a little bit
1:58
Speaker 1: more explicitly this time, and that's raised a variety of ways.
2:02
Speaker 1: He thinks Formula one can refresh itself to make sure
2:05
Speaker 1: it continues to ride this wave of popularity that's taken
2:09
Speaker 1: it to status as from its status as a declining
2:12
Speaker 1: sport a decade or so ago to one that's very
2:14
Speaker 1: much in the public zitegeist. And Matt, I want to
2:17
Speaker 1: run some of them by you. I'm sure you've read them.
2:19
Speaker 1: But the big one, I think, because this was the
2:21
Speaker 1: new one, that's the one he hadn't raised before, is
2:24
Speaker 1: that maybe Grand Prix's well, maybe they're just a bit
2:27
Speaker 1: too long. Maybe attention spans aren't up for ninety minutes,
2:31
Speaker 1: God forbid an hour and a half, and maybe we
2:33
Speaker 1: should shorten races now. Like I said, this is a
2:36
Speaker 1: new idea. He didn't say explicitly wanted to do it,
2:39
Speaker 1: let's be clear, but he certainly let's say round it
2:42
Speaker 1: up the flag pole to He's a phrase and the
2:45
Speaker 1: responses have been interesting.
2:46
Speaker 2: This is a classic DOMINICALI trait in that there'll be
2:50
Speaker 2: a thought bubble that he just projects out there and
2:52
Speaker 2: tests the prevailing wind with these things. It's a bit
2:55
Speaker 2: of a it's something that he's done quite often through
2:57
Speaker 2: his Steward's super the sport. I don't mind as a
3:00
Speaker 2: discussion point because I feel this is like one of
3:02
Speaker 2: those existential questions that every sport seems to ask yourself
3:06
Speaker 2: these days. And you pick a sport that you like,
3:08
Speaker 2: particularly at international one, and there's always this do we
3:12
Speaker 2: need more action in the same amount of time or
3:14
Speaker 2: do we need a shorter amount of time? And quite interestingly,
3:18
Speaker 2: I was thinking about this last week where the NBA
3:21
Speaker 2: was talking about to start it's season and they were
3:23
Speaker 2: talking about it's various viewing platforms this year they go
3:26
Speaker 2: into multiple channels and what have you, and the CEO
3:29
Speaker 2: basically said, well, you know, it's a highlights driven league
3:31
Speaker 2: and people can just watch the highlights.
3:33
Speaker 3: And I thought that's.
3:34
Speaker 2: Kind of interesting because that's kind of where this perhaps starts.
3:36
Speaker 2: But it's interesting to me in that we've talked about
3:41
Speaker 2: this in the context of the calendar getting bigger over time,
3:44
Speaker 2: and there's something about the size of the calendar these
3:47
Speaker 2: days that we understand why it happens for commercial reasons,
3:50
Speaker 2: because there is the interest now that perhaps there wasn't
3:52
Speaker 2: in previous years and everyone's scrambling for a seat at
3:56
Speaker 2: Formula one's table. But when you have a twenty four
3:59
Speaker 2: race calendar, just by sheer percentage of numbers, each individual
4:02
Speaker 2: race is going to lose a little bit of that
4:05
Speaker 2: specialness or that exclusivity that perhaps a sixteen or an
4:10
Speaker 2: eighteen round championship carries. And this is going from you know,
4:13
Speaker 2: when you started in the sport, it was probably about
4:16
Speaker 2: eighteen ish eighteen to twenty and I mean I remember
4:19
Speaker 2: being sixteen when I started. I think it was the
4:21
Speaker 2: absolute maximum and so every race carried far more importance
4:25
Speaker 2: because there were so few of them. And so if
4:28
Speaker 2: you're looking at a ballooned calendar, yes, you're still going
4:31
Speaker 2: to have some crazy races, You're still going to have
4:33
Speaker 2: some unpredictable races. You going to have some boring races,
4:36
Speaker 2: But because it's twenty four of them, it's perhaps we
4:38
Speaker 2: remember the ones more often than we remember the good ones.
4:42
Speaker 2: But in terms of the duration of a race, I'm
4:45
Speaker 2: very much of a certain age and a bit of
4:47
Speaker 2: a purist with these sorts of things. I don't like
4:49
Speaker 2: the dumbing down of a sport that's got as much
4:52
Speaker 2: tradition in history and stakes as this one has simply
4:56
Speaker 2: because you might capture an audience that's slightly interested or
5:00
Speaker 2: slightly interested, or maybe an audience that's not yet interested
5:03
Speaker 2: and will say, well, if this thing's only going to
5:05
Speaker 2: go for fifty five minutes, then maybe.
5:07
Speaker 3: I'll watch it.
5:07
Speaker 4: Yeah.
5:07
Speaker 1: I think that there's I have a couple of problems
5:09
Speaker 1: with this as a concept, not as a principle of
5:12
Speaker 1: trying to attract new audiences, Because any sport that simply
5:15
Speaker 1: accepts that it's doing all right now and we'll do
5:17
Speaker 1: nothing about that, we'll decline again. You know, formulae was
5:20
Speaker 1: more popular and then it declined, and now it's at
5:22
Speaker 1: this unprecedented level of popularity.
5:24
Speaker 4: It can happen. These things can be cyclical.
5:27
Speaker 1: But I don't like and something that really frustrates me
5:29
Speaker 1: about whether it's sports, CEOs or whatever, you get this
5:31
Speaker 1: argument often that younger generations just have shorter attention spans.
5:35
Speaker 1: Because I just don't think that that's an accurate way
5:38
Speaker 1: to sum it up, and then therefore making things shorter
5:40
Speaker 1: is the answer. I mean, if that were the case,
5:42
Speaker 1: people wouldn't go to the movies anymore. People wouldn't binge
5:45
Speaker 1: watch television series anymore, because all of those things last
5:48
Speaker 1: at least ninety minutes, if not much longer. Certainly, consumption
5:52
Speaker 1: habits have changed. Even Fernando Alonso said during a ninety
5:56
Speaker 1: minute football game, we'll get up, and he just said,
5:58
Speaker 1: left it, I'll go to the kitchen. Don't much else
6:00
Speaker 1: going on in his life, I suppose when he's not
6:01
Speaker 1: a grand preacher, other than visiting the kitchen.
6:04
Speaker 4: A great thing to do, I suppose.
6:06
Speaker 1: But the consumptions have changed, and that's fine, and there's
6:09
Speaker 1: no need to chase that in a way that fundamentally
6:12
Speaker 1: alters the core idea of the product, which is proving successful.
6:17
Speaker 1: You know, we shouldn't well, we should be able to
6:20
Speaker 1: experiment and change things. And I think Domnicali has done
6:22
Speaker 1: a great job during his time at the Helm, and
6:25
Speaker 1: even Chase Key before him, of introducing change to a
6:27
Speaker 1: sport that was famously allergic to it. But for me,
6:30
Speaker 1: the ninety minutes or the three hundred and five kilometers
6:33
Speaker 1: as it is for everywhere except Monaco, is sort of
6:35
Speaker 1: what the sport is in the same way that football's
6:37
Speaker 1: to forty five minute halves. And you know, write in
6:40
Speaker 1: your own blanks for all your other sports. Those things
6:43
Speaker 1: are pretty integral. I think, you know, he argued that, well,
6:47
Speaker 1: highlights are doing pretty well for them, and you could
6:49
Speaker 1: argue that that's because the highlights are free and easy
6:52
Speaker 1: to watch. And even I watched the highlights back sometimes,
6:54
Speaker 1: so I don't want to rewatch an entire Grand Prix
6:56
Speaker 1: to see the various flashpoints that happened or whatever. There
6:59
Speaker 1: are lots of reasons, and I know he knows that.
7:00
Speaker 1: Obviously he's not an idiot. He's just saying this in
7:03
Speaker 1: his words to be provocative and, like you say, to
7:07
Speaker 1: get discussion started, which is interesting in itself. But I'm
7:11
Speaker 1: just not convinced that shortening a race is going to
7:13
Speaker 1: do anything to prolong the popularity of the sport.
7:16
Speaker 4: You know that.
7:16
Speaker 1: I think it may even have been Andrea kiman Antonelli
7:19
Speaker 1: who said it. You know, then what are you going
7:21
Speaker 1: to do about strategy, because right now a lot of
7:24
Speaker 1: races could probably be completed with no stops or one stop.
7:28
Speaker 1: Then what are you going to start to make more
7:30
Speaker 1: convoluted rules to ensure that there's some kind of variation
7:33
Speaker 1: in races? I think you get to sell into a
7:36
Speaker 1: lot of problems, and I think as a final point,
7:38
Speaker 1: I mean, we just had the fastest race of all
7:39
Speaker 1: time in Italy and that was a great one. So
7:41
Speaker 1: I'm not convinced sure the races are better.
7:43
Speaker 3: Sure to not necessarily better.
7:44
Speaker 2: And the point that Antonelli makes, which a young guy
7:47
Speaker 2: with a short attention Spanish, very good of him. But
7:50
Speaker 2: the thing he mentions about this it fundamentally changes the
7:53
Speaker 2: way a sport is played or driven in this sense,
7:56
Speaker 2: in that part of the challenge of completing a three
7:58
Speaker 2: hundred and five kilometer pre is the strategic element. There's
8:02
Speaker 2: a driver fitness and commitment and mental strength and ability
8:07
Speaker 2: to process information that is remarkable because it's over three
8:11
Speaker 2: hundred and five kilometers. It takes it out of the
8:14
Speaker 2: realm of what mere mortals could attempt to achieve. Because
8:18
Speaker 2: there's an endurance factor to this sport that goes with
8:21
Speaker 2: all of the stress on the machinery and the stress
8:23
Speaker 2: on the individuals, and this stress on the pit crews
8:26
Speaker 2: and the stress on the strategists. That's part of what
8:29
Speaker 2: makes Formula one what it is. Otherwise we may as
8:31
Speaker 2: well just have like just a wide lap shoot out.
8:33
Speaker 2: Just do that and then it'll be over in five
8:35
Speaker 2: and a half minutes, so we can go back to
8:36
Speaker 2: doing whatever else we do with our lives. But you
8:38
Speaker 2: see my point here. It fundamentally changes the way a
8:41
Speaker 2: sport is played, and that whole less is more thing. Yeah,
8:45
Speaker 2: sure Monza was over in an hour and a quarter.
8:47
Speaker 2: Not a great deal happened, And the only stuff that
8:49
Speaker 2: happened at the end is McLaren couldn't execute a pit stop.
8:52
Speaker 3: Probably, but it wasn't that.
8:54
Speaker 2: We wouldn't be talking about anything but going back to
8:56
Speaker 2: something you picked up before, Formula ones in this unique
8:59
Speaker 2: position where it can and sort of habit's cake and
9:01
Speaker 2: eat it too, because you can keep the purity of
9:04
Speaker 2: a three hundred and five kilometer Grand pre distance. But
9:06
Speaker 2: you've got this other thing called the sprint, which, if
9:09
Speaker 2: you perhaps want to tweak that around the edges, maybe
9:11
Speaker 2: that's where Formula one best captures the attention poor fan base.
9:17
Speaker 2: But it fills with me with the sprint, is that
9:19
Speaker 2: Formula ones never quite always feels like they're apologizing for
9:23
Speaker 2: having them. There's so few of them. They're at random times.
9:27
Speaker 2: There was a gap this year where I reckon. We
9:29
Speaker 2: went eight or nine rounds and then sprint came up
9:32
Speaker 2: and we're, oh, on, there's a springtime. I've almost forgotten
9:34
Speaker 2: these existed, and so it kind of feels that there's
9:37
Speaker 2: a way to better test what it is that they
9:40
Speaker 2: want to try and decide about the way Formula one
9:42
Speaker 2: is presented. It's just they only occasionally use it.
9:44
Speaker 1: Yes, I think that's right, and I think it's funny.
9:48
Speaker 1: The sprint is a funny example. Anywy as well move
9:50
Speaker 1: on to them now, because this is one of the
9:51
Speaker 1: other things he raised, as he inevitably does, because that
9:53
Speaker 1: is the discussion point of the era. In terms of
9:57
Speaker 1: Formula one, format is more or less sprint, But is
10:01
Speaker 1: that idea? It feels a bit as if the sprint
10:03
Speaker 1: experiment has stalled a little bit. We've got a lot
10:06
Speaker 1: of change when it was introduced, and that's fair enough
10:08
Speaker 1: because the first few formats didn't really click, although we
10:11
Speaker 1: did deliver that outstanding twenty twenty one Brazil weekend for
10:14
Speaker 1: Lewis Hamilton I think was the one weekend in which
10:16
Speaker 1: it felt like the sprint was absolutely integral to the spectacle.
10:20
Speaker 1: That took pretty unique circumstances. But nonetheless, now we've got
10:24
Speaker 1: to find that the kind of works is kind of
10:26
Speaker 1: I think we've described it earlier as inoffensive, which is
10:28
Speaker 1: a positive, and I suppose the negative. But now it's
10:31
Speaker 1: the question is where to take it next. The obvious
10:34
Speaker 1: answer would appear to be will more of them, which
10:37
Speaker 1: is something I don't necessarily disagree with, because, as you've
10:40
Speaker 1: sort of alluded to there, when they're so sporadic and infrequent,
10:44
Speaker 1: they don't really have a narrative role to play, even
10:47
Speaker 1: when we talk about the championship. Okay, there's an extra
10:50
Speaker 1: what was it, thirty twenty matts is hard for me.
10:54
Speaker 1: Twenty four points I think available over the last three sprints,
10:58
Speaker 1: which does alter the championship picture like that could be
11:00
Speaker 1: absolutely influential, But because they're so late in the year
11:04
Speaker 1: and it's not really part of the narrative of adjusting
11:06
Speaker 1: to a weekend, it doesn't feel important enough to even
11:11
Speaker 1: warrant in most discussions. Obviously, if it's zero points in
11:14
Speaker 1: the Katar sprint, then we will talk about it. But
11:17
Speaker 1: I see the argument for more sprints, and as Stefanie
11:20
Speaker 1: Deminicarte says, most people seem to be on board of it.
11:22
Speaker 1: He also claims, in a private discussion with Facts has happened,
11:25
Speaker 1: so is Max, which must mean it must happen.
11:28
Speaker 2: The thing I don't like about it at the moment,
11:29
Speaker 2: so what if we got six out of twenty four
11:31
Speaker 2: rounds of sprint rounds, which as a percentage in and
11:33
Speaker 2: of itself is probably too low. I hate when they
11:36
Speaker 2: are in the calendar because if you have a championship
11:40
Speaker 2: fight that's building quite naturally to a nice boil this season,
11:45
Speaker 2: it feels like we're just throwing random elements in here
11:48
Speaker 2: just for the sake of throwing them in. And I mean,
11:50
Speaker 2: obviously you can't predict that when you set the calendar
11:52
Speaker 2: at the start of the season, but to me, there's
11:55
Speaker 2: so few of them that when they're deployed now is
11:57
Speaker 2: almost more offensive than if there'd be more of them,
12:00
Speaker 2: quite frankly, because it feels that you just, you know,
12:02
Speaker 2: let's just throw some banana skins on the track here
12:04
Speaker 2: to trip a few people up in something that in
12:06
Speaker 2: and of itself. The sprints don't really capture the imagination
12:10
Speaker 2: of the participants for the most part. The points are
12:12
Speaker 2: too low, they're too sporadic. Everyone's got a kind of
12:16
Speaker 2: this well, who cares cup about it? And because the
12:20
Speaker 2: format is the same as the Grand Prix itself. There's
12:23
Speaker 2: nothing to differentiate them, so they just become this bit
12:26
Speaker 2: of a like which promoter is willing to open their
12:28
Speaker 2: wallet to pay for one of these things and isn't
12:30
Speaker 2: going to get more people through the doors, And the
12:34
Speaker 2: lack of them at the moment is not a reason
12:36
Speaker 2: to have them. To me, the sweet spot is I'm
12:39
Speaker 2: going to put my two wheel hat on here. With
12:41
Speaker 2: motor GP, Motor GP went from having no sprints in
12:43
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two to having sprints at every single round
12:46
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three, and no one was consultant and
12:49
Speaker 2: by the way, this is just happening. And the thing
12:51
Speaker 2: with motor GP, of course, is that if you have
12:54
Speaker 2: another race start, and particularly because of the way motor
12:57
Speaker 2: GP is race, the potential for injury goes up so
13:00
Speaker 2: much more because you're racing motorbikes, you're not cocoon in
13:03
Speaker 2: a Formula one car. We've had so many people have
13:06
Speaker 2: serious injuries over the past few years with crashes in
13:09
Speaker 2: sprints or even crashes in qualified to set the grid
13:12
Speaker 2: for the sprint. But it's amazing how used to having
13:17
Speaker 2: them every round you get to it's now just part
13:19
Speaker 2: of the furniture, even though it's coming off one qualifying
13:23
Speaker 2: and the sprint bears no really relevance to the way
13:25
Speaker 2: they line up for the Grand Prix. Now it's just
13:27
Speaker 2: become a standard thing in Motor GP, where it's like,
13:29
Speaker 2: oh yeah, this is just part of it now, and
13:31
Speaker 2: so Formula one it's never quite felt natural. It's felt
13:34
Speaker 2: like it's kind of shoehorned in there a little bit.
13:37
Speaker 2: And I'd be curious as to your thoughts I think
13:39
Speaker 2: sprints would be to me. I don't think you'd want
13:42
Speaker 2: to go. Is half the calendar the right number? I mean,
13:45
Speaker 2: a full calendar like Motor GP is clearly not going
13:47
Speaker 2: to happen. But ten to twelve maybe is about the
13:50
Speaker 2: sweet spot. But I think there needs to be something
13:53
Speaker 2: to differentiate them from the actual Grand Prix proper. Now,
13:57
Speaker 2: the points in a sprint for Formula one completely irrelevant
14:00
Speaker 2: in that you're not going to put a robust move
14:02
Speaker 2: on somebody for fifth place in a spread to gain
14:05
Speaker 2: one more championship point for the most part, so they
14:08
Speaker 2: tend to develop into these races of just follow the
14:11
Speaker 2: leader once you get through the first two or three corners.
14:14
Speaker 2: But does there need to be another format. Do we
14:16
Speaker 2: go one shot qualifying? I don't reverse grids seems a
14:20
Speaker 2: little too gimmicky for me, but something like a one
14:22
Speaker 2: shot qualifying format to add something different for us to
14:25
Speaker 2: consume because there is a different race happening, that would
14:28
Speaker 2: help to differentiate it and make it more inverted commas
14:32
Speaker 2: special for the audiences on the weekend that they happen.
14:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's two ways to look at that.
14:36
Speaker 1: There's the specialness element, which is you want them to
14:39
Speaker 1: be noteworthy, not just it's not practice, which I think
14:44
Speaker 1: is look not practice is laudable, agreed, But for it
14:47
Speaker 1: to just be good because it isn't practice, you know,
14:49
Speaker 1: there needs to be a bit more purpose to them.
14:52
Speaker 1: And we're getting a lot of sprints where they sort
14:53
Speaker 1: of feel like they're kind of interesting. We get some
14:55
Speaker 1: interesting races, but they just don't feel they're just they're
14:59
Speaker 1: so dwarfed in Houghton's relative to the Grand Prix that
15:01
Speaker 1: you forget about them almost immediately. Maybe not help Despite
15:05
Speaker 1: us saying that, I think this format feels closest to
15:07
Speaker 1: correct by the fact that at the end of the day,
15:09
Speaker 1: all we want to talk about is qualifying Because they're
15:11
Speaker 1: on the same day as Grand Prix qualifying, and that's
15:13
Speaker 1: more significant because that's going to have a direct impact
15:16
Speaker 1: on how the Grand Prix happens on Sunday, So maybe
15:18
Speaker 1: there is some tweaking there. The number, I do think
15:21
Speaker 1: is important, but not as important as explaining why those
15:26
Speaker 1: tracks are chosen. Right now, we're still technically in the
15:29
Speaker 1: experimental phase. So you choose six, it's based on who's
15:32
Speaker 1: paying for them. Fine, but at a point where yeah,
15:36
Speaker 1: but at a point where where sprints become let's say,
15:40
Speaker 1: integral to the season, regardless of whether or not that's
15:42
Speaker 1: all races, which isn't going to be or a lot,
15:45
Speaker 1: you need you need to be able to predict when
15:47
Speaker 1: they're going to happen. I think that's more the thing
15:49
Speaker 1: right now. It's like, oh, it's a random number of races.
15:51
Speaker 1: Even if we get to twelve, you need to be
15:54
Speaker 1: able to predict, well, this is going to be a
15:55
Speaker 1: spriat Beekend because it's this kind of track, or it's
15:57
Speaker 1: in this time zone or whatever.
15:59
Speaker 4: The reason is.
16:00
Speaker 1: Obviously the braces that aren't going to get them are
16:02
Speaker 1: going to be street tracks, that's obvious. Do you apply
16:04
Speaker 1: them to all tracks that are not street tracks. That
16:07
Speaker 1: might be difficult, but that at least there's like a
16:10
Speaker 1: sense to that, because then I think that the other
16:12
Speaker 1: side of that, I've long argued that Monaco needs a
16:15
Speaker 1: different format that really emphasizes qualifying, because that's the whole
16:17
Speaker 1: point of it. Maybe all street tracks get the street
16:20
Speaker 1: track format, you still end up with the ninety minute
16:23
Speaker 1: Grand Prix, So the fundamentals of the sport we talked
16:25
Speaker 1: about are unchanged, but the build up to that Grand
16:28
Speaker 1: Prix is different. If you're at a permanent track, you
16:30
Speaker 1: get this sprint build up. If you're not, you're at
16:32
Speaker 1: this qualifying build up, or we get to this whether
16:34
Speaker 1: it's a one lap shoot out or whatever, whatever's going
16:36
Speaker 1: to emphasize that. I think that, to me is how
16:39
Speaker 1: you incorporate the sprint into the narrative of the championship,
16:43
Speaker 1: because right now it's not really involved in any way
16:45
Speaker 1: in the narrative of the championship, despite having close to
16:49
Speaker 1: between forty and fifty points available to the winner over
16:51
Speaker 1: the course of all six rounds at the moment. So
16:53
Speaker 1: there's a lot of points in a tight championship like this,
16:56
Speaker 1: But I think there's just got to be something in
16:58
Speaker 1: there that makes it feel more cohesive, And I think
17:01
Speaker 1: part of it is having its own little format, like
17:03
Speaker 1: I like you're saying that that something to differentiate it
17:06
Speaker 1: so it's not just like a mini version of the
17:08
Speaker 1: thing everyone's actually turning up to see on Saturday night
17:10
Speaker 1: and Sunday.
17:12
Speaker 4: Reverse Grids. I'm not convinced.
17:13
Speaker 1: It's another thing that Stefan and DOMINICALI raised, but I
17:16
Speaker 1: would love to see reverse grids without changing the format
17:19
Speaker 1: because I'd love to see everyone tank in Q three
17:21
Speaker 1: to get tenth place.
17:23
Speaker 2: Oh my god, yeah, tell me about that. Talking about
17:26
Speaker 2: the qualifying format, like you're saying about the street tracks,
17:28
Speaker 2: it's a really interesting point watching something like Monaco as
17:33
Speaker 2: one shot qualifying and you can see what they do
17:35
Speaker 2: on the broadcast these days where they have the ghost
17:37
Speaker 2: car that's kind of following the car hand on board,
17:39
Speaker 2: so you can see where the car is relative to
17:42
Speaker 2: the car that set the benchmark time. From a TV
17:45
Speaker 2: production point of view, Litt alone, for all of the
17:47
Speaker 2: teams with their sponsors, you're going to get you at Monaco,
17:51
Speaker 2: You're going to get to see Gabrielle bought a Letto
17:52
Speaker 2: in a saber for two minutes in a nice green
17:55
Speaker 2: car with all those sponsors that you're not going to
17:57
Speaker 2: see otherwise, and you may not see over the course
17:59
Speaker 2: of a I like the idea of perhaps a different
18:02
Speaker 2: format for the street tracks. The only I'm answering my
18:06
Speaker 2: own question here. The only problem with that. Okay, so
18:09
Speaker 2: is Melbourne a street track or a semi permit street circuit?
18:13
Speaker 2: Montreal is the same as clearly a city circuit or
18:16
Speaker 2: a street track. But you've got these ones that are
18:18
Speaker 2: kind of not one nor the other. They're the ones
18:20
Speaker 2: I'm not quite sure, but at the moment it just
18:23
Speaker 2: seems like whoever's got the deepest pockets gets to pay
18:26
Speaker 2: for a sprint race. And quite frankly, there's some tracks
18:28
Speaker 2: towards the end of the season end up having sprint races.
18:30
Speaker 2: I don't want to see more racing there. I'd actually
18:31
Speaker 2: prefer to see less or not.
18:36
Speaker 1: I think that's a good call. And look, if nothing else,
18:40
Speaker 1: the time zone of the Katar sprint is no good.
18:42
Speaker 3: Now.
18:42
Speaker 1: The other problem with this with the I mean, this
18:44
Speaker 1: won't be as big a problem if we institute more
18:47
Speaker 1: sprints and they become part of the story. But you know,
18:49
Speaker 1: it's a double edged sword, backloading them, as the sport
18:51
Speaker 1: clearly has done. On the one hand, you say, well,
18:54
Speaker 1: more points on offer means the title might stay alive longer,
18:57
Speaker 1: but on the other hand, you're also massively increasing the
18:59
Speaker 1: chances At this Brint decides the championship, which is so
19:03
Speaker 1: flat that happened?
19:05
Speaker 3: I think gar wasn't it exactly?
19:07
Speaker 1: Yes, following for Staffan not knowing if he'd won the
19:10
Speaker 1: title in twenty two, just to run of really underwhelming
19:13
Speaker 1: championship deciders. The last thing I want for either Oscar
19:17
Speaker 1: Piastri or Lando Norris is for them to win their
19:20
Speaker 1: first title at the Sprint in cut out. That is,
19:24
Speaker 1: just at least the Grand Prix, but not the.
19:26
Speaker 2: Sprint after one of them has had a mechanical and
19:28
Speaker 2: the other ones come home seventh.
19:30
Speaker 3: You know, we do not need that at all.
19:33
Speaker 4: Let's move on from that.
19:35
Speaker 1: An interesting discussion point, and obviously we'd love to hear
19:37
Speaker 1: on social channels what you think about them, because it's
19:40
Speaker 1: certainly got people talking. But let's move on to Move
19:42
Speaker 1: of the Week, brought to you by Shannon's Only or
19:45
Speaker 1: no not only MotoGP and Supercars in Action over the weekend,
19:49
Speaker 1: MotoGP in I'm not going to use the full title
19:51
Speaker 1: in San Marino, yes, and the Supercars at the Bend
19:57
Speaker 1: for its first in duro of the season. What move
20:01
Speaker 1: caught your imath over this weekend?
20:03
Speaker 2: I'm going to go Moves Plural of the week here
20:06
Speaker 2: simply because we kind of got to see the same
20:09
Speaker 2: race twenty four hours apart at Massano for Moto GP.
20:12
Speaker 2: In that mark Marquees qualified fourth at Massano, his equal
20:16
Speaker 2: season worst qualified by the way fourth on the GrITT
20:18
Speaker 2: he was on the second row. Massano is an interesting
20:21
Speaker 2: track for MotoGP because the run from the start line
20:23
Speaker 2: to turn one is so short. On both days he
20:26
Speaker 2: was in second place by turn one, so he made
20:28
Speaker 2: incredible starts on both days and that move Moves Plural
20:34
Speaker 2: set up two super interesting races where we had Marquees
20:37
Speaker 2: against Marco Betzeki in two consecutive days. Marquees made a
20:41
Speaker 2: move to lead the sprint on the Saturday and then crashed.
20:44
Speaker 2: He also made another move to lead the Grand Prix
20:46
Speaker 2: and just emphasis on, just held off Marco Bezeki on Sunday.
20:50
Speaker 2: None of those two races play out the way they
20:53
Speaker 2: play out without him making absolutely amazing starts from the
20:56
Speaker 2: second row and slotting himself into the seat the place
21:00
Speaker 2: on the track to set up what happened over those
21:02
Speaker 2: next two days. Nail the start both times set up
21:06
Speaker 2: two really interesting tense races, which are quite fun when
21:10
Speaker 2: you just get two guys that are so so evenly matched.
21:12
Speaker 2: It comes down to find details. Without those two moves
21:15
Speaker 2: from Marques, we have a very very different Messano weekend.
21:17
Speaker 2: So that's why I'm going plural for Moves of the week.
21:20
Speaker 2: But I'm wondering where you're going because there's nothing really
21:24
Speaker 2: obvious right now, so I'm hoping that you've come up
21:26
Speaker 2: with something good here.
21:27
Speaker 1: Yes, look, I was obviously plugged into the bend all weekend,
21:31
Speaker 1: but departicularly for the race. Some good moves there, but
21:35
Speaker 1: I couldn't go past this one. Yes, I'm returning to
21:37
Speaker 1: Moto GP. It's Marco Betzeki overtaking the shark with his
21:40
Speaker 1: celebration after the sprint when he rode around with a
21:45
Speaker 1: wooden prosthetic leg, something unforeseen in MotoGP, totally unprecedented, confused
21:51
Speaker 1: everybody involved. His explanation afterwards, which there was an homage
21:55
Speaker 1: to a favorite childhood Italian film of his, did very
21:58
Speaker 1: little to illuminate why this happened this weekend, what it
22:01
Speaker 1: was about. I actually discovered I went to find the
22:05
Speaker 1: speaking of highlights earlier the highlight of this, Oh did
22:07
Speaker 1: you If you type Marcovetzki into Google, the first response
22:11
Speaker 1: is prosthetic leg after his name's it's become defining of
22:16
Speaker 1: him as an athlete after this weekend. I think it
22:20
Speaker 1: is remarkable. There were remarkable scenes, and I can't come
22:23
Speaker 1: past that it's a tenuous fit for Move of the week.
22:25
Speaker 1: But it had to be noted.
22:27
Speaker 2: Wasn't it some thirty year old movie that literally translates
22:31
Speaker 2: to three men and a leg and the plot is
22:34
Speaker 2: three men go around Italy carrying.
22:36
Speaker 3: A false leg.
22:37
Speaker 2: Yes, that's spot on this a This was a movie
22:41
Speaker 2: that existed before you were born. I have so many
22:43
Speaker 2: follow up questions with this that I'm not going to
22:45
Speaker 2: get satisfying answer as for But it was funny how
22:47
Speaker 2: it just became part of the furniture for the course
22:49
Speaker 2: of the weekend because he was doing He took it
22:51
Speaker 2: into the press conference after Sunday, and we're just leaning
22:55
Speaker 2: against it like you'd lean on a crutch or something.
22:57
Speaker 2: While we're having a serious discussion about what happened and
22:59
Speaker 2: the the fact that the leg had an a prilliant
23:01
Speaker 2: race boot on it.
23:02
Speaker 3: I was depressed with that.
23:04
Speaker 2: So yeah, the effort they've got to with the props
23:07
Speaker 2: was commendable, but the exploration was completely baffling.
23:10
Speaker 1: What I want to know, because we're used to seeing
23:12
Speaker 1: after MOTORVP races rough and riders take the flags of
23:15
Speaker 1: either their home country or team or whatever is who
23:19
Speaker 1: prepared the leg? How long did they have it with them?
23:23
Speaker 1: Has this been carried around for multiple races? And what
23:27
Speaker 1: happens to it now? Does this become part of his
23:30
Speaker 1: standard victory celebration?
23:31
Speaker 2: Well, you can't just bring a leg with you every
23:34
Speaker 2: time you go into a Grand Prix because you know,
23:35
Speaker 2: I'm just going through bag check here, So what have
23:37
Speaker 2: you got in there? You can't have you can't have
23:39
Speaker 2: this food, you can't have this and by the way, oh,
23:41
Speaker 2: there's no rules about bringing fake legs in but sure, yeah,
23:44
Speaker 2: and you know we're his mates carting it all around
23:47
Speaker 2: Europe in Casey won there? Does it go on in
23:49
Speaker 2: the flyways with them there? Do we see the leg
23:51
Speaker 2: at Philip Island in Casey wins there? I have so
23:53
Speaker 2: so many questions with this, do we see the leg
23:58
Speaker 2: the line that I never thought of us guessing.
24:01
Speaker 4: For or months. Philip Island is still a little while away.
24:05
Speaker 1: This weekend though, to return attention to forbid one, it
24:08
Speaker 1: is the Azerbaijean Grand Prix, the first of our final
24:12
Speaker 1: third of the season, the flyaways away from Europe, certainly
24:15
Speaker 1: away from Europe, and it's interesting. Obviously in terms of
24:19
Speaker 1: the championship. We've got a small reduction in the lead
24:21
Speaker 1: down to thirty one points between Oscar Piastri and Lando
24:23
Speaker 1: Norris after the team order situation, which we talked about
24:26
Speaker 1: last week, if we missed any of that discussion. But
24:30
Speaker 1: in the context of this championship battle, this is an
24:32
Speaker 1: interesting round because we returned to a race that Oscar
24:35
Speaker 1: won last year and for me, remains his greatest victory. Obviously,
24:39
Speaker 1: only has so many that list will accumulate in future yars.
24:43
Speaker 1: Perhaps there'll be others, but I know it. Even in
24:45
Speaker 1: his brief comments in the McLaren press release identified this
24:48
Speaker 1: as one of his favorite weekends, the favorite of the career.
24:52
Speaker 1: This is It's hard to say for certain, because obviously
24:55
Speaker 1: Lando Norris had a qualifying failure last year, and started
24:58
Speaker 1: the back. But this fields like a good weekend incoming
25:03
Speaker 1: for Osco or potential for him to convert what's been
25:07
Speaker 1: a solid track for him into another little stabilizing result.
25:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, agreed.
25:10
Speaker 2: I think this time last year when he won that race.
25:13
Speaker 2: You know, obviously great for Australian fans and for Pastre
25:16
Speaker 2: that he won it, but it was more than manner
25:17
Speaker 2: and that he won that race and that for the
25:20
Speaker 2: first time I just thought, oh, hang on a minute,
25:22
Speaker 2: this maybe this guy's a little bit better than I
25:25
Speaker 2: thought he is or is going to be. And it's
25:27
Speaker 2: not because I thought he was not going to be
25:28
Speaker 2: a good Grand Prix driver, because you look at the
25:30
Speaker 2: Junior CV and the promise that he had shown. But
25:33
Speaker 2: when you've not done a massive amount of winning in
25:35
Speaker 2: Formula One, to win a race like that, to absorb
25:38
Speaker 2: pressure like he did incredible overtake. It's a track Baku
25:43
Speaker 2: where there's just so much peril that there's so many
25:46
Speaker 2: things waiting to trip you up. There's so many corners
25:49
Speaker 2: that are difficult and a bit odd. There's nowhere really
25:52
Speaker 2: like this on the calendar. So to win with that
25:55
Speaker 2: level of sort of cunning and ruthlessness but also the
25:58
Speaker 2: detached called just keep doing everything right for the length
26:03
Speaker 2: of time that he had to do it. To my mind,
26:05
Speaker 2: that was when he in my estimation of him as
26:07
Speaker 2: a potential Grand Prix winner slash champion of the future.
26:11
Speaker 2: That was a day when I thought, oh, I think
26:12
Speaker 2: I might have to reassess where I think this guy is.
26:14
Speaker 2: Not because I don't think he's any good, but this
26:17
Speaker 2: is a sort of win that you need to be
26:19
Speaker 2: a certain type of driver to win a race like
26:21
Speaker 2: this at a place like this, So I think it's
26:24
Speaker 2: hugely influential for the driver that he's since become. Isn't
26:28
Speaker 2: it amazing that we're talking about I think it was
26:29
Speaker 2: September fifteen last year that he won this race, so
26:31
Speaker 2: it's literally a day over one year since he won
26:34
Speaker 2: that race. How our perceptions of him and his ceiling
26:37
Speaker 2: and what he's done since then in a really really
26:39
Speaker 2: short amount of time. It feels like it's changed massively
26:42
Speaker 2: just since Melbourne at the start of the year. But
26:44
Speaker 2: you go back to last September, you know, the name
26:47
Speaker 2: and the style and everything else is the same, But
26:49
Speaker 2: in terms of what our expectations are now for what
26:52
Speaker 2: he can do it's incredible how much that's changed in
26:54
Speaker 2: twelve months. But it's such a specific track this in
27:00
Speaker 2: that you know, yes, it is a street circuit.
27:02
Speaker 3: We're talking about street circuits.
27:04
Speaker 2: Before it is insanely fast across the waterfront. There it is,
27:08
Speaker 2: you know, it's mods a level, straight line speed, and
27:12
Speaker 2: then you've got other parts of the track where it's
27:14
Speaker 2: the tightest street circuit imaginable. So I do like the
27:17
Speaker 2: fact that you've effectively taken two totally different styles of circuit.
27:21
Speaker 2: And it's a little bit questionable, probably in the first
27:23
Speaker 2: place that Zeno on the calendar, quite frankly, but I
27:26
Speaker 2: love the fact that it is an outlier and there
27:28
Speaker 2: is some peril here and there is nowhere quite like it.
27:31
Speaker 2: And of all of the new circuits and grand prix
27:33
Speaker 2: that have come on the calendar in the past ten years,
27:36
Speaker 2: you'd have to go, you'd have to go a long
27:38
Speaker 2: way towards selling me that this might not be the
27:40
Speaker 2: best of the new additions to a calendar, because so
27:43
Speaker 2: often it throws up really really memorable races, not so
27:46
Speaker 2: much in terms of who wins them, but how we
27:48
Speaker 2: get to those winners. I think last year was no exception.
27:51
Speaker 2: And that's why, you know, you add all the other
27:52
Speaker 2: benefits of this race for the Australian Times out. I
27:55
Speaker 2: think it's a nine pm Sunday start, which is absolutely
27:57
Speaker 2: in the sweet spot. It's one of those races that's
28:00
Speaker 2: not in Asia or on our shores where you cannot
28:03
Speaker 2: wait for this one to happen. It's always a highlight
28:05
Speaker 2: of the year for mine.
28:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, imnagine being in Perth seven pm. That's great.
28:08
Speaker 1: Oh good, better times somebody, which yes, it feels wrong,
28:14
Speaker 1: it is. This for me is the first speaking of
28:17
Speaker 1: sort of new circuits, this was the first trend setter
28:20
Speaker 1: in what I like to describe as the wacky circuits trend,
28:24
Speaker 1: which is we got to be faster, or the corners
28:26
Speaker 1: have to be blinder and more dangerous or whatever. This
28:30
Speaker 1: was the first one and actually, in some senses, compared
28:32
Speaker 1: to attract like Saudi Arabia for example, feels.
28:35
Speaker 4: Quite tame and safe.
28:37
Speaker 1: The Arabia feels pretty Borederlin, You're right, some of this
28:39
Speaker 1: is pretty on the edge. But clearly, you know, after
28:43
Speaker 1: a decade the sports sort of understood it and it's
28:45
Speaker 1: proved to be quite a popular one. And that compromise
28:48
Speaker 1: between traditional street circuit and speedway makes for really interesting results.
28:53
Speaker 1: Tends to throw up some random results. And we also
28:55
Speaker 1: tend to get drivers and we'll talk about Charlocke Thelare
28:56
Speaker 1: in a moment, who tend to do quite well here
28:59
Speaker 1: just because this thing about it that clicks. But you're
29:01
Speaker 1: right about Piastre. What I think it's really interesting is
29:03
Speaker 1: that if you look back at all of last year,
29:05
Speaker 1: we're all we were doing is talking about signs of
29:08
Speaker 1: his potential future greatness, and this year it's just been
29:11
Speaker 1: a total He's exercised all those signs into a complete performance.
29:15
Speaker 1: It's gonna be really interesting to see what he can
29:16
Speaker 1: manage here. Not that he needs necessarily another big points boost,
29:20
Speaker 1: but this is the time last year, quite aside from
29:23
Speaker 1: this win, that he was sort of flexing a bit
29:25
Speaker 1: of muscle relative to Norris, perhaps for the first time.
29:28
Speaker 1: It just come off the European season, which had been
29:30
Speaker 1: the highest scoring driver in the sport, which was its
29:33
Speaker 1: own tick. We can't forget this was the race after
29:35
Speaker 1: Monso where he'd pulled that great move on Norris that
29:38
Speaker 1: caused all sorts of fluster at McLaren, much like there
29:41
Speaker 1: was fluster this time around about whether or not had
29:43
Speaker 1: complied with the rules and this and that. But the
29:45
Speaker 1: aggression and the ruthlessness of the move was illustrative of
29:49
Speaker 1: something that we've really come to understand about him, which
29:51
Speaker 1: is that his ice cold in the car and likewise
29:54
Speaker 1: that dived by mont Charallette Clair to win this race.
29:57
Speaker 1: Never mind the defensive move, I think has come to
30:00
Speaker 1: those signs that we saw last year have been proven
30:02
Speaker 1: to be actually integral to the way he goes about
30:05
Speaker 1: his business, which he's a clean executor. He is ruthless
30:09
Speaker 1: despite for people say about him not ignoring the team
30:11
Speaker 1: or last time out, and those are the things that
30:14
Speaker 1: are underpinning his title campaign this year.
30:16
Speaker 2: It's interesting too in that, and you have to correct
30:18
Speaker 2: me if I'm wrong here. I can't think of another
30:20
Speaker 2: race that we've gone to this year where you're just like, yeah,
30:24
Speaker 2: this guy should absolutely boss this, like he should be
30:27
Speaker 2: the overwhelming favorite because of past history or the fact
30:29
Speaker 2: that the circuit characteristics suit him or his car. This
30:33
Speaker 2: feels like one of those where you mentioned the word
30:35
Speaker 2: flex before. That's what made me think of this. This
30:37
Speaker 2: is one of those places where I think every single
30:39
Speaker 2: person goes into this weekend seeing him as the driver
30:41
Speaker 2: to be, not just because he's top of the championship standings,
30:43
Speaker 2: that's pretty obvious, but it's more the way that he
30:46
Speaker 2: has raced here and won here in the past. You
30:49
Speaker 2: walk that little bit taller if you're Oscar Piastre walking
30:52
Speaker 2: into the Padic this weekend, and I think he will
30:54
Speaker 2: feel that, and I think everyone else will feel that too.
30:57
Speaker 2: And it's not exactly a home races in a home
31:00
Speaker 2: Mo Timezo, It's exactly a home race, but it's one
31:02
Speaker 2: of those ones where you have to come up with
31:05
Speaker 2: a pretty compelling argument as to why someone else might
31:07
Speaker 2: beat him this weekend. And I don't think I felt
31:10
Speaker 2: that at any Grand Prix this year, because it's been
31:12
Speaker 2: so sudden, with the way that he's risen up this
31:14
Speaker 2: year and looked so assured. I don't think we've felt
31:17
Speaker 2: this before. This feels different to me.
31:18
Speaker 4: Yeah.
31:19
Speaker 1: I think the only other race that I can really
31:20
Speaker 1: think of is Lando Norris in Austria, which always feels
31:23
Speaker 1: like one in which he's penciled into. Yep, but I
31:25
Speaker 1: think there's still something. It's the way he's won these races.
31:28
Speaker 1: Norris has dominated in Austria relatively for the years with
31:32
Speaker 1: McLaren had not been in the vision to win them.
31:34
Speaker 1: But it's what we saw from Oscar last year that
31:37
Speaker 1: I think tells us a little bit of something. If
31:39
Speaker 1: there's one driver at a challenge h of course Lando
31:41
Speaker 1: and Norris must be assumed to be in the mix.
31:43
Speaker 1: But at Charlotte Clair, I think most people will be
31:45
Speaker 1: keeping their eye on because he has more pole positions
31:47
Speaker 1: than anyone else here at this track, not very many
31:51
Speaker 1: wins though in fact no wins memory serves, which is remarkable.
31:55
Speaker 3: Story of Charlotte Clair's career.
31:56
Speaker 1: Yes, but he's just one of those drivers. We've talked
31:59
Speaker 1: about it before on the podcast as well, drivers and
32:02
Speaker 1: circuits that just click for some reason at which they
32:05
Speaker 1: find this extra level that they can't really quite explain.
32:08
Speaker 1: This isn't even a track at which Ferraris typically should
32:11
Speaker 1: have been strong at. This isn't a track at which
32:14
Speaker 1: we've ever turned up at during his Ferrari tenure and gone,
32:16
Speaker 1: oh well, this is obviously gonna be Ferrari circuit. Yet
32:18
Speaker 1: he always does well here. Had was the i think
32:21
Speaker 1: it's fair to say, was the quicker driver between him
32:24
Speaker 1: and Pastri last year, but not the better one, it
32:26
Speaker 1: turned out in the incidents of that race. But I mean,
32:30
Speaker 1: must come to this track every year, go when's it
32:32
Speaker 1: going to happen? It's got to happen.
32:33
Speaker 2: Kind of feel that he could say that about a
32:35
Speaker 2: few of them, but this one more than any, I mean,
32:37
Speaker 2: his most successful qualifying track. There's it is a proper
32:41
Speaker 2: driver's track. It's one where tiptoeing that line between risk
32:47
Speaker 2: and reward has far greater consequences because there is a
32:50
Speaker 2: wall waiting to trip you up. There's a very very
32:53
Speaker 2: long breaking zone in a turn one if you get
32:55
Speaker 2: that wrong. There is a wall around a castle that
32:57
Speaker 2: you can hit, which is not something that you can
32:58
Speaker 2: say about other tracks, but to my mind that one
33:01
Speaker 2: of my favorite parts of the Azerbaijarm weekend is watching
33:04
Speaker 2: him through I guess it would be still the second
33:07
Speaker 2: sector of the lap, once they've gone through the ridiculously
33:10
Speaker 2: tight entry to the castle section, when you're going through
33:14
Speaker 2: over the top of the final sector of the track
33:16
Speaker 2: where you dip down again to head back to the harbor,
33:18
Speaker 2: all of those changing direction blind corners. He is absolutely
33:22
Speaker 2: electrifying through there, and that's one of those you almost
33:26
Speaker 2: feel like you need to stand back from the fence
33:28
Speaker 2: a little bit when he's on a qualifying lap because
33:30
Speaker 2: he's on such a tight rope through there. Brilliant to
33:34
Speaker 2: watch and I still think hand On Harte is the
33:37
Speaker 2: best qualifier in the sport, but I think this track
33:39
Speaker 2: accentuates that more than perhaps any.
33:41
Speaker 1: Other any other driver. I really want to bring up
33:43
Speaker 1: before forecasting this race is Max with Stafford of course
33:46
Speaker 1: one in Italy dominated in Italy, the biggest winning margin
33:49
Speaker 1: of the season so far, which is surprise to everybody.
33:52
Speaker 1: Not that he can win a race, but this year's
33:54
Speaker 1: Red Bull could win in that way against this year
33:57
Speaker 1: is McLaren. It was interesting to read some of the
34:00
Speaker 1: comments and hear them speak after the race, and we've
34:02
Speaker 1: written about this at Fox sports dot com dot you
34:04
Speaker 1: this week and the lead up to Azerbaijan. But how
34:06
Speaker 1: the team feels optimistic, not just because it won Monza,
34:09
Speaker 1: which is of course one of the more extreme tracks
34:10
Speaker 1: of the year, even if there are some limited characteristics
34:14
Speaker 1: it shares with Azerbaijan, namely straight line speed, but it's
34:16
Speaker 1: the way Red Bull Racing is now approaching its weekends
34:19
Speaker 1: to try and unlock the performance from this car. Max
34:22
Speaker 1: talked a lot about feeling more comfortable, about being able
34:24
Speaker 1: to more easily discover the right set up for the track,
34:27
Speaker 1: about the engineers working more smoothly. Helbert Marco said it
34:30
Speaker 1: much more explicitly that it's Laura Mechi's and the reading
34:33
Speaker 1: between the lines, the not Christian Horner effect. I think
34:35
Speaker 1: we could probably call it. And they're quietly I mean,
34:38
Speaker 1: and he said it explicitly as well as Helbert Marco
34:40
Speaker 1: that they feel optimistic now that at every track they
34:42
Speaker 1: can contend, not necessarily dominate like in Monza. To even
34:46
Speaker 1: talked about this a little bit further down the road Singapore,
34:48
Speaker 1: a track that Stappens never won out with Red Bull Racing.
34:51
Speaker 1: Memory serves that's what he said anyway, that maybe there
34:54
Speaker 1: they can even compete, which has been a modern day
34:56
Speaker 1: bogie track for the team. It'll be interesting to see
34:59
Speaker 1: how Vstaffan performs this weekend in the context of context
35:04
Speaker 1: of where it Bull is this final third of the campaign.
35:07
Speaker 3: For word response I'm not buying it. I just don't.
35:13
Speaker 2: I'll expand all that slightly. The Monza has become it's
35:18
Speaker 2: the outlier of just about all outliers. It's on the
35:20
Speaker 2: other end of the scale to Monico, but there's nowhere
35:22
Speaker 2: really like Monza, and they went down a setup path
35:27
Speaker 2: at Monso the other week that you know, look, perhaps
35:30
Speaker 2: they might not have gone down under under previous management
35:33
Speaker 2: or whatever it might have been. Perhaps the driver's voice
35:35
Speaker 2: is a little bit louder now that it perhaps was
35:36
Speaker 2: in the past. Brilliant performance and the sort of crushing,
35:40
Speaker 2: dominating win that. I don't think there's any other driver
35:43
Speaker 2: on the grid that can produce races like that. If
35:45
Speaker 2: the cars in the sweet spot, it shares similarities with
35:48
Speaker 2: Bonza backup, sure, and Vastapan is the master at getting
35:52
Speaker 2: more out of a car than perhaps it deserves to
35:55
Speaker 2: be producing. We've seen that this year, where he's won
35:57
Speaker 2: races like Suzuka is the one that comes to mind.
35:58
Speaker 2: There's absolutely no way that anyone else in that car
36:01
Speaker 2: would have won that race. He just was millimeter perfect
36:04
Speaker 2: for fifty three straight laps there at Suzuka. I still
36:08
Speaker 2: think that Red Bull tends to vacillate too much that
36:11
Speaker 2: you could go into a weekend with a massive amount
36:14
Speaker 2: of confidence about the machinery. I don't think we have
36:16
Speaker 2: any questions about the staff, and we know how good
36:18
Speaker 2: he is, and we know how good he is, overachieving
36:21
Speaker 2: in a car that perhaps isn't up to it. I
36:24
Speaker 2: really struggle to see a situation where they're going to
36:26
Speaker 2: be able to replicate what they did in Monds, like
36:28
Speaker 2: I think the tracks are too different. But to take
36:30
Speaker 2: a bit of a the helmet Marco to do the
36:33
Speaker 2: victory lap here, it's like, well, it's all change because
36:35
Speaker 2: the guy that I managed to get rid of after
36:36
Speaker 2: all this time is no longer here and everything's completely fine.
36:39
Speaker 2: There's a wider discussion here about the whole trend of
36:43
Speaker 2: Formula One teams now being run by more technically minded
36:47
Speaker 2: frontmen than commercial or marketing types or big figureheads, you know,
36:50
Speaker 2: with Laurel Mechi's is always coming at everything from a
36:53
Speaker 2: mechanical engineering platform. We've seen that with a number of teams,
36:56
Speaker 2: so there's probably something in that. But to extra appolate
37:00
Speaker 2: that over the reason that we lauded what Verstappen did
37:03
Speaker 2: at Monza because it was an outlier. We didn't expect that,
37:05
Speaker 2: we didn't see it coming expecting that again this weekend. Look,
37:09
Speaker 2: I'm more than happy to be wrong if it thickens
37:11
Speaker 2: the brew at the front of the race, but if
37:13
Speaker 2: I see a challenger to McLaren this weekend, I don't
37:15
Speaker 2: think it's red bull.
37:17
Speaker 1: I think that's a fair call, but it will be
37:18
Speaker 1: interesting to see and find out howmet Mico's explanation. If
37:21
Speaker 1: it doesn't happen afterwards, that's all to come this weekend.
37:25
Speaker 1: Before we wrap up, though, let's check in with the
37:27
Speaker 1: Crystal Ball by complete home filtration. We've got just the
37:31
Speaker 1: Formula one Grand Prix on this weekend in Azerbaijan. Again,
37:35
Speaker 1: a great time, Zoned. What are you predicting.
37:37
Speaker 2: I'm predicting a story that we've seen before because there's
37:39
Speaker 2: proof of concept here. I'm predicting a char La Clare
37:41
Speaker 2: pole and a char Lea Clare not win because he's
37:44
Speaker 2: going to do something absolutely remarkable on Saturday, where we're
37:47
Speaker 2: all going to shake our heads and then probably shake
37:49
Speaker 2: our heads twice wondering why we questioned it. This guy
37:52
Speaker 2: could do this over one lap and then I think
37:54
Speaker 2: he splits the McLaren's in the race. I think he
37:56
Speaker 2: finished a second. I don't know which McLaren comes first,
37:59
Speaker 2: but I can just see the only Charla Clerk would
38:01
Speaker 2: have a record of five poles around a particular circuit
38:04
Speaker 2: and no wins. And I'm sorry, Sharp, but I think
38:06
Speaker 2: that's going to be the way it's going to go.
38:07
Speaker 1: Yes, I think that's fair enough. I was going to
38:10
Speaker 1: controversially pick the opposite though, that he was going to
38:13
Speaker 1: get his first win in Azerbaijan, but without pole position.
38:17
Speaker 1: I think that this is going to be the weekend
38:19
Speaker 1: that breaks us, that breaks the curse he has broken one.
38:23
Speaker 1: Of course, he already broken his Monaco curse that was
38:25
Speaker 1: last year, notably, but I just you know, Ferrari's second
38:29
Speaker 1: in the championship. To take a global view of this
38:31
Speaker 1: second in the championship, it's not decisively so you know
38:34
Speaker 1: McLaren and even Red Bull are still in with a
38:36
Speaker 1: shot of taking that from them. But the only one
38:38
Speaker 1: of the front running teams without a win. It doesn't
38:41
Speaker 1: feel right that they'll finish second without a victory. There's
38:44
Speaker 1: no obvious other contenders this year. I know we do
38:47
Speaker 1: have some wacky tracks coming up were sort of anything
38:49
Speaker 1: can happen. I think Azerbaijan a bit of Leclaire magic.
38:53
Speaker 1: The car can be fast in a straight line. In fact,
38:54
Speaker 1: I think it was the fastest in a straight line
38:56
Speaker 1: in Monzo or at least among the front running cars.
39:00
Speaker 1: Think if anyone can do it, he can do it.
39:01
Speaker 1: In this circumstance, I think he's going to be that
39:04
Speaker 1: one win of the year for Ferrari.
39:06
Speaker 2: That call about them being second in the Constructors without
39:08
Speaker 2: a win, that's a really, really good call.
39:10
Speaker 3: It would be.
39:11
Speaker 2: Almost unprecedented, quite frankly, if they were to be able
39:14
Speaker 2: to hang on to second place and not win a
39:16
Speaker 2: Grand Prix over the course of the year, and then
39:18
Speaker 2: then you go through a process of elimination with the
39:20
Speaker 2: tracks that are left. You combine his talent, that car,
39:24
Speaker 2: this particular race track, maybe this is the most likely
39:27
Speaker 2: chance of them winning a race before the end of
39:28
Speaker 2: the year. Of course, the worst part about that is
39:30
Speaker 2: if they don't win on Sunday, then all the media
39:32
Speaker 2: is going to be like, oh my god, they're not
39:33
Speaker 2: going to win a race. Where are they're going to
39:35
Speaker 2: win a race. It's all doom and glube. So that's
39:37
Speaker 2: one way to shut that particular story off. But the
39:39
Speaker 2: concept of them finishing second in the Constructors and not
39:42
Speaker 2: winning a Grand Prix, yeah, I think that's a very
39:45
Speaker 2: good call For me. I'm not confident. I think I'll
39:47
Speaker 2: go and spend your money down to a rather than
39:49
Speaker 2: my own. But I don't mind it as a concept
39:52
Speaker 2: now that you've brought it up.
39:53
Speaker 1: Well, we will see after this weekend, but that's all
39:55
Speaker 1: the time. We have a pit talk today. You can
39:57
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40:02
Speaker 1: This weekend it is the Formula One as a vi
40:04
Speaker 1: Gian Grand Prix from Baku with lights out at nine
40:07
Speaker 1: pm Eastern Standard Time on Sunday. You can keep up
40:10
Speaker 1: todate with all the latest Formula one, Motor GP and
40:13
Speaker 1: supercars news at foxsports dot com dot au from Matt
40:16
Speaker 1: Clayton and me Michael Lomonado. Thanks very much for your
40:18
Speaker 1: company and we'll catch you next week