Latest / Pit Talk / DJR wins Bathurst boilover, Piastri and Norris tangle in Singapore, and Marquez stays in touch | Shannons Round-up

Transcript

DJR wins Bathurst boilover, Piastri and Norris tangle in Singapore, and Marquez stays in touch | Shannons Round-up · Pit Talk

0:00
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0:17
Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:20
Speaker 3: On today's episode, Brody Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood win the
0:23
Speaker 3: Bathurst 1000 for the second time, and this time for
0:26
Speaker 3: Dick Johnson Racing, after Team 18 bungles its last fuel stop.
0:31
Speaker 3: Max Verstappen wins in Singapore for the first time, while
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Speaker 3: Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri clash in the sprint. And
0:38
Speaker 3: Marco Bettecki wins in Indonesia to help teammate Jorge Martin
0:41
Speaker 3: retain a two-point title lead over Marc Marquez.
0:45
Speaker 2: Ahead of next weekend's Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.
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Speaker 3: My name's Michael Laminato. It's great to have your company
0:50
Speaker 3: and the company of my co-host. He's just filled up
0:53
Speaker 3: his car with fuel. It's Matt Clayton.
0:57
Speaker 4: There's never a bad time to do that, is there,
1:00
Speaker 4: in 2026, Michael? Speaking of fuel, there's one of those
1:03
Speaker 4: weekends where there was so much going on in so
1:06
Speaker 4: many different time zones that I needed like a 36-hour day,
1:10
Speaker 4: not a 24-hour day, just to try and get life
1:13
Speaker 4: in amongst all of the motorsport that was going on. But, yeah,
1:16
Speaker 4: four wheels and two, different parts of the world, day
1:18
Speaker 4: and night. It's one of the bigger weekends of the year. And, yeah,
1:21
Speaker 4: we all need a bit of a contemplative light out afterwards.
1:24
Speaker 4: But there is certainly plenty to discuss, isn't there?
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Speaker 2: Yes.
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Speaker 3: Well, when you have three categories on the weekend, you
1:30
Speaker 3: know there's going to be a lot to discuss. Why
1:32
Speaker 3: don't we start with an old favourite subject of ours,
1:34
Speaker 3: old favourite segment of ours even, expert versus interested, There
1:39
Speaker 3: was only so many hours in a day for us
1:41
Speaker 3: to watch all of this sport. I've been to the
1:43
Speaker 3: Singapore Grand Prix. You've had your eyes on Indonesia. We've
1:46
Speaker 3: both been trying to keep tabs on Bathurst, but we
1:47
Speaker 3: can only do so much with our time. How should
1:50
Speaker 3: we start this one?
1:52
Speaker 1: All right.
1:53
Speaker 4: How about I kick this off here because Bathurst is
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Speaker 4: the one where, I mean, it's the one that attracts
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Speaker 4: the most eyeballs and the most of the public consciousness
1:59
Speaker 4: over the course of the weekend, let's be perfectly honest
2:01
Speaker 4: with respect to F1 and to MotoGP, but I guess
2:05
Speaker 4: if putting you in the expert chair here, I mean,
2:08
Speaker 4: the logical place to start here, I mean, look, the
2:10
Speaker 4: drivers that came up one lap. We needed a 160-lap
2:12
Speaker 4: race for these guys, not 161, for Anton DiBasquale and
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Speaker 4: Lee Holdsworth. I mean, just absolutely heartbreaking watching that thing
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Speaker 4: run out of fuel, going up mountains straight there.
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Speaker 5: How did that happen?
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Speaker 4: Because my understanding was they felt this could be an
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Speaker 4: issue coming into maybe the last 10 laps of the race.
2:29
Speaker 4: But to see it happen on the last lap, I mean,
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Speaker 4: absolute heartbreak for those guys, wasn't it?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, can you imagine the feeling in the garage?
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Speaker 3: We got some television pictures of it, but as the
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Speaker 3: realisation happened, not when they saw the car stop, because
2:42
Speaker 3: of course that was clearly devastation, but the realisation did
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Speaker 3: dawn during that last stint, because of course we heard
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Speaker 3: the messages for fuel saving. That's not super unusual in
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Speaker 3: Bathurst in a competitive race, but obviously we didn't realise
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Speaker 3: until later how aggressively they had to fuel save. So actually,
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Speaker 3: just as we recorded this, Team 18's released a little
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Speaker 3: statement about it. They've done an investigation, of course they have,
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Speaker 3: and I'll read you just the pertinent part of it.
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Speaker 3: The investigation identified an issue with the team's fuel strategy software,
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Speaker 3: which resulted in the final fuel field being less than
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Speaker 3: the amount required to finish the race. The issue has
3:12
Speaker 3: been resolved. This was the team's responsibility. No single individual
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Speaker 3: is to blame and no one is being relieved of
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Speaker 3: their position because of course it wasn't that long ago.
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Speaker 3: We did have some turnover at this team over strategic
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Speaker 3: mistakes at Bathurst.
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Speaker 2: It makes sense.
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Speaker 3: It's sort of what was always probably going to be
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Speaker 3: the conclusion of this, isn't it? Because it wasn't, there
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Speaker 3: didn't appear to be any kind of, finger travel of
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Speaker 3: the kind we sometimes see with refueling, where the hose
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Speaker 3: doesn't go on properly, but you're aiming for a certain
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Speaker 3: time stop. And the baffling part of this, as we
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Speaker 3: heard in commentary, and as anyone would have seen at
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Speaker 3: the time, is that they weren't actually under that much pressure,
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Speaker 3: as little pressure as you can at Bathurst. Anyway, they
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Speaker 3: had a comfortable lead. I think by the time all
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Speaker 3: the pit stops shook out afterwards, they were in the
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Speaker 3: lead by about seven seconds off the top of my head,
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Speaker 3: maybe even 10 seconds. So it clearly wasn't a technical
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Speaker 3: problem or a nerves problem, if you like, in pit lane.
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Speaker 3: It had to have been a calculation issue. Now they've identified...
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Speaker 3: It was in the software, but just heartbreaking. Also, I say,
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Speaker 3: can you imagine what it must have been like as
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Speaker 3: they realized it in the pit lane? Can you imagine
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Speaker 3: what it must have been like when that safety car
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Speaker 3: came out?
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Speaker 2: And then it lasted only two laps.
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Speaker 3: I think they were saying even one more lap may
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Speaker 3: have been enough for him to complete, I don't know what,
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Speaker 3: it's a 6K lap, maybe the last five kilometers. I
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Speaker 3: have to go back and actually measure from exactly where
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Speaker 3: his car stopped and ran out of fuel.
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Speaker 2: Pretty much a whole lap anyway. Just heartbreaking. But this
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Speaker 2: is the thing. I was talking about this the other day.
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Speaker 5: This is.
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Speaker 3: This is obviously not why some people love Bathurst. I
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Speaker 3: think Andrew DiPasquale and Liz Holdworth probably don't love Bathurst
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Speaker 3: for this reason. But it's because there's so many decisions
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Speaker 3: to make in this race. You know, take or leave
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Speaker 3: the fact that it's, well, this was the quickest one ever,
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Speaker 3: wasn't it? Less than six hours. But the length of
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Speaker 3: it is one element. But it's the number of connected
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Speaker 3: decisions teams have to make to win this race that
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Speaker 3: makes it such a high stakes event, makes it the
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Speaker 3: one that everyone wants to win and makes it such
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Speaker 3: a valuable victory. They've proved that it's very easy to
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Speaker 3: get even one small thing wrong and the whole day
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Speaker 3: blows up, like you said.
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Speaker 2: 160 of 161 lands. That's brutal.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely brutal.
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Speaker 4: But of course, on the other side of this, for
5:08
Speaker 4: every pigeon, there needs to be a statue, Michael, or
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Speaker 4: whichever way you would like to spin that analogy. But obviously,
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Speaker 4: Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood, they were the beneficiaries of
5:17
Speaker 4: all of this, of course, because they sweep through to
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Speaker 4: win for the second time, first time for DJR. And
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Speaker 4: they had their own poor pit stop for different reasons, obviously,
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Speaker 4: down to fifth at one point. But In retrospect, does
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Speaker 4: this look like one of those results we probably should
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Speaker 4: have seen coming regardless? Because there is a school of
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Speaker 4: thought that maybe, yeah, maybe that was a little more obvious.
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Speaker 3: Than perhaps we thought. Well, he clearly had the pace. Well,
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Speaker 3: both of them did. They're an expert pairing, aren't they?
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Speaker 3: Having won it together. They were the only combo on
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Speaker 3: the grid that had won it together previously among all
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Speaker 3: of the Bathurst winners there.
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Speaker 2: Albeit for a different team.
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Speaker 3: I think that's what's part of the impressive element of this,
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Speaker 3: that they've translated that to a new team, obviously. But
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Speaker 3: Brodie Gostecki in that final part of the race, having
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Speaker 3: dropped down to fifth after that bungled brake change or
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Speaker 3: the slow brake change, having led pretty comfortably after that
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Speaker 3: was just incredible. And I think it's, It's sort of
6:06
Speaker 3: interesting because he went into the finals campaign. He's been
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Speaker 3: in generally good form this year. He's clearly been a
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Speaker 3: front runner, but there's a little dip just before the Enduro, sorry,
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Speaker 3: not the finals. And, you know, he's always going to
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Speaker 3: be the mix at a place like Bathurst, but you
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Speaker 3: never know if he's peaking at exactly the right time
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Speaker 3: or if it's going to come in those finals races
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Speaker 3: when there's so much focus on, you know, making sure
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Speaker 3: you nail your timing like Chas.
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Speaker 2: Mostert did last year. There was none of that.
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Speaker 3: They absolutely obliterated the field in terms of pace and
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Speaker 3: then found another level in that final chapter to make
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Speaker 3: up ground.
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Speaker 2: Safety car did help, of course. Don't think he would have.
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Speaker 3: Well, it would be interesting, but I don't think he
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Speaker 3: would have won without the safety car. I don't think
6:40
Speaker 3: he had the laps in him. But that just closed
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Speaker 3: him up and then he was able to unleash. And then,
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Speaker 3: of course, the fuel stop drama ensured that he was
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Speaker 3: going to win this Grand Prix. But I just can't
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Speaker 3: think of anything more intimidating, probably at Bathurst, but almost
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Speaker 3: any track than Brodie Kostecki chasing you down. Like, I
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Speaker 3: think he's very much... that character, like the new enforcer
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Speaker 3: of supercars, if you like. Every sport's got one. Every
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Speaker 3: form of motorsport's got that one driver or rider that
7:03
Speaker 3: you never want to see in your mirrors or when
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Speaker 3: you turn your head to see who's chasing you. I
7:07
Speaker 3: think he's the absolute driver in that sense. I don't
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Speaker 3: think there's anyone who comes close to him. So as
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Speaker 3: he was cutting through, I mean, he only passed a
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Speaker 3: couple of cars to get there, but once you could
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Speaker 3: see the pace he had, I think it was a
7:18
Speaker 3: done deal. And the experience counts. I think consistency does
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Speaker 3: count for something at Bathurst because it just smooths over
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Speaker 3: a lot of the decisions that teams can get wrong.
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Speaker 3: And clearly they made the most of that opportunity and
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Speaker 3: they come away a winner a second time.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, that's one of those radio messages when you're told
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Speaker 4: that he's behind you, you sort of double-check, say, can
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Speaker 4: you just say that again, please?
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Speaker 5: Because you kind of know what's coming, if it is.
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Speaker 4: Look, I mentioned before that we probably should have seen
7:41
Speaker 4: the result coming to some degree. Something we probably didn't
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Speaker 4: see coming, Zach Bates and Aaron Seaton started from pole.
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Speaker 4: They were in it the whole day. Where did that
7:50
Speaker 4: come from? Because that's not something we would necessarily have
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Speaker 4: expected from that pairing.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely remarkable.
7:55
Speaker 3: This is one of the great things about Bathurst is
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Speaker 3: that There's obviously a lot of teams and drivers by
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Speaker 3: the time we get to this point of the season
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Speaker 3: who aren't in title contention, who knew they weren't going
8:03
Speaker 3: to be in Sprint Cup contention either pretty early on.
8:05
Speaker 3: And during Cup's a bit of a wildcard event. And
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Speaker 3: so the only thing you've really got to focus on
8:09
Speaker 3: at that point, obviously you want to go out and
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Speaker 3: do well in every race, but you want to then
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Speaker 3: try and win the big one, Bathurst. It's the same
8:15
Speaker 3: value of points as every other weekend, but it's much
8:17
Speaker 3: more challenging. It's a very specific circuit in the context
8:20
Speaker 3: of supercars as well. And Matt Stone Racing here has
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Speaker 3: turned up with a car that was just perfectly honed
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Speaker 3: for these conditions. Also really good for General Motors. I mean,
8:27
Speaker 3: it's been a pretty bruising year for the brand, and
8:30
Speaker 3: they needed someone to step up. I mean, it was
8:31
Speaker 3: very close to, you know, to be fair, it was
8:33
Speaker 3: very close to being Team 18, the homologation team, but
8:35
Speaker 3: they had MSR there the whole way. Topped qualifying, so
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Speaker 3: had Provisional Pole, did Zach Bates, then took the top
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Speaker 3: 10 true down, which is a real surprise.
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Speaker 2: I think it's not that.
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Speaker 3: Unusual to see Provisional Pole go to for want of
8:46
Speaker 3: a better word, a little bit of a wild card entry.
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Speaker 3: But then Provisional Pole just cemented that they really were
8:52
Speaker 3: there on pace.
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Speaker 2: Obviously beat everybody.
8:54
Speaker 3: And then the race, I was actually very impressed because
8:56
Speaker 3: I was expecting, you know, we had a couple of
8:58
Speaker 3: teams and more fancy pairings starting out of position, but
9:01
Speaker 3: they just really held it there at the front, were
9:03
Speaker 3: very cool and collected. Maybe helped by this was not
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Speaker 3: a particularly wild Bathurst ride until the end. No safety cars.
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Speaker 3: The pace was very high, so it'd be a long sprint.
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Speaker 3: So you could just put your head down and get focused.
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Speaker 3: But the pairing also did very well. You know, Aaron
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Speaker 3: Seaton there was, well, really stepped up to the occasion.
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Speaker 3: Probably not surprising. Just want to run you through a
9:22
Speaker 3: couple of these in case anyone hasn't heard them. I mean,
9:24
Speaker 3: Aaron Seaton's case, I mean, it's a name we've known.
9:26
Speaker 3: He's been a wildcard earlier this year. He's been floating
9:28
Speaker 3: around supercars now or circling supercars. He's the son of
9:32
Speaker 3: a two-time supercars champion, Glenn Seaton. He's the grandson of
9:35
Speaker 3: a Bathurst winner, 1965 winner, Barry Seaton. So he's got
9:38
Speaker 3: the pedigree. But then even Zach Bates, you know, he's
9:41
Speaker 3: from motorsport family, practically royalty, really. He's the son of
9:44
Speaker 3: Rick Bates, who's a former supercars driver and a four-time
9:46
Speaker 3: Bathurst 12-hour winner. And he's the nephew of Neil Bates,
9:50
Speaker 3: who's a four-time Australian rally champion. So maybe in retrospect,
9:53
Speaker 3: it's not that surprising that this thing did so well,
9:55
Speaker 3: even if Matt Stone Racing doing so well was a
9:57
Speaker 3: little bit of a change in form this year. I mean,
10:00
Speaker 3: he hasn't finished, has Zach Bates higher than ninth all
10:03
Speaker 3: season or in his career. I mean, this is the
10:05
Speaker 3: first season of his career. So incredible result for him
10:08
Speaker 3: to stand on the Bathurst podium. Huge breakthrough. He was,
10:11
Speaker 3: of course, the triple eight, wildcard entry last year. They
10:14
Speaker 3: were pretty keen on him. He's found a permanent home
10:16
Speaker 3: now in supercars or a full-time home. And big results
10:19
Speaker 3: like this usually lead to big careers. So we'll have
10:22
Speaker 3: to wait and see how that unfolds.
10:24
Speaker 4: Turns out bloodlines are important in this whole motorsport thing,
10:27
Speaker 4: which kind of rules you and I out for any
10:28
Speaker 4: great success in the future. But let's move swiftly along
10:31
Speaker 4: from that. I've got one more on my interested list
10:33
Speaker 4: for Bathurst. Look, Will Brown and Scott Pye, they win
10:36
Speaker 4: the Enduro Cup. Triple Eight's still a bit tricky to read.
10:39
Speaker 4: I mean, Brock Feeney, Nick Perkett, they're kind of nowhere. 11th,
10:42
Speaker 4: pretty miserable weekend all in all. So how does this
10:46
Speaker 4: set us up for finals? Because they were a bit
10:48
Speaker 4: of a disappointment, weren't they?
10:51
Speaker 3: It's really bizarre because we have the Sprint Cup and
10:53
Speaker 3: the Enduro Cup winner who get, I mean, they're already qualified,
10:55
Speaker 3: Brock Feeney and Will Brown. They get bonus points, but they, well,
10:59
Speaker 3: by definition, Brock Feeney was the best performer in the
11:01
Speaker 3: Sprint Cup, obviously, but they're going to enter.
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Speaker 2: The finals in really unusual form, particularly Brock.
11:05
Speaker 3: I mean, Will Brown's probably on the up since they
11:07
Speaker 3: discovered that car problem in time for Ipswich, and obviously,
11:11
Speaker 3: Shody ultimately had the pace in Bathurst, but... They are
11:14
Speaker 3: still a little bit all over the place, and I
11:16
Speaker 3: think that really does open things up.
11:17
Speaker 2: I'd read you the points.
11:18
Speaker 3: Well, they finished second and fourth in the championship in
11:19
Speaker 3: the end, but the points are about to be reset,
11:21
Speaker 3: so the points are not indicative of anything other than
11:23
Speaker 3: their position. But you have to say, look, if we
11:26
Speaker 3: go through the top five, it's Matt Payne, then Brock Feeney, Brodie, Kostecki,
11:29
Speaker 3: Will Brown, and Kai Allen. I mean, I'd say Payne, notwithstanding,
11:32
Speaker 3: a really anonymous weekend for him, although Grove said they
11:35
Speaker 3: had the pace, just didn't end up in the right
11:36
Speaker 3: place at the right time. He's probably still favored, but Brodie,
11:39
Speaker 3: as we've talked about, is clearly coming in in good form.
11:42
Speaker 3: And Kyle and obviously Grove again didn't have a great weekend,
11:44
Speaker 3: but I think he's been in really good form, looked
11:46
Speaker 3: really good at the bend, for example. Cam Waters may
11:49
Speaker 3: be a little bit of a dark horse, but Triple
11:51
Speaker 3: Eight's really hard to want to bet on at this
11:52
Speaker 3: point because they just haven't had no consistency this season. Now,
11:55
Speaker 3: maybe they'll pick at the right time, but this didn't
11:58
Speaker 3: feel like the springboard you would have wanted into the
12:00
Speaker 3: Gold Coast, which is just two weeks from now. And
12:01
Speaker 3: all the finals are separated by two weeks as well.
12:03
Speaker 3: So there's not a lot of thinking time. Triple Eight's
12:05
Speaker 3: needed thinking time this year. That could be a bit
12:08
Speaker 3: of a struggle going into this final part of the
12:10
Speaker 3: title deciding part of the season. Let's go now, though, Matt,
12:15
Speaker 3: to Move of the Week. We've got no shortage of
12:17
Speaker 3: action this weekend, plenty to choose from. Where are you
12:20
Speaker 3: going to take us?
12:22
Speaker 4: Well, I know we're going to talk about F1 Singapore
12:24
Speaker 4: in a minute, but I'm going to slightly jump the
12:26
Speaker 4: gun here. I'm going to do also something very unusual
12:28
Speaker 4: for this segment. I'm actually going to be sensible. This
12:30
Speaker 4: might be the first time. I'm not sure I'm feeling well,
12:33
Speaker 4: but the left viewer has been left.
12:36
Speaker 5: For you this week. I'm going to go.
12:38
Speaker 4: Move of the week, it's more preventing a move or
12:40
Speaker 4: keeping a position, I guess. But I re-watched Max Verstappen's
12:45
Speaker 4: first corner of the Singapore Grand Prix when he held
12:47
Speaker 4: off Charles Leclerc multiple, multiple times because of just how
12:52
Speaker 4: clinical and simplistically brilliant it was. It was something that
12:56
Speaker 4: was very, very hard and the margins were very, very fine.
12:59
Speaker 4: I just loved the way the car control and the
13:03
Speaker 4: aggression that he tipped out on the edge of but
13:05
Speaker 4: didn't go over the top of And it was clean
13:07
Speaker 4: and it was clinical. And it just, look, we don't
13:09
Speaker 4: need a reminder of how good this guy is, but
13:11
Speaker 4: because of the way 2026 has played out and he
13:14
Speaker 4: has been a bit anonymous at times, it was just
13:16
Speaker 4: one of those things that when you see someone doing
13:18
Speaker 4: something really, really good with great pedigree like him, it
13:20
Speaker 4: just kind of makes you smile and go, you know what?
13:23
Speaker 4: I just don't trust too many other drivers to be
13:25
Speaker 4: able to do something as just brutally efficient as that.
13:28
Speaker 4: I really, really enjoyed it before because of it's just
13:31
Speaker 4: this execution, it's precision. It set the race up because
13:34
Speaker 4: we know that Singapore is a race where you can't
13:36
Speaker 4: really pass, which we're going to discuss in the next segment.
13:38
Speaker 4: But I thoroughly enjoyed it. And just a reminder of
13:41
Speaker 4: someone's class and whether it's preventing a move or making
13:44
Speaker 4: a move to keep your position, I'm saying it's my
13:46
Speaker 4: move of the week and I will not be swayed
13:47
Speaker 4: on that.
13:49
Speaker 2: No, I like it.
13:50
Speaker 3: We've named it move of the week for a purpose anyway,
13:52
Speaker 3: mostly to let us talk about things that are a
13:54
Speaker 3: bit on track often.
13:55
Speaker 2: But this case, it certainly qualifies. I think it is
13:57
Speaker 2: a sensible option. And it was so important, wasn't it?
14:00
Speaker 3: Because he'd lost a position at the start of a
14:02
Speaker 3: sprint to George Russell, and he's been lamenting that car's
14:05
Speaker 3: start ability for quite a while. Did the same thing
14:07
Speaker 3: in Malaysia a couple of weeks ago now. So it
14:11
Speaker 3: wasn't just the fact that he had to get a
14:13
Speaker 3: good start in the Grand Prix, but it was the
14:14
Speaker 3: fact that he had to make sure he had a
14:15
Speaker 3: better one than Charles Leclerc.
14:17
Speaker 2: Leclerc, for all.
14:19
Speaker 3: His ability, and I don't think he's bad in wheel-to-wheel racing,
14:22
Speaker 3: but he was always going to be the driver who
14:23
Speaker 3: backed out there, I think. Not least just because it's
14:25
Speaker 3: probably the sensible thing to do anyway. You don't want
14:27
Speaker 3: to crash out on the first lap. In general, when
14:28
Speaker 3: they did think for a little while, at least they
14:31
Speaker 3: had a shot at victory through other means. But I
14:34
Speaker 3: think Verstappen, you know, in his roller decks of drivers
14:37
Speaker 3: who he can push around a little bit. I don't
14:40
Speaker 3: want to say he pushes around Leclerc, but I think
14:42
Speaker 3: he knows that Leclerc is going to be sensible enough
14:43
Speaker 3: to back out. You know, you don't pull that move
14:45
Speaker 3: necessarily on everyone. Lewis would have been interesting if he
14:48
Speaker 3: was in that position. maybe a little bit more so,
14:50
Speaker 3: but I think he judged it perfectly. And as a result,
14:53
Speaker 3: Cruise took a pretty comfortable victory, as I think he
14:54
Speaker 3: probably would have anyway, though, to be honest, even if
14:56
Speaker 3: he'd been behind in second.
14:59
Speaker 2: We will talk about it in Formula 1 in just
15:00
Speaker 2: a second, but let me give you my move of
15:01
Speaker 2: the week.
15:01
Speaker 3: I'm taking us back to Supercars land. Of all the
15:03
Speaker 3: highlights in the race, obviously the Bathurst 1000, I think
15:07
Speaker 3: the best single lap, actually, I should have written down
15:09
Speaker 3: what single lap it was, but it was Will Brown
15:12
Speaker 3: versus Brodie Kostecki for what ultimately ended up being second.
15:15
Speaker 2: It was third place at the time. It was about
15:17
Speaker 2: a full lap, maybe a full lap plus a corner,
15:20
Speaker 2: more or less.
15:21
Speaker 3: Now, Kostecki had better tyres, so he was always going
15:24
Speaker 3: to get past Brown and was also just the quicker
15:26
Speaker 3: car in general.
15:27
Speaker 2: But what I really liked about this was that it
15:29
Speaker 2: was probably over the.
15:31
Speaker 3: I mean, Will Brown did get a bad sportsmanship flag,
15:34
Speaker 3: which maybe should disqualify him from this segment. But what
15:38
Speaker 3: I liked notwithstanding that is that these two drivers get
15:41
Speaker 3: along very well. They've got their own podcast together. They're
15:43
Speaker 3: great mates. And so I think that there's a little
15:47
Speaker 3: bit of gray area you can play in when you
15:48
Speaker 3: know both drivers are on board with bumping in this case,
15:53
Speaker 3: with a little bit of moving in the braking zone.
15:55
Speaker 3: I think because there's probably a little bit less unpredictability
15:57
Speaker 3: between them because they really know what each other are like.
15:59
Speaker 3: So it's not as dangerous as it might be to
16:02
Speaker 3: have two other random drivers. The way Will Brown fought
16:06
Speaker 3: to keep ahead for that one lap in a car
16:08
Speaker 3: that was clearly slower, really clever maneuvering at the first turn. Yes,
16:11
Speaker 3: this is what he got the flag for, I think,
16:13
Speaker 3: but moving in the braking zone, still ended up behind,
16:16
Speaker 3: but then did what you're just about allowed to do
16:18
Speaker 3: in supercars, which is gave Kostecki a little hip and shoulder,
16:21
Speaker 3: slow his momentum, get the side draft up to Griffin's
16:24
Speaker 3: bend to take back the lead, and then couldn't do
16:27
Speaker 3: it for another lap because at some point you've just
16:28
Speaker 3: got to accept that the other car's faster. But it
16:30
Speaker 3: was just such a great lap of racing you could
16:33
Speaker 3: really tell the way they were trying to work each
16:34
Speaker 3: other out and think through what they thought the other
16:36
Speaker 3: driver was going to do and because it's supercars not
16:39
Speaker 3: open wheel racing you can get away with a bit
16:41
Speaker 3: of contact and that just adds a little bit of
16:43
Speaker 3: exercise to it probably the best lap of the race
16:46
Speaker 3: I think notwithstanding again that it did raise the eye
16:48
Speaker 3: of race control but I really liked it.
16:50
Speaker 4: The thing you just mentioned there about knowing your enemy
16:53
Speaker 4: in this situation I'll use air quotes around the word
16:55
Speaker 4: enemy it always makes wheel to wheel stuff in any
16:58
Speaker 4: form of motorsport just that little bit better and Sometimes
17:01
Speaker 4: it can be complete animosity and these two guys absolutely
17:03
Speaker 4: hate each other. But when there's respect or guys who
17:06
Speaker 4: are veterans, I've just literally written about this in the
17:08
Speaker 4: last few days. You remember the Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso,
17:11
Speaker 4: O'Rouge overtake where it was one of those ones where
17:15
Speaker 4: I think I hit by on the couch as Mark
17:16
Speaker 4: lined that one up because you're thinking, oh my God,
17:18
Speaker 4: this is going to be an aeroplane accident. But afterwards,
17:21
Speaker 4: I remember him saying that, well, the reason I did
17:22
Speaker 4: it is I could completely trust and respect the guy
17:24
Speaker 4: that I was doing it with wheel to wheel and
17:26
Speaker 4: you wouldn't do that with several other people. And that
17:29
Speaker 4: sort of falls, you know, this Bathurst one kind of
17:31
Speaker 4: falls into that same category for me. It's better when
17:33
Speaker 4: you know that there's respect and or history between the
17:36
Speaker 4: two combatants. And I do like it, but yeah, the
17:39
Speaker 4: side-by-side stuff that goes on for multiple, multiple corners, particularly
17:43
Speaker 4: when someone is kind of fighting a bit of a
17:45
Speaker 4: losing battle as they were in Brown's case is super fun.
17:47
Speaker 5: Love it.
17:50
Speaker 3: Let's move on now though to Formula One, the Singapore
17:52
Speaker 3: Grand Prix, the final race in Asia for the season,
17:55
Speaker 3: just six rounds probably to go for the year. And
17:58
Speaker 3: this felt a little bit out of the playbook for
18:01
Speaker 3: most of this season, other than the Malaysian Grand Prix,
18:03
Speaker 3: of course, which Max Verstappen also won. But Verstappen won
18:05
Speaker 3: this one. First time he's ever won the Singapore Grand Prix.
18:08
Speaker 3: He did win the sprint as well. And I did
18:09
Speaker 3: enjoy him saying, well, it doesn't really count. I still
18:11
Speaker 3: haven't won the Singapore Grand Prix.
18:12
Speaker 2: And he's right.
18:13
Speaker 3: Same went for pole position as well. But he ticked
18:14
Speaker 3: them all off this weekend. And that is important, not
18:18
Speaker 3: just in the context of his career record book, if
18:21
Speaker 3: you like, but it does feel like a subtle change
18:24
Speaker 3: maybe not so subtle, realignment of the form guide in
18:27
Speaker 3: this final part of the season. Feels very much like
18:29
Speaker 3: last year, in fact. Red Bull Racing did exactly the
18:30
Speaker 3: same thing. A little bit nowhere, a little bit up
18:33
Speaker 3: and down for the first three quarters.
18:35
Speaker 2: Of the season, I guess.
18:36
Speaker 3: Then figured out the car finally. Last year was almost
18:39
Speaker 3: just in time to win the title. This year it's
18:41
Speaker 3: much too late to win the title. But it's certainly
18:43
Speaker 3: not too late to, I think in his words, have
18:45
Speaker 3: fun for the last six rounds. I mean, I could
18:48
Speaker 3: maybe it's too ambitious to say because Mercedes is still
18:51
Speaker 3: obviously a very good car and they're starting to understand
18:52
Speaker 3: that upgrade. But it wouldn't be that surprising to me
18:55
Speaker 3: if he won the vast majority of the final races,
18:57
Speaker 3: because it just looks like the car is in that
19:00
Speaker 3: spot where he can get just enough out of it to, well,
19:03
Speaker 3: as was the case this weekend, and in Malaysia, dominate races.
19:07
Speaker 4: I wrote four words on my notes for this segment.
19:10
Speaker 4: He will finish second. I think he's going to be
19:12
Speaker 4: runner-up in the World Championship to Kimi Antonelli. Yeah, I mean,
19:16
Speaker 4: he's gone from sixth to fourth in one weekend. It's
19:18
Speaker 4: got that feel about it, irrespective of not knowing how
19:21
Speaker 4: many races there are to go, but The funny thing
19:23
Speaker 4: about this is that there's kind of two things for me.
19:26
Speaker 4: It's amazing how it just felt so normal to see
19:28
Speaker 4: Verstappen doing this again. And it's not been like this
19:31
Speaker 4: the entire season. It sort of felt like it had
19:34
Speaker 4: echoes of that 2023 season, of course, when he didn't
19:37
Speaker 4: win in Singapore. It was the only race that Red
19:38
Speaker 4: Bull didn't win that season. But there's just something about
19:42
Speaker 4: this might be more meritorious, I'd say, for Red Bull
19:46
Speaker 4: this season for two reasons in my mind. A, it's
19:48
Speaker 4: a brand new race. regulation set, which we know of
19:51
Speaker 4: all the complexities with that. But this is their first year,
19:54
Speaker 4: as we've talked about multiple times, as a supplier of
19:57
Speaker 4: their own engines. They make their own engines for the
19:58
Speaker 4: first time. It feels they've come back from further to
20:01
Speaker 4: get to this particular spot. And it feels like when
20:04
Speaker 4: it's happened, it's crystallized very quickly and it feels sustainable.
20:08
Speaker 5: And I mean, obviously this year's.
20:09
Speaker 4: World championship is done and dusted, but you don't want
20:12
Speaker 4: to overreact to three races in three weekends where he
20:15
Speaker 4: was about what, half a second from winning all three
20:17
Speaker 4: of them. But it does feel that if you were
20:20
Speaker 4: framing a market for next year's world championship, it'd be
20:24
Speaker 4: pretty hard to go past him because just him and
20:27
Speaker 4: that team. And when he's in this sort of form,
20:29
Speaker 4: there was no, there's never any doubt that he was
20:32
Speaker 4: not going to clean up in Singapore, which is a
20:34
Speaker 4: strange thing to say because he hadn't ticked that box
20:36
Speaker 4: there before, but yeah, You could argue just from how
20:38
Speaker 4: far they've come back from and the fact that this
20:40
Speaker 4: is such a new year for them as well as
20:42
Speaker 4: everybody else within Formula 1. Arguably more impressive, but yeah,
20:46
Speaker 4: he will finish second. I'm saying it right now. You
20:48
Speaker 4: can timestamp this because I'm finding reasons to not put
20:54
Speaker 4: other people in the runner-up place behind Kimi Antonelli for
20:56
Speaker 4: this year's World Championship. And I guess we'll find out
20:58
Speaker 4: in however many races time we have.
21:01
Speaker 3: It's 17 points between Verstappen and George Russell, which is
21:04
Speaker 3: really remarkable. When you just consider not only the car
21:07
Speaker 3: Russell's had. Now, Russell has had a lot of bad luck.
21:09
Speaker 3: I'm not a full subscriber. I'm not a subscriber at
21:11
Speaker 3: all to the idea that luck's cost him the title,
21:13
Speaker 3: but it certainly cost him a lot of points. But
21:15
Speaker 3: it also speaks to how good Verstappen's been, even in
21:18
Speaker 3: those occasions when, for a long time, wasn't even on
21:20
Speaker 3: the podium, and then for a long time wasn't winning.
21:22
Speaker 3: And now that he's really firing, he's done just enough
21:25
Speaker 3: to keep him there. Lewis Hamilton's just ahead of him
21:27
Speaker 3: by eight points overall. I mean, I don't even know
21:30
Speaker 3: how to make a Ferrari. Obviously, Hamilton cost himself quite
21:33
Speaker 3: a few points this weekend by deciding not to pit at.
21:35
Speaker 2: The virtual safety car.
21:36
Speaker 3: A little bit of contention around whether or not he
21:38
Speaker 3: refused or whether or not he missed the pit lane
21:41
Speaker 3: or what happened there. But the long story short is
21:43
Speaker 3: that he didn't pit and, as a result, lost quite
21:45
Speaker 3: a few places. And that might see him demoted to
21:48
Speaker 3: probably at least fourth in the championship.
21:50
Speaker 2: Probably.
21:50
Speaker 3: We've still got quite a few races to go. We'll
21:51
Speaker 3: have to wait and see. But Verstappen, I think, very
21:53
Speaker 3: much is, for me anyway, the favorite and for you, clearly.
21:56
Speaker 3: to finish second in the championship, which would be a
21:58
Speaker 3: remarkable result. And if they can actually keep that going,
22:01
Speaker 3: unlike the way they have in the last couple of
22:02
Speaker 3: years into the following season, then yes, you'd have to
22:04
Speaker 3: be considered a title contender next year. We've got to
22:07
Speaker 3: talk about McLaren. Not a great weekend for them overall
22:10
Speaker 3: in terms of pace. They were the fourth fastest car
22:12
Speaker 3: out there. But in the sprint, of course, they lost
22:15
Speaker 3: a bucket of points. They lost about eight points. On
22:17
Speaker 3: track for nine, scored only one with Lando Norris in
22:19
Speaker 3: eighth after Norris tipped Piastri into a spin.
22:21
Speaker 2: I actually didn't realize until afterwards.
22:22
Speaker 3: Now, Andrea Estella, I can tell you, was very unhappy
22:25
Speaker 3: in the atmosphere at McLaren. It was quite tense. But
22:27
Speaker 3: I didn't realize how close it was in the championship
22:29
Speaker 3: for them. And I think that's certainly part of the reason.
22:31
Speaker 3: They're now only at the end of this weekend seven
22:33
Speaker 3: points ahead of Red Bull Racing to try and hold
22:35
Speaker 3: third place.
22:36
Speaker 2: They're more than 100 points behind Ferrari already.
22:38
Speaker 3: So the idea that they could finish second as the
22:40
Speaker 3: closest Mercedes challenger seems to have faded a little bit.
22:43
Speaker 3: You know, the more I think about the Norris-Piastri clash, okay,
22:47
Speaker 3: in one sense, as it fades into rearview mirror, it
22:48
Speaker 3: seems relatively minor. It's a crash in a sprint and
22:51
Speaker 3: only so many points were available and it wasn't massive
22:54
Speaker 3: argy-bargy afterwards. But this was the biggest coming together or
23:00
Speaker 3: maybe the most consequential in terms of the way it
23:02
Speaker 3: happened in For their entire teammate time together, they had
23:08
Speaker 3: some conflict last year, but nothing as big as this
23:11
Speaker 3: or more to the point, nothing in which a driver,
23:14
Speaker 3: in this case Norris, made such an error of judgment
23:17
Speaker 3: in terms of the context of the battle that was
23:20
Speaker 3: going on. All the drivers have made mistakes, but to
23:22
Speaker 3: make a move like that on the last lap in
23:24
Speaker 3: the wet against your teammate with one point on the
23:26
Speaker 3: line for you and none for the team is exactly
23:29
Speaker 3: the kind of thing the team really thought it had
23:30
Speaker 3: ironed out of them and perhaps hasn't done enough.
23:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, the most interesting thing that's happened in a sprint ever,
23:36
Speaker 4: you could actually argue. So Max just happened to say
23:38
Speaker 4: sprints aren't important.
23:39
Speaker 5: It was important.
23:39
Speaker 4: But you know what's interesting about this one is that
23:42
Speaker 4: it feels that when they had their flashpoints last year,
23:45
Speaker 4: it felt like someone would put their hand up for it.
23:49
Speaker 4: Like the one I'm thinking about is Montreal when Norris
23:52
Speaker 4: ran straight up the back of Piastri and immediately just went,
23:54
Speaker 4: oh boy, that was my bad. And I mean, as
23:58
Speaker 4: much as the commentary was, oh, was Lando alongside Oscar?
24:02
Speaker 5: No, it wasn't. put your union jack down.
24:07
Speaker 4: There was a part of it where Norris's response outshouted
24:13
Speaker 4: the issue itself in that he was just like, well,
24:15
Speaker 4: it's a race, isn't it?
24:15
Speaker 5: I was going for a gap.
24:16
Speaker 4: And we know that 24 hours later, he pulled a
24:19
Speaker 4: lot of that back. And it was interesting to hear
24:21
Speaker 4: some of the radio communication. I mean, you were in
24:23
Speaker 4: the press room there in Singapore, I'm sure, when Lando's
24:26
Speaker 4: on the phone saying, oh, would you like me to
24:27
Speaker 4: drop back and Help Oscar, I was... Yeah, the disingenuous
24:32
Speaker 4: scale was going off here, that's for sure. Look, I mean,
24:36
Speaker 4: it's a bit of an indictment and a bit sad
24:38
Speaker 4: on McLaren's season that it's taken us 17 rounds to
24:41
Speaker 4: even talk about something like this because they haven't really
24:43
Speaker 4: been fighting for a great deal. And the point you
24:46
Speaker 4: made about Andrea Stella probably just doing the sigh, oh,
24:49
Speaker 4: my God, we're having to do this again, are we?
24:51
Speaker 4: When this year they're not even fighting for anything meaningful
24:54
Speaker 4: in the Drivers' and Constructors' Championship. I think the key
24:56
Speaker 4: point you made there... they would have had aspirations to think,
25:00
Speaker 4: all right, you know, we've won the last couple of constructors.
25:02
Speaker 4: If we finish second to Mercedes this year, then that's
25:05
Speaker 4: probably a pass mark. Right now, you would be way more,
25:09
Speaker 4: they feel way more susceptible to losing third to Red
25:12
Speaker 4: Bull than they do to ever catching Ferrari for second.
25:15
Speaker 4: And when you consider where they've been the past couple
25:16
Speaker 4: of years, and obviously with the double crown last year,
25:19
Speaker 4: that is a significant step back. So I think, you know,
25:22
Speaker 4: the fact that it's taken us until Singapore in October
25:24
Speaker 4: to get to a point where they tripped over each other,
25:27
Speaker 4: they would have taken that based on what happened last year,
25:29
Speaker 4: but he's certainly not going to take the reduction in
25:31
Speaker 4: points and how vulnerable they seem now. And something else
25:34
Speaker 4: that Stella said on the weekend that you may be
25:36
Speaker 4: about to tee up, but I'm going to preempt you anyway,
25:38
Speaker 4: was that he, and quite rightly, we've talked about this
25:41
Speaker 4: on the podcast too, the championship form line this year,
25:44
Speaker 4: if you were to plot it on a graph, is
25:45
Speaker 4: all over the place. Because it seems that when teams
25:49
Speaker 4: bring upgrades to races, it's not that you make a
25:52
Speaker 4: small jump, you make a massive jump. And You think
25:54
Speaker 4: that before we went to Azerbaijan, McLaren had come off
25:56
Speaker 4: that good sequence of races, how good they were in Hungary.
25:59
Speaker 4: And it's like, all right, you know, they've really brought
26:01
Speaker 4: a performance gain here. And now Red Bull's come up
26:03
Speaker 4: with its performance gain and they've jumped way ahead. There's
26:07
Speaker 4: no real sort of linear progression of teams rising and falling.
26:11
Speaker 4: It's very abrupt. And you can really make a big
26:14
Speaker 4: gain in a short period of time. And look, I mean,
26:16
Speaker 4: every team is bringing upgrades at this point, but it
26:18
Speaker 4: does feel that McLaren is... on the back foot, but
26:21
Speaker 4: very suddenly on the back foot against a couple of
26:23
Speaker 4: these opponents. And that's probably why Stella was as annoyed
26:27
Speaker 4: as he was about the points lost and the taking
26:31
Speaker 4: away of the focus, I guess, from what should be
26:33
Speaker 4: happening given how many races we have left.
26:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is interesting, the suddenness of it. Like, that's
26:39
Speaker 3: the thing that's caught me off guard by McLaren's Yes. Yes,
26:42
Speaker 3: Red Bull Racing brought an upgrade. There have been a
26:44
Speaker 3: couple of tracks that also just haven't suited the car,
26:46
Speaker 3: including Singapore as well, to be honest.
26:47
Speaker 2: So maybe that's exacerbated things. But Malaysia should have been better.
26:50
Speaker 3: But then everyone seems to have thought that because of
26:52
Speaker 3: the roughness of that track, it was just such a
26:54
Speaker 3: big outlier. So maybe there's been a little bit of
26:57
Speaker 3: an exaggeration there. And Stella on Sunday night in Singapore
27:00
Speaker 3: did seem relatively happy with the car's pace in that context,
27:04
Speaker 3: knowing that these tracks didn't really suit the car. What
27:07
Speaker 3: I did think was interesting, though, was that he said, well, yes,
27:09
Speaker 3: we've got more upgrades coming. They might get us back
27:12
Speaker 3: onto the podium. Certainly, there'll be better tracks for the
27:14
Speaker 3: team coming up, at least the next couple, I suppose.
27:17
Speaker 3: But in terms of victories, they'll have to wait probably
27:20
Speaker 3: till the last couple of races because the upgrades are
27:22
Speaker 3: all now focused on understanding what they need to do
27:25
Speaker 3: for next year's car because the rules are stable. The
27:27
Speaker 3: upgrades can keep coming without compromising next year's project if
27:30
Speaker 3: you're not doing a massive turnaround like Red Bull probably
27:32
Speaker 3: wants to. So it does suggest that there'll be a
27:35
Speaker 3: little bit of, defensive work in terms of the title
27:39
Speaker 3: table required here if they do want to hold third.
27:41
Speaker 3: That said, Red Bull's not bringing any more upgrades. So
27:43
Speaker 3: maybe that does rebalance over the last couple of races
27:46
Speaker 3: as well. Mercedes is obviously underperforming a little bit at
27:49
Speaker 3: the moment, but they felt relatively optimistic by the end
27:51
Speaker 3: of the weekend that they knew where they were going
27:53
Speaker 3: with this upgrade.
27:53
Speaker 2: They'll get three hours of practice as well.
27:55
Speaker 3: In Austin the next weekend to sort of do those
27:57
Speaker 3: final bits and then Ferrari, who knows what to make
28:00
Speaker 3: of Ferrari from week to week. So it's sort of
28:03
Speaker 3: maybe cautious optimism at best from McLaren, but it is
28:06
Speaker 3: a little bit of a complex situation. And the bottom line,
28:08
Speaker 3: I think the Dems, that they really could have used
28:10
Speaker 3: the points that they lost in the sprint one way
28:12
Speaker 3: or another. And before we move on to MotoGP though,
28:15
Speaker 3: let's look at the title picture because Kimi Antonelli, Did
28:18
Speaker 3: what he's increasingly doing. This is like the final phase
28:21
Speaker 3: of his championship challenge, I guess, is to just get
28:24
Speaker 3: good results when the biggest results aren't really available to him.
28:28
Speaker 2: And he did that again.
28:29
Speaker 3: Now, as much as Russell has bad luck and obviously
28:31
Speaker 3: took an engine penalty this weekend, missed what would have
28:33
Speaker 3: been a very convenient VSC for his pit stop that
28:36
Speaker 3: might have ensured he finished seventh for only a couple
28:38
Speaker 3: more points anyway.
28:39
Speaker 2: Antonelli has benefited from some good luck.
28:40
Speaker 3: Obviously, he benefited from the McLaren drivers crashing out, benefited
28:43
Speaker 3: from Norris going off the track trying to fight Hamilton
28:45
Speaker 3: in the final stages of the race, got himself onto
28:48
Speaker 3: the podium. As a result, can win the championship next weekend.
28:53
Speaker 3: It is a little bit against the odds, I suppose.
28:56
Speaker 3: But then again, tell me if this result sounds unusual
28:58
Speaker 3: based on the last couple of weeks.
28:59
Speaker 2: Antonelli wins, maybe.
29:01
Speaker 3: That's probably the most unusual part, actually. Hamilton no higher
29:04
Speaker 3: than fifth, Russell no higher than ninth. I mean, Russell
29:07
Speaker 3: and Hamilton were in those positions in Singapore. It's just
29:09
Speaker 3: a matter of whether or not they're going to win.
29:11
Speaker 3: If it doesn't happen, then it's going to happen in
29:12
Speaker 3: Mexico or it's going to happen via a press release
29:14
Speaker 3: between Austin and Mexico if they cancel one of the
29:17
Speaker 3: last two races, which is one can only assume if
29:20
Speaker 3: they're going to do that, they'll hold off another week
29:22
Speaker 3: just to make sure that doesn't happen.
29:23
Speaker 1: But.
29:24
Speaker 2: We're here. We're at that moment. We're at the moment
29:26
Speaker 2: where everyone's going to get its youngest world champion.
29:28
Speaker 3: It is going to happen in the next, I guess,
29:29
Speaker 3: three weeks from now, almost certainly short of real catastrophe.
29:33
Speaker 3: And he's going to grind it out, not by dominating
29:37
Speaker 3: in the way he did in the middle, in the
29:38
Speaker 3: start of the year, but by um doing those kind
29:41
Speaker 3: of mature races that are indicative of someone who can
29:43
Speaker 3: find that balance between risk and reward and bringing home
29:46
Speaker 3: to car for points.
29:48
Speaker 4: That's the word you just said the word mature he
29:50
Speaker 4: seems with all of the chaos and the tumultuousness of
29:53
Speaker 4: this year It's almost like he's the biggest grown-up in
29:57
Speaker 4: the room, like he's the most adult person in the.
29:59
Speaker 5: Room right now.
29:59
Speaker 4: He's winning a world championship in a way that you
30:01
Speaker 4: would expect a driver six, eight years older to win
30:05
Speaker 4: a world championship. Get a lead, methodically build points, win
30:08
Speaker 4: when you can, take the best results you can when
30:10
Speaker 4: you can't.
30:12
Speaker 5: And there's just an.
30:12
Speaker 4: Inevitability to it. And you have to keep reminding yourself
30:16
Speaker 4: he has not been here before. And he is the
30:18
Speaker 4: age that he is. It's just so, so impressive. And
30:21
Speaker 4: maybe the most impressive part about it is it's predictably
30:23
Speaker 4: impressive at this point. And yeah, whenever he gets this
30:26
Speaker 4: world championship, Austin, Mexico, an email in my inbox at 3.40am.
30:30
Speaker 4: I don't mind when it is because it's very, very deserved.
30:33
Speaker 4: And yeah, Singapore was just one of those drives that
30:35
Speaker 4: sums up why.
30:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was, and, well, only a couple of weeks
30:41
Speaker 3: now until he gets it. I actually enjoyed after the
30:43
Speaker 3: race when he was told, and he seemed genuinely surprised
30:45
Speaker 3: and excited by it. You know, maybe the moment that
30:47
Speaker 3: he was finally allowed to believe it, he's sort of
30:50
Speaker 3: got one hand on it now, certainly. But he also
30:53
Speaker 3: brings great energy to the sport, I think, so it'll
30:54
Speaker 3: be a great moment when he does lift the trophy,
30:56
Speaker 3: as he inevitably will.
30:58
Speaker 2: But I'm interested in what happened elsewhere, not actually.
31:01
Speaker 3: Far from Singapore, really, far in terms of the weird
31:03
Speaker 3: time zone the Singapore Grand Prix has run on, but
31:06
Speaker 3: geographically not so much. The Indonesian Grand Prix, where, well,
31:10
Speaker 3: the Prilia riders went one, two, three, four for the first.
31:13
Speaker 2: Time in their history.
31:15
Speaker 3: But considering everything, how this weekend panned out, was Mark
31:19
Speaker 3: Marquez actually the biggest winner, considering he left Indonesia with
31:22
Speaker 3: the same points deficit he arrived with, just two points,
31:25
Speaker 3: so practically nothing, despite this being, as was certainly evidenced
31:28
Speaker 3: by the time we got to Sunday, the weakest track, well,
31:30
Speaker 3: probably for the rest of the season, right?
31:31
Speaker 1: Yeah.
31:32
Speaker 2: Yeah.
31:33
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, definitely.
31:33
Speaker 4: I mean, this is a classic case of winning from losing.
31:36
Speaker 4: I mean, the fact that Aprilia went one, two, three,
31:38
Speaker 4: four was probably not a surprise. They made a mess
31:41
Speaker 4: of the sprint on the Saturday, but this particular track,
31:44
Speaker 4: the nature of the corners, a lot of the fast
31:46
Speaker 4: flowing corners here are right-handers, which is, you know, for
31:49
Speaker 4: a guy riding with one and a half shoulders as
31:51
Speaker 4: Marquez is this year, he's not, he's not a great
31:54
Speaker 4: result for him. And the Ducati just doesn't work as well.
31:57
Speaker 4: And so yeah, Look, for him to basically... You could
32:02
Speaker 4: have just... There was a lot of sweating going on
32:04
Speaker 4: on a 62-degree track for no points gained or lost
32:07
Speaker 4: in the World Championship. They could have just sat on
32:09
Speaker 4: the beach at the long block for the weekend. But
32:11
Speaker 4: for Marquez to get out of this with the same
32:14
Speaker 4: deficit that he came in after Mateghi is a massive
32:16
Speaker 4: victory for them because there will not be a worse
32:19
Speaker 4: circuit for Ducati the rest of the way and there
32:21
Speaker 4: will not be a circuit where Aprilia's characteristics are enhanced
32:25
Speaker 4: as well as they are.
32:26
Speaker 5: So.
32:27
Speaker 4: He won the sprint, which was because of a few
32:30
Speaker 4: Aprilia-owned goals and a pretty controversial first corner accident.
32:32
Speaker 5: A bit of a surprise.
32:33
Speaker 4: But for him to finish sixth in the Grand Prix
32:36
Speaker 4: and only have a very, very small deficit going into
32:39
Speaker 4: the next round in Australia is a massive win for him.
32:43
Speaker 4: But that said, the fact that we're kind of talking
32:46
Speaker 4: down a little bit, Aprilia has never known success like
32:49
Speaker 4: they have this year before. The fact that they have
32:52
Speaker 4: four riders that annex the first four spots is just
32:55
Speaker 4: not a sentence I expected to be saying about Aprilia
32:57
Speaker 4: and MotoGP ever. And they found numerous ways to sort
33:00
Speaker 4: of trip over themselves a little bit this year, but
33:02
Speaker 4: it is so genuinely impressive that in the last year
33:05
Speaker 4: of a really, really mature rule set that a brand
33:08
Speaker 4: other than Ducati is capable of doing something like this.
33:11
Speaker 4: Hugely commendable, meritorious, hats off to them. However, probably a
33:15
Speaker 4: little bit of a bitter taste because, uh, the rider
33:18
Speaker 4: that you most fear in a world championship fight is
33:20
Speaker 4: no further behind you than when you arrived.
33:25
Speaker 3: Well, let's talk about the winner of this one, who
33:26
Speaker 3: wasn't an Aprilia, Marco Bettecchi, first since round seven in
33:30
Speaker 3: Italy in May.
33:31
Speaker 5: Crazy.
33:31
Speaker 2: A long time ago. He's won in five.
33:34
Speaker 3: Grand Prix this year, which is only one fewer than Marquez,
33:36
Speaker 3: but he's 46 points off the lead with a maximum
33:39
Speaker 3: of 185 to play. Qatar, I don't know, that's a
33:42
Speaker 3: subject for another podcast, I guess, whether that's happening or not.
33:44
Speaker 3: It seems like it probably will at this point, doesn't it?
33:47
Speaker 3: Is he a title contender still? I think we asked
33:49
Speaker 3: about this a couple of weeks ago, didn't we? Mathematically,
33:51
Speaker 3: obviously he is. Or is it now, and this is
33:54
Speaker 3: like the politically interesting situation, isn't it? Is he now
33:56
Speaker 3: in a position where he'll be required to support his teammates'
33:59
Speaker 3: title ambitions, knowing that his teammate is quitting the team
34:03
Speaker 3: and he'll presumably see himself as the team leader for
34:05
Speaker 3: next year?
34:07
Speaker 4: This is the hard one for Aprilia now because I
34:09
Speaker 4: mentioned how good it is that they have had this
34:11
Speaker 4: season and they are leading the world championship at this point.
34:13
Speaker 4: But they're new to this whole, you know, trying to
34:15
Speaker 4: win a world championship business. And this is the conundrum
34:19
Speaker 4: now because, I mean, realistically, the point swing that would
34:24
Speaker 4: have to happen to get Buzzecki really back into championship contention,
34:27
Speaker 4: the swings at this time of year, and I would
34:29
Speaker 4: say also particularly at the end of a rule set
34:32
Speaker 4: where a lot of people have got their eye on
34:34
Speaker 4: 2027 at this point, there's.
34:34
Speaker 5: So many riders leaving.
34:36
Speaker 4: The pool of potential sort of impediments on track to
34:39
Speaker 4: get in the way of Prulia fighting against Marquez are
34:43
Speaker 4: few now. And so as unpalatable as it is in
34:46
Speaker 4: bike racing, I don't know if Jorge Martin by himself
34:52
Speaker 4: with everyone acting independently is going to be able to
34:54
Speaker 4: beat Marc Marquez in a head-to-head championship fight. And that's
34:57
Speaker 4: not just because Marc's won seven of them and Jorge's
34:59
Speaker 4: won just the one of them. Martin's won one Grand
35:02
Speaker 4: Prix this year.
35:03
Speaker 5: It was round.
35:03
Speaker 4: Five in France. It's so long ago now. He's got
35:08
Speaker 4: this lead. He hasn't fluked this lead. It's not that
35:10
Speaker 4: he's undeserving. He's just been remarkably consistent, and he's just
35:14
Speaker 4: been there. But over the course of the weekend in Mandelica,
35:17
Speaker 4: he was the third fastest to Prillia.
35:19
Speaker 5: Really, it was.
35:20
Speaker 4: Raul Fernandez was probably the quickest guy over one lap,
35:22
Speaker 4: and Bozeki obviously won the Grand Prix.
35:24
Speaker 2: And so.
35:25
Speaker 4: are you going to have to start asking other riders
35:28
Speaker 4: to let Martine through? And the curious part about this is,
35:32
Speaker 4: of the other three riders on Aprilia's, Iogura's also leaving.
35:34
Speaker 4: He's going with Martine to the Factory Yamaha team next year.
35:38
Speaker 4: So you've got two riders that are leaving the brand,
35:41
Speaker 4: as you said, Bizecki staying. Are they going to have
35:44
Speaker 4: to sort of pull their resources to beat Marquez, who's
35:47
Speaker 4: kind of on his own there for Ducati, the only
35:50
Speaker 4: other Ducati rider in the top seven mathematically but not
35:53
Speaker 4: realistically in contention for the world title is Fabio Di Gianantonio,
35:56
Speaker 4: whose season's really tailed off a bit. So can Martin
36:00
Speaker 4: beat Marquez by himself with no assistance from his stablemates?
36:04
Speaker 4: I would suggest not. But then there's two factors here.
36:08
Speaker 4: When do you start evoking team orders and suggestions here?
36:11
Speaker 4: I mean, we had two Aprilias take each other out
36:13
Speaker 4: at the start of the sprint on Saturday, so that
36:15
Speaker 4: clearly can't happen again. And because of this uncertain finish
36:18
Speaker 4: line with the season, right? I mean, we could have
36:20
Speaker 4: four rounds to go. We could have five. Obviously, the
36:23
Speaker 4: points situation for Bizecki goes from being probable to almost
36:27
Speaker 4: impossible if you just take a round off the table,
36:29
Speaker 4: because that's 37 points that are off the table all
36:31
Speaker 4: of a sudden. Marquez versus Martin is so close as
36:34
Speaker 4: to be negligible, though. it's not really going to impact
36:37
Speaker 4: their title fight, taking one round off the table. You
36:39
Speaker 4: take one off the table for Bozeki, he's basically out
36:41
Speaker 4: of it. So I wonder if, I wonder which decision
36:44
Speaker 4: comes first. Do they make the team orders decision before
36:46
Speaker 4: we know about Qatar? Or do we make a team
36:49
Speaker 4: orders decision, Qatar notwithstanding, and just stick with it? But
36:51
Speaker 4: it's certainly a conundrum. And Davide Tardozzi at Ducati said
36:55
Speaker 4: on the weekend, and probably stirring a little bit, but
36:57
Speaker 4: he just said, if I was a prunier, I'd have
36:59
Speaker 4: team orders in right now. And he has got a point.
37:02
Speaker 4: Do Caddy know how to win these things? Aprilia don't.
37:05
Speaker 4: So that's going to be the interesting part for me.
37:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I mean, the experience thing is always a
37:09
Speaker 3: fascinating element of a championship. You know, someone has to
37:11
Speaker 3: win a title for the first time and often they
37:13
Speaker 3: have to beat someone who's already done it. And that's
37:15
Speaker 3: what makes it that much more impressive. But from the
37:17
Speaker 3: market's perspective, I mean, he's done it so many times
37:19
Speaker 3: before it is the defending champion, but we know, I mean,
37:23
Speaker 3: the physical limitations, I guess, are at their greatest, not
37:25
Speaker 3: just because obviously the injuries have accumulated, but also because
37:27
Speaker 3: he's just getting older and he's a little bit more
37:29
Speaker 3: beaten up every time he comes off the bike and
37:31
Speaker 3: all that kind of stuff. He's also on an inferior bike,
37:33
Speaker 3: which adds an extra element of the mystique around it.
37:36
Speaker 3: Where would this title rank? I mean, we haven't delved
37:38
Speaker 3: into this too much, considering you don't want to jinx it,
37:40
Speaker 3: I guess, if you're a Marquez fan. But how significant
37:43
Speaker 3: a title win would this one be in the context
37:46
Speaker 3: of his career, if he does pull it over the line?
37:48
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's interesting.
37:49
Speaker 4: In all the championship fights that he's been in, he's
37:51
Speaker 4: won them all. And that's something that's quite foreboding for
37:55
Speaker 4: Aperulio going.
37:55
Speaker 5: Down the stretch here.
37:56
Speaker 4: But I mean, last year was this fantastic redemptive tale
38:00
Speaker 4: of an injury and a decision that he made back
38:02
Speaker 4: in 2020 that put him in such a compromised position
38:04
Speaker 4: physically and Honda and everything that went from there.
38:07
Speaker 5: We know the story.
38:09
Speaker 4: Maybe a title we thought was never going to happen again.
38:12
Speaker 4: This year, I reckon he's way more injured than he's
38:15
Speaker 4: letting on. And he's not going to give anyone any
38:18
Speaker 4: ammunition for this. And he's not going to use it
38:20
Speaker 4: as an excuse. And so there's, you know, you mentioned
38:23
Speaker 4: the intimidation factor before earlier in this podcast. There's just
38:26
Speaker 4: something about him when he has the cards in his
38:29
Speaker 4: hand that makes him formidable. When he's the one fighting
38:33
Speaker 4: from a disadvantageous position, as he is this year, there's
38:36
Speaker 4: more Aprilias in the mix. The bike isn't as good.
38:38
Speaker 4: None of the other Ducatis are anywhere to help him.
38:40
Speaker 4: He's missed two Grand Prix and he's still only two
38:43
Speaker 4: points off the championship lead. So To my mind, I
38:46
Speaker 4: think with all the stuff that's going on behind the scenes,
38:48
Speaker 4: which we'll only ever learn about in retrospect, this would
38:51
Speaker 4: be his least likely and perhaps greatest, most meritorious title
38:55
Speaker 4: if he's able to pull it off. Just because of
38:57
Speaker 4: the age and the injury history and the machinery that
39:00
Speaker 4: he's on. I mean, he should not really be in
39:02
Speaker 4: this championship fight, but because he's Marc Marquez, he is.
39:05
Speaker 4: And I just hope that whether it's four rounds or
39:07
Speaker 4: five rounds, I really want this thing to come down
39:10
Speaker 4: to a final round where You have two very, very
39:13
Speaker 4: feisty combatants going at it at a Spanish track in Valencia.
39:17
Speaker 4: You can just imagine what that joint's going to be
39:19
Speaker 4: like in late November if it comes down to that.
39:22
Speaker 4: And yeah, there's a million reasons for Marquez not to
39:24
Speaker 4: win this world championship, but he only needs one reason
39:26
Speaker 4: to win it. And if I had to put my
39:29
Speaker 4: money down, maybe I'll put yours. money down because it's
39:30
Speaker 4: probably I'm not spending my own at this point but
39:33
Speaker 4: I still think it's going to be Mark but that's
39:35
Speaker 4: mostly just on pedigree and knowing how stubborn he is
39:38
Speaker 4: but one of those rare situations where either would be
39:41
Speaker 4: a worthy winner but you know I'm just cheering for
39:42
Speaker 4: the narrative at this point while we all are.
39:45
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely.
39:46
Speaker 3: There's one more thing I want to ask you before
39:47
Speaker 3: we look forward and then wrap up this podcast. It's
39:51
Speaker 3: my favorite phrase in MotoGP, which is rider declared fit.
39:53
Speaker 3: The most ambiguous, I think. Much more ambiguous than those
39:57
Speaker 3: words should be when they're strung together in that way.
39:59
Speaker 3: Raul Fernandez, in this case, he finished second in the
40:01
Speaker 3: Grand Prix.
40:02
Speaker 2: Good for him. riding with a broken right index.
40:05
Speaker 3: Finger from his sprint crash with Betseki, which meant he
40:08
Speaker 3: was breaking with his middle finger on his right hand
40:10
Speaker 3: for the first time in his life on Sunday. This
40:12
Speaker 3: is the most physically punishing, not just track, but just
40:15
Speaker 3: entire circumstance on the calendar.
40:17
Speaker 2: 62 degrees was the track temperature. I mean, you'd hope
40:20
Speaker 2: he really was fit for this one, wouldn't you? How
40:22
Speaker 2: can this be?
40:23
Speaker 5: Oh, my God.
40:24
Speaker 1: I mean.
40:25
Speaker 4: I love the rider declared fit. Every time it pops up,
40:28
Speaker 4: I instantly think of you and giggle because I know
40:30
Speaker 4: it is one of your favourite sayings. But you could
40:34
Speaker 4: just put this into perspective. So he breaks his right
40:37
Speaker 4: index finger in the accident in the sprint with Bozeki
40:39
Speaker 4: on the Saturday. That's the finger he's used to slow
40:42
Speaker 4: his MotoGP missile down through the entire part of his career.
40:46
Speaker 4: It is wild to think, by the way, that you
40:47
Speaker 4: can stop these things by breaking with one finger, but that.
40:50
Speaker 5: Shows you how good the brakes are on these things.
40:52
Speaker 4: So completely have to relearn how to... just the feeling
40:57
Speaker 4: and the tension in your fingers and use a different
40:59
Speaker 4: finger to break a bike and you get 10 minutes
41:02
Speaker 4: of Sunday warm-up to try this out to see if
41:04
Speaker 4: it's going to work.
41:05
Speaker 5: It's kind of wild in some respects. And the fact that, I.
41:09
Speaker 4: Mean, the strategy was pretty clear in the Grand Prix
41:12
Speaker 4: in that he got the whole shot from pole position
41:14
Speaker 4: and he just tried to clear off at the start because,
41:17
Speaker 4: there was clearly going to come a point where the pain,
41:19
Speaker 4: the effect of the painkillers was going to wear off
41:21
Speaker 4: and the adrenaline can only carry you so far. And
41:23
Speaker 4: when you're being absolutely cooked by a bike on a
41:25
Speaker 4: 62 degree track, there was a point where, you know,
41:29
Speaker 4: you knew that at some point in the 27 laps,
41:31
Speaker 4: he was going to wilt a little bit. And Bizecki
41:33
Speaker 4: just stalked him, bided his time, came past on lap 19.
41:36
Speaker 4: And then you could, you could see Fernandez just go, well,
41:38
Speaker 4: that's done. Then I'm just trying to get this thing
41:40
Speaker 4: to the finish and finish second at this point. But,
41:43
Speaker 4: Just remarkable to make a complete change to your riding
41:48
Speaker 4: style because you've broken a finger and have to deal
41:51
Speaker 4: with it and still finish second. Hugely meritorious, probably not legal, very,
41:56
Speaker 4: very silly, and God, I like motor shipping.
41:59
Speaker 3: Just out of total curiosity, 62 degrees track temperature. You
42:03
Speaker 3: can get a beef steak to medium temperature. Even if
42:06
Speaker 3: you sous vide it at 62 degrees. So there you go.
42:08
Speaker 3: Just thought that was an interesting stat for you. I
42:11
Speaker 3: had to search that one before anyone asked if I
42:12
Speaker 3: knew that off the top of my head. Finally, next race.
42:14
Speaker 3: It's in a couple of weeks. It is the Australian
42:17
Speaker 3: Motorcycle Grand Prix.
42:18
Speaker 2: Phillip Island.
42:18
Speaker 3: Last dance for Phillip Island. We've talked about this quite
42:21
Speaker 3: a few times. And I imagine we're going to talk
42:22
Speaker 3: about it quite a lot over the next fortnight. But
42:25
Speaker 3: why don't you give us a brief setup for this
42:28
Speaker 3: most significant occasion for Australian motorcycling.
42:32
Speaker 4: I'm going one cast iron prediction here. The track will
42:34
Speaker 4: not be 62 degrees of Phillip Island. Hold your stakes.
42:40
Speaker 4: But look, I mean, this is a, the great thing
42:45
Speaker 4: about this particular track is all the tracks that are
42:47
Speaker 4: remaining on the calendar here. This is such a rider's
42:50
Speaker 4: circuit in that, Yeah, the layout should suit Aprilia more
42:53
Speaker 4: than Ducati, but it is one of those rare tracks
42:55
Speaker 4: in MotoGP these days where the rider can genuinely make
42:58
Speaker 4: a difference. And Marcus won there on the best bike,
43:01
Speaker 4: on not the best bike, on races where he's completely
43:04
Speaker 4: balls up the start. He should have won a couple
43:05
Speaker 4: of others, but has crashed in some strange circumstances with Honda.
43:08
Speaker 4: There was that weird year where they had to make
43:10
Speaker 4: the mandatory pit stop because the track was tearing the
43:12
Speaker 4: tyres up and his team couldn't count to nine or
43:15
Speaker 4: ten and he came in a lap late. He's qualified,
43:17
Speaker 4: so there's definite history there, but It's a track where
43:21
Speaker 4: the rider makes a difference. And I think coming here
43:23
Speaker 4: for the last time, it's going to be super emotional
43:27
Speaker 4: for a whole bunch of reasons. This is a track
43:29
Speaker 4: that the riders will unprompted just tell you that is
43:31
Speaker 4: like nowhere else on earth. I mean, you imagine if
43:33
Speaker 4: you've come from somewhere like Spain or Italy and you
43:36
Speaker 4: get plopped onto this little island tacked off the south
43:38
Speaker 4: of Australia, this race track, like what on earth is
43:41
Speaker 4: this thing? You can't create a track like this. It's
43:44
Speaker 4: going to be memorable. It's going to be historic. It's
43:46
Speaker 4: going to be emotional. It's going to be absolutely pivotal
43:49
Speaker 4: in this world championship. And there's always a drama here.
43:54
Speaker 4: Something always happens. And in the context of a super,
43:57
Speaker 4: super tight title fight, the place will be rammed with people.
44:00
Speaker 4: It'll be a massive occasion. let's hope we get a
44:03
Speaker 4: MotoGP race that lives up to the billing that we're
44:07
Speaker 4: giving it. I think we will. And the fact that
44:09
Speaker 4: you had a championship that's so finely poised in the
44:11
Speaker 4: middle of all of that, it is going to be
44:13
Speaker 4: a super, super fun weekend, I think.
44:16
Speaker 3: Well, after the last couple of years, let's hope we
44:17
Speaker 3: get a MotoGP race there. I think sometimes the weather
44:20
Speaker 3: has other plans, but fingers crossed it all goes well
44:22
Speaker 3: for this finale for Phillip Island, at least for now.
44:26
Speaker 3: But that's all the time we have for Pit Talk
44:27
Speaker 3: this week. You can subscribe to Pit Talk wherever you
44:29
Speaker 3: get your favourite podcasts and you can leave us a
44:31
Speaker 3: rating and review as well. This weekend, there's nothing. Nothing
44:34
Speaker 3: that is in our main three categories of motorsport. Anyway,
44:37
Speaker 3: the last such weekend of the entire season, though, I believe,
44:40
Speaker 3: if I'm right. So, you know, embrace it. Go and
44:43
Speaker 3: do your gardening now. Get your seeds planted for spring.
44:46
Speaker 2: Sorry, spring. You probably missed some of them. And get
44:48
Speaker 2: ahead of the curve. But you can keep up.
44:50
Speaker 3: To date with all the latest F1 supercars and MotoGP
44:52
Speaker 3: news in the meanwhile at foxsports.com.au.
44:56
Speaker 2: From Matt Clayton and me, Michael Laminato, thanks very much
44:58
Speaker 2: for your company. We'll catch you next time.