Latest / The Undercut / The Real Reason George Russell Struggles: Inside His Mindset and Confidence Crisis - 2026 Belgian Grand Prix Review

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The Real Reason George Russell Struggles: Inside His Mindset and Confidence Crisis - 2026 Belgian Grand Prix Review · The Undercut

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:08
  Speaker B: Thanks for tuning in to the Undercuts review of the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and enjoy the show. By being a racing driver, you are
• 0:21
  Speaker A: under risk all the time. By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you're no longer a racing driver.
• 0:32
  Speaker B: The Belgian Grand Prix 2026 Spa, as it is called, is in the books. Obviously we will not have it on the calendar for, for next year. So soaking it all in now and after three races of Kimmy not winning, after five races of him winning, he back on the top step and I'm sure, Martin, you were upset. It looked like, you know, maybe Charles had a, had a, had a chance, but in the end it wasn't all that close, was it?
• 1:02
  Speaker A: I mean, I mean, maybe he had a chance. I mean, I'm not gonna lie, when, when Charles came out in, in front, you know, you dare to dream, you know, that something might happen. But I mean, Kimmy was mostly peerless through the whole weekend, really. I find, I find it hard to pick a session or a period of the weekend where he wasn't outperforming everybody, including his teammate on the track and finding the speed when he needed to. Although it seems that Mercedes do have some issues with their car with like deployment, right, and energy deployment. But it's impacting Russell way more than Kimmy, which seems a bit strange. Why is it impacting one car and not the other? I don't know if there's an answer
• 1:47
  Speaker C: to that, but I don't know that they do. I mean, I think that both Kimmy and I think Mercedes had a slightly different deployment strategy for the first lap in that Max got ahead of Antonelli out of, out of La Source Hep in turn number one on lap one, down into Eau Rouge because the Mercedes, knowing how long the straight was, decided they would not use battery in the run down the hill so that they had more straight line at the end of the straight, more speed at the end of the straight to take positions, right? So that's what that transl into Verstappen, taking the lead briefly after the first corner, down into Eruge, but then Antonelli, who I hear they said that he also had some deployment trouble, but the fact that Verstappen ran out of battery halfway down the straight meant that he was actually able to retake the lead on the, you know, going into Lake Homb, which is the end of the Kemmel strait.
• 2:50
  Speaker A: But I mean, I heard that Russell said that he only had like 35% of his battery coming out of Le Source or something like that.
• 2:56
  Speaker C: He was like, he didn't have anything. Like it just didn't deploy. And that's what he was really annoyed about was that he just got swallowed up on the straight. He got into. Was he into second place or into third? But then he just got swallowed up by the Ferraris and that's what put him into the situation where he got tangled up a little bit with Lewis. I don't think it was anyone's fault. It was as a racing incident as much as anyone. I see that you completely agree with me, Martin.
• 3:30
  Speaker A: I didn't have to say it the first.
• 3:32
  Speaker C: No, I totally agree. I know that's going to be your point of view. I know that Mark, if he was here, would be in violent agreement with us. It was like, yeah, they were in the same part of the track on the first lap. They were close together, got a little bit of understeer, not a whole lot, but that was just enough to just tag the back wheel of Georges Mercedes, who to his mind should never have been in that position in the first place because of the deployment issue. He should have been much further down the road. And it just, you know, it's two cars being in the same point on the same, you know, on the second car. Real corner of a. Yeah. Of a race.
• 4:12
  Speaker A: Tires. Yeah, exactly. Like, no, where's your downforce grip or all sort of question marks, you know, cars trying to overtake.
• 4:19
  Speaker C: Outcome rather than the incident.
• 4:22
  Speaker A: Say that again.
• 4:22
  Speaker C: They're ruling on the outcome rather than the incident, which is entirely what they shouldn't be doing and what they say they don't do. Because if they did do that, then why did Charl not get a penalty for the contact with Lando, with Oscar? That is a clearer penalty for me than Lewis on George. And it's not just me being British, Had a great race, but he was at fault that he moved into the breaking zone to shut the door on Oscar, who was already there and in their judgment, the FIA or the stewards or whatever said, oh, he was never going to make the move. Stick around the outside. Well, how do you know
• 5:08
  Speaker B: how many
• 5:09
  Speaker C: times was it a bit later breaking. Exactly. I mean, yes, he was a little behind but he. You have to give him room now. You could squeeze him on the outside, off the track, that you're entitled to do that because Oscar was not ahead. Right. So that's the rules that you're allowed to do. But you've got to give him the opportunity to try and make the late move. You can't just shut him out.
• 5:30
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I going back to Hamilton as with my Ferrari rose tinted glasses on. I feel that maybe he was touched by Russell and that gave Hamilton like destabilized the front of Hamilton's car a little bit. Gave him that little bit of a wobble that he corrected which ultimately ended up pitching him more completely into Russell and that was the end of Russell's race. I don't know.
• 5:53
  Speaker B: I think George had more room on the left.
• 5:56
  Speaker C: No, not that. I mean, you take a few liberties, he takes a hit far than not.
• 6:00
  Speaker A: Let Jason agree with me. Go ahead, Jason.
• 6:02
  Speaker B: I do think that George had a little bit more room on the left that he could have utilized that he didn't have to be so close to Lewis.
• 6:09
  Speaker A: Thank you.
• 6:09
  Speaker B: At the same time, it's lap one like we said, which is why it should be an incident in the first place. And like, you know, you can't make that decision, you know, in that, that amount.
• 6:19
  Speaker C: Yeah, you've got to leave him room. He had room and he had more room. Right?
• 6:24
  Speaker A: Yeah. In the, and in the, in the Mercedes this year and with the current specs and the overtaking that we've seen, you know, early lap squabbles are always going to happen. Right. People are fighting for position, but it's not that critical to be ahead. It's not like we're driving at Monaco every week. Right. You can overtake and Mercedes definitely should be able to look at himi in
• 6:44
  Speaker B: the first three races that he won. Right. He had awful starts in all of those and still won the races.
• 6:50
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. There's still plenty of opportunity to deploy your battery, get your car nice and all the temperatures. Right. And, and make it happen. You know, back when Verstappen's car was dominant, you know, a few years ago, he was winning from wherever on the grid. Right.
• 7:05
  Speaker C: And that was, I mean, at Spa, didn't he win from like 14th or something?
• 7:09
  Speaker A: Yeah, way, way back. Yeah, exactly.
• 7:12
  Speaker C: Farther than that.
• 7:12
  Speaker B: Didn't he win from like 17th one time?
• 7:15
  Speaker C: I think that was in Brazil in the wet and in reality, like Lando had to start from the pit lane and Lance Stroll drove into a gravel trap for just no reason at all and didn't start the race.
• 7:29
  Speaker A: He's large, Stroll. That's the reason. But yeah, so I guess my point is, I mean, these, they're, they're racing drivers. They're always going to fight. They're always going to go for those gaps. They're always going to make it happen. You know, the Ayrton Senate quote comes to mind about going for gaps, but it does seem like it's. It's less important and. Yeah, but it's never not going to happen. I suppose so. But it's got to be GGs for George. Right. Thanks for coming. You know, good effort. Maybe next year.
• 8:00
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 8:01
  Speaker C: I mean, 25 points going into the weekend, which is, you know, if it had been the other way around, they'd be level on points right now. Right. I mean, it's a huge swing, huge hug.
• 8:15
  Speaker A: Yeah. It's hard to say. He's out of it. Out of it completely just because of the sheer number of races that are still left. But the way everything's going, it's just going directly the opposite to what George needs. How is it going to suddenly turn around?
• 8:30
  Speaker B: I mean, you asked why is it only on George's car earlier? But I think it has nothing to do with the car. I think it's completely with what's in his head at the moment. Right now, his head's not working. Right. He's thinking about how he's losing all these points. So he's not working in the car the way he should because he's thinking about the Right.
• 8:48
  Speaker C: Yeah. But when he's looking at the data and he's seeing he's as fast as Kimmy around the corners, just slower on the straight, he's going, what's going on? Why is this? I mean, it's because it's the Algos that drive the deployment based on driving style or whatever. It means that George is running out of power in a different way to Kimmy, who's somehow able to retain more power doing the same thing around the corners. And so he's getting the benefit in the straight, which is the fundamental problem with this engine formula.
• 9:23
  Speaker A: It's. It.
• 9:24
  Speaker C: It is. Because, look, guys, if the racing drivers, they go round corners way faster than anybody else can, Right. And everyone else in the world go, I could probably keep up with them in a straight line. Yeah, you probably would, because you just bury your foot to the floor. And the difference comes in how they go through corners, which they're going as fast as each other around the corners. But the way that they're doing that is determining who gets the reward on the straight, which is just. That's not what this should be about.
• 9:58
  Speaker A: Did you see the quote from. I think it was Verstappen talking about. Yeah, you're going down the straight, you have no battery. Right. So you're running just on the engine. You've probably got 500 horsepower or something, 600 horsepower, which is like a Formula 3 car, but you've got Formula 1 downforce. It's like you're not near any edge. As far as he's concerned.
• 10:24
  Speaker C: Antonelli's lap was four seconds slower than pole last year.
• 10:31
  Speaker A: His pole lap this year. Oh, was it that far down?
• 10:34
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 10:34
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 10:35
  Speaker C: I mean, I know it's a long lap, but that's how. I mean, they're losing 50, 60 kilometers an hour.
• 10:41
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 10:42
  Speaker C: In super clipping, even with these changes. Could you imagine if they'd have not mandated these changes to the deployment and stuff after. After Japan?
• 10:53
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:54
  Speaker C: I mean, the corners are neutered and the straits. Because you're not going fast enough to be on the edge. To your point.
• 11:02
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:03
  Speaker C: And then you're running out of speed into the bus stop and into, you know, down the Kemmel straight.
• 11:09
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 11:10
  Speaker C: It's really annoying.
• 11:12
  Speaker A: Did you see the. The piece about the Mercedes letting up on the. On the accelerator at the end of the qualifying lap, which allow. Allowed the battery to deploy because the accelerator wasn't on. Did you catch this bit of shenanigans? So, I mean, maybe I'm getting. Maybe I'm putting my tinfoil hat on a bit too much here.
• 11:37
  Speaker C: Nothing is weird in this because everything is weird.
• 11:41
  Speaker A: They were saying that as they were coming towards the end of the lap that there's some rules about how the battery's deployed along with the accelerator. But if you are fully off the accelerator, then the battery can deploy more. So I believe that's correct. And then. So they would come off the accelerator just before the end, which would allow them to get a bigger boost from the battery to cross just to get a fraction of a second bonus for the qualifying lap. So you're going across the line with your foot off the accelerator, not buried.
• 12:16
  Speaker C: I've got two memes in my mind right now. One is from the hangover when they're going down the stair down the accelerator. And Zach Bower Phenakis is like, you know, the kind of the weird finds and, you know, mathematical.
• 12:30
  Speaker B: The wolf shirt on.
• 12:31
  Speaker C: Yeah. And the second one being the John C. Reilly fuzzy head.
• 12:37
  Speaker A: The guy turning with his gear. Exactly. But it's all about just over that very short between the end of the lap and the line. How can we get to that bit? How can we traverse that bit the quickest? You wouldn't do it in the race, but just for the quali. And the best way to do it is to accelerate as hard as you can out the corner and then come off the gas completely and allow the battery to deploy to get you across the line or something. That's.
• 13:00
  Speaker C: That's how I trouble comprehending that. Yeah. But it's interesting because, yeah, it's a unique characteristic of Spa that the last corner is the chicane, which is really then right at the back of the grid. So you're going from a very low speed.
• 13:16
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 13:17
  Speaker C: That you can accelerate out.
• 13:20
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 13:20
  Speaker A: I mean, I'll leave it.
• 13:22
  Speaker C: I'll leave it to you and the listeners. Sure.
• 13:24
  Speaker A: Do your own research, as they say online. See if I'm talking absolute rubbish. But, yeah, I saw some videos where they're like, listen to the engine note as he crosses, comes up to the line, it goes down rather than, you know, rising to power towards the line, but, you know, there you go. Take of that, take of that. What you want. I mean, Piastri. Just to add to my point, Piastri did say that he felt a little bit. What does he say? He's like, the algorithms are deciding who wins a little bit when the power comes in, when it doesn't. It's not. We're not driving on our own. We're. We're sort of. There's a. There's another person in the car with us kind of thing. He didn't say that, but, you know, he's talking about. He's not fully in control. There's these algorithms that are in. Involved as well, which he doesn't completely control, which is frustrating.
• 14:10
  Speaker B: The guys that are winning aren't saying this stuff, though.
• 14:13
  Speaker A: Well, yeah, I guess, but why would you. I mean.
• 14:17
  Speaker C: But it doesn't matter.
• 14:19
  Speaker A: Yeah. Kimmy's not saying anything. Yeah. When you're winning, it doesn't matter. Kimmy's are being very quiet, which is very Ferrari. And the. Wow. And what a great weekend from the Ferraris, even though they didn't win. And, you know, I know you set me up saying about how leclerc was there for a second, but, I mean, another masterful, like, stroke on the strategy. Right. Double stacking under the. These. These are the kinds of decisions that we knew Ferrari would get wrong last year or the last few years. And now their strategy and their calls they're making under these VSCs and stuff are working out great for them.
• 14:53
  Speaker C: Yeah. And it's also the fact that it was leclerc coming in first and then Hamilton, but Hamilton had to Serve the five seconds. Well, first of all, well played for not touching the car.
• 15:06
  Speaker A: Right.
• 15:08
  Speaker C: It kind of just takes a little bit of the pressure off from a double stack pit stop because you have just those extra few seconds to make sure that everything's ready and then you go. Although it did look like the gap was like five seconds between them going in and then it was, you know, 10 seconds. So it looked like the. That Lewis did actually lose out a little bit in the pit stop for whatever reason.
• 15:33
  Speaker B: One of his mechanics.
• 15:34
  Speaker C: Oh, because he ran over his mechanic. That's right.
• 15:36
  Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, that's.
• 15:37
  Speaker A: That's why it was somebody, somebody lost out. And then Ferrari just got a fine. Everything's fine.
• 15:50
  Speaker C: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. I didn't have that in my notes. Yeah, he. And then he came on, the audio said, did we put any front wing one? It's like, no, you ran over the guy that was doing that because he was late.
• 16:01
  Speaker B: To be fair, though, the dude was coming in late and the light went on. Right?
• 16:05
  Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. So for what I was just saying about how you got a little bit extra time, not that guy.
• 16:11
  Speaker A: I mean, there has to be a mistake. Again, I'm, again, I'm going like, this is just a rules question, which I kind of know the answer to this already, but I'm guessing if you have to serve a five second penalty and you're double stacking and say, say Hamilton was closer and he was sitting outside of the pit box behind leclerc waiting to pull in, that stationary period would not count. You have to serve your penalty like in your pit box, Right?
• 16:38
  Speaker C: Yeah, you can't. And in that scenario, you'd let Leclerc passed going in or no, but you couldn't because it's a yellow flag. So you're not allowed to pass. You just have to.
• 16:51
  Speaker A: You just have to suck it up.
• 16:51
  Speaker C: You just have to suck it up.
• 16:52
  Speaker A: You just can't. You can't get the five. You can't serve the five second penalty waiting behind your pit box as they serve leclerc's car and then pull in and they go immediately.
• 17:01
  Speaker C: Well, you're not allowed to pass. So could you. You just have to go through your pit box and then they wheel you back.
• 17:06
  Speaker A: Oh, I mean, if it's possible they've thought about all these things already, we're not going to come up with a solution.
• 17:15
  Speaker C: It just occurred to me, we're clever people. We're just as smart as them.
• 17:21
  Speaker A: You can't stop anywhere on the track and serve your 10 second penalty stationary and then start up again.
• 17:28
  Speaker B: This place looks good.
• 17:29
  Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. I'll just park on the corner of La Source and wait five seconds.
• 17:34
  Speaker C: It's like working on the cell phone lot when you're picking your wife up from the airport, you know.
• 17:39
  Speaker A: Yeah, exactly, exact. Well, but I mean, Hamilton had great, great speed, as did Leca. But not the straights, I mean against Le Kimmy anyway, were where they were, they were way down. So it was kind of just a matter of time that Kimmy was going to get him back when he came out behind him. But good play to well played Ferrari, I say.
• 17:59
  Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, leclerc kept the lead for a good amount of time, but it was never really in any doubt. I mean, Kimmy did a really measured professional job of just reeling him in slowly, not ruining the tyres because he knew that he had the pace to do the business and, you know, he just worked it over and then what was it like? 2, 2 seconds he got by, he got 2 second lead at the end. So just a very mature, I think, performance from Kimmy and a good one from, from leclerc. Verstappen rounding out the podium. Solid race.
• 18:33
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean it looked another, another bad pit stop scenario. It looked like Lando had a good shot of coming up and maybe even challenging for that podium until he had the almost 8 second pit stop with the wheel not coming off and then not going on and all that. But I mean, all that considered, he still, I don't remember where he finished, but he finished seventh pretty decent for with all that went on and him having the 10 grid spot penalty really fast.
• 19:03
  Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, two guys had the grid, the grid penalties, him and Hajar. Word about, obviously Hajar knew he was going to be starting at the back of the grid, so in qualifying really worked as a great team teammate to Verstappen giving him a really good toe. I mean, from, from the outside it looked like we're super close, but they timed actually perfectly and that probably picked up, you know, a couple of tenths on Verstappen's qualifying lap in Q3, which put him on the front row. I mean, I don't quite know where he would have finished in where he would have started, let's put it that way, if it wasn't for that. But, you know, great job by, you know, by Hajar as the teammate to get Verstappen into a situation where ultimately that gave them the podium. That's probably the difference between the podium and not starting from the back to finish sixth on the part of Hajar, really great race, I think for him. One of the drivers of the day. Understated, but just really, really solid and a good result with Lando. Obviously he was starting on 13th and he made it up to seventh. But to your point, that pit stop or botched pit stop really cost him pretty hard.
• 20:15
  Speaker B: Yeah. And then obviously another couple guys that had great weekends. Gabby and P8. Lindblad again getting in the points in P9 and fighting with his teammate again. And Franco Cal Pinto in 10th place getting another point for Alpine and getting that crazy pass on. Who was it? Both Liam and Pierre in the same corner. That was nuts. Did you guys see that?
• 20:41
  Speaker C: I did not see that. I have to go back and watch that again. Yeah, he came, the two of them
• 20:48
  Speaker B: were battling, and then Colapinto came around the outside and took them both. It was nuts.
• 20:53
  Speaker A: Nice.
• 20:54
  Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, you know, Bortoletto, Audi scoring points again. They went on. I mean, didn't they only just score their first points of the season at Silverstone? They were always 11th, so finishing eighth, that's four points. Great. Great for the team. Great for Gabby. Um, Lynn Blad again. I think he's doing an awesome job. Gasly finished 11th. He obviously had the off in. In practice and. Which was exactly the same off that Lewis then had in FP3 on Saturday, which meant that he, you know, he gave his mechanics a big job to do into qualifying, which obviously upset the car quite a bit. Different balance. They didn't do something quite right. But it's funny that they both Pierre and Lewis had an off in exactly the same spot that just. That little wall that juts out. If it wasn't there, you know, if it was a foot back, six inches back, then, you know, no problem. But it. Both drivers lost the back right corner from contact with the wall. Yeah.
• 22:10
  Speaker B: All right, well. And I guess there are a couple losers on the weekend as well. Obviously we've talked about George and Lewis, but Aston again. Haas was looking like they might be pretty good this weekend, but they were not. And Nico Hulkenberg, when his teammate is getting paid, is nowhere to be found. And just another tough weekend when he looked like he should be pretty quick.
• 22:36
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I don't see any time soon when the Astons are going to get any better. And yeah, it's never good if you're Nico and the person at the back of the grid, the person that you can really compare yourself to is your teammate. And when they're doing that well and you can't Hang. That's got to be gutting. Yeah.
• 22:58
  Speaker B: I mean, are they going to already? Do you think they're going to start looking for a replacement now? I mean, we're at that time of the year, right?
• 23:07
  Speaker A: Yeah, silly. Season starts soon. We got. When we've got the next week is Hungary, Right. And then is it a break after that?
• 23:13
  Speaker C: Yeah, it's the summer break back in Zandvoort at the end of mid to late August, I think.
• 23:20
  Speaker A: Yeah. So who.
• 23:22
  Speaker C: It's like, who. Who's out there? I mean, look at the guys at Williams, you know, how con. You know, what are their contracts like? Other opportunities to get Carlos Science in particular or Alex.
• 23:41
  Speaker B: Right.
• 23:43
  Speaker C: You know. Yeah, it's, you know, would they move as well?
• 23:49
  Speaker A: Like, do they want to?
• 23:49
  Speaker C: Well, I mean, I definitely think that Carlos Science would move. I think he was sold on the 2026 plan. And the 2026 plan turns out to be rubbish. You know, painful weekend. Alex was 15th and Carlos was 16th. Never looked like scoring points. And when you see the improvement in Audi Alpine and the racing bulls, it's like they're ninth place right now. They were.
• 24:18
  Speaker B: What happened.
• 24:20
  Speaker C: I mean, the car's heavy. I don't even know what their problems are now. They've got the Mercedes engine so they should be at least on par with what Alpine are doing.
• 24:30
  Speaker B: Yeah, but they're not at least right behind them, you know.
• 24:32
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 24:34
  Speaker A: Brutal.
• 24:37
  Speaker B: All right, well, I think that's most of it from the race, so I guess that. Oh, wait, Okon had an amazing Spider man helmet going into the new Spider man movie coming out, so that was pretty sweet.
• 24:51
  Speaker A: Did you get paid to say that?
• 24:54
  Speaker B: I wish.
• 24:55
  Speaker A: Let me get this drop in Marvel.
• 24:57
  Speaker B: Hit me up, throw some stuff my way.
• 25:00
  Speaker C: Maybe they can, you know. Brought to you by Marvel. They can charge us for, you know, we can charge them for pitching them.
• 25:08
  Speaker B: Yeah, we'll say that Tony Stark came up with the whole button boost idea,
• 25:13
  Speaker C: you know, it does seem a bit Tony Stark, doesn't it?
• 25:17
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 25:19
  Speaker C: Let's stop talking about this because we can't monetize it if we've already said it, so.
• 25:23
  Speaker B: That's true. That's true. All right, so I guess that brings us to Coop's F1.
• 25:28
  Speaker A: Yeah, Coops F1. So, I mean a tricky, tricky weekend. Points a little diminished obviously with Russell, everybody, most people have Russell in their top 10 and of course he didn't finish. And a few people not mentioning any names, Jason or Nick, might have forgotten that Lando had a big grid penalty. Maybe put him Higher than maybe he should have been. Although he tried to come back for you guys and score highly. Top scores this this week by Farazikram. I guess that is 265 points. And Isaac MP 260. Tulio 75. 260 points. Good. Pretty good, yeah. Overall and then overall standings, no change at the top. Diva Terro and Matt D actually tied on 1756. That's unusual. Formula E right behind and my favorite, Toto. Toto's under Vach dropped down to eighth. I don't know how long we're going to be talking about them anymore. They need to pick it up but they're in 10th actually down two spots. Jason, after your rocketing rise up the table the last few weeks, a small step back. But to make you feel better, I made the front page but in a bad way because I dropped 70. Sorry, 41.
• 26:49
  Speaker C: 41 spots. The biggest loser.
• 26:52
  Speaker A: One of the. The fourth biggest loser. Yes. Not great. The on the front page for all the wrong, wrong reasons.
• 27:02
  Speaker C: Ferrari 1, 2 or what was going on there.
• 27:05
  Speaker A: I can't even remember now. But am I still ahead of you? Still ahead of you, Nick, you dropped 15. You're in 96. Well, you know, you didn't have to chime in on mine. You could have stayed. You could have stayed quiet.
• 27:20
  Speaker C: I could have stayed quiet, but I can't stay quiet.
• 27:25
  Speaker A: You've still got those cups next to your name that I don't even though I run the whole site. So, you know, good for you.
• 27:33
  Speaker C: How did our bot do you the average?
• 27:35
  Speaker A: Oh, the prediction consensus 30. 32nd up eight spots. So yeah, it's always pretty good, actually. Usually a lot higher. But yeah, you can just pick those and you'll be fine. But that doesn't get you the win. It never makes it to the top. But yeah, we go straight into Hungary, right? Hungary this weekend.
• 27:58
  Speaker C: Hungary this weekend. So should be the opposite from a deployment perspective. A lot of breaking points. So I don't think we're going to have. Well, I don't think there's going to be any super clipping or any sort of deployment mismatch. It should just point and squirt and
• 28:17
  Speaker A: should be a closer race. I'm hoping between the Ferraris and the Mercedes, much like maybe we saw in Silverstone. You know, that's again the Ferrari fan of me hoping that that gap isn't going to be as, as, as large. I'm not quite sure what Verstappen can do to put himself in the mix, but yeah, I hold. I Hold out some hope that potentially the Ferraris can get a victory. But everybody needs Antonelli to have Russell. Like luck.
• 28:45
  Speaker C: Now to any bold predictions. I have a bold prediction.
• 28:49
  Speaker A: Oh, God. I like the way you ask us if you had a bold prediction just so you can get yours in, but go ahead.
• 28:57
  Speaker C: What is it, Boomer? What they call it? Boomeransworthy? I don't know. Asking questions because you have an answer.
• 29:05
  Speaker A: Oh, right. Yes. There you go, a leading question.
• 29:08
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 29:08
  Speaker C: Yeah. Aston Martin points.
• 29:14
  Speaker A: Wow. You think Aston Martin are going to score points in Hungary?
• 29:18
  Speaker C: They are being a B spec car.
• 29:21
  Speaker A: Oh, this is their new car.
• 29:24
  Speaker C: This is Adrian Newey coming to the rescue.
• 29:26
  Speaker A: Oh, my God. Oh, you sound like me, like the last couple of years.
• 29:32
  Speaker C: You think it's a bold prediction? I don't believe in my bold prediction. I think, I think, I think it's going to have minimal impact, but, yeah, no, my point being the BE spec car that Aston Martin have said we're not investing in the prior car that they had at the start of the year. Everything's going to be focused on just getting a full package upgrade for. I think they'd initially targeted Spa, but then it ended up being being Hungary. So let's see what they bring, see if it's any better.
• 30:08
  Speaker A: I mean, that has to be.
• 30:09
  Speaker B: I'll make a bold prediction.
• 30:11
  Speaker A: Go on, then.
• 30:13
  Speaker B: Sergio Perez is going to win the race.
• 30:16
  Speaker C: That is a bold prediction.
• 30:18
  Speaker A: That might be less bold than Aston Martin getting a point. Oh, dear. I mean, it's got to be Alonso then getting a point, you think? Would you go as far as that? Stroll's the one who gets the point for Aston Martin.
• 30:33
  Speaker B: Alonso has one. Right. He's got already.
• 30:36
  Speaker A: He does.
• 30:36
  Speaker B: But it was Checo's point originally that got taken away.
• 30:40
  Speaker A: It was. It was going to be Cadillac's first point, but he went to the wrong grid box or something. Right, yeah. On the restart or something like that. A guy was missing.
• 30:50
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 30:51
  Speaker C: It was a starting infringement. Two starting infringements, if I remember. He messed it up twice.
• 30:57
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 30:58
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah, he did on the restart too. Yeah.
• 31:01
  Speaker A: So, all right, well, I, I, I mean, I, to some degree, I hope you're right, Nick, because, you know, Aston don't. They're a name, they're a brand and they do deserve better and they should have the right people to do it. Let's hope they can put it all together because these guys are working very hard. Of course. So as much as sometimes we dunk on Stroll for his route and his performances, it'd be good to see somebody getting back into the mix a bit. Sure. Put your money where your mouth is, Nick.
• 31:36
  Speaker C: Nope, nope, not doing that. I'm just making a bold prediction.
• 31:40
  Speaker A: Just a bold prediction. All right,
• 31:49
  Speaker B: Thanks for listening to the Undercuts review of the 2026 Belgium Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and join us next time for our review of the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix.
• 32:03
  Speaker C: We'll see you.