Latest / The Undercut / Why George Russell's Baku Win Was Closer Than it Looked - 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Review

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Why George Russell's Baku Win Was Closer Than it Looked - 2026 Azerbaijan 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 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you listen and enjoy the show.
• 0:19
  Speaker C: By being a racing driver, you are at the 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 D: All right boys, we're here. The 2024 Aeran Grand Prix and George was finally able to get that win. Although, I mean, it's been a while. But it took Kimmy starting in what, P16 for him to, to hold out for the win. But he took what, a 15 point chunk out of the lead. So, you know, good for George, right? He needed this.
• 0:55
  Speaker A: Yes. Doesn't change that. Doesn't change anything, does it? But yeah, good for George.
• 1:02
  Speaker E: I mean the one thing to say on the qualif, I mean, just really he got Paul and he won from pole. But the pole gap was almost 0.9 of a second, which is 1 of the largest qualifying gaps for pole in a really long time. And it was huge. So I think, you know, Kimmy, he, he fell in Q1, right? That was 16 or. Anyway, was it the. Anyway, the point being he was out of the way. The pressure was off. George, George just went out there and did what he needed to do in qualifying, put it on pole by a significant margin. And of course everyone's like, well, Kimmy came back from P19 to win in Monza. It's like. But that's was with a brand new engine. So now he'd got like three lap old end a three race old engine. He wasn't going to cut through the field in the same way. I think the pressure was off George, George just needed to get out there, do what he does. And it was really a race of two halves.
• 2:06
  Speaker D: Right.
• 2:07
  Speaker E: You know, he had a 10 second lead when Alex Albon's accident brought out the safety car and then it bunched up the field. Then everyone, you know, kind of grouped up together. Max was then in, in the, in the, the chasing position and it was a much, much better second half of the race, I think.
• 2:31
  Speaker A: I mean, yeah, for sure. I mean once, I mean, Russell definitely, I think the pressure was off him in qualifying, like you said, to be out Leclerc by what, eight, eight tenths like you said, nearly nine tenths. And that side of the track for the odd numbered cars, right? Pole position, third, fifth. They just seem to get a much better jump as well. So Russell really wasn't even under pressure there. Once he got to the first corner, the action was behind him. And what. Both Lando and Piastri, who were, what, third and fifth, both got great starts overtaking what, leclair. And who was. Who was fourth?
• 3:10
  Speaker D: Hajar.
• 3:11
  Speaker A: Hajar, maybe.
• 3:13
  Speaker D: Or Max.
• 3:13
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, definitely a race of two halves for the. For the McLarens. Right? The McLarens just had an awesome start to the race. Picking up. Picking up places all over the place until.
• 3:24
  Speaker D: But it was. Yeah, quickly they lost places, though. I mean, Lando just dropped right away and Oscar held on. But in the end, once he got past, he dropped too.
• 3:34
  Speaker E: I mean, Oscar kept Max behind him for a really good stretch of the race. I don't know, the thing about the Red Bull was it was good in a straight line, but through the twisty sections, he just fell behind. It was the story behind Piastri before the safety car. And it was the same story with George after the safety car. It was. He was fast. They set it up slippery for the. For the straight, but he needed to be 0.7 of a second wait. He certainly needed to be inside of one second to get the overtake mode. And he was always. Every lap he was about, he was making it up down the straight, but then by the time they went through turn 16, he was a second behind or 1.1 second behind. So he never got that extra bit of boost that he really needed to be able to get by. And Hajar did really well at the start of the race. But then Max got by him and then they just sort of held station. Hajar was on the faster tyre in the. The soft tyre was the. Was the tyre to be on in this race, right? And you'd got Hajar on the soft, Max on the medium. George started on the medium as well. So then when Max was on the same tyre, there was no offset, but it was a. There was a phase of the race where we were like, why are they not letting Hajar past Max? Because he was far quicker. He would have been able to get past Piastri. As it was, Piastri took himself out after the. You know, with that going straight on and in turn one. But Hajar should have been given a better crack at moving up, really, in my opinion.
• 5:11
  Speaker A: I mean, that's just. They're never going to let. Hajar's not going to go past Verstappen. And even he said himself on the radio, he's like, I'm happy to stay here.
• 5:20
  Speaker E: Yeah, because that's. Now it's been Beaten into him that he's the number two driver. He's like, all right, go by and then we can sort it out later, but let's see if you can go get Piastri.
• 5:31
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean this is, you know, how Bottas used to be with Hamilton, early doors until he got angry towards the end of his time at Mercedes and started to put his foot down. But people, you know, when you're definitely the second driver, you know, you play your role and when you're in a team with Max.
• 5:49
  Speaker E: Yeah, but you know, go ahead, Jason.
• 5:52
  Speaker D: Well, I was, I was going to change subject, so go for it.
• 5:55
  Speaker E: Yeah, no, but I mean on the subject of Hajar, obviously he's been out of the last three races and they were the three races after the summer break, so it's been a couple of months since he actually drove an F1 car. Yeah, he came in and he was quick, he was fast and so that's, you know, a very, really impressive return weekend for Isaac Hajar after his, his wrist injuries or whatever he did to himself.
• 6:19
  Speaker A: Definitely, definitely no injury hangover for him. Yeah, I didn't, I didn't expect him to be as fast and as, as good as he was right. After so much time away.
• 6:28
  Speaker D: But yeah, yeah, that was super impressive from him and like we said, I mean whether it was really not to his best interest, it was good teammate work from him, but we had some pretty poor teammate work in this race too. I mean, if we want to talk about the album. Arvid Lindblad in one, in one turn, like at the exact same time took out their teammates along with Lando, of
• 6:54
  Speaker A: course, I mean Franco, Franco just, I don't know, just a split second, lost concentration, missed his breaking point and just steamed down the inside. Just got totally lost of where he was on the track.
• 7:06
  Speaker D: I guess he was too concentrated on where he wanted to go and not everyone else. That was right next to that spot.
• 7:12
  Speaker A: Uh, yeah, I mean, and like you said, Lindblad almost. Lindblad's blushes were saved a little bit only because, you know, Colapinto did, did the same and much worse but you know Colapinto, man.
• 7:25
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:26
  Speaker E: And he and Colapinto got a five grid spot penalty for the next race and I think that they, the stewards ruled that Lindblad was a consequence of Colapinto's accident and that's why he didn't get a penalty. But I don't actually view that as being like a consequence. I don't know, it just felt that he, it happened at the same time,
• 7:52
  Speaker A: it didn't look as bad. He wasn't steaming in, like, the space in front of Lindbad's car seemed to disappear as Lawson, like, turned in and there was nowhere for Lindblad to go. Maybe he wasn't, like, steaming.
• 8:04
  Speaker D: That's the consequence of the other one because it made Arvid's look so much better because of Alpine's was so bad that they're like, oh, that's not so bad.
• 8:15
  Speaker E: Look at this guy.
• 8:18
  Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah.
• 8:19
  Speaker E: I mean, I think that's probably a move, right?
• 8:22
  Speaker A: Lando was like, ban him straight away.
• 8:25
  Speaker E: It's a move that Franco would rather take back, I think.
• 8:29
  Speaker D: Yeah, I would hope so.
• 8:30
  Speaker A: Franco's apologized and Lando's apologized for his banning ban him statement when he was interviewed right after the race. But, yeah, cooler heads of.
• 8:42
  Speaker E: Yeah, I would have. What would you have given to be a fly on the wall in Flavio's office after.
• 8:50
  Speaker A: After that good finish, Right. They were both in the top 10 albums at the time and they just threw all the points away.
• 8:57
  Speaker D: Yeah, I think we've seen that before.
• 9:02
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 9:02
  Speaker E: Gasly was probably, what, seventh? And I don't know, maybe Colpinto was 10th. He was several spots,
• 9:14
  Speaker A: Didn't quite get there, but. Yeah, yeah. And, yeah, it was the same Corner for the McLarens, right. Both of them went. Went straight on Lando early on and then obviously was taken out on the restart. And then Oscar did the same thing, sort of out, out broke himself or couldn't get the car slowed down. And. Yeah, at the absolute worst moment, right, just after a restart when there's a train of cars right behind you.
• 9:38
  Speaker E: So it was just the, you know, it was a flashback to when there was the restart a few years ago and Lewis was, like, in the lead or battling for the lead and he forgot to change his brake bias and went straight on. It's just. Yeah, I mean, it instantly puts you to the back. And I think Oscar had a decent weekend up until that point. He was, you know, he was ahead of Max. He was in, I guess, second, third for a good amount of the race. But one error can cost you really badly. And.
• 10:07
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 10:08
  Speaker A: Wow, this is the second time in a row. Right, because was it in Baku last year when Oscar was leading the. Was he leading the world championship at this point last year or at this race? And this is where he crashed out?
• 10:20
  Speaker E: He did crash out.
• 10:21
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 10:21
  Speaker E: He had a shocker last year, actually. He had a bad qualifying and then he binned it into the wall, I think. Was it the same corner as Alex put his in the wall. Could have been like 1, 6, 7, whatever, 5.
• 10:36
  Speaker A: I remember a shot of him sitting with his feet up on the wall. I think watching the race from behind Oscar and I think maybe this is where Lando's. The momentum really swung back towards Lando last year. So Oscar was well on his way to exorcising those demons of last year. But. But now was it to be.
• 10:55
  Speaker E: No, but there were some guys that were able to pick up the pieces, obviously. Well, Arvid was able to keep it going, so ultimately he was able to
• 11:05
  Speaker D: get some good points out of that. So that was nice.
• 11:07
  Speaker E: And then Carlos, I mean.
• 11:10
  Speaker D: Yeah, that's right.
• 11:10
  Speaker C: But.
• 11:10
  Speaker E: But Lindblad, like at the line just overtook Lindsay. Sorry, Ocon. Yeah, I mean he stayed in there and finished seventh. Some good points. And like you say, Esteban Ocon looks like he's out of a seat for next year. Putting in the performances to pick up the points from the guys who fell ahead of him.
• 11:33
  Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah, what's going to happen there? Right. Because a lot of other seats are getting confirmed. You sent out the update that Aston Martin have confirmed Alonso and Strolls. Jason is shaking his head already.
• 11:46
  Speaker D: I can't believe it. I mean, I can, but I can't.
• 11:48
  Speaker A: I can't believe it.
• 11:52
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 11:53
  Speaker E: I mean, it's funny because you've got Fernando who's like Yoda, he's like 900 years old. Whatever.
• 12:03
  Speaker A: As long as Alonso keeps going, Hamilton's going to keep going.
• 12:06
  Speaker E: Maybe when 900 years old you were rich racing formula. You still will. Right, but that's. I mean, thank you. But that's going to be Lance Stroll. Lance Stroll is going to race on until he's as old as Fernando is now. I mean, he's going to be in. We've just got to face the fact he's going to be in F1 for at least another 15 years.
• 12:29
  Speaker A: It's like Lawrence Stroll by the time he leaves.
• 12:32
  Speaker D: Well, he's got the temperament of Anakin Skywalker, but not the skill.
• 12:36
  Speaker E: Yeah.
• 12:38
  Speaker A: Oh, man.
• 12:39
  Speaker E: But yes, the news that everyone expected was that Lance Stroll was confirmed for next year. There had been murmurings of whether Fernando was going to keep going or not. I think that the fact that the car hasn't been as good, certainly the power unit and, well, the whole package basically wasn't any good this year. It's maybe not how he wanted to go out and so I can understand why he's doing another year then.
• 13:07
  Speaker D: Why is he going back there? Like he'd probably have a better shot at Haas than he would at Alpine at this point.
• 13:16
  Speaker E: It's the residuals, Right. He's got a long term contract. He's going to be the ambassador for several million dollars for the next several years. And it's like, you know what? Stick with it.
• 13:26
  Speaker A: It's not just about the racing, but, you know, maybe he listens to this podcast and he's liked my, you know, constant predictions that the, you know, the Aston will come, come back. But it hasn't happened, has it?
• 13:40
  Speaker D: No.
• 13:41
  Speaker A: What's his name?
• 13:41
  Speaker D: It has not.
• 13:42
  Speaker A: Now the guy's. The guy's name's escaping me.
• 13:46
  Speaker E: Adrian Newey.
• 13:46
  Speaker A: Adrian Newey.
• 13:47
  Speaker E: The Newey effect. He'll sprinkle his magic on, on next year's car.
• 13:53
  Speaker A: I don't think he's got any magic left in that bottle. It's been too many years.
• 13:58
  Speaker E: Yeah. I mean, yes, he's clearly been the brains behind a lot of good cars, but it's not the work of one man. You know, he had Peter Pomodreau in Red Bull, who, you know, he was clearly gifted as well. So it's like, how much is it one man versus an ability to take ideas in, distill them down and then figure it out? If he doesn't have the supporting cast that he needs, is he ever going to be as successful? I don't know. We'll have to see what they bring out next year.
• 14:35
  Speaker A: I mean, I'm more than, more than a casual F1 fan, but I was definitely led to believe that he was the genius behind all these cars. Williams is the Red Bulls after all these years and that it was him and him alone that was the good branding. Aerodynamic genius. Yeah. I mean, good for him. Right?
• 14:53
  Speaker E: It's correlation versus causation. Right?
• 14:56
  Speaker A: Yeah. Who's that? Brian Clough. And who's the guy that was with him the whole time at Derby and Nottingham Forest?
• 15:05
  Speaker E: At Nottingham Forest. Peter Taylor.
• 15:06
  Speaker A: Peter Taylor, Right. And then when he left and went to Leeds on his own.
• 15:10
  Speaker E: Well, no. So he was at Nottingham Forest with Cloughy and then my dad brought him to Darby County.
• 15:16
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 15:16
  Speaker E: And that was the first time that they split up. And then he went off to Leeds. But yeah.
• 15:20
  Speaker D: Do you ever watch the movie about all that with Michael Sheen? Yeah. Such a good movie.
• 15:25
  Speaker A: What's it called again?
• 15:26
  Speaker E: The Damned United. Was it?
• 15:28
  Speaker D: Yes.
• 15:29
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great, great film. We always end up talking about football at some point. Soccer. On this podcast
• 15:37
  Speaker E: we have diverse interests, as I'm sure our listener does.
• 15:40
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 15:42
  Speaker D: Hey, we've got, we've got more than one at this point.
• 15:44
  Speaker E: Hey, Mom. Yeah, hey, man.
• 15:49
  Speaker D: But not to bring up a sore subject, I mean it wasn't like an awful weekend, but not a great weekend for Martin's Ferrari team, was it?
• 15:58
  Speaker A: A little, you know, it's just another weekend where we finished, you know, in the points and, you know, we weren't a threat to do anything too crazy. We managed to not to shoot ourselves in the foot with terrible strategy calls. Although, was there really any strategy at this race?
• 16:14
  Speaker E: It was a one stop, the tyres just didn't degrade at all.
• 16:19
  Speaker A: So easy on the tyres you could do almost whatever you wanted. And everybody was waiting for a safety car until there was one and then they all pitted. Yeah, only Sainz stopped on lap 20. I'm not sure why, I can't remember if he had a particular issue, but it worked.
• 16:36
  Speaker E: Did Lando pit just before the safety car?
• 16:38
  Speaker A: No. Bott pit on 26 and everybody else pit on 30 or 31? Pretty much. So no winners or losers there, really?
• 16:49
  Speaker E: No, it was just everyone. I mean, I think that Charles Leclerc benefited in qualifying from a number of mistakes from the likes of Lando and Max was having a problem that cost him, you know, I think he said a second relative to George and maybe he could have been a little bit higher, but I think that where Charles started was probably a little further forward than he really, than the car deserved to be. But you know, you got to be there to take advantage and he did, but it just meant that he kind of went a little bit backwards during the race and the Red Bulls moved forward. I think the Red Bull was a pretty good car for this track.
• 17:33
  Speaker A: They were clearly second best if not on level pegging with the Mercedes.
• 17:39
  Speaker D: I mean if there was one more lap, Max would have probably taken it. What was the gap, like 1/10 of a second in the end?
• 17:45
  Speaker E: 0.196. Yeah, but there were circumstances around that.
• 17:49
  Speaker A: But sure, sure, yeah. I mean they said, Russell said, that his battery deployment on the last lap was all messed up because what was it? Bottas went into the wall, right? Yeah.
• 17:59
  Speaker E: So Bottas went into the wall, there was yellows and he came off the gas and his turbo didn't spool up as quickly. I guess he scrubbed a bit too much off, the revs dropped and when he hit the gas he got turbo lag and Max was a little further behind. You know, it's like when you're driving up a country lane in England, Martin. Not that Jason maybe understands this, maybe Our English listener understands this, but like a windy country road in England, if there's a car in front of you. Yeah, I mean, if there's a car in front of you, they're a lot more cautious than you are because you've got a reference point ahead of you to know what's going on. So they kind of go through the yellow flag. George is always going to. Well, Max is always going to come off slightly less than George because A, that's Max, and B, he's kind of got a reference point. And it just meant that before that corner it was probably about 1.2, 1.3 seconds. Max gained a full second basically on George going through the yellow flag, not by doing anything wrong. He came off the gas the right amount for the whatever, but it's just how it was. Which meant that on that run down to the finish line, he was inside the overtake and he mashed the. The boost as much as he could. It would have been massively unfair if he had got by, but he didn't. And George stayed ahead. But it made for the narrowest margin of victory in 24 years since. Since that race where Rubens Barrichello backed off right before the line to let Michael Schumacher win the race in. I forget where that was, but Austria, maybe. Us, I can't remember. But anyway, it made for a very interesting finish.
• 19:54
  Speaker A: Oh, that was the one. Oh, yeah, the 2002 U.S. grand Prix, I think that's where. But that close finish. Schumacher of. Like you said, they manufactured it.
• 20:05
  Speaker E: Yes. Yeah, it's like Ruben's all. You need to let Michael about it afterwards. Yeah. And then there was the embarrassing podium where Michael's trying to get Rubens to stand on the top step and it was all.
• 20:17
  Speaker A: That wasn't. That wasn't the Grand Prix where there was only six cars though, was it? That was just a regular.
• 20:22
  Speaker E: No, no, that was 2005.
• 20:25
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 20:25
  Speaker D: Yeah, that was because of the tires, right?
• 20:28
  Speaker A: Yeah. The bridge. Only the bridge.
• 20:30
  Speaker E: Yeah, The Michelin tires were. The bond between the tire and the track was greater than the tire and itself. Yes, yeah, yeah. I. Was there
• 20:41
  Speaker A: a refund or you got tickets for the next.
• 20:43
  Speaker E: I got a refund, but if I sent the check back, they gave me a ticket and then two extra tickets for free.
• 20:49
  Speaker D: Oh, nice, that's cool.
• 20:52
  Speaker E: But the, of course, Twitter, I mean, going back to the actual race, why we're actually here and supposed to be talking about the Twitter sphere, was going off about how it should have been a virtual safety car for Bottas as An accident. And I disagree. I think they did the right thing having it on yellows. I don't know how you guys felt about that, but, but because it, the field spread wasn't great, you're not going to be a keyboard warrior on that one. It's not going to get your goat, Jason?
• 21:24
  Speaker A: No, I don't think so.
• 21:25
  Speaker E: But you know, because they'd had, I mean, the field spread wasn't great on this one. There was a good amount of time Bottas was able to get out of his car before anyone came round. They had. The whole purpose of double yellows is you need to be prepared to stop. George did what he needed to, got by the scene, green flag and then away you go. But really the virtual safety car, my view, I mean, this is why we're here to talk about it, is the virtual safety car was introduced after Gilles Bianchi because cars were not slowing down sufficiently when there were crews on track, marshals on track, recovery vehicles on track, and that was unfortunate, very unfortunate that Jules obviously died from that accident in Suzuka. But in a situation where they didn't need to send anyone on the track, it was the last lap, cars were just going to go by one time and then they recover the vehicle after the race has finished, there'd no need to send anyone on track. So there's no virtual safety car requirement. For me, I think they did the right thing. I don't think it was anything to do with not wanting to neutralise the race on the last lap. Yeah, it was the last lap, but it meant that they didn't need to recover the vehicle until after everyone had finished racing.
• 22:43
  Speaker A: Yeah, I agree with you. They were never going to. Yeah, there was no way they were going to get the vehicle before the end of the race anyway, whether they did a safety car or not.
• 22:51
  Speaker D: Right, yeah.
• 22:52
  Speaker E: I mean, you think back to Mexico, was it last year, year before when I think, was it Carlos. But someone came, someone went off right at the end on the last corner in the stadium section, but then people went out to push him behind the barrier and because the crews went out then they had to put the safe, the virtual safety car out. But that's again because crews are going out on the track.
• 23:12
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, of course, of course. I mean the point, the other, the counter argument, of course is that if that crash had happened earlier in the race with, you know, 10 plus more laps to go, then, yeah, it would
• 23:27
  Speaker E: have been 100%, it would have been a safety car. Yeah.
• 23:29
  Speaker A: People are like, well, it doesn't Matter the situation. You should apply it fairly every time. Whether it's the first lap, last lap, no matter what, you know, just.
• 23:36
  Speaker E: Yeah, but the difference is they would send a crew on to recover the vehicle. If there were 10 laps left, they didn't need to send anyone onto the track because all the cars would have gone by before anyone got on the track to recover the vehicle.
• 23:48
  Speaker B: Right.
• 23:49
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 23:49
  Speaker E: And people saying but what if someone had locked up going into the corner and do the same thing and crash into. Well, then you're an idiot because it's double waved yellows and you need to prepare to stop.
• 23:59
  Speaker A: Yeah. You should have been told by your engineers that. Yeah.
• 24:01
  Speaker E: And it's a slow corner as well. There was plenty of room on the inside to cut the corner if you needed to. Ocon did. I think he was the only one to do it. But everyone else got through there without any problem at all. And none of the drivers even mentioned it. So they kind of.
• 24:16
  Speaker D: Well, I think that's pretty much it from the race. And unfortunately, I guess that brings us
• 24:22
  Speaker A: to coupes F1 coupse F1 this week. Very low scores. I guess. You know, it's tough to pick those bottom every. You know, it's hard not to put in those. The top eight drivers. Right. And then when they don't. When the McLarens get knocked out. Right. And top drivers don't finish, who to put in those bottom spots can make or break a race. So only 225 for the top score.
• 24:47
  Speaker D: I had Alpine in both those spots.
• 24:49
  Speaker A: What's that, Jason?
• 24:50
  Speaker D: I had Alpine in both those spots.
• 24:53
  Speaker E: I think I did too, actually. Yeah. Off the back of Monza. Right. Because with the long straight and they needed to be slippery and they were in good shape. If Franco Colapinto had not have just decided that he'd forgotten where the brake pedal was for about a second, then we'd have been sitting pretty on that one.
• 25:12
  Speaker A: Sitting pretty. But yeah, do see. Ox F1 with 225 points this week. B Wheeler 210. Vincent 272 with 205 overall standings. I don't think any changes at the top if I'm right. Yeah. Top three still the same. Twilo 75 Beaverro tablet ID Jason down one spot to 10.
• 25:38
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 25:39
  Speaker A: Double digit now down two spots to 38. So.
• 25:44
  Speaker E: Well, I had, I. I had my money on Max on this one. I don't know. I. I thought that this could be the. I might have the race for Max and I, I put Max to win. He came Second, so I didn't lose a whole bunch of points. But I was feeling. I don't know why. I was kind of a naysayer on the Mercedes. Maybe I was reading too much into it, but I was vindicated in how good the Red Bull was and I could take some comfort and credit in that.
• 26:13
  Speaker A: Yeah, you just got to get those lower positions. Lower positions. Right. But.
• 26:18
  Speaker E: Yeah, but I viewed this one as not being a McLaren track. I mean, they took themselves. Well, they didn't take themselves. Lando took himself. But you know, they each kind of went straight on in turn one and took themselves out of contention even if they stayed in the race. But I was. Their gearing is not good for long straights. They've got a shorter gearing. So people were talking about, oh, form book and all this stuff about Lando and I'm like, they're going to be a lot slower down the straight than everyone else. I was surprised that Oscar was able to keep Max behind him for so long because they're not, you know, they run out of gear before everyone else. So I think Mexico is going to be a similar sort of story. Not, you know, not great for that, but it's.
• 27:10
  Speaker D: But yeah, what's.
• 27:11
  Speaker E: The Alpine are the big loser.
• 27:13
  Speaker D: Yeah, definitely. Especially for our coops teams. But. And next is the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. Right. That's next week.
• 27:22
  Speaker E: Another little span.
• 27:24
  Speaker A: Right?
• 27:25
  Speaker E: Yeah, well, because if you remember the beginning and the end of the lap, it's like they've got this wedge shape to the track where you got grandstand at one side, then like a 300 and a 300 degree turn left and then you got a similar length straight right there. So I think that I don't know how it's going to be with this formula having a long straight and then a single braking zone to try and regenerate enough to see you down the next straight. I'm not sure how that's going to work, but Sipang is a great circuit.
• 28:01
  Speaker A: You could see guys playing some games, right, that they don't necessarily want to be ahead on the first straight, that they'll take him on the second straight just to hopefully maintain that position.
• 28:12
  Speaker E: Yeah. Because of all the modern circuits, Sepang is one of the better ones. It's the first one, I think that Herman Tilke designed and it's arguably his best work. One thing I did see is that the surface is pretty abrasive. Obviously, normally there's a lot of lead time to hosting a Formula One race. I think they had 10 weeks to get it all ready to go. So I think that, I mean, I'm hoping that the surface is going to mean there's going to be a lot of tire degradation and hopefully we'll get at least two stops.
• 28:49
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 28:50
  Speaker E: Optimistic.
• 28:51
  Speaker A: When was the last time that Formula One raced here? It wasn't here.
• 28:54
  Speaker E: 2017. 2017. Yeah. It was my last year in Asia, so I recall when that was and it was one that I always thought, oh, man, I've loved to have gone. Because it used to be that it was earlier in the season, like sort of March or April, and then you had Singapore in September. But then when they changed it because they didn't want to be flying back and forth and all over the world, they put them back to back. And that was really kind of the death knell for. For the Malaysian Grand Prix because it was never the most well attended race. It was like maybe 50, 60,000 or so. But then putting it right the weekend before Singapore, which was like, has quickly become one of the crown jewels in the calendar. It just meant that people would go to one or the other and they'd kind of go to Singapore. But I regret not having gone to Seang because it is an awesome. An awesome circuit.
• 29:48
  Speaker A: I'm just looking at. I'm looking at the results for the 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix. Half the field is still the same. Well, maybe not half, but there's a lot.
• 29:57
  Speaker D: No, there's a lot. There's a lot that were there. Yeah.
• 30:00
  Speaker A: Bottas Perez, Stroll, Ocon, Alamo.
• 30:03
  Speaker E: Well, Stroll. Stroll's going to set the record for the most races.
• 30:07
  Speaker A: Holtenberg, Carlos Seitz, they all drove in that race nine years ago.
• 30:13
  Speaker D: Yeah. Pierre.
• 30:14
  Speaker E: Yeah.
• 30:14
  Speaker A: More than half the field and
• 30:18
  Speaker E: Kimmy Antonelli was nine years old. It's like Miles, the guy who's crushing
• 30:25
  Speaker A: them all was barely born.
• 30:27
  Speaker D: Yeah, well, I think that's it. Anything else you guys think we missed?
• 30:33
  Speaker A: I don't think so. Just. Yeah. This is the third week race in a row. Right. This is the last.
• 30:40
  Speaker D: No, second out of three in a row. Right. Because we had off last week.
• 30:45
  Speaker E: So this is the first of a triple header we've got.
• 30:48
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.
• 30:49
  Speaker E: Malaysia right after that and then Singapore.
• 30:51
  Speaker D: Yeah, yeah.
• 30:51
  Speaker A: Singapore on the 11th, then a break till it's another triple header of the U.S. mexico, Brazil.
• 30:58
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 30:59
  Speaker E: Wow, they come thick and fast now. I had the nose ahead.
• 31:05
  Speaker C: What is wrong with these?
• 31:07
  Speaker B: Thanks for listening to the Undercuts review of the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Please rate review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And join us next time and we'll review the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
• 31:23
  Speaker E: We'll see you there.