Latest / Pit Talk / Piastri masterclass extends title lead over Norris: Belgian GP Review

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Piastri masterclass extends title lead over Norris: Belgian GP Review · Pit Talk

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:03
Speaker 1: On today's episode, Oscar Piastre scores a decisive victory over
0:06
Speaker 1: Lando Norris at the Belgian Grand Prix, but it took
0:09
Speaker 1: eighty minutes to get the race going. With maxistaff and
0:12
Speaker 1: railing against race controls, conservatism in the West. My name
0:16
Speaker 1: is Michael Lomonato. It's great to have your company and
0:18
Speaker 1: the company of my co host. He's just come back
0:20
Speaker 1: from the therapist after suffering from Belgium twenty twenty one
0:23
Speaker 1: flashbacks at around about one am on Monday.
0:25
Speaker 2: It's Matt Clayton. Michael, it's good to join you. It
0:28
Speaker 2: wasn't great to be conversing with you on Sunday night
0:30
Speaker 2: where you can see this sort of unfolding horror story
0:33
Speaker 2: coming out in front of you. But yes, I've managed
0:35
Speaker 2: to emerge from underneath my easy up and I'm ready
0:38
Speaker 2: to go for enjoyable podcast fun this morning. More Easy
0:42
Speaker 2: Up commentary coming up later.
0:44
Speaker 3: Do they go easy down? Though? Does one is?
0:47
Speaker 1: Do you have to use easy whenever you use the
0:49
Speaker 1: verb association.
0:50
Speaker 2: There's never any mention of the descent, is there.
0:53
Speaker 3: It's always about the assembly. It's easy to go up.
0:55
Speaker 2: Clearly easy up does what it says on the tip,
0:57
Speaker 2: but the whole down bit never discussed.
0:59
Speaker 3: Better not talk about it.
1:00
Speaker 1: I think let's talk instead about Oscar Piastre, who did
1:03
Speaker 1: not have an easy way up to the top post
1:05
Speaker 1: step of the podium. What it depends on that you
1:06
Speaker 1: look at it. It looks dominant on Friday Matt I
1:09
Speaker 1: thought on Friday that this was going to be a
1:11
Speaker 1: really emphatic result and it wasn't the end, but in
1:13
Speaker 1: quite a different way to what I expected, because he
1:16
Speaker 1: took quite a securitus throute to get there, didn't get
1:18
Speaker 1: a he got sprint polled, did not win the sprint,
1:20
Speaker 1: did not get pole position, but did have a pretty
1:23
Speaker 1: decisive victory in the end of Orlando Norris after that
1:26
Speaker 1: pass on the first lap of racing like five anyway,
1:30
Speaker 1: and I felt, and then after that obviously had to
1:31
Speaker 1: manage his way to the end one stop on a
1:33
Speaker 1: set of tize that Parali didn't think was going to
1:35
Speaker 1: make it to the end competitive that he managed to
1:37
Speaker 1: do it. And I think this race really demonstrated maybe
1:41
Speaker 1: all of the reasons he's become such a formidable title contender.
1:45
Speaker 1: There is the execution in the past, there is the
1:47
Speaker 1: race management after the fact, and even dare I say,
1:50
Speaker 1: Matt a tiny bit, a small bit of emotion after
1:54
Speaker 1: winning the race.
1:55
Speaker 3: Just a small bit.
1:56
Speaker 2: You want to get too carried away here when you've
1:58
Speaker 2: won the most races by it Australia to Formula One
2:00
Speaker 2: season ever, so you know the we'll see what happens
2:03
Speaker 2: if he gets to seven, eight nine or more than that.
2:05
Speaker 2: But I like what you said there. This was if
2:07
Speaker 2: you were playing pistre dominance bingo here. This ticked a
2:11
Speaker 2: lot of boxes for him because it's the decisiveness in
2:14
Speaker 2: will to will battle early in races that's been a
2:17
Speaker 2: feature of a lot of his victories this year. He
2:19
Speaker 2: has made that move where he's had the one opportunity
2:22
Speaker 2: to do it and.
2:23
Speaker 3: Made it stick.
2:24
Speaker 2: The interesting part for me was he was clearly on
2:27
Speaker 2: what was probably not an ideal tire to do the
2:30
Speaker 2: rest of that race after that, I think it was
2:32
Speaker 2: lap ten pit stop, but clearly was managing it to
2:36
Speaker 2: a point where he had so much in reserve that
2:38
Speaker 2: he set his fastest lap of the race I believe on.
2:40
Speaker 3: The second last lap of the race.
2:42
Speaker 2: And so while it was being built up as being
2:45
Speaker 2: the you know Norris's coming, He's on the hard at tires,
2:47
Speaker 2: them more durable, he can push. And there's a narrative
2:50
Speaker 2: that's being pushed in the commentary that will probably get
2:52
Speaker 2: to at some point in the rest of this podcast.
2:54
Speaker 2: But I don't know about you, but watching it with
2:56
Speaker 2: a just completely cold analytical view, it never felt like
3:00
Speaker 2: it was in danger once we got out of the
3:03
Speaker 2: end of the pit stops. And look, I mean, could
3:05
Speaker 2: McLaren have double stacked their drivers to perhaps reduce the
3:09
Speaker 2: disadvantage that Norris had by coming in a lap later? Look, possibly,
3:13
Speaker 2: And Norris threw the hail Mary roll the dice heavy
3:16
Speaker 2: you want to describe it, by going with the tire
3:18
Speaker 2: that nobody else chose to use the remainder of the race.
3:20
Speaker 2: But there was an inevitability to the way that Piastre
3:24
Speaker 2: won this race. And it's interesting, isn't it, And that
3:27
Speaker 2: if you look at Piastre's victories this season last season,
3:31
Speaker 2: that win that he had in Azerbaijan was one of
3:33
Speaker 2: the more exciting Grand Prix we've seen in a while
3:35
Speaker 2: because he made a fantastic pass and him was clearly
3:38
Speaker 2: hanging on for dear life, but did a fantastic job
3:41
Speaker 2: against Charla Clair in that race. That was one of
3:44
Speaker 2: the most tense and consistently tense races that we've seen
3:48
Speaker 2: for a very long time. A lot of the races
3:50
Speaker 2: he's won this year are a little bit dull, but
3:53
Speaker 2: that's fine because it is a means to an end here.
3:57
Speaker 2: He gets his work done early and then things from there,
4:01
Speaker 2: and it's that push pull of the when to be aggressive,
4:04
Speaker 2: how to be decisively aggressive, and then change tack and
4:07
Speaker 2: not nurse the car home, but driver in a certain
4:10
Speaker 2: way that you don't stress the pit wall, you don't
4:13
Speaker 2: stress the machinery, and you don't stress yourself, and there's
4:15
Speaker 2: an inevitability to these victories once he gets out there.
4:18
Speaker 2: It ticked every box and it was just another reason
4:21
Speaker 2: why this championship is going to be won by McLaren
4:24
Speaker 2: driver this year. But I don't think we can say
4:27
Speaker 2: that it's a fifty to fifty championship fight right now.
4:29
Speaker 2: It's close enough that it's not decisively one way's Piastre's,
4:33
Speaker 2: but I would say it's fifty seven forty three if
4:35
Speaker 2: we're going to put a number, or sixty forty somewhere
4:38
Speaker 2: in that sort of range, because yes, Piastre has a
4:42
Speaker 2: points advantage, we can see that, but it's how he's
4:44
Speaker 2: achieved it as much as what he's achieved that to
4:46
Speaker 2: me makes him a slight favorite for this world title.
4:50
Speaker 1: Yeah. I like the specific numbers. I appreciate That's what
4:53
Speaker 1: this podcast is about, the details.
4:54
Speaker 3: I like that.
4:55
Speaker 1: You're right, though dominant victories are really the thrilling ones,
4:58
Speaker 1: they do tend to be dull. There was a little
4:59
Speaker 1: bit maybe manufactured excitement in this. It was remarkable how
5:03
Speaker 1: many times Lando Norris took half a second out of
5:05
Speaker 1: Oscar Piastre without the gap changing from about eight and
5:07
Speaker 1: a half seconds. You noticed that as well until I
5:10
Speaker 1: think the last ten laps and the gap did close.
5:12
Speaker 1: But like you say, second last lap, it actually reminded
5:14
Speaker 1: me a little bit of Daniel Ricardo's victory Italy was
5:18
Speaker 1: a twenty three one two twenty three one? Wasn't it
5:22
Speaker 1: twenty one over Lando norris s where there was there's
5:25
Speaker 1: a bit of Lando was the faster driver, they should
5:27
Speaker 1: have let him through whatever, But then on was a
5:29
Speaker 1: last lap I think in his case, wasn't it where
5:31
Speaker 1: he said coreational best and the fastest lap of the race,
5:33
Speaker 1: I think as well to just emphasize that the pace
5:37
Speaker 1: was in hand and he was managing. Coincidentally enough, this
5:39
Speaker 1: is also the win with which Oscar Piastre equaled Daniel
5:42
Speaker 1: Riccardo's total victories of eight. Some stats up on the
5:46
Speaker 1: Fox Sports website and social media pages he might have seen.
5:49
Speaker 1: This was, I say, his eighth career victory. That's one
5:51
Speaker 1: short now of Mark Webber's career total of nine, not
5:54
Speaker 1: that far away from the all time records for Australians
5:57
Speaker 1: at Jack Bradmont fourteen Alan Jones on twelve. But more interestingly,
6:02
Speaker 1: I suppose they're all interesting. I won't drank them. But
6:05
Speaker 1: sixth victory for this season, which is more than any
6:08
Speaker 1: Australian has ever had in one Formula One season ever.
6:11
Speaker 2: And it's funny like this is a stat that we've
6:13
Speaker 2: you know, we talked about this months ago, given that
6:15
Speaker 2: you could sort of see the way the season and
6:18
Speaker 2: the circumstances of this season based on what's going to
6:20
Speaker 2: happen next season, where we've got this hard reset and
6:22
Speaker 2: a whole new formula. The last season of an existing
6:26
Speaker 2: rule set tends to weed out a dominant team fairly
6:30
Speaker 2: early and then it tends to be fairly plain sailing
6:33
Speaker 2: for that team, and you just hope that team has
6:35
Speaker 2: two drivers that are capable of winning races or motivated
6:37
Speaker 2: to win races. In twenty thirteen we didn't see that
6:40
Speaker 2: because Mark Webber was about to retire and Sebastian vast
6:42
Speaker 2: one of the last nine Grand Prix of that year.
6:45
Speaker 2: I'm looking at this now with eleven rounds to go,
6:48
Speaker 2: it's very hard to see unless there's an exceptual circumstance
6:52
Speaker 2: anyone beating m McLaren on pace for victory, and there's
6:55
Speaker 2: probably going to be I think as the fourth, one
6:57
Speaker 2: two in the last five, or the third in the
6:58
Speaker 2: last four. I can't remember the start off the top
6:59
Speaker 2: of my head. But with eleven rounds to go, we're
7:02
Speaker 2: going to get a lot more races like this. So,
7:05
Speaker 2: in context of the Piastre win total eight career wins,
7:08
Speaker 2: now Weeber with nine is next up the road. Alan
7:11
Speaker 2: Jones has twelve. I would imagine, based on the fact
7:14
Speaker 2: that there's eleven rounds to go, I can see Piastre
7:16
Speaker 2: winning four more races to at least equal Alan Jones
7:19
Speaker 2: over the remainder of the season. There's one that's in
7:22
Speaker 2: play now that has really stuck up on us and
7:23
Speaker 2: I still can't quite believe. So Jack Brabham had fourteen
7:26
Speaker 2: career Formula One wins. Piastre would need to win six
7:31
Speaker 2: of the last eleven Grand Prix to tie to Jack Brabham,
7:34
Speaker 2: and that seems completely doable based on the pace advantage
7:38
Speaker 2: that McLaren hasn't. Yes, there's going to be some outlives
7:40
Speaker 2: and there'll be a weird weekend, or there'll be a
7:43
Speaker 2: Maxistap and Red Bull weekend where he is just absolutely
7:45
Speaker 2: mega and transcends the cart. That's going to happen. You
7:48
Speaker 2: would think that record is absolutely in play. And that's
7:51
Speaker 2: a sentence I can't believe that. I'm saying in July
7:53
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five.
7:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, in his third season in Formula One, and I
7:57
Speaker 1: hope people will say, obviously, there were many fewer races
8:00
Speaker 1: in the days of Brabhaman and Joe, and certainly in
8:02
Speaker 1: Jack Bravam's days in the year in which he won
8:05
Speaker 1: five Grand Prix in a season, so we were talking about
8:07
Speaker 1: that record that was fifty percent of the races.
8:09
Speaker 3: It was a ten round season.
8:10
Speaker 1: Those are the days, but he can also equal it
8:13
Speaker 1: one percentage terms, you say he needs six to equal
8:15
Speaker 1: his career title. If you win seven more times this year,
8:17
Speaker 1: he'll have won more than half the races this season
8:20
Speaker 1: and then he will have that record outright, if you
8:22
Speaker 1: want to talk web percentage tens, he only needs a
8:25
Speaker 1: couple more race wins to do it for Alan Joe
8:26
Speaker 1: As I think it's three times, which I think is
8:29
Speaker 1: going to happen, and surely three more races for the
8:32
Speaker 1: end of the year season if he doesn't, yes, so
8:35
Speaker 1: I think outright those records will fall and suddenly we're
8:38
Speaker 1: talking about, you know, all time great numbers for an Australian,
8:42
Speaker 1: which is really remarkable again to think about this is
8:44
Speaker 1: only his third season and that he's up against a
8:46
Speaker 1: driver like Lando Norris, who while we're going to be
8:49
Speaker 1: exposing each of drivers weaknesses and strengths in this championship battle,
8:53
Speaker 1: as it comes down to it, a lot more of
8:54
Speaker 1: them will be exposed as well. We're going to know
8:56
Speaker 1: them in great detail by the time we get to
8:57
Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi. He's no slouch. He's very fast, he's a
9:00
Speaker 1: race winner. He was a race winner before this season
9:03
Speaker 1: and he's been in Formula One for a long time,
9:04
Speaker 1: so there's nothing to take away from that. But I
9:06
Speaker 1: do want to talk about norrisse for a second, because
9:08
Speaker 1: he struck. We've talked a couple of people about it,
9:10
Speaker 1: and it's not just me that it struck. It wasn't
9:12
Speaker 1: just my like one am brain thinking oh this unusual.
9:16
Speaker 1: But his responses this weekend I found very interesting. Obviously, Friday,
9:20
Speaker 1: he started very much on the back foot. He was
9:22
Speaker 1: six tenths down in sprint qualifying, but it was only
9:25
Speaker 1: sprint qualifying, but nonetheless that was the first competitive session
9:29
Speaker 1: of the weekend. Finished behind Pastre, obviously in the sprint
9:32
Speaker 1: because it was a lot of passing, as he wasn't
9:34
Speaker 1: for the whole weekend. But then even after pipping Piastre
9:37
Speaker 1: to poll and he didn't beat that track record Piastre
9:39
Speaker 1: he said on Friday, and Piastre had made some mistakes
9:41
Speaker 1: so there was a reason for it, seemed very defensive.
9:45
Speaker 1: And then after the race, obviously he was defeated, so
9:47
Speaker 1: there's no reason to expect he's going to be happy
9:48
Speaker 1: about it. But his response even then just seemed a
9:51
Speaker 1: little bit flat, and I couldn't help but wonder whether
9:55
Speaker 1: coming back from the mini break, which would have probably
9:57
Speaker 1: felt like a mid season break for a lot of them,
9:59
Speaker 1: and taking Stock and Max with staff and now very
10:01
Speaker 1: far behind and it's a one on one title five.
10:03
Speaker 1: Whether this was maybe a little bit of a maybe
10:06
Speaker 1: demoralizing is now too judgmental because we don't know what
10:09
Speaker 1: he's thinking, but almost like a little bit of a
10:12
Speaker 1: reality check that actually, just getting ahead of Piastre after
10:16
Speaker 1: winning two in the row and feeling like you had
10:18
Speaker 1: a bit of momentum is not going to be maybe
10:20
Speaker 1: as easy as he thought or not straightforward.
10:22
Speaker 2: He was a little bit muted, and I can understand
10:25
Speaker 2: that because this car now has been proven to have
10:28
Speaker 2: such a significant advantage that quite frankly, finishing second is
10:32
Speaker 2: a little bit disappointing because if you've finished second, you've
10:34
Speaker 2: probably been beaten by the other guy in the same car,
10:37
Speaker 2: and that's going to be the way the rest of
10:38
Speaker 2: this season plays out. I do wonder there's so much
10:42
Speaker 2: of this in that we know that Norris is very
10:44
Speaker 2: much an open book in the way that he runs
10:47
Speaker 2: his Formula one. You know, he rides the emotional rollercoaster,
10:50
Speaker 2: at least publicly a lot more than Piastre. Does Piastre
10:53
Speaker 2: will A give you nothing and B be more robotic
10:56
Speaker 2: when he has these days that are good and bad,
10:58
Speaker 2: And that's just a product of his character and perhaps
11:00
Speaker 2: the way he's being managed. In a whole bunch of
11:02
Speaker 2: other things. Norris is much more of an open book,
11:04
Speaker 2: so there's never any ambiguity over how Norris is feeling
11:07
Speaker 2: about something. And I wondered if this was almost I
11:11
Speaker 2: wouldn't say deliberate or rehearsed, but perhaps the way this
11:15
Speaker 2: championship is going to be won from here is not
11:18
Speaker 2: getting too high or too low. And I think that
11:20
Speaker 2: applies for both drivers when you are in a fight
11:22
Speaker 2: where there's probably only two cars in it. I wonder
11:25
Speaker 2: if this is going to be the way he frames
11:27
Speaker 2: the not so good days for the rest of the season.
11:29
Speaker 2: I mean, look, guys still qualified on pole and finished second.
11:32
Speaker 2: It's a pretty good weekend. It's a better weekend than
11:34
Speaker 2: eighteen other people had. And so I wonder if that's
11:38
Speaker 2: almost a deliberate ploy here, because we are playing the
11:41
Speaker 2: long game. It is a long long way to the
11:44
Speaker 2: end of the season. You mentioned the ten round season
11:46
Speaker 2: before you be on holidays. Now, if it was not six,
11:48
Speaker 2: you go. But I do wonder if this is a
11:51
Speaker 2: way that he's going to manage the back end of
11:53
Speaker 2: this season, particularly because you know, as we're about to
11:55
Speaker 2: hit August here, we've still got eleven rounds until the
11:58
Speaker 2: first week of December. It comes really thick and fast.
12:01
Speaker 2: There's a lot of doubleheaders. It's very compact after we
12:04
Speaker 2: get back from the not quite mid season break. So
12:06
Speaker 2: I wonder if there's almost like a disappointment management exercise
12:10
Speaker 2: going on here, because you can live to fight another day.
12:13
Speaker 2: The margins are very small and the opposition is very
12:16
Speaker 2: far in the review, So I wonder if that's one
12:18
Speaker 2: of those ones that, particularly on the eve of back
12:20
Speaker 2: to back with Hungary this weekend, you sort of dust
12:22
Speaker 2: yourself off and go again. But he was a little
12:25
Speaker 2: bit muted. Perhaps that was also It wasn't one of
12:28
Speaker 2: those races where you could say, oh, look, this could
12:30
Speaker 2: have happened. That could have happened. He was comprehensively beaten
12:33
Speaker 2: when it mattered. But I'm going to go slightly off
12:36
Speaker 2: running order here, assuming we actually have a running order.
12:39
Speaker 2: We have a thirty second discussion before we start this podcast.
12:42
Speaker 2: Can we have three minutes here indulge me what on
12:47
Speaker 2: earth was going on with the coverage on Sunday night,
12:50
Speaker 2: because you mentioned this earlier. There was a time after
12:54
Speaker 2: the pit stops had shaken out. Pstre was on the mediums,
12:56
Speaker 2: Norris was on the hard tires, and we kept getting
12:59
Speaker 2: told by the common that he was taking half a
13:01
Speaker 2: second off here and six tenths off here. And I
13:03
Speaker 2: kept looking at the timing tower and kept seeing the
13:05
Speaker 2: same margin between first and second, to the point where
13:08
Speaker 2: I actually started looking at the F one timing appt
13:11
Speaker 2: to see if was there something wrong with the coverage?
13:13
Speaker 2: Am I not seeing this? I'm looking at the driver
13:15
Speaker 2: tracker and the two orange dots are kind of circulating
13:18
Speaker 2: in the same space. And something that really bothered me,
13:22
Speaker 2: and I'm sure a lot of our listeners over the
13:23
Speaker 2: course of the weekend, particularly on Sunday, was that I
13:27
Speaker 2: understand that we take a British commentary feed and they're
13:30
Speaker 2: going to be it's in their interests and it's completely explainable.
13:34
Speaker 2: They are going to be more excited when a British
13:36
Speaker 2: driver does something than a non British driver does something.
13:39
Speaker 2: There's one thing to have some enthusiasm for one driver
13:41
Speaker 2: over the other. If you are going to blatantly misrepresent
13:45
Speaker 2: the facts, because this is a data driven sport. If
13:48
Speaker 2: you are going to tell basically an incorrect narrative to
13:51
Speaker 2: suit your viewers or yourself, you are doing the viewing
13:55
Speaker 2: public a disservice and you are not being genuine in
13:58
Speaker 2: the way that you are presenting this to the world
14:00
Speaker 2: like a global audience.
14:01
Speaker 3: I'll leave that with.
14:02
Speaker 2: You, because there was something there was something about it
14:05
Speaker 2: that really felt off to me in that yes, you
14:08
Speaker 2: can cheer inverted commas for the chief of the Chief
14:13
Speaker 2: of the Flag rather than the driver, but when you're
14:16
Speaker 2: blatantly misrepresenting facts in order to build up a false narrative,
14:19
Speaker 2: then I've got a problem with it.
14:20
Speaker 1: Your thoughts, yes, not the only one I think has
14:23
Speaker 1: brought it up this weekend, and I do have at
14:27
Speaker 1: least a small amount of concern that now it's boiled
14:29
Speaker 1: down to it is just Norris and Fiastro as much
14:31
Speaker 1: as McLaren's still weary of Estaffa, and I understand why
14:33
Speaker 1: because it's Max with Staffan. But this is the situation
14:36
Speaker 1: for the rest of the season, and like you say, whatever,
14:38
Speaker 1: it is three from last four to four, from the
14:39
Speaker 1: last five to one to two is there's going to
14:41
Speaker 1: be a lot of direct battles between these drivers, and
14:44
Speaker 1: some people with certain passports may have vested interest in
14:48
Speaker 1: a particular outcome. Look, I mean if I want to
14:51
Speaker 1: if I want to play Devil's advocate, let's say you.
14:53
Speaker 2: Want to play Devil's advocate, that'll be I like you.
14:55
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't envy commentators who can see a ninety
14:59
Speaker 1: minute racer of them where there's clearly going to be
15:01
Speaker 1: almost no overtaking. You've got to try and it's like
15:04
Speaker 1: a football commentator in the last quarter as a big margin,
15:07
Speaker 1: I would know this is Melbourne supporter, and you've got
15:08
Speaker 1: to try and pretend there's something at stake, and then
15:10
Speaker 1: actually sometimes there's something can stake, you know, to make it.
15:13
Speaker 1: You know, I thought I was telling her at the
15:14
Speaker 1: end of the race. I think when David Croft finally
15:17
Speaker 1: conceded that Norris wasn't going to get him, that mart
15:19
Speaker 1: ruddles of where he never was going to anyway, almost
15:21
Speaker 1: saying the quiet bit out loud. Maybe there was a
15:24
Speaker 1: bit of that, but you know, the post race coverage
15:26
Speaker 1: there was a lot of questions to McLaren people about
15:28
Speaker 1: why Norris couldn't win rather than White Piastrick did win. Yeah,
15:33
Speaker 1: I think that as some people might be wondering what
15:36
Speaker 1: the rest of the season is going to look and
15:38
Speaker 1: sound like, but can't argue with the results. At the
15:40
Speaker 1: end of the day, Oscar Piastre not only the winner,
15:43
Speaker 1: but a sixteen point championship leader. You can't you can't
15:47
Speaker 1: fudge those ones. You can't fudge those numbers, regardless of
15:50
Speaker 1: how you might like to. Before we move on, Matt,
15:53
Speaker 1: I do want to touch briefly on the rain delay.
15:55
Speaker 1: A lot of people about talking about the rain delay.
15:57
Speaker 1: I'm surprised actually, because it's just a lot of people
15:59
Speaker 1: were up quite like to watch this race, and I
16:01
Speaker 1: don't know what kind of state they were in on
16:02
Speaker 1: Monday to.
16:03
Speaker 3: Go to work. But I salute you.
16:04
Speaker 1: You watched a great Oscar Pias Street victory, even if
16:07
Speaker 1: it's about one or two overtakes, with the entirety of
16:10
Speaker 1: the race. But it was mildly controversial, at least for
16:13
Speaker 1: Max for Staffan who said he would have got the
16:15
Speaker 1: race started immediately. Lewis Hamdon also said there were probably
16:17
Speaker 1: too many safety car laps. After the resumptions, there are
16:20
Speaker 1: two different complaints but they seem to really be the
16:22
Speaker 1: only complaints, and I think we probably can't take competitive
16:26
Speaker 1: interests out of this one. But I mean, other than
16:28
Speaker 1: the fact that it was late for us and we
16:30
Speaker 1: had flashbacks to twenty twenty one, I had a real
16:33
Speaker 1: concern when I heard that the race clock had not
16:35
Speaker 1: started after the formation map, that we're in for it again.
16:38
Speaker 1: I mean, what was your take on the way this
16:39
Speaker 1: was handled.
16:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm going to give a quick shout out here
16:41
Speaker 2: to Hannah Kennely at the Age colleague of mine who
16:44
Speaker 2: was assigned to do a live blog for the Belgium
16:46
Speaker 2: Grand Prix on Sunday night, and then when things were
16:49
Speaker 2: delayed by eighty minutes, I said to her my commiserations and said,
16:52
Speaker 2: let's hope this doesn't end up like twenty twenty one
16:54
Speaker 2: when you were not doing a life blog on this
16:56
Speaker 2: particular Grand Prix. But look, I there's not a one
17:00
Speaker 2: size fits all answer to this, and there's a few
17:02
Speaker 2: things to take into account here. We had a wet
17:05
Speaker 2: race at Silveston last time out where we had an
17:08
Speaker 2: accident where Isaac Hadja and Kimi Antonelli came together with
17:13
Speaker 2: absolutely no visibility in the rain. After a restart, and
17:16
Speaker 2: that was particularly bad. There's something about SPA and that
17:20
Speaker 2: low lying mist and where the water gets thrown up
17:23
Speaker 2: because of the undulation of this particular track, and it's
17:26
Speaker 2: always along the camel straight after they've gone through rouge
17:28
Speaker 2: and radion, the water hangs in the trees and you
17:31
Speaker 2: cannot see a thing. I also think, whether this was
17:35
Speaker 2: overt or not, we've seen accidents at SPA in the
17:39
Speaker 2: not too recent pass where we've had fatalities in different categories.
17:43
Speaker 2: I think that's also got a player factor aspart from
17:46
Speaker 2: the mild inconvenience of people working in this part of
17:49
Speaker 2: the world and anyone who was digesting their Sunday Roast
17:52
Speaker 2: City on the couch watching the sky coverage in the UK.
17:56
Speaker 2: I thought it was the correct decision to delay it,
17:57
Speaker 2: and I didn't think there was too much of a
17:59
Speaker 2: controversy about it that purely because of this circuit and
18:03
Speaker 2: historical precedence at this circuit. I didn't have a massive
18:06
Speaker 2: problem with it. But I don't think it's a one
18:07
Speaker 2: size fits all for every circuit. I think it should
18:09
Speaker 2: be taken a case by case basis. Yes, the people
18:13
Speaker 2: who wanted to go racing were the people who had
18:15
Speaker 2: the most to gain and the least to lose, and
18:17
Speaker 2: Max Pastappen's always going to Watchford I would like to
18:20
Speaker 2: race because he knows he's a genius in the wet
18:22
Speaker 2: and he's proven that in the past. There is a
18:24
Speaker 2: competitive advantage for him and his car in a situation
18:28
Speaker 2: like that. I didn't have a massive problem with it,
18:30
Speaker 2: despite the inconvenience. There is an argument that, you know,
18:34
Speaker 2: should they have gone out and at least run behind
18:37
Speaker 2: the safety car for a bit at the original race time,
18:39
Speaker 2: start to at least try and disperse some of the water,
18:42
Speaker 2: because there's nothing better to clean a wet Formula one
18:45
Speaker 2: track than twenty Formula one cars going around hoovering up
18:48
Speaker 2: all the water. Copyright button bundle, there's an argument for that.
18:53
Speaker 2: But then about half an hour into that delay, it
18:56
Speaker 2: really chucked it down and we would have had red
18:57
Speaker 2: flag anyway. Quite frankly, so I didn't have had that
19:00
Speaker 2: much of an issue with it, but I was a
19:02
Speaker 2: bit like you. It became much more of a talking
19:04
Speaker 2: point in this part of the world than I expected
19:06
Speaker 2: it to be on the Monday after the race, which
19:08
Speaker 2: I guess is good because it means lots of people
19:10
Speaker 2: are watching Formula One because well we.
19:12
Speaker 1: Know why, yes exactly now. I think that's right, and
19:15
Speaker 1: I've found it actually a little bit frustrating that there
19:17
Speaker 1: was some commentary afterwards saying that, well, they don't race
19:19
Speaker 1: in the wet anymore, when literally the previous race was
19:22
Speaker 1: a wet race, and arguably race controls should have intervened
19:25
Speaker 1: a little bit more in that race, considering there were
19:27
Speaker 1: crashes there due to visibility they had Jant and another
19:30
Speaker 1: crazy thing as you mentioned, and perhaps some others were
19:32
Speaker 1: due to that as well. So you can't argue that
19:35
Speaker 1: when literally the previous race was a fully wet race
19:38
Speaker 1: at Silverstone, but really different circuits, like you say, Silverston
19:41
Speaker 1: is wide and flat and there's a lot of run off.
19:43
Speaker 1: Even though it's a high speed circuit that is dangerous.
19:46
Speaker 1: Spa is much more dangerous, like you said, we've learned
19:48
Speaker 1: that to devastating effect recently. So I think that's perfectly
19:50
Speaker 1: fine that they called that, And I think there's also
19:53
Speaker 1: a bit of a I associate this with Michael Massey,
19:57
Speaker 1: but I and I think it was him that sort
19:59
Speaker 1: of brought this print, which is that it's better to
20:01
Speaker 1: try and manage a racer that you get the maximum
20:04
Speaker 1: number of racing laps, and if that means delaying the
20:07
Speaker 1: start a bit or a lot in this case, that's
20:10
Speaker 1: better because the alternative was, yes, you lose five laps
20:12
Speaker 1: circulating behind the safety guard to get some water off.
20:14
Speaker 1: Maybe you would have got three laps free, and then
20:17
Speaker 1: the rain would have arrived and you would have red flagged,
20:19
Speaker 1: and then by the time you restarted another couple of
20:21
Speaker 1: laps behind the safety card, you've lost a quarter of
20:23
Speaker 1: the race distance effectively, And then what's the point of that?
20:25
Speaker 1: May as well, wait, we got well, it wasn't quite
20:28
Speaker 1: forty four laps because we spent four behind the safety car.
20:30
Speaker 3: Maybe that could have been short of.
20:31
Speaker 1: But we've got forty laps, let's say, of racing, which
20:34
Speaker 1: is a better outcome.
20:35
Speaker 3: I think a better outcome.
20:36
Speaker 1: For the sport as well, considering we are now in
20:38
Speaker 1: that championship mindset where every point is going to count.
20:41
Speaker 1: For those two tidal leaders, it would have been frustrating,
20:44
Speaker 1: certainly if they'd walked away with half points or something
20:47
Speaker 1: else some other silly results. So I think actually the
20:50
Speaker 1: result for the sport was better, which is maybe I
20:51
Speaker 1: was a little bit surprised in the end that we
20:53
Speaker 1: got such a straightforward sporting spectacle. I suppose, not the
20:58
Speaker 1: overtaking per se, but just that we've got a pretty
21:00
Speaker 1: standard race rather than one that was interrupted a lot
21:02
Speaker 1: and had some kind of silly outcome of no reason.
21:04
Speaker 2: And we're probably a little bit jumpy still with this
21:06
Speaker 2: venue in twenty twenty one, which we were laughing about
21:08
Speaker 2: it before was an absolute nonsense because there was no
21:12
Speaker 2: way that anything was going to go around that day,
21:15
Speaker 2: and they basically did two laps and corded a race
21:17
Speaker 2: so that the promoters were told, well, you had a
21:19
Speaker 2: car race, and you if anyone's asking for refunds, then
21:22
Speaker 2: you have to deal with that and we don't have to.
21:24
Speaker 2: So it was declared a Formula one race even though
21:26
Speaker 2: that it two laps. Information behind the safety car, so
21:29
Speaker 2: confluence of circumstances, circuit history, a whole bunch of things.
21:33
Speaker 2: But I think in the end of the day, like
21:34
Speaker 2: you said, we got a race away at the end,
21:36
Speaker 2: it was a little bit delayed. The last thing you
21:40
Speaker 2: want here is for there to be some outlier of
21:42
Speaker 2: a result or half points or something that doesn't make
21:45
Speaker 2: this pure championship fight, and the good news is we
21:47
Speaker 2: have eleven rounds of that.
21:48
Speaker 3: Still to go.
21:49
Speaker 1: Let's move down map to Move of the Week, brought
21:52
Speaker 1: to you by Shannon's. Not heaps of moves this week,
21:56
Speaker 1: but there were some moves. I suspect it's gonna be
21:59
Speaker 1: one that probably at the top of the table, but
22:01
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you the chance to give me
22:03
Speaker 1: your move of the week.
22:04
Speaker 3: First.
22:04
Speaker 2: Well, I've just called up our good friends at forexx here.
22:07
Speaker 2: I've just had a look at there were twenty five
22:08
Speaker 2: overtakes apparently in the Grand Prix on Sunday, which is
22:11
Speaker 2: more than I thought. I remember about three of them.
22:14
Speaker 2: I'm going to go moves of the week plural here
22:17
Speaker 2: because the move of the week is qualifying second, because
22:21
Speaker 2: we know how that we know how that works out.
22:24
Speaker 2: Because Oscar Piastre had pole for the sprint race, Max
22:26
Speaker 2: Tostaff and was second, overtook Piastre on the first racing lap,
22:29
Speaker 2: went off to win the race, and in the Grand Prix,
22:31
Speaker 2: Norris on pole, Piastre second. Piastre over took Norris on
22:34
Speaker 2: the first racing lap of the race, lap five, I
22:37
Speaker 2: think you said, and then went on to win the race,
22:39
Speaker 2: and it's the way this track is configured that starting
22:43
Speaker 2: second and having the toe all the way up the
22:46
Speaker 2: hill from Orouge through Radion down the camel straight, that
22:48
Speaker 2: is your chance. And it becomes more heightened with the
22:51
Speaker 2: fact that these cars spar is so fast and so
22:54
Speaker 2: narrow and places where you could overtake in the past
22:57
Speaker 2: and no longer overtaking places anymore, like the bus do
23:00
Speaker 2: used to be the spot there used to be a
23:02
Speaker 2: lot of people going down as a La Saurce or
23:04
Speaker 2: turn one if you like, if you were to Michael
23:06
Speaker 2: Labonatto Courner numbers rather than names. But there's not too
23:09
Speaker 2: many places you can pass on this track now. And
23:12
Speaker 2: we were discussing golf there before, how SPA has kind
23:14
Speaker 2: of become still a fantastic race track, a real driver's track,
23:18
Speaker 2: but not a track that encourages great races anymore. And
23:21
Speaker 2: its cousin in this sense of modern day Formula one
23:24
Speaker 2: is Suzuka and they were two of the races that
23:27
Speaker 2: you would always look forward to back in the day
23:28
Speaker 2: because they were such unreal layouts with fantastic places to pass.
23:32
Speaker 2: These aren't passing tracks anymore, so you've got to take
23:34
Speaker 2: your chance, so moves plural of the week. Whoever qualified
23:38
Speaker 2: second at SPA Verstappan in the spread, Piastre in the
23:41
Speaker 2: Grand Prix, hats off to you because that was probably
23:43
Speaker 2: the major fact of you won on Saturday and Sunday.
23:46
Speaker 1: Yes, I think so, well, look at me, just compliment
23:49
Speaker 1: that and say, because my backup was going to be
23:50
Speaker 1: back to Staffen's pass and past in the s taking
23:53
Speaker 1: both of them. But that's two we only need to
23:56
Speaker 1: give away too. We don't need to be overly generous,
23:59
Speaker 1: but both in a different way. V Stappan's more conventional
24:01
Speaker 1: by starting on the grid and just doing the job well.
24:04
Speaker 3: I thought.
24:04
Speaker 1: Piastres, though, as we sort of talked about, was more
24:08
Speaker 1: impressive for the way that he had to deal with
24:10
Speaker 1: a rolling start and in the wet so much harder
24:12
Speaker 1: to judge the circumstances. The way he tackled o' rouge
24:16
Speaker 1: as well, for the first time at racing speed with
24:18
Speaker 1: racing fuel in wet conditions really guts it, really brave,
24:21
Speaker 1: you can go and find so there's some publications of
24:23
Speaker 1: the telemetry as well, just to see what he did to.
24:25
Speaker 3: Manage that gap.
24:26
Speaker 1: Awesome really and managed the speed even out of the
24:28
Speaker 1: first turnal the source, if you will, to make sure
24:31
Speaker 1: that he didn't catch Norris too quickly and then lose
24:33
Speaker 1: his momentum. It was just so well judged, even the
24:36
Speaker 1: way that he kind of I'm not even sure one
24:37
Speaker 1: hundred percent certain how intentional it was, but kind of
24:40
Speaker 1: dummied into that first corner to force Norris to kind
24:43
Speaker 1: of cover him, compromise the exit. Everything about that, because
24:46
Speaker 1: it's a long run up to where the pass was,
24:49
Speaker 1: was so well managed and judged. And I think that
24:52
Speaker 1: goes back to the point we started with, which was
24:54
Speaker 1: that he really showed everything he's got this weekend and
24:56
Speaker 1: emerge with the victory as the result.
24:58
Speaker 2: And this is one thing to know that this is
25:00
Speaker 2: going to be your opportunity. But as you said, dealing
25:02
Speaker 2: with a rolling start and dealing with the wet, he
25:05
Speaker 2: actually did it so well that I almost thought that
25:06
Speaker 2: he'd overtaken him too early, because it wasn't luck he
25:08
Speaker 2: got him. He didn't get Norris in the breaking zone
25:11
Speaker 2: at the end of the Kemel straight there. He got
25:12
Speaker 2: it well before that, and I thought, oh, if you
25:14
Speaker 2: showed your hand a little bit too early there. But
25:16
Speaker 2: this is part of what we're talking about before. There's
25:18
Speaker 2: this clarity of determining where to take your advantage and
25:23
Speaker 2: then coolly executing that that you know you mentioned it before.
25:27
Speaker 2: The guy still in his third Formula One season, it's
25:29
Speaker 2: not like he's been around for ten years and he's
25:30
Speaker 2: got heaps of experience doing this at particular tracks, and
25:33
Speaker 2: this is such a particular track. Yet the execution of
25:37
Speaker 2: something he made something that was very difficult look very easy,
25:40
Speaker 2: and if you go back and watch the onboards or
25:42
Speaker 2: look at the telemetry, as you said, that was far
25:44
Speaker 2: from an easy overtake.
25:45
Speaker 3: So yeah, hats off.
25:46
Speaker 1: Now let's be on to a couple of other matters
25:48
Speaker 1: from the week, and I feel very embarrassed mat that
25:51
Speaker 1: we haven't even talked about the sprint, which is obviously
25:55
Speaker 1: an integral part of Felt and Grop.
25:56
Speaker 3: Pre weekend there was a sprint on was it?
25:58
Speaker 1: Yeah? There was, I believe so ironically it was actually
26:01
Speaker 1: really quite a convenient time and was not delayed by
26:03
Speaker 1: the rain, which must to be very exciting for people
26:06
Speaker 1: watching it.
26:06
Speaker 2: Can I tell you a story about the sprint before
26:07
Speaker 2: you can go any further, please, let's take the Let's
26:11
Speaker 2: take the listeners behind the curtain here. So Saturday night
26:13
Speaker 2: convenient time, as you said, also convenient time for living,
26:16
Speaker 2: like doing other things under than formula one, which I
26:19
Speaker 2: was doing at the which I was doing at the time.
26:21
Speaker 2: And my plan was to get home a little late
26:23
Speaker 2: and then watch the sprint without knowing the result, which
26:25
Speaker 2: in modern day social media is basically impossible. And I
26:29
Speaker 2: saw the results, and I sent you a message and said,
26:32
Speaker 2: let me guess for stappan overtook Piastri at the end
26:34
Speaker 2: of Kemel straight on lap one, and then everyone else
26:36
Speaker 2: read around in order for the remaining eleventh laps, and
26:39
Speaker 2: you came back to me and said, yeah, pretty much,
26:42
Speaker 2: So hand up here. I have not watched the sprint,
26:44
Speaker 2: and I will not watch the sprint because that's twenty
26:47
Speaker 2: five minutes of my life.
26:48
Speaker 3: That I can have back.
26:49
Speaker 2: And I just think it shows the general apathy to
26:54
Speaker 2: the very inconsistent nature of having sprints on the calendar
26:57
Speaker 2: these days. Because you mentioned this afterwards, all three podium
27:00
Speaker 2: finishes in the sprint, they were asked about the sprint
27:02
Speaker 2: and they basically came out and said, oh, yeah, but
27:04
Speaker 2: it was only the sprint. No one really cares. And
27:07
Speaker 2: it was just so yes, it was a car race
27:09
Speaker 2: that it was five, but it was a little bit
27:11
Speaker 2: flat and I can't say that I shed too many
27:13
Speaker 2: tears from missing it in the moment and have had
27:15
Speaker 2: no desire to watch since. But perhaps that's a little
27:18
Speaker 2: bit harsh. But this is where we are with sprints
27:20
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty five, and it's not even to me
27:23
Speaker 2: the number of sprints that we have over the course
27:25
Speaker 2: of the season.
27:25
Speaker 3: It's where we have them.
27:26
Speaker 2: And we know that the six best tracks for sprints
27:29
Speaker 2: are ever going to be the six that are chosen,
27:30
Speaker 2: because that's not why the sprints get chosen, is it.
27:33
Speaker 1: Yes, Well, I think I've seen I'm not sure there's
27:35
Speaker 1: been confirmed, but I think the Dutch Grand Prix organizers
27:37
Speaker 1: potentially have accidentally announced they've got one next to you
27:39
Speaker 1: for their last race.
27:40
Speaker 3: And that's not a tracking. Additionally, not at all of
27:45
Speaker 3: a high.
27:45
Speaker 1: But I actually I was thinking about this during this sprint,
27:48
Speaker 1: in which not a lot happened. There's a bit of
27:50
Speaker 1: tension you ask of Pastory obvious had the quicker car,
27:52
Speaker 1: but Max was just too good out of that first turn,
27:55
Speaker 1: and there was no strategy obviously in the sprint, but
27:57
Speaker 1: almost you almost want to give them to where racing
28:01
Speaker 1: is more difficult because the race is not long enough
28:04
Speaker 1: for you get too frustrated by it. You know, had
28:06
Speaker 1: there been had this been the race and that had
28:08
Speaker 1: been for stapping the lead and been the dry, we
28:10
Speaker 1: know McLaren would have got ahead eventually through strategy because
28:12
Speaker 1: that had the fast race car either would have undercut
28:14
Speaker 1: or overcut and it would have merged the lead either way,
28:17
Speaker 1: and then it would have been over and you'd be like,
28:18
Speaker 1: all right, that's what it is. But at least in
28:20
Speaker 1: a short race, you know, the only way is for
28:23
Speaker 1: him to make a move on track. The problem, of course,
28:26
Speaker 1: is that with stapp and not in the championship fight,
28:28
Speaker 1: there wasn't that much motivation to take that much risk.
28:30
Speaker 3: You know, he had to go. I'm not saying that
28:31
Speaker 3: he didn't.
28:32
Speaker 1: As long as you've injured ahead of Norris, that's all
28:33
Speaker 1: that really mattered.
28:34
Speaker 3: Let's be honest. Even if he was behind him, it
28:35
Speaker 3: would have.
28:36
Speaker 1: Been one point loss. It wouldn't have mattered that much.
28:38
Speaker 1: So we talked a lot about the sprint last week.
28:41
Speaker 1: If you want any more about opinions, you can go
28:42
Speaker 1: and listen to last week's episode. I think the format
28:45
Speaker 1: is fine, but it's just so inconsequential it's not even
28:48
Speaker 1: worth talking about it any further.
28:49
Speaker 3: Let's talk about some other methods.
28:51
Speaker 2: They need to ask us to pick the six circuits
28:53
Speaker 2: that we have sprints and scanning up and down the calendar.
28:56
Speaker 2: I'm saying we should have won at Azerbaijan.
28:58
Speaker 1: Yes, well, I'm surprised that they started it there, didn't
29:01
Speaker 1: they Well, that was one of the first or in
29:02
Speaker 1: the first season, and I don't remember it was good
29:04
Speaker 1: or not, but it's one that would be good, you
29:05
Speaker 1: would think.
29:06
Speaker 2: All I remember from that year was that the slogan
29:09
Speaker 2: for the race was the speeds are higher in the
29:11
Speaker 2: land of Fire.
29:13
Speaker 3: That was all I.
29:13
Speaker 2: Remember from the very first days of Grand Prix. Other
29:16
Speaker 2: than that, I couldn't tell you. But there are six
29:18
Speaker 2: circuits that would be better than Spa to have sprints.
29:20
Speaker 2: Intel Goss is wide and I'm glad we've got that
29:22
Speaker 2: that's always served up a good sprint, But there's some
29:25
Speaker 2: you can just work your way down the order and go, no,
29:27
Speaker 2: we're not down there, We're not going there. But when
29:29
Speaker 2: they call us to ask us which six we want,
29:31
Speaker 2: we'll we'll put our claim.
29:32
Speaker 1: In we'll have the list ready to go. I'm doing
29:34
Speaker 1: about a couple of other stories from this weekend, first
29:37
Speaker 1: weekend without Christian Horner on the Red Bull Racing pitball.
29:40
Speaker 1: Don't think anyone noticed after too long. Things moved pretty quickly.
29:43
Speaker 1: In Formula one, Laura Meggie has got his career as
29:46
Speaker 1: Red Bull Racing team principle off to the perfect start
29:48
Speaker 1: with Maxi Stafford winning that forgetable sprint. But it didn't
29:53
Speaker 1: I obviously wasn't able to finish on the podium in
29:55
Speaker 1: the Grand Prix. Was Maxis stapp and frustrated. It wasn't irony.
29:57
Speaker 3: You know.
29:58
Speaker 1: We talked about the rain earlier on that in Silverston
30:00
Speaker 1: had set up his car as a dry and it
30:02
Speaker 1: turned out to be wet. In Belgium, he set it
30:04
Speaker 1: up for the wet and most of the race and
30:06
Speaker 1: being dry, but that's sometimes just the luck of things.
30:08
Speaker 1: But I actually want to talk about Uki Sinodo, who's
30:10
Speaker 1: scored no points again, but actually I think much better
30:14
Speaker 1: weekend from him, certainly qualifying because his best qualifying at
30:17
Speaker 1: Red Bull Racing, both in terms of being seven on
30:19
Speaker 1: the grid and the percentage difference between him and the
30:22
Speaker 1: staffen so in terms of pace, got an upgrade this weekend.
30:25
Speaker 1: Still not on the same class of upgrades, but there's
30:28
Speaker 1: a little difference there. But I thought it was actually
30:29
Speaker 1: the way he talked about his feeling after qualifying, of
30:33
Speaker 1: having Lauren on the pit wall, felt like he felt
30:36
Speaker 1: like he was back at racing Bulls where he must
30:38
Speaker 1: have fond memories of his own high level of performance.
30:41
Speaker 1: That I think is actually something we might see changing
30:44
Speaker 1: relatively quickly, that maybe just this change of manager might
30:48
Speaker 1: activate that second driver a little bit.
30:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, you mentioned not many people had missed Christian Horne
30:52
Speaker 2: and not being there, including the Red Bull Comms department
30:54
Speaker 2: that still had a Christian's name above Laurel Mickeys's quotes
30:58
Speaker 2: and their post race press release of I forgot the
31:00
Speaker 2: age the template.
31:00
Speaker 3: There would quotes. We don't know.
31:02
Speaker 2: It could have been his quotes. He's probably on a
31:04
Speaker 2: horse somewhere or doing something.
31:06
Speaker 3: It shows you.
31:07
Speaker 2: We've discussed this in the past with Sonoda. We forget
31:10
Speaker 2: sometimes because this is a mechanical, data driven sport, there
31:13
Speaker 2: is a human element that is less important for some
31:16
Speaker 2: drivers and more important for others and some you know,
31:19
Speaker 2: it's the character stick approach, isn't it. Sonoda is someone
31:21
Speaker 2: who needs an arm Randy's shoulder to perhaps flatten out
31:25
Speaker 2: some of the emotional peaks and troughs that we've seen
31:27
Speaker 2: him go through. He clearly responds to a different type
31:31
Speaker 2: of management structure, and as Sir Jeo Buru Is memorably
31:35
Speaker 2: said in an interview just recently, the whole Red Bull
31:38
Speaker 2: set up is the second driver is somewhat of an
31:40
Speaker 2: inconvenience there. Let's be perfectly honest, because the whole thing
31:42
Speaker 2: is based around for stapit and for some drivers they
31:45
Speaker 2: might take that as a well, you know, I'll show you,
31:47
Speaker 2: I'll make you care about me because I'll get great
31:50
Speaker 2: results and there's a bit of us against the world
31:52
Speaker 2: and you know, fight your own corner. Maybe Sonoda's not
31:55
Speaker 2: that driver, and that's not a criticism of Sonoda in
31:57
Speaker 2: any way. Different people need different things to go racing
32:00
Speaker 2: and be the best version of themselves. And there's a
32:03
Speaker 2: personal touch there with the Mechias stuff, because we know
32:06
Speaker 2: that there is a history between the two of them.
32:09
Speaker 2: But even little things like coming off the pit wall
32:12
Speaker 2: or out of the garage to sort of give him
32:13
Speaker 2: the thumbs up and the round of applause after a
32:15
Speaker 2: particularly good session. Sonoda wasn't getting that in the past,
32:19
Speaker 2: and there was absolutely no way and hell he was
32:21
Speaker 2: going to get that in the past. And whether that
32:23
Speaker 2: is consciously annoying him or not, that's something that's not
32:27
Speaker 2: allowing you to be the best version of yourself. And
32:29
Speaker 2: so if he feels that there's a little bit more
32:31
Speaker 2: belief and investment in what he's doing, perhaps that contributes
32:34
Speaker 2: to just being a little bit better on track. He
32:37
Speaker 2: was actually really unlucky, just unfortunate in the race. I
32:39
Speaker 2: think he got called in the call for him to
32:41
Speaker 2: come into pit came too late and he was already
32:44
Speaker 2: past the pit lane entry point, so he didn't pit
32:45
Speaker 2: when he was supposed to and fell outside.
32:47
Speaker 3: Of the points.
32:48
Speaker 2: Pace Wise, it was a lot more convincing. I don't
32:51
Speaker 2: think there's suddenly going to be this huge transformation and
32:53
Speaker 2: that Red Bull are suddenly going to have two cars
32:55
Speaker 2: in Q three every weekend and they're going to be
32:57
Speaker 2: fighting for something meaningful. But it was the first time
33:00
Speaker 2: you could actually say since Sonoda has been there that, oh,
33:03
Speaker 2: there is an uptick in his performance. And there is
33:06
Speaker 2: so much of this season left to go. We know
33:08
Speaker 2: that Redbell's winning need the championship this year, but it
33:10
Speaker 2: does pose an interesting question for twenty twenty six because
33:13
Speaker 2: we've got a new rule set coming in. The whole
33:16
Speaker 2: Red Bull thing is very up in the air. We
33:18
Speaker 2: know that v Stappens likely to stay now, which we'll
33:20
Speaker 2: get into in a bit, but the identity of who
33:23
Speaker 2: drives that second car it still seems to be, well,
33:26
Speaker 2: who's going to be driving at and in the past,
33:28
Speaker 2: does anyone care who's driving it? Because it didn't really
33:30
Speaker 2: feel like they did. I wonder if this is the
33:33
Speaker 2: first step to him having a perfectly decent end of
33:36
Speaker 2: the season and doing enough to at least maintain the
33:39
Speaker 2: status quo because there is a fast Formula One driver
33:41
Speaker 2: in there. We've seen that he's never going to be
33:44
Speaker 2: the most metronomically consistent driver because that's not in his nature.
33:47
Speaker 2: But he's also someone that can throw a surprise result
33:50
Speaker 2: from time to time if he feels that the team's
33:52
Speaker 2: behind him and he's got some beliefs, So it wouldn't
33:54
Speaker 2: surprise me if at all, if this becomes the rule
33:57
Speaker 2: rather than the exception. I don't think he's going to
33:59
Speaker 2: be amazing. I think he's going to be better than
34:01
Speaker 2: he has shown since he's been at Rebull Racing.
34:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we shouldn't forget. I mean, notwithstanding that maybe
34:05
Speaker 1: policies changed a little bit under a new team Vincible,
34:08
Speaker 1: but really what Red Bull Racing has wanted acknowledging that
34:10
Speaker 1: Max wi stapp and regardless of the folly of potentially
34:13
Speaker 1: building a team exclusively around him, is very good and
34:16
Speaker 1: they've only wanted a driver who can get within about
34:18
Speaker 1: three tenths of him. That's usually pretty respectable. Maybe these
34:22
Speaker 1: days it's so much closer at Theront you want a
34:23
Speaker 1: little bit less, but that was essentially where he was
34:25
Speaker 1: this weekend. So as long as he can be thereabouts,
34:28
Speaker 1: that's good enough.
34:28
Speaker 3: And I think there's.
34:29
Speaker 1: Maybe almost a bit of a perverse advantage in these
34:32
Speaker 1: circumstances of him having had such a bad start that
34:35
Speaker 1: the only way he's up for him in a weird way,
34:37
Speaker 1: And yeah, it doesn't matter. You know, there's a momentum alember.
34:39
Speaker 1: There's also a you know, everyone loves to say you're
34:41
Speaker 1: only as good as your last result. But if we
34:43
Speaker 1: get to the end of the year and he's gone
34:44
Speaker 1: from being regularly out in Q one and Q two
34:47
Speaker 1: to being regularly in the top ten and regularly scoring.
34:50
Speaker 1: That's going to look like, well, it will be real progress,
34:52
Speaker 1: even if it's still down on what he was doing
34:54
Speaker 1: at other teams or at Racing Bulls any other team.
34:57
Speaker 1: I think that will count for something. I'd be surprised
35:00
Speaker 1: when we don't know how the second half of the
35:01
Speaker 1: season looks for him. Maybe it's just as bad as
35:03
Speaker 1: the first, and then we do have more difficult conversations,
35:05
Speaker 1: but wouldn't be surprised with some improved results if they
35:08
Speaker 1: make what I think will be the right decision, short
35:10
Speaker 1: of some much more experienced driver suddenly rocking up on
35:13
Speaker 1: the market, and give him that second year in a
35:15
Speaker 1: new car that, hopefully for the sake of the team
35:18
Speaker 1: as much as the driver doesn't have all those negative
35:22
Speaker 1: traits built into it that make it so undriveable for
35:24
Speaker 1: anyone who isn't max with Staffen, and then he can
35:27
Speaker 1: perform in the way that we know and the way
35:29
Speaker 1: that he proved I think in the last well eighteen months,
35:31
Speaker 1: or let's say the year and a bit before he
35:33
Speaker 1: moved to Red Bull Racing, that he deserves that shot
35:35
Speaker 1: at being a front running driver, But that remains to
35:38
Speaker 1: be seen. I guess for next year. We do know
35:40
Speaker 1: now or ninety nine percent certain that Max with Staffann
35:43
Speaker 1: will be staying next year because Helmet Marco, who was
35:45
Speaker 1: told not that long ago to stop talking to the media,
35:47
Speaker 1: has told the media that Max with Staffen is locked
35:49
Speaker 1: in now for next year. But we kind of knew
35:51
Speaker 1: that Matt, didn't We from what we knew about the
35:52
Speaker 1: contract clauses, the escape clauses that this was always likely
35:55
Speaker 1: going to happen.
35:55
Speaker 2: Well, if we're understanding the same clause here, I believe
35:58
Speaker 2: that Verstaffen would have had freedom to do whatever he
36:01
Speaker 2: wished or at least break the contract he had if
36:04
Speaker 2: he was outside the top three in the World Championship
36:06
Speaker 2: at the mid season break, and looking at the points
36:08
Speaker 2: table now he cannot be outside the point of the
36:10
Speaker 2: top three and the mid season break which is coming
36:12
Speaker 2: up after Hungary, he is what is that eighteen points
36:15
Speaker 2: ahead of George Russell who is in fourth. But even
36:18
Speaker 2: if George Russell was to tie him after Hungary, Verstappam
36:21
Speaker 2: would have the tiebreaker by virtue of winning more races.
36:23
Speaker 2: So maxis staying where he is at least for twenty
36:26
Speaker 2: twenty six. So I think it takes that out of
36:28
Speaker 2: the equation, and I think you'll probably see a Russell
36:31
Speaker 2: George Russell deal with Mercedes announced in pretty short order now,
36:34
Speaker 2: So it's going to maintain the status quo. Now, what
36:36
Speaker 2: happens after twenty six comes in and new engines and
36:39
Speaker 2: are red Bull any good and what's going on with
36:41
Speaker 2: the power trains and so on and so forth. That's
36:43
Speaker 2: a subsequent conversation. But I think the Max Boltington Mercedes stories,
36:47
Speaker 2: we can probably press pause on those for a while.
36:50
Speaker 1: Yes, And a hash tip I suppose to Nico Rosberg
36:53
Speaker 1: and think I'd say that too often for trying to
36:55
Speaker 1: get some answers out of yours for stuff about this entire.
36:58
Speaker 3: Can we talk about Nicoburg for a second here? There
37:02
Speaker 3: is a loose.
37:03
Speaker 2: Canned element to him being on the sky f one broadcast, because,
37:07
Speaker 2: let's be honest, Nico Rosberg doesn't need to be there.
37:10
Speaker 2: Nico Rosberg may even not want to be there all
37:12
Speaker 2: that much. Nico Rosberg doesn't care what you think and
37:15
Speaker 2: doesn't care about protocols or anything else. So there is
37:18
Speaker 2: a delightful element of kind of car crash TV going
37:21
Speaker 2: on when he's got a microphone and it's live, and
37:24
Speaker 2: he joined Martin Brundle on the grid walk before the
37:27
Speaker 2: Belgian Grand Prix, and it was probably the most fun
37:30
Speaker 2: I've had watching Nico Rosberg do anything for quite some time,
37:32
Speaker 2: because it was slightly unhinged and you knew that he
37:36
Speaker 2: was just going to wade in there and asking difficult
37:38
Speaker 2: questions because he does not care what you think about
37:40
Speaker 2: you in terms of the response. I thoroughly enjoyed it
37:43
Speaker 2: and it was quite fun seeing your squirm a little bit,
37:46
Speaker 2: wasn't it.
37:47
Speaker 3: Yes, it's amazing.
37:48
Speaker 1: What affected has it a person when they know they're
37:50
Speaker 1: probably wealthier than everyone on the.
37:52
Speaker 3: Grit they're going to talk to what do you mean? Probably?
37:54
Speaker 1: Yes, there was that point where you're not allowed to
37:56
Speaker 1: talk to the drivers anymore because it's close to end
37:58
Speaker 1: them time and you can hear Martin Brundle, please h
38:00
Speaker 1: Rosford not to try to talk to or any drivers
38:03
Speaker 1: because someone will particulably get in trouble for it. Before
38:06
Speaker 1: we wrap up, I do want to touch very briefly
38:07
Speaker 1: on Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari. Dreadful weekend for Lewis Hamilton,
38:10
Speaker 1: but a reasonable outcome I suppose in the context, not
38:14
Speaker 1: in the context of what he expected himself. Seven to
38:16
Speaker 1: the Belgian Grand Prix, not great someone who's wanted so
38:18
Speaker 1: many times, but coming from eighteenth on the grid made
38:22
Speaker 1: many of those twenty odd overtakes that you mentioned all
38:25
Speaker 1: in the wet, though in the dry couldn't overtake anyone,
38:27
Speaker 1: at least of all Alex Elbon, who finished ahead of him,
38:30
Speaker 1: not for the first time this season as well. So
38:31
Speaker 1: that says a little bit of something, but a little
38:33
Speaker 1: bit of optimism at the end of a weekend in
38:36
Speaker 1: which Ferrari brought that significant suspension change. Char Leclair, at least,
38:41
Speaker 1: who had a better weekend, was much more positive about them,
38:44
Speaker 1: so he could feel the difference that had worked. Lewis
38:45
Speaker 1: Hamilton as his way when things aren't going his way,
38:48
Speaker 1: says nothing is good and everything is bad. But I
38:50
Speaker 1: suspect this week and in hungry he might actually realize
38:52
Speaker 1: the upgrade was okay. But I thought there's two sizes,
38:56
Speaker 1: isn't there. On the one hand, Ferrari emerged looking like
38:59
Speaker 1: a competitive for sex and best with red bull racing
39:01
Speaker 1: this weekend and scored more points and red bulls. But
39:03
Speaker 1: on the other hand, I thought it was very telling
39:05
Speaker 1: how unenthusiastically charlote Cliff finished third on the podium, realizing
39:09
Speaker 1: there's twenty seconds to McLaren in a race with no
39:11
Speaker 1: safety cards. I think that's sort of that's that tells
39:14
Speaker 1: you everything about Ferrari season.
39:15
Speaker 3: Really, yeah, it does.
39:16
Speaker 2: I mean, he was not the happiest buddy on the
39:19
Speaker 2: podium there when he's standing there with a bunch of
39:21
Speaker 2: people wearing orange. He was in there for the team photos,
39:23
Speaker 2: but not super enthusiastic about it. But the Hamilton weekend,
39:26
Speaker 2: I think it was what happened on Sunday salvaged a
39:30
Speaker 2: pretty dire weekend for him personally. But we also know
39:33
Speaker 2: that there's probably plenty of head room with him in
39:35
Speaker 2: that upgrade package for the Ferrari to get better. The
39:39
Speaker 2: interesting part for me is that yes, we already have
39:41
Speaker 2: one race before the mid season break. It's a what
39:44
Speaker 2: you might say is he's best historically his best circuit.
39:47
Speaker 2: He's been amazingly good at Hungary over the years, and
39:50
Speaker 2: I think if we're ever going to see him come
39:52
Speaker 2: to terms with a new package for a new car
39:54
Speaker 2: that he's only intermittently shone with this year, I think
39:58
Speaker 2: this weekend in Budapest, assuming that we get a sensible,
40:01
Speaker 2: dry race weekend where they're clearly not going to be
40:03
Speaker 2: fighting for the top step. It'd be really interesting to
40:06
Speaker 2: see what difference he can make at a circuit where
40:08
Speaker 2: he's typically been really, really good with a weekend of
40:11
Speaker 2: getting used to this upgrade package under his belt. I
40:13
Speaker 2: think this conversation that you and I have right now
40:16
Speaker 2: might be very different this time next week, because if
40:19
Speaker 2: he is able to have a strong top five, say
40:21
Speaker 2: in Budapest, and certainly be the equal to or maybe
40:24
Speaker 2: even ahead of Leclaire, I think that's a real step
40:26
Speaker 2: in the right direction.
40:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's worth saying. In the last or the four
40:29
Speaker 1: races before Belgium, let's say, has been really much closer
40:32
Speaker 1: to Charlott Clair, qualifying ahead of him regularly, in fact
40:34
Speaker 1: more often than not, and in the races he's been
40:38
Speaker 1: reasonable as well. Yes, Laclire maybe hasn't had the cleanestrun,
40:41
Speaker 1: but it shows that that progress was there. But there
40:43
Speaker 1: are a couple of things that take him back. I mean,
40:45
Speaker 1: an upgrade on sprint weekend is always a risk, I think,
40:47
Speaker 1: particularly for a driver who is still adjusting to some
40:49
Speaker 1: of the nuances of this car. A change in brake
40:51
Speaker 1: material we've learned now as well. It's probably worth I
40:54
Speaker 1: thought it was an interesting or an important time to
40:56
Speaker 1: remember that his years of Mercedes, everything that happened at
41:00
Speaker 1: that time is essentially iterative. Once you get used to
41:02
Speaker 1: the car for the first time, everything just changes gradually
41:04
Speaker 1: and you're part of that gradual change. At Ferrari's had
41:08
Speaker 1: to get used to brand new car and then all
41:10
Speaker 1: these sudden changes sort of throw him out of that
41:12
Speaker 1: process a little bit. We should make excuses. He's a
41:15
Speaker 1: seven time world champion. He would have been expecting to
41:17
Speaker 1: do better than this at this point. But it all
41:19
Speaker 1: feels explainable, especially when the target is next year anyway,
41:22
Speaker 1: when everyone's going to start from a clean page. So
41:25
Speaker 1: as long as he's not embarrassing himself out there this season,
41:27
Speaker 1: I think there's still reason to feel like this Ferrari
41:30
Speaker 1: chapter doesn't have to be a Peter out and can
41:32
Speaker 1: at least deliver some high points.
41:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Dan, and I think you mentioned the back
41:36
Speaker 2: end of the season here. It was a characteristic of
41:38
Speaker 2: all of his championship winning seasons at Mercedes, or even
41:40
Speaker 2: seasons in his career where he's not been fighting for
41:43
Speaker 2: a World Championship. He's always been a much better second
41:46
Speaker 2: half driver than a first half driver, and a lot
41:48
Speaker 2: of the times he would win his championships with Mercedes
41:51
Speaker 2: is we would get the other side of the mid
41:52
Speaker 2: season break and he would just be absolutely lights out.
41:56
Speaker 2: For the rest of the season, he would be fantastic,
41:58
Speaker 2: including quite frankly, the season that he didn't win the
42:01
Speaker 2: World Championship in twenty twenty one, where I don't I
42:04
Speaker 2: think that might be the best he's ever driven. Over
42:06
Speaker 2: the last five or six races of that season, he
42:09
Speaker 2: was absolutely perfect, and we know why he didn't win
42:11
Speaker 2: the World Championship. But there is a trend there. He
42:14
Speaker 2: is really really good towards the back end of seasons.
42:16
Speaker 2: That's when he tends to peak. When you mentioned before,
42:19
Speaker 2: he's comfortable with the environment and the machinery and the
42:21
Speaker 2: way it's developed, and then he can be the best
42:24
Speaker 2: version of himself. I think the arrow will point up
42:26
Speaker 2: for him for the rest of the season.
42:28
Speaker 1: We pretty much used up all of our time him out,
42:30
Speaker 1: but we cannot end without visiting the crystal ball by
42:32
Speaker 1: complete home filtration. I don't think either of us have
42:35
Speaker 1: much of a record on this this season, we should
42:36
Speaker 1: have been keeping a tally within again, maybe better that
42:39
Speaker 1: we don't. Boy certainly think whatever I wanted to predict
42:42
Speaker 1: the Hamilton's Sprint, wind of a staff and race win.
42:44
Speaker 2: Dire I had a Mercedes or the podium. It's even
42:46
Speaker 2: more dire if we're going to have a competition to
42:48
Speaker 2: see whose crystal ball needs to go in the bin
42:50
Speaker 2: the first. But yeah, I've managed to plug by crystal
42:53
Speaker 2: ball in this week and actually get some sort of
42:55
Speaker 2: battery in it. And I'm going to stick with something
42:57
Speaker 2: we discussed before in terms of the Yuki Sindo question
43:00
Speaker 2: at Red Bull Racing. So, Yuki Sonoda is currently in
43:03
Speaker 2: seventeenth place in the World Championship standings with ten points,
43:06
Speaker 2: and he has not scored since round seven, which is
43:08
Speaker 2: a very very long time ago. Round seven, he says,
43:11
Speaker 2: hovering his mouse over the table, here was back in
43:14
Speaker 2: the Amelia Romonia Grand Prix. Lest we forget that one.
43:18
Speaker 2: I'm going to go out on a limb. Here my
43:19
Speaker 2: crystal ball says that by the end of the season,
43:21
Speaker 2: Yuki Sonoda is going to score at least thirty points.
43:24
Speaker 2: So he's going to score twenty points in the remaining
43:27
Speaker 2: eleven rounds of the season. That's actually not a lot.
43:30
Speaker 2: But you can get to thirty points if you can
43:32
Speaker 2: get to thirty points, if you have a sixth here
43:34
Speaker 2: and a couple of sevenths there, and I think that's
43:36
Speaker 2: entirely possible. So we can revisit this one in December
43:39
Speaker 2: if I'm correct, and if I'm not correct, I will
43:41
Speaker 2: never mention it again, and neither will you.
43:42
Speaker 1: I like that if he scores thirty points, not thirty
43:45
Speaker 1: additional points or thirty in total.
43:47
Speaker 2: No, thirty total. I'm not going to give thirty more.
43:49
Speaker 2: I'm going to get He'll get to the he's going
43:51
Speaker 2: to have to score twenty one more points for the remainder.
43:53
Speaker 3: Of the season.
43:54
Speaker 2: I think it's happening.
43:55
Speaker 1: So he still finishes behind Nikko HOLKENBERGA very probably.
44:00
Speaker 3: That's I do. I know he's got thirty seven seven.
44:03
Speaker 3: It's thirty seven to twenty seven. I like it. I
44:05
Speaker 3: like the long range.
44:07
Speaker 1: I like the simultaneously low but high bars somehow, so
44:12
Speaker 1: I'm very excited to see that. I'm going to continue
44:15
Speaker 1: I think probably flogging a dead horse with this one.
44:18
Speaker 1: I've made a lot of Lewis Hamilton predictions that obviously
44:20
Speaker 1: have not come true. But like you say, this is
44:23
Speaker 1: one of his arguably his best track probably with Silverston,
44:26
Speaker 1: and he's got eight victories here, way more than anybody else,
44:29
Speaker 1: and Hungry is a long standing circling forward on.
44:32
Speaker 3: It's been around for a long.
44:33
Speaker 1: Time and he's just consistently been fast here. I think
44:39
Speaker 1: he's not going to win it, but I think he's
44:41
Speaker 1: going to get onto the podium. That's as good as
44:43
Speaker 1: any anyone else can aim for this season, obviously, because
44:47
Speaker 1: I think McLaren's gonna have things in pretty straightforward fashion
44:49
Speaker 1: like they did last year with the one two. I'll
44:51
Speaker 1: be McLaren one to where things with Lewis Hamilton complementing
44:54
Speaker 1: the podium.
44:54
Speaker 2: I do like this because you're working on the theory
44:57
Speaker 2: that a stopped clock is right twice a day. So
44:59
Speaker 2: you're just going to keep we Habilton predictions out there
45:02
Speaker 2: and sometime between now in December you're going to go
45:04
Speaker 2: see I got my Habilt one right, and I won't
45:06
Speaker 2: have to remind you that the previous ten were complete rubbish.
45:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, let's see what happens.
45:10
Speaker 1: But I don't have high homes personally Considay, how often
45:13
Speaker 1: I've been wrong, but that's okay. That's all the time
45:15
Speaker 1: we have for pit Talk today. We can subscribe to
45:17
Speaker 1: pit Talk wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you
45:19
Speaker 1: can leave us a rating and review as well. This
45:21
Speaker 1: weekend is the Formula one Hungarian Grand Prix, with lights
45:25
Speaker 1: out at eleven pm on Sunday. You can keep up
45:28
Speaker 1: to date with all the latest F one, supercars and
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Speaker 1: MotoGP news at foxsports dot com. Dot are you from
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Speaker 1: Matt Clayton and me Michael Lomanato. Thanks very much for
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Speaker 1: your company. We'll catch you next week.