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How did Sergio Pérez save his seat? Belgian GP Review · Pit Talk

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Pit Talk, a Fox Sports and
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Speed Cafe Formula one podcast. On today's episode, Red Bull
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Racing kicks the Sergio Perez can down the road despite
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: his slumping form, putting on ice, Daniel Ricardo's plans to
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: return to the top team, and George Russell is stripped
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: of a sensational victory at the Belgian Grand Prix, but
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: luckily for Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton was behind him to inherit
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the win. My name is Michael Lamonato, motorsport writer for
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Fox Sports Australia, and it's great to have your company
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: and the company of my co host from Speed Cafe.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: He was surprised to discover that he shoes a three
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: hundred and seventy grams lighter after changing them just once.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Today it's Matt Cotch.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: I believe it.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: On the socks, Yeah, the threadbare socks is what's done it?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: I think? Today? Yeah? Gooday? How how are you going?
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: How are you going? What a way to start?
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: It's been a it's been a I was gonna say
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: a hell of a week. It's been a hell of
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: a thirty six hours since the end of the Belgian
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Grand Prix or forty eight hours depending on your listening
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: to this. I'm glad this podcast being recorded slightly later
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: than usual, because otherwise we would have probably sound sounded
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: pretty stupid. I imagine that we recorded immediately.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Chances are we already do sound stupid because at this rate,
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: you know, Olie Bhaman has been announced at Ferrari, and
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: charl Leclair is going to be driving for Audi, and
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: you know Petta Solberg's going to come out of rally
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: retirement and join George Russell at Mercedes. I mean, who
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: knows what's going to happen. It's been that sort of
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: week where every time you think it's all stopped and
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: settled down and we can move serenely into the holidays,
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: you just get sucker punched once more.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: I personally blame Fernando Orlonso because all right, all right,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: I feel like he started the trend just two years
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: ago by deliberately withholding contract news until the Monday after
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: the last race before the break. And while I'm the
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: one hand you look, I'm appreciative it's not the following
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: week when everyone's really turned off, but it just like,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: just do it a bit earlier, just get it out
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: of the way so that when the last race is done,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: everyone can just focus on the sort of mid season review,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: reflecting on the season, the half season that was, instead
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: of having to then change the narrative.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: So, I think it's really comes down to being his fault.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: I see how you've got there. I don't argue, but
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: I feel like we're jumping the gun a little bit here.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: We're sort of we're using the best of our jokes
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: or AMMO or inside or whatever it is for the
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: Fast five.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Yes, I usually describe it as AMMO as well. Let's
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: go into the five stories. You well, you won't have
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: missed most of these. Let's be honest our big stories
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: with the five stories that need wrapping up before we
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: head into the next week of Formula one and Matt.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Let's start with Carlos Science, the most recent of these.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: He's ended months of speculation by finally agreeing to join
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Williams for at least two seasons, where he'll join Alex
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Albon in a rare, totally appendix free driver line.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: It's all Fernande a Lonzo's fault. Really, I had to
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: get that in there, Yeah, curous, I mean the timing
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: is weird, you know, sort of three point thirty UK
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: time on the Monday after the final race before the
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: summer break. I mean it's people will be traveling, people
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: will be switching off. It's just odd timing.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: So I'd be.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: Interested to understand why that's the case. In terms of
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: driver signings, Good job Williams. I think that's a really
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: solid signing. I do rate Carlos very very highly. But
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: in terms of in terms of his options, it's probably
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: the least worse.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: I mean our pen and Audi.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: The more we learn, particularly about the latter, the more
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: it seems like the former. So yeah, perhaps perhaps Williams
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: was was It's a common phrase on this podcast, the
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: least worse option.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. The tagline. This is a strong driver
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: line up too, into next year, of course, but particularly
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: into twenty twenty six when they might be more on
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: the line to Estevan Okhon now because he beats signs
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: to the announcement punch that was coming ahead of the
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: midseason break with his own confirmation that he'll be replacing
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Kevin magnuson at Heart next year, where he'll partner Olie Berman.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he just keeps following Nicko Hlckenberg around the grid,
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: doesn't he It's probably also Fernando's fault somewhere. But I mean, ultimately,
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: we knew this one for a long time coming, didn't we.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: It was sort of an open secret.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: It was known that he wasn't going to remain at Alpine,
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: even though Alpine put the announcement out and sort of
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: just told us what we already knew, and from there
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: it was pretty simple deduction. The only wild card was
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: the relationship with Mercedes, but after Monaco that didn't seem
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: realistic anymore.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: I like too that this sort of just gives you
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: the impression which I think is very much the case
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: of heart that is just getting on with business, didn't
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: get caught up in the Carlos science obstructed driver market,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: saw a driver it wanted, got it in the car
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: cars developing. Everything's moving relatively smoothly at half, so a
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: fine signing for them too. During the week, though Audi
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: significantly less smooth sailing. They announced a management clean out,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: with both CEO Andrea Seidel and Audi group representative Oliver
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Hoffman both turfed, and former Ferrari team principal Matir Bonotto
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: remember him, brought in as chief operating and Chief technical officer.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: This is all politics, but not even at the AUDI
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: Formula one levels. More up the chain in the Rogue
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: CAA division, Hoffman was a little bit of a lame
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: duck in that structure, and with that there was some
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: power struggles with andrecidel at Sauber and the project allegedly
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: having black holes in its accounting worth a billion dollars.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: But interestingly, if you look at all of this, the
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: people who've come into the project are now left. The
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: people who are intrinsic and getting this going were all
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: somehow linked to BMW Sauber back in the day, hallmarks
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: of that program as well. But it's a It is
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: a woeful start for AUDI in Formula one. It's got
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: a very long road. There is no hope that that
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: project is going to be competitive in twenty twenty six.
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: In my opinion, there's just too much work to be
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: done there now.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Yeaes shame on Fernando also causing all that damage as
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: well over at Alpha.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I could.
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: Be linked to this.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: At least three Alpine Team principal Bruno Famine has announced
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: he'll call it quits at the end of the month,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: as Alpine undergoes what's increasingly looking like quite a major
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: upheaval with its F one engine program also likely to
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: be shuttered, essentially ending its work status, which is.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: Remarkable, ending its work stats again because Reno's coming going
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: out of the sports several times over.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: The last forty odd years.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: You know, it was a Renu factory team in the
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: seventies and then and then late nineties, early two thousand
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: and so on. So yeah, Famine leaving for me isn't
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: the big story. He's a team principal. He's someone who
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: who's a seat filler effectively at that team, because every
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: ten principle for a little while has been there. But
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: the big story is the Reno power unit thing, because that,
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: to me, shutting that program tells me that they're trying
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: to shed a liability. You know, that's one hundred and
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: thirty million dollars a year. Under the new cost cap regulations,
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: they can go out and pick a more competitive engine
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: off the shelf for fifteen minut I think it's actually
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: seventeen million euro that they can pick that up for
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: and instantly be more competitive. So that's just no brainer.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: Makes a team more attractive to sell, not that they're selling.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: We keep being told. However, the oliver oakes high Tech
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: link and their interest in Formula one about twelve months
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: ago when expressions of ventures open.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: That's an interesting one, isn't it.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Nothing's for sale until it's sold, generally in Formula One.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: And finally to go back a week to the Hungarian
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Grand Prix, and of course the team orders controversy that
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: ensued at McLaren Lendo. Norris, after having a few days
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: to think about it, admitted that he does regret in
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: hindsight disobeying team orders in Buddhepeat because it overshadowed at
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: least in part Oscar Piastre's made and Grand pre victory,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: even though he did eventually acquiesce.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: I think you called this at the time where I
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: think you said that he would have been better moving
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: over pretty much immediately letting Piastre have the brace and
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: then attacking him race to the end. They're in a
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: position to do that.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: They didn't.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: That was a hole in their team orders structure and
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: you know their pre race meetings, so that's an opportunity
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: to be to be tied up. But yeah, Lando has
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: at least acknowledged his failings in that which is which
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: is a credit to him. It's difficult to come out
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: and say hey I got it wrong, but to his
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: credit he stood up and said hey I got it wrong.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: So full marks to him. I took points away from
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: him in the in the last in last week's leaderboard
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: with with our ratings at the end. So let's see
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: how we go this week? How does Oscar? How does Oscar?
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: And how Orlando's school this week?
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Oh well, don't don't give too much to.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Get the hook out there, don't we keep them?
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Keep them?
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: Kean?
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: All right, play our top five stories from this week.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: But let's move on to really the biggest story of
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: the week. It supersedes all of those five, and that
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: is that is the news about status quo being retained
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: remarkable at Red Bull Racing. After a meeting on Monday
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: crunch talks among Red Bull hierarchy, Red Bull management, the
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: resolution was that Sergio Perez will be in the car
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: after the August break, after the mid season break at
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: the Dutch Grand Prix. Fairly careful words chosen. Mat Let's
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: start with the words and then consider some of the
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: statistics as to why I was so surprising that Sergio
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Perez was given this day of execution. This is from
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Christian Horner. Checko remains a Red Bull Racing driver, despite
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: recent speculation, and we look forward to seeing him perform
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: at tracks he is previously excelled at after the Summer break.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Not a lot of definitive phrases in this clause. I
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: know some will be tempted to say, well, you've been
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: making up this nonsense for the last six months and
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: lo and behold, nothing's changed. There's definitely still something going
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: on here, isn't there.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: Yes, stop press, nothing has changed. It's a weird state
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: of affairs. Because this is a story. I'm sure we've
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: both been following it quite closely, but took particular interest
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: me Over the Belgian Grand Prix. I was in constant
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: communication with sources across the paddock and it was just
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: continually changing. At one moment it was Lawsons in for Perees,
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: then it was Peis are safe, then it's Daniels in
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: and leaving Belgium.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: The intel was.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: Daniels in the Red Bulls seat, Perees has gone, Lim's
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: coming into RB and the only complication there was this
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: shootout test that they're allegedly having on Wednesday and Immula
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: and that was ultimately to decide whether, well maybe leams
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: a bet about you put him in Red Bull instead.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: But yeah, again it's a bizarre one. You and I
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: were speaking offline about this and you made the very
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: good point. What doesn't sit right here is the fact
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: that there is a missing piece of the puzzle. We've
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: got everything, but that crucial piece as to why. How
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: did Christian Horner and Helmet Marko and the people in
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: that room come to the conclusion that sticking with Sergio
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: Perez was the best option. Conversely, Daniel Ricardo at RB
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: because I was convinced that if he didn't get the
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: Red Bull seat there was probably out because his position
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: within that program is to be a potential candidate for
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: Red Bull. If he's not a candidate for Red Bull,
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: he has no place in that program. That was the
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: logic I was playing. And I'm wrong. I've done Alando Norris.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: I'm standing up and I'm saying I'm wrong. Happy to
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: be wrong. I'm in Australian and he's a fantastic character.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: Is Daniel would never want to see him out of
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: Formula one, but you know the day will eventually come
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: where that will happen, and I thought it was. I
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: thought it was going to be today, I really did,
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: and here we are and nothing change. The big question now,
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: along with the why, is what does this say for
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: the Liam Lawson?
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: What does that put him?
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: There are so many different elements already to just some
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: of those questions you asked, because it's not just about
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: why have they decided to keep Sergio Perez when the
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: resolution seemed to be and also his performances seemed to
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: point to him getting receiving the acts taking the axe
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: on the chin or on the neck I suppose as
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: the metaphor, but also why having appeared to have decided
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: that Daniel had done a good enough job to replace him,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: because that is, of course the necessary other part of
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: the equation. If there really was no one at all
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: capable of doing it, then we wouldn't really be talking
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: about this. Why did they change their mind on that
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: when it seemed like all the dominoes were set to
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: fall there? And the Liam last Alemen is also kind
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: of interesting. But I think let's go back partly to
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: this statement because it answers this in part, and then
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: maybe we can talk about Sergio Perez just after that,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: and that is that this is not really a decision.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: You know, we say status quo quite deliberately. It's not
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: saying that this is now the situation through to the
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: end of the year and we talk later in the year.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Is really and I use this phrase in the intro,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: I think to kick the can down the road. The
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: impression I get, really quite strongly is that this is
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: now just on hold. It's Red Bull really desperately not
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: wanting to make this decision at all, which, depending on
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: your perspective, is either an indictment on management or is
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: the gift of great patience. I suppose one way or
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: the other. But it seems like it's another four Grand
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Prix because I really draw your attention to looking forward
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: to seeing him perform at tracks he has previously excelled
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: at two of the next four races, those being Singapore
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: and Azerbaijana are really Perez tracks. You know, we go
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: back to that identity that I think actually doesn't really
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: like that much, but the king of streets, who's always
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: good there. Three of his five Red Bull racing winds
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: have come on those tracks, and even at Monza he's
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: been okay out He's got two podiums there over the
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: course of his career. Netherlands is neither in nor there,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: but it's relatively new track I suppose anyway, so not
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: much history to be talked about. But the thinking seems
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: to be that if you're ever going to get the
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: best out of Paz again, it's going to be in
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: these races. And conveniently enough, after the Singapore Grand Prix,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: we actually have another mid season break of about the
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: same length before the United States Grand Prix, So it's
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: sort of if you're going to kick the can down
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: the road, there's a nice little landing spot, there's a
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: coulder sack at you like at the end of that road,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: which we can make that decision. But Matt, we were
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: again talking before this podcast. What's surprising here is not
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: that this has been done in the first place. I
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: get it. No one wants to sack a driver, particularly
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: not two months after you re signed him on a
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: potentially multi year deal. But then it's a red bull
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: that chose not to sack a driver. I mean, this
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: has been the most ruthless team of modern Formula One
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: drivers have been sacked for much less. Daniel Kiviat was
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: sacked after standing on the podium in the previous race
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: and beating Daniel Regard on the driver's DAMIAGEIP the previous year.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Admittedly it was for Maximstaff and so there's a bit
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: more upward pressure. But it's just surprising me considering the
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: stakes that Red Bull has lost all of its bite.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: It's curious, isn't it.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: And I wonder if that speaks to a change in
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: dynamic and that the power struggle at Rebell. We know
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: there has been a little bit of a power struggle
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: between Christian Horner a helmet Marco sort of a the
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: Austrian version of Red Bull and the Milton Keynes version
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: of Red Bull Rebel Racing specifically, So that's that's one possibily.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: I mean, ultimately, we don't know, so we're out here,
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: we're out here speculating. But you're right and that this
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: has been the most brutal Formula One operation since it
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: entered the sport twenty years ago. I mean it entered
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: the sport with a plan to rotate drivers through I
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: think of Christian Klein and vitantonioli Uzzi they shared the
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: drive alongside was it David Cool title Mark webberback then,
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: I can't remember they shared that drive.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: It was it was DC.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: You're right, they shared that drive for the better part
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: of half a season before they realized that it did work.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: The whole idea of having Red Bull and.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: Torrosso slash Arfatari slash b The idea from Digitch Manischitz
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: was to have a pool of four drivers with a
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: view to having the best performing too at any one
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: time in the senior team to deliver Constructors World Championships.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: Is that what we've got here? It's it's hard to
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: say because if that, if you were sticking to that man, Treie,
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: it's surely you put Yuki Snowder in. But he's never
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: been even been in the conversation, which is bizarre in itself.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: You're now keeping on a thirty five year old driver
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: who doesn't seem to fit the mold for what Rebel
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: Racing is now looking for, to the detriment of one
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: of its program drivers, Liean Lawson. There's a lot to
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: unpick here, a lot that we don't have visibility of
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: because everyone, everyone that I've spoken to, felt like after Spa.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: That Paris was cooked.
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: It's and yet here we are, as you say, thirty
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: six hours later and peris are safe now. The wording
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: of that statement you touched on it before Formula one
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: is a very precise game. These statements would be made
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: having been crafted initially out of the mouths of whoever
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: is said to have spoken them, but then by the
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: hands of the media boss, director of whatever their title is,
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: and then been passed by legal. What is in that
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: statement is not an accident. It is very, very very deliberate.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: So we can read into the nuance of the language
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: that I've used because it's there for a specific reason.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: Remaining a Red Bull Racing driver, well, all four of
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: the drivers who race with Rebull backing I have Red
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: Bull Racing contracts, so they're all Red Bull Racing drivers.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: It doesn't say that he will remain racing at Red
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: Bull Racing, so he could be bumped down.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: It doesn't say that he could be released later day.
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: As you rightly point out, there's all sorts of loopholes
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: in that statement that as you again very rightly say,
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: kick that can down the road. That's all we've done
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: at this point. We're just opening the pressure valve a
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: little bit, letting up some steam and hoping that it
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: doesn't build up the way it's the way it did
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: in the first half of the year, because we're going
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: to the venues that you spoke of, the Singapore is
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: and the Azawaj Giants, places where Perez, the original tile
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: whisperer does excel.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: I think the thing for me. Look, maybe Sergio Perez
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: will turn up in the Netherlands and subsequent races and
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: just be the guy we saw at the start of
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: the year. It's possible even last year and in previously
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: when he's had these forms some he does eventually recover,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: maybe not to that level of performance he showed at
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: the start of those years, but to an acceptable level
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: of performance. That is a possibility. But if you're red
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Bull Racing, and it was interesting that Helmut Marco during
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: the weekend said that the meeting was not simply about
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: the driver line up now, but with a viewed it
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: next year. Next year, red Bull won't have four or
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: five races to have built up the constructors Championship buffer
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: it's now relying upon to give Perez this extra time.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: On current jectory, McLaren will be a head just whatever
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: comes after the Singapore Grand Prix, United States Grand Prix
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: on this trajectory, so the clock is really ticking. Next
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: year will be too late if Sir Joe Peis starts
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: off like this, because McLaren will simply or whoever, will
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: simply be ahead. I mean, with results like these, we've
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: talked about similar stats. I just want to run through them,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: just because I put effort compiling to use. We talked
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: about the version of these a little while ago. These
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: are rankings comparing him to the staff and ranking him
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: relative to other teammates. He's qualifying differentially. He's six point
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: six places behind the staff on average. That's the worst
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: of any teammates when we want time differential zero point
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: five one to nine seconds, five tenths, nearly approaching six tenths. Again,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: worse of any teamate in Formuda one, finishing an average
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: of three point nine places behind the staff and worst
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: in Formula one one hundred and forty six points behind
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: the staff. And he's being outscored at a rate of
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: two point one one points to one. That's worse than
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: everyone except logan sergeant, who hasn't scored any points yet,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: and also who would be on top of that, Nico
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Holkenberg and Kevin Magnuson that's because they've scored relatively few
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: points that blows out the percentage. It's very close to
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: just simply being the worst in Formula one. I'd say
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: that statistic. What concerns me with that is that how
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: can you have faith that the form has returned? You know,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Christian Horner said that this was unsustainable. Recovering from this
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: in the second half of the year doesn't mean that
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: overall the form is sustainable. So I don't really see this. Yes, really,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: like we've been saying, there's anything more than kicking the
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: can down the road for a decision that has to
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: be made at some point, and even if it's not
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: in September, it's hard to imagine it it won't have
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: to be made at the end of the year.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: What I think Rebel are relying on now is Mercedes
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: is ironically because the improved form from Mercedes and recent
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: races means it's a contender, and what that means is
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: that it's taking points off not only Redbell but McLaren
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: as well. That can then be a buffer. If you
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: look at the Belgian weekend for Maxo Staff and let's
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: take the grid penalty out of the equation, he was
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: mighty in qualifying of someone like six tenths quicker than
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: anyone else. So if you plug that pace into the
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: race without a grid penalty, very different story. You've then
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: got sergioe you know, seventh, eighth somewhere there chipping away. Ultimately,
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: you just need to be able to cover off If
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: Max wins, he picks up twenty five points, what's second?
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: What eighteen and third is fifteen? Is that right? So
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: as long as you're covering off.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: Those points or not conceding too many, you know, if
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: you win the race, the best your your rivals can
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: do with second and third. So as long as you
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: can have your second driver covering that spread, that's all
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: they really need of Peers. The complication is when Max
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: doesn't win, and that's becoming increasingly frequent.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: That's the problem that they now have.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: But that might also be the problem that Mercedes can
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: help them with, given that Mercedes has won three of
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: the last four.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: Which is a better result than what McLaren's on. We
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: go on about McLaren, but let's spare a word from
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: Mercedes here. They've won three races this year versus McLaren's two.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that is remarkable, and I mean Lewis Hamilton's now
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: the third highest point score in the last eight rounds,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: behind only Vestapan an Oscar Piastre. That said, you know,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: we talk about the trajectory of McLaren moving ahead of
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Red Bull racing in the next four or five races.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: They only need to be outscoring Red Bull by just
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: over four points a weekend to get it done by
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: the end of the year. The current rate of just
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: over nine points, I think it is gets it done.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: As I said after the Singapore Grand Prix or by
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: the US Grand Prix, they have more time than that.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: They have more than twice as long as that to
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: get it done because this season is so long, and
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: then consider there are some sprint races in there as well.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: The fact that the margin forty two points is now
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: less than the maximum squadable in a race weekend, I
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: think means we're already in that critical zone where, yeah,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: even though Mercedes is now in the mix and Ferrari
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: may come back on tap, but Claren doesn't have to
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: do that much better than Red Bull to accumulate those points.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: It doesn't have to and I think that's what for me,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: it's the critical zone already, and look, I like, Sir
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Joe Perry is just fine, and no one likes to
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: see a driver suffer because we know he's better than
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: what he's showing, because he showed it only a few
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: months ago. But you know, if you're red bull racing,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: I think at this point, especially if you're a member
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: of staff, is the other element before we move on.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: I think Constructors Championship pays bonuses to staff, and a
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: lot of staff are just on ordinary wages. You know,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: we think about the ridiculous money that the drivers earn,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: or even CEO's technical designers. Some of the rumors about
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: what Adrian knew he's been asking for is remarkable, to
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: say the least. But you know, most of the average
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: workers just earn whatever the average salary is in whatever
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: the country it is, UK orhever.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: Often below average as well, often below average, yes, exactly.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: Formula one has a massive brain drain at the moment
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: because the industry can't afford to give bonuses and raises
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: and those sorts of things, and as a result, people
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: who are on the fence leave the industry.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it's a massive thing. You're right.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: The constructors Championship is what pays bonuses, is what the
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: Formula One prize money is paid out. Again, So it's
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: worth tens of millions of dollars first, a second hundreds
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: of millions of dollars outright. So it's a proper thing.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: It's not just your name on a trophy. It's far
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: more than that. You know, success in the Constructors Championship
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: can go a huge way in terms of paying or
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: setting up your annual budget for the coming season.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I would just sort of end on the
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: note that Christian Horner has to own. I mean, he's
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: damned if he doesn't. Damned if he doesn't. Either he
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: keeps Pairs and he loses the title, or he sacks
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Pairs and they lose the title. Anyway, and the decision
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: is going to be his one way or another, shared
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: by management. But he's the team prince of all. But
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: if you're a member of staff and you feel like
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: your team princes dithering and you lose the Constructor's title
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: of result, Let's say Perry's get sacked in September. Whoever
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: comes in is doing a great job, but it's too late.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: That's going to hurt and for Christian Huna, who, let's say,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: has not had the greatest year. I think that's fair
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: to say. You wouldn't want to put yourself at risk
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: of losing the team, losing morale, or losing faith in leadership.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: I think that's an interesting additional element to it. But
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: the can's been kicked down the road, so we'll be
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: talking about this again before too long. I think Matt.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Let's move on now to the Belgian Grand Prix. Look
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: back at the final race before the mid season break,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: and it was maybe one of our most interesting yet.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: And I'm very pleased to say that. We say this
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: pretty much after every race these days ever since. In
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Miami Grand Prix, really but non stop interesting Grand Prix
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: except for Monaco, of course, but that's usually the way
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: it goes. George Russell won it, and then he did
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: not win it any longer because he was disqualified for
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: being one and a half kilos underweight. This has been
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: linked back Matt to him running this extraordinary one stop
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: strategy which saw him complete thirty four laps on a
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: single set of hard tires to close the race. Ridden
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: inspired call, driven mostly by the driver but also by
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: the team. Thought they had nothing to lose and actually
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: they had everything to win. One of the great I mean,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: he can't be looked back upon as one of his
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: great career victory. He's only had a few so far,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: but in time they had more, because it doesn't count
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: as victory anymore, one of the great drives, which makes
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: it all the more gutting. But it's been linked back
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: to this because something that I will be honest, I
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: have never thought about this before in my entire time
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: covering Formula one. But the tires lose weight over the race.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: That has to be accounted for, and it appears that
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: it was not accounted for.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: That That's exactly why, and this is one of the
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: vagaries of spot. This is exactly why at the end
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: of a race you'll see drivers on the call down
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: that move offline is to pick up detritus off the
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: side of the track, you know, the marbles and whatever
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: else they can do to add weight to because obviously,
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: as you wear the tread down, and yeah, there is
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: less tread, there is less rubber, there is less tire,
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: there is less weight. So yeah, the fact that he
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: wore the tires down more than was originally anticipated. Formerly
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: one tires are comparatively heavy. They're about twelve kilos or something.
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: Off the top of my head. Someone will go and
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: fact check me, and that proved me utterly wrong.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: But they are.
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: They're heavy because they are so big. But the vagary
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: of spis because it's such a long lap. You don't
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: complete a cool down lap and at the end of
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: the race, you got around the source and you turn
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: back up and drive in pit exit and that's that's
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: your cool down lap. So the only opportunity you've got
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: to cover your tires in absolute muck to try and
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: bolster that post race weight is thel source happen where
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: there's not much there, and then you're straight in pit lane.
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: So yeah, I can I can totally see how that
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: could be a fact. I don't think there was anything
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: untoward for Mercedes whatsoever. You'd be foolish to do that
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: because you will get caught. It was just a live
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: strategy decision with unexpected outcomes as a result of an
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: extraordinary drive, and I think George himself needs to be
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: applauded not only for the drive, but for the capacity
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: that he had to analyze the race and propose an
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: alternate strategy that proved better than what the boffins on
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: pit Wall, with all their spreadsheets and predictions and simulations
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: could come up with. He won that race until he didn't,
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: which is ironic given that the last time a race
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: winner was excluded was the nineteen ninety four Belgium Grand
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: Prix when Michael Schumacher spun over the exit curb at
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: Fanya she cane from memory and wore the plank down
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: too much in places, and it was disqualified for that.
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: I remember that one. Well, I'm showing my age, but yeah,
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: it's a rarity. In foremo one one of the extra
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: things that we can add to our list of things
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: that we've seen for the first time ever or in
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: quite a long time, that have so far occurred in
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty four.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: I mean dis qualifications to begin with the pretty rare
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: in Formula one, so that in itself is remarkable, and
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: that just happened to be the race winner is even
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: more interesting or unusual. It is a It was a
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: great drive, you said. Good use of the word to
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: tritus as well. We don't use that enough in podcasts,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: a great drive, because it really illustrated how big a
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: role a driver has in feeling the conditions. We normally
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: only talk about this one. It's wet, and we think, oh,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: it's slippery enough for slicks whatever. But this was something
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: aptly different in a way we don't normally think about it.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: It was partly because of Saturday's wet weather running, which
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: meant it was this break in the understanding of what
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: was a mostly resurfaced track or about fifty percent maybe
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: a little bit more than fifty century surface track, and
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: that changed the character but a little bit, particularly the
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: way the ties were interacting with the track. A lot
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: of boring tire stuff, I know, but that is of
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: course part of it, the same thing that connects the
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: card to the ground. His feel for that, his feel
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: for the longevity of the tires, also his feel most
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: importantly for a Mercedes car that had had some fairly
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: significant changes made to it on Friday night or Saturday
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: morning and then fundamentally couldn't be validated or analyzed because
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: of the wet weather running. He had such a good
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: feel for all of those things that he could understand
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: how to get to the end of the race with
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: a one stop strategy. He did say, of course, he
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: didn't think he was going to win it. Until maybe
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: the last ten or fifteen laps. Only then it dawned
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: on him. They all thought that were just aiming for
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: fifth up until then, I think, or maybe he thought
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: a podium could have been on the cards, but just
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: a tremendous way to feel through the race and matter.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: For me, this was really interesting because George Russell up
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: until now, and I really mean up until very recently,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: I think it developed a little bit of a reputation
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: that when victory was on the cards, he had a
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: habit of I don't want to say cracking under pressure
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: because that's not correct, of sort of overthinking it, over
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: driving a little bit, or getting almost a little bit
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: over excited and trying to do too much too quickly,
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: and that overwhelmed him a little bit, you know. The
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: biggest example, of course, was Singapore last year, where he
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: crashed out of that pursuit of podium and victory. We
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: saw in Canada as well, just didn't manage that race
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: very well from pole position and let it slip past him.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: His win in Austria came to him, so I don't
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: really count that as evidence one way or the other.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: He was driving a perfectly good race, not expecting to
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: suddenly win it, but this one was the complete opposite.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: Had to really earn it, go out and get it.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Required extremely good management. And then of course the defense
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: against Lewis Hamilton, when it was very clear that victory
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: was on the cards, was perfect against the Mercedes that
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: had faster ties. Yes, overtaking was difficult this weekend, but
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: he had Hamilton behind him plus an Oscar Piastri for
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: the last lap or so and was faultless. So I
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: think if your Mercedes thinking what post Lewis Hamilton life
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: looks like, particularly if, as we all expect now Andrea
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: Kimi Antonelli's in the other car, you must feel pretty
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: heartened after a performance like this.
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: You mentioned a point in there that I think is
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: being overlooked in George's ability to get that result across
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: the line, which is, well, get to get to the line,
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: get across the line. Also, we didn't kind of the result,
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: didn't get really across the line, did it. But one
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: thing that's been overlooked is the DRS zone. It was
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: seventy five meters shorter this year. That made it far
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: more difficult to pass on the camel straight and as
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: a result, it made defending not significantly easier, but a
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: little bit easier, and some canny management of his energy
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: from Russell meant that he was in a position where
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: he could defend. If you wind that race back twelve
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: months and you apply that the DRS zone that was
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: in use, then probably a very different race outcome. George
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: would probably have finished third because Oscar wouldn't have lost
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: the time behind behind the Claire Lewis would have cruised
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: up on the back of George and gone past. A
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: big part of the way that race unfolded was the
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: inability to pass.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: And that had a huge.
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: A huge being on that was the shorter DRS zone,
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: which I don't really know how I feel about that.
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: I'm a traditionalist. I don't like DRS. I feel it's
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: I feel it cheapens the art of overtaking. But I'm
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: also a realist and a pragmacism and I understand the
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: need for it in modern Formula one in that the
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: cars have changed, the technology is such another that it's
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: just passing is difficult, because following is difficult.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: If you don't have the grip, you can't follow, you
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: can't get close enough, you can't pass. It's that simple.
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: So yeah, it's I don't know how I feel about DRS,
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: and as a result, I don't really know how I
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: feel about George getting across the line as he did,
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: beyond acknowledging the role that DRS played. But that's not
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: to take anything away from George, because he recognized that
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: and played it to his advantage and that's why he
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: was able to transform what should have been a P
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: four or P five into first of the flag.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: I think the DRS zone this weekend was just about right.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: Like I hear comments about not liking DRS and it'd
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: be great to find a world informa on and we
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: don't have that. Well, the dronis rules technically push the pass,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: don't have it. But yes he's pushed the pass, as
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: we all know. We'll talk about that some other point.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: It's a shame of this way it is. But I
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: actually think if you have a well calibrated zone, and
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: it's very hard to do because performance of the cars
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: change every year, et cetera, et cetera, strategy and all
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, but it actually does enhance the
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: racing in a way that still requires racing. It just
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: brings it into that zone. In the way in visits,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: and I think actually it was about right this weekend
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: because we saw it. Like you say, defending was easier,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: It wasn't easy, but passing was still possible. Like I
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: think of Osco Piastri passing Charlotte Clair. Yes, you needed
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: a tire advantage, but that's just kind of the way
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: it is Informula one. Cars of similar performances don't find
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: it easy to pass one another. That's kind of the
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: way it is. At some point we have to accept
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: that to a degree. But we saw enough passes that
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: made me think, actually, I think it was a generally
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: good race, not even strategically, just some good racing, good action, defending, overtaking,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: had a little bit of everything, including a disqualification. So
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: you know, it's and I feel good for Joe Bauer.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: You know, the technical delegate doesn't get to disqualify cars
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: that often. Well he did to last year, I suppose,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: so he's having a real purple patch at the moment.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: But he must be very must be very satisfied when
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: you find a car that's finally broken the technical rules
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: and you get them, get them joke. So it's good,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: good result really for everyone.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: It wasn't one of the cars he excluded last year
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: Mercedes as well.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Yes, Lewis Hamilton conspiracy, but we all know there was
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: probably more cars that were illegal in CODA last year.
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: They weren't discussing.
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: Joe Bowry is very good at his job in Fairtas
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: and the teams do run it very close, but most
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: of the time they get it right.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it's coincidental.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: Yes, all just a coincidence. And you know George Russ
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: will be back fighting harder, and Mercedes too, because of
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: course it would have been a one to finish that
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: has now gone begging. But Lewis Hamilton windy second of
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: the year and Mercedes still claims it's the third from
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: the last four, which when I wrote down I almost
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: couldn't believe. But here we are remarkable recovery from Mercedes
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: to go into the mid season break. But Matt, we
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: cannot go to the mid The season is not over.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: Half season is not over because the final points have
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: not been awarded after the Belgian Grand Prix. It is time,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: of course for our weekly ratings. I don't know where
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: we've got a formal title for this title.
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: Table, so I'll share a tale and perhaps this will
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: give us a give us a title for it. I
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: stole this idea. It actually long to two blokes. I
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: used to sort of tenuously work with Glenn Crompton and
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: Rob Margate, who used to write a similar sort of
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: column after each event for a website.
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: That's that.
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: I started my career with pitpass dot com and they
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: used to write this many many moons ago with along
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: very similar lines, and they called it the Alternative Championship.
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: So I kind of like that, and you know, I'm
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: good mates with with Crompo. Let's let's keep that one going.
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: Let's call it the Alternative Championship because it's very alternative.
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: There is nothing mainstream or normal about this, this leaderboard
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: whatsoever for those that aren't across it. Basically, we take
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: a look at the race weekend and we give out
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: an arbitrary or take away an arbitrary number of points.
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: It could be that driver has new shoes and they're
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: pretty spiffy. It could be that, you know, a team
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: is completely ballsed up a strategy somewhere along the lines.
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: But this week I'm going to kick things off. I'm
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: going to give George Russell twenty five points because I think, yes,
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: his car was underweight, but he drove a superb race
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: from the cockpit, not just in managing the race, but
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: in terms of shaping the strategy and out smarting the boffins.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: As I said before.
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: So yeah, I think he deserves twenty five points supreme
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: from George.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: I'm going to start off. That's a good call. I
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: like that as well. It's only those were real points.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: I'm going to start in the traditional way, which is
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: taking points off someone, and that is Christian Horner. I'm
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: removing one hundred and thirty one points from Christian for
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: describing Sergo Peri's's form earlier in the year is unsustainable,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: but then keeping him anyway. One hundred and thirty one
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: points is how many Sogo Perrys has. So I think
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: this just reinforces to him the unsustainability of having him
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: in the team.
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: He needs a big half of the year, doesn't he.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: He answered Joe.
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, okay, all right, I like that. I see
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: where you've gone with it. That's not bad, that's not bad.
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: I mean Christian was on on our leaderboard. He was
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: on a very healthy zero because we both were both Yeah,
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: it had points added and taken away in quick succession.
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: So he was he was floating on zero, which actually
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: put him fifth or sixth in the standing, strangely enough.
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: But yeah, he plummets down the order now speaking plummeting
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: down the order.
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: Not quite.
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: I'm taking one point five points away from Mercedes. Full
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: marks to you. If you can guess why I've chosen
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: one point five.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: It's zero point three times.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: That's what I think about what I'm going for.
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so the the the margin by which Russell's
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: car was underweight is the number of points I'm taking
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: away from SA. I'm not taking too many, because ultimately
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: that's that's a nuance of the circle. Any other venue
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: and they probably have got away with it, but because
• 41:10
  Speaker 3: it was SPA, yeah they came acropper. But you know,
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: full marks for alling the dies, for trusting in their driver.
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: I like that.
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: I want to see more of it. I want less
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: simulations and more more trust and faith in driver's butts.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: Look, that's yep, you could leave it.
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: Like that.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: I'm going to give points now. It is rare, a
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: nice round ten points. I was going to give this
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: to the FIA, but I think I'm even going to
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: give a particular nod to John Todd, the former president
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: of the FIA, for knocking heads together in twenty twenty.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: I suppose it was COVID year and implementing the budget
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: cap and the development restrictions at least a year ahead
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: of what had been planned, and the budget cap was
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: lowered in fact, because it does feel like we're finally
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: getting the dividends from those decisions. The closeness of the
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: season took a couple of rounds to get there this year,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: but man, it's paying off big time. Is I think
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: in no small part down to the fact that Formulae
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: finally does have some equalization measures. Inn It will take longer,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: of course for the bottom five teams to catch up,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: but we have seen from McLaren and Mercedes in the
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: last year unless they're extended Aston Martin last year as well,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: the big jumps are possible when you get all your
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: ducks lined in a row. And I think that is
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: absolutely down to these equalization measures and we're all reaping
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: the rewards for it. So ten points to Jent Tires.
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: I like that.
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: I do because it is it's and it's not even
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: just this year. We've got a whole another year of
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: this to come. Oh yes, where there's more chance for
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: more teams to get into it. So yeah, that's a
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: that's a good shout, that is, and it puts to
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: rest the memories of the twenty twenty one Belgium Grand
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: Prix as well.
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: I don't forget the second worst thing that happened.
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: I think always do air whenever I mentioned that event,
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: I still don't consider a real race, despite what the
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: history books say.
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: Speaking of history books, this one's going to go down in.
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: History as a momentous occasion for this driver. Plus fifteen
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: points for Oscar Piastre basically finishing third. I think he
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: had a really good drive, was knocking on the door,
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: but for a couple of laps was probably going to
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: get there, and had DRS been a little bit more powerful,
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: we probably had a good shot at winning the race.
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: But still he beat his more highly rated teammate Lando Norris.
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: He is the second highest point scorer in recent races.
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: You know, he's doing a lot.
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: And what I really liked about it is if you
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: wind the clock back even sort of to this race
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: last year, he faded as it went on. He didn't
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: he got stronger in the closing laps, which shows that
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: things that he's been working on, tire management, race management,
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: all those sorts of things starting to bear fruit. There
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: is genuine progress being made there, and it's happening before
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: our very eyes. We actually stop and look at it.
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: So I think that that deserved a plus fifteen for
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: our oscar.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: He's only actually there's a bit of numerology for he's
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: only fifteen points behind Maxwstaffen in the Driver's Championship of
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: the last eight rounds. So that's quite good. I think
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: you mean last year's Hungarian Grand Prix faded right, because
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: last year's Belgian Grand Prix, well, he certainly that's right.
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, you're right, crashed out, fade quickly.
• 44:29
  Speaker 4: It was very bad. Great spread back what you're saying.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: Look, I'll bring it home with a traditional minus some points.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: Minus nine points goes to David Croft, the Sky Sports
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: F one commentator, for continuously calling Turn nine the corner
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: with no name, when in fact it has two names.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: He could be choosing from either Speaker's Corner or Jackie Yickx.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: It certainly has more than enough names to deserve a name.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: I also have a thing about corner names. I don't
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: think you're as cool as you think you are. If
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: you know all the corner names.
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: On it, you are you are pete cool.
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: If you know the corner, I'm going to die on
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: this hill.
• 45:07
  Speaker 4: No, what's the hill?
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: So that one.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: There go, Well, that's interesting, isn't it. I just think
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: that if you're going to commit to the names, use
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: one of the names.
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: But Speaker's name was never an official corner name, and
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: I believe Jackie Iks.
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: Has recording to the web Jackie.
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: Ks has rejected the name the corner.
• 45:27
  Speaker 4: Did he reject it?
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: I was wondering why, Yeah, so I believe he said no, no,
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: I don't want it all whatever. I must admit I
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: haven't gone and actually followed that up. But that's my understanding.
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: So I've always still speakers see that by that logic
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: is poor poor? Or is it double gush?
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah? So this is the other thing. I don't like
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: corner names, especially.
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: About boat Bussel.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, well, it should be bus that's what the
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: circuit organizers say. And it's also the same. It's not Stavo,
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: it's now campus.
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: I know that is what the corner.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: So there's two parts to that.
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: A nerd no so the first as you come out
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: of fan, you that first right hand of the almost
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: ninety degree that's Campus and then the widest sweeping right
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: hander that almost immediately follows that Stavalo.
• 46:15
  Speaker 4: Is that not Paul?
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: So that's a little bit further on. That's the kink before.
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: It's a lot of there's a lot of misunderstandings about
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: the corner names.
• 46:28
  Speaker 5: No, no, I don't want to even talk about I
• 46:30
  Speaker 5: hate that. Discussions my least favorite discussions in Formula one
• 46:34
  Speaker 5: not worth it. I'd say we should go back to numbers,
• 46:37
  Speaker 5: but no one can even agree on how many turn
• 46:38
  Speaker 5: numbers there are. This circuit depends entirely which sport.
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: And can I know exactly who's getting maximum minus points
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: for my leaderboard next next week? And that's I think
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: the Nisues might be m l for his stance on
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: corner numbers, as long.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: As it's not as much as I took off the
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: British a few ways ago.
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: I was thinking one hundred and sixty two thousand and one.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: That's disappointing. On that note, that's all the time. We
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: have a pit talk this week, but we will be
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: back next week for our mid season review. You can
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: subscribe to pit Talk wherever you get your favorite podcasts,
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: and you can leave us a rating and a review
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: as well. You can keep up to day too with
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: all the latest f ON news through the week at
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: Foxsports dot com dot Au and Speedcafe dot com. From
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: Matt Cosh that's his name, not his number, and me
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: Michael Lafonado. Thanks very much for your company and we'll
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: catch you next week.