Latest / Rusty's Garage / The Motorsport Brief: with Anton de Pasquale, plus Daniel Ricciardo's F1 return

Transcript

The Motorsport Brief: with Anton de Pasquale, plus Daniel Ricciardo's F1 return · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:05
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:06
  It's Wednesday, the 12th of July, 2023.
• 0:09
  A bit to cover off today with that awesome overnight news that Daniel Ricciardo is back in a race seat in Formula One.
• 0:18
  More on that soon.
• 0:19
  And the breakthrough for Ford in the Supercars event in Townsville last weekend, that will be the focus of today's pod.
• 0:26
  G'day everybody, Greg Rust with you for this edition of the Rusty's Garage Shortcast.
• 0:31
  Our 99th long form or feature ep dropped yesterday.
• 0:34
  A huge thanks to Extreme E superstar Molly Taylor, our first ever guest on The Garage back in 2018, returns for a well overdue follow-up.
• 0:44
  That two-parter, the next chapter as we're calling it, on this leading light for women in motorsport is there for you to enjoy right now.
• 0:52
  And it's not just the competition side that we discuss either, there's...
• 0:56
  The broadcasting work that we do together for the Shannon Speed Series on Channel 9 and Stan, plus a cool new project she and partner Daniel Gardner, a respected motoring journalist, are doing that is called The Mad Garage.
• 1:09
  Have a look for that later online.
• 1:12
  Technically, Ford had a win at the opening round of the supercars in Darwin, but it was only after the disqualification of the Red Bull.
• 1:19
  So Cam Waters' success was a little bit overshadowed by that and the focus or headlines on SVG's frustrations with the new car.
• 1:29
  Since then, the results have been dominated by Shev or Camaro, leading the Ford camp to talk like they were in a different class amid calls for a parity review and the rival side of the ledger basically saying that Ford and the Ford teams needed to do a better job.
• 1:46
  A review was triggered by the category after the hugely popular Darwin round and changes rushed in for Townsville.
• 1:53
  Now, the drought, as we say in the media, was broken on Sunday with Anton Di Pasquale becoming the first Ford driver to...
• 2:01
  greet the chequered flag or officially cross the line first in 2023.
• 2:06
  It was a win to savor too after some serious electrical problems on the Saturday.
• 2:10
  Brilliant job there by the Dick Johnson racing team to get him back in the game.
• 2:15
  It's his ninth career win in supercars.
• 2:17
  Anton is still smiling.
• 2:19
  He is on the line.
• 2:20
  Congratulations and welcome to the show.
• 2:23
  Yeah, thanks man.
• 2:23
  Thanks for having me first time.
• 2:25
  I'm excited.
• 2:26
  Well, we're delighted to have you on.
• 2:27
  A few days after, how much has that win, race 17 of the season, Townsville, what's it come to mean to you, to Ford, and especially for the team given the drought we've all been talking about?
• 2:42
  Yeah, it's awesome.
• 2:42
  Obviously, it hasn't been a great start to the year for the Shelby Power Racing team and as well as Ford.
• 2:48
  So to tick that first win off for both of those is amazing.
• 2:54
  It's been such a hard fight.
• 2:56
  We'll be going through all the things, learning a new car, all the politics, all that stuff that we all know about.
• 3:03
  But, yeah, just to get that win is such a fitting thing.
• 3:07
  feeling and experience and it was just an awesome race.
• 3:10
  Townsville was such a cool weekend and a cool racetrack back into the sort of the non-sprint format, saving tyres, bit of strategy, all that.
• 3:20
  It was a cool arvo.
• 3:22
  Who have you heard from?
• 3:23
  The first thing I thought of, was there a message perhaps from Michigan and Mark Rushbrook from Ford Performance?
• 3:29
  I've been getting messages from all over the place.
• 3:32
  There was a lot of people that weren't able to be at the racetrack, which was not ideal for them.
• 3:37
  Obviously, Brett, the team owner,
• 3:39
  wasn't there.
• 3:40
  Ryan, obviously, Story wasn't there.
• 3:42
  My parents couldn't make it because my sister's expecting the baby.
• 3:45
  So a lot of people got to miss out on a cool afternoon.
• 3:48
  So got on the phone to them straight away and had a cool chat.
• 3:52
  But yeah, obviously, when you have a good day and win, a lot of names pop up on the phone you haven't heard from for a while and obviously all the regulars as well.
• 4:02
  So it's always a good feeling.
• 4:04
  Gee, it was a weekend of extremes for you, wasn't it?
• 4:06
  The massive electrical issues you had on Saturday.
• 4:09
  Just give us and our listeners a sense of how big that job was for the team to overcome on the Saturday night.
• 4:17
  Yeah, it's one of those things.
• 4:19
  I guess you look like a mechanical failure, like your steering fails or the wheel falls off the thing or you've had a crash.
• 4:24
  You can see what's wrong with the car and it's obvious.
• 4:27
  But when it's electrical, there's so many elements that intertwine and connect and you don't actually know where the issue is coming from.
• 4:34
  It was one of those issues where...
• 4:36
  we still have to analyze what it was.
• 4:38
  We changed pretty much most electrical things in the car just to eliminate it, and it did.
• 4:44
  But there could be five, six, seven different things, which we still haven't, you know, it's a hard one because it doesn't show itself.
• 4:49
  So the guys changed everything, worked their asses off, and at the same time delivered a car that was faster the next day as well on top of that.
• 4:56
  So massive credit to them.
• 4:58
  They were relieved.
• 4:59
  They had a...
• 5:00
  Not much sleep that night and that was over the moon.
• 5:03
  It was cool.
• 5:04
  Great work.
• 5:05
  Small silver lining, I guess you could say.
• 5:07
  How much did having a bit of fresher rubber in the bank help you on Sunday in the final analysis?
• 5:13
  And I know there are many parts to what happened on Sunday, mate, but having that little bit extra, what was that worth to you, do you think?
• 5:20
  I guess it was one of those days where things aligned for us and you can't win one of these races without car speed.
• 5:30
  You can have all the tires you want.
• 5:32
  You can't win without car speed and obviously the safety car as well and all the things.
• 5:36
  But in terms of genuine speed, I think we were still the fastest car on that day or the fastest in every stint but the last one.
• 5:44
  And Evan, at the start, everyone starts on good tires, we chop through and sort of made our way towards the front anyway.
• 5:50
  So it basically made our decision on what strategy to go really sure.
• 5:57
  Obviously, we had an extra set, so we could make the three stops work with good tires the whole way through.
• 6:03
  I think in a pretty clean green race, we still had enough pace to do it on two stops and a tire life and our late stint pace was still really good.
• 6:13
  So did it change the result?
• 6:15
  I'd like to think not.
• 6:18
  Did it make it easier?
• 6:19
  Yeah, for sure.
• 6:20
  You know, like it's one of those things.
• 6:23
  But, yeah, looking at the stuff today in the debrief, we still had really good pace.
• 6:28
  And that's ultimately what wins these races because there was a few other cars that had ties in hand as well.
• 6:34
  And we didn't see them make their way to the front.
• 6:37
  You can't obviously share internal secrets.
• 6:39
  I wouldn't dare to ask you that, mate.
• 6:41
  But what was the debrief?
• 6:43
  today like given the success of Sunday and perhaps some of the positives that came out of it coming into you know we're off to Sydney Motorsport Park bit of racing under lights in a couple of weeks time are you enthused about your chances there from what you learned in in Townsville
• 6:58
  Yeah, the debriefs, they're always the same, I guess, good results or not.
• 7:02
  Obviously, debriefs this year, we've had a lot to go through and we've got a lot to learn still.
• 7:06
  So we spent a bit of time working out where the improvements came from.
• 7:13
  We did do some stuff towards Sunday, which we never know exactly what's going to happen the next day.
• 7:20
  So we analyzed that.
• 7:22
  Does that work the next time?
• 7:24
  It's motor racing, who really knows?
• 7:26
  Everything changes so often.
• 7:29
  But definitely for that type of track and what we're looking for, what we did was really good.
• 7:33
  So going to Sydney, we've had a really fast car there for the last two years.
• 7:40
  We've had awesome pace, but we don't have that car, we don't have those tools.
• 7:45
  We're starting with an understanding of what we think can work and we know what works in the past, but that hasn't necessarily been true this year.
• 7:54
  So, yeah, we'll find out, I guess.
• 7:56
  We'll use a bit of philosophy moving forward and hopefully it works again in Sydney and we go, okay, that's become more of our base.
• 8:03
  But if it's no good, it's a base for a street track only kind of thing.
• 8:07
  Gotcha, gotcha.
• 8:08
  You were joined at the press conference in Townsville there by DJR CEO David Noble.
• 8:13
  He's a former AFL coach, as many people listening will know.
• 8:17
  His first win, I think, with the team.
• 8:19
  The parody discussion aside, mate, he talked in the post-race chat there about the work, the change internally at the team.
• 8:27
  Can you give us an idea of that and how that has made a difference?
• 8:32
  It's cool for him to get his first win in motorsport land.
• 8:37
  It's not an easy thing.
• 8:38
  There's a lot of quick cars out there and races are hard and all that stuff.
• 8:43
  It's not just him.
• 8:43
  There's a few people new to our team which haven't been part of our wins and podiums in the past.
• 8:49
  A lot of guys on my car, it's their first time getting a trophy as well, which is really cool.
• 8:54
  We'll just enjoy that together.
• 8:56
  Um, but yeah, there's, it's hard work, you know, motor racing's hard.
• 9:00
  We love it.
• 9:00
  Um, if you, if you're looking for something easy in life, motorsport is definitely not for you.
• 9:06
  Um, so yeah, he's, he's had a really good, you know, um, vibe.
• 9:11
  in the team and working side by side with Ben and the ownership and everything.
• 9:16
  He's not trying to tell us how to engineer a car or how to drive the thing or anything like that.
• 9:21
  It's more just giving the whole team and, you know, everyone from the ground up the fundamentals to...
• 9:27
  go racing and go racing well.
• 9:30
  And we're getting there.
• 9:31
  It takes time, but we have an awesome team and the culture's been good all year.
• 9:37
  You know, we haven't had results, but we're stuck together.
• 9:39
  It's always better and you always enjoy a beer after a win.
• 9:43
  But yeah, the vibe and everything has been good the whole way through.
• 9:47
  We'll take a quick break here.
• 9:48
  We've got a couple more minutes with Anton, and that is all coming your way right after this.
• 9:57
  Shell V Power Racing's Anton Di Pasquale is our special guest on this edition of the Motorsport Brief, following his win in the Sunday race at Townsville last weekend.
• 10:07
  As we dive back into the convo, we'll weave in a couple of your questions here from socials too.
• 10:14
  Now, I think, as you said in that presser, it's not the kind of track Townsville to properly aero test the cars.
• 10:21
  Fans are asking, though, about that feeling that the late parity change perhaps gave you.
• 10:28
  Can you incrementally describe how much different the car was, perhaps how much better the car was from that?
• 10:34
  Not really.
• 10:35
  Like, it's one of those things that...
• 10:37
  You never, I mean, it's not big enough to go, okay, the car's completely different.
• 10:43
  And unless you really, same track, same day, back to back it, same set of tires, that kind of thing, feeling the change is hard.
• 10:51
  So I wasn't a part of that process.
• 10:52
  I was overseas racing in the 24 hours, so I didn't get to see any of that unfold and just rolled into Townsville.
• 10:59
  So I haven't felt that back to back, but...
• 11:01
  going there, um, rolling out for first practice.
• 11:05
  I was facing similar issues to what I had the round before.
• 11:08
  So, um, it's, it's hard to say.
• 11:11
  I don't think it's one of those tracks, like I've mentioned a few times, you know, the fastest corners, you know, third into fourth gear.
• 11:18
  So it's not that quick.
• 11:20
  Um.
• 11:21
  But, yeah, I mean, my car felt really good on Sunday, but I think we just found ourselves in a really good window with the setup and getting into clean air early and things like that made the race pan out the way it was.
• 11:33
  Good stuff.
• 11:34
  I'm glad you brought up Spa for a moment.
• 11:35
  We've got a couple of questions from listeners, if you don't mind, too.
• 11:38
  Braden McKay asks, are there any other appearances that you've got perhaps lined up with the Groves this year?
• 11:44
  Will the schedule permit in this second half at all?
• 11:47
  Yeah, the schedule's hard.
• 11:48
  Obviously, those guys are doing some cool racing around the world and there's a couple coming up, which I know I can't do, which Earl will be in the car for.
• 11:56
  So there's a couple that clash, which are a shame.
• 12:00
  It'd be cool to be able to, if just none of them clash and you got to race every few weeks.
• 12:04
  But, yeah, there's a few lining up.
• 12:08
  Obviously, it depends what they want to do, you know, the races that come up.
• 12:17
  do any kind of racing and especially when it's you know with some really good mates and they're really cool cars and some really cool tracks you know it's just awesome you get to go overseas places like spa and and race around um but yeah even even locally like the six hour and things like that um are just really cool things to get your hand on we love racing so it's cool to step away from the supercar stuff and go race other things as much as you can
• 12:41
  One from Carina Andrews in New Zealand, whose young son, Regan, is a bit of an aspiring, got a bit of aspiration to follow into some broadcasting, if you will.
• 12:52
  He says, did you keep your strategy in Townsville there or did you adapt it during the race?
• 12:57
  I think we kept it.
• 12:59
  Okay.
• 13:00
  I obviously don't get to see too much of that.
• 13:04
  If on Saturday you would have noticed I went for the three-stopper as well, which I did on Sunday as well, but just didn't get to see the end and obviously get to see that race through.
• 13:16
  But then we just committed again to do it.
• 13:20
  I think our tyre life was...
• 13:22
  a fair bit better on Sunday.
• 13:24
  So looking back, we probably could have been a bit more flexible to go to the two-stopper.
• 13:29
  We didn't expect to have the tireless that we had, but the three-stopper worked.
• 13:34
  So yeah, it seemed too great a plan, I guess.
• 13:38
  We shortened up to last it as much as we can for a bit of a safety car risk and it was all good.
• 13:43
  Different strategies came into play up there and it seems to have resonated with our supporters of the sport.
• 13:49
  They seem to have enjoyed that.
• 13:50
  What do you think of the mix of sprint and refuelling races over the season and have we sort of got that balance right or would you like to see more of those longer races in 2024 and beyond?
• 14:00
  I would like to see a few more refueling.
• 14:03
  Going back to my first year or two in the sport, we actually did basically one of each most weekends back then.
• 14:11
  So we used to do like a sprint Saturday, fuel race Sunday, which was quite a cool format.
• 14:16
  Obviously, I don't talk economics and I don't know the cash flows and all that stuff and how much it costs everybody.
• 14:21
  I just worry about the racing.
• 14:23
  But I quite enjoy, especially on the high-dig tracks where –
• 14:27
  you can play a bit of strategy into it and you have to extend some ties or maybe even save some fuel.
• 14:34
  I think there's a little bit more scope for that for us.
• 14:39
  But, yeah, some places are good for the sprint, obviously, but I quite enjoy the...
• 14:43
  I mean, they're not endurance races.
• 14:46
  They're not that long.
• 14:46
  They're only 250Ks.
• 14:48
  So they're kind of a hybrid of both, but some fuel in and some strategy is always good because our sprint races don't have too much of that.
• 14:56
  It's more basically timing to put some tires on.
• 14:58
  Cool.
• 14:59
  A few to finish here.
• 15:00
  One from Lee Rasmussen who asks about your kind of preference for Gen 2 versus Gen 3.
• 15:06
  That's probably a little tough, but given that you've had six months with the car now, what I guess I could ask you?
• 15:11
  as an extension to that, is what you're enjoying about this new era, this new chapter, a positive that you're finding in racing these cars.
• 15:18
  Yeah, I think this is probably like I think the racing potential seems to be really good with these cars.
• 15:25
  We're able to follow a little bit closer.
• 15:27
  The front tyre hangs on a little bit better behind cars, which was becoming a real struggle with the previous cars.
• 15:33
  So we are seeing more passing, which was the whole objective.
• 15:36
  Obviously, talking Gen 2 to Gen 3, if I had to race, probably one of my Gen 2 car because it was quicker naturally.
• 15:43
  That's just how they were.
• 15:44
  But these cars have gone backwards in terms of lap time.
• 15:47
  But the performance is pretty similar.
• 15:50
  We're just lacking a bit of grip.
• 15:53
  Yeah, it's a hard one to compare the two, but the racing and if you're stuck at the back and you've got a fast car, you can come through.
• 16:01
  So qualifying is probably not as important as we've seen previously.
• 16:08
  Obviously, it's still important.
• 16:09
  You still want to be in the front out of all the trouble.
• 16:11
  But if you're in, you know, 8th, 10th and you've got a fast car, you can come through where it was a bit harder in the previous gen. Yeah.
• 16:18
  You've been great with your time.
• 16:19
  Two to go.
• 16:20
  Quickly, it's not new for you, I know, but working with Ludo Lacroix, what is the secret source in your relationship and what have you kind of learnt about each other?
• 16:30
  What makes that work?
• 16:32
  I guess it's just a bit of trust of each other.
• 16:34
  Like you have that relationship and it's the whole way through the team.
• 16:38
  But obviously the main point of call is your engineer, the other one talking in the race, the other one coaching, the other one doing the changes in the car and vice versa.
• 16:45
  We're driving the thing.
• 16:46
  So there's a lot of trust element in that.
• 16:49
  Even when you go into the race, you know, you're,
• 16:51
  They're talking you through the margins and what to do and what lap time to hit.
• 16:55
  And it might seem weird from the driver's seat, you know, but they're seeing things that you're not and you have to trust them that they're going to get you home.
• 17:03
  So it's basically just a trust game.
• 17:06
  And we've done really well.
• 17:08
  We talk a lot of stuff away from racing, push bikes and all these different things.
• 17:12
  And any time I go away racing some other cars, I've always messaged him the night before, like, oh, I've got a bit of oversteer or something.
• 17:18
  How do I fix this thing?
• 17:19
  And he always gives me some advice.
• 17:22
  Excellent.
• 17:23
  You spent some time in Europe chasing the open-wheel dream when you were a little younger.
• 17:27
  You're still a young bloke now for me.
• 17:29
  Have you watched the British Grand Prix at the weekend?
• 17:31
  And what did you make of Oscar Piastri's effort?
• 17:34
  I haven't re-watched it yet.
• 17:36
  I only got home late last night.
• 17:38
  We had to stay in Townsville this afternoon and into tonight.
• 17:42
  It's my veg on the couch.
• 17:44
  I need a bit of chocolate session.
• 17:45
  So I'll be catching up on a little bit of racing, obviously watch our own race back and all the stuff.
• 17:50
  But, yeah, it's pretty cool to see.
• 17:54
  The McLaren guys back towards the front.
• 17:56
  And Ozzy's doing an awesome job.
• 17:57
  We're all obviously barracking for him.
• 17:59
  We want Aussies to be winning the thing.
• 18:01
  And he's doing an awesome job and he's a good kid.
• 18:03
  Yep.
• 18:03
  You've earned those chocolates, mate.
• 18:04
  Enjoy that on the couch tonight.
• 18:06
  Go get them for the rest of the year.
• 18:07
  That is, that win, as Neil Crompton would say, is a bit of sugar.
• 18:10
  And we hope there's more to come for you and for Dick Johnson Racing for the rest of the year.
• 18:14
  Congrats.
• 18:14
  Cool, man.
• 18:15
  Thanks.
• 18:17
  He is one of eight different winners this year in supercars, irrespective of which side of the divide you're on.
• 18:23
  That's a good thing.
• 18:24
  And the potential for that list to grow to perhaps a record-breaking number for the season is very real.
• 18:31
  Of the 25 drivers on the grid, 13 have already scored podiums this year.
• 18:36
  That's cool.
• 18:37
  Little shout out to Brad Jones Racing and their man Andre Heimgartner, who's enjoying his best season ever, having now chalked up five podiums for 2023.
• 18:48
  Incidentally, you can find Brad in our library.
• 18:50
  It's a good chat, that one.
• 18:51
  Some nice laughs.
• 18:53
  Will Brown has moved into the Supercars series lead by seven points over teammate Brodie Kostecki following the Townsville round.
• 18:59
  They have both been on the motorsport brief in recent months.
• 19:03
  Thank you, lads.
• 19:04
  Brock Feeney is third on the ladder, only 19 behind Brodie.
• 19:08
  And Brock is going to come on the short cast in the months ahead.
• 19:11
  Looking forward to that.
• 19:12
  The big story today is that Daniel Ricciardo is back in a race seat, effective immediately after eight months on the sidelines.
• 19:21
  And this follows the shock decision overnight by Scuderia AlphaTauri and Red Bull to cut ties with Nick DeVries immediately.
• 19:30
  will be in the car for the next round in Hungary in 10 days' time.
• 19:33
  How good.
• 19:34
  Now, there's a couple of aspects to stop and consider in this story.
• 19:37
  Firstly, to Nick.
• 19:38
  He came in highly rated after turning heads in an appearance for Williams last year, subbing for Alex Albon.
• 19:45
  He picked up...
• 19:46
  points in Italy there too.
• 19:48
  The Dutchman is a Formula 2 or Formula E champion but he just couldn't seem to make things work there at AlphaTauri.
• 19:54
  To be fair to him, the team is last in the Constructors' Championship currently.
• 19:59
  De Vries with no points.
• 20:01
  when you look at the driver's standings.
• 20:03
  And his now former teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, is 17th with just two points for the season so far.
• 20:10
  Nick's best result was 12th in Monaco.
• 20:13
  And all the talk, the pressure surrounding his future, well, that's been mounting for ages.
• 20:18
  Now, Dan did a Pirelli tyre test overnight in the current spec Red Bull.
• 20:22
  There's some positive commentary around that from people in the paddock and Dan's comparative performance in the simulator too.
• 20:29
  He seems to be doing a good job there, so they say.
• 20:32
  He's been a constant in the paddock this season, but it's been hard to watch him at times, hasn't it?
• 20:36
  Kind of waiting in the wings.
• 20:38
  The reset appears to have done him good.
• 20:41
  He's had a little bit of fun too with the actor Will Arnett doing alternate commentary for the North American audiences recently.
• 20:48
  The Drive to Survive production team must be rubbing their hands together with this storyline and one of the most popular drivers in the field back behind the wheel.
• 20:59
  It is a brutal game, this one.
• 21:00
  Normally upheaval like this takes place during the summer break, but Nick is already gone and Dan is in.
• 21:08
  So what do we expect now?
• 21:10
  The car has had some upgrades.
• 21:12
  Ricciardo appears reinvigorated and Alfa Tauri need points.
• 21:16
  He's a good pair of hands to help deliver that.
• 21:19
  He's returning to the team that he drove for when it was known as Toro Rosso back in 2012-2013.
• 21:25
  We have lots of Kiwis that listen to the pod, and I note the headlines on that side of the ditch today are all that Liam Lawson has been overlooked for the drive, should Red Bull and AlphaTauri have continued that policy of promoting young talent and given him a shot.
• 21:41
  He's incredibly talented, arguably the hottest young prospect in single-seater racing globally at the moment, and he has enough super-licence points.
• 21:50
  We understand here at the garage that Liam was in the air on the way to Japan to get ready for the legendary Super Formula race there at the Fuji track.
• 22:00
  Great track, that.
• 22:01
  And he's absolutely determined to win that title this year.
• 22:05
  He only learned the news when he touched down.
• 22:08
  That has to be disappointing.
• 22:10
  But he is contracted to Red Bull beyond this year.
• 22:13
  Keep that in mind.
• 22:14
  He's regularly in the simulator with them and reportedly doing good things for Red Bull.
• 22:20
  If Dan's experience confirms that the 2023 AlphaTauri isn't a good car, you would have to think that not having the interruption of jumping out of the Japanese championship for Liam and then trying to make an impression in the 12 races in the F1 season that remain, maybe that's a good thing in the way that you play your career chess pieces, even though it might be a little hard to swallow right now.
• 22:45
  Finally, speaking of Kiwis, Tom Blomquist, who was born in the UK but grew up in Auckland, will replace Simon Pagno for this weekend's IndyCar race in Toronto after Pagno couldn't get medical clearance after that massive practice crash at mid-Ohio.
• 23:00
  Blomquist continues to do a mega job in sports cars and is tipped to move into IndyCar in 2024.
• 23:07
  So that is quite the line-up if you kind of consider him a Kiwi with Scott Dixon, Scott McLaughlin and Marcus Armstrong on the.
• 23:15
  grid there that's it for this edition of the motorsport brief don't forget wrc in estonia next week and we're going to try and get the 19 year old aussie dirt bike rider jet lawrence on at some stage too thank you for all your messages regarding that while he continues to break records in the united states it hasn't gone unnoticed by us here i'm greg rust we'll catch you next time bye for now