Latest / Pit Talk / Where is McLaren in the 2026 pecking order? F1 season preview + Supercars Sydney 500

Transcript

Where is McLaren in the 2026 pecking order? F1 season preview + Supercars Sydney 500 · Pit Talk

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: On today's episode, Formula one pre season testing is complete,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and with little more than a week before the season
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: opening Australian Grand Prix, we'll get you up to speed
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: on the state of play ahead of twenty twenty six's
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: big rules shake up, and the supercar season is already underway,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: with Brock Feenie and Matt Payne tied on points after
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: the Sydney five hundred. My name's Michael Lamonato. It's great
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: to have your company, and the company of my co host.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: He knows the difference between his ices and he's mpguk's
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: and he sees and he's TC's Yes, it's EMC, Matt Playton.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Michael, it's great to be back. Of course, everyone knows
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: all of these things, so it doesn't actually make me special.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: But that's funny, Like we knew this was going to
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: be the earliest Australian Grand Prix. I think it's not
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: since two thousand and three or four or something along
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: those lines, but we knew it was to be early.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: We needed to be ready. But it's really stuck up
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: on us, isn't it.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's uncomfortable for me. I'm not ready. I don't
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: feel prepared for the Australian Grand to be here, but
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: I am definitely feeling you know, I'm always excited when
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: the formul nine season starts, used because we've had a
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: bit of a longer break, to be fair, but this
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: feels like a particularly exciting one, like of all the
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: years for us to be back in slot one on
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: the calendar, and we've enjoyed that a couple of times
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: of the last few years now for big rule changes,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: some pretty significant changes to the way the sport's going
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: to work, and the first chapter of what we're expecting
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: or what could be a pretty dramatic driver market silly
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: season as well. It's a good year to be round one.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, completely right. I mean, I don't know about you.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: I'm getting strong sort of twenty fourteen vibes here, simply
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: because we were the first race, as we always were
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: back in twenty fourteen, and it was such a big
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: change in twenty fourteen just in terms of the visual
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: and the audio spectacle of Formula one changed so massively
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: from that weekend and you know, you go back to
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: that preseason heading into Australia twenty fourteen. It was so
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: chaotic that we were wondering if there were going to
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: be single figure cars finishing the race, and you know,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: it was the famous Daniel Ricardo podium that wasn't and
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: all those sorts of things. But being ground zero of
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: a brand new regulation set that is so different and
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: the way the racing is going to shake out, and
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: the chance to maybe reset the pecking order a little bit.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: There's nothing better with zero next to every driver's day
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: with the driver's standings and a brand new rule set.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: So yeah, bring it on for sure.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Should be very interesting. We'll look at the Australian Grand
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Prix of course, a little bit more detail next week
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: in the build up to the race itself. But we've
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: just come off three weeks of pre season testing. One
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: week in Barcelona, just don't talk about that one obviously,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: we're not meant to know anything about that, and then
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: three weeks in pah Raim more conventional testing. Nine days
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: all up. While most teams, two teams didn't manage their
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: full nine days. Aston Martin and Williams will talk about
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: them perhaps a little bit later on, but we did
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: get a bit of a sense of that pecking order,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: but only a little bit of a sentence. So I
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: think the big question, obviously from the Australia in perspective,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: but also from the championship perspective, is McClaren they're going
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: in is the double defending constructors champion, Lenda Irris is
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: going into the defending Driver's champion and OSCOPIASTI wants a
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: crack at that. But what sense did you get of
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: McLaren over these three weeks? To me, they felt like
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: they really kept their heads down. At no point did
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: it feel like they were the outstanding car on track.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: But I also can't really say that there were any
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: obvious issues with what we saw either.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: No, it kind of feels like the approach you would
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: take if you were a double rating Constructors World champion, right,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: So I think if you were trying to maybe prove
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: something or set out your stall where you haven't been
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: in that position in the past, maybe you approach preseason
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: a little bit differently. I thought it was just a
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: very sensible, methodical build up from them. There was nothing
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: to raise too many alarms. There was nothing that caught
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: too many headlines either, So it feels like I'm not
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: quite sure if they're sitting in that position of ascendency
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: that they were towards the end of last year and
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: the year before that, but there's probably a lot of
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: headroom for them to grow. And then, you know, we
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: talk about the league these Formula one seasons now, I
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: mean twenty four races, and you can just see over
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: the course of those nine days that you mentioned in
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Bahrain and Barcelona how much the competitive picture changed, and
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: just how much all of these teams made gains from
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: the Barcelona Test that everyone was so worried about that
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: we weren't supposed to know anything about it lest it
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: be totally embarrassing that by the end of the Test
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: in Barra we actually got a bit of a picture asta.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Oh there's a bit of a pecking order here and
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: everyone seems to have made gains there. So it feels
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: to me like a nice platform for McLaren maybe unfortunately
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: for Australian fans. I wouldn't say they're going to be
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: at their weakest for the season at Albert Park, because
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: there's oviously a lot to play out, But I don't
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: think they come in with that expectation that we had
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: last year. Where you would have been shocked quite frankly
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: if it wasn't to McLaren that won in Albert Park
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: in twenty five. I'm not sure we're going into next
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: weekend or so the weekend after next with that same feeling.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: But they're going to be in the conversation, aren't they.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that's a good way to describe it
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: as well, because that's what we understand of McLaren. Even
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: over the last few years now they've said there really
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: too different approach to testing. It seems. One is that
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: teams have spent most of the time with testing with
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: a very basic car, and then we see upgrades either
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: late in testing or maybe even in Australia. I know
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: we saw Ferrari, for example, bring some exciting parts to
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: the car in the last few days that flip around
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: rear wing and so on, and they had other more
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: significant upgrades to car Mercedes two. But then McLaren said
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: on before precess testing even started that they were going
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: to start with this car in Australia, the one they
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: went testing with, more or less anyway, and then bring
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: the upgrades once they've got that understanding. And that's really
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: how it's worked for the last few years, and we
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: saw not last year a little bit because of because
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: the dominant part of Mercedes McLaren season last year was
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: in the middle, not the start. Yes, and the year
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: before they started relatively weakly and then Ridy came on
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: tap after Miami where they put that big upgrade. I'm
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: probably expecting something similar this year where we see them
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: being all right, third fourth best team. Perhaps we don't
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: know how close it is. That could be enough to
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: challenge Ruins for all we know, But then using that
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: development progress that we've seen over the last couple of
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: years to either come home strong or find their feet
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the season, it's going to be
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: very interesting, but there's going to be a lot more.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: I think where the game changes a little bit is
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: that it felt like McLaren was very effective at developing
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: its car over the last few years, obviously, but effective
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: in a regular tree era in which most other teams
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: seem to struggle. We don't know if that's going to
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: be the same this year, where other teams are going
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: to struggle as much as Red Bull did for example,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Mercedes did for years Ferrari as well to bring updates
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: that actually work yeah.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: I mean, what's happened in the past is they had
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: that sort of baked in advantage. I guess that they
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: knew they could probably get to in time. But yeah,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: it's funny, isn't it. The thing? If you're playing F
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: one bingo at home over the next couple of weeks,
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: two words, you'll be able to cross off your bingo
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: card very quickly. Sandbagging is one a word only ever
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: heard in Formula one testing. But how many people are
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: going to say in Australia next week and well, it's
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: a marathon, not a sprietot. How many times are we
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: going to hear that? Because these seasons are marathons. Now
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: they're twenty four rounds, as I said. And the competitive picture,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: because of you, you're one of twenty four, not one
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: of eighteen or twenty. The competitive picture takes longer to
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: maybe crystallize any year, but particularly in a year where
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: everyone's starting from zero. So McLaren now in twenty four
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: they are a team, a modern day McLaren. In twenty
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: four they are a team learning how to win again.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: And in twenty five they were a team that you
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: had to win and they just had to get back there.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying that doesn't carry over twenty five to
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: twenty six, but you put the variable in of a
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: brand new rule set and the fact that everybody's starting
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: from a position of lack of knowledge and disadvantage. Maybe
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: the baked din advantage they've had for the last couple
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: of years doesn't present itself immediately, but I think it
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: will present itself over time. The question will be who
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: stole the march in the early races, and then can
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: McLaren go with them? I'm pretty confident they will get there.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: We know they've got strength of depth, good driver line up,
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: a lot of technical stability, but who gets that early
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: march on them? And is that arrestable as the season
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: goes on?
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think what is interesting another question that
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: I think is going to be a big one as
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: we build up to Australia and finally get some answers
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: when we have qualifying on this Of course it's wet,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: and then it will be annoyingly and frustratingly without hunters.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: But that sandbagging word. I love using the sandbagging word
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: during testing is the only time I only get to
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: use it once a year, and that's it. Is Mercedes,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: because this is the talk in the paddic among some
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: teams anyways, and that we all expected Mercedes, mostly via rumor,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: to start this year very strongly, to start testing very strongly,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: and they did have quite a strong preseason test that
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: the most laps of anyone over their nine allocated days
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: six two hundred and two kilometers only just more than half.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: As it happens, also set quite a competitive time all
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: though times you know, all very mostly meaningless in preseason testing.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: But they suggested right from the off that actually their
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: enginees not as competitive as you would think. It's a
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Red Bull engine that looks very good. Was this deflecting
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: against this compression ratios technical controversy You can read about
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: it the Fox Sports website. Quite possibly some most customer teams.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: In fact, I think all the customer teams in the
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: last test were running old engines, whereas Mercedes was filing
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: a new one that supposedly has quite a little performance kick.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: So it means we haven't even seen the best of
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: the likes of McLaren or Williams or Alpine and other
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: teams red Bull Racing, I think, most paciferously so suggested
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: that Mercedes hasn't even bothered turning their engine up yet.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Would you be surprised after all the years of Mercedes
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: struggle under the previous rule set to see them come
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: out you know you mentioned just like twenty fourteen, Are
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: they going to come out like twenty fourteen?
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, or even if you look at twenty nineteen twenty
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: twenty one, when they were still the fastest car. I
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: remember vividly being in at the circuit to Catalunia for
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: one of the test sessions of that year where they
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: were deliberately not putting three sectors together on the same
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: lap because it didn't want to show how fast they were,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: so they'd go absolutely flat out through sectors one and
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: three and then near pull the parachute on insector two,
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: so no one really knew how fast they were, and
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: there was that full boting like oh boy, like these
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: guys have got something in the locker. So there is
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: a there was a bit of nostalgia actually, but I
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: was sort of reliving what you were saying there and
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: maybe sort of think of the time where they were
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: clearly the benchmark. It would surprise very, very if a
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: Mercedes driver wins the Australian Grand Prix. Even if you're
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: looking at unreliability and start procedures and everything else, that's
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: going to become a talking point in the next week.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: But I think there were two teams that would have
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: been thrilled that Ferrari top the time sheets after testing
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: in Barra. One of them was Ferrari. The other one
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: was Mercedes, because they would have been absolutely stoked about this,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: because it feels if enough people say something and Mercedes
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: don't say anything particularly strong to counter that, it does
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: feel that they are going to start the season perhaps
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: on more on the front foot than anybody else. I mean, look,
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: someone has to be the favorite here. We can't have
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: eleven underdog teams. This is not how Formula one works.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Someone has to assume the position to favorite going into
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: the first Grand Prix the year, and it feels like
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: it will be Mercedes. The engine question is really interesting
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: because we can see through some of the Mercedes customers
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: going through testing that there were probably a couple of
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: surprises in terms of which teams were good and maybe
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: not so. And you kind of answer that in You're
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Introde with Williams missing a chunk of it. I mean,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: we were discussing this at the end of last year,
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: he looked into the crystal ball and who's going to
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: be your world champion for twenty twenty six And we
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: were talking George Russell at that point, and there's nothing
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: that happened across those nine days of testing that makes
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: me want to change my mind on that one. I
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: think going into the season, he's the guy that I
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: think should have the highest percentage chance of winning the
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: world championship.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I did like after the first Barrain test that
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: all top four teams Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: McLaren all said they were fourth best good, not even second,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: not even not the fat Can we have three teams
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: ahead of them?
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Can we have a wider discussion? He like, what is
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: this sort of going for the Everyone wants to be
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: an underdog, and I don't under in twenty twenty six.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: I just want someone to come out and say, yeah, look,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: we're in fantastic shape and the rest of you guys
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: have got the rest of you guys have got no
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: chance in your mays will not turn up because that
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: would be far more noteworthy than everyone's scurrying to the
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: bottom of this pecking order. That we're trying to come
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: up with, and it's just it's like something as old
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: as time, isn't it Like everyone tries to run away
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: from the spotlight and then at three o'clock on or
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: whenever Q three is in Melbourne in ten days time
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: or whatever it is, then we're actually going to find
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: out the pecking order and there'll be this complete change
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: of narrative in about fifteen minutes that we've known to
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: be true for about three weeks. So it's always funny.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: It's a ritual of any Formula One season. But yeah,
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: the use of sandbagging a word never used outside of
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: what February could a year ever.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Yes, or on this year even a little bit of January.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Imagine that Red Bull Racing Ferrari. They are all in
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: that mix. We'll talk about these teams over the course
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: of the next week a little bit, but I want
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: to move a little bit further down the order to
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: a Mercedes Customer team and a former Mercedes Customer team
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: that might be wishing it was still a Mercedes Customer team.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Aston Martin and Williams didn't complete their full nine days
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: of running. Williams said in advance it was skipping Barcelona
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: because the car wasn't ready, which is good reason to
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: skip test. I suppose if you don't have anything to
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: put on the track. They were pretty productive during bar Raim,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: but obviously that's a lot of milers to catch up on.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: They didn't catch up on all of it. Car doesn't
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: look particularly competitive, Rumors it could be significantly overweight, even
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: in a year that most cars are expected to start overweight,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: and it looks like it might be heading back down
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: towards the bottom of the midfield. But a lot of
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: development to come this season. Let's be honest. The team
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: we want to talk about he is Asta Martin more
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: than Williams. They did appear in Barcelona for a few
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: hours on the second, the penultimate day, and then was
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: sort of there for the last day, but we can
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: say how present they were. I suppose it a car
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: sense that's up for debate. Really poor form, fewest kilometers
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: of any team, Only four hundred laps completed, which is
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: what is that a quarter of the amount Mercedes completed
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: over the course for their test. Slowest lap even though
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: we're saying that doesn't mean too much, but this last
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: lap was three point nine seconds slower than the quickest,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: and Lancetrell said during the last couple of weeks that
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: the car would be four seconds slower than the quickest,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: so he was. He is in the ballpark. This is
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: the first car with Adrian Nuie's signature on it as
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: chief designer. Even if he arrived quite late. He's now
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: said the car started development four months late because he
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: was starting four months later the team, which is interesting
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: in itself. He's also the team print all. The Honda
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Power Unit is back, and it seems both underpowered and unreliable.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Teams making its own gearbox and that seem to have problems.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Wherever you look, there seem to be issues.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, speaking of nostalgia, Honda Power Unit not necessarily delivering.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: But imagine working for Aston Martin right now in your
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: phone rings and the caller ID says Lawrence Stroll, Like,
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: what do you do? Like, there's no good outcome there.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: You add to the call and it's bad. You deflect
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: the call that have to deal with later also bad.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: There's no good outcomes here. This is about as bad
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: all given the expectation, right, given the fact that it
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: was at Uika and everything's been put in the basket
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: for twenty twenty six, and they, you know, last year
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: was oh, but wait till twenty six, weight till twenty six. Well,
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: we've got to twenty six and it looks other than
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: if you're talking about Aston Martin being in the same
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: sort of ballpark as Cadillac. And this is throwing no
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: shade at Cadillac, who had a perfectly acceptable preseason for
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: a brand new team in a brand new regulation set.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: They actually look like a thoroughly professional Formula One team
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: and did not embarrass themselves in the slightest the fact
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: that Aston in the same conversation here, it's great for Cadillac,
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: it's horrendous for Aston Martin. Given the stakes they've got
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: on this season, the only way is up. And listening
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: to Lant Stroll, Land Stroll doesn't really have a half
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: full glass. It's more a paper cup that you probably
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: couldn't recycling after you've done with it. He's never missed
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: a cheerful at the best of times, is you? But
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: to see that after all the expectation coming into preseason
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: testing right now, if what odds would you put on
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: either Aston Martin finishing at Albert Park, because it'd have
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: to be if Fernando also wanted to get the early
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: flight out on the Sunday night and maybe you have
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: about thirty Nigel Mansell style A thirty laps into the race,
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: I'm off to the airport in by Uber. Then you
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: wouldn't blame him, would you.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: No, the test ended early for them because they ran
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: out of engine parts. Unreliability. Yeah, and that's scream in
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: its own way. So maybe they won't have the parts
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: to compete in Australia. I don't know how long it
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: takes to make a Formula one battery, something worth looking up.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: Perhaps in the next couple of weeks there was. It's such
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: a The trajectory of these tests was remarkable for Aston
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Marden because the car it was late. But then you know,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: we talked well. Adrian Nui loved bringing cars to the
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: track late at Red Bull Racing, leaving the last bit
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: of development to be produced. And then the car gets
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: to the track and it ends up being really fast
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: and the car looks very different to the others, and
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: that raised a lot of expectation that here we go.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: A knew immediately his impacts being felled and then it
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: only got worse. Second week showed that reliability was a
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: real problem. On no data. They complete one hundred laps,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: which became pretty standard for all the teams, and then
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: the second test you thought okay. In the second bar
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: rain test, you thought, okay, they're gonna come back, they'll
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: figure out what's going on, and it was even worse.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: They even flut fewer laps, they ran out of parts,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: they were less performance. That I think is concerning for
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: the start of the season because this isn't just a
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: case of a team starting on the back foot. It
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: doesn't seem like they've stretched the legs of the car
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: in any way. We don't know if that car is
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: that that Adrian new car is actually really quick or not.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: We don't know if that Hondra engine has any potential
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: or not. It feels like Australia is just going to
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: be one really long test, assuming of course, that they
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: can complete enough laps to qualify as a long test. Yeah.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: It's funny, isn't it. Because we've got twenty two cars
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: this year. Obviously Q one, two and three are all
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: slightly different. You've got six cars being eliminated in Q one.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: The chance I could make a case for any of
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: the other ten teams potentially getting a car into Q two,
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: even Cadillac. You know, if Valfrey Botas can pull a
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: lap out of somewhere, perhaps you would be shocked if
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: either oldso Orstral gets out of Q one in Melbourne.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: And like you said, assuming they can actually complete a
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: grold predistance, that would literally be the biggest win for
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: them in Melbourne is if they're still circulating at the end.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: God knows how many laps are going to be down
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: at that point if it's a green flag race, But
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: to actually bank the data and find out if there
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: is any inherent pace in that car, because right now
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: they do not know because it's not run for long
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: enough and that's probably the biggest indictment on their entire preseason.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, the only positives here that development will
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: be pretty fast, so and there's a lot of development
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: to come this year. Quid things could improve. Honda presumably
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: will be the beneficiary as well of the rules that
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: will allow in developments for any strugglers over the course
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: of the year. That takes time. Though that's not going
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: to be a turnaround in a couple of rounds. It's
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: probably something that might be felt by the middle of
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: the year perhaps, but it's going to start in pretty
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: grim fashion. You've got to feel for poor old Fernando Alonso.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: This is the second time suffering with a Honda. And
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: it's not just Honda, we should say, it's not just
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: the same way it turned out wasn't just Hondra at
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: McLaren either, even if that was a pretty significant part
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: of it. It seems like even if the car theoretically
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: is quick, it's not running the gearbox. They said, there's
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: also an issue. There are issues there to sort out.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: I thought it was a really interesting contrast. You've already
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: mentioned Cadillac here that I think a lot of people.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Had Cadillac had the results Astenman did over preseason, they
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: would have said, well, this is a bit embarrassing, but
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: it's really hard starting a Formula One team from scratch.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: This is, in fact the kind of performance Formula One
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: seemed to be invoking when they originally shut out the
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Andrette bites. And if you go back and see that
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: letter saying things like there's no hope this team will
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: be able to perform competitively. They've underestimated what it takes
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: to be in Formula One, and yet Cadillac, which is
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: the same team really. There's some ownership changes there, but
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: it's the team that was being set up as the
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: andret bed there's not really any substantive difference. Had a
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: very professional, workmanlike effective test looked very competent. Concerns that
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: the team may not even qualify for races to seem
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: silly in retrospect, even though I understand where they're coming
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: from at the time, didn't end with the slowest time
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: that was Frassenbaden completed quite a few laps as well,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: enough that they feel like they're on the front foot
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: for their first season. They're not going to be scoring
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: points regularly, one assumes not. Podium certainly aren't, but this
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: feels like quite a solid place to start. I was
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: impressed by Cadillac.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the credibility question, that's what I kept coming back
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: to as well, because you know, as you said, that
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: was the reason they weren't going to be allowed in,
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: because they were going to embarrass themselves and the sport. Well,
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: they've certainly put that to bed. They look like a
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: perfectly competent yet tail end but perfectly competent Formula One
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: team and the fact that it didn't lend it so
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: to some outlier of a result or an amazing design
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: they've come up with. They just look like a very
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: very professional I'll be at a startup, but a very
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: very professional Formula One outfit. And as you said before,
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: the contrast with if you'd had if Cadillac had had
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: Aston Martin's preseason testing results and unreliability, then there'd be
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: a lot of people going, well, I'll told you we
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: shouldn't let them, and this is going to be terrible.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: They may be the best, ninth best team in Melbourne
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: and they'll probably come out of Melbourne as winners because
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: based on what they did in preseason testing, it's hard
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: to look at them as anything other than that.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. I mean the I want to say the
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: bar is low for this year, because at the bar
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: is extremely high just to get into Formula One, but
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: finishing races regularly, pinching some points here and there, a
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: couple of Q two appearances. Maybe if there's a wacky
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: wet qualifying, you might even find your way into the
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: top ten that doesn't seem off the table, and that,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: as you say, I think is a pretty big win
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: for a new team. I think i'd be a huge result.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: And the thing I like about this too is that
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: for where they are, I mean the driver lineup they
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: have are a couple of guys who've been out of
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: it for a while, and you know their best is
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: clearly behind them in Valtori Potas and Sergio o Praz
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: just in terms of age and stages of their career.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: But it's the sort of lineup you want in a
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: very credible startup. Now, at some point one of them
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: is going to go, and that could be interesting as
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: to how that goes in terms of the team dynamic.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: But for where they are now, on what they need
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: and a couple of respective figureheads that people know that
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: are driving their cars, it's actually a really really good
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: driver choice for now.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: I don't think it's a great driver choice for twenty
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: twenty eight. Perhaps there needs to be some change by then,
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: but whatever Cadillac becomes in the next couple of years,
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: these two guys are going to have their fingerprints all over.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: I think it's a really really cleverly done driver lineup
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: for the stage of that project right now. I just
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: think it brings them extra credibility and if they're saying
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: positive things about it. They both got the runs on
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: the board that their words carry more weight, don't.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: They Yeah, exactly right. One question I want to finish
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: off with before we move on is there's been a
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: lot of talk about the regulations, and we might get
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: into that a little bit later on or next week
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: rather and lead up to the Straightian Grand Prix. If
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: one CEO Stefano Domenicali has come out and said everyone
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: should stop panicking and complaining. The racing is going to
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: be great. He saw a car with his own eyes
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: at the track and it looked awesome or fantastic or
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: whatever have he described it as. This is despite all
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: four world champions on the grid having various criticisms of it.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I am sympathetic to Dominicalli's view in the sense that
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: if you go back to twenty fourteen, not the first
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: time we've in wrote twenty fourteen. This week there was
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: similar catastrophic complaints. In fact, I went back and actually
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: had a look. If you go back to the bar
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: Rain Grand Prix on the Sunday, But then F one
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: CEO Bernie Ecleston and the Ferrari boss Luke Wadazemolo had
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: a crisis meeting in which the rules had to be
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: changed actually because the racing was going to be so bad.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: And then we've got that iconic duel between Hamilton and
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Rosbourg proven you can race the cars and everything was
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: fine after that. So I see it from that perspective.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: But the racing is going to be very different this year,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: even if maybe trackside it's not as noticeable as it
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: might be if you're riding on board and he's overblown,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: do you think, what's your gut instinct? Admittedly, before we
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: get an actually competitive weekend and you see it with
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: your own eyes.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: I thought it was a little bit soon to be
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: going down this path. It's the classic like everything's on fire,
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: but Doppanic, it's fine. Everything's fine. As you know, we
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: said this multiple times over the course of this podcast. Already,
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: it is such a long season that it would be
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: frankly shocking and also a little bit boring for the
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: narrative if everything happened perfectly and race wide and it
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: was all fine. This is going to be a developing story.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: That's part of the process of going from you to
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: bedding in and we get comfortable with it. Yes, it
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: might be a little bit chaotic early on, a little
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: bit unpredictable, and sometimes you're like, this is this a
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: bit f y and I'm not loving a lot of this,
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: you know, cruising through quarters stuff and Fernando a lot,
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: So saying the aston Martin chef could drive the car
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: through turn twelve in bar Raid and so on and
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: so forth. We don't expect this to be complete, and
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: it shouldn't be complete. I just thought it was just
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: interesting that someone in Dominicali's position would feel moved to
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: come out and say something the way he did ahead
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: of a season, and so this putting my cynical hat
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: on him. You're wondering, so what's that in response to?
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Are we jumping at shadows with social media comments? Because
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: we know social media comments there are always the place
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: to go if you want rational and clear thought about
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: anything in twenty twenty six. Or is it in reaction
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: to stakeholders or sponsors or promote or what is it? Like?
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: What is it that's prompted this? It was one of
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: those things for me that maybe it needed to be said,
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: but did it need to be said now? It just
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: felt a little bit early for me. I don't know
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: what you thought about it.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're right. It's always a degree of why,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Like what's the motivation for saying this? Yes, I guess
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: you have to say something to pump up the season
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: at some point, And if you didn't say anything about
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: those complaints, maybe it would look just as strange. But
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: I think there is I mean, I think it's a
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: good approach to take, which is that these rules are
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: new and inevitably new rules. Weird stuff's going to happen
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: in the first year. And I think you sort of
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: pointed out out He said whatever you sort of said
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: at the end of it all, he said, you know,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: whatever happens in Melbourne, though after saying it is all
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: going to be great, but whatever happens in Melbourne, Like,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: don't judge us on Melbourne, and don't judgeus on the
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: first few races either. But I think that is as
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: funny as that is. I think that's a good point
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: because it's not just the rules but the team's learning.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Then if you look back over the course of the test,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: obviously you couldn't see exactly where the team started in Barcelona,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: but what we understood happened in Barcelona and then in
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Bahrain and Bahrain again, improvements were huge, and if you
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: look at the onboard laps, obviously only over Bahrain, the
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: laps look less weird by the end of that last
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Barrain test, and some tracks are going to look more weird.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: I think Australia is actually probably going to be one
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: of them. It's much more sensitive to electrical power. But
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: others like Monaco are going to look perfectly normal, probably
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: a lot faster actually that we've become used to over
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: the last couple of years, and by the end of
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: the year that general trend is going to be different again.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: So I'm sympathetic to that extent. But if we're still
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: getting end of the year and we're doing a lot
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: of lifting and coasting and things, I think actually we
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: probably won't get to that point because the rules will
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: be tweaked over the course of the year, and it
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: seems EFI is prepared to by everything being fine. So
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: we'll see. But I don't think these problems are so
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: significant that it dramatically alters what Formula one is. The
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: lap times are very in fact, I think the fastest
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: that was just outside two seconds slower than Poland Bahrain
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: last year. Barrains are kind of middle ish of the
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: road track. Maybe we can say it like that. That's
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: pretty much bang on for a rule change. So despite
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: all this talk of lifting and coasting whatever, the lap
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: times are kind of already there. So I don't think
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: there's an overarching problem for Formula one here with these rules,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: it'll just be a little bit different. But rule changes
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: always are.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Well, we just need time.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: It's at the moment that a lot of the criticism
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: and the commentary about it, it's because we're unfamiliar with it.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: And you know, we were talking about twenty fourteen before
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: you remember what a shock it was to hear those
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: cars for the first time were twenty four so it's like,
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: oh my goodness, Formula one, you know, rip that sort
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: of thing. And we got used to it over time,
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: and then there were bigger rule changes in twenty seventeen.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: I mean when years old, as we you go back
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: to standing in the pit lane somewhere and hearing a
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: V ten car on a very very high speed pit
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: lane speed limit come out from a garage and all
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: your ribs clattered together because it was so confronting and
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: so loud, And then that proceeded the vight heor and
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: so on and so forth. We got used to all
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: of these things in time. At the moment, we just
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: have very very limited sample size. And because we're talking
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: about a twenty four round season, how soon until this
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: becomes normal and we stop talking about it? Is it
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: round five? Is it round eight? Is there a point
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: in the season where all of these things that we
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: know we're getting all worried about and wringing our hands together?
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: In February, we'll get to May and we'll just go,
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: it's just Formula one, It's fine, And then we start
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: talking about the racing and the narratives and the personalities
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: and the development race and all of those normal Formula
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: one things. We just need cars on track racing to
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: be able to make a decision. And finally, in about
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: ten days time, we're going to see that.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Let's move on, Matt to Move of the Week, brought
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: to you by Shannons. What a funny time to have
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Move of the Week when barely any racing has gone
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: the way, So.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: Ma, if you go first Move of the week, I'll
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: pull back the curtain a little bit. Move of the
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: Week is me being on vacation in New York, where
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: the biggest Motor GP story in the Australian Grand Prix
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: history happens to be breaking when I'm about to get
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: on a plane for eight eight hours. And obviously the
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: move of the week is the move of the Australian
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: Motorcycle Rand Prix from Phillip Island to Adelaide from twenty
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: twenty seven, a six year deal. And look, we could
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: do three separate podcast based on this. But this is
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: one of those things that I think everyone knew was
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: a possibility but never wanted to quite admit it. Because
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: Philip Pilond was on a ten year contract, there was
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: a request from the series promoters to make some changes
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: to the circuit every year. It was like, well, we've
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: still got more years, We've still got more years. We've
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: still got more years. And then there were no more years.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: And you look at the way the sports ownership has
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: changed with Motor GP, with Libity getting involved and what
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: have you. It's not a great surprise that Philip Island
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: left the calendar because of reasons that have nothing to
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: do with the actual race track. It's one of the
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: great race tracks in any series anywhere. Everything else around
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: it is pretty nineteen ninety seven ish must be perfectly hones.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: I like nostalgia, but not that far back. But the
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: curious thing for me, the move of the week is
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: a move to a strict circuit. And that's the staggering
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: part about all of this. There's still so much to
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: play out in terms of where Motor GP might be going.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, Australia is kind of ground zero now for
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: the brave new world of Motor GP. And if Moto
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: GP and Adelaide can pull this off, I think it's
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: more significant for what it means for the series going forward,
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: because the concept of bringing the races to the people.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's what Liberty's done with Formula one, isn't it.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: So it's a concept they know works now substituting two
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: wills for four, there's going to be some questions, clearly,
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: but in terms of what it means for the future,
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: it's really really interesting. It's not a discussion I ever
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: thought we were going to have, but I think, as
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: I said, ground zero, it's a move to what Motor
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: GP may look like in the future. And I have
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: no idea whether it's going to work or it's not
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: going to work, but it's going to be super interesting.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: To find out, isn't it Yeah, only well about eighteen
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: months from now, I guess end of next year next
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: I remember paired with the supercars around there the Adelaide
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Grand Finals. It's now known some question marks over whether
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: the supercars then also move what is a modified version
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: of the original F one track. I mean that's what
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: the supercars already on. More modifications though, to make the
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: track longer, that permanent part of the circuits being flipped
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: around and reconfigured. It actually took my brain a little
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: bit to figure out what was going on on the
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: map that was revealed, But I get it, man, I
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: think yeah. Supercars have suggested though that actually they'll be
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: allowed to use their current track, except for the changes
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: that obviously will be unavoidable in that permanent part of
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: the track remains to be seen. It's a pretty like
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: from both perspectives promoter giv obviously, and then combining it
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: with another race, a four wheel race as well, one
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: or two weekends prior is a pretty ambitious undertaking in
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: not that long, even though there's only so much of
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: the track that's permanent. They're talking about forty five trees.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Did he be removed? I think they'll also I mean,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: I'm not a civil engineer, and we've only seen the
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: vague outline of the map. We don't know exactly what
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: other options. I know. Remarkable, isn't it. If I've worked
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: on your house recently, as I told you about earlier,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: it looks like a lot more will have to be done,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: like there'll have to be a lot of work undertaken.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: That's my instant looking at a map. But we'll wait
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: and see. Adelaide says they're going to pull it off.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Adelaide's become pretty effective. We've got to say making major
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: events work. But this is more than just I guess
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: a major event, considering the amount of way, as I say,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: construction work that may have to be undertaken. But we'll
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: wait and see. A very interesting Move of the week,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Move of the year, perhaps even move. Take it back
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: to supercars though, where we did have some racing over
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: the course of again three races in fact, the Sydney
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: five hundred, the Night to Night Day, a round of
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: supercars to kick off the season. Good chance to put
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: some fireworks into the billing as well. Everyone loves those,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to go Move of the week. It
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: was a long move. In fact, it was almost a
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: race long move if you like Kai Allen versus brock
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Feenie at the start of Sunday's Race of the Line.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: I just liked this because it was brock Feenie who
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: prevailed in the end, and also because Kaylon retired from
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: the race unfortunately. It was almost a race long jewel
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: for victory. I think this for a couple of reasons.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: One brock Feenie bouncing back from that championship heartbreak last year.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: I don't think there's ever really any question of it,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: but it was just important to see it happen, and
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: he was on great form this weekend, had really great pace,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: even on Saturday when he was in contention to win,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: was penalized, but really got his elbows out to do it.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: I think we maybe it's early to say, but I
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: think we are seeing a slightly more elbows out version
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: of brock feeni And I'm I think part of it
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: is because of last year, but I think part of
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: it as well is just his more Every year he's
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: getting more established in the sport. It's clear he's one
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: of the top performers. So I liked it from that,
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: But then I also like Kyelee, and you know, he
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: was the surprise wild card in the finals last year,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: in the Grand Finals, in the top four people, we
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: are a bit surprised by that. But actually, if you
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: look at his results in the second half of the
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: year in the finals campaign, very good obviously in the
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: finals campaign, and I think that we're seeing the signs
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: that he is going to kick on and he's going
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: to make a really big step this year. So I
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: liked it for both of those storyline elements more than
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: just the battle between them where they were really fighting
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: hard off the line to try and lead that race
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: because the lead is so important.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there's bigger things that play there, for sure. Absolutely,
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: And I think the Fieni thing's really interesting that you
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: bring that up, because that was going to be the
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: question that he was going to be asked at every
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: stop until he didn't have to answer that question anymore. So,
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: you know, the hangover from last year, the fact that
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: that one's been put to bed in the very very
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: first round of the season, then we just get on
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: with it from there. But yeah, the aggression things interesting,
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: isn't it. That's that's always the sign of a guy
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: who's very comfortable in his own skin and nose. He
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: belongs at the sharp end, and it's I wouldn't say
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: it was a weakness that you could pick off with
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: him before, but again it's just that refinement of a
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: guy who's been a top line guy for a few
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: years now and knows where he belongs.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think the great drivers inevitably intimidate other drivers,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: and I think he starts intimidating other drivers, and I
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: mean at that point, I mean last year there were
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: very few weaknesses in his game. If he also becomes
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: intimidating for the rest of the grid, then yeah, hard
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: to know what else he'd have to do. Let's look
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: a little bit at the supercars, in fact, since it
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: was the only racing that's gone on the way so far.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: This is a motorsport podcast. As I said, the City
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: five hundred at the weekend, and this was a pretty
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: big opening round for a lot of significant reasons. For
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: the supercars, we had, of course Triple eight, the dominant
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: teams champion moving to Ford now the Ford to molligation team.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Question marks over how smoothly that would go turned out
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: actually very smoothly. It was never a problem also the
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: first race for Toyoda. We'll talk about that in the
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: second That was pretty significant for the sport and its
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: outlook really, and of course it was first round of
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: what was a pretty interesting championship last year. Kicking on
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: from that, we already talked about brock Feeni two wins
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: out of three on his debut with the Mustang. I
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: think that immediately puts to bed whether or not that
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: car is going to be quick, ause Sydney is, like
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: it or not, is a pretty well rounded test of
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: the car. Like it's a very conventional racetrack when we
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: even though we do rest a lot of weird and
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: wonderful circuits around Australia, I feel like this is a
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: pretty good all rounder. And well, it looks just as
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: good as it did last year. But this was a
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: pretty big test for the drivers as well. Man, I'm
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: sure you saw. I don't know if you saw the
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: weather forecast specifically, but we started that the eighty five
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: degrees and I was shocked to see it. I don't know,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: like nine am or something, humidity was ninety five percent,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: and so that's immediately like I would just check out.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: I would go home at that point. But the drivers
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: obviously abliged to continue racing, and they start like there
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: was some serious struggle in general. But for Brock, Feenie
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: and Will Brown, and also David Reynolds, it turns out
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: all had cool suit failures. Brock struggled on I mean
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: he was in the lead, which probably helped a little bit,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: and he said if he turned it on and turned
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: it off, it kind of worked again for another lap
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: and then failed. Will Brown couldn't really do that. He
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: ended up in the medical center, as did David Reynolds.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: And the way they described it, I think Will Brown said,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: in particular, is it when the it's got an F
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: one style call or as is now F one style
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: I guess probably supercar style. Originally the pumped water vest
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: or you know on their body that when it fails,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: the water pumping doesn't fail. The water just doesn't cool
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: down and the water is in the car with you
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: in the cars, you know, sixty degrees or whatever. So
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: it was having I think he said, forty odd degree
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: water being pumped around his body as he was in
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: acute heat straits. So the poor guy had to be
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: hauled out of the car taking to the medical center.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: So very taxing. This is something we normally expect like
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: on the Gold Coast or something, not in Sydney, and
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: not an afternoon in Sydney. But fair to say this
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: was a pretty physically taxing race to start the I mean,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: you know that's the thing, is the first race of
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: the year as well, when they're they're all fit, but
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: they're the least race fit, they're going to be.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean brutal way to start the season.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: I lived in that near that part of Sydney for
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: quite a while and yeah, you don't look at the
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: Sydney forecast. You go considerably more west than that, and
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: it gets super hot, super early, and the humidity is
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: the thing that kills you. You know, it's February, you know
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: it's the first round of the season. We're still in summer.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: And you mentioned the lack of match fitness. It was
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: always going to be potentially an issue, and then you've
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: got failing call suits in there. Can you think of
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: anything worse than just having increasingly heating water scrapped to
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: your body while you're in one of these things and
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: you're just counting down those laps, you'd bit like, how
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: is there still eight laps to go? Wasn't it eight
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: laps to go? Eight laps ago? But it's a tough
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: way to start the season. I mean, look longer term,
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: maybe it's got some benefits because if you weren't, if
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: you weren't ready to go before the weekend, you certainly
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: aren't now. But I wanted to touch on because I
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: wanted you to fill me in as much as anything else.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: You mentioned that first weekend for Toyota significant in terms
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: of the broader picture of the sport, and you'd have
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: to say the results were pretty credible, were they for
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: a first weekend?
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: In Yeah, credible. It's a good way to describe it.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: I think a mixed bag in the sense that qualifying
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: was pretty reliably not pretty good. Although Andre Homeguartner got
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: a top ten on Friday, I think it was but
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: in general the qualifying pace seemed a bit lacking. But
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: in the race they were constantly moving forward, which I
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: think is a pretty good sign. Qualifying is, of course,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: when you're really trying to put everything on the table,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: and I think it's not that surprising that a new
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: entrant essentially would be struggling there. But you know, Chas
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: must had finished fourth on Sunday and Ryan would fifth,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: so that's a really quite good result for the polygation team.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: There all five of the Turder cars as the three
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: BJR cars as well. We're in the top ten on Sunday,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: so that's a pretty good results. I think the big
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: question mark is the engine though. I think that's where
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: there are some concerns. It's notable that on Monday there
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: was a ride day where sponsors get driven around essentially
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: my co drivers. But I get the name right now
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: Walking Shore t WG Racing roles of which is the
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: fmuligation team, doesn't It opted not to participate, which is
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: a little bit unusual. They said they really wanted to
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: go back to base and debrief and of course the
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: next round is only next weekend at the Australian Grand Prix,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: so not very long, so understand it on that element.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: But track time is also pretty useful. But I mean
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: we had Andre him Gardner, for example, after qualifying stop
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: on track with an engine drama. We don't know exactly
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: what it was. There was also a report that Ryan
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: would had an engine change over the course of the weekend,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: with rumors suggesting that there was quite a lot of
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: metal found in some violent samples. That's just rumors. I
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: can't verify that, but it seems like there is an
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: engine limitation. The engine seemed relatively powerful, you know, it
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: seems everything's roughly on and supercars always because of the
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: parody format, but that also means that small differences make
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: a big difference in the result, and I think that's
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: probably what we were seeing. So I think a solid start.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, we always knew, we knew DOUBLET DOUBLEG very effective.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: Team obviously won the driver's championship last year, so that
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: wasn't in doubt. It's really just getting this machinery up
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: and running in an effective way. The good thing with
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: supercars is that because it is a parody formula, they
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: can make tweets during the year, and I'm sure if
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: they feel like they need to that they will. But
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: I think yes, credible is a good way to describe it.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: I think it was a good start. Other tracks will
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: of course be more favorable. As I said, this is
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: a pretty all round challenging track, but not the singing
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: and dancing start. I guess that maybe they would have
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: liked but decent. Nonetheless, I think it's fair to say.
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: Going back to what we were saying before, it was
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: a more Cadillac than Aston Martin, which is a very
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: very good thing.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: In February twenty twenty six, I think that is fair enough.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: All right, before you wrap up, let's go to the
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: Crystal Ball by complete home filtration. This is contrary to
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: move with the in fact the ideal time to have
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: the Crystal World segment. I think, when we know very
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: little but there's a lot on our plates coming up,
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: what are you predicting?
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: Well, when I knew we were going to be talking
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: about the biggest questions going into the Formula One season,
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: I wrote five words down and you'll enjoy this. Do
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: we believe in Ferrari? They are my five words that
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: I wrote down, And usually my answer to these things
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: is no, because of a historical president. But so my
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: crystal Ball, I'm going to go with Ferrari is going
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: to win the Australian grond Ah Great Crystal Ball, simply
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: because I'm going you know, we talked about nostalgia a
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: little bit. Ferrari is very very good at winning the
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: Australian Grand Prix but not winning the World Drivers Championship
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: in the same season. So the last four times in
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: Australian driver Ferrari drivers won the Australian Grand Prix twenty
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: twenty four, Color Sites twenty twenty two, char Le Clare
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: twenty seventeen and eighteen Sebastian Battle. Those four race winners
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: did not translate to World Championships that year. You have
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: to go back nineteen year Kimmy Reichen in twenty seven,
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: the last time a Ferrari driver won the Australian Grand
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: Prix and the World title. So given that, I don't
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: think a Ferrari drivers go to win this years World Championship,
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: I'm saying they go to win an albert Park. So
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: there's my prediction for you.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Very good. I've got to say I won't I won't
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: name names, but I remember I was walking out of
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: the track with a colleague on the Sunday of the
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: twenty two Australian Grand Prix. Well, Charlot Cleger won that
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: one pretty comprehensive he did, and he goes to me, Wow,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: it's just a matter of how many points is it
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: going to win by and how early isn't it And
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: I thought, sure enough it was. So I think that
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: is a good I like the logic of that prediction.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: I think that's a good one. I'm going to forecast
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: slightly even nearer term than that. I think you will
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: have read about this on the Fox's website and it's
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: been a story for months. In fact, the Mercedes power unit.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: Is it illegal? Is it the compression race you I'm
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: not going to explain the compression ratios here, no, but
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: are they breaking the rules? It is a vote. The
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: FIA's decided it doesn't want this controversy hanging over the
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: Australian Grand Prix. So by the end of this week,
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: I think it is all the engine manufacturers have to
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: vote on whether or not to measure the compression ratio
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: when it's hot as well as when it is called
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: the engine. That is not just the weather. But what
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: I love about this is because on paper you think
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: all the other rival manufacturers getting what they want. The
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: Mercedes will be slowed down. They'll have to revise their
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: engine by August anyway, when the rules will be changed.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: But there's a report i think from the race that
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: have suggested that the other teams actually, upon reflection, are
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: going to vote down this proposal because it will prevent
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: them from bending the rules in a way that they
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: the anticipated they would be doing this year. So after
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: all the singing and dancing, if I can use that
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: phrase again about engines and Mercedes and the spirit of
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: the rules, well, the spirit of the rules serve no
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: purpose for the rival manufacturers either, and this might become
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: a total non issue by the end of the week.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: No, it's very to my mind, this is the most
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: finn story of flod stories, right. You know, you complain
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: about something and then all of a sudden, when you
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: realize that you might be disadvantaged by your own complaining,
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: they decide to retract. So yeah, a very obvious end too,
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: a story that we saw coming and it'll be in
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: then nothing to see here basket by the time we
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: get to Albert Park.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: Probably one of the great stories, I think, one of
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: the great political stories of Formula one. But we will
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: wait and see and you'll be able to read about
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: that on the Fox Sports website over the week. But
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: that's all the time we have for pit Talk this week.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: You can subscribe to pit Talk wherever you get your
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: favorite podcasts, and you can leave us a rating and
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: review as well, and you can hear the Moto GP
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: edition of Pit Talk later this week in your feed
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: or next week. In fact, I think it's already out.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: This weekend is the season opening Thailand Motorcycle Grand Prix,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: with lights out at seven pm Eastern daylight time. You
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: can keep up to date before for latest F one,
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: supercars and MotoGP news at Fox sports dot com or
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: about you from Matt Clayton and me Michael Lomonado. Thanks
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: very much for your company and we'll catch you next
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: week