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Antonelli delight & Piastri disaster: Chinese GP Preview · Pit Talk

0:06
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:09
Speaker 1: On today's episode, Andrea Kimi Antonali becomes Formula one's one
0:13
Speaker 1: hundred and sixteenth winner after claiming his maiden Grand Prix
0:16
Speaker 1: victory in China at the weekend. But it's disaster for
0:19
Speaker 1: McLaren and for Oscar Piastre, who's now yet to start
0:23
Speaker 1: a Grand Prix in twenty twenty six after a technical
0:27
Speaker 1: problem on the grid. My name is Michael Lomonato. It's
0:30
Speaker 1: great to have your company and the company of my
0:32
Speaker 1: co hosts. When he plays Mario Kart, he always chooses
0:36
Speaker 1: the character with the most efficient energy recovery system to
0:39
Speaker 1: reduce the need for super clipping. It's Matt Clayton.
0:42
Speaker 2: Isn't that the way everyone plays Mario Cut. I thought
0:45
Speaker 2: you were going to go down some path about mushrooms
0:47
Speaker 2: and then talking about some sort of spurious habits that
0:50
Speaker 2: I might have had as a go man. And I
0:51
Speaker 2: was a little concerned about this, but I will take that.
0:54
Speaker 2: And yeah, who would have thought that in twenty twenty
0:56
Speaker 2: six we'd be referencing Mario cut multiple times in Grand
0:59
Speaker 2: Prix race report. But this is the new look Formula
1:02
Speaker 2: one and whether you like it or not Max for
1:04
Speaker 2: Stapffen does not is entirely up to you. But yes,
1:07
Speaker 2: plenty of that and more to discuss in this episode.
1:09
Speaker 1: I'm sure, yes, I will say word to Max with
1:12
Speaker 1: Staffen Well, Mario Kart Joe, which wasn't his, Charlotte Clais.
1:16
Speaker 1: It's funny one saying it multiple weeks, you know where
1:19
Speaker 1: it wears out. I think he's got to come up
1:21
Speaker 1: with some new rhetorical arguments.
1:23
Speaker 2: A little bit, yes, a little bit, but it's.
1:25
Speaker 1: Up to him. He's the world champion, not me. Let's
1:28
Speaker 1: look at the race though, in which he barely figured,
1:30
Speaker 1: and we will talk about Max with Stafforen and Red
1:32
Speaker 1: Bull Racings woes a little bit later on, as we
1:34
Speaker 1: will McLaren's problems. Of course, we've got to talk about
1:37
Speaker 1: Formula one's new winner, Andrea Kimmi Antonelli, in his twenty
1:42
Speaker 1: sixth Grand Prix with Mercedes and of his career is
1:46
Speaker 1: a race winner. He did it from pole position. He
1:49
Speaker 1: did get pole position after George Russell had some engine
1:52
Speaker 1: problems in Q three, though they both did complete their
1:55
Speaker 1: final laps and he led the Mercedes front row lockout
1:58
Speaker 1: briefly lost the lead to Ferrari as I think is
2:01
Speaker 1: just going to be every race for whoever starts on
2:04
Speaker 1: the whole position but got it back and then really
2:07
Speaker 1: controlled this race. I think it's fair to say barely
2:10
Speaker 1: a problem one lock up about the three with three
2:13
Speaker 1: laps to go, which was its own little heart attack
2:16
Speaker 1: moment for Mercedes, but secured the victory nonetheless, and this
2:20
Speaker 1: was I think, really I'm thinking of the most appropriate
2:23
Speaker 1: word you have, validation or vindication for Mercedes and Toto
2:27
Speaker 1: wolf In particularly gambled big on what was an eighteen
2:30
Speaker 1: year old when they gave him his debut last year.
2:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, vindication is probably the word. I'm also a little
2:35
Speaker 2: bit surprised with the narrative of this because there was
2:38
Speaker 2: nothing that we saw last year with Antonelli that made
2:41
Speaker 2: me think that he might not have it. I think
2:44
Speaker 2: there were your standard peaks and troughs of a rookie
2:47
Speaker 2: season and some strange run of results where he did
2:51
Speaker 2: nothing on tracks that he knew, and then went tracks
2:53
Speaker 2: that he didn't know and did particularly well. I don't
2:55
Speaker 2: think the speed's ever been in question or the talent's
2:57
Speaker 2: ever been questioned, and a lot of that just came
3:00
Speaker 2: down to what the date is on his birth certificate.
3:03
Speaker 2: I think if he'd been a little bit older, we
3:04
Speaker 2: might have been framing it a little bit more differently
3:06
Speaker 2: last year, but there's never been a lack of quality
3:09
Speaker 2: or potential there. I think it's interesting now how quickly
3:13
Speaker 2: he has adapted to life at the front now that
3:15
Speaker 2: he has a genuine front running car. But maybe that's
3:18
Speaker 2: just a trait of all the really good young guys,
3:20
Speaker 2: and we've seen it in the past with Max Verstappan
3:22
Speaker 2: and Sabati invattal guys who come in and when they
3:24
Speaker 2: get their hands on proper race winning machinery, the age
3:28
Speaker 2: is not super relevant anymore. So I guess look vindication
3:31
Speaker 2: because Total Wolf cops some heat about it. But there
3:34
Speaker 2: was nothing last year that made me think this wasn't
3:36
Speaker 2: going to be in his future. Now, whether I saw
3:38
Speaker 2: the future being this soon, the chance of a rule
3:40
Speaker 2: reset for twenty six always opened the door to that,
3:44
Speaker 2: and we knew over the off season it looked like
3:46
Speaker 2: Mercedes had a bit of a march on everybody else
3:48
Speaker 2: and these first two rounds have just confirmed that. But
3:51
Speaker 2: it's good for the World Championship that we have different
3:53
Speaker 2: Mercedes drivers wining Grand Prix, because that might be the
3:56
Speaker 2: narrative for the season because at the moment they are
3:59
Speaker 2: apps alertely miles ahead of everybody else. And as you know,
4:03
Speaker 2: we lived through twenty twenty three where there was a
4:04
Speaker 2: particular car miles ahead of everybody else and the same
4:07
Speaker 2: guy wanted us all the time, So that wasn't super interesting.
4:09
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's a fight at the front between two drivers,
4:12
Speaker 2: but it's better than a fight at the front with one.
4:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you got to take what you can get.
4:17
Speaker 1: I think in these circumstances only I think it was
4:19
Speaker 1: an important result, though Frantonelli and I do eche your point.
4:22
Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't think anything we saw last
4:24
Speaker 1: year was dire, but certainly there were a lot of
4:27
Speaker 1: things that you would put down to inexperience, his age
4:31
Speaker 1: and being thrown into a car with front running aspirations.
4:35
Speaker 1: Let's say it was last year's Mercedes car, but alongside
4:38
Speaker 1: a driver who I think was peaking last year or
4:40
Speaker 1: not Adia's peak. I guess because he could still get better.
4:42
Speaker 1: For George Russell, but I think it clearly attained a
4:44
Speaker 1: higher version of himself. But I think the reason that's
4:47
Speaker 1: important is because we saw last year when the Mercedes
4:50
Speaker 1: car was struggling and Russell was struggling relatively less, that
4:53
Speaker 1: those bad weekends really compounded on Antonelli. I think psychologically.
4:57
Speaker 1: You know, there were rounds of which it seemed like
5:00
Speaker 1: it's being broken, and you know, it talks about having
5:02
Speaker 1: serious chats about his execution and that kind of thing,
5:05
Speaker 1: and I think that's important this year because let's say
5:08
Speaker 1: we got five six rounds in whatever George Russell's won
5:11
Speaker 1: them all or you know, he's beaten Antonelli in all
5:13
Speaker 1: of them. Anyway, whatever the outcomes are, the question in
5:16
Speaker 1: a car like this would eventually become or when are
5:18
Speaker 1: you going to win your first race? And that pressure
5:20
Speaker 1: then builds. Even if he's executing relatively well, constantly finishing second,
5:25
Speaker 1: that would have become a thing, I think for him
5:27
Speaker 1: because he's young, and I think that that's still the case.
5:29
Speaker 1: So ticking this off now, regardless what happens for the
5:32
Speaker 1: rest of the year, you know, probably not if he
5:34
Speaker 1: doesn't win another race for the rest of the year,
5:36
Speaker 1: but even if he goes now a long stretch without
5:37
Speaker 1: getting that next win, as long as he's competitive, I
5:40
Speaker 1: think this win now is important to prevent that question
5:44
Speaker 1: from being asked because from this point on and I
5:46
Speaker 1: thought it was interesting Toto Wolf, even Antonelli's dad in
5:50
Speaker 1: some post race interviews when asked about you know, what
5:52
Speaker 1: is this the championship right now? We're both they didn't
5:55
Speaker 1: say no, but they said, in many more words essentially
5:58
Speaker 1: the same thing. We're thinking. Wow, you know, he's very
5:59
Speaker 1: young and innix experienced. I think now the work to
6:02
Speaker 1: take the pressure off him in that perspective can be
6:04
Speaker 1: done much more easily because he's proved he can belong
6:06
Speaker 1: there and we can recognize now how young and inexperienced.
6:09
Speaker 2: You. Yeah, and then some of that I think even
6:11
Speaker 2: goes back. You know, you've rewind all of what eight
6:14
Speaker 2: days before his first Grand Prix. We forget that if
6:16
Speaker 2: I was in Australia so recently when he binnd it
6:20
Speaker 2: at turn one two in practice at Albert Park on
6:23
Speaker 2: the Saturday and there was the race against time to
6:25
Speaker 2: get the car ready for qualifying. To think that eight
6:27
Speaker 2: days later he's ticked off his first pole position in
6:30
Speaker 2: his first win, I think that's a really good sign
6:33
Speaker 2: because you know, the FB three shunt at albert Park
6:37
Speaker 2: was a classic sort of driver overreaching a little bit,
6:40
Speaker 2: and it played into the narrative like, oh here we
6:42
Speaker 2: go again, big moment. It's all a bit you know,
6:44
Speaker 2: the lights are a bit bright. That sort of thing
6:46
Speaker 2: magnified more by the fact that you've got the class
6:48
Speaker 2: leading car right now. So for him to be able
6:51
Speaker 2: to turn that around in the space of eight days
6:53
Speaker 2: and take his first pole position, Okay, George Russell's qualified
6:56
Speaker 2: was slightly compromised, but he still had to do the
6:58
Speaker 2: lap and then convert from To do that eight days
7:01
Speaker 2: after you've thrown it in the fence right before the
7:03
Speaker 2: first qualifying of the season is testament to perhaps the
7:07
Speaker 2: resilience that last year bought for him a little bit,
7:09
Speaker 2: because he had to deal with some difficult times last year.
7:12
Speaker 2: I think what we saw over the weekend, I mean,
7:15
Speaker 2: you've been around long enough, you see this when guys
7:17
Speaker 2: win that first Grand Prix and you're like, well, okay,
7:19
Speaker 2: that's fine, and then the wait for the next one,
7:21
Speaker 2: like it's an unsustainable peak. Now, clearly he's got a
7:24
Speaker 2: great car, but I think that belief factor, the fact
7:27
Speaker 2: that he now knows that he can do it. As
7:29
Speaker 2: you've said, two rounds into a twenty two round season
7:31
Speaker 2: bodes really really well for the future for him and
7:34
Speaker 2: within that team as well, because I think we can
7:36
Speaker 2: now remove the is he the right guy for the
7:39
Speaker 2: job in the number two seat, which is what it
7:40
Speaker 2: is at the moment. The answer to that is yes,
7:43
Speaker 2: and anything else that happens now. Yeah, vindication I think
7:46
Speaker 2: was a good word that you used earlier.
7:47
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think also really fitting from the broader Mercedes
7:51
Speaker 1: perspective in the context of having promoted him so quickly
7:54
Speaker 1: was to have Lewis Hamilton on the podium and him
7:56
Speaker 1: to sort of say, oh, the guy took my seat
7:58
Speaker 1: as my engineer who was also on the podium, Peter
8:00
Speaker 1: Bondington and receiving the Constructor's trophy, and then also George
8:03
Speaker 1: Russell there. I guess he had a role to play
8:05
Speaker 1: as Hamilton's teammate, current teammate, now championship favorite, all that
8:08
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. It felt to me. I don't want
8:11
Speaker 1: to say changing of the guard because that sort of
8:12
Speaker 1: makes it feel like Slm's going to retire after this,
8:14
Speaker 1: now that he's got the podium for Ferrari that he's
8:16
Speaker 1: wanted for twenty six rounds. But there was this moment
8:19
Speaker 1: because we shouldn't forget that Mercedes really believes it has
8:22
Speaker 1: potentially the next Hamilton or whichever champion you want to
8:25
Speaker 1: put in the box. I think, well, probably more specifically
8:27
Speaker 1: from total Wool's perspective, the next was Stappen, but nonetheless
8:30
Speaker 1: on its hands with Antonelli. So there was this moment.
8:33
Speaker 1: Hamilton said it multiple times of the weekend. I don't
8:35
Speaker 1: think he said it in any way maliciously. I think
8:38
Speaker 1: it was warmth to it. But I just thought it
8:39
Speaker 1: was interesting. He kept saying, this is the guy who
8:42
Speaker 1: took my seat, and I just can't help but coming
8:45
Speaker 1: back to that, because that is what Mercedes wants. He
8:48
Speaker 1: doesn't want. They didn't want just someone to simply fill
8:50
Speaker 1: the seat by Hamilton. They wanted someone to take his position,
8:53
Speaker 1: if you like, not in seniority terms, ability terms. That
8:57
Speaker 1: comes back to all the contract chat I guess in
8:58
Speaker 1: the middle of the last year about George Russell too. So
9:01
Speaker 1: I just think that's sort of an interesting I wonder
9:03
Speaker 1: how important this race will come back to be reflected upon.
9:05
Speaker 1: You know, we don't always remember the first wins by
9:07
Speaker 1: all of the greats, but you know, this was perhaps
9:09
Speaker 1: not a classic race from Antonelli's perspective, because once he
9:12
Speaker 1: took the lead from Hamilton, we didn't think about him
9:14
Speaker 1: again after that. But you know, the first win for
9:17
Speaker 1: someone who's probably going to accumulate quite a few interesting
9:21
Speaker 1: way to achieve, an interesting podium configuration to achieve it.
9:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like the podium. It felt like it was
9:26
Speaker 2: that sort of you know, satisfying completion of the puzzle,
9:28
Speaker 2: like everything was that it's right, or to the fact
9:30
Speaker 2: that Bonington was up there and it all felt sort
9:33
Speaker 2: of very nice close to circle and all of that.
9:35
Speaker 2: I mean, it is Kimmie Antonelli, the next Maxis step
9:39
Speaker 2: In or Lewis Hamilton. I mean, what two of the
9:40
Speaker 2: best three or four drivers in the history of Formula One.
9:43
Speaker 2: I mean, let's just pump the brakes a little bit
9:45
Speaker 2: on that one. But as a first building block in
9:49
Speaker 2: what that narrative might be, it was pretty convincing, you know.
9:53
Speaker 2: Other than the lock up three laps from the end,
9:56
Speaker 2: which gave everyone a jump scare on the messodes pitfall,
9:59
Speaker 2: I think it was it was not really in doubt
10:01
Speaker 2: once he got back to the lead. They're the sorts
10:03
Speaker 2: of wins that as a young driver and as a
10:05
Speaker 2: driver who's not done it before generally hold you in
10:07
Speaker 2: pretty good stead. But yeah, it was the I know
10:10
Speaker 2: you're a man of order. You don't like half points,
10:12
Speaker 2: and you know all these other sorts of things. It was,
10:14
Speaker 2: it was, it was. It was a neat completion of
10:16
Speaker 2: the circle and the narrative. And I've got to say too,
10:19
Speaker 2: I mean, we'll get on to Lewis in a second,
10:21
Speaker 2: but I think happy deferential Lewis is a nice Lewis
10:24
Speaker 2: to do. As in Formula one, there's a degree of
10:26
Speaker 2: positivity because God is a negativity up there the grid
10:29
Speaker 2: right now. But happy Lewis, when he sees the big
10:32
Speaker 2: picture and he offers the good SoundBite, is a good
10:34
Speaker 2: place for Formula one.
10:36
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm amount of order, and you can imagine how
10:38
Speaker 1: upset I was. Right I heard Antonelli had locked up
10:40
Speaker 1: three laps to go with my race pretty much. Very pleased.
10:44
Speaker 1: He retained it. Very good. Let's get let us get
10:46
Speaker 1: on to Lewis. Hamilton now finally has that podium for Ferrari.
10:49
Speaker 1: He's the driver who's taken the longest to get there
10:51
Speaker 1: in Ferrari's history. But he got there, which is what's important.
10:54
Speaker 1: And he got there, not in some unusual random way.
10:57
Speaker 1: He got there in a race which he had to
10:59
Speaker 1: fight for. You had to fight his teammate for it,
11:01
Speaker 1: and had to at one point fight something Mercedes for it.
11:05
Speaker 1: Looked on the pace all weekend. This was a pretty
11:06
Speaker 1: good weekend for him, similar I guess to China last year,
11:09
Speaker 1: although I think more comprehensive, notwithstanding that he won the
11:12
Speaker 1: sprint from Pole last year and probably one of his
11:15
Speaker 1: most convincing weekends as a Ferrari driver so far. I think,
11:19
Speaker 1: you know, notwithstanding charl Leclair's ad this this is in
11:22
Speaker 1: one of his tracks, I think that's probably true, but
11:24
Speaker 1: I don't think that discounts it by any means, because
11:26
Speaker 1: I think also what we saw in Australia was Hamilton
11:29
Speaker 1: pretty much there. He's in the ballpark with Lacerta. I
11:31
Speaker 1: think we can hope for too much more than that,
11:33
Speaker 1: at least until the car gets a little bit more
11:35
Speaker 1: competitive and can really put the spotlight on it. But
11:38
Speaker 1: this for me also felt like I was speaking about
11:39
Speaker 1: that completeness of the podium and the importance of that result,
11:42
Speaker 1: that this was an important result from for Hamilton, beyond
11:46
Speaker 1: just the monkey being on the back about the podium,
11:47
Speaker 1: but perhaps signifying that we're back to seeing him at
11:51
Speaker 1: I don't know his best, his best, maybe he's not it,
11:53
Speaker 1: but in good form at least.
11:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I don't I can't see a world
11:58
Speaker 2: to me. The best Lewis Hamilton has ever driven Formula
12:00
Speaker 2: One was at the end of twenty twenty one when
12:02
Speaker 2: he was pursuing Max for staffing for that title, and
12:04
Speaker 2: then Abu Dhabi and then let's not talk about that anymore.
12:07
Speaker 2: But that was the best. That was the best we've
12:09
Speaker 2: ever seen from him, I think. And as he gets
12:11
Speaker 2: you know, oh, he's been around for so so long
12:13
Speaker 2: now and he's had all the success that he has.
12:16
Speaker 2: There was a definite he's much more on the roller
12:19
Speaker 2: coaster now than you would expect of a driver who's
12:21
Speaker 2: been around this long. But when he's motivated, he's got
12:23
Speaker 2: something to fight for. The old magic is still there
12:26
Speaker 2: and you have Pete. Bondington made reference that there's still
12:28
Speaker 2: life of the old dog and that sort of stuff,
12:30
Speaker 2: which was I know what he was saying. I'm not
12:32
Speaker 2: sure if it's the most charitable, but it was a
12:35
Speaker 2: confluence of a few things. Here. China's a really good
12:38
Speaker 2: Hamilton track historically, and China is not a great Laclare
12:41
Speaker 2: track historically, so we would need to see a little
12:44
Speaker 2: bit more evidence from a few other tracks where perhaps
12:47
Speaker 2: the clear is a bit stronger or it's more neutral
12:49
Speaker 2: between the two of them. But I like the fact
12:51
Speaker 2: that this drought was broken through no sense of fortune
12:56
Speaker 2: or luck or some opportune safety car or everyone else
12:58
Speaker 2: crashed out, whatever it might have been, It was done
13:01
Speaker 2: completely on merit. I love the feistiness. I think the
13:05
Speaker 2: great part about the battle between Hamilton and Leclair was
13:08
Speaker 2: it was allowed to happen. You know, you can discuss
13:11
Speaker 2: whether it was genuine or fake based on battery usage
13:14
Speaker 2: and other such but it was very, very entertaining and
13:17
Speaker 2: it was pretty ferocious. And my favorite part of the
13:20
Speaker 2: entire race was Charla Clair on the radio go yeah,
13:23
Speaker 2: that was kind of fun. I enjoyed that because we
13:24
Speaker 2: all did as well, and it was great that there
13:26
Speaker 2: wasn't any make sure you don't hit your teammatees so
13:29
Speaker 2: on and so forth. It was properly on the edge
13:31
Speaker 2: and it was really nice to see because you know,
13:33
Speaker 2: obviously when Leclair and Hamilton came together as teammates last
13:37
Speaker 2: year for the first time, we weren't quite sure we
13:39
Speaker 2: were going to get with forty year old Lewis Hamilton,
13:41
Speaker 2: you know, going through the as you memorably wrote once
13:45
Speaker 2: the midlife crisis of man in his forties switches to
13:47
Speaker 2: buy Ferrari. We were't quite sure we were going to get.
13:51
Speaker 2: Was there going to be a hangover from Mercedes and
13:54
Speaker 2: what if it doesn't go well? And we saw what
13:55
Speaker 2: happened last year. It was the leanest statistical season of
13:58
Speaker 2: his career. Whether he's still got the ability to dial
14:02
Speaker 2: that in race by race, week by week, I don't know,
14:05
Speaker 2: but I'm glad that we don't have to talk about
14:07
Speaker 2: the podium draut anymore. It was achieved on complete merit
14:10
Speaker 2: and it's exciting to see where this might get to
14:13
Speaker 2: because I think an invigorated, feisty Lewis Hamilton at the
14:16
Speaker 2: front of Formula One race is just adds an element
14:19
Speaker 2: that this season's probably going to need, because I don't
14:22
Speaker 2: think we're going to have red ball other than intermittently
14:24
Speaker 2: at the front of races for a while. It just
14:27
Speaker 2: adds a little bit of adding some red to the
14:29
Speaker 2: color palette. Michael, that's what we want we've got nice
14:31
Speaker 2: vivid paintings in Formula One. We don't want lots of
14:34
Speaker 2: silver and black. It makes for good for Mercedes, but
14:36
Speaker 2: very dull TV. So inject a little bit of red
14:39
Speaker 2: and there's nothing like watching. I like to refer to
14:42
Speaker 2: this as an old guy still got it in any
14:44
Speaker 2: sort of sport. I love this when you've got these
14:46
Speaker 2: guys that are clearly you know the clock's about to
14:48
Speaker 2: strike twelve on their career. We're just about done here.
14:50
Speaker 2: But it's nice to get that reminder of someone's ability.
14:53
Speaker 2: And yeah, thoroughly enjoyable and Ferrari, Ferrari doing good things
14:58
Speaker 2: for Formula One at the moment, which is not so
15:00
Speaker 2: we've had to say for the last couple of years.
15:02
Speaker 1: Yes, no strategy there is this week either, and I
15:04
Speaker 1: do like I think at a minimum with Hamilton. Now
15:06
Speaker 1: you know, we'll find out this year, presumably if the
15:08
Speaker 1: Frier gets any better, even if it doesn't know where
15:11
Speaker 1: he is in terms of his ability relative to his best,
15:15
Speaker 1: only any expect him to beat his best. But you know,
15:17
Speaker 1: even just off his best is still obviously very good.
15:20
Speaker 1: But I like that this year, unlike last year, it
15:23
Speaker 1: feels like and we are speaking only two rounds into
15:25
Speaker 1: the season. Nonetheless, that we will get, you know, at
15:28
Speaker 1: least one of those Hamilton Classic races. It feels like
15:30
Speaker 1: he's at least in the mind frame where we're going
15:32
Speaker 1: to see we're gonna say at least one weekend where
15:34
Speaker 1: Hamilton probably is at his best, whereas last year it
15:36
Speaker 1: was just totally inconceivable that he would ever achieve it.
15:40
Speaker 1: So I think that's exciting. At least maybe that means
15:42
Speaker 1: a race win. Who knows with that Mercedes car before
15:45
Speaker 1: we move on though, because it is a good result Ferrari,
15:48
Speaker 1: and I think Ferrari offered the biggest highlights of this race.
15:51
Speaker 1: There were some great battles in the midfield, but that
15:53
Speaker 1: race long duel with Hamilton Leclair was great. But you
15:57
Speaker 1: touched on it there, you know, whether or not you
15:59
Speaker 1: can see at Artificial Laquerza, has he enjoyed a lot
16:02
Speaker 1: Hamilton's He's having a great time racing these cars. Max
16:04
Speaker 1: Withstaffan very much of the opposite opinion. We'll get onto
16:08
Speaker 1: his race in general a little bit later. But after
16:11
Speaker 1: two rounds of these new rules, has your opinion changed?
16:14
Speaker 1: After Australia, what are you thinking about these regulations, because
16:17
Speaker 1: the reports are now that whereas the sport was poised
16:20
Speaker 1: to make some changes before the Japanese Grand Prix, that
16:22
Speaker 1: we're now going to use that much longer break after
16:25
Speaker 1: Japan to reflect on what, if any changes will be required.
16:28
Speaker 2: And it depends how you measure success with these things, right,
16:31
Speaker 2: So if you're counting the number of overtakes, or if
16:33
Speaker 2: you're counting then the amount of social media engagement, what
16:38
Speaker 2: are you as a sport? I guess is the more
16:40
Speaker 2: existential question with all of this, because if we are
16:43
Speaker 2: saying that you are in the entertainment business, which you
16:46
Speaker 2: could argue that we are, when it comes to professional
16:48
Speaker 2: sport these days, there's so many there's so little time
16:51
Speaker 2: for so many people's eyeballs these days, you've got to
16:53
Speaker 2: do something more people will switch off. It's been thoroughly entertaining.
16:56
Speaker 2: Now you look at the way these early race duels
16:58
Speaker 2: have planned played out. I still don't think we know
17:01
Speaker 2: or understand enough about why the fighting is going on
17:04
Speaker 2: at the moment, and that's maybe the frustrating bit, or
17:06
Speaker 2: maybe that's something we're not being told simply because it
17:09
Speaker 2: might not pat the sport of fantastic Life if we
17:11
Speaker 2: actually really know what's going on. But in terms of
17:14
Speaker 2: an entertainment product, I mean, you have people in your
17:16
Speaker 2: life that are nowhere near in the weeds as much
17:18
Speaker 2: of it as you and I are, and they'll watch
17:20
Speaker 2: it and go, oh, that was fun. So yeah, it
17:22
Speaker 2: was fun. On its face, it was completely fine. So
17:25
Speaker 2: is there a lack of purity to what's going on.
17:29
Speaker 2: I'm enjoying the racing way more than I'm enjoying qualifying.
17:31
Speaker 2: Qualifying right now is just so massively compromised because of
17:34
Speaker 2: the way the cars are, and as someone that's an
17:36
Speaker 2: F one purist, losing the magic of what qualifying should
17:40
Speaker 2: be is something that is slightly frustrating right now. But
17:43
Speaker 2: then at the end of the day, is the sport
17:44
Speaker 2: trying to sell itself to you and I and plenty
17:46
Speaker 2: of people listening to this. No, because we're invested in
17:48
Speaker 2: a way that is going to transcend that entertaining on
17:51
Speaker 2: its face, yeah, absolutely, but I'd still like to know
17:55
Speaker 2: why it's entertaining. I think that's the frustrating part right now.
17:57
Speaker 2: You look at it and go, yeah, that was actually
17:59
Speaker 2: quite fun without really understanding what was going on. A
18:02
Speaker 2: bit like the opening lapse in Australia. So I'm not
18:05
Speaker 2: sure I've really changed my view on that, but is
18:07
Speaker 2: that sort of does that hold with how you're still
18:09
Speaker 2: thinking about it, like the lack of understanding is kind
18:11
Speaker 2: of the impediment.
18:12
Speaker 1: To all of this to a degree, Yes, certainly of
18:16
Speaker 1: the same opinion with qualifying. I think qualifying just lacks
18:18
Speaker 1: that edge, and I think that's a little bit concerning
18:21
Speaker 1: because this circuit is one of the better ones, if
18:23
Speaker 1: not the best one or best one that's not a
18:25
Speaker 1: street track I think for these power units in terms
18:28
Speaker 1: of the ease of regeneration. So the fact that you know,
18:31
Speaker 1: the onboards looked a lot, certainly a lot better than
18:33
Speaker 1: they did in Albert Park, we could definitely say that.
18:35
Speaker 1: But there was still clear lifting and coasting or cruising.
18:39
Speaker 1: There were fast corners of China. The just weren't being
18:41
Speaker 1: taken that fast, and I think that that's painful to
18:43
Speaker 1: watch and painful for the drivers clearly. But the racing
18:48
Speaker 1: there is an understanding element. But I think if you
18:50
Speaker 1: watch the entire an Average we were watching entire Grand Prix,
18:55
Speaker 1: I think it was clear that there were overtaking zones
18:58
Speaker 1: and to my mind that's still not that different to
19:01
Speaker 1: DRS right like in the old days, and of course
19:03
Speaker 1: you'd see DRS and I think that does make a difference.
19:05
Speaker 1: Fact you'd see the rear wing open. It was very
19:07
Speaker 1: easy to understand, even if you're watching your first Grand
19:09
Speaker 1: Prix ever. But it was all about, you know, if
19:12
Speaker 1: you're very close to the car behind, where you've got
19:13
Speaker 1: to get to the DRS and see if you can
19:14
Speaker 1: get a good exit onto that straight and then you
19:16
Speaker 1: might pass, and then the guy might pass you back
19:18
Speaker 1: if the cars are similar pace. The fact that a
19:20
Speaker 1: lot of the action was taking place at that hairpin,
19:22
Speaker 1: which was pretty much where DRS passes would have taken
19:25
Speaker 1: place in the old days, but then also turn one
19:28
Speaker 1: like there was an obvious fight back moment, and then
19:30
Speaker 1: occasionally we'd get some unpredictable racing in the middle that
19:33
Speaker 1: I guess is a little bit more interesting. But I
19:36
Speaker 1: thought that at least this weekend, you know, we had that,
19:39
Speaker 1: so you had a level of expectation about what was happening,
19:42
Speaker 1: and we got very few massive power past the other driver.
19:48
Speaker 1: You've clearly saved your battery or how did you save
19:50
Speaker 1: your battery? Compared to that, very few of those questions
19:52
Speaker 1: relative to Albert Parker thought, we've got a lot more
19:53
Speaker 1: of those in Melbourne. The only ones that are really
19:56
Speaker 1: happened I think off the top of my head in
19:57
Speaker 1: China were buy the Mercedes cars, which I think is
20:00
Speaker 1: probably indicative of an advantage that hasn't maybe been fully
20:03
Speaker 1: expressed yet. But you know, if we take that Ferrari
20:06
Speaker 1: battle again as an example, or the midfield battle that
20:08
Speaker 1: I think was after the safety car between who was
20:10
Speaker 1: at Okhon and Colapinto and some others, it felt like
20:14
Speaker 1: they were just constantly close. And you know, if you
20:17
Speaker 1: know enough about the rules, that obviously battery was playing
20:19
Speaker 1: a role there because these cars, any single seater car,
20:22
Speaker 1: can't usually race that close for that long otherwise. But
20:25
Speaker 1: the fact that no one ever had none of them
20:27
Speaker 1: at any point had some massive advantage. Then there's another
20:30
Speaker 1: massive advantage passing back. I think for me that's acceptable enough,
20:35
Speaker 1: Like even me knowing that it's not you know, in
20:38
Speaker 1: inverted commas pure racing, I think that's okay because I
20:41
Speaker 1: think the other element is if we want to accept
20:43
Speaker 1: four to one remains as fast as it is, and
20:45
Speaker 1: notable qualifying was less than a second slower than last year,
20:48
Speaker 1: which I thought was interesting. You have to kind of
20:50
Speaker 1: accept that overtaking is going to be really hard because
20:53
Speaker 1: it's aerodynamic downforce. That's just the nature of single seat
20:55
Speaker 1: racing at this level, and anything that helps that. I'm
20:58
Speaker 1: not saying the balance is right, like I think the
21:00
Speaker 1: ideal balance is a more powerful combustion engine and a
21:03
Speaker 1: slightly detained electrical one that makes this less push buttony
21:07
Speaker 1: less Mario Karti and that should be the last time
21:09
Speaker 1: we used Mario Carton analogy. I think to go back
21:11
Speaker 1: to that comment, He's probably right. Yeah, it won't be though,
21:15
Speaker 1: but I think at a track like this, which again
21:17
Speaker 1: is one of the better ones for the engines, I
21:18
Speaker 1: don't think it was too bad. I think this race
21:20
Speaker 1: was more enjoyable than Australia for that reason. I felt
21:23
Speaker 1: like I was getting less nonsense.
21:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd agree with that. I also wonder if China
21:29
Speaker 2: had been Round one like we in Australia. We didn't
21:32
Speaker 2: know how the racing was going to be portrayed, so
21:35
Speaker 2: it was a step into the unknown. Everything we watched
21:38
Speaker 2: this weekend in China was based on the fact that
21:40
Speaker 2: we had a sample set of exactly what weekend in
21:42
Speaker 2: Australia to base that on how did you feel about
21:44
Speaker 2: the battery graphic? Because I found myself just getting a
21:47
Speaker 2: bit sad. But it was all getting a bit depleted,
21:49
Speaker 2: like it was, Oh no, it's got that battery left.
21:51
Speaker 2: It's all a bit sad. Oh he's got some battery
21:53
Speaker 2: left left. There was a part of it when the
21:55
Speaker 2: battery chamber was just ebbtying at a rapid rate that
21:57
Speaker 2: I just sort of sunk in the chairman. I guess
21:59
Speaker 2: that's the to that then, But I don't know. It's
22:01
Speaker 2: another variable. Maybe we need like sound effects or emojis
22:04
Speaker 2: or stuff like For me, the one just needs to
22:05
Speaker 2: wait into this properly, don't they. There is sarah energy.
22:11
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, I'm all for the graphics, but
22:14
Speaker 1: there's certain where the fact we need so many I
22:16
Speaker 1: think probably speaks to the level of complexity. But there's
22:19
Speaker 1: also a question of whether or not you do need
22:21
Speaker 1: them to enjoy it. I'm not sure. It's an interesting question.
22:24
Speaker 2: You know, what we don't need on the graphics just
22:26
Speaker 2: ten second minor diversion rant here. Can we just get
22:28
Speaker 2: miles an hour off the graphics? Like no, most of
22:32
Speaker 2: the world is dealing in kilometers an hour. The kilometers
22:34
Speaker 2: an hour and numbers are higher than the miles per hour.
22:37
Speaker 2: Sounds more impressive. Just get on board, everyone who's not
22:39
Speaker 2: doing kilometers an hour, and just get two lines of
22:42
Speaker 2: text off my graphic and let these things breathe. Thank
22:44
Speaker 2: you rantover, Absolutely right.
22:46
Speaker 1: This should be F one's mission is to civilize the
22:49
Speaker 1: numerical world. Bumbring in kilometers to the.
22:52
Speaker 2: Globe, stopping me from ranting.
22:54
Speaker 1: Maybe, yes, let's move now to Move of the week,
22:57
Speaker 1: brought to you by Shannon's Plenty of Racing, artifice or otherwise.
23:00
Speaker 1: At the weekend in Shanghai, not least because we had
23:03
Speaker 1: a sprint race as well, rather than just practice, which
23:07
Speaker 1: was entertaining enough. I think maybe these are actually good
23:09
Speaker 1: rules for sprints. So I'm trying where we sit on
23:11
Speaker 1: that one. But which move or moves? Of course? Your
23:14
Speaker 1: eye this weekend?
23:16
Speaker 2: Will you be shocked to know that I've reached into
23:18
Speaker 2: the left field market? You know you won't at all.
23:21
Speaker 2: My move of the week is Estebanons spitting Franco colopinto.
23:26
Speaker 1: That's the one I had, Matt, your kid, you're kidding.
23:30
Speaker 2: I love this one, And no I'm going to pad
23:34
Speaker 2: furiously here to give you time to think of another one.
23:36
Speaker 2: But this is why I like this, right, So I
23:38
Speaker 2: don't like a first of band O. It's bad for him.
23:40
Speaker 2: But esteban On spitting Franco colopinto lap thirty three and
23:43
Speaker 2: puts his hand up a bit at fault. Yeah, that's
23:45
Speaker 2: all my that's my bad. So the move of the
23:48
Speaker 2: week here is Jack doing going to a couple of
23:52
Speaker 2: weeks ago, simply because after two rounds, olie Berman has
23:57
Speaker 2: all of harsest points and so maybe Duds in a
24:00
Speaker 2: particularly good position here, because we talked about this last
24:03
Speaker 2: year that if things went all of it south for Lewis,
24:05
Speaker 2: Hamilton and Ferrari, then maybe is there a twenty twenty
24:08
Speaker 2: seventies there who knows at this point, And if there
24:11
Speaker 2: was no Hamilton at Ferrari, that's probably going to be
24:13
Speaker 2: Olibaman that gets the call up. And it's interesting that
24:17
Speaker 2: there is a degree of frustration at Haars that you
24:19
Speaker 2: hear creeping in now to some of the post race
24:21
Speaker 2: comments about the Ochon contribution and the way it's raising
24:24
Speaker 2: in the direction that's going there. So you could have
24:27
Speaker 2: a situation where Beaman could potentially move up, or Ochon
24:30
Speaker 2: could potentially move out if they get super frustrated with him,
24:34
Speaker 2: And either way, I will be surprised if they retained
24:37
Speaker 2: the same driver lineup for twenty twenty seven. And maybe
24:41
Speaker 2: by some happenstance, Jack Dwind might have got himself into
24:44
Speaker 2: a good situation at a good time, because God, those
24:47
Speaker 2: things weren't like that at the end of twenty twenty
24:49
Speaker 2: five or twenty twenty four, obviously twenty twenty five, because
24:52
Speaker 2: things didn't work out there. So move of the week
24:55
Speaker 2: is Estebadock on spinning Franco colopinto around getting a penalty
24:58
Speaker 2: and everything on the wide level that that symbolizes. And
25:02
Speaker 2: I am very very sorry that i'd broken to your
25:04
Speaker 2: house early, ho was it this morning and stole your
25:06
Speaker 2: notes for this So I did put the key back
25:08
Speaker 2: where you left us. So now that I've given you
25:11
Speaker 2: at least ninety seconds to come up with it alternative
25:13
Speaker 2: and there were seventy white overtakes. Just read the formula
25:15
Speaker 2: one graphics. What have you got for me?
25:18
Speaker 1: Yes? No, I did like the on one. I also
25:20
Speaker 1: just thought the indicative of what's happening inside hearts at
25:22
Speaker 1: the moment my male was that ocon was considered for
25:26
Speaker 1: replacement late last RN after last season. Anyway, nothing got
25:29
Speaker 1: over the line, and the dissatisfaction you hear race to
25:32
Speaker 1: race actually started before testing. Why I come out and say, well,
25:36
Speaker 1: it wasn't very good last year, was he? So I
25:39
Speaker 1: think that's that's a pretty good one.
25:42
Speaker 2: Thanks.
25:42
Speaker 1: I'm going to go. Look, I'm going to go for
25:44
Speaker 1: a very straightforward one. In particular, though one move Lewis
25:47
Speaker 1: Hamilton into third place for his podium. We've talked a
25:51
Speaker 1: lot about his podium already. On lap forty, the inside
25:54
Speaker 1: line of turn one, oh, you're really good through the
25:57
Speaker 1: turn one two sequence, the entire race, and as well
26:01
Speaker 1: possibly the detriment of retirees. But in the race, I
26:03
Speaker 1: guess there was nothing to lose because I was locked
26:06
Speaker 1: into third and fourth no matter what happened. But I think,
26:09
Speaker 1: just to go back to something we were saying, it
26:11
Speaker 1: felt like Hamilton was a bit alive again this weekend,
26:13
Speaker 1: and I think that's why this was important. This felt
26:15
Speaker 1: like Hamilton was really out there going for it. Felt
26:17
Speaker 1: like he was at least on Leclaire's level, which again
26:20
Speaker 1: very rarely possible to say. Over the last twelve months,
26:23
Speaker 1: So I just feel like the importance of this weekend
26:25
Speaker 1: to him and getting that third place, regardless of breaking
26:28
Speaker 1: the drought, just getting ahead of his teammates essentially was
26:32
Speaker 1: really important. I thought it was also important that Ferrari
26:34
Speaker 1: let them race. There's only one other element that I
26:36
Speaker 1: think is sort of worth considering here, which is that
26:41
Speaker 1: we see how much time drivers are losing. Always drivers
26:44
Speaker 1: always lose time to the cars ahead when they're battling,
26:46
Speaker 1: or the drives behind as well, obviously, but it feels
26:50
Speaker 1: very exacerbated in this era, perhaps because there is so
26:53
Speaker 1: much passing and repassing. It's never just one move anymore.
26:57
Speaker 1: But I do wonder where Ferrari might have finished, or
27:00
Speaker 1: they would have finished third and fourth, but how much
27:02
Speaker 1: closer they would have finished the Mercedes had they agreed
27:06
Speaker 1: next twenty laps once for Russell had got past them,
27:08
Speaker 1: or perhaps even before Ussell got past them, Let's just
27:11
Speaker 1: go forwards and see actually where they would have finished.
27:14
Speaker 1: So that was interesting that the drivers suggested, well, I
27:16
Speaker 1: look at the gap to Mercedes. Afterwards. Ferrari boss Fred
27:19
Speaker 1: Vasse even suggested that they were in contingent for engine
27:22
Speaker 1: concessions relative to Mercedes AFTERWHI jus. I thought it was
27:25
Speaker 1: really interesting because it doesn't look like that to me,
27:27
Speaker 1: But we also don't know the formula that using to
27:28
Speaker 1: calculate that. But what would it have looked like actually,
27:31
Speaker 1: had they done what Antonelli was enjoying up front, had
27:34
Speaker 1: just had clear air, We're getting it's harder to identify
27:37
Speaker 1: those armswers in this era. So Hamilton has a contributing
27:40
Speaker 1: role to that by continuing the fight. But I think
27:42
Speaker 1: it was good that he did.
27:43
Speaker 2: Anyway, controversial opinion on this, I think it would have
27:46
Speaker 2: made absolutely no change whatsoever, simply because I don't believe
27:50
Speaker 2: that Mercedes were pushing at all in the last third
27:53
Speaker 2: of that Grand Prix. There was a very stable gap
27:55
Speaker 2: between first and second, and first and second were completely
27:58
Speaker 2: cemented at that point. They were in cruise control for
28:01
Speaker 2: the last third of that Grand Prix from what it
28:02
Speaker 2: looked like, and so they had the ability to up
28:05
Speaker 2: their pace if they had to. They just didn't have to.
28:07
Speaker 2: And I think the way races have played out these
28:10
Speaker 2: first two race weekends that might be a bit of
28:12
Speaker 2: a narrative we see for the rest of the year,
28:14
Speaker 2: in that the first third of these Grand Prix is
28:16
Speaker 2: going to be because the Ferrari starts so well, right, wow,
28:18
Speaker 2: look at these look look at these early laps. It's
28:20
Speaker 2: super intense. And then there'll be a pit stop and
28:22
Speaker 2: the order will sort of shake out into its natural order,
28:25
Speaker 2: and then the last thirds of a lot of these
28:27
Speaker 2: races will be an opportunity time for people like you
28:29
Speaker 2: to write race reports. And then people have flat spot
28:32
Speaker 2: their thighs at the end because I can't see short
28:35
Speaker 2: of a Mercedes on Mercedes battle at the front of
28:37
Speaker 2: the pack, which we may see. I don't see a
28:39
Speaker 2: lot of jeopardy in that last third of these races,
28:42
Speaker 2: certainly not compared to the first third, because the first
28:45
Speaker 2: third of the albert Park Grace and in China were super,
28:48
Speaker 2: super entertaining, but it kind of fizzled out from there,
28:51
Speaker 2: didn't it.
28:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, and to move swiftly on. But on that note,
28:54
Speaker 1: why would Mercedes choose not to push too hard? Well,
28:57
Speaker 1: the Mercedes engines and the McLaren cars aren't doing too
28:59
Speaker 1: well at all. They weren't even being pushed except off
29:01
Speaker 1: the grid, which is where the day started and ended
29:05
Speaker 1: for both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastre Norris in fact,
29:07
Speaker 1: and even make it to the dummy grid, his car
29:10
Speaker 1: developed a fault in the electrical side of the power
29:13
Speaker 1: unit before even getting out of his reconnaissance laps. Oscar
29:17
Speaker 1: Piastri at least completed his reconnaissance stats cleanly, which is
29:19
Speaker 1: a little bit further than you got in Australia, but
29:21
Speaker 1: no further than that. He did not take the start.
29:23
Speaker 1: He was wheeled off the grid during the title sequence,
29:26
Speaker 1: so you can imagine everyone's surprise as the title sequence
29:29
Speaker 1: ended and no Oscar Piastri on the grid, and he
29:33
Speaker 1: succumbed to exactly the same fate. This is only the
29:36
Speaker 1: second time in McLaren's history of running two cars that
29:39
Speaker 1: it's failed to get to the start. The last time, Matt,
29:42
Speaker 1: you're like this if you didn't already know it two
29:44
Speaker 1: thousand and five United States Grand Prix, which wasn't a
29:46
Speaker 1: technical problem.
29:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm still I'm still slightly that's my second most
29:51
Speaker 2: traumatizing crowd free how they got company in by career
29:53
Speaker 2: after abe W twenty twenty one. But I'm glad you've
29:56
Speaker 2: brought this up because I've actually got the abacus out
29:59
Speaker 2: the sporting I've done some counting for you. So the
30:02
Speaker 2: acronym HPP Mercedes High Performance Powertrains was used eight times
30:08
Speaker 2: in McLaren's post race press release, which is even more
30:11
Speaker 2: times than the number of staff they have on the
30:13
Speaker 2: ground in their communications teams Free Michael, and also eight
30:17
Speaker 2: more times and you'll actually get a driver quote one
30:18
Speaker 2: of their useless pre race preview press releases they keep
30:21
Speaker 2: putting out at the moment, But that was interesting. Eight
30:24
Speaker 2: times HPP was mentioned in the McLaren post race press
30:27
Speaker 2: release for a race in which neither car completed a
30:30
Speaker 2: single lap. So if you're ever wondering what McLaren thinks
30:33
Speaker 2: the problem is, there is eight times there is a
30:35
Speaker 2: finger being pointed at an external supplier. I believe it
30:39
Speaker 2: would be called if you were being a little bit
30:40
Speaker 2: more diplomatic than that. But you mentioned that pstre being
30:44
Speaker 2: wheeled off the Dummi grid. The visual the classic drone
30:46
Speaker 2: shot where they fly over the grid. Now it looked
30:49
Speaker 2: even worse because the two McLaren's were set to line
30:51
Speaker 2: up next to each other, so there was just this
30:52
Speaker 2: giant hole on the grid. It's like, oh, that's where
30:55
Speaker 2: those cars should be. Oh, they're also the raining Constructors
30:59
Speaker 2: champion and they run the raiding world champion with number
31:01
Speaker 2: one on the nose cone of his car, so it's
31:04
Speaker 2: hard to imagine it gets any worse than that. But
31:06
Speaker 2: for Oscar Piastri to have started as many Grand Prix
31:09
Speaker 2: this year as you and I, it is not a
31:11
Speaker 2: great sign. When we're two rounds into a season. And
31:15
Speaker 2: of course I will get to this later. We have
31:17
Speaker 2: two fewer rounds in the season than originally planned, so
31:20
Speaker 2: you know that. SOAUNDI here is McLaren hitting rock bottom
31:23
Speaker 2: and the only way is up from there. But it's
31:25
Speaker 2: certain it wasn't great for a race in a very
31:27
Speaker 2: nice time zone for Australia.
31:28
Speaker 1: Was it no very grim for all the Australian fans
31:31
Speaker 1: who thought we had three races in a row at
31:33
Speaker 1: least to watch it with the sun still shining outside
31:37
Speaker 1: just about anyway, very underwhelming for McLaren's title defense as well.
31:41
Speaker 1: Leandar Norris might surely be thinking his title defense has
31:43
Speaker 1: finished before it's even started, because it's notwithstanding though, and
31:47
Speaker 1: this is this is something I want to go through before,
31:49
Speaker 1: just after we move past the McLaren things specifically, which
31:52
Speaker 1: is that unreliability is playing a much bigger role this
31:55
Speaker 1: season than I expected after pre season testing seemed to
31:57
Speaker 1: get away with very little problems for anyone. Yeah, and
32:01
Speaker 1: obviously but McLaren's aspect in particular here. Yes, there is
32:05
Speaker 1: the engine element. Let's talk about that in just a second.
32:07
Speaker 1: But they also know and I think Oscar Piastri said
32:09
Speaker 1: this in every interview he's done this weekend, including Arid
32:13
Speaker 1: done nothing on Sunday unfortunately for him, which was yes,
32:16
Speaker 1: we've got problems, reliability, whatever, but we also know the
32:19
Speaker 1: car is not fast enough. So there are two elements here,
32:21
Speaker 1: as much as the fingers being pointed repeatedly at Mercedes,
32:25
Speaker 1: and then Andrea Steller did say afterwards, well, you know
32:27
Speaker 1: we're all one team though, and that's why we're treating it,
32:29
Speaker 1: which is fine. There is also this element that McLaren
32:33
Speaker 1: was shown this weekend and we had two qualifying sessions
32:35
Speaker 1: approve it, plus the sprint race which both drivers did complete,
32:38
Speaker 1: that they're just not really, in Andrea Steller's words, in
32:41
Speaker 1: the same category as Mercedes, and Mercedes in the wrong
32:43
Speaker 1: category for everybody else. And the fact that the engines
32:46
Speaker 1: are the same when they're running, notwithstanding where we're we're
32:49
Speaker 1: talking about in Australia where there's a gap in knowledge
32:51
Speaker 1: and they're not running them as effectively suggests that gap
32:54
Speaker 1: is what do we want to say ninety percent of
32:56
Speaker 1: the car?
32:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean we keep talking at the moment
32:59
Speaker 2: about Mercedes as in the works team has this massive
33:01
Speaker 2: engine advantage. I mean we're probably underplaying the chassis, right.
33:04
Speaker 2: I thought that in Australia too, because yes, McLaren are
33:07
Speaker 2: out of knowledge deficit if you like, to the factory
33:11
Speaker 2: the works team, factory team, I'm talking about a GP
33:14
Speaker 2: the works team. What was Norris fifty seconds off the
33:17
Speaker 2: win in Australia and you know, yes, there is going
33:20
Speaker 2: to be a knowledge deficit they need to pick up there.
33:22
Speaker 2: But the Mercedes chassis is probably being a little bit
33:24
Speaker 2: underplayed right now because even when the McLaren runs, and
33:28
Speaker 2: that is a key statement for this weekend, it just
33:32
Speaker 2: at best, it's third best car, and not even a
33:35
Speaker 2: very convincing third at the moment, there's other teams that
33:37
Speaker 2: are doing a far better job with it. So yeah,
33:39
Speaker 2: it's very underwhelming. And like you said, the weird thing
33:43
Speaker 2: about this was I expected preseason testing to just be
33:46
Speaker 2: an absolute disaster in terms of everyone breaking down and
33:49
Speaker 2: so much unreliability. Maybe that raised a little bit of
33:52
Speaker 2: our expectations even with Australia. I was asked in the
33:55
Speaker 2: lead up to Albert Park. I said, oh, I think
33:57
Speaker 2: if you finished today you'll score points. I felt like
33:59
Speaker 2: it was going to be one of those races at
34:00
Speaker 2: Albert Park where if you were still running at the
34:02
Speaker 2: check and flag, you're probably going to get some points
34:04
Speaker 2: to take home. Didn't end up working out like that,
34:06
Speaker 2: but you look at the way China worked out. We
34:09
Speaker 2: had four cars not start the race, and that's got
34:11
Speaker 2: to be, you know, other than Indianapolis two thousand and five.
34:14
Speaker 2: Don't say there's not too many times where you have
34:17
Speaker 2: cars just not even taking up their positions on the
34:20
Speaker 2: grid before a race. I mean that's what twenty percent
34:22
Speaker 2: of the field more or less it's out before anyone's
34:24
Speaker 2: done a lap. So everyone well, some teams clearly have problems,
34:28
Speaker 2: but McLaren have more problems than everybody else. But to say,
34:31
Speaker 2: HPP eight times and it will be fine.
34:33
Speaker 1: Okay, six dns is so far this year. I think,
34:37
Speaker 1: as you said before, just yesterday, seven failures to finish
34:40
Speaker 1: or not north start. I guess seven cars did not
34:43
Speaker 1: see the checker. Flagle'd say that way in China, which
34:46
Speaker 1: is yeah, the nutrition rate is nutrition rate is much
34:48
Speaker 1: more reflective of I think concerns last year than expectations
34:52
Speaker 1: after testing, which I think is very interesting, but particularly
34:55
Speaker 1: for I mean, everyone's experienced it except perhaps Ferrari, which
34:59
Speaker 1: fields to me. I haven't crunched any numbers on this yet,
35:02
Speaker 1: something I'm going to look at during the week I think.
35:04
Speaker 1: But Ferrari actually seems like they're doing okay engine why
35:07
Speaker 1: I certainly this starts very good, But Mercedes has had
35:09
Speaker 1: problems several this weekend. I don't think Alex Albon's failure
35:13
Speaker 1: to start was Mercedes related. I think it was hydraulics related,
35:15
Speaker 1: but we don't know specifically what. But George Russell's problem
35:19
Speaker 1: in qualifying but almost knocked him out of qualifying in
35:21
Speaker 1: the double Mercedes failure to start quite a few little
35:24
Speaker 1: issues this weekend, a couple in Australia as well. We
35:26
Speaker 1: know in the first week of Bahrain testing, Mercedes completed
35:30
Speaker 1: surprisingly few laps because they had all of these niggles
35:33
Speaker 1: rock up at once. But Claren also had the same thing.
35:34
Speaker 1: I think in Barcelona. Maybe in Bahrain as well, so
35:37
Speaker 1: clearly there are despite this engine's strengths, and there are
35:40
Speaker 1: many I think that there's some clear week spots there,
35:44
Speaker 1: which makes you wonder, to bring this full circle, how
35:47
Speaker 1: much is the Mercedes Works team pushing that engine knowing
35:50
Speaker 1: that there are some potential gremlins towards the top end
35:53
Speaker 1: if you're pushing it hard enough. Although not that Claren
35:55
Speaker 1: was obviously pushing too hard to get to the grid,
35:57
Speaker 1: but nonetheless no.
35:59
Speaker 2: And that's also I think that's good for the narrative
36:01
Speaker 2: in terms of you know, you're looking at the car
36:03
Speaker 2: advantage that the Mercedes has right now and you'd be thinking, well,
36:06
Speaker 2: you know, how do they not win every race this season?
36:10
Speaker 2: This is exactly why they weren't, because they're clearly pushing
36:12
Speaker 2: it very, very hard, and all of the Ferrari powered
36:15
Speaker 2: cars seem to be pretty reliable so far. So maybe
36:18
Speaker 2: that's what we need for a little bit of performance
36:21
Speaker 2: variance at the front of some Grand Prix, because if
36:23
Speaker 2: he's going to come back and bite someone at an
36:24
Speaker 2: inopportune time right now, in a steady state running where
36:28
Speaker 2: everyone's got reliability, Mercedes hands down the fastest team right now,
36:32
Speaker 2: but we know that's not how these seasons play out.
36:34
Speaker 2: We've got so many races still to do, even after
36:37
Speaker 2: losing a couple that there there are going to be
36:40
Speaker 2: some weekends where it just doesn't work and the problems
36:42
Speaker 2: that have hit McClaren might hit Mercedes or one of
36:44
Speaker 2: the other customer teams and that's when there's time for
36:47
Speaker 2: someone like Ferrari to jump in and Lewis Hamilton perhaps
36:50
Speaker 2: would he get race in Red there.
36:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, notable that we haven't mentioned Red Bull Racing at
36:54
Speaker 1: all this weekend. I don't think they deserve too much
36:56
Speaker 1: of a mention. But this team was a midfield team
36:59
Speaker 1: this weekend, which is pretty remarkable. Max, with stapp and
37:01
Speaker 1: retired Isaac Haadja generally have a shot because he was
37:03
Speaker 1: tipped into a spin on the first lap and ended
37:06
Speaker 1: up last the end of lap one and making a
37:07
Speaker 1: pit stop. So he's positioned in the middle of the
37:09
Speaker 1: points paying place. Is probably not representative of speed, but
37:13
Speaker 1: then again, there wasn't much speed to really speak of
37:16
Speaker 1: for Red Bull Racing. Max was Stapfen very critical of
37:18
Speaker 1: the car, said pretty much everything about it is bad
37:22
Speaker 1: the engine, perhaps as well because it was an engine
37:24
Speaker 1: related to retirement. He said anyway, an ers cooling problem.
37:26
Speaker 1: I think he said in these post race interviews, not
37:29
Speaker 1: so great for them. And I think it's interesting that
37:32
Speaker 1: there's some suspicion, at least at this point, that it's
37:35
Speaker 1: just that this engine is efficient in the way Mercedes
37:38
Speaker 1: suspected during preseason testing. So at tracks where there's not
37:41
Speaker 1: a lot of electricity to harvest, Remarkabel sentence, it does
37:45
Speaker 1: well like Melbourne, but at a conventional track like China,
37:48
Speaker 1: it's nowhere near and there are despite the calendar being
37:51
Speaker 1: pretty big these days, still many more conventional tracks than
37:54
Speaker 1: unconventional tracks.
37:56
Speaker 2: Yeah. Correct. And the weird part about this story for
37:58
Speaker 2: me is I'm a little bit so prize that people
38:00
Speaker 2: are surprised. I mean Red Bull. Yes, they've been around
38:04
Speaker 2: for a really long time. They've been super successful. The
38:07
Speaker 2: sheer undertaking of becoming your own engine builder when you've
38:11
Speaker 2: never done that before. As you can put all the
38:14
Speaker 2: money and the talent and the resource in this, this
38:16
Speaker 2: is going to take a little bit of time, let
38:18
Speaker 2: alone with the complexities of a new formulaa like this,
38:21
Speaker 2: So they know what they signed up for here. It's
38:23
Speaker 2: a massive undertaking. You know that when the improvement comes
38:28
Speaker 2: based on the track record of that team. It'll happen
38:30
Speaker 2: pretty quickly. But I'm not sure why anyone's quite surprised
38:33
Speaker 2: right now. I think the only constant right now is
38:36
Speaker 2: an open microphone to Max of Stappena for a brew.
38:39
Speaker 2: Right now is great for people like you and I am.
38:41
Speaker 2: I'm sure someone in fin HQ quietly cringes because he's
38:47
Speaker 2: for better or worse. There's no edit button with Max
38:49
Speaker 2: of staff and we love it because he'll always tell
38:51
Speaker 2: you what's on his mind. And right now there's a
38:53
Speaker 2: lot on his mind that's not super positive.
38:55
Speaker 1: Yes, a lot on his mind related to GT three
38:58
Speaker 1: racing as well. I think, yes, something good. And before
39:02
Speaker 1: we wrap this up, Matt, of course, the news of
39:04
Speaker 1: the weekend we can't avoid touching on is that the
39:06
Speaker 1: Formula one calendar has shrunk by two Grand Prix this year.
39:10
Speaker 1: With the f fun did use the word cancelation or
39:12
Speaker 1: postponement the non races of the Bahrain Very Saudi Arabian
39:17
Speaker 1: Grand Prix. They will not take place in April was
39:20
Speaker 1: the sentence. I think in brackets you could say they
39:22
Speaker 1: will not take place at all this year because of
39:24
Speaker 1: the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, no surprises there.
39:27
Speaker 1: They had to make a decision this weekend because freight
39:29
Speaker 1: goes from China or some of it does, and from
39:31
Speaker 1: Europe this week to Bahrain, and some of it's already
39:34
Speaker 1: there in fact from preseason testing left there and then
39:36
Speaker 1: would have been taken to Jeddo for the Saudi Arabian
39:38
Speaker 1: Grand Prix. Obviously no way to fetch that, so neither
39:42
Speaker 1: race can take place. Formula One now has quite a
39:45
Speaker 1: long break four weekends. I think it is four or
39:46
Speaker 1: five weekends between the Japanese Grand Prix at the end
39:49
Speaker 1: of the month and the Miami Grand Prix at the
39:51
Speaker 1: start of May. So a little bit unusual for the sport.
39:55
Speaker 1: Some teams will be very glad to have a bigger
39:58
Speaker 1: break to think to work through problems, but it does
40:03
Speaker 1: change the shape of the count a little bit. Look, Matt,
40:05
Speaker 1: twenty two races, still a lot of racing to go,
40:07
Speaker 1: twenty gone for to go. I think that's still the
40:09
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen season or something like that still to go.
40:13
Speaker 1: So let's not be too dire about the effects on
40:16
Speaker 1: the championship. But you know, if we're thinking about Mercedes
40:19
Speaker 1: One team, I think about in particular, that's a couple
40:21
Speaker 1: of races less you have your supposed compression ratio advantage,
40:25
Speaker 1: which still changes in June. That could be one well,
40:29
Speaker 1: disadvantage with them or benefit for others, I suppose.
40:32
Speaker 2: I think, if you are polling teams up and down
40:34
Speaker 2: the grid, who's slightly happy about this and who isn't.
40:37
Speaker 2: I mean, right now, Mercedes are probably like a race
40:39
Speaker 2: every weekend for the next four weeks because they've probably
40:41
Speaker 2: go to w all of them. And if you're a
40:43
Speaker 2: team like McLaren, I think the yes, your championship aspirations
40:48
Speaker 2: have just been reduced by two potential large point scoring weekends.
40:51
Speaker 2: Of course, but right now there are some teams that
40:54
Speaker 2: the biggest gift they can have is time and times,
40:58
Speaker 2: something that's really really hard to find in the middle
41:00
Speaker 2: of a Formula One season. We've not had a delay
41:03
Speaker 2: in a season like this. I mean, you can't even
41:05
Speaker 2: count twenty twenty with COVID because it never actually started.
41:08
Speaker 2: There'll be some teams that will be like Ferrari probably
41:10
Speaker 2: won't be super happy there's a break Mercedes because I've
41:12
Speaker 2: got the advantage right now. There'll be other teams that
41:15
Speaker 2: will be quite thankful for the break because yes, okay,
41:17
Speaker 2: there's no on track action, no Grand Prix weekends. There'll
41:20
Speaker 2: be a lot of work going on back at base
41:22
Speaker 2: with some of these teams, and so Japan because everyone's
41:25
Speaker 2: out at the moment, and you'll get to Suzuka and
41:27
Speaker 2: I can't imagine there'll be a massive change of the
41:30
Speaker 2: pecking order there after that. It kind of resets the
41:33
Speaker 2: season quite nicely, and then we get this sort of
41:35
Speaker 2: it's like the intermission, isn't It's a little bit more
41:37
Speaker 2: of the intermission. So and some teams will really welcome this.
41:40
Speaker 2: And what it could mean is that once we get
41:42
Speaker 2: through what is at Miami, Canada, then we head back
41:45
Speaker 2: to Europe again, picture might slightly change. So for all
41:49
Speaker 2: of us that are invested in how the season narrative
41:52
Speaker 2: plays out, it gives us another variable, where is if
41:55
Speaker 2: these two races have happened and we're just in this
41:57
Speaker 2: every two weeks or three and four weeks or whatever,
41:59
Speaker 2: it ends being not much variance there. I think this
42:03
Speaker 2: potentially gives some teams a chance to reset, and for
42:05
Speaker 2: a team like McLaren, I think they will be very
42:07
Speaker 2: very glad to have that time because stuck out in
42:11
Speaker 2: a normal run of races right now, given they have
42:13
Speaker 2: no momentum and just a massive knowledge deficit, would be
42:15
Speaker 2: a bad thing for them.
42:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, no shutdown, unlike the middle of the season breaks. Yeah,
42:19
Speaker 1: correct weeks or four weeks of work or whatever it
42:21
Speaker 1: is for every team, So not quite the break, but
42:24
Speaker 1: at least no travel for a lot of them. I
42:25
Speaker 1: think if you can ask any team who mostly who'd
42:28
Speaker 1: be most excited for that break, I think Fernandor Lenzo
42:30
Speaker 1: would put his hand up, although he can't feel them,
42:32
Speaker 1: so it's hard to say, oh my god, if you
42:34
Speaker 1: get them all the way above his hand.
42:38
Speaker 2: The Aston Martin thing, Oh my god, what was the quote?
42:41
Speaker 2: I began to lose all feeling in my hands and
42:44
Speaker 2: feet and it's a I did have to give a
42:46
Speaker 2: hat tip to Valentin Hun from the race, who wrote
42:49
Speaker 2: this great line that I knew you would enjoy. A
42:52
Speaker 2: one car gave up after nine laps and the other
42:54
Speaker 2: forced it's striving to give up after thirty two laps.
42:58
Speaker 2: LA strolls Cardis went bad enough of this, and Fernando
43:01
Speaker 2: Altzo's like, I literally can't feel my hands in my feet,
43:03
Speaker 2: and he wore, may I please stop? As he was
43:06
Speaker 2: running around at whatever position he was, but unexpected highlight
43:09
Speaker 2: of the race. Have you watched Alonso's first lap, by
43:12
Speaker 2: the way he did it in Australia too, He was
43:14
Speaker 2: tenth after lap one. It was just absolute fantastic cutting
43:18
Speaker 2: Fernando at his best. Go back and watch it if
43:21
Speaker 2: you have it already, because it was awesome TV. And
43:23
Speaker 2: then yeah, then Aston Martin progressed to Aston Martin territory.
43:26
Speaker 2: But it was fun for my lap.
43:27
Speaker 1: It was I was going to say, I've seen the
43:28
Speaker 1: onboards of his car shaking down the streets and him
43:30
Speaker 1: taking his hands off the wheel. My god. But he's
43:34
Speaker 1: a good stat for me, just speaking of a Lonto's starts,
43:37
Speaker 1: only driver to make up five places in both Grand Prix.
43:40
Speaker 1: The driver's made up the most places on the first
43:42
Speaker 1: lap of anyone so far. Of course, as man stunning
43:44
Speaker 1: very far back. So there's a lot of places to
43:46
Speaker 1: miss up every race, but when everything's a bit equalized
43:51
Speaker 1: off the line, there's still one man you trust, I
43:53
Speaker 1: think above any other to make up places and that's Phenol.
43:56
Speaker 2: So yes, he's doing well in the Battery World Championship.
43:59
Speaker 2: As he put it after the.
44:00
Speaker 1: Grand Frix, well, on that note, that's all the time
44:04
Speaker 1: we have for Pittalk this week. You can subscribe to
44:06
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44:09
Speaker 1: leave us a rating and review as well. This weekend
44:12
Speaker 1: is the Brazilian Motorcycle Grand Frix from five am Monday
44:15
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44:17
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44:20
Speaker 1: and KO and you can keep up to date with
44:22
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44:25
Speaker 1: at foxsports dot com dot Au. From Matt Clayton and me,
44:28
Speaker 1: Michael Lovanado. Thanks very much for your company. We'll catch
44:31
Speaker 1: you next week.