Latest / Pit Talk / Who was the best driver of 2025? F1 power rankings

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Who was the best driver of 2025? F1 power rankings · Pit Talk

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: On today's episode, we deliver our driver rankings for the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five season and have a little look ahead
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: as who we expect to excel in twenty twenty six.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: My name is Michael Lomonado. It's great to have your
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: company and the company of my co host. He's had
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: one weekend off motorsport and he's ready for another twenty
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: four round Formula one season. It's Matt Clayton.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: I'll be ready in about an other twenty four weekends
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: if I can have a weekend like last weekend. But
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: it is strange when the season finishes, because you do
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: things like look up and go, oh, it's nearly Christmas,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: and other things that normal people in the world actually do.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Hadn't actually occurred to me until Abi Dhabi was in
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: the rear view. But yes, the perpetual Formula one season.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: It's hard to determine where one stops and one finishes
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: these days, is it.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Yes, well, especially now because it is only about a
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: month until testing starts and that we can't launches and
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: all sorts before then, So really the off season very brief.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Pity all the poor mechanics will get almost to no
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Christmas break at all. But that's a story for another day,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: because we are still looking back on the twenty twenty
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: five season, which ended only a week ago. Didn't know
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: surprise listening to the podcast, but Lando Noras did win
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the World Championship in Abu Dhabi last week. But this
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: isn't so much about the championship order. This is you
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: can call it what you like, power rankings, personal ratings,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the expression of vendettas against drivers, whatever you like. We've
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: come up with the order, and we're going to take
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: you through our top ten drivers, plus of course most
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: improved and who we think might improve a great deal.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Next year or not.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: But I thought we'd start Matt actually outside the top ten.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: We will run through our bottom tens or elevens, I suppose,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: as there were drivers this season a little bit later
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: on in brief, but I thought we'd start with some
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: honorable and also dishonorable mentions before we get into the
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: top ten performers of the according to us, Would you
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: like to kick us off?
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: The glass is often half empty for me when I
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: start looking at the back end of the points table.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: At this point, so I'll go I'll give you a
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: dishonorable mention. And this one may surprise as you. I
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: couldn't fit Alex Albon in my top ten. Oh and
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: a bit of controversy straight off the bat here and
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: the statistical case for this. He scored nineteen points in
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: the final ten rounds. He did not score at all
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: in the final eight Grand Prix of the year. And
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: you know, slight spoiler alert here relative to the driver
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: in the other car, once the car became quite decent
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: and the other driver in the same car got his
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: feet under the table and got accustomed to what he
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: was doing, it was very much one way traffic, which
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: was a story that we didn't see in the first
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: half of the year. And there's always going to be
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: a degree of recencydvice when it comes to these sorts
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: of lists, because you know, what happened more recently is
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: going to be more stuck in my head than something
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: that happened in April, for example. But I tried, and
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: we'll get to the top ten a bit later on,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: but I couldn't quite squeeze him in. So judging by
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: your reaction, he might be in yours. But do you
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: have an honorable or dishonorable mention because there's one very
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: obvious one that I haven't mentioned. I think he may
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: be about to come up, so.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: I give it think away about my top ten, unless
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: we spoil the top ten. But I thought, yes, well,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: big call to start it off with. But I'm gonna
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go for the obvious call because I
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: don't think we'll have a chance to talk about him
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: when we run through our bottom ten. And that's Lewis Hamilton.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: A dishonorable mention for me. I never thought he'd be
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: in here.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: Now I don't.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: I think if you go back, I wish i'd actually
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: look this up to our mid season driver rankings. I
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: think he was also just outside our top tens, but
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I think he was around eleventh, which was a sort
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: of like one nut sprint in China. A bit of
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: a shaky European season, but there were some signs of
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: hope in what was always going to be a long transition.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Those signs of hope I think were thoroughly extinguished the
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: longer the season went, I think, And you can cut
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: this dishonorable mention. In many ways, he was pretty much
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: thrashed by char Leclair pretty comprehensively.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: Not always.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: There were races in which he was thereabouts and there
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: was some positive signs, but the longer it went on,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: the worse it got. And I think you can also
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: then say it was a dishonorable mention for the fact that,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: as we've seen from Lewis Hamilton in previous seasons, he
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: puts his head and look, there's nothing wrong with that.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: When I guess you're a seven time champion, you're not
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: really interested in competing for as Ferrari was fifth and
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: sixth and third in the championship. But I think, considering
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: the stakes, considering the profile of his move to Ferrari,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: considering the narrative that was forming around him at the
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: team and the team generally, I think to put your
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: head down for the last month or so, it seemed
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: to be the case. He had a decent last race
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: in Abu Dhabi, I guess, But nonetheless I think is
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: warrants a dishonorable mention In my.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Book, yeah, I agree, And mid season I think personally
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: I might have snuck him into the back end of
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: the top ten, perhaps with some optimism or almost as
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: a bit of a legacy play, because you just thought, well,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: it's not going to get worse than this. It's been
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: a bit underwhelming, but it's going to famous last words,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: it's going to get better. And the thing for me
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: now is that if you had to say, which of
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: these two outcomes is more likely, is he closer to
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: the eighth world title that he was two laps away
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: from winning in twenty twenty one, or is he closer
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: to retirement? And you know, given his age and the
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: underwhelming results and what we've got coming up in twenty
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: twenty six, if things aren't looking great for Ferrari early
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty six, you know, you would suggest that
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: I don't think he's going to hang around a really
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: long time trying to resurrect this, because the back end
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: of this year was just so dire, and he was
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: so downcast by the entire thing. And you think about
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: all the hype, and I mean the famous the photo
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: of him outside Enzo's house at the at the start
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: of the year is like, oh my god, this thing
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: is this thing transcend sport. This is massive, and it
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: was just so underwhelming and it wasn't great at the beginning,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: but you thought, well, it's going to get better and
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: he just did the opposite.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. It is the there was no shortage of
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: expectations and hype at the start of the year. And look,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: some of this is owned by Ferrari, which had a
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: really dreadful year, no wins this season, even for Charlotte Claire's.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: We want to get a high level and I think
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: the question going into next year we've talked about before
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: and I mentioned this only briefly. Let's just become a
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: twenty six preview, but is how seriously is Ferrari taking
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: the things that Hamilton's saying it needs to improve on
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: or do differently to become a title winning team, Because
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: it's clear it's not the half a step away from
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: it that I thought it was at the end of
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: last year. There's clear a lot more work that needs
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: to be done there. To not listen to him despite
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: his underwhelming season, I think risks not only getting out
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: and not only not getting the best out of him
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: next year, but potentially condemning the team to another cycle
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: of rules in which it achieves nothing. And probably then
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I would guess, although you ever want to save a
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: certain losers Charlotte Clair, at which point, what's Ferrari got
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: other than history.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: I guess history is a lot something there.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Completely Look, before we get too the top ten, should
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: we give an honorable mention as well? I feel like
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: we've started the show with so much negativity and what's
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: supposed to be a ranking of the best performers of
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: the season. Have we've got an honorable mention before we
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: get into the top ten?
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: I've got an honorable mention for someone that didn't make it,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: because it was this person was probably the hardest to
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: leave out because there were high points were really really
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: high and Nikot Holkenberg didn't make my top ten. And
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: in a season where he finally, finally, finally took belated,
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: made a podium at Silveston for sober and the two
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: things I'll always remember out of that podium was that
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: he came from nineteenth on the grid to finish third
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: with all the chances that he'd had to finish on
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: the podium before he gets one from nineteenth on the
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: grid in a crazy race. And also they gave him
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: a trophy made out of lego, So you wait two
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: hundred and thirty nine races to get your first Grand
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Peri podium trophy and they give you one that you
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: can break into small pieces. They should have just very
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: quietly on the side of he's a real trophy for you.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: We know you've been waiting about fifteen years for this thing.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Sorry for the sponsor's product. So he gets an oral
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: mention from me because his high points this year were really,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: really quite high. The weird thing about that podium, by
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: the way, you know, he didn't score for the next
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: six grod Prix after that, so it was one of
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: those you know, the high points were high, and I'm
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: actually quite glad that he got the podium because it
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: would have been a bit of an injustice, frankly, if
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: he'd gone through his entire career without getting a podium
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: because of his qualit relatives to some of the people
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: who have got podiums in Formula one over the years.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: So he's an honorable mention because I was glad that
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: he broke that record that he broke. I think he's
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: like one hundred and thirty odd races more than second
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: on the list in terms of a wait for their
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: first podium, So I'm glad that it happened. But that
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: can be the consolation prize that an Allego Trophy because
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: you didn't make my top ten. But is there any
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: one that you would like to give a positive hat
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: tip to before we get to the top ten.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Also just outside my top ten was Liam Lawson who
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: had a pretty up and down season but saved his career,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: improved a lot late despite that dreadful two races with
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Threadbull Racing and maybe needing a month or two to
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: sort of rebuild himself at Racing Bulls and did take
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: an upgrade as well, which had tell him a lot
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: in Austria. But I like the way end of the year.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I like that he didn't let it smash him when
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: it could so easily have. And then all be talking
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: about is that Liam Lawson who kind of got one
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: and two separate other stints one season, two separate other
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: since for his career never really got a shot. His
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: reward is presumably a full preseason and season with one team,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: which is very exciting for him, and then a chance
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: to establish himself probably the daughter Red Bull Racing is closed,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: notwithstanding that there's been massive management changes there that for
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: all we know may look at him again, because we
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: know Holbert Marco and Christian Horner certainly wouldn't have in
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: these circumstances, but nonetheless, if you can establish himself, we've
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: seen that drivers acted by Red Bull racing or even
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: racing bulls can go on to pretty fulsome and successful
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: careers elsewhere in Formula one. So I'm putting him in
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: as an honorable mention.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's completely fair, and isn't it like
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: it just speaks to the complete dysfunction of the whole
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Red Bull Racing thing this year, where that's about the
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: third or fourth silliest thing that's happened to Red Bull
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: this year, getting rid of a driver after two races,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: and of course it turned out to be a poisoned
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: chalice because the driver that replaced him is not going
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: to be on the grid next year. So maybe getting
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: dubbed after two races was the best thing that happened
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: to lem Laws of this year.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Yes, tremendous and remarkable. Let's get into the countdown now,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: though we've had our mentions enough, we want to get
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: into the main event. The drivers who made out top ten,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I'm going to give you the first pick here. We're
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: going to be alternating, much as we did in the
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: middle of the season. In picks forming out. I guess
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: our dream teams will be five apiece, but I'm going
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: to give you the first one as well, because I
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: suspect strongly that we have the same first pick. So
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: let's get the non controversial ones out of the way.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Let me get a little disclaimer out of the way
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: before we start this. Now, this is not as simply
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: as looking at the championship table and saying, oh, yeah,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: A is better than B and B is better than C.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: There's context here with what you're driving, the expectations that
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: come with what you're driving, your career, experience, where you've
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: been previously. And this was an interesting year for me
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: in that I felt that there's a top four that
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: can be in whatever order you choose, but they can
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: only be in the top four. And then there's a
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: fifth driver who's just in this category of one that
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: has a very mysterious name that we can get to
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: at some point. And then after that, I kept finding
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: reasons to not put number six was the hardest person
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: to choose on this list because I'm going, oh, I
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: don't know I like you, but I think I like
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: you more than somebody else. It was a strange year
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: in that regard, it six to ten became a all right,
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: who do I dislike least most of the time. But
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: to my mind, there can only be number one one,
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: a number one driver on this list, and I think
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: the gap between this particular driver and whoever you have
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: at number two is bigger than it's ever been in
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: the past five years. And that has to be Max
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: for Stappen. And you know, the question came after Abi
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Dhabi when he just lost a title by two points.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: You know, is this the best version of Max of
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Stappen we've ever seen? It was put to him after that,
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: and he didn't disagree with the notion because the context
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: of what he was able to do with what he
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: was driving, and we mentioned before the complete dysfunction behind
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: the scenes there and everything else that was going on.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: He was the only person, to my mind, that could
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: have taken that set of circumstances and almost stolen a
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: championship out of it. I think it's a pretty cast
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: iron case for number one. And I go back to
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: you know, there are a few races this year that
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: the one that I sticks with me because it was
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: so so long ago. That's Suzuka Weekend and the way
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: he executed that that car had absolutely no business being
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: on pole position at Suzuka, and he nailed as probably
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: the qualifying lap of the year to get pole position,
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: and then that was all dependent on well, you've got
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: track position. It's hard to pass here. But these two
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: guys behind you in Norris and Piastri have got much
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: much better machinery. You have to be faultless for fifty
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: three laps, and he was completely faultless. We know that
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: he came home with that massive run towards the end
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: of the season when he was one hundred and four
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: points down, but there was that early season reminder when
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: things work going particularly well, it's like, man, this guy
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: has just got a level that just gets better by
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: the year. And yet best version we've seen, I would say, yes,
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: and number one on this list, I would say it
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: wasn't particularly close.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: No, I don't think so. To the end of the season,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: with more wins and polls than either Land of Norris
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: and Oscar Piastre, that was, you know, let's say nine
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: races out of ten comfortably a better car speaks volumes
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: to where he's at in his career. To be only
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: two short of the championship. You know, to be only
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: one Lando Norris bad overtake or a big defense from
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: let's say Uki Sinota anyone else from the championship is
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: pretty substantial. And you're speaking of Yuki Sonoda. Okay, not
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: many people rated him too much this year, but to
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: be twenty one zero in races and twenty three zero
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: in qualifying, well that includes Early and Lawson in fact,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: that statistic anyway, twenty two zero. I suppose we know
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Sonoda is not that bad. We know he's not hopeless,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: he's not a rookiehues turned up in form on, doesn't
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: know what he's doing. Some of that percentages, of course,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: the Redell racing can not being good for anyone other
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: than Max. But a lot of it is just that
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: the Stappen is the best guy out there at the moment.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: I don't think there's very much or in fact, any
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: doubt about that. And had he won the championship again,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: any of the top three in the championship would have
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: been deserving champion for their own reasons. But the size
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: of that comeback, the way that he made, to my mind,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: only one mistake for the entire year. Yes, it was
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: an ugly one hitting George Russell and well he could
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: argue that custom the title, but so true, as he
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: argues did the fact that Red Bull Racing decidantly wasn't
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: it the races for the first half of the season
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: a remarkably complete performance.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Can I give you one stat before I throw to
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: you for number two on your list? And this is
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: just something overritten elsewhere recently, so I'm going to steal
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: from that. I was looking. I was looking at a
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: percentage of points for the drivers within each team. You
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: look at the top three teams in this year's Constructors Championship.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Lando Norris contributed fifty one percent of McLaren's score. Shows
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: you how close it was with Osco Piastre. George Russell
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: contributed sixty eight percent of Mercedes total score. Max fors
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: Stappen contributed ninety three percent of Red Bulls total score
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: in the Constructors Championship this year, and that was up
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: from seventy four percent last year. And the crazy stat
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: about it is that Isaac Hajar is going to be
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Max vers Stappin's sixth different teammates since Daniel Rocardo left
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: at the end of twenty eighteen, and in twenty eighteen,
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Riccardo scored forty one percent of Red Bulls points. Since
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: that season, for Stappan has scored at East sixty four
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: percent of his team's points for six straight years. It's
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: an incredible demonstration of they haven't been able to solve
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: the problem since Riccardo left, But by the same token,
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: it just shows you how good this guy is and
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: being able to drag a car that had no business
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: fighting for a world championship into a world championship fight.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: But now that we've both agreed on number one, this
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: is where I believe the disagreements will start. And I'm
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: going to throw to you for number two because I'm
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: almost certain that we're going to have a different name here.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Well, I'll be interested to find out, because for me,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: thinking about the season as a whole, the significance of
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: this season to various drivers, quite aside from the championship battle,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: because realistically it's shocking that three drivers are in the
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: championship battle, but there were only three in the championship battle.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: For me, my second best performer of the year was
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: George Russell at Mercedes Okay, never got a sniff at
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: the championship, only got two wins, both from pole position,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: both attracks that shouldn't have suited the Mercedes, but for
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: some reason an unexpectedly did. But the other thing at a
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: con next of his season right replacing Lewis Hamilton quite
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: explicitly as the senior driver for Mercedes the team you
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: probably wasn't going to be entitled contention this year, but
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: of course every year for Mercedes needs to be respectable,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: that it needs to be building up to something big
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: next year when the regulation changes, the team hopes will
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: bring it back to twenty fourteen, essentially back to the
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: top of the pile. Made very few mistakes. I think
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: what I was most impressed by with his season compared
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: to previous years is that where as in previous years
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: when he should have been in a position to take
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: poland take the victory, he'd usually fumble. A lot of
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: his victories would turn up on races where suddenly halfway
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: through he was in contention, and then he'd be really effective.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: It was almost as if the scale of the moment
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: in previous years put him off his game, and that
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: certainly sort of the whispers you hear, sort of like
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: he then tries to take too many variables into his
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: own control and then would fumble at that time. This
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: year was totally the opposite. On the team's best weekends,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: On his best weekends, he was perfect. He made no mistakes,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: perfectly managed those wins in Canada and in Singapore, and
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: did every other weekend realistically, even wins weren't on the table.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Was very solid and very dependable. I think the scale
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: of his step up this year, and Turtle's spoken about it,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: makes him second best performer for me. We can talk
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: about his reference to Kimi out to now. He doesn't
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: mean too much considering he's a rookie, but also pretty
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: clearly had a handle on him, and I think that
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: still counts for something, even if less than other teammates.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: So he's my second best of the season.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: You make a very compelling argument, not compelling enough for
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: me to change my list. One. You make a very
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: very compelling argument. The only driver to finish every Grand
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: Prix this year finished all twenty four there you twenty
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: three of them in the points, so that was massively impressive.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: But I agree with you the point you just made
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: then about in the past, perhaps he would blink when
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: the opportunities arose and we can skim through my thoughts
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: on Russell now because there's no need to revisit them
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: later on. But I think what you just mentioned then
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: about the fact that he now will take the opportunities
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: where in the past he may have fumbled him. And
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: there's a couple that you think about in previous years.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: There was that in twenty four, I guess, but years
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: will bleed into one, the year that he was on
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: pole in Canada and it was just all a bit
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: sort of limp and a bit messy at the last corner.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: And then Singapore's the other one that got away, isn't
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: it in twenty three, So there's a couple there, But
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: that wasn't in his game at all this year. And
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: I mean it's interesting to I wonder what impact the
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: fact that he was absolutely the team leader at Mercedes
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: this time, with no doubt, even though he was actually
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: the better scoring Mercedes driver last year too. But it
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: was never really it was never really felt like it
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: was his team because quite rightly, Lewis Hamilton had won
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: six World championships there and he was always going to
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: be seen as the other guy. But I had George
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Russell third on my list Michaels, So did we go
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: the disagreements begin? Let the disagreements begin, because to my mind,
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: number two, it has to be Lando Norris, because he
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: did win the World Championship, and yet I still have
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: more questions than I have answers here, simply because we
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: sort of touched on this a bit last week when
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: we were talking about what sort of a champion he's
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: going to become. It's weird that these past fifteen years
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: have been a succession of eras you know, Sebastian Vetter
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: won four titles in a row, Hamilton won sixty seven
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: years for Stafford, one for all in a row. I
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: don't see Norris as being that kind of driver. I
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: don't see a sustained period of dominance here. But I
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: think you've got to give him an enormous amount of
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: credit for after Zanvorch. There was this feeling when he
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: was thirty four points behind us, like, well, we kind
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: of know how this ends, don't we. And there was
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: that sense that, oh, here goes, Lando is going to
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: drop the ball and it's all going to be a
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: bit difficult, and he's bit brutal and everything else. I
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: go back to Mexico and Brazil where he won three
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: races if you include the sprint race in South palat
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: but in such dominant style across that fortnite there, that
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: to my mind is the evolution of a guy who
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: eventually became the world champion, because I'm not sure that
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: level of maybe robustness and ability to dig in would
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: have been there previously. And yes, they clearly had the
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: best car McLaren. They won the constructors title with six
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: rounds to go. But to my mind, that evolution of
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: being able to deliver when things were looking a little
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: bit dire. And yes, we talked about the footsteps that
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: he heard with Max, with Stappen and he just about
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: got it done in Abu Dhaby, but he did get
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: it done. And you know, do I think he's going
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: to be another a Stapha in Battle or Hamilton in
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: terms of world championships? Absolutely not, But someone in that
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: McLaren needed to win this world title and when the
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: chips were down, he stepped up and to my mind
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: he just and it's probably the closest gap I've got
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: in my top ten in terms of who to put wear.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: He just gets second for me over Russell. But you
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: made a compelling argument, but I'm still not going to
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: agree with you.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: No, that's that's fine. I also should have mentioned with
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: George Russell a lot of the season was with contract
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: speculation with Max with Stapfen taking his seat, and was
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: still very strong, really good point, but I do like
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: your arguments with Landa is a good Also, the biggest
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: sargment simply that he's won the World Championship. I think
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: he's finally a strong one for a top two finish,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: or at least the top three in my case, because
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: I had him third on my list. Okay, I think
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: the only reason I put him behind Russell is just that,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: like recent advice, is something's going to come up a
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: lot in this podcast. I suspect because inevitably it sort
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: of does when you're doing at the end of the season,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: and he did peak at the right time. It was
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: the second half of the year. But when you've got
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: to win a championship and it's still relatively close, even
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: after that power unit problem in the Netherlands, to peak
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: at the end of the season, which also coincided with
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Pastre falling off the horse a little bit, was important
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: was what made his championship. But I think he just
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: made it so much harder for himself by the way
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: he tackled that first half of the season, the crash
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: in Canada, the qualifying mistakes that really continued until we
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: got into the thick of the European season. That just
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: meant he was out of the picture at so many
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Grand Prix, while Oscar Piastre built what came close to
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: being an insurmountable lead by the end of the season.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: I think he is the only reason why I just
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: put him behind Russell. His mistakes were more significant than Russell.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: You can argue, of course, and fairly enough, that the
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: pressure was higher for Lando, considering he knew he was
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: in the title fight from round one, whereas Russell knew
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: he wasn't and was really only out for himself and
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: for Mercedes Pride. But I think that's for me that
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: that's the difference maker between Russell and Norris, is that
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: I think Norris had on the table a much better
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: season than he had, And I know that sounds like
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: a backhander for the guy who won the title, shouldn't
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: attract from that in any way. I think there was
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: a better season on the table for Norris, and there
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: wasn't for Russell, and that's the difference maker.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fair. Look, I'm not going to fight you
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: on this one. I think it's completely it's completely logical
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: what you've said. I think you would argue that Russell
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: possibly maximized the best of what it was that he
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: had to fight with relative to Norris, because Norris did
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: make very very heavy weather of it. But to defend
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: myself here, Orris did within the world titles.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: It's a good argument.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: So what that naturally leads me towards then is I
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: will suspect that we have the same driver at number four?
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: Am I correct?
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: It seems like it if your number four was Oscar Piastri,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: because he was certainly mine. So he's next on the list.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: And I mean we've talked about Oscar Piastri so much
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: this season that it almost didn't have to get into
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: it again. But what a third season for him to
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: be leading the championship more than any other driver fifteen
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: rounds this season, to end it in title contention at
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the final round. I mean he would have taken that absolutely.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: When he was momentarily beached at the Australian Grand Prix
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: on his way to ninth and twenty three points off
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: the title lead. His highs were spectacular, his lows were fewer,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: and I think that is important when comparing it to
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: certainly season one, but then season two as well. To
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: my mind, and this is something I've argued sometimes had
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: to argue. Really his bad races were just two were
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Austin and Mexico City, and then circumstances played a role
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: subsequent to that to make the rounds in Brazil and
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Las Vegas look worse than I think they were. Had
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: it not been for those bad rounds in Austin and
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Mexico City, then we would have just been talking about
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Chao Paolo and Las Vegas as well. He wasn't quite there,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: nothing out of the ordinary, but the narrative form there.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: The points loss was real, obviously, there's no getting around that,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: and that's how he lost the title. But to take
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Norris now after being what was it? It was sort of
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: twenty to four I think in qualifying last year, wasn't
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: it something to that effect? This year it was almost
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: even eleven to thirteen. He was beaten in the races.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: It was nine to twelve he was beaten. The points
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: gap was nothing. It was thirteen points at the end.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Seven wins in his third season of Formula one, six
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: pole positions, including his first, just a really big season
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: for him. And I think the context matters is that
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: it was his third season. Everyone above him on the
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: list much more experienced. He almost beat them all fourth,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: I think at a minimum for Osco Piastre.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, we talked about this last week
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: a little bit in that he this is a testament
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: tag go with the guy as it feels like he
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: skipped some steps here because this isn't the usual trajectory
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: for a guy in his third season, and context is
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: everything here in that, you know, we look at the
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: fact that he was third in the championship and finished
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: thirteen points off winning it, and we look back at
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: maybe the lower moments towards the back end of the year.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: The Azerbaijah weekend is still going to be one of
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: those great what on earth happened? Because he'd been so
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: lights out for the entirety of the season before that.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: But you know, once the if the individual races faded
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: from our memories a little bit, we'll look at this
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: and go, well, look at the progression of this guy.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: He's fourth in the championship. The previous year he's finished thirty,
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: won lad of Grand Prix. Gee, he's really coming along.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: But at the risk of kicking Australia while it's down here,
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: you know, the context is everything, because there was a
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: point of the season where and I think Zandvort was
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: it where we were going, well, this is a good
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: story because look at this, like he's really making a
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: good fist of this, and I certainly didn't have him
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: down to someone I thought that would win a World
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: championship this year. But then with what happened at Zandvoort
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: and the fact that for Stappan, it's like, well, he's
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: clearly too far out at the picture for Stappan to
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: actually be a problem here, and the car's no good
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: and there's turmoil there and everything else is going I'm
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: probably underestimated for Stappin in that regard. But you kept
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: looking around and thinking, hang on a minute, like this
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: is actually a real possibility now because Norris is so
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: far behind, there's not really anyone that's probably going to
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: get in the mix and upset the two of them
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: from here, And that was when you thought, oh, okay,
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: it's his to lose from here, and that was maybe
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: I was a bit slower the uptake with this sort
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: of thing, but I kept fighting reasons to not take
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: it one hundred percent seriously until you looked at that
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: points gap went hang on like this is significant now,
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: so context is everything. It does come across as disappointing
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: because he was a race and a bit ahead of
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: everybody with nine to go and didn't really have much
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: of a realistic shot in the last round at Aberdabie.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: He did it a lot to go right. But to
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: my mind, third the standings, great did he have as
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: we were saying before, did he maximize the equipment that
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: it was at his disposal relative to the others well
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: relative to his teammate. No, because his teammate won the
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: championship and relative to George Russell. I couldn't find a
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: way to put Piastre in front of Russell in these standings,
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: despite the fact that it was for round two on wards.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: I think Russell was fourth in the championship and never
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: moved from there like he was under no threat from
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: behind it, never pressuring those in front of him. But
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: in the context of doing the most with what he had,
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: I think Russell probably gets ahead of Piastri and that's
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: why he's probably ended up in fourth on both of
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: our lists.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it does count, even if your teammate is
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: a rookie. It still counts being the number one driver
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: and a team in the ranking, I think. And Piastre
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: being the second best McLaren driver as title call as
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: it was, I think naturally puts him behind the number
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: ones of the big teams, which is where he is.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: He's he's fourth, and he's got you know, we all
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: expect him to make some big improvements next year. Maybe
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: he'll be moving up in the rankings this time in six.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: I think he will be.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: I suspect that's probably the case. Let's move now, Matt
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: to what I think you called earlier as the Charlotte
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: Claire category. I don't know if that's boiling to cat
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: on this one, but what's.
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: What's use Your next thing?
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Number five in the Charlo Clak category is Charlot Clair.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: Incredibly enough, just writing the words Charlot Clair, I don't
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: know about you.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: I get this.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: I've not to feel sad at this point, and I
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: shouldn't feel too sorry for him, because life's pretty good
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: and he's got a lot of buddy and he's from
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: Moodico and he's got the glamorous girlfriend and drives a Ferrari.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: It's not all terrible. Got a nice scream company as well. Well.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: He's living the dream indeed.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: But I just feel like I just feel this degree
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: of sadness simply because if you had to of all
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: the drivers that hadn't won a World championship before this year,
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: if you were to rank them in who's who's the
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: person you would be most com the world chair bit
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: out of that particular lot, he's top of the list
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: because he's so so good and just gets let down
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: year after year by some nonsense or another lot. Ferrari
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: was just abject, this is so bad this year and
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: for him to it was at seven podiums in that
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: car that Lewis Hamilton couldn't get on the podium with
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: once and took a pole position and had some tremendous results,
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: but it just didn't It never felt like any more
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: than that, and there was always this lament with him
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: as Charlott Clare's finished forty four seconds off the top
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: in sixth place or something, and so much better than
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: he probably should have been, but that's the best he
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: could do. So there's this degree of sadness because I
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: think he is good enough to have achieved much better
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: than that. And I guess you pointed to this earlier
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: in the podcast in that you do wonder if it's
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: getting to the point where he's going to have to
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: go somewhere else to realize that potential, because at some
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: point you can only just keep doing the same thing
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: over and over and over again. And I think the
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: fact that we've got this rual reset is actually quite
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: useful because it's going to demonstrate one way or the
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: other whether, oh, yeah, it's worth me sticking this out
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: for the log haul. I've just got to get there
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: out of you because this is just not going to work,
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: because he's still young, and he's got time on his side,
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: and he's still very very good. But you know, it's
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: the classic definition of insanity at this point, isn't it.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: You're just doing the same thing over and over again
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: and expecting a different result. But in terms of there
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: was not a chance he was getting inside my top
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: four based on the four that we've mentioned, and he
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: was whoever ends up being six through ten on our
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: list which is where is where We're going to disagree
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: quite a lot. There's absolutely no way you could play
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: any of those people in front of him. So, yes,
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: the Charlotte Clerk category is featuring number five Charla Clerk.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: I think, I mean, I agree, So he's also in
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: my charlat Clair category of the fifth fair driver. But
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: even as I was writing it and thinking about it,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: because he had a pretty comprehensively good season for the machinery,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: he had comfortably accounted for Lewis Hamilton, as we've already
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: talked a little bit about, which counts for a lot.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Because as much as hamilton adjustment to Ferrari was clearly
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: significant a variety of reasons. You know, he's still the
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: seven time champion. Even if he's over the hill, he's
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: it's still a long way down that hill. He should
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: still be competitive enough to give l a clear bit
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: of a fight, but comfortably beat him all season. I
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: couldn't help but wonder, and because this is the challenge
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: of making a list like this, what percentage of the
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: perceived underperformance that leaves him fifth? It is actually just
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: because the car was so rubbish, and not just the car,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: but operationally the team was loose, and I think that's
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: almost what was more disappointing for me about Ferrari this
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: year was that it seemed like last year. It wasn't
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: just that the car improved so much late, but the
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: team seemed pretty tight. It seemed pretty cohesive with the
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: way it was operating. This year felt like a big
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: stat with the step backwards on that front as well,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: how much better actually could look clear have been simply
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: if the team were operating better. So I think about
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Hungary being the example of the one pole position. Now,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: obviously the team it seemed like was always destined not
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: to win the race because the car needed to be
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: operated in a certain way with riote height and that
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: kind of thing. But how much better had the team
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: managed raising the tire pressures late or managing that race better,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: how much better result could he have achieved? And maybe
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: that would have made a difference in our final ranking.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: So almost felt a little bit bad leaving him fifth
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: because I can't help but think that the gap between
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: him and those front four was actually more about the
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: car and the team than it was about him. But
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: he was very solid, Like I've said, his team very
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: comfortably was easily the better Ferrari driver. If any Ferrari
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: driver was going to pinch a win this year, it
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: was going.
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: To be him.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: He pinched seven podiums. I think it's fair to say
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: maybe the exception being Monaco, where he was always going
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: to get one. I look forward to the day where
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: we can rank him as the top performer, because I
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: think the only way that happens is if Ferrari give
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: him a title winning car.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, correct. Him being fifth is much more of an
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: indictment on who he drives for and how they run,
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: rather than him himself. Or if you were going to
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: do the older, the old podcast trope Michael blame Pie,
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: if you're going to divide up a pie in segments,
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: there would be a very small sliver of aforementioned pie
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: that he is labeled Charlie Clare and that every very
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: large bit of it labeled other stuff. And that's kind
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: of all you need to know, really, isn't it. I'm
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: a big fan of blame Pie. I can explain a
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: lot of things blame pie.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: That's gonna be on the table in Marin Allies suspect
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: this Christmas, so that's going to be Look. I look
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: forward to the day where Charlotequair might end up a
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: little bit high on this ranking and in the championship too.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Let's get to the bottom five, our top ten, because
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: this was interesting. You know, as we go we talked
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: about this before the podcast. As we go through the
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: challenge of writing these rankings, it does inevidently get to
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: a point where it's very difficult, where there are a
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: lot of different ways to assemble the drivers. I think
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: it's my pick, isn't it. So I'm going to start
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: us off.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: It's your peak, yes, And you're pulling a face here
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: that is pretty bad. Just pulling a face here that's
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: not dissimilar to the one that I have when I
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: was writing this, because I described it before we got
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: on as I described it as watching a kid with
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: a plateful of vegetables which we're looking at which one
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: they dislike the least, to go, oh god, I'll eat
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: that one first, because that's kind of how I felt
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: from six through ten years.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So let me preface this actually, because this is
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: the way I thought about it. With the exception of
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: the driver I put tenth because I think he deserved
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: ten for different reasons. As much as you try to
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: counter the recency bias. I do think trajectory is very
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: important because it's solid trajectory, not simply you've turned up
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: and had four good races at the end of the
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: year whatever. I think that still counts with something, and
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: especially in the case of number six, for a driver
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: who's changed teams, because I've put Carloss signs.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: That oh so did I incredible.
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: Disagreements, no disagreements.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: I thought I was going out on a massive live
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: here and you were going to shout at me for this.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: So I'm so pleased, go on, please sell me.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Yes, because I think the trajectory, as I was saying,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: counts for a lot for drivers who've changed teams. Because
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: despite Carlos I think actually trying to argue the opposite
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: a little bit, I feel like this has become a
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: very difficult era for drivers to change teams. The ground
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: effect to you, the cars are all so particular. Despite
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: his protestations that actually was up to the pace pretty
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: much of me did this start of the year. I
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: think it's pretty clear he wasn't, but did get to
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: that point eventually, and then consistently his second half of
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: the year was consistently very good. As we already alluded
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: to earlier in the podcast, was easily accounting for Alex
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Album by the end of the year, which is something
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: I did not expect and something that to my mind
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: counts for a lot, because I really rate Alex Albont.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: I think he's really good and has been very good
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: at Williams in particular. So for Carlos Science to at
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: the end of the year look back on the season
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: and say I finished twice, twice meritoriously on the podium,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: remarkable from qualified second and asak, that was a pretty
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: wacky qualifying session, But for him to do so, I
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: think just reinforced how solid an operator he is.
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: I see.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: I suppose it got him up a smooth operator. It's
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: very close to being even in the In the race
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: head to head it was only seven ten surpassed Alex
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: albon in the qualifying head to head fourteen to ten,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: was the fastest driver on average in qualifying, ended up
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: only nine points behind Album as well, which is something
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: I just did not see coming halfway through the year.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: I think it was through his great credit and that
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: trajectory again is why he's my sixth best performer over
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: the year, which is something I didn't think even before
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: the year started, when he was going to of him,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: I didn't think would be happening.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: I was certain we're going to disagree here. By the way,
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: that famous charda song solid Operator not scowled offer today
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: doesn't quite come out the same doesn't. But I'll never
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: be able to hear that song the same way again now.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: But while we were throwing some stats around, so I
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: was just having a look. So he scored thirteen points
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: in the first twelve rounds Science, and he scored forty
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: nine points in the final twelve rounds. And I mean
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: realistically the first two real Williams podiums for eight years.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: I'm not counting the twenty twenty one Belgium Grand Prix,
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: the one lap race that we stayed up till four
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: o'clock in the morning for. But to my mind, he
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: ends up here because on days when there's a big
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: result in the offing, like Azerbaijan and like Qatar, this
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: is why you hire Karla Science, because he's going to
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: be someone who's going to convert on those results. Based
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: on quite frankly evidence pedigree from the past, we know
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: he does this in a way that we suspect Alex
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: Alban could, but we've never really seen it. And yes,
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: album scored more points and he finished ahead of him
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: in the championship and so on and so forth. Williams
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: comfortable fifth of the championship, which is again something that
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: we haven't said for a very very long time. But yes,
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: an element of recency bias here, but I think it's
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: completely justifiable the way you've said it there. I'm a
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: little bit surprised we have agreed. Perhaps the best thing
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: other than those two podiums for Carlos Science in twenty
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: twenty five, if I'm being a little bit harsh here,
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: was he didn't have to drive a Ferrari. That was
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: probably very good news too.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Yes, quite possibly, who knows could have been not with
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: more points as a result, not really high up the list,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: I'm willing to say, by being a Williams diverer.
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: But I think that's it. I think that's a great.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: Call on Alex Alban as well, that we've seen a
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: lot of great execution from him, but not in this
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: way at all. That and I think that is a
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: question mark going to twenty twenty six. And I also wonder,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: and this is a question that'll be answered over subsequent years.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: We also just have no idea where William is going
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: to be next year, into competitive order and about the
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: cars and all sorts of things. But if you look
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: at this season, was clearly the better driver a when
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Science was adjusting, it's one element of it. But when
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: the car wasn't as good, and I even go back
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: to last year, he had a lot of great performances
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: in a year the Williams car just wasn't very good.
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: When the Williams car.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: Sort of sorted itself out in the middle of the year,
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: they didn't bring very many upgrades, but the ones they
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: did were really effective. Science was suddenly the more consistently
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: impressive performance. I wonder if William's trajectory, which the team
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: obviously hopes it is, is up to delivering cars that
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: are just better, whether that actually widens this gap. Maybe
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: Alex Album's one of those drivers is just really good
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: at dragging performances out of really ordinary cars, whereas Carlos
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Sciences We've seen when everything clicks, he's extremely good. Maybe
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: that ends up becoming a difference. It's an interesting question
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: for twenty six.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: I think, yeah, maybe Album's your classic higher floor, lower
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: ceiling if you understand what I mean, when the car
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: is genuinely capable of achieving something. There's been lots of
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: album races where he'll do some wacky one stop and
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: go from fifteenth and finish eighth and oh wow, that
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: was amazing on a day when you know you wouldn't
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: expect that to happen. That's fine, but I have much
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: more trust in science being able to drag podiums out
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: of a car like that. It's better. And yeah, that's
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: why we've somehow both ended up with him sixth on
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: the list here. But I believe I'm up for number seven,
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: are we correct?
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: Yes, the promise of conflict, though I'm worried maybe under
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: delivered judging by number six.
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: All right, number seven on my list, and this is
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: again like, oh, I guess someone has to be seventh.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: But I was super impressed with this guy, probably because
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: my expectations on him were a little bit lower coming
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: into the season. It's Isaac Cadger has finished seventh for me.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: Now he's twelfth in the World Championship. And lest we
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: forget his very first race in Australia, it wasn't actually
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: a race because he managed to bin it on the
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: warm up lap. So from inauspicious beginnings he has managed
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: to climb his way into the top seven here. And
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: there's something, you know, I think of all the rookies
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: and if you're going to include Liam Lawson and other
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: people who had done a couple of races in that
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: category this year, and through no real fault of his own,
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: he was the guy that I probably had the lowest
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: expectations for because it kind of felt a bit like,
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: oh all right. Then when Racing Bulls put him in
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: for twenty twenty five, he's F two runner up. Season
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: was pretty decent, but it's like, well, this is a
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: guy who's clearly fast, but there's some flaws there and
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: who knows whether he's going to be able to handle
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: it with formula wide And then of all the people
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: that were going to chuck it in the fence in
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: the warm up lap in the in Australia, he would
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: have been pretty close to the top of my list.
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: But over the course of the season outstanding qualifying pace
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: at I think it was sixteen times or something crazy
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: that he made it into Q three, which in a
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: Racing Bulls car it was by no means the worst
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: car on the grid, but the ferocious one lap speed
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: that he has. I love the fact that he's really
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: hard on himself even though it's a floor at the
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: same time, because there is a care factor there at
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: a willingness to get better. Is how that's going to
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: manifest itself when you've got back to stap Ad in
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: the sister car, I'm not I'm a little concerned about
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: that quite frankly, but as a story for next year,
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: I do like the way he went about it. He
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: had the podium in Zanvort, which yes, was a little
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: bit ftuitous because Norris retired from second place later in
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: that race, but he was in position to capitalize on that,
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: went from fourth to third, scored the hadjodium. As you remember,
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: the Racing Bulls press release came up with one of
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: the absolute low lights of the season. But I just
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: thought he he exceeded the expectations I had for him
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: by a greater amount than many other drivers that I
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: could have chosen from. And the promotion into Red Bull Racing,
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: relative to some of the other promotions they've had over
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: the last couple of years, actually feels like a bit
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: of an inspired call. I don't mind it at all.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: I really hope he doesn't get incinerated by the staff
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: and like so many of these other guys have. But
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: to my mind, he's a pretty nailed on seventh on
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: this list, and that's not something I would have thought.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: I would have said back in March. But I am
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: wondering where you're going here with number seven.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, look disappointingly somewhat, he was also my number seven.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: And I think you've you've explained it.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: Really well, Noah.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: The stat that counts is he was the eighth best
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: qualifier in the sixth best. I know that sounds like
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: the numbers the wrong way around, but you realistically should
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: have been around twelfth on the grid, but.
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: Was actually on average.
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: That's amazing.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And to go to your point, this feels like
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: a good Red Bull promotion. This is the first guy
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: I think he's been promoted to Red Bull Racing who's
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: had that kind of consistent speed in a long time.
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: You have to go back.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: I haven't actually I haven't looked this up, but I
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: don't remember Alex Albon being that consistently good qualifier. He
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: was looked very solid in that half the season. The
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: added I think it was Toross at the time, was
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: it whatever it seems called at the time, Yes, but
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: didn't look like he had that kind of blistering speed.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: I don't think Pierre Ghastly did either from memory, but
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: he clearly had that potential in him. But Haja has
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: been so consistently quick that as long as he can
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: retain some of that speed in qualifying, regardless of what
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: happens in the races next year, I think he'll be
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: set up well as long as he's not. And I
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: don't think he will be as a result of this
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: because Sonoda certainly didn't look like that kind of qualify.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: He was really good in races. He was fast, but
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: it took years for him to develop that consistent speed.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: That hasn't been the case for how Jay. He's quick
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: out of the box, which makes you think how much
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: better he can still get. Considering this was his rookie year,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: it makes me optimistic that he can do it next
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: year at Red Bull Racing. Combined with the fact that
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: the new rules should hopefully mean that car is a
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: little bit more drivable for anyone whose name is not Dutch.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: So I was really impressed with him, And yeah, I
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: think You're right that expectations are much lower, mostly from
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: the Red Bull side more than anything else. I mean,
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: you did come very close to him theF two title
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: last year. Yeah, very good.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: But that comment you made, especially from the Red Bull side,
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: this goes back to one of my favorite words I
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: keep saying it to this podcast, dysfunction. The only reason
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: that Hajar got a role this year within the two
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: Red Bull back teams was because they had signed Sergio
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: Perez to a two year contract extension in twenty twenty
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: four and then decided by the end of the season
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: that he was surplus to requirements, so they had to
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: promote somebody up from racing balls into Red bull and
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: after two races they decided they promoted the wrong person
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: and then put the other one in there, who they
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: decided was actually no good a few months before. And
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: the only reason Hajar was on the grid in the
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: first place was like, well, we've got to put someone
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: in this thing, and he's the next most qualified guy
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: in the pipeline. And as it turns out, we were
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: having this conversation in February, you had Lawson in a
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: Red Bull, Sonoda in a Racing bulls and Hagi with
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: question marks as his teammate Sonoda's out Lawson's actually been
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: able to extend his career by going back to where
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: he was and all the best of luck to was
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: at CAJI next year. But it just shows you the
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: level of dysfunction in that program.
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: But I hope he.
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: Makes a fist of it because there's an energy with
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: him in qualifying particularly and it'll be nice if it
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: translates to some nice second Row starts at the start
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: of next season. Is energy about the way he goes
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: about it that I think could be quite fun.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: Yes, I think the attitude, which I know you've already
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: touched on, but the attitude feels right as well. I
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: think the self criticism doesn't feel like it's just being
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: put on because that's what Red Bull kind of wants
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: of you, and that actually, deep down you think you're
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: very good. I mean, I'm sure he believes he's very good,
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: but I think he's still got that right approach that
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: it's not I don't think he's going to get to
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Red Bull and think he's made it and then realize
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: he's six tens a second slower than the stuff. It
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: doesn't know what's going on, so I think that's that's
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: also quite positive. The face pulling gets harder for me, actually,
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: because I've just looked at the list that I wrote
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: down a few days ago, and I'm already like, oh.
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: That's a surprise.
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: But what vegetable have you got to on your play,
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: I guess is a question.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Yes, But I come back to my overriding principle for
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: this section of the order, which is trajectory counts for
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: a lot. It counts especially for rookies, as we've talked
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: about with Isaac Hadja, and I think I can reconvince
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: myself that eighth on my list is Oliver Bearman, which
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: I would never have picked in the first half of
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: the year because, to be honest, and this is why
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: recencyvinds his difference trajectory. In the first half of the year,
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: I was underwhelmed with him. I'm pretty sure he would
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: have been outside of my top ten because some of
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: the mistakes you were making I couldn't even classify as
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: rookie mistakes. Red flag errors are fundamental to racing. Will
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: red flags in every category of racing, and he lost
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: big results. Well maybe not in Monico because or So
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: were the but clearly lost a big result at his
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: home Grand Prience, Silicten's a result of a pit lane
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: red flag in practice. Dreadful second half of the year,
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: though I don't know who gave him a good talking to,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: Someone clearly did. The car also improved a little bit,
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: but not a lot. It's got to be Sai was excellent.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: I mean Mexico. Fourth place in Mexico's the obvious highlight
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: came so close to a podium.
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: Actually, glad he didn't get one.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: Well, not that he didn't get one, but glad they
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: didn't gamble for one, because I think they wouldn't have
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: pulled it off. But they played for fourth place and
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: they got it ahead of Oscar Piastri. It's got to
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: be said. This great run of five races in a row,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: scoring points, scoring quite good points. Average finishing position was
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: ten point seven, which makes him eleventh in the order,
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: which I didn't expecting get the statistic. So on average
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: was the eleventh best finisher in the sport, and I
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: think that also counts as much as the trajectory does well.
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: On people have different estimations of him. He is the
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: more experienced driver. He looked like he had to handle
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: on things. In the first half a year, Beerman finished
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: on every key metric ahead and in some cases well
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: ahead of estevao On. I think that also counts for
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: a lot, which is how he's ended up eighth on
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: my list and my fourth pick or whatever.
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: It is not eighth on my list. He is in
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: my list, but I will get to him. But while
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: we're on Beam and Women's will talkbout him. Because I
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: did have a couple of points here. My first thought was,
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: was what he did this year the actual best thing
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: that happened to Ferrari the entire year, I think simply
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: simply because it's demonstrating that Ferrari's sort of succession plan
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: for the future is actually on course. Even if it's present,
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: you kind of want to hide your eyes a little
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: bit because it's so grim. At least there's there's less
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: doubt now that when the time comes for Oliver Baerman
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: to be in a Ferrari, and that time might come
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: pretty soon, by the way, I don't think that he's
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: going to be underwhelmed by the opportunity, and there's at
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: least there's not going to be that doubt. I wonder
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: if this guy can do it. I think he's going
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: to be okay when he eventually gets there. You mentioned
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: that Mexico race. Here's something that may have escaped you,
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: but it's going to be obvious when I say it.
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: That fourth place he had in Mexico was equal to
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: Lewis Hamilton's best results for Ferrari or season.
• 46:48
  Speaker 4: No no, And that's one of those things you know
• 46:52
  Speaker 4: it to be true. But then when you read it
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: like that, oh boy, when you think of the level
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: of expectation for those two drivers and the fact that
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: their best result of the season was identical, that's not
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: something that you would have thought you would have been
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: saying back in February. So good news for everyone from Chelsford.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: They'll all be stoked. But the thing you mentioned about
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: Ocon's really interesting because whatever you think about Esteban Ochon,
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: he is a known benchmark. He's been around for a
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: long while now. He generally gets the best out of
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: most situations that he's in. He's hard as nails, he's uncompromising.
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: It is to fall out with these teammates and all
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: that sort of stuff. But Ocon's a really good known
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: benchmark for a young driver who we don't really know
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: how they're going to step up. And the fact that
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: most of the metrics went in Bearman's favor because of
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: that late finishing kick that you mentioned, I think is
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: really commendable. And you know, I only say this slightly facetiously.
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: The best thing that might have happened to Ferrari this
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: year is like, well, at least this guy's going to
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: be ready when we call upon him, And yeah, I
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: guess the question is how soon do we call upon him? However,
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: he was not my number eight on my list, so
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: I'm going to go into who was my number eight
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: on the list, And when you started saying rookies, I
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: sat up in my chair thinking, hey, God, a minute,
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: don't till we were actually going to agree again. I'm
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: going Kimmy Antonelli here very good, simply because it was
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: a bizarre season when you look at it. So first
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: three rounds he scored thirty points to Russell's forty five,
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: and then he had that nine round run where you
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: take the Canadian GP podium Society scored one point for
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: the rest of those rounds in there and all circuits
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: that he knew, So it's like, what on Earth's going
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: on here? Towards the end of the season. I mean, yes,
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: he inherited a Las Vegas podium afterm the McLaren's got disqualified,
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: But the South Paolo weekend for mine, where that was
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: just genuine. The entire weekend sprint Grand Prix circin he'd
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: never been on before, had the best of his teammate
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: who had won their previously. That was one of those
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: weekends where you're like, yeah, okay, this is why you've
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: got this guy in. And the context of this, of course,
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: is that he's spent most of this season as an
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: eighteen year old, and you're taking over from a living
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: legend at a team that has done so much over
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: the years. I think it would be to my mind,
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: it was a little bit harsh to put him lower
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: than that. Despite the points gap between Antonelli and Russell,
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: we know how good Russell is. I mean, you've got
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: him in your top two. I had him in my
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: top three. But I think the pace that Antonelli's shown
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: on occasion, and the on occasions the key part warrants
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: him being placed here because well, two things. A. I
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: think this is the lowest he's going to be on
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: this ranking for quite a long time. I think the
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: arrow is definitely going up, And yeah, the way he
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: sees it unfolded was a little bit jankie in that
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: it was really good and then really bad and really
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: really good at various points towards the end. It's a
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: pretty good building block for someone that's so young and
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: so inexperience, and I think it does justify the faith
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: that Mercedes has put in him, and he's only going
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: to get better. But I thought this was a pretty
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: decent start.
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so he was very close. He was
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: a ninth for me on my list, so he was
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: very close with Beerman. I think the only reason Berman
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: ended up ahead is just because Beerman seemed to come
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: to terms with his Formula one career little bit better.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: He's a little bit older, though, which I think is
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: probably fair enough, so maybe in context it's even closer.
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: I think the only thing for me as well that
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: maybe puts him just behind is I mean, one hundred
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: percent agree with what you said about his Brazill weekend,
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: because I thought that was the weekend where it just
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: felt like this is going to work. Putting the teenager
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: in the car, you are going to take some pain,
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: but this is the weekend that proved it's going to
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: come together where the next year of the after whatever.
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: But I just wanted to say, I think more than
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: just one weekend on which he had Russell's measure. And
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: I know that's a big ask because, like you say,
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: Russell was at a minimum top three driver for us
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: this year, But I just thought, I think to get
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: him high up to this, I would have wanted to
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: see one more weekend. I don't think that means it's
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: not he's not going to be a great driver or
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: he's not going to get eventually, just for the purposes
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: of differentiating between eighth and ninth, I would have wanted
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: to see one other weekend where you were like, oh, actually,
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: you know he's got it. He's got it all down pat.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: But a really great season in the end for him,
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: and I'm glad we got there because those European rounds
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: did look pretty ordinary. That he needed to kick up
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: the pants, A good kick in the pants, actually, I
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: think was the exact phrasing, and it seemed to have
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: worked because that second half.
• 51:07
  Speaker 3: Of the year was very good for him.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: So I think we're at the end of I've got
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: number ten right, I'm bringing us home with number ten.
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: Well, I haven't gone to my number nine yet because
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: I had Baman at ten.
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: Oh that's interesting. I'll let you go. I should have asked.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: But perhaps we've got we're sharing our complete ten, which.
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: Interesting, I reckon we do?
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: Go on, what have you got?
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: I just feel like this is the exception to the
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: trajectory rule for my top ten because he's just so
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: good all the time, isn't it. It's Fernando Alonso. I
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: don't think we could have a top ten without Fernando
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: Alonso in it continues. I think he deserves the top
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: ten just for sticking around at Astonmon. To be honest
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: with you, this is a team that's only got worse
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: since he got from the first from the blocks with
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: all those podiums a couple of years ago. Worse fifth
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: place finishes in the last couple of years and was
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: down a couple of places on that did kind of
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: come home a little bit more strongly, but certainly nothing
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: to write home about and held up the team despite
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: two bish am I really going to say the sentence?
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: To be fair to Lance Stroll, he scored reasonable points early.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: There was no point in that run of strolls in
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: which he looked like the better driver. It was more
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: about circumstance and Van Orlando suffering of a bad luck.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: I mean the statistics just if you want to hear them.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: Alonso beat Stroll twenty three to zero in qualifying. There
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: was that one session which Stroll did not qualify, so
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: you could call it twenty four zero, and then the
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: head to heads was fourteen three, still in Alonso's favor,
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: despite Stroll getting was it a nine race head start
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: for scoring opportunities before Alonso scored I think was the
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: ninth or tenth round yep, and then still ended up
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: as the highest scoring driver. I mean, he just continues
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: to do the business. I really hope for his sake
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: Baus Martin's competitive next year because I'd love to see
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: him get that win, even though I I'm.
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: Not convinced he's going to get it.
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: But we saw only a couple of years ago with
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: that podium run that he's up for it, and this
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: year I think he still was.
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: I've just ever since you said to be fair to
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: Lance Stroll, I kind of blacked out for the last
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: ninety seconds, so you could you could have said anything.
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: I don't think I heard any of it, but no,
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: I that I share a lot of this sentiment. If
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: we were doing a top ten driver rankings ten to
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: twelve years before podcasts existed in two thousand and one,
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: he's probably on that list as well. I'm not even
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: going to ask you. I'm not even going to ask
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: you what you were doing in two thousand and one,
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: but you probably weren't watching Fernando. A lot so be awesome,
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: and it's funny there with a lot so because I
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: get this feeling now that if there's a good result
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: to have, or there's a way to sort of engineer,
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: or a result out of just some cunning strategy or
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: you know, just being a really slow moving cork in
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: the bottle in somewhere like Katara, and they're just maximizing
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: his track position and then running away with it when
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: he can later in the race. I love that sort
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: of stuff with him. I do get the sense that,
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: you know, if he's running around in thirteen, he's bit
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: checked out and not particularly up for it and probably
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: wondering if the car is going to break or something
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: like that. But to my mind, this is why Aston
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: is just this really mysterious team. You or we were
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: talking last week about which team most intrigued you for
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: next year. This is why I said aston Fernando Alonso's
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: twenty years removed from his first World Chat hit, yet
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: he's still clearly the best driver in his team. And
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: I'd love to know how much he really has left
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: in the tank if he was actually being pushed properly
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: internally by his teammate, which we know that's not going
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: to happen. While the person that scigns his checks is
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: the person that signs his checks, And so that's why
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: I find this team so mysterious because we just don't know.
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: And yeah, you mentioned that qualifying stat you know, twenty
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: three zero twenty four zero. If you're like the only
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: other driver to beat his teammate in every single qualifying
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: session for a Grand Prix this year was Max to Stappan,
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: And yeah, and part of that is because he's Fernando
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: a lotso and the fire still burns. And part of
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: that is because well, you know, you can complete that
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: sentence however you like, Yes.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: You can notable as well that qualifying isn't sort of
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: traditionally an Alonso absolute strong, it's not a cunning in
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: the race. So for him to do that. I think
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: again you can say about whatsop of the Ledger is
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: more influential in that statistic. In the end, a fir
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: bit of a screaman in the top ten, even if
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: the exact order was different, which was nice. But I mean,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: I think that means we're probably right. I think I
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: think that means, oh, we're both wrong.
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: We look.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: Let's run through very quickly and briefly our bottom ten,
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: just for the sake of what. In fact, there are
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: eleven drivers who competed form were under year. So yes,
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: let me give you my next five, and you can
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: tell me what you think and were yours were. Eleventh
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: was Pierre Gaslin, despite him driving for company with the
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: worst team. I think he's probably deserved a high position
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: just for sticking around. I don't know why I signed
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: a long term contract with him, but it is. Gabrielle
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: bought a letter I think was close to being much
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: higher up this list because he had pretty solid middle
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: of the season, just faded a little bit late in
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: the way the other rookies didn't, so I think lost
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: him some places for me. Liam Lawson was thirteenth. We
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: spoke about him earlier. Saved his career. Niko Holkenberg was fourteenth.
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: I got that podium, but Bortaletto shaded him for most
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: of the year. Was a hidden a lot of metrics,
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: which I think. I mean, Holkeenberg's there for bringing the experience,
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: but I think that was a little bit surprising. And
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: Alex album was down in fifteen. For me, What did
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: you think of the next five?
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you had ghastly higher than I did. Bortletto, I
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: can absolutely see that Bortleho't qualifying speed is the thing
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: that stood out for me, and that's a really, really
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: good sign for the future. We discussed laws of an
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: oc on a little bit earlier. I had albon on
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: eleventh and he was my toughest cuss simply because he
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: did provide a you know, he provided the majority of
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: Williamsports in a very good season for Williams. But the
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: reason I couldn't squeez him into the top ten was
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: just because of how things completely faded. But it's funny,
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: like we had the same what is that half a
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: dozen names there in just differing orders and then you
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: go from there. It's kind of well, I guess Lewis
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: Hamilton needs to go somewhere before the bottom four and
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: the bottom four. I'll be super curious to know where
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: you've gone here, because my bottom four eighteen ninety, eighteen, nineteen,
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: twenty and twenty one in this particular order. Jack doan
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: remember him? He finished eighteenth for me, Lance Stroll nineteen.
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: Franco Colopinto, who scored as many points in what eighteen
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: rounds as Jack do and did in six congratulations for that.
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: In twentieth and Yuki Sonoda last very similar.
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: I also had Jack doing eighteenth. I had him ahead
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: of Franco Colopindo because their stats were pretty much the same,
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: but he had much less chance to do them, which
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: makes you think that he could have been better at
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: he been given the time. I had Lance Stroll in twentieth.
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: But Sonda, it's hard to go part. I mean, Maxwstaffan
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: was four bus two points the world champion, and Yuki
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: Sonoda was barely scoring points weekend to weekend. I had
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: did I have in the middle I had on sixteenth
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: than Hamilton's seventeenth.
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, very well, it's very very great. Even even to
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: be honest, I think Hamilton was so desponded by most
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: things at the end of the year that if he
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: knew he finished seventeenth in your rankings, he'd probably just
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: go that'll be the end of it and turn the
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: calendar of twenty twenty six as fast as possible.
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: Yes, I think so, after a long break with his
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: phone in the bin, Yes, he said he probably why.
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: Before we wrap up, though, a couple of supplementary prizes
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: I guess.
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: To give outs.
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: Now that we know where everyone's fallen on the list,
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: we've got to go to not Move of the Week,
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: but Move of the Year. I suppose by Shannon, it's
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: considering this is the last podcast of the year, the
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: biggest improver of the grid based on our rankings, I
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: suppose the rankings being an indicator, who was your biggest
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: improver your move of the year? Move of the Year
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: for me is Oscar Piastri very good because because he's
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: gone from being someone who we thought might be able
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: to contend for a world championship in the future to
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: being someone that could contend for a world championship right
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: now in the present, and that definitely lifts expectations of
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: what he might be able to do in the future.
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: And in terms of the person that's improved most on
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: what we thought compared to what they actually can be.
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: I think it has to be in, isn't it. Yeah,
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: I think that's a good call. I was a little
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: bit torn on mine. I was going to say George Russell,
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: but I feel like I've already talked so much about
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: how much I think he's improved, and I'm going to
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: go actually just with the world champion Lando Norris, because
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: I thought, and I think we've probably said in previous podcasts,
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: that if the chips were really down, he wouldn't be
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: the driver to rebound. I wouldn't have backed him being
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: the guy to go thirty four points down with an
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: engine problem and then fire back like this had been
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: the title.
• 59:14
  Speaker 3: And he proved me wrong.
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: And I think he said he proved himself wrong, So
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: I feel less bad about being proved wrong first. But
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: I think that really changed my perception of where LANDA.
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: Norris is heading. I don't know necessarily that's going to
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: make him an all time great, but look, he's got
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: his whole career to prove that or otherwise. But I
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: was really pressed with the way ended the season. I
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: didn't think it was going to be him For a
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: long time. I thought it was gonna be backs for
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: staff at the end of the season, and he got
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: it done, so good for him. And we can't wrap
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: up without the Crystal Ball by complete home filtration. Now
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: we've talked a little bit about our expectations of the
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: off season, generally in last week's podcast. You go back
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: and listen to them. But we will of course be
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: doing rankings again next year. I'm not going to ask
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: you to predict your entire top twenty or twenty two
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: as it will be or perhaps more with the arrival
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: of Cadillac next season. We're to look into your complete
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: homefiltration of Crystal Ball and look at where you think
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: these rankings may move by the end of next year.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: Who might be moving positively or negatively? Yes, what are
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: you going to predict?
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: I haven't thought where Harvid Lynn Blad's go the slot
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: into next year's Crystal Ball this yet, So that's I'm
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: glad you've not asked me to go one through twenty
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: two and what it was going to be next year.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: But I'm going to have two cracks at the crystal
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: Ball here. I'm going to go someone going up and
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: someone going down. Someone going up is the person that
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: I'm predicting to win next year's well titled George Russell.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 3: Oh God, great, wasn't expecting a title predictionn't it? That's
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 3: very good, isn't it?
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: Oh it's decendber Let it fly on. He's the person
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: I think is going to rise higher in this rankings
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 2: from a very very high base, and then my crystal
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: ball perhaps getting a little bit murky and perhaps needing
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: to be refreshed with a service. Is all I've written
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: here is Lewis Hamilton. Could it be down and then out?
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: Because I think if things get worse for Lewis Hamilton
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty six, you do wonder how long he's
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: going to stick around.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 3: Yes, I think that's a good call. But he can't
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 3: get too much lower, can he. Really?
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: He's the very lower reaches of our list here, which
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: is a little bit grim. I also like the world
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: Champion angle. I was going with that for most improved,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: but I was going to go, of course, for the
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: more patriotic angle, which is that Oscar Piasti will be
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: ranked number one next year, although as we learn this year,
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: not always going to the World Champion, so I guess
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: that's not I'm not going to be as long as
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: nailed on a World Championship prediction. But I think he
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: can move up three places next year. He was very
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: close to it. I mean, he was number one in
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: the middle of the year, wasn't he pretty much everyone
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: he was, so I think that's fair enough for a decline.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: I was very tempted to simply say Isaac hadjer because
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: we all know that's what happens at red ball racing,
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: which could very well be the case. This is a
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: hard one. This is a hard one because I feel
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: like everyone right now is where exactly where they belong
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: on my list. I think I'm going it's it's gonna
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: be tough, but I think based on thet he's not
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: going to have a bad year. But I think Max
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: Forstappen will be lower on the list next year. Oh
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: I think Max for Staff has to be because he
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: can't be number Why it could be number one again
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: next year. But I just think that next year, with
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: the shake up we're going to get. I think we're
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: also really well placed at the front of the field
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: where we have so many, as we've talked about, really
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: high performing drivers ready to take their chance. I'm hopeful
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: that we'll have four front running teams at least next year,
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: more or less in the mix, and I don't think
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: it's going to be as obviously Max Verstappen. You know,
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: if Russell's an equal machinery to Max, I think it
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: gives him a reasonable run. I think for that reason
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: it's not going to be a Max easy what next year?
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: Well, and that's the Verstapan has been top of my
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: list for past five seasons. Down four of those, he's
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 2: won the World championship, nearly won the fifth one. But
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: it would take something. Given the chaos that's going on there,
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: and they've got a new engine project coming in and
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 2: there's so much change behind the scenes year on year,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: Verstapen would have to be better than he has ever
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: been before to fight for the world champion. You will
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: retain number one on this list for next year now
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: after what he's shown in twenty twenty five. I'm not
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: prepared to rule anything out. But when you're at the top,
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: the only way is down, isn't it. So yes, perhaps
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: you might have nailed that one.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 3: Well, well, we'll see.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: We will see this time next year, because that's all
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: the time we have for pit talk today.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 3: And this season.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: You can subscribe to Pittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts,
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: and you can leave us a rating and review as well.
• 1:03:23
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• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: why not let us know your top performers of the
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: year or your predictions for next season's lists. You can
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: keep up to date with all the latest F one,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: Supercars and MotoGP news at foxsports dot com dot are you.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: Matt Clayton's been great to chat about the years motorsport
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: with you this season.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: Very much enjoyed it, Michael. We'll do a few more
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: laps in twenty twenty six and looking forward to get
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: back on it once we get through pre season testing
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 2: in February.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 3: Yes, it's alarmingly close, isn't it.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: And thank you for your company for listening in twenty
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: twenty five and we'll catch you next season.