Latest / Full Credit to the Noise / NEWS: The lessons from Kai Allen appeal verdict
Transcript
- Speedcafe Team: Hello and welcome to Full Credits of the News brought to you by Authentic Collectibles. My name is Andrew Van Loon and I'm joined by Speed Cafe's managing editor, Stefan Bartholomeyus. Stefan, another busy week on the news front. How are you doing there? Hello, mate. I'm about as well as anyone can be after reading a 15-page Court of Appeal document, I think. Yeah, it's ⁓ it's certainly a lot to ⁓ a lot to take in. We may as well start. With that, I reckon. We finally do have that long-awaited official reasonings for the National Supercars Court of Appeal dismissing the case between Supercars and Motorsport Australia over the Kai Allen tyre pressure ruling. To very briefly recap, Kai Allen had two tires dip under the minimum 16 PSI on the grid before the Sunday race in Perth. The matter was sent to the Motorsport Australia stewards by Supercars. A breach was established, but quite sensationally, no penalty was applied despite the Disqualification being seen as the logical penalty for that breach. Supercars appealed the decision. There was a hearing in the court of appeal, and the appeal was dismissed for reasons that have only today been made public. Now, these are complex documents, but we'll do our absolute best to simplify the explanation. Effectively, Supercars had to prove that there was a failure in the process from the stewards without introducing any new evidence to the case itself. So it was always going to be an uphill battle. So what did the findings say? To summarize, Supercars argued that the recommended table of penalties wasn't considered, and neither was the potential performance advantage. Motorsport Australia counted that just because the initial Stewards report didn't reference the table, that doesn't mean it wasn't considered, and that Supercars never submitted any evidence around a performance advantage in the initial hearing. That, Stefan, is interesting to me because According to the appeal findings, Perry Kappa, who was representing supercars at the initial hearing, said he had raised it in the hearing, but there was no transcript of the hearing and nothing in Perry's written statement about it. Firstly, the fact there's no transcript, which suggests these hearings aren't recorded, it's absolutely amazing to me, not just even in 2026. Like for it's not that hard to record these things. I just I find that really strange. But the The really overwhelming feeling I have out of this is that Supercars felt that this was such a slam dunk penalty and the initial case made in the hearing wasn't as strong as it needed to be and opened the door for Grove Racing to be able to argue its way out of it. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, totally. I mean, not to put too much focus on the individual, but it does look like Perry has gone into that hearing essentially taking an engineer's approach. to it all. You know, the rule says this, the reading on the censor says that. So this is proof they broke the rules. It's black and white. The job's essentially done there. And the Stuarts did actually accept all of that, as we know. They accepted that the breaches occurred. But ⁓ yeah, the groves rolled in with all these potentially mitigating factors and the Stewards used their discretion and ignored the recommended penalty. So in hindsight, For sure, supercars needed to prosecute their case better on the night in the hearing, including clearly demonstrating a performance advantage. And when you look at it, it seems like the case that Mark Larkham actually made on the TV broadcast during his segment on all this at Ipswich, where he showed the graphs of the tire pressures through the stint and and all of those things, that actually probably would have won supercars the case if they had that in the steward's hearing on the night. Yep, for sure. I mean, there were some admissions on the Motorsport Australia side about how some of the communication around the table of penalties and referencing unproven factors like the potential for a slow leak and tolerances in the sensors, which we talked about a lot at the time, weren't really ideal. What's your take on all of that? Like there was a bit of give from Motorsport Australia here that not no process was broken, but that there could have been improvements in the way it was communicated. Yeah, I mean not referencing that recommended penalties table in the decision document. It did make it look like they failed to take it into consideration at all. And if you remember this this document actually ⁓ appeared on the Monday when we were back at the racetrack in Perth for a ride day. Yep. ⁓ and so we had team bosses actually reading this thing on Speed Cafe, asking us where the part is That actually explains why they didn't get the recommended penalty. And we were saying, like, we haven't cut anything off of this document. That's yeah, that's the document. Yeah. So clearly the lack of explanation didn't help there, but no amount of explanation would have changed the view of the paddock that this was the wrong decision. And some of those mitigating factors referenced, like the fact that the right hand side tires were in the shade, the fact that applied to all cars. just ⁓ yeah obviously didn't ⁓ didn't sit well with the rest of pit lane. Because again, this is what was explained in the Larkham piece on the broadcast was that it wasn't like there was one particular tree that was casting a shadow over that particular car. Like it was just the case that every single car was in the shade on that side because of where the sun was at that point. And it is just yeah it it just it's incredible that that they the broadcast package can put together this piece that explains what happened and where it was a performance advantage and all that sort of stuff. But Supercars itself just didn't take this evidence into the steward's room, seemingly, and presented it in a way that just made this the slam dunk that they really thought it was. Yeah, but I have empathy there as well, 'cause obviously this stewards hearing is taking place at six, seven, eight o'clock at night after a massive weekend and not a couple more weeks of hindsight to go and grab more data and more footage and everything that Larco was able to show. So yeah, it's it's sort of ⁓ from time to time joked that like every team needs a lawyer at the track to be able to handle these things when they pop up. And yeah, in this case, arguably supercars did as well. So fundamentally, it I s I kind of feel that the stewards didn't necessarily make the right decision. I think that's certainly the view of the pit lane and obviously of supercars. And I think that's a fairly fair view to take. But they made their decision legally because they do have the discretion. They can there's it's a recommended table of penalties. It's not a mandatory table of penalties. ⁓ they've kind of as I said, the door was left open for arguments to be made to not penalize that car. And there's actually no failure in the process, whether it was the right decision or the wrong decision, it was a legal decision. So where was this appeal ever really? Going to go. Yeah, it was probably always going to end up with the outcome that it did. but it does sort of come back to the fact that supercars wanted to use this as a test case to see where they really stand on these matters. They wanted more of an explanation and now they've they've essentially got it. And really it it shines a massive light on the fact the stewards have a huge amount of discretion. So the rules need to be rock solid to ⁓ to really get the outcome that supercars wants in these cases. And I think what they implemented at QR where anyone who goes under the minimum pressure on the grid can come to pit lane, they can change tires and then start from pit lane. That's that's a good solution here. There's surely no way the Stewards can let a team off from a breach like this with that method of remedy now in place. It does feel like because obviously the the concern with how this played out was that it opens the Pandora's box of like there's precedent now. You can get away with murder when it comes to tie pressures. Now we didn't see it play out at QR at all like that. And I sort of feel like reading between the lines. It is a case now that like I don't know that lightning would strike twice in this regard. Is that a fair statement, do you think? Yeah, well, they they have. changed some some ruling on protocol around that with the pit lane stuff. So any new case would would be different because of that. Yeah. But yeah, I think when you actually zoom out, ⁓ there's probably a reasonable understanding that this was the wrong call. Yep. Yep, I agree. All right. 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Now, Stefan, your hometown of Adelaide has been in the news with some concrete information finally regarding the new for MotoGP layout. And the changes that will be made for supercars. Former legend and I did discuss this in some detail on the noise pod earlier this week, but given you're a local, I'm keen to get your thoughts on all of this as well. Run me through what you're thinking about this whole thing. Firstly, it was really nice of them to roll it out on a Sunday, right? I think we'd said on the Friday pod that ⁓ might be a bit of a quiet weekend, but they certainly ⁓ certainly changed that. Even a even an a even kind of like a like there's a virtual press conference at one forty five or whatever whatever it was on a Sunday AVO going out on Sunday morning. That's ⁓ journalists love that. They just love it. It's great. Yeah, totally. But I think going back to the actual subject, I mean it's it's hard not to have mixed feelings on it all. Like having a Moto GP race and having the opportunity for Adelaide to really lead the world in in running it on the doorstep of a city is a hugely exciting thing. But there is this big sense of loss because it's going to have a massive impact on the supercars event that we know and love at the moment. And getting rid of all those iconic elements, turn eight, the staircase, the center chicane changing, you know, obviously the bumps, all that character's gonna go. So we're effectively losing one circuit and gaining a completely different one. It it also kind of sheds a lot of the connection to the F1 heritage as well. Although then it gains a little bit back by extending out into the east end again, which is a point that ⁓ the government's really, really tried to push that it'll show that east end of the city off to the world. But ⁓ yeah, it's it's definitely mixed feelings. But I do think that having a government that's eager to plow this much money into motorsport in a way that will bring the sport that we love to more people overall, ⁓ does seem like a good thing on balance. Yeah, you wrote a piece today, when I say today, I mean Thursday, this bottle goat and Friday, but about kind of the expectations around crowd and stuff. And when you do look at the crowd numbers that were at Phillip Island compared to Form Otta GP, I mean, compared to what Adelaide got for supercars, it is a great case study in taking a product to the people. Like you'd have to think that at least in the first couple of years, they're gonna get amazing crowds. To this MotoGP thing, at least in comparison to what they've got at Phillip Island. Yeah, that that's really the thing. When when you look at it on a numbers basis, you can totally understand why Moto GP would would want to go this way. There's obviously so much pushback from the the real hardcore motorcycling people. There's there's such a romantic thing about the pilgrimage to Phillip Island and obviously what it's like to to ride on the circuit and and all of that side of things. But ⁓ yeah, bringing these things to the people, it's a conversation that that Liberty Media now that they own Motor GP is going to be having and and looking at all around the world. But the thing is after they announced this for Adelaide, we just all really couldn't see how they could possibly do it 'cause we've got such a caked in understanding of what the Adelaide Street Circuit is. Nine degree corners, really close walls, all of that. So when they actually came out with this on Sunday, even though what they came out with wasn't hugely different to the renders that ⁓ they had back in February when they announced it, it just started to feel so much more real, both in in the good ways and the bad ways in terms of the quantum of change. Yeah, because I guess initially we were looking at it through this kind of lens of how do they shoehorn Moto GP into what we know is the Adelaide 500 slash grand final. But what you see now is that this is a Moto GP first approach, right? Like this is about building a Moto GP event and then kind of fitting the supercars thing around it. Which, you know, like maybe that fast flowing thing works like it does at Albert Park. Maybe it's going to produce fantastic racing, but it doesn't feel like This is a case of, well, let's try and build something out from our primary product, which is the supercars event with MotoGP. This is about building a mode MotoGP event and then kind of making the supercar's product have to fit in with it to some extent. That's certainly my feeling on it. Yeah. So ⁓ it's not really been good news for supercars, but again, it's an ambitious government that's thinking bigger and it's wanting to have Adelaide on the global motorsport stage and again the opportunity here to do it because of the the parklands that surround Adelaide has really been there because what we see is a parklands circuit with a little bit of street. It's not the the full street course thing that that we s sort of call it. So obviously the the fact that it's in the parklands and they're having to make some changes to that has ⁓ caused a lot of angst as well, ⁓ in terms of the the tree loss and everything. But ⁓ again, the government's put a lot of thought into that and ⁓ fifteen million of the ninety six million that's been quoted for this thing total is going into all the environmental sweeteners like the butterfly habitat that we've been speaking about for months and all those other bits and pieces and and this rollout has kind of split the the green lobby here a little bit in terms of there's still some ⁓ quite vocally protesting it, but then there's there's other ⁓ parties that are actually saying, hang on, this is actually way better than we thought we were going to get out of this. This is gonna be a net environmental and community benefit because of the the level of effort that is going into that side of it. It's funny how there is all this focus on the tree loss and all that sort of stuff, but then when you watch the Moto GP riders reaction to the simulations of the circuit and the and the sort of rent the video the rendered videos that have gone out about it, the Moto GP riders are all like, Man, I've never seen a tree in my life when I'm riding a Moto GP bike. And look at all these trees. Like this is absolutely amazing. Yeah. And then they get up to the bit where there's a ⁓ a facade of an old fruit market and then there's there's a pub like ⁓ right near the track at the top. Yeah. ⁓ that raises the eyebrows as well. There's a jump in there as well. After the Senate came there, like that is going to be really interesting. Yeah, so ⁓ there's a lot to take in even in just the renders and we'll see how close it all is to what we actually see in the end. ⁓ e even the idea of bringing all the walls in for supercars and stuff is is great, but it's a a bit of a head spin again, like safety wise as well, that like the government's gotta spend all this money on making it safe and then for the next event they've gotta arguably make it more dangerous. Yeah, it is. ⁓ it's gonna be a fun year to see how it all plays out. ⁓ anyway, now the next time we record one of these podcasts, Stefan, we will be together in South Australia for the Bend 500, which means Bathur just around the corner. And we do have some Bathis related news starting with the broadcast lineup. Now obviously we're losing Craig Lowndes, Mark Winterbottom, and James Courtney from the broadcast as they go back to being race car drivers. And in their place comes Greg Murphy as an expert comments man for the Enduros. We know his TV credentials and we know he'll do a a great job. But what does seem surprising is that as of right now at least, there doesn't seem to be any plans for Neil Crompton or even Mark Scave to be playing significant roles in that Enduro broadcast environment. If that ends up being the case, as we expect, as we sit here right now, would you be surprised? Maybe on the Mark Scave side a little bit. Yeah. Because he's still tied into the whole Fox thing with motorsport three sixty or motor racing three sixty as they ended up calling it. And ⁓ yeah, loved by Fox. So I probably wouldn't be surprised either way if he was a late edition there somewhere or not. Yeah. But with Neil it more looks like he's he's moved on with obviously the Toyota stuff and and Brad Jones racing. He'll still be a a real part of the weekend, even though he's not in the broadcast and there's gonna be a ⁓ fun little ⁓ repco bringing the Bathers promo video featuring ⁓ featuring Neil. come out pretty soon as well, ⁓ which is cool. But I think it is good to have Greg Murphy back in the T V mix for the enjuros. He's been really good in the the couple of cameos he's done in the last few years. He just offers that really strong analysis and insight and he's so connected to it still and just sort of lays it out as he sees it. So I think overall the broadcast is going to be in pretty decent shape. And still just one of the iconic faces of the modern Bathers one thousand You know, like just that's when you think about supercars and you think about the Bathers one thousand, it's hard not to think about Greg moving. So it's ⁓ it's a fun addition. There's absolutely no doubt about that. I didn't realise how much of a ⁓ lap of the gods frother you are until ⁓ listening to you talk about it a few times on the ⁓ on the Tuesday pod. I love it. It's ⁓ it is one of my d you remember watching it, right? Like it's one of the great moments. The ultimate big donk for the big day. It is. It was yeah, absolutely. But it's just It is my favourite Bathist moment ever. I do I do love it very much. My favourite part of it all was when he claimed that he'd put it in reverse or whatever he said coming out of the differ. These lives can always be better, right? ⁓ absolutely. ⁓ another Bathist ⁓ related piece of news we've had this week is that the start time has been moved forward to eleven thirty AM. This just feels like a bouncing ball every year as to when this race starts. Like it's ⁓ I don't even know what to think about this stuff anymore. Yeah, it's just One of those ones where they're trying to ⁓ sort of run the finish as close to the start of the news as they can, but you don't wanna overshoot these things. And last year obviously they had the all the weather and the safety cars that ⁓ made it such a long race and then they had the fog come in at the end and they ⁓ Yeah, the unspoken fog, like let's never talk about the fact that we probably shouldn't have been racing in those conditions 'cause we should have been. It was amazing, but yeah, anyway. It was amazing. And it's sort of been been fun to see the the end of that race revisited with the ⁓ the event launch they did this week where Cooper Mari and James Golding, a couple of guys that sort of wouldn't be right in the spotlight of a ⁓ a Bathis launch, ⁓ got to sort of reflect on it all and have a bit of media hang time. So yeah, that's been been fun. It's ⁓ it's a cool time of year to to think that we're only one race away from Bathurst. It doesn't make a massive difference to the day, does it really? Whether it's eleven thirty or eleven forty five or whatever iterations. It'd make a hell of a lot of difference to our day if it started at nine AM, ran for six hours. We could do some work and go to the pub. I'll tell you what. That would that would be nice. It's a good point. Maybe we'll lobby for that in the ⁓ in the future. I'd never thought about it like that. You're you're dead right. Sure you haven't. No, I hadn't. But no, we'll think about that. That's a ⁓ That's a good idea. All right. Well, I think that will do us for this episode. It's all eyes on Italy this weekend as we see how these twenty twenty one spec F one cars fare on the long straits of Monza. We will have all the action from the Italian GP covered on speakf a dot com, including live updates. And full credit to the noise, we'll be back in this podcast feed next Tuesday morning.