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The McLarens Shine Again while Ferrari Drivers Struggle in Budapest - 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix Review · The Undercut

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:08
  Speaker B: Thanks for tuning in to the undercuts review of the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and enjoy the show. By being a racing driver, you are under risk all the time. By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you no longer racing driver. The last race before the summer break, the Hungarian Grand Prix, some of the drivers were comparing it to, to Monaco. Right. I can't remember which drivers were doing that, but you know, one where there's not a lot of overtake overtaking essentially.
• 0:52
  Speaker C: Yeah, the cliche. Yeah, the cliche is it's Monaco without the walls. I disagree.
• 0:57
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 0:58
  Speaker C: But what do I know? I've never, I've never raced on it, so I'll take their word for it. There's no swimming pool. Well, there is, there's a, there's a massive water park, isn't there? Right next to it, is there?
• 1:13
  Speaker B: That's cool.
• 1:15
  Speaker A: Well, it's the. Well, it's not Monaco. In fact, I heard it's the cheapest F1 ticket if you want to go.
• 1:21
  Speaker D: Really interesting.
• 1:22
  Speaker C: Yeah, I've always heard that. But then the nice new grandstand. Did you see how new that grandstand? What they did put that in this just this past year. So if you, if you go back and watch Oscar's maiden win last year, you'll see the old grandstand main hit grandstand, they put this brand new space ag looking one there. So they've got to recoup that somehow. So the tickets have probably gone through the roof. I haven't checked, but I can see it happening.
• 1:47
  Speaker D: What's the price of a ticket? Do we know?
• 1:51
  Speaker A: I can't, I can't. My trivia.
• 1:54
  Speaker C: Work your Google magic.
• 1:58
  Speaker A: I wasn't prepared for follow up questions. Just take my word for it and move on.
• 2:06
  Speaker D: Yeah, those are my thoughts about the race. McLaren run, one that's not much else to talk about.
• 2:11
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, it was kind of a, a tale of two races. Right. Because the first half of the race it was, I mean not to, not to bring this up to you guys, but it was looking very good for Charles for the first half of the race and then all of a sudden he seemed to just lose all pace and then just, you know.
• 2:29
  Speaker A: Are we going to start with the Ferrari conspiracy theories right now and try and work out what's going on?
• 2:34
  Speaker C: Well, we could. Let's start with the pole lap. I mean, I don't know the Conditions were changing. Obviously. The Q3 lap times were like half a second slower. I don't know, the wind changed or it got cool or whatever. But you've got to be in it to win it. And Charles nailed it. I feel bad for Lewis because I think he was only about 1500ths of a second off or, or like less than a quarter of a second off Charles. But he went out in Q2 and char made it through. I managed to stick it on pole, which is awesome.
• 3:06
  Speaker D: Yeah. I mean, he not who. I think there was only three drivers that actually went faster on their second Q3 lap.
• 3:12
  Speaker A: Right.
• 3:13
  Speaker D: It was like most people were going to significantly slower.
• 3:16
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 3:16
  Speaker D: He just banged it out. I mean, that was incredible.
• 3:20
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 3:21
  Speaker C: Fernando Alonso put in a good one. He was. When he. Come on radios, that's a good lap. He's like, yes.
• 3:30
  Speaker A: See, both the Astons were up there right in qualifying. And Bortoletto as well.
• 3:37
  Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
• 3:38
  Speaker D: He's been on a little bit of a run.
• 3:39
  Speaker A: He's been on an amazing run. I mean, Bortoletto the last few races, like. Yeah, he's after his slow start. He really seems to be getting a lot out of that car.
• 3:49
  Speaker C: Yeah, I mean he had the one DNF was that Silverstone. He had a dnf, but he's definitely trended up. If you take that DNF out of the equation, he's, you know, you got the charts of his zero points for a long time and then it's just, it's been, you know, he's really started to find his feet, which is good.
• 4:05
  Speaker A: But the, the Ferrari, I mean, it's, it's Mark. We've got to try and remember how excited we were when he was on poll on Saturday and try and bring that to this podcast right now. Because we all know what happened and we're all disappointed now. But yeah, bring the energy back.
• 4:20
  Speaker D: It makes it better that, you know, clearly something. I don't think we have full details or any details other than something chassis related happened that was unavoidable and that's what obviously did in the race. But is this, you know, is this hope that we can expect the update that they brought to the suspension? Like, is this going to be maybe where their pace is that they just have to figure out this other issue. Jason's saying, no, I'm not drinking that.
• 4:50
  Speaker A: I'm not drinking that Kool Aid either. Mark. It's like chassis issue that happened or something. I'm, I'm more with everybody else that the Ferrari car Is like they can set it up to be fast by lowering it to the ground, but that causes excessive skid plate. Skid plate wear. So. And we've seen that. Right. Like Hamilton won the sprint race earlier on in the season, you know, when they don't have to run long and. Or maybe on a. On a track that is more beneficial. And over one lap, the Ferrari can be fast. But I think it needs to be.
• 5:22
  Speaker C: In that position because he. He ultimately got disqualified from the China Grand Prix because of plank, where.
• 5:29
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
• 5:30
  Speaker C: If you remember.
• 5:31
  Speaker A: And then. Yeah. And clearly Charles is talking about, you know, when Charles lost his mind briefly on lap 53. He's talking about something they were clearly discussing before the race. Right. About how to manage issues with the car which wouldn't be.
• 5:46
  Speaker C: That's not a chassis issue.
• 5:47
  Speaker A: The chassis broke because you went over a curb or something. So I'm kind of. I mean, you've got to run your car on the limit. That's how you make it as fast as possible. You run it as low as possible, which is the fastest configuration. But. Well, I'm drinking. I'm, I'm. I'm all in on that as the theory.
• 6:04
  Speaker D: The. What's the chicane? That slow chicane. They were all getting pretty aggressive on the second half of that chicane on the exit, but, man, Charles was like attacking that thing. Like, it's not a surprise that something happened with the car. I still have hopes their update must have done something. Are they going to be the McLaren, you know, match? I, I doubt that, obviously, especially as tracks get faster, but they've at least seemed like they've carved out their notch as number two.
• 6:37
  Speaker A: Right. Yeah.
• 6:37
  Speaker D: I mean, they start. They started number five. Let's remember that.
• 6:41
  Speaker A: Right.
• 6:41
  Speaker D: The beginning of the season, they weren't even the fourth fastest car. They were the fifth fastest car.
• 6:45
  Speaker C: Yeah, no, I think the, The. The suspension update they did bring a couple of races ago has helped, but I think they're still trying to figure out how low they can really run it. Martin, I've probably heard the similar rumors to you in terms of. Towards the end of the second stint, they were changing the power unit settings and scrubbing like 20k off the top speed, because obviously at the higher speed, the more pressure, you know, the more downward pressure, you're pushing the plank into body, pushing the car into the ground, wearing that plank. And then in the final stint. So I think Charles, when you heard his message about cutting, that was because he. That was the recovery. They were chopping out top speed from him to stop it from bottoming out. And then in the final stint, rumor has it, they increased the tire pressures to lift the car ever so slightly further. But as soon as you start increasing tire pressure, you reduce the grip because the. The higher the tire pressure, it becomes more like a balloon and you have less surface area in contact with the track. On a hard tire, you start sliding, and as soon as you start sliding, you lose the tires. And that's. That's what rumor. Rumor has it that. That's really what.
• 8:04
  Speaker A: I'm all in on that. Yeah, I'm all in on that. And Charles, I mean, he lost it. And then the red mist definitely descended, right? Because when he was defending his third play, he couldn't defend Oscar. Right. Oscar was what, six seconds behind. Drove right up to the back of him within a couple of laps, overtook him.
• 8:21
  Speaker B: He couldn't.
• 8:22
  Speaker A: And then when Russell showed up on the scene, he just. Charles was like. He turned into. I don't know. That's like a Schumacher esque move there where he just moved his car all over the place.
• 8:33
  Speaker D: The first one, I thought George was crazy, the way he reacted.
• 8:36
  Speaker C: Yeah, I thought he did overreact a touch on the first one.
• 8:40
  Speaker D: The second one, I was like, what in the world?
• 8:43
  Speaker A: Somebody's gonna get killed here.
• 8:45
  Speaker D: Like, George made the move and like a three seconds later, it felt like Charles like, ah, you know what? I'm gonna go right.
• 8:50
  Speaker A: Yeah, that was. That was bad. So we ended up.
• 8:54
  Speaker D: It was dangerous because obviously if safety car came out, he would have then lost who knows how many positions. But at that point, I think There was like 32 seconds ahead of Alonzo. So I Probably as red mist as he was, it was sort of a calculated move because he probably knew, like, all right, I'll get a five or ten second penalty.
• 9:12
  Speaker C: I'm surprised it was only five, because normally they give a ten, but five, they reduce it to five with mitigating circumstances or whatever. But there weren't any.
• 9:21
  Speaker A: No.
• 9:22
  Speaker C: Maybe it was sympathy.
• 9:28
  Speaker A: Yeah. The mitigating circumstances was he was in a Ferrari. He's been leading the race for two thirds of it, and now he's in a sitting duck. Those are the mitigating. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my goodness.
• 9:40
  Speaker D: Heart. Heart wrenching. You guys saw my. My. I watched the race a little bit late, and I just turned it off. I was. Not immediately, but like, you know, towards the end, I was just like, I'm done with this. I can't believe it. That was so frustrating.
• 9:55
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
• 9:56
  Speaker D: Jason, on the other Hand I was.
• 9:57
  Speaker A: Gonna say, yeah, give us the McLaren fans angle of the race. Jason.
• 10:04
  Speaker B: Well, I mean it was pretty good. It's hard to find any faults in any of the past few races with, with McLaren. But yeah, I mean it, it was kind of like the reverse of the last race, right where it looked like Lando was going to be able to chase down Oscar, but he wasn't able to. But this time Lando just had the alternate strategy that worked on the day and was able to hold it out. And then like we said, I mean it was pretty close. At the second to last lap, Oscar almost, you know, ended it for both of us. But in the end another one too, right?
• 10:42
  Speaker C: Yeah. I mean going into, into the weekend, the prime strategy, the optimum strategy was the two stop and everyone, you know, that's what everyone was going into. Philosophy was a couple of things changed a little bit in that the weather got a little bit cooler, a lot cooler. And so I think one of the key turning points, obviously he went for the alternate strategy, went for a one stop, was that with the cooler temperatures, the warm up on the tyre took out the undercut as a possibility. And they didn't really know that until after because Oscar was the first person to try it. He couldn't get his tyres in up to speed quick enough and he couldn't get past Charles. So then also seeing that Oscar went in first, George went in the next lap expecting that Lando was going to go and try and undercut him. And so when George went in, there's no way Lando was going to just follow him into the pits. So they decided to extend a little bit. The cooler temperatures meant that the tyre deck was not actually as bad as people had figured it was going to be, which, which was part of what dictated it going to be a two stop race. So it put the one stopper on. I mean it still took Oscar, sorry. Lando still needed to make it work. And I think that, you know, last week in Spa, as he was trying to push to catch up, made a couple of errors. This time he wasn't defending where he wasn't really attacking. He was just trying to make the strategy work. He was a lot calmer, didn't make any mistakes and it came through in the end because as well as all of that, Charles was ahead of Oscar. Oscar really couldn't get by, so there was no real tire offset on his perspective. He was lapping inside himself. And so it meant that Lando could make that opportunity for himself to come out ahead would it have been different if Charles didn't have to have balloons on his car instead of tires. I don't know. But that was. Yeah, that's what ultimately dictated.
• 12:55
  Speaker D: It would have been different.
• 12:57
  Speaker A: Yeah, he would have been disqualified after the race for excessive banquet.
• 13:03
  Speaker D: But we would have celebrated Martin at the end.
• 13:07
  Speaker C: Yeah. So strategy. Ramble over it. I mean, it left us in a great position. Right, Jason, as a McLaren fan, where you've got Lando, who, let's face it, he messed up the start. He fell, he caught. Got caught too far inside, expecting Lando to move over on Charles. He didn't. He got squeezed, had to come out way early and lost positions to both George and Fernando. So then he had to get past Fernando, which he managed relatively, Relatively quickly. You had to do that, otherwise you get stuck behind him forever. And then, you know, he took a. He took a chance on the strategy and it worked out. So seeing those two guys come together towards the end, you knew it was going to get good. And especially when Lando hit traffic and I put on the chat on the spoiler chat. So you wouldn't have seen it at the time, Mark, as it was perfectly timed. It's like when Kimi Antonelli let Lando by right before the DDRs line, like three laps from the end. So Lando didn't get drs, but Oscar did. And that brought them so close together and it really set up that next lap when. I mean, it's slightly different from. From Austria, where it was still a lot of the race to go when Oscar had that bit of a lunge. Lando kind of knew that Oscar was going to be coming up at that point, but I'm still surprised they came so close. I was expecting to give a little bit more, but inches.
• 14:38
  Speaker A: Yeah. Could have easily ended up another. There was quite a few incidents like that. I mean, Piastri like. Yeah. Locked up and came so close to taking out Lando. Didn't something similar happen? Russell nearly took out Alonso doing something similar on a different corner. But he got super close. Yeah. Earlier. Earlier on in the race.
• 14:57
  Speaker B: A place where he couldn't have made a move. Right.
• 15:00
  Speaker A: Right.
• 15:00
  Speaker B: And he just kind of like got squeezed. Got squeezed out. And Max and Lewis had a moment too.
• 15:06
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I thought that. I thought Lewis took evading action there. I thought so Was like Max's fault, but nothing ever came of it. Right. They didn't really.
• 15:15
  Speaker C: There was no collision. They got called to the stewards. They said, we're going to investigate it after the race as they do because they want to hear from the drivers. Lewis didn't show up, they just sent a Ferrari representative. Yeah, no, because Lewis was like, yeah, it was. I mean, it is what it is. I, it's, you know, but never did.
• 15:30
  Speaker D: Well, I mean, he obviously must have known that there was no contact. If there was contact, that would have been a clear cut penalty. But yeah, it was so weird. Lewis just looked like he, it looked like there was contact but obviously there was no camera angle or whatever. But it, if there was no contact, he just drove significantly off the track. I, like, I don't understand that. I mean, I understand why you were maybe moving over to make space knowing that he.
• 15:52
  Speaker C: But did he yield? And is that. I mean he's obviously not been in a great spot mentally this last. Well, this weekend in particular.
• 16:00
  Speaker A: Right.
• 16:01
  Speaker C: Did he yield?
• 16:03
  Speaker B: I mean, from how I looked at it, there was no room there for Max. Max took the whole track. So if Lewis had tried to keep it in, there would have been contact.
• 16:13
  Speaker A: Right.
• 16:14
  Speaker C: But Lewis didn't really have much of a race ahead of him anyway. So would old Lewis have just kind of left it there and just been taken out to prove a point, knowing that it's Max? If this was 20, 21, he'd have held fire and they'd have both gone out.
• 16:29
  Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know. I mean, as much as leclerc is fired up and Hamilton's going in the opposite direction, it's just, he just seems distraught, he's down on himself. He's saying, I'm just rubbish, I just can't do anything, you know, he can't. I mean, we said he was quite close in time wise qualifying, but in actual positions he was way down. And when you're. He's been out, qualified by leclerc like what, almost every race and outperformed.
• 16:56
  Speaker D: I mean, he's been out. Let's take George, you know, into the fold there. How many times has been out qualified for the last two drivers?
• 17:05
  Speaker C: Yeah, I mean he's just not been able to get on top of this Ground Effect era. I think we can safely say it. I think Mercedes obviously messed up and so that really didn't give him any sort of basis to learn from because the car was so terrible for all that time and now I think he's just coasting. He went to Ferrari expecting the Ferrari to be as the Ferrari was last year and it just wasn't. It hasn't been that. So all eyes are going to be on next year and we'll see how.
• 17:38
  Speaker A: We go.
• 17:41
  Speaker D: I have so much to say, but. So nothing to say.
• 17:45
  Speaker C: Yeah, so much to say, but none of it's good. And so your mum brought you up. Right.
• 17:49
  Speaker A: You know, it's not going to change. It's not going to change any of the facts that before us. Right. It's not going to make you feel any better.
• 17:58
  Speaker D: So I am shocked, though, talking about the strategy, how we consistently are seeing, you know, like, Lando wins, doing the one stop and everybody thought it was the two stop, and this is like, you know, how many times do we see this every year? I just can't believe with as much data they have. And I know things change, of course, in the weather and. But it's shocking that they don't have a better handle on strategy. Like, most of the time, it's. There's so many races that you can think of where you thought it was this way and somebody took a chance and they end up winning or whatever. I don't know. I. That. That part is really surprising to me, that they don't have a better grip on that. You know, it's not like McLaren was really fighting anybody. I know Charles was in the mix, but after that unfolded, he wasn't. And I don't know that. That's just crazy to me that they don't have that kind of more dialed in. Despite all the changes, I guess the.
• 18:51
  Speaker B: Conditions are always changing. Right. So no matter what, like, you could have all this data, but nothing is ever exactly as it is that the day that you're actually driving.
• 19:02
  Speaker C: So. And you can't model the performance of the car that you're in front of, or if you get by them at the start or you don't get by them at the start. I mean, the strategy of McLaren, specifically for Oscar, was driven by how fast Charles Leclerc was. Charles was pulling away from Oscar. That's why they had to make the strategy call. When they did, they could have gone longer, but it was like, we've got to make the call now because it's two and a half seconds ahead, which, if the undercut works, we can get him. If you wait any longer, there is no undercut opportunity because he's pulling away.
• 19:40
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Do you think when. When Piastri came in for his second stop, which is around lap 45 or 46, they're telling him the gap. They're telling Piastri the gap to leclerc. And Piastri's like, I don't care about the gap to leclerc. I want the gap to Lando. Is that. Is that. Does he say that? Because Lando who. Lando's who he's fighting in the championship. So he was hoping to maybe overtake Lando for second, assuming Charles might go faster and overtake Lando. Or was he actually thinking, I'm gonna get both of them here? I don't know.
• 20:18
  Speaker C: I don't know. I. I think it could have been because where he was gonna come out on the. After the stop, maybe. I don't know.
• 20:25
  Speaker A: But they were talking about, oh, you're gonna be 4, 4, 5 seconds behind Leclerc. He's like, I don't care. Where's Lando?
• 20:32
  Speaker D: Yeah, I think. I think he's locked in on the championship.
• 20:34
  Speaker A: I think so.
• 20:35
  Speaker D: He's been pretty rock solid with a lot of his decisions. It's actually aside from these few incidents, you know, he's been so solid, so calm, and like a phenomenal example of a championship drive. But the desperation or whatever you want to call it, the two dives at this race, the one in Austria, are so uncharacteristic of Oscar. Right. Like, those were very desperate. Like, there was no way he was going to make that. He didn't even get close to him until the apex when he almost hit him. And these are three instances in a short amount of time. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's a little bit weird to see when Oscar does that. You would think he would just be like, all right, I'm going to get second this race, and we're not going to risk crashing. Not even from the team perspective, just from his own race perspective. You know, God forbid he takes his front wing off and Lando keeps going and he doesn't even finish in the points. Aside from that, he's been, you know, rock solid, like I said. But those couple dives seem.
• 21:36
  Speaker C: Well, is it? Well, but is it. Is it like he's. He's a Verstappen esque type approach to these kind of things, where he'll have a go to get in his head so that he does it a couple of times. And Lando knows Oscar's going to have a go.
• 21:54
  Speaker D: Right.
• 21:54
  Speaker C: And will that make.
• 21:56
  Speaker A: Will.
• 21:56
  Speaker C: Yeah, getting. Getting in his head and to the point where will Lando flinch when Oscar's close enough to make a move, expecting him to make the move or giving him just a little bit more breathing room, expecting that he's going to stick it in of the inside, and then when he does, it can make it work.
• 22:16
  Speaker D: I don't know the comparison to Max, though, because that's exactly who I think about when you see some of these dives, is it just seems like when Mac, if Max dives, he is sending it right. Like there is no locking up, and then backing it. Like he is. He is there. He's so precise at getting there, even if it's borderline illegal. Whereas with Oscar, it's been, you know, And I appreciate that. That opinion, because I hadn't really considered that. And that is very possible. He is a very, you know, he's a thinker of a driver, so he probably has some of those things in his mind, and he knows that Lando's obviously been a little bit mentally shook over the last few months, so that's a good possibility.
• 22:56
  Speaker A: Was it. Was it in Austria, which was the race? Was that the one you were talking about in Austria where Piastri got the penalty and then he got on the radio and he starts complaining. Oh. To the McLaren garage, like, oh, do you think it was unfair and we should switch positions back and we should race it now?
• 23:13
  Speaker D: No, that was not Austria. Austria was the one where he almost hit him. Similar to this most recent one. What was it?
• 23:19
  Speaker C: Was I in Silverstone because we got the safety car penalty, But I didn't hear if he was getting on the radio asking to switch places, because that.
• 23:28
  Speaker A: Would have been a big. He got. That was his worst moment of the season, I think, so far. He got on the radio to the McLaren wall when he was behind Lando, saying, you should switch the places back. That wasn't fair. Which was just never, ever going to happen. I think, Jason, that was you and I doing the pod. Then we were. We were like, yeah. Not a good look for Fiasch.
• 23:45
  Speaker B: I don't think he was expecting it.
• 23:47
  Speaker A: No.
• 23:47
  Speaker B: But he's just like, might as well.
• 23:49
  Speaker C: Give it a go, I guess. Don't ask, don't get.
• 23:52
  Speaker A: He's showing some. He's showing some cracks. Maybe. Maybe. I'm reading more into that.
• 23:55
  Speaker D: And, yeah, I guess that's the point, is it looks like there's a few cracks there. Whereas he was. If, you know, four races ago, you thought he was just like, okay, this guy's solid.
• 24:05
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 24:05
  Speaker A: And.
• 24:05
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 24:05
  Speaker A: And Lando's losing it, but Lando's. Yeah. Gathered himself up. Yeah. That's a great results. Closed the gap and now what? One half of the season to go in there, I mean, effectively neck and neck, nine points is nothing.
• 24:19
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 24:19
  Speaker B: Have you noticed that the past, like, month or so or the past four races or so, Lando has Seemed much more confident than he was at the beginning of the season. And it also happens to be when his girlfriend showed up again when they had broken up for a little bit.
• 24:33
  Speaker C: So maybe I would. I didn't need.
• 24:37
  Speaker D: Happy wife, happy life.
• 24:38
  Speaker C: Yeah. But also they did make that change to the. To the front suspension that gave him just that little bit more feel and a more confidence into the car.
• 24:47
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 24:48
  Speaker C: And I think that that's definitely been something because you look at what was the gap after Canada, like, 22 points, and it's now down to nine. Yeah, it's.
• 25:01
  Speaker D: I don't know if confident is the right adjective for me, for Lando, because, you know, at the beginning of the season, I know Jason didn't like me saying it, but I really saw, like, the mental weakness or whatever you want to tag it for Lando, like, just kind of taking away from his season. I've heard some stories about him getting, I don't know, therapist and just, you know, mentally getting in a different space. And I feel like he is in a different space, but it's almost more that he is more okay with. Like, okay, I'm not. Maybe I'm not the best or I'm not going to be like, you know what it was when I was with Carlos or Daniel and. And this guy is going to give me a run for my money. Because before, he kind of seemed like a whiny baby when things would go wrong or whatever. And now it's kind of like he just is able to digest that, process it, and be like, I'm moving on. Like, this is where we're at and we're going to continue on. So it's like he's got this more relaxed, like, I'm just going to take it step by step. And because he's not. It's not like he's suddenly dominating Oscar. He's just picking up opportunities and maximizing them, you know?
• 26:09
  Speaker C: Yeah. Because that's what it's going to.
• 26:10
  Speaker D: He might be the stronger driver.
• 26:11
  Speaker C: Yeah. Because that's what it's going to come down to. Right. And fair play to McLaren for just letting them race. They don't care who wins. They just want one of their drivers to win and they want their other driver to come in second. So whether it's Oscar first or Lando first, as long as they're not taking each other out, they're good with it. So they've sort of. They've laid out the ground rules, which are basically, I think we're not going to force the issue. We're not going to put in preventative measures, but as soon as you start hitting each other, then we're going to have to intervene. So don't hit each other. And off you go.
• 26:46
  Speaker A: Right.
• 26:46
  Speaker D: Thank God for McLaren. I mean, it is awesome. I love that we get to see that, you know, them battling it out. Who knows what'll change towards the end of the season as things progress, if somebody pulls a lead or whatever. I do think there's. I thought it was going to be this race. I. I typed out a message, and I was like, let me not send this out. I don't want to put any bad juju in Jason's head before the race, but I really did think that this might be a race where we saw them come together, and we almost saw that. So I think there's some possibility. I mean, obviously McLaren's going to win the season, and I'm sure they'll take 1, 2 in the drivers Championship as well.
• 27:22
  Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, you. Maybe you weren't here. I think it was just before you joined. Martin was saying that as soon as. Well, when was it? As soon as it became clear that Lando and Oscar were gonna come to a very similar part of the track, he put 10 bucks on George to win the race.
• 27:41
  Speaker A: I did, yeah. It was plus 4,000 at the time. I put 10 bucks on George to win. To win. 400 bucks. And I was millimeters away. And George agrees. I think in the cool down room, George saw the replay of it, and he was like, why didn't you just hit? George just can't stop getting on the podium. Right. No matter what he does, he just. He just keeps showing up.
• 28:09
  Speaker C: No, I mean, and. And I know we've. We've kind of dwelled on McLaren for a good amount of time, but, you know, if we. I don't want to kind of hijack the agenda, Jason, but, like, the.
• 28:19
  Speaker D: That's where we're going.
• 28:20
  Speaker C: George. George is just so solid. I mean, he's probably. I mean, he. He's like deep from Toy Story. He's just like. He's like. He's not the most. Looks like him. I mean, he dresses well and all of that, but he's just kind of awkward, you know, with the way that, like, just when he's in the interview pen afterwards, he's like. Doesn't know which hand to hold the microphone in and all that. He's just, you know, but damn it, he's a good driver. And I think he is kind of underrated. I think. I think everyone knows he's actually pretty good, but he never really enters the conversation when people are talking about really good drivers in the same way as like Charles does, for example. And you look at Charlotte and George and they're like, you know, they're probably in a similar vein, right. They've, they're both excellent drivers who have been in cars that aren't quite what they should be and you just want to see them get a car that's really, really good and see what they can do. Now, obviously, the Max Verstappen stuff has sort of died down. Hopefully, you know. Well, I'm sure that George will get confirmed for next year as well and we'll see how that car shapes up. But again, the rumor mill says that their engine's going to be amazing. Don't know quite what basis people have for saying that, but there you go. So maybe he's got a shot next year.
• 29:45
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It was at the end of last year, right, when people started to hike the sort of Max Russell dynamic, right. The two of them were going after each other, trying to trip each other up, trying to get each other penalties. That all seems to be in the past now. They're just not, not relevant for the championship because it's, it's Oscar and Lando now. So everybody's forgotten all about that.
• 30:06
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
• 30:08
  Speaker C: And in the second Mercedes, I mean, Kim Antonelli had a better weekend last weekend. He was all at sea. They made some, they. I did hear that they'd actually stripped out a lot of the upgrades, quote unquote, that they'd brought for a while and got to a, you know, they dialed it back in terms of simplicity and I don't know whether it was a combination of that which made the car a little bit more predictable. I think that both Mercedes drivers felt more comfortable in the car. Obviously, the temperatures cooled, which probably contributed to George getting on the podium, Kimmy getting in the points and having a bit more of a solid weekend off the back of what was pretty miserable spa.
• 30:52
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's a tough situation Kimmy's in, right. He was so young to be in one of the top teams and just, you know, I think he's still going to be a pretty decent driver. It's just, it's going to take him a little bit, right?
• 31:07
  Speaker A: I mean, he's definitely, he's absolutely in a mix with the, with the, with the rookies. You know, he's the top rookie, scored the most points, right. Because of his early season success. So. But, you know, he finished ahead of Hajar this week. You know, Portoletto, like we were saying, has had a great, you know, last few races, really on the upturn. You know, Cola Pinto is in. Bearman are just.
• 31:33
  Speaker C: Well, I don't know. I don't know quite how much is Bam. And I still rate Bam. And I really do. I think he's quick. He makes some silly mistakes like that hit entry under the red flag in Silverstone, which got him a silly penalty at the start. And yeah, it just seemed. I don't even remember actually seeing him in this race. I don't really remember seeing either of the Haas cars in this race. I'm having to look up where they finished, but.
• 32:01
  Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, I don't know where they finished. Bearman was. He was in 11th for quite a bit. I feel like. I feel like he was cracking bottom five. You. He was sniffing it out. But then, yeah, I think maybe at the end they weren't anywhere to be seen.
• 32:14
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Bear was the only retirement. They just retired the car. He didn't crash or anything, but they just.
• 32:18
  Speaker B: He got damaged somewhere. I can't remember where, but he got.
• 32:21
  Speaker D: Oh, that's right. It completely messed up the balance.
• 32:23
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 32:23
  Speaker D: He said the car felt like it was broken.
• 32:26
  Speaker B: And then we had a Hajar getting hit with gravel. Like, what's his name?
• 32:32
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah, Roman Groan had injured his fingers.
• 32:35
  Speaker A: Right.
• 32:36
  Speaker B: That's not who I was thinking. Felipe Massa.
• 32:37
  Speaker A: Right.
• 32:38
  Speaker B: Didn't he have something worth.
• 32:39
  Speaker C: Oh, that was a spring. No, that was a spring in his head. At this particular. At this track. Right. Is that right?
• 32:46
  Speaker A: Oh, man.
• 32:47
  Speaker B: Interesting.
• 32:48
  Speaker C: Yeah. A spring from Rubens Barrichello's car in 2009 when it was Brawn.
• 32:52
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 32:53
  Speaker C: Came off in the run between sort of turn three and turn four or turn four and turn five. I forget. Anyway, heading up towards the corner where the Max Lewis incident occurred this weekend, a spring came off the back of Barrichello's car, hit Felipe Massa square in the middle of the head in his helmet, which knocked him unconscious and put him straight into the barriers head first.
• 33:18
  Speaker A: Right. The sequence of events for that to have happened is just insane. It's just so unlucky. Unbelievable. But he survived amazingly.
• 33:31
  Speaker D: Getting back to Mercedes. I appreciate their.
• 33:35
  Speaker C: Now that we finished this trip down memory lane back to Mark.
• 33:40
  Speaker D: It is never unimpressive that you. That the stats and the specific dates in turn 4, 5. Like, where do you keep on all that?
• 33:49
  Speaker C: I don't know. Just stop me. Just say. Nick, stop it. Timeout. You're going off on a tangent again. Back in the room, Back in the room.
• 33:57
  Speaker D: I very much appreciate Mercedes approach with their drivers. You know, complete stark contrast to Red Bull who, you know, three races and you're out. Let's get on to the next one. Can you imagine if Albon was still in a Red Bull or, or gasly or somebody just, you know, a couple years time in that car helping the development. It's just a shame what they do to their drivers. And I get it, like, you know, there's a part of me that does like that also. Like, yeah, you know, it's either do it or get out of here. But you know, when you're bringing them in this young now, there's so much to process during the race beyond just driving the car of, you know, handling all the buttons on the wheel and all that. Yeah, I, I, I really like that they give, they're giving Kimmy a whole season and you know, they're going to obviously tee him up for a complete regulation change next year and, but I think that's only good for him, even though it's probably feeling not great for him right now.
• 34:52
  Speaker C: Yeah, I think that his seat's not in any danger. You know, I think that now that the Verstappen noise has died down, they'll just renew both those guys for next year. I don't think there's anyone who could really come in or who they'd want to prefer to have in, to be honest. So just keep it status quo and see how he goes. Let him mature into the drive, you know, and if he doesn't impress after a couple of years, then, you know, two years should be enough to state your case.
• 35:22
  Speaker D: Sure.
• 35:24
  Speaker C: Hopefully you do it. Yeah.
• 35:26
  Speaker D: Bring Lewis back, take him back.
• 35:27
  Speaker B: Yeah, Seems unlikely. I guess the only other guys that we didn't speak about on the winner's side of things, I mean, we spoke about Gabby and the Astons and qualifying but obviously they were able to turn that into good weekends for the race as well.
• 35:44
  Speaker A: What was it?
• 35:45
  Speaker C: It was fifth for Alonso, sixth for Bortoletto and seventh for Stroll.
• 35:51
  Speaker D: Fifth for Alonso. Yeah, yeah.
• 35:54
  Speaker C: I mean, but I don't know, he had a lower downforce or something that it made him unpassable on track. I think he did a one stopper as well. So the cars in front, well, obviously Lando did the one stopper but the car, the leaders did a two stopper and he was the first of the one stoppers and such was, they had a, they had a good car. I mean it was clear from qualifying they had a good car, but it just meant that no one could get by. I mean, it's not an easy car. This is why it's like Monaco. It's dull. Yes.
• 36:27
  Speaker D: He just said, I'm just going to back Everybody up for 30 laps and then I'll start driving fast.
• 36:33
  Speaker B: Or he did it this exact same track with OCON a couple years ago to give OCON the win. Right when he was in Alpha.
• 36:40
  Speaker D: That's right.
• 36:41
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 36:44
  Speaker B: Crazy. And I guess the only other one, Liam had a pretty good race too. I don't remember where he started, but he was able to stay in the point.
• 36:50
  Speaker C: So he finished eighth ahead of Verstappen.
• 36:53
  Speaker A: Yeah. One stopped it and. Yeah.
• 37:00
  Speaker C: So losers on the day. Alpine.
• 37:04
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 37:05
  Speaker D: Is this your segue into coops?
• 37:09
  Speaker C: I didn't pick. I didn't pick any Alpine drivers in coupes, F1, nor did I pick any Williams drivers. Yeah, this track doesn't really suit their car. They're trying to get a car that works in most situations. But this just, this is kind of a unique track. It's kind of short and twisty. Shorter and twistier than anyone else other than Monaco, which not a track that.
• 37:33
  Speaker D: You'D want your F1 car to be high performing at.
• 37:36
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
• 37:37
  Speaker D: I cannot like that.
• 37:39
  Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I can actually look forward to the next race in Sandvoort and that's probably quite similar. Very, very twisty. I don't know. Mark, do you, do you ever drive Sanvoort when you're doing sim? It's. I don't know. I mean I, I really want to go there next year. It's the last one. I won't want to take my little guy and go, you know, camp out on the beach or whatever because it's right by the sea and, and watch the cars go around there because it's just, it's an awesome, awesome spot. But it's like, it's so tight.
• 38:09
  Speaker D: So tight. But it's much more flowy. Right. I don't know what the average speed is per turn, but there's definitely some high speed turns. There's a huge banking or a couple bank turns. I think turn one is very banked and slow. The last turn is basically flat out and banked, but I would say probably more high speed turns. This is more slow to middle slow speed turns. So I think McLaren's gonna absolutely dominate at Zandvoort most likely. But yeah, that should be a fun one.
• 38:43
  Speaker B: Well, as much as I don't want to, should we transition into Coops we can go.
• 38:50
  Speaker C: I have not checked.
• 38:51
  Speaker A: Of course you haven't checked. No. Is that true? All right, it is true. Well, the, the top. Top score on the week was Levi 09.219 points, which is low. You know, top Big, big scores are usually, you know, high. Two hundreds, three hundreds, but 219. Don Juan Gibson. 218. And the third highest score this week, our very own Nick.
• 39:15
  Speaker C: Yeah, I just pulled it up on screen and I've seen my position in coupes F1 for the very first time.
• 39:22
  Speaker D: Okay. That's why you didn't get my. My joke about the second.
• 39:25
  Speaker A: Your joke about. No, they're going into losing it. I got it, Mark.
• 39:30
  Speaker C: If you'd have seen my face when I opened the page, I was like, what?
• 39:34
  Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah. Much like Lando hauling in piastri over the last few races, Nicks has actually completed the haul in of Jason and overtaken him at the top only by four points.
• 39:49
  Speaker C: Just four points.
• 39:50
  Speaker A: All to play for, but there's a little gap. Maybe down to third with R. Heatley. But yeah, all. All to play for for the second half. But yeah, one of your worst showings, I think of the season, Jason. Unfortunately.
• 40:05
  Speaker B: Yeah, by like one point. But yes.
• 40:07
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
• 40:08
  Speaker D: I mean, brutal weekend I guess though. It was.
• 40:11
  Speaker A: Yeah, tough.
• 40:12
  Speaker D: It's been that I had eight out of the ten drivers in my. Whoops. In my final picks.
• 40:17
  Speaker B: Nice.
• 40:18
  Speaker D: But my score did not represent it right.
• 40:20
  Speaker A: You're just all all over the place.
• 40:22
  Speaker C: Yeah. I got Lando correct and Oscar correct and I got F. Fernando correct in fifth and Kimmy, that's incredible that you.
• 40:30
  Speaker D: Put Fernando in fifth. I can't believe that.
• 40:35
  Speaker A: There you go. But yeah, you dropped 10 spots, mark down to 46th. And I dropped out the top 100 again. I keep flirting with being in the top 100, but yeah, I feel same.
• 40:45
  Speaker D: I'm just kind of bouncing around that same top 40, 50 spot.
• 40:49
  Speaker A: But yeah, there we go. Well, you got four weeks to think about your picks and you know, Mark just gave you a good appraisal of the circuit, how he thinks it is. So use all that information, Jason, to your advantage and claw back McLaren one too. You need to know more than that to be good at coops, don't you?
• 41:12
  Speaker B: That's true.
• 41:13
  Speaker C: So for our listeners, coopsf1.com you're not going to win the season by joining now, but, you know, tell your friends and enjoy some friendly competition.
• 41:24
  Speaker A: Yes, you get a mention. You get a. Get a big score on any week you get. You'll get a mention.
• 41:30
  Speaker D: I mean, Nick, your Alonzo guest took the lead for you.
• 41:34
  Speaker B: Yeah, right.
• 41:35
  Speaker C: I knew that was good this week. I knew their car was good this week, which is bizarre because it was so terrible in Spa. The astonished Spa just didn't do anything. I don't know what was going on there, but it was pretty clear from Friday that they were going to be. Although it was Stroll who was ahead in Friday. You know, you look at what Stroll's doing on a Friday and you put Fernando in that spot on a Sunday, and then you kind of put Stroll like two, three spots further back, like I did.
• 42:04
  Speaker B: Right. Well, as Martin's been saying from the very beginning, that the Newey effect was going to have to come in at some point.
• 42:12
  Speaker A: So maybe every time I think it's arrived. It's a bit of false dawn, though, so they'll go straight to the back of the grid next week or next week. Maybe. This is.
• 42:21
  Speaker B: This was finally it.
• 42:23
  Speaker A: Yeah, don't listen to me. I think the. Listen. Listeners know not to listen to my.
• 42:31
  Speaker B: He has to give up the corner. I had the nose ahead.
• 42:35
  Speaker D: What is wrong with these people?
• 42:37
  Speaker B: Thanks for listening to the Undercuts review of the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix. Please rate review and subscrib wherever you get your podcasts and join us after the summer break for our review of the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix. And if we get any news during the break, we'll bring that to you too.