Latest / Pit Talk / Who can catch McLaren? Australian GP Review

Transcript

Who can catch McLaren? Australian GP Review · Pit Talk

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannons.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: On today's episode, Lando Norris defeats Max Forstaffen to victory
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: in a chaotic Australian Grand Prix, while home favorite Oscar
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Piastre gets his year off on the back foot after
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: spinning off the road and finishing ninth. My name is
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Michael Lomonato. It's great to have your company and the
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: company of my co host, and thank you ever so much,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: indeed as ever for waking up at four am.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Matt Clayton, I think I happy waking up at four
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: am for about the last week combining the Australian Formula
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: One Grand Prix and a motor GP weekend in Argentina.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Not not anyone's idea of a great fun weekend, but
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: what's a good motorsport to talk about? And well, chaotic
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: was the word of Sunday at the Australian Grand Prix.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: There was just a little bit going on, wasn't there.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: It's a little bit too much going on everywhere. Yes,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: as we said last week, of course, motorsport everywhere, well
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: except for some parts of Sunday. Of course, there was
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: no supercars on Sunday or Formula two because the weather
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: really set the tone for race day Sunday. Heir really
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: heavy rain in the morning, easing off enough that thankfully
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: we've got the Grand Prix going largely without a hit necessit.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Isaac Kadjar might mention him a little bit later on,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: but by and large we got to the end of
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: this race, not an unscathed because we had quite a
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: few retirements, but all told, quite a good Grand Prix
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: in the end to open the season. Cried a good
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Grand Prix for Orlando Norris in particular. Of course, we
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: emerged the winner ahead of Max Withstappen by less than
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: a second point eight tenths of a second. And I
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: want to start here because of course, the big question
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: of the Australian Grand Prix being round one was always
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: going to be well where's everyone actually who's leading this pack?
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: We suspected it was going to be McLaren. I think
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: that was pretty comprehensively proved. Maybe before we look at
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: that end battle that decided this race map. Let's have
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: a look at that first qualifying and the first sint
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: of this race where it really looked like all that
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: talking down of McLaren's pace advantage by McLaren was exactly
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: that talking down of something that they knew was there
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: all along.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny, isn't it. Pre season it's always this
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: race to the bottom and no we're not good. Look
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: at them. There's always ever everyone trying to trying to
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: run away from what the stop watching the eye test
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: tells you after pre season testing. But I think what
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: was most impressive for me was that this was a
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: set of circumstances. As you said, no supercars, no Formula two.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: The track was super greasy. Track timp was less than
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: half what it was in qualifying. So Melbourne Weather remains
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: undefeated in the Alexicus of things. But this was the
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: perfect set of circumstances for the front running team and
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: in this case the front running driver and Lando Norris,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: to trip up on something. There were so many trap
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: doors and trip wise for them. In that opening stint
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: of the race. No one had done any wet running.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: The track was super changeable. Bits were wetter than others,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: as you know with Albert Park, with some parts that
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: never really dry out because of the canopy of trees.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: I'm thinking of that run between turn five and six
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: across the back there where Albert Road is so lot
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: of a lot of tripwise for McLaren early on. But
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: what we got was this demonstration of the pace they
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: have in hand. We knew that it was there in
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: the dry. To me, it was almost more accentuated in
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: the wet because Norris just had this completely control, particularly
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: because he had for Stappen between him and Piastre in
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: that first into the race, after the Stappen had taken
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: second place on turn two when Oscar got a little
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: bit wide there on the first lap. So you know, yes,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: for all this talk of yes McLaren does have a
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: pace advantage, I think that wasn't for debate. It was
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: the extent of the pace advantage. And yes he ends
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: up winning this Grand Prix by less than a second,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: but realistically there was it was more than that. I
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: thought they had this pretty much under control.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you'd almost think if this was a dry Grand Prix,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: and in that circumstance, probably Oscar Piastre gets a perfectly
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: normal start hold second place because it was really only
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: that he got onto the wet stuff in sort of
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: turn one on two on the inside there this could
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: have been a much more straightforward and extremely straightforward Grand
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Prix one's aspects sore very thankful for the rain in
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: that context and that first in once Piastre got past
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Max and started chasing down Lando for the lead, they
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: were pulling away at something like eight and a half
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: tenths a lap from Verstaff. And it's important to note
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: while Red Bull Racing had concerns coming into this race
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: they weren't going to be competitive in the wet at
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: least and in the dry and qualifying, but in wet
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: race conditions he was still or Red Bull Racing was
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: still the second quickest car. George Russell wasn't catching him,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: no one else had the pace to catch him. So
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: this is a head of the field advantage again in
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: these conditions and again at this circuit. But it seems
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: clear that that's certainly the order of things as we
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: anticipate the Chinese Grand Prix.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: I like how you said he in relationship the staff
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: and then corrected yourself to Red Bull Racing because it
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: is still a one car team, and that's something that
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: we'll probably get to a little bit later in this podcast.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: But to my mind, that and gap that you were
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: talking about the advantage they had in that first stint.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: It was interesting to see where it was and it
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: was all the third sector, Like they were unbelievable in
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: that third sector of the lap. You saw that through
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: qualifying on Saturday, but it was like they were taking
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: a shortcut or something through the third sector of the lap,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Like from turns eleven through to fourteen, that thing was
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: absolutely on rails and you could see that every other
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: team and driver was compromised to some degree. The confidence
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: that those guys had even that semi wet through that
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: final sector of the track just showed the the characteristics
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: of that car and where it has its advantage over
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: the rest at the moment.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Before we consider Norris and Vestapan's various attempts at winning
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: this race. I thought it was interesting after the race
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: listening to Andrea Stella talk the mclarentine principle, and he said,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: because the whole weekend has been, as we sort of
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: alluded to earlier, bit of a cat and mouse game
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: about why are you going to be the fastest. Well,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: I don't think we're going to book a Ferrari. They
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: were very quick in practice all this kind of thing,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: and he got as close as I think he did
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: to sort of admitting they knew that they were going
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: to go all right, which is that they understood why
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: they were fast, which was tie usage. Did you alluding
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: to it to there, because that's fundamentally what made or
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: break the third sector? Did you have any ties left
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: after the rest of the lamp? And McLaren always did,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: and he said, yeah, that was an objective of us
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: over the off season was to make sure our tie
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: wear was very good, but we didn't expect it to
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: make us fast. And it was sort of like, of
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: course you did, that's why you do that. So there
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: was sort of this little I suspect what it really
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: is at times like that is as we saw often
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: in the last two years, once McLaren started to become
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: a competitive is this instinct to keep a lid on
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: it right, not overplayhand, not get too excited. I suspect
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: there must also be a degree of Well, the opposite
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: happened last year, right McLaren started back and ended up
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: winning the Constructor's Championship, or Red Bull Racing started very
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: well and finished third in the title. So there's this
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: interesting aliment here. And yes, it is one track, and
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: everyone likes to say Albert Park is no longer representative,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: although we have so many circuits on the calendar these
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: days that it's hard to know what is representative. But
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: let's talk about Oscar Piastre's role in this, because there
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: was a period of time when it seemed like him
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: at least battling for the lead, if not taking it
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: was inevitable. He had the pace on Lando Norris round
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: about the middle of the Grand Prix. Once he broke
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: past Max with Stafford and then was told to stop
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: racing hold position, lost a bit of momentum and INDI end.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: He eventually went off track when the rain arrived later
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: in the race and that was his day done. What
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: did you make of his weekend, but in particular his
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Grand Prix performance tier because there's a lot of pressure
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: on his shoulders. He says he doesn't feel it to
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: perform at home. We've talked a lot and I think
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: it's official curse territory now. I've seen that word floated
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: around the Australian curve. So what did you make of it?
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: We need like an exorcism or something at this point.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: For all of the weekends, you thought that this podium
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: curse for Australian drivers at Albert Park was going to
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: be put in the bin. It was a weekend where
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: the one of the two Australian drivers in the field
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: was clearly in the best car and had qualified on
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: the front row. But yeah, ding dong, the curse lives.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: We won't talk about that anymore. If we don't talk
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: about it, maybe it'll be broken. But in answer your question,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: I thought his weekend was genuinely excellent, but just that
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: tiny little bit less excellent than Norris. And that's the
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: key part of all of this in that, and we'll
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: get to the team instruction in a moment, I think
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: we worked out. Wasn't it on Saturday that pstre had
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: lost Pile by about five meters over a five point
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: three k lap to Lando Norris and that minute margin
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: zero point zero eight four seconds. That was pretty much
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: set in place every single thing that happened thereafter in
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: that he wasn't first into term one. He then lost
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: second place to a stap and a turned two on
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: the first lap took him seventeen laps to get back past.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: After Max had made a mistake, he was second on
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: the road and closing. Therefore he was the one that
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: was issued the police hole position order. He was the
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: second driver to encounter the really wet weather late in
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: the race where both Norris and Piastre went off at
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Piastre went off worse than Norris did and that compromise
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: his final result. So he had a genuinely excellent weekend.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: I think he handled the attention and the pressure. I
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: think he handled all of that incredibly well. He was
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: just that tiny little bit less good as Norris was.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: But I was going to ask you about the team
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: instruction here. I mean, it didn't play out very well
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: in the press room, as you and I know, there
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: was a bit of a harrumphing going on in a
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: very very pack press room at Albert Park. But to
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: my mind, well two things. A do you think the
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: instruction would have been issued had the cars been in
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: the reverse order, if it was Piastre leading and had
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: let the whole race Norris tried to undo a rubbish
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: first corner? And also do you think there was some
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: context here? Because it was a very wet tracks, particularly offline,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: it was very treacherous. We'd see people go off they
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: were about to lap a couple of cars. You didn't
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: want to be in a situation where to let them
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: race while lapping traffic on a bit of a slippery track,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: you could put yourself in peril. Did you understand why
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: they made it? But secondly, do you think it was
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: necessary at this point of the season.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a good way to divide up
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: that question. I can, particularly after hearing from Stellar after
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: the race, I do understand why they made it because
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: there is always context missing in team radio over broadcast
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: because they just sort of broadcast the number of the
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: issue so you know what's going on. The context was, yes,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: the back markers, the weather, the fact that rain was
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: on the radar meant well, let's not overuse the tires
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: now because you might need them later on. And I
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: can understand it from the perspective further that McLaren, you've
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: rocked up with a pace advantage. You want to make
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: a big statement. You're the raining constructors champion. You've already
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: said you want to win the driver's title as well.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: To have walked away from Melbourne without a victory, worse
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: still without a victory because you drive made a mistake
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: or you let race it in a poor context. I
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: can understand why McClaren decided that they didn't want to
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: do that. That said it was strictly a temporary ban
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: on racing if you like, It was only a couple
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: of laps. It was more about those back markers in
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: the end, because once they'd cleared the back markers, they
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: decided the rain threat was a little bit too distant
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: to worry about and all that kind of thing. And
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: I just also think and in the context of trying
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: to get your season off on the right foot, to me,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: it seems really quite heavy handed in the context of, well,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: how much does the team plan to micromanage these situations,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: putting aside whether you think they should ever be team
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: models or not, because I think these again were understandable
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: if you've talked about how much you trust your drivers,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: and they've said they've talked all off season about how
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: the rules of combat all that kind of thing, are
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: you going to issue don't race every time there are
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: some back markers up the road every time the facts
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: a bit wet, And I just think that the risk
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: here having been a little bit sloppy last year. Admittedly
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: for McLaren they've improved a lot in that regard. Are
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: they at risk of going too far the other way
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: of attempting to micromanage every result, even if their intention
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: is here in the last ten laps, second race or whatever,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: because I think there's risk in that as well if
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: you keep doing this, and I think Oscar paid a
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: little bit of a price for that, lost a bit
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: of momentum, ended up off the road, cost him a
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: few seconds. They allowed him to race again, he was
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: too distant, had to close the gap, you know, in
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: a more fraud situation where Max was closer, for example,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: maybe that could have lost them set well, they eventually
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: second place, but you know, they could have lost them
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: another place there. Who knows. So I just wonder whether
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: McLaren ends up now accidentally inadvertently going too far in
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: the other direction, end up essentially in the same place
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: where calls from the pitwall have adverse effects or unintended
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: side effects.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: So I reckon part of that. It's almost an overcorrection
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: to last year, where when they were faced with situations
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: like this they tended to dither yeah, or it was
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: a bit sort of like, oh, maybe can you do this?
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: They were almost trying to be overly decisive at a
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: point where they perhaps didn't need to be, whereas last
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: year there seemed to be a lot of indecision and
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: it was a bit wishy washy, and have we discussed
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: this beforehand? And you've got Norris digging easy. It was
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: in Budapest last year when he clearly inherited the lead
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: through a pitch stock phase and so there's almost like
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: they were going the other way. There'll be a happy
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: medium they strike between these two. But I thought maybe
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: it was a little bit heavy handed, a little bit
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: too soon perhaps.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think as well, maybe to cut them
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: some slack, I mean, Indian they won the Grand Prix,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: but this was maybe underratedly. So it really quite a
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: difficult race to strategize your way through the changing radar,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: the conditions, the uncertainty, having seen how heavy the rain
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: was earlier and the threat of that rain. It almost
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: did get that heavy right at the end, in fact,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: after the race had got that heavy as well. So
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: I can understand why again, you know, McLaren didn't want
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: to walk away from here having lost the race off
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: its own bat, as it did several times last year.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: So I understand it from that context. It'll be interesting
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: to see, you know, the team has said it expects
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: to be in this situation many more times, but presumably
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: in dry conditions how that plays out, and I think
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: that'll be more of the test. So I blame them
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: too much, but I do think there's a little question
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: like about their intention there to manage that going forward.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: But the end, it was Oscobiastri finishing ninth after running
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: off the road, being second in the rain. As you said,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: I think, just to put a bow on this, I
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: really thought he's charged back up the order because he
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: emerged last after reversing out of the grass. Very few
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: people reverse out of that grass trap. In fact, even
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: the timing screen decided to retire du track. But that
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: move on Lewis Hamilton, which I think will take us
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: nicely to chatting about Ferrari in just a second, I
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: thought was a really it was a little bright spot
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: at the end of a really disappointing second half of
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: that race for him driving a little bit angry, I suppose,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: But maybe in that there's something to say that even
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: when Oscar Piastri's driving angry, he's super controlled.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: There's a decisiveness with which he makes his overtakes that
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: only the truly great ones have, And I think That's
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: one of the things that we were so excited about
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: as Australian fans last year in that he races like
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: someone who's far more experienced than someone who has a
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: great amount of belief in their ability. And to my mind, yes,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: we know that Hamilton was struggling around a bit at
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: that point, and the red mist might have been down
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: for Piastre a little bit, given that he knew the
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: laps were kicking down and he wasn't going to get
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: on a podium that looked pretty much a sure thing.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: So yeah, there was a little bit of anger in there.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: But as impressive as it was, it was almost inevitable,
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: I thought, and that I looked at the timing screens
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: coming into that last lap, I thought, oh, he might
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: catch him in the last sector. He ended up catching
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: it before the last sector. But what a pass. That's
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: not a place that you put passes on people at
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: nine to ten fastest corner sequence on the track in
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: the semi wet on the last lap of a race
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: where there's a lot to lose, And he wasn't off
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: the track, and he wasn't sideways and he didn't cause
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: Hamilton to lift. It was just clinical and clean against
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: a guy who's a seven time Formula One World champion.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think that was a nice little reminder that, look,
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Oscar's clearly going to win races this year. McLaren does
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: have a car advantage at the moment. It wasn't his
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: day on Sunday at his home Grand Prix, and that
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: will sting. But the twenty five points are twenty five
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: points no matter where you get them, and I think
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: there are going to be several races this season, because
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: there are approximately two hundred and thirty races on this
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: year's Formula One calendar, there will be some of them
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: that he wins. It was just a shame that this
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: fantastic pass that he made on the final lap of
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: his home Grand Prix was to take ninth place. But
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: it was very good though.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about Ferrari now, because coming into this race
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Ferrari Lewis Hamilton was always going to be a big
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: talking point. Also because Ferrari finished last season in such
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: good form. Over the last five Grand Prix, I think
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: I had the fastest car, was outscoring McLaren. Took the
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Constructor's title right down to the wire and there was
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: great optimism heading into this season because of that, and
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: because of course they were inducting the seven time world
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: champion Lewis Hamilton. This was his first Grand Prix. Very
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: happy in the Thursday press conference, as happy as he's
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: been all year, really buoyant, answered many questions, discovered theirre
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: Italian people in Australia. Is very excited to learn that
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: because he loves faster and pizza, as he said, and
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: then that continued into Friday. I think even though there
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: was quite a gap between him and Charlotte Clair and
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: it was interesting and I guess positive you're a Lewis
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Hamilton fan to see that that gap shrunk over the
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: course of the entire weekend and race date. Still a deficit,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: but was in the Lacler vicinity. So that's positive. But
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: also I think a little bit of a reality check
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: for him, wasn't it. I think he sort of suggested
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: this on Saturday or Sunday night, that the mountains a
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: climb to adjust to Ferrari and let's start with Lewis
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: before we look at Ferrari's weekend overall is bigger than
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: I think he anticipated, and I think this is a
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: really big reminder of that on a high pressure weekend
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: where the driver really needed to be hon it in
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: the car, to be a one with the car that
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: wasn't quite him.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, biggest task for him, biggest task for the team,
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: bigger task for the Ferrari fans than perhaps we perhaps
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: we should have seen this, given that you know, he's
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: obviously in his forties, he's driven a particular car for
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: a very very long time. Difficult circuit to debut in
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: a car where you've done no wet running, You're still
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: learning your way around the procedures and the switches, and
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: you know, there's a there's a cultural element to driving
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: for an Italian team that's very different to what he's
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: driven for an English German team for so long now,
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: So much was different. I think a couple a couple
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: of things. I think he'll improve and the team will
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: improve knowing how to work with him in leaps and
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: bounds very very quickly. I don't think this is going
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: to last very long at all. But there was just
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: a sense of new boy at school, don't quite know
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: what to do, where to go the whole weekend in
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: terms of the radio communication with the team and where
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: are the wet sittings on my steering wheel and what's
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: this procedure doing? So the excitement of being there and
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: the adrenaline that that's clearly gotten, catch a side of
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: himself in a window or a mir and goes, look
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: at me wearing there's red overalls. This is fantastic, But
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: there's still the reality of having to deal with the
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: white hot pressure of a Grand Prix weekend that no
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: matter how long you've been doing it, and he's been
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: doing it for a very very long time, it's going
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: to be different. You are going to be more setting
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: your ways because you've been where you are for a
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: long time. I don't expect this is going to last.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: And the set of circumstances in Sunday's race where you're
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: driving that car in the wet for the first time,
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: still you don't have that relationship with your race engineer
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: that him and Bono were basically thinking what each other
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: was going to say before they were saying it because
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: they've been together for so long. There was just a
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: lot of first at school vibes for mine, and what
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: he actually needed to fast track his adaptation was a
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: really quite benign, sort of predictable race where he could
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: just do his race and oh, look, I finished sixth
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: or whatever it might be, and use that as a
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: stepping stone towar's forward. They'll go to China this weekend,
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: and assuming they get a dry, normal weekend, they're almost
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: back at base camp again. Because yes, they've done this
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: first Grand Prix, they would advance along a little bit.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: But it was such a strange weekend in so many
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: respects that I'm not sure how much he and the
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: team really learned about each other, other than the fact
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: they still have a lot of work to do, but
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: you've got time to do that. They were a little
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: bit unlucky Ferrari, and we'll get to that in a
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: sect in terms of when the safety car came when
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: they pitted, they probably deserved better than where they finished.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: But I thought they were going to issume more of
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: a challenge. Orlando Norris certainly thought that he was the team.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Ferrari was the team that he was referencing was probably
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: going to be their biggest challenge. So yeah, look, I
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: think one in the we'll learn a lot basket for Ferrari,
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: but for Hamilton, maybe we shouldn't have been surprised. It
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: was a bit difficult.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a good call. I think it
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: was also interesting in retrospect to think back to how
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: much Carlos Science was aggrieved after testing about the prospect
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: of him having had only three days in the Williams.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: And he's a driver who's changed teams regularly in his career,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: so you think he'd be best place to be in
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: the mindset to adapt correctly. Whatever. And maybe it is
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: a case that these cars are just becoming over the
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: last decade or however long you want to pick, probably
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: overall time, more particular more difficult to jump into. And
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: maybe we're learning that with one of the most experienced
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: drivers on the grid that actually it's pretty hard and
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: he has probably chosen one of the biggest jumps, as
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: you said, from the UK to Italy, from the Sadies
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: to Ferrari, pretty different setups there. But it'll be interesting
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: to see how it evolves. Like you say, Chinese Grand
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Prix is coming up Sprint weekend though, and it's hard
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: to know whether that's gonna be good or bad in
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: the sense it's less practice and maybe it's harder, but
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: it does just mean more competitive seat time. Maybe that
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: ends up being a positive but probably they could use
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: a little bit less pressure after Australia. But let's look
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: at Ferrari overall now, because the talk was that it
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: was probably going to be the second quickest team, even
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: if it looked maybe harvestep behind McLaren. Friday practice suggested
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: as much. In fact, Charlotte Clair was pleasantly surprised as
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: it turned out, but also optimistic that contending for Pole
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: could be on the cards, and that just got less
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: and less through the closer they got to qualifying, until
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: eventually they were nowhere near it and in the race
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: where when the rain sort of levels things out and
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: changes things a bit, but weren't really ever in contention
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: for victory for bigger points, as you said, but never
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: for the win. Disappointing for Ferrari is no other way
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: to cut it, particularly given that McLaren seems to have
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: this advantage and was let off a little bit in
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: this weekend. Is it too early to say that Ferrari's
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: has been dramatically overestimated And I've got a long season
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: ahead of us, But how big do you suspect the
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: task is for Ferrari to go back to where it
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: wanted to be.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it was reminiscent. It was a bit
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: sort of pre Freadvess Ferrari for mine. It was a
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: bit indecisive and a bit inconclusive, and they sort of
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: wildly flight trail. Oh look they're right up the Oh
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: no they're not so. The ebbs and flows of the
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: weekend reminded me of you know, Ferrari, of days of
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: your and not particularly good ones. Look, this is classic
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: small sample sized theater, right, so you know, we've had
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: one particularly odd weekend with a new driver and the team,
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: things fluctuating quite a bit. They will, as they say
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: say in football parlance, be better for the run. I
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: don't think it everything that could have every fifty to
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: fifty thing from my mind over the course of the
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: weekend that could have swung things in their favor basically didn't.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: And you had other teams step through that achieve results
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: that probably they shouldn't. We'll get to those later in
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: the podcast. But small sample sized theater. I don't think
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: there's too much to be worried about yet. I think
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: in a more normalized weekend, it still to me looks
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: a quicker car than the Mercedes. It still looks a
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: quicker car than one of the Red Bulls, and we're
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: obviously talking about Max at some point. But I don't
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: think there's too much to be worried about, simply because
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: there's so much of the season to play out. But
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: I was a little underwhelmed with what they did based
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: on what Friday showed, and then it just kind of
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: just bled away from Saturday. And even if things had
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: gone very right for them on Sunday, I don't think
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: they are continuing for a podium. They might fix fifth
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: or something and might have been a decent result, so
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: I would have expected better, But a lot of upside
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: I would say for that too.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think qualifying behind one Williams and one racing
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: ball from memory suggests to you that this was an
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: underperformance on Ferrari's part. As good as Williams and Women's
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: in particular, and racing balls looked compared to expectations, no
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: one thinks that they should be Ferrari beaters, So there's
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: definitely pace to be found as soon as this weekend, perhaps,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: but interesting to see where that eventually tops out, or
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: whether they've reached a little bit of a ceiling in
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: the last year of these regulations. Let's have a look
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: at the order and what we've learned now from this race,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: because it being the first race of the year means
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: there was a lot of learning to do, great unknowns
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: going in no form book going in to Melbourne. We
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: now get a little bit of that. We'll go it
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: by constructors Championship order because that'll also give you a
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: bit of an indication of where everyone shook out over
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: the course of the weekend.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: It's going to be grim listening for a couple of teams.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Yes, there's quite a few teams I think that didn't
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: expect to be quite so far down the order. McClaren.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: We've talked about. We know they've done very well. We
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: know they're going to be contending for both titles. We
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: don't have to go back through that, but I want
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: to start with Mercedes second in the order and equal
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: on points twenty seven points after Andrea Kimmy Antonelli was
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: put back into fourth after having it briefly stripped from
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: him with a five second penalty. Good use of the
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: review system by Mercedes after the race, even if it
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: took quite a while to reach a decision. The quiet
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: achievers I think of this weekend is how I'd probably
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: assess it, considering very rare. Did we have any reason
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: to think about them? But then there was George Russell
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: on the podium and there was Kimmy Antonelli up from sixteenth.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: I think, wasn't it to fourth in the final order?
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: A remarkable performance by him? But what do you think
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Mercedes after this will be thinking about its season, because
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: I think they were one of the bigger uncertainties among
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: the front runners after testing.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they were kind of hiding in plain sight for
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: the whole weekend because I think we knew that McClaren
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: will probably the seem to beat. But every time we
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: were having a conversation, all right, so who's going to
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: issue them the big challenge? And it was well, perhaps
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: it's Ferrari, and perhaps it's a Verstapan driven Red Bull.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: And never at any point did I really think, well,
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: you know, maybe things break right, this could be a
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: Mercedes weekend to get on the podium will really challenge. Now,
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: obviously pastre taken out of a potential podium position opened
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: the door for someone to step on that third step,
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: and that someone was George Russell. But I thought they
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: were just methodically consistent across the weekend and they got
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: their reward. Antonelli was the beneficiary of being pitted at
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: exactly the right time when that rain came down on
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: lap forty four, so he jumped quite a bit forward there.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: But to my mind, you mentioned the fact that they're
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: the team that we're not quite sure about. I think
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: if any of these front running teams are going to
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: not turn the twenty twenty five tap off but perhaps
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: look a little bit more closely at twenty six and
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: the rule change, I reckon they might be first to
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: jump in that. I don't think they're coming into this
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: season thinking well, we're an outside shot of the championship here,
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: and I think that changes your outlook where it's like, well,
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: if we win some races and do well, that's nice.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: But with this existing rule set, we've hit our head
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: on a ceiling. It's not gone great over the course
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: of the set. Let's get this next one right, which
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: we know they did very famously, very very well in
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: two thousand and four. So to my mind, they're the
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: team of that front running quartet that perhaps thinks about
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: next year first, and it'll be interesting to see if
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: they have some good results, whether that changes the timetable
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: on that or whether they're going to put all their
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: eggs in the twenty twenty six basket and whenever they
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: get out of this this year is a bonus, and
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: this weekend was one of those bonus chips.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: I guess yeah. You kind of feel like if they're
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: in a similar situation to last year, in the sense
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: that they're the team that can capitalize on your random
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: weekends or when there's a mistake up front, that'll probably
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: be a success. Not slipping backwards, not ending the year
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: feeling like they didn't actually understand anything about these rules
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: at all over the last few years would probably be
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: a bit of a win. I want to talk briefly
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: about Antonelli here as well, because we'll go through the
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: rookies as we go through these teams. A little bit
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: disappointing after qualifying. I've had some car damage, it turned out,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: which is why he struggled so greatly to get out
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: of Q one. But in the race well strategy certainly
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: felt his way. He had to be there to capitalize,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: and at that point four out of the five rookies
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: were four out of the six rookies were no longer
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: there to capitalize. I thought, actually this ended up being
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: a little glimpse into why Mercedes rates him so highly.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: And the thing that I loved about his whole weekend
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: was that he just seemed a very happy to be
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: there and be not overwhelmed at all by what was
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: going on. And you have to keep reminding yourself that
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: you look at the date of birth and think you
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: do a double take when years old as me and go,
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: come on, but what do we doing here? This kid's
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: eighteen years old. Surely you should be a little bit
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: more nervous or jumpy, or flighty or erratic. Nothing seemed
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: to phase him. And this was a race weekend where
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: there were a lot of things that should be you know,
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: phasing a lot of a lot of drives, particularly some
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: older ones. He seemed to just take it all in
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: his stride. Now, whether that's youthful exuberance or confidence or
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: preparation or whatever it might be, I think you're right,
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: we got a glimpse into why Mercedes is so high
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: on this guy. He looked so assured. And yeah, maybe
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: the result was a little bit better than could have
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: been on paper, but I don't think it was some outlier.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: I don't think he's going to take much time at all,
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: and yeah, super interested to see how he goes once
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: he you know, early in the season, everyone's got the
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: right attitude and it's all fantastic. When you get to
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: race seven or eight and you're on the Triple Header
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: or whatever it might be, it'd be curious to see
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: where he is then. But I think the signs from
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: the start it absolutely justifies the hype, doesn't it.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. Red Bull racing next in the
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: order on eighteen points. At the end of all this,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: all of them from Max for steffign it sounds like
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: we've heard this story before, haven't we. They didn't expect
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: to be contending this weekend. I think that's still the
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: context of this race and the conditions. Well, in qualifying,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: I suppose that was a bit of Max brilliance, but
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: conditions allowed Max to break into it, didn't really allow
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Liam Lawson to break into it though. In the end
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: he crashed out of this Grand Prix. Not a great
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: way to sy his debut, is it, obviously, but he's
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: full time DEBI I don't know how we want to
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: keep referring to this as just stop preferring to his
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: a rookie. Yeah, wasn't ideal, but there were some mitigating circumstances.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: I think to Lawson's first weekend. There was the lack
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: of testing. There was the lack of practice, which left
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: him out in qualifying. Admitted to some mistakes. But if
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: you're red Bull racing, are you starting to fear that
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: you're going to repeat the mistakes after this round?
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: I mean that whole one car team thing. It was
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: a bit like last year, with fewer kick kats in
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: the media center, I guess, but.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: It was.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: Look, the circumstances were right in that he had some
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: difficulties with a car problem on Saturday rain and the
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: race on Sunday. The only driver that had never raced
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: anything at our park before this weekend, which was a
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: strange stat when you think that, yes, we had all
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: these rookies, but at least they had done Formula two
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: and they knew their way around in an open wheel
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: around here. He did not. I was going to say
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: things will get better, because quite frankly, they could not
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: get worse. It was a bad as bad as it
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: could be imagined. But I think he's proven over the
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: eleven races he did before this race weekend that there
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: is a better level than what he showed, So I'm
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: not worried about that yet, despite lots of yelling from
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: people with Mexican ties on social media, but that's fine
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: as for a stapp and this is where you really
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: find out how good the really really great are in
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: that realistically that car didn't have any business being in
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: a podium fight or know less than a second behind
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: a race win. I still think at points that as
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: good as Lando Norris is, he still needs a car
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: advantage to beat Max Withstappen and it just shows you
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: Verstappen in those conditions, it was Taylor made for him.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: We were joking on Sundays, so who's getting ready to
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: write there? Max Forstappen wins Australian Grand Prix and the
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: rain story because we've seen this happen before and we
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: know how good he is. But his weekend was one
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: of extracting every single bit out of what it was
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: that he had, and what it was that he had
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: wasn't much relative to who he was racing against, so
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: a massive tick for him. But Gie, they need that
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: second car scoring points because it's been pretty grim for
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: about the second half of last season and certainly on
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: this weekend. So if they're not going to finish fourth
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: in a four horse race at the front of the field,
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: then they need more from Leam Lawson. They need it quickly.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Yesugi Sinoda had a pretty good qualifying at least, and
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: I think had a good race until the rain came.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about racing Bullson just the second. Williams is
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: next in the Constructor's Championship points. Massive start for them
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: could have been more, of course than Carlos. Signs not
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: crashed out at the end of the first lap behind
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: the safety car said that was also part of his
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: learning process, not understanding the talk mapping under the safety
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: car safety car engine map, I suppose in the car,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: and that's the reason why he crashed. But Alex Albon
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: did what Alex Albon often does, which is just puts
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: his head down and nails it and lo and behold
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: there they are with ten points. They are I think,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: in my opinion, the surprise packet of this season so far.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: I know the race is an asterisk because of all
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: the rain and that, but even before in qualifying and
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: through practice looked competitive. It's a big unexpected step for
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: a team that sort of started the year saying, well
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: it's all about twenty twenty six is and it totally
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: care what happens is.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: Ye massively so. I mean it's a classic Alex Albot
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: Australian Grand Prix. Look up and go, oh, there he is.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: He has been so he's so consistent yet not doing
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: anything that's grabbing headlines, and he's just always there. You
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: remember when Williams was the worst car in the field
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: and you bob up in tenth place with one pit
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: stop on the fighter of the penultimate lap of the race.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: But I like the noises that are coming out of that.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: It's not the glasses fully empty. It's not even a
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: paper cup with those guys. But they don't over promise things,
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: and so everything they do in the context of that
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: is seen to be a little bit of over delivery.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: Their driver lineup is a really good driver lineup for
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: a team at this stage of its development, if you
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: want to call it that, because they've got two dependable
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: guys who will work well together. They each have strengths
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: that complement the teams and they will always extract the
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: most out of what it is that they given operationally,
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: they seem a lot sharper than they have been. I
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: think James Vows is a particularly good figurehead for that team.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: It feels much more like a serious Formula One team,
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: which is not something we've said for a while, which
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: is a strange thing to say about a team that's
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: had so much historical success. But we've not looked at
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Williams as a normal team down the back because of
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: the historical success in the past. I think we've looked
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: at them through a different lens. They look to me,
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: you know, there's this going to be this battle all
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: season who's the fifth best team. I think we know
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: there's probably a top four and then who's there with
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: that driver line up and that leadership and that trajectory. Yes,
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: a little bit of a surprise, but perhaps it'll crystallize
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: in the next year. Ransom go. These guys look a
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: legitimate get into Q three scrabble for sevenths through to
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: tenths on a normal weekend. They look like a team
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: that can absolutely do that well.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: The team that did finish fifth last year and is
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: fifth in the standings this year is Aston Martin eight points.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: Pretty quiet weekend over all. I would say double Q
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: two elimination. Fernando Alonso bidden himself out of the Grand
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Prix later when it was less wet. But advidly everyone
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: was being at some point or other in this race,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: and as a Lance Stroll who delivered the goods in
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: the end with the sixth place. I don't think I
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: heard Lan Stroll talk hardly at all this weekend, but
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: it was pretty pleased on Sunday. But I think this
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: is my suspicions, this is a little bit, a little
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: bit of a reprieve for Aston Martin what's going to
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: be a bit of a so so sile start to
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: this season.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And for full disclosure here
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: for the listeners, you and I looked at each other
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: on Sunday after the race with Stroll finished sixth, who
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: knew he barely see him on the cover, barely noticed
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: them all weekend, obviously notice them when clearly not experienced enough.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: Fernando a lot so he didn't have enough knowledge of
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: how to drive Albert Park in the rain, and that's
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: why he bind it. But to me that was a
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: little bit of an outlier result because at no real
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: point over the weekend did they look like they were
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: capable of that, so I think they were the beneficiary
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: of a lot of circumstances. It is going to be
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: a tricky start to the season for them. We know
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: that their focus is further down the road than twenty
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: twenty five, so they'll take it while they can get it.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: But I guess the real thing for me is how
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: grumpy is Fernando going to get between now at the
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: end of the season, because his Friday press debrief was
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: quite something, wasn't it.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: He's already not answering questions and they haven't even had
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: a full race weekend. Man, I just can't wait to
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: see how this one evolves, because you got this is
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: the feeling after testing that this was going to be
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: a bit of a tough year for him, and he
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: doesn't do toughy as well. I think generally they're all
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: sixth in the order, which means ahead of Ferrari in
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: seventh is Souber the team. Everyone expected to be battling
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: with themselves to finish last as they did last year,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: but here they were having a better week than anyone expected. Obviously,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: I want to give credit to Gabriell. Bortoletto didn't crash
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: out of the race unfortunately, but did really well in qualifying,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: maybe one of the stars of qualifying, considering he is
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: a rookie who has probably come in with the least
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: F one experience or mileage, notwithstanding he was ere n
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: F two last year obviously when he won the title.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: This I really genuinely don't know how to read this
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: one for Salva, because there's sort of this impression that
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: actually they got testing a bit wrong and there's a
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: bit more pace in there, certainly not an enough to
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: fishy head of ferrari normal circumstances, but that there might
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: be a little bit there. But what did you think
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: of their weekend?
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: A lot to be optimistic about. I thought Bortiletto handed
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: himself really well when we know how good the Junior
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: CV is, and there was nothing that we saw over
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: the weekend that made you doubt that he's going to
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: be a very dependable rookie and do as well as
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: that car enables him to do. But to my mind,
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: this whole weekend for Sowbery is a They bought a
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: lot of new parts from testing and transformed the car
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: because it did look like a bit of a shedded
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: barrain awful. It was clearly the worst car on the
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: grid and bahrain and testing. But this is also why
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: you're high Nico Holkenberg, because with the experience and the
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: dependability and the adaptability, that race was tailor made for
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: someone like him to come through and get a result
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: that they shouldn't already beaten last year's points tally, which
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: admittedly is which admittedly is a very low number. So
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: let's not get too carried away here, but they could
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: not have come to Melbourne with any expectation that was
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: going to be the case. They were. It's faint praise.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: They were less bad than I was expecting. So it's
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: about as excited. It's about as excited as I've got
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: to get about. So Albert look good, really good race
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: operationally for them. Hulkenberg's a very very safe pair of hands,
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: and look excellent weekend for them relative to some of
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: the teams that they're going to be around. In the
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: Constructor's title.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Yes, so for Ari seventh, we've talked about the disappointments
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: of their weekend and where they can improve. L Pine eighth,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: I would have thought there'd have been a couple of
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: points in the story for them Pierre Gasly was in
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: good form this weekend, and of course we should talk
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: about Jack doing here, who I think actually had spite
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: crashing out of the race on the first lap. A
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: fairly solid weekend considering the pressure he's under. A. It's
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: his home race. B the presidence of Franco colo Pinto
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: looking in the shadows as the reserve driver, the talk
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: about five races to prove himself, et cetera. I thought
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: you'd actually looked pretty assured, like a driver was a
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: little bit more experienced than he was. But no points
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: was the story for a helping And let's talk about
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: Jack doing here. How did your set his weekend look.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: The first lap in those conditions, I mean, Isaac Kadja
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: didn't make the start, Carlos Signs crashed before the first
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: lap had finished. You had a four hundred and one
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: race Veterani Fernando a lot So throwing it at the fence.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: It was one of those sorts of days. And so
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: you can give Jack a pass to a degree for
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: what happened on the first lap. I thought generally on
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: track he looked pretty assured. The margins and the comparison
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: to Gasley was pretty favorable, probably better than maybe we
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: were expecting. Across the sessions and through qualifying, he's qualifying
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: got ruined by a yellow flag on his best lap
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: in the last sector. I think what was more impressive
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: for me was he knew what the narrative was going
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: to be coming into this weekend with all of the
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: Colopinto stuff, and he's at home and all the pressure.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: I thought he handled that incredibly well. He was assertive
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: without being overly punchy and aggressive about it, but he
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: also wasn't just going to sit back and cop it either.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: He was very much on the front foot. He used
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: that classic set of Australian humor, let's to diffuse a situation.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: There are a few earnest questions being peppered at him
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: in the Thursday pre race press conference. I thought you
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: handled that incredibly well. I think if there was any
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: other narrative than perhaps this guy's a dead man walking
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: with this five race deal or whatever it might be,
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: we'd look at his weekend very, very differently. I thought
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: he handled the weekend pretty well. I think the gap
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: between he and Ghastly would give Alpine pause for thought,
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: because perhaps it was better than they were expecting it
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: was a perfectly dependable I'm going to say debut, even
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: though it wasn't his first race of his second, but
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: really starting a first full season under that microscope. I
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: actually thought he had a pretty decent weekend and they
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: should be pretty optimistic with Yeah.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: I've been a big advocate of his raw speed because
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: that was clear enough to qualifying. He did do a
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: little bit better than I expected because he was ahead
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: of Ghastly until those yellow flags, so quite a lot
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: of pace there. And you do hope that if Alpin
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: is considering turfing him later, that this is giving them
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a moment to think that, actually,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: the guy that invested so much money over the last
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: few years, maybe he's worth a bit of a crack.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: Racing Bulls in ninth place in the constructors Championship again
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: another team that looked like there could have been a
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: point or two, particularly in the rain considering where Yuki
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: Snoda started, but also Isaac Hadja having qualified eleventh, the
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: fastest of the rookies. I guess this doesn't he hasn't
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: had He hasn't started his first race, has it? The
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: statistics books will show zero starts. I believe. So maybe
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: his debut wasn't a write off because it technically hasn't
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: happened yet, but a lot I think actually to be
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: excited about for this team, considering their testing performance looked
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: pretty unremarkable, but this weekend in the dry and qualifying
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: and even wow, the WED is a little bit harder
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: to read, I suppose, but Yuki Sonoda probably could have
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: scored point said strategy for and more of his favor.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: This team looks more together than I expected.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, much more so. I thought Sonoda was clearly the
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: second best Rebel back driver over the course of the
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: race weekend. And as we know, we'll never see Red
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: Bull's main team that's another story, but to my mind
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: he probably would have finished around where Hulkerberg was. I
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: thought that was probably like a seventh or eighth for
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: that team based on where they were in qualifying. He
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: was excellent the entire weekend. I think he's really matured
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: as a driver at a point where it's probably not
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: going to matter within that organization unfortunately. But to my mind,
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: they were the team that could be the most disappointed
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: of that other group leaving Melbourne because they probably should
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: have had some points as you mentioned, Haja was good
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: the entire weekend. We know that he's probably going to
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: be a bit spikier in terms of performance trajectory than
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: in the other rookies. I think the high points will
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: be very high. I think there'll be some races that
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: are not so great, or he'll do some things that
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: are a bit regrettable. Now, obviously what happened on Sunday
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: on the formation lap could happen to anybody, probably always
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: going to be happening to a rookie. I don't know
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: what you made of the scene as he came back
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: into the paddock and was consoled by Anthony Hamilton, who
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: is the father of Ajar's absolutely idol in Lewis Hamilton.
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: I thought that was a nice touch and showed the
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: compassion of a parent. I guess, you know, look looking
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: knowing how Haji must have been feeling at that time,
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure I quite subscribe to the helmet Marco
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: theory that I was just embarrassing and just dismiss at all.
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: There is a human element to this sport that's particular.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: Members of that team seem to have a look from
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: time to time. But I thought racing bulls had a
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: much better weekend than we were expecting and taking some
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: of the randomness out of the back end of the race.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: I thought Sonoda was one of the quiet underachievers of
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: the weekend.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, certainly don't subscribe to Helmet Marco's viewpoint there. I
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: thought that was on most things one most on most things,
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: I mean showings, a human emotion, a kind of what
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: makes sport. And so I'm glad we heard, you know,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: an unvarnished look at that, and you know he did
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: the classic keep your homet on. But that's that's part
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: of it. And also they'll have been at a minimum
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: massive adrenaline, adrenaline release or let down after crashing out
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: as you're going to the grid. I think it's all
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: pretty understandable. And yeah, you're right, I think it's I
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: think ironically, actually he's walked away from this race, maybe
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: with his reputation and expectations a little bit embellished, weirdly
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: enough because of the speed he is shown and because
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: I think it and that sort of reflects on the
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: fact that that formation lap accident was understandable, even if
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: it was a little bit unfortunate. And finally, let's talk
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: about half the team I didn't think would be attempting
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: to constructive standings no points. I mean, at this point
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: the constructive standings are kind of meeting this. But tenth
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: and last is also where this team seems to be
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: on pure pays. They did the same thing last year
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: we're in testing. They did no qualifying lap running and
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: they turned up to the first race and they were
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: reasonable and they had a pretty good year. Same strategy
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: this year has not delivered. Have shown no one lap
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: pace whatsoever. No race face admitted was in the wet.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: So maybe we give him a little bit of a
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: little bit of a leave pass on that respect. But
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: Oliver Bherman atrocious weekend v here haven't got about fourteen
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: laps in total before the race, did at least finish,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: but he finished had last. This is a little bit
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: concerning after such a good year for us, after so
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: much positivity last season. This feels like a real admittedly
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: on the basis of one race, but a real step backwards.
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: You probably should have paused for about a minute before
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: we started talking about hass because that's how far they
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: were behind everyone else relative to the forwards over the
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: Australian Grand pre weekend. It was slow, it was unreliable.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: Oliver Bherman, the man from Chelmsford, is he was probably
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: discussed on the coverage, managed to hit a lot of
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: stationary objects and wasn't very fast when he was on track.
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: We know that he's better than that because we saw it,
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: you know, those cameos that he made last season. But
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: it was alarming for me that, I mean, look, someone
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: has to be last as the place sport works. But
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: they were so nailed on last with absolutely nowhere to go.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: And you know, it's not like they're lacking in experience
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: with estebanoc On on the other car, but it just wasn't
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: capable of being in a position to even capitalize on
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: a bit of late race craziness. It was absolutely nowhere.
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: And you're right, I mean, they have had this plan
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: the last couple of years where we're not going to
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: chase performance runs in testing, going to make sure the
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: car's reliable, it's works well on heavy fuel, so and
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: so forth. You would hope for their sake that this
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: was a bit of an outlier because it started badly
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: and never got better at any point. They were completely
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: cast to drift off the back. Funnily enough, they probably
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: did have a little bit of a say in how
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: this race was run, as we discussed a little while
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: ago about McClaren saying, hold station while we're lapping these
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: cars because they're so slow and we don't know where
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: they're going to go. But man, they have got a
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: I don't know to my mind who I think the
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: ninth best team is based on Melbourne, because it was
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: a little conclusive and a bit of ratic. Whoever that
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: is halfs is a long long way behind them.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: Yes, and with approximately as you said, a million races
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: still to go, very long season for them in twenty
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: twenty five. Before we wrap this one up, mat of course,
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: we need to visit in with not only what's happened
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: in the last week of motor sport in terms of action,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: but also our predictions. Let's start with the move of
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: the week by Shannon's no shortage of motor racing over
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: the course of the weekends. It hasn't been too tricky
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: for us to pick some thing. Why don't you go first?
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: Well, the best bit I like about this is neither
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: of us have shared our answers beforehand, so we can
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: we can surprise one another. I go go back and
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: watch this, but I overtaken them over taken. The week
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: for me in Motor GP was it was the last lap.
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: It was Fabio de gen Antonio on Joanes Ziko for
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: fifth on the last lap in Argentina. Not because fifth
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: there's anything to write home about other than the fact
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: it did lock out the top five places in the race.
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: Fu Jucati, which is another story, but it was an
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: unbelievable move at turn eleven, big long left hand, you
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: basically can't pass there. It's that place where you would
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: only try to pass on the last lap. And the
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: best part about it was did Year afterwards said I
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: had to invent somehow the overtake and I want the
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: video of this overtake. So that was why he sent
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: it on the last lap, so he requested the video,
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: He got the video, he got the per finishing in
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: the top five, but underlighting Ducatti's dobbitt, it's with a
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: brilliant pass on the last lap. Although a Honda and
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: sixth place is not something we've said for a while,
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: so I don't think Johannes Zarko was too disappointed with that.
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: But that's my overtake of.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: The week anyway, I like, you know, I don't know
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: when exactly it took hold, but this the idea of
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: sending it to becoming overtaking parlance in other sport. I
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: like the idea that I've requested the video will be
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: the new You've gone for a big, gutsy overtake. I
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: requested the video and I got it.
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: I think that's very Yeah, he aimed high and I
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: hit the target.
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I also like, wasn't it only a week ago
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: that he described his shoulder as being at zero percent
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: after injury and was still declared victoration.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: Righter declared fit the greatest three words in Bodo GP.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: It's partially while we love it, it's like it'll be,
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: it'll be fine. One of my shoulders works. Nothing to
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: see here.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, look my pick I think was much more well,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know, it was much more straightfward. It was
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: certainly straightforward. It's something we've already mentioned. In fact, that
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: Oscar Piastri's move on Lewis Hamilton into the turn nineteen
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: she came laid in the races is, of course, after
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: Oscar had already spun off the track. He's podium dreams
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: were dashed. He'd gone to the back and was recovering admirably.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: I can't really think of the last time I saw
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: and move through there that wasn't on a back marker,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: although maybe you could argue the Ferraris were a little
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: bit backmarker vibe this weekend considering where they were relative
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: to McLaren. Certainly, certainly Oscar made the Ferrari look like
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: a different category of much lower category of car. But
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: I just liked that controlled anger that I think we
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: sort of talked about the way he was driving there.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: Not every driver can drive angrily, certainly, and every driver
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: can overtake their angrily such a clean clinical part. Of course,
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: he needed Hamilton to play ball there because he could
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: have so easily punted them both out of the race
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: and made his Ferrari debut even worse. But I mean
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: it took a lot of guts in the wet to
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: pull that off, and I just did superbly.
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: Well, that's very much one of those you can't pass
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: their corners, as one of those ones where if you
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: are the faster car, you set yourself up for the
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: rundown to turnal eleven and dive down the inside and
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: get it done there with a significantly less peril. But
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: I think final lap of the race, and as we
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: discussed before, a bit of a hometown red mist, he
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: was sending that and did it rather nicely. The point
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: you made about Hamilton is very true, because a less
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: experienced driver or maybe someone realizing, you know, I need
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: to give this guy some space. Yeah, and to be
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: fair to Pastri, there was no lock up, there was
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: nothing sideways, he wasn't on the curve, got it done
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: cleanly and clinically, I feel like it should have been
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: worth more than one extra point. It was pretty good, nonetheless.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: Worth more than just ninth place. Maybe a future I
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: wonder if that'll just give everyone a little bit of
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: a nudge to try it in the future. I think
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: that qulit end disastrously. Oh yeah, people were attempting at
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: nine to ten, But we'll wait and see. That's the
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: last week of racing as it was, But Matt, we
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: can't end without looking forward. Thanks to complete home filtration,
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: our crystal ball for the next week of motorsport. Much
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: quite a week this weekend of motorsport. But of course
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: you can look beyond that. The crystal ball has no
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: limits the crystal You can predict something for twenty twenty
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: eight if you really wanted to. So what are you
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: looking forward to? Crystal ball?
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: The way it's going to get. The moment will Mark
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: makes lose a race before twenty thirty eight, I think
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: I'm going to go down that path.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: But look not so good, oh man.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: The next week of Motor GP, of course, is where
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: we go to the Circuit of the Americas in Texas,
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: where he's quite good. You may have heard over the
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: course of time, so I could say, look, Marquees is
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: going to keep this unbeaten streak for twenty twenty five
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: going at Coja, But that would be the most lame
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: prediction of all time. So what I'm going to predict
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: is Ducati won't lock out the podium in Texas, which
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: is they've been doing for fun basically in every race
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: and sprint so far this year. I think we're going
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: to see an Aprillia on the podium there, and I
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: think it's going to be Marco Bidzeki, simply because I
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: think he's leading the charge there at the moment with
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: Juge Martine still being out injured, and lets we forget
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: Aprillia won a race. They won both races at Coja
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: last year with Maverick Vignalez. That was the last Grand
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: Prix Ducati did not win. That's nineteen some days ago,
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: almost a full calendar year. So it's about time we
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: had this streak of Decati podium lockouts end. And I'm
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: saying it's going to be Buzeki at Cota.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: Well, it would be spectacular because you're also means you well,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: I mean you're necessarily predicting Mark Marque is not going
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: to have things all his own way, are you, But
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: it's not going to be one hundred percent Caddy, which
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: would be very impressive. So you're going to have Mark Marquez,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: Alex Marquez and then a brilliant.
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: Correct Well, actually no, I think I think the Berzekie
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: could actually split the Marquess boys. Alex Marquez isn't brilliant
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: around Coda as much as he's been a new rider
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: this year. But picking against anyone other than Mark Marquez
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: at Cota most years are silly, and this year is
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: even sillier.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: Well, I look forward to seeing it. I could have gone,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: you know, the popular choice for this weekend's Chinese grand
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: friends said, you know Oscar's going to avenge the disappointment.
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: It's going to win the race, going to show us
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: the championships on I still think that will probably happen,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: but that's just not what I'm going to predict. I'm
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: going to say that Ferrari's start of the season is
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: going to get a little bit worse before it gets better.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: I think this is a bit of a longer term fix.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to say who. I'm going to say
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: one of them is going to be knocked out lowly
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: in Q two. I think it's not going to be
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: a double Q three, so even worse than they're doing.
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: I know it's very middle of the road prediction now
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: I think about it, but it will be dire because
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: this is Ferrari. Don't forget saying that it was Friday
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: practice that was indicative of their pace. Of course, when
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: Charlottelair topped Friday practice and not the low qualifying and
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: the race results, I think there's a little way to
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: go on this Ferrari. I I thought it was interesting
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: that after the race that you know, often on a
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: Sunday when the team's you know, made a mistake on Saturday,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: I don't say it at the time, but by Sunday
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: night they say, ah, look, we know we did this
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: wrong this X and Y, and they didn't ever really
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: say that, So I think that there's a little bit
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: more for them to discover before this season gets going well.
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: And also we've got a sprint weekend too, so Friday
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: practice singular, there's only going to be one of them,
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: so we're straight into sprint qualifying on Friday, So the
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: time for that team to cure whatever ills it had
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: on Sunday at Albert Park is pretty limited this weekend,
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: so I don't mind that prediction at all.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: That's all the time we have for pit Talk today.
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: You can subscribe to Pittalk wherever you get your favorite
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: podcasts and leave us a rating and review as well,
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: and you can keep up to date with all the
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: latestef one Supercars and motosup news, and there was a
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: lot of that over the weekend at Fox sports dot
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: com dot AU from Matt Clayton and me, Michael Lomonado.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: Thanks very much for your company and we'll be back
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: next week.