Latest / Pit Talk / Shannons Round Up: McLaren's Hungary Drama, MotoGP 5-rider Title Fight + EXCLUSIVE Interviews with Matt Payne & Joel Kelso | Pit Talk

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Shannons Round Up: McLaren's Hungary Drama, MotoGP 5-rider Title Fight + EXCLUSIVE Interviews with Matt Payne & Joel Kelso | Pit Talk · Pit Talk

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Lando Norris is finally back on top for the first
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: time as a world champion. Mark Marquez reminded everyone why
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Saxon Ring is his kingdom, and the Supercars Championship has.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: A brand new points leader.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Shannon's Roundup, your home for everything happening across
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: the world of motorsport, and this episode of Pittook is
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: brought to you by Shannon's Insurance. I'm your host, Rinita Vmullen.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Joining me is the man who's fluent in Formula one
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: team radio, Michael Lamonado, and of course our guru who's
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: probably got Mark Marquez's Saxon Ring stats are memorized by
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: heart Matt Clayton. Fellas, it's been a while since we've
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: caught up and we have got a lot to discuss.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: But let's start with Formula one.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Because positive on one side, Lando Norris on the top
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: step and heartbreak on the other side of McLaren with
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Oscar Piastre. What are the chances of a back marker,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: blue flags waving and that collision happening, right, Michael, Like
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: that hasn't happened for so long enough?
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: One it is very rare.
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: I mean I always think back to Estebanokh and Max
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: Forstafan in the map will know the year of it.
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: Is it twenty eighteen? I want to say maybe twenty
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: eighteen Brazilian.
• 1:17
  Speaker 5: Grand Prix eighteen. Yeah, yep.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: I feel very pleased to.
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: Have got a start off right off the bat, but
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: that it is, it's obviously unusual. It did take some
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: weird circumstances. There was a blue flag system problem, but
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: it's also clear and the steward said that Carlo Signs
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: ignored a warning from his engineer, ignored all the blue
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: lights by the track, deserved a penalty, in my opinion,
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: probably deserved the full penalty, not awarded down one, but
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: nonetheless heartbreak four Oscar Piastre on a weekend when he
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: could have scored what would have been a really gritty,
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: defensive victory because he clearly didn't have Lando Norris's pace.
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: That's sort of the negative takeaway from the Piastre perspective,
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: I guess, other than not finishing the race obviously with
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: the gearbox problem. But a big weekend for McLaren because
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: that's if you want to take away the positive, and
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: not only for Piastre but for the sport well another team.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: That's won a race.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: That's three constructors that have won so far from that,
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: and I mean we've talked a lot about it on
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: the F one podcast, haven't we. I feel like there
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: I still have many trust issues with saying anyone else
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: other than Mercedes can win regularly. But McLaren made a
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: bid for the status of victory contender.
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: For this weekend.
• 2:22
  Speaker 6: Yes, And this is where it sort of follows in
• 2:24
  Speaker 6: with the way the season has gone so far, as
• 2:26
  Speaker 6: if you bring a significant uptrack upgrade to a racetrack,
• 2:29
  Speaker 6: you get immediate dividends and then these things will ebb
• 2:32
  Speaker 6: and flow depending on who brings the next update. And
• 2:35
  Speaker 6: so the only predictable thing about this really unpredictable season
• 2:38
  Speaker 6: is you know, bring a lot of upgrades, you instantly
• 2:41
  Speaker 6: get payoff for it. And you do wonder what this
• 2:43
  Speaker 6: does for the shape of the rest of the season,
• 2:46
  Speaker 6: because there's a finite limit to how much you can update, right,
• 2:49
  Speaker 6: I mean, there's the cost cap for starters, and you
• 2:51
  Speaker 6: can only keep improving to a certain degree. I think
• 2:54
  Speaker 6: what it does show us is that we're eleven rounds
• 2:57
  Speaker 6: in and I still feel that even Mercedes to a degree,
• 3:00
  Speaker 6: we still don't really know what this formula is like
• 3:04
  Speaker 6: because these engines are so complicated. I think the teams
• 3:07
  Speaker 6: are learning very much on the fly still, and the.
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: Rate of that learning.
• 3:11
  Speaker 6: You go back to Australia at the start of the year,
• 3:12
  Speaker 6: which feels like about eleven years ago, the percentage that
• 3:16
  Speaker 6: we're learning round by round is going down, but we're
• 3:18
  Speaker 6: still learning. We're still nowhere knee and knowing the real
• 3:21
  Speaker 6: form guide here. So yes, Mercedes is the one constant.
• 3:25
  Speaker 6: Strangely enough, they did have probably their least competitive weekend
• 3:28
  Speaker 6: of the year in Hungary when we have to crunch
• 3:29
  Speaker 6: the numbers for that. But this really does evan flow
• 3:32
  Speaker 6: depending on who's bringing updates. So maybe the thing we
• 3:35
  Speaker 6: should be looking at is not necessarily the points table.
• 3:37
  Speaker 6: It's what's the upgrade schedule like for these top four teams, who's.
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: Bringing what and when?
• 3:43
  Speaker 6: And will there come a point in the remaining eleven
• 3:45
  Speaker 6: twelve insert However, Mani Grand Prixs, we've got left where
• 3:50
  Speaker 6: that percentage gain almost sort of goes back to zero
• 3:52
  Speaker 6: and we just have a normal World championship, Because right
• 3:54
  Speaker 6: now this feels anything but normal, doesn't it.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: It feels like we're waiting for the last roll of
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: the dice, and I keep thinking there's going to be
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: a race in the second half of the year. Singapore
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: keeps coming to mind. Watch your wife early in the
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: flyaway rounds, where the big upgrades stop and you'll kind
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: of be locked in. I guess from the championship perspective,
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: you need to hope that it stops when it's all
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: very even and close, like it has been for maybe
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: the last three or four rounds, rather than going back
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: to the start of the year. And Mercedes has teased
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: this idea that they might have one big upgrade still
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: coming this year that may take us back to that
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: start of the season. Don't know where ferraris. We know
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: they've front loaded. Rebel racing is a bit of a
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: mystery from week to week. In fact, now we know
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: even when the car is really bad, Max for stapping
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: a silf inny second. It's really difficult to read, but
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: a good sign for McLaren, I thought.
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know if you.
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: Were poised to hear the phrase over the weekend as well, Matt,
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: because it feels like this happens every time we come
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: to Hungary, that a McLaren is always competitive, and that's
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: another asterisk on whether or not McLaren's is going to
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: be leading to this championship now because they've always been
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: very competitive yet and Norris has always been very good here.
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: But there's always this tension between the drivers at this
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: weekend and between the drivers and the way the team
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: is managing them this weekend, and this is the first
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: time we've seen it this year because McLaren has never
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: really been close to the front in this way this season.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: But there are a couple of those same questions bubbling
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: to the four as well, how McLaren wants to manage
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: its drivers, because there was a period of time there
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: where the win did look like it was at risk,
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: perhaps from Lewis Hamilton, perhaps from Maximstaff and wasn't in
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: the end, but when Piastre was in the lead and
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: the slower car, you can almost feel the tension.
• 5:28
  Speaker 6: Yeah, completely. I mean, in a year of so much
• 5:30
  Speaker 6: uncertainty and so many things we don't know, it was
• 5:32
  Speaker 6: nice to feel a bit of comfort. Oh, I've seen
• 5:34
  Speaker 6: this is all very familiar. It's like settling back into
• 5:37
  Speaker 6: an old armchair or something. But it was interesting and
• 5:39
  Speaker 6: I do wonder the undercurrent of this year relative to
• 5:43
  Speaker 6: last year or even the year before that is because
• 5:46
  Speaker 6: we'd got to Hungary in the past two years and
• 5:48
  Speaker 6: McLaren had been winning races and they had been very good.
• 5:50
  Speaker 6: This was really I mean, you can say Miami to
• 5:53
  Speaker 6: a degree, but this was the first chance. It looked
• 5:55
  Speaker 6: like McLaren were, oh, yeah, this is the team to
• 5:57
  Speaker 6: beat this weekend. So they were taneously out of practice
• 6:01
  Speaker 6: and reverting to old habits at the same time in
• 6:03
  Speaker 6: that they were back winning Grand Prix again, and there
• 6:05
  Speaker 6: was this inevitable tension. But I think, as you mentioned before,
• 6:08
  Speaker 6: they're historically good there. There's something about the way races
• 6:12
  Speaker 6: unfold at that particular racetrack because it is it's a
• 6:16
  Speaker 6: difficult circuit in which to pass, and it always turns
• 6:18
  Speaker 6: into a very strategic race there. It's just the way
• 6:21
  Speaker 6: that races tend to play out. And you remember in
• 6:24
  Speaker 6: previous years they McClaren were falling over themselves to try
• 6:27
  Speaker 6: and be completely fair to both drivers and so on
• 6:29
  Speaker 6: and so forth. And I think it's just the nature
• 6:32
  Speaker 6: of the strategic battle that Hungary races tend to throw
• 6:34
  Speaker 6: up that we do inevitably lead to some sort of
• 6:37
  Speaker 6: teammate tension. But I think you hit it off the
• 6:39
  Speaker 6: top there. This isn't one of those situations where the lazy,
• 6:43
  Speaker 6: sort of Australian analogy here is, oh Piastre got screwed.
• 6:45
  Speaker 5: Over by his team again.
• 6:46
  Speaker 6: It was all terrible Papaya rules, blah blah blah. Piastre
• 6:50
  Speaker 6: inherited the lead because his teammate made a mistake on
• 6:52
  Speaker 6: the first lap, and as you said, he would have
• 6:55
  Speaker 6: if he had a converted that to victory, it would
• 6:57
  Speaker 6: have been a master class in defensive driving on a weekend.
• 7:00
  Speaker 6: He just wasn't quite at the level. Because maybe the
• 7:03
  Speaker 6: more scary thing I thought Norris's pace advantage over everyone,
• 7:07
  Speaker 6: including his own teammate was massive over the course of
• 7:10
  Speaker 6: the weekend. It felt like it would have been wrong
• 7:12
  Speaker 6: if any other driver had won that race, such was
• 7:14
  Speaker 6: his pace advantage. So it was nice that Piastre was
• 7:17
  Speaker 6: in the conversation to win it, But perhaps more alarming
• 7:19
  Speaker 6: was I thought that Norris was demonstrably the better McClaren
• 7:23
  Speaker 6: driver over the course of the weekend. And that's not
• 7:25
  Speaker 6: a great feeling to take into the mid season break,
• 7:27
  Speaker 6: is it.
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah? And I know, before we move on to some
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: of the other subjects. The Piicastri thing is something we've
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: been thinking a bit about this week. There's a done
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: an analysis on the Fox Sports website. You can go
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: back and have a look at it. But what's affecting
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: him this season? Because I think on the one hand,
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: there's been a lot of hand ringing or hyper ventilating
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: in some sections of the media about why has it
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: all fallen off a cliff for Piastre. I mean, we
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: talked maybe a month or two ago now about Nico.
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: Rosberg and jacqu Ville were saying he was completely anonymous,
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: which is a bit of an exaggeration. But I think
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: what's interesting is that when there's been weekends where he's
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: on par with Norris, there have been Somebodyagins has been quicker.
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: It was only a few weeks ago, about a month ago,
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: that he was comfortably better in Austria. He's had a
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: bit of a messier run since them, in part because
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: of pace, in part because of circumstances. But when he's
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: behind Norris is behind by a lot. When he's in
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: head he's winning by comfortably enough, but not dominating Norris
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: by any respect. That's very different from last year where
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: they'll constantly pretty close one or two outlies in either direction.
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: It feels like there is a degree now having a
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: sumple size of eleven Grand Prix of these rules maybe
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: taking away some of his strengths and playing into some
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: of his weaknesses. And it's important to remember, and you
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: can go and read this that the stats between them
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: are not that significant. In fact, they're pretty similar to
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: last year halfway through this year, so it's not as
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: if he's been totally blown away, but it does feel
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: you know, Norris's that qualified in five Grand Prix in
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: a row. Now it feels like, as this car has
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: got a little bit better, it's become increasingly one sided.
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: And that for me, is going to be the interesting
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: question for the second half of the year. In a
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: weird mirror image of last season, this is when Norris
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: started to put things together and had a really great
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: second half of the year. Is that Piastre story this
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: year that he's really got his head his head down
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: and understand what's not working with him in the car
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: to bounce back and have a very strong ending to
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: the season.
• 9:06
  Speaker 6: So what you're saying is there'll be a race in
• 9:07
  Speaker 6: the back half of the year where McLaren asked on
• 9:09
  Speaker 6: us to move over and let Piastre through because he'd
• 9:11
  Speaker 6: had a dodgy pit stop, and then Piastre comes through
• 9:13
  Speaker 6: wins the championship.
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: It's all fantastic.
• 9:15
  Speaker 6: It's interesting in that you mentioned the stats aren't dissimilar,
• 9:19
  Speaker 6: but they don't back up the eye test. For me,
• 9:21
  Speaker 6: the eye test and the smell test. If you're like
• 9:23
  Speaker 6: at the moment, I watch qualifying and just expect Piastre
• 9:26
  Speaker 6: to be on the third row, that's kind of where
• 9:28
  Speaker 6: I see him at the moment I hear is he's
• 9:29
  Speaker 6: P six, he's P seven, wherever it is. It feels
• 9:32
  Speaker 6: like a continuation of the back end of last year,
• 9:35
  Speaker 6: but with the caveat that it's a completely different car
• 9:37
  Speaker 6: and a completely different set of rules. So I'm conflicted
• 9:41
  Speaker 6: between what the numbers tell me and what my eyes
• 9:43
  Speaker 6: are telling me at the moment. And I think also
• 9:45
  Speaker 6: because we've talked about how schizophrenic this is, World Championship
• 9:47
  Speaker 6: is at the moment with teams finding huge slabs of
• 9:50
  Speaker 6: performance seemingly race by race and then settling back as
• 9:53
  Speaker 6: someone else springs a huge upgrade. So you know, we
• 9:57
  Speaker 6: still do have half or even slightly more than half
• 10:00
  Speaker 6: pray for your sleeping habits for the rest of the
• 10:01
  Speaker 6: year still to go, So it's a it's a TBC
• 10:04
  Speaker 6: for me, there's non a definitive trend, but it is
• 10:07
  Speaker 6: interesting because until you look at the stats and you
• 10:10
  Speaker 6: remind yourself of them, they to me are in contrast
• 10:14
  Speaker 6: with the itess because right now he definitely feels like
• 10:16
  Speaker 6: he is the second best McLaren driver, and the stats
• 10:19
  Speaker 6: will indicate that, but not by the degree that your
• 10:22
  Speaker 6: eyes are telling you at the moment.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: What about Kimmi and to Nelly, just to change the
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: subject of McLaren And for Oscar Piastri, he's kind of
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: been a surprise, especially this weekend, because it's this little
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: stealth Italian that's sitting at the back and it seems
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: like this consistency is key mentality that's just coming in
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: for him because extending the points lead we're seeing now
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: on two nineteen ahead of Lewis Hamilton who's in second
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: on one sixty nine, that's quite a significant points lead
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: that he's got so early in the championship. Is this
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: like what he's thinking, you know, even if you can't
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: win and just limit the damage and claim those points
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: when we're you can, Michael, I think.
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: There's the I mean we've talked a lot about it
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: already because it's been so clear, but the maturity anton
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: Ali's had this year is I think what's starting to
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: make the difference here. The big test for me, and
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: we talked about this last week, was rebounding from that
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: run of three races where he wasn't scoring a lot
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: of points, mostly not through his fault, but where it
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: just felt like, oh, the momentum studded, now, like how's
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: he going to rebuild?
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: And he did.
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: He went out and as easily quick as to get
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: there's no no moment at which you felt like he
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: was handing some of that ascendency back to Russell. And
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: it's been interesting to hear Mercedes talk about, you know,
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: when he gets out of the car he's had a
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: difficult practice session. Inevitably it's not more than one difficult
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: practice session, or he had some of those difficult races
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: that his response really was, well, you know, it's motorsports.
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: Sometimes things don't work. And I thought that was also
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: very interesting, Matt, because he was saying those things after
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: he'd had that second you know, Silverston when the car
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: had a failure. That kind of evened out the good
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: luck bad luck story with Russell question marks about whether
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: or that swung back up it doesn't really matter. But
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: then if you compare Russell's responses to having had by
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: that point the same amount of bad luck, it was
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: very much, almost word for word, well woe is me.
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: No driver's ever been more unlucky in the history words,
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: all that kind of stuff. And while you haven't necessarily
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: seen that translate to his performances on track, it's also
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: true to say he's consistently just been beaten by Antonelli anyway.
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: So I think there is to go back to your
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: point where that the consistency is in this It almost
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: feels like it's built into him now. He's got the
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: right mental attitude. We haven't seen him under pressure, you know,
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: the lead shrinking down to one point and it's all
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: falling apart. But he's only doing what he can with
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: the cards he's been dealt with. He's got a really
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: great car, he can win pretty much every weekend, and
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: he's doing it.
• 12:34
  Speaker 6: And if you read the quotes of each of the
• 12:37
  Speaker 6: drivers and you before the season started, the way Antonelli
• 12:41
  Speaker 6: speaks is the way you would expect the senior, more
• 12:44
  Speaker 6: wise and battle hardened Formula one veteran to speak. If
• 12:47
  Speaker 6: what Antonelli was saying was coming out of George Russell's
• 12:50
  Speaker 6: mouth and the other way around, this would make a
• 12:52
  Speaker 6: lot more sense.
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: And you do wonder.
• 12:54
  Speaker 6: I mean, Antonelli is playing from a position of advantage here,
• 12:56
  Speaker 6: which we know about and that's been the case from
• 12:58
  Speaker 6: day one. But you also get the sense that you
• 13:01
  Speaker 6: do forget that he's so young still, but he has
• 13:05
  Speaker 6: found the way to deal with the inevitable ebbs and
• 13:08
  Speaker 6: flows of this and the contrast by with the way
• 13:12
  Speaker 6: that Russell is doing now. Russell, for the first time
• 13:13
  Speaker 6: in his career, has got a car that can win
• 13:15
  Speaker 6: a world championship. So is Antonelli. But this is where
• 13:18
  Speaker 6: Antonelli's lack of experience actually helps, because there's not this
• 13:21
  Speaker 6: residual build up of all of these years of not
• 13:24
  Speaker 6: quite having the machinery and then finally you've got it
• 13:26
  Speaker 6: and this kid comes in and he's just absolutely giving
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: it to me and this sister car. That's the difficult
• 13:31
  Speaker 6: part of this for Russell, and so much of this,
• 13:33
  Speaker 6: as you know, is played between the years. Right everyone
• 13:36
  Speaker 6: is expecting Antonelli to act like a nineteen year old
• 13:38
  Speaker 6: and right now he's not. And that's almost the key
• 13:41
  Speaker 6: part of this entire championship in that, yes, you are
• 13:44
  Speaker 6: going to have bad days, you're going to have fantastic days.
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: But to quote one of.
• 13:48
  Speaker 6: My three truisms that I bore him under tears with
• 13:50
  Speaker 6: on this podcast all the time, is you win a
• 13:52
  Speaker 6: championship on your worst days. And Hungary never felt like
• 13:55
  Speaker 6: a weekend that he was factoring in for a win.
• 13:58
  Speaker 6: Yet he ends up popping up on the poe. He
• 14:00
  Speaker 6: outscores his teammates again, and this still shapes as being
• 14:04
  Speaker 6: a one team, two driver battle really for the championship.
• 14:08
  Speaker 6: Ferrari kind of feel like a bit of an outlier
• 14:10
  Speaker 6: to a degree. So to get to this midpoint of
• 14:12
  Speaker 6: the season and Nanson ally has a gap this big
• 14:14
  Speaker 6: over his teammate is enormously significant and it reveals things
• 14:19
  Speaker 6: about both drivers. I'm not sure Russell has handled the
• 14:22
  Speaker 6: first part of this season brilliantly, but I think you
• 14:24
  Speaker 6: look at Antonelli and the progress he's make year on year,
• 14:26
  Speaker 6: it's kind of astonishing that he's halfway through his second season,
• 14:29
  Speaker 6: because he's certainly not behaving like that right now.
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: I've just had a thought and Matt tell me if
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: this is too much of an analogy, but we've not
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: the first time we would have talked, but we've would
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: have likened this year's championship battle to last year's title battle,
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: because there are some similar dynamics to them in the
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: sense pretty much a one team champions of all that
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: kind of stuff, bit of youth, bit of inexperience in
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: the mix, more extreme this year. But thinking to that
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: idea of aid waiting for Antonellly to have that rough
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: race and recover from it. Hungry could have been that weekend,
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: couldn't have it because we didn't have the advantage in
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: qual he got a penalty in qualifying, end up starting
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: behind Russell. We couldn't really say Russell's in a moment
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: of building his momentum, really, but you know he could
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: at any moment, I guess theoretically get good again. This
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: felt like the weekend and a track where it's difficult
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: to pass, where he could have overdriven and really messed
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: it up, and he didn't. Ended up on the podium,
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: has walked away with a greater chap championship lead. Does
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: this remind you in any way of Azerbaijan last year
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: where Piastre was proper from memory quicker in qualifying. He
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: was reasonably competitive qualifying quicker than Norris who had a
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: pretty ordinary weekend there. Russell lesson even but had that
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: grid penalty or started further back because he crashed out
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: in Q three overdrove the first lap out of the
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: race on the first lap, precipitated the decline that lost
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: in the championship three or four races later. This almost
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: feels like what could have happened, but absolutely at no
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: point seemed a risk of happening.
• 15:51
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it was one of those potential crossroads moments because
• 15:54
  Speaker 6: you know what the narrative would have been had it
• 15:56
  Speaker 6: have gone the other way. Well, he's a teenager, first chance,
• 16:00
  Speaker 6: a bit of pressure, Look what happened to him, and
• 16:01
  Speaker 6: so on and so forth. Now that may well present
• 16:04
  Speaker 6: itself through these remaining ten eleven, twelve. I wish I
• 16:06
  Speaker 6: do you have any rounds they were left rest of
• 16:09
  Speaker 6: the season rounds that may yet present itself again. But
• 16:13
  Speaker 6: that's one of those ones that's a test that he
• 16:15
  Speaker 6: almost needed to pass. If that makes sense. It's almost
• 16:18
  Speaker 6: like a right of passage for a young driver like that.
• 16:20
  Speaker 6: There are a lot of potential trip wires in Hungary
• 16:23
  Speaker 6: and to come out of that with an advantage over
• 16:25
  Speaker 6: the driver that's probably your greatest championship rival with half
• 16:28
  Speaker 6: the season to go. I think that says a lot
• 16:30
  Speaker 6: about how far he's come.
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: Now.
• 16:32
  Speaker 6: There will be other tests, it's just the way this
• 16:33
  Speaker 6: is going to go. There will be a weekend where
• 16:36
  Speaker 6: he might have a technical failure, or he could shunt
• 16:38
  Speaker 6: him Q one or whatever it might be. But this
• 16:41
  Speaker 6: gives me more confidence that when those situations arise, he's
• 16:45
  Speaker 6: going to handle them with the wisdom and maturity of
• 16:48
  Speaker 6: someone far beyond his years. And I think the Pastri
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: example is very instructive because we look back at last
• 16:53
  Speaker 6: year and everyone just at well backers. The weekend that
• 16:55
  Speaker 6: will started getting wobbly Hungary was a chance that could
• 16:58
  Speaker 6: happen for Antonelli, but it didn't happen. May happen in
• 17:00
  Speaker 6: the future. But in terms of passing that first test,
• 17:02
  Speaker 6: he passed it with flying colors.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: What about Ferrari this weekend, guys, because it seems like
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: you know some points but a lot of head scratching
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: a lot of questions, Lewis Hamilton questioning the team's lead
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: strategy call, and then the penalty of speeding in pit lane.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Just to add a little bit of salt to the
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: wound there, Matt, Ferrari their own biggest enemy right now.
• 17:27
  Speaker 6: I have literally given up attempting to predict what Ferrari
• 17:29
  Speaker 6: are going to do, because at tracks where we think
• 17:31
  Speaker 6: they're going to be no good, they're good, and attracks
• 17:33
  Speaker 6: where we think they're going to be, oh, here we go,
• 17:35
  Speaker 6: like Hungary was one. Michael and I have been talking
• 17:38
  Speaker 6: about this for weeks, like, Okay, Hungary is going to
• 17:40
  Speaker 6: be a Ferrari track. Watch this, this is where it's
• 17:42
  Speaker 6: going to happen. And they were just kind of a
• 17:44
  Speaker 6: bit like anonymous, like you're over writing memories of Hungary
• 17:48
  Speaker 6: for Ferrari is penalties for Lewis Hamilton, max fistap and
• 17:51
  Speaker 6: putting one of the great moves of the season on
• 17:53
  Speaker 6: Lewis Hamilton down at the first corner and then just
• 17:55
  Speaker 6: being a bit irrelevant. Really they kind of weren't there,
• 17:59
  Speaker 6: And so the trend of the season and that whatever
• 18:03
  Speaker 6: you think Ferrari are going to do, they're probably going
• 18:05
  Speaker 6: to do the opposite. I guess that held up over
• 18:06
  Speaker 6: the course of the weekend, but I'm still I don't
• 18:09
  Speaker 6: know about you, Michael, but they're the team to me
• 18:11
  Speaker 6: that I have still the least read on because I
• 18:14
  Speaker 6: think we know what.
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: Red Bull are now.
• 18:16
  Speaker 6: Maximstaff is just going to man handle it and not
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: particularly good car into places it's.
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: Not supposed to be Ferrari.
• 18:21
  Speaker 6: I'm still left scratching my head more often than not
• 18:25
  Speaker 6: with them, simply because Hungary was one of those races
• 18:28
  Speaker 6: we thought, all right, we're finally going to find out
• 18:29
  Speaker 6: whether Ferrari are a legit championship contender, and they did
• 18:32
  Speaker 6: not look like that at all.
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it would have been different if, you know, Norris
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: had still won because as we mentioned, yeah, I'm just
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: other worldly pace on Sunday for whatever did the teams
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: didn't expect. But at Ferrari come home second and third,
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: you'd say, well, that was one of those weird twenty
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: twenty six things, but we got the most out of it,
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: and they would have outscored Mercedes by quite a lot. Instead,
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: they outscored Mercedes by one point and happens outscored by Antonelli.
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: Absurd i think what's what is frustrating concerning for this
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: championship challenge is that it's executional problems still at Ferrari.
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: And this is something that was meant to have been
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: solved two seasons ago when they almost won the Constructor's
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: title against McLaren, because that seemed like something that actually
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: got good at that year, and then last year it
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: was all about the car was no good last year regulations.
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: In retrospect, we can forgive it, although at the time
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: it seemed really bad. But when they got a car
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: again this year was like, okay, well, over the last
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: couple of years, they've put all the pieces back together.
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: Everything's working as it should be. But we get to
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: this weekend where everything should click and you should score
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: a lot of points and you're probably not going to
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: get another goal as wide open as this with Mercedes
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: Son competitive, and they totally flop and like you say,
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: you know, it's silver I mean they won one of
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: the two races that were meant to be the worst
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: tracks possible at Silverston, finished a very close second in Spa.
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: I mean, what are they meant to do with that?
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: I don't I actually don't know what the debrief is
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: going into this into this mid season break for them
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: other than obviously we need to get slicker, but they
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: do they even understand what's going on with the car
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: because it almost feels like they don't really. I don't
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: know if it's complacency, because it feels like that's the
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: number one thing that that Vasa is trying to not
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: have in the team every week, no matter what happens.
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: He says, this weekend doesn't define anything. We can't act
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: like that gether it's good or bad. But there's clearly
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: something in there that just when everything looks like it
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: should be going to getting together inevitably the team besides
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: well actually maybe not today, guys, But.
• 20:21
  Speaker 6: Don't you like every time there's a Ferrari radio message
• 20:24
  Speaker 6: about to be broadcast and you see the logo come
• 20:26
  Speaker 6: up or you see a Ferrari come into the pitch,
• 20:28
  Speaker 6: you kind of like brace yourselves, like, all right, is
• 20:30
  Speaker 6: this actually going to work? Because every pit stop, when
• 20:33
  Speaker 6: they get out the end of it and it isn't
• 20:34
  Speaker 6: a complete calamity, you're like, oh, they got through that,
• 20:36
  Speaker 6: that's great, or they made the right strategy call. Whereas
• 20:39
  Speaker 6: every single time with you have more trust with other
• 20:41
  Speaker 6: teams other than just McLaren bickering with one another on
• 20:44
  Speaker 6: the radio. But with Ferrari, you're like, oh, thank god,
• 20:46
  Speaker 6: that works then, and we shouldn't be doing that and
• 20:48
  Speaker 6: lived rounds into the season, should we?
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: Well, I think that speaks to it, isn't it. There's
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: still something for that team to prove that isn't just performance.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: Everyone has to.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: Prove they've got the performance to win the Tible, but
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: you've also got to prove we got the execution. Yeah,
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: haven't for years. That's what they need to come out of, Like,
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: are they're gonna win races this year? They also have
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: to win races by more than just pure pace, you know.
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: I think that's you got to see that because they're
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: not going to be able to do it. They're like,
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: it's going to be Barcelona every week in the second
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: half of the year where they just turn up and
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: the cars is going to blow overy on away. There's
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: gonna be a lot more races where it's very close,
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: and they've got to win them by being better than
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: the other teams on the pitwall, and they just hasn't
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: felt like that all season.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Kind of leads me into my next question. Which I
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: was going to ask you guys, you know, summer breaks
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: here before they head to zen fought, who needs to
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: be working on things? But it sounds like it's just
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Ferrari and just missing all those puzzle pieces to kind
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: of bring that full package together. It seems like all
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: the stars just have to align right for them to
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: be in that moment, right, Yeah, I.
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: Think just to run through this quickly. Ferrari's obviously got
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: some work to do, but at least they've got, you know,
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: to use a Lewis Hamilton phrase, I guess they've got
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: the North Star. He's seen a lot of North Stars
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: in his career in the last few years. Not all
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: of them have been true North, I guess. But the
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: car is there, right, they know the car is in
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: the ballpark. If they can just pull it together, they
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: can do it. And they've won races, you know, even
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: harder if they got to this point of the season
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: they hadn't won yet, especially if McLaren had pipped them
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: to being the first non Mercedes team to win.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: But they've got that.
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: McLaren clearly feels like it's got its direction now just
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: needs to keep developing and it has more upgrade packages
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: coming in in the next couple of races after the break. Mercedes,
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: we already know they just need to be good enough
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: and they're going to win the time. They just need
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: to go out and keep doing what they're doing. For me,
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: the big question mark Madden, we may as well wrap
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: up by talking about a team we haven't yet is
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: Red Bull Racing, because there's no consistency there in any respect.
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: I can't think of a single thing which they're consistent
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: of than Verstappen complaining about the car. You know, this
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: weekend he seemed genuinely stunned, not just to make a
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: point a rhetorical point about it, genuinely stunned have got
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: out the car and seeing that he was second there
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: just doesn't seem like. I don't even want to say
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: there are no positives at Red Bull because at the
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: moment Verstappen hasn't left the team and that's pretty positive.
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: But I don't know what they've got out of this
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: first half of the seat, and I'm not confident of
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: where they're going in the second half of the season either.
• 23:04
  Speaker 6: But this is the blessing and the curse of employing
• 23:06
  Speaker 6: the best Formula One driver on the grid right, because
• 23:08
  Speaker 6: he papers over so many cracks in that you do,
• 23:12
  Speaker 6: you know, just substitute average Formula One driver whoever in
• 23:16
  Speaker 6: the seat next to Isaac Kadja. We're an earth of
• 23:19
  Speaker 6: Red Bull in the first half of this season, and
• 23:21
  Speaker 6: so you know, Hungary is a classic case in point.
• 23:23
  Speaker 6: He was genuinely astonished that he finished second because he's
• 23:26
  Speaker 6: spent the whole race talk about how bad the car was,
• 23:28
  Speaker 6: and it didn't look great, it didn't look great, it
• 23:30
  Speaker 6: didn't feel great the entire weekend. Yet this is why
• 23:33
  Speaker 6: he's both a blessing and a curse, because he's the
• 23:36
  Speaker 6: ultimate difference maker on the grid. But are you getting
• 23:38
  Speaker 6: a true representative picture of exactly where Red Bull is
• 23:41
  Speaker 6: right now? Because he is so good at papering over
• 23:43
  Speaker 6: the cracks, we don't know necessarily where they truly sit
• 23:47
  Speaker 6: because they have an alien in one of their seats.
• 23:49
  Speaker 6: And that's kind of the rub with employing someone like him.
• 23:53
  Speaker 6: Not that you wish driver market chaos for your fingers
• 23:55
  Speaker 6: quite frankly, Michael, but you would love to see another
• 23:58
  Speaker 6: driver in that car because it would you'd actually feel
• 24:01
  Speaker 6: if you had two normal inverted Commas driver drivers in
• 24:04
  Speaker 6: that car, you would say, Okay, so that's where these
• 24:06
  Speaker 6: guys I understand this. Now he's both a blessing and
• 24:10
  Speaker 6: a curse. Amazing result when you consider the thing just
• 24:12
  Speaker 6: did not look great. But yeah, for him to get
• 24:15
  Speaker 6: to the mid season of the midpoint of a Formula
• 24:18
  Speaker 6: One season without a race win and it's hard to
• 24:21
  Speaker 6: find a roadmap for him to have won this year,
• 24:23
  Speaker 6: that's perhaps the biggest story leading into the second half,
• 24:25
  Speaker 6: isn't it.
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah? I think so.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: I mean, Verstappen is going to be the story until
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: we know for certain he's staying, it's going to continue
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: to be the story because even if he does stay,
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: You can't you don't, are you? Well, you might be surprised,
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: I guess, but you don't get the sense the car
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: is going to get to a stage this year where
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: he stops down talking it either, So that's going to
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: continue to be its own story. And then even if
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: it doesn't happen this year, because it almost feels like
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: the driver markets moving to quite a stale conclusion despite
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: so many drivers being up up for a mule this year,
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: but it very quickly becomes about next season because we
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: know more front running drivers are out of contract next year,
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: and he obviously wants to be in that mix, so
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: I think it's something that's just gonna me it's going
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: to continue for the rest of the year. Also, just
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: having probably the greatest driver out there, just being in
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: not a condition to win any weekend is just not
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: It's frustrating for him, frustrating for all his fans, frustrating
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: for the sport. I think I'm gonna Commandy you the
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: hosting nowther and move things on before we get to
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: Moto GPA. I do want to considering Formula one was
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: the only category in action at the weekend go to
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: Move of the Week, which is brought to you by Shannon's.
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: There were some moves at Hungry and I do think
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: this was Matt one of the tracks where we didn't
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: get so many silly overtakes. I don't know if that's
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: like way how we described them now. I did like,
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: this isn't my move of the week because I've thrown
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: the odds first. But you may have seen on social media.
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: I'm not sure if it's a this race of the
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: previous one that Max one Move of the month or
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: something like that for a past he made on to
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: wes Hampton a couple of weeks ago and he was
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: asked by the Formula One presenter to talk through it,
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: and his answer was, well, I pressed the boost button
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: and I got more power and I passed them and
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: they cut him off and they stopped from describing to it.
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: So that's one of the silly overtakes.
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: There weren't too many of them, Luckily and Hungry, But
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: which are you going to choose for it?
• 25:57
  Speaker 6: No, Hungary felt like a real Formula One race and
• 26:00
  Speaker 6: that wasn't just people doing drive bys on each other.
• 26:03
  Speaker 6: But as regular listeners to this podcast, thank you for
• 26:06
  Speaker 6: your patronage, will know how I tend to deal with
• 26:09
  Speaker 6: move of the Week. I'm going to talk about move
• 26:11
  Speaker 6: of the week when we move a Grand Prix six
• 26:13
  Speaker 6: thousand kilometers across the globe and still call it the
• 26:18
  Speaker 6: same Grand Prix. So, in case you haven't caught up
• 26:20
  Speaker 6: with this, the bar Rain Grand Prix will be held
• 26:22
  Speaker 6: in Malaysia, which is in qual which is about six
• 26:25
  Speaker 6: thousand k's away. So I'm going to put it to
• 26:27
  Speaker 6: you that if we have the Australian Grand Prix at Albert
• 26:29
  Speaker 6: Park held in Singapore, that is the same geographic distance.
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: So that is the.
• 26:34
  Speaker 6: Traversing of the globe that we are talking about here.
• 26:37
  Speaker 6: Move of the Week is moving a Grand Prix six
• 26:40
  Speaker 6: thousand kilometers across the globe and it retaining its name.
• 26:44
  Speaker 6: So now the bar Rain Grand Prix will be held
• 26:46
  Speaker 6: at Sepang in Kuala Lomport in October. And I did
• 26:49
  Speaker 6: read a staut earlier in the week that if Lewis
• 26:51
  Speaker 6: Hamilton takes pole position, he'll hold the record for pole
• 26:53
  Speaker 6: positions at both the Barrain Grand Prix and Sepang International
• 26:57
  Speaker 6: Circuit because he's going to do two simultaneously. So I
• 27:01
  Speaker 6: look forward to you picking the eyes out of that
• 27:03
  Speaker 6: one from a status perspective. But Move of the Weeks season,
• 27:06
  Speaker 6: that's just funny. I knew you'd enjoy this, the utter
• 27:11
  Speaker 6: stupidity of moving a race from one side of the
• 27:13
  Speaker 6: world to the other and the other and keeping it
• 27:15
  Speaker 6: its same name. So I look forward to the Australian
• 27:17
  Speaker 6: Grand Prix in Singapore next year and that is my best.
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: There was a friend of mine reminded me that during
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: the pandemic, I think it was Peter windsor the story
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: for me to one journalist, Yes, well, you know we
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: can't host races anywhere. We're not allowed in any country.
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: Why don't we just have every Grand Prix name but
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: at the same track and that way we've had twenty
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: Grand Prix whatever it is. So the Australian Grand Prix
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: at Silveston, the Monico Grand Friend Silveston, so on, wherever
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: you would have been allowed to rat.
• 27:41
  Speaker 5: Sounds like a sky Sports dream, Michael, Yes, I mean.
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: That would be obviously hopefully wouldn't have been there. But
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: it feels like they for it. I don't know why
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: they couldn't have just sponsored the race, which they literally
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: seem to me that's why, because they're paying for it,
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: right because the thing and you've touched on the thing.
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: It's breaking by brain already is the idea that you know,
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: Oscar piastre it He'll have won back to back bah
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: Rain Grand Prix despite that, not like that.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: Doesn't that shouldn't be allowed to happen.
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I just think it's upset that and I think
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: that given you know, I think the naming convention needs
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: to be standardized. Every Grand Prix should have the country
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: it's in at the end of it. So I think
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: the next race, which is the Dutch Grand Prix should
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: be the Dutch Grand Prix in the Netherlands, and then
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: after that we should have the Italian Grand Prix in
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: Italy until we get to the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: So I it is the move. It's a big move
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: of the week. It's a very big vie.
• 28:31
  Speaker 6: The Australian Grand Prixs in Australia are always my favorite
• 28:33
  Speaker 6: Australian Grand.
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: Prix, better ones I think tend to be the best ones.
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: There by the way, I've been thinking about it a
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: lot since it was announced. I'm gonna also if he's
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: not off track. We also have already mentioned the great
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: this what probably should be the on track move of
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: the week for Staffen's double pass to pass Hamilton during
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: the race was just a great moment of the staff
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: and magic, despite him also about the car afterwards. But
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: my move of the week is going to be somewhat
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: of track. Actually it's aston Martin turning up with a
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: car that was embarrassing. A move of the week worth
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: around about a second lap for one upgrade package. This
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: is just part one of three plus an engine which
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: they're testing on Wednesday in the Hungaro Ring and that'll
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: be officially on the car for the Dutch Grand Prix
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: in the Netherlands after the break.
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: What a big step forward.
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: We talked about it a little bit last week, didn't
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: we that there's a lot of pressure on this upgrade
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: because it was all about this and if it didn't
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: work or what was the point of the Probably at
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: this point billions of dollars spent on this team.
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: But it did work.
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: Fernando Alonzo got into Q two for the first time
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: this year, was racing other cars, including Carla Science. During
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: the Grand Prix, Lance Strohl was also there. In fact,
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: he did finish ahead of Fernando Alonso, mostly for strategy reasons.
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: But this looked finally, I mean, I.
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: Know we should put in perspective they were still in
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: three seconds off the whole, but considering where they were,
• 29:53
  Speaker 4: very big step forward and suddenly this team feels like
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: they're not suffering every second of every day.
• 30:00
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 30:00
  Speaker 6: Yeah, they were significantly less rubbish, which is a high
• 30:03
  Speaker 6: praise for Aston Martin in twenty twenty six. I also
• 30:05
  Speaker 6: just wonder, by the way, do you know who Aston
• 30:07
  Speaker 6: Martin's team principle is?
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: I think I heard him for the first time this weekend,
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: first time news to Formula One Adrian.
• 30:16
  Speaker 6: Newey SA Adrian Newey interesting because I think it's the
• 30:19
  Speaker 6: first time there's been any quotes attributed to him in
• 30:22
  Speaker 6: an Aston Martin press release the entire year, and it
• 30:25
  Speaker 6: just so happened to coincide with a weekend where they
• 30:27
  Speaker 6: were actually not absolutely diabolical.
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: So welcome to Formula One, Adrian Newey. Nice to have you.
• 30:32
  Speaker 6: I'm not sure where you've been hiding all year, but
• 30:34
  Speaker 6: it's lovely to hear from you, and a good sign
• 30:36
  Speaker 6: for Aston Martin if the team principle is actually quoted
• 30:39
  Speaker 6: in the team's press releases.
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: But there you go.
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: Yes, So a good weekend. Things starting, but it's starting
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: to feel more like a normal Formula One team, but
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: we'll see from tests at least for the next couple
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: of Grand Prix. Okay, let's going to Motor GP because
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: they're also in their mid season break a little bit
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: further along the road between racing isn't too far away.
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: We've got Juge Martin leading the championship, but Matt this
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: is the closest top five of the championship standings in
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: the Moto GP Era Great piece by you on the
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: Fox Sports website picking the numbers out of this one.
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: What's gone into making this one so close? And is
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: the momentum still despite the typing margins here still with
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: Marquez considering how far behind he's come from in the
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: last month or so, or is it really just to
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: open so open?
• 31:22
  Speaker 6: I mean, so the stat is that there's five riders
• 31:25
  Speaker 6: within one Grand Prix race win of top spot in
• 31:27
  Speaker 6: the championship after eleven rounds. It's the closest top five
• 31:30
  Speaker 6: there's ever been after eleven rounds since the category became
• 31:33
  Speaker 6: Motor GP twenty two.
• 31:35
  Speaker 5: Thousand and two.
• 31:36
  Speaker 6: Rather so it's crazy to think you've got Martine Igura, Marquez,
• 31:40
  Speaker 6: Marco Betzeki and Fabio de jan Antonio or within twenty
• 31:44
  Speaker 6: four points of the series lead. And I mean you've
• 31:46
  Speaker 6: seen this in four wheels and not throw to you
• 31:48
  Speaker 6: to sec Granta for your thoughts on this, but I
• 31:50
  Speaker 6: think part of this is you get to the end
• 31:53
  Speaker 6: of a regulation set. We know that Motor GPS moving
• 31:55
  Speaker 6: to the eight fifty cc formula next year. When you
• 31:58
  Speaker 6: get to a really sure rule set, everyone kind of
• 32:01
  Speaker 6: converges on the same ways to go fast and we
• 32:04
  Speaker 6: see this in seasons where there's a big rule reset
• 32:08
  Speaker 6: on the horizon, and you get these really even seasons
• 32:10
  Speaker 6: where the championships do go down to the wire with
• 32:12
  Speaker 6: multiple multiple players.
• 32:15
  Speaker 5: So there's a little part of that.
• 32:16
  Speaker 6: I think the Marquees story is significant because we know
• 32:20
  Speaker 6: he competed in the first few races of the season
• 32:22
  Speaker 6: where he was coming back from injury and then had
• 32:24
  Speaker 6: this and brace yourselves, the bent metal work in his
• 32:27
  Speaker 6: shoulder that was causing his radial nerve to lose feeling
• 32:30
  Speaker 6: and causing him to have a few crashes. The fact
• 32:33
  Speaker 6: he was one hundred and two points off the series
• 32:35
  Speaker 6: leave four rounds ago and he's right back in the
• 32:37
  Speaker 6: mix is the most Mark Marquez thing of all time.
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: But I think what we're.
• 32:40
  Speaker 6: Seeing is that Aprulia and Ducati have very deep rider
• 32:45
  Speaker 6: cause they're clearly a step ahead of everybody else, and
• 32:48
  Speaker 6: so the differences between them are so marginal. The great
• 32:53
  Speaker 6: part for me, Ronita and all of this is that
• 32:55
  Speaker 6: you've got the guy who's the sport's best rider still
• 32:58
  Speaker 6: in Mark Marquees. He's on the second best of these
• 33:01
  Speaker 6: two bikes. I think the Aprillia is the bike of
• 33:03
  Speaker 6: twenty twenty six. So you put the greatest rider but
• 33:06
  Speaker 6: not on the greatest bike. You wonder how much Marcus
• 33:09
  Speaker 6: would be leading the chairpionship by if he was on
• 33:10
  Speaker 6: at a Prillier. But the best thing about this is,
• 33:13
  Speaker 6: I don't know about you. This feels so so hard
• 33:15
  Speaker 6: to call with the obvious caveat that. Well, Mark's been
• 33:19
  Speaker 6: there and done that, and he should be the favorite,
• 33:20
  Speaker 6: but he's one injury away from this thing being completely
• 33:23
  Speaker 6: wide open.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: I think one hundred percent.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: I think this year has shown has shown multiple things.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: The first one, don't trust the word Mark Marcus says
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: in any interview, any press conference, anything, because he'll be like,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: I'm totally healthy, and then yeah, just go and get
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: some metal cut out of his arm the next week.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: But I think also it's the fact that Aprilia are
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: showing that you know.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: They put all their eggs in their basket with Jorge Martin.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: We know what happened there. Then it came over to
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Marco Betzeki. But then there's just been track House in
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: the background, and we've seen this whole like working together,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: this this momentum that they've built, and all of a sudden,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: let's do the stealth instead.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: Of the stealth Italian. We've got the stealth Japanese writer.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Of Ayagura who just had to kind of get qualify
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: and get his mindset around some things.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: Now he knows all the tracks on a Moto GP bike.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: We're seeing him put all those puzzle pieces together, and
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: he's the one who's really that consistency showing.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: It's like the Kimi Antonelli right now in Moroto GP.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: He only had one race win, but the fact that
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: he's had that one race win, once you get that done,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: you know you can do it again. And I think
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: he's the one now who's starting to play with Mark
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Marquez's mentality. We see it in the green room before
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: they head onto the podium, and we clipped it up
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: for Socials where it was a.
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: Bruno was so hot in Bruno.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: You guys, it was like nearly forty degrees and it's
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: like really still there and Peco and Mark are just sweating.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: They're red in the face, and I agree, it's just
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: cool as a cucumber. He's used to those conditions. And
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: you can see a Mark like why are you not struggling?
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: Why are you're not looking like us right now? So
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: you have that you have Digia, who is obviously doing
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: the best that he can being at the VR forty six. Okay,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: Saxon Ring wasn't the results he wanted. We know he
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: had that new arrow package upgrade as well. And then
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: there's Bez who since the Marshalls slap, since the colar
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: bone incident, he's just.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: A little bit struggling.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: So if these little puzzle pieces, if the momentum can
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: start to get back in there, I don't think Mark's
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: going to be able to just run away with it
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: like everyone expected. If you go back to Thailand at
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: the beginning of the season, I'm pretty sure, Matt you
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: might have said.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: It as well. Mark Marcus is gonna win the championship.
• 35:46
  Speaker 6: Me and lots and lots of other people figured it
• 35:48
  Speaker 6: was just going to be a bit of a rerun
• 35:50
  Speaker 6: of twenty twenty five, and that's what makes this season. Well,
• 35:53
  Speaker 6: there's two things for me from here, Michael four throw
• 35:55
  Speaker 6: back to you. It is so tight at the halfway mark.
• 35:59
  Speaker 6: The other fact that we haven't mentioned here is because
• 36:01
  Speaker 6: we'll get into it in a sect, the rider market
• 36:03
  Speaker 6: has been so chaotic. Of those five riders we're talking about,
• 36:06
  Speaker 6: within twenty four points of the series lead. Three of
• 36:09
  Speaker 6: them are off to new manufacturers next year, and particularly
• 36:12
  Speaker 6: in Martin and Agura's sake, they're clearly off to a
• 36:15
  Speaker 6: demonstrably worse manufacturer right now. So not only are they
• 36:19
  Speaker 6: in with a chance to win the championship, this might
• 36:21
  Speaker 6: be their best chance for the foreseeable future. So that
• 36:24
  Speaker 6: adds a layer of pressure because it's not like, well,
• 36:27
  Speaker 6: I can just reset and have a crack at this
• 36:28
  Speaker 6: next year. Yes, twenty twenty seven is a clean sheet
• 36:31
  Speaker 6: of paper to a degree, but Yamaha is coming from
• 36:35
  Speaker 6: so far back that it might be the good choice
• 36:38
  Speaker 6: for the future. But to imagine that Jege, Martin or
• 36:40
  Speaker 6: Ayagua is going to be in the championship fight next year,
• 36:43
  Speaker 6: that's a massive stretch for me. So you've got to
• 36:46
  Speaker 6: really strike while the iron's hot here. And that adds
• 36:48
  Speaker 6: an extra layer of complexity to the second half of
• 36:50
  Speaker 6: the season because it's not like there's no tomorrow for
• 36:53
  Speaker 6: some of these guys, but tomorrow might take a long
• 36:55
  Speaker 6: time to come, and that's going to just add an
• 36:57
  Speaker 6: extra little factor that might play into Marcus's hands to
• 37:01
  Speaker 6: a degree, because Mark is the seven time Moto GP
• 37:04
  Speaker 6: champion who is one of the few that is staying
• 37:06
  Speaker 6: with his current manufacturer for next year, so he has continuity,
• 37:10
  Speaker 6: he has championship experience, and he's the one everyone's afraid of,
• 37:13
  Speaker 6: and you do wonder how much that's going to play
• 37:15
  Speaker 6: a factor for the rest of the year.
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: Let's look at the writer market now, because in the
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: last was it been month, maybe the last couple of weeks,
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: most of those announcements that were all sort of written
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: down somewhere in him away while the off track negotiations
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: were happening have been announced. We've got a pretty good
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: idea of the shape or a pretty good confirmed idea.
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: I guess the pretty good idea has been there for
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: a long time of the shape of the twenty twenty
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: seven Moto GP grid. You've talked about some of the
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: writers who are staying, the ones that are going. They're
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: the sort of the interesting question mark, where are we
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: out in that process of announcements? What are we waiting
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: to see? And I guess what's the considering We've had
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: quite a while to think about it. I suppose what
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: is the biggest move to your mind that we've had
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: confirmed so far?
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: Wait, Matt, Wait, Matt.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: Matt, Matt, Matt, are you surprised about Fabio going to Honda?
• 38:01
  Speaker 5: What shot? Who saw that coming up?
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: Sorry, I had to get that in there because it
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: was like all these rumors all year and then all
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, it's like, oh.
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: My god, Faby is finally going red. Sorry. Matt continued, I.
• 38:16
  Speaker 6: Don't think I've written a sentence more this year than
• 38:19
  Speaker 6: when you say so and so moving to such and
• 38:21
  Speaker 6: such Comma. Once the teams and the promoters thrash out
• 38:23
  Speaker 6: a deal for the run the series for the next five.
• 38:25
  Speaker 5: Years, Comma.
• 38:26
  Speaker 6: So now that's been you know, obviously we've got that.
• 38:28
  Speaker 6: We've got that confirmed in Bruno on the Friday at Bruno,
• 38:32
  Speaker 6: so I worked it out. I think there's been eleven
• 38:33
  Speaker 6: rider signings in thirty one days or writer confirmations in
• 38:37
  Speaker 6: thirty one days, which is completely insane. As far as
• 38:40
  Speaker 6: what's the biggest move, I mean, my god, a Marquez
• 38:44
  Speaker 6: Acosta super team together at Dakashi that is. I mean,
• 38:48
  Speaker 6: if you want to see what that's going to look like,
• 38:49
  Speaker 6: go and watch the opening sprint of the year again
• 38:51
  Speaker 6: in Thailand, where those two just tall lumps off each
• 38:54
  Speaker 6: other for half an hour, which was unbelievably good TV.
• 38:58
  Speaker 6: And you've got, you know, the old and the young pretender,
• 39:01
  Speaker 6: and no one's going to want to give an inch
• 39:02
  Speaker 6: and who has the ascendency within that garage. And it's
• 39:06
  Speaker 6: so so interesting that Jacadi has gone down this all
• 39:08
  Speaker 6: Spanish route as well, whereas the Aprilia team seem to
• 39:11
  Speaker 6: be going more for Italian riders for an Italian team.
• 39:14
  Speaker 6: But that's another story. But look, there's so many there's
• 39:17
  Speaker 6: so many interesting pairings that because we're embroider in this
• 39:20
  Speaker 6: championship fight right now, we need to almost step back
• 39:23
  Speaker 6: and have a look at, you know, things like Juan
• 39:25
  Speaker 6: Mia getting out of crashing a Hondo every five minutes
• 39:28
  Speaker 6: to go to Grassini as satellite team where perhaps there's
• 39:30
  Speaker 6: less pressure and perhaps a better bike, and is that
• 39:32
  Speaker 6: going to be a good move for him. There's some
• 39:35
  Speaker 6: rookies coming through that I think will be really interesting.
• 39:37
  Speaker 6: It's a good rookie corps that we've not seen for
• 39:39
  Speaker 6: a while. But I don't know about you, Anita, but
• 39:41
  Speaker 6: to me, the Marquez Acosta one is the biggest headline
• 39:45
  Speaker 6: of all of them. But going back to what I
• 39:48
  Speaker 6: was saying before about Juje Martin, the fact that he's
• 39:51
  Speaker 6: leading this World championship and on a bike that it
• 39:55
  Speaker 6: feels like he's been desperate to not ride for the
• 39:57
  Speaker 6: best part of two years and he's got his big payday.
• 40:00
  Speaker 6: He's going to Yamaha next year, But knowing how impatient
• 40:03
  Speaker 6: he tends to be, how's that going to work? Because
• 40:05
  Speaker 6: I feel that, you know, Honda might be ready for
• 40:08
  Speaker 6: a writer of Kasurero's caliber, I'm not sure Yabaha is
• 40:11
  Speaker 6: ready for a writer of Martine's caliber right now, And
• 40:14
  Speaker 6: so how that plays out, and given his impatience for
• 40:18
  Speaker 6: results on a good day, how's that going to work?
• 40:20
  Speaker 6: Because that, to me feels like the most volatile of
• 40:23
  Speaker 6: all of these.
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: One hundred percent.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you look at how Fabio has been
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: acting this year as well, I feel like for Factory Yamaha,
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: it's like this is almost a preview of what you're
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: going to expect on one side of the garage, and
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: then you have Ayagura, who is Japanese going into a
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: Japanese manufacturer on the other side, who we know barely
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: says two words. I don't know what he's like as
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: a development writer or giving feedback. I don't know that
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: side of him, but I think it's a very Yin
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: and Yang dynamic. And for Yamaha, I think they're going
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: to have their work cut out for them with Joorge Martin,
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: but they obviously believe in him and him as a writer,
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: and we've seen what he can do. He's he's a
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: world champion. But then, like you said, Factory Ju Caddie,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: if Pedro a Costa was on a working KTM this year,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: he would be up in that top five in the
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: points for sure, one hundred percent because he is one
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: of the aliens that we have in Moto GP right now.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: So to see him against Mark Marquez, I think this
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: is gonna be like a.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: Once in a generation. We're gonna go back.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: To like a like a Lorenzo Rossy situation where it's
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: just the two teammates they're battling it. It's gonna be
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: the drama, it's gonna be what we are after. But
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: I'm also so excited for a certain rookie, a mister
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: David Alonzo to step up into Moto GP. That is phenomenal.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: So we know he's signed with Yamaha, but we don't
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: know where he's going to be yet, so it was
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: announced that Fabria had signed with Factory Honda. Wait did
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: I say, yamha, Sorry, he's gone Honda Factory Honda. But
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: David Alonzo's signed with Honda, but we'd no. So now
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: there's all these rumors happening where it could be Diogo
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: Morrera steps up as Fabio's teammate and then they'll slot
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: David into LCR. But then there's also roomors about the
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: other way around. So once we find out where that
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: is and where he gets slotted into, I'm really curious
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: to see how that plays out because he is also
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: one of those talents that we've been talking about him
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: since the Moto three days and to see him step
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: up into Moto GP is just going to be phenomenal.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: And then you've got.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: Alex and Digia going off to KTM, to a whole
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: different manufacturer as well, so the writer market is changing.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: Twenty twenty seven is just going to be one of
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: those years where it's it's everybody in new colors, it's
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: new bikes, it's so much change, and I'm so excited
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: for it.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: But twenty twenty six isn't over.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and this championship is heating up and I'm still
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: so excited for the rest of this year.
• 42:49
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, let's move on a little bit now because
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: we've talked a lot about MOOGP, but let's talk about
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: some of the lower categories Moto three where Joel Kelso
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: of course is plying and really you caught up with
• 43:01
  Speaker 4: him during this mid season break.
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: What did you have to say?
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: It was really interesting talking to Joel watching him this year.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: You know, we follow Joel's career from when he stepped
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: into the World Championship and we'd call him a veteran
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: now in Moto III and watching him as he's progressed through,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: He's really matured, and that's something that I mentioned to
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: him in the interview, and the fact that he stepped
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: into a new team and a new role almost as
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: a development writer. But he's still chasing his Moto three
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: victories himself. So his mental aspect is really what caught
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: me off guard. But take a listen to this interview
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: that I had with Joel and hear about how his
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: thinks his seasons progressed this year with the Grid m
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: Lab team at Honda.
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: Joel Kelso, welcome back to Fox Sports.
• 43:46
  Speaker 8: Hey, you going good? Good. Thank you for having me on.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean you're not in Europe at the moment
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: because it's the Moto GP summer break, so you are
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: back in beautiful Melbourne. How is it being home for
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: the summer break? Should we say it quotes?
• 44:01
  Speaker 9: Yeah, well, I keep saying that it's not really a
• 44:04
  Speaker 9: summer break, is it. It's a winter break here in Australia.
• 44:06
  Speaker 8: But no, Melbourn's good. It was good last week.
• 44:10
  Speaker 9: This week's a bit iffy for the weather, but we're
• 44:14
  Speaker 9: still getting a good amount of training in so I
• 44:16
  Speaker 9: can't complain.
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: Let's touch on your season so far, so we know
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: we caught up earlier in the year.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: It's been a new team and new challenge for you
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six and looking at your results in
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: what you've been able to achieve, it's been phenomenal. But
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: how do you think the season's been so far because
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: we're eleven rounds in out of twenty two, so it's
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: still a long way to go.
• 44:37
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 44:37
  Speaker 9: Well, like you said, it's been a big change, and
• 44:40
  Speaker 9: I think obviously the season has been good so far,
• 44:44
  Speaker 9: but we're still looking for that podium so far this
• 44:47
  Speaker 9: year on the Honda, so I think until we get that,
• 44:49
  Speaker 9: it's not going to be let's say success in my one,
• 44:53
  Speaker 9: but it's definitely a success in the step we made
• 44:56
  Speaker 9: with the team changing manufacturer everything. I didn't really really
• 45:00
  Speaker 9: expect the step to be so different between the KDM
• 45:04
  Speaker 9: and the Honda. But I think also been five or
• 45:08
  Speaker 9: six years on the KDM and then after going to
• 45:10
  Speaker 9: the Honda's probably normal that there's such a big step,
• 45:15
  Speaker 9: But overall, like we've put it together now for one lapse,
• 45:19
  Speaker 9: so we're back to where we were a little bit
• 45:22
  Speaker 9: on the KDM where we could get some front rows
• 45:24
  Speaker 9: and stuff, and now it's about putting it together in
• 45:27
  Speaker 9: the race. I think we've made some big steps like
• 45:30
  Speaker 9: in terms of that, but we're still missing a little
• 45:33
  Speaker 9: bit in the terms of making sure we can get
• 45:37
  Speaker 9: out of the corner just as good as we are
• 45:38
  Speaker 9: into the corner, because that's probably the issue where we're
• 45:42
  Speaker 9: struggling the most at the moment. But like come to
• 45:45
  Speaker 9: tracks where it suits the more the writing style and
• 45:48
  Speaker 9: you can use advantage of the Honda. We're they're fighting
• 45:51
  Speaker 9: for the podium like in Migello. So I think now
• 45:55
  Speaker 9: the area to work on is when the tracks aren't
• 45:58
  Speaker 9: like let's say, suited for the Honda style, to make
• 46:02
  Speaker 9: sure we can still get the maximumut of the result.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: As someone who, like for the listeners who might not
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: understand when you're talking about the different manufacturers and how
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: much of a change is what areas or what are
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: you working on for those points that you said to
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: get that drive out of the corner, or to make
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: the bike rideable at a track that just doesn't seem
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: like it suits the Honda at all.
• 46:24
  Speaker 9: Yeah, well, there's a few things to it because last year,
• 46:27
  Speaker 9: obviously the team and Love was let's say struggling a
• 46:33
  Speaker 9: little bit for direction. So coming to the team there
• 46:37
  Speaker 9: was so much to learn for the team and also
• 46:40
  Speaker 9: for myself. So to understand exactly what the bike needs
• 46:43
  Speaker 9: is probably the hardest part, I think now. We at
• 46:50
  Speaker 9: the beginning of the year were struggling a lot with
• 46:51
  Speaker 9: the breaking zones. It's always been a thing that the
• 46:57
  Speaker 9: Honda guys say, but I didn't notice it, like as
• 47:01
  Speaker 9: in I noticed that the front end was actually quite good.
• 47:04
  Speaker 9: It was more actually getting it stopped when there's someone
• 47:07
  Speaker 9: in front, and that I didn't realize until we started
• 47:11
  Speaker 9: fighting out the front because obviously, like fighting from tenth downwards.
• 47:17
  Speaker 9: Like the first couple of races, you don't notice as
• 47:19
  Speaker 9: much the breakings. A lot easy overs take, especially with
• 47:23
  Speaker 9: you know, so many years experience. For myself, it's not
• 47:26
  Speaker 9: too much of a challenge the challenges when you get
• 47:29
  Speaker 9: into that top top seven and fighting for the podium,
• 47:32
  Speaker 9: that's where you know, breaking as late as possible it
• 47:35
  Speaker 9: starts to become a bit of an issue. But I
• 47:39
  Speaker 9: think in the overall schemes to put in an easy
• 47:42
  Speaker 9: way like ballots on example, for us, like all the Honders,
• 47:46
  Speaker 9: we're just like we're in a group of three Honders
• 47:50
  Speaker 9: for a seven or eighth position, like nothing special at all,
• 47:54
  Speaker 9: but we're all just struggling as much as each other us.
• 47:57
  Speaker 9: So I think the time twisty tracks, the tracks where
• 48:02
  Speaker 9: you've got to accelerate hard out of the first fear
• 48:04
  Speaker 9: corners is probably the part that we struggle the most
• 48:07
  Speaker 9: with the Honda. And then there's a really strong part
• 48:11
  Speaker 9: of the Honda though, which is the fast corners. The
• 48:13
  Speaker 9: fast corners feel really really good with the Honda. The
• 48:15
  Speaker 9: bike's really stable, the bike turns extremely well, like we've
• 48:19
  Speaker 9: seen him Agello, like most of my overtakes. Even when
• 48:22
  Speaker 9: I overtoke to the podium was on the inside of
• 48:26
  Speaker 9: in the middle of a corner, which is which is
• 48:28
  Speaker 9: a bit strange, let's say, especially coming from the KDM
• 48:30
  Speaker 9: where you never could do that. So there's definitely really
• 48:34
  Speaker 9: strong points of the Honda, and it's just about trying
• 48:36
  Speaker 9: to get the maximumt of strong points but then also
• 48:38
  Speaker 9: not losing us much in the weak points.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: It's so fascinating hearing you talk like this and the
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: development side, it is clearly you have your hands in
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: everything of what's happening within that GI grid grid and
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: Love Racing grid. Yeah, so how much of that development
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: are you working on because we're seeing the results from you,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: but we're also seeing your teammate Eddie o'sha, he's really
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: propelling as well and working on this bike behind the scenes,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: working with Michael Lovedy.
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: How much are you in with the development of this bike?
• 49:11
  Speaker 9: A lot the first probably nine races, I had to
• 49:15
  Speaker 9: take a lot of structure into it with helping also
• 49:19
  Speaker 9: get Eddie's bike to a good level because Edie didn't
• 49:24
  Speaker 9: have enough experience let's say, or didn't have the right
• 49:28
  Speaker 9: opportunity in the past, like two years to be able
• 49:30
  Speaker 9: to know what he needs on the Honda. So coming
• 49:34
  Speaker 9: from you know, fighting or getting podiums and stuff like that,
• 49:38
  Speaker 9: I knew exactly what we need on the bike to
• 49:40
  Speaker 9: be able to fight at the front. And it was
• 49:43
  Speaker 9: just about understanding which direction to take with the Honda,
• 49:45
  Speaker 9: which was the big change because a lot of like
• 49:49
  Speaker 9: setup changes and a lot of direction that we would
• 49:52
  Speaker 9: take with the KADM is actually the complete opposite with
• 49:54
  Speaker 9: the Honda. So once we figured that out and got
• 49:57
  Speaker 9: our head around that, we started to make some really
• 49:59
  Speaker 9: big steps forward, and we've seen that with myself and Eddie.
• 50:03
  Speaker 8: You know.
• 50:04
  Speaker 9: Also, I think for me and the team was really
• 50:07
  Speaker 9: important to keep helping Eddie achieve Q two spots, keep
• 50:14
  Speaker 9: being in the battle, you know, because he can learn
• 50:17
  Speaker 9: the most when he's more at the front, you know.
• 50:19
  Speaker 9: So getting through a good qualifying is an important part
• 50:23
  Speaker 9: for let's say, for me and Eddie as well, because
• 50:27
  Speaker 9: also my right so I was the same. I need
• 50:28
  Speaker 9: to qualify half decent, let's say, to be in it.
• 50:32
  Speaker 9: And even though that's not probably the natural way in
• 50:36
  Speaker 9: MO three, it's just what works for us. So I
• 50:40
  Speaker 9: think was important was making that and helping with the
• 50:44
  Speaker 9: direction for Eddie in terms of setup, but also the
• 50:47
  Speaker 9: way of writing and the writing style, about getting head
• 50:52
  Speaker 9: down as well, not just messing around. And you know
• 50:57
  Speaker 9: what the biggest thing to explain to Eddie was was about,
• 51:03
  Speaker 9: no matter what you got to like, if you don't
• 51:06
  Speaker 9: get the perfect slipstream, use opportunity you have even for yourself.
• 51:09
  Speaker 9: You know, if it means writing alone for that lap,
• 51:12
  Speaker 9: you know you might be able to get inside that
• 51:14
  Speaker 9: top top fifteen, top ten, which is nothing to write
• 51:17
  Speaker 9: home about.
• 51:18
  Speaker 8: But you can't always have a perfect day where.
• 51:20
  Speaker 9: You get a where you get a slipstream and can
• 51:23
  Speaker 9: make it a perfect lap.
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: It's so fascinating listening to you talk right now.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: It seems like this new challenge has really not only
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: strengthened you as a writer, but it seems like mentally
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: you're looking at everything slightly different. Do you feel like
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: you've you've almost grown once again as a Moto three
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: writer coming into this new challenge.
• 51:46
  Speaker 9: Yeah, one hundred percent for sure. I think like everything
• 51:50
  Speaker 9: always is adding up. I want to be the best
• 51:53
  Speaker 9: write a ken, but at the same time I want
• 51:55
  Speaker 9: to bring the team up.
• 51:56
  Speaker 8: That's what the challenge was about.
• 51:57
  Speaker 9: Coming to this team and going to Honda, which was
• 52:01
  Speaker 9: proving that we can make a competitive bike and a
• 52:05
  Speaker 9: competitive team from just the experience that we've had. So
• 52:10
  Speaker 9: for me, my big focus this year was making sure
• 52:12
  Speaker 9: that both of us, both bikes were at the front
• 52:15
  Speaker 9: fighting and we've done that and I'm pretty sure the
• 52:17
  Speaker 9: team's extremely happy with that, and yeah, they're excited to
• 52:22
  Speaker 9: see a fighting out the front end. It's cool to see,
• 52:24
  Speaker 9: like even when me and Eddie were both fighting for
• 52:28
  Speaker 9: the podium, and I think I led a couple apps
• 52:30
  Speaker 9: in Migello, like watching the video from the box, like
• 52:33
  Speaker 9: of all the bosses, all the stuff, just over the moon,
• 52:37
  Speaker 9: and I think that was really cool to see because
• 52:38
  Speaker 9: they've never been at the front in that position fighting
• 52:42
  Speaker 9: for a Motor three podium. So I think that was
• 52:45
  Speaker 9: probably a realistic, let's say moment where I was like, oh,
• 52:50
  Speaker 9: that's cool. You know, we'll bring the team to a
• 52:52
  Speaker 9: point where they can really enjoy the moment.
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: No, it is cool.
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: And what I love about em love and what we
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: see at home viewers watching on the screen is it
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: feels like a real family environment, like a real warm
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: welcoming and if anyone gets to experience it at the track.
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: It feels like that as well.
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: I think for you guys as writers, having that energy
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: and that vibe around must be really comforting for you
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: guys knowing, okay, they want us.
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: To do our best.
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: It's like pressure off your shoulders just to perform at
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: your best, to keep going right.
• 53:23
  Speaker 9: Yeah, one hundred percent for sure, without doubt. It's definitely
• 53:26
  Speaker 9: a family family or intended team, and I think there's
• 53:31
  Speaker 9: an element of which is what I was the first
• 53:34
  Speaker 9: thing to say was we need to be a family
• 53:37
  Speaker 9: or entended team, but we also need to count like
• 53:40
  Speaker 9: hold each other accountable.
• 53:41
  Speaker 8: So we need to make.
• 53:43
  Speaker 9: Sure that we're still working in a professional way, but
• 53:46
  Speaker 9: at the same time still making sure it feels like
• 53:48
  Speaker 9: a family. And I think we've actually done perfect do that.
• 53:50
  Speaker 9: Likely it's probably the point that we've been the strongest,
• 53:53
  Speaker 9: which is, you know, even in the races where we
• 53:55
  Speaker 9: don't achieve what we want to achieve or we don't
• 53:58
  Speaker 9: achieve the feeling with the bike, we're still all there
• 54:00
  Speaker 9: together and achieve it together. So we went and lose
• 54:03
  Speaker 9: together as a team, which is probably the most unordinary
• 54:06
  Speaker 9: thing in a team that I haven't had probably in
• 54:09
  Speaker 9: the past years. Let's say normally, you know, you have
• 54:12
  Speaker 9: one bad result in motiv or in World Championship, let's say,
• 54:16
  Speaker 9: and you know nothing to anyone anymore, and then the
• 54:21
  Speaker 9: next race you do a good result and everything to them.
• 54:24
  Speaker 9: So I think being that consistent, always supported by them
• 54:29
  Speaker 9: makes it so much easier to go to different races,
• 54:31
  Speaker 9: you know, like even from Magello to the next one,
• 54:34
  Speaker 9: they say, Okay, we know we're going to struggle in Baladam,
• 54:37
  Speaker 9: and then then they'll completely find that. You know, I started,
• 54:40
  Speaker 9: I was there with all the Hondas and I think
• 54:42
  Speaker 9: I finished second best Honda there. Then we went to
• 54:44
  Speaker 9: the next race in Arson, where we were top three
• 54:47
  Speaker 9: every single session going into the race, and like there.
• 54:51
  Speaker 8: Was no room for movement in emotions either.
• 54:55
  Speaker 9: It was just like a level, level head and just
• 54:58
  Speaker 9: taking it where it comes from. And I think that
• 55:01
  Speaker 9: was the biggest thing, and that's what's cool to work
• 55:03
  Speaker 9: with the team about.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: Let's look ahead to the second half of the year
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: because the next race coming up Silverstone, a couple more
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: in Europe and then the flyaways. What are you.
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: Guys working on.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: What's like the goal and the game plan heading into
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: the second half.
• 55:19
  Speaker 9: Well, the game plan now is to really start stepping
• 55:22
  Speaker 9: up into the second half of the year and trying
• 55:24
  Speaker 9: to get the bike on the podium, and that's going
• 55:26
  Speaker 9: to be our number one goal, which is just getting
• 55:28
  Speaker 9: the bike back like on the podium for the first time,
• 55:31
  Speaker 9: and for me to get back to the podium because
• 55:33
  Speaker 9: like I said to the guys, you know, definitely came
• 55:35
  Speaker 9: here for the development, but at the same time in ration,
• 55:38
  Speaker 9: I want to I want to get podiums and win races.
• 55:40
  Speaker 9: So we need to make sure that we achieve both
• 55:44
  Speaker 9: both our goals, you know, mine and also teams. So
• 55:48
  Speaker 9: the second half of the year is important for us
• 55:50
  Speaker 9: in getting on that podium and also making let's say,
• 55:54
  Speaker 9: I reckon we're about ten to fifteen to twenty percent
• 55:57
  Speaker 9: step away from getting that. I think we're not as
• 56:01
  Speaker 9: far as now it seems. I think England can actually
• 56:05
  Speaker 9: be quite a strong race for us because of the
• 56:08
  Speaker 9: style for the track as well. It really suits the
• 56:10
  Speaker 9: Honda with a fast and flowing nature, and also it's
• 56:14
  Speaker 9: quite wide so you can you can open up and
• 56:16
  Speaker 9: not have to accelerate and stand up the bike directly.
• 56:20
  Speaker 9: So I think England will be a good one for us.
• 56:24
  Speaker 9: Then I believe we're the next one after England. San
• 56:28
  Speaker 9: Marino sam Marina should be good as well.
• 56:32
  Speaker 8: I know.
• 56:33
  Speaker 9: Example, when we get to Austria, it's going to be
• 56:35
  Speaker 9: extremely difficult for us, and we already have that in mind,
• 56:37
  Speaker 9: so we mark off the tracks where it's going to
• 56:39
  Speaker 9: be difficult and that's a sow weid shop. But the
• 56:41
  Speaker 9: job that we're trying to do is now it's Silverston
• 56:45
  Speaker 9: where it's a strong race for us. We need to
• 56:47
  Speaker 9: use use that, you know the same as Imagella we should.
• 56:49
  Speaker 9: We need to use that strong strongness of the bike
• 56:53
  Speaker 9: and try to get that podium there.
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: What are you doing in the in the winter break?
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: What are you doing training wise to help help you
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: on the motor three bikes? So when you do go
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: back to Silverstone, what are you riding mini motors? Are
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: you like on a motocross bike? What do you do
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: in the off season?
• 57:09
  Speaker 8: Yees?
• 57:09
  Speaker 9: So I do a lot of motocross, but I've also
• 57:13
  Speaker 9: been doing a lot of road bikes, so there I'm trying.
• 57:15
  Speaker 9: I'm riding a lot there Valet here with Wayne Maxwell
• 57:18
  Speaker 9: to kind of strengthen the part that I need just
• 57:22
  Speaker 9: to work on with my rowing stuff for the Honda,
• 57:24
  Speaker 9: which is not being so aggressive with the break and
• 57:29
  Speaker 9: making sure we roll through the corner a bit. So
• 57:31
  Speaker 9: that's a really good tool to I can work on
• 57:33
  Speaker 9: with Wayne and on the Ravalle because you know, you're
• 57:37
  Speaker 9: there for training, so it's not just about the Lafe
• 57:38
  Speaker 9: times about working on you know what you need to
• 57:41
  Speaker 9: work on. And then I've got my SEP Motor six
• 57:44
  Speaker 9: seven five set up as well that I'm training on that.
• 57:48
  Speaker 9: I went to Broadfood, which haven't been to broad since
• 57:50
  Speaker 9: I was like nine, ten years older, I know, so
• 57:53
  Speaker 9: I went there when I was like fourteen or fifteen
• 57:55
  Speaker 9: as well, but it's been a few years since been there.
• 57:58
  Speaker 9: It was pretty cool to go back and so see
• 58:00
  Speaker 9: all the locals there that come out always to the
• 58:02
  Speaker 9: track days and their ore days.
• 58:04
  Speaker 8: There was it was a pretty cool environment.
• 58:06
  Speaker 9: But also, yeah, training with the six hundred for me
• 58:09
  Speaker 9: is good just to be on a bigger bike still
• 58:11
  Speaker 9: and be ready if that opportunity comes.
• 58:13
  Speaker 8: So I think I.
• 58:15
  Speaker 9: Got to stay focused on what I'm doing right now,
• 58:18
  Speaker 9: but then also still preparing for the future because you know,
• 58:21
  Speaker 9: otherwise you get caught off guard, and we see that
• 58:23
  Speaker 9: many many times that people get caught off guard and
• 58:25
  Speaker 9: not practicing on a bigger bike and then they get
• 58:27
  Speaker 9: the opportunity and they're not ready for it.
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: Is that still the goal for you, right progress move
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: up to Moto too, Yeah.
• 58:35
  Speaker 8: Where we're working on that.
• 58:37
  Speaker 9: It's it's not easy this year for sure, because you know,
• 58:41
  Speaker 9: last year with four podiums, we had a leg to
• 58:43
  Speaker 9: stand on when we when we went to speak to
• 58:46
  Speaker 9: the teams, and even last year when it was being
• 58:49
  Speaker 9: the teams were like third in the championship, so it was,
• 58:52
  Speaker 9: let's say, a lot easier last year. But if I
• 58:56
  Speaker 9: if I've got to do another year with them, love
• 58:58
  Speaker 9: and I think another year with them, we can really
• 59:01
  Speaker 9: start from where we're end off. So you know, if
• 59:03
  Speaker 9: we can end off the year with a couple podiums,
• 59:05
  Speaker 9: if we start with that level, then that will give
• 59:08
  Speaker 9: us the leg up to be able to fight from
• 59:10
  Speaker 9: podiums at the start of the year next year. And also,
• 59:14
  Speaker 9: like I think, it's my first ever time standing the
• 59:17
  Speaker 9: team for a second year, so it's also not the
• 59:20
  Speaker 9: worst outcome as some of the experienced fast boys also
• 59:24
  Speaker 9: will step up, so there's a good opportunity to do
• 59:27
  Speaker 9: well another year in Motor three with the Honda if that,
• 59:31
  Speaker 9: if the opportunity doesn't come to go to Motor two.
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: Now, before we let you go, let's talk Philip Island.
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: Are you like already starting to think about your home
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: Grand Prix and starting to like plan things or are
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: you just trying to get through Silverstone Mazano Austria Like
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: we said.
• 59:48
  Speaker 9: No, still blending things for here in Australia. Likes being
• 59:51
  Speaker 9: with the Australian Grand Prix Corp. The other day, just
• 59:55
  Speaker 9: trying to organize all the media stuff that we're going
• 59:57
  Speaker 9: to do and all the stuff around the event to
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 9: make sure it's a special one for the last one
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 9: out philip Island. I think that's going to be super
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 9: super cool being the last race at Philipine.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 8: And also.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 9: I think they've already got such a good turnout for
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 9: the weekend, which should be really good because it's been
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 9: a few years since it's been a massive turnout in
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 9: philip Pine.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: No, I think I'm looking forward to it as a guest.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: And for sure you're going to be on Fox Sports
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: as well. We already know our producers keen to get
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: you Aussies on, but Joel, we won't hold you up
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: because we know you've got some training before you head
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: back over to Europe, so it was so nice to
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: catch up with you. Can't wait to see you put
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: that Honda on the podium and we'll obviously see you
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: at Philip Island later in the year.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 8: Awesome, thanks so much. I appreciate it.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: So yeah, exactly what I was saying with Joel.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: It seems like, you know, he's really head down thumbs
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: up at the moment.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 2: Thumbs up.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: Remember that game at school focused on Honda. But also
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: for him, it's not just about himself. He's really at
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: that team player trying to bring Honda and he's teammate
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: Eddie O'Shea through. So it was really nice to see
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: that from Joel. And obviously we had to touch on
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: Philip Island there, so it seems like he's got something
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: special in the works for Philip Island.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 2: He'll keep us posted on that.
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: But while if one heads into their summer breakmoder GPS
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: starting to come out of it, halllujah too well, racing
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: is back and we head to Silverstone for the British
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: Grand Prix of Great Britain.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: Yes, did they get it in there?
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 3: Perfect is.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: We need to get this right so last year bez One,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: Johan Zarko was second, Mark Marquees third. Okay, we know
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: Zarko is not aiming to be back until September. So Matt,
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: this is my question to you. Can I agree to
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: stop Mark Marquees and Silverstone.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 6: It would play to the trend of the British Grand
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 6: Prix for you. You know that I like to dig up
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 6: a random step for you. The last eleven British Motorcycle
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 6: Grand Prix have been won by eleven different riders, so
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 6: there's been no repeat. There's been no repeat, no repeat
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 6: winners in that eleven year span, which is nuts. Marquess
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 6: hasn't won there since twenty fourteen. It's not a great
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 6: track for him, and so you do wonder. I mean,
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 6: it's it feels like an Aprillier track. It feels like
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 6: Auguru is still this sort of question mark because last year,
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 6: you know, he was a bit injured for.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 5: Probably this back two thirds of the year. Last year.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 6: We never really got to see him and he was
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 6: hurt there last year. So it feels like an Aprillier circuit.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 6: It feels like a circuit where Marquez would be more
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 6: in championship sort of preservation mode bit like acid, where
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 6: he goes out there, he does the best.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 5: That he's going to do.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 6: He's not going to throw it down the road, and
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 6: you take your fifth or whatever, and you take the
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 6: points and move on to some of his stronger circuits.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 6: It feels like an Aprillier track. The rider I'll have
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 6: my eye on will be Marco Perzeki, because if anyone
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 6: needed the mid season break other than me, it was
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 6: probably him. I think he scored thirteen points in the
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 6: past four rounds, hasn't finished a grond reasons. He won
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 6: a Majello, so he was so good there last year.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 6: It's a good track for him. Physically, We're not sure
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 6: how he's going to be, but this is a really
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 6: important I've got to plant my flag in the sand
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 6: here and actually arrest this horrendous run that he's been on.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 6: It's kind of a miracle he's still as close to
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 6: the top of the championship as he is given how
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 6: bad the last four rounds have been. But this feels
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 6: like a really pivotal round for him to just stop
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 6: this absolute snowball of bad momentum and no better circuit
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 6: for him because he was superb there last year and
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 6: that was before the Aprillia was the Aprilla that we
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 6: know now, so it feels like an Aprillier track. It
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 6: feels like a super important weekend for him.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: We know he had a brief surgery over the summer break,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: really early on in the summer break, along with Peko
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: Vanyaya who had arm pump surgery. Go figure a motorbike
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: rider having arm pump surgery. But the interview that we posted,
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: you posted, the article we posted on socials was saying
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: that Marco is aiming to be back for Silverstone.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: So as far as I'm aware and.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: Looking at what he's been posting on social media, everything
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: seems to be good to go. But keep your eye
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: out there on Marco Betzeki. You had it here first
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: from the one and only mister Matt Clayton. So we'll
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: be putting that in our prediction post ahead of the
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: Silverstone British Grand Prix of Great Britain a Silverstones and
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: before we get underweight at Silverstone, we have got the
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: Perth Top before forty super cars are making their way
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: over to Western Australia and are back on track this weekend.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: Matt Pain. As we know, he has taken the championship lead.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: And Michael, you caught up with Matt to have a
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: chat about how he feels his season has gone so far.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: So what was your read on Matt Pain Because he's
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: a really funny guy is and he seems to just
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: be really like cool, calm and collected, mellow all the time.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: Doesn't always show a lot of emotions.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and he continued to be very chill, which is
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 4: probably what you want to see if you're a Matt
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 4: Pain fan. You know that the championship lead's not getting
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 4: to we are only probably be passed halfway this season,
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 4: but we're getting to the pointy end of the Sprint
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 4: Cup and the Enduro coming. So if he was going
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 4: to show any signs of feeling the heat of being
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 4: at the front, he would and he isn't. And that's
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 4: considering as well, as we touched on in the interview
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 4: that he's had a lot of off track focus on
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 4: him this year with contract speculation whether he's going to
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 4: continue with Grove. He says he is for the next
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 4: Orn til the end of next year twenty seven, so
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 4: he's put that to one side, but team's totally unflappable
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 4: and took the championship lead last time out in Townsville,
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 4: hoping to extend that and get a free hit of
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 4: the finals if you can grind out the Sprint Cup
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 4: over the next couple of rounds. But he was as
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 4: still as you could imagine, and he talked a lot
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 4: about what it meant for him and the team to
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 4: be leading the championship for the first time. Matt Payne,
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 4: thanks so much for joining us on the Pit Talk podcast.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 10: Yeah, good to be here with you.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 3: Let's look at the.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 4: Season overall first before we look ahead to the next
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 4: couple of rounds. Took the Supercars Championship lead outright last
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 4: time out, having been tied for top spot of course
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 4: in round one in Sydney. But it's all yours now.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 4: It's obviously not just the objective to just be at
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 4: the top of the standards unless it's the end of
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 4: the season, I guess. But did you allow yourself, I
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 4: don't know, a moment to absorb the fact that you're
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 4: out top of the sport confidently for the first time
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 4: leaving the previous round.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 7: Oh yeah, for sure. You know, it's been a it's
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 7: been a bit of a journey.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 10: To get here.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 7: You know, the last three or four years, I think
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 7: as a team we've really been gathering some momentum. But yeah,
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 7: it's really good now to obviously you know, have taken
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 7: that first top step and the and the drivers championship
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 7: and you know before that as well on the team's championship.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 7: I think it shows the great level of consistency we
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 7: have across both cars. So yeah, to finally have taken
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 7: that is pretty cool. I think everyone was pretty stoked
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 7: here and the team to finally have that have the
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 7: orange numbers on it. But by no means is the
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 7: job ever ever closer to being done. There's still so
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 7: many races to go, and and you know, as to
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 7: go with that, there's in Duro season and then there's
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 7: Final season.
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 10: There's so many, so many different elements to come.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 4: Does it feel any different fighting to keep those orange
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 4: numbers on the car compared to fighting to get them?
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 7: No, I don't think so. I could definitely see how
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 7: it could be. You know, it's it's obviously you know you,
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 7: you you're the You're the sort of one everyone's chasing now,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 7: and yeah, I guess you could get wrapped up in
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 7: that mindset a little bit. I definitely am still focused
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 7: on the way we've been going. I think the sort
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 7: of mindset everyone has in the team and sort of
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 7: how we structure our weekends and how we go into
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 7: them has been really good. And we're sort of getting
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 7: into a really good routine now. Every round feels like
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 7: it's just clockwork now, which is really good. So yeah,
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 7: I don't think it changes anything for me, but it
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 7: certainly is is cool to have a car in the
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 7: garage with the orange numbers.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 4: Let's look at how you've got those numbers a little bit.
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 4: It feels to me like it's your qualified performances that
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 4: have been so strong this season. You've played outside the
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 4: top eight just once all season and outside the top
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 4: three just once in the last thirteen rounds.
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 3: How much of that was a focus.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 4: In terms of the consistency coming to this season And
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 4: how is it that you found those games on what
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 4: was already a pretty good campaign last year to end
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 4: up where you are now.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 7: Yeah, literally, it's such the it's just the small things.
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 7: Because our sporters, the margins are so tight. You know,
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 7: we've been working that. Jack Engineer and all of the
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 7: crew have been working tooper hard on just the setup
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 7: and how we roll the car out for each weekend.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 7: I feel like that's been our real strength this year
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 7: has been we haven't felt like we've had to come
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 7: from behind everyone else for sure. You know, it's the
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 7: future is could happen, you don't know, But I feel
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 7: like we have a pretty good understanding of where the
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 7: carneis to operate around, so that's really been the sort
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 7: of key behind it.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 10: You know, we've had a.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 7: Lot of races this year that's been on Friday, so
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 7: you know, you get one practice session and then you
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 7: basically have to qualify. So you are basically qualifying with
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 7: what you are setting up in the workshop here because
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 7: there's not a lot of time to change.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 10: That much stuff.
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 7: So I think that's been a real key strength of ours,
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 7: as well as just a consistency.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 10: Across many different tracks.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 7: Last year, I still felt like, you know, sometimes even
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 7: though our bad weekends were still just within the top ten,
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 7: they were just within the top ten, so we weren't
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 7: challenging for wins all the time, which I think we're
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 7: starting to get on top of that now, which is
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 7: really obviously important for points.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 4: The rise of the team's obviously been a big story
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 4: of this from the moment you arrived there, and the
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 4: trajectory you've experienced over the last few years has been
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 4: pretty clear. It's also felt like the team has become
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 4: a real magnet for big name talent in the last
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 4: couple years, including non supercars talent. What does it mean
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 4: for the team to have achieved that top squad in
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 4: pit lane, top spot on the title, and particularly considering
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 4: that growth in the last couple of years, what was
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 4: it meant to be able to hold that for now
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 4: multiple races?
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 10: Oh, it's fantastic, you know.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 7: Obviously we've we had you know, a couple other people
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 7: including Couching and Shippy along with with us in the journey,
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 7: who both proved pervotal roles in growing this team. But
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 7: it's been really cool to obviously continue on from from
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 7: that era of what was you know, what was racing
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 7: back I don't know, six months ago, it wasn't that long,
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 7: But you know, it's been cool to carry that through
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 7: and feel like we've almost sort of grown a bit
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 7: more and people have taken on a couple of different
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 7: roles and and probably other responsibilities as well, And I
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 7: think it actually you know, might end up suiting the
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 7: team a.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 10: Little bit more, which which is really cool.
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 7: And then obviously the search for for talent overseas has
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 7: has certainly been been wide open for for Brenton and Stevens,
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 7: so they've obviously they've always been looking overseas for people
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 7: like that, which which is really cool. Obviously having Ricardo here,
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 7: he's he's a pretty funny dude, pretty serious as well,
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 7: so he's been really cool to get to know him
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 7: and he's been doing a great job as well. So yeah,
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 7: really excited for the future, and yeah, just excited to
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 7: start the sort of end of.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 10: The end of the year program. It's going to be
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 10: pretty cool.
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 4: Just to take a step back a bit on something
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 4: you said earlier. Obviously, the ability for the team to
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 4: roll out on weekends, particularly when you've went in with
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 4: that one practice session, has been making a difference this year.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 4: Being the top of the championship also means obviously you're
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 4: the top forward team, and one of the stories of
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 4: this season has been Triple Eighths transitioned to the Ford
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 4: Stable and that being a.
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 5: Little bit rough.
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 4: Are you looking at at them obviously as one of
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 4: the chief rivals in the team's championship and then obviously
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 4: the driver's title as well, knowing what they're facing given
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 4: you've got that more intimate knowledge of the Mustang, like
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 4: are you look at them and seeing knowing in the
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 4: back of your head that you guys have the answers
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 4: to some of the questions they've gotten. How much of
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 4: an advantage is that momentum, obviously having been a long
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 4: running for team.
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 10: Yeah, I think that's an interesting point because these cars
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 10: offer no real way to There's just no margin.
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 7: Anymore in the field, and when you feel like you're
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 7: having an off day, you know about it in terms
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 7: of just results points, everything like that. So there's absolutely
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 7: no room for era, especially in any form driving, you know,
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 7: set up, design, whatever can be anything. You know, you
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 7: feel it on the day if you haven't quite nailed it.
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 7: So yeah, I can see it's definitely tough for them.
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 7: They you know, you can see visually that the car
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 7: looks pretty technical to drive a lot of the time,
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 7: especially in the races, So it's yeah, I'm sure that
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 7: they're going through it. You know, they've been there a
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 7: few times before, although you know this time it is
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 7: a little bit more of a something probably what we
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 7: have seen previously. But you know, they've got some really
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 7: smart people in there, and they know how to wrap
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 7: their heads around it, and I'm sure that they're going
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 7: to be working real hard right now and they're going
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 7: to be digging into everything they can until the data.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 7: I'm sure Brock and Well are helping them as much
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 7: as they can to try and get themselves out of it,
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 7: because by no means are they out of contention. They're
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 7: still second in the championship and Brock still, you know,
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 7: only just behind me in the championship. So you know,
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 7: it only takes one round to sort of get yourself
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 7: back on your feet, like we've seen with Tickford, to
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 7: sort of be back into the game, and then you
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 7: can just carry your momentum from there. And I'm sure
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 7: they're going to fight to try and do that.
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 4: Just before we look ahead to the next couple of
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 4: rounds on your growth this season, I guess one of
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 4: the new experiences other than topping the championship. There's been
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 4: a great deal of speculation around your future with the
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 4: team this year. You've mentioned on social media committed that
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 4: sort of feels like it's been put to bed at
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 4: this point, but tell me a bit about what it
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 4: was like to be caught up in one of the
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 4: political stories, if you like, of this season in supercars,
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 4: with so much attention on you that wasn't really about
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 4: the racing.
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 3: Was it hard to keep focus during that period of time?
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 7: Now, for me, I think it comes back to the
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 7: structure that I've had around my driving and the team
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 7: I've had around me, especially personally. You know, I've obviously
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 7: got my manager, Michael, who takes care of a lot
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 7: of that that business, which I'm very fortunate to have,
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 7: and that allows me.
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 10: That's allowed me to focus.
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 7: On what I need to do, and that's keep driving
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 7: and driving fast because we have fast race cars out
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 7: onto the track. So it's been really good to just
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 7: solely focus on that, and he's obviously taking care of
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 7: the rest. But at the same time, it's been good
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 7: to kind of put that to bear now and just
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 7: have have my sight set fully on the championship this
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 7: year and be.
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 10: Able to focus solely on that.
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 7: I think has been a real real benefit for us.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 7: But at the same time, I don't feel like I
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 7: really got affected through that phase.
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 10: I feel like our performance.
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 7: Has really really sort of shone you know throughout those
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 7: couple of rounds and I think we did really.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 10: Well to get through that.
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 7: But yeah, it's always nice to be focused on the
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 7: championship straight eyes forward and know what the goals are
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 7: and trying to achieve those.
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 4: I'm looking ahead to the next couple of rounds to
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 4: round out the Sprint Cup in Perth and Ipswich Perth
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 4: this weekend. A little bit of challenge for you in
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 4: your team as well, I suppose because these were not
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 4: among your stronger races last year. What are you focusing
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 4: on for the next couple of rounds to make sure
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 4: you obviously round out the Sprint Cup on the high
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 4: and potentially win that first piece of minor silverweight.
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 7: Look, it's just like I said before, it's so easy
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 7: to to have an off day in the championships. So
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 7: we're all working really hard to make sure that Perth,
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 7: you know, we come out the gate strong and we
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 7: can fight for the wins, you know, in all three
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 7: all two days.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 10: QR is definitely an interesting one for us.
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 7: You know, I felt like we really probably struggled there
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 7: the most last year in practice. Coming out of that,
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 7: I think on Friday we were back, you know, like
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 7: eighteen to nineteen twenty sort of in that region, and
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 7: when you're seeing those numbers on the dash, it's not
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 7: even that confidence inspiring. But for sure we've come so
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 7: far from that point. Even the last two or three
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 7: months have been a huge, huge shift for us. So
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 7: it's been it's going to be really cool to roll
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 7: out for both of those tracks and see how we go.
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 7: You know, I've got pretty high confidence knowing that from
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 7: the rest of the season that we've done already that
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 7: you know, hopefully we're going to be pretty strong. You know,
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 7: I really love going over to Perth, one of my
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 7: favorite tracks. It's short, but it's it's still pretty technical.
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 7: I really like I'd really like to get a win
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 7: around there. I think, I think that would be really cool.
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 7: And then QR is going to be I know it's
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 7: going to be tough. It's another small track with not
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 7: many margins, not much margins, so it's yeah, that's going
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 7: to be tough, but yeah, looking forward to the challenge,
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 7: I think it's it's really cool to be in the
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 7: position we're in now and you know, ice forward for
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 7: the next two rounds and then obviously we're getting into
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 7: in Duros so that's going to be fun as well.
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 4: And finally looking ahead to those in Duros because he's
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 4: obviously the next stage the countdown. He's on to Batist
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 4: a little while away still, but of course it's the
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 4: center piece of end A two bat question, I guess
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 4: to round this off, if you were to win the
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 4: Sprint Cup and the automatic qualification that comes with the finals,
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 4: notwithstanding the points you already have on the board, does
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 4: that materially change that automatic qualification the way you approached
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 4: the in Duro's And how's the development going with co
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 4: driver Will Davison this year? How's the work been with him,
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 4: how's that relationship forming after obviously having successful time we
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 4: lost you?
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 7: Yeah, look, it's it's really cool, like and Duras are
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 7: probably one of my favorite points of the year with
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 7: the two rounds. But yeah, I guess like it'd be
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 7: tough to say it doesn't change your perspective on the
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 7: on the two races, knowing that you've already qualified. I
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 7: think if anything, it takes the pressure off a little bit,
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 7: you know, just to just for the boys and knowing
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 7: that you know we're going to be in the fight
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 7: with a twenty five point bonus as well. So yeah,
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 7: I don't think it ever would would ever change your
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 7: your desire to try and win the the Jura Cup
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 7: or if that Bathurst, that's going to be as high
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 7: as ever and and and especially doing it with Will
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 7: as well as pretty cool.
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 10: You know, He's been good, great to get to know.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 7: I've already sort of known him quite quite early on
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 7: in my career, but it's great to have him around
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 7: the team. And he's obviously doing his own racing with
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 7: with the GD three stuff, which is really cool, and
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 7: he's doing pretty well in that. So yeah, I think
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 7: he's really excited to get in the car and just
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 7: have a feel, specially at QR when we have the
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 7: test day and well, you know, he'll have a bit
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 7: of a feel of it, and yeah, he's just ready
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 7: to go. And yeah, like all of us here, i
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 7: think we're all pretty excited to work together with him.
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 10: He's he's a pretty cool character, so I'm looking forward
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 10: to it.
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 4: Well, Matt, thanks much for joining us on pitchok and
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 4: all the best for the rest of the season.
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 10: And Bathist thanks mate.
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: Exactly as we said, Matt Pain he is cool, calm
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: and collected and you know, going into this weekend, we've
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: got Cameras and Brodie Costeki and obviously Matt Pain.
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 2: They've all taken race wins.
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: And I think he said, you know, you can't always
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: count out Brock, right, you can't count out the others
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: because they're all going to have their strengths at certain parts.
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: But heading into this weekend, how do you think Matt
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: is going to go at the Perth toe before forty
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: and is this the momentum swing that he needs to
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: keep that championship headed In the point.
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 4: It's interesting because these are the next two tracks. The
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 4: last ones are the Sprint Cup in Perth and Hips,
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 4: which were two of his weaker tracks last year in
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 4: terms of results. So that's its own little test that
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 4: he's on this great run of form, can he smooth
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 4: out those bumps from last year? You certainly feel like
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 4: the Grove team is in the right vein of form
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 4: to be able to do that. But nonetheless, that's the
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 4: sort of thing about the Supercars calendar is all these
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 4: tracks are all very specific, and so you just it's
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 4: hard to get that kind of a mintum, which is
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 4: why it's so impressive. For example, and brocked it last
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 4: year when it feels like Matt's building up to that.
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 4: Now he's had nine podiums from the last eleven starts,
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 4: which is really quite impressive. But we've also got this
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 4: tightening of the form guide because we've got cam Orders
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 4: as you said, one last time out, Brodie Costeki one
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 4: last time out and has recovered from that funny weekend
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 4: in Darwin, and even going before that in Tasmania where
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 4: you had obviously in illness he was missing sort of
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 4: just weirdly not there in Tasmania as well.
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 3: He's really back on form.
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 4: So a lot of podiums between them, In fact, they're
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 4: dominating the podium count between those three drivers. Feels like
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 4: they're peaking at the right time as we head towards
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 4: who's going to win the Sprint Cup. And then of
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 4: course when we talk about the Enduros and Bathist being
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 4: on the are four rounds three rounds from now. But
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 4: the question mark is, as that alluded to, where's Triple
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 4: eight going to be? And I know we talk about
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 4: them a lot because they usually are winning and normally
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 4: you can't not talk about them when they're winning races
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 4: and titles, But the question is, where are they now
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 4: in this first year of Ford, they've they've had form
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 4: in fits and starts. Obviously in Sydney it looked like
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 4: they were they may as well have continued racing GM
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 4: cars because they look so comfortable, had a reasonable weekend
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 4: in Melbourne as well, and then it's sort of just.
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 3: Faded away gradually from there. Can they rebound?
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 4: We know, you can't even look at the historical form
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 4: because that team has had wins pretty much everywhere, so
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 4: that's kind of meaningless.
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 3: And can they do it in time to.
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 4: Either compete for the Sprint Cup, which almost feels like
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 4: it's fading a little bit as an opportunity now Bathist
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 4: is obviously the big one they want to win, but
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 4: can they even get there in time for the finals
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 4: because the countdown to that is ticking and when we
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 4: get past Bathurst, which is still a while away, but
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 4: the finals happened in the space of you know, there's
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 4: spaced out two weeks at a time, so within a
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 4: month you go from oh it's finals and then a
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 4: title wrapped up and maybe you've been knocked out along
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 4: the way. So these are the kind of last opportunities
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 4: for the teams, and thinking again, of Triple A in
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 4: particular to figure out what's going wrong because these are
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 4: the last you know, it's the double.
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 3: Edged sword of the final.
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 4: Isn't it that you still want to win the Sprint Cup?
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 4: But as long as you're in the ten you can
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 4: still salvage It's chasmos had proved last year. So if
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 4: brock Feeni's going to contend for the title that he
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 4: certainly feels like you should have won last year, they've
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 4: got to get them figured out in the next year.
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 4: And I've really got two rounds to figure out what's
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 4: going on because after that the clock kind of stops.
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 4: So that's sort of the sub storyline. I guess behind
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 4: whether or not Matt can retain that lead. And if
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 4: it's Brodie Casteki versus Cam Waters versus Matt Payne for
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 4: the top of the championship standings, it is that though
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 4: we're only in July, we're running out of time to
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 4: decide how this championship is going to go up.
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: Well, we won't have to wait too long to find
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: out what does happen in Perth because that will take place.
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: There's weekend and you guys can watch it live and
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: I Break Free on Fox Sports and KO. But like
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: we said, f one heads into their summer break before
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: returning to the Zen for Dutch Grand Prix in the
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: Netherlands and their Moto GPS, also returning for the Silverstone
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: British Grand Prix of Great Britain.
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, I'm doing it and we're gonna keep
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 2: using that blood rest of the year.
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: But a big thank you as always to Shannon's for
• 1:23:21
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• 1:23:25
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• 1:23:29
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• 1:23:32
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• 1:23:34
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• 1:23:38
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• 1:23:41
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• 1:23:42
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• 1:24:00
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