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The Motorsport Brief | The F1 title decider in Abu Dhabi · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:05
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief after an intense F1 title decider in Abu Dhabi.
• 0:13
  G'day everybody, Rusty here.
• 0:15
  Matt Hickey from Code Sports has been an absolute champion this year.
• 0:19
  He's been with us several times across the season and he's kindly agreed to come back on and wrap it all up today.
• 0:25
  And we will cross to him in Brisbane.
• 0:27
  In Brisbane, Vegas in just a moment.
• 0:29
  The feature ep that we've been promising with Colin Bond, we've been talking about it for ages, it is out now, recorded just after Bathurst with the Hall of Famer.
• 0:37
  whether you're into rally maybe you might like to reminisce about some of the legends in the open wheeler scene not just in australia but globally in that 70s period or perhaps you've got a passion for touring cars and some of the golden eras of touring car racing well you know what bondi talks about all of that and more two parts that you can find both of them are available
• 1:01
  for you to enjoy at your leisure one of the first bathys calls that i ever did when i first started out on this broadcasting journey back in the mid 90s was on an am radio station with david tapp and colin i've just realized was the expert commentator back then so it's nice to talk about his career in a bit more detail and celebrate a brand new book that is out too called full tilt you might be able to grab yourself a copy in time for christmas
• 1:27
  Lando Norris is the new Formula One world champion, completing an unbelievable story.
• 1:32
  An incredible turnaround in recent years for McLaren.
• 1:36
  It's their first driver's world title since Lewis Hamilton back in 2008.
• 1:41
  And they add to back-to-back constructors' titles now.
• 1:45
  There is so much to talk about in the wake of this season.
• 1:49
  It has been tailor-made.
• 1:51
  in many ways for the next series of Drive to Survive for Netflix.
• 1:55
  Do papaya rules work?
• 1:57
  Will they continue into 2026?
• 1:59
  Was Oscar Piastri treated fairly?
• 2:03
  And how come an Australian senator ended up discussing things in relation to this championship that Zac Brown spoke about over the weekend there in the Middle East?
• 2:13
  Now, to debrief all of it, hello, Matt.
• 2:16
  Welcome.
• 2:18
  Hey, Rusty.
• 2:18
  Yeah, you know when it hits Parliament, it's big-time stuff, isn't it?
• 2:21
  LAUGHTER
• 2:23
  The Caravan.
• 2:24
  Senator Matt Canavan, let's talk about that first.
• 2:27
  So he felt that Oscar was a bit hard done by.
• 2:30
  Zach's retort to that was, well, it's a little bit uneducated in what really happens within the bounds of a team in Formula One.
• 2:39
  What was your takeaway from all of that?
• 2:41
  Look, I think the Senator may have achieved what he was out to do, and that was to potentially grab a few headlines and get his name in a newspaper or two.
• 2:49
  So
• 2:50
  It can tick that box, that is for certain.
• 2:53
  Look, I mean, we can have the debate for eons.
• 2:58
  I think there are elements that are certainly from our standpoint, from the outside looking in, that would seem that Oscar was a little hard done by.
• 3:07
  That is, of course, with green and gold coloured glasses on at the same time.
• 3:12
  But in the end, Lando Norris is your world champion.
• 3:15
  And I think you'll be a good champion too, no matter what we think.
• 3:17
  The patriotism that you just talked about is a very natural thing, a natural byproduct.
• 3:23
  But this is the story of a kid who has passionately pursued it through his karting career.
• 3:31
  It wasn't all that long ago that he was across the ditch playing.
• 3:34
  in New Zealand, kind of starting his open wheeler journey and making a name for himself, a successful stint across the ditch there over one summer.
• 3:43
  And now he's been a part of the resurgence of this team.
• 3:46
  He's had an amazing chapter with them.
• 3:48
  He's been with them through their lows.
• 3:51
  So no matter how we feel about Oscar, and we can talk about that in a moment, I do feel like his star, the Lando star, if you will, and there's many great things.
• 4:01
  He rebounded this year
• 4:04
  from a difficult mental patch and to come back as strong as he did, I think shows what an athlete he is.
• 4:10
  Yeah, and I think that longevity that you touched on with McLaren is my favourite part of the story.
• 4:15
  In modern day sport, not even just in F1, but across many different sports out of motor racing, we see that a lot of the time, whether it's individual players, whether it be in a sport like basketball or drivers in this instance, are very happy to jump ship if they
• 4:34
  somewhere else.
• 4:34
  Not often do you see that great story of somebody sticking with the one team and then eventually going on to win a world championship.
• 4:42
  We've seen it with Max Verstappen, but now Lando Norris kind of joins that.
• 4:46
  Nine years with McLaren.
• 4:47
  Very impressive.
• 4:48
  And I'll tell you what, I had a thought last night as I was watching
• 4:52
  He's come a long way since I think it was 2021 in Russia when he threw away that first win, when the rain started coming down on that Russian circuit, made a decision and had some interesting radio messages with his team in that race as well, and it got away from him.
• 5:10
  And it thought that first win was, he was never going to get it.
• 5:14
  And now we come four years on and he's world champion.
• 5:16
  So it is a very nice story regardless of where you land on it all.
• 5:21
  Most definitely.
• 5:21
  That was quite a sting that day for him at Sochi.
• 5:24
  Does it sting for Oscar Piastri in the final analysis?
• 5:29
  Some fans have said, look, there have been moments where he'll probably navel gaze and look at Azerbaijan, for example, and stuff that he can tidy up.
• 5:38
  I still feel like his tally for the year, the way that he's continued to grow as a racer this year,
• 5:45
  he will come back stronger from this.
• 5:47
  The world title may have slipped from his grasp, but I think you'll get another level of Oscar Piastri in 2026.
• 5:58
  Yeah, I think whenever you are less than one race win in points away from a world title, you can chalk that down as a pretty good year.
• 6:06
  Now, of course, the disappointment will sting, and it'll sting probably for a little while as he makes his way back to Australia to catch some rays, and probably we will see him at a test match or two.
• 6:16
  We know his connection with the Australian cricket team.
• 6:18
  Excellent.
• 6:19
  It will sting for him, but I think you have to chalk this down as another really impressive year for Oscar.
• 6:26
  I was really impressed again by how he spoke yesterday after the race, and in fact in the lead-up, in the days leading up to it, there was a lot of attempts to try and drum it up a little bit, try and get an answer out of him to say that he wasn't going to let Lando pass if a situation like that presented itself.
• 6:45
  But he was very diplomatic, like we've seen all season, very level-headed.
• 6:49
  And then even after the race, you know, he was asked, how are you feeling?
• 6:51
  And he's like, I'm pretty good because I knew I needed things to go my way.
• 6:56
  It was going to take something pretty extraordinary for me to win the title just based off this race.
• 7:01
  So I really appreciated and liked that honesty from Oscar.
• 7:07
  And I think, as we've said before on this podcast, Rusty,
• 7:10
  I mean, this guy's still so young.
• 7:12
  So this career is going to be massive.
• 7:13
  And of course, next year we go into some rate changes.
• 7:16
  We'll see what happens with McLaren there.
• 7:17
  But a good 2025, no deny for Oscar Piastu, regardless of the fact he missed out on that title that he probably thinks he should have.
• 7:25
  We'll come to the reg changes a little later in this short cast.
• 7:29
  I thought he was brilliant with Lando's parents and Lando's group generally.
• 7:34
  A very gracious conclusion to the championship in the way that he went and spoke with them after the race wrapped up.
• 7:42
  And as you rightly point out, I think he's still so young and lots of great things to come in his career.
• 7:49
  Papaya rules work.
• 7:50
  I said that in the introduction.
• 7:53
  I feel like this vindicates things from Andrea Stella's standpoint here.
• 7:59
  It is very difficult to manage.
• 8:01
  We've seen it happen before in other race teams.
• 8:04
  It's very difficult to manage too.
• 8:06
  very strong personalities.
• 8:08
  If there's not a clear number one, you know, let's go Red Bull, Max Verstappen and then Yuki Snowder has struggled throughout the year.
• 8:15
  So did Liam Lawson for that matter by comparison to Max.
• 8:19
  So you automatically had that clear definition between those guys.
• 8:23
  Very different story at McLaren.
• 8:25
  It's had its moments where it wasn't easy to manage.
• 8:28
  They steadfastly stuck by that.
• 8:31
  Can they continue to do that in your mind or will it need some refinement?
• 8:35
  I think it needs refinement.
• 8:37
  When the championship comes down to the final race and just two points.
• 8:43
  Now we go back and think about all the different moments across the season, two points that –
• 8:49
  Yes, of course, it's a fantastic season that McLaren has put together.
• 8:52
  But when it only comes down to two points, there is a little bit of an element of luck in some instances that does come into it.
• 8:58
  Now, if you're a professional racing team, you never want luck to play a factor in you winning a championship.
• 9:04
  You want to dominate that thing from start to finish.
• 9:07
  So I think it does need refinement.
• 9:10
  What surprised me the most about the Papyrus, I can understand it for the first half of the season when, as you put, you don't really have a number one driver.
• 9:20
  So next season, Red Bull will head in and Max Verstappen remains clearly the number one driver.
• 9:26
  But when you head into a season where both drivers come across as real championship threats...
• 9:33
  normally what we've seen in the past is we wait until about the midway part of the season and if one has an advantage over the other, then if team orders come into place, it is normally to favour the person who has done the work, got the results, to put themselves in front in the championship.
• 9:47
  Now, that's the part of it that we didn't see, which I think is what drew the eye of a lot of people from the outside looking in who had some issues with that.
• 9:57
  Yeah.
• 9:59
  Now, has that come back to bite them?
• 10:01
  They will say no because Lando Norris is world champion, but when it only comes down to two points and it's not your second driver who's the one who's two points behind, I dare say that's a little too close for comfort.
• 10:15
  We're going to take a break here on this edition of the Motorsport Brief.
• 10:18
  Matt, can you hang around with us?
• 10:19
  We've got a couple more questions to come your way as we debrief what has been a superb season in Formula One.
• 10:29
  You're listening to the Motorsport Brief with Matt Hickey from Code Sports in the hours after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the final round of the 2025 World Championship.
• 10:41
  It wasn't the most exciting race, Matt.
• 10:44
  It had its intensity.
• 10:45
  There's no two ways about that.
• 10:46
  I think many of us...
• 10:48
  went into it thinking, well, we're going to get something a little crazy, a little wild here.
• 10:52
  That didn't necessarily eventuate, but there were some different strategies and a few things that kept us on our toes into the early hours of the morning.
• 11:01
  I think you've been a bit kind there, Rusty.
• 11:02
  It was boring.
• 11:03
  It was a boring motor race.
• 11:06
  Let's be very, very frank.
• 11:08
  With about 10 laps to go, I was sitting in my hotel room up here in Brisbane going,
• 11:14
  Yeah, it could have been in bed about an hour ago.
• 11:16
  But, no, you love the sport, so you hang around and watch it.
• 11:18
  Of course you can.
• 11:19
  But, yeah, I mean, there needed to be an element of a safety car, I think, to really throw something different into the mix.
• 11:27
  We were kept on our toes, of course, Oscar.
• 11:29
  got off to that fantastic start on the hard tyre, which was a little bit of a surprise, but it did seem on race pace that the hard tyre was the better choice out of the two.
• 11:38
  His long strategy didn't really work out the way that they had hoped and planned it to.
• 11:43
  Charles Leclerc gave a few moments of nervousness for Lando Norris.
• 11:47
  We saw, of course, Yuki Tsunoda doing what everyone expected him to do, yet still some commentators and some people from McLaren were so shocked by the fact that he was...
• 11:58
  maybe going to put a couple of moves under braking to try and block Lando Norris.
• 12:01
  I mean, of course he was going to.
• 12:03
  I was a little bit surprised by how shocked the reaction to was that.
• 12:07
  Of course that was going to happen.
• 12:09
  But, you know, Lando does what he needs to do.
• 12:12
  We don't get the team orders that everyone had speculated about what was going to happen.
• 12:16
  If it happens, Max rides off into the distance and, you know, another race in the books.
• 12:22
  Yeah.
• 12:23
  Headline chasing across the weekend.
• 12:25
  You talked before about trying to kind of crack them in some respects.
• 12:30
  Firstly, I think there was concern maybe at News Limited or Code Sports End about whether Oscar was being shut down from conversations with the Australian press.
• 12:40
  Kim Illman, the photographer who follows the sport and was based over there, I think tried to hose that down and said, was that necessarily as much as it was cracked up to be?
• 12:50
  And then this morning,
• 12:51
  some stuff around, you know, is Lando Superman?
• 12:55
  It doesn't sort of change him and things like that.
• 12:58
  Yeah, Julian Linden doing some fantastic reporting on the ground over there.
• 13:03
  He's done a great job on so many sports across so many years, no doubt about that.
• 13:07
  Yeah, I mean, he spoke to some insiders that have been in the caper for a very, very long time.
• 13:14
  They certainly raised their eyebrows at the treatment process
• 13:18
  of Oscar as somebody who was leading a world championship and a genuine championship contender.
• 13:25
  And, you know, I guess now post-race, that kind of all falls to the wayside a little bit now that we have our champion and all of a sudden everyone's eyes turn to 2026.
• 13:34
  But, yeah, comments after – I mean, Oscar did such a fantastic job.
• 13:38
  And I think his answer, when you look at it, it was –
• 13:41
  quite an honest answer.
• 13:43
  He was pressed about what it means now moving forward that Lando has the number one on the car and whether that might change what happens inside the four walls in McLaren as they're constantly going about their business.
• 13:58
  He said, look, he's still Lando Norris.
• 14:00
  He hasn't overnight turned into Superman.
• 14:02
  He's still Lando Norris.
• 14:04
  Essentially pointing to the fact that...
• 14:07
  For a big chunk of the season, Oscar was beating him.
• 14:10
  So it's not all of a sudden that this is a guy who is absolutely going to dominate every single race and they have to 100% get behind without any chance of Oscar proving himself next year.
• 14:21
  Let's go rapid fire to the finish of this podcast.
• 14:25
  What did you make of Charles Leclerc v. Lewis Hamilton in 2025 with Charles, you know, significantly upstaging him?
• 14:33
  I thought Lewis and his drive back this morning was, you know, still showed that he's got the fire in the belly, but it's been a tough year by comparison to his teammate, hasn't it?
• 14:42
  Yeah, the back end of the year has been really, really tough for Lewis.
• 14:45
  And you're right, Sharl has been very solid across the entire season.
• 14:49
  But the last few races, especially in qualifying, it's just that's where it's gone wrong for Lewis Hamilton.
• 14:55
  But I see that as an outlier.
• 14:58
  I don't think you can take that as something consistent moving forward because we have seen time and time again.
• 15:04
  And as you mentioned, Rusty, in the race, he still managed to secure eighth spot coming from essentially the back of the grid.
• 15:10
  So...
• 15:12
  A great start for Charles Leclerc, I think, in terms of that partnership, because, of course, when somebody of the calibre of Lewis Hamilton comes into town, you're wanting to prove yourself immediately.
• 15:21
  And he has done that here.
• 15:24
  But again, it's so hard moving into next season because we just don't know what the pecking order in terms of the teams will be with all these regulation changes.
• 15:32
  Tell me about the, let's call it a hard charger.
• 15:35
  Motorsport often has little awards that it gives out along those lines, perhaps for someone who's not a champion, but starred at different points during the year.
• 15:44
  I think at 44 years of age, there was some glimpses of that from one Fernando Alonso.
• 15:50
  But for me, it really has to be Carlos Sainz's performance at Williams this year, I think.
• 15:54
  Yeah, fantastic.
• 15:56
  Coming into a new car, new team.
• 15:59
  And it was always going to be tough for Carlos because he thought he should have still had that seat at Ferrari, but he comes out and has a fantastic season.
• 16:07
  In fact, Williams as a team has a really fantastic season, two drivers that finish inside the top 10 of the standings.
• 16:13
  I mean, you think three or four years ago where they were, would we have thought they'd be in this position?
• 16:17
  Probably not.
• 16:18
  So that's a credit to that team and how well they have been doing.
• 16:21
  The other one I'd really love to point out is Nico Hülkenberg.
• 16:24
  What a season he's had as well.
• 16:26
  Had a really fantastic year.
• 16:28
  Finishes 11th in the driver standings.
• 16:30
  A long, long way in front of his rookie teammate, Gabriel Bortoleto.
• 16:34
  So he's had a really, really good year coming back into the sport, and I've been very impressed by Nick Erwin.
• 16:39
  I think it was a tally of like 51 points in the end for him.
• 16:42
  So it was a really good job that you've shone a light on.
• 16:46
  Quickly, below par, and I mean well below par, Alpine seriously disappointing.
• 16:51
  I mean, where they have ended up, I think Gasly boxes hard with what he's got.
• 16:57
  But Colopinto fundamentally fared no better than Jack Doohan, if we're brutally honest.
• 17:02
  And I feel for Jack because I think he deserved another shot at least, given that we've ended up in the same result.
• 17:09
  Yeah, it's quite remarkable when you think about that change and how everyone expected Franco Colapita to far outperform Jack Doohan.
• 17:18
  And in the end, even though Doohan took part in probably close to 20 races less, they've both ended up on the same amount of points, which for those keeping track at home was zero.
• 17:30
  So, yeah, I think...
• 17:32
  It would have been a very, very frustrating season from the sidelines, at least from when he was on the sidelines for Jack Doohan.
• 17:38
  And it's quite remarkable to think that when all of the business that went down with Oscar Piastri at the start of his F1 career, we were unsure about whether Alpine or McLaren was the right choice for him moving forward.
• 17:51
  And by crikey, him and his team have made that correct choice when we look back at it.
• 17:56
  And of course, hindsight is 20-20, but there's vastly different teams at the moment.
• 18:02
  Most definitely.
• 18:03
  Okay, before we go, lots of unknowns in the 2026 regulations, so much hype and excitement around that and what the cars will be like from a performance point of view.
• 18:13
  All this talk of porpoising this year should disappear.
• 18:16
  We, in theory, won't have that next season.
• 18:19
  Do you feel like McLaren can maintain its grip at the moment now that they're the constructors' champions, now that they're going to get that...
• 18:27
  boost of call it psychological strength from having won their first driver's title in nearly 20 years.
• 18:34
  It is a very big reg change though, Matt, isn't it?
• 18:38
  Yeah, it's massive.
• 18:39
  And a moment to recognise the passing of the word porpoising.
• 18:46
  I hope we never have to talk about porpoising ever again.
• 18:49
  By crikey.
• 18:50
  RIP.
• 18:50
  RIP.
• 18:51
  I tell you what, those first few races when that came into play, porpoising, I've never had to try and figure out how to spell that word more in my entire life, Rusty.
• 19:03
  and rest in peace of DRS as well or as far as we know it so they're massive changes I think Martin Brundle described them as the biggest changes ever in the sport so when somebody like that is describing in that fashion that you know it's going to be pretty massive it's very hard to predict
• 19:21
  who's going to be incredible when it comes to these new regs.
• 19:25
  Of course, we only have to cast our eye as far back as Braun to know that one team can just shoot out of nowhere and all of a sudden have it figured out.
• 19:34
  And if you get it right for the first half of the season, it's very hard if that gap is big for everyone else to drag themselves back by the time the end of the season comes around.
• 19:42
  So we expect that big teams to be there or thereabouts.
• 19:45
  I don't...
• 19:46
  think McLaren will have the dominant start that they had this year when they've got it all figured out, but only time will tell.
• 19:54
  And one really interesting thing that the Sky team touched on last night in the coverage is whoever shows out at the start of next year as a team...
• 20:05
  I get the feeling somebody by the name of Max Verstappen might be just lurking around whoever has that big advantage next year if one team does stand out.
• 20:14
  Because if Red Bull don't have the car that is, of course, with their new engine that they're taking on as well, to put themselves a long way in front of the grid, I get the feeling Max Verstappen may look elsewhere if there's a dominant powerhouse team.
• 20:28
  It is going to be fascinating.
• 20:29
  The summer period for us, the winter period for them can't be over with soon enough.
• 20:35
  February and the brand new cars breaking cover.
• 20:38
  All of the stories that Matt is alluding to there from the brand new Ford badged power plant for Red Bull and what its performance will be like relative to the Mercedes-Benz.
• 20:49
  Can Ferrari have a bounce back of sorts?
• 20:52
  And Cadillac coming in as well with a couple of very, very seasoned drivers.
• 20:56
  Matt, thank you very much for what you've done on the shortcast during the season.
• 21:00
  We can't wait to get you back on in 2026.
• 21:02
  No, thank you, Rusty.
• 21:03
  Been an absolute, absolute joy to have someone like you to chat motorsport with.
• 21:08
  And I think less than 100 days till Albert Park.
• 21:11
  So the countdown's on.
• 21:15
  He's started the clock already.
• 21:16
  I love it.
• 21:17
  I love the passion there too.
• 21:18
  Before we go, while we're on the subject of passion today, there has been in Supercars land an outpouring of some terrible, and I mean terrible stuff on social media.
• 21:31
  After all the heat and energy around the final season,
• 21:35
  event of the season in Adelaide there, whether you are on Team Red Bull, whether you are on Team Walkinshaw, if you're following different podcasters and reporters that have different views on things, please, please just stop watching.
• 21:50
  the awful stuff on social media.
• 21:53
  Have a viewpoint for sure.
• 21:55
  Wear your team's colours with pride.
• 21:57
  We want that passion.
• 21:58
  We want that energy always.
• 22:00
  But if this kind of targeted, awful bloody stuff keeps up, what you are going to get is teams and drivers that go to ground in one of the most accessible sports anywhere on the planet in motor racing.
• 22:18
  Please be kind.
• 22:19
  That's all we ask.
• 22:20
  And that is it for today on The Shortcast.
• 22:21
  Bye for now.