Latest / Pit Talk / Is Max Verstappen back in the title hunt? Emilia-Romagna GP Review

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Is Max Verstappen back in the title hunt? Emilia-Romagna GP Review · Pit Talk

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:03
Speaker 1: On today's episode, Max Forstaffan wins the Emilia Romagna Grand
0:06
Speaker 1: Prix to inject some hope into Red Bull Racing's campaign,
0:10
Speaker 1: But did McLaren throw away a chance at victory by
0:13
Speaker 1: neglecting team orders. My name is Michael Lomonato. It's great
0:16
Speaker 1: to have your company and the company of my co host.
0:19
Speaker 1: It's the Formula one Aws Grand Premier dal made in
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Speaker 1: Italy del Matt Clayson twenty twenty five.
0:25
Speaker 2: I've been called worse Michael, but I was a little
0:29
Speaker 2: bit concerned that you may not actually make it to
0:31
Speaker 2: the end of the sentence. And this will been the
0:32
Speaker 2: world's longest solo podcast for the next half an hour.
0:34
Speaker 2: But yes, almost as many words in the event title
0:38
Speaker 2: as there were laps at Imola on Sunday. But considering
0:42
Speaker 2: Immola can be a very picturesque snorefest, but a snorefest nonetheless,
0:47
Speaker 2: because of the nature of the circuit, we actually got
0:49
Speaker 2: a pretty interesting one. And if it's the last one,
0:51
Speaker 2: at least it was a nice way to go out.
0:53
Speaker 1: Yeah. That has been the phrase of the weekend, hasn't it.
0:55
Speaker 1: If this is the last one, and there's certainly been
0:58
Speaker 1: no clarity at least at the time of recording with
1:00
Speaker 1: on what it is. The race is out of contract,
1:02
Speaker 1: That's why there's been so much talk about it. But
1:04
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting just before we get into
1:06
Speaker 1: the race to see how much support there was for
1:10
Speaker 1: this circuit among the drivers, even among some team principals
1:14
Speaker 1: who are asked over the course of the weekend. I mean,
1:16
Speaker 1: this is a track that, to be fair to I
1:18
Speaker 1: guess F one if they are about to drop it completely,
1:21
Speaker 1: was absent for nearly fifteen years since its previous race
1:24
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, was brought back as a COVID
1:26
Speaker 1: race and then got a contract out of that, unlike
1:29
Speaker 1: most of the other ones, now seems destined to fall
1:31
Speaker 1: back off the calendar. But it's really interesting how much
1:34
Speaker 1: of an impression it's made on what is a generation
1:37
Speaker 1: of drivers, with one exception for no Orlans. I think
1:40
Speaker 1: I'm saying, who hadn't driven on it before?
1:42
Speaker 2: In Formuda one, Yes, you are correct, Fernando Well one
1:45
Speaker 2: of his biggest career early career moments was the fight
1:48
Speaker 2: with Schumacher back in the previous Immola era. But I
1:51
Speaker 2: think That's actually an interesting place to start this conversation
1:54
Speaker 2: because back in the day you look at the Alonso
1:56
Speaker 2: Reno versus Schumacher Ferrari Battleback in that era, the cars
2:01
Speaker 2: were so small relative to the footprint they have these days,
2:05
Speaker 2: and I think it probably generated better racing. Immil has
2:08
Speaker 2: actually become one of those circuits now where it's a
2:11
Speaker 2: proper driver's track in the same way that Suzuka is
2:14
Speaker 2: a driver's track. The common denominator with those two tracks
2:17
Speaker 2: is the drivers love them. They don't create great spectacles
2:20
Speaker 2: because the cars are so wide and they're so fast,
2:23
Speaker 2: and the corder nature of the old school layout doesn't
2:26
Speaker 2: necessarily lead itself to great racing, but they're fantastic race tracks,
2:30
Speaker 2: and I think that's the you know. I know some
2:32
Speaker 2: of the drivers talked about this over the course of
2:34
Speaker 2: the weekend, and that there is a homogeneity to a
2:37
Speaker 2: lot of these new circuits. Now we've Joe goff Air
2:40
Speaker 2: before that. When you get to the back end of
2:41
Speaker 2: the season and then there's a night race in the
2:43
Speaker 2: Middle East, you can only really remember where you are
2:45
Speaker 2: based on what advertising side edge the cars are going past,
2:48
Speaker 2: because all the cords are sort of cookie Cutter, and
2:51
Speaker 2: they look a little bit similar. I love the fact
2:53
Speaker 2: that places like Iimmila have existed in this sort of
2:56
Speaker 2: second act if you like in its Formula one tenure,
2:59
Speaker 2: because it is a point of difference. You wouldn't want
3:02
Speaker 2: twenty four of them, But then you don't want twenty
3:03
Speaker 2: four tilkodromes either, So it's nice to have a bit
3:06
Speaker 2: of a mix. Look, if we're going to race in Italy,
3:09
Speaker 2: if it's not going to be in Italy, you know
3:10
Speaker 2: where I'm going to go. Let's go back to Midgella.
3:12
Speaker 2: Come on, we did it once, the best racetrack in
3:16
Speaker 2: Italy with the greatest iteration of Formula one cars. Again,
3:19
Speaker 2: probably a terrible spectacle, but my god, they look nice.
3:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's just nice, you know, to go. You
3:24
Speaker 1: called a picturesque earlier. I think you're absolutely right. After
3:26
Speaker 1: racing in a car park and then two night races, Okay,
3:30
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia is a city race, but then bar rain
3:32
Speaker 1: in an empty expanse of desert. It's just nice to
3:35
Speaker 1: see some trees and some elevation changes and all these
3:38
Speaker 1: natural features have been lacking.
3:40
Speaker 2: Honestly, on Sunday night, I was looking at it going.
3:42
Speaker 2: Is this the first patch of grass I've seen since
3:44
Speaker 2: Albert Puck because it kind of felt a little bit
3:46
Speaker 2: like it, because you know, Japan early in the year.
3:49
Speaker 2: Now the vegetation is not what it was back in October,
3:51
Speaker 2: so it's pretty dry and dusty. And then everything else
3:53
Speaker 2: is in the dark or in the middle of a
3:55
Speaker 2: football stadium car park in the case of Miami. So yes,
3:58
Speaker 2: lovely to see the the houses and the character. And
4:02
Speaker 2: the thing I really was struck with is the helicopter
4:05
Speaker 2: shot when they were following some of the cars around
4:07
Speaker 2: early in qualifying, where you see houses on the inside
4:09
Speaker 2: of the track and people on their balconies just you know,
4:12
Speaker 2: having a cup of tea or whatever watching the cars
4:14
Speaker 2: go past. It really is in the middle of a village,
4:17
Speaker 2: just a beautiful, beautiful spot. But that may not marry
4:21
Speaker 2: with the demands of modern day formula one.
4:23
Speaker 1: Let's be honest, No, unfortunately not, But we'll wait and
4:26
Speaker 1: see what conclusion Formula one comes to. One man who
4:28
Speaker 1: probably had time to absorb some of the scenery in
4:31
Speaker 1: the beauty of this circuit was max for staff and
4:33
Speaker 1: because the victory in the end for him was relatively
4:35
Speaker 1: comfortable there was a point at which he was twenty
4:37
Speaker 1: seconds up the road from the McLaren drivers. Of course
4:39
Speaker 1: the safety car bun to them up towards the end
4:41
Speaker 1: of the race, but nonetheless a control drive of the
4:43
Speaker 1: sort we haven't really seen for him for quite a while.
4:46
Speaker 1: Of course, he won in Japan with that was much
4:48
Speaker 1: more under pressure performance. This one was very found, very
4:52
Speaker 1: much twenty twenty three vintage in summers, which or early
4:54
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, we could call it that a bounce
4:57
Speaker 1: back from a lackluster Friday as well to end up
4:59
Speaker 1: being the most competitive car was Red Bull Racing. What
5:03
Speaker 1: do we take out of this? Was it all down
5:05
Speaker 1: to that stunning move which I suspect we'll talk about
5:08
Speaker 1: a little bit later on over the week at that
5:10
Speaker 1: first chicane on Oscar Piastre. Because while I think victory
5:13
Speaker 1: for Max is never out of the question, this kind
5:16
Speaker 1: of victory felt like it wasn't going to happen this year.
5:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, this kind of victory is exactly right. I think
5:21
Speaker 2: he'll be more disappointed than anyone. We're not going back
5:23
Speaker 2: to IMMLA because every time we turn up there he wins.
5:26
Speaker 2: There's four in a row there now, but there's a
5:31
Speaker 2: there're two very different victories for me, Japan and Immala,
5:34
Speaker 2: much as we were talking about, Suzuka and Imila are
5:36
Speaker 2: in the same breath before. In that Suzuka owed itself
5:39
Speaker 2: to an absolutely otherworldly qualifying lap and then literally I
5:44
Speaker 2: wouldn't say that he was actually blocking, because you can't
5:47
Speaker 2: do that for fifty three laps of Suzuka, but he
5:49
Speaker 2: was not the fastest car, and that race at Suzuka
5:52
Speaker 2: relied on him executing a flawless race making no mistakes,
5:56
Speaker 2: which he did because he's a four time world champion,
5:58
Speaker 2: that's what he does. But that was a race win
6:01
Speaker 2: that I felt he was defending the entire race. This
6:04
Speaker 2: was a race win from that first lap overtake that
6:07
Speaker 2: we'll talk about a little bit later until the end.
6:09
Speaker 2: He bossed this race. He was in control. This is
6:12
Speaker 2: a race he went in one rather than a race
6:14
Speaker 2: that he defended grimly to try and retain. And that was,
6:18
Speaker 2: like you said, I didn't think we were going to
6:20
Speaker 2: see that sort of performance from him this year, maybe
6:24
Speaker 2: at all, or only a few very very certain circuits
6:27
Speaker 2: where we know how good he is, where track position
6:30
Speaker 2: is king. This was a bit sort of you know there,
6:32
Speaker 2: I say, old school early twenty twenty four and all
6:35
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty three max for Stappen on Sunday. I
6:38
Speaker 2: think the thing that was interesting and I'd be curious
6:42
Speaker 2: to see your view on this. Is this a bit
6:44
Speaker 2: of an outlier and that felt that he was in
6:46
Speaker 2: control and everyone was sort of dancing to his tune,
6:48
Speaker 2: which we've seen so many times with him in the past.
6:51
Speaker 2: Or is this the perfect confluence of track position, circuit
6:54
Speaker 2: whear driver is very very good car in a sweeter
6:58
Speaker 2: spot than it has been. All those circumstances conspired to
7:02
Speaker 2: maybe new to the McLaren advantage. Do you see this
7:05
Speaker 2: as maybe being the first point of a trend or
7:08
Speaker 2: do we need more evidence across a wider range of tracks.
7:11
Speaker 2: I'm thinking Barcelona here is a real tell for these cars.
7:16
Speaker 2: Is this happened genuinely in this championship fight or is
7:18
Speaker 2: this just one man on one day operating at the
7:21
Speaker 2: absolute perk of his powers.
7:22
Speaker 1: I think the obvious and boring answer to that is yes,
7:25
Speaker 1: we do need more evidence, because one race is only
7:27
Speaker 1: ever one race. But there was enough in this to
7:29
Speaker 1: make it genuinely intriguing, to make it more than just
7:32
Speaker 1: oh wow, well, that's a little bit interesting because it
7:34
Speaker 1: was the scale of the victory is there are enough
7:38
Speaker 1: There are enough elements in this to explain that Max
7:41
Speaker 1: could have won, and it's probably worth're emphasizing as well
7:44
Speaker 1: that there were elements of this Grand Prix weekend that
7:46
Speaker 1: made the margin look bigger than it was because Oscar
7:48
Speaker 1: Piastri went onto the wrong strategy very early, having lost
7:51
Speaker 1: the lead of the start. Then the timing of the
7:53
Speaker 1: two safety cars were just perfect for Max to ensure
7:56
Speaker 1: that no one was going to challenge him, including the
7:58
Speaker 1: fact that Oscar on old time as was the head
8:00
Speaker 1: of Norris at that safety car race. So there are
8:02
Speaker 1: reasons for this victory a little bigger than it was,
8:05
Speaker 1: but it was comfortable in the end because McLaren just
8:07
Speaker 1: didn't have the pace to match. And that, for me
8:09
Speaker 1: is the interesting part because while this track certainly suited
8:12
Speaker 1: the Red Bull Racing car, we learned that from even
8:14
Speaker 1: the first sector in Miami, we learned that from the
8:16
Speaker 1: general layout in Saudi Arabia and even in suzukra Or
8:20
Speaker 1: that was a version of the car that was just
8:22
Speaker 1: less competitive full stop. That it likes these high speed
8:25
Speaker 1: corners which are pretty much all of this track, so
8:28
Speaker 1: it should have been equal with McLaren. But the fact
8:30
Speaker 1: that it was just ahead of McLaren means, yes, we
8:33
Speaker 1: need more evidence to understand it. But that's really interesting
8:36
Speaker 1: because that is something no one saw coming, including I
8:39
Speaker 1: think Red Bull Racing. Listening to Christian Hornet speak after
8:41
Speaker 1: the race, he was surprised by what he called McLaren's underperformance.
8:44
Speaker 1: McLaren's team Bridge Andrea Stelle said he was surprised that
8:47
Speaker 1: his team couldn't match with the Red Bull Racing car.
8:49
Speaker 1: So I think that in itself makes this such an
8:54
Speaker 1: interesting result because it is so against not just the
8:57
Speaker 1: run of form, but what we understood being the parameters
9:01
Speaker 1: of form this year. And I think Imailer Wallad, I
9:05
Speaker 1: don't think it's an outlier enough, right. I don't think
9:07
Speaker 1: I'm crazy in saying this. We have outlying circuits. We're
9:10
Speaker 1: about to go to the biggest outlier, which is Monaco. Yes,
9:12
Speaker 1: similar is a particular track. It is a narrow it's
9:15
Speaker 1: old school in many ways, but I don't think it's
9:17
Speaker 1: enough of a whacky track, even with these very soft
9:21
Speaker 1: tires which played a role. But I don't think as
9:23
Speaker 1: massive a role as they could have in the end.
9:25
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a whacky enough track to go, well,
9:27
Speaker 1: you know, this is just a one off.
9:29
Speaker 2: I also think this probably you know, it's stating the
9:32
Speaker 2: obvious to a degree, but this might be the best
9:35
Speaker 2: version of Max forstaff. And we've seen in that he
9:37
Speaker 2: doesn't need to have a car advantage. He doesn't even
9:41
Speaker 2: need to be on a par with whatever it is
9:43
Speaker 2: the best car at the time, which is the McLaren.
9:45
Speaker 2: At the moment, he's operating at such a high level
9:48
Speaker 2: that on the days where he can worm, he's way
9:51
Speaker 2: into the front or race from a position of advantage.
9:54
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty three was so hard to gauge how good
9:57
Speaker 2: Max was because the car was absolutely magnific. Say for
10:01
Speaker 2: the one race that he didn't win, and as I've
10:03
Speaker 2: jokingly said before, the car was so good that even
10:05
Speaker 2: Sergio perez One races in it. But it was a
10:08
Speaker 2: fantastic race car, and so we it was, well, the
10:12
Speaker 2: car's brilliant. How well is Max operating here? Even at
10:14
Speaker 2: the start of twenty twenty four, we saw that before
10:17
Speaker 2: McClaren caught up and rapidly overtook them. The way he's
10:21
Speaker 2: operating this year, it's hard to think of too many
10:23
Speaker 2: opportunities that he has let slip. And when he's racing
10:27
Speaker 2: like this, he is like a dog with a bone
10:29
Speaker 2: in that he needs a very very small opening to
10:33
Speaker 2: take advantage of someone else dropping the ball, and then
10:35
Speaker 2: he's not letting that thing go, And that, to me
10:39
Speaker 2: shows you why he's probably the best version that he
10:41
Speaker 2: has ever been. Now the separate question, of course, is
10:44
Speaker 2: how long can this best version keep himself in a
10:46
Speaker 2: realistic championship fight depending on how many eggs Red Bull
10:50
Speaker 2: are still going to put in this twenty twenty five
10:52
Speaker 2: basket with the loom inspector of twenty six and they've
10:54
Speaker 2: got more changes than most to deal with next year,
10:57
Speaker 2: let's be honest. So there's this interesting to push pool
11:00
Speaker 2: here with Red Bull at the moment because they're desperate
11:03
Speaker 2: to keep Max happy, because that's why they exist. You
11:05
Speaker 2: only have to read every Christian Horder press briefing to
11:07
Speaker 2: see how they're operating at the moment in their one
11:11
Speaker 2: car team. But how many eggs do they put in
11:14
Speaker 2: this basket? Where there's a bigger picture here twenty twenty
11:18
Speaker 2: six and beyond is more important in a lot of
11:21
Speaker 2: respects than the remaining seventeen rounds of this season. But
11:25
Speaker 2: will they be tempted to push more chips in for
11:27
Speaker 2: twenty five If for staff and keeps out performing this
11:30
Speaker 2: car to the level that he is, it's an interesting push, Paul.
11:32
Speaker 2: The next two races are so you know, you mentioned
11:34
Speaker 2: Monaco the outlier of outlies, and then followed by Barcelona,
11:38
Speaker 2: and you remember that, you know, the old truism with
11:41
Speaker 2: Catalonia or the two things that the grip would always
11:44
Speaker 2: be teammates on each row, like the animals light up
11:46
Speaker 2: in pairs. Because it's a car specific circuit. You could
11:50
Speaker 2: only do what your car allows you to. It's such
11:53
Speaker 2: a specific racetrack in modern day Formula one, if a
11:56
Speaker 2: car works well in Barcelona, it generally works well just
11:58
Speaker 2: about everywhere. And so I'm super keen to see what
12:01
Speaker 2: Red Bull do there because that might give us an
12:03
Speaker 2: indication as to what they're going to do for the
12:05
Speaker 2: rest of this season. If they're really good at Barcelona,
12:08
Speaker 2: then I think maybe we've got more of a championship
12:10
Speaker 2: fight than we thought.
12:11
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think the other element of this as well
12:13
Speaker 1: is that we've known for most of this season at least,
12:17
Speaker 1: that there is a quick car in that Red Bull
12:20
Speaker 1: Racing car, just as it was the case last year.
12:22
Speaker 1: But it's just that the set up windows become so narrow,
12:24
Speaker 1: it's become so difficult to drive, and that slowed it
12:26
Speaker 1: down trying to find answers. If it's pride open that
12:29
Speaker 1: set up window and this is what it thinks it's
12:31
Speaker 1: done with these upgrades, just enough for Max to drive
12:34
Speaker 1: it regardless of the other car, which foot all intents
12:36
Speaker 1: and purposes, does not exist in the Red Bull plan,
12:39
Speaker 1: then that's enough. Like the car doesn't have to be
12:41
Speaker 1: good in the conventional sense of the word to propel
12:45
Speaker 1: the staff into a championship. It just has to be
12:47
Speaker 1: good enough. And like you say, in the form that
12:49
Speaker 1: he's in at the moment, he'll be able to get
12:51
Speaker 1: the job done. So it's almost must be very tempting,
12:53
Speaker 1: like you say, to put a little bit more into
12:55
Speaker 1: this car, because it might not actually be that much
12:58
Speaker 1: to get it over the line. It might need only
13:00
Speaker 1: just a little bit more finessing. And that'll be something
13:02
Speaker 1: interesting to see in the next few months, really, because
13:05
Speaker 1: I don't think it'll be long before I mean, realistically
13:07
Speaker 1: most teams are already very focused next year, but it
13:09
Speaker 1: won't be long before it's completely shut off. There's the
13:12
Speaker 1: McLaren angle of this as well, though there's the McLaren aspect,
13:14
Speaker 1: which is the team underperformed a little bit, only in
13:17
Speaker 1: the sense that it was slower than Red Bull Racing.
13:19
Speaker 1: The car didn't look like it was particularly difficult to drive.
13:21
Speaker 1: It was fairly happy here, considering the layout wasn't its favorite.
13:25
Speaker 1: Oscar Piastri got pole position with a great qualifying performance
13:27
Speaker 1: from him, so Orlando Norris stumbling Q three, but that
13:30
Speaker 1: seems very much farf of the course this year, and
13:32
Speaker 1: performed better in the Grand Prix. But really the flashpoint
13:35
Speaker 1: for them, well they were in a sense. Two One
13:37
Speaker 1: was its decision to jump very early with strategy with
13:39
Speaker 1: Oscar Piastre that condemned him to know better than third
13:42
Speaker 1: as it turned out. But then there was this idea
13:45
Speaker 1: of team orders. After the safety car, Orlando Norris had
13:48
Speaker 1: fresh tires like Max was stapp and did, but was
13:51
Speaker 1: in third place. The team opted not to tell Oscar
13:54
Speaker 1: to let him pass at the safety car restart, which
13:57
Speaker 1: meant there was definitely no chance they're going to win
13:58
Speaker 1: the race. I think that was the right call. I
14:02
Speaker 1: note that Andrea Stella said afterward didn't think they were
14:04
Speaker 1: fast enough to win anyway. But is it the kind
14:07
Speaker 1: of drive a team pursuing two World championships should be
14:10
Speaker 1: taking that? Well, if you didn't think it was going
14:12
Speaker 1: to happen, then there was no point trying.
14:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you know, there's both things can be
14:16
Speaker 2: true here in that. Was it the correct call? Probably not,
14:18
Speaker 2: because if either of the McLaren drivers had a chance
14:22
Speaker 2: of catching Verstappen, unfortunately for Australian fans, it was an
14:25
Speaker 2: Oscar Piastri because of the tires that he's on and
14:27
Speaker 2: the age of them. If either of those McLaren drivers
14:30
Speaker 2: was going to make Max sweat, it was going to
14:33
Speaker 2: be Norris because they were on the same age of tires.
14:36
Speaker 2: They didn't intervene to give that a chance to happen.
14:39
Speaker 2: Now again, could it have happened, Probably not, so Stelle
14:42
Speaker 2: is probably correct in that regard. But it was interesting
14:45
Speaker 2: in that your cars are second and third, so you're
14:47
Speaker 2: going to score the same amount of constructors points no
14:49
Speaker 2: matter what. Fourth was not in the equation, so you
14:52
Speaker 2: had a nailed on double podium. They didn't give Red
14:56
Speaker 2: Bull anything really to think about by just as soon
14:59
Speaker 2: as the he race restarted after that second, after the
15:02
Speaker 2: Antonelli safety car. They didn't make Red Bull blink in
15:06
Speaker 2: that regard because it took Norris a couple of laps
15:08
Speaker 2: to get past Piastre, which he did because he had
15:11
Speaker 2: fresher tires and the team didn't intervene. So there was
15:14
Speaker 2: an outside chance they could have made for Stappen sweat.
15:18
Speaker 2: But outside is the keyword. I don't think he was
15:20
Speaker 2: being beaten by Eia McLaren on that day, let alone
15:23
Speaker 2: the one with the correct ties at the time, let
15:24
Speaker 2: alone the one that wasn't. So maybe both things can
15:26
Speaker 2: be true in that regard.
15:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I do you know, Look, Andreastella is going
15:30
Speaker 1: to have to play some level of politics if it
15:33
Speaker 1: does become a Red Bull racing fight, because Christen Horner
15:35
Speaker 1: won't let him not. Maybe he won't rise to the bait,
15:38
Speaker 1: but there'll be a lot of it out there. But
15:40
Speaker 1: I do tend to trust his interpretations of the races.
15:42
Speaker 1: There's not too much mayonnaise on a lot of his
15:44
Speaker 1: commentary because he's an engineer, yes, not like a team vincible.
15:47
Speaker 1: First he came from an engineering background. A lot of
15:50
Speaker 1: what he says fields pretty ground. But maybe he's just
15:52
Speaker 1: playing a better game than anyone else to have everyone
15:54
Speaker 1: believing everything he says. But I'm inclined to believe his
15:58
Speaker 1: assessment of it. Let's move, Matt now to move the
16:02
Speaker 1: week brought to you by Shannons, and I feel like
16:04
Speaker 1: this is a big and obvious one. More overtaking, I've
16:06
Speaker 1: got to be said, when I was thinking about this
16:08
Speaker 1: before this weekend, I thought this is going to be
16:09
Speaker 1: quite a grim segment, but actually it ended up being
16:12
Speaker 1: pretty good. There's quite a bit of overtaken, quite a
16:14
Speaker 1: bit of racing over the course of the weekend. But
16:17
Speaker 1: I'm going to start this one off first of all
16:18
Speaker 1: because I think the winner here is obvious, and that
16:21
Speaker 1: is Max for staffen on Oscar Piastri at the start.
16:24
Speaker 1: A lot of Look, we've all seen a lot of
16:26
Speaker 1: first lap overtakes, including for the lead, but I genuinely
16:30
Speaker 1: gasped when he made this move watching on the television
16:33
Speaker 1: because it was gutsy a little bit surprise. Oscar left
16:36
Speaker 1: the door open so wide, but nonetheless Max had to
16:39
Speaker 1: pin him to that first apex to ensure there could
16:42
Speaker 1: be no fight back to ensure there could be no
16:43
Speaker 1: running off the road as it happened in Saudi Arabia.
16:46
Speaker 1: It was gutsy. He trusted the car, he trusted the
16:49
Speaker 1: level of grip and pulled off what was a decisive
16:53
Speaker 1: move in terms of the victory. And that's probably, you know,
16:56
Speaker 1: if we're talking about Max being in such good form,
16:58
Speaker 1: and particularly in this race where he just looked like
17:00
Speaker 1: old fashioned Max, if we want to call him that,
17:02
Speaker 1: this was the move. I think that summed it up.
17:04
Speaker 1: It was a championship style move and we shouldn't be
17:07
Speaker 1: surprised he's capable of pulling them off. But it's been
17:09
Speaker 1: a while, I think, for a long time, maybe never
17:12
Speaker 1: in this context that we've seen Oscar subjected to such
17:14
Speaker 1: a movement. It took Max to do it well.
17:15
Speaker 2: And you said the word gasp. I did the same
17:18
Speaker 2: thing because my first thought was you can't pass there.
17:20
Speaker 2: It just cannot pass them at Immler and I think
17:24
Speaker 2: the lead up to it, he'd actually got off the
17:26
Speaker 2: line pretty poorly and I thought, wow, he might be third,
17:30
Speaker 2: he might be passed by George Russell on the rundown
17:32
Speaker 2: to this first big pinch point and from basically nowhere
17:36
Speaker 2: and no wheel banging and all the other silliness that
17:40
Speaker 2: goes on with some of these other stapp and passes
17:41
Speaker 2: that we've seen. So my first thought was breathtaking. I
17:44
Speaker 2: did would audibly gasp. It was a spectacular move. And
17:48
Speaker 2: then part of me was like, so why does he
17:50
Speaker 2: resort to all this other nonsense by opening the steering
17:53
Speaker 2: and running people into the runoff when you can do
17:56
Speaker 2: something like that it is I am really struggling to
17:59
Speaker 2: think of a better first lap move that he has
18:02
Speaker 2: done to take the lead, and at a track where
18:04
Speaker 2: you know there's not going to be many opportunities to
18:06
Speaker 2: do this, Like you, I was a little bit surprised
18:10
Speaker 2: at Oscar Piastre has become someone who is very very
18:15
Speaker 2: decisive with his own overtaking and is a really stubborn
18:19
Speaker 2: person in those will to will battles, and whether he also,
18:22
Speaker 2: like me, he didn't think that it was possible for
18:24
Speaker 2: Max to come from the angle that he came and
18:26
Speaker 2: take that first quarter. I thought that he was a
18:29
Speaker 2: little bit passive, and which is not something you often
18:31
Speaker 2: say with Oscar, And look, I don't think if there's
18:34
Speaker 2: a similar situation in the future. This is one you
18:36
Speaker 2: file away as this is a learning experience. I won't
18:39
Speaker 2: do that again. So the door was partially left open,
18:42
Speaker 2: but my goodness, he had to threat the needle to
18:44
Speaker 2: make that work. And I love the fact that it
18:46
Speaker 2: was clean and decisive and we were running off the
18:49
Speaker 2: track and getting all this he pushed me off, all
18:51
Speaker 2: that sort of stuff. It was just absolutely clinical. Move
18:55
Speaker 2: of the week. Yes, probably move of the season since
18:58
Speaker 2: we've been doing this. Yeah. I do also like the
19:02
Speaker 2: fact that not only do you introduce this segment, you
19:04
Speaker 2: take the obvious answer to this one. So you leave
19:06
Speaker 2: me scrambling because I know what sort of a bloke
19:08
Speaker 2: you are in these sorts of situations. I can't prepared.
19:12
Speaker 2: So I will give you the fruit that's hanging so
19:15
Speaker 2: low that it's on the ground. I'll reach a little
19:16
Speaker 2: higher up the tree. My move of the week is
19:20
Speaker 2: Alex Albon recorded his third top five finished of the
19:24
Speaker 2: year in the first seven rounds for Williams on Sunday.
19:28
Speaker 2: It's now the most successful season in his tenure at Williams.
19:32
Speaker 2: After seven rounds, he has scored forty points this season
19:36
Speaker 2: and it's gone. It's gone beyond the Oh wow, look,
19:39
Speaker 2: Alex Albon's doing well today. This is all very nice
19:41
Speaker 2: and interesting to the point now where you are absolutely
19:45
Speaker 2: expecting him to be in Q three, and you are
19:46
Speaker 2: absolutely expecting him to be there, to be ahead of
19:50
Speaker 2: the second Red borord about her who it is this
19:52
Speaker 2: driving it and possibly mixing it with some Ferraris and
19:54
Speaker 2: if Mercedes are a little bit off, he's almost the
19:57
Speaker 2: guy now that he's inherited the Fernando a lot so
19:59
Speaker 2: ronger or two years ago, and that if one of
20:01
Speaker 2: those top teams was going to drop the ball, there
20:03
Speaker 2: was going to be a green Aston Martin in there
20:04
Speaker 2: and start twenty twenty three, Albon just gets better and
20:08
Speaker 2: better and better. And of course the other thing I
20:10
Speaker 2: keep thinking is he'd look pretty good in that second
20:12
Speaker 2: red Bull, right, But that's a that's a story from
20:16
Speaker 2: a by good era. But that's going to be my
20:18
Speaker 2: My move of the week is Alex Albon elevating himself
20:21
Speaker 2: above anything else he's done in his Williams tenure and
20:24
Speaker 2: making that team more credible by the weekend. So a
20:27
Speaker 2: slightly left field move of the week, but that's where
20:29
Speaker 2: I'm going now.
20:30
Speaker 1: I like it a lot. It is a great Move
20:32
Speaker 1: of the Week contender, considering it's not just his second
20:34
Speaker 1: fifth place in a row, but it's the second week
20:36
Speaker 1: in a row he's been racing the Ferraris and beating
20:39
Speaker 1: at least one of them after of course the Miami
20:42
Speaker 1: Grand Prix as well. It is a remarkable situation for
20:45
Speaker 1: him to find himself there. I feel like he's the
20:47
Speaker 1: right guy to find himself there as well, because he
20:50
Speaker 1: just's he's obviously undaunted by racing at the front, because
20:53
Speaker 1: he's done it before, it's been successful elsewhere, and then
20:56
Speaker 1: of course did race at the front briefly with Red
20:58
Speaker 1: Bull Racing as well before he was dropped from the tea.
21:00
Speaker 1: But just feels like the right guy to just, oh,
21:03
Speaker 1: there's another opportunity. I'm going to take that. Another opportunity
21:05
Speaker 1: from it, I'm going to take that one as well.
21:07
Speaker 1: Nothing seems to trip him up when the race unfolds,
21:10
Speaker 1: either for or against him. He's exactly the right guy
21:13
Speaker 1: to suddenly be dicing with Charle Clair and then, had
21:16
Speaker 1: he not been run off the road, an interesting bit
21:19
Speaker 1: of contentious driving slash stewarding slash interpretation of the rules
21:24
Speaker 1: as to whether or not he was entitled to that corner.
21:26
Speaker 1: Everyone talking themselves in nots a little bit about that one.
21:29
Speaker 1: But nonetheless, had he not been off the road, felt
21:31
Speaker 1: like he could have raced not just Lewis Hamilton, but
21:33
Speaker 1: even Oscar Piastre for third. And he doesn't say that
21:37
Speaker 1: stuff just for fun, like he's not because williams the
21:39
Speaker 1: position that's in. It's not making things up when it
21:41
Speaker 1: says that genuinely felt like he had that pace remarkable,
21:44
Speaker 1: And I think particularly because and he segues us very
21:48
Speaker 1: well to our subsequent talking topic, which was going to
21:51
Speaker 1: be how Ferrari's doing and William's doing it at the
21:54
Speaker 1: same time. But for him to be doing this at
21:56
Speaker 1: a track they didn't expect to be competitive at. You know,
21:58
Speaker 1: they knew Miami was probably are going to suit them.
22:00
Speaker 1: They think that the Monico will suit them as well.
22:02
Speaker 1: So it's a good chance for them to go back
22:04
Speaker 1: to back to back with some big performance. It's but
22:06
Speaker 1: at a track where the car shouldn't have been that
22:09
Speaker 1: good to roll out and actually be pretty good. And
22:11
Speaker 1: both cars were good. Carlos Science was made a little
22:13
Speaker 1: bit unlucky by the secety car timings and such. That's
22:16
Speaker 1: a massive vote of confidence for Williams, not just this season,
22:20
Speaker 1: but it's the same guys of course developing next year's
22:23
Speaker 1: car that they started developing pretty much from the first
22:25
Speaker 1: of January and ignored this car. There's got to be
22:28
Speaker 1: a bit of optimism now for Williams in even the
22:30
Speaker 1: short term.
22:31
Speaker 2: It's been so long since we've actually had a sensible
22:34
Speaker 2: conversation about Williams being a legitimate Formula One team. You know,
22:38
Speaker 2: we've obviously thought so much about their heritage and where
22:40
Speaker 2: they've come from and the success, but they've not been
22:42
Speaker 2: that team for a very very long time now. And
22:45
Speaker 2: I guess you know your point made about twenty six
22:48
Speaker 2: and they're all in for twenty six. They should be
22:50
Speaker 2: all in for twenty six. But if we didn't have
22:52
Speaker 2: a big rule change for next year, it'd be so
22:54
Speaker 2: interesting to see given this start that they've had, It's
22:57
Speaker 2: fifty one points in the constructors now after seven rounds,
22:59
Speaker 2: which is just not something Williams has done for a
23:01
Speaker 2: really long time. It'd be so interesting if we had
23:04
Speaker 2: another year of this rule set next year and they
23:07
Speaker 2: really kept on developing that car. I trust what they
23:11
Speaker 2: do at a week to week basis right now more
23:14
Speaker 2: than any team other than McLaren to be quite honest,
23:16
Speaker 2: because Rebel, we know, can be in that sweet spot
23:19
Speaker 2: where the Stappa can win races, or it can be
23:21
Speaker 2: frustratingly nowhere Mercedes if the sun comes out, no good. Ferrari?
23:26
Speaker 2: Who Ferrari? Look, they don't know, so why are we
23:29
Speaker 2: supposed to know? Like to me, they're almost the second
23:32
Speaker 2: and most believable team in Formula One, not right now,
23:34
Speaker 2: because there's a sense of comfort when you watch them.
23:36
Speaker 2: It goes, Yeah, I think I know what I'm going
23:38
Speaker 2: to get from these guys, and they're just delivering race
23:40
Speaker 2: after race.
23:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, there is a consistency about it now, and I
23:43
Speaker 1: thought it was. It was telling an important Carlos signed
23:46
Speaker 1: set afterwards because he felt like mistakes were made over
23:48
Speaker 1: the course of the race. He said, well, this is
23:50
Speaker 1: the year for those mistakes to be made. Yeah. Next
23:52
Speaker 1: year it's the real deal, because they think they'll have
23:54
Speaker 1: a car, whether the obviously no one knows where the
23:56
Speaker 1: cars are going to be, but they think they're going
23:57
Speaker 1: to have a competitive generally car, a step forward on
24:00
Speaker 1: this year's car, or this car has been better than
24:02
Speaker 1: I think they thought it was going to be. In
24:03
Speaker 1: the preseason. This is the time to bed those things down.
24:07
Speaker 1: It does feel like where McLaren was maybe two years ago.
24:09
Speaker 1: And I speak again not necessarily for the relative competiti risks,
24:12
Speaker 1: because no one knows next year, but two years ago
24:14
Speaker 1: where suddenly McLaren was more competitive than it thought it
24:17
Speaker 1: was going to be and was suddenly making these decisions
24:19
Speaker 1: that had much more weight because this wasn't about whether
24:22
Speaker 1: or not you finished twelve or thirteenth, but it could
24:23
Speaker 1: be a matter of whether or not you score, or
24:25
Speaker 1: potentially whether or not it's the top five or maybe
24:28
Speaker 1: even depending on the track, a podium. I mean that
24:30
Speaker 1: can't be totally out of the question. If the front
24:32
Speaker 1: runners are as chaotically placed as they are at the moment,
24:36
Speaker 1: they carry a lot more weight. The risk feels much
24:38
Speaker 1: better that bigger. The stakes are obviously much larger, you
24:40
Speaker 1: bet in those decision making protocols. Now, you know they
24:44
Speaker 1: talked about it in Miami, where there was a bit
24:45
Speaker 1: of a frakka about the team orders. They realized they
24:48
Speaker 1: made a mistake in the way they ran it. They're
24:50
Speaker 1: not going to do it again. Next year could be
24:52
Speaker 1: really promising, and obviously they have a driver line up
24:54
Speaker 1: to do it. You know, I feel like Alex Alboin
24:56
Speaker 1: has improved this year with Carlos Science next to him.
24:57
Speaker 1: Carlos Science know how good he is, and it feels
24:59
Speaker 1: like he's finally found his feet. It's an exciting time
25:03
Speaker 1: to be with him as a long time as we
25:04
Speaker 1: said that a couple of decades, but it's coming back around.
25:08
Speaker 2: It is, and I just think there's a there's leadership,
25:12
Speaker 2: there's a pathway there. They've got a terrific driver lineup.
25:16
Speaker 2: They don't go down the path of over promising and
25:19
Speaker 2: under delivering. Everything's very sensible. They feel like a legitimate
25:22
Speaker 2: Formula One team again, and it's been painful to watch
25:26
Speaker 2: them not be that for so so long, floundering around.
25:30
Speaker 2: They now seem like a legit F one team, Like
25:32
Speaker 2: are they ever going to get back to their championship
25:34
Speaker 2: winning pomp of days? Look, I don't think so. I
25:36
Speaker 2: don't think a team like that can succeed like that
25:40
Speaker 2: in Formula One anymore. Now I'm happy to be proven
25:42
Speaker 2: incorrect on that one. But I can't necessarily see that.
25:45
Speaker 2: But as you know, you're not looking down to the
25:47
Speaker 2: last row of the grid to find them sadly just
25:50
Speaker 2: making up the numbers anymore. They feel like a legit
25:52
Speaker 2: Formula One team in my unofficial scale in my head
25:55
Speaker 2: of which team principle would you want running, you know,
25:58
Speaker 2: pit talk GP when we start our own Formula one team,
26:02
Speaker 2: James vows would be fairly close to the top of
26:04
Speaker 2: my list. Listeners could probably work out through the rest
26:08
Speaker 2: of our episodes wh'd be down towards the bottom, but
26:09
Speaker 2: that's up to you. But he is. He feels like
26:13
Speaker 2: the right guy at the right time to lead this
26:14
Speaker 2: team in its current state, making the best of what
26:17
Speaker 2: they have, and I'm super interested to see what they
26:20
Speaker 2: do in twenty twenty six because all the pieces seem
26:23
Speaker 2: to be in place for them to take a step up.
26:26
Speaker 2: Where that leaves in the pecking order, we don't know,
26:28
Speaker 2: but it feels like something we should be watching.
26:30
Speaker 1: So let's slip this one around to the other perspective now.
26:33
Speaker 1: Because Williams has been benefiting off Ferrari's missteps. That's been
26:36
Speaker 1: pretty clear of the last two rounds at least. But
26:39
Speaker 1: the fact for the last two weekends we've been talking
26:41
Speaker 1: about Ferrari finishing behind Williams at least one car or
26:45
Speaker 1: both Ferraris in the case of the performance in Miami
26:49
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago. I mean that is remarkable
26:52
Speaker 1: in itself. I think you made the comment two weeks ago,
26:54
Speaker 1: what is this nineteen ninety seven. Yes, that's what it
26:57
Speaker 1: feels like. We're talking about a really rollercoaster a weekend
27:00
Speaker 1: for Ferrari, its first home race of the year, Lewis
27:02
Speaker 1: Hamilton's first home Ferrari race as well. It's worse qualifying
27:07
Speaker 1: by far of the year. On Saturday, both drivers relatively
27:11
Speaker 1: closely matts or just in qualifying, but over the course
27:13
Speaker 1: of the weekend, so it sort of tells you that
27:15
Speaker 1: usually when that's the case, you're getting the most out
27:17
Speaker 1: of the car, and this car just was not a
27:18
Speaker 1: top ten car, I believe. I read the statistic that's
27:21
Speaker 1: the lowest Ferraris ever qualified in Himmel ever, which is
27:24
Speaker 1: pretty sad. But then on Sunday better In fact, race
27:30
Speaker 1: pace looked pretty good. It's got to be said, Lewis
27:32
Speaker 1: Hamilton finished on your second half behind Oscar Piastre. Yes,
27:35
Speaker 1: he was on quite a different strategy in Piastre had
27:37
Speaker 1: been hobbled by his own strategy in the timings of
27:39
Speaker 1: the safety cars. But nonetheless he was there. He was
27:42
Speaker 1: in contention for a little bit. Charlot Clair could have
27:44
Speaker 1: finished right behind him, but for that Alex Albon scuffle
27:47
Speaker 1: that they decided was better to give the position back
27:49
Speaker 1: than risk a penalty that could have dropped him out
27:51
Speaker 1: of the points. This is the first time, Matt, that
27:54
Speaker 1: I've kind of been tempted to believe the arguments from
28:00
Speaker 1: Ferrari that actually there's a quick car in there, but
28:02
Speaker 1: it can't qualify well, and that's the problem. What did
28:06
Speaker 1: you make of this weekend? Because I think it's a
28:08
Speaker 1: complicated one really to sum up in the sense of
28:10
Speaker 1: what it tells us about where Ferrari actually is, You're.
28:14
Speaker 2: A kind of man than me, which not just in
28:16
Speaker 2: this instance, just in life generally. Let's pull the curtain back.
28:19
Speaker 2: Let's be real about this, but is there a quick
28:22
Speaker 2: car in there? Look? Probably, do I have any faith
28:26
Speaker 2: in Ferrari knowing how to extract that, and then once
28:30
Speaker 2: they know how to extract that, to be able to
28:32
Speaker 2: repeat it. Because this is the way you build a
28:35
Speaker 2: championship campaign over ten months and twenty four rounds. You
28:39
Speaker 2: only have to look at the way the mood and
28:42
Speaker 2: the performance has swing so violently within twenty four hours,
28:46
Speaker 2: as in the case of the m of the weekend,
28:48
Speaker 2: dreadful Saturday, absolutely nowhere on Saturday, and then on Sunday
28:52
Speaker 2: like Lewis Hamilton's finished fourth. That's lovely, which is great.
28:55
Speaker 2: It's great that they've got a result. Theyn't get me wrong,
28:57
Speaker 2: you know it's fos. He went home relatively happy because
29:00
Speaker 2: from such an underperforming Saturday. If you'd said to this
29:03
Speaker 2: FOCI before the weekend, your cars will finish fourth and six,
29:05
Speaker 2: they would have said, well, that's a bit rubbish. But
29:07
Speaker 2: given the way that Saturday went, Sunday probably seemed like
29:10
Speaker 2: a bit of a victory in some degree.
29:11
Speaker 1: But I.
29:14
Speaker 2: Don't trust what they're going to deliver on a race
29:17
Speaker 2: to race basis, and I'm not surprised anymore when it's
29:21
Speaker 2: really really good or really really bad, because there seems
29:24
Speaker 2: to be no middle ground and they just vacillate wildly
29:28
Speaker 2: from one extreme to the next. So look, do I
29:30
Speaker 2: think this, I mean, we know your point in about qualifying,
29:33
Speaker 2: where you've got two drivers very very close to one another,
29:36
Speaker 2: absolutely positioned nowhere, shows you that they've got the they've
29:41
Speaker 2: got the guys behind the wheel to do the job.
29:42
Speaker 2: We know how good these two guys are, even with
29:44
Speaker 2: Lewis Hamilton, you know, taking some time to settle into
29:47
Speaker 2: Ferrari by the same token, I just can't. I can't
29:51
Speaker 2: trust that they're going to get on top of what
29:54
Speaker 2: they need to get on top of on a week's
29:55
Speaker 2: a week basis to be able to fight for these
29:57
Speaker 2: sorts of positions, because to my mind, you've got these.
30:01
Speaker 2: You know, McLaren is the best car right now. Vestappan's
30:03
Speaker 2: doing amazing things in a Red Bull. George Russell's quietly
30:06
Speaker 2: having an excellent season in a Mercedes, and I'm not
30:09
Speaker 2: one hundred percent I think he's outperforming maybe the capability
30:12
Speaker 2: of that car. By the way I described that, to me,
30:14
Speaker 2: there's a space there for Ferrari to quite neatly slot
30:17
Speaker 2: into if they can get things right and be consistent
30:20
Speaker 2: with their performance. But they can't get things right and
30:22
Speaker 2: be consistent with their performance. Just the wild fluctuations week
30:26
Speaker 2: to week is the thing that's confusing me the most.
30:28
Speaker 2: And I don't one hundred percent trust that they even
30:31
Speaker 2: know the answer to this themselves, But I guess look
30:33
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, Lewis Hamilton finished fourth,
30:35
Speaker 2: Charla Clair finished sixth. We move on Monaco, massive outliary,
30:39
Speaker 2: as you said, but at what point do they start
30:41
Speaker 2: turning a tap off and thinking about twenty twenty six?
30:44
Speaker 2: But can you approach twenty twenty six with any confidence
30:46
Speaker 2: that you'll understand how things are going where it doesn't
30:49
Speaker 2: appear that they've got their head around twenty twenty five.
30:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, we really Remarkably, the Italian media has been reporting
30:55
Speaker 1: that Ferrari intends to continue some level of development until
30:58
Speaker 1: the mid season break, which seems quite late for these regulations.
31:01
Speaker 1: A lot of that's going to be mechanical, which they
31:03
Speaker 1: feel like could cross over into some lessons for next
31:06
Speaker 1: year because mechanically, I guess the cars are, you know,
31:09
Speaker 1: four wheels and some suspension on them. Fine, I'll kind
31:12
Speaker 1: of buy that. But it nonetheless feels like a lot
31:14
Speaker 1: of focus on this year's car. But I think that
31:15
Speaker 1: does speak to, as you we are alluding to, their
31:18
Speaker 1: the need for the team to understand why this year's
31:21
Speaker 1: car has gone wrong when it felt like they had
31:23
Speaker 1: a lot of momentum behind them last season, and you know,
31:26
Speaker 1: looking at this this weekend overall, it was really interesting
31:28
Speaker 1: as well. I think considering the drivers seem so closely
31:32
Speaker 1: matched that the different responses from those drivers, both in
31:34
Speaker 1: qualifying and in the race, you know, no one was presenting.
31:37
Speaker 1: Qualifying was good, but Lewis Hamilton was almost bizarrely upbeat.
31:41
Speaker 1: It's like it finally come to terms with what Ferrari
31:44
Speaker 1: was all about. But this was going to be it,
31:46
Speaker 1: and this is the dream that he wanted to be living.
31:48
Speaker 1: But then the same after the race, now as he
31:50
Speaker 1: finished fourth, which is his best Grand Prix result of
31:53
Speaker 1: the year, certainly, so I guess he had some reason
31:54
Speaker 1: to feel good. But he had a fun race, I guess.
31:57
Speaker 1: But even though Charlotte Their could have finished right behind
31:59
Speaker 1: him and lost that position was disappointed by but Nonethelairs
32:02
Speaker 1: remained very pessimistic about where Ferrari was and I feel
32:06
Speaker 1: like you could probably certainly my interpretation of it is
32:08
Speaker 1: that Hamilton's the new guy there. He's still growing into
32:12
Speaker 1: the role. So every weekend probably does feel a little
32:13
Speaker 1: bit better and better for him, genuinely, but he can't
32:16
Speaker 1: exactly go out and the meaning go go. This team's
32:19
Speaker 1: just no good apologizing on behalf of to the fans.
32:21
Speaker 1: Whereas Charlotte Clair as the credit at the bank. With Ferrari,
32:24
Speaker 1: he is the Ferrari lifer. Yes, he can go out
32:27
Speaker 1: and say, we can only apologize. I'm not a miracle worker.
32:30
Speaker 1: This is what the car's capable of. This is it.
32:33
Speaker 1: I think that that was quite interesting. So I think
32:35
Speaker 1: if you were to draw an interpretation from the drivers,
32:38
Speaker 1: I'd be more inclined to take the cues from.
32:41
Speaker 2: Leclair here completely.
32:42
Speaker 1: That's much less rosy a picture, no.
32:46
Speaker 2: Lewis, Hamilton's watching the movie for the first time, Charlotte
32:49
Speaker 2: Claire's watching the movie for the sixth time, and he
32:51
Speaker 2: knows how it ends. And I think that's the difference
32:53
Speaker 2: between the two of them at the moment, is that
32:55
Speaker 2: Hamilton sees a glass that you could probably put war into,
32:58
Speaker 2: and Nale close going, oh man, this feels a bit
33:01
Speaker 2: like a previous year, at a previous year, at a
33:02
Speaker 2: previous year before that. But I do wonder you mentioned
33:04
Speaker 2: the Italian media before, who are not known for being
33:07
Speaker 2: hugely rational. What times of Ferrari underperformance. I wonder how
33:11
Speaker 2: much of a free pass. I wonder how much grace
33:15
Speaker 2: they're being given this year, because Ferrari can always say, well, look,
33:19
Speaker 2: we're focusing so much on next year. We're focusing on
33:21
Speaker 2: next year. Next year is the big chance. I wonder
33:23
Speaker 2: if they're getting a little bit of a free a
33:25
Speaker 2: free pass from what can be a very very critical
33:28
Speaker 2: media corps and fan base because there is always next year.
33:31
Speaker 2: And sometimes you can say that in the same set
33:33
Speaker 2: of regulations and you're to use one of your favorite
33:36
Speaker 2: saying it's kicking the can down the road. But next
33:38
Speaker 2: year we've got a whole new can. So perhaps that's
33:41
Speaker 2: what they're thinking about.
33:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're right. From my reading of what's
33:44
Speaker 1: been published in the Italian media, surprisingly muted, I think
33:47
Speaker 1: I think they know it's much more about the car.
33:49
Speaker 1: Lewis Hamilton's not coming in too much for too much
33:52
Speaker 1: stick when I think that you possibly could have after
33:55
Speaker 1: the last few races or the last couple have been
33:57
Speaker 1: much better. So that's good for him. But I think
33:59
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six does get them a little bit out
34:01
Speaker 1: of jail. I'll have to wait and see what happens
34:03
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six. Perhaps you'd like to predict it
34:06
Speaker 1: in the crystal Ball brought to you by Complete Home Filtration.
34:09
Speaker 1: Before we wrap up. Of course, it's important to look
34:11
Speaker 1: forward to the future. We're in the thick of some
34:13
Speaker 1: really quite a lot of racing between Formula One and
34:16
Speaker 1: Motor GP and then before a couple of weeks Supercars
34:18
Speaker 1: as well, because well for the European sports, we are
34:21
Speaker 1: in the European leg of the season when the races
34:23
Speaker 1: come pretty thick and fast. I'll give you the first
34:26
Speaker 1: one now, Matt, since you didn't like me going first.
34:29
Speaker 1: For change in the r move of the week, it's
34:31
Speaker 1: up to you. You can kick us off.
34:32
Speaker 2: That's fine, I'll allow it just this once. But I
34:35
Speaker 2: congratulations on the excellent professional segue you just manished to
34:38
Speaker 2: stitch together there. But we have one of those crazy
34:43
Speaker 2: motorsport weekends where we have Formula one and Motor GP
34:46
Speaker 2: in Europe at about the same time. So we have
34:48
Speaker 2: a Moto GP sprint at Silveston at one am on
34:51
Speaker 2: Sunday morning. One for the enthusiasts at me, I would say,
34:55
Speaker 2: but I'm going to go two wheels with my prediction
34:58
Speaker 2: this weekend. And this doesn't sound like an outlandish prediction
35:01
Speaker 2: until you look at recent history and history over a decade.
35:04
Speaker 2: I'm picking Mark Marquees to win the British Motorcycle Grand
35:07
Speaker 2: Prix on Sunday at Silveston the ten pm start. You
35:10
Speaker 2: go out on a limboy day here us. He hasn't
35:13
Speaker 2: won either of the last two Grand Prix this season,
35:16
Speaker 2: and he hasn't won the British Motorcycle Grand Prix since
35:19
Speaker 2: two thousand and fourteen. Wow, that's how long it has been.
35:23
Speaker 2: His second motor GP season, where he won the first
35:26
Speaker 2: ten races of that season, Silverston being one of them.
35:29
Speaker 2: He's nearly won the British Grand Prix several times since.
35:31
Speaker 2: I remember the one where he was beaten by about
35:34
Speaker 2: half a wheel by Alex Rinz on a Suzuki back
35:36
Speaker 2: in nineteen astonishing to think he hasn't won at this
35:39
Speaker 2: circuit for eleven years, so given the form that he's
35:43
Speaker 2: in and the bike that he's on, surely that's one
35:45
Speaker 2: of those.
35:46
Speaker 1: Look.
35:46
Speaker 2: He hadn't won at Catafa t years either, and he
35:48
Speaker 2: managed to do that back in round four. So I'm
35:51
Speaker 2: predicting of Mark Marquez win, but not just Oh Mark
35:53
Speaker 2: Marqueess is going to turn up and annihilate everybody. This
35:55
Speaker 2: is a track where he hasn't gone particularly well relative
35:58
Speaker 2: to some of the ones that he does but this
36:00
Speaker 2: Sunday for me is the end of that streak. And
36:03
Speaker 2: what's more interesting for me is that I did a
36:06
Speaker 2: little digging for a piece of Fox Sports earlier in
36:08
Speaker 2: the week and when he finished second to Joan Zaco
36:11
Speaker 2: at Lemon in all of his career podiums, that's the
36:14
Speaker 2: most It's the furthest behind first place he's ever been.
36:17
Speaker 2: When he finished second to Grand Prix Yes, over nineteen seconds,
36:21
Speaker 2: I go won that race by So it's the most
36:23
Speaker 2: that Marquez has been beaten by in a race when
36:25
Speaker 2: he's finished second in his entire career. He scored more
36:28
Speaker 2: points in Lemont than the next five guys on the
36:31
Speaker 2: championship table combined. So two things for me, I think
36:35
Speaker 2: this is the last time we've seen the matter GP
36:37
Speaker 2: Championship league change for the entire year. And when we
36:40
Speaker 2: look back at the end of twenty twenty five as
36:42
Speaker 2: to what was the decisive moment, it might be a
36:44
Speaker 2: race that he was beaten to second place by more
36:47
Speaker 2: than he'd been beaten in his entire career that ended
36:51
Speaker 2: up being the decisive race of the World Championship. So
36:53
Speaker 2: all that being said, I'm predicting a Mark Marquez win
36:56
Speaker 2: for Sunday at Silverston. But while where christ Balling and
37:01
Speaker 2: Chris my crystal Ball last week, I'm going to burn
37:03
Speaker 2: any evidence of that because it was very, very very bad.
37:06
Speaker 2: Where are you going for this weekend, given that we've
37:08
Speaker 2: got a fearbit going on, including Monaco and eighty five
37:10
Speaker 2: hundred as well.
37:11
Speaker 1: Yes, and no Infinelly on the podium fil Crystaball. Yes,
37:14
Speaker 1: the Indy five hundred with Robert Schwartzman on pole position. Yes,
37:17
Speaker 1: which is I mean, look, I'm no IndyCar for Shionado,
37:20
Speaker 1: so I don't pretend to know too much about the
37:21
Speaker 1: ins and outs of it. But that is pretty remarkabul
37:23
Speaker 1: for the premier team, which I think has no I
37:26
Speaker 1: was reading, has no major backer. They're just having a
37:29
Speaker 1: crack and they've had a good crack and over the
37:33
Speaker 1: course of the race, remarkable stuff. But no, my crystal Ball.
37:36
Speaker 1: I'll stick with Formula one, the Monaco Grand Prix, the
37:38
Speaker 1: big one, well one of the big ones, I suppose.
37:41
Speaker 1: I'm going to go with a little sort of statistical
37:43
Speaker 1: cadence here because since twenty twenty one had been not
37:45
Speaker 1: that long ago, Max Ustaffan has won every other year
37:48
Speaker 1: in Monaco, it's either been win or well not win. Obviously,
37:52
Speaker 1: it's a nice little pattern, so I think he's going
37:54
Speaker 1: to be due for one this year because that's what
37:55
Speaker 1: the pattern says. This would be though, his first back
37:58
Speaker 1: to back victories since Canada in Spain pretty much this
38:01
Speaker 1: time last year. That of course preceded the ten Grand
38:04
Speaker 1: Prix drought that completely swung the constructors championships certainly, but
38:08
Speaker 1: also understanding of form in Formula One because it was
38:10
Speaker 1: the resurgence of McLaren So I think he can win
38:13
Speaker 1: in Monaco as well. This is a track that should
38:15
Speaker 1: not suit this car, but it will be a massive
38:18
Speaker 1: signifier of the idea that actually Red Bull Racing's probably
38:21
Speaker 1: figured out its car. I've just looked at the weather
38:22
Speaker 1: forecast as well. Saturday could be raining, so you know what,
38:26
Speaker 1: I think it could just about stack up, and we
38:28
Speaker 1: know the race is one really in qualifying in Monaco,
38:30
Speaker 1: so I don't got to put it past him.
38:32
Speaker 2: I don't mind that at all. The thing I love
38:34
Speaker 2: about Monico best Q three of the year, the Q
38:37
Speaker 2: three there in twenty twenty three, the lap that vestappen
38:40
Speaker 2: we pinbare off the barriers a couple of times in
38:42
Speaker 2: the last sector to beat Fernando altso we thought he
38:44
Speaker 2: had pole. It's the best Q three of the year
38:46
Speaker 2: and probably the worst race of the year. Whispered it quietly,
38:49
Speaker 2: but qualifying at Monaco, washing those cars on the limit,
38:53
Speaker 2: no fuel in them, guys absolutely ragging it. Knowing what's
38:56
Speaker 2: at stake on the Sunday is absolute must ce TV
38:59
Speaker 2: and I'm very much looking forward to that.
39:01
Speaker 1: Yes, it generally, I've had to admit this dre it
39:04
Speaker 1: generally not a great race, but when it is a
39:06
Speaker 1: good race, it could be the best race of the
39:08
Speaker 1: year because it takes a lot to generate a good
39:10
Speaker 1: race in Monaco, so it's worth keeping an eye on
39:13
Speaker 1: it at least for that reason. But that's all the
39:14
Speaker 1: time we have for pit Talk today. You can subscribe
39:17
Speaker 1: to pit Talk wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and
39:19
Speaker 1: you can leave us a rating at a review as well.
39:21
Speaker 1: This weekend it is the British Motorcycle Grand Prix with
39:23
Speaker 1: lights out at ten pm on Sunday, followed by the
39:26
Speaker 1: Monaco Formula One Grand Prix with lights out at eleven pm.
39:29
Speaker 1: Quite a nice back to back for you to end
39:31
Speaker 1: your weekend. You can keep up to date with all
39:32
Speaker 1: the latest F one, supercars and MotoGP news at Fox
39:35
Speaker 1: sports dot com dot Au from Matt Clayton and me
39:38
Speaker 1: Michael Lomonado. Thanks very much for your company. We'll catch
39:40
Speaker 1: you next week.