Latest / Pit Talk / Can Madrid's new track be saved from itself? Spanish GP Review

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Can Madrid's new track be saved from itself? Spanish GP Review · Pit Talk

0:06
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:08
Speaker 1: On today's episode, Andrea Kimi Antonelli wins the first race
0:12
Speaker 1: at Spain's Madring after an early virtual safety car blows
0:16
Speaker 1: up Lando Norris' lead. And after featuring the fewest overtakes
0:20
Speaker 1: of any race this season, what will it take to
0:23
Speaker 1: save Madrid's new track just one year into its 10-year deal?
0:27
Speaker 1: My name's Michael Laminato. It's great to have your company
0:30
Speaker 1: and the company of my co-host. He counted all the
0:33
Speaker 1: overtakes in the race with his fingers and still had
0:35
Speaker 1: some to spare for his jamon sandwich.
0:37
Speaker 2: It's Matt Clayton.
0:39
Speaker 1: Hello, Michael.
0:40
Speaker 2: Hello, everybody. Yes, the shoes and socks even managed to
0:42
Speaker 2: stay on. There wasn't too many overtakes to count, were there? But... Yeah,
0:46
Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, we workshopped this last week.
0:48
Speaker 2: Is it Badring? Is it Madring? I don't know, but
0:51
Speaker 2: it's definitely Boring, and that should perhaps be the rhyme
0:54
Speaker 2: for this particular race and this particular track because, yes,
0:58
Speaker 2: they've got nine more years to get it right, but
1:00
Speaker 2: they might need all nine of them. Yes, it is remarkable.
1:03
Speaker 1: It tells you everything you need to know about the
1:05
Speaker 1: state of the race that immediately afterwards organisers say, well,
1:07
Speaker 1: we'll make some changes for next year. not even bothering
1:10
Speaker 1: to dig in the heels in any shape or form. Now,
1:13
Speaker 1: Anson Ali won this race. As I said, we'll talk
1:15
Speaker 1: about that victory and the title permutations and what that
1:19
Speaker 1: means for the calendar and how long the calendar is
1:20
Speaker 1: going to be a little bit later on in the podcast.
1:23
Speaker 1: But let's start with the circuit, the mad ring or
1:25
Speaker 1: the mad ring. I think the consensus ended up being
1:28
Speaker 1: the mad ring, which I think is the funnier of
1:30
Speaker 1: the two. So I'm happy to... to go with it.
1:33
Speaker 1: But it's not every season, obviously, that we welcome a
1:35
Speaker 1: new circuit to the calendar. In many respects, Madrid was
1:40
Speaker 1: sort of the ideal F1 race, as a concept anyway,
1:43
Speaker 1: in that it's near the city center. It's less than
1:44
Speaker 1: 10 kilometers from the middle of Madrid. Easy transport, purpose-built,
1:48
Speaker 1: massive facilities, obviously, being also an exhibition center, so there's
1:52
Speaker 1: no shortage of space. The fears from mass red flags
1:55
Speaker 1: didn't really come to pass. So there were some crashes.
1:58
Speaker 1: It was the risky kind of circuit that it was
2:00
Speaker 1: billed as. And I guess qualifying was interesting, but I mean,
2:04
Speaker 1: the race was not great. What did you think of
2:07
Speaker 1: it overall before perhaps we get into the details of
2:09
Speaker 1: what's gone wrong here?
2:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was the circuit itself. You could see it
2:14
Speaker 2: was going to be a really fun driving challenge and
2:18
Speaker 2: certainly some of the onboards. And I mean, it was spectacular.
2:21
Speaker 2: It's when you get an appreciation when you don't have
2:23
Speaker 2: car parks of runoff. You just get an appreciation for
2:25
Speaker 2: just how good these guys are and how great the
2:27
Speaker 2: machines are, even the compromised 2026 version. So to my mind,
2:31
Speaker 2: it was sort of a whole bunch of other circuits
2:33
Speaker 2: that I feel that we've seen kind of stapled together.
2:35
Speaker 2: I got echoes of the old Valencia track, maybe just
2:38
Speaker 2: because it was in Spain, but it looked a little
2:39
Speaker 2: bit like that, you know, with some of the surrounds.
2:41
Speaker 2: There were bits of jitter in there with lots of
2:43
Speaker 2: these sweeping corners that were blind and, frankly, a little
2:47
Speaker 2: bit on the edge safety-wise. The last sector reminded me
2:50
Speaker 2: of Sochi, just with a lot of the right-angled short
2:54
Speaker 2: squirts and stuff, which is not necessarily a compliment, but
2:56
Speaker 2: it was the first thing that came to mind. Look,
2:59
Speaker 2: like you said, it fits the model of what Formula
3:02
Speaker 2: One wants to be. You want to bring the racing
3:04
Speaker 2: to the people instead of having the people come to
3:05
Speaker 2: the racing. But just the configuration of it, you could
3:08
Speaker 2: just see even from a track map that it looked
3:11
Speaker 2: spectacular to drive, but the width of the track, the
3:16
Speaker 2: number of blind S's and... it just became this high-speed procession.
3:21
Speaker 2: You could see it coming from a mile off. And
3:24
Speaker 2: I think we talked about this a bit last week.
3:26
Speaker 2: We were reminiscing on the first time that we went
3:28
Speaker 2: to Baku, and that was a circuit that was similarly,
3:31
Speaker 2: at the time, I remember Baku was like, oh, look
3:33
Speaker 2: at this thing. This is really on the edge. We've
3:35
Speaker 2: not seen anything like this. And everyone probably erred on
3:38
Speaker 2: the side of caution a little bit. Whether that was
3:41
Speaker 2: the narrative for what happened on Sunday at Madring or not,
3:45
Speaker 2: I just think it's It's got some fundamental flaws. The
3:48
Speaker 2: cars look great. They were very, very fast. I'm sure
3:51
Speaker 2: it was satisfying on a one-lap point of view. But
3:54
Speaker 2: when the racers themselves say immediately, you cannot race, and
3:57
Speaker 2: that was plainly obvious from everyone watching on the TV, yeah,
4:00
Speaker 2: there does need to be some changes, doesn't there?
4:02
Speaker 1: It feels like, and I think we've said this before,
4:04
Speaker 1: but every new circuit... It feels as though they're in
4:07
Speaker 1: a race to create the wackiest or most extreme or
4:11
Speaker 1: somehow most identifiable circuit. Obviously, you want your circuit to
4:15
Speaker 1: stand out from others. This has that signature Le Monumental
4:19
Speaker 1: banked corner, and that should have been enough. But it
4:21
Speaker 1: does feel like, you know, for me, Jeddah is still
4:24
Speaker 1: sort of the pinnacle of that idea because it's a
4:26
Speaker 1: racetrack that I still debatably think probably shouldn't be there.
4:29
Speaker 1: Because it's all fast, blind corners, rapids, sort of in
4:32
Speaker 1: the mold of a street track and what I think
4:34
Speaker 1: we should probably call maybe more like city circuits than
4:37
Speaker 1: street circuits because they're also mostly purposely designed. They're not
4:40
Speaker 1: conventional street tracks like Singapore or, I mean, Monaco is
4:43
Speaker 1: probably not conventional, but you see where I'm getting with that.
4:46
Speaker 1: And it feels like this is maybe the time that
4:48
Speaker 1: they've gone, well, I think it's a little bit less
4:50
Speaker 1: extreme than Jeddah, but they've gone a little bit too
4:51
Speaker 1: far in that direction of trying to make it, oh,
4:54
Speaker 1: it's got so many wacky corners that lead into one
4:57
Speaker 1: another and it's very fast and it's very dangerous and
4:59
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. But haven't thought about what
5:02
Speaker 1: happens beyond that when we get to Sunday after qualifying
5:04
Speaker 1: where all that risk is taken and the race just
5:07
Speaker 1: doesn't really work out. I thought it was interesting how
5:09
Speaker 1: many drivers have predicted it, and then as we got
5:11
Speaker 1: into the weekend through practice, said it's exactly as we
5:14
Speaker 1: feared for these reasons, laid out the reasons, not just that, oh,
5:17
Speaker 1: the track isn't very good. Max Verstappen said it was
5:20
Speaker 1: baffling that no one had thought about this earlier. And
5:23
Speaker 1: I note the race reported on Monday, I think, that
5:25
Speaker 1: in fact the FIA had, and it suggested some changes
5:27
Speaker 1: to the organisers that they decided were actually too late
5:30
Speaker 1: to implement. The track was only just finished in time.
5:32
Speaker 1: In fact, some of the stuff around the track wasn't
5:34
Speaker 1: even finished in time for the weekend. So maybe that's
5:36
Speaker 1: part of the story. I wonder whether or not driver
5:39
Speaker 1: consultation needs to be part of it. Or I was
5:41
Speaker 1: thinking as well, I guess two of the more recent
5:44
Speaker 1: new circuits, proper new build circuits being Miami and, or
5:47
Speaker 1: Vegas wasn't built obviously, but was configured, had F1' s involvement.
5:52
Speaker 1: And F1 talked a lot about how many versions of
5:54
Speaker 1: the tracks they'd simulated for racing before arriving at the
5:58
Speaker 1: ones they ultimately landed on. And neither is a classic circuit,
6:01
Speaker 1: I guess, but both do provide overtaking opportunities. We've had
6:04
Speaker 1: some decent races at both. In Vegas, in fact, we
6:05
Speaker 1: had some quite good races. I wonder whether F1 is
6:08
Speaker 1: in an era now where actually it needs to be
6:11
Speaker 1: taking control of circuit design rather than leaving it to
6:14
Speaker 1: local organizers and whichever architectural firm they use. Because this
6:18
Speaker 1: is sort of the result when you have someone go
6:19
Speaker 1: off maybe on a little bit of a limb and say,
6:21
Speaker 1: I want the circuit to be extreme in this way,
6:23
Speaker 1: but not thinking about the racing spectacle.
6:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Vegas and Miami are good templates here because
6:28
Speaker 2: there's a certain type of corner that works in modern
6:31
Speaker 2: day Formula One when you've got a slow exit into
6:34
Speaker 2: a long straight with a big braking zone at the
6:36
Speaker 2: end of that straight and not into a fast corner.
6:39
Speaker 2: And particularly with the way these cars race, that's when
6:42
Speaker 2: you can get jeopardy. And do you dive down the inside?
6:44
Speaker 2: And when do you make the pass before the start
6:46
Speaker 2: of the long straight? There's certain characteristics of those circuits
6:50
Speaker 2: that you mentioned that do lend themselves to working with
6:52
Speaker 2: how Formula One cars work in 2026. And the Madrid
6:56
Speaker 2: track just had none of those. And there was the
6:58
Speaker 2: potential for there to be some of those, given the configuration.
7:02
Speaker 2: You don't need to have... a series of you know
7:06
Speaker 2: sweeps one after another after another after the other when
7:08
Speaker 2: you can just have some straights and the thing we
7:10
Speaker 2: talked about jitter i remember when it first came on
7:12
Speaker 2: it was like they were in this massive rush to
7:14
Speaker 2: say that their circuit had more corners than every other
7:16
Speaker 2: track on the calendar it's like look we've got 25
7:18
Speaker 2: quarters like well that's fine but if 22 of them
7:20
Speaker 2: are crap then it doesn't actually matter does it so
7:22
Speaker 2: you know that's in vegas and miami a good uh
7:27
Speaker 2: sort of templates to follow here and not in and
7:30
Speaker 2: of itself not completely but there is a configuration of
7:32
Speaker 2: corner here that Given that you can make changes to
7:36
Speaker 2: the Madrid circuit, if you had one or two of
7:38
Speaker 2: those particular types of corners that I just mentioned, it
7:41
Speaker 2: at least adds a theoretical passing place. Now, you don't
7:45
Speaker 2: want things to be easy, obviously. but a theoretical passing
7:48
Speaker 2: place at a track where quite frankly, they just weren't any.
7:51
Speaker 2: And even the configuration, the most obvious part of the
7:53
Speaker 2: Grand Prix on Sunday was what was going to happen
7:55
Speaker 2: at turn one and that half the field just wasn't
7:56
Speaker 2: going to take the corner. And you knew that was
7:58
Speaker 2: going to happen. And then you've had, I've got to
8:00
Speaker 2: redress and I've got to let this person behind and
8:02
Speaker 2: so on and so forth. And did I read somewhere
8:05
Speaker 2: that something like 60% of the overtakes in the race
8:07
Speaker 2: happened on the first lap or the first two laps?
8:09
Speaker 2: And that was the end of it. And most of
8:10
Speaker 2: that was just people letting other people back through that
8:12
Speaker 2: they passed by going off the track by 50 meters. So, uh, Yeah,
8:17
Speaker 2: like I said at the beginning here, they do have
8:19
Speaker 2: time to get it right. That is the silver lining
8:21
Speaker 2: in a very, very grey cloud that I'm seeing right now.
8:24
Speaker 1: Yes, and it is remarkable the amount of money that
8:25
Speaker 1: was spent on this track. Well, that's not remarkable. It's
8:27
Speaker 1: expensive to build circuits, and obviously there's some feature parts
8:30
Speaker 1: of this track. A lot of earth moved, but more
8:32
Speaker 1: money now has to be spent because changes do have
8:34
Speaker 1: to be made. Some probably lower value ones can be made.
8:38
Speaker 1: Turn 5-6, that chicane just before the bridge was meant
8:41
Speaker 1: to be the overtaking opportunity coming at the end of
8:43
Speaker 1: the longest straight. but the braking zone was curved. The
8:45
Speaker 1: entry was way too narrow. That was another chicane that
8:47
Speaker 1: drivers would just cut when required and they'd get away
8:50
Speaker 1: with it. Reconfiguring the entry there probably will give you
8:54
Speaker 1: that one overtaking opportunity. In most tracks, you know, you
8:57
Speaker 1: can get away with just having one, as long as
8:59
Speaker 1: there is an opportunity to get something done. Then there's
9:03
Speaker 1: some tightening that can be done at the permanent part
9:04
Speaker 1: of the section, which is the north part near the
9:06
Speaker 1: banked corner and that kind of thing. I did like
9:09
Speaker 1: Lando Norris, but this tells you maybe why consulting drivers
9:12
Speaker 1: is not the automatic solution. He suggested the back part
9:15
Speaker 1: of the circuit be under turn 20, which is where
9:19
Speaker 1: Lance Stroll's car retired. They should remove two corners there.
9:23
Speaker 1: That would require pulling down most of the convention centre
9:26
Speaker 1: and also bulldozing through a freeway. So that part of
9:29
Speaker 1: the track tells you the street element that confines it.
9:32
Speaker 1: I'm sure they can sort it out somehow, but probably
9:34
Speaker 1: not doing what Norris suggested.
9:35
Speaker 2: Yes.
9:36
Speaker 1: But there's clearly some work that has to be done,
9:38
Speaker 1: some new construction work needs to be done. I thought
9:41
Speaker 1: there was also an interesting element here that, and the
9:44
Speaker 1: organisers said this in the lead up to the race,
9:46
Speaker 1: there's only so much you can do, but that is
9:47
Speaker 1: that realizing that their race was going to be the
9:50
Speaker 1: first year of these new rules. What tweaks could they
9:52
Speaker 1: do to ensure that these cars worked? The build-up to
9:56
Speaker 1: that banked corner that was the signature track, I thought
9:58
Speaker 1: Fernando Alonso sort of said it in the same format
10:01
Speaker 1: he's made a lot of criticism of these cars which
10:02
Speaker 1: is he identified a member of his team and said
10:04
Speaker 1: even they could drive the car here because they'd run
10:07
Speaker 1: out of battery by the time they got to that
10:09
Speaker 1: corner so having fast corner after fast corner leading to
10:13
Speaker 1: a fast signature corner clearly hasn't worked and that banked
10:16
Speaker 1: turn ended up being an absolutely nothing corner, which is
10:18
Speaker 1: a little bit disappointing. Won't be that way forever once
10:20
Speaker 1: these engines get sorted out or we just change them.
10:23
Speaker 1: But that also, I think, did play a role.
10:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, it did. Yeah, I mean, I just kept thinking,
10:27
Speaker 2: when you're thinking about the convention centre, like, could we
10:29
Speaker 2: have the cars go through the convention centre?
10:31
Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
10:31
Speaker 2: That would be quite fun, wouldn't it? Formula E did it,
10:33
Speaker 2: didn't it? Yeah, indoor section, let's do this. But, yes,
10:36
Speaker 2: Fernando referencing the Formula 1 PR with the greatest surname
10:40
Speaker 2: in Formula 1, but let's not talk about that.
10:42
Speaker 1: Yeah.
10:44
Speaker 2: I did enjoy that. But yeah, look, and even the coverage,
10:48
Speaker 2: I thought, I don't know if you thought about La Monumental,
10:50
Speaker 2: which is a great corner name, by the way. I
10:52
Speaker 2: didn't even think that the camera angles and the way
10:54
Speaker 2: that corner was portrayed was particularly good either. And that
10:58
Speaker 2: was a weird thing about, you know, we knew what
10:59
Speaker 2: this track was going to be like, and obviously you
11:01
Speaker 2: make tweaks to TV coverage as the years go by
11:04
Speaker 2: of it. it looked like it was clearly a pretty
11:07
Speaker 2: amazing piece of architecture. I just expected it to look
11:10
Speaker 2: more impressive, and I'm not sure the coverage did the
11:12
Speaker 2: greatest job of really encapsulating that. But again, maybe that's
11:16
Speaker 2: just a function of it being new and people not
11:18
Speaker 2: really knowing. But the thing you mentioned before about building
11:22
Speaker 2: a circuit, which takes a long time and a long
11:24
Speaker 2: time in the planning, and then it's like, oh, by
11:26
Speaker 2: the way, these new cars are coming in and they
11:28
Speaker 2: have a particular set of requirements. It's like the goalposts
11:32
Speaker 2: are shifting in front of your eyes. So- Look, I mean,
11:34
Speaker 2: I was being slightly facetious before when I said they
11:36
Speaker 2: do have nine years to get it right, but it's
11:37
Speaker 2: good that they have nine years to get it more right.
11:39
Speaker 2: I don't think it's ever going to be completely right
11:41
Speaker 2: because you're hemmed in by geography and budgets and what
11:43
Speaker 2: have you, but it will be better. So that's the
11:46
Speaker 2: good news. And also the good news is it needs
11:49
Speaker 2: to be better because Sunday was not great.
11:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, the point of these long-term contracts, as
11:54
Speaker 1: much as it is guaranteed income for F1, it does
11:56
Speaker 1: also mean you can encourage the circuit organizers to invest
12:01
Speaker 1: more because they've got a long time to make a
12:03
Speaker 1: good if this had been a three-year deal we'd have
12:05
Speaker 1: been all lamenting that for three years this will be
12:08
Speaker 1: the circuit because who was going to invest another however
12:10
Speaker 1: many millions of dollars for a contract that might expire
12:13
Speaker 1: in a couple of seasons particularly when in this case
12:15
Speaker 1: you know Barcelona is still just about hanging onto the
12:18
Speaker 1: calendar and remarkable that Barcelona a track for years that's
12:21
Speaker 1: been criticized for not a lot of action had a
12:23
Speaker 1: cracking race this year one of the best of the
12:26
Speaker 1: of the season it was good and then uh A
12:28
Speaker 1: little old Madrid here has struggled.
12:30
Speaker 2: When you said before the point of these contracts, I
12:32
Speaker 2: kind of tuned out after that because there is only
12:33
Speaker 2: one point to these contracts, isn't there? But anyway, let's
12:35
Speaker 2: swiftly move along.
12:36
Speaker 1: I do think, just before we move on quietly, the
12:38
Speaker 1: reason why we didn't get a lot of good camera
12:41
Speaker 1: angles for La Monumental is because if you were on board,
12:44
Speaker 1: you'd hear the engine maxing out and going at, I
12:46
Speaker 1: think they topped out at 270 kilometres an hour, which
12:48
Speaker 1: is still very fast. but stopped accelerating well before halfway
12:52
Speaker 1: through that corner. And I don't think it would have
12:54
Speaker 1: looked all that spectacular on board. So future, perhaps that's
12:57
Speaker 1: something to work on, but, uh, we'll wait and see
12:59
Speaker 1: what it looks like next season. Maybe a few years
13:01
Speaker 1: after that as well, we can revisit it. Let's move
13:03
Speaker 1: on now though, to move of the week brought to
13:06
Speaker 1: you by Shannon's. We could probably select all of the
13:09
Speaker 1: moves in Madrid. And we probably still have time to
13:11
Speaker 1: spare in this segment, but, uh, You tell me where
13:14
Speaker 1: you're going. I suspect it's not going to be the
13:15
Speaker 1: Formula One.
13:16
Speaker 2: Actually, it is. I was going to say we could
13:18
Speaker 2: choose both of them. We could have one each, one
13:20
Speaker 2: of the two overtakes that was actually worthwhile. Move of
13:23
Speaker 2: the week for me. Now, I just need to get
13:27
Speaker 2: the sad brass instrument out at this point and just
13:29
Speaker 2: play it. But lap 14, you've got the two Spaniards
13:33
Speaker 2: in Formula One, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz. They're racing
13:37
Speaker 2: each other for 17th place at a track where you
13:41
Speaker 2: can't pass. And then, of course, they end up having
13:42
Speaker 2: contact and Sites gets a penalty, which is a common
13:44
Speaker 2: theme in Formula One races at the moment. Carlos Sites,
13:46
Speaker 2: he managed to hit things, but... Yeah, move of the week.
13:50
Speaker 2: The race was falling flat. We kind of knew where
13:51
Speaker 2: it was going. And then you've got the only two
13:53
Speaker 2: locals in the field, and they managed to trip over
13:55
Speaker 2: each other, fighting for absolutely nothing. That was the sad
13:59
Speaker 2: move of the week for mine, because unfortunately, it kind
14:03
Speaker 2: of encapsulated how we're going to remember this Spanish Grand Prix.
14:06
Speaker 2: This new circuit is not particularly fondly, but yeah, those
14:09
Speaker 2: two drivers fighting over nothing and managing to hit one another.
14:12
Speaker 2: It is a move of sorts, but perhaps not a
14:14
Speaker 2: great one.
14:15
Speaker 1: I think Carlos Sainz, I mean, he's having a rough time,
14:18
Speaker 1: isn't he? And this was a, for the man who
14:20
Speaker 1: was the ambassador of the Madring, had probably one of
14:24
Speaker 1: his worst weekends of the season, I think, and didn't
14:27
Speaker 1: even make the finish. I feel like that's a, not
14:29
Speaker 1: only is he penalized in qualifying, qualified nowhere in the
14:31
Speaker 1: first place, crashed out of the race, essentially, and then
14:34
Speaker 1: had his childhood idols Fernando Alonso essentially called him a
14:37
Speaker 1: no-hoper from car radio.
14:39
Speaker 2: It's not been good. Yeah, I mean, I've got to say,
14:41
Speaker 2: the feisty Alonso radio, as much as he is fighting
14:46
Speaker 2: for places that are just not becoming a driver of
14:48
Speaker 2: his status at this point, feisty Alonso radio, whenever the
14:52
Speaker 2: little graphic pops up, I'm always interested to see what
14:54
Speaker 2: that is, because you know there's going to be a point, but... Yeah,
14:57
Speaker 2: I don't know. It kind of summed up the whole
14:58
Speaker 2: thing for me. But now, so I have left you
15:00
Speaker 2: the remaining, what, nine or ten overtakes for the entire
15:03
Speaker 2: race to choose from here. I'm wondering if you're going
15:06
Speaker 2: to go rogue here and go completely different category, but
15:08
Speaker 2: it is over to you.
15:10
Speaker 1: I'm going to go to a different category because Supercars
15:12
Speaker 1: was in action. There was more overtaking there. But just
15:15
Speaker 1: while I did a manual count of the overtakes, I
15:17
Speaker 1: know today, this is before I wrote the Madrid analysis
15:21
Speaker 1: that you can read at the Fox Sports website. that
15:23
Speaker 1: forex is officially classified 10 overtakes which is one fewer
15:27
Speaker 1: than monaco's 11 oh my god but i counted manually
15:31
Speaker 1: only six after the first lap so i think forex
15:33
Speaker 1: does include first lap passes doesn't it so uh i
15:36
Speaker 1: would say only six after that um three of which
15:39
Speaker 1: were by front running cars uh and was it two
15:42
Speaker 1: of which was by correction or anyway it doesn't matter
15:45
Speaker 1: there weren't very many I'm going to take you to supercars, though.
15:49
Speaker 1: Not quite. I mean, if anyone tuned in to catch
15:51
Speaker 1: what was going on at the Bend 500 on Sunday,
15:53
Speaker 1: you probably couldn't have seen probably the first half of
15:56
Speaker 1: it just because of the wall of water that made
15:58
Speaker 1: everything grey. Impossible to tell which car was which. Really
16:02
Speaker 1: quite extreme conditions. But they're not so much moves. They're
16:06
Speaker 1: going to be more saves of the week, I think.
16:08
Speaker 1: It still counts as a move. I'm going to draw
16:10
Speaker 1: your attention to two in particular. I'm going to give
16:13
Speaker 1: one a winner. Let me start, though, with Craig Lowndes,
16:16
Speaker 1: who's avoiding action for the spinning Nash Morris at turn 11.
16:22
Speaker 1: This was around halfway through the race, I think it was.
16:25
Speaker 1: If you remember, Nico Hulkenberg managed to avoid his teammate
16:30
Speaker 1: at Zandvoort. It was in that same category, but it
16:31
Speaker 1: was also wet. So there was an additional unpredictable element here.
16:36
Speaker 1: Manages to... avoid the spinning car by moving in exactly
16:40
Speaker 1: the same direction. I think it was Greg Murphy on commentary.
16:42
Speaker 1: He said his car made his car as thin as
16:44
Speaker 1: a piece of paper, which is what it seemed like
16:45
Speaker 1: the way he was flitting between around the outside of
16:48
Speaker 1: this car. I thought it was remarkable reflexes considering the
16:51
Speaker 1: conditions again. Um, and had the contact been there, it
16:54
Speaker 1: would have been big contacts. That car was probably out
16:56
Speaker 1: of control spinning well off the track. Really enjoyed that
16:59
Speaker 1: as a save. Um, But my winning save of the week,
17:02
Speaker 1: I think, is going to go to, well, it is
17:04
Speaker 1: a move of the week, Jared Hughes passing Tim Slade
17:06
Speaker 1: at a safety car restart, one of the first ones,
17:08
Speaker 1: I think. Tim Slade was in the lead comfortably taking
17:11
Speaker 1: a defensive line, then just aquaplanes out of nowhere down
17:15
Speaker 1: the straight. And those cars are, I think, at 270
17:17
Speaker 1: when they hit the brakes. It's just about in the
17:19
Speaker 1: braking zone. Remarkable save from Slade, first of all. But
17:24
Speaker 1: then for Jared Hughes, who was right under his rear
17:26
Speaker 1: wing to not hit him, but then make the overtake.
17:30
Speaker 1: And from what I hear, almost no lift of the
17:32
Speaker 1: throttle at all. Remarkably gutsy. Maybe silly, but he pulled
17:36
Speaker 1: it off. Some really impressive driving, I think, out there
17:40
Speaker 1: in the wet from some of these guys. And I
17:42
Speaker 1: think they really earned him money looking at the conditions
17:44
Speaker 1: of the first half of the race.
17:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. And I thought the two that you mentioned there,
17:47
Speaker 2: the best part about them is this kind of, I mean,
17:50
Speaker 2: it allows us as experience as it gets, obviously, but
17:52
Speaker 2: there's no way to prepare for something like that. It's
17:54
Speaker 2: just completely living on your wits and on the talent.
17:57
Speaker 2: I mean, some of the conditions at the first half
17:59
Speaker 2: of that race, you needed a boat. You didn't need
18:01
Speaker 2: a supercar. It was revolting out there. Lots of dark
18:04
Speaker 2: liveries as well, which is not great for TV when
18:06
Speaker 2: it's raining like that. But yeah, the thing I liked
18:09
Speaker 2: about them is that this is an instinctual talent meets
18:13
Speaker 2: the moment type avoiding action. Yeah, aquaplating on a straight
18:18
Speaker 2: at 270 and one of those things. I'm not sure.
18:20
Speaker 2: I mean- They've been going to the bench for a while.
18:22
Speaker 2: I can't remember weather as extreme as that for as
18:24
Speaker 2: long as it was. Certainly a bizarre day there. But yeah,
18:27
Speaker 2: the Lowndes one in particular was like stand back from
18:30
Speaker 2: the screen. And I love the Greg Murphy commentary. He's
18:32
Speaker 2: definitely got away with words and he nailed it for sure.
18:35
Speaker 1: Yes, it was very entertaining. Well worth the watch. Let's
18:39
Speaker 1: move on now, though, back to the world of Formula One,
18:41
Speaker 1: where we're out of the European part of the season
18:44
Speaker 1: and the leader is 81 points ahead. And it's Antonelli.
18:47
Speaker 1: I mean, you knew that already. He was leading last week.
18:49
Speaker 1: He was going to lose the lead week from week.
18:50
Speaker 1: But who would have thought as we leave Europe and
18:52
Speaker 1: head towards the final run of races that we'd be
18:56
Speaker 1: talking not just about it being Antonelli leading the championship,
18:59
Speaker 1: but by leading it so much that. We can now,
19:01
Speaker 1: I think, start to count down to the race in
19:04
Speaker 1: which he's going to be crowned. He's been extending his
19:07
Speaker 1: lead for the last five weekends in a row. I
19:09
Speaker 1: think that dates back to whichever the race after Silverstone was.
19:13
Speaker 1: And expanding that gap by an average of 11.2 points
19:17
Speaker 1: per race over Russell. He continues at that trajectory. He
19:21
Speaker 1: will win it in the United States, which will be, well,
19:23
Speaker 1: it depends how many races. We're going to talk about
19:25
Speaker 1: how many races.
19:25
Speaker 2: Yeah.
19:26
Speaker 1: It could be five races remaining. Wow. That's where we're at. And,
19:30
Speaker 1: you know, this is the weekend which both Russell and Hamilton,
19:32
Speaker 1: the other possible title contender, although we'll get to Lando
19:35
Speaker 1: Norris and Zac Brown in a second, both ruled themselves out.
19:38
Speaker 1: Russell said, it's exceptionally unlikely, they're his words, and I quote,
19:42
Speaker 1: not even thinking about being in the fight because I
19:44
Speaker 1: don't think I am in the fight. And Lewis Hamilton
19:46
Speaker 1: said simply, there's no stopping him and Mercedes. this year.
19:51
Speaker 1: Is it going to be Austin? Do you want to
19:53
Speaker 1: place a bet now? I know the crystal ball segment
19:56
Speaker 1: for the second week in a row we referenced doesn't
19:57
Speaker 1: exist anymore, but why don't we revive it?
19:59
Speaker 2: It certainly feels that way. And it's like a two-pronged
20:03
Speaker 2: thing for me. This is the classic race you win
20:05
Speaker 2: when you should win a Grand Prix because Lando Norris
20:07
Speaker 2: had this race. We need to go on a VSC
20:08
Speaker 2: tangent in a minute, which I did promise you before
20:10
Speaker 2: we recorded. Yes, we do. But look, he's won races.
20:14
Speaker 2: I mean, what he did in Monza seven days before that,
20:16
Speaker 2: that's a race that you're not supposed to win from
20:18
Speaker 2: 19th on the grid. And quite frankly, he would not
20:20
Speaker 2: have won this race in Madrid had there not been
20:23
Speaker 2: for the most significant impact that Lance Stroll's had on
20:26
Speaker 2: a Formula One season for I don't know how long.
20:29
Speaker 2: And then he triggered a virtual safety car and scattered
20:32
Speaker 2: the pigeons in a race where nothing else was happening.
20:34
Speaker 2: So thank you, Lance Stroll, for your contribution. But look,
20:37
Speaker 2: this is the season that Antonelli's having, and the fact
20:40
Speaker 2: that we're now going into statistical probability speak when we're
20:44
Speaker 2: this far out from the end of the season, it's
20:46
Speaker 2: just testament to how good he has been. I would
20:49
Speaker 2: argue that the driver I most expect to finish his
20:52
Speaker 2: runner-up in the championship this year isn't currently second or
20:54
Speaker 2: third in the world championship, but that's another story that
20:56
Speaker 2: we might get around to. I think it feels like
20:58
Speaker 2: the tide is certainly going that way, but it is astonishing.
21:02
Speaker 2: And I do wonder, before we get into VSC chat,
21:06
Speaker 2: You mentioned however many races to go. This is the
21:08
Speaker 2: annoying part about this. We like things as journos in nice,
21:11
Speaker 2: neat little packages and say, oh, he will win the
21:13
Speaker 2: world championship with four races to go or five races
21:15
Speaker 2: to go. Right now, we don't know how many races
21:17
Speaker 2: there are to go. We've got a similar story happening
21:19
Speaker 2: with MotoGP at the moment. But is he going to
21:22
Speaker 2: win the championship well before the end of the season?
21:24
Speaker 2: Let's just caveat it like this. It certainly looks like it.
21:28
Speaker 2: And yeah, I mean, the fact that he's basically taken
21:31
Speaker 2: 50 points within seven days with two victories that probably
21:34
Speaker 2: he shouldn't have got but was good enough to get.
21:37
Speaker 2: I think it just tells you everything you need to
21:39
Speaker 2: know about 2026, doesn't it?
21:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think as well, we've talked about it
21:42
Speaker 1: with Antonelli before because it's been obvious all season, but
21:46
Speaker 1: just the level-headedness that he's brought to his championship and
21:49
Speaker 1: whether or not that actually in a counterintuitive way is
21:52
Speaker 1: because he's so young and.
21:53
Speaker 2: Just doesn't feel the need to process anything. Yeah, exactly.
21:57
Speaker 1: And you don't have, I think someone in commentary mentioned
22:00
Speaker 1: it over the weekend, but if you put it from
22:01
Speaker 1: George Russell's perspective... aside from the fact that he was
22:04
Speaker 1: expected to win because he was the more senior Mercedes driver,
22:06
Speaker 1: you know, he's just been toiling for years. He got
22:09
Speaker 1: to Mercedes. The car wasn't good enough. He's been performing
22:11
Speaker 1: very well at Mercedes every year since then, including this year.
22:13
Speaker 1: He hasn't performed very badly this year by any stretch
22:16
Speaker 1: of the imagination, but then it's like, well, this is
22:18
Speaker 1: the opportunity. I have to take it now. Whereas Russell,
22:21
Speaker 1: it was just turned up. There's no pressure of having
22:24
Speaker 1: been in formula one for years and not, and not
22:25
Speaker 1: had the opportunity to deliver yet. He's just turned up.
22:28
Speaker 1: He's continued winning, which he's been doing for all of
22:29
Speaker 1: his junior career. It's almost just like another day of
22:32
Speaker 1: his life. So I wonder whether that plays a role
22:35
Speaker 1: in it. But it felt very much like that after
22:36
Speaker 1: Madring because of the way that I think his first
22:41
Speaker 1: words almost on team radio were just saying how Norris
22:44
Speaker 1: deserved the victory. Now, that is something you can say
22:46
Speaker 1: when you're not engaged in a very close title fight
22:48
Speaker 1: because there's nothing to lose from that situation. There's no
22:50
Speaker 1: psychological ground to lose. But I think that just shows
22:54
Speaker 1: he's very clear-eyed, even at this relatively late stage of
22:57
Speaker 1: the championship, about the way he's performing and the way
22:59
Speaker 1: it's going. And he's happy to give that one up.
23:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, we just get, we're having a lot of the
23:04
Speaker 2: conversations with him simply because we look at the date
23:06
Speaker 2: on the birth certificate. He is operating at a level
23:10
Speaker 2: in terms of performance and in terms of maturity and
23:13
Speaker 2: big picture thinking that that completely belies that age on
23:17
Speaker 2: his birth certificate. And we've referenced this before. If you
23:20
Speaker 2: switch the ages around between Russell and Antonelli, a lot
23:23
Speaker 2: of the way we'd frame this championship is like, well,
23:27
Speaker 2: he's 27 years old or whatever he is, and he
23:28
Speaker 2: should be behaving like this and driving like this and
23:30
Speaker 2: reacting maturely like this. everything still comes back to the
23:34
Speaker 2: fact that you look at it, yeah, but he's only 20. And,
23:36
Speaker 2: you know, we've seen this very, very rarely in four
23:39
Speaker 2: and two wheels where someone comes along that he's just
23:42
Speaker 2: so ready. And rarer still in Formula One where they
23:46
Speaker 2: get a chance to be in a car that can
23:48
Speaker 2: actually help them maximise the best version of themselves at
23:51
Speaker 2: that age. So those two things have come together with
23:53
Speaker 2: the rule change and what have you. But you've still
23:55
Speaker 2: got to go out and do the job. And, you know,
23:56
Speaker 2: the fact that he's won eight Grand Prix this season,
24:00
Speaker 2: He's won more Grand Prix this season than Daniel Ricciardo
24:02
Speaker 2: won in his entire career. His next win will draw
24:06
Speaker 2: him level with, what is it? I think Leclerc and
24:08
Speaker 2: Piastri both have nine. Is that correct off the top
24:10
Speaker 2: of my head?
24:10
Speaker 1: And Mark Webber, yes.
24:11
Speaker 2: And Mark Webber, yes.
24:12
Speaker 1: He's already ahead of George Russell just by the bar.
24:14
Speaker 2: Yeah. Now, isn't that just a kick in the teeth
24:16
Speaker 2: where you don't need one? But I mean, I know
24:18
Speaker 2: these calendars are longer if uncertain when they finish these days,
24:21
Speaker 2: but it is an extraordinary season. And there is, you know,
24:24
Speaker 2: you think, well, if he's not the world champion, then
24:26
Speaker 2: who should be? And there's just no other name that
24:27
Speaker 2: comes into the frame this year. So now it becomes
24:29
Speaker 2: a matter of when and not if, and the when
24:32
Speaker 2: and how far we go after that, I guess, is
24:34
Speaker 2: the more pertinent question now.
24:36
Speaker 1: Well, before we get into some of the details of
24:38
Speaker 1: that calendar chat, let's go to Lando Norris here, who's
24:40
Speaker 1: the driver who should have won by consensus. Everyone agrees
24:43
Speaker 1: that he should have won this race, including the drivers
24:45
Speaker 1: that beat him. After that sensational qualifying lap, to have
24:49
Speaker 1: found more than a way, he should have found more
24:51
Speaker 1: than a second on his first Q3 lap, except for
24:53
Speaker 1: a mistake at the final corner. So it was all
24:55
Speaker 1: but one lap, all but one corner perfect lap in qualifying.
24:59
Speaker 1: Controlled the race at the start in much the same
25:01
Speaker 1: way he did in Well, certainly hungry. It felt sort
25:04
Speaker 1: of similar to that, where suddenly he had pace that
25:06
Speaker 1: maybe even McLaren didn't expect him to have in the race.
25:08
Speaker 1: Which I think is its own interesting story, because this
25:10
Speaker 1: is a track that McLaren should have done okay at,
25:13
Speaker 1: but perhaps not as well as Lando Norris made the
25:15
Speaker 1: team look. This is the thing. Form-wise, three of the
25:22
Speaker 1: last four races, he's clearly been the best driver. The
25:24
Speaker 1: VSC that got him here, just before we talk about
25:27
Speaker 1: the points situation, let's talk about that VSC. because he
25:30
Speaker 1: said after the race that, well, maybe the rules need
25:32
Speaker 1: to be changed because it doesn't feel right that I've
25:34
Speaker 1: lost this Grand Prix because of a VSC that lasted,
25:37
Speaker 1: I guess you could probably say, I haven't done the calculations, 98%
25:40
Speaker 1: of one lap, the 2% being whenever he was near
25:43
Speaker 1: the pit lane to take advantage of it. I don't know.
25:47
Speaker 1: I'm always quite sceptical of drivers who say we need
25:49
Speaker 1: to change red flags or safety cars or virtual safety cars.
25:51
Speaker 1: I think luck is part of it. But I also
25:54
Speaker 1: feel a little bit sympathetic for him here.
25:56
Speaker 2: Agree. I mean, there's certain categories around the world where
25:59
Speaker 2: they close the pit lane in situations like this, and
26:02
Speaker 2: there's other ways to do it. My suggestion, I don't
26:05
Speaker 2: know if it's entirely original, and I'm not going to
26:07
Speaker 2: claim that it is, but I wanted to talk it
26:08
Speaker 2: out with you, is that the reason that people pit
26:11
Speaker 2: under VSC is because they get to take a cheap
26:14
Speaker 2: pit stop and use the other compound of tyre that
26:18
Speaker 2: is mandatory, as per the rules. So what if you
26:21
Speaker 2: still allowed people to pit under a VSC, but you
26:23
Speaker 2: could not change compounds? So you can make a stop,
26:27
Speaker 2: but you don't get to change compound. So if you're
26:30
Speaker 2: on the hard and you've got to take the medium
26:31
Speaker 2: or the soft, knock yourselves out, take a pit stop,
26:33
Speaker 2: that's fine. You could only put on another set of
26:36
Speaker 2: the same tyre that you are on. That would be
26:39
Speaker 2: the suggestion that I wonder if we threw that in there,
26:41
Speaker 2: whether it would take that degree of– I mean, it's
26:43
Speaker 2: good to have a degree of randomness and do you
26:46
Speaker 2: pit and do you not in terms of strategy at
26:48
Speaker 2: the moment. What happened to Norris on the weekend was
26:51
Speaker 2: not a product of strategy. It was just incredibly bad luck. Now,
26:54
Speaker 2: if it had cost him second place and he finished
26:57
Speaker 2: third or cost him fourth place and he finished seventh
26:59
Speaker 2: or whatever it is, then so be it. The fact
27:01
Speaker 2: that he was so clearly the best driver in the
27:03
Speaker 2: best car, that qualifying lap's one of the best laps
27:05
Speaker 2: I've seen all year. It was sensational on Saturday, incredibly good.
27:09
Speaker 2: To have that taken away through just completely dumb luck. Now,
27:13
Speaker 2: I don't know if my solution here or the solution,
27:15
Speaker 2: not my solution, the solution works at every single track,
27:18
Speaker 2: but I'd like to see it in action because I
27:20
Speaker 2: think that would make teams, you don't just automatically, I'm
27:23
Speaker 2: going to get the cheap pit stop here. It's like, well,
27:25
Speaker 2: hang on, we need to talk this out here. is
27:27
Speaker 2: it worth sticking on the same compound with a fresh set,
27:31
Speaker 2: if you've got a fresh set, to do however many
27:33
Speaker 2: laps you've got until you make a stop to get
27:35
Speaker 2: on the other compound? I wonder if that takes some
27:38
Speaker 2: of the degree of randomness out of it.
27:39
Speaker 1: I don't mind it. I've often thought, because it feels
27:42
Speaker 1: like every year or every time we get an important
27:46
Speaker 1: red flag, we move a little bit closer to F1
27:48
Speaker 1: deciding to change the rules around red flags and tyre
27:50
Speaker 1: changes and stuff. And I've often thought, rather than than
27:54
Speaker 1: ban tire changes. Let's just come up with a way
27:56
Speaker 1: that makes them a little bit less advantageous. I don't
27:58
Speaker 1: mind that idea. It's the same compound. Otherwise, I think
28:00
Speaker 1: you could also just say that that tire change doesn't
28:03
Speaker 1: count for your mandatory one. I think the way the
28:05
Speaker 1: rules are written, isn't it? It's got to be two compounds,
28:07
Speaker 1: but maybe you could make it a mandatory racing stop
28:10
Speaker 1: or something like that, rewrite the rules slightly. So that way, yes,
28:14
Speaker 1: because if you're, for example, a lot of drivers, well, actually, no,
28:17
Speaker 1: only a couple of drivers went into this race with
28:18
Speaker 1: one set of mediums. Now, regardless, the mediums didn't work,
28:20
Speaker 1: no one wanted one of them, but a lot of
28:23
Speaker 1: drivers may have had only one set of whatever compound
28:26
Speaker 1: they went in with the virtual safety car. So you
28:27
Speaker 1: can change the compound that can form the narrative of
28:30
Speaker 1: the race, but you guarantee you're still going to need
28:33
Speaker 1: another stop anyway because you need to satisfy your one
28:36
Speaker 1: racing stop, whatever it is. I think there's just a
28:39
Speaker 1: degree of F1 needing to choose its own kind of
28:42
Speaker 1: randomness in all of this. And I think, you know,
28:44
Speaker 1: it's always going to, there's always going to be an
28:46
Speaker 1: unusual result when there's an interruption like this because the
28:48
Speaker 1: racing has been interrupted. That's just inescapable part of it.
28:52
Speaker 1: You know, so I think that there's, I think there's
28:54
Speaker 1: also a degree of, you know, how hard do you
28:56
Speaker 1: want to try? Because next time it comes around, we'll
28:58
Speaker 1: probably just get another unusual circumstance in which we'll need
29:00
Speaker 1: to talk about this again. I don't mind the idea,
29:02
Speaker 1: you know, Landon Norris suggested it should be at least
29:04
Speaker 1: one lap. Maybe if it lasts for more than half
29:06
Speaker 1: a lap, it should go for a complete lap. I
29:08
Speaker 1: don't mind that as an idea because with half a lap,
29:12
Speaker 1: it has changed the race. Whereas the point of a
29:13
Speaker 1: VSC is that he could last for as short as,
29:15
Speaker 1: you know, 10 seconds or whatever. And you don't need
29:17
Speaker 1: a full lap for that kind of thing. I don't know.
29:20
Speaker 1: I feel very sort of ambivalent about the whole thing.
29:23
Speaker 1: I think as well, yeah, I just think it's one
29:26
Speaker 1: of those things we talk about as well, isn't it,
29:28
Speaker 1: when the racing hasn't been that good. I'm also conscious
29:30
Speaker 1: of that fact. Yes. The race being better probably wouldn't
29:32
Speaker 1: be talking about this. And it probably is worth saying,
29:34
Speaker 1: you know, so it was 11 seconds saving for a VSC,
29:36
Speaker 1: which is fairly sizable because this is such a long
29:39
Speaker 1: pit stop time at this track but had this been
29:41
Speaker 1: any other circuit even with that pit stop time Norris
29:45
Speaker 1: I think still probably would have won the race because
29:48
Speaker 1: his pace was good enough for it and I think
29:49
Speaker 1: this is the other element is we're only talking about
29:52
Speaker 1: this because Norris's pace was so impressive but he couldn't
29:54
Speaker 1: overtake pace that impressive would have won him the race
29:58
Speaker 1: regardless had he been less good Had he been leading
30:00
Speaker 1: Antonelli by two seconds or one second at the VSC
30:04
Speaker 1: and then lost it, we would have been saying, well,
30:06
Speaker 1: that's unfortunate. But it's only because he was so fast
30:09
Speaker 1: and didn't win that we're talking about this. And I
30:11
Speaker 1: think that actually comes more back to the circuit rather
30:14
Speaker 1: than the regulations. And so I think that's another good
30:17
Speaker 1: reason for the madring to be thinking about how the
30:20
Speaker 1: track is going to change.
30:22
Speaker 2: The other thing that I thought is there's a, I
30:25
Speaker 2: can't believe I'm saying this, but whatever, I've started it now.
30:27
Speaker 2: isn't there an opportunity to have some sort of You
30:30
Speaker 2: can make a pit stop, but one of your rivals
30:32
Speaker 2: gets to determine what compound you use if you make
30:35
Speaker 2: the pit stop under a VSC. Can we inject a
30:39
Speaker 2: little bit of chaos into it there? And look, I
30:42
Speaker 2: hope no one at Formula One is listening to this.
30:43
Speaker 2: Maybe we get a local celebrity slash influencer to decide
30:47
Speaker 2: what tyres people get to make with pit stops under
30:49
Speaker 2: the VSC. We can have a poll. What does social
30:51
Speaker 2: media want? What tyres do we want Lando Norris to
30:54
Speaker 2: be on for the next stint? Actually, don't give them
30:55
Speaker 2: any ideas. They'll find a sponsor for that. So forget
30:58
Speaker 2: that I mentioned it.
30:59
Speaker 1: I like it a lot. Let's go from that Norris perspective.
31:02
Speaker 1: He's in good form. As we said, this should have
31:04
Speaker 1: been win three from the last four, which is an
31:06
Speaker 1: impressive run of form. Monza being the only outlier, and
31:09
Speaker 1: that is an outlier of a circuit being so high
31:12
Speaker 1: speed in a straight line. One of the weaknesses of
31:14
Speaker 1: a McLaren car. The other weakness being in slow corners
31:17
Speaker 1: didn't seem as obvious in this circuit, which I thought
31:20
Speaker 1: was very interesting. Andrea Stella certainly was talking more optimistically
31:23
Speaker 1: about the developments the car has made in that area.
31:26
Speaker 1: The next race is Azerbaijan, which should be a weak, relatively,
31:30
Speaker 1: McLaren track. But now suddenly maybe there's some uncertainty there,
31:32
Speaker 1: not withstanding that long straight. But I want to go
31:34
Speaker 1: to Zac Brown.
31:35
Speaker 2: Yeah.
31:35
Speaker 1: Who on two different occasions this weekend, one after qualifying,
31:38
Speaker 1: when it did look like Norris was going to win
31:39
Speaker 1: the race, and then one after the race when obviously
31:41
Speaker 1: we knew he didn't win the race, in which he
31:43
Speaker 1: said explicitly, at least after qualifying, and then suggested it
31:46
Speaker 1: after the race, you know, Norris is still in the
31:48
Speaker 1: title fight. What are you talking about? He's fourth in
31:50
Speaker 1: the championship standings. He's 106 points off the lead. That's
31:54
Speaker 1: five behind Hamilton, which is not a lot behind Hamilton.
31:56
Speaker 1: That surprised me, actually. And 25 behind Russell. Now, you alluded,
32:01
Speaker 1: I can only assume you were talking about Norris when
32:03
Speaker 1: you suggested that the driver who finished second in the
32:05
Speaker 1: standings isn't who's second or third at the moment. I
32:08
Speaker 1: don't disagree with that. Now, I've been happy to buy
32:13
Speaker 1: into the championship is still alive theory in recent rounds.
32:17
Speaker 1: No longer, not after Monza, but I say this with
32:20
Speaker 1: some reluctance, but nonetheless, it is true that if there
32:24
Speaker 1: are still nine rounds to go, big if, talk about
32:27
Speaker 1: that in just a second, this is almost exactly out
32:30
Speaker 1: by one point where Verstappen started his comeback last year
32:33
Speaker 1: at the same number of.
32:34
Speaker 2: Rounds to go.
32:35
Speaker 1: And it's worth acknowledging 105 points for Verstappen. He did
32:38
Speaker 1: overcome that deficit because it was to Piastri and then
32:41
Speaker 1: he lost to Norris. So, you know, McLaren knows it's
32:44
Speaker 1: possible because they were the team that almost dropped the
32:46
Speaker 1: bundle and let Verstappen win the championship last year. It's
32:50
Speaker 1: clear the team is in good form. Maybe Zach Brown,
32:53
Speaker 1: his optimism is not completely unhinged.
32:57
Speaker 2: No, I'm going to disagree with you and him. By
32:59
Speaker 2: the way, sad state of affairs, 35 minutes into the podcast,
33:03
Speaker 2: first Oscar Piastri reference. But, yeah, there's probably not a
33:07
Speaker 2: lot to say about that. But, look, it just feels that.
33:11
Speaker 2: But Norris has been, you would almost say, more impressive
33:16
Speaker 2: in these past few rounds than he's been at any
33:18
Speaker 2: other point. I mean, the qualifying lap, I can't overstate
33:21
Speaker 2: just how good that qualifying lap was on Saturday. And
33:23
Speaker 2: he has been in genuinely very, very good form. Now,
33:26
Speaker 2: if the season had 12 more rounds, I'd possibly entertain
33:29
Speaker 2: it because– The thing with Antonelli this year, yes, it's
33:32
Speaker 2: the wins and the maturity and the bigger picture thinking
33:35
Speaker 2: and all of that sort of stuff. There hasn't been
33:38
Speaker 2: too many ropey sessions, let alone, you think at the
33:42
Speaker 2: start of the year when he chucked it in the
33:43
Speaker 2: fence in Australia, it was like, oh, here we go,
33:45
Speaker 2: young kid, he's got a world championship winning car. That
33:47
Speaker 2: feels like it was three years ago in terms of
33:50
Speaker 2: the steps that he's made since then. So to be
33:53
Speaker 2: in the championship fight, and Zac Brown would know this, Yes,
33:56
Speaker 2: Verstappen was right there last year, but it also required
34:00
Speaker 2: a hell of a lot of help from what McLaren
34:02
Speaker 2: were doing in terms of the cack-handedness of all the
34:06
Speaker 2: papaya rules nonsense and everything else and Qatar pit stops
34:08
Speaker 2: and other things. They needed to contribute to that. I
34:12
Speaker 2: just can't see a world in which Mercedes are going
34:15
Speaker 2: to contribute negatively to their leading driver's championship charge, even
34:20
Speaker 2: allied with a real Norris turn of form. I can't
34:23
Speaker 2: really see it. I admire the glass half full approach.
34:26
Speaker 2: That's why you're there. But realistically, given the number of
34:29
Speaker 2: races left and given that we don't even know how
34:31
Speaker 2: many races there are left, I think it's more fanciful
34:34
Speaker 2: than not. But would I be surprised if Norris finishes
34:37
Speaker 2: second in the world championship? Not really. There's a wider
34:41
Speaker 2: Oscar Piastri conversation here that might be a podcast for
34:43
Speaker 2: an off week at the moment because that thing's only
34:45
Speaker 2: going in one direction right now. But in terms of
34:47
Speaker 2: Could a McLaren finish second in the World Championship? Yeah, possibly.
34:51
Speaker 2: But again, how many races do we have left? It's
34:53
Speaker 2: not a question I should be asking, but here we are.
34:55
Speaker 1: Well, right now there are nine remaining. That's the official count.
34:58
Speaker 2: Nice caveat.
34:59
Speaker 1: That's as recorded on Tuesday, the 15th of September. Who's
35:04
Speaker 1: to say how quickly this thing could change? Because I think... Well, decision...
35:07
Speaker 1: Stefano Domenicali suggested a couple of months ago now that
35:10
Speaker 1: a decision would be made by the middle of September.
35:12
Speaker 1: And I note that it is now exactly the middle
35:14
Speaker 1: of September. Or he said around the middle of September.
35:15
Speaker 1: I shouldn't say the deadline has been passed. But we
35:18
Speaker 1: are now officially in the middle of September. So a
35:20
Speaker 1: decision could be coming at any time. I note that
35:22
Speaker 1: this week... Formula 2 has announced that they've got three
35:26
Speaker 1: rounds left, Azerbaijan and then in brackets Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
35:30
Speaker 1: They've announced they're going to have two feature races in Baku.
35:33
Speaker 1: Now they've said, well, it's because there's not a lot
35:36
Speaker 1: of other support categories this time. Why don't we give
35:38
Speaker 1: the fans of Baku a bit more action? Very laudable.
35:41
Speaker 1: What they didn't say, in fact, what they explicitly said
35:43
Speaker 1: wasn't the case was that it's because they're preparing for
35:45
Speaker 1: Qatar and Abu Dhabi to be cancelled. That certainly seems
35:48
Speaker 1: to be the way the wind is blowing. They would
35:50
Speaker 1: presumably get their last race in Imola like Formula 1's
35:52
Speaker 1: planning to have. on the 6th of December. So it
35:54
Speaker 1: all equals out for the Formula 2 championship, which is
35:56
Speaker 1: still very much alive. It's not just the mathematics for
35:59
Speaker 1: the Norris equation that's counting on the championship, because as
36:02
Speaker 1: we said at the start, I think it was, at
36:05
Speaker 1: the current point trajectory, Antonelli will win in the United States. Now,
36:08
Speaker 1: another DNF or DNS for Russell could bring that forward,
36:12
Speaker 1: perhaps whisper it to as soon as Singapore, which is
36:14
Speaker 1: at the start of next month, isn't it? Or early October.
36:17
Speaker 2: Yes.
36:18
Speaker 1: My point being is that if there's another big point
36:20
Speaker 1: swing to Antonelli between now and, or in the next
36:22
Speaker 1: couple of races, And you don't call off those last
36:25
Speaker 1: races if, in fact, that's what's going to happen before that.
36:28
Speaker 1: You run the very real and deeply unedifying risk of
36:31
Speaker 1: the championship being awarded based on a press release cancelling
36:35
Speaker 1: the Qatar Grand Prix. Yeah. Which is a horrifying thing
36:40
Speaker 1: to conceptualise, to believe, especially in the context this year.
36:43
Speaker 1: It was Max Verstappen's fifth title, whatever year. Okay, that
36:47
Speaker 1: would still be pretty bad, but he's won it before.
36:49
Speaker 1: This idea of this history-making title from Antonelli being awarded
36:53
Speaker 1: via a press release, which would be full of language like, oh,
36:56
Speaker 1: not cancelled, just called off, whatever, following contractual this and that,
37:00
Speaker 1: that can't be allowed to happen. So I think if
37:02
Speaker 1: they're going to call it off, they're going to have
37:03
Speaker 1: to call it off sooner rather than later. In the
37:05
Speaker 1: MotoGP world, it seems like it's certainly moving in that direction.
37:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, from what I'm hearing on two wheels,
37:11
Speaker 2: so there's only one round that it affects, which is Qatar,
37:13
Speaker 2: which has already been moved from early in April until
37:16
Speaker 2: early in November. They actually shuffled the last two races
37:18
Speaker 2: back in Portugal and Valencia to find a spot to
37:21
Speaker 2: put Qatar into. And it feels possibly as early as
37:25
Speaker 2: when you listen to this podcast, but certainly before the
37:27
Speaker 2: end of this week and before we get to Austria
37:29
Speaker 2: for round 15 this weekend, that Qatar could be cancelled. Now,
37:33
Speaker 2: obviously that has championship permutations because it leaves seven rounds remaining,
37:37
Speaker 2: not eight. And, uh, unlike in Formula One, we have
37:40
Speaker 2: a very, very tight title fight in MotoGP because you
37:44
Speaker 2: have Marc Marquez and Jorge Martin on the same number
37:46
Speaker 2: of points after round 14 at Misano last weekend. So,
37:50
Speaker 2: you know, taking 37 points off the plate because you've
37:52
Speaker 2: got the Sprint and Grand Prix every single race on
37:55
Speaker 2: two wheels is interesting. There's enough other races and we
37:57
Speaker 2: have a live championship fight anyway, but, uh, The concept
38:00
Speaker 2: of this amazing story of Kimi Antonelli being decided by
38:05
Speaker 2: literally a pinging in your inbox of a release that
38:08
Speaker 2: tells you they've cancelled in two rounds. And oh, by
38:10
Speaker 2: the way, Old Bates won the world championship. He's probably
38:12
Speaker 2: sitting there and he's tracking X, having his breakfast or something.
38:15
Speaker 2: It's not the greatest way to win a world championship.
38:19
Speaker 2: And whatever we need to do to try and mitigate
38:22
Speaker 2: the effects of that happening. And like you said, I
38:24
Speaker 2: wonder if it hastens the calling off of these two
38:27
Speaker 2: races rather than the actual stretching it and stretching it
38:29
Speaker 2: and stretching it because WEC has already decided they're out.
38:33
Speaker 2: Formula One has already made its own calendar considerations by
38:36
Speaker 2: no Saudi Arabia. We've got the Bahrain Grand Prix happening
38:39
Speaker 2: in Malaysia, which I still can't believe is a sentence
38:41
Speaker 2: that I'm verbalising in 2026. I do wonder if– you
38:47
Speaker 2: can't award a world championship with a press release, can you?
38:50
Speaker 2: You just can't happen.
38:50
Speaker 1: You can't risk it. I think they'll have until– I
38:54
Speaker 1: think if you do it after Azerbaijan, you would still
38:56
Speaker 1: get away with it, unless there's a real dramatic thing.
38:59
Speaker 1: Because in the hypothetical world in which Russell has two
39:03
Speaker 1: really bad races and Antonelli wins two in a row,
39:05
Speaker 1: it could happen after that. So I think you've got
39:09
Speaker 1: to mitigate the risk by the week after next. I
39:12
Speaker 1: suspect it will be called. Because the other element of this,
39:15
Speaker 1: and we don't have to get into all this, we've
39:16
Speaker 1: got to wrap up in a second, but is even
39:18
Speaker 1: if they decide there's going to be no more fighting tomorrow,
39:22
Speaker 1: how is it going to endure for a couple of months?
39:24
Speaker 1: Is it worth the risk at this point? You want
39:26
Speaker 1: the championship to end in a predictable way in the
39:28
Speaker 1: sense that you know where you're going at the end
39:29
Speaker 1: of the year. And also, look, I know having these races,
39:32
Speaker 1: it's contractual, which is fair enough. Everyone's signed contracts. They
39:35
Speaker 1: want the races to happen. The money element is obviously
39:37
Speaker 1: playing no small part in this. But the idea that
39:40
Speaker 1: the final round might be in Italy, the year that
39:43
Speaker 1: Antonelli wins the championship. I mean, we all saw the
39:45
Speaker 1: scenes in Monza. It'll be similar scenes in Imola, but
39:47
Speaker 1: everyone will be wearing jackets, presumably, because it's cold or
39:49
Speaker 1: snowing or whatever.
39:50
Speaker 2: Yes, yes.
39:51
Speaker 1: But what an opportunity it is through circumstances. Terrible circumstances,
39:55
Speaker 1: of course, but from the sports perspective. What an opportunity
39:58
Speaker 1: you have there to just call it. Domenicali will get
40:00
Speaker 1: around it. It's his hometown. That's probably half the reason
40:02
Speaker 1: that Imola's been nominated as the substitute round anyway. I
40:05
Speaker 1: think they're just going to have to pull it. They've
40:08
Speaker 1: just got to decide it. I think the decision's coming
40:10
Speaker 1: sooner rather than later. We'll wait and see what that
40:13
Speaker 1: final call is. But that's all the time we have
40:14
Speaker 1: for Pit Talk this week. You can subscribe to Pit
40:16
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40:19
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40:21
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40:24
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40:26
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40:29
Speaker 1: at foxsports.com.au. From Matt Clayton and me, Michael Laminato, thanks
40:33
Speaker 1: very much for your company and we'll catch you next week.