Latest / Pit Talk / Is Oscar Piastri the title favourite? Saudi Arabian GP Review

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Is Oscar Piastri the title favourite? Saudi Arabian 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, Oscar Piastre is the new championship leader
0:07
Speaker 1: after winning the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and Max Mstaffen
0:11
Speaker 1: rails against the penalty that cost him a shot at
0:13
Speaker 1: victory after cutting the first chicune. My name is Michael Lamonado.
0:17
Speaker 1: It's great to have your company, and the company of
0:20
Speaker 1: my co host. His body clock is about as cooked
0:22
Speaker 1: as Christian Horner's photographic attempt to exonerate Max with Staffan,
0:26
Speaker 1: It's Matt Mayton.
0:27
Speaker 2: Michael, it's good to join you as always, But if
0:29
Speaker 2: I don't like how this podcast goes, I'm going to
0:32
Speaker 2: produce a series of photographs, bring them to our next meeting,
0:35
Speaker 2: and then explain to you why you were wrong and
0:37
Speaker 2: I was right. And maybe I'll call in a reserve
0:40
Speaker 2: driver to do a reenactment of my Grievances Alex album,
0:44
Speaker 2: which is still one of my favorite f on stories.
0:46
Speaker 2: But great to join you, and we were discussing this
0:49
Speaker 2: off air before. What are we going to do with
0:51
Speaker 2: ourselves on a Sunday where there's no Formula one on
0:54
Speaker 2: this weekend because there haven't been many of them.
0:57
Speaker 1: No, probably spend time with loved ones or something lame like,
1:00
Speaker 1: because what do you do without formula on?
1:02
Speaker 3: Now?
1:02
Speaker 1: I'm very much looking forward to the weekend off. I
1:04
Speaker 1: know that's not always popular opinion, but after the last
1:07
Speaker 1: two time zones we've had, I'm really pumped for no
1:10
Speaker 1: formula on this weekend. But you won't have to wait
1:12
Speaker 1: long for it to come back around. Miami is only well,
1:15
Speaker 1: if you really want to count down, it's probably only
1:16
Speaker 1: about ten days away.
1:18
Speaker 2: And not a bad time though, Miami, I've got to say,
1:20
Speaker 2: because it scus nicely with the clock for us, doesn't it.
1:22
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm a big fan of breakfast Grand Prix for
1:25
Speaker 1: people who follow me here and elsewhere, and this very
1:28
Speaker 1: much falls into that category. Six am. I think it
1:30
Speaker 1: is maybe even o'clock anyway, that's probably next week.
1:32
Speaker 3: It should be more of it, Yes, should be more
1:34
Speaker 3: of it.
1:35
Speaker 1: Really great if you're in New Zealand. Two just by,
1:37
Speaker 1: just by the bye. But let's look at the Saudi
1:40
Speaker 1: Arabian Grand Prix. Momentous moment for Australian motorsport because we
1:44
Speaker 1: have an Australian back at the top of the Formula
1:46
Speaker 1: One World Drivers championship standings for the first time in
1:49
Speaker 1: fifteen years. It's Oscar Piastre. After getting so close in Bahrain,
1:53
Speaker 1: he did the deal in Saudi Arabia, starting second on
1:55
Speaker 1: the grid, beating Max Forstappen to victory. We'll talk about
2:00
Speaker 1: hold that Max Verstappen, first lap, first pass, and the
2:03
Speaker 1: photographic attempt at to defend a little bit later on
2:06
Speaker 1: the podcast, but I want to stick with the McLaren
2:08
Speaker 1: and Piastre side of things here. It struck me, Matt,
2:12
Speaker 1: that this was another very It was another Piastre performance,
2:15
Speaker 1: wasn't it fundamentally very cool, calm and collected, Nothing too
2:18
Speaker 1: exciting to quicken the heart rate. Nothing to out of
2:20
Speaker 1: the ordinary or outlandish about this good move into the
2:25
Speaker 1: first turn or a really great start really is what
2:27
Speaker 1: fundamentally was. But this didn't actually feel like the absolute
2:33
Speaker 1: comprehensive weekend it was and let's say China or even Bahrain.
2:36
Speaker 1: In fact, it fell to me actually right up until
2:38
Speaker 1: Q three when Lando Norris crashed and we will talk
2:40
Speaker 1: about him in a moment. It was quite possibly the
2:44
Speaker 1: second to quickest or the slowest McLaren driver this weekend.
2:47
Speaker 1: Yet he's still walked away with the victory. How Signimian
2:51
Speaker 1: do you think this result is quite aside from that
2:52
Speaker 1: championship lead, but in the context of this maybe not
2:55
Speaker 1: actually being one of the great Piastre weekend.
2:57
Speaker 2: No, I think it was good in that he won
2:59
Speaker 2: a race in a different way. And you look at
3:02
Speaker 2: the way he's won races over the course of his
3:04
Speaker 2: Formula One career, it's often been from a position of
3:06
Speaker 2: dominance that he's built on through Friday and Saturday into Sunday.
3:10
Speaker 2: This wasn't one of those weekends. As you mentioned, Norris
3:12
Speaker 2: looked to me that the quicker McClaren up until it
3:15
Speaker 2: really mattered in Q three for stapp and took poll.
3:17
Speaker 2: This wasn't one of those sailing serenely to victory displays
3:22
Speaker 2: by him that we had seen that in Bahrain just
3:23
Speaker 2: seven days before that. So I think the one thing
3:26
Speaker 2: we are starting to notice with Oscar is that if
3:29
Speaker 2: there is a door that's prized open, even a crack,
3:32
Speaker 2: he's going straight through it and there's no apologies and
3:35
Speaker 2: he's not going to hold back. So I think he's
3:36
Speaker 2: become a driver that he will really make others pay
3:40
Speaker 2: for their mistakes or their transgressions. You can't give this
3:44
Speaker 2: guy sniff because if he gets his nose in front,
3:46
Speaker 2: we know that it's very coolly executed from there. And
3:50
Speaker 2: you mentioned before that it wasn't an absolute thriller minute
3:52
Speaker 2: ride of a Grand Prix. These are the sorts of
3:55
Speaker 2: races he wins. We've seen that in the past, but
3:57
Speaker 2: it was how he got to that position to me,
3:59
Speaker 2: that was different and it bodes well because it shows
4:02
Speaker 2: that there's more sort of arrows in the quiver if
4:04
Speaker 2: you like to win these races. And I mean not
4:07
Speaker 2: two race wins in seven days and you know we're
4:10
Speaker 2: already looking at this. Yes, he's in the lead of
4:12
Speaker 2: the World Championship. First Australian to win back to back
4:15
Speaker 2: Grand Prix in eleven years. I had to go digging
4:17
Speaker 2: through the record books for that since Daniel Ricardo do
4:19
Speaker 2: that in twenty fourteen. It feels very sustainable. But it's
4:23
Speaker 2: good to know that he can win races different ways because,
4:26
Speaker 2: as you said, until that last part of Q three,
4:29
Speaker 2: it looked like maybe this is a podium weekend, but
4:31
Speaker 2: then it became something a lot better.
4:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, best run of form. I really tried to go
4:35
Speaker 1: back in the Stat's book for this one by an
4:37
Speaker 1: Australian since Alan Jones in nineteen eighty to eighty one,
4:41
Speaker 1: who was the last Australian to have three wins and
4:43
Speaker 1: a podium in that combination. Because it's three wins and
4:47
Speaker 1: a third from the last four races for Oscopias, I
4:49
Speaker 1: can forget about the result of the Australian Grand Prix
4:51
Speaker 1: because it didn't happen. It was a ninth place where
4:53
Speaker 1: I was playing along at home. And that's the interesting
4:56
Speaker 1: equation for me, is that up until until this weekend, really,
5:00
Speaker 1: if we're trying to look at pastre season as a whole,
5:02
Speaker 1: admittedly still so early on in the campaign that phrase,
5:06
Speaker 1: you know, winning your titles on your worst days, that
5:09
Speaker 1: ninth place was kind of hanging over him a little bit.
5:11
Speaker 1: There are circumstances about that. That wasn't a meritorious ninth. There
5:14
Speaker 1: was him spinning off the road and sort of copying
5:17
Speaker 1: the bad deal, getting stuck in the grass, whereas Norris
5:21
Speaker 1: was able to slither back onto the road and rejoin.
5:23
Speaker 1: But nonetheless that was the result that was kind of
5:25
Speaker 1: weighing him down. This was in inverted commas, his bad
5:30
Speaker 1: day and still emerged with a victory, and I think
5:32
Speaker 1: that's what's really heartening about this. He'll have worse days,
5:36
Speaker 1: presumably in which victory won't be possible, because he can't
5:39
Speaker 1: be just performing an absolutely race winning form every weekend
5:42
Speaker 1: when it does feel quite close at the front, if
5:45
Speaker 1: not just with Lando Norris, but from at least some
5:48
Speaker 1: race weekends red Bull Racing as well. But yeah, the
5:50
Speaker 1: fact that the performance was still strong despite maybe not
5:53
Speaker 1: everything being aligned that I think was really promising here
5:57
Speaker 1: for him, And you can contrast that directly with Lando Norris.
6:00
Speaker 1: Not everything was perfectly aligned for him, although it was
6:02
Speaker 1: pretty close and wasn't able to pull out the results.
6:05
Speaker 1: Let's look at that qualifying crash now for Lander, because
6:08
Speaker 1: that really twisted this weekend in a different direction and direction.
6:12
Speaker 1: They don't think we were anticipating it felt like it
6:14
Speaker 1: was always a chance of happening, wasn't it. After the
6:17
Speaker 1: way he talked in Bahrain, we were so down in
6:18
Speaker 1: himself where he had a genuinely bad weekend there did
6:21
Speaker 1: manage to get unto the podium. He wasn't as disappointed
6:25
Speaker 1: after this crash. He felt like he'd sort of turned
6:27
Speaker 1: things around. But these back to back and not big results,
6:31
Speaker 1: losing the championship lead. I mean, that's now forming an
6:34
Speaker 1: integral part of this narrative, isn't it.
6:35
Speaker 2: Well, it's forming a pattern. I think it's what it's forming.
6:38
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, once you could say, is you
6:39
Speaker 2: know it's a one off. Now it's either a coincidence
6:41
Speaker 2: or the beginning of a trend with him here. And
6:44
Speaker 2: I noticed the way he handled this one as well,
6:47
Speaker 2: relative to seven days previous. And I wonder, if you know,
6:50
Speaker 2: with a little bit of clarity and hindsight, whether he
6:52
Speaker 2: looked at the way he reacted so publicly to the
6:55
Speaker 2: Bahrain disappointment thought or maybe I need to pull this
6:57
Speaker 2: back a little bit. And you know, you and I
6:59
Speaker 2: had spoken on this podcast last week about the race
7:02
Speaker 2: being played between the years is between the white lines,
7:05
Speaker 2: and psychologically he might have prized open a little area
7:09
Speaker 2: of vulnerability there for Piastre to capitalize upon. So I
7:13
Speaker 2: do wondering how much of that response on Saturday night,
7:17
Speaker 2: Sunday morning, whenever it was in Saudi, when you crash,
7:20
Speaker 2: whatever time Australian time it was, how much of that
7:23
Speaker 2: was tempering how he really felt. But this circuit, because
7:26
Speaker 2: it is so extreme. It's a place where small mistakes
7:30
Speaker 2: have very, very big consequences. Like Suzuka is a similar track.
7:34
Speaker 2: You wouldn't necessarily put Saudi in Zuzuka in the same breath,
7:37
Speaker 2: but because Saudi is so new, But this is a
7:40
Speaker 2: place where one momentary lapse of judgment or an error
7:43
Speaker 2: can completely define your entire weekend. It was a relatively
7:47
Speaker 2: clean race weekend for big shunts, which always surprises me
7:50
Speaker 2: with Saudi because when I look at this track, you
7:52
Speaker 2: do feel like you're watching it with your fingers in
7:54
Speaker 2: front of your eyes a lot at the time because
7:55
Speaker 2: it is so high speed in all those blind corners.
7:57
Speaker 2: But it defined the weekend. But the question I thought
8:01
Speaker 2: for you was that, you know, we see that Piastre's
8:03
Speaker 2: in the lead now and is the better of the
8:06
Speaker 2: two McLaren drivers. I'm wondering if it's kind of been
8:09
Speaker 2: this way all along, and that Australia ninth place and
8:12
Speaker 2: just those two points that he had there really distorted
8:14
Speaker 2: the championship picture of perhaps the gap between these two drivers,
8:18
Speaker 2: because you know, small stakes, big consequences. That was very
8:21
Speaker 2: different because of the rain belting down in the final
8:23
Speaker 2: sector at Albert Park, and turned it into a bit
8:25
Speaker 2: of a lottery. It feels like it's taken Piastre four
8:28
Speaker 2: races to get back to probably where he should have
8:30
Speaker 2: been after Australia. But on the whole he has probably
8:33
Speaker 2: made fewer mistakes and looks like the most polished of
8:35
Speaker 2: the McLaren drivers. It's just taken us to round five
8:38
Speaker 2: for him to be where he could have been a
8:40
Speaker 2: couple of rounds earlier.
8:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a good call, and you can
8:42
Speaker 1: also see that in the obviously the raw points picture,
8:45
Speaker 1: but when you consider how far behind he was in Australia,
8:48
Speaker 1: it's been a thirty three point turnaround the Ansonia since then,
8:51
Speaker 1: and that includes races in which he was behind Norris.
8:53
Speaker 1: Obviously in Japan he lost points to Niros, but the
8:56
Speaker 1: swing has still been strong enough to move him ahead
8:59
Speaker 1: in just four race weekends. That's about eight point something
9:01
Speaker 1: points a weekend, which is more than the differences been
9:03
Speaker 1: first and second, which is interesting when we're talking about
9:06
Speaker 1: still McLaren being just the fastest card. I haven't always
9:09
Speaker 1: got the one two results a bit of a moot point,
9:11
Speaker 1: but nonetheless it's been pretty much one way traffic in
9:15
Speaker 1: Oscar's favor and yeah, I think to come back to
9:17
Speaker 1: your point, it does feel like it's becoming a trend.
9:20
Speaker 1: Whether Norris cracking is the trend or simply being overpowered
9:25
Speaker 1: by Piastre is sort of the dominant trend. And then
9:27
Speaker 1: that's just showing up in some mistakes or some Norris
9:30
Speaker 1: mistakes are being shown up more vividly as a result
9:32
Speaker 1: of that is something we'll learn over subsequent rounds. But
9:35
Speaker 1: I thought, and it's an interesting point you made, sort
9:38
Speaker 1: of has Norris exposed a little bit too much of himself?
9:40
Speaker 1: I think that's going to be an ongoing question over
9:42
Speaker 1: this year because if we don't see more of that,
9:45
Speaker 1: I think that will be an obvious change of attitude
9:48
Speaker 1: from him, because that has been the way he's gone
9:50
Speaker 1: about his business psychologically for as long as he's been
9:52
Speaker 1: in the sport. Really, if suddenly he closes up that,
9:56
Speaker 1: you will have to conclude that is a conscious decision.
9:59
Speaker 1: You're speaking to Dutch media. I think who asked him
10:02
Speaker 1: after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix if we be participating in.
10:06
Speaker 1: I think he's at the Dutch National Day, King's Day
10:08
Speaker 1: or something like that in the next week. If you
10:10
Speaker 1: cast your minds back at twelve months, there was footage
10:14
Speaker 1: of him on social media partying on some boat a
10:16
Speaker 1: few days before the Miami Grand Prix, injured his nose.
10:18
Speaker 1: He turned up with a bandage. He did win that race,
10:20
Speaker 1: so we can't be too critical of him. But he
10:22
Speaker 1: then revealed he's chosen now because of this title fight,
10:25
Speaker 1: to stop drinking entirely that we know partying, he's really
10:29
Speaker 1: knuckling down. That's obviously lauda bull like. He's taking it
10:32
Speaker 1: very seriously. He's looking for every percentage game. But it's
10:35
Speaker 1: also a little bit of information, isn't it That he
10:37
Speaker 1: feels like to overcome anyone in this title fight, and
10:39
Speaker 1: he does expect Maxis happen to be in the mix,
10:41
Speaker 1: and I think that's fair enough. But he's had to
10:43
Speaker 1: change himself from previous years, and if he's still coming
10:48
Speaker 1: up a little bit short after that against Oscar who,
10:50
Speaker 1: as far as we know, because he gives nothing away,
10:52
Speaker 1: he's just doing the same thing he's been doing his
10:54
Speaker 1: whole life, which is just turning up, driving fast and
10:56
Speaker 1: going home. That's sort of another little interest peace to
11:00
Speaker 1: the puzzle I think still has to unplay in that,
11:03
Speaker 1: Like you say, what's eventually going to become a psychological
11:06
Speaker 1: battle as well as one just on the track.
11:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's interesting, isn't it?
11:09
Speaker 2: For all? Weeno Piastri could be off, you know, just
11:11
Speaker 2: finding some Dutch ancestry from VIO four and going out
11:15
Speaker 2: having his own party on a boat and carrying on
11:16
Speaker 2: and hitting his own nose on something, but he's less
11:19
Speaker 2: likely to tell you about it. And I think that's
11:21
Speaker 2: just the interesting approach with the way these two guys race.
11:25
Speaker 2: And I covered a lot of Mark Weber's career and
11:27
Speaker 2: one of Mark's sort of go to phrases among the
11:30
Speaker 2: fifteen on your Bingo car that he would go through,
11:32
Speaker 2: he said he was always he would always say I
11:34
Speaker 2: will give nothing, you know, which means I'm giving absolutely
11:38
Speaker 2: nothing away to anybody, meaning you blokes, which was the
11:41
Speaker 2: media and any of his opponents. He wasn't going to
11:44
Speaker 2: give you any piece of information that could be used
11:46
Speaker 2: as a weakness or turned against him, will provide any
11:49
Speaker 2: fodder that might sort of unseat his sort of rock
11:51
Speaker 2: solid foundation. We know the way that Mark went racing,
11:55
Speaker 2: which was to if he didn't have a quarter to
11:57
Speaker 2: fight out of, he get out of paint Rush and
11:59
Speaker 2: paint one for a five out of it is the
12:00
Speaker 2: way he used to go about it. But Oscar's got
12:02
Speaker 2: a very different mental approach. But I love the methodical
12:07
Speaker 2: nature of what he's doing at the moment relative to
12:09
Speaker 2: the peaks and troughs of the Norris roller coaster, and
12:13
Speaker 2: the fact that you know, there's been a couple of times,
12:15
Speaker 2: you know, all the car has been a bit difficult
12:16
Speaker 2: to drive this week.
12:17
Speaker 3: He's no, that's fine.
12:18
Speaker 2: You know, he'll very subtly downplay things now, whether that's
12:22
Speaker 2: just being him being completely honest and unfiltered, or whether
12:25
Speaker 2: it's just another little opportunity to throw a little jab
12:28
Speaker 2: in there perhaps to be different to the way Norris
12:31
Speaker 2: is reacting to these things. That will probably never know
12:33
Speaker 2: because he's never going to say. But the thing you
12:36
Speaker 2: mentioned about Norris making adjustments, there's an admission there that
12:40
Speaker 2: what I have done in the past is either not
12:43
Speaker 2: good enough or I need to be better in certain
12:45
Speaker 2: areas to get on terms with this guy and the
12:48
Speaker 2: other garage, who outwardly is going to project nothing that's
12:51
Speaker 2: going to be vulnerable. And I think we've just seen
12:53
Speaker 2: that in the way he's raced over the past few
12:55
Speaker 2: weekends and look for a guy we obviously know he's
12:58
Speaker 2: got the Judy Series pedig Piastre, but he's not done
13:01
Speaker 2: this at this level because he's not been around long
13:03
Speaker 2: enough to do it.
13:04
Speaker 3: But he's got all of.
13:05
Speaker 2: The qualities and says the right things of someone who's
13:08
Speaker 2: been in this numerous times. He's acting like a guy
13:12
Speaker 2: who's twenty eight years old that's been in three championship
13:14
Speaker 2: battles already, not a guy who's in this for his
13:16
Speaker 2: first time. And I think that boats really well because
13:19
Speaker 2: you know, we know this seat, there's nineteen more rounds
13:22
Speaker 2: to go and five more sprints. This seague will go forever.
13:24
Speaker 2: We're a long long way from the finish line. But
13:27
Speaker 2: if he can keep that consistent, if that's just one
13:29
Speaker 2: thing in his bag that he does the entire way through,
13:31
Speaker 2: that is going to boat really well.
13:33
Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, there's another one of those little Piastre
13:36
Speaker 1: you know, is of my honest yeah, maybe a piastre
13:39
Speaker 1: ism where he was told Lando Norris said in the
13:42
Speaker 1: TVPN after the race that he thought the Red Bull
13:44
Speaker 1: Racing car is actually faster than Piastri And no, I
13:47
Speaker 1: don't think so I think.
13:49
Speaker 3: And the thing I do love about him here as well.
13:51
Speaker 2: There's an economy of words with him as well, in
13:54
Speaker 2: that whatever it is that's in the forefront of his
13:57
Speaker 2: mind comes out, but then he doesn't feel the need
13:59
Speaker 2: to really expand upon it, and there's often an uncomfortable
14:02
Speaker 2: silence at the end of one of his quite short answers,
14:05
Speaker 2: which is terrible for TV of course because dead air,
14:08
Speaker 2: but it also makes the point there's like nothing more
14:10
Speaker 2: to say, move on, and psychologically I think that's quite
14:13
Speaker 2: interesting as well.
14:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, so plenty more to play out over that, but
14:17
Speaker 1: certainly Piastre is going into this. It's not really a
14:19
Speaker 1: little break, it's just a conventional one weekend off, but
14:22
Speaker 1: after five and six it feels like a little mini
14:24
Speaker 1: break the season before we head to Miami and then
14:26
Speaker 1: the European part of the campaign. He ends up in
14:29
Speaker 1: this break ahead in not only the championship but in
14:32
Speaker 1: that little McLaren inter team battle. Before we move on
14:35
Speaker 1: from this victorious race for Rosco Piastre, of course, we
14:38
Speaker 1: have to go to Move of the Week, brought to
14:40
Speaker 1: you by Shannons just the one race to recap this weekend,
14:44
Speaker 1: The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix not absolutely boasting much passes.
14:50
Speaker 1: It wasn't one of the action packed races. Was a
14:53
Speaker 1: little bit ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix I suppose
14:56
Speaker 1: at least, although not a lot, and it didn't have
14:58
Speaker 1: that appeal of it being Suzuka. I don't know about you, Matt.
15:00
Speaker 1: I've got to admit I struggled to identify hitting you
15:03
Speaker 1: the corners on television at this circuit from one of
15:06
Speaker 1: the other I couldn't agree more. But why do you
15:08
Speaker 1: kick us off? What was your I can just smect
15:10
Speaker 1: I know what it's going to be, but what was
15:11
Speaker 1: your move of the way.
15:13
Speaker 2: Well, I'm going to do here. I'm going to try
15:16
Speaker 2: and attempt a professional segue and set you up for
15:18
Speaker 2: the next segment that I actually don't know what it is.
15:20
Speaker 2: So this is me just throwing on in the air
15:22
Speaker 2: and seeing what happens. But to my mind, move of
15:24
Speaker 2: the week in Saudi there can only be one, and
15:27
Speaker 2: it was lap twenty one when Oscar Piastri, after having
15:30
Speaker 2: made his pit stop, stormed his way past Lewis Hamilton
15:34
Speaker 2: and made Lewis Hamilton look like a guy who was
15:36
Speaker 2: in his first Formula One season, not his nineteenth or
15:38
Speaker 2: whatever it is, with an unbelievable pass through one of
15:41
Speaker 2: those hard to identify sections of the Saudi Racetrack where
15:45
Speaker 2: you go, I'm not quite sure what corner we're in,
15:47
Speaker 2: and we've gone through it so quickly that we've gone
15:48
Speaker 2: through three others before I've worked it out. But to
15:51
Speaker 2: my mind, there was and it was quite I use
15:54
Speaker 2: the word arrogant in a really endearing way here, because
15:56
Speaker 2: there was just this I can put this car past
15:59
Speaker 2: you wherever I should used to.
16:01
Speaker 3: I love the pass.
16:01
Speaker 2: Because I don't think he needed to make it there,
16:03
Speaker 2: but he chose to make it there, and there was
16:05
Speaker 2: just this sort of flex about it, as like I
16:07
Speaker 2: can just pass you here and there's nothing you can
16:09
Speaker 2: do about it. Yes, we're on different strategies and I'm
16:12
Speaker 2: going to pass you eventually, but I'm going to pass
16:14
Speaker 2: you there, and it's not a place where you see
16:16
Speaker 2: people attempt to make passes. I love the audacity of it,
16:20
Speaker 2: but I also love just the complete belief and the confidence.
16:23
Speaker 2: So for me, that was overtake of the week. But
16:26
Speaker 2: I'm thinking there's one other overtake on the low hanging
16:31
Speaker 2: on the tree of overtakes that you might decide to
16:34
Speaker 2: pick off here because it kind of was if you're
16:38
Speaker 2: going where I think you're going. It kind of defined
16:40
Speaker 2: how he got to this point in the race, didn't it.
16:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's very straightforward to what look before
16:44
Speaker 1: I pick more renevotably it's going to be, which is
16:47
Speaker 1: Oscar Piastre technically passing Max with Steffan at the first
16:50
Speaker 1: she came, I said technically because he was judged to
16:53
Speaker 1: have done it but didn't emerge with the lead. I
16:55
Speaker 1: do want to go back a step because the Hamilton.
16:57
Speaker 1: The pass on Hamilton was really interesting for another reason
17:01
Speaker 1: to sort of go back to our previous segment, which
17:02
Speaker 1: is that it came after he'd actually put up quite
17:04
Speaker 1: a big defense Hamilton or Lando Norris in the first
17:07
Speaker 1: into the race round about lap twelve to fifteen. I
17:09
Speaker 1: think it was off the top of my head, which
17:11
Speaker 1: I think actually defined Norris's race because he lost something
17:14
Speaker 1: like four to five seconds from memory battling Hamilton there,
17:17
Speaker 1: and he was only one second behind Charlock there at
17:20
Speaker 1: the end of the race, So potentially that was where
17:21
Speaker 1: his podium went missing, although we don't know if he
17:23
Speaker 1: would have been able to pass their care of course, and
17:25
Speaker 1: it's interesting for two reasons. One is that Hamilton defended
17:28
Speaker 1: by playing with that DRS zone. You might this happens
17:31
Speaker 1: every year. Really, the most famously happened in this race's
17:34
Speaker 1: first year when he was battling with Maxistafan to try
17:37
Speaker 1: and equal the title lead, and they almost crashed, or
17:39
Speaker 1: they did crash in fact, didn't they playing with that
17:41
Speaker 1: DRS zone at the final corner. I think it is
17:46
Speaker 1: managed to hold off Norris for quite a few laps
17:47
Speaker 1: by playing that game. It took Norris, to my mind,
17:50
Speaker 1: too long to realize that was happening and as a
17:53
Speaker 1: result lost time. But what was really interesting is that,
17:57
Speaker 1: as I understand, is that the Norris's race engineer identified
18:01
Speaker 1: that when Oscar Piastre is coming up behind Hamilton told
18:04
Speaker 1: the team whatever, and Piastre was told this, and I
18:07
Speaker 1: can't help but wonder whether he's like, oh okay, and
18:09
Speaker 1: then subsequently just chose to pass Hamilton way before that
18:12
Speaker 1: catch him by surprise in order to not get caught
18:15
Speaker 1: up in that game. So maybe there's a little bit
18:17
Speaker 1: of knowledge there. I think you're right, he just chose
18:19
Speaker 1: to pass him wherever he wanted to because he had
18:21
Speaker 1: the speed, he knew he could do it. But it's
18:23
Speaker 1: sort of interesting that he did something that Norris wasn't
18:25
Speaker 1: able to sort of work his way out of quickly
18:27
Speaker 1: enough and there you go. He managed to make that
18:29
Speaker 1: pass that was potentially decisive in keeping himself ahead of
18:33
Speaker 1: a stap And at the end of the race. But yes,
18:35
Speaker 1: the overtake I think for me has to be that
18:37
Speaker 1: first corner because he did everything he needed to do
18:39
Speaker 1: to make the overtake, even though he didn't get ahead
18:41
Speaker 1: of a Stappen, because the Stappin cup that he came
18:43
Speaker 1: great start from him. We've got to remember starts to
18:45
Speaker 1: mclan were pretty ordinary more often than not. Last year.
18:48
Speaker 1: Just absolutely nailed it at one of those tracks where
18:51
Speaker 1: second is occasionally in a better position than Paul and
18:55
Speaker 1: he capitalized on it. And good on here. But the
18:57
Speaker 1: race winning move asterisk.
19:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, well there's two things here. Do we think that
19:03
Speaker 2: pole position is on the wrong side at Jedda because
19:05
Speaker 2: I've maintained that it has been since day one, because yes,
19:07
Speaker 2: it's not the racing line, but it is the only
19:09
Speaker 2: line in the first corner. And I'd have to go
19:11
Speaker 2: back and have a look at the other race starts
19:13
Speaker 2: there to see if similar things had happened. I mean, look,
19:15
Speaker 2: Piastri absolutely now that start and Vestapen was a little
19:18
Speaker 2: bit tardy off the line, that's all that. That's all
19:21
Speaker 2: it ended up being. But there was a bit of
19:25
Speaker 2: a degree of inevitability about that first corner, because well,
19:28
Speaker 2: we've seen how Verstapen rolls in situations like this, and
19:33
Speaker 2: I don't know about you, I wasn't surprised that it
19:36
Speaker 2: played out this way. I was a little bit surprised
19:38
Speaker 2: as to how Red Bull responded, but perhaps you can
19:41
Speaker 2: go into that. And because I thought they actually had
19:44
Speaker 2: an immediate opportunity to redress that and give Vestapan a
19:47
Speaker 2: chance to win the race by not redressing that first
19:52
Speaker 2: corner and then the subsequent safety current, the way the
19:54
Speaker 2: race played out, it only ever seemed to me like
19:57
Speaker 2: Verstapan was only going to finish second, whereas if they
19:59
Speaker 2: actually addressed it on the first lap, he could have
20:01
Speaker 2: potentially still won that Grand Prix because he wouldn't have
20:04
Speaker 2: snooked himself strategically. But I wonder what you thought with that,
20:07
Speaker 2: because I thought they took one of their own options
20:09
Speaker 2: off the table. In a bit of a fit of
20:11
Speaker 2: you know, how dare this person pass me? And I
20:13
Speaker 2: was forced off the track? Perhaps they should have played
20:15
Speaker 2: that a little bit more cleverly.
20:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really interesting, isn't. Because one of the questions
20:18
Speaker 1: I've been asked a couple of times this week is
20:20
Speaker 1: why didn't they just give it? Why? More to the point,
20:23
Speaker 1: why weren't they told to hand it back? Because there
20:25
Speaker 1: was a period of time in Formula One where that
20:27
Speaker 1: was happening all the time. We'd hear the radio messages
20:29
Speaker 1: on the TV saying, oh, race controls told us give
20:32
Speaker 1: the position back because you'll probably get a penalty. And
20:35
Speaker 1: Formula One moved away from that a couple of years.
20:36
Speaker 1: I think, didn't they where the race director or race
20:38
Speaker 1: control no longer intervenes in that way. In fact, I
20:41
Speaker 1: think it's a policy from even two race directors ago.
20:44
Speaker 1: That's probably more of a commentary and how quickly were
20:45
Speaker 1: going through race that's ten minutes ago exactly. That doesn't
20:49
Speaker 1: excuse that doesn't explain why they chose not to. It
20:52
Speaker 1: just explains why they weren't told to. And I'm sort
20:55
Speaker 1: of in two minds about that. On the one hand,
20:57
Speaker 1: I think it's clean off. Race control intervenes a little bit,
20:59
Speaker 1: and we just avoid time penalties being part of the
21:02
Speaker 1: race because particularly the case if this was in the
21:04
Speaker 1: second stint, obviously wouldn't be the start of the race
21:06
Speaker 1: that way, but then you'd be adding up the seconds
21:08
Speaker 1: after the flag and Max would across the line first,
21:10
Speaker 1: we finishay or whatever, And I think that's a bit messy.
21:13
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, I do like the idea that, well, no,
21:15
Speaker 1: it's up to the driver and the team to make
21:18
Speaker 1: the sporting call one way or another and then live
21:21
Speaker 1: or die by that decision. And they didn't. And if
21:23
Speaker 1: you want to be generous, you could say, well, the
21:24
Speaker 1: safety guard came out so fast they didn't even really
21:26
Speaker 1: have a chance to weigh up those options to think
21:29
Speaker 1: too much about it. Like, I kind of buy that,
21:31
Speaker 1: but I also don't get the impression at all from
21:33
Speaker 1: the team that they were ever going to do that,
21:34
Speaker 1: particularly not by the silly and strident defense of Christian
21:39
Speaker 1: Horner after the fact. Now, of course it was after
21:41
Speaker 1: the fact, but I don't get the impression at all
21:43
Speaker 1: they would have done it. Max, with Staffan's response after
21:46
Speaker 1: the race, suggests that he wouldn't have been open to
21:48
Speaker 1: it either, and maybe there's something in that. Maybe Red
21:50
Speaker 1: Bull thought, well, maybe we should ask him, and then
21:52
Speaker 1: they said to know, he's just he's not going to
21:54
Speaker 1: do it. He's going to embarrass us. Let's not do that.
21:56
Speaker 1: So sort of interesting two ways to think about it.
21:59
Speaker 1: But the let's start with the MAX sided this before
22:03
Speaker 1: we talking about Christian Horner. We can build up to
22:04
Speaker 1: this photographic defense. But we've seen it before from him,
22:08
Speaker 1: isn't It's not just like you say that we've seen
22:10
Speaker 1: it this track before. This is a well known MAX tool,
22:15
Speaker 1: isn't it. And it's something we've seen before. And I guess,
22:17
Speaker 1: to be fair to him, in previous years he's been
22:19
Speaker 1: allowed to get away with moves like this. No longer
22:22
Speaker 1: according to these new unpublished driving guidelines is that allowed
22:25
Speaker 1: and these were changed after last year. But it's sort
22:27
Speaker 1: of interesting to see a driver lose one of their weapons.
22:31
Speaker 1: And I think that's sort of part of the story here.
22:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, very much so.
22:34
Speaker 2: I mean, I think you can't blame him for attempting
22:37
Speaker 2: to exploit a loophole in the rule book. That's what
22:40
Speaker 2: formula one's all about, quite honest, it's not what the
22:42
Speaker 2: Formula one rule book says, it's what it doesn't say,
22:45
Speaker 2: and that sort of determines how you go racing. Where
22:47
Speaker 2: there are gray areas, they are there to be exploited.
22:49
Speaker 2: And yes, we've had this amendment to the rules around
22:53
Speaker 2: this because Max has that have turned into a bit
22:55
Speaker 2: of an art form. I thought it was interesting, Well, A,
22:58
Speaker 2: we know that he goes by this code, He's done
23:02
Speaker 2: this before, so I was a little bit surprised that
23:04
Speaker 2: maybe there wasn't a pre planned response within the team
23:08
Speaker 2: because the chances of that happening at the first corner,
23:09
Speaker 2: if for Stapen wasn't in front, I would have thought
23:11
Speaker 2: were quite high, as simply because this is the way
23:13
Speaker 2: he this is the way he races.
23:16
Speaker 3: But I don't know.
23:17
Speaker 2: About you, but the way they handled it in the
23:20
Speaker 2: moment and then afterwards, particularly with the Christian Horner's family
23:23
Speaker 2: photo album coming to the post race press conference, how
23:26
Speaker 2: much of that was a team not willing to have
23:29
Speaker 2: that difficult conversation with a very adamant driver. If you
23:33
Speaker 2: had another team and another driver in that position, would
23:36
Speaker 2: they have handled it the same way? I would suggest not,
23:39
Speaker 2: because there's this obsession with plaicating the Verstapen persona in
23:45
Speaker 2: this respect. You knew that he was going to be
23:46
Speaker 2: annoyed about it. You knew he was going to fire
23:48
Speaker 2: up about it, and you know that's not the time
23:50
Speaker 2: to perhaps sell the bigger picture with something like this,
23:53
Speaker 2: Whereas I'm thinking, if it's Mercedes and it's George Russell,
23:55
Speaker 2: or if it's Good Lord of Ferrari's on the front
23:58
Speaker 2: and or Rover Race if it was Ferrari, what are
23:59
Speaker 2: their drive? Is that a difficult conversation and is the
24:02
Speaker 2: person behind the wheel potentially going to be more reasonable
24:06
Speaker 2: in the way they addressed that, or is this purely
24:10
Speaker 2: that particular driver in that particular team with the subtext
24:13
Speaker 2: of everything else that's going on behind the scenes, and
24:16
Speaker 2: they desperately need him right now because they're not where
24:18
Speaker 2: they were, and so on and so forth. I wonder
24:20
Speaker 2: if another team and driver would have handled it differently, because,
24:23
Speaker 2: as we were saying before, I just think that had
24:26
Speaker 2: you've addressed that on lap one, he may still have
24:29
Speaker 2: finished second in this Gral Prix to Piastre. We just
24:31
Speaker 2: don't know if that McClaren was faster in Cleve Air.
24:34
Speaker 2: We know it was another race really dictated by dirty air,
24:37
Speaker 2: but when they didn't elect to address the first corner
24:41
Speaker 2: and then the race played out once the safety car
24:43
Speaker 2: had gone off the track, to my mind, it was
24:46
Speaker 2: only ever going to be a case of a stuff
24:47
Speaker 2: and finishing second. I don't think that he he boxed
24:51
Speaker 2: himself into a corner, perhaps through his own sort of
24:54
Speaker 2: adamant nature or stubbornness on this. But look, I know
24:57
Speaker 2: you're dying to talk about Christian Horde's photos here. I'm
25:00
Speaker 2: trying to think the Silverstone twenty twenty one was the
25:03
Speaker 2: first time I seem to remember this happening, but there
25:05
Speaker 2: have been some others where they will come. Anytime you
25:08
Speaker 2: come to a post race press brief with props, I
25:12
Speaker 2: think it's in a completely different, really different category of
25:16
Speaker 2: press de brief. But what did you think about that?
25:18
Speaker 2: Because to me it was a little bit half hearted almost.
25:22
Speaker 2: I'm not sure they quite believed what they were selling
25:24
Speaker 2: in that regard, but they were going through the motions
25:28
Speaker 2: and the theatrics of it because they needed to on
25:30
Speaker 2: a level more than actually thinking it might work.
25:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, the last one I remember is him is Christian
25:37
Speaker 1: Horner whipping out some telemetry last year in I.
25:41
Speaker 3: Want to say Mexico, Mexico.
25:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, Mexican being a penalty you got for pushing Norris
25:47
Speaker 1: off the track, I think yes, and the exact same thing.
25:50
Speaker 1: And now this is a real if anyone next time
25:52
Speaker 1: this happens, because there will be a next time you
25:54
Speaker 1: play this game at home, because it will happen. Is
25:57
Speaker 1: this is exactly how it plays that he walks here,
25:58
Speaker 1: he does his press comerence, these photos of the celemety
26:01
Speaker 1: or whatever is the smoking gun. He says, here is
26:03
Speaker 1: the black and white evidence. He has his little speel
26:06
Speaker 1: about this and that, and then the question comes, so
26:09
Speaker 1: are you going to appeal? And then he says no,
26:12
Speaker 1: I don't think so. So it's like all this evidence
26:16
Speaker 1: you've got to all you an interesting evidence, but it's
26:18
Speaker 1: not worth appealing, which tells everything you need to know
26:21
Speaker 1: to go back to your point about how genuine this
26:24
Speaker 1: was an attempt at a real defense of the move
26:27
Speaker 1: as opposed to appearing to be on the side of
26:30
Speaker 1: your driver. And what's clearly a nonsense argument because there
26:34
Speaker 1: have been times as well, and you can always tell
26:36
Speaker 1: with Christian Horna in the past when the I don't
26:38
Speaker 1: want to say the relap. The relationship was less fractuos
26:40
Speaker 1: because I don't think it's a personal relationship problem. It's
26:42
Speaker 1: purely just the tenuousness of Vestapan's long term future at
26:45
Speaker 1: Red Bull Racing. At Horner's trying to move around now,
26:49
Speaker 1: I meantimes when you could see he knows his drivers
26:51
Speaker 1: is in the wrong. This happens in the wrong, and
26:52
Speaker 1: he says, ah, you know he suspenses always are it's
26:55
Speaker 1: probably just a racing incident. Yes, to come out with
26:58
Speaker 1: photos is you can see he's taking this to another
27:01
Speaker 1: level when I couldn't find anyone anywhere and I still
27:04
Speaker 1: am yet to find anyone anywhere who thinks that the
27:06
Speaker 1: staffen should have got away with that move, because the
27:09
Speaker 1: logical extension is, well, then you just do that every
27:12
Speaker 1: time you're being overtaken, you just cut the chicne, you'd
27:15
Speaker 1: open the brakes, which is what Max did to try
27:17
Speaker 1: to get to the apex first in inverted Commas, despite
27:21
Speaker 1: the fact he had no intention or no capability of
27:23
Speaker 1: making the corner and then arguing the point afterwards. And
27:26
Speaker 1: that's the there's sort of this irony in the photograph
27:28
Speaker 1: Christian Horner did choose, which is an onboard photograph and
27:31
Speaker 1: you can see it areous journalists are published it online.
27:34
Speaker 1: It shows shows Max for Staffan's front actual ahead of
27:38
Speaker 1: Piastre's front axle at what he says is the apex
27:41
Speaker 1: of the corner. Ironically, the racing guidelines, and this was
27:45
Speaker 1: quoted in the steward's documents, say it doesn't have to
27:47
Speaker 1: be front axual ahead to claim the corner app to
27:49
Speaker 1: be ahead of the mirrors, because I think, I guess
27:51
Speaker 1: that's sort of like the driver's eye line view. And
27:53
Speaker 1: the photo shows the Piastre is ahead of the Staffan's mirrors.
27:56
Speaker 1: So all Christian Horner's photo has done is proved that
28:00
Speaker 1: the stewards were correct in their interpretation of the rules.
28:03
Speaker 1: And it also shows that Max has no chance of
28:06
Speaker 1: making that conducause if you didn't look at the replay,
28:08
Speaker 1: or if you looked at the telemetry which Christian Houna
28:10
Speaker 1: didn't print out, you see that he was never going
28:11
Speaker 1: to make that corner, that he'd chosen early enough not
28:14
Speaker 1: to make it.
28:14
Speaker 3: Yeah.
28:15
Speaker 2: Funnily enough, the telemetry didn't make an appearance at the
28:17
Speaker 2: press conference when it has in previous cases. But I
28:19
Speaker 2: go back, so it was Mexico where Max was doing
28:23
Speaker 2: this on multiple quarters, multiple times because things were getting
28:26
Speaker 2: a little bit unhinged last year.
28:27
Speaker 3: But we can go back to Saudi in twenty twenty one.
28:29
Speaker 3: You referenced it before.
28:31
Speaker 2: That was an absolutely insane race because of Max's complete
28:35
Speaker 2: refusal to even allow anything other than a reasonable overtake,
28:40
Speaker 2: and you know we had the braake testing incident in
28:42
Speaker 2: the DRS zone and all of that nonsense. That race
28:44
Speaker 2: was completely unhinged because of the way that rule was
28:47
Speaker 2: being exploited. That really crossed the line that night from
28:50
Speaker 2: being a genuine sporting race into some sort of bizarre,
28:53
Speaker 2: you know, not particularly funny comedy. It was ridiculous at
28:55
Speaker 2: that point. But you yes, you can see the photos.
28:59
Speaker 2: That's fine, But there's Piastre's on the inside and he's
29:02
Speaker 2: got the corner. If you just roll out of the
29:03
Speaker 2: break and go straight on because there's a bitch of
29:06
Speaker 2: a run off on the outside, then yes, you are
29:08
Speaker 2: going to be in the next corner sequence. When you've
29:10
Speaker 2: got a switchback term one like you do it in
29:13
Speaker 2: Saudi Arabia, you're going to be the car ahead and
29:15
Speaker 2: you can always do that. Well, he pushed me off
29:17
Speaker 2: the track, how much break are we using at this point.
29:20
Speaker 2: That's what the still photos don't tell you. And so
29:23
Speaker 2: if that's going to be the way he operates in
29:25
Speaker 2: situations on first laps where he's going to be passed
29:27
Speaker 2: and you can just flick through the circuits in your head,
29:29
Speaker 2: you know, the ones where this could potentially be something
29:32
Speaker 2: that comes up. Then you know, this is why we
29:35
Speaker 2: have tweaks to rules. But I do wonder if the
29:38
Speaker 2: photo producing element of all of this was just a
29:41
Speaker 2: bit of a well, we'll just kind of try it on.
29:43
Speaker 2: But if it doesn't work, and it's probably not going
29:45
Speaker 2: to at least we've got our guys back very publicly,
29:48
Speaker 2: and it can be look, you know, we support you
29:50
Speaker 2: no matter what. You know, Please don't go elsewhere if
29:52
Speaker 2: we don't give you a nice car, etc. There was
29:55
Speaker 2: a little bit of that because it was I'm not
29:58
Speaker 2: sure they quite believed it, but they went through with
30:00
Speaker 2: it anyway.
30:01
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, exactly right. I think that really sums it up. Well,
30:03
Speaker 1: there's one other element that I'm it's a bit of
30:06
Speaker 1: a hobby horse for me, and Christian Horn was the
30:08
Speaker 1: only one I think left using the phrase let them race.
30:12
Speaker 1: People have been watching Formula one for a little longer
30:15
Speaker 1: or not even that long, really dating back to late
30:18
Speaker 1: twenty tens and into twenty twenty one when it really
30:20
Speaker 1: hit its peak. Let them race was a philosophy of
30:24
Speaker 1: governing racing essentially, and this was it was really, really
30:27
Speaker 1: was pre pandemic because it was instituted, if memory serves, essentially,
30:31
Speaker 1: when F one felt like it was in a little
30:32
Speaker 1: bit of a rut, the sages winning everything, people thought
30:35
Speaker 1: the sport was becoming a little bit stale. Let them
30:37
Speaker 1: race was a real loosening of the racing guidelines to
30:40
Speaker 1: allow more of this kind of stuff where you know, okay,
30:43
Speaker 1: race a little bit with a bit more instinct, a
30:44
Speaker 1: little bit less race control intervention. But it hit its peak,
30:50
Speaker 1: as I said in twenty twenty one, when you've got
30:51
Speaker 1: races like Saudi Arabia, even the flash points in Brazil
30:55
Speaker 1: between Hamilton and Verstapen. It was usually between Hamilton Verstapen,
31:00
Speaker 1: things just became a little bit unhinged and a little
31:02
Speaker 1: bit out of control. And let them races subsequently been
31:05
Speaker 1: wound back as a concept because the drivers are much
31:10
Speaker 1: more willing now to allow a little bit of intervention
31:12
Speaker 1: from race control to ensure consistency most importantly, but also
31:17
Speaker 1: just the rules of governor. And we go back to
31:19
Speaker 1: it was again Mexico, or after Mexico last year, or
31:22
Speaker 1: around between the US and Mexico last year. But the
31:24
Speaker 1: drivers had a meeting with race Control, and you remember
31:26
Speaker 1: that nineteen of twenty of them agreed that we needed
31:28
Speaker 1: tighter rules. And you can guess who the twentieth was,
31:31
Speaker 1: him be Staffen. And that's fine, like he's got his
31:34
Speaker 1: own opinion, he's perfectly entitled to it, but let them
31:37
Speaker 1: race is now so out of step with the approach philosophily, philosophically,
31:41
Speaker 1: with the way the sport's going that I thought Christian
31:43
Speaker 1: Horner bringing that up was just a bit disingenuous or
31:47
Speaker 1: at best a little bit dated, and it just is
31:51
Speaker 1: not the way the sport's moving at the moment. Now
31:52
Speaker 1: you can argue that it should go back that way
31:54
Speaker 1: if you like, that's fine, but I think that sort
31:57
Speaker 1: of almost sums up the problem when we approach some
31:59
Speaker 1: of my stappens. This is by no means the most egregious.
32:02
Speaker 1: He hasn't been doing anything too wacky this year yet,
32:05
Speaker 1: But to keep arguing for an approach that has been
32:08
Speaker 1: actively moved away from, largely because of the actions of
32:11
Speaker 1: your driver. Actions like this just feels like it misses
32:14
Speaker 1: the point, and I do wonder whether we're going to
32:16
Speaker 1: get more of this this year. I think Max starting
32:19
Speaker 1: from the back foot means we're probably not going to
32:22
Speaker 1: see the kind of elbows out stuff we saw last
32:24
Speaker 1: year when it felt like he was losing a bit
32:26
Speaker 1: of momentum relative to Norris. I think he's a little
32:29
Speaker 1: bit more knuckled down when you know he's a little
32:32
Speaker 1: bit fighting from a corner. But we'll wait and see.
32:34
Speaker 1: It's remains to be seen. I thought his reaction after
32:35
Speaker 1: the race was actually a bit surprising, to be honest.
32:38
Speaker 1: But there's yeah, there's a lot going on there that's
32:40
Speaker 1: more than simply a driver and a team being unhappy
32:43
Speaker 1: with a penalty.
32:44
Speaker 2: Before we move on, because we could talk about this
32:46
Speaker 2: for another three hours. There's two things that I thought
32:48
Speaker 2: of here. Modern day circuit design, where you don't have
32:51
Speaker 2: grass or gravel on the outsides of turn one anymore,
32:54
Speaker 2: so that allows this sort of thing to become more prevalent,
32:56
Speaker 2: particularly straight tracks. You mentioned in Telagos in twenty one.
33:00
Speaker 2: Also that year it was at a particular corner of
33:03
Speaker 2: that circuit. There's not a lot of runoff on a
33:04
Speaker 2: lot of the corners at Intelargos, but where that was
33:06
Speaker 2: going on down at thirty four, that's where there's the
33:08
Speaker 2: biggest runoff of the circuit. So no great surprise there.
33:10
Speaker 2: They're both like four miles out in the tarmac runoff
33:14
Speaker 2: out there.
33:15
Speaker 3: There's that part of it.
33:15
Speaker 2: But I'm wondering, now we would need to put ourselves
33:19
Speaker 2: in a situation where someone had outmaxed Max and done
33:22
Speaker 2: something similar at the first corner from a position of advantage.
33:26
Speaker 2: This generally happens with the stapp and when he's a
33:27
Speaker 2: position in a position of advantage a in the championship
33:30
Speaker 2: last year, as you mentioned, when he was desperately hanging
33:32
Speaker 2: on B in this race because he was on pole,
33:34
Speaker 2: he wasn't second. If someone does to him what he
33:37
Speaker 2: has done to someone down the track, I'll be very
33:39
Speaker 2: curious to see what his response is, and I'll be
33:42
Speaker 2: very curious to see what the team's response is and
33:43
Speaker 2: Christian Horner's response. But then I'm thinking about this, and
33:46
Speaker 2: I'm struggling to think of too many situations where someone
33:49
Speaker 2: is going to be as I guess provocative and push
33:53
Speaker 2: things as much as this. I don't know if we've
33:55
Speaker 2: got someone that's going to fight like that against him necessarily,
33:59
Speaker 2: particularly this season where the RedBull clearly isn't the quickest
34:02
Speaker 2: car and he's out performing the expectations of what it
34:04
Speaker 2: should be doing. But if we get that situation, I'll
34:07
Speaker 2: be super curious to see how it's handled and if
34:10
Speaker 2: any photographs get brought to the lust races.
34:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good question. I think I'm struggling to
34:16
Speaker 1: think of any drivers who really take it to or
34:19
Speaker 1: pass the limit in some cases as Max does. We
34:21
Speaker 1: don't know, because, for example, Oscar Piastri hasn't had that
34:25
Speaker 1: much time at the front, and other drivers too. I
34:27
Speaker 1: feel like Oscar Piastri might be his sternest test. We
34:29
Speaker 1: know Lando Norris doesn't like to race like that. He's
34:31
Speaker 1: been explicit about that it's not the way he wants
34:33
Speaker 1: to go about it, but sometimes that changes, you know.
34:36
Speaker 1: The last and I'm sure there have been other examples
34:38
Speaker 1: of it, I'm completely sure, but the last one that
34:40
Speaker 1: springs to mind is twenty twenty one, funnily enough, and
34:44
Speaker 1: the Abu Dhabi finale, where if memory serves Vstaffan was
34:48
Speaker 1: on the inside, Hamilton was the outside. I can't remember
34:50
Speaker 1: the corner and it wasn't quite like this, but Verstaffan
34:53
Speaker 1: kind of claimed the corner and Hamilton cut the corner,
34:57
Speaker 1: and in that year of let them race, the steward
34:59
Speaker 1: said that's fine, and Max was very unhappy about that
35:02
Speaker 1: at the time. Obviously winning the championship meant he didn't
35:06
Speaker 1: care too much after the fact. But you know, the
35:09
Speaker 1: shoe was on the other foot, has been on the
35:11
Speaker 1: other foot before, and at that time Red Bull and
35:13
Speaker 1: Max thought, all, maybe that rule needs to be tightened up.
35:15
Speaker 1: So I know that's going back quite a few years.
35:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, first lap into the back straight, I remember it well.
35:20
Speaker 2: I've tried to remove most memories of twenty twenty one
35:24
Speaker 2: from my memory. Not one of the great nights, I
35:26
Speaker 2: would have to say, A working and B for Formula one.
35:28
Speaker 2: But yeah, you're completely right. The shoe was on the
35:30
Speaker 2: other foot then, but with the rules being adjudicated as
35:33
Speaker 2: they were then, then it was a play on nothing
35:35
Speaker 2: to see here, so interesting.
35:37
Speaker 1: Well, let's see sir looking backwards, Matt and look forwards
35:40
Speaker 1: a little bit more forwards in fact, because it's time
35:42
Speaker 1: for the crystal Ball brought to you by Complete Home Filtration,
35:46
Speaker 1: looking forward to a non f one weekend. But of
35:48
Speaker 1: course there are no limits to the predictions we make
35:51
Speaker 1: in this segment. So why do you kick us off, mat.
35:54
Speaker 2: Hm because I'm in my two wheelheadspace today. Has got
35:57
Speaker 2: the Spanish Motor GP coming up this weekend. Ducati could
36:01
Speaker 2: equal Honda's most number of consecutive wins by one manufacturer
36:06
Speaker 2: in Grand Prix racing this weekend twenty two races in
36:08
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety seven and ninety eight. Jucati currently on twenty one.
36:13
Speaker 2: So is there going to be anyone that beats to Cati.
36:15
Speaker 2: I'm going to say no, and they're going to equal
36:17
Speaker 2: that record. But my crystal Ball of the week is
36:21
Speaker 2: I bel I feel that Herrath is really a Yamaha track,
36:25
Speaker 2: no real massive straits like we've seen in the past
36:27
Speaker 2: couple of rounds in Qatar and in Austin. So my
36:30
Speaker 2: crystal ball has a Yamaha on the podium of the
36:33
Speaker 2: Motor GP race in Harrath, and I would love to
36:36
Speaker 2: say it's going to be Jack Miller, but I think
36:37
Speaker 2: it's going to beat Fabio Quatturo.
36:39
Speaker 1: Either way, I think it would be a good story.
36:41
Speaker 1: Fantastic a Yamaha getting back on the podium. Yes, I
36:43
Speaker 1: really thought you were going with this. Was Dakati going
36:45
Speaker 1: to before they get the final hurdle here of equaling
36:47
Speaker 1: the record.
36:48
Speaker 2: Well, that would just be a nicer story, that would
36:50
Speaker 2: that would be very very silly. I think short of
36:53
Speaker 2: there being a deluge Vrain, I think Dukati keeps winning
36:56
Speaker 2: races until they change the rules for twenty two years aver.
36:59
Speaker 1: That's I'm going to take one step backwards to go
37:02
Speaker 1: two steps forwards here. I'm going to make a prediction
37:04
Speaker 1: for the Miami Grand Prix which based very much on
37:06
Speaker 1: what we've learned from Saudi Arabia, which is that Lance
37:09
Speaker 1: Stroll is going to extend his record of Q one
37:12
Speaker 1: knockouts to seventy six. This is a little record that
37:15
Speaker 1: I think when someone under the radar at the weekend
37:19
Speaker 1: that no driver in F one history or in the
37:21
Speaker 1: history of this qualifying format obviously has been eliminated in
37:25
Speaker 1: Q one more than Lance's Stroll, which is not the
37:30
Speaker 1: kind of records you want. He surpassed Kevin Magnuson, He's
37:32
Speaker 1: the previous record holder on seventy four. Obviously, and it
37:36
Speaker 1: was interesting. He's defense afterwards, well, of course I'm not
37:38
Speaker 1: driving a great car, which I'm sure his dad wouldn't
37:40
Speaker 1: have been tough to hear about. But then someone's done
37:43
Speaker 1: the maths. I think I should probably credit the race here.
37:48
Speaker 1: Compared him to his teammates over the years, and he's
37:50
Speaker 1: essentially been knocked out in Q one twice as often
37:52
Speaker 1: as they have, and his teammates combined have made Q
37:55
Speaker 1: three the top ten by roughly the same number of times,
37:59
Speaker 1: seventy five, seventy something like that, So not a great
38:02
Speaker 1: excuse he it's the shame. I actually thought he started
38:05
Speaker 1: the season quite well, but the last few races have
38:07
Speaker 1: been very dare I say vintage Lance.
38:09
Speaker 2: Oh Man as career epitaphs go, that's yeah, pretty a
38:13
Speaker 2: grim and be appropriate. But we're talking about low hang
38:17
Speaker 2: you fruit before I think that's actually on the ground
38:18
Speaker 2: and you've just picked it up. You haven't even picked
38:20
Speaker 2: it off the tree at this point.
38:21
Speaker 3: But no fair play.
38:24
Speaker 2: It's the surest fire crystal ball prediction either of us
38:27
Speaker 2: has made so far, So I do like your chances
38:29
Speaker 2: so much.
38:30
Speaker 1: On the ground, it's it's pretty much a.
38:31
Speaker 2: Potato decomposed yes.
38:33
Speaker 1: It's decompussy. Well, on that note, that's all the time
38:37
Speaker 1: we've got for Pittalk today. You can subscribe to pittok
38:40
Speaker 1: wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you can leave
38:42
Speaker 1: us a rating and review as well. This weekend, just
38:45
Speaker 1: one race. It's the Spanish Motorcycle Grand Prix and it's
38:48
Speaker 1: at the very civil time of ten pm Eastern time
38:50
Speaker 1: on Sunday night. You can keep up to date with
38:53
Speaker 1: all the latest F one, Supercars and Moto GP news
38:55
Speaker 1: at Fox sports dot com dot are you from Matt
38:58
Speaker 1: Clayton and me Michael Lomonado. Thanks very much for your
39:00
Speaker 1: company and we'll catch you next week.