Latest / Pit Talk / Did Oscar Piastri deserve his race-changing penalty? British Grand Prix Review

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Did Oscar Piastri deserve his race-changing penalty? British Grand Prix 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, Lando Norris swins his home British Grand
0:06
Speaker 1: Prix after Oscar Piastre cops a penalty for a safety
0:10
Speaker 1: car infringement, and Nico Holgenberg gets his first podium trophy
0:15
Speaker 1: fifteen years after making his Formula One debut. My name's
0:19
Speaker 1: Michael Lamonado. It's great to have your company and the
0:21
Speaker 1: company of my co host. If he was giving out
0:24
Speaker 1: podium trophies for the first time, he'd make sure they
0:26
Speaker 1: weren't made out of plastic bricks.
0:27
Speaker 2: It's Matt Playton, Michael. Good to join you as always,
0:30
Speaker 2: and I do love the Holkeenberg story because it gives
0:32
Speaker 2: all of us hope. It gives me hope because in
0:35
Speaker 2: twenty forty I may yet achieve my greatest career milestone.
0:39
Speaker 2: So that's definitely something to look forward to, assuming that
0:42
Speaker 2: we're still around at this point of course. But yeah,
0:44
Speaker 2: optimism abounds for what can happen fifteen years from now.
0:47
Speaker 2: And full credit to mister Holgenberg. And I'm sure we
0:50
Speaker 2: will talk about him at some stage in the next
0:52
Speaker 2: half an hour or so.
0:53
Speaker 1: Twenty forty there'll be several races still not out of
0:55
Speaker 1: contract by then as well.
0:57
Speaker 2: You'll be doing you'll be doing a forty eight racer.
1:00
Speaker 2: Then let's be honest.
1:01
Speaker 3: Oh, can't wait, can't wait.
1:03
Speaker 1: That's here we come British Grand Prix, the second leg
1:06
Speaker 1: of I think an important double header, a meaningful doubleheader
1:09
Speaker 1: for the championship.
1:11
Speaker 3: Not every race will be honest.
1:12
Speaker 1: In Formula One, with twenty four races has to be meaningful,
1:15
Speaker 1: but these last two did feel like that. Lando Nors
1:18
Speaker 1: of course, one in Austria and one again his home
1:21
Speaker 1: Grand Prix in Silverston, but did so in had it
1:25
Speaker 1: not been his home race, perhaps slightly flatter circumstances. I
1:28
Speaker 1: think his reaction may have been a little bit more
1:30
Speaker 1: muted because it was a ten second time penalty that
1:32
Speaker 1: was the headline in the battle for the lead. Roscar
1:34
Speaker 1: piastre for a safety car infringement. Doesn't that sound very exciting?
1:39
Speaker 1: Matt Team felt it was a little bit harsh Oscar
1:42
Speaker 1: and surprising on the most frustrated I think we've ever
1:44
Speaker 1: seen him. He didn't still didn't seem that frustrated, but
1:47
Speaker 1: that's just an Oscar thing, I think. But he felt
1:49
Speaker 1: it was inconsistent, considering it done pretty much the same
1:51
Speaker 1: thing at the previous restart. Let's just start with the
1:55
Speaker 1: question where do you sit on where this podium with
1:57
Speaker 1: this penalty landed?
1:59
Speaker 2: I whether I'm just not adopting a controversial tone here.
2:02
Speaker 2: I thought it was the most obvious penalty of all time.
2:04
Speaker 2: And I was a little bit surprised that he actually
2:06
Speaker 2: didn't get one for the restart for laps earlier because
2:09
Speaker 2: that was a little on the sketchy side as well.
2:11
Speaker 2: So you know, whether his behavior on lap twenty one
2:14
Speaker 2: was dictated by what happened on lap seventeen. When I
2:17
Speaker 2: saw the first safety car restart, thought, oh, he's left
2:19
Speaker 2: that a bit late, and there's obviously that effect that
2:23
Speaker 2: I think back to that race at Migello in the
2:25
Speaker 2: COVID year where the pack were all going in different
2:28
Speaker 2: speeds and it was complete carnage at the restart there
2:30
Speaker 2: in perfectly dry, sunny conditions. You had the jeopardy of
2:34
Speaker 2: the crazy weather that we had on Sunday at Silverston.
2:36
Speaker 2: I thought the first one was a little bit marginal,
2:38
Speaker 2: and when the second one happened on lap twenty one,
2:40
Speaker 2: I mean we were swapping messages at the time saying
2:42
Speaker 2: that's an absolute slam dunk penalty. I'm not sure why
2:44
Speaker 2: there's any real conjecture about this. I think he was
2:47
Speaker 2: a little bit unlucky with the second one in that
2:51
Speaker 2: the safety car lights went out quite late, particularly relative
2:54
Speaker 2: to the first safety car and restart, and that might
2:56
Speaker 2: have caught him out a little bit just at the
2:57
Speaker 2: point that he was slowing down. So he was a
2:59
Speaker 2: little bit unlucky with the timing of the safety car
3:02
Speaker 2: lights going off. He was a little bit unlucky by
3:05
Speaker 2: Maxvstappen doing what maxvs Stappen does and attempting to gain
3:08
Speaker 2: the system at every single opportunity and coming alongside and
3:11
Speaker 2: going what's this guy up to? Because you know, there's
3:13
Speaker 2: nothing like mentioning something to the to race control to
3:16
Speaker 2: try and get someone penalized. But in terms of whether
3:19
Speaker 2: the penalty was justified, and I thought it was one
3:21
Speaker 2: hundred percent justified, it was a complete slammed up for mine.
3:24
Speaker 2: But I know we're supposed to possibly have a contrary
3:27
Speaker 2: view to that given our accents relatives to OSCAR. But
3:30
Speaker 2: did you think it was as clear cut as I did?
3:32
Speaker 2: Because I just didn't see how it was anything other
3:34
Speaker 2: than a penalty when it happened.
3:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the penalty was definitely there. There is
3:38
Speaker 1: an interesting discussion, I guess, or Maxistappen certainly does, about
3:42
Speaker 1: how often this has actually been happening and why a
3:45
Speaker 1: line's been drawn now. And I think that's particularly interesting because,
3:48
Speaker 1: as you said, he'd done pretty much exactly the same
3:51
Speaker 1: thing ten minutes earlier, maybe five minutes earlier, whenever it
3:54
Speaker 1: was the previous safety car restart five laps earlier I
3:56
Speaker 1: think it was, And there was a report on the
3:59
Speaker 1: race suggest the stewards or race control at least had
4:02
Speaker 1: actually thought about looking into that because they'd felt it
4:04
Speaker 1: maybe was a little bit borderline. And so if there's
4:07
Speaker 1: anywhere that I feel like maybe Oscar has a point.
4:09
Speaker 1: I don't think it should have avoided a penalty, but
4:11
Speaker 1: maybe could have attracted a more lenient five second penalty.
4:14
Speaker 1: Was the fact that he wasn't even warned for that
4:16
Speaker 1: first incident. And so if you're a driver and again
4:19
Speaker 1: ten minutes ago you did something and attracted no penalty,
4:22
Speaker 1: retro or rebuke, and then you do the same thing
4:25
Speaker 1: again and suddenly it's a penalty, I can understand why
4:27
Speaker 1: he would have felt a little confused with what seems
4:31
Speaker 1: like an inconsistency. They went exactly the same. The speed
4:34
Speaker 1: difference between those two incidents was almost exactly the same,
4:37
Speaker 1: slightly different part of the track, where for example, the
4:39
Speaker 1: spray would have been slightly worse because he were coming
4:41
Speaker 1: out of Chapel where everyone would have been going more
4:44
Speaker 1: slowly behind him, whereas the second time, relatively far down
4:47
Speaker 1: the straight, everyone would have been doing pretty close to
4:49
Speaker 1: their top safety car speed. So context does matter in
4:52
Speaker 1: terms of comparing those two incidents. But yeah, I think
4:55
Speaker 1: for certain as a penalty, I just think that it's
4:57
Speaker 1: a little bit of a pity that it was and
5:00
Speaker 1: followed up the first time, either with a warning or
5:02
Speaker 1: just straight up with a penalty, in which case you
5:04
Speaker 1: obviously wouldn't have done it again the second time.
5:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, I completely agree. But by the way you mentioning
5:09
Speaker 2: corners by names rather than numbers, this is a landmark,
5:12
Speaker 2: landmark day for this podcast. I was just about to
5:15
Speaker 2: start scrambling for the Silverstone track map to give you
5:17
Speaker 2: a chop out there, but I'm not going to. So
5:19
Speaker 2: thank you for coming to the dark side. But I
5:21
Speaker 2: do agree with what you were saying before in terms
5:23
Speaker 2: of if the first incident is no penalty and the
5:25
Speaker 2: second incident is ten seconds, there's a big gap between
5:28
Speaker 2: one and two for two incidents that weren't dissimilar in
5:31
Speaker 2: many respects. To mention, the speed was very similar, at
5:33
Speaker 2: the point of the track in which it happened was
5:35
Speaker 2: very different. So you know, I do wonder if you
5:38
Speaker 2: go from no penalty to five seconds in that incidence,
5:41
Speaker 2: or you give the chance the driver a chance to hey, listen,
5:45
Speaker 2: that was a little bit on the marginal side. If
5:47
Speaker 2: this presents itself again, you might need to keep that
5:49
Speaker 2: in mind. And I do think that if Piastri was
5:52
Speaker 2: warned that, you know, hey, you might want to approach
5:55
Speaker 2: this restart a little bit differently to the last one
5:57
Speaker 2: because it's being looked at, whether that changes his behavior.
6:00
Speaker 2: Despite the fact that as I came back to at
6:02
Speaker 2: the beginning, the safety car lights to go off quite late.
6:05
Speaker 2: So maybe the conjecture here is between zero seconds and
6:08
Speaker 2: ten seconds. Is that too big of a gap for
6:10
Speaker 2: two very similar incidents. But as for the incident itself,
6:14
Speaker 2: it was a great shame because he had done all
6:18
Speaker 2: the hard work to get to the position where he was.
6:21
Speaker 2: The one controlling that safety car and restart because he
6:23
Speaker 2: had overtaken Maxistap and on track he'd done a terrific
6:25
Speaker 2: job when the weather was really really poor. He'd done
6:28
Speaker 2: the hard part and the inverted Commas. Easy part was
6:31
Speaker 2: going to be bringing home and get a win. And
6:34
Speaker 2: then obviously we know what the penalty led to in
6:37
Speaker 2: terms of the results, and you mentioned off the top
6:39
Speaker 2: here in terms of these past two races in this
6:41
Speaker 2: doublehead are being pretty significant, more significant Filando Norris, and
6:45
Speaker 2: he's got two wins after what had happened in Canada
6:48
Speaker 2: three races ago where it had the incident with his
6:51
Speaker 2: teammates scored no points, which if you look at the
6:53
Speaker 2: championship table, it's the only race this season that neither
6:57
Speaker 2: Norris nor pstri has scored a point, and it's been
6:58
Speaker 2: quite significant the Champion chipchase. The hard part here for
7:02
Speaker 2: piastre is that he done all the hard work to
7:05
Speaker 2: have a twenty two point series lead at the halfway
7:08
Speaker 2: point of the season. He still has the lead. It's
7:10
Speaker 2: now only eight points and I think at the start
7:12
Speaker 2: of the season, if you'd said to Oscar Piastri, hey,
7:14
Speaker 2: you'll be leading the world championship at the mid season break.
7:16
Speaker 2: Given what twenty twenty four was and twenty three before that,
7:19
Speaker 2: he probably would have taken that. But you know, Formula
7:22
Speaker 2: One drivers are like, you give them an advantage, they'd
7:24
Speaker 2: like a bigger advantage. And this was one that I
7:26
Speaker 2: think he'll be kicking himself that it was this that
7:29
Speaker 2: he's this was the reason that he squandered it. It
7:32
Speaker 2: would also be less of a bitter pill to swallow
7:34
Speaker 2: if someone else had have been the beneficiary of a win,
7:37
Speaker 2: not his teammate who is in the fight with the
7:39
Speaker 2: world championship.
7:40
Speaker 1: For Yeah, the context makes a huge difference, doesn't it.
7:43
Speaker 1: It's it's interesting to consider. It's a question that a
7:45
Speaker 1: lot of people who have been asking this week, you know,
7:47
Speaker 1: the matter of momentum. It's easy to say that week
7:50
Speaker 1: to week in formula and I guess even though I
7:52
Speaker 1: think momentum needs more than a week to be decided,
7:55
Speaker 1: but it certainly feels at a minimum to me, like
7:58
Speaker 1: Lando Norris, I have more confort and seeing Lando Norris
8:01
Speaker 1: on track and being able to execute. I know it
8:03
Speaker 1: has only been really two weeks. I mean, Canada was
8:05
Speaker 1: a pretty sloppy weekend from qualifying to the race obviously,
8:08
Speaker 1: but in Austria obviously dominated Silverston. He was slower than
8:11
Speaker 1: Pastre weekend. Overall, I think that's clear, but very marginally
8:16
Speaker 1: and didn't ever really make a mistake. His first Q
8:18
Speaker 1: three lap wasn't perfect, but he corrected it the second
8:20
Speaker 1: time around, which is usually the opposite of the way
8:22
Speaker 1: things happened with Lando Norris in the race, he was solid,
8:25
Speaker 1: got past for Staff and ended up behind him through
8:26
Speaker 1: no fault of his own, as he got that back immediately.
8:28
Speaker 1: When vestappens spun, it does feel like something of a
8:32
Speaker 1: corner has been turned, but by that same token. I
8:35
Speaker 1: think this is what makes it so interesting and great
8:37
Speaker 1: for the rest of the season if he continues he's
8:39
Speaker 1: I don't think that's taken anything away from Oscar. It
8:41
Speaker 1: hasn't taken Oscar falling back or entering his own confidence
8:45
Speaker 1: crisis for this points gap to have closed up. It
8:48
Speaker 1: feels like we're just back to, sort of, as you
8:50
Speaker 1: said at the start of the season, the season we
8:52
Speaker 1: expected before Norris went on this little offt pieced journey
8:56
Speaker 1: of confidence.
8:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I don't think Piastre's
8:58
Speaker 2: level has dropped necessarily. I think Norris has just raised
9:01
Speaker 2: his a little bit. But he's saying that he's turned
9:03
Speaker 2: a corner. I'm still of the mind that he's turning
9:06
Speaker 2: as he's still in the middle of the quarner. Maybe
9:07
Speaker 2: he's in the apex, maybe he's at the exit. I
9:09
Speaker 2: don't know, but I don't think he's turned it yet.
9:11
Speaker 2: Because after Canada we go to Austria, which has always
9:16
Speaker 2: been a Norris track, even when McLaren weren't particularly good,
9:19
Speaker 2: So it wasn't surprising at all that he did very
9:22
Speaker 2: well at the Red Bull Ring. And let's be perfectly
9:24
Speaker 2: honest here with Silveston, he got lucky. He was in
9:26
Speaker 2: the right place to be the beneficiary of his teammate's mistake.
9:30
Speaker 2: So yes, you've still got to execute and bring the
9:31
Speaker 2: car home. But we discussed this on the last part.
9:34
Speaker 2: I think Austria was race one of what the rest
9:38
Speaker 2: of this season is going to look like, because right now,
9:40
Speaker 2: on pure performance terms, there is nobody else even in
9:43
Speaker 2: the picture with McLaren, So these races are going to
9:46
Speaker 2: boil down to Piastre and Norris in most circumstances, and
9:50
Speaker 2: it's on little things like ten second penalties for safety
9:53
Speaker 2: car infringements that this championship will be. I'm not going
9:56
Speaker 2: to say one or loss, but certainly the narrative is
9:58
Speaker 2: going to be dictated by him. I mentioned before it
10:00
Speaker 2: could be a twenty two point championship lead. It's now eight.
10:03
Speaker 2: Piastre is still in the lead. That's great, But when
10:06
Speaker 2: there's no one else that, on most occasions, is going
10:08
Speaker 2: to get in the fight between these two. These are
10:10
Speaker 2: the days that you end up ruling later in the
10:12
Speaker 2: season where you could perhaps start to play with the
10:15
Speaker 2: margin a little bit. It's like if only I hadn't
10:18
Speaker 2: done the points he lost in Australia for example. Yes,
10:21
Speaker 2: he was unlucky to encounter a wet part of the
10:23
Speaker 2: track at the same time as Norris did, but Norris
10:26
Speaker 2: handled that better than Piastre, and Piastre spotted him a
10:28
Speaker 2: twenty three point lead after one round. That one is
10:31
Speaker 2: easier for Piastre to take because that's completely on him.
10:34
Speaker 2: For something like a safety car infringement to cost you
10:36
Speaker 2: a pretty significant slab of points relative to your main
10:39
Speaker 2: title rival. That's why this is hard to swallow.
10:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely right, it is. I think you're right.
10:44
Speaker 1: This season is going to be one of those ones
10:46
Speaker 1: where it's going to be decided, probably in Abu Dhabi's
10:49
Speaker 1: to say, but when we look back at it, it's
10:50
Speaker 1: going to be, oh, gee, you change the result of
10:52
Speaker 1: this race, maybe the championship swings in a different direction.
10:54
Speaker 1: It's going to be single incidents like this was the
10:58
Speaker 1: case this weekend totally alter the points picture.
11:01
Speaker 3: And that's exciting. That's an exciting prospect.
11:03
Speaker 2: Well, and this brings me to something that I wanted
11:05
Speaker 2: to raise. And I haven't seen your run sheet, so
11:07
Speaker 2: sorry if I'm jumping ahead here, but I wanted to
11:10
Speaker 2: get your thoughts on when Piastre came on the radio
11:12
Speaker 2: and kind of, let's be honest, halfheartedly asked for the
11:15
Speaker 2: positions to be reversed. It's like, well, I don't agree
11:18
Speaker 2: with the penalty. You don't agree with it either, so
11:20
Speaker 2: how about we just swap positions and then we go
11:21
Speaker 2: racing from there. And I don't think hand on heart
11:24
Speaker 2: Piastre ever expected McLaren to say, oh, yeah, sure, that's
11:27
Speaker 2: completely fine. But to my mind, I thought that was
11:30
Speaker 2: really clever by Piastre. To get that one out there
11:33
Speaker 2: in the ether. Is something to stash away for the
11:35
Speaker 2: future because I suspect that sometime over these final twelve
11:40
Speaker 2: hours of the season, if a similar situation presents itself
11:42
Speaker 2: and suddenly Norris is on the radio saying, well, I
11:44
Speaker 2: was ahead, but you know I got forced off by somebody,
11:46
Speaker 2: or there was a safety car, or so can we
11:48
Speaker 2: flip the positions back? There's now a precedent set where
11:51
Speaker 2: McClaren say, well, we're not going to do that, And
11:53
Speaker 2: I thought that was actually pretty clever. Maybe I'm being
11:56
Speaker 2: sort of reading too much into it, but I thought
11:57
Speaker 2: it was cleverly cunning by Piastre to put something out
12:00
Speaker 2: there that didn't have a real short term benefit because
12:03
Speaker 2: I think he knew that McClaren were going to say, sure,
12:05
Speaker 2: swap them around. That might be one that there's now
12:08
Speaker 2: a precedent said for later in the season. So there
12:10
Speaker 2: might be a situation where Norris legitimately or illegitimately asks
12:14
Speaker 2: for the positions to be flipped and they can go back.
12:17
Speaker 2: We didn't do it at Silveston, so we're not doing
12:18
Speaker 2: it now because the team is trying so hard to
12:21
Speaker 2: be fair with these two drivers. Am I reading too
12:25
Speaker 2: much into that and thinking that Formula One drivers are
12:27
Speaker 2: cunning in devious at all times or is this actually legit?
12:30
Speaker 3: Do you think no? I like it.
12:32
Speaker 1: I think there is something in that because this is
12:34
Speaker 1: the I think this is the first time certainly obviously
12:36
Speaker 1: it's the first time in a championship context, because it's
12:38
Speaker 1: never been in that context where we've seen him under
12:42
Speaker 1: a very particular sort of pressure and frustration, and it
12:45
Speaker 1: was interesting to see his mind didn't go to you
12:47
Speaker 1: screaming on the radio, getting a good little bit of
12:50
Speaker 1: censored audio into the broadcast, but into well actually thinking about, well,
12:54
Speaker 1: what can I do here to change this outcome? Well
12:56
Speaker 1: what might I do to win my to win some
12:58
Speaker 1: favor later on? But I actually think it was clever,
13:03
Speaker 1: but not necessarily. It doesn't have to have been cunning,
13:06
Speaker 1: because I thought it was interesting what Andrea Stellas said
13:08
Speaker 1: after the race, and he said this before this was
13:10
Speaker 1: a really good example of it that he encourages his
13:13
Speaker 1: drivers to pretty much just say whatever they're thinking at
13:15
Speaker 1: any point because he believes that's the way they're going
13:18
Speaker 1: to avoid some kind of blow up later. Because you're
13:21
Speaker 1: right now, this particular precedent has been said very particularly
13:24
Speaker 1: set of circumstances, but nonetheless which means that next time
13:27
Speaker 1: a sort of weird, sticky situation happens, they're going to
13:31
Speaker 1: make a decision based on something that's already happened before.
13:33
Speaker 1: And that's a good way to keep it clean, because
13:35
Speaker 1: it means there are going to be fewer new incidents
13:38
Speaker 1: in the future, because eventually every kind of circumstance more
13:41
Speaker 1: or less is going to be covered by these kinds
13:43
Speaker 1: of precedents. And it seemed clean here, maybe in a
13:45
Speaker 1: slightly messier situation, this example will make that appear cleaner.
13:49
Speaker 1: So I thought it was clever from Piastre, But I
13:51
Speaker 1: also thought this approach from McLaren. We haven't seen an
13:54
Speaker 1: ultimate blow up yet. There are so many races still
13:56
Speaker 1: to go. They've only just closed in my championship margin,
13:59
Speaker 1: and there haven't been very many incidents on track at
14:02
Speaker 1: all this year.
14:03
Speaker 3: But we don't know.
14:04
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll get to the point where suddenly all these
14:06
Speaker 1: techniques that McLaren's working hard to maintain will be important
14:10
Speaker 1: and they will read benefits from that.
14:12
Speaker 2: Well, how many chapters can the Papya Rules Book? Thick
14:15
Speaker 2: is the Papye Rules Book because we just keep adding
14:17
Speaker 2: footnotes and chapters and appendices and all sorts of things,
14:20
Speaker 2: and this is going to be the world's because book
14:22
Speaker 2: by the end of the season is multiple volumes.
14:24
Speaker 1: I think one person on the they can have a
14:26
Speaker 1: librarian on the pitwall just to help them find various chapters.
14:29
Speaker 2: You might not be wrong.
14:31
Speaker 1: Now, just before we move on, I do want to
14:33
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about Ferrari here and maybe even
14:35
Speaker 1: Max was happening if you're keen, because total non players
14:38
Speaker 1: in the Grand Prix at the end of Sunday, obviously,
14:42
Speaker 1: but we were expecting very different race on Saturday. Obviously
14:44
Speaker 1: Max Scott pole, but then there was nowhere in the
14:46
Speaker 1: race with his lack of downforce. The reason I want
14:48
Speaker 1: to start with Ferrari in particularly because this felt to
14:50
Speaker 1: me like a more positive weekend, both the Ferrari and
14:54
Speaker 1: Lewis Hamilton, who were genuine front row contenders in qualifying
14:57
Speaker 1: and I think in a dry race could have been
14:59
Speaker 1: there consider ding Hamilton dominated Leclaire in the race, there
15:02
Speaker 1: was off the road multiple times, he said almost every
15:05
Speaker 1: lap and finished his equal season best fourth, just sort
15:08
Speaker 1: of the podium, and we'll talk about that nicolkaboot podium
15:10
Speaker 1: in a second, but this to me felt like maybe
15:12
Speaker 1: a genuinely positive weekend for Ferrari, even if the end
15:15
Speaker 1: of it they were cleaning mostly gravel out of Shark
15:17
Speaker 1: GLA's airbox.
15:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they were the big The fact that
15:21
Speaker 2: the weather turned on Sunday made their progress inconclusive. I
15:25
Speaker 2: was really curious to see whether the pace they'd shown
15:27
Speaker 2: on Friday and Saturday actually translated when it really mattered.
15:31
Speaker 2: And this sounds like a strange thing to say, but
15:32
Speaker 2: of those three teams behind McLaren in the Constructor's Championship,
15:36
Speaker 2: Ferrari's kind of the one that I trust the most,
15:39
Speaker 2: without enough evidence to actually really back that up, because
15:41
Speaker 2: at the moment, red Bull fields one car in each race,
15:44
Speaker 2: and Mercedes works sometimes when the weather's good and doesn't
15:48
Speaker 2: work other times, and they have a rookie who can
15:50
Speaker 2: finish on the podium either side of having three straight
15:52
Speaker 2: DNF so there's a huge inconsistency with what they're doing.
15:55
Speaker 2: Red Bull are difficult to take seriously as a two
15:59
Speaker 2: car team right now because they only have one driver
16:01
Speaker 2: at scores points. So to my mind, Ferrari have the
16:04
Speaker 2: biggest upside of those three because I think they have
16:06
Speaker 2: two quality drivers and when the car is quick. It's
16:09
Speaker 2: genuinely really quick. And I think the disappointing part was
16:12
Speaker 2: we never quite got to see on the Sunday whether
16:16
Speaker 2: that was real or not. We need a more benign
16:18
Speaker 2: weather weekend with a similar Friday Saturday build up to
16:21
Speaker 2: see what they can do in a race. But it
16:24
Speaker 2: was still positive for them, I think on the whole,
16:26
Speaker 2: because I think the performance was there, and you know,
16:28
Speaker 2: Mercedes is up and down like a yoo and Red
16:30
Speaker 2: Bull is just the verstap and Pole just summed up
16:33
Speaker 2: the Red Bull problem to me, and that they they
16:36
Speaker 2: created a car that was so not a car that
16:39
Speaker 2: anyone else could probably live with, and he took an
16:41
Speaker 2: absolutely ridiculous Pole and no one was surprised in the
16:45
Speaker 2: slightest because that's how good this guy is. And then
16:47
Speaker 2: of course it rained on Sunday and he was absolutely
16:49
Speaker 2: nowhere and all over the place. You know, as far
16:51
Speaker 2: as the staffen goes, that to me shows the issues
16:55
Speaker 2: that they have because they have to make a very
16:56
Speaker 2: very particular car even more particular for one particular driver
16:59
Speaker 2: and they'll finished fifth. So you know, going back to
17:02
Speaker 2: where you began, it was a shame that we never
17:04
Speaker 2: got quite got to see the Ferrari progress. But if
17:08
Speaker 2: you're looking at those three teams in isolation, in which
17:10
Speaker 2: one you expect to kick on for the rest of
17:12
Speaker 2: the year, it would be a very Ferrari thing to do.
17:14
Speaker 2: To actually come on reasonably strong in the back half
17:16
Speaker 2: of a year for a rule set that's about to
17:18
Speaker 2: go in the bind. That would be about the most.
17:21
Speaker 2: That'd be the most Ferrari thing. Ever. It's like, oh,
17:23
Speaker 2: look how well they finished twenty twenty five, and then
17:24
Speaker 2: we get to next year and everyone's like, where are
17:26
Speaker 2: these guys again? So I look forward to that narrative
17:29
Speaker 2: playing out over the last twelve rounds.
17:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, they'll be the highest scoring team over the last
17:33
Speaker 1: twelve rounds, fifty points off the Constructors champions I's like, wow,
17:38
Speaker 1: here we go. Then next year, yeah, I think United
17:40
Speaker 1: it does feel a lot like last year weirdly. I mean,
17:42
Speaker 1: we haven't seen enough from Ferrari, but they've got more
17:44
Speaker 1: upgrades coming. They're confident about. This is pretty much what
17:46
Speaker 1: happened last year. They were nowhere for most of the
17:48
Speaker 1: first half, and then they were the second best and
17:50
Speaker 1: then eventually the best team at the end of the year.
17:52
Speaker 1: So it's going to be a really interesting second half
17:54
Speaker 1: of the season, not just for the drivers championship, but
17:56
Speaker 1: I think for that whole front running group. Let's look back, though,
18:00
Speaker 1: so at the action from the weekend. Matt with Move
18:03
Speaker 1: of the Week brought to you by Shannons. There's plenty
18:06
Speaker 1: of moves all over the weekend both Some of them
18:09
Speaker 1: were mostly errors. Some of them were cars sliding off
18:12
Speaker 1: the track, accidentally hitting other cars, friendly fire as well.
18:15
Speaker 1: Got a broad field to pick from, And what are
18:16
Speaker 1: you going to choose?
18:19
Speaker 2: I think it would be I know we're going to
18:20
Speaker 2: get onto this guy in a minute, but I'm going
18:22
Speaker 2: to go to the lap thirty four. That's when Nico
18:24
Speaker 2: Holkenberg went past Lance stro to take third place at Silverstone,
18:27
Speaker 2: which he held until the end of the race. First
18:29
Speaker 2: f one party. But he's two hundred and thirty ninth start.
18:31
Speaker 2: But I do have a stat for you here, and
18:33
Speaker 2: this is why I've put this in here, just because
18:34
Speaker 2: I spent five minutes on Forex having a look at
18:36
Speaker 2: this before we got on. So Holkeenberg spent nineteen laps
18:39
Speaker 2: on Sunday in third place. That's the most laps in
18:42
Speaker 2: third place that he's had in any one season, and
18:46
Speaker 2: they all happened in the same race, and you think
18:48
Speaker 2: how long ago it was that Niko Holkeenberg was driving
18:51
Speaker 2: a Williams around in Formula One. That even for all
18:54
Speaker 2: the ridiculous Hulkenberg stats that came out on Sunday, that's
18:57
Speaker 2: quite a stat.
18:58
Speaker 3: That is a great stat It's a very cifix stout.
19:00
Speaker 3: I like it.
19:01
Speaker 1: I like the specificity of it. I'm going to go
19:04
Speaker 1: with I don't know, he's a more conventional one. Lewis
19:07
Speaker 1: Hamilton and his double pass on Estebannocon and George Russell.
19:11
Speaker 1: I think it was after the first safety car restart.
19:13
Speaker 1: It was a very little time between safety car, so
19:15
Speaker 1: it did good job to get that in. But he'd
19:17
Speaker 1: just been passed by Russell at Abbey. I believe that's
19:20
Speaker 1: turn one. No, it's turn one. There you go, and
19:23
Speaker 1: then took around, took both of them around the outside
19:26
Speaker 1: in the west at Village and just for a little
19:28
Speaker 1: just for a moment, he thought, oh, look it's Lewis
19:31
Speaker 1: Hamilton in the west.
19:32
Speaker 3: Isn't that good?
19:33
Speaker 1: And then yeah, he still finished fourth, and I think
19:35
Speaker 1: he probably could have had podium pace, or I think
19:37
Speaker 1: he had podium pace in a different car or in
19:40
Speaker 1: different conditions, which is very considerable conditions to place on
19:45
Speaker 1: that statement. But he clearly he was. I think he
19:49
Speaker 1: was in good form this week. I think he was
19:51
Speaker 1: in Hamilton form this weekend, but unfortunately in the progress
19:55
Speaker 1: of his journey with Ferrara, in Ferrari's own journey this season,
19:59
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit too early or way too late.
20:02
Speaker 2: I'm not sure I did like the past, I've got
20:05
Speaker 2: to say, because it was that classic opportunistic he read
20:08
Speaker 2: what was going on in front of him and sized
20:10
Speaker 2: to what was going to happen with two rivals and
20:13
Speaker 2: said they're going to end up here. So I'm going there,
20:16
Speaker 2: and I'm having both of you in the one corner.
20:17
Speaker 2: It was you and him. He's done this so many
20:21
Speaker 2: times in the wet over the years that we take
20:22
Speaker 2: it for granted. But it was a nice reminder of
20:24
Speaker 2: how decisive and how well he sizes up situations like that.
20:28
Speaker 2: It was a very good nomination by you.
20:30
Speaker 1: I think, well, let's go back to yours, though, Nico Holckenberg,
20:33
Speaker 1: because that was in many respects it almost overshadowed the
20:36
Speaker 1: entire weekend. I think his result, his first podium in
20:39
Speaker 1: two hundred and thirty nine Grand Prix starts, a remarkable
20:43
Speaker 1: run of non podiums, comfortably the most starts in the
20:46
Speaker 1: history of Formula One for a driver not to have one.
20:48
Speaker 1: And now he has the record for most starts before
20:51
Speaker 1: first podium, eclipsing Carlos Science, who got on He's one
20:54
Speaker 1: hundred first start a few years ago now in Brazil.
20:56
Speaker 1: I think it was this was great. It was great.
21:01
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone can be too disappointed by this,
21:03
Speaker 1: other than maybe Lancetrol and Lewis Hamilton. Even they must
21:05
Speaker 1: admit what a great outcome. And madd He's been around
21:08
Speaker 1: for a very long time. We've been watching him for
21:10
Speaker 1: a very long time, and I think it's actually easy
21:13
Speaker 1: to either forget or if you're relative, you don't even
21:16
Speaker 1: have to be that new to the sport to be honest,
21:17
Speaker 1: relatively new to the sport to not realize how highly
21:21
Speaker 1: rated he was when he arrived fifteen years ago.
21:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, coming in he was massively rated. I'm so glad
21:27
Speaker 2: that this box has been checked because it would have
21:29
Speaker 2: been a travesty for a driver of his quality to
21:32
Speaker 2: go through a career without a podium. And look, I
21:34
Speaker 2: mean there's been several times where he's been off the
21:36
Speaker 2: grid or adjacent to the greed in the last little
21:38
Speaker 2: while where we thought, well, this is probably going to
21:40
Speaker 2: be it. I think the thing for me is that
21:43
Speaker 2: when you saw the graphic come up at the start
21:45
Speaker 2: of the race and realize that he was actually going
21:47
Speaker 2: to be the car starting last because Franco Colapino started
21:50
Speaker 2: from the pit lane for Alpine. He thought, given how
21:53
Speaker 2: well Sauber has been going lately, I thought to myself,
21:56
Speaker 2: knowing what he's like in these sorts of races, I
21:59
Speaker 2: could see him getting up and finishing seventh or eighth
22:01
Speaker 2: or something, and we go, wow, what a great job
22:03
Speaker 2: by Holckenberg, How well it's our going. But to see
22:06
Speaker 2: him fighting for and eventually getting that podium, Yes, there
22:11
Speaker 2: were tricky situations and conditions, but it was the same
22:13
Speaker 2: for everybody. He executed an absolutely flawless race when the
22:16
Speaker 2: strategy came into his favor, and I was glad that.
22:19
Speaker 2: You know, there's been several situations in the past. I
22:21
Speaker 2: think of that race at Hockenheigh where he was on
22:23
Speaker 2: a chance to score the podium many years ago and
22:26
Speaker 2: slid off in the wet where it was there for him.
22:28
Speaker 2: He executed it so perfectly given the opportunity, And you
22:33
Speaker 2: can always gauge how a driver's peers regard a driver
22:39
Speaker 2: when you see something like this happen. And the response
22:42
Speaker 2: was immediate and consistent from all of his peers, like
22:45
Speaker 2: this guy absolutely deserves this. Everyone's very happy for him,
22:48
Speaker 2: and this should have happened a long time ago, but
22:50
Speaker 2: circumstances conspired against him. So a real feel good story.
22:54
Speaker 2: And yeah, I don't think even he must have thought
22:57
Speaker 2: at this point, it's like, Look, it's great that I'm here,
22:59
Speaker 2: it's great that I'm going to be part this AUDI
23:00
Speaker 2: project going forward. But given what Saba are doing lately,
23:04
Speaker 2: perhaps we could even see him back there, because I've
23:07
Speaker 2: got wolf faith in Saurba that I have in quite
23:09
Speaker 2: a few other teams right now.
23:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I think this is the important second part
23:13
Speaker 1: of this story, which is that, Okay, this podium was
23:16
Speaker 1: certainly a considerable stretch for Sober, but the team's clearly
23:20
Speaker 1: improved quite a bit in the last month or so.
23:22
Speaker 1: This is its fourth consecutive point scoring race, and it's
23:25
Speaker 1: got to the stage now where that's not surprising anymore
23:27
Speaker 1: to see them in the points where is at the
23:29
Speaker 1: start of the year. I mean, I thought when Nico
23:31
Speaker 1: scored in Australia in that wet race, that that was
23:33
Speaker 1: the last time they'd.
23:34
Speaker 3: Be scoring points of the very possibly wouldn't.
23:36
Speaker 1: Forget that took them what do I think It was
23:38
Speaker 1: till the fourth last round last year to score points
23:40
Speaker 1: something like that, and that was pretty much it And
23:42
Speaker 1: that was a little bit fortunate as well. Whereas it
23:45
Speaker 1: feels like there is momentum behind this team. Jonathan Wheatley's
23:49
Speaker 1: bringing I'd say this without judgment, a little bit of
23:53
Speaker 1: the Red Bull Christian Auna element to this team.
23:56
Speaker 3: In a good way.
23:57
Speaker 1: In fact, I've heard there's a lot of Red Bull
23:59
Speaker 1: staff there now in factor among the Sauber team, and
24:02
Speaker 1: that is no bad thing. It's in Redful's won so
24:04
Speaker 1: many championships and you know, we started to see it
24:06
Speaker 1: actually before the results came. Pit stops were a great
24:08
Speaker 1: example something that's just improved a lot for saubur when
24:11
Speaker 1: they used to have, I mean last year they had
24:13
Speaker 1: some dreadful pit stops. Now they're regularly among the fastest. Now,
24:17
Speaker 1: this big upgrade they brought i think to the Spanish
24:19
Speaker 1: Grand Prix seems to be working and it feels like
24:22
Speaker 1: Toauer's gone from a team that I mean, treading water
24:25
Speaker 1: is almost too good of a thing to say. For
24:27
Speaker 1: the last few years, it's a team that has some
24:29
Speaker 1: forward movement to it.
24:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like an abandoned building was the last
24:33
Speaker 2: few years. It was you know it was there, and
24:35
Speaker 2: you it was there, but no one bothered looking at
24:36
Speaker 2: it because they'd seen it all before. But Michael, I
24:38
Speaker 2: know you know this, but I'm going to read these
24:41
Speaker 2: for the sake of our listeners here. So this is
24:43
Speaker 2: the past four rounds. Spain, Canada, Austria, Great Britain Sober
24:47
Speaker 2: thirty five points, Red Bull which has one car, twenty
24:50
Speaker 2: eight points, Aston Martin twenty two, Racing Bulls fourteen, Alpine
24:54
Speaker 2: another team that fields only one car. Apparently they have
24:56
Speaker 2: twelve points. Williams have five points in the last four rounds,
25:00
Speaker 2: so that twenty twenty five Tap is well and truly
25:02
Speaker 2: turned off. And Haus have three points in the last
25:05
Speaker 2: four races, which is two more than the times their
25:07
Speaker 2: drivers have run into each other over the those last
25:09
Speaker 2: four races. So you look at this last set of races,
25:12
Speaker 2: Sauber is punching well above its weight. But this is
25:15
Speaker 2: not some fluke, one off result. This one's been building
25:18
Speaker 2: for a while. And you know you mentioned the Jonathan
25:21
Speaker 2: Wheatlely influence and the fact that AUDI is coming in
25:23
Speaker 2: next year and the upgrade is working. You look at
25:26
Speaker 2: this constructor's table now and you can already clearly see
25:29
Speaker 2: which teams have either put the Q in the ract
25:31
Speaker 2: for twenty five or are about to, and which ones
25:33
Speaker 2: are pushing on for glories with a rule set that's
25:36
Speaker 2: going in the trash. I ferrari, but I would expect
25:38
Speaker 2: Sauber to actually be able to sustain some level of this,
25:42
Speaker 2: perhaps not this, but something like this, given that a
25:45
Speaker 2: lot of their opposition in the midfield has decided we've
25:48
Speaker 2: had enough and we're looking at twenty twenty six. This
25:50
Speaker 2: may not be as one off as we think it is.
25:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's an interesting I really expected a lot of
25:55
Speaker 1: these midfield teams to just have committed to next year
25:58
Speaker 1: quite early in the way that Williams has been very
26:00
Speaker 1: upfront about that idea. There's been almost nothing brought to
26:03
Speaker 1: that car all year by some real refinements of what's
26:07
Speaker 1: gone on. Whereas matib and I said late last year
26:10
Speaker 1: that he didn't want to abandon the car because the
26:13
Speaker 1: first of all, the car was so bad that didn't
26:15
Speaker 1: seem right that that should be the car that proceeded
26:17
Speaker 1: out his involvement, but also because the team had to
26:21
Speaker 1: believe that it could actually race in Formula One competitively.
26:24
Speaker 1: And that's that element that when we're talking about new rules,
26:28
Speaker 1: when we're talking about obviously new constructors coming in or
26:30
Speaker 1: AUDI taking over the team, I think is easily forgotten
26:34
Speaker 1: because we assume, well, AUDI will inject all this money
26:36
Speaker 1: into it, they'll bring some good facilities, their own power,
26:37
Speaker 1: and it will take care of itself. But if the
26:39
Speaker 1: team's not really up to it, you can squander quite
26:43
Speaker 1: easily those advantages or that potential. And I think this
26:47
Speaker 1: win or this upturn inform is important for that reason
26:50
Speaker 1: as well as that it now feels like and the
26:52
Speaker 1: staff will inevitably feel field is you feel like you
26:55
Speaker 1: can believe that AUDI will debut next year and actually
26:57
Speaker 1: be good. You know, like the team. It's still a
27:00
Speaker 1: huge mountain to climb. Obviously to the front of the field,
27:02
Speaker 1: that's clear, but you now feel like, actually the trajectory
27:05
Speaker 1: is set, rather than AUDI starting at absolute zero and
27:09
Speaker 1: then having to figure out how to get there.
27:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a human element to this. And you can
27:13
Speaker 2: spend all the money in the world, or you can
27:15
Speaker 2: pin all your hopes on a new set of rules.
27:17
Speaker 2: You know, every hope that you've got, But there is
27:19
Speaker 2: a human element to this. It's like, huh, look at
27:21
Speaker 2: what we've achieved in a very short amount of time
27:24
Speaker 2: with the many impediments that we've got given we're hard
27:27
Speaker 2: up against an expiring rule set here that's going to
27:30
Speaker 2: give them momentum that a points table can't necessarily demonstrate.
27:34
Speaker 2: When you go into the European winter this year with
27:38
Speaker 2: this blank sheet of paper for twenty twenty six, they
27:40
Speaker 2: are in so much of a better position than they
27:42
Speaker 2: were even six months ago. And you would argue that
27:45
Speaker 2: given what they've got coming in, they're in a better
27:47
Speaker 2: position than a lot of teams because they seem pretty
27:50
Speaker 2: stable in the back end. Now, you know someone like
27:52
Speaker 2: Jonathan Wheatley. You mentioned the pit stops thing, that's the
27:55
Speaker 2: lowest hanging fruit for a lower team to get right.
27:59
Speaker 2: That's an app salute based camp bare minimum. When Wheeley
28:02
Speaker 2: was at Red Bull, coincidence or not, they would always
28:05
Speaker 2: have the best bit stops on the grid, and that's
28:07
Speaker 2: something that's it's easily fixed with some extra practice and
28:11
Speaker 2: training and methodologies and equipment, but it has a massive
28:14
Speaker 2: effect on the belief and the morale of the employees there.
28:17
Speaker 2: It's like, look what we've done. We've gone from here
28:19
Speaker 2: to here really really quickly on this specific thing. Why
28:22
Speaker 2: can't that translate into other parts of the business. The
28:25
Speaker 2: one thing I do like about what Saber have done
28:27
Speaker 2: this year, I really like this driver lineup. I think
28:30
Speaker 2: it's a really good mix of you know, Borceoletto is
28:34
Speaker 2: clearly going to be quite decent. I mean, yes, he
28:36
Speaker 2: makes rookie mistakes and he has some shots or what having,
28:38
Speaker 2: he's not slow. I think that's a probably a good
28:41
Speaker 2: sign for the future. And Holkenberg's like the adult in
28:44
Speaker 2: the room, and I think it's really telling that, you know, yes,
28:48
Speaker 2: he was clearly really happy with what had happened on
28:50
Speaker 2: the weekend, but it was in that sort of measured
28:53
Speaker 2: professional yeah, yeah, look, look what we can do if
28:56
Speaker 2: we get things right. And I think he's looking at that,
28:58
Speaker 2: he's thinking, well, it's not going to be two hundred
29:00
Speaker 2: and thirty nine races until I get my second podium.
29:02
Speaker 2: It's going to be probably, you know, probably, it wouldn't
29:05
Speaker 2: surprise me if he ends up on another podium this year.
29:07
Speaker 2: What you need is a certain set of circumstances and
29:09
Speaker 2: it could happen because every other team besides McLaren here
29:13
Speaker 2: is competing with different agendas for the rest of twenty
29:15
Speaker 2: twenty six. Some teams have already decided twenty five is over.
29:19
Speaker 2: Other teams will push to the end, and I think
29:20
Speaker 2: Sour is just in a really, really good spot at
29:22
Speaker 2: the moment.
29:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, just to wrap up on this note, because the
29:26
Speaker 1: midfield is really close. All those teams in with a
29:29
Speaker 1: shout and have had these different periods of high scoring potential.
29:33
Speaker 1: Williams seems like it's past it now. We don't know
29:35
Speaker 1: whether that'll come back. Even racing bulls seems like they
29:38
Speaker 1: could be thereabouts at the moment, but they're a little.
29:39
Speaker 3: Bit up and down.
29:40
Speaker 1: Hearts you wouldn't even want to predict. Sometimes they're good
29:42
Speaker 1: and sometimes maybe good and sometimes sometimes not.
29:45
Speaker 3: Yes, great the great Man.
29:46
Speaker 1: And Alpine, though, is where I want to where I
29:49
Speaker 1: want to land now because this is a team. You know,
29:52
Speaker 1: we talk about Soerba moving from independent team the dependent
29:55
Speaker 1: factory analogies on. I really like to being a works
29:58
Speaker 1: team next year. It feels like Alpine is moving very
30:01
Speaker 1: much in the opposite direction. Have been a historically great
30:04
Speaker 1: works team in Formula One will not be next year.
30:06
Speaker 1: There'll be Mercedes customers. That's now the slowest car on
30:10
Speaker 1: the grid pretty much again qualifying Saba was slow this
30:12
Speaker 1: this weekend but clearly had good pace. Yeah, Gazzi had
30:15
Speaker 1: a great weekend though, did qualify in the top ten
30:16
Speaker 1: really quite unexpectedly, and then held on to that place
30:20
Speaker 1: really well. In that way we know ghasly can when
30:22
Speaker 1: he's got the sniff of a good result. But of
30:24
Speaker 1: course the big story for Alpine is what's going on
30:26
Speaker 1: with that second car. Not the only team I guess
30:28
Speaker 1: in Formula One to effectively be a one carte, but
30:31
Speaker 1: Franco Colopinto for his sixth race, and with rumors about
30:35
Speaker 1: Alpine being interested in Valtrie Botas had really quite a
30:37
Speaker 1: poor weekend qualifying way the back didn't never see really
30:41
Speaker 1: any glimpse of pace from him, and then his race
30:44
Speaker 1: never even really got going, I think officially as recorded
30:46
Speaker 1: as it did not start due to a drive line
30:48
Speaker 1: issue that there's been some speculation may have driver era involved,
30:52
Speaker 1: being similar to the Spanish Grand Prix qualifying incident, but
30:54
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how true that is. Now speculation is
30:57
Speaker 1: really mounting that he may not even be the car
30:59
Speaker 1: at the next time, Right, What do you think's going
31:02
Speaker 1: on here?
31:03
Speaker 3: Man? Because it doesn't seem great?
31:05
Speaker 2: What do I think is going on with olped? I
31:07
Speaker 2: could either just shrug my shoulders, which is terrible podcast content,
31:11
Speaker 2: or I could talk for the next forty five minutes
31:13
Speaker 2: and we'd been none the wiser, quite frankly. But you
31:15
Speaker 2: know what would be really interesting to me is if
31:17
Speaker 2: they are going to make a driver change, which they might.
31:19
Speaker 2: It depends if the bag transfers or Argentina keep coming through.
31:23
Speaker 2: But I think you could take one variable out of
31:25
Speaker 2: all of this, and let's just say Valerie Botas gets
31:27
Speaker 2: the last ten races, they make a change shit in
31:29
Speaker 2: the mid season break after Belgium and Hungary. That at
31:33
Speaker 2: least takes a variable out of the equation in that
31:35
Speaker 2: if you have a couple of experienced heads in the car.
31:37
Speaker 2: Because you mentioned Ghastly before, Thank God for Pierre Ghastly,
31:40
Speaker 2: because you're right, he's the guy that when there's a
31:43
Speaker 2: sniff of an opportunity to get a decent result. He's
31:45
Speaker 2: made a career on not letting those go. If you
31:48
Speaker 2: had someone else that at least had the experience and
31:51
Speaker 2: potentially the speed to do that, perhaps valtreie Bot has
31:54
Speaker 2: it takes one variable out of the equation that we
31:56
Speaker 2: just don't know the answer to yet. Because that second
31:58
Speaker 2: car this year has been driven by a driver who
32:01
Speaker 2: came into twenty twenty five with one Grand Prix start
32:03
Speaker 2: and Jack doing and with about eight in Franco Colopinto.
32:07
Speaker 2: I don't think it helps their situation, and now having
32:10
Speaker 2: to experienced heads isn't going to solve all of their problems.
32:12
Speaker 2: But I think it just removes one variable. But at
32:15
Speaker 2: the moment they seem it's the worst possible combination. We're slow.
32:19
Speaker 2: We don't know why we're slow operationally. Weekend to weekend.
32:22
Speaker 2: It varies enormously, And as you said, this is where
32:25
Speaker 2: they should be better because they are a works team.
32:28
Speaker 2: Like next year, they're just not. You've got this huge
32:31
Speaker 2: changing set of rules going on, and we've said this before.
32:35
Speaker 2: It has always felt to me like a team that
32:37
Speaker 2: is being primed to be sold. As much as they deny,
32:40
Speaker 2: and as much as that story is kicked around right now,
32:43
Speaker 2: I just do not understand what it is that they're doing.
32:45
Speaker 2: So what I've just spent the last one hundred and
32:47
Speaker 2: eighty seconds doing is the verbal equivalent of a shoulder
32:49
Speaker 2: shrug and pointing back to you, because frankly, I don't
32:52
Speaker 2: think they know, so I don't know how we're supposed to.
32:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I've been saying anytime I've been asked,
32:57
Speaker 1: is that I'm not even sure Alpine knows what it's doing.
33:01
Speaker 1: It seemed to me the start of the year, when
33:02
Speaker 1: Jack Dowan was still in the seat, that there was
33:04
Speaker 1: a little bit of a divide between the race team
33:06
Speaker 1: and upper management, by which I really just mean plav
33:09
Speaker 1: a bit or I think, and he's kind of I
33:12
Speaker 1: don't want to say pulling the strings because that makes
33:13
Speaker 1: it sound nefarious. But he's making decisions because he knows
33:16
Speaker 1: he has the power to make decisions, and he's doing
33:18
Speaker 1: what he's gout instinct tells him. And I guess once
33:20
Speaker 1: upon a time that kind of worked. Whether or not
33:23
Speaker 1: that's going to work again, Oh look, I'll leave that
33:24
Speaker 1: up to you to decide for yourselves. But so far,
33:27
Speaker 1: it hasn't and I just can't help but wonder what
33:31
Speaker 1: would be happening here had Jack Don been allowed to
33:33
Speaker 1: complete his rookie season, because we saw he was improving,
33:36
Speaker 1: qualified P one race Oka, qualified pier Gays in Miami,
33:40
Speaker 1: he was more able to put the pace that was
33:43
Speaker 1: clearly there together more consistently, was slowly getting there. We
33:46
Speaker 1: were another six races down the road now. Rather than
33:48
Speaker 1: talking about, Wow, this guy has been mcalfa six races,
33:51
Speaker 1: keeps crashing it and not doing very well, maybe we'd
33:53
Speaker 1: be saying, hey, the guy has been there for twelve races,
33:55
Speaker 1: similar to Gabrielle Bortiletto, only recently has really been clicking
33:59
Speaker 1: with the sobur and scored those first points a week ago.
34:02
Speaker 1: We'd be saying something sim about Jack going, oh, actually,
34:04
Speaker 1: you know, maybe he's going to be a decent driver
34:06
Speaker 1: for the future of Alpine or whatever it'll be called
34:08
Speaker 1: when it solves well.
34:09
Speaker 2: And the same for Colopinto. I mean, the Ding situation
34:12
Speaker 2: was mismanaged from day one, and the Colopinto situation as
34:16
Speaker 2: much as we can talk about the money coming in
34:18
Speaker 2: and you know, he was signed and he was always
34:19
Speaker 2: going to get the seat that also has been mismanaged
34:22
Speaker 2: because you know, the guiltine has been hanging over his head.
34:24
Speaker 2: And I just don't think that you can have drivers
34:27
Speaker 2: with that little Formula One experience, no matter their surname,
34:30
Speaker 2: or their pedigree or their bank balance. There's no way
34:32
Speaker 2: to operate, and that's no way to build into a
34:35
Speaker 2: season that is, as you will know, twenty four rounds long.
34:38
Speaker 2: The whole thing's just been so unnecessarily turbulent, but probably
34:42
Speaker 2: consistent with the way that team operates, so perhaps we
34:44
Speaker 2: shouldn't be surprised.
34:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a good call. Well, let's move
34:48
Speaker 1: on finally to the crystal ball, brought to you by
34:51
Speaker 1: Complete home Filtration. It's up to you whether you want
34:53
Speaker 1: to predict anything happening at Alpine. I certainly wouldn't be
34:56
Speaker 1: that brave. Crystal ball is not of that level. But
34:59
Speaker 1: mat where would you like to take up?
35:01
Speaker 2: Yes, my crystal ball, to quote Lando Norris, is broken
35:04
Speaker 2: after last weekend because I picked Oscar Piastre to be
35:07
Speaker 2: the British Gorod Pery and that did not work out
35:09
Speaker 2: very well. But look, I could you could make a
35:12
Speaker 2: crystal ball prediction about Alpine? And why would you do that,
35:15
Speaker 2: so I'm going to go I'm going to go longer
35:18
Speaker 2: view than just the short term here with these next
35:20
Speaker 2: two races before the mid season break, I'm saying, sticking
35:23
Speaker 2: on the Souber theme, they are going to finish a
35:25
Speaker 2: comfortable fifth place in the Constructor's Championship at the end
35:28
Speaker 2: of the season. Now they're already six, they're going to
35:31
Speaker 2: leap frog Williams based on the trajectory of these two teams,
35:34
Speaker 2: and as an adjunct to my crystal ball, given the
35:37
Speaker 2: way Williams are going, could Williams actually finish second last
35:41
Speaker 2: in the Constructor's Championship? Now this sounds a little bit
35:44
Speaker 2: extreme here. Williams has fifty nine points. Hears is currently
35:48
Speaker 2: ninth out of ten with twenty nine points, And I
35:49
Speaker 2: don't necessarily trust Hals to score thirty more points of
35:52
Speaker 2: Williams before the end of the season. But who is
35:55
Speaker 2: going to score more points than Williams for the rest
35:57
Speaker 2: of the season. Probably most teams, because we know they've
35:59
Speaker 2: got twenty twenty six in their side and it's so
36:02
Speaker 2: tightly packed in there behind Sauber that I would probably
36:05
Speaker 2: trust some of those other teams to score more points,
36:07
Speaker 2: and perhaps Williams over the course of the season. We've
36:09
Speaker 2: got half the season to go, and they could absolutely
36:12
Speaker 2: easily slide towards the foot of the table if they
36:14
Speaker 2: are not careful. So there's two crystal balls for you,
36:17
Speaker 2: not just one.
36:17
Speaker 3: That's a good call.
36:18
Speaker 1: I really like this really has me thinking now because
36:20
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the championship championship chart and thinking, actually,
36:24
Speaker 1: quite could be quite possible. Aston Martin's the team I
36:26
Speaker 1: keep forgetting is in Formula one.
36:27
Speaker 2: That's what?
36:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I sometimes I think he wishes they went
36:31
Speaker 1: in Formula One, but yeah, that I'd be willing to
36:35
Speaker 1: say they could fillims for finish eighth. I think Hearts
36:38
Speaker 1: is just too inconsistent. But Aston Martin, they've also upgraded
36:42
Speaker 1: similar times to Sober and Alonso's pretty finished seventh in
36:45
Speaker 1: a row. I think seven seven times in a row
36:47
Speaker 1: is a lance stroll this week actually, so the team's
36:50
Speaker 1: got the best result of seventh in a row.
36:51
Speaker 3: I guess Racing.
36:52
Speaker 1: Bulls I think is actually pretty good just when their
36:55
Speaker 1: drivers are having a good weekend, given they're so inexperience,
36:58
Speaker 1: I think that's perfectly reasonable.
37:00
Speaker 3: I could see it.
37:01
Speaker 1: Happening, which would be a remarkable turnaround from the enthusiasm
37:05
Speaker 1: of the start of the season for Williams, wouldn't it.
37:07
Speaker 1: But they knew that was the risk. In fact, I
37:08
Speaker 1: don't think they were even prepared or they didn't realize
37:11
Speaker 1: they'd be starting so strongly. So I suppose if you
37:13
Speaker 1: said they were fifth with the chance of retaining it,
37:15
Speaker 1: that absolutely have taken it to in the off season.
37:17
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, And I think for Williams all that's going
37:19
Speaker 2: to be forgotten if they start twenty six with a
37:21
Speaker 2: reasonably competitive car and hit the ground running anyway, I
37:24
Speaker 2: don't think they're going to be looking back at the
37:26
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five Constructors Championship with too many regrets if
37:29
Speaker 2: that's the case. But I've had two cracks at the
37:31
Speaker 2: Crystal ball and I haven't given you one yet, So
37:34
Speaker 2: before I hog all of the crystal ball gazing for
37:36
Speaker 2: this weekend, what have you got?
37:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, yours are good. I'm satisfied with that. Now I'm
37:40
Speaker 1: going to move over to Supercars Land because they've got
37:42
Speaker 1: a really important weekend coming up this weekend. Towns will
37:45
Speaker 1: five hundred and it's important because it's the first real
37:48
Speaker 1: street track on the calendar this year and that's important
37:51
Speaker 1: because two of the three finals this year are street tracks.
37:54
Speaker 1: The Gold Coast is the first one and the finale
37:56
Speaker 1: is Adelaide, And so this weekend is it's obviously not
38:00
Speaker 1: going to be crucial to who makes the finals unless
38:02
Speaker 1: this is a weekend where someone round about that position
38:05
Speaker 1: ten scores a big points or whatever.
38:06
Speaker 3: Obviously, but this.
38:07
Speaker 1: Is going to be really important to that form guy.
38:09
Speaker 1: This is almost going to be this almost like preseason
38:11
Speaker 1: testing for the finals, particularly for those teams that are,
38:14
Speaker 1: let's be honest, pretty much locked in their irregular front
38:16
Speaker 1: runners and those top drivers. So who performs well here
38:20
Speaker 1: is suddenly their odds for the championship are going to
38:23
Speaker 1: shorten considerably. And I think for the first time all
38:26
Speaker 1: year pretty much, I know he's got one win already.
38:28
Speaker 1: We're going to see a good weekend, I hope from
38:30
Speaker 1: chasmost it because it'd be good to see him in
38:32
Speaker 1: contention for the finals. I think the sport needs and
38:34
Speaker 1: wants him up the front, and he's only sort of
38:36
Speaker 1: thereabouts this year, but I'd like to see him do well.
38:40
Speaker 1: I think he did well last year. If he does
38:42
Speaker 1: well again this year, suddenly the story around WAU season
38:47
Speaker 1: particularly most it season is going to change quite considerably,
38:50
Speaker 1: but whatever happens, it's going to be. It's an important result.
38:53
Speaker 1: It's gonna be one really to watch.
38:54
Speaker 2: I like the pre season analogy because of the way
38:57
Speaker 2: the back end of this season is going to be.
38:59
Speaker 2: And yeah, it does add it's something a little bit
39:01
Speaker 2: extra for a normal in inverted Commas round in July.
39:05
Speaker 2: That's going to have far reaching consequences, So I do
39:08
Speaker 2: like this. You shouldn't underrate your crystal ballgasing. I think
39:10
Speaker 2: that was I think we've had a good week on
39:12
Speaker 2: the crystal Ball this week.
39:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, I watch all the predictions end up to be wrong,
39:15
Speaker 1: but that's all the time we have for Pittalk today.
39:17
Speaker 1: You can subscribe to Pittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts,
39:20
Speaker 1: and you can leave us a rating and a review
39:22
Speaker 1: as well. This weekend it is the Supercars Townsville five
39:25
Speaker 1: hundred with Friday's race. Friday's race yes at three point
39:28
Speaker 1: forty and then races on Saturday at Sunday at three pm,
39:31
Speaker 1: after which you can catch the German Motorcycle Grand Prix
39:33
Speaker 1: with lights out at ten pm on Sunday. You give
39:36
Speaker 1: up to date with all the latest f one, supercars
39:38
Speaker 1: and MotoGP news at foxsports dot com dot Au from
39:41
Speaker 1: Matt Clayton and me Michael Lomonado. Thanks very much for
39:43
Speaker 1: your company. We'll catch you next week.