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The Motorsport Brief - No 2nd chances and 2nd comings · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:04
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:06
  A massive weekend ahead with the Monaco Grand Prix.
• 0:09
  MotoGP is at Silverstone, plus huge news breaking on the eve of the Indy 500.
• 0:15
  G'day everybody, Rusty here.
• 0:16
  Welcome to the Shortcast.
• 0:18
  Supercars announced a new CEO this week with James Warburton to make a return to the top job too.
• 0:24
  More on that shortly.
• 0:25
  But first, some high-profile members of Team Penske's IndyCar operation have been shown the door ahead of the sport's biggest race of the season, the Indy 500.
• 0:35
  Monday morning, our time that is scheduled for one of the biggest crowds in years is expected at the event too.
• 0:41
  After qualifying in the lead-up to the final part of setting the grid, the top 12, last year's winner, Joseph Newgarden, and the car driven by Aussie Will Power –
• 0:51
  were found to be in breach during a tech inspection.
• 0:55
  They were withdrawn, those cars, from the 12.
• 0:57
  They'd been sent to the back of the grid.
• 1:00
  It surrounds the attenuator at the back of the car, a structure that helps reduce G-forces, improve kind of crush ability in a major rear-end crash.
• 1:09
  Typically, they're made of carbon fibre.
• 1:12
  and in this case, a rear wing support too.
• 1:14
  The team had several of these attenuators in rotation.
• 1:18
  In most cases, there is a kind of distinguishable separation at a join.
• 1:24
  Dallara, the chassis maker, recalled several of them in the past year so that they could improve strength around them.
• 1:30
  Now, the section in question, which is visible in some pictures that you'll find, several pictures that are available online, seems to show...
• 1:39
  a silicon-like filler, an aesthetic smoothing or a join, if you like.
• 1:44
  Now, naturally, some have questioned, is this performance enhancing?
• 1:48
  Does it give better airflow and so on?
• 1:51
  Even the slightest mod like that at the speeds they're doing could make a difference.
• 1:57
  There are
• 1:59
  other teams raising eyebrows possibly bringing this whole thing to the attention of officials several races ago long-time IndyCar journalist Marshall Pruitt from Racer Magazine and the Marshall Pruitt podcast also looked into whether this may have overshadowed Joseph Newgarten's win last year at the 500 and he actually found that winning car on display there with this modification
• 2:23
  Roger Penske, who I have the utmost respect for.
• 2:26
  I've been lucky enough to interview him on a couple of occasions.
• 2:29
  He's been incredibly successful in motorsport and in business.
• 2:33
  He says, Last year's race-winning car was tech-checked extensively.
• 2:38
  It was passed at the time, so that win, in his opinion, should stand.
• 2:42
  Rivals have kind of alluded to whether the win may be tainted.
• 2:46
  Right.
• 2:46
  Now, Aussie and Kiwi listeners will be familiar with Tim Sindrick, who made several visits down under when Penske, for example, was a part of DJR in supercars.
• 2:57
  Sindrick, the Penske IndyCar team president, along with their IndyCar managing director, Ron Razuski, and IndyCar general manager, Kyle Moyer.
• 3:07
  have all been sent packing.
• 3:08
  So this is huge news.
• 3:10
  And don't forget, there was an issue in the past year too with Sindrik and Rzozewski suspended from the 500 over the push to pass scandal.
• 3:20
  What makes all of this awkward is that Penske owns the series, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and his own team, ensuring there's...
• 3:29
  No conflicts of interest and restoring integrity is something that he is committed to.
• 3:34
  Here is a slice of Roger chatting to Jamie Little for the IndyCar on Fox coverage about the saga.
• 3:41
  I would say that I'm totally disappointed with the outcome, certainly on Sunday.
• 3:50
  I really have to go back four and a half years ago when we bought the Speedway and I said, number one, that I would...
• 3:59
  invest capital, get the best people, and we take the series, IMSP, and certainly NNF's Motor Speedway to higher levels.
• 4:09
  I think we've done that.
• 4:11
  Then I look at my right hand and say, what about Team Penske?
• 4:15
  And when I think about Team Penske, we really have had an organization failure two times, not once, but two times.
• 4:22
  And believe me, it hurts me.
• 4:24
  in my gut when you think about it.
• 4:27
  But I look at it this way, that there's a certain amount of credibility you have to have.
• 4:34
  It's integrity individually and collectively, our team, the sport.
• 4:38
  And I think we let people down.
• 4:40
  I've made some management changes we announced today, and I think we'll move on, and our goal is to win the race this coming weekend.
• 4:48
  Tim Sindrick took to X or Twitter in the wake of his departure and said it's been an amazing ride.
• 4:54
  His conscience remains clear through all the noise and accusations.
• 4:58
  He was grateful for the support that he's been able to draw from lots of great people during this time.
• 5:03
  And he's still standing tall.
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  Don't forget, his son Austin races for Penske today.
• 5:09
  in NASCAR.
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  The big race is on Monday morning.
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  Our time speeds in the lead up have been nuts.
• 5:15
  Well over 230 mile an hour.
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  That's 370 k's an hour.
• 5:20
  What chance of a win for the drivers in our part of the world, the Aussies and Kiwis.
• 5:24
  Incidentally, Scott McLaughlin's Penske entry is in the clear while we recount this story.
• 5:32
  And what we provide as much balance as we can.
• 5:35
  You do worry
• 5:37
  about the impact of this if one of the Penske cars were to win.
• 5:43
  It is very hard, naturally, just to shake this incident and the tone of it, the smell of it kind of hanging over them at the moment.
• 5:51
  I should also point out that our summary that we've just done there in no way suggests any wrongdoing at all by the drivers.
• 5:58
  Newgarden,
• 5:59
  is looking for his third straight win at the greatest spectacle in motor racing.
• 6:03
  Will Power, hoping to add to that very memorable 2018 win.
• 6:08
  And last year's pole sitter, McLaughlin, eager to put his name on that very special trophy.
• 6:13
  Good luck to Scott Dixon, Marcus Armstrong, and everyone in the field, for that matter.
• 6:18
  We'll be watching regardless, and hopefully those that have had a tough week can put it behind them.
• 6:23
  A break on this edition of the Rusty's Garage Shortcast.
• 6:26
  When we come back, we'll talk Monaco Grand Prix.
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  Stay with us.
• 6:32
  you're listening to the motorsport brief from indycar to f1 now for some thoughts on last weekend's race at imola which was a cracker and to preview the jewel in the crown of the f1 calendar monaco we welcome back matt hickey from code sports and the daily telegraph thank you for coming back on mate thanks for having me rusty it's always a pleasure when you get asked back because it means you didn't do too bad your first time around
• 6:55
  Can we start with a little rewind to last week at Imola, what seems like the last stop at that legendary circuit, that's sad in itself.
• 7:04
  But man, that pass by Max Verstappen at the very beginning of the race over Oscar Piastri, that was Max reasserting himself in some respects after Oscar did a similar thing in recent weeks.
• 7:16
  He must have heard us here on Rusty's Garage when we spoke about it last time because we were full of praise of Oscar, and seemingly Oscar outsmarted him that time around in this way.
• 7:26
  It was the roles were reversed, and all credit to Max.
• 7:28
  It was a gutsy move as you expect nothing less.
• 7:31
  And then the ability to actually hold the lead out the front.
• 7:34
  We just saw the pace of the Red Bull maybe coming back a little bit.
• 7:37
  I think they've bought two upgrades over the past two rounds.
• 7:40
  So we're starting to see them tighten that race, and, jeez, I tell you what, that battle between three is going to be exciting.
• 7:46
  the whole season long.
• 7:47
  Looking at the championship points coming into this weekend, things have tightened up as well with Oscar coming off that third place result.
• 7:55
  What is the kind of message here?
• 7:57
  I love the fact that McLaren are allowing them to continue to race, but it's going to make things interesting, particularly if Lando keeps boxing hard.
• 8:05
  Yeah, certainly.
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  And we saw some strong comments from Jacques Villeneuve as well, suggesting that McLaren were weak in terms of not
• 8:16
  Piastri is the world championship leader.
• 8:18
  So surely when you're two and two together, he is the one that should really have the say-so.
• 8:23
  But you get the feeling Zac Brown is hands-off at the moment.
• 8:25
  He doesn't want to be the bad guy to make the call as to which driver is potentially the number one, and he's going to let them figure it out themselves.
• 8:32
  Whether that plays into the hands of a waiting patient, Max Verstappen, we'll have to wait and see.
• 8:37
  But at the moment, when you look at the numbers, Oscar Piastri, three polls this year and four wins.
• 8:43
  So...
• 8:44
  The proof is in the pudding, as we like to say.
• 8:46
  I think it was my old colleague at Channel 10, Alan Jones, the 1980 world champion, that either used or coined a phrase that Monaco is a little bit like racing shopping trolleys around your clothesline.
• 8:57
  There is something incredibly special about this whole deal.
• 9:01
  So F2 and F3 are there.
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  We've seen some historic machines on those famous streets in the past week or so.
• 9:07
  The drivers have gathered to do a special preview of the new F1 movie as well.
• 9:11
  It's going to be a huge weekend, isn't it?
• 9:13
  Yeah, and already we've seen McLaren unveil their special livery for that too.
• 9:18
  I believe Max Verstappen was the only driver who didn't show up to that F1 movie preview.
• 9:22
  I think he was iRacing and live streaming it as we expect Max to do.
• 9:26
  But yeah, as you mentioned at the top, Rusty, it's the jewel in the crown and really interesting this year.
• 9:31
  And I'm interested to get your thoughts and your take on this mandatory two-stop.
• 9:36
  Do we think it'll have any form of an impact in the race and whether it'll be easier or there'll be more excitement strategy-wise?
• 9:43
  It's something that we haven't seen for any other race this season, but F1's trying to do something to spice Monaco up a little bit when it comes to on the track.
• 9:51
  And I think that's the key thing, isn't it?
• 9:53
  We love the fact that it might inject something different.
• 9:57
  Still, though, there's got to be, I think, Matt, an emphasis on qualifying, as is so often the case there at Monaco, and qualifying up front.
• 10:06
  Yeah, certainly.
• 10:07
  And that poses a good point and hopefully a good mark for Oscar Piastri, who, as I mentioned, three poles this year, Max Verstappen three and Lando the other one, which was, of course, in Australia.
• 10:17
  So plenty of positives there, hopefully from an Australian point of view, if he can continue that race pace and that one lap pace, hopefully Oscar can get out in front and hopefully he doesn't have the bad luck like we saw in Imola, where he just always seemed to pit at the wrong time when it came to virtual safety car or safety car.
• 10:33
  He was second last year behind the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.
• 10:37
  Hopefully he can go one better and join the likes in relatively recent time of Daniel Ricciardo and Mark Webber as a Monaco winner.
• 10:46
  What chance do we give Charles Leclerc of going back-to-back?
• 10:49
  Because the Red Squad, even in that short time frame since we last had you on the pod, although Lewis salvaged that fourth to rapturous applause at Imola, it hasn't been plain sailing for the famous Italian team, has it?
• 11:01
  Yeah, it's one of those interesting ones where fantastic during the race, but their one-lap pace wasn't fantastic, which doesn't necessarily pose great things when it comes to Monaco, as we're all very, very well aware.
• 11:13
  So the hope is that they can carry some of that confidence and what they found during the race in Imola into Monaco, because we saw the scenes when Charles Leclerc won last year.
• 11:23
  It was fantastic.
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  We all know that the curse that he had had...
• 11:27
  we'll call it a curse, dealt with leading into that and finally getting that win as the local guy.
• 11:33
  But the one-lap pace is still a bit of a concern for Ferrari.
• 11:35
  So until they can show us that pace in qualifying, I'm still a little bit on the fence as to whether they'll be able to contend at a place like Monaco.
• 11:43
  What about some thoughts on Red Bull?
• 11:45
  Obviously, Max doing the job brilliantly at Imola.
• 11:48
  I know there's been moments where they look like they may have struggled as a race team relative to recent years and the dominance that we're used to from them.
• 11:57
  But even Yuki Tsunoda from the back of the pack performing better in that second car than we've seen in relatively recent time anyway.
• 12:04
  Yeah, and that was big for Yuki, I think, as well, because it's already remarkably, because it's the environment and the world that we live in.
• 12:10
  There were some people whispering about Isaac Hadjar, who's been a phenomenon to start the season as a rookie in that RB car.
• 12:18
  So credit to Yuki, and I think he will continue to figure it out.
• 12:22
  The other thing that I find really interesting with Red Bull is
• 12:24
  is this is a spot that Christian Horner loves, where he can just poke and, you know, prod the fire when it comes to McLaren.
• 12:32
  So we've seen some comments in the press recently about, you know, they've got to start to make some decisions, and you can just see Christian Horner really coming into his own in situations like this.
• 12:41
  So he knows he's got Max just waiting in the wings, and he hopes that things will crumble at McLaren, but we'll wait and see.
• 12:48
  Really positive, though, as I mentioned at the top, that race pace.
• 12:50
  So the ability not only to pass him in the first corner, but to stay in front...
• 12:54
  Really positive signs for McLaren and maybe just some tense signs if you're a McLaren fan.
• 13:01
  Quick thought on the RB team and Isaac Hadjar.
• 13:05
  There's probably an argument to stay put where he is that the whole idea of, you know, would he even replace a Yuki Tsunoda?
• 13:13
  That seems too soon.
• 13:14
  He's doing such a good job there.
• 13:15
  Why?
• 13:15
  Why?
• 13:16
  Why change that?
• 13:17
  And then secondly, what about Liam Lawson?
• 13:21
  I mean, this has been such a confidence-smashing start to the year for him.
• 13:25
  Gee, we hope he gets a bit of a turnaround in form, or more so anyway.
• 13:29
  Yes, certainly.
• 13:30
  And in regards to Hadjar, we only have to go back to the Australian Grand Prix when we saw him crash on the formation lap and talk about a brutal introduction into the sport.
• 13:41
  And yet he's managed to find his confidence in this current, really starting to perform, which is just fantastic to see because we know the pressure these rookies are under.
• 13:48
  Of course, we spoke about Jack Dewan last time and poor Jack.
• 13:52
  And even Franco Colapinto came in and he had an incident during qualifying
• 13:57
  As for Liam Lawson, I think all of a sudden now the whole F1 community would like to see Liam get a result in some aspect, get on the ball with some points because it has been a brutal year for him, especially when you think a few months ago he's in one of the top cars on the track, on the grid, and now all of a sudden he's in the RB and struggling to really be a factor.
• 14:18
  So hopefully for Liam Lawson he can find it.
• 14:20
  We know that the talent is there.
• 14:22
  He wouldn't have been able to get close to that Red Bull slot if it wasn't.
• 14:25
  He's just got to find it in his new car.
• 14:27
  And to finish, just a thought on some of the other things that have probably impressed slightly off the podium radar, shall we say.
• 14:36
  Williams having a cracking year so far, and it looks like, you know, maybe even Aston Martin beginning to turn a corner.
• 14:44
  Yes, certainly.
• 14:44
  I mean, Williams, how fantastic to see them back up and amongst it when for so long they were in the doldrums.
• 14:51
  And for those who haven't been in the paddock at the Australian Grand Prix or any Grand Prix, they actually stack the living in the areas for each of the teams in the paddock in terms of the order, which is behind the pits.
• 15:03
  And in Australia...
• 15:05
  The team that was last in the championship the year before, their area is not even attached to anybody else's.
• 15:12
  You feel a little bit sorry for them.
• 15:13
  They're so far away from everybody.
• 15:16
  And that was Williams for a long time.
• 15:17
  It was Haas for a little bit as well, but it was Williams for a long time.
• 15:19
  So just little things like that.
• 15:21
  I like to see them back amongst it all.
• 15:23
  And they're such a famous name in the sport.
• 15:26
  It is great to see them back up.
• 15:27
  And that driving pairing is really starting to go from strength to strength.
• 15:31
  And now Alex Albon has somebody who's going to continually compete with him
• 15:35
  which is going to push him further along as well.
• 15:38
  And then Aston Martin, well, we'll just wait and see.
• 15:40
  We never know.
• 15:41
  Every now and again, they just pop up and pull out a fourth or in past years, it's been on the podium.
• 15:46
  You just never know when Fernando Alonso is going to find it.
• 15:48
  And I'm sure they'll continue to come along.
• 15:51
  Haas have had their moments too.
• 15:52
  So it's close in that backfield, which is what you like to see at the end of a regulation cycle, if you like, is now that the lower teams have started to slowly figure it out.
• 16:04
  Before we let you go, I think we'll get a kick along from this new F1 movie with Brad Pitt by the feel of it.
• 16:10
  We've enjoyed many years of the success of Drive to Survive, but there's a huge aura around this thing, isn't there?
• 16:16
  There certainly is, and I think exciting as well is a sports movie, Nuffy Myself.
• 16:21
  is the fact that you've got the actual drivers will be in it and in the environment of it.
• 16:25
  A lot of the time you've got fake teams, you've got fake athletes.
• 16:30
  All of a sudden now they're immersed into it and that's the credit to the buy-in of F1.
• 16:34
  You've got a guy like Brad Pitt leading the charge as well.
• 16:37
  He's just fantastic and hopefully it ticks all the boxes and everyone can get around it.
• 16:42
  But I'm really looking forward to it because I think it's
• 16:45
  it's going to be racing like we haven't seen on the silver screen.
• 16:48
  Been great to get you back on.
• 16:49
  Thank you for doing that.
• 16:50
  And what can listeners look forward to as far as either Code Sports or the Daily Telegraph is concerned?
• 16:55
  Anything in the pipeline?
• 16:57
  Oh, lots of coverage of Monaco, obviously.
• 16:59
  My colleague Beck Williams recently had a fun piece about how much it actually costs to live in Monaco and how much you'd have to pay for a little apartment.
• 17:07
  So that's a really fascinating read because it is just an entire other world.
• 17:12
  Cheers, Matt.
• 17:13
  Thank you.
• 17:13
  Thanks, Rusty.
• 17:15
  Before we go today, James Warburton is coming back to lead Supercars as its CEO.
• 17:20
  Congratulations to him and to the sport for that matter.
• 17:23
  I actually worked there during his previous tenure, which ended in 2017.
• 17:28
  I always found James to be a very good boss, a good leader.
• 17:32
  I had a bit of time with him as well at the 10 Network.
• 17:35
  He knows the code.
• 17:37
  He knows TV, which is really important as they get closer to a new broadcast deal.
• 17:42
  And the team's...
• 17:43
  By the sounds of it, have all largely welcomed this news of his return.
• 17:47
  Now, social media does my head in a bit.
• 17:50
  There was everything from washed out CEO that I saw in Facebook comments and the sport is already in the toilet.
• 17:58
  The board just decided to press flush.
• 18:00
  Please, please, let's give him a chance.
• 18:03
  We could actually do with someone...
• 18:06
  who's got the knowledge of the business and television and the acceptance of the players right now, given that they have been looking for a new CEO, CFO and COO.
• 18:17
  Yes, we have a new generation car that was introduced since he left and the makeup of the board is now very different to what he was used to.
• 18:25
  There are, there are challenges.
• 18:27
  James did some very good things at the seven network.
• 18:31
  It is good to see some positive reaction in the marketplace, even things like LinkedIn, uh,
• 18:36
  Fine choice, welcome back and so on.
• 18:38
  We would love to get him on the pod for a chat at some stage.
• 18:41
  Let's give him a chance and see what he does.
• 18:42
  I think he'll do a few good things.
• 18:44
  Hopefully Jack Miller can get some points this weekend at Silverstone with MotoGP's British Grand Prix on too.
• 18:50
  I am off to WA as the Australian Rally Championship continues.
• 18:53
  Round two of the famed...
• 18:56
  at the famed Forest Rally, I should say, round two of the ARC.
• 18:59
  That is happening down near Busselton and the Margaret River wine region.
• 19:03
  Lewis Bates on top of the standings there.
• 19:05
  Kiwi Hayden Padden hoping to have a good run in the West.
• 19:08
  There's a nice shot of him padding kangaroos yesterday after a bit of drama around one in there in Canberra.
• 19:14
  Some awesome roads in those parts, as I said.
• 19:17
  Hoping to catch up with Toby Price and Dean Herridge for some podcasts while I'm there.
• 19:22
  Have a ripper weekend, everybody.
• 19:24
  Bye for now.