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Could Oscar Piastri have won in Japan? + Max Verstappen's quit threat explained | Pit Talk · Pit Talk

0:05
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:09
Speaker 1: On today's episode, Andrea Kimi Antonelli beats Oscar Piastre to
0:13
Speaker 1: victory at the Japanese Grand Prix on a big day
0:15
Speaker 1: for the Italian and the steadying one for the Australian
0:18
Speaker 1: and his McLaren team, and Maxistafan says his weighing up
0:22
Speaker 1: his future in Formula One over the sports controversial twenty
0:26
Speaker 1: twenty six regulations. My name's Michael Lamonado. It's great to
0:29
Speaker 1: have your company and the company of my co host.
0:32
Speaker 1: If he was still sensitive about blowing the twenty twenty
0:35
Speaker 1: five championship by crashing into George Russell the Spanish Grand Prix,
0:38
Speaker 1: he certainly wouldn't be constantly drawing attention to it. It's
0:41
Speaker 1: Matt Payton.
0:42
Speaker 2: If you mentioned this one more time, Michael, evicting you
0:44
Speaker 2: if you were our own podcast or I'm just literally
0:46
Speaker 2: putting the headphones down and leaving, how dare you? But no,
0:50
Speaker 2: I'm not sure that I lost the championship at all
0:52
Speaker 2: for a something of my own doing. But please don't
0:54
Speaker 2: ever mention it again. But yeah, that was one of
0:57
Speaker 2: the more bizarre side plots. Of the Suzuka weekend that
1:00
Speaker 2: we probably won't talk about on this podcast, but if
1:02
Speaker 2: you understand what we're saying, I'm sure you've consumed it already.
1:05
Speaker 1: Yes, it's just an odd weekend all round. I think
1:08
Speaker 1: in Japan we will get to max for staffing more generally,
1:11
Speaker 1: though a little bit later on in the podcast, because
1:13
Speaker 1: certainly his comments from a pretty miserable weekend all round,
1:16
Speaker 1: I think it's fair to say were a bit of opinion.
1:19
Speaker 1: We've got to start, of course, with the results in Suzuka.
1:23
Speaker 1: Another win for Andrea Kimi Antonali, who now leads the
1:26
Speaker 1: Formula One World Championship. At just nineteen years old, is
1:30
Speaker 1: the youngest points leader in Formula one history, eclipsing Lewis
1:33
Speaker 1: Hamilton in two thousand and seven. My favorite stat though, Matt,
1:35
Speaker 1: maybe we should make it a segment favorite stat of
1:37
Speaker 1: the week. First Italian to win successive Grand Prix since
1:41
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty three Albero history.
1:45
Speaker 2: That right, Wow, that is a stat. Now, I hadn't
1:48
Speaker 2: I hadn't seen that one. But now that you put
1:49
Speaker 2: it that way, now you think about all of the
1:52
Speaker 2: other Italians that have been through in that time, I
1:53
Speaker 2: would have thought that you might have had a Mikaylee
1:55
Speaker 2: Alboretoquanella at some point or something. But yeah, wow, Riccardo
1:59
Speaker 2: portrays you couldn't know. That's a that's an incredible stat.
2:02
Speaker 1: Wow. Is pretty much the history of the championship, you know,
2:06
Speaker 1: but three seasons pretty much it is the entire world
2:09
Speaker 1: championship history that no Italian is. That is extraordinary worth
2:12
Speaker 1: noting perhaps the side sidebar here that that was the
2:17
Speaker 1: was his second championship actually for a scari that season,
2:19
Speaker 1: but it led to the championship Italian races three quarters.
2:25
Speaker 1: You go, and well, why don't I ask you if
2:27
Speaker 1: you know this stab, because I always come from the
2:29
Speaker 1: position that you know on the stands ready, but I'm
2:32
Speaker 1: this one. I gave you an easier one last Italian
2:36
Speaker 1: to lead the Formula one World Championship and when truly
2:41
Speaker 1: perhaps good guess but no it was La in two
2:46
Speaker 1: thousand after winning the Australian Grand Prix.
2:50
Speaker 2: Yes of course he did. Yeah, yeah, very good season. Yeah,
2:53
Speaker 2: the the one of the short lived races where we
2:56
Speaker 2: have one shot qualifying and on the side of that
2:58
Speaker 2: should go, that should go with the bid, very very so.
3:00
Speaker 2: After he won that race. But yeah, there you go.
3:02
Speaker 2: So it's been twenty one years.
3:03
Speaker 1: Incredible, less exciting sidebar on that stat physicala retired from
3:07
Speaker 1: the next three Grand Prix in succession. So yeah, what
3:12
Speaker 1: Antonelli would like to follow, I think between a Sky Jessickella.
3:15
Speaker 1: But he won the race, won it pretty comfortable in
3:17
Speaker 1: the end, almost fourteen seconds ahead of Oscar Piastri. We'll
3:20
Speaker 1: talk about Oscar Piastri in just a second, because a
3:22
Speaker 1: great weekend. Wow. In context, I guess a great weekend
3:25
Speaker 1: for him and McLaren, but another win for Mercedes, but
3:29
Speaker 1: not a win for George Russell. In fact, not a
3:32
Speaker 1: great weekend for George Russell, a weekend in which I
3:34
Speaker 1: think Antonelli really had Russell's measure. Yes, there was some
3:39
Speaker 1: misfortune for Russell over the course of the weekend, but
3:42
Speaker 1: never enough that you felt like it had reversed him
3:45
Speaker 1: having the upper hand here, and I think that's interesting.
3:48
Speaker 1: You know, we are very early in the season. There
3:50
Speaker 1: was a little bit of good fortune of course on
3:52
Speaker 1: Antonelli's side this weekend as well, because goodwell of being
3:55
Speaker 1: a Piastre win. But nonetheless, this feels like it's gone
3:59
Speaker 1: from getting the monkey off the back in China, fant
4:02
Speaker 1: Outa getting the first win to him really knuckling down
4:05
Speaker 1: and carving out a little bit of space for him
4:07
Speaker 1: in a McLaren Dynamic Mercedes Dynamic. There was meant to
4:11
Speaker 1: be all about Russell winning the title this year.
4:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it. And I was thinking about
4:15
Speaker 2: this in the context of these new regulations and just
4:18
Speaker 2: how different these cars are and the way to race
4:20
Speaker 2: them is. Because the narrative with Antonelli, every time we
4:23
Speaker 2: talk about him as well, he's so young, he's only nineteen,
4:26
Speaker 2: he's so inexperienced, he's been fast tracked through and everything else.
4:29
Speaker 2: I'd go as far as almost saying I'm slightly sitting
4:33
Speaker 2: on the fence, but not really. This formula is so
4:35
Speaker 2: so different this year that I wonder if that mitigates
4:39
Speaker 2: the lack of experience and the age and the reps
4:42
Speaker 2: in Formula One, because it's not like this is new
4:45
Speaker 2: for Antonelli. Necessarily, it's new for everybody. It's a completely
4:49
Speaker 2: different way to go racing in twenty twenty six. And
4:53
Speaker 2: so you look at it in the context of, yes,
4:55
Speaker 2: it's pretty clear that after three Grand Prix, Mercedes has
4:57
Speaker 2: the best car and everyone's playing catch up. There are
5:00
Speaker 2: echoes of twenty fourteen here in that. Yes, it was
5:03
Speaker 2: Mercedes again in that year, and they did not win
5:05
Speaker 2: every Grand Prix because the statistical probability of winning every
5:08
Speaker 2: Grand Prix is limited even if you are the best team.
5:11
Speaker 2: You look at Maxfstappad a couple of years ago, they did
5:12
Speaker 2: win every Grand Prix either. But I think I'm prepared
5:15
Speaker 2: after this weekend to look at Antonelli as possibly giving
5:20
Speaker 2: Russell a much harder time than we may be suspected,
5:22
Speaker 2: because if Mercedes is going to keep this advantage for
5:25
Speaker 2: say the first half of the season while everyone plays
5:27
Speaker 2: catch up, I think we all would have thought, well,
5:29
Speaker 2: that's going to be Russell's time to shine and Antonelli
5:32
Speaker 2: will have the odd good result here and there, but
5:34
Speaker 2: he's still the less experienced partner in this duo. Here
5:38
Speaker 2: the way Antonelli has gone about this now we know
5:41
Speaker 2: Suzuka is not the perhaps not the challenge that it was,
5:44
Speaker 2: and we'll talk a bit about that later on in
5:46
Speaker 2: terms of the way the car's being driven this year,
5:48
Speaker 2: But to go there and to comprehensively have his teammates
5:52
Speaker 2: measure at that particular track. I think the thing that
5:56
Speaker 2: not so much surprised me, but he just looks so
5:58
Speaker 2: assured the entire weekend. And you know, when was the
6:01
Speaker 2: last time he actually properly I mean he can't get
6:03
Speaker 2: off the start. We know that that's a discussion for
6:05
Speaker 2: another day, but you think back to, you know, when
6:08
Speaker 2: he been at NFP three in Australia on the Saturday,
6:12
Speaker 2: we all did the yeah, here we go, young guy
6:14
Speaker 2: in experience. He's in a class leading car. Look at
6:17
Speaker 2: what's happened to him already. And that was about the
6:19
Speaker 2: last time I've thought of him in that light, because
6:22
Speaker 2: since then he's been pretty much lights out, isn't he.
6:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right, And I think that that is
6:26
Speaker 1: just worth bringing up in the context of Russell having
6:30
Speaker 1: a bit of a dodgy run, like slightly at least
6:32
Speaker 1: between China and Japan. And there was the problem in
6:35
Speaker 1: Q three in China, still did get his lap in
6:37
Speaker 1: set up changes, which I've always if you knew that
6:40
Speaker 1: the driver should have some responsibility for because they're not
6:42
Speaker 1: being made behind his back before qualifying, which maybe mean
6:45
Speaker 1: he wasn't getting a hund percent out of the car,
6:46
Speaker 1: and either qualifying, but anton Alli had that crash in
6:49
Speaker 1: FP three, just got out in time for Q one
6:52
Speaker 1: with a car that wasn't set up for him, so
6:54
Speaker 1: we can equally say that and that was the biggest margin.
6:56
Speaker 1: Obviously it was Russell's big bludget over him because it
6:58
Speaker 1: was his only margin over him so far this Grand
7:01
Speaker 1: Prix season anyway. But I absolutely right. I wonder, you know,
7:05
Speaker 1: I like to subscribe to the idea that for the
7:08
Speaker 1: great drivers anyway, even the very good drivers, I suppose
7:11
Speaker 1: getting that first win takes them to a higher level,
7:14
Speaker 1: you know, it bursts the dam for one of a
7:16
Speaker 1: better phrase, and this weekend, I mean i'd be lying.
7:20
Speaker 1: I said it looked night and day compared to what
7:22
Speaker 1: he was in let's say Australia Round one, because suddenly
7:24
Speaker 1: he was relieved or whatever. But it's just notable how
7:28
Speaker 1: much less notable it was that he'd gone out done
7:30
Speaker 1: a really good job, won the Grand Prix. It just felt.
7:33
Speaker 1: It's funny how normal and how quickly that's felt normal.
7:37
Speaker 1: And I think that's it. That is indicative, and that
7:39
Speaker 1: goes for my impression from the team as well. You know,
7:41
Speaker 1: even Toto Wolfe's response after his second win. Okay, it's
7:44
Speaker 1: not the first win, but it was much more. But
7:46
Speaker 1: this is what we expected. We thought he was going
7:48
Speaker 1: to be on the trajectory and he is. And I
7:51
Speaker 1: think that's telling.
7:51
Speaker 2: Well, it's taken all of two weeks for us not
7:53
Speaker 2: to be surprised that he's winning Grand Prix, and that,
7:56
Speaker 2: in and of itself, I think that also indicates the
7:59
Speaker 2: fear that this guy's ceiling is super, super high. This
8:02
Speaker 2: isn't just a guy that is like, oh, that's a
8:04
Speaker 2: nice story. This guy won a race like we're not
8:06
Speaker 2: really expecting. You know, let's say Isaac Cajar wins a
8:09
Speaker 2: Grand Prix. That's a sort of response with like, well,
8:11
Speaker 2: that's amazing. He won a Grand Prix. I don't think
8:13
Speaker 2: you're expecting him to go on and win another one
8:15
Speaker 2: or two or five, depending on how good that car is.
8:18
Speaker 2: Whereas if you turn around and said, well, how many
8:20
Speaker 2: there's twenty two races this year. If Kimmy Antonelli won
8:24
Speaker 2: seven Grand Prix this year, would you be surprised? I
8:26
Speaker 2: don't think I would know.
8:27
Speaker 1: I definitely not any more now that he's got it done.
8:29
Speaker 1: And I think we talked about this after China there's
8:32
Speaker 1: no more question out, well, when you're gonna get your
8:34
Speaker 1: first one, why is Russell winning races? He knows he
8:36
Speaker 1: can do it. Sometimes that belief really matters to drivers
8:38
Speaker 1: as well. Just being able to prove you can do
8:40
Speaker 1: it just means you can go out and do it
8:42
Speaker 1: more easily. Again, so I think that's interesting. And to
8:45
Speaker 1: go back to a point you made earlier about these
8:47
Speaker 1: rules perhaps leveling the playing field a bit, I think
8:50
Speaker 1: we've got to wait and see a few more races
8:52
Speaker 1: to really decide where that stands, particularly because the field
8:55
Speaker 1: still feels a little bit more spread out. But I'm
8:58
Speaker 1: beginning to form the impression certainly that Russell is not
9:01
Speaker 1: on the same level with these rules. Specifically, we know
9:04
Speaker 1: how good Russell is as a driver in general, and
9:07
Speaker 1: maybe then we can extrapolate this into a critique if
9:09
Speaker 1: you like, Well, you can at home while you're listening.
9:12
Speaker 1: But it doesn't seem like he's got the same handle
9:14
Speaker 1: on using the battery offensively or defensively. Feels like he
9:18
Speaker 1: gets much more easily frustrated. Let's take the battle with
9:21
Speaker 1: Piastre for an example. Now, the McLaren Carr was a
9:23
Speaker 1: better match for Mercedes because we can say closer close
9:26
Speaker 1: ish this weekend to make it difficult. But in the
9:29
Speaker 1: same engine, it struck me that Piastre was outwitting Russell
9:34
Speaker 1: with theoretically the same tools at his disposal as far
9:37
Speaker 1: as the engine is concerned, whereas antonally, okay, he also
9:40
Speaker 1: did get stuck in the pack, and that's happened before.
9:42
Speaker 1: Overtaking is not as easy as we've made it out
9:43
Speaker 1: to be. A Mercedes advantage perhaps is not as massive
9:46
Speaker 1: as sometimes it looks. But it just doesn't feel like
9:49
Speaker 1: he's having those same random battery problems in qualifying or
9:51
Speaker 1: hiss overtay. Suddenly he loses battery in the middle of
9:55
Speaker 1: some pack and then he's lost another position. This doesn't
9:57
Speaker 1: seem to be happening to him in the same way.
9:59
Speaker 1: So rather than a perhaps being a blanket raw tho,
10:01
Speaker 1: it may end up being that these rules, yes, it
10:03
Speaker 1: means that there's much less of a difference between experience
10:05
Speaker 1: and non experienced drivers. I do get the sense it
10:08
Speaker 1: might be a difference at Mercedes at this early start
10:11
Speaker 1: of the season.
10:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I guess the key word in all of that,
10:13
Speaker 2: it's a very small word that sort of caveats everything
10:15
Speaker 2: you've just said, that is the word yet, because I
10:17
Speaker 2: think you've got this month now before we go to Miami.
10:22
Speaker 2: The month has come at a good time for certain
10:24
Speaker 2: people like Kimi Antonelli would probably like four races quite frankly,
10:27
Speaker 2: in the next four weekends.
10:29
Speaker 1: He's all for it.
10:29
Speaker 2: Let's go. Someone like George Russell. There's that time now
10:33
Speaker 2: to reset and perhaps dig a little bit deeper than
10:36
Speaker 2: you normally have the time afforded to you to really
10:40
Speaker 2: get on top of some of the maybe procedural things
10:42
Speaker 2: that aren't quite going your way at the moment. It's
10:44
Speaker 2: really unusual. I mean, we've never seen this a such
10:47
Speaker 2: a massive break within an actual live season. I mean,
10:50
Speaker 2: obviously twenty twenty didn't begin until July or whatever it was,
10:53
Speaker 2: but then that was the same for everybody. It's really
10:55
Speaker 2: weird to have such a large gap in the calendar
10:58
Speaker 2: as we do this time, and I think we're going
11:01
Speaker 2: to look back at it at the end of the year.
11:02
Speaker 2: Is being quite pivotal because it might be the beginning
11:05
Speaker 2: of the turnaround for some teams and drivers, or maybe
11:08
Speaker 2: you're at the top of the slippery slope and the
11:10
Speaker 2: only ways down from there for some of the others.
11:12
Speaker 2: I think it's going to be quite instructive. At the
11:14
Speaker 2: end of the year, we'll go, oh yeah, look at
11:16
Speaker 2: the way momentum swung or the way a team or
11:20
Speaker 2: driver improved in a certain area over this four weeks,
11:23
Speaker 2: because yes, there's no cars on track for four weeks,
11:25
Speaker 2: but the work going on behind the scenes is probably
11:28
Speaker 2: just going to ramp up because you don't have these
11:30
Speaker 2: rude interruptions of race weekends, do you Yeah.
11:32
Speaker 1: And I think one of the big things that they'll
11:34
Speaker 1: be working on this break somethink they may actually be
11:37
Speaker 1: able to work on this break even there's no testing,
11:39
Speaker 1: is just practicing those starts, because that has been the
11:42
Speaker 1: Mercedes Achilles Achilles. You accumulative loss of a loss of
11:46
Speaker 1: sixteen places on the first lap Mercedes this season between
11:49
Speaker 1: the two drivers, which is second only to Audi, which
11:52
Speaker 1: is lost eighteen cumulatively, which is a remarkable number considering
11:56
Speaker 1: Mercedes starting at the front. You can understand it out
11:58
Speaker 1: perhaps less so, those poor starts were part of our
12:01
Speaker 1: Oscar Piastri found himself in the lead at the end
12:04
Speaker 1: of the first lap and for most of that first
12:07
Speaker 1: half of the race had the race under control, had
12:10
Speaker 1: the advantage of Charlotte Clair being a little bit of
12:12
Speaker 1: a buffer for him, and then briefly landon Norris as well,
12:14
Speaker 1: and second and third, But then it was all about
12:17
Speaker 1: defending against George Russell, as we said earlier, really frustrated him,
12:21
Speaker 1: including letting him through at one point and then repassing
12:24
Speaker 1: him because of the way he understood how to use
12:26
Speaker 1: the battery. Did seem like there was also a little
12:29
Speaker 1: bit of just happenstance or fortunate in that, but nonetheless
12:31
Speaker 1: there was a degree of tactics as well. Also was
12:35
Speaker 1: fast enough that he was certainly had Russell beatn before
12:37
Speaker 1: the pit stop. Russell was fading backwards and then had
12:41
Speaker 1: preemptied the undercut, so he'd made his pit stop first,
12:43
Speaker 1: Russell second had retained the net lead. At that point
12:46
Speaker 1: it looked like maybe Saint Piastre's race to lose is
12:50
Speaker 1: slightly too strong, but certainly had it on his racket.
12:54
Speaker 1: I guess he's a phrase from a totally different sport.
12:57
Speaker 1: Until the safety car, of course, came and dropped him
12:59
Speaker 1: to second behind Antony, at which point there was no
13:01
Speaker 1: hope of her catching him once the restart was secured,
13:04
Speaker 1: but a really good performance from Piastre and from McLaren
13:07
Speaker 1: much closer in qualifying just under four tenths of a
13:09
Speaker 1: second of memory serves in qualifying from first to third
13:11
Speaker 1: where he started where he started the race. Race basic
13:15
Speaker 1: clearly still quite the golf considering it's fourteen seconds over
13:18
Speaker 1: the second half of the race alone, but not so
13:20
Speaker 1: large that he couldn't keep Russell behind him, which is something,
13:23
Speaker 1: for example, Ferrari couldn't do at the last couple of races.
13:26
Speaker 1: It feels like Mercedes has moved into that second quickest
13:29
Speaker 1: position ahead of Ferrari now and behind Mercedes. What was
13:33
Speaker 1: your read on the way they weak?
13:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought, I mean he took the chance at
13:37
Speaker 2: the start that the Mercedes got away quite poorly, as
13:40
Speaker 2: we discussed from you know, you used the terms on
13:42
Speaker 2: his racket, and it kind of was to a degree
13:45
Speaker 2: I still wonder. I mean, there was some discussion. Oh
13:48
Speaker 2: it wasn't for the safety car, Piastre would have won.
13:50
Speaker 2: I think he had Russell's measure. I'm not sure he
13:53
Speaker 2: would have had Antonelli's measure regardless, and so I don't
13:57
Speaker 2: look at it as being one of those ones where
13:59
Speaker 2: you know, and robbed a Formula One win screams headlines.
14:02
Speaker 2: It wasn't quite one of those, it was all it
14:05
Speaker 2: was going to be very interesting if that race had
14:07
Speaker 2: played out to a normal green flag conclusion, how long
14:10
Speaker 2: it might have taken Antonelle to get into a position
14:13
Speaker 2: to be able to attack Piastre, and then how that
14:14
Speaker 2: would have gone from there, because I get the sense
14:17
Speaker 2: there probably wasn't any beating Antonelli at Suzuka on Sunday,
14:21
Speaker 2: regardless of how it played out. And then we saw
14:23
Speaker 2: the pace advantage that he had once the once a
14:25
Speaker 2: safety car clear off, it was game over, wasn't it?
14:27
Speaker 2: And it wasn't. He won by a small margin. He
14:30
Speaker 2: pulled up and won by fourteen seconds. So there's still
14:32
Speaker 2: a big gap there. But in terms of you know,
14:34
Speaker 2: it's funny to talk about a raining two time Constructors
14:37
Speaker 2: champion finishing fourteen seconds off the lead in second place
14:40
Speaker 2: and being happy about it, but you have to look
14:42
Speaker 2: at how grim Australia and China were for McLaren. It's
14:47
Speaker 2: a good bounce back, it's a rapid bounce back, and
14:50
Speaker 2: you do wonder how circuit specific this is. Was this
14:52
Speaker 2: a track that necessarily played to Ferrari strengths relative to
14:55
Speaker 2: Albert Park in Shanghai, I would suggest probably not. So
14:59
Speaker 2: I'm prepared to put Forrari McLaren on the same line,
15:01
Speaker 2: perhaps not just one in front of the other. At
15:03
Speaker 2: the moment, I think it's a little bit track specific.
15:05
Speaker 2: But in terms of what Piastri could have done, I mean, hey,
15:09
Speaker 2: like he said afterwards, nice to start at Grand Prix
15:10
Speaker 2: maasically what happens when you actually start these things you
15:12
Speaker 2: might actually might actually much score a podium. But this
15:15
Speaker 2: feels like it felt like two things to me. It
15:18
Speaker 2: felt like the result he absolutely had to have because
15:21
Speaker 2: going into a month long break, if you'd had another
15:23
Speaker 2: bit of a blar weekend, at least there's now a
15:26
Speaker 2: platform which to build. And for McLaren, yeah, they're now
15:29
Speaker 2: in the conversation for the second best, I would say,
15:32
Speaker 2: but they've come a long way in a short time.
15:33
Speaker 2: I mean, this is a difficult part of the season.
15:35
Speaker 2: You've got three races in four weekends. You're on the
15:37
Speaker 2: road the entire time. So in terms of their long
15:40
Speaker 2: term championship prospects much much better. Still, a niggly, sort
15:44
Speaker 2: of gremlin filled weekend you only had to watch the
15:48
Speaker 2: World feed commentary to know that all the injustices in
15:51
Speaker 2: the world were being dealt out on Lando Norris's side
15:53
Speaker 2: of the garage and you know, lower your flags to
15:56
Speaker 2: half mast in Somerset or wherever we're talking about this week.
16:00
Speaker 2: It's all terrible for him. So there's still clearly some
16:02
Speaker 2: issues going on there, but it was nice to see
16:04
Speaker 2: Oscar have reasonably procedurally stressed free weekend and deliver the
16:09
Speaker 2: best probable result that he could I think in the circumstances.
16:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it just reframes or frames for the
16:15
Speaker 1: first time, probably McLaren's position this year. It's been so
16:19
Speaker 1: unclear because they've had such a rough start until this weekend.
16:23
Speaker 1: The only performance we had to go off was Lando Norris's.
16:26
Speaker 1: Where did you finish fifth or sixth in Australia? Wait,
16:29
Speaker 1: nearly a minute off the pace wherever? It was long
16:30
Speaker 1: way down. But the first round of these new rules
16:33
Speaker 1: is always going to feel a little bit random, And
16:34
Speaker 1: then we had nothing practically from China. But combine that
16:38
Speaker 1: with the fact that McLaren feels like it's completed just
16:41
Speaker 1: about its understanding of the Mercedes engine, that that seems
16:44
Speaker 1: to be what is holding it against Ferrari, which it
16:47
Speaker 1: still feels as quicker through the corners. Andrea Stella did
16:50
Speaker 1: say he thought this track probably suited the car, or
16:52
Speaker 1: at least its usage of the tires. There was no grating.
16:54
Speaker 1: It's been mostly resurfaced this circuit, so grip was pretty good,
16:58
Speaker 1: So maybe that embellished things a little bit. But I
17:00
Speaker 1: think going into this little mini break, it feels like
17:03
Speaker 1: we've got a reasonably good feel for the layout, the
17:08
Speaker 1: layer of the land, a pecking order, notwithstanding everyone's going
17:10
Speaker 1: to have massive upgrades in Miami. It might not be relevant,
17:12
Speaker 1: but it feels like McLaren's at least in that mix
17:14
Speaker 1: with Ferrari's second best and striking distance maybe not yet,
17:18
Speaker 1: but fast enough that you can be more than just
17:21
Speaker 1: a headache. I think, as we saw for the first
17:23
Speaker 1: half of this grand period, I think that at least
17:25
Speaker 1: means what felt like a pretty depressing vibe after China,
17:27
Speaker 1: I think it's fair to say things look much more
17:30
Speaker 1: positive that McLaren is on the trajectory. It sort of
17:33
Speaker 1: set us up to believe during preseason testing that it
17:36
Speaker 1: wasn't going to start there, but it could still end there.
17:38
Speaker 2: Well, And also because of the way this rule set
17:40
Speaker 2: has become. I mean, they're the only customer team in
17:43
Speaker 2: the Big four or the Big three and a half,
17:45
Speaker 2: haven't you want to describe rebull at the moment. But
17:47
Speaker 2: you know they are coming at this from a position
17:49
Speaker 2: of disadvantage simply because they've got the most to learn
17:52
Speaker 2: in this early phase of rule set. So you know, again,
17:55
Speaker 2: another team that'll be probably quite happy to have a
17:57
Speaker 2: month to pour through some data. I think they're only
17:59
Speaker 2: going to stake their claim to be higher up the
18:02
Speaker 2: picking order than they perhaps are at the moment. From here,
18:04
Speaker 2: there's still a gulf to Mercedes, let's be honest. But
18:08
Speaker 2: it's just interesting that of that, you know, those four
18:11
Speaker 2: teams that we expect to be at the front, it
18:12
Speaker 2: felt like they had the greatest potential for upside simply
18:15
Speaker 2: because they're coming further from further back from a knowledge
18:18
Speaker 2: perspective as much as anything.
18:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so there's a lot of water still
18:21
Speaker 1: to go under the bridge of this season. Obviously, this
18:24
Speaker 1: month break does break up the momentum, but it does
18:27
Speaker 1: mean I think the shake up in Miami. Shakeup may
18:30
Speaker 1: be a strong word, but the changes in Miami could
18:33
Speaker 1: be even more significant. Because everyone, every team is going
18:35
Speaker 1: to have big upgrades there. McClaren already told us that
18:37
Speaker 1: we know they haven't upgraded their carp until this point.
18:40
Speaker 1: Could be big for them, obviously, it could be big
18:41
Speaker 1: for Mercedes as well. It may everything could just stay
18:44
Speaker 1: exactly where it is, But it does feel like it's
18:46
Speaker 1: a little bit of a chapter change because of this
18:48
Speaker 1: break by the time we get to Miami. But it's
18:50
Speaker 1: a matter for five weeks from now or four and
18:52
Speaker 1: a half weeks. Maybe by the time we're listening to
18:54
Speaker 1: this can worry about it a little bit later on.
18:57
Speaker 1: Before we get there, though, we've got to go to
18:59
Speaker 1: Move of the Week, brought to you by Shannon's both
19:02
Speaker 1: Formula One and MotoGP in action over the course of
19:04
Speaker 1: this weekend, not clashing entire actually a reasonable would you say,
19:08
Speaker 1: a reasonable time zone doublehead and not a terrible one anyway.
19:11
Speaker 2: It's about as good as it gets four pm Sunday
19:14
Speaker 2: Formula One and seven am Monday Motor GP. It's better
19:17
Speaker 2: than the champagne still being sticky from one of them
19:20
Speaker 2: than the other one starting, which happens for most of
19:22
Speaker 2: the year. So no, it was for those of us
19:24
Speaker 2: who have got a foot in both camps. It was
19:26
Speaker 2: a very enjoyable weekend on that front. But Move of
19:30
Speaker 2: the Week, there were lots of favor takes at Suzukabichael.
19:33
Speaker 2: I don't know how many of them were genuine. That's
19:35
Speaker 2: another discussion I'd like to have because obviously, with you
19:37
Speaker 2: being on the ground this week and you didn't get
19:39
Speaker 2: to consume the sport via your television like the rest
19:43
Speaker 2: of us did here, that's another story. We might get
19:45
Speaker 2: into that a little in a minute. But Move of
19:47
Speaker 2: the Week, I mean I think we had Charlie Clair
19:48
Speaker 2: and Lewis Hamilton for Mover of the Week last year
19:50
Speaker 2: last week as well, didn't we But the Leclere pass
19:53
Speaker 2: around the outside into turn one, which is over you
19:56
Speaker 2: know you obviously knows Zu Grider really really well. That
19:59
Speaker 2: is not a passing spot for most people. It's an
20:02
Speaker 2: incredibly fast entry to that court. And just asked Jack
20:05
Speaker 2: doing last year, I think it was lap forty one
20:07
Speaker 2: or forty two, Charlotte Clair did something that not many
20:11
Speaker 2: drivers would do. And also credit to the fact that
20:14
Speaker 2: you don't have to know who you're racing against two right,
20:16
Speaker 2: So knowing that Lewis Hamilton's not going to do anything
20:18
Speaker 2: outrageous there, But Ferrari on Ferrari racing has been some
20:22
Speaker 2: of my favorite racing too far in twenty twenty six
20:24
Speaker 2: because it feels like it's a fight with fewer asterisks
20:29
Speaker 2: than many of the others that were seeing at the moment,
20:30
Speaker 2: because you've got two good drivers in the same car,
20:33
Speaker 2: so you're not talking about deployment and some such quite
20:36
Speaker 2: as much. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and Charlotte Clair might be
20:39
Speaker 2: getting a few Move of the Week gongs from me
20:41
Speaker 2: this year because he's one of the best to do it.
20:44
Speaker 2: But there were many, many other overtakes. Again, how many
20:48
Speaker 2: of them were legitimate I don't know, but your vantage
20:51
Speaker 2: point was better than mine. What was it that caught
20:53
Speaker 2: your eye?
20:53
Speaker 1: Yes, so I'm going for a little bit of a
20:55
Speaker 1: backhand and overtake of the week which at last lead
20:58
Speaker 1: us nicely into our next segment. I think it was
21:01
Speaker 1: on the last lab. Was it the penultiate lab? I
21:02
Speaker 1: should check this. Pierre gasly passing Max for Staffen for
21:06
Speaker 1: seventh repassing really because with Staffan had only just got
21:08
Speaker 1: ahead of him at the Chicane with I think what
21:10
Speaker 1: for Staffan probably would have considered a more traditional pass
21:15
Speaker 1: even if he had a bit of overspeed there. It
21:17
Speaker 1: was into the chicane, which is usually one of the
21:19
Speaker 1: key passing places. Then Ghasly had the extra battery at
21:23
Speaker 1: that point to get out of the chicane and pass
21:25
Speaker 1: him before the start finished line, which is quite close
21:27
Speaker 1: to the exit of the chicane really, so it tells
21:29
Speaker 1: you how much extra speed he had. I just thought, compounded,
21:34
Speaker 1: what a miserable weekend for Max, for Red Bull Racing
21:37
Speaker 1: as well. Not just Max, I mean the team was
21:38
Speaker 1: no team was thoroughly in the midfield behind Lpede, as
21:42
Speaker 1: this demonstrates just before we go into Max, because that
21:45
Speaker 1: is where we're going to be taking this next I
21:47
Speaker 1: should have applaud Pierre Gasly though I finished seventh. He'
21:49
Speaker 1: he had a great time for an LPN team that
21:51
Speaker 1: looks largely revitalized, but mostly in his hands because Franco
21:54
Speaker 1: Colapindo did not have that great a weekend. Ghasly, though,
21:57
Speaker 1: reveling in a car that he seems to be able
21:59
Speaker 1: to get some thing out of at a track that is,
22:01
Speaker 1: of course the track every driver loves, so he's doing
22:03
Speaker 1: very well. Max Withstaffan Less.
22:05
Speaker 2: So I know you like a stat and you flommocks
22:07
Speaker 2: me with a couple earlier on in this episode, do
22:09
Speaker 2: you realize that Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren on Sunday at Suzuka,
22:13
Speaker 2: just in that one Grand Prix, each of them scored
22:16
Speaker 2: more points and Red Bulls scored the entire season with
22:19
Speaker 2: two drivers. So if you've want an idea of how
22:23
Speaker 2: close to grim M'CLOCKTT is for Red Bull Racing right now?
22:25
Speaker 2: The fact the fact that they are sixth in the
22:28
Speaker 2: Constructors Championship, they're behind Hals and they're behind the Pierre
22:32
Speaker 2: ghasly led Alpine in the Constructors Championship. When you've got
22:36
Speaker 2: a four time world champion as one of your two drivers,
22:39
Speaker 2: it does show you that, you know, I was talking before,
22:41
Speaker 2: I jokingly said the big four and maybe at the
22:44
Speaker 2: big three and a half, I think we probably should
22:46
Speaker 2: just take the half off. It's a big three right
22:48
Speaker 2: now and then a gaggle of everybody else, And right
22:50
Speaker 2: now Red Bull is in the everybody else category, isn't it?
22:53
Speaker 1: Yeah it really is. If you look at the average
22:55
Speaker 1: fastest lap in qualifying and yeah Red Bull is fourth,
22:59
Speaker 1: but only us ahead of LP and obviously he's racing
23:02
Speaker 1: with LPE, so it has been all but a midfield
23:06
Speaker 1: car in the last two rounds, and two is more
23:08
Speaker 1: than one, So we've got to take that as the
23:11
Speaker 1: more indicative level of performance than what we saw in Australia.
23:14
Speaker 1: Feels more mystifying actually to look back in Australia where
23:16
Speaker 1: the team looked relatively competitive.
23:18
Speaker 2: That's the analysis that people listen to this podcast for
23:21
Speaker 2: two is more than one. That's why that's why you're
23:24
Speaker 2: all here.
23:24
Speaker 1: I love a good stat that's a good one for you.
23:26
Speaker 2: Two is more than fantastic.
23:28
Speaker 1: Let's look at back to Staffan's less his weekend though,
23:31
Speaker 1: and more what he's been saying, and he's been saying
23:33
Speaker 1: this all year. He doesn't like these rules. Isn't having
23:36
Speaker 1: a great time driving the cars? Is It's not related
23:38
Speaker 1: to the competitiveness. I'm sure competitiveness is playing a small
23:42
Speaker 1: element of it, but it isn't the main part. But
23:44
Speaker 1: it's really this weekend where he's gone from hinting that well,
23:47
Speaker 1: maybe just doesn't like these cars so much he could
23:50
Speaker 1: be motivated to quit, to saying it pretty much explicitly
23:53
Speaker 1: that he's weighing up his future at the end of
23:55
Speaker 1: the year. This is all with an interview with the
23:57
Speaker 1: BBC on Sunday Night got him clearly the ideal level
24:01
Speaker 1: of vulnerability for him to Spilly's brain of what of
24:04
Speaker 1: a bit of a phrase? These are some of the
24:06
Speaker 1: quotes that really stood out to me. Matt, I try
24:08
Speaker 1: to adapt to it, but it's not nice. The way
24:10
Speaker 1: you have to race, it's really anti driving. Then at
24:13
Speaker 1: one point it's just not what I want to do,
24:15
Speaker 1: or how about this one. I want to be here
24:16
Speaker 1: and have fun and have a great time and enjoying myself.
24:18
Speaker 1: At the moment, that's not really the case. I'm trying.
24:21
Speaker 1: I keep telling myself every day to try and enjoy it.
24:24
Speaker 1: It's just very hard. I'm committing one hundred percent and
24:27
Speaker 1: I'm still trying. But the way that I'm telling myself
24:30
Speaker 1: to give it one hundred percent, I think is not
24:32
Speaker 1: very healthy at the moment because I'm not enjoying what
24:35
Speaker 1: I'm doing. He's not having fun. At bottom lines, he's
24:37
Speaker 1: not enjoying it.
24:38
Speaker 2: What's interesting to me is that you you know, we
24:41
Speaker 2: were discussing this a bit off air before. You know,
24:43
Speaker 2: drivers will have perspectives on things where I'm not happy
24:46
Speaker 2: about this. I'm not happy about that, and it's being
24:48
Speaker 2: done for political reasons or to create a scene, or
24:51
Speaker 2: to deflect or whatever it might be. I'm sure you know,
24:55
Speaker 2: given truth serum, if anyone's got any around, I'm sure
24:58
Speaker 2: that Verstappan's preference would be I'd like them to fix
25:02
Speaker 2: or tweak the rules, to turn this into something more
25:04
Speaker 2: resembling the Formula One that I know and love and
25:06
Speaker 2: have been successful at, and then I would like to stay.
25:10
Speaker 2: But by the same token, if not much changes or
25:12
Speaker 2: nothing changes, I don't think the prospect of him walking
25:15
Speaker 2: away necessarily is an empty threat simply because he can.
25:20
Speaker 2: I've written this multiple times with Verstappen. You can like him,
25:23
Speaker 2: you can low them. However you take your max Forstappen
25:26
Speaker 2: is up to you. But one thing I've always appreciated
25:28
Speaker 2: with him is there is a degree of authenticity there.
25:31
Speaker 2: And maybe it's a cultural thing, maybe that's just the
25:33
Speaker 2: way he is individually, but he will generally he means
25:37
Speaker 2: what he says, and in a sport like Formula One,
25:40
Speaker 2: that is a very very rare thing. And other drivers
25:44
Speaker 2: might say, well, if I don't like this, and I'm
25:45
Speaker 2: just going to walk away if things don't change. Most
25:47
Speaker 2: of them, you're sort of shrug his shoulders and go, yeah, sure,
25:49
Speaker 2: where's the next paycheck? And you know they can't get
25:51
Speaker 2: off the they can't get off the treadmill. If Maxivstappen decided tomorrow,
25:55
Speaker 2: it's like, you know, if they're not going to change
25:57
Speaker 2: you thing for twenty seven, I think I'll just sit
25:58
Speaker 2: out for a year and then be the most highly
26:00
Speaker 2: coveted free agent of all time once I've broken my contract,
26:03
Speaker 2: and maybe I'll come back. I could absolutely see him
26:06
Speaker 2: doing that, and he might be the only person on
26:08
Speaker 2: the grid I could see doing something like that. So
26:11
Speaker 2: I don't think we should be taking these sorts of
26:13
Speaker 2: discussions as being some sort of emotional empty threat. He
26:17
Speaker 2: can be. Emotionless is not quite the right word. I
26:20
Speaker 2: think you know where I'm coming with this. He's a
26:22
Speaker 2: pragmatist right at the end of the day. I don't
26:25
Speaker 2: think he's someone who's going to let the emotions necessarily
26:27
Speaker 2: drive the narrative, unlike a lot of other very good
26:30
Speaker 2: top wine drivers. I'm not saying that that's bad that
26:32
Speaker 2: other people do it that way, But when Verstappen says
26:35
Speaker 2: something like this. To me, it carries more weight than
26:37
Speaker 2: perhaps any other driver on the grid if they were
26:39
Speaker 2: to say something similar.
26:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, because it's not politics first with Max Lea's not
26:43
Speaker 1: post championship. Max think it's fair to say it is
26:47
Speaker 1: genuine opinion first, and then of course, if there's an
26:50
Speaker 1: angle for him, he's going to play into that. But
26:53
Speaker 1: he's been so clear about this that he's been clear
26:56
Speaker 1: for more than more than just this season, dating back
26:58
Speaker 1: to last year, that these cars he done not like,
27:01
Speaker 1: and he's been clear for years that he's only here
27:04
Speaker 1: to enjoy himself. Really, the first championship was what he wanted,
27:06
Speaker 1: and everything after that is a bonus. Has been pretty
27:08
Speaker 1: steadfast in that opinion. I'm sure more championships would ease
27:11
Speaker 1: the pain a little bit, but maybe not even enough
27:14
Speaker 1: for him to want to stick around. You know, it's
27:15
Speaker 1: totally hypothetical, but it's clear that he has serious distaste
27:20
Speaker 1: for these cars discussed. Even for these cars, he's already
27:24
Speaker 1: approaching the end of his contract anyway, he'll have two
27:26
Speaker 1: years after the end of this season, so not super close,
27:29
Speaker 1: but close enough perhaps in the mind of someone who's
27:31
Speaker 1: always said he's here for a good time, and not
27:32
Speaker 1: a long time in Formula one. It's clear he's getting
27:35
Speaker 1: a lot of satisfaction from GT three racing at the
27:38
Speaker 1: nordch Slipher, both owning it or running it or owning
27:41
Speaker 1: his team really and competing himself. It's completely believable, and
27:45
Speaker 1: that's clearly going to be a plank of his post
27:47
Speaker 1: F one career whenever, that is, if it's next year,
27:49
Speaker 1: in subsequent years. So it's not as if and I
27:51
Speaker 1: think in fact he said this as well. You know,
27:54
Speaker 1: no one needs to worry about him. He knows what
27:55
Speaker 1: he's going to do next, like he's happy with where
27:57
Speaker 1: he is, So it's totally believable that would be the case.
28:01
Speaker 1: I think it's probably worth adding that if a driver
28:04
Speaker 1: gets to the point where they don't feel like if
28:06
Speaker 1: one is essential to them, a driver of his age
28:09
Speaker 1: and in the peak of his powers, not a driver
28:11
Speaker 1: is obviously approaching retirement age, it's a different equation, and
28:15
Speaker 1: then has motivation to other motivations to leave. There's no
28:20
Speaker 1: reason that they will stay right Like he's got a
28:22
Speaker 1: racing program, it's got a young kid at home one
28:25
Speaker 1: year cover of how old you know he's his family
28:27
Speaker 1: man now He's got plenty of other things going on
28:29
Speaker 1: in his life. The formulized Sason is very long. Twenty
28:31
Speaker 1: four rounds usually is a full year commitment. Doesn't leave
28:34
Speaker 1: a lot of time for other stuff. If it's no
28:36
Speaker 1: longer giving him enjoyment, then I think you're right. I
28:38
Speaker 1: think there's no reason to think this is anything other
28:41
Speaker 1: than genuine commentary for him, that he could be out
28:44
Speaker 1: by the end of the year.
28:45
Speaker 2: Well, and you mentioned the fact that, you know, the
28:47
Speaker 2: first championship fairly or unfairly because he wasn't exactly the
28:50
Speaker 2: person making the decisions, that first championships always going to
28:52
Speaker 2: be remembered for slightly the wrong reason because it's the
28:54
Speaker 2: way that it played out at the end. But I
28:56
Speaker 2: think what he's done in the years since, I mean,
28:58
Speaker 2: you had twenty three where they absolutely dominated. We talked
29:01
Speaker 2: about this last year. I still think last year was
29:04
Speaker 2: the best he's ever driven. Despite not winning the championship
29:07
Speaker 2: last year, I think the second half of last season
29:08
Speaker 2: he was doing things that very few people in Formula
29:11
Speaker 2: one history have been able to do. And so there's
29:13
Speaker 2: the satisfaction with him that it was interesting, wasn't it
29:16
Speaker 2: After abydaw last year where he was oddly satisfied, not happy, obviously,
29:21
Speaker 2: but content and satisfied with what he had done despite
29:24
Speaker 2: losing that championship by two points. And that to me
29:28
Speaker 2: was like, that's not a conversation you could have imagined
29:30
Speaker 2: having with him when he was younger. But he still
29:32
Speaker 2: is a young man in life terms. He's been in
29:34
Speaker 2: this for a very very long time now. Winning one
29:38
Speaker 2: championship was the goal. He said that repeatedly. The fact
29:40
Speaker 2: that he's got four of them and has picked up
29:43
Speaker 2: the records and the money along the way. I don't
29:45
Speaker 2: think those things drive him as much as maybe they
29:47
Speaker 2: drive other drivers. And at the end of the day,
29:49
Speaker 2: if he wants to raise something and have fun with it,
29:51
Speaker 2: and then there's other ways to do that. If Formula
29:53
Speaker 2: one isn't seen in his bit as being the absolute
29:55
Speaker 2: pinnacle of what he can do. And he's had his
29:57
Speaker 2: misgivings about these rules long before they were actually in place,
30:00
Speaker 2: and a lot of the things that he said about
30:02
Speaker 2: them have actually come home to roost, don't they.
30:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think it's worth picking up what you
30:07
Speaker 1: said there. You know, he's a young man still, but
30:09
Speaker 1: he's been racing for more than a decade now twenty fifteen.
30:12
Speaker 1: But he's not young and experience. He's been here for
30:13
Speaker 1: a long time already, long as long as many drivers
30:16
Speaker 1: would have ever been in formula and including some champions
30:20
Speaker 1: and most of those years he has been winning. There's
30:21
Speaker 1: nothing to prove from that perspective. But I think the
30:23
Speaker 1: age is an interesting other hourn and this is now
30:26
Speaker 1: purely speculative. I'm not sure if there's something you can
30:28
Speaker 1: be thinking about at all. But he's young enough to
30:30
Speaker 1: go away and see what happens and then decide if
30:33
Speaker 1: he wants to come back. He's young enough to actually
30:35
Speaker 1: take a sabbatical. I mean Fernando Alonzo took one, he
30:38
Speaker 1: was in his late thirties. He's a bit of a
30:40
Speaker 1: different case, I think, comparing him to Max for Stafford.
30:42
Speaker 1: But he's young enough to go and race GG three
30:45
Speaker 1: for a couple of years. Maybe. I don't know if
30:47
Speaker 1: you'd go to the World Durance Samvaship whatever. Whatever he
30:49
Speaker 1: wants to do, he could do anything. Every door will
30:51
Speaker 1: be open to him, as Max for Stafford. And then
30:55
Speaker 1: if the rules change, if it takes two years to
30:58
Speaker 1: change the rules in a way that makes him happy,
30:59
Speaker 1: or if it takes the full regulatory cycle of five seasons,
31:03
Speaker 1: he'll still only be what he's twenty eight now, He's
31:05
Speaker 1: going to be thirty three when these rules changed, which
31:08
Speaker 1: some will consider to be the peak of his bows.
31:10
Speaker 1: You know, the early thirties conventionally is when drivers are
31:13
Speaker 1: at their best, notwithstanding their start so young. These days,
31:17
Speaker 1: he really does have the luxury of literally every option
31:22
Speaker 1: available to you.
31:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, which very very few drivers get to have. I'm
31:25
Speaker 2: just looking at some stats here as you're talking. So
31:27
Speaker 2: by the end of this season he'll be right on
31:29
Speaker 2: the edge of the top ten for most Grand Prix
31:30
Speaker 2: started ever. And yes, the seasons are much much longer
31:34
Speaker 2: these days, but it does show you. By the end
31:36
Speaker 2: of the season, assuming that he does the remaining nineteen rounds,
31:39
Speaker 2: he will be doing live mats here, he will be
31:42
Speaker 2: eleventh in the all time races started, two races behind
31:45
Speaker 2: Daniel Ricardo about to fifty five. So there you go.
31:48
Speaker 2: So and you know, it felt like Daniel had an
31:50
Speaker 2: incredibly long Formula One career when you think how long
31:53
Speaker 2: it was he was around. We still think of seventeen
31:56
Speaker 2: year old backs debut again in Australia in twenty fifteen,
31:58
Speaker 2: but you know the fact that he's been around this long,
32:00
Speaker 2: that he's still twenty eight years old, then yeah, maybe
32:03
Speaker 2: we shouldn't be surprised that this is the way that
32:05
Speaker 2: someone of his experience thinks.
32:07
Speaker 1: I think the other element of this, of course, is
32:08
Speaker 1: the bigger picture of the regulations. I think, well, I
32:13
Speaker 1: don't think the stappens ever out really to I don't
32:16
Speaker 1: mean this is with no discredit to him, but he's
32:18
Speaker 1: not always out for the greater good. As much as
32:20
Speaker 1: he says that he's love of the sport. He wants
32:22
Speaker 1: to he wants to himself, doesn't really care if he
32:24
Speaker 1: leaves or Formulon would do. But I do think that
32:28
Speaker 1: there is a degree here of him being a little
32:31
Speaker 1: bit of a vector of driver dissatisfaction because the impression
32:36
Speaker 1: I get and it has been muddy is a little
32:38
Speaker 1: bit in the last couple of weeks, but that most
32:40
Speaker 1: drivers don't love the rules. They might like some parts
32:44
Speaker 1: of them, though this is the muddying parts. I think
32:46
Speaker 1: the Ferrari drivers, when they say they like how they're
32:48
Speaker 1: able to erase each other pretty much scrape each other's
32:51
Speaker 1: cars every weekend, I think they do genuinely enjoy that
32:54
Speaker 1: and that is that is the positive element of the rules,
32:58
Speaker 1: but a lot of them have general mis giv about
33:00
Speaker 1: the way the engines work. Particularly I don't think there's
33:02
Speaker 1: a single driver likes qualifying. I'd be shocked if there were.
33:05
Speaker 1: I don't think any driver loves managing the engine. In fact,
33:07
Speaker 1: Lewis Helmson also said this weekend, as positive as he
33:09
Speaker 1: is about the racing, doesn't like the way he has
33:12
Speaker 1: to use the engine. I think that's totally fair. Max
33:14
Speaker 1: is probably the only driver maybe other than Lewis, and
33:18
Speaker 1: Lewis perhaps just genuinely has a difference of opinion here.
33:21
Speaker 1: Who can really just say what he wants the sport
33:24
Speaker 1: can't corral him into giving it, towing a positive line
33:27
Speaker 1: team I mean Red Bull Racing. If it is telling
33:31
Speaker 1: him what to do, he clearly does not listen to them.
33:33
Speaker 1: So that's its own separate thing in any aspect of
33:36
Speaker 1: what he does. So there's almost a degree of at
33:39
Speaker 1: least someone maybe in his mind, maybe in the minds
33:41
Speaker 1: of other drivers more than his mind. At least someone
33:44
Speaker 1: is really on the front foot with their criticism of
33:47
Speaker 1: these rules to ensure that people know that drivers want
33:50
Speaker 1: change and coming into a month when there will be
33:52
Speaker 1: some crunch meetings about the regulations. Perhaps it is a
33:55
Speaker 1: good thing that this has happened this week because maybe
33:58
Speaker 1: that will well. While no one should ever suggested the
34:00
Speaker 1: sports of changes rules purely because one driver might leave
34:03
Speaker 1: if they don't as good as maxwistappen is, Min may
34:07
Speaker 1: at least clarify minds a little bit about that the
34:09
Speaker 1: challenge of making the drivers happy, which I still think
34:11
Speaker 1: is an important element of the rule.
34:14
Speaker 2: Well, at the end of the day, they've got to
34:15
Speaker 2: be salespeople for this, right And you know, because of
34:18
Speaker 2: his seniority and his success, he can be the voice
34:20
Speaker 2: of the silent in some respects. Right, There's a lot
34:23
Speaker 2: of guys that don't have that gravitas or the status
34:26
Speaker 2: in the sport where they could say things. I'm sure
34:28
Speaker 2: they think very similarly across a number of lines that
34:30
Speaker 2: Max does, but they can't say that and he can.
34:32
Speaker 2: And I mentioned that authenticity before. It's actually quite refreshing
34:36
Speaker 2: to hear someone talk about this, because god knows, you're
34:38
Speaker 2: not getting it on the lot of the broadcast right now.
34:41
Speaker 2: And you know, you were there at Suzuka this weekend
34:43
Speaker 2: and what you saw and what you can see if
34:46
Speaker 2: you know where to look. With the way Formula One
34:48
Speaker 2: is running right now, it's a different narrative than necessarily.
34:51
Speaker 2: We're being fed through a lot of the through a
34:55
Speaker 2: lot of the outlets that are feeding as Formula one content.
34:58
Speaker 2: I'll be diplomatic for once and actually call it that.
35:00
Speaker 2: But you know, I'm sure one of the great things
35:02
Speaker 2: about being at Suzuka with a media pass. I'm sure
35:04
Speaker 2: you did this on the weekend. I haven't spoken to
35:06
Speaker 2: you about this yet, so this is live. There is
35:09
Speaker 2: a service road that runs down the inside of the
35:11
Speaker 2: s's at Sector one at Suzuka, and it was always
35:14
Speaker 2: a bit of a pilgrimage to head out there and
35:17
Speaker 2: watch Formula one cars slak their way up the hill
35:19
Speaker 2: when they're completely at full blast. It was one of
35:21
Speaker 2: the great parts of the Formula One season. I'm assuming
35:24
Speaker 2: you went out and had a look out there, and
35:25
Speaker 2: I'm assuming you were quite underwhelmed.
35:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I did a lot of I did some great
35:28
Speaker 1: parts of the lab. Actually it was only I mean
35:30
Speaker 1: the caveat it was only practice two, but you know,
35:32
Speaker 1: there are qualifying simulation runs in practice too, so I
35:35
Speaker 1: think it still counts. I was on through the s's.
35:37
Speaker 1: I forget the numbers of the particular parts of the
35:39
Speaker 1: s's near the top of them looking down the track.
35:42
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, notable that they just seemed less aggressive through there.
35:47
Speaker 1: Some of that you have to acknowledge as well. Particularly
35:49
Speaker 1: I think the first sector looking back at some of
35:51
Speaker 1: the data, is just that these cars have so much
35:54
Speaker 1: less downforce than the previous generation and it works in
35:57
Speaker 1: a different way. And the ES's was where the ground
35:59
Speaker 1: effects cars looked great, like we're in their element, and
36:03
Speaker 1: these cars were. There's an element of that, but you
36:04
Speaker 1: could also tell, you know, you would expect in that
36:07
Speaker 1: case to see the cars get a little bit loose
36:08
Speaker 1: through there, and most of them weren't because they were
36:10
Speaker 1: not at one hundred percent of what they had, because
36:12
Speaker 1: they couldn't be one hundred percent of what they had.
36:15
Speaker 1: Then went up over for the first time actually since
36:17
Speaker 1: I've been Tezuka went up to the crossover point. Yes,
36:21
Speaker 1: Degna notably much less on the edge Degno one, Dignit
36:24
Speaker 1: two was always you've got to be careful in FP
36:27
Speaker 1: two hiting the bridge one notably, I was really because
36:30
Speaker 1: again this is the first time i'd been up there,
36:32
Speaker 1: despite having gone to the Japanese gon baver quite a
36:34
Speaker 1: few times, really hoping to see some cars on those
36:37
Speaker 1: qualifying stimulation laps, like pushing the boundaries at Digno one.
36:40
Speaker 1: They absolutely were not. They were pretty much rolling through there.
36:43
Speaker 1: And then you turn around and you look at one
36:44
Speaker 1: thirty R and you hear, it's more about the engine note,
36:47
Speaker 1: because they obviously still going very quickly through one thirty R,
36:50
Speaker 1: not enough to be limited by grip, but then they
36:52
Speaker 1: haven't really been for many years there anyway. But it's
36:55
Speaker 1: the engine note that gives it away there, I think,
36:57
Speaker 1: and the lack of how spectacular they look, which wasn'ticularly
37:01
Speaker 1: because you and you see if you look down the
37:03
Speaker 1: back straight, you do actually get a sense of how
37:05
Speaker 1: fast these cars accelerate, because the acceleration is incredible, is
37:09
Speaker 1: remarkable with these cars, and so all of a sudden
37:12
Speaker 1: they just come over the horizon of the rise in
37:14
Speaker 1: the middle end. They're coming at you so quickly, and
37:16
Speaker 1: then the engine note just stagnates and it's almost like
37:19
Speaker 1: they're rolling through one pint thirty hour, which was a
37:22
Speaker 1: little bit disappointing, I guess, as I say, and as
37:24
Speaker 1: the drivers have emphasized, and it is correct. These cars
37:26
Speaker 1: are still extremely fast. Qualifying was it was less than
37:29
Speaker 1: two seconds off last year, so in totality that a
37:31
Speaker 1: lot of that is made up at the start of
37:32
Speaker 1: the straits, but in totality's still extremely fast cars, but
37:35
Speaker 1: at a track where we're so used to and attract
37:38
Speaker 1: the appeal of which is so much seeing cars really
37:41
Speaker 1: on the edge of grip, and which means they're on
37:44
Speaker 1: the edge of gravel or of grass or of in
37:46
Speaker 1: some places a wall, that spectacle was lacking, and I
37:51
Speaker 1: think as much as that was only FB two, I
37:53
Speaker 1: think that obviously continued through to qualifying. I think what
37:55
Speaker 1: I saw was pre indicative of what was happening, and
37:57
Speaker 1: that is a pity because you know, it is like
37:59
Speaker 1: you say, one of the great Field bridges if you
38:00
Speaker 1: go through the Japanese Grand Prix is just to see
38:02
Speaker 1: the car anywhere, to be honest, Yeah, correct, every part
38:05
Speaker 1: of this track is impressive to look at. Some parts
38:08
Speaker 1: of the track they were still good to look at,
38:10
Speaker 1: of course, but the real highlight corners, it was notable
38:14
Speaker 1: that it's not so certainly not the Formula WHI we
38:16
Speaker 1: used to in previous years, and part of that is
38:18
Speaker 1: simply the chassis regulations, but in general, the way these
38:21
Speaker 1: cars have to be driven, or the engine has to
38:23
Speaker 1: be driven, has definitely taken an edge off it. And
38:25
Speaker 1: I think it's probably not surprising in that sense that
38:27
Speaker 1: we saw a lot of two by two in qualifying
38:29
Speaker 1: teammates very similar in performance because they're driving, the driver's
38:33
Speaker 1: making less of a difference, which I think, to tie
38:35
Speaker 1: this back up, that's probably what upsets Max with staff
38:37
Speaker 1: in most right, Like he's a driver who has an
38:39
Speaker 1: unquantifiable number of tenths to his name that he can
38:42
Speaker 1: improve on a car, but you can't in these cars
38:44
Speaker 1: because they don't want to be driven like that.
38:46
Speaker 2: No, if anyone's signing up for a Noah's Ark Grid,
38:49
Speaker 2: they're not called Max for Stapfen. But while we're closing
38:52
Speaker 2: the story on being out to look overlooking to Digna's
38:54
Speaker 2: in one thirty are my fondest memories of that. I've
38:58
Speaker 2: never seen bigger spiders in my life out there. That
39:00
Speaker 2: was pretty frightening the first time I went out there.
39:03
Speaker 2: But I went out there. This is how old I
39:05
Speaker 2: am during the V ten days and so watching a
39:08
Speaker 2: V ten on a slightly dodgy semi wet track to
39:11
Speaker 2: Kumasato in a V ten Honda powered bar on slick
39:15
Speaker 2: tires through one thirty r completely lit up. I'm only
39:19
Speaker 2: have slightly recovered from that. My ear drums may have
39:21
Speaker 2: been irreversibly damaged, but it was very good fun.
39:23
Speaker 1: Yes it is. It's a tremendous place to watch, I
39:26
Speaker 1: will admit to you on this podcast and to you
39:28
Speaker 1: dear listener, I have had opportunities to go out there before,
39:32
Speaker 1: but it's timing the races previous time in October or
39:35
Speaker 1: usually around October September, so autumn or late summer meant
39:39
Speaker 1: that there's a certain pair. It's very narrow passageways, a
39:42
Speaker 1: little bit maybe too much inside measure. It's a little
39:43
Speaker 1: bit narrow passageway alongside dunlop I guess side of the track,
39:51
Speaker 1: and that's where you've got to walk through. And that
39:53
Speaker 1: has the nickname Spider ali Aha because the vegetation. You
39:58
Speaker 1: would know exactly what this is if you've been through there,
40:00
Speaker 1: because the vegetation's overgrown. And then there's this particular spider
40:02
Speaker 1: I forget the name of it, that just loves that area,
40:05
Speaker 1: loves the cards. I don't know what it is and
40:07
Speaker 1: they're huge, and I hate spiders and have as a
40:11
Speaker 1: result never taken up the opportunity to go through Spider
40:15
Speaker 1: Ali the Girl. The moving of the race to post
40:19
Speaker 1: winter means there's no overgrown vegetation and no spiders, so
40:22
Speaker 1: I had a great time.
40:23
Speaker 2: So I went through there in October, and I'm not
40:26
Speaker 2: a massive fan of them, to be fair, but I thought,
40:27
Speaker 2: I'm going to see Formula one cars at a very,
40:30
Speaker 2: very great quarter. I can suck it up and trust
40:32
Speaker 2: through there and live with the consequences. And you've managed
40:35
Speaker 2: with all your power to get the race moved to
40:37
Speaker 2: March just so you don't have to encounter any spiders.
40:40
Speaker 2: I am deeply jealous of your power.
40:41
Speaker 1: They can move it back now. My job's done. I've
40:44
Speaker 1: seen it. Don't understand again if that's what you going
40:46
Speaker 1: to take, but very please to pick that one off
40:49
Speaker 1: the list. On that note, that's all the time we
40:51
Speaker 1: have for Pittalk this week. You can subscribe to Pittalk
40:53
Speaker 1: wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you can meet
40:56
Speaker 1: us rating as a review as well. This weekend it's Easter,
41:00
Speaker 1: so there's no racing. We might be able to find
41:02
Speaker 1: some somewhere, but not on our supports anyway. Don't worry though,
41:04
Speaker 1: it will be back with the supercars of course, the
41:06
Speaker 1: New Zealand Doubleheader the subsequent two weekends and before you
41:10
Speaker 1: know it, MotoGP and for Winder one will be back
41:12
Speaker 1: on your screens as well. You can keep up to
41:14
Speaker 1: date with all the latest Step one, MotoGP and supercars
41:17
Speaker 1: news at Fox sports dot com dot are you from
41:19
Speaker 1: Matt Peyton and me Michael Lomonado. Thanks very much for
41:21
Speaker 1: your company and we'll catch you next week.