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Can Adrian Newey turn Aston Martin into a winner? Azerbaijan GP Preview · Pit Talk

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, a Fox Sports and
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Speaker 1: Speed Cafe Formula one podcast. On today's episode, Aston Martin
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Speaker 1: confirms legendary designer Adrian Newey. We'll join the team next
0:12
Speaker 1: season after quitting Red Bull Racing earlier this year, and
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Speaker 1: we look ahead to this weekends Azer Vaijan Grand Prix,
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Speaker 1: a race in a reasonable time zone. My name is
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Speaker 1: Michael Lomonato, motorsport writer for Fox Sports Australia. It's great
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Speaker 1: to have your company and the company of my co
0:28
Speaker 1: host from Speed Cafe. In about the time it's taken
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Speaker 1: me to get to his introduction, Adrian new he's made
0:33
Speaker 1: around about one hundred and twelve dollars. It's Matt Kosh.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and by the time he gets to lunches, he's
0:39
Speaker 2: earned himself a brand new Ford Ranger every day. I
0:44
Speaker 2: remember years ago that comparison comes because years ago, years
0:49
Speaker 2: and years ago, in Australia you've got sort of four
0:53
Speaker 2: big banks and then there's some investment banks, Mcquarie Bank
0:56
Speaker 2: being one of them. And I just remembered that the
0:58
Speaker 2: media made a big deal about the salary that the
1:00
Speaker 2: CEO of Macquarie Bank got and they equationed it. They
1:03
Speaker 2: put it in sort of layman's terms, he'd earn a
1:06
Speaker 2: brand new commodore before lunch every day. So I thought,
1:10
Speaker 2: when I was working out what, you know, how much
1:14
Speaker 2: agent would earn, which is thirty nine point one two
1:17
Speaker 2: million dollars a year, we work that out what he'd
1:20
Speaker 2: earned before lunch each day and what sort of car
1:22
Speaker 2: he could drive home, and depending on the spec, you know,
1:25
Speaker 2: he actually got a pretty handy forward range. I mean,
1:27
Speaker 2: I'm not sponsored by ford M in the market for
1:30
Speaker 2: a new car, so if you are listening, I'm open
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Speaker 2: to it. But yeah, I mean, that's that's that's the thing.
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Speaker 1: That is a tremendous example. The only thing I really
1:41
Speaker 1: should add, I guess, to make it even more Australian,
1:43
Speaker 1: is that it would take him fifteen hours to earn
1:46
Speaker 1: one dollar for every seat at the MCG. And everything
1:49
Speaker 1: big must be measured according to the MCG. So I
1:53
Speaker 1: believe I've done the maths correctly on that. And anyway,
1:56
Speaker 1: let's move on because we'll be talking about Edwin Nue
1:58
Speaker 1: in not too long. Considering that is certainly the big
2:01
Speaker 1: story of the week, one of the biggest. I mean,
2:03
Speaker 1: in a year in which Lewis Heldon's changed teams. This
2:05
Speaker 1: still ranks among the biggest news items of the entire season.
2:09
Speaker 1: But let's start with our, of course, top five stories
2:12
Speaker 1: of the week you may have missed certainly in the
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Speaker 1: shadow of the Adrian new In news, and let's start
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Speaker 1: with something that happens, in fact sort of in his wake,
2:19
Speaker 1: because Ferrari has announced that former Mercedes engineer Loix Serra
2:23
Speaker 1: has become its new technical director or will become its
2:26
Speaker 1: new technical director by next July, replacing surprise, surprise, the
2:29
Speaker 1: aston Martin bound Enrico Carddi Lee and I suppose taking
2:33
Speaker 1: the role that Ferrari might have hoped or thought at
2:35
Speaker 1: one point might have been taken by Newie himself.
2:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, Lok Sarah has been in and around Formula One
2:42
Speaker 2: for a long time. Originally started with Michelin doing sort
2:45
Speaker 2: of suspension development and that sort of stuff, and then
2:47
Speaker 2: went to Sober and then when they pulled out, he
2:49
Speaker 2: found his way to Mercedes for twenty nineteen. I think
2:54
Speaker 2: it was off the top of my head. So yeah,
2:56
Speaker 2: he's going to have a fairly big technical department. His
2:59
Speaker 2: remit's going to be pret sizable because it's not just
3:04
Speaker 2: what's it going to be head of Chassis or technical
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Speaker 2: director Chassis. There's a lot of other departments that feed
3:08
Speaker 2: into that, Chassi project engineering and vehicle performance and aerodynamics
3:13
Speaker 2: and all that sort of stuff. So yeah, it seems
3:16
Speaker 2: like he's going to have a pretty significant role there,
3:18
Speaker 2: which I guess makes sense if you're if you're poaching
3:20
Speaker 2: someone from Mercedes, you need to be able to offer
3:22
Speaker 2: them a pretty big step up, because, yeah, Mercedes has
3:25
Speaker 2: had a pretty good run of success, so they expect
3:28
Speaker 2: to be rewarded for that. I guess a.
3:30
Speaker 1: Little bit of news floating around about Sauba and more,
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Speaker 1: in particular the future Audi team that it will become
3:36
Speaker 1: Mati Banotto, the new team princil has been speaking or
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Speaker 1: is speaking at the Italian Grand Prix, his home race
3:41
Speaker 1: many respects. I said a couple of different things. One
3:43
Speaker 1: is that the driver search is very much still open.
3:46
Speaker 1: While valtrie Potas is expected to be the front runner,
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Speaker 1: he's said that still in the frame. He's both reserve
3:51
Speaker 1: driver Tayo Poruchere, the raigning F two champion, and also
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Speaker 1: McLaren F two rookie Gabrielle bought a Letto only ten
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Speaker 1: and annoyingly half points off the F two lead with
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Speaker 1: three rounds of They've always also said, which I think
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Speaker 1: is almost more interesting, that they cannot afford nor accept
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Speaker 1: to keep performing way at the back as Sauber is
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Speaker 1: with ODDI CEO Gernard Dolna. Goodness, I've pronounced that correctly,
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Speaker 1: blowing out the timeline for Audi's expected success from only
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Speaker 1: two years after entering the support as it was ambitiously
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Speaker 1: originally set to just being long term.
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Speaker 2: Well, I mean, it beats Craig Pollock who reckoned that
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Speaker 2: BAI was going to win on debut back in what
4:30
Speaker 2: was that nineteen ninety nine with Jacques Villeneuv. Look it
4:34
Speaker 2: makes sense, doesn't it. Our The AUDI project much of
4:40
Speaker 2: its current failings are of its own making, even though
4:42
Speaker 2: it's only taking control of it. The fact sort of
4:45
Speaker 2: in the last couple of weeks. Really that's the problem.
4:48
Speaker 2: I've taken control of it far too late. There was
4:50
Speaker 2: enough time in there for some disputes to manifest over
4:54
Speaker 2: who owned what, who's going to invest in what, and
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Speaker 2: as a result, nothing happened and it fell backwards. So yeah,
4:59
Speaker 2: they've sort of gone into this the masters of their
5:02
Speaker 2: own demise, and now they have to engineer their way
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Speaker 2: out of it. I guess watch this space. It's not
5:08
Speaker 2: going to be an easy job. But Aldi does tend
5:11
Speaker 2: to tend to go well when it does things. I mean,
5:14
Speaker 2: even going back pre war with Auto Union, it was
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Speaker 2: pretty good.
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Speaker 1: Let's move on to that. That's a very long.
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Speaker 2: Reference in We're not even ten minutes in and the
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Speaker 2: anorak in me is coming out already.
5:29
Speaker 1: Let's move on to some driving news. You thought you'd
5:32
Speaker 1: seen the last of Christian Mansel this year after the
5:34
Speaker 1: F three season included. You're wrong, because he's moving up
5:37
Speaker 1: to Formula two from this weekend with tried and he'd
5:39
Speaker 1: finished fifth in the Formula three Championship, which concluded a
5:43
Speaker 1: last time out in Monster with five podiums, including second
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Speaker 1: on the grid and in the feature race in Monte Carlos.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, good news for Christian makes a lot of sense.
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Speaker 2: You know, he's looking at doing Formula two next year. Anyway,
5:55
Speaker 2: he's had two years in Formula three. He needs to
5:57
Speaker 2: move on. So there's space at Trident because what's his
6:03
Speaker 2: name is stank Roman Stanek has left that team, so
6:07
Speaker 2: that the gap there they need to fill. A Christian
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Speaker 2: can go and there fill that gap and get himself
6:13
Speaker 2: a little bit of free experience before next year. So
6:16
Speaker 2: he hits the ground, hitsagram running. So yeah, good move
6:18
Speaker 2: for Christian other Ossi on the on the ladder, which
6:20
Speaker 2: is which is good to see.
6:22
Speaker 1: Not the only movement in Formula two, though, because Oliver
6:24
Speaker 1: Berman is moving out of Formula two for another one
6:27
Speaker 1: weekend only appearance, this time at Hearts where he's replacing
6:31
Speaker 1: the suspended Kevin Magnuson. Magnuson, you remember, has reached his
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Speaker 1: twelve license points, much like you might on your own
6:37
Speaker 1: license after a collision with Ghastly last time out. Demn,
6:42
Speaker 1: we'll get this rare second chance, but now one at
6:44
Speaker 1: the team. He'll be racing for full time next season.
6:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that again makes perfect sense. Almost immediately that
6:51
Speaker 2: it became obvious that Magdison was going to be banned,
6:54
Speaker 2: it was obvious that Baerman was going to be in
6:56
Speaker 2: because for exactly the same reason that makes sense for
6:58
Speaker 2: Christian Manson got to UFI, it makes sense for Olibaman
7:01
Speaker 2: to jump into the house, and that frees up his
7:04
Speaker 2: seat at premary in Formula two for Gabrielle Mini. So yeah,
7:09
Speaker 2: there's just sort of a logical progression and all that,
7:12
Speaker 2: no big expectations. He's not going to be scoring eighth
7:15
Speaker 2: like he did in Saudi Arabia. I mean, if he
7:17
Speaker 2: did hell of a drive, but we don't expect that
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Speaker 2: at all. So yeah, it'll be it'll be an interesting weekend, massive,
7:24
Speaker 2: massive opportunity for him because he's going to get the
7:26
Speaker 2: full weekend, of course.
7:27
Speaker 1: And finally to Daniel Ricardo, who has emphasized that he
7:31
Speaker 1: knows what's required to keep his seat in Formula One,
7:33
Speaker 1: that if he continues to perform, his future will be
7:37
Speaker 1: secure of what could be a critical double header that's
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Speaker 1: likely to see some decisions made on Redwood's four car
7:43
Speaker 1: driver lineup, and on a weekend at which he's getting
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Speaker 1: some new parts. But I'm not sure how happy he'll
7:48
Speaker 1: be about that.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the new floor that Yuki Sonoda used in Monzo,
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Speaker 2: which appears to be worse than the old floor, which
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Speaker 2: is a concern because that new floor, which was worse
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Speaker 2: than the old floor, replaced the previous new floor that
8:02
Speaker 2: was worse than the old floors, and so you sort
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Speaker 2: of see where we're going here in terms of b upgrades.
8:08
Speaker 2: So there seems to be a correlation issue there. Daniel
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Speaker 2: hasn't driven that new floor yet. You wants to test
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Speaker 2: it in a session and then work out what happens.
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Speaker 2: But in terms of the importance of the next weekend,
8:21
Speaker 2: I actually argue that they're not that important. The decision
8:24
Speaker 2: has been made, and I say that because I know
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Speaker 2: Liam Lawson's contract clause is September fifteenth, so decision has
8:33
Speaker 2: basically been made.
8:34
Speaker 1: Matt. We'll get to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix a little
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Speaker 1: bit later on, but let's start with, of course, the
8:39
Speaker 1: big news of the week and one of the big
8:40
Speaker 1: news items of the year, and that is that Adrien
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Speaker 1: knew it, the legendary design a long time technical boss
8:46
Speaker 1: at Red Bull Racing Way Streets and these chief technical
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Speaker 1: officer will be joining Aston Martin, probably sooner than many
8:52
Speaker 1: would have expected for a resignation, and significant as his
8:54
Speaker 1: first of March next year, only two months into next season,
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Speaker 1: two months into critically the rules or the start of
9:01
Speaker 1: work on the rule changes for twenty twenty six. I
9:04
Speaker 1: think surprising Matt was not necessarily that he's going to
9:07
Speaker 1: Aston Martin. It's been one of the front runners for
9:09
Speaker 1: as long as he had been on the market and
9:11
Speaker 1: emerged obviously more recently as the front runner. But it's
9:15
Speaker 1: that he's moving there with a commitment that seems considerably
9:18
Speaker 1: larger than the one he's leaving behind at Red Bull Racing,
9:21
Speaker 1: where he had become. Though he bristles a little bit
9:23
Speaker 1: of the idea that he'd become a part time at
9:25
Speaker 1: Red Bull Racing. Certainly he was a little bit more
9:30
Speaker 1: I guess advisory in his capacity there here, though he's
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Speaker 1: becoming the team's managing technical directory describes it as an
9:37
Speaker 1: all in, full time role and most interestingly a shareholder
9:42
Speaker 1: in Aston Martin, and that Matt must just be an
9:45
Speaker 1: enormous phote of confidence for the people that asked Martin,
9:48
Speaker 1: who must have this year been thinking, ah, all that
9:51
Speaker 1: optimism last year feels very much in the distance.
9:54
Speaker 2: It is, And this is something that it's not the
9:57
Speaker 2: first one. I need to go back and double check
10:00
Speaker 2: the things I'm about to say, but I'm sure when
10:03
Speaker 2: he was at Williams, one of the sicking points that
10:05
Speaker 2: he had was that he wanted, you know, a greater
10:09
Speaker 2: degree of input, and that basically came down to a
10:13
Speaker 2: stake in the team that neither Patrick had nor Frank
10:15
Speaker 2: Williams willing to give him and that effectively showed him
10:19
Speaker 2: the door to McLaren, not that he had that. Theirs
10:23
Speaker 2: is the first time that Adrian you will effectively be
10:26
Speaker 2: a team owner only obviously a minor team owner, but
10:30
Speaker 2: a team owner nonetheless. But it is a huge vote
10:36
Speaker 2: of confidence. At the same time, the big change, as
10:39
Speaker 2: you mentioned, is his commitment going from part time and
10:44
Speaker 2: there's an asterix a long time. So what that exactly
10:46
Speaker 2: means at Red Bull, you know, he was split across
10:49
Speaker 2: red Bull Racing, EVANSD Technologies and power Trains. I understand
10:54
Speaker 2: he works thirty hours a week, ten hours at each. Yeah,
10:58
Speaker 2: that's not a huge commitment going to a full working
11:01
Speaker 2: week on the racing program. You know, he's not gonna
11:04
Speaker 2: have extracurricular activities that we know of at this point,
11:07
Speaker 2: even though they are potentially opportunities for that down the
11:10
Speaker 2: track with Asta Martin. But that's a huge that's a
11:15
Speaker 2: seismic change. And the other thing is they don't yet
11:18
Speaker 2: have a position. Really, they've got a job title for him,
11:21
Speaker 2: they don't really have a position for him at this point.
11:24
Speaker 2: He'll go in there and he'll make his own is
11:26
Speaker 2: what Lawrence Stroul said. You know, I don't need to
11:28
Speaker 2: set a structure for Adrian. He knows what's best. He
11:31
Speaker 2: can come in and work out where he fits in
11:33
Speaker 2: and set that structure himself. So he's been given this
11:35
Speaker 2: overarching authority which almost seems to sit above that of
11:39
Speaker 2: Mike Cracker's team principal. So you have this you know,
11:44
Speaker 2: managing technical partner, then the team principal Mike Crack. So
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Speaker 2: it's gonna be fascinating. It's a huge signing. It is massive.
11:56
Speaker 2: It'll be fascinating to see how long it takes to
12:01
Speaker 2: transform or invigorate or whatever that workforce into something like
12:07
Speaker 2: he did at Red Bull wh he joined there in
12:08
Speaker 2: two thousand and six, old winning races in two thousand
12:10
Speaker 2: and nine and they won the championship in twenty ten.
12:13
Speaker 2: You know, he's got to we think a five year
12:14
Speaker 2: commitment at this point, plus the team ownership stuff. So theoretically,
12:23
Speaker 2: you know, if he stays on that sort of trajectory ease,
12:25
Speaker 2: he's winning championships with Aston Martin not too far into
12:30
Speaker 2: the new regulation set. Ye.
12:32
Speaker 1: I think that sort of neatly sums up Whatso, first
12:36
Speaker 1: of all, exciting about Adrian Neweing moving and right there
12:38
Speaker 1: is such a big deal. He touched out there with
12:40
Speaker 1: the Red Bull aspect, which is that he joined a
12:42
Speaker 1: team that was really being rebuilt from the remnants of
12:45
Speaker 1: the not very successful Jaguar team. Not only that, but
12:49
Speaker 1: Red Bull with no real motor sport pedigree nor really
12:52
Speaker 1: a very serious reputation, And within three years after joining
12:55
Speaker 1: two thousand and six turned into a race winning team
12:57
Speaker 1: and two thousand and nine was a title contending year.
13:00
Speaker 1: If it was an outside shot, then one. It's title
13:03
Speaker 1: double in twenty ten and did that four times in
13:05
Speaker 1: a row and has gone on to win more titles
13:06
Speaker 1: since then. It took him two years after moving to
13:09
Speaker 1: McLaren to win his first title double, likewise at Williams
13:13
Speaker 1: to win his first title double. He's won titles in
13:15
Speaker 1: Champcar in the US before that, has even had a
13:18
Speaker 1: hand in designing and im GT winning car way back
13:21
Speaker 1: his first project with March. Everything he's worked on has
13:26
Speaker 1: ended up winning titles or being very successful. It's almost
13:31
Speaker 1: as sure a bet as you can have in motorsport.
13:34
Speaker 1: There is, of course, no such things as a sure
13:36
Speaker 1: thing in Grand Prix racing, but almost as sure as
13:40
Speaker 1: you can get that. Having Adrian you and your team
13:42
Speaker 1: means you will be successful. And that's why T owner
13:47
Speaker 1: Lawrence Stroll said, doesn't matter how much we're paying him.
13:50
Speaker 1: This is in Brackett's BBC's reported thirty million pounds a
13:53
Speaker 1: year fifty nine million Australian dollars a year. He's a
13:56
Speaker 1: bargain because if that history continues, as you said, Samianship,
14:00
Speaker 1: so surely just around the corner physically, considering that the
14:02
Speaker 1: regulation changes are only a couple of years away in
14:05
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, so that's sort of the history of it.
14:08
Speaker 1: And then to touch on another point you made, and
14:10
Speaker 1: this is what's going to be most interesting, is that
14:12
Speaker 1: this is a team that's already so loaded with technical brains.
14:17
Speaker 1: And not just obviously every team's got heaps of technical engineers,
14:20
Speaker 1: the design apartments full of them, but real heavyweights, including
14:23
Speaker 1: some of he's worked with before, including someone toes and
14:26
Speaker 1: I'm talking about Dan Fellows here, who left Red Bull
14:29
Speaker 1: Racing to get out of Adrian Nuey's shadow because he
14:31
Speaker 1: wanted a promotion that was obviously not going to be
14:33
Speaker 1: available as long as Adrian nu He was at the
14:35
Speaker 1: top of the tree. Lo and behold, Aston Martin's found
14:38
Speaker 1: a way to get Adrian Neui back above him in
14:40
Speaker 1: that hierarchy. They've got a technical director in Dan Fallows,
14:43
Speaker 1: also a chief technical officer with Ndrico Karto there who
14:46
Speaker 1: we mentioned earlier. He was coming from Ferrari, various other
14:49
Speaker 1: technical chiefs. It's going to be a challenge to make
14:53
Speaker 1: them all work in one direction. It's not impossible to do.
14:56
Speaker 1: Teams have managed it before, but that for me is
14:59
Speaker 1: the big just hurdle that has to be overcoming relatively
15:01
Speaker 1: quickly because he starts work after those rule changes in
15:05
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six are already available to be worked on.
15:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's going to be sort of a couple of
15:10
Speaker 2: months behind the eight ball. Theoretically is on gardening leave
15:13
Speaker 2: as we speak. Joins on March too that you can
15:17
Speaker 2: start working on the aerodynamic surfaces from January one next year.
15:23
Speaker 2: You can already do some of the mechanical and layout
15:25
Speaker 2: stuff like now, teams already doing that, but it's the
15:28
Speaker 2: aerodynamic stuff that you can't start till January, so there'll
15:32
Speaker 2: be a two or three month gap there where Adriane
15:35
Speaker 2: isn't involved. And you would think that some of the
15:37
Speaker 2: fundamentals are laying that down now, even if they're not
15:40
Speaker 2: drawing it, they're laying out the principles that they want,
15:42
Speaker 2: so it'll be interesting. I'm going to go full Anarak
15:46
Speaker 2: here again. And if we chase Adriene Newey's career back,
15:52
Speaker 2: there's a massive Australian link here to get overly parochial.
15:56
Speaker 2: Do you know the name Michael Ralph Bellamy?
15:59
Speaker 1: Ah? I know, I don't think I.
16:01
Speaker 2: Do, Okay. So Ralph is an Australian engineer worked at
16:06
Speaker 2: Lotus in the late nineteen seventies, part of it basically
16:09
Speaker 2: two main design team that was charged by Colin Chapman
16:15
Speaker 2: to develop this new style of racing car. Can you
16:19
Speaker 2: imagine what sort of style of racing car that might
16:21
Speaker 2: have been from Lotus in the late seventies?
16:23
Speaker 1: Is it the positioning of the engines?
16:25
Speaker 2: It was grounded? Well, that was nineteen That was that
16:27
Speaker 2: was Cooper. That was Cooper in the nineteen fifties.
16:30
Speaker 1: But yeah, history here, let's keep your questions rhetorical.
16:35
Speaker 2: Okay, all right. So Ralph Bellamy was a critical member
16:40
Speaker 2: of the design team. He was fifty percent of the
16:42
Speaker 2: design team that discovered and introduced ground effects. So Ralph
16:49
Speaker 2: developed that at Lotus. He left Loaders soon after. It
16:51
Speaker 2: ended up at March. He was race engineer and designer
16:56
Speaker 2: at March he hadn't young race engineer joined the team
17:02
Speaker 2: and work opposite him in it was Formula three thousand
17:06
Speaker 2: back then, but that young designer was Adrian Newey, and
17:14
Speaker 2: their first race together, the relationship with Newe and his
17:18
Speaker 2: driver really didn't work. So they're swap drivers. And you know,
17:23
Speaker 2: Reugh took a little bit of a mentoring role and
17:26
Speaker 2: planted a lot of the seeds clearly. Well, I think
17:32
Speaker 2: that has set Adrian up. You know, some of the
17:34
Speaker 2: design fundamentals, some of the principles that knew he is
17:37
Speaker 2: now exploiting were developed by man that Adrian's worked with.
17:43
Speaker 2: Is engineering foundation in motorsport was laid by the man
17:49
Speaker 2: who developed ground effects. So it's just curious that this
17:53
Speaker 2: is sort of coming back to all these Australians that
17:57
Speaker 2: littered through the through the Formula one, Paddic, through the
18:01
Speaker 2: history of the sport. And I just like those little
18:04
Speaker 2: connections because you can trace the little seeds all the
18:07
Speaker 2: way back to even BRM in the early nineteen seventies. Yeah,
18:11
Speaker 2: early nineteen seventies, with a concept that they discarded. But yeah,
18:17
Speaker 2: the little factoid of Adrian knew his career that he
18:21
Speaker 2: worked with the man who discovered ground effect or implemented
18:24
Speaker 2: ground effect intomoder sport through Lotus, and then worked alongside
18:28
Speaker 2: him as a race engineer to get that foundation. And
18:31
Speaker 2: now here we are forty years on and he is,
18:36
Speaker 2: I mean, he's the goat. Really. Colin Chapman gets far
18:40
Speaker 2: too much credit in my opinion, he wasn't the brilliant
18:42
Speaker 2: designer everyone was. He was a brilliant man manager. It's
18:46
Speaker 2: what he was. And it's now interesting to see what
18:50
Speaker 2: Adriene is doing and the success he's had. And I'm
18:52
Speaker 2: excited to see what happens at at Aston Martin because
18:57
Speaker 2: success follows that guy. And I just liked the there's
19:00
Speaker 2: a little Australian connection in there.
19:02
Speaker 1: Yeah. I do love those historical connections through formula, particularly
19:06
Speaker 1: because it's sometimes a little bit underappreciated how even the
19:09
Speaker 1: ten teams the moment, most of them have quite longer
19:12
Speaker 1: histories than people would appreciate. Adrew Newey, for example, it's
19:15
Speaker 1: managed by Eddie Jordan, who used to own this team
19:17
Speaker 1: a long time ago, so.
19:19
Speaker 2: I'd completely forget that completely left me. Yes, that's yeah,
19:24
Speaker 2: that's that's quite a thing. I wonder if I wonder
19:27
Speaker 2: if EJ got a commission out of this is going.
19:29
Speaker 1: To be I mean absolutely regardless of ownership. I think
19:33
Speaker 1: that's part of that. That's all part of it, absolutely,
19:35
Speaker 1: I think it is. So there's interesting connections all over
19:38
Speaker 1: the place. The only other element I want to touch on
19:40
Speaker 1: before we move on to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was
19:42
Speaker 1: actually some more contemporary stuff to come out of the
19:44
Speaker 1: press conference on Tuesday, which was Laurence Stroll. I do
19:49
Speaker 1: like it's always I think it's always interesting when we
19:51
Speaker 1: have extended time with Laurence Stroll because here's I think
19:56
Speaker 1: a character that's largely unfamiliar to Formula one, a type
20:00
Speaker 1: of character we don't really have, well, we don't have
20:04
Speaker 1: all that many big billionaires having day to day roles
20:07
Speaker 1: in Formula one, and he really owns that role. I
20:13
Speaker 1: was reading an auto spot obviously, I wasn't in Silicen
20:15
Speaker 1: for the announcement that his arrival was to land a
20:18
Speaker 1: helicopter on the front lawn and then not walk but
20:20
Speaker 1: big golf buggied into the building. This is an example
20:23
Speaker 1: of like you know, wacky wealth kind of thing. But
20:26
Speaker 1: he came as close as he's calm, I think, to
20:27
Speaker 1: admitting frustrations to the way aston Run has performed in
20:30
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. He kind of had to
20:33
Speaker 1: work himself up to it a little bit. You can
20:35
Speaker 1: watch the press comments online, in fact, on the aston
20:37
Speaker 1: Vin YouTube channel. So I said, ah, you see, he
20:40
Speaker 1: did out of the words and then sort of tried
20:42
Speaker 1: to talk around them that they'd made some wrong decisions
20:45
Speaker 1: with the car since last year. That much is obvious
20:47
Speaker 1: obviously because they've been totally unable to develop it. I
20:50
Speaker 1: thought it was an interesting little insight into what most
20:52
Speaker 1: clearly be frustrations for him, considering the amount of money
20:55
Speaker 1: he's investing into the team now. A lot of that
20:56
Speaker 1: investment is still only just coming on tap now, so
20:59
Speaker 1: wouldn't influenced the performance of this year's car anyway. But
21:02
Speaker 1: the slide backwards has been pretty significant, and we're not
21:05
Speaker 1: going to see much, if any Adrian Newe influence on
21:09
Speaker 1: next year's car. At best, maybe he'll be able to
21:12
Speaker 1: shoot off some trouble shooting tips or something like that.
21:14
Speaker 1: He's really going to be focused on twenty twenty six,
21:18
Speaker 1: but that It's interesting to be on two elements. One
21:20
Speaker 1: is that we're going to see more Fernando Alonso frustration
21:22
Speaker 1: for the next two years. But the payoff is potentially
21:26
Speaker 1: Fernando for these struggles quite significant because he's one of
21:30
Speaker 1: the pieces in this puzzle that could potentially everything goes
21:34
Speaker 1: absolutely correctly deliver a title in twenty twenty six. I
21:38
Speaker 1: like the long game here is not just Adrian Nui.
21:40
Speaker 1: The combination of his decades long career, his decades of
21:43
Speaker 1: struggle of Fernando Alonso might finally actually pay off in
21:46
Speaker 1: the final year of what will be his final contract,
21:49
Speaker 1: finally putting himself in the right place at the right time.
21:52
Speaker 1: There's a lot on the line from that element of it.
21:54
Speaker 1: All these frustration has been bubbling away for the last
21:56
Speaker 1: year's in astonmat and actually paying off quite significantly.
21:59
Speaker 2: We ran and shortly after the announcement, we ran a meme.
22:04
Speaker 2: I love a good meme. We ran a meme on
22:06
Speaker 2: the speed Cafe f one, Instagram, channel, post account, whatever
22:11
Speaker 2: you call them. I'm not a big on social media.
22:13
Speaker 1: I'm guessing you did.
22:16
Speaker 2: No. It was a picture of Adrian Newey and Fernando
22:25
Speaker 2: Alonso on the podium together, presumably from earlier last year,
22:32
Speaker 2: and alongside it was a picture of two goats, and
22:36
Speaker 2: it had that the woman from the office. I don't
22:38
Speaker 2: watch TV either, but the woman from the office saying,
22:40
Speaker 2: corporate needs you to to tell the difference between these
22:44
Speaker 2: two pictures. And you know, the comment is they're the
22:47
Speaker 2: same picture. You've got two of the greatest of all
22:50
Speaker 2: time in the same team in the twilight of their career.
22:54
Speaker 2: Let's be honest. You know, Adrian Newe sixty five, Fernando
22:58
Speaker 2: is pretty close to that himself, and you know, you
23:04
Speaker 2: just feel that for once, despite all his maneuvering, Fernando
23:11
Speaker 2: might have actually tripped up and found himself in the
23:12
Speaker 2: right place at the right time. Because red Bull seems
23:17
Speaker 2: to be going backwards. McLaren Actually red Bull, he almost
23:22
Speaker 2: joined red Bull, we learned twenty thousand and eight, but
23:25
Speaker 2: they couldn't get that deal across alone. So red Bull
23:27
Speaker 2: seems to be going backwards. There's a little bit of
23:29
Speaker 2: upeople there. Mercedes question marks around that. Ferrari is inconsistent.
23:33
Speaker 2: McLaren seems positive, but you know, can it translate what
23:37
Speaker 2: it's got into new regulations set Aston Martin has a
23:43
Speaker 2: really solidly driver. I still have massive concerns around the
23:47
Speaker 2: continuation of Lance Strong in the second car. But they've
23:51
Speaker 2: got a strong technical team, they've got strong resources behind
23:55
Speaker 2: them in terms of the facilities they've got, and that's
23:57
Speaker 2: only going to get better because they get a new
23:58
Speaker 2: wind tunnel. You know, by the end of the year
24:01
Speaker 2: early next year, the twenty six arrow is going to
24:04
Speaker 2: be developed at a brand new wind tunnel, the most
24:06
Speaker 2: advanced wind tunnel in Formula One, with the biggest arrow
24:10
Speaker 2: brain in Formula One, with the bloke who used to
24:13
Speaker 2: work alongside him heading up the technical department in dan Fellows.
24:18
Speaker 2: There are a lot of pieces and the pall unit.
24:23
Speaker 2: That's a pretty bloody good combination. So if you're a
24:27
Speaker 2: betting man, yeah, go and put a fiver on on
24:30
Speaker 2: Fernando Alonso being becoming the oldest man to win a
24:32
Speaker 2: Formula Word World Championship, Sin Fangio, because it's a very
24:35
Speaker 2: distinct possibility. I think that's a really good that's a
24:39
Speaker 2: really good little shower. It's it's and this is why
24:41
Speaker 2: I'm excited, because it's not we're not just talking about
24:44
Speaker 2: someone challenging Red Bull or Mercedes and Rebel McLaren's. We've
24:48
Speaker 2: now got Aston Martin. We're talking about half the grid,
24:52
Speaker 2: five teams that could win not just races, but challenge
24:56
Speaker 2: for world championships. That's that's that's absolutely fantastic.
25:00
Speaker 1: Let's move on now, Matt to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
25:03
Speaker 1: this weekend, the glorious nine pm Australian Eastern starting time,
25:07
Speaker 1: so get excited for that. Normally he is quite a
25:10
Speaker 1: good race too, so it's a good one to have
25:11
Speaker 1: in a slightly more friendly time zone for Austraight even
25:14
Speaker 1: better if you're in Perth. But you've had it good
25:16
Speaker 1: most of the year Perths, so I'm not going to
25:18
Speaker 1: talk too much about that. But in a continuation of
25:21
Speaker 1: that Adrian Newey talk, I suppose I want to start
25:23
Speaker 1: with Red Bull Racing, who is in what I guess
25:26
Speaker 1: we can start to call a little bit of a crisis.
25:29
Speaker 1: Certainly considering the way that they were talking after the
25:31
Speaker 1: Italian Grand Prix, Max saying both championships and we already
25:34
Speaker 1: know the constructors Championship has risk, but him saying that
25:36
Speaker 1: he doesn't have a lot of confidence he can defend
25:38
Speaker 1: the driver's championship. Considering there's a sixty two point buffer. Still,
25:41
Speaker 1: that's pretty dire prediction, and Christian Horner, obviously admitting as
25:44
Speaker 1: much as as is clear from the team's performances, has
25:46
Speaker 1: now gone six races without a victory. Adrian knew he
25:51
Speaker 1: brings success to every team he goes to, but also
25:53
Speaker 1: brings failure to every team he leaves. Because Williams is
25:55
Speaker 1: yet to win the championship since he left McLaren's one
25:57
Speaker 1: only one since he left Red Bull Racings client has
26:00
Speaker 1: started since he resigned. Now, I think it's probably too
26:03
Speaker 1: much to draw a direct line between those things. But
26:05
Speaker 1: the longer the struggles continue, the further away it gets
26:08
Speaker 1: from the influence of Adrian. Youu obviously, so there is
26:11
Speaker 1: still something in that and this will be quite a
26:13
Speaker 1: significant test for Red Bull, I think, as every race
26:16
Speaker 1: will be released the end of the season considering how
26:18
Speaker 1: dire things were in Monso. Admittedly that is a pretty
26:21
Speaker 1: unique track, but this is a street circuit, a pretty
26:24
Speaker 1: wild street circuit, but nonetheless, and that is the type
26:27
Speaker 1: of track that this car definitely doesn't like. Doesn't like
26:30
Speaker 1: riding curves, doesn't like bumpy services, doesn't like having to
26:33
Speaker 1: compromise its ride height and this track is quite undulating
26:36
Speaker 1: through that middle sector. At least there's a very big
26:38
Speaker 1: ascent that counts as undulation. I think there are quite
26:42
Speaker 1: a lot of hurdles if you're looking at this from
26:44
Speaker 1: the red Bull perspective to perform this weekend. Contrast that
26:47
Speaker 1: with the fact this is the most successful team but
26:48
Speaker 1: this track, and it feels the most successful driver ever
26:51
Speaker 1: in the history of Baku being Sergio Perez. The raining
26:55
Speaker 1: as of a Jan Grand Prix winner, any driver to
26:57
Speaker 1: have won this race twice suspects only one of those
27:01
Speaker 1: scenarios is going to continue, and Matt I'm willing to
27:03
Speaker 1: say it's not going to be pair is winning again.
27:07
Speaker 2: It's It's quite a thing, that, isn't it. That is
27:09
Speaker 2: a magnificent statistic that Sergio Perrys is the most successful
27:14
Speaker 2: driver the as a Boshine corroberate. Not to class dispersions
27:18
Speaker 2: about him, we know that the form struggles that he's
27:20
Speaker 2: had over the year, over the last year or so,
27:25
Speaker 2: probably more the last nine months to be fair to him,
27:30
Speaker 2: but yeah, this is this is significant. The constructors Championship
27:33
Speaker 2: is likely to change hands at the end of this weekend.
27:38
Speaker 2: McLaren's eight points back there Driver's Championships a little bit
27:42
Speaker 2: further away, and there's all sorts of all sorts of
27:47
Speaker 2: conversations that we had there. You know, is it doable?
27:50
Speaker 2: Does McLaren need to be sacrificing Oscar for it? Just
27:54
Speaker 2: how bad is Red Bull? This weekend is going to
27:57
Speaker 2: give us a really good in the cation and then
28:01
Speaker 2: a week later into Singapore, because these are two events that,
28:05
Speaker 2: as you say, shouldn't suit Rebul at all. So you
28:09
Speaker 2: can realistically go into this weekend thinking they're probably going
28:12
Speaker 2: to be if they're doing well, maybe third best team.
28:16
Speaker 2: If they're doing poorly, fourth best team, anything better than
28:21
Speaker 2: the third best team, If they're sort of on the
28:22
Speaker 2: second orld of the grid somewhere, then the probably outperformed expectations.
28:28
Speaker 2: The weather will be a big one as well, because
28:30
Speaker 2: that will influence the performance of others. And I'm just
28:33
Speaker 2: going to quickly look at the weather in Azerbaijan as
28:36
Speaker 2: I as I try not to type O this and
28:39
Speaker 2: talk at the same time. The weather's going to be warm,
28:41
Speaker 2: so I would suggest that will play in favor of McLaren.
28:47
Speaker 2: It won't help, won't help me say this too much.
28:51
Speaker 2: It prefers it to be a little bit cooler. Ferraris
28:54
Speaker 2: of wild Card. I mean the upgrades in Monso, where
28:57
Speaker 2: they were they Monza specific? Will they work swear that's
29:02
Speaker 2: that's a big unknown. But yeah, I mean McLaren goes
29:06
Speaker 2: in favorites. It's it's that simple, and given that you
29:10
Speaker 2: have to probably put on balance Oscar Pastria's favorite with
29:16
Speaker 2: the caveat that. We don't know what they're going to
29:19
Speaker 2: do with with the Indigo instruction or the fire rules
29:23
Speaker 2: or the or the aqua authority or whatever they're going
29:28
Speaker 2: to call it.
29:28
Speaker 1: This week needed alliteration, didn't it. The proprior promulgation.
29:32
Speaker 2: Maybe would have been a better Yeah, better way to
29:35
Speaker 2: do propri a proclamation.
29:36
Speaker 1: Yes, so there you go. That's it policy even there
29:40
Speaker 1: we go, there we go. It's funny, but it sounds better.
29:44
Speaker 2: So we're going to end up with jobs at McLaren here.
29:48
Speaker 2: We're going to have to take a thousand points off
29:51
Speaker 2: ourselves in the Alternative Championship because that's what you did
29:53
Speaker 2: to the McLaren manager. Came up with papyor rules.
29:56
Speaker 1: Yes, well that's true, you know we do stick to it.
29:59
Speaker 1: Then it's only for I think we lose Oscar Piastre
30:02
Speaker 1: is in the best form, though you're right, three of
30:04
Speaker 1: the last four races he's been undoubtedly the best McLaren drive.
30:07
Speaker 1: Actually saw a statistic this week that he's been the
30:09
Speaker 1: highest before a highest scoring driver since the Monaco Grand Prix,
30:13
Speaker 1: which's a lot of the year.
30:14
Speaker 2: Now.
30:14
Speaker 1: It feels like about one hundred years ago Grand Prix
30:17
Speaker 1: was run, so it's certainly a long time. He's been
30:19
Speaker 1: doing very well and that speaks to us. I think
30:21
Speaker 1: we talked about last week why it's been so difficult
30:24
Speaker 1: for McLaren to arrive at the decision to Backlando Norris
30:27
Speaker 1: perhaps although we increasingly expect them to do it this week,
30:30
Speaker 1: although we expect them to do it in Monza as well,
30:31
Speaker 1: and they didn't because Norris hasn't on track shown himself
30:36
Speaker 1: to be a driver of a magnitude better than Piastre
30:40
Speaker 1: than his points advantage suggests. Because really all we have
30:42
Speaker 1: to do is change. For example, the Miami Grand Prix
30:45
Speaker 1: result had Piastre finished ahead of Norris as he was
30:48
Speaker 1: on track to before the safety car, and even if
30:49
Speaker 1: he'd scored points rather than punted out by Carla Science,
30:52
Speaker 1: that's a big, big percentage of that I think it's
30:55
Speaker 1: about thirty points thirty odd points between them that would
30:58
Speaker 1: be closed immediately. And then there are all sorts above
31:00
Speaker 1: a little example, Silverston being another one where team strategy
31:03
Speaker 1: costs him much more than Norris, where suddenly that point's
31:07
Speaker 1: capitalok much smaller. And it's sort of an interesting thought experiment.
31:10
Speaker 1: If they did arrive at this point much closer on points,
31:13
Speaker 1: let's say ten points or less, as I think their
31:16
Speaker 1: performance probably deserve, would we still be having this conversation
31:20
Speaker 1: about backing Norris. It'd still be in an advantageous position.
31:24
Speaker 1: But he's ten points enough to prioritize a driver like
31:27
Speaker 1: what is the threshold? And if team orders don't come
31:30
Speaker 1: into play this weekend or Piastre is just let's say,
31:33
Speaker 1: far enough ahead that it's too hard to influence those results,
31:36
Speaker 1: can he change that picture just by perhaps winning or
31:39
Speaker 1: finishing far enough ahead of Norris that he does have
31:41
Speaker 1: a fairly big point swing in his favor.
31:43
Speaker 2: I don't think I'm going to adopt my team principles here,
31:46
Speaker 2: pretend I'm Andrea stellar from it. I don't think it's
31:48
Speaker 2: worth as considering those hypotheticals, because they're not It's not
31:52
Speaker 2: the world that we're dealing with right now. We're dealing
31:55
Speaker 2: with the fact that Oscar is thirtyd points back from Lando,
31:59
Speaker 2: who in turn sixty odd points back from Max. Both
32:04
Speaker 2: are mathematically in contention for the championship. The odds are
32:09
Speaker 2: more favorable to Lando, even if they are slim. So
32:14
Speaker 2: I'm personally firmly in favor of working for Lando, and
32:19
Speaker 2: I say that for a couple of reasons. It's not
32:23
Speaker 2: just because I think Lando deserves a world championship. Nobody
32:25
Speaker 2: deserves all a championship. There's twenty guys on that grid
32:28
Speaker 2: who are bloody good racing drives, and I don't care
32:30
Speaker 2: who they are. If they' Franco Colopint or Lewis Hamilton,
32:33
Speaker 2: they are bloody good racing drivers, every one of them
32:35
Speaker 2: far better than you or I. Yeah, they might look
32:40
Speaker 2: a little bit silly at times, but we're talking tiny
32:43
Speaker 2: percentage differences between the talent, and it's just being exaggerated
32:47
Speaker 2: because it is so competitive. So these guys none of
32:49
Speaker 2: them deserve anything at that level. They need to go
32:52
Speaker 2: out there and they need to claim it and win
32:54
Speaker 2: it themselves. But if you can do something to increase
32:59
Speaker 2: your old that I think that's that's appropriate, and that's
33:02
Speaker 2: fair and reasonable, and I think the reason why, one
33:05
Speaker 2: of the reasons why McLaren should do that is, Yes,
33:09
Speaker 2: the Constructors Championship is where the money is, but the
33:11
Speaker 2: prestige is where the Driver's Championship is. And not only
33:17
Speaker 2: do you get prestige, but you can then sell that
33:21
Speaker 2: you know you get No one remembers the Constructors Championship.
33:25
Speaker 2: No one remembers who won the nineteen I'm going to
33:30
Speaker 2: try and pick a year that it was different from
33:32
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty one. No one remembers that Mercedes won
33:36
Speaker 2: the Constructors Championship. Everyone remembers that Maxi Stefan won the
33:39
Speaker 2: drivers Championship. So winning that you're going to get your
33:43
Speaker 2: prize money cash in and it gets forgotten about. If
33:46
Speaker 2: you win the Drivers' Championship, you can sell that. You
33:49
Speaker 2: can sell that to sponsors and partners, and there's a marketing.
33:51
Speaker 2: There is a very real difference that that can make
33:55
Speaker 2: in terms of the team and its finances, to share
33:58
Speaker 2: holds and all that sort of stuff. There's also the morale.
34:01
Speaker 2: There's also that the bragging rights. There's the swagger that
34:04
Speaker 2: Lando will get and will make him walk a couple
34:06
Speaker 2: of inches taller through the paddict, So those intangibles on
34:11
Speaker 2: top of the financials are also worth pursuing. And the
34:16
Speaker 2: other part of me, and there's a little bit I
34:19
Speaker 2: almost I don't know chardon freud is the right word here,
34:22
Speaker 2: but part of me thinks that head to head, Lando
34:26
Speaker 2: is ahead of Oscar as an overall driver at the moment,
34:31
Speaker 2: but I don't think that will last forever. I think
34:33
Speaker 2: Oscar has a far higher ceiling and I think it's
34:35
Speaker 2: only a matter of time before Oscar reaches that potential
34:38
Speaker 2: and surpasses Lando. Now, whether that's happening as we speak,
34:43
Speaker 2: and they're sort of so close that maybe Oscar's a
34:45
Speaker 2: little bit ahead, or whether that happens next year or
34:48
Speaker 2: the year after, at some point that change will happen.
34:54
Speaker 2: This may be Lando's only opportunity because at some point,
34:57
Speaker 2: if that does happen and McLaren finds herself in a
34:59
Speaker 2: championship tending the situation again, Sorry, Land, I don't care.
35:03
Speaker 2: If you're a world champion, you're working for Oscar now.
35:05
Speaker 2: He's the statistically better chance of the world championship. And
35:09
Speaker 2: that's the way if I was running McLaren that's the
35:12
Speaker 2: way I'll do it. I wouldn't manufacture scenarios where I
35:17
Speaker 2: moved Oscar behind. If it made a material difference to
35:21
Speaker 2: the championship, i'd do it. But if we're talking swapping
35:24
Speaker 2: seventh and eighth, no, not going to make any sort
35:27
Speaker 2: of meaningful difference, not this far out. Maybe in Abu
35:33
Speaker 2: Dhabi I'll do that. But you know, if it's first
35:36
Speaker 2: and second, sorry Oscar, you drive for the team, and
35:40
Speaker 2: that's awkward that it's uncomfortable to hear, and it's not
35:42
Speaker 2: going to be a popular opinion, particularly not in the
35:45
Speaker 2: in the Mark webercamp. But I think it's one. It's
35:49
Speaker 2: pragmatic and there's a bigger picture here than Oscar Piastre's feelings.
35:57
Speaker 2: And I say that as a massive Oscar fan and
35:59
Speaker 2: I want to see him winning. I want to see
36:01
Speaker 2: him win world championships because I'm Australian and I think
36:03
Speaker 2: the kid is pretty bloody good. He doesn't deserve the
36:05
Speaker 2: World Championship because none of them do. As I previously,
36:08
Speaker 2: he's going to go and earn it, but I think
36:12
Speaker 2: he has the potential to go and earn that. I
36:14
Speaker 2: don't know that Lando in the same caras Oscar in
36:17
Speaker 2: a couple of years will have that same possibility.
36:19
Speaker 1: It'll be interesting to see how they play this weekend.
36:21
Speaker 1: The circumstance may just never come up and we won't
36:23
Speaker 1: have to talk about it, or potentially will it be
36:26
Speaker 1: something as obvious as swapping positions or will it simply
36:28
Speaker 1: be done through strategy. That's all to be decided. Very
36:31
Speaker 1: quick quiz for you, Matt before we move on to
36:32
Speaker 1: the alternative championship working mats that I haven't written up,
36:36
Speaker 1: but we'll be written up this week or next out
36:38
Speaker 1: Fox sports dot com. That are you greatest comebacks in
36:41
Speaker 1: history of Formula One? Now, they're hard to calculate because
36:43
Speaker 1: obviously points systems are always different. Context of Razor is different. Obviously,
36:47
Speaker 1: as we've talked about before, Jim Clark's never won a
36:49
Speaker 1: sprint race and what does that do for his status
36:52
Speaker 1: as a greater Formula one.
36:53
Speaker 2: Now Alberto Ascaria was never a Formula one world champion.
36:56
Speaker 1: Disgusting, terrible. I don't know why we talk about him,
36:59
Speaker 1: but we talk about Norris being a long shot for
37:01
Speaker 1: the champion. He figures he's not even in the top
37:04
Speaker 1: five of greatest comeback so it depends on how you
37:07
Speaker 1: calculate it, of course. Now I think the difficulty for
37:09
Speaker 1: him is that he has to be very good over
37:10
Speaker 1: eight rounds still, and it's that consistency that makes it difficult,
37:14
Speaker 1: more so than the points gap. Biggest points comeback by
37:17
Speaker 1: my calculation, Matt, what would you expect it to have been?
37:22
Speaker 2: Um? Okay, biggest point? I reckon it was Vettel in
37:31
Speaker 2: twenty ten.
37:32
Speaker 1: I've done the calculations for that. That's actually of lesser
37:35
Speaker 1: difficulty than Lando Norris's comeback. That was thirty one points
37:37
Speaker 1: in six rounds, same point system as well, so it's
37:40
Speaker 1: roughly half as difficult. He only needed five points one
37:43
Speaker 1: six points per round to overturn it. I'll tell you
37:45
Speaker 1: the most difficult one, Kimmy or Aichen in two thousand
37:48
Speaker 1: and seven, seventeen points in two rounds, which you were
37:52
Speaker 1: just at for current points because that was only ten
37:54
Speaker 1: points per victory. Then he would have needed forty two
37:56
Speaker 1: and a half points in two rounds. Twenty one point
37:59
Speaker 1: two point turnaround in two weeks, which is what's that
38:03
Speaker 1: If Norris needs eight, that's like nearly three times as difficult,
38:07
Speaker 1: and then they are very James Hunt Allan Pross, Nelson,
38:09
Speaker 1: p kkk Rosberg all had more difficult points turnaround.
38:13
Speaker 2: James Hunts is a bit of a misnower though, because.
38:15
Speaker 1: Yes, that's true, because obviously his title rival in the
38:18
Speaker 1: final round.
38:19
Speaker 2: That's true, and it was also missing for a couple
38:21
Speaker 2: of rounds as well during the year, you know, have
38:24
Speaker 2: having crashed out. Yeah, so yeah, put an asterisk next
38:27
Speaker 2: to that one.
38:28
Speaker 1: That's a good point. But the points turnaround still stood.
38:30
Speaker 1: He needed to have many points, but that is that
38:32
Speaker 1: is a good point. But the rest of them all
38:34
Speaker 1: in a like for like point for point sense more
38:37
Speaker 1: difficult than Norris's comeback. So anyone who's saying, well it's
38:41
Speaker 1: too much of a long shot, well it is a
38:42
Speaker 1: long shot because, as I said, it's a length of
38:44
Speaker 1: time he needs to conduct that turnaround. He needs to
38:47
Speaker 1: be good for eight races and he needs Max to
38:49
Speaker 1: be behind him for eight races essentially, but has been
38:53
Speaker 1: done before on a points per points basis. But let's
38:56
Speaker 1: move on now, map to really what we're all here for,
38:59
Speaker 1: and that is the Oldternative Championship. With eight races to
39:01
Speaker 1: go in this Formula One season, I'm happy for you
39:04
Speaker 1: to kick this one off ahead of the Azerbaijian Grand Prix.
39:08
Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm a big fan of the alternative Championship where
39:11
Speaker 2: we just arbitrarily award points for well arbitrary reasons. So
39:17
Speaker 2: I'm going to kick it off, and I'm going to
39:19
Speaker 2: kick it off in a really good, feel good sort
39:21
Speaker 2: of way and make a warm and fuzzy I'm going
39:23
Speaker 2: to give three points to Christian Mansel for making a
39:26
Speaker 2: really good, smart, shrewd career move. You know, it's a
39:31
Speaker 2: free hit for him. We mentioned it up the top,
39:33
Speaker 2: and I just like to see. I like to support
39:35
Speaker 2: kids who are giving it a go. He's not a
39:38
Speaker 2: member of you know, an academy. It's his family supporting him,
39:41
Speaker 2: him going out raising the money. Yeah, he's doing it
39:45
Speaker 2: on his own and he's done a pretty good job
39:48
Speaker 2: so far. So Yeah, three points for Christian Mansel to
39:51
Speaker 2: get us rolling.
39:52
Speaker 1: That's great. I like that a lot. I'm a big
39:54
Speaker 1: fan of that. I'm going to give this is the
39:58
Speaker 1: maybe also the most positive I don't know, is it
40:00
Speaker 1: the most positive ever been? That's someone I'm not sure.
40:03
Speaker 1: Maybe the most rewarding anyway for asking and receiving for
40:07
Speaker 1: fundamentally knowing your audience and playing them well. To Adrian Newey,
40:11
Speaker 1: I'm giving fifty nine million points because he went in
40:16
Speaker 1: he went into Aston Martin and he said, I know
40:20
Speaker 1: there's money around here. Fifty nine million dollars. Matt doesn't
40:24
Speaker 1: strike me as a number that was negotiated down, and
40:27
Speaker 1: so I think he knew exactly who's talking. He was
40:29
Speaker 1: talking to Lawrence Strall's got a lot of money. He said,
40:31
Speaker 1: this is what I want, and Laurence said sure, And
40:34
Speaker 1: now he's getting that amount according to the BBC, fifty
40:37
Speaker 1: nine million dollars a year. And that's how many points
40:40
Speaker 1: he's getting from me.
40:41
Speaker 2: Wow, that's uh yeah right, that's that's going to take
40:49
Speaker 2: some beating in it.
40:50
Speaker 1: But I think in real life as it will too.
40:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean it. He's better paid the most drivers,
40:56
Speaker 2: not quite all drivers, but most drivers.
40:57
Speaker 1: Well, actually, this is my alternative here was owned. I
41:00
Speaker 1: was only going to give him forty two points, but
41:02
Speaker 1: I decided he deserved more than that, because if.
41:05
Speaker 2: You put it in generous in fairness, then.
41:07
Speaker 1: I was generous. Maybe I should change my mind, but no,
41:09
Speaker 1: it's too late. Now I've committed forty two. If you
41:12
Speaker 1: were to look at the Forbes top athletic top earners
41:15
Speaker 1: among athletes looking only at their salaries and not their endorsements,
41:19
Speaker 1: because the Angentine who's a technical director doesn't have too
41:21
Speaker 1: many endorsements. It would be forty second, the forty second
41:24
Speaker 1: top earning athletes in the entire world because of the
41:28
Speaker 1: amount of money he's up to earn a going to
41:30
Speaker 1: that BBC report, which is really it just puts into
41:33
Speaker 1: himas I think the only Formula One drivers to be
41:34
Speaker 1: earning more than him would be Hamilton and Vestafa. And
41:38
Speaker 1: I haven't seen many reports about what people think of
41:40
Speaker 1: feral Alonso is earning, but it is a remarkable amount
41:44
Speaker 1: of money.
41:45
Speaker 2: It's disappointed he wasn't in the top twenty five yet
41:49
Speaker 2: should have gone in there asking for more. Probably would
41:52
Speaker 2: have gone it probably could have probably could have squeezed
41:54
Speaker 2: him for another three or four mill without even raising eyebrows.
41:58
Speaker 2: It's good shout, it's good shot. I'm actually going to
42:01
Speaker 2: stick with Aston Martin for my next points. But where
42:06
Speaker 2: you've given points, I'm going to take them away and
42:09
Speaker 2: I'm going to take them away for Lance Stroll because
42:13
Speaker 2: it's just just in general for I don't know if
42:15
Speaker 2: you watched the press conference. He looked for a guy
42:22
Speaker 2: who is inherently invested in that team. It was quite
42:27
Speaker 2: an imposition for him to be there.
42:32
Speaker 1: Gave that impression, didn't he that it was his rostered
42:35
Speaker 1: day off and he'd been asked to come in away.
42:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, never mind that dad owns the company and
42:41
Speaker 2: therefore probably so to see somewhere along alone. But yeah,
42:45
Speaker 2: I'm going to be generous. So I'm going to you know,
42:48
Speaker 2: maybe it was too early in the morning or something
42:51
Speaker 2: I'm going to take. I mean, it was eleven o'clock,
42:54
Speaker 2: but I'm going to take five points off Lance Stroll
42:58
Speaker 2: for for not being more interested in what should have
43:03
Speaker 2: been a huge, huge announcement.
43:08
Speaker 1: There's a subtle difference, isn't there between being inherently invested
43:11
Speaker 1: in having your inheritance invested. I think is maybe the
43:16
Speaker 1: thing he was grappling with.
43:18
Speaker 2: That of my money exactly right.
43:23
Speaker 1: Also, sticking with Aston Martin, I was struggling to know
43:26
Speaker 1: how many points this was worth. I think I've used
43:28
Speaker 1: a lot of my points allocation this week already. I'm
43:31
Speaker 1: going to stick with one point to Lawrence Stroll, mostly
43:35
Speaker 1: for the pinstripe suit. But I think I was thinking
43:39
Speaker 1: was watching the press conference, we don't spend a lot
43:42
Speaker 1: of times I was saying earlier on. I think in
43:44
Speaker 1: the podcast, we don't spend a lot of time with
43:46
Speaker 1: Lawrence strolled so idly being relatively hands on from an
43:49
Speaker 1: ownership perspective. Anyway, in Aston Martin and I actually think
43:54
Speaker 1: if AsTMa On does end up being successful as we
43:56
Speaker 1: now expect it to be, because it's got Adrian Newey
43:58
Speaker 1: on board, he's really going to feel I'm I'm not
44:04
Speaker 1: sure how I want to describe it. Is it the
44:05
Speaker 1: villain role of Formula One or he's sort of like
44:09
Speaker 1: he is the team owner. I think any sports person
44:13
Speaker 1: outside of Formula one expects a big business like Formula
44:16
Speaker 1: One to have. He's like this rich guy. He looks
44:18
Speaker 1: he's a big, burly man like. He looks like a
44:20
Speaker 1: strong man like. I don't know, I'm just we don't
44:22
Speaker 1: formul one doesn't have people like him in it. And
44:25
Speaker 1: I actually think that one s Aston Martin's successful, we're
44:29
Speaker 1: going to benefit a lot from having him as this
44:32
Speaker 1: sort of whack He's probably not the word, is it,
44:34
Speaker 1: but this is just some unusual character. And I think
44:37
Speaker 1: the pinstripe suit really summed it up for me. So
44:39
Speaker 1: that's one point to Lawrence.
44:41
Speaker 2: He's larger than life. It's sort of a throwback to
44:43
Speaker 2: the seventies guys like sort of Lord Heskerth and Ken
44:45
Speaker 2: Tyrrell and these these big characters of the sport. Yeah,
44:51
Speaker 2: I like I like that. You know, we need better.
44:55
Speaker 1: Than just a board of management, I think, and I do.
44:57
Speaker 1: I think large than life. You've actually nailed it. I
44:59
Speaker 1: think that's really the phrase I was looking for. He's much.
45:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's Look, I don't say it's bad for the sport.
45:07
Speaker 2: I really don't do to inject some personality, to inject
45:11
Speaker 2: a bit of swagger, a bit of cockiness, a bit
45:13
Speaker 2: of confident. You know, it's it's good. You want that bravado,
45:17
Speaker 2: It's it's fantastic. It's a bit of an Asta Martin Whitewash. Then,
45:23
Speaker 2: with the exception of Christian Mansel. Then, because I don't
45:26
Speaker 2: know what your last last guess is, but I've I've
45:28
Speaker 2: awarded Aston Martin just straight Aston Martin some some points.
45:33
Speaker 2: And I did this thinking that I could rock at
45:36
Speaker 2: them to the top of the championship standings. I have
45:40
Speaker 2: failed at that by a little way. In fairness because
45:45
Speaker 2: I've awarded Aston Martin twenty twenty four points because I
45:47
Speaker 2: thought that won the year. It doesn't matter in the
45:49
Speaker 2: championship standing is what they do. They've got the biggest,
45:53
Speaker 2: you know, the biggest fish in the in the pond,
45:56
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four points for Aston Martin. That would have
45:59
Speaker 2: rocketed them to the top of the standings, above Yuki Snowder.
46:02
Speaker 2: Now I mean once again they've slipped down the order
46:05
Speaker 2: a little bit.
46:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, look at that, even despite best expectations. Isn't
46:09
Speaker 1: that funny how quickly Lewis Hamilton's just been shaded. I
46:11
Speaker 1: know it was a long time ago now, but it is.
46:14
Speaker 1: Really it just underlines how remarkabl it is for Adrian
46:16
Speaker 1: new moving teams. Let me bring it home, not an
46:19
Speaker 1: Aston Martin vote. This is twenty eight points off Alex
46:23
Speaker 1: Elbon for declaring that Williams can be winning races as
46:26
Speaker 1: regularly by twenty seven, just twenty eight months away. There's
46:29
Speaker 1: the number. Not because of the optimism like I think
46:32
Speaker 1: that's fine, may not even be that outlandish, but for
46:34
Speaker 1: James Vows not being across that, disagreeing with it and
46:38
Speaker 1: saying I didn't realize Alex said that Kriichi was his response.
46:42
Speaker 1: I just like that. He's more optimistic than even James
46:45
Speaker 1: Vows is a pretty optimistic team boss. But he certainly
46:47
Speaker 1: set the bar high now for Williams to reach that.
46:50
Speaker 2: The question is is he set the bar high or
46:52
Speaker 2: is James at the bar low.
46:54
Speaker 1: Well, that's true, you could look at it both ways.
46:56
Speaker 1: Point should have come off, James Valles.
46:58
Speaker 2: I mean, at this rate you're going to both trip
47:01
Speaker 2: and hit your head over those boat over those barriers.
47:04
Speaker 1: Shouldn't have been stored two bars.
47:06
Speaker 2: That's it. You can only fail now. Yeah, Look, there's
47:14
Speaker 2: a lot to be said for Williams and the carryings
47:17
Speaker 2: on of that team in recent weeks, and there's just
47:20
Speaker 2: a disconnect developing. There isn't there. It's just just doesn't
47:23
Speaker 2: seem the cohesive team.
47:24
Speaker 1: Well, wait and see until twenty twenty seven, only twenty
47:27
Speaker 1: eight months away. Because for now that's all the time
47:29
Speaker 1: we have a pit Talk, but we will be back
47:31
Speaker 1: next week of course, to wrap up the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
47:33
Speaker 1: You can subscribe to pit Talk wherever you get your
47:35
Speaker 1: favorite podcasts, and you can leave us already at a
47:38
Speaker 1: review as well and don't forget to keep up to
47:39
Speaker 1: date with all the latest F one news throughout the
47:41
Speaker 1: round at both Fox sports dot com dot Au and
47:43
Speaker 1: Speedcafe dot Com. From Matt, caution me, Michael Lomonado, thanks
47:47
Speaker 1: very much for your company. We'll catch you next week.