Latest / The Undercut / Max Crashes, Lando Wins, and Mercedes Plays Favorites - 2026 Dutch Grand Prix Review

Transcript

Max Crashes, Lando Wins, and Mercedes Plays Favorites - 2026 Dutch Grand Prix Review · The Undercut

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:08
  Speaker B: Thanks for tuning in to the undercuts review of the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you listen and enjoy the show.
• 0:19
  Speaker C: By being a racing driver, you are under risk all the time. By being a racing driver means you, you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you're no longer a racing driver.
• 0:31
  Speaker A: Well, boys, we're back from the long summer break, but things haven't changed much. Lando wins again. Back to back races. How about them apples?
• 0:47
  Speaker D: You must be very happy. I'm sure your coops F1 picks reflected the optimism that you entered the summer with.
• 0:53
  Speaker A: Unfortunately not. I mean it ended up okay in the end, but I had late Lando fourth and Oscar like sixth or seventh. That after the sprint, I mean after the sprint race, they look so bad in their race pace that I felt I didn't feel comfortable putting them up that high.
• 1:11
  Speaker D: Yeah, the sprint was pretty dour, wasn't it? I mean it was a whole, it was half an hour of nothing really other than Charles getting past Lando and that was it.
• 1:22
  Speaker A: Yeah, and he just pulled away from Lando fast. So that was. I knew land. I knew we had a fast car over one lap. So I think I put Lando as like fastest lap or something like that. But yeah, it wasn't the right pick. But I'll take it. I mean, I'll take a little bit wrong in my Coops F1 pick for Lando winning all day.
• 1:45
  Speaker D: There you go. Yeah, I mean it was, it was a, an interesting weekend. And it just really goes to show you that the sprint format with no strategy involvement really is kind of boring. I mean it should just be a sprint and everyone's going as fast as they can. But really it's the strategy that really makes it because me, the grand prix was but really good race. I really enjoyed it. It's one of my favorite races of the season so far. The sprint was awful. Yeah, I think, you know, the, the, the rain just before always kind of gets people amped up like, oh, is it going to, is it going to be a wet race? Because we've still never seen these cars race in the wet. This is as much, you know, as we've seen in terms of a, a quote unquote wet track. And it was really just damp and drying and especially with as I'm sure we'll talk about the start, the red flag, it being then a further sort of half an hour of waiting to get the track cleared of debris and all of that just meant that the track was. It was a dry race by the time they actually really got racing properly after what was a very, very rare Max Verstappen era.
• 3:08
  Speaker A: Yeah. And his last home Grand Prix.
• 3:12
  Speaker E: Yeah, that's the. I think you said it in the chat, right, Jason, you. Did you say you did feel bad for Max or you almost feel bad for Max.
• 3:19
  Speaker A: I said, I think this is the first time I have ever felt badly for him in any situation. I was like, oh, that's brutal.
• 3:26
  Speaker E: I mean, absolutely brutal. Right. The last Dutch Grand Prix for a while, in front of all these fans that are paid hundreds of euros to say, I feel sorry for the fans
• 3:35
  Speaker D: more than I feel sorry for Max. Because it's very rare that Max makes a mistake. So he shows us that he is immortal after all. But, yeah, I mean, all those thousands and thousands of Max Verstappen fans all there dressed in orange, they didn't get to see their hero race. They just saw him get to pluck himself out of a car at the end of lap one.
• 4:01
  Speaker E: Yeah, I mean. I mean, he just touched. I looked at the. Look at the replay, right? It looks like his front wheel, like, touched the white paint at the end of the. At the end of the rumble strip. And that was enough to unsettle the car. And I mean, in those conditions. And what. And Bortoletto crashed. Well, spun in. He was in front of Max, but spun in front of Max. Right. Or is he.
• 4:24
  Speaker A: He was behind.
• 4:25
  Speaker E: So he passed Max and then spun, I think, is what happened.
• 4:30
  Speaker D: I think he was a little bit further back, actually.
• 4:32
  Speaker A: Yeah, I think he saw him.
• 4:34
  Speaker E: If you saw, like the Hulkenberg replay.
• 4:37
  Speaker D: Yeah. Any of the in cars going into that final corner, everyone was twitching as they were kind of starting to try and get on the power, but Matt was taking a noticeably tighter line. And you got to think these banked corners, when there is any moisture at all, it flows down the hill. So if you are at the lowest point of the track, that's gonna be the wettest point of the track. So he was slightly further, slightly more aggressive on the line. And he got a bit of a wet patch either on the white line or whatever. That just meant that he lost grip for just a moment. Corrected. And it speared him into the wall on the outside.
• 5:16
  Speaker E: Yeah, yeah. But you were saying what the. That you saw the Hulkenberg, like, in car camera, he was behind Portoletto. I mean, he. He. I mean, I don't know how. How it looked in real time to Hulkenberg. You Know, the reactions of these guys are unbelievable. But the whole get. Bortoletto's car just disappeared in. In smoke. Right. It was like a movie. Completely disappeared. You had no idea where it was, but you knew it was spinning and it was right. He missed.
• 5:44
  Speaker A: It was.
• 5:44
  Speaker E: And then he. How he. It seemed harder to miss than to hit, but amazing.
• 5:50
  Speaker D: It was. There was obviously a little bit of luck, a good amount of judgment and some insane reaction.
• 5:56
  Speaker E: Yeah, unbelievable.
• 5:57
  Speaker D: Because you could see he was going to the outside, but then I guess internally he kind of was thinking, you know, you see these kind of crashes on IndyCar all the time, and it's on a banked corner inherently. The car moves to the inside and you could see he was going to go to the right of the. Of the spinning teammate. And then as he was about to go into the cloud of smoke, you saw him turn right and then you just saw the car in front of him. I don't know how close it was insane. But it's just. Yeah, that's the only word I can think of. It. You could just see his. His own teammate like. Like right in front of him. Like he was going to t bone him. But he. The rate at which he was slowing down, the rate at which his teammate was spinning, and the amount that he just turned left, this took him clear. I mean, you look at that. You look at Kapinto and Lawson in Australia when Lawson didn't get off the line and Colapinto somehow threaded the needle between Lawson's car and the pit wall. You look at Hajar in F2 a couple of years ago when he's going through the tunnel and comes up behind a really slow moving car on a blind corner through the tunnel. These guys reactions are just immersed. It's like, you know, you see them there doing their reaction drill where their trainers dropping a tennis ball and they're catching it before it's gone afoot. Whereas, like, mortals aren't catching it at all. These guys are just so well trained and their brains just work at a speed that us humans really can't relate to, I guess.
• 7:34
  Speaker E: Absolutely. I thought the cherry on top of the spin as well with Hulkenberg was his radio message back to the pit wall. Seemed super calm. Like, I mean, I would have been screaming into the thing that I nearly just killed myself and my teammate.
• 7:50
  Speaker D: But you certainly needed a new race suit, wouldn't you, Marcus?
• 7:54
  Speaker E: Absolutely. But he was just like, oh, I almost t boned Gabby there. And his engineer's like, yeah, I saw that, mate. Carry on.
• 8:03
  Speaker D: Almost died A fiery death.
• 8:05
  Speaker E: Yeah.
• 8:06
  Speaker D: And he scored points for two new drivers. Yeah, but, yeah, that's the point. Bortoletto spun, he did a 360, caught it and carried on.
• 8:15
  Speaker E: Yeah.
• 8:15
  Speaker D: And they both finished the race, obviously. Yeah. I mean, he was heavily compromised, Bortoletto, but wow. I mean, yeah, remarkable chain of events.
• 8:25
  Speaker A: Yeah. And after all that, like I said, Nico was able to get. I believe he was in the points at the end of it. Right.
• 8:31
  Speaker D: So, yeah, eighth for Hulkenberg. That's, yeah, a good, good pull of points for Audi.
• 8:38
  Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And I guess damage limitation for Kimmy. I mean, he was. Looked like he was in there for the win for most of it, really, until the last stint. And then Lando just kind of went on a crazy, crazy pace and on. On hard tires and just made it happen.
• 8:58
  Speaker D: Yeah, he fired those hard tires up really, really well. This better than anyone, obviously. And yeah, completely different from the pace that you mentioned earlier, guys, around the sprint race where he just went backwards and Charles went forwards. He made those hard tyres work. Oscar couldn't touch him on the hard tyres. I think he was battling with George for the first stint, but a slow stop and then couldn't get the hard tyre working and he fell down to what, six in the end.
• 9:29
  Speaker A: Yeah, there are a lot of slow stops in this race, it felt like. But anyway, you were saying, sorry, I cut you off.
• 9:40
  Speaker D: I think I cut Martin off.
• 9:44
  Speaker E: Well, I was going to say for Antonelli, for me, he had a kind of like the opposite of the kind of race he normally has. He normally has bad starts, but then he just sort of finds his feet or his wheels, his tires, and then, you know, dominates the rest of the race. Whereas in this race, race, he actually had two good starts. Right in the f. The first proper start, he. He moved into the lead. Right. No, second. Sorry.
• 10:08
  Speaker D: To second in the first start.
• 10:10
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 10:10
  Speaker E: And then he. And then he. On the restart, he took Norris for the lead. But then, yeah, like you said, it kind of all came apart eventually. But, you know, that's something that we haven't seen from Antonella. Usually it's the other way around.
• 10:23
  Speaker D: Yeah, normally he's relentless in his race pace.
• 10:26
  Speaker E: Yeah. Making up for the positions he's lost at the start.
• 10:30
  Speaker A: Yeah, well, the start. George had an awful start this time. He was like fishtailing as he was trying to get off the line. Pierre or Oscar was trying to figure out which way to. To go and he couldn't figure it out because George was just moving all over the place. I feel like he. Oscar had a pretty decent start. He was just stuck behind George and yeah, couldn't make it happen.
• 10:51
  Speaker D: Yeah, I did notice on the restart and I don't know why this was, that the. The formation lap for the restart was behind the safety car. Normally they're not behind the safety car, they just go off. So they were going slightly slower, obviously. Then Behrman retired on the formation lap and they had to go. They went round again. There was some craziness in the pits as well, coming out from. Because they came out of the pit lane, didn't they, for the. From the red flag, where I think Lance Stroll, he got to the end of the pit lane and the light was red and so everyone else is going off, around and then they had to wait for the light to go green again.
• 11:36
  Speaker A: You know, I did hear something about like four cars getting held up at one point or something like that.
• 11:43
  Speaker D: Yeah, let's just go with the Aston Martins and the Cadillacs.
• 11:48
  Speaker E: Yeah. Which. Which four cars could possibly be at the back?
• 11:52
  Speaker D: But yeah, so when Bem and pulled off to the side, they were. The guys, like the leaders had been on the grid for a while before everyone caught up and then everyone kind of caught up and got run up on the grid and then they sent them around again. So I don't quite know whether that had something to do with some people getting better starts than others, because you're not putting the right amount of heat in tyres when you're going behind the safety car. Or maybe it was completely irrelevant and it was just something I noticed that didn't affect anyone else's race. But there was a curious thing.
• 12:23
  Speaker A: Is that when Bearman retired, is that why they went around again?
• 12:27
  Speaker D: Yes, they went around again because they needed to get Bearman's car off there. Right just after turn and coming up to 10, just coming into the arena section, I think. 10. 10.
• 12:37
  Speaker E: Yeah.
• 12:39
  Speaker D: Well, I mean, great weekend for Ollie Bearman anyway. I mean, he, he qualified pretty poorly. I think he was starting like 20th or 21st. He was like right at the back and he had somewhat of an anonymous sprint race, which is making Esteban Ocon look fairly keepable for next season, which, especially when you look at Yuuki, our buddy Yuki, we've got to talk about. About him coming in for Hajar. There aren't really many seats on the grid next year. The only one that's really up for any kind of debate is Esteban Ocon. And if Ocon starts outperforming Bearman, who everyone was raving about at the start of the year, it's like, well, I guess Ocon will keep that seat and Yuki's going to have to wait until next year unless Fernando very late in the day decides he's going to retire. And Honda just say, go on, Yuki, get in there.
• 13:31
  Speaker A: Is Carl Pinto confirmed for another year?
• 13:36
  Speaker D: I don't know. He brings a good chunk of money though, doesn't he?
• 13:40
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's like the Checo effect, right? Yeah.
• 13:44
  Speaker D: And you know, he was, he was. Colapinto was quite a long way behind Gasly but that was because Gasly had got all the upgrades on his car. They only had one set of upgrades and so they. On Pierre's car and Colapinto, I mean, it looks like that was a good upgrade because Gasly was way up the. Up the track from Colapinto. Yeah, yeah.
• 14:05
  Speaker A: I mean there were a couple of guys that scored that we don't usually see, obviously. Well, I guess lately we've seen Pierre score a few times but Fernando getting in the points. Is this the second time now this season?
• 14:18
  Speaker E: Right.
• 14:19
  Speaker A: Didn't he get points the last race too? Or am I just totally making that up?
• 14:24
  Speaker E: He definitely got points earlier on in the season.
• 14:27
  Speaker D: There was that one race where they inherited a point from Cadillac.
• 14:31
  Speaker A: Oh, that's right.
• 14:32
  Speaker D: Yeah. Because Checo Perez jump started like twice. A couple of times maybe.
• 14:39
  Speaker E: Yeah. And now he went into the wrong grid position, didn't he?
• 14:43
  Speaker A: That's right.
• 14:44
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 14:47
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 14:47
  Speaker E: Well, no, but yeah, Alonso's definitely scored points previously. I don't know if it was in Belgium, but.
• 14:53
  Speaker A: Yeah, but he won this one. Like he, he got those points. It wasn't inherited to him, you know.
• 14:59
  Speaker E: Absolutely.
• 15:00
  Speaker A: It seemed to be moving in the right direction for the first time in a long time.
• 15:05
  Speaker E: Yeah. So what do we, what do we, I mean, talking about how points were divvied up, what do we think about Mercedes swapping their drivers around? I mean, that's just a definitive statement on how they view Russell and Antonelli. Right.
• 15:19
  Speaker A: I mean, I feel like that's gotta be the choice now. Right.
• 15:23
  Speaker E: This is, I think it's the first time they've actually openly swapped, you know, drivers for that reason.
• 15:31
  Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, George came on and said, is he really on for the win? But I don't think it really, I don't think it was really a case of that because, you know, you've got.
• 15:40
  Speaker E: If you, if the win he's talking about is the world championship, then yes, George, he is.
• 15:44
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 15:46
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 15:47
  Speaker D: So he kind of threw up a token objection. But at the end of the day, they had, they had the Ferraris behind them. Who will cover their strategies?
• 15:59
  Speaker E: They weren't really a threat either. Would they carry on?
• 16:02
  Speaker D: You know, they pitted, they had that extra stop for Kimmy which they couldn't do with George, which, you know, Kimmy was up the road from George and then obviously on a completely different tire strategy. But the one thing with these cars is once you start battling, you just lose all energy and fall into the clutches of the people behind you who then will have more energy than you because you've been fighting and you then become vulnerable. So if Kimmy and George just started squabbling over second and third, it's conceivable that Lewis, who would have got by George had it not been for that late virtual safety car because of the Williams is coming. Coming together. He could have got both of them. So I see why they did it.
• 16:53
  Speaker E: Yeah, just.
• 16:54
  Speaker D: Or is that, or is that just. Am I just being too.
• 16:57
  Speaker E: Oh, no, I see.
• 16:58
  Speaker D: And clinical about it.
• 16:59
  Speaker E: No, I see why they. I see why they did it.
• 17:01
  Speaker D: Let's go for it.
• 17:02
  Speaker E: Exactly. I see. I'm not talking about them. I mean, they could have shut down this fight without switching the positions. They could have said, boys, you're not fighting with each, you know, to, to meet your criteria, but to, but to swap them and say, yeah, give the points to Kimmy because that's, I mean, it's back. We all know that's the best strategy to give Kimmy the, the win. He's leading the world Championship. But just a, just an open declaration by Mercedes they can't hide it anymore that, like, Kimmy's their number one driver.
• 17:30
  Speaker A: They kind of tried to play it off like it wasn't that way, but
• 17:33
  Speaker E: no, no, they didn't. Which is good. Which is the right way to do it.
• 17:36
  Speaker D: And after the race, George was sort of like, yeah, it's fine. Because they were on heavily offset strategies. They were a completely different tire life, things like that. So he threw up somewhat of an objection during the course of the race when it was happening, but. But did exactly as they asked him to. And then after the race he was kind of like, yeah, it was kind of, you know, it was fine.
• 17:54
  Speaker E: Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, if they're, if they're even, at least if they're feigning harmony. The harmony in the Ferrari between the Ferrari driver seems to be diminishing rapidly. Leclerc not pitting right, holding up Hamilton. That's how I saw it.
• 18:11
  Speaker D: Yeah, that's right.
• 18:12
  Speaker A: I mean, I Miss that.
• 18:14
  Speaker D: It was, well, that was what I put on the chat about the thing where it was, where it was like the whole tire strategy. Like they were like what tire should we put on? They're like I have no idea. And. Well, don't you have the. Oh yeah, that was kind of, that was somewhat like they didn't come across as too competent then.
• 18:37
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.
• 18:38
  Speaker D: Yeah. I mean when it came time to actually pit them, the second stop because Hamilton had stopped seven.
• 18:51
  Speaker E: Yeah. He got, he had a lot of laps.
• 18:53
  Speaker D: Newer tires but he had way newer tires.
• 18:55
  Speaker E: Yeah.
• 18:56
  Speaker D: And they were on completely different strategies. And so why they wouldn't say to Charles, Lewis is on much quicker newer tires. Don't hold him up, let him buy. You're going to be pitting in two laps anyway. I don't get it.
• 19:12
  Speaker E: Yeah.
• 19:15
  Speaker D: It cost Lewis a podium.
• 19:17
  Speaker E: I mean I can't, I'm not, I can't completely agree with you but I mean a much better, I mean that was a lot of stuff that happened like you said at the end of the race with the VSC and everything that, that, that played into how it finished. But I mean it was a strategy disaster. You know, whether that was their own decision making or how they would talking. But it seems to be more to do with the drivers. Now Hamilton says. Hamilton asked over the radio whether the team were treating him like a guinea pig.
• 19:43
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 19:44
  Speaker E: Just think a faster use of team orders would have helped him, you know, secure, secure more points. Which I agree with. Yeah, I mean, look, but I think
• 19:52
  Speaker D: it's, it's, it's quite similar to what we saw when Carlos was in the car as well. Right. Charles is, he doesn't really challenge the strategy and control the race from in the car. He drives really, really quickly.
• 20:08
  Speaker E: Don't get me wrong.
• 20:09
  Speaker D: I mean he's a phenomenal driver. But you saw it with Carlos. Carlos was always the one to take the strategy by the scruff of the neck and be challenging and saying I want to do this and having the pit wall tell him why this strategy was what it was and if they thought he was actually giving some useful thing, they'd listen to him.
• 20:26
  Speaker E: Yeah.
• 20:27
  Speaker D: This is exactly the same with Lewis.
• 20:29
  Speaker E: Right.
• 20:30
  Speaker D: And he knows what he wants. He says he knows how to. I mean obviously he's looking after his own interests because he wants to beat his teammate. But he knows how to win.
• 20:42
  Speaker E: Yeah.
• 20:42
  Speaker D: I mean in this case he wouldn't have won but he'd have at least got a podium because he'd have been ahead of George. Well before the virtual safety car from spared former Ferrari driver smashing into his
• 20:54
  Speaker E: own team, don'ty and they got a 10 second penalty for that too man.
• 21:03
  Speaker A: He was last on the road. Right Carlos?
• 21:05
  Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. Hot on the heels of a new deal for both of them. Rumors that Carlos contract is like $30 million which is about 10 times what Alex's was last year. I don't know what Alex has gone to this year but you know, I think we were all probably quite a little bit surprised to see them sign each show given how rubbish their car has been. The only way they could possibly have, have signed this early. I mean I guess it is the time of year that these things kind of happen but they've clearly thrown a bunch of money at them. Yeah, I mean but the car's terrible. But here's some money. Okay.
• 21:43
  Speaker E: Yeah, generational wealth, it's hard to turn down, isn't it?
• 21:48
  Speaker D: I don't think Carlos Sainz's family's poor though.
• 21:51
  Speaker E: That's true. Yeah. Yeah. Wait another time.
• 21:53
  Speaker A: I don't think he has to worry about it.
• 21:55
  Speaker E: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:00
  Speaker A: Well, I mean is there anything really else to say about the, the Williams that needs to be said?
• 22:06
  Speaker D: Not really. I mean it's just been, I don't know, have they cut bait on this car? I hope they have.
• 22:13
  Speaker A: That's what I'm thinking too.
• 22:14
  Speaker D: It's, this year has just been a disaster and they just need to go, you know what, like let's just, let's just focus our efforts on next year now. Figure out what's going on and we're going to build an entirely new car and take the lessons from 2026.
• 22:31
  Speaker A: Yeah. And I mean I guess we, we alluded to him but I mean all things considered stepping in the car for the weekend, you keep getting P11 and you know, I mean I don't remember how close he was to the points but still regardless we gotta give Yuki some props.
• 22:49
  Speaker D: He was behind Pierre. Pierre had been battling with Alonso and was like half a second behind Fernando for probably the last half a dozen laps and Yuki was a second or two behind and just couldn't, just couldn't quite get into the zone where there'd be a three way battle and maybe he could have made some points up but it was a, you know, we love Yuki, he's done a, he's, he's definitely done far more good than harm to his chances of getting whatever seat could open up potentially this into next year. But with only the OCON seat really being the one that's under question. It might be a 2027 thing, you know a resurgence after like look at Michael Hulkenberg. He was out for a couple of years and came back with the German team a year from now. Maybe the, the engine, the Japanese engine could bring him back in but it was good to see him on the grid. I don't know quite what the deal is with Hajar's hand. He injured it broke hairline crack or something. Hairline fracture in his, in his hand from hitting a punching bag during the. During training. Not, not quite as bad as Lance Strolls cycling accident a couple of years ago.
• 24:10
  Speaker A: He used to drink some milk. Yeah.
• 24:13
  Speaker D: So we don't know. I think Hajar's probably going to be back in Monza but it was good to see Yuki and Liam moving up to the big team to exercise the demons of 2025. I thought was he made a decent accounting of himself, you know. Only a second away from Max in qualifying. A second a tenth in a second right from Max in qualifying and a relatively unspectacular race. He was clear of the midfield but couldn't keep up with the guys in front and so naturally came seventh but you know solid weekend for him.
• 24:50
  Speaker A: Yeah, I'll take it. Well I think that brings us to Coops F1 if I'm not.
• 25:00
  Speaker E: Oh yeah. So Cax Coops F1 scores for this week. Three top scorers this week DWC Racing Leslie H and Imad 82 on 260 points and CH Hamilton on 255 overall standings though no change for the top two. Beaver Terro and the original team Williams. But our own Jay Lassie 92 sneaking up three spots into the top three on the podium. Let's go for the first time this year going in the right direction. Toto's Underwash, one of our early season leaders drops out the top 10 down to 11th. I think I'm way down now. Yeah. Nick, you've ever taken me. You're up to 67th. I'm down 67. Don't you'll get us an explicit rating or something or. But yeah. And then what we've got. Yeah, a little under two weeks till Monza.
• 26:11
  Speaker D: So is it.
• 26:12
  Speaker A: Am I right? Is it like a week off and then three in a row and then a week off and three in a row gets crazy.
• 26:20
  Speaker D: I think it's a triple triple header.
• 26:22
  Speaker E: Right?
• 26:22
  Speaker D: I think that's a triple triple like
• 26:25
  Speaker A: yeah, there's like a week off between three triple headers.
• 26:28
  Speaker D: Triple headers.
• 26:29
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 26:29
  Speaker D: I think that's what they said. I may be way off, but yeah, I mean we've got, we've got Monza coming up and that's. Kimmy will get an engine penalty that going to take an angel penalty for him, the Monza. So he'll not be at the front, certainly not for qualifying. So he'll be starting from mid towards the back with their engine. I think he'll make some good progress up. But you know, gents and listeners, maybe Kimyatonally is not the pick for the win next, next race. That's not to say never say never, but it's going to be. I don't think It'll be a McLaren. I don't think it'll be three for three from Lando. Yes, they got the Mercedes engine, but they do have shorter gearing than pretty much everyone else out there on the grid. So they may struggle with top speed. I think again we're going to get one of those races like Silverstone, like Melbourne, like Suzuka, where the cars are going to be running out of energy on, on the straights.
• 27:43
  Speaker E: Right. Clipping. Super clipping.
• 27:45
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 27:45
  Speaker D: I'm not optimistic. I would gladly be proven wrong in my pessimism, but I think we could have one of those, you know, another one of those crazy, you know, crazy yo yo races that we've seen in a couple of different places this year.
• 28:02
  Speaker A: The car's dying like a hundred yards before the. Before the end of the straight.
• 28:07
  Speaker E: Right. Some. You mean some big offset speed differentials, Nick, in weird spots on the track,
• 28:13
  Speaker D: you know, because you could have someone into one of the chicanes getting on the gas a little early and then running out. Or you could have someone having a moment and not being on the gas and then having tons extra energy at some ridiculous point in the track.
• 28:28
  Speaker E: Yeah, yeah.
• 28:29
  Speaker D: The sooner this rule sets over, the better.
• 28:32
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 28:32
  Speaker E: Well, as long as that pendulum swings in Ferrari's favor, I'll take a. A win in Italy for one of the two Ferraris. That's a super long shot. I know, but come on, everybody else
• 28:43
  Speaker A: winning, they always do well there. I mean, Charles. Did Charles get his first win in Monza? He did for Ferrari.
• 28:52
  Speaker D: He has won that. But I don't know if it was
• 28:54
  Speaker E: his first one, but I mean, it's just great. Just a great season so far. Right. Multiple teams winning, multiple drivers winning. You know, you're not.
• 29:03
  Speaker A: What's the point spread now for the championship? I mean, it's.
• 29:06
  Speaker E: I think it's still 50 points between Kimmy and, and Russell and Hamilton, who are both pretty close to each other. Behind.
• 29:13
  Speaker D: I think they're on the same points. I think they're both 59 points. Don't quote me on that. Don't quote me on that.
• 29:18
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, they're both tight at 183.
• 29:20
  Speaker D: And then George and Lewis is like 86.
• 29:24
  Speaker A: Lando is behind those two at 159. And then Charlotte 155.
• 29:30
  Speaker E: Yeah, Lando's almost 100 points behind Antonelli,
• 29:34
  Speaker A: so I think it's like 80 something.
• 29:37
  Speaker E: All right, Jason, he's like, I won't take you rounding up to the next.
• 29:42
  Speaker A: The only reason. The only reason I specify is because at Max at this point last year. Right. Was 100 points back.
• 29:49
  Speaker E: Right. And he made it competitive.
• 29:51
  Speaker D: Yeah, but I think Lando said. Yeah. So all we need is for the. For both the Mercedes to not stop in Qatar while everyone else does and then have a double disqualification in Vegas and we'll be all good.
• 30:05
  Speaker A: Hey, it could be two crashes this time. Instead of that. You never know.
• 30:10
  Speaker E: Yeah, we'll see.
• 30:11
  Speaker D: He has to give up the corner. I had the nose ahead. What is wrong with these people?
• 30:18
  Speaker B: Thanks for listening to the Undercuts review of the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and join us next time for our review of the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid.
• 30:32
  Speaker A: We'll see you there.