Latest / Pit Talk / Is McLaren choking on the drivers title? Qatar GP Review

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Is McLaren choking on the drivers title? Qatar GP Review · Pit Talk

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:03
Speaker 1: On today's episode, Max Verstappen wins the cut Out Grand
0:07
Speaker 1: Prix to head into this weekend's Abu Dhabi Finale just
0:11
Speaker 1: twelve points off the championship lead. But how did McLaren
0:15
Speaker 1: cough up what should have been an easy victory for
0:17
Speaker 1: Osco Piastre. That's left the Australian on the title outer.
0:21
Speaker 1: My name is Michael Lamonado. It's great to have your
0:24
Speaker 1: company and the company of my co host. He knows
0:27
Speaker 1: finales in Abu Dhabia never controversial. It's Matt Payson.
0:31
Speaker 2: When you started saying Abu Dhabi finale, then Michael, I
0:34
Speaker 2: just sadden got a bit of a chill. So I
0:36
Speaker 2: was sitting in this exact seat in twenty twenty one
0:38
Speaker 2: with my head in my hands, thinking this isn't happening,
0:41
Speaker 2: is it? But I would like to posit at this
0:42
Speaker 2: point that I think this podcast is inherently unfair and
0:45
Speaker 2: not really going with Papaya rules, because why is it
0:49
Speaker 2: you always get to go first and I have to
0:50
Speaker 2: go second. That's not fair. I think I need to
0:53
Speaker 2: be the first voice heard on the next twelve months
0:55
Speaker 2: of podcasts to address this terrible imbalance. But thank you
0:59
Speaker 2: very much.
0:59
Speaker 1: Indeed, yeah, oh very good. Great to have your company.
1:04
Speaker 1: He's a question that m kaids you have to face.
1:06
Speaker 1: If one of the drivers wins the title, it seems
1:08
Speaker 1: pretty unfair on the other one, doesn't it. Look that's
1:11
Speaker 1: a question for well a few days time. I suppose
1:14
Speaker 1: we've got to start with the cut out Grand Prix
1:15
Speaker 1: because it has very much set us up for a
1:18
Speaker 1: fascinating final round. The title is going to the wire.
1:21
Speaker 1: Orlando Norris did not quinch it in Katar and what
1:24
Speaker 1: was a relatively muted performance I think we might get
1:27
Speaker 1: to that in a second from him, not a dire one,
1:29
Speaker 1: but certainly not the oh obviously not the kind of
1:31
Speaker 1: performance that clinched the championship. But of course the big
1:34
Speaker 1: takeaway from this round was, wow, what did McLaren do
1:37
Speaker 1: to put itself in this position? Because in the Grand Prix,
1:41
Speaker 1: and without even mentioning that, Oscar Piastri had the most
1:44
Speaker 1: convincing weekend he's had in months, led every session, accept
1:47
Speaker 1: the Grand Prix at the end, but seemed likely he
1:50
Speaker 1: was going to be losing points to one of his
1:51
Speaker 1: title rivals, maybe it would only be twelve points back
1:54
Speaker 1: to Oscar Piastre, and yet it's twelve points back to Max. Forstaffan,
1:58
Speaker 1: I think the worst amandable outcome for him because McLaren
2:02
Speaker 1: did not pit behind the safety card. It's the story
2:04
Speaker 1: undoubtedly you've read about all over the place by now
2:07
Speaker 1: and heard plenty about this. The team didn't really offer
2:10
Speaker 1: a very compelling explanation about why it didn't happen. Didn't
2:14
Speaker 1: think everyone else would pit despite everyone else pitting. What
2:19
Speaker 1: was your immediate reaction to seeing what became one of
2:22
Speaker 1: the great strategic hours of the year.
2:25
Speaker 2: It's funny like we could just be rehashing last week's
2:27
Speaker 2: podcast again. We're talking about a race as in Las Vegas,
2:30
Speaker 2: where not very much happened except for mclaren' stuffing something up.
2:33
Speaker 2: Because in Las Vegas, obviously it was the plank were
2:35
Speaker 2: issue where both McLaren's were disqualified and the points they
2:38
Speaker 2: lost and so on and so forth. But to my mind,
2:41
Speaker 2: I was actually not surprised that McLaren didn't pit behind
2:45
Speaker 2: the safety car in Katar, because it seemed like a
2:47
Speaker 2: very McLaren thing to do because of where their cars
2:51
Speaker 2: were on the track. You knew it was the wrong
2:53
Speaker 2: decision the moment that it happened, and I did wonder, oh,
2:56
Speaker 2: are they going to at least then try and come
2:58
Speaker 2: in at the end of the next lap and try
3:00
Speaker 2: and do something about it. Because of the way this
3:03
Speaker 2: race had to play out with the mandat tree twenty
3:05
Speaker 2: five lap maximum stint lengths, you could see instantly when
3:09
Speaker 2: they didn't pit, how they'd snooked themselves and if they
3:12
Speaker 2: were going to be able to engineer their way out
3:14
Speaker 2: of it. And if there's one thing that we know
3:16
Speaker 2: about Formula one and twenty twenty five is if you
3:18
Speaker 2: prize the door open one millimeter for Max Verstappen, he's
3:22
Speaker 2: coming through it and then he's blocking the door so
3:24
Speaker 2: you can't get back through because he is not going
3:27
Speaker 2: to make a mistake from a position of advantage, particularly
3:30
Speaker 2: when you've handed it to him. And we're in this
3:33
Speaker 2: scarcely believable situation now where I'm still stunned this is
3:37
Speaker 2: still a live championship fight, given that the Constructor's title
3:40
Speaker 2: was one six rounds ago in Singapore, and here we
3:44
Speaker 2: are going into an Abu Dhabi finale where it's very,
3:49
Speaker 2: very possible that Max Forstappen could be a five time
3:52
Speaker 2: world champion on Sunday night in Abu Dhabi, and that
3:55
Speaker 2: is not something that we could even half seriously say
3:59
Speaker 2: what six weeks ago, let alone when he was one
4:01
Speaker 2: hundred and four points off the series lead back after
4:03
Speaker 2: I think the Dutch GP. It's just it's remarkable yet
4:06
Speaker 2: completely predictable at the same time.
4:08
Speaker 1: Well, the Seventh started the week by saying McLaren mistakes
4:11
Speaker 1: for anything keeping him in the title, so very much
4:13
Speaker 1: proved correct at the end of this because it may
4:15
Speaker 1: be the thing that in fact puts him in that
4:17
Speaker 1: title winning position. Considering what we've seen this weekend, there
4:22
Speaker 1: are a couple of I guess elements to this one.
4:24
Speaker 1: The first one that I think we've got to unpack
4:26
Speaker 1: is this idea, Well, the reasoning behind McLaren missing what
4:30
Speaker 1: literally everybody else saw, which was that pitting. Considering the
4:34
Speaker 1: stint maximums that you mentioned there, twenty five laps seemed
4:37
Speaker 1: like the obvious choice at a track where I think
4:39
Speaker 1: we can say, after what's it been three races now
4:42
Speaker 1: excluding the twenty twenty one edition, to the race where
4:45
Speaker 1: we can see that overtaking is pretty much impossible at
4:47
Speaker 1: this circuit as your ascopiasity on Andre Kimmy Antonelli, I
4:52
Speaker 1: guess get to answer a little bit later. I suppose
4:54
Speaker 1: the track vision is extremely important. Getting a free pit
4:57
Speaker 1: stop out of this is very important. The team brought
5:00
Speaker 1: up on its own volition, said it wasn't the deciding factor.
5:04
Speaker 1: What was influential that there would be one driver that
5:07
Speaker 1: would lose out from this position, and that was obviously Bilando.
5:10
Speaker 1: Norris was running third at the time behind Maxistaff and
5:12
Speaker 1: qualified second, lost to place to Max off the line.
5:15
Speaker 1: Double stacking might have cost him a place, but more
5:18
Speaker 1: likely that would be because of McLaren's position the pit lane.
5:21
Speaker 1: At the start of the pit lane would lose positions
5:23
Speaker 1: to cars that would be filtering through in the fast lane,
5:26
Speaker 1: and you're obliged to obviously not cause a crash in
5:28
Speaker 1: a vast lane, never filter behind other cars. And that's
5:32
Speaker 1: probably true. He probably would have lost places, just like
5:34
Speaker 1: he then lost places afterwards through pitting when everyone else had. Anyway,
5:38
Speaker 1: though for me this is almost obviously this has been
5:42
Speaker 1: the talking point after the race, but I think it's
5:44
Speaker 1: almost a little bit understated how much of an escalation
5:47
Speaker 1: this is on the way McLaren has been approaching this
5:50
Speaker 1: concept of fairness, the Papaya rules. We've talked about them,
5:53
Speaker 1: because this is for me beyond correcting a problem, Isn't
5:58
Speaker 1: that The biggest interval we've seen before this was the
6:01
Speaker 1: team orders in Italy, which, for all the debate about them,
6:05
Speaker 1: you can argue, well, McLaren did make an error and
6:09
Speaker 1: in its mind was attempting to correct it, and you
6:11
Speaker 1: can understand the inherent logic in that, even if you
6:13
Speaker 1: want to disagree with it. Here nothing had happened, There
6:16
Speaker 1: was nothing that had happened except for the fact that
6:18
Speaker 1: Norris was running, was not running in the lead and
6:22
Speaker 1: would potentially lose positions. For that to influence the team's thinking,
6:27
Speaker 1: I think is yeah, as I say, quite a significant
6:30
Speaker 1: step forward in how interventionist McLaren is willing to run
6:33
Speaker 1: its races to try to preserve in inverted commas fairness.
6:38
Speaker 2: Well, you mentioned the monster thing. That's interesting because I
6:40
Speaker 2: think that happened with about seven laps to go in
6:42
Speaker 2: that race, when the race was basically done. The positions
6:45
Speaker 2: were pretty much frozen at that point. That Stephen was
6:47
Speaker 2: out front, he wasn't being caught. That's in the last
6:49
Speaker 2: seven laps of the race. We're talking here in the
6:51
Speaker 2: first seven laps of a race that hasn't really developed yet,
6:54
Speaker 2: and you're talking about the concept of fairness. They've given
6:57
Speaker 2: away a win here. I find it very, very hard
7:01
Speaker 2: to believe that Piastre was going to lose on Sunday
7:03
Speaker 2: and can given the form he'd beat him for the
7:05
Speaker 2: entire weekend and the way he'd completely mastered the start
7:07
Speaker 2: of that race. But you've given away a win. You've
7:10
Speaker 2: had Piastre qualify ahead of Norris, You've had Norris lose
7:13
Speaker 2: a position into the first quarter, which was possibly the
7:15
Speaker 2: most predictable thing that happened on Sunday. So Piastre has
7:19
Speaker 2: got himself in a position of advantage you're prepared to
7:22
Speaker 2: potentially and then obviously it did happen, throw a victory
7:26
Speaker 2: away because of fairness. When one driver has been outperformed
7:29
Speaker 2: by the other driver over the course of race weekend.
7:31
Speaker 2: Now the driver doing the outperforming this weekend was Oscar Piastre.
7:35
Speaker 2: That hasn't been something that's happened for quite some time.
7:37
Speaker 2: This was Piastre's weekend from start to finish, led practice,
7:42
Speaker 2: qualified on pile for the sprint, led every lap of
7:44
Speaker 2: the sprint and won the sprint and took pole position
7:46
Speaker 2: for the Grand Prix. They've thrown away a victory because
7:50
Speaker 2: of this concept of fairness. And the crazy part about
7:53
Speaker 2: this is when you look at the way these points
7:55
Speaker 2: have shaken out, Piastre's actually copped it twice here because
7:58
Speaker 2: not only has he lost a win, he's actually lost
8:01
Speaker 2: a point to Norris based on where they were probably
8:03
Speaker 2: going to be finishing the race. If they had finished
8:06
Speaker 2: one to where they started, that would have been a
8:08
Speaker 2: seven point advantage for Piastri. He's actually only got a
8:11
Speaker 2: six point advantage over Norris in Qatar because of the
8:13
Speaker 2: way this race shook out. So, you know, concept of fairness,
8:16
Speaker 2: he's actually been penalized twice, He's lost a race and
8:19
Speaker 2: he's lost a point because we're pursuing something based on
8:22
Speaker 2: this inverted commas fairness and the whole thing. I mean,
8:26
Speaker 2: we've talked about this for probably far too any podcast
8:29
Speaker 2: at this point because it's been going on all season.
8:31
Speaker 2: The whole thing has been so over engineered to pursue
8:35
Speaker 2: this concept of fairness, and you can't have fairness in
8:41
Speaker 2: a sport where there are nine other teams and eighteen
8:44
Speaker 2: other drivers tried to beat your two drivers and just
8:47
Speaker 2: ask everyone else to sit out so they can just
8:49
Speaker 2: race amongst themselves and then you can control the narrative.
8:51
Speaker 2: This is so difficult to control the narrative with so
8:54
Speaker 2: many moving parts. The concept is admirable when you're sitting
8:59
Speaker 2: around table talking about how you're going to manage your drivers.
9:02
Speaker 2: In practice, it's more or less completely impractical. And the
9:06
Speaker 2: wider ramifications of this now is that we are in
9:09
Speaker 2: a championship situation for Abu Dhabi where the thing that
9:12
Speaker 2: McLaren has been desperate to avoid all year I eat
9:15
Speaker 2: team orders, prioritizing one driver over another. They may have
9:20
Speaker 2: to now do this to win a World Championship that
9:23
Speaker 2: frankly should have been won two months ago. And as
9:27
Speaker 2: much as Zach Brown has said numerous times this year
9:29
Speaker 2: that they prefer to you know, they'll will happily give
9:32
Speaker 2: up the World Championship to Max Verstappan if it means
9:34
Speaker 2: that they pursue this concept of fairness between their two drivers.
9:39
Speaker 2: We talked about this last week. I still think it's
9:41
Speaker 2: completely insane to throw away a driver's championship you haven't
9:44
Speaker 2: won one for seventeen years, and you're going to willingly
9:49
Speaker 2: just stand back and go, oh, well, at least we
9:51
Speaker 2: were fair. Then History records the winners. History doesn't necessarily
9:56
Speaker 2: record how you won twenty twenty one. But to say
10:01
Speaker 2: that you're willing to go ahead and give up a
10:03
Speaker 2: world championship to pursue this concept of fairness, it was
10:05
Speaker 2: insane when it was said, and it's even crazier now
10:09
Speaker 2: given what we've got ahead of us in Aberdhabi.
10:11
Speaker 1: Well, don't forget. Zach Brown also said he'd be comfortable
10:14
Speaker 1: losing the title so long as McLaren throw it away.
10:16
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure he's totally comfortable with what's going
10:20
Speaker 1: on now because it feels a lot like this throwing
10:22
Speaker 1: it away.
10:22
Speaker 2: Well, if you want to be more citical about this,
10:25
Speaker 2: they don't want to favor one driver or the other.
10:27
Speaker 2: They are favoring one driver at the moment. It's just
10:29
Speaker 2: that driver's Max for Stappin. Yeah, favoring a driver from
10:33
Speaker 2: another team by giving him an unfair advantage against their
10:35
Speaker 2: own two drivers by continually doing absolutely ridiculous things.
10:38
Speaker 1: Yes, both drivers copying absurd penalties, so you can't say
10:42
Speaker 1: that's not fair. But The problem is that in disadvantaging
10:45
Speaker 1: both drivers and trying, I guess to maintain the status
10:50
Speaker 1: quo I suppose is what this was targeted at, and
10:52
Speaker 1: by gambling the victory. And if the team maybe didn't
10:55
Speaker 1: think it was gambling as drastically as it was, because
10:58
Speaker 1: maybe it thought it had the car pace to over
11:00
Speaker 1: come the track characteristics that been overtaking was so difficulty here.
11:03
Speaker 1: But it is Oscar, as you say, it's Piastro who
11:06
Speaker 1: bears the brunt of that decision. I think even Norris,
11:10
Speaker 1: whether or not he was admitting it in this way
11:11
Speaker 1: or not, but said once he'd fallen behind, the sappen
11:15
Speaker 1: at the start, once a safety cart came out, no
11:16
Speaker 1: matter what happened, he was in trouble as the next
11:19
Speaker 1: driver on the track because either they pitted him and
11:21
Speaker 1: he was going to lose position in to the pit lane,
11:23
Speaker 1: or as again did happen at the second stop, he
11:25
Speaker 1: was going to lose positions because that's just the nature
11:28
Speaker 1: of the way the strategy is going to work out.
11:30
Speaker 1: But the problem, of course, if you're an Oscar Pastri fan,
11:32
Speaker 1: is that the adoption they chose was the one that
11:34
Speaker 1: also heard Oscar, not just Norris for being the second
11:37
Speaker 1: best McLaren driver this weekend, and I think that that's
11:41
Speaker 1: that for me, is something and obviously they're going to
11:43
Speaker 1: review this, and they admitted afterwards that wrong. They didn't
11:45
Speaker 1: try to defend this decision, obviously, and it was pretty
11:47
Speaker 1: clear that would have been talking about it for the
11:48
Speaker 1: rest of the race on the pit wall presumably, but
11:51
Speaker 1: I think for the first time, and you could tell
11:54
Speaker 1: Oscar was pretty devastated afterwards. I think you've got to
11:57
Speaker 1: feel like you have been pretty hard done by by
12:01
Speaker 1: the team in a way that I think is unjustifiable
12:03
Speaker 1: because if there's an element of this of trying to
12:06
Speaker 1: minimize the damage to Norris, even if that is not
12:08
Speaker 1: an expression of bias, because I think that's maybe a
12:10
Speaker 1: little bit too easy to buy into. That's I mean,
12:13
Speaker 1: that is almost almost certainly we're gonna get to Abu
12:17
Speaker 1: Dhabi a little bit later on. I mean, it certainly
12:19
Speaker 1: put him on the title back foot, but it's all
12:21
Speaker 1: it almost certainly means now that he's not going to
12:24
Speaker 1: win the time. It's an extraordinary twist of fortune in
12:28
Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi for him to end up with the championship
12:30
Speaker 1: and a lot of that is going to be down
12:32
Speaker 1: to a decision McLaren made in Abu Dhabi that because
12:35
Speaker 1: they didn't want to hurt Norris too much.
12:37
Speaker 2: Yeah. Completely, And this is the problem now because you've
12:39
Speaker 2: got this ticking clock where the races towards the end
12:41
Speaker 2: of the season are counting down. Yes, it would have
12:44
Speaker 2: still been a mistake if you'd done this one round two,
12:46
Speaker 2: round three, rounds ago, but you've still got time and
12:49
Speaker 2: races and points to try and make this up. It's
12:52
Speaker 2: now gone from being something that was improbable but not
12:56
Speaker 2: impossible for Piastre to something that history shows you is
12:59
Speaker 2: almost most impossible. Given the scale of the deficit. Sixteen
13:02
Speaker 2: points behind, we're twenty five still to play for. And
13:05
Speaker 2: that's why it was such an overreach, because you know, okay,
13:08
Speaker 2: you're trying not to penalize Norris, but then you are
13:12
Speaker 2: doubly penalizing your driver who has been the class of
13:15
Speaker 2: the field, not just within your own team over the
13:17
Speaker 2: course of a weekend. But it also has statistical ramifications
13:21
Speaker 2: where you're almost ruling them out of the championship fight
13:24
Speaker 2: by doing so. And as you said, like if there
13:27
Speaker 2: were other teams that had gone down the path of
13:28
Speaker 2: not pitting. It was a strategy so obvious that every
13:33
Speaker 2: single other team did it. Even look at the way
13:36
Speaker 2: the race played out. It's fifty seven laps you've got
13:38
Speaker 2: to do two twenty five lapsed ins on tires. Even
13:41
Speaker 2: the mats was in the most obvious decision of all time,
13:45
Speaker 2: and with the race kind of frozen in status here
13:47
Speaker 2: because of the way this track is, as you said,
13:49
Speaker 2: like the cars look fantastic around here, it's a rubbish
13:51
Speaker 2: for whel the one track because you can't overtake at all,
13:54
Speaker 2: And so everyone was going to be locked into the strategy.
13:56
Speaker 2: But there was no other variable that was going to
13:59
Speaker 2: unless you got subsequent safety cars. There was no other
14:02
Speaker 2: variable that was going to change the outcome of this race.
14:04
Speaker 2: It was an absolute slammed up to do what nine
14:07
Speaker 2: of the other ten teams did, and McLaren again has
14:10
Speaker 2: just been guilty of completely overthinking this.
14:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, remark well, and even you say other safety cars
14:14
Speaker 1: could have saved them, but they would have to have
14:16
Speaker 1: turned up in a specific lap window when they were
14:18
Speaker 1: still leaving the race during the overlap. The odds were
14:21
Speaker 1: still off that that saving them, so really remarkable turn
14:25
Speaker 1: of events. Unfortunately for McLaren. The spotlight is very much
14:27
Speaker 1: on them, and it means that well Norris's title lead
14:30
Speaker 1: is under the same threat, but it's under threat now
14:32
Speaker 1: by a driver from another team, So now the odds
14:35
Speaker 1: of McLaren not walking away with the driver's title are heightened.
14:38
Speaker 1: A good recovery in the end from Max from what
14:40
Speaker 1: started as a little bit of a difficult weekend looking
14:43
Speaker 1: sour Paolo esque, admittedly without the dire qualifying result so
14:46
Speaker 1: thereabouts to capitalize. But what I really enjoyed this weekend,
14:50
Speaker 1: and this is going to continue through the rest of
14:52
Speaker 1: the week, is Red Bull feels like they are in
14:55
Speaker 1: their elements now. And I don't mean that simply in
14:58
Speaker 1: terms of performance, because I think there's still probably half
15:01
Speaker 1: a step behind McLaren. We didn't strikeing distance, maybe, but
15:04
Speaker 1: only thereabouts. But they must be feeling like this is
15:09
Speaker 1: very familiar to them. They're heading into a title decider.
15:11
Speaker 1: Max Vestaffan's got the momentum, He's clearly very pleased to
15:14
Speaker 1: be there. The only difference I suppose is the first
15:17
Speaker 1: time they've got to the end of the season in
15:19
Speaker 1: contention of the championship. But having written off those odds
15:22
Speaker 1: twice in the past four or five months.
15:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you can't blame them for writing it off
15:27
Speaker 2: because in any other situation they were just being honest.
15:30
Speaker 2: We don't really have a chancey, you could finish an
15:32
Speaker 2: honorable second. But you mentioned they're in their element. To
15:35
Speaker 2: my mind, Red Bull are the best disruptors in Formula
15:38
Speaker 2: one and they are absolutely in their element here and
15:41
Speaker 2: we don't even have the Christian Horner element of taking
15:44
Speaker 2: a very large wooden spoon out and stirring the pot
15:47
Speaker 2: even more. But they've got this attitude and quite rightly
15:51
Speaker 2: championship swagger about them because they've won the last four
15:53
Speaker 2: World Championships. They love disrupting and just picking at the
15:59
Speaker 2: low hanging fruit being provided here by McLaren. Because even
16:02
Speaker 2: Verstappen's little snide comment on the weekend where it's like, well,
16:05
Speaker 2: if I was driving a McLaren, I have won this
16:07
Speaker 2: thing months ago, and you can laugh and sort of say,
16:10
Speaker 2: well that's a bit often a bit of arrogance and
16:12
Speaker 2: what have you. But most of the time I just
16:14
Speaker 2: looked at it and went, yeah, this would have been over
16:15
Speaker 2: races ago, it would have been done already. And Verstapen
16:19
Speaker 2: has this very I mean, you've dealt with him from
16:22
Speaker 2: a media point of view, you know what he's like
16:23
Speaker 2: in that spades are called spades. There's no dancing around
16:26
Speaker 2: the edges here, you know, whether it's a nationalistic thing
16:28
Speaker 2: or just the way he's wide. He'll say something and
16:31
Speaker 2: just put it out there and on face value or
16:33
Speaker 2: you know, words on a page. It's like that's a
16:35
Speaker 2: little bit harsh or a little bit confrontational. But I
16:38
Speaker 2: find that he only speaks the truth, and sometimes the
16:42
Speaker 2: truth is uncomfortable to hear, and he knows the psychological
16:46
Speaker 2: little barbs that you can throw in these sorts of situations.
16:49
Speaker 2: And quite frankly, if Max Vastapen does not win the
16:51
Speaker 2: World Championship, no one's opinion of him or what Red
16:54
Speaker 2: Bull has done over the back part of this year
16:56
Speaker 2: is going to change at all. This is the freest
16:59
Speaker 2: of free swings for the Stappen and for red Bull.
17:02
Speaker 2: Who knew that the Stappen was the sport's best underdog.
17:05
Speaker 2: We just thought he was the sports best champion and
17:07
Speaker 2: that's something that we've actually got to learn this year
17:09
Speaker 2: of how good he is when he is the underdog.
17:12
Speaker 2: But like I said before, this thing should have been
17:14
Speaker 2: done months ago, and it's quite remarkable that it's not
17:17
Speaker 2: at this point.
17:17
Speaker 1: As I said, sets us up really tremendously, cuta set
17:20
Speaker 1: us up really tremendously for a season for Nale. This weekend,
17:24
Speaker 1: we're gonna look ahead to Abadami in just a second,
17:26
Speaker 1: but before we do, we must look to move of
17:28
Speaker 1: the week, brought to you by Shannon's terrible track for it,
17:32
Speaker 1: But there were some moves. We've got a sprint at
17:34
Speaker 1: least in there as well as there's a little bit
17:36
Speaker 1: extra action. I suppose. Where are you going to go
17:38
Speaker 1: with this one?
17:39
Speaker 2: Speaking of races where nothing happened that spread my goodness,
17:42
Speaker 2: But isn't it funny like we're coming to the second
17:44
Speaker 2: that there's been so much fallout from a Grand Prix
17:46
Speaker 2: as there was in Las Vegas, and very little of
17:48
Speaker 2: it's got to do with what actually happened on the track.
17:51
Speaker 1: Yes, I know it, Katar feels like I think we've
17:53
Speaker 1: said it before, aning but it's a race always forgettable
17:56
Speaker 1: at this point of the year, but it's a race
17:57
Speaker 1: you have to do to get to the end of
17:59
Speaker 1: the season.
18:00
Speaker 2: Correct. Yeah, it's a bit like that. It's the one
18:01
Speaker 2: we had to have. Indeed, there's some really obvious moves
18:04
Speaker 2: of the week here, like McLaren's move not to put
18:06
Speaker 2: its drivers or Red Bulls move to send its chief
18:10
Speaker 2: STRATEGI just how to Schmitz up onto the podium, not
18:12
Speaker 2: because she came up with some genius strategy that and
18:14
Speaker 2: able them to have the win. But that was just
18:16
Speaker 2: another little hand grenade throat in the direction of McLaren,
18:18
Speaker 2: which I kind of liked. But I'm going to go
18:20
Speaker 2: with something you definitely haven't gone with here because I'm
18:22
Speaker 2: going to give you some stuff to pick at. But
18:25
Speaker 2: Carlos Science finishing third in this race, that assures Williams
18:29
Speaker 2: of finishing fifth in the Constructors Championship. Speaking of moves,
18:33
Speaker 2: that's Williams's best Constructors Championship finish in eight years. So
18:38
Speaker 2: they've got one hundred and thirty seven points now. They
18:40
Speaker 2: had one hundred and thirty eight in twenty sixteen, so
18:42
Speaker 2: you would back that they would beat that by the
18:43
Speaker 2: end of the season. And to my mind, the way
18:46
Speaker 2: Carlos Science managed this race from the cockpit, this is
18:49
Speaker 2: why you employ someone like Carlos Science for what is
18:52
Speaker 2: a mid grid team now, because he is masterful in
18:55
Speaker 2: situations like this. And look, speaking of moves, Williams scored
19:00
Speaker 2: seventeen points last year in twenty twenty four, and Carl
19:04
Speaker 2: Sigen's almost beat that by himself on the Sunday night
19:07
Speaker 2: in Qatar. So hat tip to Williams. No, they're not
19:10
Speaker 2: the Williams that we knew and loved and grew up
19:12
Speaker 2: with in all of that, but they are a very
19:14
Speaker 2: very respectable Formula One team. Now for them to secure
19:17
Speaker 2: their best result in nearly a decade, I thought moving
19:20
Speaker 2: up the Constructor's standings. I think that, to my mind
19:22
Speaker 2: is move of the weekend, a race where very very
19:24
Speaker 2: little happened. But I'm assuming Williams isn't on your short
19:28
Speaker 2: list of things to talk about. But I'm sure you'll
19:30
Speaker 2: have something good for me.
19:31
Speaker 1: No good talk topic, though, I think, is Brighton saying
19:33
Speaker 1: with my spread check on, they've scored the same number
19:35
Speaker 1: of points as Ferrari in the last three rounds. Is
19:37
Speaker 1: that right?
19:38
Speaker 2: Well, caveat that, but I saying that's not hard.
19:41
Speaker 1: But yes, no, yeah, that's green. Ferrari also locked into fourth,
19:45
Speaker 1: just as it happened on the Constructor's champage of terrible weekend. No,
19:48
Speaker 1: my move of the week, it's a multi move of
19:50
Speaker 1: the week, and it goes like this. Andrea Kimi Antonelli
19:54
Speaker 1: makes a mistake of turn. Ten Lando Norris passes him
19:56
Speaker 1: very important in the championship, by the way, that could
19:58
Speaker 1: really make a Differencelmot Marco calls it deliberate. Toto Wolf
20:02
Speaker 1: calls Helmut Marco brainless. Red Bull does not quite apologize
20:06
Speaker 1: for it, but does issue a somewhat scathing press release afterwards.
20:11
Speaker 1: I feel like this series of events has happened multiple
20:14
Speaker 1: times before, usually with Helmet Marco saying something deeply questionable,
20:19
Speaker 1: borderline offensive. And then what I really like is just
20:22
Speaker 1: the move at the end by Red Bull that has
20:24
Speaker 1: to someone in the media time says we can't let
20:27
Speaker 1: this just go. We have to respond. But because of
20:30
Speaker 1: Helmet Marco's position as a director of the team and
20:34
Speaker 1: a direct employee of the Austrian business, can't criticize him either,
20:39
Speaker 1: and obviously Helmet mark ok Is issued an apology of
20:42
Speaker 1: sorts via a German language website, but won't publicly say
20:46
Speaker 1: anything about it. This is the best they can do.
20:50
Speaker 2: You get the sense someone in Redbulls comms department probably
20:52
Speaker 2: has a document that's a template that's called non apology
20:55
Speaker 2: and apology dot doc or something, and they just basically
21:00
Speaker 2: drag it out and change the date and time and
21:02
Speaker 2: everything else. Help with Marco at this point is kind
21:05
Speaker 2: of like the uncle that gets invited over for Christmas
21:08
Speaker 2: dinner no one really has seen since last Christmas, and
21:11
Speaker 2: you'll probably have one or two sherries too early in
21:13
Speaker 2: the afternoon to be asleep in the armchair and maybe
21:15
Speaker 2: say something a bit questionable or you know, bring up
21:17
Speaker 2: something to happen fourteen years ago that nobody wants to hear.
21:20
Speaker 2: It's the most obvious thing of all time. You could
21:22
Speaker 2: see the on board with Antonelli that he clearly was struggling,
21:26
Speaker 2: it had gone off the track. But to come up
21:28
Speaker 2: with that, and then, I mean, I think the worst
21:31
Speaker 2: part about all this, if just you've obviously read about
21:33
Speaker 2: this as well, just the absolute torrent of abuse that
21:36
Speaker 2: Antonelli has taken on social media because an eighty year
21:40
Speaker 2: old who probably doesn't own a mobile vone has decided
21:42
Speaker 2: to just go off tap about something like this. It
21:44
Speaker 2: was unfortunate that, you know, in twenty twenty five, these
21:47
Speaker 2: are the ramifications of saying things before you think it
21:50
Speaker 2: was clearly ridiculous. Nobody else actually thought that was the case,
21:54
Speaker 2: and very on brand and very on brand by Red
21:57
Speaker 2: Bull with the non apology apology. But I did enjoy
22:00
Speaker 2: the Toto Wolf dismissile of the whole thing was possibly
22:04
Speaker 2: the highlight of the entire thing.
22:06
Speaker 1: I just enjoy reading the word brainless. Describing as brainless,
22:12
Speaker 1: I just thought was very good.
22:14
Speaker 2: But also, like me, you probably read every single Toto
22:17
Speaker 2: Wolf quote in his accent, and that's the best part
22:20
Speaker 2: about it. Toto Wolve's got this big physical presence about him,
22:22
Speaker 2: very tall guy, a very very distinctive voice, and the
22:26
Speaker 2: audio of that you could just imagine him saying it,
22:28
Speaker 2: and how disceive me would have been. That just only
22:30
Speaker 2: added to the humor with the whole thing.
22:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I think when Tota Wilf really wants to,
22:34
Speaker 1: he can deliver a high quality insult in a very
22:37
Speaker 1: forceful way. Sure can, And I think that that was
22:40
Speaker 1: a good example of it. So an interesting, I mean
22:43
Speaker 1: that was well, look, it was a move Norris did
22:45
Speaker 1: pass Antonelli. Those two points could be very important to
22:48
Speaker 1: his championship hopes because let's look to Abu Dhabi now,
22:51
Speaker 1: where the title will be decided this weekend, not for
22:55
Speaker 1: the first time in Abu Dhabi, probably not for the
22:57
Speaker 1: last time, hopefully not as controversial as the previous home
23:00
Speaker 1: but look will and see how it's going to go down.
23:03
Speaker 1: Let me tell you the points how this can go down.
23:07
Speaker 1: Orlando Norris will win the championship if he finishes on
23:10
Speaker 1: the podium. That much is clear. And that's why those
23:13
Speaker 1: two points could have been important, because otherwise that would
23:17
Speaker 1: not have been enough. But for Max Vistappan to win
23:19
Speaker 1: the title, he needs to win the race with Norris
23:21
Speaker 1: no higher than fourth. Or he can finish second, with
23:24
Speaker 1: Norris no higher than eighth and Piastre no better than third.
23:27
Speaker 1: Or he can finish third with Norris no higher than
23:29
Speaker 1: ninth and Piastre no higher than fourth. He cannot win
23:32
Speaker 1: it he finishes fourth or lower four Oscar Piastree, it's
23:36
Speaker 1: much more constricted. Unfortunately. He can win the race with
23:40
Speaker 1: Norris no higher than sixth. He can finish second, with
23:44
Speaker 1: Norris no higher than tenth, and for Stappen no higher
23:47
Speaker 1: than fourth. He cannot win it if he finishes third
23:51
Speaker 1: or lower. Those are the permutations narrow path to victory
23:55
Speaker 1: for both of them for Staffans though first. With Norris
24:00
Speaker 1: so higher than fourth, that feels very much within the
24:02
Speaker 1: realms of.
24:03
Speaker 2: Possibility, absolutely feels doable. And we talked before about the
24:08
Speaker 2: looming specter of do we have to institute tea wards
24:11
Speaker 2: after trying desperately to avoid it for the past twenty
24:13
Speaker 2: three rounds, there is a there's a situation here that
24:18
Speaker 2: I personally think Verstapa would is going to win the race,
24:21
Speaker 2: because that's pretty much what he does at this point
24:24
Speaker 2: of the season. Imagine a situation where you've got Pastre
24:27
Speaker 2: three Norris four towards the end of the race and
24:30
Speaker 2: you will have to swap those drivers around to stop
24:32
Speaker 2: Max forstaf and winning the world title, wouldn't that? I
24:35
Speaker 2: mean Abu Dhabi races, as we know, are generally pretty
24:37
Speaker 2: dreadful unless we get Hollywood safety cars at the end.
24:40
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty one weekly mention of Hollywood safety cars
24:44
Speaker 2: or other circumstances. Can you imagine the hand ringing that's
24:49
Speaker 2: going to go on on the McLaren pitwall if that
24:52
Speaker 2: is the situation towards the end of that race, because
24:54
Speaker 2: they will be so desperate to not ask Piastre to
24:58
Speaker 2: move over to allow his team mate to in the
25:00
Speaker 2: World Championship. It's a really interesting situation for Piastre in
25:04
Speaker 2: and off the moment that then what it means longer term,
25:06
Speaker 2: and you know we mentioned before McLaren hasn't won a
25:09
Speaker 2: driver's championship since two thousand and eight. It's really delicately
25:13
Speaker 2: poised because of the fact that you look at the
25:17
Speaker 2: form guide of these three drivers coming in, and also
25:19
Speaker 2: the fact that the fact that Lando Norris has got
25:20
Speaker 2: this twelve point advantage that you mentioned before. When you're
25:24
Speaker 2: playing with margin like that, you do approach the race
25:26
Speaker 2: very differently. You don't have to go out there and
25:29
Speaker 2: just win the thing, which realistically and or Pastri they
25:32
Speaker 2: just have to go and win. It's like it's a
25:34
Speaker 2: very simple focus, easy to say, hard to do, just
25:37
Speaker 2: got to go win, whereas Norris is like, well, we're
25:40
Speaker 2: in the best car all year and if I don't
25:42
Speaker 2: ma activity mistakes, I can probably just finish on the podium.
25:45
Speaker 2: That's probably fine because we know the races tend to
25:46
Speaker 2: be a bit processional there. But when the goal isn't
25:49
Speaker 2: as singularly focused as it is for Versapen or piastre
25:52
Speaker 2: I think it changes the way you approach the weekend mentally,
25:55
Speaker 2: And we've seen this in previous championship deciders, because so
25:58
Speaker 2: often in championship decid as you find that even if
26:01
Speaker 2: the leader coming into the last round ends up winning
26:04
Speaker 2: the World Championship, they will lose a decent slab of
26:07
Speaker 2: the points advantage they had coming in. Because you're playing
26:10
Speaker 2: with house money to a degree, you're not going to
26:11
Speaker 2: approach it the same way mentally. And you look back
26:14
Speaker 2: through recent championship deciders, very often that driver who has
26:17
Speaker 2: converted on leading coming into the last round has actually
26:20
Speaker 2: shipped a pretty decent slab of points in that last
26:23
Speaker 2: race because you just approach it differently mentally, don't you.
26:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well that's sort of the interesting thing. But also
26:27
Speaker 1: speaks to which is I think is true this weekend
26:30
Speaker 1: as well, is that often when we get these close,
26:33
Speaker 1: well inevitably, when we get this close title a side,
26:35
Speaker 1: as someone comes in with some momentum, maybe the different No,
26:39
Speaker 1: actually I'm going to say twenty twenty one was the same.
26:41
Speaker 1: Hamilton had the momentum that he did, almost won the race,
26:45
Speaker 1: probably should have won the race. That's a different story.
26:48
Speaker 1: But in some way, as the mentor mand it's not
26:50
Speaker 1: always the leader, and I think that's the case this weekend.
26:52
Speaker 1: I think we can say that while Norris has been
26:54
Speaker 1: in good form lately and that's what's obviously propelled him
26:58
Speaker 1: to the leader of the championship, that happened you'd only
27:00
Speaker 1: the last four races. It's for Stappan who's the form driver.
27:04
Speaker 1: Oscar Piastri is coming off a great weekend in which
27:07
Speaker 1: he was the best driver out there, but that's one
27:10
Speaker 1: race after four kind of ordinary ones, at least in
27:12
Speaker 1: terms of results. It's for Stappan who has the mentum,
27:15
Speaker 1: and it's for Stappen who starts second. I think there's
27:17
Speaker 1: also something interesting to say, though. Andrea Stella brought this
27:19
Speaker 1: one up in explaining why there will be no team orders.
27:22
Speaker 1: Although I very much like your hypothetical of pastre third
27:26
Speaker 1: Norris force with for Staffin in the lead, what happens there?
27:29
Speaker 1: I mean, I think, to go to your other point
27:31
Speaker 1: that you've raised last couple of weeks, surely it would
27:33
Speaker 1: be insane for them not to make that call and
27:36
Speaker 1: lose the driver's title when they could actively make a
27:39
Speaker 1: call to win it. But it would be a fascinating circumstance.
27:43
Speaker 1: The last two times we've had at least three drivers
27:45
Speaker 1: going to the decider, it's been the third driver who
27:49
Speaker 1: wins it. It was Sebastian Battle in twenty ten, it
27:51
Speaker 1: was Kimmi Reichen in two thousand and seven. So while
27:54
Speaker 1: we might say that Oscar Piastre is an outsider and
27:57
Speaker 1: by points he is, well, the last two times this
28:00
Speaker 1: someone's found a way to make it happen. So maybe
28:03
Speaker 1: we shouldn't be so down on that.
28:04
Speaker 2: Well, and I guess the other factor to think about
28:07
Speaker 2: here is, you know, we've met, We've spent most of
28:09
Speaker 2: this podcast talking about three drivers. Is there anybody else
28:13
Speaker 2: that has the potential to be a bit of an
28:16
Speaker 2: interloper at the front of this race or at least
28:19
Speaker 2: fight for the podium positions based on what they're driving. Now,
28:21
Speaker 2: you know, Ferrari had an absolutely brutal guitar. It's kind
28:25
Speaker 2: of hard to imagine things to really turn around, particularly
28:29
Speaker 2: in Abudhabi. As much as I respect what Charlie Clerk
28:31
Speaker 2: can do over one lap and baps get himself in
28:33
Speaker 2: the mix. Mercedes interesting, it's going to be at night, Yes,
28:37
Speaker 2: it's not going to be cool because of Abidhabi, So
28:39
Speaker 2: that's interesting, and then you can't really make a case
28:42
Speaker 2: for anybody else. Quite frankly, there is a second Red
28:45
Speaker 2: Bull in the field, but that's not going to figure.
28:46
Speaker 2: We know that. So you're trying. It's a bit of it.
28:49
Speaker 2: You have to squint pretty hard to try and find
28:52
Speaker 2: other drivers who might get into the mix here. So yeah,
28:55
Speaker 2: you could absolutely have a situation where maybe there's one
28:57
Speaker 2: other driver in the mix for the top four or
28:59
Speaker 2: five positions. But then how does that play out? Given
29:02
Speaker 2: McLaren have two cars in this fight and Red Bull
29:03
Speaker 2: have won, and the golf of Forstappen is so crystal clear,
29:08
Speaker 2: go and win the race and let's see if McLaren
29:11
Speaker 2: find a way to trip themselves up from a position
29:14
Speaker 2: of relative advantage, as they've done for the back half
29:17
Speaker 2: of this season. We've already had the answer to that
29:19
Speaker 2: question several times over the last few rounds. So why
29:21
Speaker 2: wouldn't you just keep asking the same question if you
29:23
Speaker 2: read Bull and for Stappen.
29:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. I actually think it's just sort of interesting
29:26
Speaker 1: as you're talking, thinking back to all those alternative who
29:29
Speaker 1: else could be in the mix? Ye, because that's important
29:31
Speaker 1: when Verstappan won the title in aby Dhabi in twenty one,
29:34
Speaker 1: regardless of the safety car thing. Well, the reason that
29:36
Speaker 1: he was in a position to capitalize on the safety car,
29:38
Speaker 1: in fact, so it is related, was because Sergio Perez,
29:42
Speaker 1: when he was still doing or at Red Bull Racing,
29:45
Speaker 1: slowed down Lewis Hamilton was in a position where it's
29:47
Speaker 1: competitive enough to hold up Hamilton for a lap and
29:49
Speaker 1: a half whatever it was. And while Hamilton got past him,
29:52
Speaker 1: Paris hadn't pittae yet. That meant that Hamilton wasn't far
29:55
Speaker 1: enough when the safety cart far ahead when the safety
29:57
Speaker 1: car came out to make the free pit stop, which
30:00
Speaker 1: and he didn't make a bit stop, which meant he
30:01
Speaker 1: was overtaken after that safety car resumption. And you wonder
30:04
Speaker 1: what could have happened. This happened. He is lacking that
30:06
Speaker 1: teammate save here, right, He's probably he's probably not going
30:09
Speaker 1: to have Yuki Sonoda in a position to help him,
30:12
Speaker 1: although Soa did turn up randomly in the sprint in Kata,
30:16
Speaker 1: but not from the Grand Prix. And he's going to
30:18
Speaker 1: be sacked this week maybe by the time year this podcast,
30:20
Speaker 1: he's not going to be racing he'sactly a Red Bull
30:22
Speaker 1: Racing driver twenty six, but maybe he'll turn up this
30:26
Speaker 1: week and who's to say. But I do think Mercedes
30:28
Speaker 1: is the interesting incident for here, isn't it, you know,
30:30
Speaker 1: because they in Russell was very competitive in Kata the
30:34
Speaker 1: race was its own sort of beast, but in sprint
30:37
Speaker 1: qualifying at least was right there in contention for pole position.
30:41
Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi's a very mild track in terms of well
30:46
Speaker 1: everything really all of its characteristics, and Mercedes doesn't like
30:49
Speaker 1: too many curveballs. That's part of the setup challenge. Maybe
30:52
Speaker 1: that does help them out here. In any case, I
30:54
Speaker 1: think Mercedes is a good contender for being consistently thereabout,
30:59
Speaker 1: so that could be there, and they do have Now
31:00
Speaker 1: I think we can say two drivers that are constantly
31:03
Speaker 1: in the mix, like Antonelli's performing at a level now
31:06
Speaker 1: where he is always being taken into account on probably
31:09
Speaker 1: should have finished ahead of Norris, He have finished ahead
31:11
Speaker 1: of a Stapen two weeks ago, finished ahead of Piastre
31:14
Speaker 1: in Vegas before Piastro was squalified. So there's potential there,
31:18
Speaker 1: And you know, if you have a stapp and you're
31:19
Speaker 1: really hoping Mercedes is having a great weekend because you
31:22
Speaker 1: need someone to fill that Perez gap.
31:23
Speaker 2: I suppose, yeah, correct, you need someone else in there.
31:26
Speaker 2: Something you just mentioned there before about the fact that
31:28
Speaker 2: Yuki Sododa may not be a Red Bull driver. By
31:30
Speaker 2: the time people listen to this podcast, you know who
31:32
Speaker 2: is going to be a twenty twenty six rep Bull driver,
31:34
Speaker 2: and that's probably going to be as a Kadjar. And
31:37
Speaker 2: given the way that the end of Hajar's season has
31:39
Speaker 2: progressed for racing bulls, you would be pretty shocked if
31:42
Speaker 2: he's not Q three. And so you could have a
31:46
Speaker 2: situation where, let's just say Norris is the first to
31:49
Speaker 2: stop of the front runners, and you might leave Handja
31:51
Speaker 2: rat there just that little bit too long, just to
31:53
Speaker 2: run a little bit of interference for a lap and
31:55
Speaker 2: a half. It takes Norris to perhaps go past a
31:57
Speaker 2: car on worst tires that hasn't made their first stop yet.
32:00
Speaker 2: So that's an interesting little curve ball, isn't it. Isaac Canja.
32:04
Speaker 2: Welcome to Red Bull Racing one round early dst.
32:07
Speaker 1: Yes, quite well, if you allow me to segue here,
32:10
Speaker 1: he could be playing the Vitally Petrov role. I suppose
32:13
Speaker 1: you could descrive it if we cast our minds back
32:15
Speaker 1: to the twenty ten race in which you were, you
32:18
Speaker 1: were in attendance witness, of course because of Mark Webber
32:21
Speaker 1: who was in contention there with Fernando Alonso eventual winner
32:25
Speaker 1: from third in the championship standings beforehand, Sebastian Vettel, that
32:29
Speaker 1: was I mean, title finales are always very tense. That
32:32
Speaker 1: one was very interesting because of the ebbing and flowing
32:35
Speaker 1: of momentum, and of course the overarch quite similar this year.
32:39
Speaker 1: I suppose in some respects the overarching question of will
32:41
Speaker 1: Red Bull used team orders? They say no, why not?
32:44
Speaker 1: In the end, I guess they were kind of proved right.
32:46
Speaker 1: But tell me a little bit about that circumstance, the
32:49
Speaker 1: feeling of it, because I think for McLaren, well not,
32:51
Speaker 1: I think I know for McLaren this is going to
32:53
Speaker 1: be an entirely new experience to be going into a
32:56
Speaker 1: title decider with the title on the line for both
32:58
Speaker 1: drivers and navigating.
32:59
Speaker 2: That although remember from the pre race press conference, Weber
33:03
Speaker 2: was asked about the circuit where it was just you know,
33:05
Speaker 2: it was before the redesign of the second sector of
33:08
Speaker 2: the track where they've change it a little bit, where
33:10
Speaker 2: it was just a lot of ninety degree left, ninety
33:12
Speaker 2: degree right, and Mark and typical Mark sty just shrugged
33:15
Speaker 2: and said, it's like a Tesco's car park. But he
33:17
Speaker 2: was just very unimpressed by the entire thing, despite world's
33:20
Speaker 2: most expensive Tesco's car park. But what was so interesting
33:23
Speaker 2: about that race weekend is that because I've done a
33:26
Speaker 2: million of these, because I am significantly older than we
33:30
Speaker 2: had four drivers in mathematical contention for the title in
33:33
Speaker 2: that last round because Lewis Hamilton. Lewis Hamilton was twenty
33:36
Speaker 2: four points off the series lead in a McLaren so
33:39
Speaker 2: obviously he needed the other three ahead of him to
33:41
Speaker 2: not score. But what was so interesting, So Fernando Alonso
33:45
Speaker 2: led the championship for Ferrari, Mark Webber was seven points
33:47
Speaker 2: behind in second place for Red Bull, and Sebastian Vastal
33:50
Speaker 2: was fifteen points behind in third place for Red Bull.
33:53
Speaker 2: But and this is the significant thing, he had all
33:56
Speaker 2: of the momentum. Of the three previous races, he had
33:59
Speaker 2: won two of them, and he would have won the
34:00
Speaker 2: third one but for an engine blop right at the
34:03
Speaker 2: end of the racing career, which scuppered his chances there.
34:06
Speaker 2: But he was the guy that had all a momentum,
34:08
Speaker 2: and you mentioned Viatali Petrov. I think the entire race weekend,
34:12
Speaker 2: it was just a lot So Weber looking at one
34:14
Speaker 2: another to see what each other was doing, because I
34:16
Speaker 2: don't think Vettel was seen as a super credible threat
34:18
Speaker 2: because he was so far behind Weber. It had a
34:22
Speaker 2: particularly difficult qualifying. They covered each other off at very
34:26
Speaker 2: very early pit stops a lot so Weber and got
34:28
Speaker 2: stuck behind this absolute rocket ship of a Reno down
34:31
Speaker 2: the back straight driven by Vitali Petrov and just got
34:34
Speaker 2: completely snookered in the race, and Alonso finished seventh, Webber
34:37
Speaker 2: finished eighth, and Vettel got himself to the front, won
34:40
Speaker 2: the race and then stole the championship. And it was
34:42
Speaker 2: the only race of that entire twenty ten season that
34:46
Speaker 2: he led the world Championship standing. He won the championship
34:49
Speaker 2: by four points and it was the only round he
34:51
Speaker 2: actually led the championship after, which was remarkable. But in
34:54
Speaker 2: terms of atmosphere, I remembered the level of tension for
34:59
Speaker 2: that race because you had four of them in there.
35:01
Speaker 2: As unrealistic as the Hamilton charge was, you had four
35:04
Speaker 2: of them on the grid, and I mean, you've done
35:06
Speaker 2: enough of these pre grid racewalks now where you're walking
35:09
Speaker 2: around before the race the amount of tension and you
35:12
Speaker 2: could actually viscerally feel how tense it was there because
35:15
Speaker 2: there were multiple drivers in multiple teams. It's taken us
35:18
Speaker 2: fifteen years to get back to a situation where there's
35:21
Speaker 2: at least three drivers in contention in the last race
35:23
Speaker 2: of the season, head to head one on one showdowns
35:27
Speaker 2: for the title of tents. At the best of times,
35:29
Speaker 2: you remember twenty twenty one. You remember the years when
35:31
Speaker 2: it was Rosberg Hamilton at Mercedes and the race in
35:35
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, Hamilton drove in the Mercedes where he drove
35:38
Speaker 2: at the slowest possible speed and tried to get a
35:40
Speaker 2: whole bunch of people to trip up Niko Rosberg, even
35:42
Speaker 2: though that was going against the wishes of his team.
35:45
Speaker 2: One on one battles are great in this situation when
35:48
Speaker 2: you've got multiple drivers for multiple teams, and you would
35:52
Speaker 2: argue that probably the driver leading the championship doesn't necessarily
35:56
Speaker 2: have the momentum coming in, and the guy who does
35:59
Speaker 2: is a guy who's won four World championships. It really
36:01
Speaker 2: does set this up so perfectly for Sunday for a
36:05
Speaker 2: season finale that we probably never believe was going to happen.
36:09
Speaker 2: But if it's anything like the tension of twenty ten
36:11
Speaker 2: and the way that was, it'll be fantastic TV. And
36:15
Speaker 2: I also wonder who's going to be the first person
36:17
Speaker 2: to get Vatari Petron on the phone this week. I'll
36:19
Speaker 2: just talk about talk about old times because he didn't
36:23
Speaker 2: have a particularly long Formula One career. He didn't have
36:25
Speaker 2: a particularly great Formula One career. He's only podium by
36:27
Speaker 2: the way, at the Australian Grand Prix that you go
36:29
Speaker 2: right staff for you. But yeah, the name Vatari Petrov
36:33
Speaker 2: is not one that a lot of people in F
36:34
Speaker 2: one would possibly even know if you're relatively new to
36:36
Speaker 2: the sport. But don't be surprised to hear some soundbites
36:39
Speaker 2: from Vitali Petrov this week.
36:41
Speaker 1: Yes, an influential character in form title decided it's going
36:45
Speaker 1: to be a big weekend. But history is going to
36:47
Speaker 1: be written one way or another. I think that's what's
36:48
Speaker 1: really exciting about the outcome is it doesn't feel like
36:50
Speaker 1: there's any boring outcomes here. I mean, a title decider
36:53
Speaker 1: never can be but We're either going to be witnessing
36:55
Speaker 1: one of the greatest comebacks in the history of Formula
36:57
Speaker 1: One from Max Withstaffan, or we're going to get a
36:59
Speaker 1: first time world champion in Oscar Piastre or Lando Norris,
37:02
Speaker 1: which is also an important story for the history of
37:04
Speaker 1: Formula One, considering their stature as the next generation, particularly
37:08
Speaker 1: in pastre sense considering this is only his third season
37:11
Speaker 1: in Formula One. But we are going to learn things
37:14
Speaker 1: about all of them this weekend, and the landscape of
37:17
Speaker 1: Formula One will be different from next year. I'm not
37:19
Speaker 1: talking about the regulations, but I mean simply we're going
37:22
Speaker 1: to think of things differently. After this title decider, things
37:25
Speaker 1: will have changed as a result of the outcome this weekend.
37:27
Speaker 1: Stick there we get something whacky happen, and I can't
37:30
Speaker 1: help but wonder legacy wise what this weekend might mean
37:34
Speaker 1: in that regard. I think we can start with Maxwistapan here,
37:37
Speaker 1: because I think this is a pretty easy question. This
37:39
Speaker 1: would be his greatest world championship. I think even I think,
37:43
Speaker 1: no matter how he wins, if he would have win
37:45
Speaker 1: it this weekend, no matter how it happens, I think
37:48
Speaker 1: it would still probably become more remarkable than what happened
37:51
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one. Obviously, the off track controversy of
37:54
Speaker 1: twenty one is its own thing, but I think coming
37:57
Speaker 1: back and winning it here would in my mind probably
38:00
Speaker 1: stepping ahead of that.
38:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, completely. I mean you look at you can look
38:04
Speaker 2: back at twenty twenty three where Red BULLONEI didn't win
38:06
Speaker 2: one race. Thinking car lot of science is a second
38:08
Speaker 2: reference to science in this particular podcast. But you know,
38:11
Speaker 2: you look at the legacy quarter element of this, like
38:14
Speaker 2: Maxistappen could be the second driver ever to win five
38:16
Speaker 2: consecutive championships. That's what's on the line here, and if
38:21
Speaker 2: you were to win that fifth in a row with
38:24
Speaker 2: arguably the best of the five, that would be quite
38:27
Speaker 2: an astonishing achievement. Because you know, I mentioned jokingly before
38:31
Speaker 2: about how maybe he's the best underdog as well as
38:33
Speaker 2: the best champion all the grid, that shouldn't be overlooked.
38:35
Speaker 2: The fact that I can't think of another driver that
38:38
Speaker 2: could have engineered this sort of comeback to even be
38:42
Speaker 2: in the conversation to win this World Championship other than Maxistappen,
38:46
Speaker 2: So that in itself might be testament to his greatness.
38:48
Speaker 2: But you talk about legacy, there's so many people who
38:52
Speaker 2: you know, Lando Norris could be McLaren's first world champion
38:55
Speaker 2: for seventeen years, as could Oscar Piastre. No Australians won
38:58
Speaker 2: a Formula WIE World Championships. It's nineteen eighty. This is
39:01
Speaker 2: the closest other than Weber in twenty ten, that we've
39:03
Speaker 2: got to that. But there's so many different people involved
39:08
Speaker 2: in the sport that I just think, gosh that you know,
39:10
Speaker 2: the legacy that the result one way or the other
39:14
Speaker 2: could determine. Look, someone that Lauren Mecky is as someone
39:17
Speaker 2: I keep thinking about with Red Bull. He took over
39:19
Speaker 2: in the middle of the season where they were basically
39:21
Speaker 2: hopeless and they got rid of the only team principle
39:23
Speaker 2: they'd ever had in twenty one years of existence or
39:26
Speaker 2: whatever it's been. They might win the drivers championship with
39:29
Speaker 2: this guy who's been in charge for what ten races
39:32
Speaker 2: or something. There's so many little interesting legacy intersections going
39:35
Speaker 2: on in this race that once the result and the
39:38
Speaker 2: points permutations settled down on Sunday, we'll look at it
39:40
Speaker 2: and go, wow, you know, what does this mean In
39:42
Speaker 2: the wider scope of a Formula One there's a lot
39:45
Speaker 2: of crossroads here, isn't that.
39:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's interesting to think about how we
39:48
Speaker 1: might consider McClaren management after this race. What happens. Obviously,
39:52
Speaker 1: if they win the driver's title, it can be pretty
39:55
Speaker 1: easy win for them as well, because we've got to
39:57
Speaker 1: think about in the broader context as well, that this
39:59
Speaker 1: team's come back from an extremely low base in only
40:02
Speaker 1: three years. I mean, when oscopiastri joined, it's often to
40:04
Speaker 1: get the car, was slucks his first base and barely
40:07
Speaker 1: made the finish. And here they are off the back
40:09
Speaker 1: of two constructors championships, this one extremely dominant, and but
40:14
Speaker 1: two shots at the driver's title as close as Maxis
40:16
Speaker 1: Staffan is, and as painful as that probably is, they've
40:18
Speaker 1: still got two drivers in the fight here, and that's
40:20
Speaker 1: pretty important too if they don't get it done. I
40:23
Speaker 1: still think that broader historical context is important. And one
40:26
Speaker 1: two constructors titles, and that's that's significant from how well
40:30
Speaker 1: management has done. But I really wonder how they would
40:33
Speaker 1: reflect on losing the driver's title here as much as
40:36
Speaker 1: Zack Bround's kind of already I don't think he was
40:39
Speaker 1: thinking this is what he was doing when he started
40:41
Speaker 1: saying this. But as much as he's laid the groundwork
40:43
Speaker 1: here for saying, well Max beats us, then we've done.
40:45
Speaker 1: We've lost it in the right, in the right honorable way,
40:50
Speaker 1: or however he's going to possibly be required to sell
40:52
Speaker 1: it that the various steps along the way that have
40:55
Speaker 1: contributed to this team being in a position to lose
40:58
Speaker 1: the driver's title this weekend. I think it's going to
41:00
Speaker 1: be very interesting and I'll be fascinated to hear what
41:02
Speaker 1: conversations take place during the off season, even if they
41:05
Speaker 1: win it, to be honest, and what approach they might
41:08
Speaker 1: take to racing next year, assuming they're still in contention
41:11
Speaker 1: for the title, which we expect them to be, and
41:14
Speaker 1: how that changes.
41:15
Speaker 2: It's a really good point because you can both things
41:17
Speaker 2: can be true here in that, yes, they might win
41:20
Speaker 2: the Drivers' Championship with either Norris or less likely Pastre
41:23
Speaker 2: on Sunday night. I don't think you could take a
41:25
Speaker 2: victory lap for the approach that you've taken this year,
41:28
Speaker 2: if indeed you secure the victory and the drivers and
41:30
Speaker 2: the constructors championships, and you do wonder that it strikes
41:34
Speaker 2: me that the whole Papaya rules thing. It's a great
41:36
Speaker 2: internal discussion, it's a great ethos to have within the team.
41:40
Speaker 2: Don't make it public, even if your actions maybe intimate
41:44
Speaker 2: that this is the way you're going racing, Like, why
41:47
Speaker 2: does this need to be made public? Are you trying
41:49
Speaker 2: to do it for social media attention or appeal or
41:51
Speaker 2: oh look at this, isn't it great? They're being also
41:53
Speaker 2: fair and all that sort of thing. It strikes me
41:55
Speaker 2: as an internal policy that you can try and stick
41:59
Speaker 2: to for as long as you need to, until you don't.
42:01
Speaker 2: And that's the problem they've painted themselves in. We talked
42:04
Speaker 2: before about could they issue a team order to make
42:06
Speaker 2: sure that one of their two drivers wins the championship
42:08
Speaker 2: on Sunday. Of course that would be the correct thing
42:10
Speaker 2: to do. The reason you wouldn't do it, just like
42:12
Speaker 2: the reason you didn't pick your cars and Qatar on
42:14
Speaker 2: the weekend, is because of all the discussion that's gone
42:17
Speaker 2: on beforehand, and you'd be put up for ridicule and
42:21
Speaker 2: oh look they've gone back against their word and so
42:23
Speaker 2: on and so forth. None of that happens. If you
42:25
Speaker 2: keep that, you can still have the policy. Maybe just
42:27
Speaker 2: don't tell the world about it. And I think that's
42:29
Speaker 2: part of the problem with this. There's a perception in
42:31
Speaker 2: an image that comes with it. But the legacy play
42:35
Speaker 2: in this is just so so interesting, and you do
42:37
Speaker 2: wonder that if they had their time over, would you
42:41
Speaker 2: just kept this a little bit quieter? And something I
42:45
Speaker 2: went I said half an hour ago in this podcast
42:48
Speaker 2: is that history records the winners. And as much as
42:51
Speaker 2: McClaren may end up winning this Driver's Championship, I don't
42:54
Speaker 2: think you can say that the approach they've used to
42:56
Speaker 2: win it, if it happens, was the correct one and
42:59
Speaker 2: probably should have been more private.
43:00
Speaker 1: I would have thought, yes, certainly didn't cause the least axed.
43:03
Speaker 1: But I do wonder, as well as just a secondary
43:05
Speaker 1: element of that before we move on, if one of
43:08
Speaker 1: their drivers becomes the Driver's title winner and next year
43:12
Speaker 1: is the defending champion, how does that play into those rules?
43:15
Speaker 1: Is there a priority of preference there is the defending champion?
43:17
Speaker 1: Does defending the driver's title become an important element in that?
43:21
Speaker 1: You know it opens up an entirely separate chapter to
43:24
Speaker 1: this book of Papaya rules, but a question for next year.
43:28
Speaker 2: In fact, the other question the thing really quick before
43:30
Speaker 2: you get off this particular topic is because we have
43:33
Speaker 2: such a massive regulation change for twenty twenty six. You
43:37
Speaker 2: can't just I mean this year. We were not surprised
43:39
Speaker 2: that McLaren was good in twenty twenty five because there
43:42
Speaker 2: was continuity of rule set and regulation and momentum from
43:45
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four. What they've done this year is not
43:47
Speaker 2: a surprise in the slightest. You go back to several
43:50
Speaker 2: big rule and regulation changes in Formula one history, the
43:54
Speaker 2: entire pecking order can be completely turned on its head
43:58
Speaker 2: because of a very very big rule change. One team
44:00
Speaker 2: or one manufacturer just gets it completely right and someone
44:04
Speaker 2: else gets it completely wrong, and momentum can just be
44:07
Speaker 2: turned off like a tap. And we've seen this several
44:10
Speaker 2: times in the past. When Lewis Hamilton went to Mercedes
44:12
Speaker 2: in twenty thirteen, the general response was, what on earth
44:15
Speaker 2: are you going there for? They've won nothing, they're no good.
44:18
Speaker 2: Why are you throwing away your time at McLaren. And
44:21
Speaker 2: they had that one season there in twenty thirteen, rules
44:25
Speaker 2: change in twenty fourteen and he won five of the
44:26
Speaker 2: next six world titles. So momentum can Usually momentum will
44:31
Speaker 2: not carry over between rule sets and then so if
44:34
Speaker 2: you've gone down a path where Norris wins the World
44:36
Speaker 2: Championship under this allspec of fairness, and what if McLaren
44:39
Speaker 2: aren't particularly good next year? You know, this is another
44:42
Speaker 2: question here. There's not going to be that momentum and
44:44
Speaker 2: carryover that we saw between last year and this. That's
44:46
Speaker 2: not a guarantee, and that's another element to add into
44:49
Speaker 2: all of this. If McLaren don't win it this weekend.
44:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's going to be a fascinating story at the
44:54
Speaker 1: beginning of next season, I think, regardless of the outcome,
44:56
Speaker 1: because either one McLaren driver is going to feel aggrieved, well,
44:59
Speaker 1: both of them will, which is the fairest outcome? I
45:02
Speaker 1: think we can all Indeed, we can't wrap up though
45:05
Speaker 1: without going to the crystal ball by complete home filtration.
45:10
Speaker 1: I'm feeling pretty good because again I didn't delete my
45:12
Speaker 1: predictions after ending last week's show, the title would be
45:15
Speaker 1: one cut. I'd be less than fifteen points going into
45:17
Speaker 1: the last round. Sow is how good's Michael doing?
45:21
Speaker 2: Well? If you're going to talk about yourself with the
45:22
Speaker 2: third person, you clearly go very well. But given that
45:25
Speaker 2: you have a one hundred percent hit rate here given
45:29
Speaker 2: that I'm clearly the anchor dragging this particular podcast down
45:32
Speaker 2: at this point, I think it's only fair that you
45:34
Speaker 2: go first, because clearly you know what's going to happen
45:37
Speaker 2: this weekend much to share it with us.
45:39
Speaker 1: I'd I'd love to I'd love to share it with you.
45:42
Speaker 1: I was going to say, we already talked about it,
45:44
Speaker 1: so it sort of gates it as a talking point
45:46
Speaker 1: that I could see the Verstappin in the leads. You
45:48
Speaker 1: pick your driver for second. Let's say I should choose
45:53
Speaker 1: our third Piastree, Norris fourth, and the team waterer coming
45:56
Speaker 1: in or perhaps and maybe handringing over whether or I
45:59
Speaker 1: should come in, And I just want to put out
46:02
Speaker 1: as my crystal ball two alternative hypotheticals here, and then
46:05
Speaker 1: we can pick which one maybe is going to happen.
46:07
Speaker 1: But I just I like this imagining based on the
46:11
Speaker 1: projections what might be happening here. Scenario one is it's
46:15
Speaker 1: for Staffen ahead of Piastre, ahead of Norris on the podium.
46:18
Speaker 1: Completely believable. But you've got a really competitive and fast
46:22
Speaker 1: in a straight line George Russell in fourth. Let's say
46:26
Speaker 1: I can see Verstaffen doing the Hamilton twenty sixteen, backing
46:30
Speaker 1: all of them up. It is at risk of Piastric
46:34
Speaker 1: partly because Piastri will attempt to pass, because we know
46:36
Speaker 1: he's that kind of guy. But I think Norris in
46:38
Speaker 1: that scenario is what Hamilton thought Rosberg would be, which
46:42
Speaker 1: is and he kind of was actually but panicked into
46:45
Speaker 1: making a mistake. I'd be interesting to see if George
46:48
Speaker 1: Russell already went for it, though, whether there'd be some
46:50
Speaker 1: nationality at play there. Maybe we should hypothesize that it's
46:53
Speaker 1: Antonelli Dwarth. I'm not sure, but I think I could
46:57
Speaker 1: completely see that. But I want to leave you with
46:59
Speaker 1: this one because fairness is the name of the game.
47:02
Speaker 1: All Right. We've got a scenario where Norris is leading
47:06
Speaker 1: the race. He's going to win the title. That's the
47:07
Speaker 1: most likely mathematical scenario. You've got Piastre in second, and
47:11
Speaker 1: the stapping could be thir It doesn't really matter.
47:13
Speaker 2: I think I know where you're going yet, but keep going.
47:14
Speaker 1: Think you know where I'm going with this. Norris is
47:17
Speaker 1: going to win the title no matter where he finishes
47:18
Speaker 1: on the podium, it doesn't matter. He's going to be
47:21
Speaker 1: the driver's champion. But on the grounds of fairness, and
47:24
Speaker 1: I incur the memory of the Italian Grand prixhere with
47:28
Speaker 1: McLaren intervene on fairness grounds. McLaren says, you know what
47:33
Speaker 1: we cost Oscar Piastre victory last week. Though it doesn't
47:36
Speaker 1: matter to Orlando. Let Oscar win the race. It's only
47:40
Speaker 1: fair you will still win the title. Why shouldn't that
47:44
Speaker 1: be allowed under fairness? I think I'm not necessarily saything
47:48
Speaker 1: going to do it, but I think that question is
47:50
Speaker 1: going to arise this weekend if Norris is winning the
47:52
Speaker 1: race in that order, and I think it's just going
47:55
Speaker 1: to be another silly McLaren thing where someone's going to go, no,
47:58
Speaker 1: well yeah, we should do that.
48:00
Speaker 2: Seems I can completely see this happening. So I mentioned
48:02
Speaker 2: if you're Oscar Piastre, so I don't want to be
48:04
Speaker 2: gifted a Grand Prix wins, so Norris moves out of
48:06
Speaker 2: the way to let him through, and then Pastre's like, no,
48:07
Speaker 2: I don't particularly want to, and then they run into
48:09
Speaker 2: each other, and then for staff and wins the race
48:11
Speaker 2: or something, but who knows, but absolutely se happening. Your
48:14
Speaker 2: first scenario then, where you mentioned perhaps backing the pack
48:18
Speaker 2: up and George Russell's in fourth, Landa Norris is in third.
48:21
Speaker 2: What would Sky Sports do in this point? Like? Who,
48:24
Speaker 2: how do you commentate that there'll be there'll be tears
48:26
Speaker 2: and we need tissues. All sorts of things could be going.
48:29
Speaker 2: I'll be references to obscure British towns at ninety nine
48:32
Speaker 2: percent of the audience doesn't know or care about. But
48:36
Speaker 2: that could be really interesting. But you're the thought that
48:40
Speaker 2: McLaren might say, look, Lando, you're going to win the
48:42
Speaker 2: championship anyway, let Oscar have this one. And then they'll go, well,
48:45
Speaker 2: that's all fine. Then everything's completely squared off.
48:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my god. Someone will think that on the
48:50
Speaker 1: McLaren people. I think, based on.
48:52
Speaker 2: History, sometimes the means doesn't justify the end, does it.
48:56
Speaker 2: But anyway, but I'm going to go with something far
49:00
Speaker 2: which is unusual for me, far less convoluted, but something
49:03
Speaker 2: that might have some more significant consequences to add some
49:06
Speaker 2: level of interest in an aberdabi racis not usually particularly interesting.
49:10
Speaker 2: I'm predicting that either one of the stap in Norris
49:12
Speaker 2: or Piastric doesn't make Q three.
49:14
Speaker 1: Ah, that's a great prediction. That's such a good one.
49:20
Speaker 2: Someone's going to be out of position, and if it's
49:23
Speaker 2: one of the McLaren drivers, then we talked before about oh,
49:27
Speaker 2: do you run an excessively long first stint so you
49:29
Speaker 2: can run a bit of interference Ferverstappen after his first
49:31
Speaker 2: pit stop or something like that, to add a little
49:33
Speaker 2: bit of jeopardy into the middle section of the race there,
49:36
Speaker 2: which can be a little bit of we're just waiting
49:38
Speaker 2: for the last ten laps if one of those three
49:41
Speaker 2: doesn't make Q three and then knock on effect for
49:43
Speaker 2: all of that. Frankly, I'm here for it because we
49:46
Speaker 2: need a little bit of jeopardy into a live title fight.
49:49
Speaker 2: And much as we roll our eyes at twenty twenty one,
49:51
Speaker 2: there was a little jeopardy at the end of that
49:52
Speaker 2: and it made for compelling, if not particularly satisfying TV.
49:55
Speaker 2: But that's my prediction. One of those top three is
49:58
Speaker 2: not making Q three and insert chaos.
50:01
Speaker 1: That is a good one. I like a good, straightforward
50:03
Speaker 1: prediction as well, but that would certainly spice things up
50:07
Speaker 1: quite significantly. Will any of us be right, Well, we'll
50:11
Speaker 1: find out. At least they are only three outcomes, so
50:13
Speaker 1: it can't be totally wrong with what's going to happen
50:15
Speaker 1: at the end of this race, because by Sunday night
50:18
Speaker 1: or Monday morning, if you're in the Australia and East Coast,
50:20
Speaker 1: we will have a new or a returning in fact
50:24
Speaker 1: world champion. But that's all the time we have for
50:25
Speaker 1: pit Talk today. You can subscribe to Pittalk wherever you
50:28
Speaker 1: get your favorite podcasts, and you can leave us a
50:30
Speaker 1: rating and review as well. This weekend is the Formula
50:34
Speaker 1: One Championship de side of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix,
50:36
Speaker 1: with lights out at midnight Australia in eastern daylight time
50:39
Speaker 1: on Monday morning. Take Monday off you may as well.
50:42
Speaker 1: It's not one for the highlights in my opinion, and
50:44
Speaker 1: can get up today with the latest F one, Supercars
50:46
Speaker 1: and verdogp news at Foxsports dot com dot Au from
50:49
Speaker 1: Matt Clayton and me Michael Lobonado. Thanks very much for
50:51
Speaker 1: your company and we'll catch you next week.