Latest / Pit Talk / Has Yuki Tsunoda been set up to fail? Japanese GP Preview

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Has Yuki Tsunoda been set up to fail? Japanese GP Preview · 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, Yuki Sonoda prepares to line up for
0:06
Speaker 1: Red Bull racing for the first time at his home
0:09
Speaker 1: Japanese Grand Prix this weekend, and Formula one is seriously
0:13
Speaker 1: discussing the return to V ten engines and they could
0:16
Speaker 1: be back sooner than you think. My name is Michael Lomonado.
0:19
Speaker 1: It's great to have your company and the company of
0:21
Speaker 1: my co host. He's been the boss of them all
0:23
Speaker 1: since nineteen ninety two. It's Matt Clayton the boss of
0:26
Speaker 1: them all for longer than that. Michael, have you ninety two?
0:30
Speaker 1: I was about twenty and no good at that point,
0:31
Speaker 1: but lovely to join you. Very glad and very envious
0:35
Speaker 1: of you being at my absolutely favorite Grand Prix to
0:38
Speaker 1: go to, and at a strange time of year. No
0:40
Speaker 1: less because as we were just talking off there before,
0:43
Speaker 1: we normally spent our time in Japan getting off the
0:46
Speaker 1: plane and going good God, the humidity is bad, but yeah,
0:49
Speaker 1: slightly different conditions. But it's round three and April, isn't it. Yes,
0:52
Speaker 1: I've only just arrived and it was about seven degrees
0:55
Speaker 1: when I got off the plane. And it's going to
0:56
Speaker 1: be bending warmer for Grand Prix weekend, sort of mid
1:00
Speaker 1: teens and much lower overnight, So totally different prospect to
1:04
Speaker 1: what we're normally used to with the Japanese Grand Prix,
1:06
Speaker 1: this race having moved earlier in the season last season,
1:10
Speaker 1: so additional challenge there. Completely different, yes to the sweat
1:14
Speaker 1: box the place normally is, but I guess that freshens
1:17
Speaker 1: us up a little bit and at least we get
1:19
Speaker 1: that logical organization of all the Asian rounds. But I
1:22
Speaker 1: guess on the flip side, that does mean if you're
1:23
Speaker 1: an Australian viewer, you're getting all your fun races out
1:26
Speaker 1: of the way where you don't have to set your
1:27
Speaker 1: alarms at any particular time, and then there won't be
1:30
Speaker 1: any to look forward to for the rest of time.
1:32
Speaker 2: You're still preemptively traumatized by the F one bah Rain
1:35
Speaker 2: Murder GP Qatar double header that immediately follows Suzuka. So
1:39
Speaker 2: I will enjoy this weekend and then get into the
1:41
Speaker 2: fetal position for the following weekend.
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Speaker 1: I think, yeah, yes, and we'll see you again in
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Speaker 1: presumably about three or four weeks. Let's start with the
1:49
Speaker 1: biggest news of the week. We foreshadowed this, of course
1:51
Speaker 1: after the Chinese Grand Prix when these rumors emerge, and
1:54
Speaker 1: so they've come to pass that Liam Lawson has been
1:57
Speaker 1: demoted after just two Grand Prix from Red Bull Rays.
2:00
Speaker 1: In his place will stand Yuki Sonoda at long last
2:04
Speaker 1: in his fifth season in Formula One, getting the nod
2:07
Speaker 1: for the senior team. Now only a few months ago
2:10
Speaker 1: the team considered him not up to the task, in fact,
2:12
Speaker 1: foreshadowed that he would be dropped by the end of
2:14
Speaker 1: the year. Lo and behold, he'll be lining up alongside
2:17
Speaker 1: Max Verstappen this weekend. Let's start with the Yuki Sonoda
2:22
Speaker 1: component of this before we consider Liam Lawson and what
2:26
Speaker 1: this means for the broader Red Bull program. This is
2:30
Speaker 1: what Red Bullbacks drivers aspire to do, is to race
2:33
Speaker 1: for the senior team. Seemed like it was never going
2:35
Speaker 1: to happen for him. It has happened for him, But
2:37
Speaker 1: just how much pressure is on him for his first
2:39
Speaker 1: race in a car that's already killed several careers to
2:42
Speaker 1: be his home rates?
2:43
Speaker 2: Yeah? I know, look, I mean, I know this is
2:45
Speaker 2: terrible podcast content, but I spent the last minute as
2:47
Speaker 2: you were teeing that up shaking my head, which is
2:49
Speaker 2: not great for an audio podcast, but not great content.
2:52
Speaker 2: But how much pressure is here is he under? I'd
2:55
Speaker 2: almost ask I can't think of a situation where there's
2:58
Speaker 2: been a driver under more pressure than this, because we
3:01
Speaker 2: know that we have races on the calendar where home
3:04
Speaker 2: drivers have hugely excitable fan bases. I mean we saw
3:07
Speaker 2: every single time Sergio Opeiz went to Mexico, and particularly
3:10
Speaker 2: if he was out early in the races, he was
3:11
Speaker 2: a couple of times. You can just feel the way
3:15
Speaker 2: that fan base lives and dies on every single thing
3:18
Speaker 2: that that particular driver does. But you know, for anyone
3:22
Speaker 2: who's not been to Suzuka, you could not find a
3:25
Speaker 2: more passionate and probably educated and informed fan base. They
3:30
Speaker 2: are going to understand the consequences of what this means
3:34
Speaker 2: and what this opportunity is for Sonoda. And it's happened
3:36
Speaker 2: so late in the day, literally a week before his
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Speaker 2: home Grand Prix. I'm struggling to think of a driver
3:41
Speaker 2: that would be under more pressure at their home race
3:43
Speaker 2: than what he's about to go through this weekend. So
3:46
Speaker 2: you can look at it from two perspectives. Great for
3:49
Speaker 2: him that he gets the opportunity to experience this pressure, because,
3:52
Speaker 2: as you said before, this was an opportunity we thought
3:55
Speaker 2: was never going to happen as recently as about two
3:57
Speaker 2: races ago before Leam Wilson got in their car at
4:00
Speaker 2: Albert Park, which is a ridiculous sentence to say, but
4:03
Speaker 2: only more ridiculous because it's actually happening. But oh man,
4:07
Speaker 2: what it means for him, he to my mind, is
4:12
Speaker 2: he's being set up to fail simply because this is
4:17
Speaker 2: not a car that he's driven before. He's done no
4:19
Speaker 2: preseason testing, he hasn't done the first two Grand Prix
4:22
Speaker 2: of the year in it. He's actually had two very
4:25
Speaker 2: good Grand Prix weekends without the points to show for
4:28
Speaker 2: in Australia and China with RB, which looks to be
4:31
Speaker 2: a much more benign car that you can probably pretty
4:35
Speaker 2: confidently extract a performance out of. He's going to be
4:38
Speaker 2: thrown into the fire at his home Grand Prix with
4:41
Speaker 2: all of this expectation, knowing that he's got this career
4:45
Speaker 2: reprieve that we none of us including him, probably saw coming,
4:49
Speaker 2: and in a car that has been incredibly problematic so far.
4:53
Speaker 2: Because yes, we can look at what Maxlstappan has done.
4:55
Speaker 2: Whether he's on the podium in Australia, he was fourth
4:57
Speaker 2: in China. There were bits of China where he looked
4:59
Speaker 2: really wrong. As we discussed last week, Max Fastapan is
5:03
Speaker 2: in the top what five Formula One drivers probably to
5:06
Speaker 2: ever do it. You've got a driver that's still searching
5:10
Speaker 2: for podiums and you know his feet are clearly in
5:13
Speaker 2: the fire here. It's such a pressure cook situation and
5:18
Speaker 2: because he's not prepared for it, because he hasn't had
5:21
Speaker 2: the hours and time in the car, I find it
5:24
Speaker 2: really hard to see how you're going to be able
5:26
Speaker 2: to come the limitations of the machinery and the pressure
5:29
Speaker 2: and the fact that you just don't have any experience
5:32
Speaker 2: with this team in this car and produce a result
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Speaker 2: out of it. I just don't see how that's in
5:37
Speaker 2: his best interests from a Red Bull point of view.
5:40
Speaker 2: But as you discussed last week, there's just a hint
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Speaker 2: of desperation to the whole thing at this point, isn't there?
5:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, desperation and panic, I think from Red Bull's perspective
5:48
Speaker 1: to have made a move so quickly, it's interesting to
5:51
Speaker 1: think about Yuki Sonoda's position because everything you said absolutely right,
5:55
Speaker 1: there's no less optimal way to make your debut for
5:59
Speaker 1: this team, never mind at your home Grand Prix. But
6:02
Speaker 1: I wonder whether or not his approach will actually be
6:05
Speaker 1: that there's almost nothing to lose its notwithstanding he obviously
6:08
Speaker 1: wants to do well at home. It would be great
6:09
Speaker 1: for him to be up to speed at this race,
6:10
Speaker 1: but in general going forward to the next several Grand Prix,
6:14
Speaker 1: because it really felt like he was out of options
6:17
Speaker 1: by the end of this year career wise. Anyway, Red
6:19
Speaker 1: Bull had telegraphed pretty significantly that he wasn't going to
6:22
Speaker 1: be renewed after this. That's assuming that Avid Libland, the
6:25
Speaker 1: next guy in line is in Formula two, is going
6:26
Speaker 1: to be stepped up, and Christian Horne is pretty keen
6:28
Speaker 1: to see him do that. Isaac cadjarh and the evidence
6:30
Speaker 1: of two races has been doing pretty well and there
6:32
Speaker 1: aren't very many seats available next year short of perhaps
6:35
Speaker 1: going to Cadillac. We may very well have seen Yuki
6:37
Speaker 1: Sonoda sidelined in twenty twenty six, and considering how many
6:41
Speaker 1: young guns there are in the sport now and moving up,
6:44
Speaker 1: it's not as straightforward as I think it's been made
6:46
Speaker 1: to look. By some other drives in recent years to
6:47
Speaker 1: just come back after a year or two. So just
6:51
Speaker 1: by getting this Red Bull drive, it at least gives
6:53
Speaker 1: him well the objective that he's been targeting for so long,
6:56
Speaker 1: and maybe if he can make it work by the
6:57
Speaker 1: end of the year, not necessarily this weekend, he could
7:00
Speaker 1: at least get another season. Because also, let's be honest,
7:02
Speaker 1: if it's not him, who else have they got? Which
7:05
Speaker 1: I think is the other element of this, right, This
7:07
Speaker 1: is we talk about desperation. This is I mean this
7:09
Speaker 1: will not disrespect to Yuki Synod because it sounds much
7:11
Speaker 1: worse than I mean it. This is the bottom of
7:13
Speaker 1: the barrel for ed Bull. Now they've run out of
7:15
Speaker 1: all their options. They've literally chosen the guy last year
7:17
Speaker 1: they said was not good enough for this.
7:19
Speaker 2: They've done the equivalent of opening the cupboard looking for
7:22
Speaker 2: a clean glass, and there's not even a dirty glass
7:25
Speaker 2: in the cupboard. The cupboard is bare. Anyone who's just
7:28
Speaker 2: moved house recently would sympathize with this. But look, you're
7:32
Speaker 2: right with the nothing to lose, and as harsh as
7:36
Speaker 2: it is to effectively bin loss it off after two
7:39
Speaker 2: races and put Sonoda in there, that's harsh, But I'm
7:42
Speaker 2: more looking at where this is. And so if we
7:45
Speaker 2: were in Bahrain this weekend, or even if we're in
7:47
Speaker 2: China this weekend, or frankly anywhere else on the calendar,
7:50
Speaker 2: but Yuki's home race. We know that he has been
7:53
Speaker 2: an emotional driver of his Formula One career. You can't
7:56
Speaker 2: help but get emotional as a non Japanese driver at
7:59
Speaker 2: the Japanese Grand Prix because of the status that this
8:02
Speaker 2: event is held in. It's one thing to debut in
8:06
Speaker 2: a cave, never driven after a couple of races, but
8:08
Speaker 2: here with this crowd. And also this circuit for anyone
8:11
Speaker 2: that's not been to Suzuka, it's one of the true
8:15
Speaker 2: old school. Very few circuits are like this anymore, and
8:18
Speaker 2: that it's hemmed in by geography and you can only
8:21
Speaker 2: make this circuit safe and on music air quotes here
8:24
Speaker 2: by Formula one standards. You're restricted by the region that
8:28
Speaker 2: it is in. It was built in the sixties, it's
8:31
Speaker 2: very narrow, there's lots of things to hit in very
8:34
Speaker 2: close proximity. It is a very very challenging racetrack. So
8:39
Speaker 2: if he makes his debut for the team in Bahrain,
8:42
Speaker 2: or Qatar certainly not certainly not jetdif for a round five,
8:45
Speaker 2: but somewhere like Bahrain where there's car parks of runoff
8:48
Speaker 2: on the exits of these corners, and yes, you can
8:50
Speaker 2: make mistakes and your whole weekends, just not in the
8:53
Speaker 2: dump star. That's the fear for me in that you
8:56
Speaker 2: mentioned the odd weather at this time of year, the
8:59
Speaker 2: amount of pressure. There are no small shuts at Suzuka,
9:03
Speaker 2: and we always get them when you and I have
9:05
Speaker 2: sat through some qualifying sessions there that have ticked into
9:08
Speaker 2: the two hour marks have had four red flags as
9:10
Speaker 2: the guy with the dustpan and brushes out there just
9:12
Speaker 2: sweeping up bits of cars. So given that the car
9:15
Speaker 2: is not a front running car, it will be very
9:18
Speaker 2: hard for him not to overreach here because I don't
9:20
Speaker 2: think it's just going to be Yeah, look, if I
9:22
Speaker 2: get into Q two and I trundle around and finish
9:24
Speaker 2: a reasonably competitive ninth, then that's a good result relative
9:28
Speaker 2: to what Liam Lawson has done. That's not going to
9:30
Speaker 2: be how this weekend goes, is it. So they're putting
9:32
Speaker 2: him in there because they're expecting results. He's going to
9:35
Speaker 2: be desperate to show them that they should have done
9:38
Speaker 2: this all along. You add all the other factors that
9:40
Speaker 2: I mentioned and the variance in what this could be.
9:43
Speaker 2: Look on a personal level, it would be an amazing
9:46
Speaker 2: story if he was to get a top five finish
9:49
Speaker 2: or something like that. I don't know if this car
9:51
Speaker 2: and that circuit is compatible for that, even perhaps in
9:54
Speaker 2: Max Verstappan's hands. So to see what Sonoda might do
9:58
Speaker 2: given the very very compromise run up, it's it's going
10:01
Speaker 2: to be compelling. I'm not sure it's going to be
10:03
Speaker 2: that pretty though.
10:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is part of the other question that
10:06
Speaker 1: I'm pondering ahead of this weekend, which is that may
10:09
Speaker 1: look in the long term, things change form changes. By
10:12
Speaker 1: the end of the year, as we said, Yuki Sonuda
10:14
Speaker 1: might be roughly up to speed or at least, you
10:16
Speaker 1: know where they roughly need him to be ahead of
10:18
Speaker 1: Sergio Perez, which is the fundamental question Red Bull Racing
10:20
Speaker 1: has been asking about the driver lineup this year. Who
10:22
Speaker 1: can do better than Pairs has done in the last
10:24
Speaker 1: couple of years. I think it hope Sonoda is capable
10:27
Speaker 1: of that for his own sake, But is there any
10:29
Speaker 1: way even in the medium term to Red Bull to
10:31
Speaker 1: spin this, for Red Bull to spin this as a victory,
10:34
Speaker 1: because there's only two outcomes here, right. One is that
10:37
Speaker 1: Sonoda does just as badly or roughly as badly as
10:39
Speaker 1: Lawson does, in which case you wonder, well, why did
10:41
Speaker 1: you bin off this guy had just two races of
10:43
Speaker 1: experience in your car ahead of the first track on
10:46
Speaker 1: the Calendra, which he has experienced, and he's learning for
10:48
Speaker 1: the first time or alternatively, so Nota does very well
10:51
Speaker 1: and you say, well, what have you, guys beat? Why
10:53
Speaker 1: have you held him out of the car for so long?
10:55
Speaker 1: Why did you stick with Peis for so long? Why
10:56
Speaker 1: did you lose the Constructors Championship last year when you
10:59
Speaker 1: had options to switch out pairs for a driver you
11:02
Speaker 1: spent a lot of money training up and he was
11:03
Speaker 1: clearly capable of making the switch even last year. Even
11:07
Speaker 1: for last year. I don't think there's any way for
11:09
Speaker 1: the decision making process at Red Bull Racing to come
11:12
Speaker 1: away from this looking good other than perhaps selling this
11:16
Speaker 1: as a great awakening of all the mistakes the team's
11:18
Speaker 1: ever made over the last twenty four months. I think
11:21
Speaker 1: that's what I'm going to be interesting to see how
11:23
Speaker 1: it's spun.
11:24
Speaker 2: Yes, the Red Bull spin doctoring will be spinning faster
11:27
Speaker 2: than it has ever spun before this weekend. Trying to
11:30
Speaker 2: put lipstick on a pig of a situation here. But
11:33
Speaker 2: ah man, it's just the point you mentioned about Lawson was,
11:37
Speaker 2: to my mind the reason they weren't going to do
11:40
Speaker 2: this yet used the word yet, because it seemed pretty
11:43
Speaker 2: inevitable they were going to do it if you really
11:45
Speaker 2: wanted to find out whether Liam Lawson did have what
11:48
Speaker 2: it took in this particular car there. He doesn't have
11:52
Speaker 2: a homegrown Prix obviously, this is the track he's done
11:54
Speaker 2: more laps of in Formula one machinery and also just
11:59
Speaker 2: machinery for four stop after his year in super Formula.
12:01
Speaker 2: He knows this track really really well. And what that
12:04
Speaker 2: does is it takes the variable of well, he'd never
12:07
Speaker 2: raced anything in Australia and he'd race something in China
12:10
Speaker 2: once a very long time ago. That wasn't very relevant
12:13
Speaker 2: until you got back to Europe and went to the
12:15
Speaker 2: tracks where these guys cut their teeth in the junior formulate,
12:17
Speaker 2: this was the one you would have got a definitive answer.
12:20
Speaker 2: So if you'd had him in the car at Suzuka,
12:22
Speaker 2: it's all dreadful. He plods around and comes fourteenth. Then
12:25
Speaker 2: he's absolutely nowhere out and Q one again. You have
12:28
Speaker 2: every justification to make the move, and the way that
12:31
Speaker 2: move would be received would be completely different to the
12:35
Speaker 2: move that they have made. But the point that you
12:37
Speaker 2: made before, it's if this does not work, and I
12:41
Speaker 2: don't know what doesn't work constitutes So we talk what
12:44
Speaker 2: sort of race sample size are we saying? Helmut Marco
12:46
Speaker 2: said that he's in the car for the entire year.
12:48
Speaker 2: I will believe that when I see it, judge by
12:50
Speaker 2: the way that this organization works. But if this doesn't
12:54
Speaker 2: work out, what do you do then? Because Arbad Lindblad's
12:58
Speaker 2: not ready yet, Daniel Riccardo's gone, Danny Kevyat's probably waiting
13:02
Speaker 2: by his mobile waiting for it to ring because he's
13:05
Speaker 2: normally the guy that they go to in this situation,
13:07
Speaker 2: Poor Danny. But what do they do if this doesn't work?
13:11
Speaker 2: And there was a piece that you wrote on Fox
13:14
Speaker 2: Sports last week that I found myself nodding my head
13:16
Speaker 2: to again excellent podcast where you were saying that there
13:20
Speaker 2: are so many eggs in the max for stap and
13:23
Speaker 2: basket here. If this does not go well and Max
13:27
Speaker 2: is looking at a car that's really really problematic to drive,
13:30
Speaker 2: there doesn't seem to be anyone capable of being able
13:32
Speaker 2: to assist him in this fight with the three other
13:35
Speaker 2: teams at the front of Formula One, Then what is
13:37
Speaker 2: Max going to think? And is there a performance clause
13:41
Speaker 2: in his contract if the car drops to a certain
13:43
Speaker 2: position in the constructors championship. The reason we say this
13:46
Speaker 2: and the reason we bring up Suzuka is I believe
13:48
Speaker 2: you were there. I definitely was in twenty fourteen. That
13:51
Speaker 2: was the weekend that was announced that Sebastian Vatter was
13:53
Speaker 2: going to Ferrari in twenty fourteen because that car drops
13:57
Speaker 2: so far down in the constructors standings that zeb had
14:00
Speaker 2: an outlaws in his contract to get out of there.
14:02
Speaker 2: So you just wonder what it means longer term for
14:05
Speaker 2: the biggest ace that Red Bull has in its pack
14:08
Speaker 2: right now is they have a four time reigning world
14:10
Speaker 2: champion who's doing everything he can to finish fourth in
14:15
Speaker 2: a race in Shanghai. So you mentioned before how quickly
14:18
Speaker 2: things change. I was just scatting last year's race results
14:20
Speaker 2: from Suzuka before we came on red Bull won two.
14:23
Speaker 2: Nothing to see here. If the staff had demolished everybody,
14:25
Speaker 2: Sergeio Operez did what exactly they want to do in
14:28
Speaker 2: the second card, don't get in Max's way, beat everyone else.
14:30
Speaker 2: Happy days. That was round four last year and man,
14:33
Speaker 2: things have taken a slight turn since then, have they not.
14:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, Now, before we wrap this one up, we've got
14:38
Speaker 1: to talk about the Liam Lawson perspective on this, because
14:40
Speaker 1: he has missed out on that chance to race at
14:42
Speaker 1: a circuit that he knows well and we're back himself
14:44
Speaker 1: around because it's very well in super formula. It's the
14:46
Speaker 1: forgotten element of it, as you mentioned, as well as
14:49
Speaker 1: having raced quite competitively here two years ago when he
14:53
Speaker 1: had the opportunity to do so with whatever the team
14:56
Speaker 1: was called at the time. Alpha Tower is still think,
14:58
Speaker 1: Alpha Tower Think. But yeah, yes, he's now back at
15:04
Speaker 1: that team. It's been dressed up, as in the words
15:07
Speaker 1: of the red of Christian Horner, in fact, as the
15:09
Speaker 1: team exercising its duty of care to Liam Lawson by
15:12
Speaker 1: dropping him from the main team into a car that is,
15:15
Speaker 1: as we've said, more benign, easy to drive, does seem
15:18
Speaker 1: perhaps at the limit of anyone other than Maxwistaff and
15:21
Speaker 1: maybe even Borderline just behind the Red Bull Racing car
15:24
Speaker 1: that remains to be seen. I guess we'll learn a
15:26
Speaker 1: bit more about that this weekend. Now we've had this
15:27
Speaker 1: driver's shuffle, what is prospects for his future? I've written
15:32
Speaker 1: at the Fox Sports website about every other driver that's
15:35
Speaker 1: been dropped by Red Bull Racing or Torosso or RB
15:38
Speaker 1: or Racing Balls are Alpha Tower, et cetera. The outcome
15:42
Speaker 1: look for most of them isn't great, the exceptions being
15:44
Speaker 1: Pierre Gasly and Alex Elbourne, who have continued their careers
15:47
Speaker 1: after being dropped from the senior team. Do you think
15:50
Speaker 1: that actually being only two rounds in is I hate
15:53
Speaker 1: to dress this up as a win for Liam Lawson
15:56
Speaker 1: in the context of being dropped a positive rather than
15:58
Speaker 1: them waiting till mid season the end of the year
16:00
Speaker 1: when perhaps it could have ended his career on the spot.
16:03
Speaker 2: And I've got to say the Christian Horner scale of
16:05
Speaker 2: in sincerity has got a new entry after that particular
16:08
Speaker 2: spin doctor from the Mothership. But I actually think short
16:14
Speaker 2: term it's a win because the pressure is completely off
16:19
Speaker 2: for now and we've seen already in the first two
16:21
Speaker 2: rounds this year, the RB there racing Bulls chairs. I'm
16:24
Speaker 2: confusing myself. The Racing Bulls car. It is a Q
16:29
Speaker 2: three car because we've seen it. We've seen it in Melbourne,
16:32
Speaker 2: we've seen it in China. It's clearly going to be
16:34
Speaker 2: a more benign, predictable car to drive. And you would
16:38
Speaker 2: imagine that all Formula One drivers have their insecurities, as
16:41
Speaker 2: by the front that they put up. He would be
16:43
Speaker 2: feeling pretty just his confidence to be battered after the
16:46
Speaker 2: first couple of rounds and then this public dismissal a
16:50
Speaker 2: fortnight into this dream job that you've always wanted. So
16:54
Speaker 2: if you've got a car that's more benign, has already
16:56
Speaker 2: produced some decent results, and the expectations up pretty low
17:00
Speaker 2: because it's pretty clear that the team doesn't seem as
17:03
Speaker 2: that the organization doesn't see him as a worthy of
17:05
Speaker 2: a seat in the top team. He's got a free
17:07
Speaker 2: swing here, hasn't he. Now? I did read the story
17:10
Speaker 2: that you mentioned and know these things don't tend to
17:12
Speaker 2: go well. Gasly and Albon are the exceptions to the rule.
17:15
Speaker 2: They were pretty impatient with Ghasly and they were very
17:18
Speaker 2: patient with Albon and they both ended up in the
17:19
Speaker 2: same place. The fact that both of them have resurrected
17:23
Speaker 2: their careers. Album's just become this incredibly dependable team leader
17:28
Speaker 2: and the adult in the room for Williams when they
17:30
Speaker 2: are at their lower step. And Pierre Gasly is the
17:33
Speaker 2: guy who if you're ever going to put your money on,
17:35
Speaker 2: who's going to have the outlier podium or the result
17:39
Speaker 2: from absolutely nowhere. He's not going to be as consistent
17:41
Speaker 2: as Albon, but he's got these big spikes in his
17:43
Speaker 2: performance curve where yeah, I mean every now and then
17:46
Speaker 2: he is going to do something pretty remarkable. They are
17:49
Speaker 2: so the exceptions to the rule here, and you hope
17:52
Speaker 2: for Lawson's sake that he gets a reasonable crack at
17:56
Speaker 2: trying to do something else now, whether it's within that
17:59
Speaker 2: family or anywhere else. And as you said, there's not
18:01
Speaker 2: a lot of seats available elsewhere, so he's kind of
18:03
Speaker 2: stuck where he is. This is the biggest free swing
18:06
Speaker 2: for him, because yes, he's at a track that he
18:08
Speaker 2: knows he's not going to have to get used to it.
18:10
Speaker 2: In Formula one machinery, he'll probably find the car has
18:13
Speaker 2: a lower ceiling, but it's a lot more it has
18:16
Speaker 2: a wider window to operate in. Can you imagine what
18:20
Speaker 2: it's going to be like on Saturday if there's a
18:24
Speaker 2: second Red Bull backed car that makes it into Q
18:27
Speaker 2: three and that second car is Liam Lawson not Yuki Sonoda,
18:31
Speaker 2: you cannot even imagine what the reception would be like,
18:35
Speaker 2: both locally at Suzuka. But then what's the global discussion
18:38
Speaker 2: point going to be because I don't think that's beyond
18:40
Speaker 2: the realms of possibility at all, because we know how
18:42
Speaker 2: difficult this circuit is, and then what happens then, like
18:45
Speaker 2: how do we spin doc on that one?
18:47
Speaker 1: It's set up so many fascinating questions that for all
18:51
Speaker 1: of us very interesting, except probably if you work in
18:53
Speaker 1: the Red Bull organization or right the press places, because
18:56
Speaker 1: that's going to be a diffical weekend for you, I suspect.
19:00
Speaker 1: Before we move on to other matters, it's time for
19:02
Speaker 1: the Shannons move of the week. Now. I've only had
19:05
Speaker 1: one race over the course of the weekend, and listeners,
19:08
Speaker 1: you'll have seen already in your feet the Murder GP
19:10
Speaker 1: edition of Pit Talk has already been out fully debriefing
19:14
Speaker 1: the America's Grand Prix at Kota, but nonetheless move of
19:18
Speaker 1: the week. Look, I read the fine print. It says move,
19:20
Speaker 1: doesn't say overtake, doesn't even necessarily need to be in
19:22
Speaker 1: a race. So it gives us full flexibility, does it
19:25
Speaker 1: night when we want type of things. Not saying I'm
19:28
Speaker 1: going to pull that card yet, but I'm just saying
19:29
Speaker 1: it's out there. But why don't you kick us off? Matt,
19:31
Speaker 1: what was your move of the week.
19:33
Speaker 2: Well, you've handed the card to me, and I am
19:35
Speaker 2: pulling out of the pack right now, because yes, there
19:38
Speaker 2: were some good overtakes in both the Sprint and the
19:40
Speaker 2: Grand Prix at Cota, and I'm sure you can talk
19:42
Speaker 2: about one of those. I'm saying the move of the
19:45
Speaker 2: week was Mark Marquez standing beside his bike and then
19:47
Speaker 2: electing to run off the grid with a couple of
19:50
Speaker 2: minutes to go before the Grand Prix on Sunday, Monday morning,
19:54
Speaker 2: Australian time, and effectively triggering an aborted start whenever one
19:58
Speaker 2: looked at the fastest guy ever to go around circuit
20:00
Speaker 2: of the Americas and say I think I'd better do
20:02
Speaker 2: what he's doing, and then everyone just abandons, well half
20:05
Speaker 2: the grid abandons their bikes and runs off the grid
20:07
Speaker 2: to get onto the dry weather setup. So, as far
20:10
Speaker 2: as moves go, Marquez working out that there was a
20:13
Speaker 2: loophole in the rule book that he could exploit. And
20:15
Speaker 2: then as the sport is playing its opening credits for
20:19
Speaker 2: the Grand Prix and it's big TV show on a
20:21
Speaker 2: Sunday afternoon in most markets, the whole thing gets interrupted
20:25
Speaker 2: by like a reverse Lomon style stampede, the Lamon style
20:30
Speaker 2: we used to run to your car before the race.
20:32
Speaker 2: These guys are running away from what they're supposed to
20:34
Speaker 2: be writing, not running towards them, and you have like
20:36
Speaker 2: one hundred one hundred meters sprint before at a bought
20:39
Speaker 2: and start at a ten minute delay. So move of
20:42
Speaker 2: the week A knowing that there was something in the
20:44
Speaker 2: rule book to exploit, and then B being machiavellian enough
20:47
Speaker 2: to say, I'm going to wait for this race to
20:49
Speaker 2: nearly start and then run off the grid and create
20:51
Speaker 2: complete chaos. That's my move of the week. It might
20:53
Speaker 2: be the move of the season.
20:54
Speaker 1: I love it, I really liked it. I also just
20:57
Speaker 1: liked in what other like It's not obviously not possible
21:01
Speaker 1: in any other four wheel motor sport to get out
21:03
Speaker 1: of your car or vehicle and run away makes it possible,
21:08
Speaker 1: and you won't see television pictures like that in any
21:10
Speaker 1: other sport. I really enjoyed it. Fine, I'll go for
21:13
Speaker 1: a more conventional pick. It's not that it wasn't the
21:16
Speaker 1: probably not the most thrilling overtake of the weekend, but
21:18
Speaker 1: it was Bana's passed on Alex Markez at the start
21:20
Speaker 1: of the Grand Prix or I think it was like
21:22
Speaker 1: three or four anyway, Yes, it was for second place
21:24
Speaker 1: at the time until Markes came off his bike. But
21:27
Speaker 1: I thought it was really important considering the narrative of
21:30
Speaker 1: the season up to this point or up till this weekend,
21:32
Speaker 1: and even during this weekend, was that, well, what's he
21:34
Speaker 1: going to have to answer? The Marquez brothers generally but
21:37
Speaker 1: in particular obviously Mark Marquez finished third in everything behind
21:41
Speaker 1: them seemed very much second class at that point. And
21:43
Speaker 1: we also got to this point, hadn't we where we'd
21:45
Speaker 1: written off this opening block of races as all being well,
21:47
Speaker 1: they're Marquez races. He's got to just limit the damage
21:50
Speaker 1: to we get back to Europe and see what happens.
21:52
Speaker 1: He didn't have to pass Mark Markez in the end,
21:55
Speaker 1: but I just thought it was a really important moment
21:57
Speaker 1: in terms of potentially changing that narrative, the idea that
22:01
Speaker 1: he could challenge them, that he did put on a
22:03
Speaker 1: move he had this go forward. I suppose we haven't
22:06
Speaker 1: seen from him all season. Is it gonna be enough
22:08
Speaker 1: to change things? We'll have to wait and see in
22:09
Speaker 1: the next couple of races. But I thought there was
22:12
Speaker 1: at least something positive to talk about from him in
22:14
Speaker 1: relation to that lead battle that has emerged very early
22:18
Speaker 1: in this season. So I thought it was a meaningful overtake,
22:20
Speaker 1: even if it wasn't necessarily the most thrilling one. We'll
22:24
Speaker 1: wait and see if it amounts to anything that I suppose.
22:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, I completely agree. I think important in the moment,
22:28
Speaker 2: but I think more important for what it might symbolize
22:31
Speaker 2: going forward. It was a move he needed to make
22:33
Speaker 2: for the sake of his season and the World Championship.
22:35
Speaker 2: So yeah, probably a little more conventional than mine, but
22:39
Speaker 2: we'll share it.
22:40
Speaker 1: Perhaps let's bring it back now to Formula one, where
22:43
Speaker 1: there's been an unusual news story bubbling away since the
22:45
Speaker 1: Chinese Grand Prix, and that is about power units. Perhaps
22:49
Speaker 1: we can go back to just calling them engines. Because
22:51
Speaker 1: V tens are they coming back? That is the question
22:54
Speaker 1: you might have remembered. It was a couple of months ago. Now,
22:56
Speaker 1: I suppose that I FIA President Muhammed bensul Amy in
23:00
Speaker 1: that way. He has a habit of raising what occasionally
23:03
Speaker 1: just seem like thought bubbles or just what's on his
23:05
Speaker 1: mind at the time, that maybe F one could return
23:08
Speaker 1: to V ten engines naturally aspirated because they're loud and exciting,
23:12
Speaker 1: powered by sustainable fuel, of course, to keep it in
23:15
Speaker 1: line with the green credentials of the sport or the
23:17
Speaker 1: sport that the sport are trying to sell. Anyway, and
23:21
Speaker 1: what seemed like a thought bubble actually is evolved into
23:23
Speaker 1: quite a serious talking point in the sports being discussed
23:25
Speaker 1: at the highest levels, including with the power unit manufacturers,
23:28
Speaker 1: the teams obviously, the FIA and F one itself F
23:31
Speaker 1: one President or F one CEO. Rather, Stefano Domenicale's already
23:34
Speaker 1: suggested he would be behind it. A rare moment which
23:38
Speaker 1: one the FIA are very much unified. It's also the
23:41
Speaker 1: suggestion that Ferrari would back this move, perhaps not that surprising,
23:44
Speaker 1: considering well, it just feels very Ferrari like doesn't it
23:47
Speaker 1: naturally aspirated engines feels very in line with and Soo
23:50
Speaker 1: Ferrari and everything he's thought about. Not everyone's for it,
23:53
Speaker 1: of course, Audy for one, considering they have just come
23:55
Speaker 1: back for the purpose of this new power unit that's
23:58
Speaker 1: being introduced in twenty twenty six, doesn't sound like it's
24:00
Speaker 1: fully behind. But let's start with the basics. Matt. V
24:04
Speaker 1: ten engine is dramatically different from what we have right
24:06
Speaker 1: now and what we will have from twenty twenty six,
24:08
Speaker 1: which is pretty similar to what we have right now.
24:09
Speaker 1: To be honest, just a little bit simplified. Is this
24:12
Speaker 1: the direction of sport that's been trying to sell it's
24:14
Speaker 1: technological and green credential should be moving.
24:16
Speaker 2: In a long question with a short answer, No, I
24:20
Speaker 2: think anyone that lived through the V ten era. My
24:22
Speaker 2: hearing is still somewhat impaired because of the V ten era.
24:26
Speaker 2: Nothing more exciting than standing in a pit lane when
24:29
Speaker 2: cars were filing out for the sighting lap to the
24:31
Speaker 2: grid and watching someone with a very heavy right foot
24:34
Speaker 2: spin with the wheels up about three inches from your nose.
24:37
Speaker 2: You knew you were alive in those days, that's for sure.
24:39
Speaker 2: But there's a couple of things for this. With me,
24:44
Speaker 2: the thought bubble analogy was interesting because to me, it
24:47
Speaker 2: felt like it was being floated out there simply to
24:50
Speaker 2: see what the response was going to be. And you
24:54
Speaker 2: know the old saying that nothing sells like nostalgia. So
24:56
Speaker 2: there's a certain fan base of Formula one that perhaps
24:59
Speaker 2: has felt a little bit as we've gone into the
25:01
Speaker 2: drive to survive era and fake marinas and twenty four
25:03
Speaker 2: based calendars and so on and so forth. You know,
25:06
Speaker 2: a lot of that new crowd to Formula one has
25:09
Speaker 2: never experienced V ten engines because they were last seen
25:12
Speaker 2: in the sport twenty years ago, and so there's something
25:16
Speaker 2: that doesn't quite add up there. But it did feel
25:18
Speaker 2: like it was just being dangled out there to see.
25:20
Speaker 2: I wonder what the response will be, and the response
25:23
Speaker 2: from the fan base will probably depend on what the
25:25
Speaker 2: date of your birth certificate is and if you've ever
25:27
Speaker 2: seen these things in the flash. But in terms of
25:30
Speaker 2: what it means, all of these things are thrown out
25:32
Speaker 2: there for some sort of political reason. Let's be perfectly honest,
25:35
Speaker 2: And I think back to the last big engine change
25:38
Speaker 2: that we had in twenty fourteen, whether you were four
25:41
Speaker 2: or against. The introduction of V six turbo hybrids for
25:43
Speaker 2: fourteen was probably how well you were prepared for it,
25:46
Speaker 2: and we remember what happened in twenty fourteen. It was
25:48
Speaker 2: this massive reset for the sport in that Red Bull
25:51
Speaker 2: had spent the previous four years obliterating everybody and were
25:53
Speaker 2: absolutely nowhere because the power plant they had at the
25:56
Speaker 2: time was no good and Mercedes came on in twenty
25:59
Speaker 2: four and just own the sport for the next five
26:02
Speaker 2: years after that, with the occasional periods of Daniel Ricardo
26:06
Speaker 2: witting races for Red Bull and Ferrari getting sacked together
26:09
Speaker 2: from time to time. So there's always a political element
26:13
Speaker 2: to the responses for something like this, and it's been
26:16
Speaker 2: I'm sure you found this. It's super interesting to see
26:20
Speaker 2: the existing players in the sport and their thoughts on
26:23
Speaker 2: this based onto how far they think they might be
26:25
Speaker 2: advanced with their power plants for next season or not,
26:28
Speaker 2: or if you're going to a relationship with a new
26:30
Speaker 2: engine provider or not. Those sorts of things are quite
26:34
Speaker 2: instructive with how some of the responses have been. But
26:37
Speaker 2: you mentioned the wider point like part of getting Audi
26:39
Speaker 2: in and Cadillac and it was this set of rules
26:42
Speaker 2: that you could sell to the shareholders and the public
26:44
Speaker 2: as a responsible carmaker and look at the way forward
26:47
Speaker 2: and we're embracing technology and so on and so forth. I'm
26:50
Speaker 2: not sure bringing back a V ten engine, but oh,
26:53
Speaker 2: it's all powered by a sustainable fuel. That'll all be fine.
26:55
Speaker 2: I'm not sure that ticks a box on a corporate
26:58
Speaker 2: level for a lot of these new players in Formula
27:00
Speaker 2: one that signed up for something that well, they signed
27:04
Speaker 2: up for something, and what they're being offered is something
27:05
Speaker 2: that's not that. Yeah.
27:07
Speaker 1: Really like a couple of points there. One that there's
27:10
Speaker 1: a big new generation of fans who just have no experience,
27:12
Speaker 1: certainly of V tens, maybe not even a V eights,
27:14
Speaker 1: which would still feel like a relatively recent memory. But
27:17
Speaker 1: we're more than a decade ago now, well before the
27:19
Speaker 1: boom in popularity, and I do wonder how it would
27:22
Speaker 1: be received by that new group of fans, something I've
27:25
Speaker 1: been thinking about a little bit recently. And then yes,
27:27
Speaker 1: combined with the idea that a big part of these
27:30
Speaker 1: engine rules were to attract new manufacturers. Now you could
27:33
Speaker 1: say twill techniques only done one, hasn't it, which is
27:35
Speaker 1: Audi or the Volkswagen group has kind of attracted back honder,
27:39
Speaker 1: I guess, depending on whether or not you view them
27:41
Speaker 1: as having left the sport to begin with. But it
27:44
Speaker 1: did convince them to come back or to recommit or
27:46
Speaker 1: have you want to sell that you did lose Reno,
27:48
Speaker 1: But that really didn't have anything to do with the rules.
27:50
Speaker 1: That has just to do with whatever with Reno. Yeah, yeah,
27:53
Speaker 1: pretty much whatever wacky approach Rendo has been taking to
27:56
Speaker 1: F one recently. So sort of lukewarm response there. It's
28:00
Speaker 1: worth pointing out this isn't going to happen for twenty
28:01
Speaker 1: twenty six. It will not be replacing the new rules.
28:03
Speaker 1: It's way too late for that. First of all, it
28:05
Speaker 1: would need unanimous agreement between everyone, which doesn't happen in
28:08
Speaker 1: F one. But it would also make for several times
28:10
Speaker 1: just without engines I e. Audi also Mercedes suggest it
28:14
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to supply any customers. Aston Martin wouldn't
28:16
Speaker 1: have a Honda engine to use because they haven't designed
28:18
Speaker 1: one yet, so that's kind of different. I also think
28:21
Speaker 1: there's something interesting here, isn't there about the choice of
28:24
Speaker 1: V ten over V eight. I mean, I don't have
28:26
Speaker 1: as great a recollection of the vten era, And to
28:29
Speaker 1: be fair, it's maybe not fair to compare them anyway,
28:32
Speaker 1: because in my mind I remember a lot of unreliability,
28:35
Speaker 1: but also the sport generally was less reliable. Then it
28:37
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't be the same now. Technology has simply advanced
28:40
Speaker 1: to deal with a job now, so maybe that's not
28:42
Speaker 1: going to be part of it. But there is an
28:43
Speaker 1: additional political element here, which is that And I do
28:47
Speaker 1: wonder if this is genuine forward thinking f one's at
28:50
Speaker 1: the It's at the crest of a wave, isn't it.
28:51
Speaker 1: The popularity has never been greater. Everything's going really well
28:54
Speaker 1: where twenty four races, sport's making a lot of money.
28:57
Speaker 1: There are new tracks coming onto the calendar. We're now
28:59
Speaker 1: staying to choose which ones need to rotate to maximize
29:01
Speaker 1: all that kind of thing. Eventually, and I do hear
29:04
Speaker 1: this talked about more and more, or ponder about anyway
29:08
Speaker 1: the bubble will burst. Now. We don't know if that's
29:10
Speaker 1: going to be a massive stock market style crash where
29:13
Speaker 1: no one watches it anymore, or whether it's just a
29:15
Speaker 1: tempering of that unbridled enthusiasm we see in the general public.
29:18
Speaker 1: Now for Formula One, But when that happens, historically we
29:22
Speaker 1: know that manufacturers leave. Nowada's already a little bit lukewarm.
29:26
Speaker 1: They've already sold half the team to Kata. You don't
29:28
Speaker 1: know if that's going to continue to happen, depending on
29:30
Speaker 1: rule changes whatever. Honda has sort of left and come back,
29:33
Speaker 1: and Reno has left all that kind of stuff. There's
29:35
Speaker 1: roomors about Alpine being sold. Does move into a simpler
29:39
Speaker 1: power unit of V ten which anyone could build, is
29:42
Speaker 1: my understanding of it. Maybe I'll try it when I
29:44
Speaker 1: get home. Safeguard the sport against the idea that in
29:48
Speaker 1: the not too distant future manufacturers could leave and you
29:52
Speaker 1: need an engine that's cheap and easy to build. In
29:54
Speaker 1: your absolute worst case scenario, you could go to independent
29:57
Speaker 1: builders like the Sports occasionally flirted with the idea of
29:59
Speaker 1: going back to Cosworth's style engines of independence if needed.
30:03
Speaker 1: Perhaps there is actually quite a forward thinking element at
30:06
Speaker 1: play here whereby the sport is safeguarded from that.
30:09
Speaker 2: That's got to be part of it, because you know,
30:10
Speaker 2: we've had this discussion before because of our various ages
30:13
Speaker 2: and stages and our sort of journeys being around the
30:16
Speaker 2: sport is that the bubble can't keep growing forever. I mean,
30:21
Speaker 2: bubbles can't do that. They eventually fracture, don't they. And yes,
30:24
Speaker 2: it's amazing to see where the sport has come in
30:27
Speaker 2: a relatively short period of time. You can look at
30:30
Speaker 2: the twenty fourteen change I mentioned. I believe the first
30:33
Speaker 2: Strive to Survive series is what twenty twenty I believe.
30:37
Speaker 2: I think it was like a sort of Lockero own
30:38
Speaker 2: viewing for a lot of people at Australia. I think
30:40
Speaker 2: it was the first season as twenty nineteen leaving the team. Yes,
30:44
Speaker 2: of course that's right, Yeah, going to Reno. So you've
30:47
Speaker 2: had this unbelievable growth and popularity for a sport that's
30:51
Speaker 2: in a certain form going back to V tens. Look
30:56
Speaker 2: it's as a spectator sport.
30:59
Speaker 1: It was.
31:00
Speaker 2: It was a little confronting, I've got to say, in
31:03
Speaker 2: an exciting way, don't get me wrong, but it's a
31:06
Speaker 2: very different fan base right So I do wonder how
31:09
Speaker 2: that's going to play. But I can't help but think
31:11
Speaker 2: that this is just another political football for all of
31:15
Speaker 2: the interested parties to kick around. And you mentioned the
31:18
Speaker 2: key thing before that unanimity. Like most Formula One teams
31:21
Speaker 2: can't agree on what type of day it is. So
31:23
Speaker 2: to try and get something as big as this pushed
31:26
Speaker 2: through in the future is with unanimous approach is one. Also,
31:31
Speaker 2: if we're doing this in twenty thirty one or whatever
31:33
Speaker 2: it's being broached, then what are we investing all this
31:35
Speaker 2: money for now? For something that's going to be obsolete
31:37
Speaker 2: in four years? If this all goes ahead, that seems
31:39
Speaker 2: financially irresponsible if that's the case, and just completely crazy
31:44
Speaker 2: in that there's teams that are moving forward to a
31:46
Speaker 2: particular future and then we're just going to completely reverse
31:48
Speaker 2: course and go another way. So I do wonder if
31:51
Speaker 2: this is just something that's been put out there as
31:53
Speaker 2: something to trade. You know, it's a bit of a
31:56
Speaker 2: horse trading power trading situation, and it just becomes another
31:59
Speaker 2: political front for which the sport fights on that When
32:02
Speaker 2: I first read it, the first thing I did was
32:05
Speaker 2: check to see if it was the first of April.
32:06
Speaker 2: Would you today? Actually, as we're recording this, thought, oh,
32:09
Speaker 2: it's an elaborate April fools stay joke, But no it's not.
32:12
Speaker 2: And so yeah, I think where you stand on this
32:15
Speaker 2: very much depends on what you've got to lose rather
32:18
Speaker 2: than gain, and I think that'll shape the conversation as
32:21
Speaker 2: this goes on for however long that goes on. MAW.
32:23
Speaker 1: Before we wrap this one up, let's look ahead to
32:25
Speaker 1: the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend. We've talked a little
32:28
Speaker 1: bit about what will undoubtedly be the biggest story of
32:30
Speaker 1: this weekend, Yuki Sanoa's home debut for Red Bull Racing,
32:33
Speaker 1: But of course we resume a championship that has certainly
32:36
Speaker 1: felt like McLaren is building momentum for having won the
32:39
Speaker 1: first two Grand Prix of the year, one apiece for
32:42
Speaker 1: Orlando Norris and Osco Piastre. I want to talk about
32:45
Speaker 1: those two drivers in particular and McLaren's place at the
32:48
Speaker 1: top of the order. We you know, from the last
32:49
Speaker 1: two seasons this has been a McLaren track. Hasn't been
32:53
Speaker 1: in that winning position that we've got used to seeing
32:55
Speaker 1: them in because Red Bull Racing's position at the top
32:57
Speaker 1: of the sport has only relatively recently in challenge. It
33:00
Speaker 1: would have been interesting to see actually had Japan been
33:02
Speaker 1: run in its traditional time soot at the end of
33:03
Speaker 1: the last year. Yes, perhaps got quite a different result.
33:07
Speaker 1: But the Chinese Grand Prix for me has set the
33:09
Speaker 1: scene more than any other element, and this is from
33:11
Speaker 1: the Oscar Piastre perspective. We've seen him struggle a little
33:15
Speaker 1: bit in Japan relative to Lando Norris. An emphasise relative
33:18
Speaker 1: because this was of course his first podium two years ago,
33:20
Speaker 1: the first Grand Prix podium of his career. Qualified quite
33:23
Speaker 1: well but raced way off Norris's pace. It was a
33:25
Speaker 1: big turn around the middle of that race. Last year
33:27
Speaker 1: the gap was improved but was still behind Norris, and
33:30
Speaker 1: the race performance overall was a little bit lackluster for
33:32
Speaker 1: McLaren in their slow start to last season. This year
33:35
Speaker 1: they're coming with a car that started in the right
33:37
Speaker 1: way competitively obviously, a track that should suit the car,
33:41
Speaker 1: and an Oscar Piastri who looks like he has taken
33:43
Speaker 1: on the evidence of course of only two Grand Prix,
33:46
Speaker 1: quite a big step. And I wonder about whether this
33:48
Speaker 1: is I mean for me, I think this is a
33:50
Speaker 1: big momentum builder for either driver. If either of the
33:52
Speaker 1: McLaren drivers is to win, I think that's significant for
33:56
Speaker 1: both of them. Acknowledging, of course, we've got two subsequent
33:58
Speaker 1: races to come in the Middle East after this, and
34:00
Speaker 1: that could change the narrative before we get to our
34:02
Speaker 1: next weekend off. But I feel like this is an
34:04
Speaker 1: important one given we expect McLaren to come here and
34:07
Speaker 1: sort of have things its own.
34:08
Speaker 2: Way well, and important for Piastre too because I think
34:11
Speaker 2: we get this instant answer to the question as to
34:13
Speaker 2: how much he's actually kicked on, because we know Norris
34:16
Speaker 2: is a pretty consistent high level operator at this point,
34:19
Speaker 2: so I don't think there's going to be too many
34:20
Speaker 2: surprises with him being up the front of that's the
34:23
Speaker 2: way it turns out, and being very strong this weekend
34:26
Speaker 2: where Piastre is relative to Norris, and particularly if that's
34:30
Speaker 2: a head at a circuit where Norris has had his
34:33
Speaker 2: measure recent previously. The Piastre of twenty twenty five I
34:37
Speaker 2: think is a much more finished product than twenty four
34:40
Speaker 2: and twenty three were. And twenty three there were elements
34:42
Speaker 2: of being really impressive in a car that wasn't great,
34:44
Speaker 2: and twenty four there were periods of being very very
34:48
Speaker 2: impressive in a car that was slow to get to
34:50
Speaker 2: the boil, but then once it got there it had
34:52
Speaker 2: a very very high level. There were some things that
34:55
Speaker 2: he needed to iron out last year qualifying not with
34:59
Speaker 2: probably being the main one, and that was the lowest
35:01
Speaker 2: hanging for it for him to improve. The nature of
35:04
Speaker 2: the way this race is run at Suzuka is that
35:07
Speaker 2: it's a complete driver's track. The cars look very very fast,
35:10
Speaker 2: and it's very very exciting, and it's narrow and it's
35:13
Speaker 2: one track and there's not a lot of fantastic racing
35:17
Speaker 2: at this track. So to my mind, Saturday Afternoon Qualifying
35:22
Speaker 2: is a really big early season marker for Piastre. We
35:24
Speaker 2: saw that he got pole in China last time out.
35:27
Speaker 2: This race is very very often won in relatively benign
35:31
Speaker 2: conditions by the polesitter because it is a very tough
35:34
Speaker 2: track on which to pass, particularly if the person you're
35:36
Speaker 2: trying to passes in a car that's just as good
35:38
Speaker 2: as yours if you'd seen mates. So, to my mind,
35:40
Speaker 2: Saturday Afternoons Q three, should things go as we expect
35:45
Speaker 2: is the first real pinch point of the year because
35:48
Speaker 2: we saw McLaren had a car advantage in Australia. The
35:50
Speaker 2: weather kind of mitigated that to an extent and we
35:53
Speaker 2: saw appen to Piastrian. It didn't go as we thought
35:56
Speaker 2: it was going to in China, yes, Norris said he's
35:59
Speaker 2: breaking shoes, but that was a pretty nailed on one
36:02
Speaker 2: two for McLaren when it became a one stop race.
36:04
Speaker 2: But Q three Saturday afternoon is the thing I'm most
36:08
Speaker 2: excited about this weekend because it's like, all right, boys,
36:12
Speaker 2: low fuel, one lap, let's go, And if Piastre is
36:15
Speaker 2: able to be ahead of Norris or the gap is minimal,
36:19
Speaker 2: that's going to say a massive amount for the rate
36:21
Speaker 2: of progress he's made season on season. So I'm quite
36:24
Speaker 2: jealous that you're going to be there for that one
36:25
Speaker 2: because I think that last four minutes, last run in
36:27
Speaker 2: Q three is going to be pretty awesome.
36:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean it always is here. This is
36:31
Speaker 1: the other element, regardless of whether or not you've got
36:34
Speaker 1: this championship permutations. It's early in the season, whatever low
36:37
Speaker 1: fuel qualifying. Running at this circuit, a proper driver's circuit,
36:40
Speaker 1: as we've said, is just impressive. Sometimes I'm disappointed that
36:45
Speaker 1: I feel like Japan gets a little bit forgotten in
36:46
Speaker 1: the talk of historic great F one circuits in favor
36:49
Speaker 1: of all the European ones. And obviously there are many
36:51
Speaker 1: great European ones, but Suzuka is special and so qualifying
36:56
Speaker 1: is always very exciting, more so for the context of
36:59
Speaker 1: this weekend. Well, on that note, Matt, why don't we
37:02
Speaker 1: have a look to this weekend with the complete home
37:04
Speaker 1: filtration Crystal Ball. I made the prediction last week, you
37:08
Speaker 1: might remember, and I am obliged, not just obliged, but
37:11
Speaker 1: feel good about sticking with it. Notwithstanding everything we talked
37:13
Speaker 1: about in this podcast that Yuki Sonoda would be on
37:16
Speaker 1: for a home podium. If anything, I would have felt
37:18
Speaker 1: more confident had he not switched to Red Bull Racing.
37:20
Speaker 1: It's out there, No, no, what are you going to
37:24
Speaker 1: predict this weekend?
37:25
Speaker 2: Oh, that's fantastic. I was going to predict a Red
37:27
Speaker 2: Bull driver change before FP one on Friday. Oh was
37:30
Speaker 2: still damn well I predicted, But I just don't know
37:33
Speaker 2: who they're going to put in there. That's the only problem.
37:35
Speaker 2: But it's only from it's only from lack of available
37:37
Speaker 2: options rather than the fact that they might actually do it.
37:40
Speaker 2: But I'm going to predict a Grand Prix podium for Lewis,
37:45
Speaker 2: Hamilton and Ferrari. We saw that he won the sprint
37:47
Speaker 2: race in Shanghai and this is a track where he's
37:51
Speaker 2: had some success in the past. And I think he's
37:53
Speaker 2: going to have a much smoother weekend, and I think
37:54
Speaker 2: there is a spot available on the podium, and I
37:56
Speaker 2: think the person wearing it will be wearing red overall.
37:59
Speaker 2: So there's my prediction.
38:00
Speaker 1: I like it. I do think despind again, everything we've
38:03
Speaker 1: said this weekend the asterisk of two Grand Prix so far,
38:06
Speaker 1: but I do think the progress has been there, just
38:08
Speaker 1: difficult to see, and it's because the problems with Lewis
38:11
Speaker 1: Hamilton's race in China in particular are clear to see
38:14
Speaker 1: in the debrief. The sprint I don't think was a
38:16
Speaker 1: random flash in the pan. I'd obviously think that the comfort,
38:19
Speaker 1: the comfort with which he won it maybe was exaggerated,
38:22
Speaker 1: but I think there is pace there, both in the
38:25
Speaker 1: car and the driver. I don't know if it's anything
38:26
Speaker 1: like title winning pace or even race winning pace, but
38:29
Speaker 1: I think there's more to come there, and it could
38:31
Speaker 1: be Japan. So like you say that he's done well
38:33
Speaker 1: at I like that prediction. I'm just going to go
38:35
Speaker 1: straight for the low hanging fruit. The popular Fox Sports opinion,
38:38
Speaker 1: which is that Oscar piastri can just straight up win
38:41
Speaker 1: this Grand Prix. I think it'd be really significant one
38:43
Speaker 1: if he does, not just because it's such a great track,
38:45
Speaker 1: but for all the reasons we've said. I think it'd
38:47
Speaker 1: be a great momentum builder for him and his title campaign,
38:50
Speaker 1: which we expect him to be going up pretty much.
38:52
Speaker 1: It's just against his teammate at least at this stage,
38:54
Speaker 1: Landon Norris, So any victory is important in that context.
38:59
Speaker 1: And I think that particularly coming off the Chinese Grand Prix,
39:01
Speaker 1: we Land of nor has had a little bit of
39:03
Speaker 1: a quiet one, I think will be hugely significant. And look,
39:07
Speaker 1: it'd be popular at home.
39:08
Speaker 2: It'll be popular at home for all the people that's
39:10
Speaker 2: going to be congratulated for getting up at three am
39:12
Speaker 2: to watch some but that might be me because I'll
39:15
Speaker 2: because I'll be enjoying watching this Grand Prix at three
39:18
Speaker 2: pm in time for my Sunday roast afterwards.
39:22
Speaker 1: It is a beautiful thing, is it. On that note,
39:24
Speaker 1: that's all the time we have for pit Talk today.
39:26
Speaker 1: You can subscribe to pit Talk wherever you get your
39:28
Speaker 1: favorite podcasts, and you can leave us a rating and
39:31
Speaker 1: review as well. This weekend, as you said, Matt is
39:33
Speaker 1: the Japanese Grand Prix. It starts at three pm Australian
39:37
Speaker 1: Eastern Standard Time because the clocks go back. Isn't that
39:40
Speaker 1: it's exciting for someone. I suppose you came up to
39:42
Speaker 1: take with all the latest F one supercars andmodogbews at
39:45
Speaker 1: foxsports dot com dot Au from Matt Clayton and me,
39:48
Speaker 1: Michael Lovedado. Thanks very much for your company and we'll
39:51
Speaker 1: get you next week