Latest / Pit Talk / Could Verstappen really quit Red Bull? Belgian GP Preview

Transcript

Could Verstappen really quit Red Bull? Belgian GP Preview · Pit Talk

0:05
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:08
Speaker 1: On today's episode, speculation hits fever, pitch over a possible
0:12
Speaker 1: max for staff and defection from Red Bull Racing. But
0:15
Speaker 1: what are his options and is McLaren realistically one of them?
0:18
Speaker 1: And we look ahead to this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix,
0:21
Speaker 1: the first of the final two races before the mid
0:24
Speaker 1: season break. My name is Michael Lambanata. I'm just about
0:26
Speaker 1: alive and it's great to have your company and the
0:28
Speaker 1: company of my co host. He likes his engines naturally
0:31
Speaker 1: aspirated and the filter's on his fuel pumps removed.
0:33
Speaker 2: It's Matt Payson and someone that these are filter might
0:36
Speaker 2: be you right now because you're burly with us this week.
0:38
Speaker 2: You're actually had a weekend without Formula one and decided
0:41
Speaker 2: it was a good time to get sick. So that
0:42
Speaker 2: wasn't the smartest move on your behalf. But we're in
0:46
Speaker 2: the dog days of the mid season. It's cold in
0:48
Speaker 2: Australia and yes, so I'm glad you managed to survive.
0:51
Speaker 2: It's hopefully you get to the end of this episode
0:53
Speaker 2: and can get through the Belgian weekend. But I'm not
0:56
Speaker 2: going to laud this over you. But I am on
0:58
Speaker 2: my Motor GP mid season break and yes nothing has changed,
1:00
Speaker 2: but I'm slightly healthier than you, So that's the good news.
1:03
Speaker 1: That is good. I mean, I'm hopeful that this is
1:05
Speaker 1: getting it out of the way before the Formula one
1:07
Speaker 1: mid season break. I can actually lie down and have
1:10
Speaker 1: a normal relax. But I won't count those chickens just yet.
1:14
Speaker 1: There was no Formula One racing over the course of
1:16
Speaker 1: the weekend, but certainly the rumor mill has been moving
1:18
Speaker 1: just as fast as ever. This is all around Max Withstappen.
1:22
Speaker 1: It's been in the background for probably a couple of
1:24
Speaker 1: months now, well maybe in fact the last twelve months.
1:26
Speaker 1: Considering I think we're talking about exactly the same thing
1:28
Speaker 1: about a year ago. Does Max for staffin stick with
1:31
Speaker 1: Red Bull Racing next season in twenty twenty seven. There
1:34
Speaker 1: are a couple of things we do know Matt, some
1:36
Speaker 1: things that are reportedly true, and then there are a
1:38
Speaker 1: few things we don't know as well. Let's start with
1:40
Speaker 1: what we do know, which is that, as has been
1:42
Speaker 1: widely reported and is an open secret now in the paddock,
1:44
Speaker 1: there is an escape clause in his contract that allows
1:47
Speaker 1: him to leave Red Bull Racing if he's outside the
1:49
Speaker 1: top two in the championship by the mid season break,
1:50
Speaker 1: which is two racist from now. Mathematically you can't finish
1:53
Speaker 1: inside the top two anymore from where he is down
1:55
Speaker 1: in seven, which means that that clause will be activated,
1:58
Speaker 1: whether or it will be available to rather, and then
2:00
Speaker 1: it's up to him to activate it. We also know,
2:02
Speaker 1: because neither party denied it, that Maxwistappen's manager Raymond Mullin
2:06
Speaker 1: held talks with McLaren CEO Zach Brown before the Austrian
2:09
Speaker 1: Grand Prix. Neither denied it, but both said the talks
2:12
Speaker 1: went nowhere and there were no negotiations. So I guess
2:14
Speaker 1: if you're going to believe one half of that, you
2:15
Speaker 1: may as well believe the other half of it. The
2:18
Speaker 1: part that's interesting here is what's been reported that built
2:22
Speaker 1: up to this, which is that Maxis Stappan has refused
2:25
Speaker 1: to tell the Red Bull hierarchy in Austria that he
2:27
Speaker 1: will be with the team next year. Is keeping those
2:29
Speaker 1: cards close to his chest, and as also this is
2:32
Speaker 1: the more interesting report, perhaps has refused to be bought
2:34
Speaker 1: out of that escape clause. Now, on the one hand,
2:37
Speaker 1: he doesn't need any extra money. He's the highest paid
2:39
Speaker 1: driver in Formula One, but he's only got two years
2:42
Speaker 1: to run on his contract after this. At some point
2:43
Speaker 1: we're just going to be talking about his new contract anyway.
2:46
Speaker 1: But it certainly paints the picture, Matt, of a driver
2:49
Speaker 1: team combination that feels like it's at its lowest point
2:52
Speaker 1: at a minimum.
2:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, it does. And it's funny that you mentioned the
2:55
Speaker 2: fact that this clause has been well known. We were
2:57
Speaker 2: having similar discussions last year before that absolutely out just
3:00
Speaker 2: second half of the season of the uncoughked to almost
3:02
Speaker 2: steal the world championship. I mean, that was one that
3:05
Speaker 2: you if you squinted hard enough, you could see it
3:07
Speaker 2: last year, but it was still fairly unlikely. You never
3:09
Speaker 2: say ever in Formula One, but I'm about to it's
3:11
Speaker 2: not happeny twenty twenty six.
3:13
Speaker 1: Is it? Just?
3:14
Speaker 2: It just isn't as good as he is. They are
3:17
Speaker 2: just nowhere near being in a position to challenge multiple
3:21
Speaker 2: opponents for the championship, not just one as it was
3:24
Speaker 2: last year, and so the clause now becomes very very real.
3:28
Speaker 2: The thing for me in all of this is that
3:31
Speaker 2: you know the old what's the old adage? You know,
3:33
Speaker 2: where they smoke this fire. The fact that there's even
3:35
Speaker 2: talks going on. If you were a rival team, you
3:37
Speaker 2: would be crazy to not have the discussion to potentially
3:40
Speaker 2: entice the best driver on the grid. I don't think
3:42
Speaker 2: anyone's really in dispute that he is, that he is
3:45
Speaker 2: the guy. The issue is where does he go? Because
3:49
Speaker 2: you know, the escape clause is only valuable if you've
3:51
Speaker 2: got somewhere to escape to. And with the way that
3:54
Speaker 2: the contracts are lined up with all of the teams
3:56
Speaker 2: that he would potentially want to drive for, most people
3:59
Speaker 2: are locked in. Now we know that contracts are barely
4:02
Speaker 2: worth the paper they're written on a lot of the
4:04
Speaker 2: time in Formula One, we've seen this many times. You know,
4:07
Speaker 2: just just look at the revolving door of drivers who
4:09
Speaker 2: signed multi year deals with Red Bull and then suddenly
4:11
Speaker 2: do one year and end up in Super Formula or somewhere.
4:14
Speaker 2: So that tends to happen as well. But I just
4:16
Speaker 2: part of this is the fact that he's not committing
4:20
Speaker 2: to Red Bull. It's a leverage play because he doesn't
4:23
Speaker 2: really have any other plays to evoke right now, because
4:26
Speaker 2: there's not a performance aspect to this. It's just reminding everybody,
4:31
Speaker 2: as if anyone needed reminding that he is the most
4:33
Speaker 2: important person in the Red Bull setup. Because the way
4:35
Speaker 2: I like to look at Max at Red Bull is
4:37
Speaker 2: imagine just you insert a and other average Formula One
4:41
Speaker 2: driver in that seat next to Isaac Kadja. Then where's
4:43
Speaker 2: that team? Then that's the crazy thing to think, like
4:46
Speaker 2: you just swap out a perfectly dependable mid grid veteran driver,
4:50
Speaker 2: Like I'm not just pulling aname out of hat. If
4:52
Speaker 2: Esteban Ochhan was in the second Red Bull this year,
4:55
Speaker 2: now no slight on Esterban. Where would they be though?
4:58
Speaker 2: And this is the question. So he knows he holds
5:01
Speaker 2: the cards. So there's a leverage play within the team,
5:04
Speaker 2: outside of the team short of a major team bidding
5:09
Speaker 2: somebody off or breaking a contract or paying somebody out.
5:11
Speaker 2: And we've seen that with McLaren because they paid Daniel
5:13
Speaker 2: Ricardo to go away, didn't they? So we know there
5:16
Speaker 2: is precedent for this. Where does he go? And so
5:19
Speaker 2: you've got this inflection point of the driver that everybody wants.
5:22
Speaker 2: You would have to move him out and to get
5:24
Speaker 2: him because you've got people already locked up. So that's
5:27
Speaker 2: the curiosity in all of this and also the other
5:30
Speaker 2: before I throw back to you here, I think that
5:33
Speaker 2: this was a story that everybody saw coming, and this
5:36
Speaker 2: is not the Red Bull that Max did a lot
5:38
Speaker 2: of his winning with, Let's be honest, because it almost
5:40
Speaker 2: feels like he's one of the last people still there
5:42
Speaker 2: from that absolute Halsey and era of him just winning
5:45
Speaker 2: absolutely everything, because there's been a massive departure of personnel there,
5:49
Speaker 2: and even the fact they're running their own engine program.
5:51
Speaker 2: It's a very very different Red Ball despite the team
5:54
Speaker 2: colors and the car and the name being the same,
5:56
Speaker 2: and so the fact that he's kind of the last
5:59
Speaker 2: man standing there, you do wonder where this leads to
6:01
Speaker 2: from here.
6:02
Speaker 1: The comparison to last year is very interesting in the
6:04
Speaker 1: context of all of those elements. There's, on the one hand,
6:07
Speaker 1: the fact that had he left last year, he probably
6:09
Speaker 1: would have been able to move himself into a Mercedes,
6:11
Speaker 1: which doesn't feel available to him anymore. Yeah, I find
6:14
Speaker 1: it interesting to reflect on some of the reasons that
6:16
Speaker 1: he seemed to be showing a lack of faith in
6:17
Speaker 1: the team last year, which that he didn't feel like
6:20
Speaker 1: the technical department didn't It seemed like he'd have a
6:23
Speaker 1: lot of faith in the technical part and department, in
6:25
Speaker 1: part because, as he said last year, he didn't feel
6:27
Speaker 1: like his feedback was being listened to. That's resurfaced as
6:30
Speaker 1: a criticism recently. He felt like, in fact, he said
6:32
Speaker 1: publicly had a couple of different races in Canada and
6:35
Speaker 1: again at Silverston, that he'd given feedback, he'd given his
6:38
Speaker 1: opinion and it wasn't listened to. So faith in the
6:41
Speaker 1: technical department that hasn't changed that much because all those
6:44
Speaker 1: people are pretty much left already by the time we
6:46
Speaker 1: were talking about this last year. There are only bit
6:48
Speaker 1: a few other people who've been leaving more generally since then,
6:51
Speaker 1: so that's interesting in itself. It's almost like he's given
6:53
Speaker 1: them another year to prove themselves. Because of course, at
6:56
Speaker 1: this time last year he already had two wins under
6:58
Speaker 1: his belt in Japan and him a there's been no
7:00
Speaker 1: prospect of him other than in Austria, I guess, really
7:03
Speaker 1: winning a Grand Prix this year. So that's different. If
7:06
Speaker 1: you look at the broader two seasons as a whole,
7:09
Speaker 1: the trend is probably where he feed it was going
7:11
Speaker 1: this time last year. The change to Laura Mechiers from
7:14
Speaker 1: Christian Horner hasn't materially affected the direction of the team.
7:20
Speaker 1: That's not a slide on Laura Mechiers. I think that
7:22
Speaker 1: if this is all, if Vestafan's interpretation it is true
7:25
Speaker 1: and the results suggested is it's probably a bigger problem
7:28
Speaker 1: for the team. Maybe the team has to admit that
7:30
Speaker 1: it needs to rebuild itself a little bit. It can't
7:32
Speaker 1: just continue to coast on the glories of only a
7:35
Speaker 1: couple of years ago when it was absolutely dominant in
7:37
Speaker 1: the sport. I think those elements are interesting, but the
7:39
Speaker 1: one that I think is almost the biggest one is
7:42
Speaker 1: that it was only a couple of months ago, and
7:44
Speaker 1: really only a couple of months ago we were talking
7:46
Speaker 1: about Vestappen being prepared to walk away from the sport entirely,
7:49
Speaker 1: and the context of him really having no other front
7:51
Speaker 1: running options. Like we said, Mercedes seems like it's closed
7:53
Speaker 1: off because it's pretty happy with his driver line up
7:55
Speaker 1: now FORRAI doesn't seem like it's an option. McLaren has
7:58
Speaker 1: denied repeatedly that that's an option, and Oscar Piastre and
8:02
Speaker 1: sources close to Oscar Piastri you have said they're not
8:04
Speaker 1: concerned either. That the contracts in place, et cetera. Maybe
8:07
Speaker 1: that's back on the table, because if you're Max and
8:09
Speaker 1: you're saying I'm with a team that's in decline, it's
8:12
Speaker 1: not going to change next year. It's not going to
8:13
Speaker 1: change the year after because it's heading in one direction.
8:16
Speaker 1: Maybe he might be able to go to another front
8:18
Speaker 1: running team in twenty eight, but that's a pretty big give.
8:22
Speaker 1: Maybe this is it. Maybe these are the signs are
8:24
Speaker 1: that he's prepared to walk away, and you know, maybe
8:27
Speaker 1: he can use a little bit of leverage to negotiate
8:29
Speaker 1: a more lucrative deal. But if not, then he's happy
8:32
Speaker 1: to call it quits.
8:34
Speaker 2: It's interesting, isn't it, Because any other front running driver
8:37
Speaker 2: who would do the world. Maybe I'll just leave and
8:39
Speaker 2: I'll be done with this fyther thing. You dismiss it
8:44
Speaker 2: almost as bigbs out of hand, because it's just like,
8:46
Speaker 2: come on, like this is not super believable right now.
8:49
Speaker 2: He's the sort of character that there is a higher
8:52
Speaker 2: percentage of it being real I think than some I still, yes,
8:59
Speaker 2: it is leverage card he can play. I still find
9:02
Speaker 2: it hard to believe that someone who is as competitive
9:06
Speaker 2: as he is and as serial as a winner as
9:09
Speaker 2: he is, would choose to know willingly walk away from
9:13
Speaker 2: the chance to test himself every second Sunday or twenty
9:16
Speaker 2: two twenty four Sundays to many of them there are
9:19
Speaker 2: during the course of a season, because you're not going
9:22
Speaker 2: to get that same level of intensity and competitiveness in
9:25
Speaker 2: any other racing series. Much as you can still be
9:27
Speaker 2: racing racing or sports car racing and what have you,
9:30
Speaker 2: Formula One is still the ultimate test. I still find
9:34
Speaker 2: someone that is as pathologically competitive as he is. The
9:36
Speaker 2: prospect of him just saying, oh, I'll just sit out
9:39
Speaker 2: for a year then, And it's a different equation because
9:42
Speaker 2: of his age and the stage of his career, because
9:45
Speaker 2: you know, when you're in your late twenties, that's a
9:48
Speaker 2: difficult it's a different conversation than if you're in your
9:50
Speaker 2: late thirties or a few You know, Fernando a lot
9:52
Speaker 2: So said that he's going to sit out for a year.
9:55
Speaker 2: That would be far more believable for me because not
9:57
Speaker 2: saying that Fernando a lot So still not a great driver,
9:59
Speaker 2: but his birth certificate tells you that he's forty five
10:02
Speaker 2: years old this year. So it's a different equation in
10:04
Speaker 2: that sense there's still more of a chance that he
10:06
Speaker 2: walks away than any other driver on the grid, I
10:08
Speaker 2: would think, because he's so principled with these sorts of things.
10:11
Speaker 2: But you can't help but think that, you know, is
10:14
Speaker 2: this an avenue to get somewhere else? And what I'd
10:17
Speaker 2: be curious, And I don't know what you think about this,
10:18
Speaker 2: but I'd be curious, like, what's the minimum level of
10:21
Speaker 2: drive that he would accept to stay in the sport
10:24
Speaker 2: for the gap year in twenty twenty seven for example?
10:27
Speaker 2: So you know, is he going to get into one
10:29
Speaker 2: of the three other of the top four teams? That
10:32
Speaker 2: seems unlikely. But would he go, you know, going to
10:35
Speaker 2: a two wheel analogy here? Would he do the Mark
10:37
Speaker 2: marquezak Grassini do catty year as a stepping stone to
10:40
Speaker 2: something else where you go and put yourself in a
10:42
Speaker 2: mid grid team as a springboard to launch into something
10:45
Speaker 2: else for the following year. I don't know who the
10:49
Speaker 2: team is. I mean, who's the fifth, sixth or seventh
10:52
Speaker 2: best team in Formula One that you could hire Maxvstappen
10:54
Speaker 2: for one year knowing that it would be a one
10:56
Speaker 2: year deal, but you just have it because of all
10:58
Speaker 2: the publicity that it would bring. That would be super,
11:01
Speaker 2: super interesting. And I as much as a rider can
11:03
Speaker 2: make more of a difference on a motor GP bike
11:05
Speaker 2: than a driver can in a car, I'd be so
11:06
Speaker 2: interested to see where Max could take an Alpine or
11:10
Speaker 2: where he could take an Audi or something over the
11:13
Speaker 2: course of twenty twenty said, wouldn't that be a good story?
11:15
Speaker 1: Yes, well, the route from red Bull Racing to Alpine
11:18
Speaker 1: to McLaren has been tried before, in.
11:20
Speaker 2: Fact not a great success.
11:21
Speaker 1: It's got to be said's been tried before, and it
11:24
Speaker 1: does lead back to the red Bull family at a minimum.
11:28
Speaker 1: It's interesting, isn't it. It's a pity that the field
11:31
Speaker 1: or the midfield isn't closer to the front runners, because
11:33
Speaker 1: that might more realistically open that as an option, doesn't it.
11:37
Speaker 2: I wonder?
11:37
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe that does just enliven the prospect of
11:39
Speaker 1: a sabbatical, doesn't it, Because I think, you know, I
11:42
Speaker 1: think you're right in saying that if push well, push
11:45
Speaker 1: will come to shove at some point he's got to
11:46
Speaker 1: make a decision eventually. I think it would be harder
11:49
Speaker 1: to quit F one if you still felt like you
11:51
Speaker 1: wanted to compete at the top again. I'm sure he
11:54
Speaker 1: does as much as he's said, he's here for a
11:56
Speaker 1: good time, not a long time. That was at least
11:58
Speaker 1: twenty twenty eight. I don't I don't think he equally
12:01
Speaker 1: doesn't want to call at quits at this point, even
12:03
Speaker 1: if he could be convinced to do so. But it's
12:05
Speaker 1: the combination of the current engines which won't which will
12:09
Speaker 1: change a little bit next year and a little bit
12:10
Speaker 1: the following year, but not as much as he wanted,
12:13
Speaker 1: combined with the fact that the Red Bull engine's clearly
12:16
Speaker 1: pretty good. It's not the leader, but we'll get no upgrades.
12:19
Speaker 1: While Mercedes and Ferrari and everyone else does get upgrades,
12:22
Speaker 1: it's unclear if Red Bull ever will. So the competitiveness
12:25
Speaker 1: of that package and of that engine in particularly doesn't like,
12:28
Speaker 1: will decline relative to the rest of the field. Where's
12:32
Speaker 1: the motivation to stick around at Red Bull Racing next year?
12:36
Speaker 1: And again, assuming that's the only option, so the question
12:38
Speaker 1: is stick around or leave the sport. I think that
12:41
Speaker 1: that's a difficult place for someone like him to be,
12:44
Speaker 1: and knowing that if you commit to Red Bull, you're
12:46
Speaker 1: probably not going to be competing for more than the
12:48
Speaker 1: odd Win next year. Mate. I mean, look, the form
12:51
Speaker 1: guy changes a lot again. He was competing for victory
12:53
Speaker 1: in Austria. We didn't expect that. But the trajectory, not
12:57
Speaker 1: just of the team, but that engine component, which is
12:59
Speaker 1: so influential in his thinking at the moment, seems to
13:01
Speaker 1: be heading in only one direction. It's the wrong direction
13:04
Speaker 1: to I would have thought motivate someone like Max.
13:06
Speaker 2: Yeah. Completely. And this is where the change of rules
13:08
Speaker 2: between twenty five and twenty six is so interesting, because
13:11
Speaker 2: this is a really different conversation we're having if you
13:13
Speaker 2: had continuity of the twenty twenty five rules for say
13:16
Speaker 2: the next three to four years, because you could actually
13:18
Speaker 2: see the roadmap of where there might be an avenue
13:20
Speaker 2: to get in and relative performance. You know, we come on,
13:23
Speaker 2: we do this show every week. We've had ten Grand
13:25
Speaker 2: Prix this year. The amount of time as we've been
13:28
Speaker 2: utterly confused by what we're watching, and I don't think
13:30
Speaker 2: we're the only ones. It is a really confusing season
13:34
Speaker 2: in and of itself. But then what that means of
13:36
Speaker 2: the future is equally murky, because there's no through line
13:40
Speaker 2: or trend or anything that we've really seen yet. Where
13:42
Speaker 2: you go Okay, this looks sustainable because at the moment
13:46
Speaker 2: we go from track to track, Grand Prix to Grand Prix,
13:49
Speaker 2: what we think is the form guide is not really
13:51
Speaker 2: there even in the moment. So then what that means
13:54
Speaker 2: for even the end of this season, litt alone, next
13:56
Speaker 2: season and the season after and so having you are
14:01
Speaker 2: taking much more of an educated part than you ever
14:03
Speaker 2: have as to which is the seat you would want
14:06
Speaker 2: to be in in twenty twenty eight. It's so uncertain
14:09
Speaker 2: right now. You could give me four teams that would
14:11
Speaker 2: be favorite for the twenty twenty eight championship and I'd
14:13
Speaker 2: be finding it hard to argue with any of them.
14:15
Speaker 2: But going back to something you said before about someone
14:17
Speaker 2: like Max, I was just looking at this while you
14:18
Speaker 2: were talking. We forget because he is still so young
14:23
Speaker 2: in life terms, because he started he started so so young.
14:27
Speaker 2: I'm just looking at this here like he will be
14:29
Speaker 2: by the end of this season knocking on the top
14:32
Speaker 2: ten for the most Gorn Prix ever started in Formula one.
14:34
Speaker 2: Now we know the seasons are longer these days at
14:36
Speaker 2: all of that, but when you think of you know,
14:38
Speaker 2: in terms of life, he's still a very very young man.
14:41
Speaker 2: And I remember It was a famous Mark Weber comedy
14:44
Speaker 2: used to say this all the time. You're a long
14:46
Speaker 2: time retired, you know, and you don't want to pull
14:50
Speaker 2: the pin necessarily too early just to make a point
14:54
Speaker 2: or be out of it or whatever it is that
14:56
Speaker 2: you're doing. So look, the fact that we've got to
14:58
Speaker 2: the point where this contract claw now is going to
15:01
Speaker 2: be triggered because, as you said at the top here,
15:03
Speaker 2: it is mathematically impossible for him to be inside the
15:05
Speaker 2: top two and the mid season break. This is a
15:08
Speaker 2: question that we thought we'd never actually have to seek
15:10
Speaker 2: the answer to, but here we are in F one
15:12
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty six, and because of Red Bull being
15:16
Speaker 2: such a different place than it was even when he
15:18
Speaker 2: was winning a couple of years ago, it makes the
15:20
Speaker 2: decision to potentially leave them a lot easier because he's
15:23
Speaker 2: not leaving the team that he grew up with one with.
15:25
Speaker 2: He's leaving a team that has the same name that
15:27
Speaker 2: is very, very different. But the question is where could
15:30
Speaker 2: you go and what's the knock on effect for that,
15:33
Speaker 2: because you know what happens when you're not one domino,
15:35
Speaker 2: but they all go down to this outworks.
15:36
Speaker 1: Yes, it's a really interesting driver market prospect as well.
15:40
Speaker 1: Just before we move on, we talked about this a
15:42
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago, and I think it's still very true,
15:44
Speaker 1: particularly as this standoff seems to escalate, you know it. Admittedly,
15:47
Speaker 1: it was only what two weeks ago when it looked
15:49
Speaker 1: like for staff and everything was better after Austria, and
15:51
Speaker 1: surely we wouldn't be contemplating this, but here we are
15:54
Speaker 1: that I still feel like most of the driver market
15:57
Speaker 1: is stuck in place until he makes a decision, because
15:59
Speaker 1: if he chooses to retire, because it doesn't seem like that,
16:03
Speaker 1: the McClaren doesn't seem genuine. Look you never know, like
16:06
Speaker 1: you say, McLaren has dismissed drivers before, but the Ricardo incident,
16:10
Speaker 1: if you like, was very different to what they're facing now.
16:13
Speaker 1: And Jack Brown, to be fair to him, did foreshadow that,
16:16
Speaker 1: you know, talked a lot about the form needs to
16:18
Speaker 1: improve and on all that kind of things. So it
16:20
Speaker 1: does feel very different. But that means there's a seat
16:22
Speaker 1: unexpectedly available at a top team without a I say
16:28
Speaker 1: top driver in the sense of a driver who's already
16:30
Speaker 1: the top team automatically there to feel it. So that's
16:32
Speaker 1: a great opportunity for anyone in the midfield who feels
16:34
Speaker 1: like they should be knocking up knocking the door on
16:37
Speaker 1: a position up the grid, and that means no one
16:39
Speaker 1: wants to commit to another midfield team in the interim.
16:41
Speaker 1: There are eleven drivers if you include Lancetrol I think
16:44
Speaker 1: in the midfield who are without a contract for next season.
16:48
Speaker 1: That's half the grid. Obviously, that sort of puts everything
16:52
Speaker 1: on hold, with the possible exception at Heart, where I
16:54
Speaker 1: think they've whittled their options down to three and none
16:56
Speaker 1: of them are on the grid. At Yuki Sonoda seems
16:59
Speaker 1: like he's front runner at the moment. Anyway, that's very interesting,
17:03
Speaker 1: you know, you think about and these are the drivers
17:05
Speaker 1: I sort of thinker must be wondering, even though on
17:09
Speaker 1: paper they may not be eligible. Is At Williams, Carlos
17:13
Speaker 1: Sigence and Alex Alban we've talked to them before. We
17:14
Speaker 1: don't have to talk about in any great detail now,
17:16
Speaker 1: but two drivers clearly worth more than that the step
17:19
Speaker 1: forward Williams has made, the big upgrade Williams is meant
17:22
Speaker 1: to be coming Azerbaijan. Is that too late? Science has
17:26
Speaker 1: been talking very openly about being concerned by the direction
17:28
Speaker 1: Williams has taken this year. I think that just illustrates
17:31
Speaker 1: that everything is a little bit on hold until we
17:33
Speaker 1: get clarity over whether there is a top seat available
17:35
Speaker 1: or not.
17:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, Science is the one. I mean, he's the front
17:38
Speaker 2: running driver who's doing He's doing his time in a
17:41
Speaker 2: car that's not worthy of his talents. I mean he's
17:42
Speaker 2: proven he's a frontline driver. We saw at Ferrari. He's
17:45
Speaker 2: the most logical guy. I almost blacked out then when
17:47
Speaker 2: I heard Midfield and Lance strolled the same sentence, I
17:50
Speaker 2: was a bit sort of I was a bit thrown
17:52
Speaker 2: by that. But yeah, it is interesting because the Stappen
17:55
Speaker 2: effectively becomes the cork at the bottle, doesn't he And
17:57
Speaker 2: there is a ripple effect with all of this, and
18:00
Speaker 2: it is interesting, like you mentioned the fact that you
18:03
Speaker 2: remove his name from the equation and there is a shuffle.
18:06
Speaker 2: There is just a class of driver at the moment
18:08
Speaker 2: in Formula one, the guys that have been around for
18:10
Speaker 2: a while and they kind of are what they are,
18:12
Speaker 2: or we don't have enough evidence to suggest we really
18:15
Speaker 2: know what they are, and trying to peer forward and
18:19
Speaker 2: put one of them in a top line team. I
18:22
Speaker 2: have got a lot more question marks. I've got more
18:24
Speaker 2: questions and answers with a lot of these guys. Other
18:26
Speaker 2: than Science. There's not a guy outside of the top
18:29
Speaker 2: four teams where you'd be like, oh, yeah, he definitely
18:31
Speaker 2: belongs in a top four team, Like I have a
18:32
Speaker 2: lot of questions with that. So, you know, for the
18:35
Speaker 2: sake of someone having to take an educated guess on somebody,
18:38
Speaker 2: and you do wonder is the person to slot into
18:41
Speaker 2: one of those top teams, even on the F one
18:43
Speaker 2: grid right now, that's the other question because you know,
18:45
Speaker 2: you mentioned the names you mentioned that are in the
18:47
Speaker 2: frame for someone like hass and then you look at
18:49
Speaker 2: formula two with Solov and how well he's going there
18:52
Speaker 2: in the fact that he's a red Bull protege and
18:53
Speaker 2: he's coming through, clearly he might be the next guy.
18:56
Speaker 2: So yeah, a lot of questions, But yeah, the MAXIVSTAP
18:59
Speaker 2: and C laws is the is the starting point for
19:02
Speaker 2: all of this, and finally it feels like we're going
19:05
Speaker 2: to get some sort of a resolution one way or
19:07
Speaker 2: the other. And then yeah, then you'll really be sick
19:09
Speaker 2: because you'll be writing like seventy five stories a day
19:11
Speaker 2: for the next two weeks.
19:12
Speaker 1: So crush relations to you, it is grim and of
19:15
Speaker 1: course that's not to discount the racing full drivers who
19:17
Speaker 1: you think on paper would be first in line, but
19:19
Speaker 1: you do never know. I'm sure when Max Withstaffan, if
19:21
Speaker 1: he makes a decision to quit, will be Move of
19:23
Speaker 1: the Week, but he hasn't done it yet, so it's
19:25
Speaker 1: time to go to Move of the Week, brought to
19:26
Speaker 1: you by Shannons. There was no Formula One in action,
19:29
Speaker 1: but there was both supercars and Motor GP over the weekend.
19:32
Speaker 2: And where are you going to take us, Matt Predictably,
19:34
Speaker 2: I'm going to go with the Motor GP side because
19:36
Speaker 2: I was pretty immersed in that over the weekend at
19:39
Speaker 2: the German Grand Prix at the Saxon Ring. Random bonus
19:42
Speaker 2: stat for you, So Mark Marquez won his tenth Motor
19:45
Speaker 2: GP race out of eleven that he's done at the
19:47
Speaker 2: Saxon Ring, which is completely ridiculous. First rider to win
19:51
Speaker 2: double figure races at the same circuit for fifty one ways.
19:55
Speaker 2: That's a state for you. And the other stat is
19:58
Speaker 2: he now has as many He now has more race
20:01
Speaker 2: wins in Germany than two other writers on the grid
20:04
Speaker 2: having their entire careers, which is Fabio Cuiferrara and Pecavanyaya,
20:07
Speaker 2: which is an absolutely stupid stat but move of the
20:11
Speaker 2: week for me. And it's a move in and of
20:13
Speaker 2: itself that was quite decent, but it's also for what
20:15
Speaker 2: it symbolizes. Iagura took second place in the race behind
20:19
Speaker 2: Marquez lap twenty five out of thirty by passing his
20:22
Speaker 2: team maat Ralphernandez. That elevated Iyagura to second place in
20:27
Speaker 2: the World Championship by the end of the race and
20:29
Speaker 2: at the mid season break. And this is significant because
20:32
Speaker 2: of all the guys that you thought we were going
20:34
Speaker 2: to see towards the top end of Motor GP this year.
20:36
Speaker 2: I don't think very many people, including Iagura himself, figured
20:40
Speaker 2: that as a sophomore, second year Motor GP rider, that
20:42
Speaker 2: he'd be second place in the World Championship in the
20:45
Speaker 2: mid season break. Now the context for all of this
20:47
Speaker 2: is that we have five riders that are within twenty
20:50
Speaker 2: five points of the lead of the championship at the
20:52
Speaker 2: mid season break. It's a title scenario. Imagine if f
20:54
Speaker 2: one had this, my goodness, but the fact you've got
20:56
Speaker 2: this many guys in contention and the other I'll throw
21:00
Speaker 2: at you. To show you how open this season is.
21:03
Speaker 2: Joge Martin is the leader of the championship two hundred
21:06
Speaker 2: and eight points at the midpoint. Since motor GP went
21:09
Speaker 2: to sprints in twenty twenty three. The previous lowest tally
21:13
Speaker 2: for the leader of the championship at the midpoint was
21:15
Speaker 2: two hundred and sixty points in twenty twenty three, which
21:18
Speaker 2: is Banyaya, So he's fifty two points behind that, and
21:22
Speaker 2: that year banya was leading the championship by an absolute
21:24
Speaker 2: mile at the mid season break. So it's all set
21:27
Speaker 2: up for this absolutely amazing last eleven rounds in MotoGP.
21:31
Speaker 2: But move of the week for me Gagura taking that
21:33
Speaker 2: second place, the four extra World Championship points that he
21:36
Speaker 2: earned gave him outright second place in the World Championship.
21:40
Speaker 2: It's an absolutely astonishing story.
21:42
Speaker 1: It's no matter which way you've looked over the course
21:45
Speaker 1: of the murder GP season, every prediction that anyone could
21:48
Speaker 1: have made it any points seems like it was going
21:50
Speaker 1: to be wrong. I feel like I remember when talking
21:52
Speaker 1: about that win for Agura is going to come at
21:54
Speaker 1: any time, but title surely not. Like you know, he's
21:56
Speaker 1: still got more to prove. I mean, he isn't leading,
21:59
Speaker 1: but it's clearly realistic. He's one of the one of
22:02
Speaker 1: the top contenders, not just by definition of where he
22:04
Speaker 1: sits in the championship, but because of the way the
22:07
Speaker 1: form guide is moving. It's really interesting. It's crazy how
22:10
Speaker 1: open it is, but how unpredictably open. It's not like
22:12
Speaker 1: we're talking about the same guys, or the guys who
22:13
Speaker 1: already won titles are there to win it. The regeneration
22:18
Speaker 1: of talent, which I think is important for every sport,
22:20
Speaker 1: is clearly going on in a good way in moment. Yeah,
22:22
Speaker 1: and we're not even talking about Pedro Costa yet, which
22:25
Speaker 1: is also just remarkable in a historical context. But anyway,
22:28
Speaker 1: let me take you to Supercars now, where my move is.
22:31
Speaker 1: It is a move, but it is straight off the line.
22:34
Speaker 1: And I just I love maybe speacause I've been watching
22:36
Speaker 1: so much Formula One where it starts seems so relively awful.
22:39
Speaker 1: But there's a series of perfect starts that I loved.
22:42
Speaker 1: And on the Sunday race, so race twenty two, I
22:45
Speaker 1: think it was it was cam Orders off pole. You
22:47
Speaker 1: got to if you watch the onboard, it is a
22:50
Speaker 1: perfect start. There's not a hint of wheelspin. It doesn't
22:52
Speaker 1: get bogged down easily, nails body Casteki off the line.
22:56
Speaker 1: Just a perfect start. But then Ryan Wood starting from fourth,
22:59
Speaker 1: sweet around, he's outside into turn two where the just
23:02
Speaker 1: and it's great watching Hiss onboard as well because he's
23:04
Speaker 1: got a pass Casteck. He's up to third off the
23:06
Speaker 1: line and says he's got a pass Castecki and Waters
23:09
Speaker 1: he breaks so late that you assume it's not gonna work,
23:11
Speaker 1: that he's just having a crack. Manages to get both
23:14
Speaker 1: of them in one corner. Waters gets him back at
23:16
Speaker 1: turn three because he's got the inside line, doesn't quite
23:18
Speaker 1: have the clearance. But just I just love a good start.
23:21
Speaker 1: I love a good start where you pass a lot
23:23
Speaker 1: of cars and perfectly judged, not lucky, you know, lockups,
23:27
Speaker 1: doesn't tag anyone or anything, just a really great move.
23:31
Speaker 1: Didn't end up paying off over the course of the race,
23:33
Speaker 1: didn't finish on the podium, But I love a good start.
23:35
Speaker 1: What can I say? And that's my move of the week.
23:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm in the same boat like that. My favorite
23:40
Speaker 2: era of Formula one starts is when you would routinely
23:42
Speaker 2: see Fernando a Lotto jump two rows into the first
23:45
Speaker 2: quarter somehow, particularly when he was at Ferrari, like, how
23:47
Speaker 2: has he done? You remember the famous one at Casalonia
23:49
Speaker 2: when he had the two wheels on the grass down
23:50
Speaker 2: the inside. I'm with you, like a nailed start that
23:54
Speaker 2: leads to something is it's actually quite satisfying. And I'm
23:57
Speaker 2: not even driving the thing, but it's very very satisfying
23:59
Speaker 2: to now I'm with you. The wood move was genuinely
24:03
Speaker 2: because at first, like you're standing back from your screen, gag,
24:06
Speaker 2: oh my god, this might end in tears, but no,
24:08
Speaker 2: it was very very fun. So I'm with you. I
24:10
Speaker 2: do like a good start. I do like your nomination.
24:12
Speaker 1: Let's look forward now to the Belgian Grand Prix, where
24:15
Speaker 1: we're probably likely to get less good starts, and that
24:17
Speaker 1: dare I say I have been improving a little bit
24:19
Speaker 1: over the course of the season, I suppose the penultimate
24:22
Speaker 1: race before we head into that mid season break, so
24:24
Speaker 1: an important part of the season, although we do have
24:26
Speaker 1: now three European rounds after the mid season break. But nonetheless,
24:29
Speaker 1: things just move so quickly once the sport resumes that
24:32
Speaker 1: it is the most settled things are going to be,
24:33
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, we're gonna be dotting
24:34
Speaker 1: around the world at quite a pace and an interesting
24:37
Speaker 1: time in the championship, as it has been for the
24:39
Speaker 1: last couple of rounds, where it's hard to know who's
24:42
Speaker 1: challenging Mercedes, or if anyone's challenging Mercedes. But the headline
24:45
Speaker 1: stats the ferraris one two of the last three Grand Prix.
24:48
Speaker 1: Admittedly the one in the middle was awful in Austria,
24:50
Speaker 1: but that's the closest anyone has got other than Mercedes
24:54
Speaker 1: to stringing two races together that are competitive two out
24:58
Speaker 1: of three. I'll take that at this point. I think
25:00
Speaker 1: for any team, they didn't expect to be competitive at Silverston,
25:04
Speaker 1: and admittedly I think Antonelli probably would have won that
25:07
Speaker 1: race without and yet another technical problem, but Spa being
25:11
Speaker 1: a fairly similar track in terms of the demands that
25:14
Speaker 1: makes on the cars and perhaps more to the point,
25:16
Speaker 1: the demand it's going to make on these these twenty
25:18
Speaker 1: six engines. Unfortunately, it raises a very significant and unknown
25:23
Speaker 1: or perhaps unanswerable question is can they do it again?
25:27
Speaker 1: Because I think, as we said after Silverston, the fact
25:29
Speaker 1: that they were so competitive, even if they were actually
25:31
Speaker 1: only the second quickest car in a track that they
25:33
Speaker 1: expected to be among their worst. I think that bodes
25:36
Speaker 1: very well.
25:37
Speaker 2: It does. I mean, look, at this point, my crystal
25:39
Speaker 2: Ball is a bit like a Formula One car, like
25:40
Speaker 2: it's run out of battery at this point, like it
25:42
Speaker 2: needs a service and needs recharging. If I was to
25:47
Speaker 2: predict anything with some sort of certainty, and I'll put
25:49
Speaker 2: your house on this and run than mine, it feels
25:52
Speaker 2: like that two out of three ratio might sort of
25:54
Speaker 2: hold true once we get to Hungary the following weekend,
25:56
Speaker 2: because I would I'm quite confident that Ferrari's going to
25:59
Speaker 2: be good in Hungary. This feels much more of an
26:03
Speaker 2: unknown simply because and you just said it there in
26:05
Speaker 2: your preamble that yeah, Ferrari were impressive and Lacla did
26:09
Speaker 2: a really good job at Silverston, But that still felt
26:11
Speaker 2: like a race that Mercedes lost rather than Ferrari won,
26:14
Speaker 2: because we never got to see that vital stint play
26:15
Speaker 2: out with Antonelli, because of the car damage and the unreliability.
26:20
Speaker 2: It did feel that in a normal green flag running race,
26:22
Speaker 2: as much as you get that in twenty twenty six,
26:24
Speaker 2: it felt like that was a Mercedes race to be one,
26:28
Speaker 2: and given that Spa is much more like Silverstone than
26:32
Speaker 2: it is the hungar Arey that comes up afterwards. You
26:36
Speaker 2: would still imagine that that Mercedes' inherent pace is going
26:39
Speaker 2: to be the thing that stands out. But what Ferrari's
26:42
Speaker 2: done the past couple of rounds is that you've got
26:44
Speaker 2: to be there right and being that next team in
26:47
Speaker 2: the pecking order, which I think they we take Austria
26:50
Speaker 2: out of it because we know how good for Stapan
26:52
Speaker 2: is in Austria generally. I think Ferrari has pretty well
26:55
Speaker 2: established itself as the team that's there to pick up
26:58
Speaker 2: the pieces of Mercedes Falter. And if the Mercedes Falter
27:02
Speaker 2: part of that sentence is something that's becoming more of
27:04
Speaker 2: a story because I don't know about you, but I
27:07
Speaker 2: keep looking at this season. My eyes are telling me
27:09
Speaker 2: one thing, and the point standing is telling me the other.
27:12
Speaker 2: You watch the races and you think this feels like Mercedes,
27:16
Speaker 2: how far? And then you've got the internal issues within
27:19
Speaker 2: Mercedes and who's the better driver? It is this a
27:21
Speaker 2: story we expected at all of that? But then you
27:23
Speaker 2: look at the points table and think this is closer
27:25
Speaker 2: than it feels, And yes, there's some recency Vias In
27:28
Speaker 2: this Ferrari has been as a bit better, as you've said,
27:30
Speaker 2: one two out of the past three. But this feels
27:33
Speaker 2: like a weekend where a little bit like Silverston, Mercedes
27:36
Speaker 2: has an advantage they need to press home and the
27:38
Speaker 2: fact they weren't able to do it at Silverstone means
27:41
Speaker 2: it's almost not critical, but it's much more important for
27:45
Speaker 2: them because I don't feel, given this is a back
27:47
Speaker 2: to back with Hungary, the performance advantage they could conceivably
27:50
Speaker 2: have in Spa is necessarily going to translate to Hungary.
27:53
Speaker 2: Hungary feels far more believable as a Ferrari win, whereas
27:56
Speaker 2: Spa would be a race that if Ferrari won it,
27:58
Speaker 2: it might be a bit in the maybe Mercedes lost
28:00
Speaker 2: it category.
28:01
Speaker 1: I think. So it feels at the moment, and admittedly,
28:04
Speaker 1: like we've said, like we said every week, the form
28:06
Speaker 1: guide feels so difficult to read. In fact, it exists
28:09
Speaker 1: that if Ferrari's close enough that some tracks you can
28:13
Speaker 1: pencil it wins for them, but some you should be
28:16
Speaker 1: for Mercedes. It feels like it's close enough that it
28:18
Speaker 1: could be. You know, I haven't done the breakdown of
28:19
Speaker 1: all the tracks versus the year but let's just say
28:21
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty more or less, and Mercedes unreliability has
28:25
Speaker 1: meant it remained close enough that that's put the championship
28:27
Speaker 1: in play. That's been Ferrari's advantage because clearly they weren't
28:30
Speaker 1: competitive early enough in the season, and like you say,
28:33
Speaker 1: Hungary is one of those tracks, so we think Ferrari
28:35
Speaker 1: should be happy to go well there. Does that mean
28:38
Speaker 1: it's damaged limitation in Spa? That's an interesting question. I
28:41
Speaker 1: also feel like now we're getting to every race and
28:44
Speaker 1: wondering what's going to go wrong for Mercedes, and that's
28:47
Speaker 1: part of it, and how much does that play into
28:49
Speaker 1: their minds. Obviously they've had the advantage of a weekend off,
28:51
Speaker 1: which means that I've done a lot of dissecting on
28:53
Speaker 1: the problems that triggered the bizarre failure for Antonelli in Silverston.
28:58
Speaker 1: They think they've solved their engine problems that will own
29:00
Speaker 1: know it's some of the harder engine tracks like Spa
29:03
Speaker 1: that pushes the engines very hard, and then we've got
29:05
Speaker 1: Monsa not too long away as well. These are questions
29:08
Speaker 1: that will plan in their minds. Does that mean they
29:09
Speaker 1: take a percentage off their performance to make sure they're
29:11
Speaker 1: not pushing anything too hard. Is that enough to then
29:13
Speaker 1: bring Ferrari into the mix? I think it's it's an
29:16
Speaker 1: interesting setup, and I don't well, we'll see by the
29:19
Speaker 1: end of this little due of races before the break,
29:23
Speaker 1: but I no longer feel like it's a stretch to
29:25
Speaker 1: say Mercedes could be threatened. I was clearly the case
29:28
Speaker 1: early in the season, even as they were dropping well,
29:30
Speaker 1: weren't dropping very many wins, but even as it seemed
29:32
Speaker 1: like it was getting closer. It feels like now we've
29:34
Speaker 1: got to a point where actually the rest of the
29:36
Speaker 1: season could be interesting. We do have two probably opposite
29:40
Speaker 1: opposite tracks and relatively extreme tracks, but it's a fascinating setup.
29:44
Speaker 2: I think earlier in the season the threat was more
29:46
Speaker 2: theoretical than actual. Yeah, so that's why you could sort
29:49
Speaker 2: of say, well, you know, on their day they could
29:51
Speaker 2: do this, and Mercedes just kept winning racers. Now, the
29:53
Speaker 2: fact that you know, for a team that feels like
29:56
Speaker 2: it has the advantage that Mercedes does, the fact that
29:58
Speaker 2: they haven't won two out of the past three races,
30:01
Speaker 2: you flip that Ferrari equation over. Then the point you
30:05
Speaker 2: made there about do you sacrifice a little bit of
30:07
Speaker 2: performance here to bake it a little bit more reliability.
30:11
Speaker 2: Not because you're feeling threatened, but you just don't want
30:13
Speaker 2: to ship big chunks of points to a rival that's
30:17
Speaker 2: clearly ascendant. I think that's the interesting partner of all
30:19
Speaker 2: of this. SPA, as you say, is an interesting one
30:22
Speaker 2: because other than mons already is it will be the
30:25
Speaker 2: biggest test of these engines and everyone's going to be
30:28
Speaker 2: compromised to a degree. And we've joked about this a
30:30
Speaker 2: couple of times on the podcast, but where they're clearly
30:33
Speaker 2: running out a gap at a puff by the end
30:35
Speaker 2: of the kevel straight, there is not really a quarter
30:38
Speaker 2: in Formula one anymore. There'll be it'll be absolutely on
30:41
Speaker 2: the limit getting to the end of there, So we'll
30:43
Speaker 2: see some very very different end of straight speeds, shall
30:46
Speaker 2: we say, we get there. But there's something about SPA.
30:49
Speaker 2: I think because of the length of the track, it's
30:51
Speaker 2: the fewest number of laps that we do in any
30:53
Speaker 2: Grand Prix all year. It always feels like a race
30:55
Speaker 2: that goes incredibly quickly and is incredibly intense, And yeah,
30:59
Speaker 2: I think a lot of that's to do with the
31:00
Speaker 2: way the passing goes in the first sector there, and
31:03
Speaker 2: so it feels like a race where everything's kind of
31:04
Speaker 2: at its limit, a little bit driver's team's machinery, the
31:08
Speaker 2: fact that we've still got this unknown form guy for
31:10
Speaker 2: these twenty twenty six cars. It feels a little bit more.
31:13
Speaker 2: It doesn't feel like a predictable weekend. It feels like
31:15
Speaker 2: a bit of a tenuous weekend where small things could
31:18
Speaker 2: have really large consequences. And it's a great track to
31:20
Speaker 2: watch cars at the best of times. It's a bit
31:22
Speaker 2: like Suzuka. Fantastic to watch cars, but maybe not great
31:24
Speaker 2: for overtaking, but very much looking forward to it simply
31:28
Speaker 2: because of the randomness that twenty twenty six is thrown up.
31:30
Speaker 1: And just finally before we wrap up for the other
31:32
Speaker 1: teams that are supposed in the front running group, this
31:35
Speaker 1: is a good Piastre circuit. It's second most successful by
31:38
Speaker 1: points fifty seven for his career, behind on a Cutau
31:41
Speaker 1: where he just seems unstoppable except to say McLaren stops him,
31:44
Speaker 1: I suppose, and ms Staban has a pretty reasonable record
31:47
Speaker 1: here as well with a trio of winds. But on
31:50
Speaker 1: the one hand, McLaren well certainly based on Silverstone. Notwithstanding
31:53
Speaker 1: that Norris moved up in the order, but that was
31:56
Speaker 1: largely due to attrition. Should bring out some of the
31:59
Speaker 1: more difficult characteristics of this car. Drag is not realwatered,
32:02
Speaker 1: it's far certainly engine power is and while there's a
32:05
Speaker 1: Mercedes engine in the McLaren, they still don't feel like
32:07
Speaker 1: they're getting the best out of it, which is its
32:09
Speaker 1: own storyline. And then, I mean, you can pick where
32:11
Speaker 1: Red Bull's going to turn up because they just they
32:13
Speaker 1: just seem impossible to read at the moment. They weren't
32:16
Speaker 1: really anywhere in Silverstone. But the Stappen feels like maybe
32:19
Speaker 1: they could have got more out of it how they
32:20
Speaker 1: listened to him. But this feels like it's again, as
32:24
Speaker 1: we've emphasized, it's a similar circum terms of characteristics. It
32:26
Speaker 1: feels like it could be a bit of a continuation
32:28
Speaker 1: for both of those teams.
32:29
Speaker 2: Don't you feel like this is the weekend where Red
32:31
Speaker 2: Bull fall over themselves to listen to everything that Max
32:33
Speaker 2: wa So if it does go wrong, given what we've
32:36
Speaker 2: been talking about in the first segment here, it's like, sure, Max,
32:39
Speaker 2: whatever you like, you just whatever you like, that's completely fine.
32:42
Speaker 2: And then so if they do have a bit of
32:43
Speaker 2: a blaf race and he's just cruising around in fifth,
32:46
Speaker 2: it's like, well, you know, they could listen, you got
32:48
Speaker 2: your way, but they didn't really work, did it. But
32:50
Speaker 2: that's an interesting inflection point too, because if they do
32:53
Speaker 2: allow him to maybe call war of the shots with
32:56
Speaker 2: these sorts of things and it works. So I think
32:57
Speaker 2: that only just explains the trick situation that team busy
33:01
Speaker 2: and how they need him more than ever.
33:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so did win the sprint here last year,
33:04
Speaker 1: No sprint this weekend. It wasn't quite the start of
33:07
Speaker 1: the turnaround of e season, but I guess it maybe
33:08
Speaker 1: hinted that the potential was there. I think it could
33:10
Speaker 1: be difficult for the same to happen this year, but
33:13
Speaker 1: I've been very wrong about most things so far this
33:16
Speaker 1: year in terms of performance. So what do I know
33:18
Speaker 1: except for that. That's all the time we have for
33:20
Speaker 1: Pittalk this week. You can subscribe to Pittalk wherever you
33:22
Speaker 1: get your favorite podcasts, and you can leave us a
33:24
Speaker 1: rating and review as well. This weekend is the Formula
33:27
Speaker 1: one Belgian Grand Prix, with lights out at eleven pm
33:30
Speaker 1: Australian Eastern Standard time. You can keep up to date
33:32
Speaker 1: with all the latest F one, Moto GP and supercars
33:35
Speaker 1: news from Fox sports dot com dot Au from Matt
33:37
Speaker 1: Clayton and me Michael Lomonato. Thanks very much for your
33:39
Speaker 1: company and we'll catch you next week.