Latest / Pit Talk / Did Piastri deserve his title-crippling penalty in Brazil? Sao Paulo GP Review

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Did Piastri deserve his title-crippling penalty in Brazil? Sao Paulo GP Review · Pit Talk

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:03
Speaker 1: On today's episode, Lando Norris sweeps the sal Paolo Grand
0:07
Speaker 1: Prix to take a twenty four point championship lead over
0:10
Speaker 1: Oscar Piastre. But was that penalty that took Piastre off
0:14
Speaker 1: the podium? Fair and Candy Australians still win the championship.
0:18
Speaker 1: From here, my name's Michael Lamonato. It's great to have
0:21
Speaker 1: your company, and the company of my co host. He
0:24
Speaker 1: knows the difference between guidelines and regulations. It's Matt Clayton.
0:29
Speaker 2: If you knew my life, Michael Lamonatto, there's probably an
0:32
Speaker 2: argument that, in fact, I don't know the limits of
0:34
Speaker 2: either of those two things that you just mentioned there.
0:36
Speaker 2: But always good to join you and I thought you
0:39
Speaker 2: were going to go with a sort of you know,
0:41
Speaker 2: black arm bands in King's Lynn sort of intro this week,
0:44
Speaker 2: because in case you hadn't known, George Russell has now
0:47
Speaker 2: been mathematically eliminated from this year's Formula one World Championship,
0:50
Speaker 2: So we should pour one out for George and concentrate
0:53
Speaker 2: on the people who might actually win.
0:55
Speaker 1: At this point, it's the dream of the British one
0:58
Speaker 1: two win the championships finally snuffed over the sad days.
1:02
Speaker 1: Sad days for British commentators everywhere this weekend I think
1:07
Speaker 1: momentus weekend for the championship for none of the right reasons.
1:10
Speaker 1: If you're an Oscar Piastre fan or an Australian. The
1:13
Speaker 1: championship gap has blown out, as I said, to twenty
1:15
Speaker 1: four points with three rounds remaining. Obviously, we're going to
1:18
Speaker 1: get into some of Piastre's difficulties and what went wrong
1:21
Speaker 1: this weekend to blow that out from one point ahead
1:25
Speaker 1: of this weekend out to almost a full race win.
1:27
Speaker 1: But let's start with Lando Norris before he gets forgotten
1:29
Speaker 1: in the dissection of that, because another great weekend for him,
1:33
Speaker 1: just the second time he's won back to back Grand Prix,
1:35
Speaker 1: and the first time was when he inherited the lead
1:37
Speaker 1: in the British Grand Prix early this year from Piastre
1:40
Speaker 1: to another penalty. This is second week in a row
1:43
Speaker 1: he's been performing at a very high level. This weekend.
1:46
Speaker 1: To my mind, Matt looked in some ways even more
1:48
Speaker 1: impressive than Mexico. While he absolutely dominated Mexico, conditions were
1:53
Speaker 1: harder this weekend than McClaren. Carr didn't have the advantage
1:57
Speaker 1: but really made very few to no meaningfulness and as
2:00
Speaker 1: a result is very comfortably leading the championship.
2:03
Speaker 2: Now, yeah, you'd have to say, I mean, he has
2:05
Speaker 2: been absolutely lights out these past two rounds. I mean
2:08
Speaker 2: it was the start. I think he's led one hundred
2:09
Speaker 2: and thirty of the past one hundred and forty two
2:11
Speaker 2: race laps across Mexico and South Palo And you mentioned
2:14
Speaker 2: maybe this was more impressive than Mexico because there were
2:17
Speaker 2: many more trip wires this weekend with conditions and just
2:20
Speaker 2: the nature of that track we talked about into Lagos
2:22
Speaker 2: last week is it's just one of those circuits where
2:25
Speaker 2: things happened, and this weekend this year was no different
2:29
Speaker 2: to previous races into Lagos, but things happened to other people.
2:33
Speaker 2: Norris just sailed serenely along pole position one the sprint,
2:37
Speaker 2: led basically every lap of the Grand Prix that actually mattered.
2:40
Speaker 2: And you know, there's two sides to this coin. Obviously
2:42
Speaker 2: we're going to focus on the Osco Piastri side being
2:44
Speaker 2: Australian's on an Australian podcast. But it's undeniable that whatever
2:49
Speaker 2: it is that's happened in these past two rounds. There
2:53
Speaker 2: was an opportunity for someone to step up and raise
2:56
Speaker 2: their game, and no matter what you may think about
2:58
Speaker 2: Landa Norris, perhaps the coverage or anything along those lines,
3:01
Speaker 2: he has absolutely stepped up to the plate and been
3:05
Speaker 2: the best version of himself these past two weekends. Has
3:08
Speaker 2: barely put a foot wrong. And you know, it's just
3:11
Speaker 2: really interesting to see what the end of these seasons
3:14
Speaker 2: does to various drivers, whether they're experienced in winning World
3:17
Speaker 2: championships or not. He has been, as I said, lights
3:20
Speaker 2: out for two straight weekends, outstanding in and of itself,
3:23
Speaker 2: but then what that means for the championship narrative now
3:26
Speaker 2: relative to the performance of the other guys that he
3:28
Speaker 2: was fighting against. He's been superb for two straight weekends
3:32
Speaker 2: and now he's in a very very strong position.
3:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I just think it is worth emphasizing that
3:37
Speaker 1: last week we did the little conspiracy debunking episode on
3:40
Speaker 1: all the reasons why. Yeah, things you've read on Facebook
3:43
Speaker 1: probably aren't what's going on at McLaren. You can continue
3:46
Speaker 1: to believe if you like. But the one thing for
3:48
Speaker 1: me that I think paints the picture for this not
3:51
Speaker 1: being some situation of Landon nor it's getting favored or whatever,
3:56
Speaker 1: and that it is his improvements is if we go
3:58
Speaker 1: back to qualifying for the GROMP on Saturday night or
4:01
Speaker 1: Sunday mornings, it was here first lap of Q three,
4:04
Speaker 1: conditions were a really difficult A lot of drivers were
4:05
Speaker 1: making mistakes. He made a mistake on I think it
4:07
Speaker 1: was the first turn or wherever it was on His
4:09
Speaker 1: first lap was tenth I think in the provisional order
4:12
Speaker 1: of ninth through way down the bottom of the order.
4:14
Speaker 1: Piastre on provisional pole, and I thought, wow, this feels
4:16
Speaker 1: a lot like first half of the season, doesn't it,
4:18
Speaker 1: where all of a sudden Piastres come through with the goods.
4:20
Speaker 1: Norris is all over the shop trying to execute and
4:22
Speaker 1: advicegers can't do it. Second lap, perfect flitzes, the field
4:25
Speaker 1: advantage is massive, comfortably takes pole position in the end
4:29
Speaker 1: that wouldn't have happened in the first half of the year.
4:31
Speaker 1: But the mindset he's unlocked, or the processes that he's
4:34
Speaker 1: using now, whatever it is, like you say, whatever is
4:37
Speaker 1: the formula he's I won't say stumbled upon that he's
4:40
Speaker 1: come across, that he's decided upon really since the mid
4:43
Speaker 1: season break, but especially in the last month, let's say,
4:46
Speaker 1: after Singapore's really working for him and as a result,
4:50
Speaker 1: there's he looks a lot again to go back to
4:52
Speaker 1: the first part of the season, he looks like Piastre
4:55
Speaker 1: from about four months ago.
4:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, he does. And this is the thing that you
4:58
Speaker 2: can come up with ways to to alleviate or mitigate
5:01
Speaker 2: the problems you've had previously, you've still got to execute them.
5:04
Speaker 2: And that inflection point in Q three then is exactly
5:07
Speaker 2: what you're talking about. It would have been very easy
5:09
Speaker 2: to go, oh, I've done all the hard work again
5:11
Speaker 2: all weekend and my teammates going to come over the
5:13
Speaker 2: top because we saw this. This was a repeat narrative
5:16
Speaker 2: through the first part of the season. So being able
5:19
Speaker 2: to execute in effectively what was sort of round zero
5:24
Speaker 2: again because it was a one point lead coming into
5:27
Speaker 2: this round. The Lando Norris with four rounds into the
5:30
Speaker 2: season would have done that, qualifying that last lap in
5:32
Speaker 2: Q three very differently to the Lando Norris in the
5:35
Speaker 2: fourth last round of the season. It shows you the evolution,
5:38
Speaker 2: but you've still got to execute that under pressure and
5:40
Speaker 2: given the Interlagos is a place just by virtue of
5:43
Speaker 2: the track layout. There's so many places where small mistakes
5:48
Speaker 2: come with big consequences just because of the nature of
5:50
Speaker 2: the track and the way these cars need to be driven.
5:53
Speaker 2: So for him to be able to pull that out
5:54
Speaker 2: of the bag where it's probably the only time he's
5:56
Speaker 2: been under any significant pressure for the past two weekends,
5:59
Speaker 2: was a sign of his evolution. And perhaps you know
6:02
Speaker 2: earlier in the season that's not the way that would
6:04
Speaker 2: have gone. And then you know, you play that forward,
6:07
Speaker 2: look at how many, how so many of the races
6:09
Speaker 2: at the start of the season happened where he would
6:11
Speaker 2: be the best driver for one and two thirds days
6:15
Speaker 2: of a weekend and then finished behind his teammate at
6:17
Speaker 2: the end of it. So, yeah, all part of the
6:19
Speaker 2: evolution and the execution. And as you said, twenty four
6:22
Speaker 2: point lead, that's a big lead with not many points
6:25
Speaker 2: to play for now.
6:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, just I like that idea. We've been saying the
6:29
Speaker 1: last week or so that it's essentially a four round championship.
6:32
Speaker 1: He's taken exactly the same number of points out of
6:35
Speaker 1: Oscar Piastri that he did in Australia and it took us,
6:39
Speaker 1: Unfortunately for Oscar perhaps took Oscar four rounds to get
6:42
Speaker 1: the title lead back. He's only got three rounds now,
6:45
Speaker 1: So that some raw mathematics for you there. The lead
6:48
Speaker 1: is the biggest it's been for Landon Norris all year.
6:51
Speaker 1: Could see that extra point from before this round. It's
6:53
Speaker 1: the fourth largest gap between the McLaren drivers all season,
6:56
Speaker 1: after only the points Norris lost from that engine problem
6:59
Speaker 1: in Zander. So the momentum at the wrong time from
7:02
Speaker 1: Piastre's perspective is all in Norris's favor. But three rounds
7:06
Speaker 1: to go and a triple header which puts everyone under pressure.
7:08
Speaker 1: We'll wait and see how it evolves there. But let's
7:10
Speaker 1: move to Oscar Piastri's weekend now, And of course let's
7:13
Speaker 1: start with that penalty could have maybe should have finished
7:16
Speaker 1: second in the Grand Prix, was up to second when
7:18
Speaker 1: he copped that ten second penalty for causing a collision
7:21
Speaker 1: with Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Hu in turn, of course, wiped
7:24
Speaker 1: out charlae Clair's Ferrari. That just seemed like it had
7:27
Speaker 1: to happen to Ferrari this weekend. I'm interested in your
7:31
Speaker 1: take on this one, because while it seems in my
7:34
Speaker 1: reading consensuss this was a racing internet among most sectors
7:39
Speaker 1: of the F one world, A little bit passport dependent perhaps,
7:41
Speaker 1: but generally speaking yes. But that's not to say it
7:45
Speaker 1: wasn't contentious, or that they weren't different views about it,
7:48
Speaker 1: more generally about Piastre taking the risk in the first place,
7:52
Speaker 1: about the type of movie was pulling off, and about
7:53
Speaker 1: perhaps the mindset he was in to make it. What
7:56
Speaker 1: were you thinking about this movie as.
7:58
Speaker 2: It was relevant passport? Who would have thought that would
8:01
Speaker 2: have been something in the objective for beulalone coverage in
8:03
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. But this is interesting because the way
8:07
Speaker 2: you and I both interpreted this, it was for something
8:10
Speaker 2: stupid a clock in the morning on a Monday, and
8:13
Speaker 2: I don't think i'd slept for two days at this point.
8:14
Speaker 2: But my first thought was I thought, oh, the penalty
8:18
Speaker 2: is probably reasonable, whereas I think you were more a
8:20
Speaker 2: bit like, hang on a minute. I'm not sure about
8:22
Speaker 2: this racing incident. Perhaps I thought it was harsh at
8:25
Speaker 2: first glance, but I thought the penalty was probably reasonable
8:28
Speaker 2: until I saw some replays. And the key thing for
8:32
Speaker 2: me was when you see tire smoke and a lock up,
8:35
Speaker 2: your mind goes to, well, the car that locked it
8:38
Speaker 2: locked its tires is probably the one at fault here.
8:41
Speaker 2: Piastre only locked up as a confluence of Antonelli squeezing
8:44
Speaker 2: him against the wall, not the other way around, and
8:47
Speaker 2: that's what changed my view on it. So I'm more
8:51
Speaker 2: leaning towards in retrospect, probably racing incident. But the problem
8:56
Speaker 2: I had with the ten second penalty. I mean, obviously
8:58
Speaker 2: the time penalty was brutal for Oscar and it completely
9:01
Speaker 2: changed the way his race played out. But I didn't
9:04
Speaker 2: like the sort of holly to blame verbiage when it
9:06
Speaker 2: comes to this sort of thing, because it always takes
9:09
Speaker 2: two to tango with one of these sorts of things.
9:11
Speaker 2: And the key driver in all of this was Antonelli,
9:14
Speaker 2: because he'd been courtnapping a little bit at the restart
9:17
Speaker 2: by Norris. He was immediately under pressure from Leclaire, who
9:20
Speaker 2: was third, and Piastric, who was fourth, was in the middle.
9:24
Speaker 2: Leclair decided to brave it out around the outside, which
9:26
Speaker 2: was probably the sensible thing, if the fatal thing to
9:28
Speaker 2: do in the circumstances, and there was a gap for
9:31
Speaker 2: a McLaren to drive into. Now, when you look at
9:34
Speaker 2: the overhead replay, that gap closed very very quickly, and
9:39
Speaker 2: it became a product of the racing guidelines and the
9:43
Speaker 2: way these things are adjudicated now played a huge part
9:46
Speaker 2: in this, because you could almost argue that if Piastre
9:50
Speaker 2: tried to back out of a cul de sac effectively
9:53
Speaker 2: in this incident, the way the rules are adjudicated these days,
9:56
Speaker 2: he might have been better off just completely steaming in
9:58
Speaker 2: there a living with the consequences as as opposed to
10:01
Speaker 2: a tempting to back out of it. So there's perhaps
10:04
Speaker 2: the way these rules are applied is the issue, which
10:06
Speaker 2: I'm sure you'll get into in a sect. But my
10:08
Speaker 2: first thought was, you know, it didn't look great because
10:11
Speaker 2: of the lock up, but then when you see what
10:14
Speaker 2: it was that prompted the lock up, and you saw
10:16
Speaker 2: that overhead shot, I'm also not sure where Piastre was
10:19
Speaker 2: supposed to go at this point, and he did make
10:21
Speaker 2: the comment afterwards like you can't just disappear in a
10:23
Speaker 2: situation like that. These things are happening so so quickly.
10:26
Speaker 2: He's got the pit wall to his left, You're going
10:29
Speaker 2: downhill into turn one into Lagos, which is what makes
10:31
Speaker 2: it one of the great corners, and it was just
10:34
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of circumstances that began with ants Nelly
10:36
Speaker 2: being a little bit asleep on the restart relative to
10:39
Speaker 2: the guys behind him. Harsh probably racing incident, but didn't
10:44
Speaker 2: like the holy to blame analysis of it. But I'm
10:47
Speaker 2: sure you'll probably get into the whole guidelines and the
10:50
Speaker 2: application of them, because this has become a recurring theme now,
10:53
Speaker 2: isn't it when we get situations like this. Not every
10:56
Speaker 2: situation has to be one hundred percent blamed on somebody.
11:00
Speaker 2: And there's this real black and white approach now that
11:01
Speaker 2: I think is more the issue than the penalty yourself.
11:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is, and I think it's all I'm increasing
11:06
Speaker 1: like I've become almost more worked up about this the
11:09
Speaker 1: further away the races in the rear view mirror. For
11:11
Speaker 1: some reason. Wow, I think it's perhaps because Piastre has
11:15
Speaker 1: been in pretty ordinary form, although his pace was much
11:17
Speaker 1: better in Brazil. It's got to be said, yes, weekend
11:20
Speaker 1: did not go his way for variety of reasons that
11:23
Speaker 1: maybe it feels like, wow, you know, it dumped him
11:24
Speaker 1: off the podium. But we're just getting faster to the
11:26
Speaker 1: conclusion of Norris winning the championship, doesn't really matter, but
11:30
Speaker 1: I think this is a highly contentious penalty that has
11:33
Speaker 1: gone a long way to potentially deciding the championship, because
11:36
Speaker 1: if Piastri finishes second, okay, it's still going to be
11:39
Speaker 1: around sixteen points, not an insignificant number, but very much
11:43
Speaker 1: still in his control to go out and win the title.
11:45
Speaker 1: This is had a massive effect on the title and
11:47
Speaker 1: it is down to these guidelines. And I think everyone
11:50
Speaker 1: shares a little bit of blame for these guidelines because
11:52
Speaker 1: everyone sort of had to agree on them at the
11:54
Speaker 1: end of last year, and they've been worked on between
11:56
Speaker 1: the governing body and the drivers over a couple of years.
11:58
Speaker 1: This is a supplement tree document, a secondary documented is
12:01
Speaker 1: not in the rules. In fact, it says in capital
12:04
Speaker 1: letters at the top of the document these are guidelines,
12:06
Speaker 1: not regulation. But increasingly this year, in pursuit of consistency,
12:11
Speaker 1: which I understand, and it's an important pursuit, these guidelines
12:16
Speaker 1: have been used increasingly as if this is the letter
12:19
Speaker 1: of the law and for your and this is the
12:22
Speaker 1: problem though for your in in quotes average incident, you
12:26
Speaker 1: know where we approach a corner, it's ninety degree left
12:29
Speaker 1: hand corner. Whatever there are only two cars there. They're battling.
12:32
Speaker 1: They happen to pull side by side exactly the right point.
12:35
Speaker 1: The guidelines do kind of work like they're good at
12:37
Speaker 1: the very average incident, but average is average for a reason.
12:41
Speaker 1: There are lots of instance on either side of that average,
12:44
Speaker 1: this being perhaps on a more extreme side. I think
12:47
Speaker 1: it's pretty clear that Piastre pulls fully alongside Antonelli on
12:51
Speaker 1: the way to the breaking zone, but because he's on
12:53
Speaker 1: the inside line has to break earlier, and the second
12:56
Speaker 1: he breaks earlier, suddenly he no longer meets the criteria
12:59
Speaker 1: to be entitled space to go to your point, as
13:01
Speaker 1: you mentioned, that's insane because those guidelines are then encouraging
13:05
Speaker 1: him to not break, to cause an accident that he
13:08
Speaker 1: will then be able to say, what's not my fault?
13:10
Speaker 1: I was alongside? What a nonsense way to encourage racing.
13:14
Speaker 1: The alternative being that he should just not have tried
13:16
Speaker 1: to overtake at all, And in which case we've got
13:18
Speaker 1: rules that are discouraging overtaking. What's the point of it.
13:22
Speaker 1: So I just think it's sort of I think this
13:24
Speaker 1: is really highlighted the problems with these guidelines, and I
13:26
Speaker 1: empathize with the stewards to some extent, because it's hard,
13:29
Speaker 1: Like being a stewart's hard. Every instance is difficult, different rather,
13:33
Speaker 1: you're going to get complaints either way. Clearly some people
13:35
Speaker 1: thought Piastre was even lucky to just get ten seconds.
13:38
Speaker 1: You would have got complaints from people who thought it
13:40
Speaker 1: wouldn't have been fair to call it a racing incident.
13:42
Speaker 1: Perhaps Ferrari fans would have thought, well, hang on, one of
13:44
Speaker 1: our guys has been eliminated here as a result, even
13:47
Speaker 1: though the contact was secondary, was not as a direct
13:50
Speaker 1: result of Piastre's incident. I just think that the outcome
13:55
Speaker 1: of this says a lot wrong about the way we're
13:59
Speaker 1: trying to courage racing. I think it's really led with
14:02
Speaker 1: the wrong conclusion. The worst part from Piasti's respective is perhaps,
14:05
Speaker 1: and we'll wait and see how he goes the next
14:06
Speaker 1: few races, just as he's rediscovering some form, this penalty
14:10
Speaker 1: has had a really material impact on his championship hopes
14:13
Speaker 1: and potentially will decide the title.
14:14
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think the point you made before about if
14:18
Speaker 2: that's not a legitimate way to try and make an overtake,
14:21
Speaker 2: and then you decide to back out of it because
14:23
Speaker 2: the door is closing rapidly in your face. In a
14:25
Speaker 2: situation like that, does he just go thundering in there
14:28
Speaker 2: and send all three of them off the track on
14:29
Speaker 2: the outside of turn one and then you don't get
14:31
Speaker 2: pedalized for that and you will rejoin in six seventh
14:33
Speaker 2: and eighth or something. Is that what we are trying
14:35
Speaker 2: to encourage here, looker on the side of racing incident
14:41
Speaker 2: or lesser penalty. But it's so you use that. You
14:46
Speaker 2: mentioned that before that the guidelines in full capital letters.
14:50
Speaker 2: It's almost like some people need to read their own documentation.
14:52
Speaker 2: Is that.
14:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a little bit like that. And again, like
14:55
Speaker 1: I understand the pursuit for consistency, it's probably harder in
14:59
Speaker 1: motorsport than in others sports, just because you know, unlike soccer,
15:03
Speaker 1: whatever example you want to take here, at last ninety minutes,
15:05
Speaker 1: it flows constantly, The laps don't tick down, the positions
15:09
Speaker 1: aren't set in. You know, ball can move from one
15:11
Speaker 1: to the other whatever. A decision that's slightly wrong in
15:14
Speaker 1: any other sport can be recovered from much more easily.
15:17
Speaker 1: But a penalty handed out in race not only does
15:20
Speaker 1: it materially impact the race, but you've only got so
15:22
Speaker 1: many laps to try and recover from that piastric cluar.
15:24
Speaker 1: You didn't have enough laps to recover from a ten
15:26
Speaker 1: second penalty. It does a lot of damage. So I
15:29
Speaker 1: get why you want the consistency, but I also wonder,
15:32
Speaker 1: and man, I mean, this is sort of getting somewhat
15:34
Speaker 1: off topic, But I mean you can argue both ways.
15:36
Speaker 1: When you're heading towards a title decider which suddenly feels
15:41
Speaker 1: further away now that it was, but it was only
15:43
Speaker 1: one point at the start of the weekend or closer.
15:45
Speaker 1: Perhaps isn't there an argument for stewards or referees to
15:49
Speaker 1: put the whistle away a little bit, to use a phrase,
15:52
Speaker 1: you can argue the opposite that they need to be stricter.
15:54
Speaker 1: You go back to twenty twenty one for an example,
15:55
Speaker 1: whether the steward's aid very specifically zero tolerance to any
15:59
Speaker 1: contact with Hamilton Sage. I think was the right call,
16:02
Speaker 1: but there's a different circumstance, And yeah, I just wonder
16:06
Speaker 1: the process behind this. I think this will be discussed.
16:08
Speaker 1: It's normally around cut our time that these guidelines are
16:11
Speaker 1: discussed and potentially updated. It's clear that a lot of
16:13
Speaker 1: drivers unhappy with it. You know, we have to only
16:16
Speaker 1: go back a couple of weeks, wasn't it where Carlos
16:17
Speaker 1: signs and William successfully in fact appealed a penalty to
16:20
Speaker 1: him for trying to pass around the outside, But much
16:23
Speaker 1: like Piastre, that did nothing to his result because this
16:25
Speaker 1: penalty was served in the race. It just got some
16:27
Speaker 1: penalty points of his license.
16:28
Speaker 2: So.
16:30
Speaker 1: Unfortunate for Piastre. I think there there's one other element
16:33
Speaker 1: I want to bring up. A couple of people have
16:35
Speaker 1: pointed this out to me. I'm not convinced. I know
16:38
Speaker 1: what to think of it, and I'm interested in your opinion.
16:41
Speaker 1: But after the race, asked several times from different outlets,
16:45
Speaker 1: not pursued on ad placing the outlet. Andrea Stella didn't
16:48
Speaker 1: really have that much to say about the penalty. I've
16:52
Speaker 1: gone back and tried to find as many of his
16:53
Speaker 1: comments afterwards. There are no major reasons to complain, I think,
16:58
Speaker 1: was his comment to f One t t in his
17:01
Speaker 1: media debrief afterwards. He did say, look, I think it's
17:03
Speaker 1: harsh and it seemed like the door was closed. But
17:06
Speaker 1: I was a bit surprised, and I know it's a
17:08
Speaker 1: little bit Andrea Steller's style, but not to have a
17:10
Speaker 1: little not to hear a little bit more of a
17:13
Speaker 1: defense from McLaren from one of its title contenders. And
17:17
Speaker 1: you can make two parallels here and I'll let you
17:19
Speaker 1: choose wich Onny thinks more convincing. Zach Brown in Austin
17:22
Speaker 1: immediately blaming Nico Holkenberg for taking both drivers out of
17:26
Speaker 1: the sprint when clearly had nothing to do with it,
17:28
Speaker 1: or from the other side of the coin. And maybe
17:31
Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to raises the gold standard,
17:33
Speaker 1: but Christian Horner, if Max for Staffan had run over
17:36
Speaker 1: twelve people in pitt Lane, he would call that a
17:39
Speaker 1: racing incident. Oh no, no way, He wouldn't defend Max
17:42
Speaker 1: for Staffan. Yes, but I didn't hear the same this week.
17:45
Speaker 2: I was a little bit surprised that you don't even
17:48
Speaker 2: ask the question. And maybe stampy little leave your feet
17:51
Speaker 2: a little bit in a public forum and make your
17:54
Speaker 2: displeasure about this penalty well known because at the time
17:58
Speaker 2: this is one of your drivers, who's one of two
18:00
Speaker 2: drivers who's most likely to win the World Championship. So
18:03
Speaker 2: I found that little bit strange, particularly when there was
18:05
Speaker 2: some degree of objectivity, whether that was a great penalty
18:09
Speaker 2: to be applied or not at least give the public
18:11
Speaker 2: perception that you're not pleased about it, even if that's
18:13
Speaker 2: maybe a losing battle, you at least want to get
18:16
Speaker 2: it out there and maybe not be a bit So,
18:18
Speaker 2: you know, the steward said what they said, So that's
18:20
Speaker 2: about it. But I was trying to when you were
18:23
Speaker 2: going into your parallel universes there, I'm trying to imagine.
18:27
Speaker 2: I'm trying to imagine the Red bull Pit walla pre
18:31
Speaker 2: or post order in a similar situation like that. I'm
18:34
Speaker 2: also trying to imagine what the situation would have been
18:36
Speaker 2: like if it was Oscar Piastri at the front and
18:38
Speaker 2: Landa Norris and God down the inside of Kimmie Antonelli,
18:40
Speaker 2: and how that would have been received. Simply because of
18:43
Speaker 2: what you mentioned before about Zach Brown just blaming just
18:46
Speaker 2: random person in green car for what happened at the
18:49
Speaker 2: first quarter of the sprint in Austin, I thought that
18:50
Speaker 2: was a really good thing to bring up. So I
18:53
Speaker 2: was a little bit surprised they didn't even give the
18:57
Speaker 2: outward perception they were prepared to fight Piastri's call a
19:00
Speaker 2: little bit harder, whether that's just getting caught up in
19:03
Speaker 2: everything else that's going on. True, Look, I don't know,
19:05
Speaker 2: we're not going to know that. We're never going to
19:07
Speaker 2: know that. But I thought it was even if you
19:09
Speaker 2: think you knew the answer, it was a question worth
19:12
Speaker 2: asking and it was never really asked.
19:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. I mean I can almost forgive Stalar,
19:18
Speaker 1: I guess here because as an engineer and not as
19:20
Speaker 1: a Christian Horner cut figure, he knows there's no point
19:24
Speaker 1: throwing your arms up about it, because the penalty can't
19:26
Speaker 1: be if there's nothing you can do about it. Had
19:28
Speaker 1: it been a post race penalty, I'm sure they would
19:29
Speaker 1: have gone a bit harder on it, or I assume
19:31
Speaker 1: would have, because then at least it's worth expending some
19:34
Speaker 1: energy on. But I think at a point, and this
19:37
Speaker 1: is sort of what he suggested before we move on
19:38
Speaker 1: to other topics, at one to end with this is
19:40
Speaker 1: that it's clear that while this race was much improved
19:43
Speaker 1: from Piastre's race face, I think actually after his first
19:45
Speaker 1: pit stop, once he did those flat spoted tires, was
19:48
Speaker 1: pretty good. In fact, we finished if you take that
19:50
Speaker 1: ten second penalty out of the race time, which is
19:52
Speaker 1: a crude calculation, but nonetheless ended up closer to Norris
19:56
Speaker 1: than he had been at the end of that first
19:57
Speaker 1: in so it suggests he was thereabouts qualifying. Still a
19:59
Speaker 1: bit of a problem, this low group situation still something
20:02
Speaker 1: he's battling with. I think Stellar sort of suggested that
20:05
Speaker 1: that's got to be the focus, is trying to get
20:06
Speaker 1: the best out of Piastre.
20:08
Speaker 2: Again.
20:08
Speaker 1: What's your feeling after this round where the championship was
20:11
Speaker 1: very difficult now with three rounds to go, but where
20:14
Speaker 1: he stands in terms of pace as we head towards
20:16
Speaker 1: these three final Grand Prix.
20:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that was the first time in a
20:20
Speaker 2: little while. I mean, look, he raced quite well in
20:23
Speaker 2: Mexico too. You have to go back to that. He
20:25
Speaker 2: was just bottled up in the pack. And we talked
20:27
Speaker 2: last week about the feistinness that the battle with George
20:31
Speaker 2: Russell and Mexico, which was a good sign. It was
20:33
Speaker 2: a bit of the old Oscar Re emerging, if you like.
20:35
Speaker 2: And yeah, the pace was good after he'd got rid
20:37
Speaker 2: of those flat spoted ties you would write, But so
20:40
Speaker 2: much of this is Saturday now, and I mean, I
20:42
Speaker 2: know you've done some a bit of a deep dive
20:45
Speaker 2: on the qualifying deficit and how that's now becoming a
20:48
Speaker 2: recurring theme for Piastre still racing quite well. He is
20:51
Speaker 2: a very good racer. We know that, we see that
20:53
Speaker 2: with the wheel to Will Staff. But when you're always
20:56
Speaker 2: starting from either a neutral or disadvantageous position, harder and
21:00
Speaker 2: harder to make inroads at this point, particularly when you're
21:03
Speaker 2: not the one controlling the championship picture anymore. I think
21:06
Speaker 2: that's a key part to all of this. He is
21:09
Speaker 2: not a cause to be desperate yet, but there's a
21:11
Speaker 2: different mindset and body language and approach when you're the
21:14
Speaker 2: person in the ascendency as opposed to the person it's
21:16
Speaker 2: either just behind or significantly behind as he is now.
21:20
Speaker 2: The race pace was good, but you've got to be
21:22
Speaker 2: in a position to deploy it.
21:23
Speaker 1: I think that is a good call. Let's move now
21:26
Speaker 1: to Move of the Week, brought to you by Shannon's
21:29
Speaker 1: a little bit of racing on this weekend between MotoGP
21:32
Speaker 1: and Formula one. Matt, where are you going to.
21:34
Speaker 2: Start up a little bit of racing? My goodness, the
21:37
Speaker 2: previous weekend we'd had no racing. This weekend too much racing,
21:40
Speaker 2: But you can't have everything the way you want it now.
21:43
Speaker 2: In true tradition, for this particular segment, I'm going moves
21:46
Speaker 2: plural of the week and this is something you haven't
21:48
Speaker 2: watched yet. We were talking about this offline before and
21:50
Speaker 2: you need to spend nineteen minutes of your day catching
21:54
Speaker 2: up with this. The sprint race at the Portuguese Motor
21:57
Speaker 2: GP on the weekend at the ALGAF circuit might be
22:01
Speaker 2: a top three sprint race i've seen since Murder GP's
22:04
Speaker 2: got into this format for the last three years, and
22:07
Speaker 2: we were talking before about one of the things I
22:09
Speaker 2: love Aboutmurder GP is a great pack battle, but sometimes
22:12
Speaker 2: the intensity of a one on one battle for any position,
22:16
Speaker 2: but particularly the lead, can be really really great TV.
22:19
Speaker 2: So we had Alex Marquez and Pedro Acosta in that race.
22:22
Speaker 2: They swapped the lead four times on lap six alone,
22:26
Speaker 2: and it was literally corner to corner, and it was
22:28
Speaker 2: twelve laps where you could have thrown, quite frankly, a
22:31
Speaker 2: tetowl over the two of the Marquis won by one
22:33
Speaker 2: tenth of a second after twelve laps twenty odd minutes.
22:37
Speaker 2: That felt like the last lap. For twelve laps, it
22:39
Speaker 2: was absolutely fantastic TV, and you've got a situation where
22:43
Speaker 2: you've got a guy who's had his career best season
22:45
Speaker 2: in marques on the best bike in the field, and
22:48
Speaker 2: someone in Pedro Acosta who still has not won a
22:50
Speaker 2: sprint or a Grand Prix in his second full season
22:53
Speaker 2: but could not, frankly come any closer and just threw
22:56
Speaker 2: the absolute kitchen sink at Marquees on an inferior b
23:00
Speaker 2: like and just about pulled it off. And the risk
23:03
Speaker 2: taking in the fine margins, the moves, multiple multiple moves
23:07
Speaker 2: in that race are very, very worthy of this category.
23:10
Speaker 2: So if you haven't seen it, like you go and
23:12
Speaker 2: watch it because it was one of those weird times
23:14
Speaker 2: where I did want to watch the highlights of it
23:16
Speaker 2: again because there were so many amazing moves in that
23:18
Speaker 2: spring that you almost lost track of them. So that's
23:21
Speaker 2: my nomination for this week. But I'm suggesting, given that
23:24
Speaker 2: we've got two Formula One races on a Saturday and
23:26
Speaker 2: a Sunday, you're going to add a couple of extra
23:27
Speaker 2: wheels here.
23:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, not a great race, well, one of the worst
23:30
Speaker 1: weekends time zone wise on the motorsport calendar for Australia.
23:32
Speaker 1: I think so It still.
23:33
Speaker 2: Takes a BITI a worse one for me to.
23:35
Speaker 1: Catch up on all of the action. But I'm going
23:37
Speaker 1: to go to Formula one. I'm going to go to
23:39
Speaker 1: the sprint race. Is this the move that could win
23:42
Speaker 1: Lando Norris the World championship? Getting on the curbs, spraying
23:45
Speaker 1: the water behind him on to Kimianta Valley towards Oscar
23:49
Speaker 1: Piastre's car causes three cars to crash off the track. Piastre,
23:54
Speaker 1: then Holkenberg and Colo Pinto. No one remembers the last
23:58
Speaker 1: two crashes, but every other remembers Piastre off there because
24:01
Speaker 1: of that water that had been kicked up by Lando Norris.
24:04
Speaker 1: Very unfortunate for Oscar. But what do you use George
24:08
Speaker 1: Russell's words, what a great Mario cart move from Lando Norris?
24:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was it. I did enjoy that quote, and
24:14
Speaker 2: it was a little bit like that. It was the
24:15
Speaker 2: equivalent of just tossing a banana over your shoulder and
24:18
Speaker 2: having everyone slip up on it. I did thoroughly enjoy that,
24:21
Speaker 2: And yeah, it was one of those things in and
24:22
Speaker 2: off the moment you're like, oh, okay, Pstre's gone off there,
24:24
Speaker 2: But then when you saw the replays and the effect
24:27
Speaker 2: that it had for the cars immediately behind. If it
24:31
Speaker 2: was it wasn't intentional, let's be honest. But if it
24:33
Speaker 2: was deliberate and intentional, then let's just give Lando Norris
24:35
Speaker 2: the World Championship right now, because if you've got the
24:37
Speaker 2: capability of doing something like that, you are the best
24:40
Speaker 2: driver in Formula One. But yeah, it was quite the
24:42
Speaker 2: move to make a little bit of mistake and then
24:46
Speaker 2: provide the banana skin for others to slip up on.
24:48
Speaker 2: I did enjoy that.
24:49
Speaker 1: Yes, very unfortunate and notably, I think I was reported
24:52
Speaker 1: in the race that those curbs were given a drain
24:55
Speaker 1: for Sundays, so that funny that that could not happen again.
24:58
Speaker 1: So Norris the first driver to pull that move off.
25:02
Speaker 1: Let's look at some of the other talking points from
25:04
Speaker 1: this Grand Prix would be amiss of us, despite of
25:06
Speaker 1: course the championship being the main talking point for the
25:08
Speaker 1: rest of the season. Not to mention Max for Stafford,
25:11
Speaker 1: in one of his career best drives from pitt Lane
25:15
Speaker 1: to the podium, even led the Grand Prix very briefly,
25:18
Speaker 1: only the eighth time in Formula One history a driver
25:21
Speaker 1: has gone from the pit lane to finish on the podium.
25:24
Speaker 1: This was very reminiscent of last year's drive in Brazil
25:27
Speaker 1: where he started seventeenth and won the Grand Prix. But
25:30
Speaker 1: unlike last year, when it was wet there was a
25:32
Speaker 1: red flag in the middle he capitalized on. This was
25:35
Speaker 1: a regular old dry race from his perspective, and he
25:38
Speaker 1: still managed to get all the way up there. How
25:41
Speaker 1: impressive was it and how ironic is it that this
25:44
Speaker 1: is the performance that actually probably counts him out of
25:47
Speaker 1: the World Championship.
25:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, as funny if you were could have
25:50
Speaker 2: put together a list of Max with Staffan's ten best
25:52
Speaker 2: Formula One races, there'd be a few at Druce Rim
25:54
Speaker 2: Inteligos at this point because he's done this a few times.
25:57
Speaker 2: But we were talking before about this. Could you imagine
26:01
Speaker 2: any other driver in modern day Formula One being able
26:04
Speaker 2: to pull off what Verstappen pulled off on Sunday in Brazil.
26:07
Speaker 2: The short answer is absolutely not. First driver by the
26:10
Speaker 2: way to go from the pit lane to third. Thirty
26:13
Speaker 2: six years ago, Nigel Mansel for Ferrari at the French
26:16
Speaker 2: Grand Prix. A rare good news story for Ferrari on
26:18
Speaker 2: this podcast, but he was the part about it that
26:22
Speaker 2: for me was, look, it had the dreadful qualifying on
26:25
Speaker 2: Sunday after the sprint sixteenth, they pulled the car off
26:28
Speaker 2: the creed, stuck a new engine, and it made a
26:29
Speaker 2: whole bunch of changes to my mind. When you saw
26:33
Speaker 2: him come out of the pit lane, it was amazing
26:35
Speaker 2: to watch the progress that he was making in the
26:37
Speaker 2: early lapse particularly, and he also had a puncture, Let's
26:39
Speaker 2: not forget that had to make an unscheduled stop earlier on.
26:42
Speaker 2: But it was a performance that probably only he could
26:45
Speaker 2: pull off, and it wasn't surprising in the slightest when
26:48
Speaker 2: it happened. It wasn't one of those ones when I
26:50
Speaker 2: was watching it thinking this is absolutely astonishing. I can't
26:54
Speaker 2: believe this guy is doing this. I was more looking
26:56
Speaker 2: at it saying, well, of course Max is going to
26:58
Speaker 2: do this because it's interlig and it's Max, and he's
27:01
Speaker 2: got the bit between his teeth and it's funny like
27:04
Speaker 2: he Let's be honest, I mean, he could be eliminated
27:06
Speaker 2: from World Championship contention in Las Vegas next time out.
27:09
Speaker 2: The thing if points don't go his way, it's right
27:11
Speaker 2: on the knife edge now. But whoever ends up winning
27:13
Speaker 2: this World championship. To my mind, the gap between him
27:17
Speaker 2: and whoever we're going to describe as the second best
27:19
Speaker 2: driver in Formula One. He's not going to win a
27:21
Speaker 2: championship for the first time in five years, but I
27:23
Speaker 2: think the gaps increased, and it's because of performances like
27:27
Speaker 2: Sunday that he is just on a complete plane as
27:29
Speaker 2: a one of one at the moment. And yes, it
27:31
Speaker 2: was amazing, but it also felt inevitable. And if you
27:34
Speaker 2: can say those two things in the same sentence about
27:36
Speaker 2: a driver, that probably explains just how good this guy is.
27:39
Speaker 2: It was great to watch and not surprising in the
27:41
Speaker 2: slightest Yeah.
27:42
Speaker 1: I remember thinking, and we probably talked last year in
27:44
Speaker 1: the second half of the year in particular, when the
27:46
Speaker 1: Red Bull Racing car was just not that competitive, that
27:48
Speaker 1: actually was probably serving to enhance for Staffan's reputation, at
27:52
Speaker 1: least among those who didn't recognize his brilliance in a
27:56
Speaker 1: car that was very easily winning the year before. I
28:00
Speaker 1: think this year has done that, doubly so because he's
28:03
Speaker 1: had so rarely a competitive car this year. We had
28:06
Speaker 1: that run a month or so after the mid season
28:08
Speaker 1: break where he was able to win races, but some
28:10
Speaker 1: of his performances in a car that's not really worthy
28:12
Speaker 1: of victories or poles. To go back to the start
28:14
Speaker 1: of the year is Pole in Japan and his victory there, Yeah,
28:17
Speaker 1: Pole Lap in Saudi Arabia, his victory in Himula. He's
28:20
Speaker 1: had some of his probably career great performances or maybe
28:23
Speaker 1: just performances that are as good as all the others
28:25
Speaker 1: but are more obviously so because of his machinery. But
28:28
Speaker 1: this one for me has to I mean, I haven't
28:30
Speaker 1: done a definitive ranking of Maxmastappans wins. Maybe there's another
28:33
Speaker 1: one out there I'm forgetting, and this wasn't a win
28:34
Speaker 1: obviously his performances. Rather, this has to be right near
28:38
Speaker 1: the top, just because there were no curve balls in
28:41
Speaker 1: his favor. In fact, like you said with the punk,
28:43
Speaker 1: are probably only curveballs not in his favor. The one
28:46
Speaker 1: thing that surprised me, though a little bit mad thinking
28:48
Speaker 1: about the championship context here, he would have known, I
28:51
Speaker 1: mean he said it himself lining up in the pit lane.
28:54
Speaker 1: He didn't expect to be on the podium, so would
28:56
Speaker 1: have already mentally been counting that championship cost and he's
28:59
Speaker 1: already said after the race or championships done, there's no
29:01
Speaker 1: point thinking about it. Now, he's got forty nine points
29:03
Speaker 1: to make up. It's probably not going to happen one
29:06
Speaker 1: would expect. But I was surprised that he wasn't left
29:10
Speaker 1: out at the end of the race rather than making
29:13
Speaker 1: that last stop to try and hold the lead. Because
29:17
Speaker 1: for me, if you'd set this race up and given
29:19
Speaker 1: me up to lap whatever was twenty laps ago, whatever
29:21
Speaker 1: his last stop was, and said, what would red Bull Racing,
29:24
Speaker 1: the team you know red Bull is, what will they
29:27
Speaker 1: do here? I would have said, well, they're going to
29:29
Speaker 1: leave him out. They're going to make Norris Parsons going
29:31
Speaker 1: to defend extremely hard. I was surprised, considering there was
29:35
Speaker 1: nothing to lose any way, even if he'd in the
29:37
Speaker 1: end finished a k would have been underwhelming for him
29:38
Speaker 1: not to get onto the podium, but to give himself
29:41
Speaker 1: some shot of winning this race. That really took me
29:44
Speaker 1: by surprise.
29:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, the strange part about it the team that is
29:48
Speaker 2: the most willing to wade into risk, you could say,
29:51
Speaker 2: of any team in Formula One, and he was in
29:54
Speaker 2: a position to answer that question that you just posed
29:58
Speaker 2: then because of the risks they had taken and the
30:00
Speaker 2: gambles they had taken the previous day to start him
30:03
Speaker 2: from the pit lane. It was surprising that if you
30:06
Speaker 2: don't believe you're in championship contention, then why not just
30:09
Speaker 2: go through with it? Because you know you finished third,
30:11
Speaker 2: shore you finished fifth, whatever, if you're out of contention anyway,
30:14
Speaker 2: but you also might not have finished fifth. And I
30:17
Speaker 2: was going to talk before I got myself got myself
30:20
Speaker 2: a little lost on the way here, but I was
30:21
Speaker 2: talking about the way he was cutting through the field.
30:23
Speaker 2: There there is an intimidation factor to maxistappen in a
30:26
Speaker 2: red bull when he's got a bit between his teeth.
30:28
Speaker 2: But it's not just an attacking intimidation factor. There is
30:32
Speaker 2: a defensive intimidation factor with him. Where if you are
30:35
Speaker 2: driving the widest red bull of all time and if
30:38
Speaker 2: you're Lando Norris up behind this and you're thinking, oh boy,
30:40
Speaker 2: I've been here before, I know how this goes. I'm
30:44
Speaker 2: in a really really good position. Norris has so much
30:48
Speaker 2: to lose in that circumstance on a weekend where he's
30:51
Speaker 2: potentially dominated, and that would have been so interesting from
30:54
Speaker 2: a you know, Max would have been Well, you can
30:56
Speaker 2: put your nose in there if you like, but you
30:58
Speaker 2: know what might happen here, because this is what Mac stars.
31:00
Speaker 2: We've seen it a million times. I was a little
31:03
Speaker 2: bit surprised that it wasn't quite a Hail Mary at
31:06
Speaker 2: this point. But if your red Bull, don't you ask
31:07
Speaker 2: the question and then you see how it plays out.
31:09
Speaker 2: Because if you're not going to win the championship anyway,
31:11
Speaker 2: then you know it's one of those zero some costings.
31:14
Speaker 2: You at least pose the question and see how McLaren
31:16
Speaker 2: respond to this. So it was a great shame for
31:18
Speaker 2: the theater at the end of the race because it's
31:21
Speaker 2: a track where you can hold down into turn ones difficult.
31:25
Speaker 2: We know that because of the rszone there, but the
31:27
Speaker 2: rest of the track, Boy, that car would have been wide,
31:30
Speaker 2: wouldn't it if Norris was hovering around in the rearview?
31:32
Speaker 2: So I would have loved to have seen that. But yeah,
31:34
Speaker 2: a little surprise like you that red Bull got to
31:36
Speaker 2: the precipice of taking a big swing and went maybe
31:39
Speaker 2: we won't do that.
31:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was, but I mean you can only assume
31:43
Speaker 1: that what to everyone else, including engineers from other teams,
31:45
Speaker 1: thought might have been a marginal call with the tire life,
31:48
Speaker 1: considering you push them so hard. I only assume that
31:51
Speaker 1: red Bull really knew those tires were not going to
31:53
Speaker 1: make it, because otherwise it's hard to imagine the thinking
31:56
Speaker 1: of this team not leaving me out. But anyway, we
31:58
Speaker 1: missed one moment often brilliance in an otherwise tremendous afternoon.
32:02
Speaker 1: From his performances, I want to go though, to the
32:05
Speaker 1: man who beat him to second, a man child. I
32:07
Speaker 1: don't know. He's nineteen years old, he's legally in Eldre
32:10
Speaker 1: Kimmy Antonelli. His career best weekend, I'm pretty comfortable saying.
32:14
Speaker 1: I mean, he's only been around for twenty one round
32:15
Speaker 1: so it's not that hard to remember most of them.
32:17
Speaker 1: But had the measure I thought really quite impressively of
32:20
Speaker 1: George Russell for the entire weekend. He's a track of
32:23
Speaker 1: course where Russell's won at before. He's made in Grand
32:25
Speaker 1: Prix victory, so he does pretty well around here. Was
32:28
Speaker 1: second in every meaningful session, sprint qualifying, sprint qualifying and
32:31
Speaker 1: the rays and other than okay, well, we've talked about
32:36
Speaker 1: that incident with Oscar Piastri. Maybe he didn't have to
32:38
Speaker 1: close the door. But with that aside, was just rock
32:42
Speaker 1: solid in a way I don't think we've seen from
32:43
Speaker 1: him before.
32:44
Speaker 2: Yes, the nemesis of kings Lynn. I mean you mentioned
32:50
Speaker 2: twenty one Grand Prix starts nineteen years of age three
32:53
Speaker 2: months ago. It was a very very accomplished performance. It
32:58
Speaker 2: was one of those weekends where you didn't you know,
33:01
Speaker 2: he didn't sort of get the path clear for him.
33:04
Speaker 2: He made all his own lucky put himself in the
33:06
Speaker 2: right positions. Yes, there's the the inexperience still shows from
33:11
Speaker 2: time to time, and I don't think he's ever He's
33:13
Speaker 2: not going to be a consistent driver at this early
33:15
Speaker 2: stage of his F one career, but you look at
33:18
Speaker 2: what he had coming into Formula one, and then even
33:20
Speaker 2: the way this season has played out, it's been very uneven.
33:22
Speaker 2: The peaks have been very peaky, the troughs have been
33:24
Speaker 2: really poor. As we discussed through the oddly enough the
33:26
Speaker 2: tracks that he's more familiar with as you go through Europe.
33:29
Speaker 2: He was just absolutely fantastic and you felt that even
33:33
Speaker 2: at the end where yes Verstappen on a run like
33:37
Speaker 2: this was closing him down in the latter of stages.
33:39
Speaker 2: But it never got super fraud or he didn't make mistakes.
33:41
Speaker 2: He's very composed. He just looks so completely legit. And Mercedes,
33:47
Speaker 2: you look at the look at the way Lewis Hamilton's
33:50
Speaker 2: panned out at ferrarihas that's an associated story, but Mercedes
33:55
Speaker 2: must be absolutely wrapped with the way he's coming along.
33:57
Speaker 2: And this shapes to me is one of those weekends
34:00
Speaker 2: that when he starts to win Grand Prix and becomes
34:03
Speaker 2: a championship contender. And I said when, not if, because
34:06
Speaker 2: it does feel like that's going to happen. This will
34:08
Speaker 2: be one of those weekends we look back at and go, oh,
34:10
Speaker 2: remember that weekend where he was just a really really
34:13
Speaker 2: polished second and a difficult track on a difficult weekend,
34:16
Speaker 2: and he had the raigning four time world champion trying
34:18
Speaker 2: to pressure him into a mistake at the end of
34:20
Speaker 2: the race. This is one of those ones you look
34:22
Speaker 2: back at and go, oh yeah. But again a bit
34:24
Speaker 2: like the verstapp and carving through the field thing. No
34:26
Speaker 2: real surprise because you know how good the guy's talent is,
34:28
Speaker 2: but in a situation like that, we've not seen him
34:31
Speaker 2: necessarily under that sort of pressure. When the lapse sticking
34:34
Speaker 2: down and did a really really good job.
34:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. That stat continues to baffle me,
34:40
Speaker 1: the fact that he was so poor in Europe all
34:41
Speaker 1: the tracks, Mercedes were sure we're going to be the
34:43
Speaker 1: ones we can thank some points, turn up to a
34:46
Speaker 1: circuit he's ever been to before, whether it's Canada or
34:48
Speaker 1: here or wherever else, and he's on the podium and
34:50
Speaker 1: scoring big points. Very strange, something I have to work
34:53
Speaker 1: out for next year. I'm sure it'll be better next
34:55
Speaker 1: year anyway, but must also be very satisfying for Mercedes,
34:58
Speaker 1: considering it's easy for get how much. I don't know
35:01
Speaker 1: if they've really ever felt that pressure, but in the
35:03
Speaker 1: middle of the year there was a lot of talk
35:04
Speaker 1: about this guy's just struggling. He's drowning at Mercedes in
35:08
Speaker 1: Europe when George Russell was at his best. It's clearly
35:11
Speaker 1: come back around. They were always I think, going to
35:12
Speaker 1: stick with there anything was any risk of not doing it.
35:14
Speaker 1: But it's clearly paying off whatever they're doing to manage
35:17
Speaker 1: him mentally. Let's move now to our final segment, the
35:21
Speaker 1: Crystal Ball for two by complete home Filtration. I no,
35:27
Speaker 1: I'm not even gonna go back to what we talked
35:28
Speaker 1: about last week. Our predictions were last week. That's for
35:31
Speaker 1: the listener, for you to figure out how right or
35:33
Speaker 1: wrong we were.
35:34
Speaker 2: I'm going to out myself here because this was just
35:36
Speaker 2: so wrong. I'm happy to take a few slings and
35:40
Speaker 2: arrows here because you know, I'm a big work and
35:41
Speaker 2: handle it. My prediction last week was that Max with
35:44
Speaker 2: staff would out score both McLaren's this week and reduce
35:47
Speaker 2: the lead to below twenty five points with three rounds
35:49
Speaker 2: to go. So yeah, that one goes straight in the
35:51
Speaker 2: recycling bin. That was no good. But oh, where do
35:55
Speaker 2: we go here? My crystal ball. I just don't see
36:00
Speaker 2: this championship going to Abu Dhabi now. And it's funny that,
36:03
Speaker 2: you know, the whole way we've been talking about this.
36:05
Speaker 2: Oh it's going to be this three driver Abudhabi showdown.
36:08
Speaker 2: It's going to be absolutely fantastic. I mentioned Max Vistappa before.
36:11
Speaker 2: He's now forty nine points behind. He'll be eliminated. If
36:14
Speaker 2: he's fifty eight behind after the next round in Las Vegas,
36:17
Speaker 2: which is probable possible, I mean, he could be out
36:21
Speaker 2: of it. We're two rounds to go, and you know
36:23
Speaker 2: we talk about Piastre before. It's the biggest deficit he's
36:25
Speaker 2: had all season. He's effectively one race behind with three
36:28
Speaker 2: to play, and you know, you look at what it's
36:32
Speaker 2: funny like you look back at the Monza pitstop swap
36:36
Speaker 2: that they they made them. Do you know when Norris
36:38
Speaker 2: had the dodgy pit stop and they McLaren swapped their
36:41
Speaker 2: drivers around. That's going to look really really silly in retrospect,
36:44
Speaker 2: isn't it? If Noris ends up winning the championship by
36:46
Speaker 2: forty one points and we don't even get a live
36:48
Speaker 2: Abu Dehby decider. But I'm hoping this is not the case,
36:52
Speaker 2: because we do share the narrative here on this podcast
36:54
Speaker 2: as we do in life. Let's be honest, but I'm
36:57
Speaker 2: really struggling to see a situation now, given the four
37:00
Speaker 2: of the drivers in the two orange cars and the
37:03
Speaker 2: fact that the staffan's probably too far back. Now, I
37:05
Speaker 2: find it hard to believe that Abu Dhabi is going
37:07
Speaker 2: to be a live championship decider, which is not something
37:10
Speaker 2: that we expected because this whole season has just been
37:13
Speaker 2: building to actually making the Abu Derby Grand Prix something
37:16
Speaker 2: we all wanted to watch, which has happened possibly three times, ever,
37:19
Speaker 2: because most of the rest of them have been no good.
37:21
Speaker 1: Yes, that's a grim prediction for Australian fans. I think
37:25
Speaker 1: I'd be surprised if Max mustappendruin it because he sort
37:27
Speaker 1: of needs two almost DNFs from Norris to be alive
37:31
Speaker 1: from in Aberdabi will need two very low scores from Norris.
37:34
Speaker 1: The prospect of one maybe Vegas is coming up and
37:37
Speaker 1: McLaren's probably not going to be that good there two
37:40
Speaker 1: just seems a little bit unlikely. Piastre though, that's I
37:44
Speaker 1: mean that What essentially that means is that he's not
37:46
Speaker 1: going to be able to outscore Norris in the next
37:48
Speaker 1: two races, which you've got to say, well, for that's
37:49
Speaker 1: exactly right. He hasn't done it since in since the Netherlands,
37:53
Speaker 1: which is.
37:53
Speaker 2: Correct six rounds ago.
37:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the only thing I hope, The only thing
37:58
Speaker 1: I hope man Horris's sake, as much as for mine,
38:02
Speaker 1: is that it's not one in the sprinting cut up,
38:04
Speaker 1: because what I'm going to say it what a crap
38:07
Speaker 1: way to win your first one.
38:09
Speaker 2: You have been for you have been warning us about
38:12
Speaker 2: the possibility of this happening like Lando Norris finishes third
38:16
Speaker 2: in the Katar spread race, Hooray, hooray, you're the world champion.
38:20
Speaker 2: Like talk about letting the air out of the balloon there.
38:22
Speaker 2: That would be what a lame way for a really
38:26
Speaker 2: really fun, intense, exciting Formula One season to end at
38:30
Speaker 2: four point thirty five am for Australian audiences when Lando
38:34
Speaker 2: Norris finishes off the podium in the Katar Sprint and congratulations,
38:38
Speaker 2: you are the world champion. It would be almost as
38:40
Speaker 2: good as that year in Japan. Remember when they realized
38:42
Speaker 2: that for stuff upon the championship a bit belatedly because
38:45
Speaker 2: it was rating and people were pedalized and what have you. So, yeah,
38:48
Speaker 2: but that was an inevitable championship. Where this one's been
38:50
Speaker 2: up at the air for the best part of the season.
38:52
Speaker 2: But now that I've deflated the crystal ball, perhaps you
38:55
Speaker 2: can reinflate it a little bit with something more optimistic.
38:58
Speaker 1: Well, no, it's a not more optimistic. It's all negativity
39:01
Speaker 1: of this program. I'm going to predict and we're going
39:03
Speaker 1: to talk about this a bit more next week. I
39:05
Speaker 1: think it deserves its own little talk topic, a bit
39:06
Speaker 1: little bit about Ferrari some of the commentary not from
39:09
Speaker 1: the medium man the chairman John Elkin having a crack
39:12
Speaker 1: at the drivers for being the problem in the team.
39:15
Speaker 1: My prediction is that yes, Ferrari is going to go
39:18
Speaker 1: winless this season, first time since started that long ago
39:21
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, only the fifth time this century though.
39:24
Speaker 1: Fred Vasser is going to get sacked two days after
39:26
Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi and the team is going to go nowhere
39:29
Speaker 1: for the next five to ten years because it feels
39:33
Speaker 1: like before it's peaked. Maybe last year was the peak.
39:36
Speaker 1: Second in the Constructors' Championship. It feels like the conditions
39:40
Speaker 1: are there for another stupid long trough for Ferrari, historically
39:44
Speaker 1: the greatest team in the sport, and what a disappointment
39:47
Speaker 1: that'd be.
39:48
Speaker 2: Yes, you stopped just short led of using the great
39:50
Speaker 2: Ferrari term blood letting insert hyphen here. That might have
39:54
Speaker 2: to happen as well. But the shocking part about the
39:56
Speaker 2: double DNF for Hamilton and Leclair and Brazila will get
39:59
Speaker 2: onto this at a future d is they are now
40:01
Speaker 2: being beaten in the Constructors Championship by a team that
40:04
Speaker 2: has one driver and possibly forgets it has a second driver.
40:06
Speaker 2: In most cron Poerri and Red Bull Racing. That when
40:10
Speaker 2: you've got that driver lineup at Ferrari is a storyline
40:13
Speaker 2: we probably should have seen coming, but I certainly didn't.
40:15
Speaker 2: And yeah, just underlines the woves, doesn't it?
40:18
Speaker 1: Just quiet? I know this is now we talk about
40:20
Speaker 1: next week, but you talk about the one team, one
40:22
Speaker 1: car Red Bull beating Ferrari, I think is what is
40:24
Speaker 1: it three to four points between them?
40:26
Speaker 2: Yeah?
40:26
Speaker 1: What are the odds that? When Yuki Sanoda's dropped at
40:29
Speaker 1: the end of the press or release, Laura Mecki is
40:31
Speaker 1: quite and saying we thank him very much for securing
40:34
Speaker 1: third in the constructor stamp inside.
40:38
Speaker 2: Well, he was there, Yeah, he was there.
40:41
Speaker 1: He's sixteen points whatever. It is crucial, crucial to overcoming Ferrari.
40:46
Speaker 1: But that's the subject for next week and the rest
40:48
Speaker 1: of the championship is still to come. But that's all
40:50
Speaker 1: the time we have for pit Talk today. You can
40:52
Speaker 1: subscribe to Pittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and
40:55
Speaker 1: you can leave us a rating and a review as well.
40:57
Speaker 1: This weekend is the sand Down five huh hundred, the
41:00
Speaker 1: penultimate round of the Supercars Final season, with races at
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Speaker 1: twenty minutes past three precisely on Saturday and Sunday, and
41:07
Speaker 1: the season finale Valencia Motorcycle Grand Prix at midnight on
41:11
Speaker 1: Sunday night. You can keep up to date with the
41:13
Speaker 1: latest F one, Moto GP and supercars news at foxsports
41:16
Speaker 1: dot com tot au from Matt Clayton and me, Michael Lamonato.
41:19
Speaker 1: Thanks very much for your company and we'll catch you
41:21
Speaker 1: next week.