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Ranking F1's top 10 drivers: Midseason review | Pit Talk Podcast · Pit Talk

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: On today's episode, we look back on the first half
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: of the season by picking our top ten performers of
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the in Formula one. My name is Michael Amonado. It's
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: great to have your company and the company of my
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: co host. If he was born in a town with
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: an iconic racing venue, you know he'd want the last
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: race to be there too. It's Matt Playton.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: I'm not quite sure that the grand prix of Rush
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Green in Essex for all of you play at home
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: in Essex. I like David Croft, I'm not sure that's
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: going to really pass Muster and I'm fairly sure the
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: grand prix of a inner eastern suburb of Melbourne is
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: probably not going to happen to either. But if I
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: was running Formula one, I'd probably have a swing at
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: doing something like that, because why not at this point?
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Huh Yes, well, you know Melbourne's BIGGERO. You can call
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: it now. You could have your last race at Cold
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: de Park. I'm sure Formula four nine has been there before.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Technically it's time for a revival very possibly.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Now it is mid season break. Got a couple of
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: weekends or three weekends off already burned through one. I
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: hope you made the most of it. Everyone before Formula
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: One resumes with the Dutch Grand Prix at the end
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: of the month. But of course, is as tradition, we
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: must go through our driver ratings. You can find mine.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: I hope you haven't spoiled it, madmen. The format doesn't
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: mean it doesn't matter too much. You can find my
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: driver ratings at the Fox Sports website, along with shortly
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the team report cards and all sorts of mid season content.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: But of course you and I mauted two people. Two
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: different people may have different ratings. Particularly I think as
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: we get towards the bottom of the top ten, I
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: certainly found that quite difficult to pick, almost as usual,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: whereas top one maybe not so much. But we'll get
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: to that in the moment. But I do like the
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: idea of starting with a bit of a dishonorable mention,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: if you like. Not everyone could make the top ten
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: logically enough, more than half the drivers didn't. But some
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: drivers weren't ever really even in contention for the top ten,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: were they? Why don't we tick off just one? Let's
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: not get too heavy too early. Drivers who you think
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: deserve a bit of a bit of a dishonorable bit
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: of a rocket if we were in the AFL.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Yes, to my mind, there's two. So now I'm assuming
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: here that we're only dealing with the twenty two full
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: time drivers, where drivers we're not. We're not we're not
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: listing people who did FP one and so on and
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: so forth. There were two names to me that as
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: you're building these lists, working who to leave out, they
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: just kept sliding, sliding further and further further down. There's
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: two obvious ones. I'm going to leave probably the most
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: obvious one to you for this particular category. But to
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: my mind, someone who I've just been a bit disappointed
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: with the entire year is Esteban Ocon and it just
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: feels that never before in the time it's the guy
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: who's won of Grand Prix. Remember this, Never before in
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: the time that he's been in Formula one have I
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: been this sort of underwhelmed by what it is that
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: he's doing. He's not in the greatest car in the sport,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: we know that, but he's certainly not in the worst.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: And it did feel that he's been a little bit
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: more compared relative to his teammates in recent years. It
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: just all feels a little bit tenuous and that he's
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: on the down side of the hill at this point. Now,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: he's been around for longer than we think. We still
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: think of him as being a relatively young driver, but
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: he's very much in Formula one middle age these days.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: But the decline this year and I guess the questions
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: that have come up relating to someone like him is
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: usually a pretty dependable midfield performer. I found it really
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: really hard to get him out of the bottom two
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: in my rankings. I was having to really try and
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: find excuses. He just kept sliding down the pole for me.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: So that was maybe a little bit of a surprise
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: when I went through the exercise. But if I'm going
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: to ask you for your dishonorable mention, I think this
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: person may be in a category all of their own,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: but I could be wrong. I'll leave that one to you.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: It was it was slightly harder, maybe slightly harder than
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I thought to pick an absolute twenty second because you
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: know you're right as knock on was a little bit disappointing.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: It's hard to go past our traditional last place driver
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: last stroll. He hasn't always been last place, but he
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: often is very close to it, just because we know
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: the quality of that Aston Martin for having raced a
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: out eleven ten out of eleven Grand Prix, has been
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: so low and in fact it's been a struggle just
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: to get it to the finish that it's almost a
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: little bit rough to even categorize him. And you know,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: to be fair, he did end his forty odd race
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: qualifying defeat streak to Fernando Alonso this season, but again
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I point to the fact that car has been so
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: awful that even Alonso has said at times I think
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: struggled for a motivation a little bit is his contemplated
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: retirement as he is at the moment, but he's just
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: been so comfortably obliterated over the course of the season.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Qualifying is really the test, even if the car is
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: not competitive, you know, over runs out there having a
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: crack and if nothing else. I suppose it goes back
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: to the perpetual question that's asked about Stroll is how
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: motivated is he in a competitive car. I'm sure it'd
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: be extremely motivated, like every person would be. Everyone's got
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: a little bit of competitive streak in them, but it's
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: just felt from time to time when the teams needed something,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: he hasn't often been there to give it in the
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: way that perhaps he'd think Alonso would be. So for me,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: he's last, but astonnoch On is very close because I
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: was I've been quite disappointed by him, and I think
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: you can say consistently it's been bareman there. There haven't
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: been too many question marks about half. The car hasn't
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: been great, but it's not as if it's been all
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: over the shop. It's been finishing races and qualifying and
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: he's always been there. The only other question mark I had,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: and then we'll move on to a good story about
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: number one is Alex Albon because while that William car
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: has also been I think almost a little bit underratedly bad,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: and that it's not just been uncompetitive, but it's struggled
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: to finish or even perform in the way it should.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: He's just been beaten so comprehensively and qualifying again by
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Carlos Science that I've been a little bit underwhelmed by that,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: but I know there are more car problems there. Again,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: similar to Aston Martin, that maybe cloud that a little bit.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and look as much as we're trying to restrict
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: this conversation for what's happened in twenty twenty six. I
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: think alb I don't disagree with what you're saying. I
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: think it has been disappointing, but it almost feels like
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: he's built up a little bit of equity because he
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: always feels like a guy who does better than Babs
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: he should. And you know, he's been a really this
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: second part of his career, I mean, one we probably
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: never thought was actually going to happen, has been really
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: quite decent compared to what came before. The stroll. Question
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: for me is that I just still you know, new facility,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: amazing sponsors. They're releasing brands of alcohol this morning with
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Auston button stickers on it. That's lovely. All of these
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: sorts of things. I find it really really hard to
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: take a Formula One team seriously that continues to employ
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: someone who has only sporadically proven that they actually have
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: what it takes to be in the top flight and
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: perfectly fine driver of a car. Sure, but I just
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: don't believe I can't take this team seriously as a
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: future force in Formula One while it continues to employ
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: the son of the owner who just has not delivered
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: for years and years and years. And that was perhaps
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: magnified when the car was good because we saw what
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Fernando Altso did with it a couple of years ago,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: and Lance Stroll's doing Lance Stroll stuff. But now the
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: car is abjectly bad. I don't think that anyone else
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: is going to come in necessarily and do a so
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: much better job that it renders him completely insignificant. But
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: there's this whole so why you still hear theory about
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: the whole thing? And I just I don't know. It's
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: just something about it that it's happened. He's had his career,
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: it's fine, he's done a heap of race as he's
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: been around. You know, his dad's got to live his
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: racing treams vicariously through his son. Perhaps I don't know,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: but yeah, it kind of feels like the end possibly
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: could have been a while ago. And that is why
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: he is at the bottom of this list. And if
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: there was a lower number, we'd probably assign him that
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you really see that. I mean, Alonso
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: does call quits this year, we don't know who's gonna
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: that's one of the great questions actually, who would fill
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: in because it's not a seat no one really wants,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: at least at the moment. We'll see how the team improves.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: But if it's a you know, lancetroll will not contribute
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: to that lineup looking better next season, Let's put it
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: that way. But he's got time to prove us wrong,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: doesn't He's got another half of a season. Let's go
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: the headlines though, of this driver ranking, not just at
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the bottom of the list that this honorable mentions. Let's
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: go to the most honorable mention that we can have,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: which is number one. We're going to take it on
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: turns to assemble our I guess each of our top fives,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: but no one can have the same driver in it.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: That's the catch. And look, it's always It's always the
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: way I like to think as a host. I'm very
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: gracious and honest and generous math. Why don't you take.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Pick number one? I was waiting for the caveat there,
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: but this time I've decided to go first. But before
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: we get to this, I just want to sort of
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: explain my methodology with this, and you may have a
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: thought on this as well, because I do this same
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: exercise for Motor GP each year, and in coming up
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: with a top ten drivers of a half season, you're
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: not just looking at the points tally and saying, well,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: you know, one is one, and two is two, and
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: so on and so forth. For example, with my Motor
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: GP rankings, the writer that's seventh in the World Championship
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: was my writer of the half season, which is Pedro Costa,
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: who hasn't won a Grand Prix. And part of the
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: reason for this is the context of are you maximizing
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: what it is that you have in the course of
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: your championship season, how you going relative to expectations for
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: both you and your machinery, how you going relative to
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: your teammate, and so this is why this is one
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: of the rare situations for me where the number one
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: driver in the World Championship, which is Kimi Antonelli, is
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: the number one driver on this list this year simply
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: because yes, we know that Mercedes was supposed to be
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: the preseason favorite and that has played out, They've won
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: more Grand Prix, so on, and so forth. His performance
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: relative to his expectations, now, I didn't think he was
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: going to be bad by any means, and he had
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: a perfectly acceptable rookie year that really did have some peaks,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: particularly towards the end. But if you had told me
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: at the start of the season, we'd be at the
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: mid season break and he would have a fifty point
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: World Championship lead. And the lead is not over his teammate,
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: which will feature lower in this particular list once we
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: get to him. To my mind, that is signs of growth,
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: completely exceeding the expectations we had for him, which were
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: not low. And I think the thing we've talked about
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: on this podcast is that it doesn't feel unsustainable or
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: a one off. It just feels very par of the
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: course now and then every now and then you see
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: it written and you know it to be true, but
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: you see it written in copy. You know Antonelli come
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: at nineteen, and you, gay, man, this kid's this kid's
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: still a teenager and he's just got that the arrow
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: is on such a sharp trajectory. But it's the exceeding
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: the expectations that I had for him. And like I said,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: I did not expect him to be poor, But did
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: I expect him to be this good? Absolutely not. And
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: I don't think there can be any other choice for
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: the best driver of the first half of twenty twenty six.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels like the for a lot of this
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: first part of the season was it was a lot
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: of waiting for the other shoe to drop. You know,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: he's had a great run of form, but he's nineteen
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: years old. Yeah, George Russell's going to get it together.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: He's going to feel a bit of pressure when he
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: has his first wobbly race and he had that little
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: run of very few points scored, and it'll all get
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: too much and we'll see similar to last year. And
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: that's not going to be dishonorable because he's still nineteen
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: toy this second season, but surely he's not going to
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: grind it out. But we just haven't seen that he's had.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: He has been challenged this year, both in races and
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: in the general narrative. Again, to go back to those
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: three races where he was just being beaten regularly, not
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: through any fault of his own. That was the catch there.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: It was not through his performances but really just through
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: misfortune and that didn't throw him off his game. Now,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: maybe that changes as we get to the pointy end
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: of the season. If he can't extend this points gap
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: and there is some kind of title threat, especially if
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: it's probably from outside of his team maybe, or maybe
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: it's from inside the steam. But at the moment you
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: just can't fault him. He's even had very few bad races.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: The few races that he hasn't won, none of them
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: have really been bad. There's another there's never been a
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: question like goh and these conditions, these tires or whatever,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: it just hasn't worked. He's managed to make every circumstance work,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: including you know, if you think back to the previous
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: race in Hungary a weekend when Mercedes was not performing well,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: he started way down the grid and seventh behind his teammate,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: recovered to finish on the podium. That is the kind
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: that's the kind of result that win you are championship,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: and that's the kind of result that extended his title
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: lead against all odds in that last race. And as
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: you say, fifty points very nice lead to have the
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: halfway mark.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: And to quite one of the co hosts of this podcast,
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: you win your championships on your worst days. Michael's yeah,
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: there you go. But I thought he was a fairly
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: obvious choice for number one. But I'm assuming number two
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: on our list. To my mind, one and two were
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: in a class all of their own, and in that
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: particular order. I just be curious to see whether you
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: are taking the lowest hanging fruit here for your first
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: pick and our second.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Pickure it's old favorite number one, I think, never far
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: from number one when it isn't and it's Max was Stappen,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: and I think we got to avoid recency bias and
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: these picks that sometimes the hardest part about doing your
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: top ten is that very easy to remember the last
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: two or three races, but harder to remember, you know,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: back in Australia and China and so on. But it's
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: still Max was Stappen for me, and I think it
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: is the most recent rates that epitomizes what he's been
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: doing for a lot of the season, but with machinery
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: that was much worse, and that was him finishing second
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: in Hungry despite a car that was literally he was
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: describing getting worse from lap to lap and found mysterious
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: damage on at the end of the race, just as
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: he did in qualifying and that caused him to just
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: spin out in Q three. But he's just continuing to
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: get results that the car doesn't warrant. It's actually, in
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: a weird way, been a little bit more under the
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: radar this year, partly because he's been much further from
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: the top step. You know, this time last year he
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: was pinching the odd victory because the car was just
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: about capable of it in his hands, but he was
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: also destroying Yuki Sonoda and very briefly Liam Lawson Isaac Hadjer,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: who maybe we'll talk about a little bit later, has
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: been doing a better job in the second car, but
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: still comfortably number two, even if that margin is much
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: smaller and much more respectable, not really getting close to
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: max with staff and week to week very occasionally maybe
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: depending on circumstances, but for stappan's continuing to get the best,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: you know, to go back to, as you said, one
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: of the criteria quite well, just getting the best from
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: the car weekend to weekend. And sometimes he does that
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: while complaining extremely vociferously, and sometimes he's doing that and
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: getting out of the car and threatening to quit the
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: sport because he seems to hate it so much. That
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: doesn't seem to be detracting from the quality of performances,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: and for me, I think that still just makes him
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: a clear number two.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. Look, the complaining thing, it's one of
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: those things that you know, people sometimes have to remember
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: that these radio messages are edited and decided which one's
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: air and which one's not. We could have every driver
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: complaining as much as Max does, but we just don't
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: hear it. Because now Max complaining about his car is
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: one of the things that you need to tick off
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: in watching the coverage of any core pre because you
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: know it's just going to happen. But I concur with
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: everything you've said there, which is very, very boring podcast content.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: But we'll get a little bit more controversial later, I'm sure.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: But to my mind he's still Formula one's ultimate difference
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: maker in that you know, you can look at what's
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: a respectable result in this race at this time with
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: this car, and you come up with a number or
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: something in your head, and then you put in brackets
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: next to it plus Max because you can add the
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: factor of Max Vstappen into that, and he if a
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: car is supposed to be finishing seventh, heil drag it
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: to fourth. If a car is potentially going to be
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: on the podium, he'll finish second. Hungary He is the
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: ultimate difference maker in the sport and it's funny that
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: we're still ranking him so highly. He has not won
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: a race this year and it's going to take something
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: pretty extraordinary for him to win a race. But I'm
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: not sure that detracts necessarily from the quality of what
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: it is that he's doing. He has less to work
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: with than he's had to work with previously, and I
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: don't believe he's any worse off than he was now.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: It's a different max for Stappen, but it's still the same,
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: very very good one. And you know, I think this
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: year has just, if anything, it's just enhanced his status
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: as the clear best driver in Formula One. I'm not
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: sure who you would have in positions two, three to
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: twenty one will put Lance Stroll last. But you know,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: to my mind, his reputation gets enhanced in seasons like
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: this because of what he's doing with what he's got.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: No no wins and not even a pole position. No,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: he's remarkable, and again, considering that last year he managed
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: to find ways to pinch them, I think tells you
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: a lot more about the state of that team and
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: why he's so unhappy. You know, he's just doing just
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: enough to still look like Max Verstappen. But racing car
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: is not anything like it's been since well well before
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, I guess, because it's been competitive or
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: at a minimum thereabout since he won that first title
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: in twenty one, and we are talking about him. Maybe
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: he's quitting the team because he's not happy with it.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: On top two, I think you're right pretty clear top
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: two there, and people can debate among themselves exactly what
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: order it should have been in. I think it starts
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: to get a little bit tricky. I think there are
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: categories in this top ten. I think we're entering the
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: next one of drivers who are doing a very good job,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: maybe not absolutely perfect, before we then get to the
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: drivers who are maybe impressive in a way we didn't expect.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: But he's next on your list for your number two pick,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: and three on our list overall.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought three through ten. You could have arguments
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: with me about the order of any of these, and
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: I'm probably not going to fight you for them, because
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: I don't think it's really inconclusive in a lot of ways.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: And I ended up settling with Lewis Hamilton here and
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: settling sounds a little unkind, and I'm like, oh, all
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: right then, but it's not quite that. I think. You know, look, mathematically,
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: he is the closest championship challenger and you can put
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: your air quotes around that because he is the driver
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: second in the standings at the midseason break. Do I
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: believe for one minute that Lewis Hamilton is going to
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: win this year's World Championship. Probably not. He's going to
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: seriously need a lot of help. But I just think, look,
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: he's the only driver to have actually scored a point
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: in every single round that deserves praise. In some respects,
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: He's finally got the I haven't won at Ferrari monkey
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: off the back. He's just been really, really solid and
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: really dependable, with higher peaks than he had last year.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: And there's part of me there's a narrative element to
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: this for me as well, because the more popular opinion
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: was that, you know, this is a guy whose clock
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: is getting close to midnight. Here. He's been around for
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: so long, He's been so good for so long. The
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Ferrari thing was a bit of a bit of a
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: damp squib last year, So maybe I'm sort of judging
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: this based on what happened twelve months ago and where
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: I expected him to be this year, despite the fact
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: that we've had a complete rule set in between times.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: But I found less reasons to mark him down than
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: other drivers that will populate the back end of my
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: top ten. And I wouldn't say by defaults. I think
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: he has been genuinely very good, but he is the
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: driver to me who's the best of that next group.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: It's quite a way behind one and two, but someone
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: had to be three, and I felt he was the most.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Equipped, dependable. I think really sums it up well and
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: I was just thinking as you were talking, it's actually
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: been longer than you might think since we've been able
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: to say that about Lewis Holle. I agree, even in
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Mercedes when he was able to he was winning only
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: a couple of years ago at Mercedes, but it was
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: really inconsistent, you know, to have some really good weekends,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: another weekends Russe would be all over him. You have
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: to go back. Really, he's twenty twenty one, unfortunately for
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: him for a season which he was executing pretty much
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: every round, but this year he has been and even
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: on those weekends when it because it's very close between
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: him and Leclaiir. There's the other element that I think
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: some people attempted to mark him down for. I think
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: that underrates Leclaire, how good he is, how establishes his Ferrari,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: even on those weekends where Leclaire gets ahead of him
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: and it's only ever by a little bit. There are explanations,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: and a lot of them not in Hamilton's hands, as
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: to why he's ended up just behind Leclair. Yes, it's
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: been a little bit a circumstance. If it's underperformance, it
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: is the tiniest bit, which if you look on the
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Leclaire side of the ledger, he's had much rougher weekends,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: and we've got to remember that pretty much every year
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Leclaire has been getting the most out of that Ferrari.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: So I don't see this as being a season where, oh,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: you know, Ferrari have made changes and they've listened to Hamilton.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Suddenly Leclaire can't drive the car. Leclaire has been able
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: to drive pretty much every car he's ever had. I
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: think that's a sign of actually how well Hamilton's been
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: performing this season. So I think it's a really worthy
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: third pick. I think, you know, I'm very interested to
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: see how the form guy goes in the second half
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: of the year. I have a small amount of hope
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: that maybe he can do it, but I have much
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: less faith in the Ferrari teams, so maybe even less
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: than like maybe he can close that gap. But he
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: wasn't third on my list. He was close. It was
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: a bit of it was some agonizing decision, but I
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: think third, yeah, third and fourth or very difficult. I've
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: got and I'll pick this. Subsequently, it's my second pick.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Lando Norris as my third best performer of the season
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: for very similar reasons, but it's a little bit of
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: a difference. It has been very consistent this year. I
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: think has been closer times with Piastre. But I think
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: this is what moves in my head, is that he's
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: been more comfortably ahead of his teammate Oskar Piastro. You know,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: Piastre is very good, Okay, less body of work than
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Leclaire has because it's only fourth season, but nonetheless we
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: know what he is capable of, and that most of
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: the tracks we've done this season, this was part of
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Piastre's best part of the year last year, but it's
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: been on the rare occasions, McLaren's delivered him a good
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: car much less frequently than Ferrari. Yes, he's clearly been
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: the better driver. I think back to Miami. You know,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Barcelona got onto the poty miss Okay requited attritionian to
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: get there, but he was clearly in the position to
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: pick that up if that came to him. And then
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: of course in Hungary now Piastre almost got the victory,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: but it wouldn't have been on pace, it would have
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: been on just rank opportunities at the first lap, and
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: good for him. But Norris was clearly just in another
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: class of compared to any other driver that weekend, to
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: be fair, and I think that is the unusual be
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: talking about McLaren drivers in this We're so used to
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: talking them about, talking about them having a great car
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: every week and some weeks they had to perform or not.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: That hasn't been the case. He's had very few opportunities.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: He hasn't missed any opportunities, and I think that's what
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: gets him ahead here. I'm not that Hamilton has again,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: it's been very close, but I think he's been performing
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: at a little bit of an underrated high level this
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: season and that just moves him ahead from me. Plus
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: does have a win. He's got a win ne Poll,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: which McLaren I didn't think was going to get before
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: the mid season break.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there is a sense of maximizing your opportunities here
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: and of the drivers in this sort of top echelon,
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: for me, he feels to me like the one that
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: has the greatest headroom in that there is potential for
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: him to be higher in this list, and in my
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: estimation for the second half of the season, it feels like,
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: you know, the top two seemed pretty sort of impregnable
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: for me. Hamilton feels like can he sustain a lofty
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: status in this top ten? Norris feels like the arrow
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: could go up and a lot of that will rely
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: on what McLaren does to you to come to the
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: party here. But you mentioned it before. When there's a
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: result to get, he's got it. And I think that's
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: the difference between between him and Pastre this year. I've
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: been really impressed with the way he's raced. There's very
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: little between the two of them over one lap. We've
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: seen that over the course of the year. Norris's racing
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: has been excellent for most of the year, and like
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: you said, I mean, Hungary's a case in point. They
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: were in a position where that car had a chance
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: to win a Grand Prix, which is not something we've
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: realistically said when we talk about Miami. But there was
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: a few caveats with all of that. But Hungary was
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: the first weekend this year that it sort of felt
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: a bit like, oh, it's twenty twenty five or twenty
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: twenty four all over again, here we go. And it
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: was a race that McLaren should have won, and he
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: won it. And that to me is when you're dealing
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: with a three through ten in this list, where the
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: margins are pretty slim, those things tip certain drivers over others.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: And think, I think it's a like I said, I
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: would still have Hamilton higher, but I don't disagree with
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: the logic. I think you're on point there. He was
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: a little lower in my list, but like I said,
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: probably more potential for Henry.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: I think, yeah, close call. I think that completes the
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: sort of second category for me of this top ten list.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Why do't you give us number five? Because from here
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: I think it becomes a real mess. I think almost
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: anyone here could be in any position.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, I've been changed here. I think we're
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: going to probably disagree on this one to an extent,
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: because this goes down to you look at a name
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: and go, but I can't put them this high, And
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: you look at another game and say, well, you know
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: they've been good, but I can't put them this high.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: So I have definitely settled here with the fifth pick
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: in our overall top ten for Charla Clare, and all
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: the points you made a couple of minutes ago are
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: valid in that he's always been the guy to get
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: the absolute best out of a Ferrari through, whether it
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: was good, bad, or indifferent against any particular teammate, for
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: a really, really long time. Now I feel this is
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: the season I feel less comfortable in saying that because
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: there have been some points that have been left behind.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: His bad days are worse than Hamilton's bad days. I
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: think that's the differentiator between the two. Now, there's still
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: days that are very very good. I mean, we've talked
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: about Ferrari turning up at certain race tracks expecting to
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: be no good and winning like Silverstone, or turning up
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: at tracks that expecting to be great and being a
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: bit nowhere near it. So perhaps that's been clouded a
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: bit like that. But I just feel that Lacleur to me,
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: is better than some of the other drivers I'm going
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: to have on this list in terms of what he's
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: done this year. But it feels like he is behind
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Hamilton as he is on the points table, just simply
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: because there's more there's more fluctuation, I guess between the
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: good and bad days. He hasn't just sort of been
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: that ever present charlote Clair that we've seen in the past.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: I do find it very very hard, though, to put
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: him any lower than fifth on this overall list, because
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: I just think that the other drivers he's competing against
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: in this space have more obvious flaws. And there's also
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: a proof of concept with Leclare that you know, we've
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: seen it for so so long now that he tends
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: to rise to the level of what it is that
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: he has to drive. I don't think that's gone by
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: any stretch. I just think the first half of the
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: season has not been to his usual standards.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with that, And you said, I think
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: that just speaks to how close this is because I
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: had him a couple of spots lower in my list,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: which I did struggle with I saw him on my
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: list down I was on seventh on my list. I thought,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Lucklare can't be that low. But then I just think
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: there have been these races where he's just and he
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: admitted he hungry was another good example. He admitted it
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: after the race. He just said, I just was missing pa.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: I was missing tenths of a second to Hamilton all
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: weekend and I don't have an explanation for it. And
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: that for me is where I think the other drivers
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: above him on the list, which I won't previews yet
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: because we'll get to the list a little bit later,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: haven't had those sorts of weekends. You know, they've had
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: some weekends where they've been a little bit more anonymous
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: than they should have. But LaClaire has just had this
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: weekend where he's just clearly can't reach Hamilton, but has
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: reached for him and sometimes made mistakes. I think of
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: he's qualifying crashing Barcelona. Okay, you blamed the breaks in
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Monaco and he said that absolutely wasn't his fold, and
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: I think there was a degree of that, but it
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: wasn't so much a break problem that he was experiencing,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: but just something he didn't jail with with the brake
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: system in the car, and then subsequently moved to Hamilton's
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: break system and had an opportunity to use that break
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: system for early in the year, but didn't want to.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: I think he's just been a little bit more lost
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: with this year's car, not constantly, because he obviously had
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: some very good weekends, but just a little bit more lost.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: And the problem for him is that in the past
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: that wouldn't have been an issue because he'd still clearly
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: be the number one Ferrari driver. But he's next to
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: a driver who's who just hasn't been who week in weekends,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: who already talked about has been doing pretty well with
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: his car. So for me, that's why he got bumped
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: down a little bit. But this is a very close list.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: I think we've actually had quite We've had many good
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: performers in the top ten this year, and as a result,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: despite him being marginally aheading qualifying on the head to
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: head and pretty much necker neck in the races, a
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: little bit further down the list for me, and while
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: I don't want to talk down he's winning Silicon because
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: it was very good, very well as she would execute
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: it perfectly. He didn't win when Ferrari the only race
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: for I really had the pace to win, which is Barcelona,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: he wasn't in this. He was opportunistically in the mix
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: of other races, but not in Barcelona, and I think
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: that makes a little bit of a difference for me.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Before we get to the rest of our list, though,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: let's go to move the way we brought to you
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: by Shannon's in the Formula one sense, not a lot
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: of racing for the next couple of weeks. There are,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: of course, other categories, but I thought we'd keep this
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: one simple massess with a Formula One move of the week.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: It's a good time for us, actually that's all about
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: left left field moves is prime time. But we concluded
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: on one before the show started, why don't you take
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: us through it.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: In stories that everyone could see coming from one hundred
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: miles away. I love the fact that last week it
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: came out that the FIA was pushing back on driver
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: criticisms about the twenty twenty six cars. The FIA single
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: seat of director Nicholas tom Bass has said that it's
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: not thea's FAA's fault because f one's governance process didn't
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: allow for it to push through rule changes to problems
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: they saw coming long in advance, so basically blaming the
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: manufacturers for being resistant to change. So at the moment,
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: you've got this hot potato where the drivers are saying, well,
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: we looked at all these simulations back in the day
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: and it was always going to be rubbish, and see
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: we told you so that it is rubbish, and the FIA saying, well,
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: don't look at us, it's the manufacturers far And then
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: you magine in the manufacturer saying, well, we just played
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: by the rules. That's what we do here. You guys
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: make the rules. We just did here to them. So
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of the age old game of hot
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: potato going on here. I'm sure the blame pie can
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: be distributed in several equally proportional chunks at this point.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: But I did love the fact the move of the
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: week for me is the FIA doing the move of
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: don't look at us, look at them when everyone's complaining
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: about what's going on with the twenty twenty six cars
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: and how we're furiously unpicking these rules almost on a
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: weekly basis to get to something that's actually palatable after
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: what we saw in Australia a round one, but an
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: interesting story, probably predictable, and one where I think there
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: are no winners.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Yes, I liked it a lot. It seemed like it
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: was in direct response. Obviously we had the Belgian Grand
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: Prix couple of weeks ago now, but that was the
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, the worst case scenario for these engines, and
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: every driver having I think to some extent, swallowed their
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: unhappiness about these engines that suddenly came them uncontrollably black
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: to the surface. And I think it was Karlos Signs
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: who had the sort of the quote of the weekend
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: other than Max. For Staffen's sake, if I keep criticizing it,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: they'll shoot me, was saying. He said something like, whoever
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: saw this in the simulations all those years ago and
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: didn't make any changes? I can't really exactly how describe it,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: you know, need their head screwed back on or whatever.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: And I think that if I was the FIA, that's
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: the one that I'd probably have been responding to, because
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: you'd be saying, well, we did see it, we suggested changes,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: and no one wanted to change it. I think it
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: also speaks to you we might talk a little bit
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: about more the engines of the State of f one
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: in next week's episode of the podcast, but just speaks
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: to I think the wrangling over the new rules and
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: the way the politics of that is shaking out, because
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: you know, both Stephani and Meticali, the f ON CEO,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: and also the FIA President Mohammad Bensuli and have have
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: said quite openly that the manufacturer should have less say,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: and they really stated that as the way they want
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: to write these rules. Well, of course they welcome the
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: manufacturer into because they want them involved. It's pretty clear
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: that they're using this as a way to take back
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: some political power in that viision making, which is probably
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: fair enough. The sport's in a position where it probably
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: doesn't have to for one of a better word, panda
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: to manufacturers because manufacturers also want to be involved in
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: the sport now because of its popularity and so on.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Maybe we don't need to play so much into that
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: road relevance idea that ended up here in the first
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: place with these nominally fifty to fifty engines that never
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: were quite there and won't be for the next couple
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: of years. But there's an interesting story to be told
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: there as well. As we continue to formulate those maybe
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: twenty thirty or twenty thirty one engine regulations that could
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: be quite different or just different enough, depending on who
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: you listened to about that. I think it's a great
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: move of the week, maybe move of the year in
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: terms of blame shifting. Wait and see anyone good top
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: that one. But let's get back to our top five
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: list and let me tell you who I had in
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: my fifth overall position but will be sixth on our
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: joint list. And this was hard. I had two drivers,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: really well three, including the Claire, but really pegged for
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: this one. I struggled to decide between them, but I
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: landed on Pierre Gasly, which might be a little bit
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: of a left field choice because we don't talk too
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: much about him or Alpaine. But when I was really looking,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: I try, I really try to look through all the numbers.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: I look at who's to come back to that premise
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: maximizing each weekend, and he's doing it for Alpine. You
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: know this is a team. Also, we shouldn't forget there
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: was really nowhere last year have turned up with a
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: competitive car, certainly early in the season. I think this
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: speaks to the recency bias thing, because Alpine's definitely gone.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: Off the boil.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: The closer we've got two seasons break have been overtaken
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: by at least one but maybe two other teams, but
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Gaslis continued to perform and the one for me, and
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: maybe this is the controversial element, but I'm interested in
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: your opinion for this. That makes the difference to me
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: is that he's just continued to almost every week elt
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Franco Colopinto, particularly over one lap. Colopindo's closer this year.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: He's had more better races, if that makes sense. He
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: had more races in which he's been more respectable, but
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: as an average over the year, it's still been really
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: one way traffic, and Colopindo's off weekends have been really
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: genuinely terrible. But I still think colo Pinto, if nothing else,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: is a very fast racing driver. Maybe he's not the
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: guy you want to maximize your Sundays. Maybe actually he's
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: proven the opposite of what we thought in that first
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: season from william or half season with Williams. But I
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: think for me the gap between them is bigger than
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: it should be for a driver of Colobinto's calaber And
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: maybe that speaks a little bit to him, But actually
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: I think it speaks a lot more to Gasly, who
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: threw some fault of his own over his career, but
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: some fault just being the way that Red Bull program worked,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: and we learned a lot more in the years subsequent
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: to He's stint there has become a little bit I's underrated,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: the word I want here, a little bit less value
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: than I think he deserves to be. He's not an
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: absolute top driver, with all respect to him, but I
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: think he is a top just outside that group driver,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: and I think the first half of this season, in
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: its totality, not just the last few races, I think
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: he's done a lot to prove that.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're so quick to apportion underrated or overrated tags
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: on people these days, I would say that Pierre Gasly's
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: in that rare category of being properly rated. He is
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: properly rated within the sport and the peace in it.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: But the word you said there is undervalued. I think
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: that's probably a more accurate description for him. Now, look
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: say what you like about Franco Colopinto, Hello to all
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: our listeners in Buenos Aires or wherever else he was
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: staking to He is not a slow Formula One driver
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: now that the pace is not an issue when that's deployed,
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: and you know, we can go into nuance if you like.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: But I think the thing with Gasly is you mentioned
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: the recency bias angle, and he feels he's going to
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: be more hamstrung by his machinery relative to the opposition
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: as the second half of this season unfolds. But I
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: don't think that should underline the excellent job that he
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: has done. He is just a very very good, dependable
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: mid to upper grid Formula One driver, which you know
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: you mentioned the key thing there about the red Bull thing.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: He wasn't ready and they weren't ready for it at
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: that point, and he unfortunately became the first crash test
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: dummy that was thrown out in the factory after they
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: were looking for the Daniel Ricardo replacement. And we have
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: seen what's happened to the various pace that have tried
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: to fill that seat since it generally hasn't gone very well.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: So his career, his time there looks better in retrospective,
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: but the fact that he's built this career through a
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: couple of stops since where he is just a he's
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: one of Formula one's most known quantities for mine. Now,
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: in saying all of this, you have him six on
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: our overall list, you could throw a tissue between over
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: six and nine on mine. This little in a blanket
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: he was ninth, So he fell out the back end
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: of that next group for me, and I felt bad
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: as I was doing it, because in no way is that,
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: in no ways that representative of how I feel about
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: what he's done with the machinery he's had. What will
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: be interesting here for us when we revisit this at
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: the end of the year, is that are we going
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: to be able to see past the probable deficit in
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: machinery that he's likely to have relative to the opposition
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: that he's fighting with in this sort of neck of
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: the woods for the rest of the season and still
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: see the quality shine through. Because if you had to think,
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: I mean he's scored what is he scored forty two
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: points in the first eleven rounds. Do I think he's
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: going to double that forty two points in the next
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: eleven No, relative to the opposition that he's got. Does
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: that mean he slides further down this list? I'm not sure,
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: because it'll again be context how's he doing against Colopinto?
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: Is he overachieving with what the capability of the car
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: is more often than not. I don't have him in
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: the list where you've had him, But I also don't
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: disagree with the logic. Like I said, I just think
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: it's insanely close between these next four. And my reaction
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: when you took Pierre Gaslely was because you've actually left
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: someone for me to pick at number seven on our
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: overall list, who actually had a number six on my
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: own list, and I'm very very happy to have him.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: It's Liam Lawson. Good pick, and I just think that
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: for a guy who just feels like the guillotine is
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: perennially over his head, he's about to lose his job
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: and he's, oh, well, Nikolas Solov's doing well in Formula two,
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: isn't he. I just think Lawson has been really, really
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: good this year, and yes, that team has been probably
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: you know, it's been best of the rest behind the
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: big four for a lot of the year. And it
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: feels like, again when opportunities arise for him to score points,
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: he generally does them. The fact that he's sitting inside
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: the top ten of the World Championship one point ahead
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: of Pier Ghastly by the way, I think it's been
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: genuinely excellent. But I just like the way he goes
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: about it in that I don't think anyone wants to
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: turn up to work wondering if they've just changed the
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: locks on you every single time you turned up, which
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: kind of feels like the story of his career. But
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: that's almost become a bit of a calling card now.
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: I like the fact that he's feisty and he stands,
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: he's ground and he's combative and all of those sorts
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: of things. And again, for a guy who was, let's
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: be honest, completely insanely turfed out of Red Bull in
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: ten minutes in twenty twenty five for no appreciable gain
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: for that particular team, it's impressive that he's been able
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: to resurrect his career for how long, I guess is
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: the question. But in terms of who's done who's done
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: the most with what they have this year, he was
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: a pretty solid sixth on my list, and he slots
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: into seventh here. I don't really see a way that
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: he sees and could have gone much better than this.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he was also sixth on my overall list, and
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: I'm very pleased to have him in there because, yeah,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: as you sum up, it's a sort of just against
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: the odds performance. I think in some respects I almost
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: still consider this almost like a second rookie season for him,
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: because he had all those cameos at whatever they were
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: called the time, Racing Bulls is the team now replacing
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: Daniel Ricardo injured and then replacing him, and then obviously
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: there was the Red Bull promotion last year, which meant
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: he did the preseason with the wrong team, and even
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: that preseason was extremely disrupted, ended back at the other team.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: Need a little bit of time to find his feet
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: and rediscover his equilibrium. But this year has shown just
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: what a regular build up to a year with a
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: normal preseason with the same team for multiple races in
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: a row can get out of him, which is a
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: very confident driver, very quick driver, I think more to
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: the point, are really dependable driver. He's had very few
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: races where you just going, oh, that's been a bit
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: what's he doing there? He's been beaten by his teammate
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: or whatever, and he's ended up nowhere getting pretty much
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: close to the most out of the car and for
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: racing Bulls, and I think this is this is going
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: to become more of a question the second half of
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: the but I think it started emerging in the last
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: month or so. A team that has a genuine chance
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: of doing something it's never done before, no matter what
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: it's been called, which has finished fifth in the championship.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: That's where they are now. It's his dependability that I
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: think will make the difference, the fact that he's just
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: been so whenever the car has been able to finish eight,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: ninth and tenth, he's done that, he scored the points,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: he's got into t Q three, whatever it is, that's
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: going to be the difference in what I think is
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: probably going to be a close battle with Alpine, a
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: team that probably by right should finish there considering it
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: is technically a manufacturers team. I think he's making that difference.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: He's doing a really good job, and really pleased to
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: see it because it's you know, we've talked a lot
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: for years really about all these great drivers that have
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: ended up on the wrong side of the Red Bull
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: program for whatever reason, ghastly pretty much being one of
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: them who don't get their chance. I think the risk
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: for lawsuit was actually he'd end up out of Formula
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: One because he's sort of at that age where he
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: could just be squeezed out by another couple of other
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: younger drivers, not just at Red Bull, but elsewhere. I
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: think he's done enough this year to hopefully, if Bush
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: does come to shove at Red Bull, maybe find a
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: place somewhere else. Maybe if it's not next year, the
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: year after, because he's clearly dependable enough operator, and I
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: think that's good. He's clearly proven himself. He's usually this
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: first half of the year to prove himself, which is
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: something he has had a chance to do.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: Well, which is insane that we're getting this deep into
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: his career and he's like, oh, he's finally had a
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: chance to prove himself. He is the poster boy for
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: Red Bull driver mismanagement in the modern era, and it
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: would be just the most Red Bull thing ever of us, like, well, congratulations,
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: you've been great. You're done at the end of the season.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: But I hope that doesn't happen because I think he's
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: a very worthy inclusion on the Formula one greed. So
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: that's the seventh pick overall in our ten. Now this
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: really intrigues me. Now, because we're getting further away from
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: the top, but we're getting closer towards the intriguing part.
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: For me, you have the eighth pick and the tenth pick,
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: and I seem to think that I know where I'm
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: going for my next one, and it's going to be
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: neither of the two drivers that you're about to choose
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: at eight and ten. I'm just really curious to see
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: which one you rate first, because there's going to be
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: eyebrows raised at this end no matter who it is.
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: So what have you got?
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: Because we are getting the pointy end and there are
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: a couple of big name drivers. You haven't made it all, Yes,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: they haven't made it on my list yet because despite
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: everything we said about Liam Lawson, number eight overall on
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: my list, and my fourth pick is Arvid Lindblack. Oh
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: goodness ever so much indeed as ever for waking up
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: early in where he's from in the UK, in England.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: But I think a very impressive rookie season. Obviously it's
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: the rookie of the year's anyone, but it's the pace
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: relative to Lawson that's been very impressive, because that's what
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: you look for. I think we talked about this a
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: lot last year because we had so many more rookies
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: in the field last year. You want to see the
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: speed because the racing can come, you know, all that
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: stuff about. You know, you're not an f one to
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: sort of polish yourself off, well, you know, in a way,
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: you kind of are these days. Because it's so little testing,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: there's no substitute anymore for just being in the car
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: in actual race conditions. There's no way you can prepare
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: for that. And he has been good in race conditions.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: Still is just outside the top ten championship. He's eleventh,
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: so not that far behind Lawson, but his speed has
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: been there. He's actually very, very fractionally faster if you
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: average all the qualifying lap times, and Lawson is hasn't
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: had any real stinkers, you know. I think back to
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: China might have had a bit of a rough weekend,
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: but that was what His second weekend in Formula One
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: was also very good in Australia as it happened. But
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: he's just been for an eighteen year old, another teenager
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: on the grid, I think, really solid over one lap,
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: pretty reasonable in race conditions. Has a case have been
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: quicker than lost in race conditions he's obviously contributing to
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: that objective of finishing fifth of the team. Hasn't given
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: the team too many wow where's the pace Gone? Kind
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: of weekends, has given them some headaches with team orders,
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: which is maybe marking him down somewhat. Almut Marco probably
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: would have loved that. I don't think your conventional team
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: manager would have. But I think he absolutely wants a
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: place in the top ten, and I had him in
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: eighth because it's hard to fault him in the circumstances
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: of this being his first Formula One season.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: I like everything you just said. I don't like the ranking. Sorry,
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: we're going to disagree with this. He did not make
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: what he did not make my top ten, and that's
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: true simply because you can't fit eleven drivers into ten spots.
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: He was the person that missed out closes. For me,
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: he's been better than I expected him to be. I
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: like the feistiness and the can bad iveness. He has
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: not looked out of place at all. Do I think
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: it's going to end in tears? Yes? Would I would
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: be Would I like an old friend's tossed SoundBite on
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: how these two are going relative to each other? Absolutely?
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: I would as he pulls the seal on a can
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: of Red Bull before he gives his answer, very theatrically
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: as France Toss would be want to do. He knew
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: who was paying his wages. But look, I agree with
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: the sentiment of everything that you've said. I just he's
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: worthy of a place in the top ten. Except for
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: the two drivers I thought you were going to pick
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: for your last two picks, You're clearly not going to
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: choose one of them. And so this is me. I'm
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: going a little bit off pissed here with my list
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: because I wanted so so hard to fit a particular
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: person into my list, but now I can't do it
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: because I only have one more pick, and so with
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: something of a heavy heart, I must say, and you
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: know the flags are at half mast in kings Lynn,
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: I'm going to pick George Russell here. I'm going to
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: pick George Russell here as the ninth overall, which seems
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: possibly a little harsh for a driver that's third in
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: the World Championship and a driver that at the start
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: of the season I was fairly confident was going to
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: be the World champion, and I am far less confident now.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: But I'm also not ruling it out, because I think
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: he has the most upside of everybody on the points table,
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: not this list, potentially, I've generally been a little bit disappointed,
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: and I've been a little bit surprised. I think is
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: probably surprised more than disappointed. The demeanor, and sometimes you
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: get the sense that you know he's a good SoundBite.
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: He says what he thinks in all of these sorts
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: of things. Sometimes he could probably do more by saying less.
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: I feel that sometimes that open Mike and George Russell
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: is almost his own worst enemy. To a point, I've
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: just been a little bit surprised by the demeanor because
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: it seems that he is particularly rattled by the speed
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: of his teammate, which you look at the age gap
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: and the gap and experience between the two is surprising
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: on its face. But also he's been around long enough
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: to know how that plays out if he makes that
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: very public. And maybe there's some days where you need
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: to be a little bit better at perhaps repressing how
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: you feel and sort of live to fight another day.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: There's been a lot of a rational emotion now retiring
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: in Canada with a car problem. Take your headdressed out,
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: throw it stomp around, kick things. That's all completely fine.
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: There's been other times where I'm just, oh, I'm not
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: sure we've said this in previous episodes. He to me,
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: reacts like a nineteen year old and things go badly,
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: not the other way around. If he was nineteen years old.
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: If Gibe has an elite reacted like this to disappointments,
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: you go, well, he's a teenagery has a grown up
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: yet that's completely fine. So do I think he's the
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: driver most likely to take the World Championship off his
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: team mate? Yes? I do. Can I fit him any
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: higher than ninth on this list? No? I cannot.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: I think that's I also had him ninth on the list,
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: And I think all those are very good reasons. I
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: mean thinking a lot about Russell's season, you know, where
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: it's gone wrong or more to the point where it's
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: been different from the way we expected. And the luck
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: element I was happy to buy into until after the
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: Monaco Grand Prix because it was clear, you know, he
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: had suffered more bad luck stally had. I think that
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: evened itself out. I think we talked about this is
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: the time after the British Grand Prix. I suppose it
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: was when Angela had his second non scoring race from
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: three Grand Prix. Russell had an opportunity to build a
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: bit of ahead of steam in one in Austria, his
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: second win of the season, his most recent victory as well,
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: and just didn't really kick on from there. Have there
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: been some engine troubles since then revealed yes, quitting qualifying
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: in Belgium. I think we both agreed after Belgian Grand
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: Prix that while it wasn't his racing mistake, if you
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: like to have ended up crashed out on that first lap,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: he did take the risk. He's the driver on the outside.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: The driver on the outside always takes the risk. He
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: didn't need to do it there at a car fast
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: enough to have eventually passed the Ferraris in a straight line,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: and he took the risk and he ended up with
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: no points. And then in Hungary, Okay, he had a
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: terrible start, which he said, oh there was another whoe
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: with me, I just getting all the bad luck. If
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: I would let myself get disappointed, I'd spent my whole
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: life disappointed. Except his clearly disappointed. How many times had
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: the start of the Okay ants stally and neither did
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: he have starts quite that bad at the start of
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: the year. How many times it ants and now have
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: worse starts at the start of the year, he said, oh,
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: you know, it's just a bit of inexperience, rather than
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: blame it all on the car. Obviously the car was
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: largely to blame in Hungary, but nonetheless, you know, everyone's
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: had a bit of bad luck. On that sense. He
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: had a great recovery drive, but I still don't think
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: he was anywhere near anst earlier that week and in general.
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: So actually I think the result in terms of points
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: probably ended up where it should have been for those
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: two drivers. So I don't know if you can necessarily
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: say it's bad luck. And I wonder how much of that,
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: because you know, to be fair to him, I don't
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: think he's really He puts his head down a lot
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: after the race, but I don't think he's really put
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: his head down in racing conditions. I don't think we've
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: seen him turn up and just steer the car to
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: nowhere because he's in a bad mood. And I do
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: wonder how much this woe is me attitude is his
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: own coping mechanism. Like this, we're actually seeing the psychology
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: similar to how you know, last year and the year before,
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: we all wondered why Norris was being so openly self
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: critical after races, and it was clear that was his
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: coping mechanism, because it's not as if, you know, the
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: next race he turned up and he thought, Oh, I'm
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: so terrible, and I'm a terrible driver and I'm crashing out.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: I wonder if that's just the way Russ. Unfortunately, it's
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: not a very popular way for him to cope because
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: people don't really like it. But I do think it
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: does wear a bit thin because I don't think Lucky's
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: as big as stories he's making out to be. I
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: think the story is he's the ninth best driver in
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: the grid in the first half of the season, his
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: teammate's number one. His teammate's got a fifty point lead.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, we can argue about the scale
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: of that points gap, but the points gap is clearly deserved.
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and there's a you mentioned the Norris thing is interesting.
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: As you were saying that, which is useless for listeners
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: of an audio podcast, I was nodding my head because
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: I do feel there is that degree of sort of
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: self flagellation that Norris tends to do a lot of
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: the time. But I also feel that he says it
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: as a coping mechanism and then just and then it's done,
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: like it's out, it's done, it's sealed. Where I get
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: the sense with Russell sometimes that it lingers a little
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: bit more, and that could just be a difference in
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: their personality.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: Keeping score, isn't it. I think that's the thing. I
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: think mentally he's keeping the score.
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: That's correct where I feel that Norris will say what
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: he needs to say and then that's done. That's in
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: a box over there. That's you know, you can't change
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: the past. We deally with the future from here. So look,
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: it's interesting that we've sort of arrived at an underwhelming
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: consensus of the person that probably came into twenty twenty
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: six threatening to run away with the World championship. But
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: I have no more picks left. You have one, and
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: I'm a little concerned here that you may be about
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: to get deported based on what you based on what
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: your answer is to number ten. So the floor is yours.
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: Where are you taking us? And please don't tell me
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: it's the airport, because we have out of here.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: But this was hard. I found this very difficult. In fact,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: I think as I was assembling this list for the
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: Fox Sports website sending your messages, I think he might
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: not make the ten. In the end, there's tenth on
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: our lists, fifth on my list. I did pick Oscar Piastre,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: but only just only just are close. You know, we'll
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: talk about the honorable mentions a little bit later. I
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: guess a couple of drivers were close to him. It
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: was only just because on balance he's been beaten by Norris,
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: not by heaps, but on the week as we said
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: with the when we talk about Norris being in the
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: top three, the weekends with the McLaren's been good, it's
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: been all Norris. Pastry hasn't had the run of things
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: on the weekends on which McLaren's had the better car,
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: which I think I think counts for a bit more
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: in this season like this. You know, if McLaren were
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: genuine title contenders and both Rivers are in it, you'd say, well,
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: you know, it's actually those worst weekends. We've said many
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: times that, well maybe that's what they would win him
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: the title. It's on and weekends like this you're only
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: going to get a couple of seasons like this. You're
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: only getting so many good weekends and you need to
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: make the most of them. And it's Norris has been
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: doing that. Pastry hasn't had. You know, he has had
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: some clear highlights, very clearly. Could have won Hungry just
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: with a great start and some superb defending, which is
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: part of racing. But usually you say those suburb defensive
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: races could make you the driver of the day or whatever.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: When it's a faster car behind you for a different team,
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: not your teammate, that inevitably puts an asterisk on that
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: kind of thing. It could have won in Japan in
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: a very similar way, but it would have been from
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: a different team. I think that would have counted more.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: You know, was the quicker driver in Monaco. There were
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: good weekends. It's not as if he's had a terrible season.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: It's not as if he's disappeared, some pundits have claimed,
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: but it's just clear in a way that hasn't been
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: the case for two seasons. I guess, and you've been
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: formed on for so long that this so far as
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: has been the clear number two McLaren driver. Pain that
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: I am to say it. This doesn't feel like the
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: I don't want to say it does necessarily feel like
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: the Piastre of last year, but certainly not the McLaren
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: dynamic of last year.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: It's true, and I think a lot of this you
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: look through the lens. I mean, he didn't start his
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: season until round three, let's be honest, because he had
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: competed the first two Grand Prix, and it feels like
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: he's been behind the eight ball ever since. But there
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: was a word that you said when you were talking
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: about Norris a while ago that was a little unbecoming
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: of someone of Piastre's quality, as we saw from last
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: year in particular, where you were talking about what he
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: was doing in Hungary as being opportunistic, and that was
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: a little bit like there was not a chance he
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: was going to beat Norris in a status quo fair
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: fight and that race because Norris just had so much
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: more race pace, and if he had won the race,
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: it would have been hugely meritorious and he would have
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: got his twenty five points and so on and so forth,
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: but it would have been a very against the run
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: of play type of victory on a weekend where he
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: just did not have the speed to go with his teammates,
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: and meritorious as that would have been, that's not a
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: sentence that we've said about Oscar Piastre very often in
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: the past couple of years, and that might speak to
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: McLaren being a little slow out of the gate. They've
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: now got this upgrade, and as you mentioned before, it
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: feels that when there's an opportunity there for a good result,
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: it's Norris as the one that takes it. It's not
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: been a diabolical year, don't get me wrong by any stretch,
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: but in terms of momentum between seasons, from last season
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: the beginning of this season counts for everything. It feels
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: that he's been swimming upstream the entire season. And so
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: in terms of which drivers would probably rank higher on
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: this list, one will we get to the end of
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: the season. I am fairly confident that he will get there,
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: But it just feels that this season he has just
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: been behind the eight balls, partly fold of his own
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: or no fault of his own after those first two rounds,
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: and it's just been a grind and it feels that
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: this is the appropriate place. Given you've got some drivers
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: in inferior cars, that are probably over delivering on their machinery.
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: You know, you mentioned someone like a Lym bladd clearly
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: behind him in the standings, but he's doing better than
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: perhaps we expected. Yeah, there's potential upside there, but the
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: word potential is the one. So does he end up
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: higher on this list by the time we get to
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: November or December or whenever this thing finishes and wherever
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: it finishes. Very possibly, But right now it's really hard
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: to make an argument for him to be very much
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: higher than this.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think this was
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: the limit for him in terms of higher. I think
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: he could have gone lower, depending on how harsh you're
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: willing to be. I think the thing that sums up
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: both where he's been sover this isn't potentially where he
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: ends up is that while we're talking, you know Andrea
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: Stealer at the end of the Hungary and Grand Prix,
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: obviously very few sho of Norris whod won it and said,
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: you know, he's forming a very high level this year.
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: He learned a lot last year about himself and the
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: car whatever, and he's putting it onto practice. The way
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: you describe Piasti was essentially like he's still learning this car,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: and I think that does sum it up, but it
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: also speaks to the fact that actually, if you can
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: understand it, he can click in the second half of
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: the year, you can get the most out of it.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: There are a lot of reasons why he's still struggling
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: to understand this car. We've written about on the Fox
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: Sports website. Maybe a bit of a mispatch in driving
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: style on these regulations, but that's what formula one is.
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: That's the job of a driver to get there. Like
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: we said, it's not been diabolical. It's not as if
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: he's been absolutely obliterated by Norris, especially over one lap,
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: which at least tells you sort of where they are
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: in a general sense. But it's just clear he's been
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: behind him, and that means he's got to be down
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: the order because all the drivers ahead, I think, are
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: doing a better relative job than Piastre is. Let's end
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: with a couple of honorable mentions. Drivers who could have
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: finished ahead of Piastre. Drivers for some people think perhaps
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: should have finished a head off Piastre who was either
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: well just outside your top ten, or who was in
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: your top ten who didn't get a mention.
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: I said a while ago that I had eleven drivers
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: for ten spots, and the one that did make my
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: top ten until I hastily rearranged it because I wanted
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: to have my sky feet remain intact for the rest
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: of the year. The one that was closest to me
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: is Isaac Hadja, and simply because he's done so much
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: of a better job relative to the other drivers that
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: they've had in that second seat next to for Stappen
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: since Daniel Riccardo left. And I think I wouldn't say
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: he came into that seat with the lowest expectations of
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: any of the drivers they filled into that seat, but
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: there were a lot more question marks for me in
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: terms of what he was going to be able to
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: do because we saw what he did last year. He's
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: very feisty, he's very fast, he's very combative, which is
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: all great when you're in a midfield team, the spotlight
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: isn't quite as bright there. I think he's genuinely been excellent. Now,
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: is he going to be on max to Stappin's pace. No,
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: But that's also not the job description. The job description
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: is to be dependable, be there scoop ups and points
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: have the occasional high water mark. I think he's been
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: absolutely everything red Bull need their second driver to be.
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: He just looks a little bit more underwhelming on the
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: points tally because Red Bull as a team has slipped
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: this year. They're clearly the fourth out of the top
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: four right now for Stappan's taking them to places they
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: probably shouldn't be, but we discussed that earlier. I think
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: Hajar has been for what it's said on the position
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: description when he signed the dog Lite on that contract, Michael,
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: I think he's done absolutely everything he needs to do,
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: and he was the toughest cut for me.
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would agree with that. I didn't Yeah, obviously
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: didn't have him in the top ten either. I had him
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: in twelfth, but the eleventh to fourteenth, even tenth to fourteen,
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, man was you could have put him in
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: any order, to be honest, because they are all good
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: reasons to rank them. I think the thing the reason
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: why had Ja missed out on the top ten for me,
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: or wasn't as obvious a top ten and I guess
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: he wasn't view either, was that I think there's the
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: context of him doing so much better than his predecessors,
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: but he's still comfortably behind for Stafford. Yeah, and as
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: good as we do over staff it is obvious the
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: four time champian probably the best out there. That's the
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: point is to beat your teammate in Formula one, even
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: if that's not Red Bull's point, and he hasn't really
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: know he's been closer than anyone else has been, but
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: he's not not been so close that you're like, oh,
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: you know, any given weekend or you know these tracks,
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: it's clearly going to be hadjiar whatever. That hasn't really happened. So, yeah,
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: he's not only in his second season, so it's not
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: as if that's a dire thing that you know, this
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: we found his limit. I think he's going to get better,
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: so he could just at this team over the course
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: of this year. I think that's just why on balance
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: it was harder to say he has been the top ten.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: I had just outside the top ten again risking my passport,
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: Carlos Sides after the Hungary and Grand Prix. It was
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: it was difficult in a sense because as we said
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: earlier with Alex Albon, the Williams car has been a
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: bit all over the place. He's outqualified album nine to
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: one over the season, and I think that that's impressive
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: because album's is not slow. Album is a quick racing driver,
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: very good racing driver, both former Red Ball drivers as
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: it happens, But that consistency counts for a lot in
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: a car that's clearly been all over the place and
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: a car that Science is clearly Sciences is sort of
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: doing the Verstappen act at Williams in fact becoming increasingly
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: critical of the car, which I think is its own
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: interesting story as we wait for the shape of next
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: year's driver market. But that hasn't really hampered his performances.
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: He's clearly still been as quick, and that I think
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: is more important this year because Williams clearly needs a driver.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: And again I don't want to be too critical with
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: the album because I think he has sort of cropped
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: the short straw of all the cars problems, but nonetheless
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: he's been beaten. They need a driver who's showing what
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: the limited car is because that's the only way they're
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: going to improve it and understand where all those weaknesses
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: are that have delivered this bad car. I think Science
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: will play a bigger role on his first half of
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: the season performances in moving this team forward than albon Well,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: and I think he's it's been pretty hard until laugh
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: whatever it was thirty something of the Hunger and grown
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: Frid has been pretty hard to fault him this season.
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I found him really hard to evaluate, not necessarily
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: because of anything he was or not was doing or
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: not doing. Williams has just been so bad for the
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: most part of this season, So it makes it really
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: really difficult to come up with a yes but argument
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: for Carlo Sides to have him higher on this list.
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: I do see the logic. I just I'm really struggling
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: to see past just how disappointed relative to expectations I
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: were I have been with that particular team. And again
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: another guy that maybe if Williams are just consistently poor
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: for the rest of the season, there might be some
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: more clarity as to where I rate Carla Sides at
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: the end of the season than the halfway mark. But
• 57:59
  Speaker 2: he was in that I'm going to scratch my head
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: and not choose you in my top ten list.
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: Let us know what you think. You shared on social
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: media and all sorts of things. You can also comment
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: if you're on Spotify or some other platforms, Who was
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: in your top ten, what'd we get right, what do
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: we get wrong? Who's going to improve most over the
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: course of the year. I suppose you want to look
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: a little bit more optimistic, but it's hard to assemble
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: these top tens, very easy to criticize. I'm open for
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: the criticism. It's very hard to assemble top tens in
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: Formula one, so I'm very interested to hear what you've
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: got on the boil for anyone else who's been observing
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: the sport over the course of the season. So that's
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: all the time we have for pit Talk this week.
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: You can subscribe to Pittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts,
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: and you can leave us a rating and review as well.
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: This weekend there's no Formula one, but Moto GP returns
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: from it's mid season break with the British Motorcycle Grand Prix,
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: which lights out at ten pm Australi in Eastern Standard time.
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: You can keep up to date with little of the
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: latest F one, Moto GP and supercars news at foxsports
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: dot com. Dot are you from Matt Clayton and me
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: Michael Lomonado. Thanks very much for your company. We'll catch
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: you next week
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: Wo