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Why is Ferrari throwing its drivers under the bus? Las Vegas GP Preview · Pit Talk

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
0:03
Speaker 1: On today's episode, Formula One resumes with the Las Vegas
0:07
Speaker 1: Grand Prix this weekend, the first race of the final
0:10
Speaker 1: triple header to end the season and decide the world championship,
0:14
Speaker 1: and we look back on the Mona GP season and
0:17
Speaker 1: ahead to the first ever Supercars Grand Final. My name's
0:21
Speaker 1: Michael Lamonato. It's great to have your company and the
0:24
Speaker 1: company of my co host. He knows the best way
0:27
Speaker 1: to achieve team unity is to throw as many people
0:29
Speaker 1: under the bus as possible. It's Matt Clayton.
0:31
Speaker 2: You only throw them under the bus, Michael, if you're
0:33
Speaker 2: going to put the bus and reverse and have another
0:35
Speaker 2: crack and go backwards over them after you have to
0:37
Speaker 2: throw them under. But yes, we love a good bit
0:40
Speaker 2: of blood letting and Ferrari, Ferrari, I'll give them this.
0:43
Speaker 2: They're consistent if nothing else. But yeah, this was the
0:46
Speaker 2: story that absolutely everybody saw coming, isn't it.
0:48
Speaker 1: Yes, predictable, but probably in all the worst ways, particularly
0:51
Speaker 1: if you have any kind of interest in Ferrari being successful.
0:55
Speaker 1: Because that's where we're starting this weekend's podcast. We will
0:57
Speaker 1: get into some of the questions out of the Las
0:59
Speaker 1: Vegas pri and those other items. But the story of
1:03
Speaker 1: this fortnight off, the weekend off in the Formula one
1:06
Speaker 1: world before we head to that final tripleheader, was Ferrari
1:09
Speaker 1: chairman John Elkin appearing to throw his drivers under the bus,
1:13
Speaker 1: along with us some unnamed others who are, in his words,
1:16
Speaker 1: not up to par. These are quotes he gave to
1:18
Speaker 1: the Italian media at an unrelated press event, so are
1:21
Speaker 1: completely off the cuff. We can only assume this is
1:22
Speaker 1: what he really thinks. And I'm going to read you
1:24
Speaker 1: some quotes to launch this one off, and you can
1:27
Speaker 1: tell me how many of these you think. Tally with reality,
1:31
Speaker 1: we can say that our mechanics are winning the championship
1:34
Speaker 1: with their performance and everything they've done on the pit stops.
1:38
Speaker 1: If we look at our engineers, there's no doubt the
1:40
Speaker 1: car has improved. If we look at the rest, it's
1:42
Speaker 1: not up to par. We certainly have drivers for whom
1:46
Speaker 1: it's important to focus on driving and talk less. I
1:50
Speaker 1: will note here that in only a few hours after
1:54
Speaker 1: these comments came to like Charlotte Claire posted something on
1:56
Speaker 1: social media in which he said only unity can help
1:59
Speaker 1: us turn that situation around and Hamilton said, I back
2:02
Speaker 1: my team, I back myself. I will not give up,
2:05
Speaker 1: not now, not then, not ever. Sounds a bit like
2:08
Speaker 1: a children's nursery rhyme. Actually, I really like that, some
2:11
Speaker 1: strange commentary from a Ferrari chairman at a time the
2:14
Speaker 1: team is under pressure to actually win a race this
2:16
Speaker 1: season and of course to get the rules right next
2:19
Speaker 1: to you in twenty twenty six, to suddenly and somewhat
2:21
Speaker 1: inexplicably start blaming people for the team's underperformance.
2:26
Speaker 2: Yes, it's always the It's the old football sack, the
2:28
Speaker 2: manager routie, isn't it when things aren't going very very well.
2:31
Speaker 2: But you know when you mentioned before that, you know
2:34
Speaker 2: Hamilton and Leclair have been instructed to focus on driving
2:36
Speaker 2: and talk less like Charlotte Clare has been at Ferrari
2:38
Speaker 2: for a long time now, are there any words left?
2:41
Speaker 2: Probably run out of things to say at this point.
2:43
Speaker 2: He's been there for so long, and you know it
2:45
Speaker 2: always ends up seeing it being a different journey to
2:47
Speaker 2: the same outcome, doesn't it with someone like him? But
2:50
Speaker 2: I just I sigh here in exasperation. Also because this
2:54
Speaker 2: feels like a story as old as time. Does any
2:57
Speaker 2: of this help and it's just no. And I think
3:00
Speaker 2: maybe the contrast between this not being very helpful, and
3:04
Speaker 2: then we talked about this last week because of what
3:07
Speaker 2: happened in Sarpolo with a double DNF for Ferrari, they're
3:10
Speaker 2: fourth in the constructor's standings, which you know doesn't sound
3:14
Speaker 2: great in and of itself, but you look at me
3:15
Speaker 2: in context. They're behind a team that sometimes forgets that
3:19
Speaker 2: it has a second car in Formula one in Red Bull.
3:22
Speaker 2: This is how bad it's got. And if you were
3:25
Speaker 2: going to look at the strengths of Ferrari on paper,
3:28
Speaker 2: this driver lineup is as good, if not better, than
3:31
Speaker 2: any driver lineup they've had for a considerably long time.
3:34
Speaker 2: So the mechanics are doing a great job. That's ononderfully.
3:36
Speaker 2: You keep the soldiers on the shop floor happy, well,
3:39
Speaker 2: that sort of thing, that's fine. Is it really a
3:42
Speaker 2: product of two guys who are clearly two of the
3:45
Speaker 2: best five six drivers in Formula One that it's going
3:49
Speaker 2: like this pointing the finger at a time where unity,
3:53
Speaker 2: as Charlott clur said, is required, is a very Ferrari
3:56
Speaker 2: thing to do and not particularly helpful. And from your
3:59
Speaker 2: point of view, I mean, you must have just looked
4:00
Speaker 2: at this and said, well, of course this is going
4:02
Speaker 2: to be the way it goes because.
4:03
Speaker 1: Ferrari, Yeah, one hundred percent. But it's just confusing that
4:08
Speaker 1: we're not confusing. It's completely predictable, isn't it, As you've
4:10
Speaker 1: I think aptly said. But this year they've been through
4:13
Speaker 1: so many ups and downs off the track. You know,
4:15
Speaker 1: we started the year with the disappointment of the car
4:17
Speaker 1: not really being there, then some hope obviously in China
4:20
Speaker 1: where Lewis Hamilton won the Sprint, and then disappointment the
4:22
Speaker 1: cars squalor and the Grand Prix, and then it was
4:25
Speaker 1: sort of in that after that first quarter of the season,
4:27
Speaker 1: let's say that speculation really mounted in the Italian media
4:30
Speaker 1: that Frederic Vassu was going to be replaced. That normally
4:33
Speaker 1: comes from it as much as there telling me that
4:36
Speaker 1: loves a good rumor story. When they all come out
4:38
Speaker 1: on the same page, it usually suggests something is going
4:40
Speaker 1: on inside, whether or not it's on hundreds and accurate
4:43
Speaker 1: or not. Turns out he then re signed his contract,
4:46
Speaker 1: but now the chairman after saying he fully backed the
4:48
Speaker 1: way that fred Vassis set up the team and everything well, actually, well,
4:50
Speaker 1: maybe it's the drivers the problem. It's all just a
4:53
Speaker 1: little bit unnecessarily chaotic in a year in which, okay,
4:57
Speaker 1: the disappointment is palpable. This is a team that expected
4:59
Speaker 1: to contend for titles this year after falling only fourteen
5:02
Speaker 1: points short of the Constructors Championship last year. But it's
5:06
Speaker 1: more important, argue than ever ever, to focus not simply
5:09
Speaker 1: because of the year has been disappointing, but because next
5:11
Speaker 1: year the rule changes are a massive opportunity to get
5:13
Speaker 1: them right or to get them wrong and be condemned
5:16
Speaker 1: to maybe another half decade of not winning titles. We
5:19
Speaker 1: don't know how the new rules are going to go
5:21
Speaker 1: in sense of development and all that kind of thing,
5:22
Speaker 1: but it's important to hit the ground running, particularly for Ferrari,
5:25
Speaker 1: and to have this off track nonsense happening can only
5:29
Speaker 1: distract from that very important goal.
5:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, the next year thing you mentioned is the key
5:33
Speaker 2: point here, because anyone other than the team that's been
5:37
Speaker 2: dominant all season is one of the constructors by Myles
5:39
Speaker 2: I A. McLaren, everyone else should be looking at next
5:42
Speaker 2: year because you get this once in a however many
5:46
Speaker 2: years chance to completely flip the script on what the
5:49
Speaker 2: pecking order is in Formula one that just a continual
5:53
Speaker 2: renewal of previous season's rules, and you get these incremental
5:56
Speaker 2: changes but nothing seismic, and you look at what's coming
5:59
Speaker 2: next year, you look back at big previous rule changes.
6:02
Speaker 2: The pecking order of Formula one can change dramatically. I mean,
6:05
Speaker 2: I always go back to twenty fourteen when you think
6:07
Speaker 2: what proceded twenty fourteen with Red Bulls winning everything for
6:10
Speaker 2: years and then suddenly they were absolutely nowhere and Mercedes
6:15
Speaker 2: cleaned up for the best part of five years after
6:17
Speaker 2: that because it was that chance for a big reset.
6:19
Speaker 2: The last thing you need going into an opportunity like this,
6:23
Speaker 2: and this is what it is. It's an opportunity for
6:25
Speaker 2: the teams that aren't doing so well. The last thing
6:27
Speaker 2: you need is distractions and disunity and just throwing unnecessary
6:31
Speaker 2: questions up here where you look at the other teams
6:34
Speaker 2: that are in this mix to potentially step forward for
6:36
Speaker 2: next year, you don't see that same amount of chaos
6:40
Speaker 2: being created unnecessarily. Now you can have some hard conversations
6:44
Speaker 2: behind closed doors and all that sort of thing. It's
6:46
Speaker 2: also not the Ferrari way, And this is the crazy part.
6:49
Speaker 2: For me is if history is any guide, this is
6:53
Speaker 2: tactic by Ferrari. The way they're handling this, it doesn't
6:57
Speaker 2: work because we're starting to get to the point now
7:00
Speaker 2: where we're approaching historical levels of title droughts for both
7:04
Speaker 2: constructor and driver. Doing this would be probably the last
7:09
Speaker 2: thing that you should be doing internally ahead of such
7:11
Speaker 2: a big opportunity for next year. It would be bad
7:14
Speaker 2: enough at any time. It's certainly not a great look
7:16
Speaker 2: now when to me twenty twenty six is for anyone
7:19
Speaker 2: other than McLaren, twenty twenty six is this thing that
7:21
Speaker 2: you should be looking at as this is our chance here.
7:24
Speaker 2: If we get this right, we can go on a run,
7:26
Speaker 2: because history has taught us that it's just the wrong
7:29
Speaker 2: message and at the wrong time.
7:31
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, this is the longest constructors Championship drought, as
7:34
Speaker 1: you said in prior's history, not quite the longest driver's
7:36
Speaker 1: title drought, but with any more interventions perhaps they can
7:39
Speaker 1: reach that in the next couple of years. The timing
7:41
Speaker 1: was also kind of interesting. Obviously, Brazil was very disappointing
7:44
Speaker 1: and that was sort of the launching point for this.
7:46
Speaker 1: With the double DNF in the Grand Prix but the
7:49
Speaker 1: pace was pretty ordinary all weekend, but Charlotte Clair had
7:51
Speaker 1: qualified very well in the sprint that they both drivers
7:54
Speaker 1: had performed well. Hamilton from outside into the points LaClair
7:58
Speaker 1: maybe could have finished on the podium and not been
8:00
Speaker 1: the poor innocent bystander in the piastri Antonelli incident early
8:03
Speaker 1: in the race. Hamilton probably not to be hit the
8:05
Speaker 1: back of Franco colop Into, but nonetheless it just seems
8:08
Speaker 1: a strange way to try and pick your team up.
8:09
Speaker 1: I note that John Elkin also was saying this in
8:11
Speaker 1: direct parallel to Ferrari's World Endurance Championship team, which one
8:15
Speaker 1: on the same weekend I think, or last week. In anyway,
8:18
Speaker 1: the drivers and constructors world title in that series also
8:20
Speaker 1: a very prestigious series, also a world championship by FIA
8:23
Speaker 1: standards neglected notably, I think to mention two important things.
8:28
Speaker 1: One is that the Ferrari factory team there is operated
8:30
Speaker 1: by an independent team of course, not Ferrari in house,
8:34
Speaker 1: which I think could be relevant. But also World Endurance
8:37
Speaker 1: Championship operates under a balance of performance regulations, which means
8:40
Speaker 1: the field is equalized to ensure every front running team
8:42
Speaker 1: as a chance of winning. One could cynically argue maybe
8:45
Speaker 1: that's what Ferrari needs to win again in Formula one.
8:47
Speaker 1: If we want to draw that direct parallel.
8:50
Speaker 2: Well, perhaps they need some help to mitigate some of
8:52
Speaker 2: the self inflicted wounds that they seem to create on
8:55
Speaker 2: the Formula one side. So yes, balance of performance, which
8:57
Speaker 2: are three words that I don't particularly like in motorsport.
9:00
Speaker 2: Maybe that's what they're angling for here. But I think
9:03
Speaker 2: the frustrating part about this from a media point of
9:05
Speaker 2: view and just from a fan point of view, is
9:08
Speaker 2: it feels they are lacking in nothing in terms of
9:11
Speaker 2: resource and talent and pedigree and history and all of
9:15
Speaker 2: these things that stand in the way from other more
9:19
Speaker 2: inverted commas normal teams from taking this step up. Everything's
9:23
Speaker 2: there for them to succeed, and they don't succeed because
9:27
Speaker 2: of themselves, not because of any other external factor. And it's,
9:30
Speaker 2: like I said, it's a story as old as time,
9:32
Speaker 2: and you can, yeah, you can roll your eyes and say,
9:34
Speaker 2: of course Ferrari. It's immensely frustrating because you know there's
9:38
Speaker 2: certain teams in any sport where the sport is in
9:41
Speaker 2: a better place if they are good, and they are
9:43
Speaker 2: fighting for something meaningful. You can pick your favorite football league,
9:47
Speaker 2: or you know, I always think of like the New
9:49
Speaker 2: York Knicks in the NBA when they're good, like the
9:51
Speaker 2: American basket was so much better, when the biggest media
9:54
Speaker 2: market is right up the front of that formula ones
9:56
Speaker 2: in a great place, when Ferrari is good and all
9:58
Speaker 2: the ingredients are there for them to be good except themselves,
10:02
Speaker 2: and they just get in their own way all the time.
10:03
Speaker 2: And I just you know, I'm a bit of a
10:06
Speaker 2: broken record here, But twenty twenty six if any time
10:08
Speaker 2: you need unity and pushing forward is like, we've got this.
10:11
Speaker 2: It's now. We are three rounds from the end. Never
10:14
Speaker 2: rule set that goes in the bin after Abu Dhabi,
10:17
Speaker 2: This is not the time. Yeah.
10:18
Speaker 1: I think there's also this interesting element as well if
10:20
Speaker 1: we look forward to twenty twenty six. They're taking, as
10:22
Speaker 1: you've said, probably the most competitive driver line up, at
10:25
Speaker 1: least on paper into that ear as they've had this year.
10:28
Speaker 1: We can't can't really doubt Charlotte Clair in very many
10:31
Speaker 1: ways at all.
10:31
Speaker 2: At this point, one.
10:32
Speaker 1: Lap speed is there. He's increasingly a really canny Grand
10:35
Speaker 1: Prix operator as well. Lewis Hamilton on paper should be
10:39
Speaker 1: right up there. He's a seven time champion. The last
10:42
Speaker 1: few of the years have left question marks over exactly
10:44
Speaker 1: where he's operating at. I think we can also say
10:47
Speaker 1: that at a minimum he hasn't gelled with this generation
10:50
Speaker 1: of car, this ground effect generation. So next year perhaps
10:53
Speaker 1: an opportunity for him as well. But this year has
10:55
Speaker 1: been notable that well, Charlotte Claire anyway, who it's almost
10:59
Speaker 1: like a little bit of a joke in the paddic
11:01
Speaker 1: about how he can be absolutely battered and bruised by
11:04
Speaker 1: a dreadful Ferrari weekend and you'll bounce back the next
11:07
Speaker 1: week and say how much he loves the team and
11:08
Speaker 1: how much he loves being a Ferrari driver. Nothing bad
11:10
Speaker 1: ever happens there. This year has been notably more pessimistic
11:14
Speaker 1: I think about his lot, been more willing to criticize
11:18
Speaker 1: openly a little bit. I think a driver has been
11:20
Speaker 1: there for seven years like he has and who has
11:22
Speaker 1: given everything to Ferrari probably earns a little bit of
11:24
Speaker 1: latitude in that respect. But perhaps there's an element of
11:27
Speaker 1: that here. Notable as well that in Brazil Lewis Hamilton
11:30
Speaker 1: described this year as a nightmare for him at Ferrari.
11:33
Speaker 1: I think he was talking more about his own results
11:34
Speaker 1: than the team for sale. There's a little bit of
11:36
Speaker 1: that in there, but I was interesting, and I point
11:38
Speaker 1: to an ESPN report here that we all remember. Around
11:41
Speaker 1: the mid season he talked about how he prepared a
11:43
Speaker 1: document for the team about things he thinks needs to
11:46
Speaker 1: be changed a little bit to be more competitive next year,
11:48
Speaker 1: both for his comfort in the team, but also the
11:50
Speaker 1: team generally, and that that has gone down in some
11:53
Speaker 1: parts of the team quite poorly. They haven't been receptive
11:55
Speaker 1: to some of his ideas. And I think, to go
11:58
Speaker 1: back to the concept that we've seen this movie before,
12:01
Speaker 1: this fields like everything that is wrong with a team
12:04
Speaker 1: that refuses to adapt in ways that have been proven
12:06
Speaker 1: to win titles. If they're not going to listen to
12:08
Speaker 1: the guy they've paid the big bucks to bring those
12:11
Speaker 1: ideas over to.
12:12
Speaker 2: Them, well it's you know, it's what the Dictionary definition
12:14
Speaker 2: of the insanity is, just doing the same thing over
12:17
Speaker 2: and over again and expecting a different result. When you've
12:19
Speaker 2: got someone with Hamilton's pedigree and the success that he's
12:23
Speaker 2: had and said, hey, I've I've moved enough to create
12:26
Speaker 2: something here that I think might help for that not
12:30
Speaker 2: to go down well, or to be dismissed because he's
12:32
Speaker 2: come from the outside, or whatever it might be. At
12:35
Speaker 2: the very least you look at it and consider it
12:37
Speaker 2: and maybe consider implementing some of it, because it's a
12:40
Speaker 2: chance to change a predictable narrative. Part of the worst
12:44
Speaker 2: part about this for me with Ferrari this year was
12:46
Speaker 2: that you could see it coming a mile off what's
12:49
Speaker 2: happened with these comments in the last few weeks, and
12:51
Speaker 2: there was nothing that necessarily steerd those comments away from
12:54
Speaker 2: just their inevitable airing in public. It was coming ages ago,
12:58
Speaker 2: and you know, the very Ferrari thing is like, well,
13:00
Speaker 2: of course it's going to endlight this. He didn't have to,
13:03
Speaker 2: and this is the reason you bring someone like Lewis
13:05
Speaker 2: Hamilton in from the outside. Okay, yes he may not
13:07
Speaker 2: be the driver that he once was, but he certainly
13:09
Speaker 2: got the presence and the pedigree and there's a proven
13:12
Speaker 2: track record of success there By hiring someone like him,
13:16
Speaker 2: there's a bit of an admission that, yeah, we need
13:18
Speaker 2: to change, we need to look at what's happened elsewhere
13:21
Speaker 2: and try and bring some of that into Ferrari and
13:23
Speaker 2: then for it just to sort of heater out the
13:25
Speaker 2: way that it has. I mean, in his forties now,
13:28
Speaker 2: he's not going to be the same driver he was
13:29
Speaker 2: at thirty two or thirty five or what have you.
13:32
Speaker 2: But all the benefit of that experience and the success,
13:34
Speaker 2: it feels like that's not necessarily been taken into account.
13:37
Speaker 2: And then so the question begs a question, why not
13:39
Speaker 2: just keep car hoost sites or hire anybody else? Quite frankly, yeah,
13:42
Speaker 2: this is why you bring someone like him in and
13:44
Speaker 2: spend the money that you're doing, because it's an admission
13:46
Speaker 2: that you need something else from outside. And it doesn't
13:49
Speaker 2: feel like it's really gelt at all.
13:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's what's working, at least theoretically working
13:54
Speaker 1: at Aston Martin with Fernando Orlans. They've got him there.
13:57
Speaker 1: He's clearly performing at a very good level, but he's
13:59
Speaker 1: bringing his expertise to a team that's coming from a
14:02
Speaker 1: low base and needing to reach a high one according
14:04
Speaker 1: to the objective set by the team owner. There Ferrari
14:07
Speaker 1: isn't coming from as lower base, but it clearly needs
14:09
Speaker 1: some help getting at least those final percentage points of
14:11
Speaker 1: performance to close that gap. That's part of the reason
14:14
Speaker 1: that got him there. It'll be interesting to see how
14:16
Speaker 1: this one evolves. You can read a little bit more
14:18
Speaker 1: about this at the Fox Sports website as well about
14:20
Speaker 1: why this might be happening and what it means for
14:22
Speaker 1: the team. But I just want to look briefly ahead
14:24
Speaker 1: to this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix and also to
14:26
Speaker 1: the final three rounds of the year, because whether or
14:28
Speaker 1: not Lewis Hamilton, quite aside from this, can get back
14:30
Speaker 1: onto the podium for the first time as a Ferrari
14:33
Speaker 1: driver is something that I think we'll be watching for
14:35
Speaker 1: in these last three rounds. No Ferrari driver has gone
14:37
Speaker 1: this long before claiming their first Ferrari podium. He's had
14:42
Speaker 1: fourth a couple of times. Vegas might be the opportunity
14:45
Speaker 1: as supposed because this feels like the wild card circuit.
14:49
Speaker 1: I guess remaining on the calendar because it is such
14:52
Speaker 1: an outlier.
14:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd agree. I mean, this is the one that
14:55
Speaker 2: has the least predictable outcome. We'll probably get to this
14:58
Speaker 2: in our crystal ball section where I make up with
15:00
Speaker 2: something completely outlandished by the end of this podcast. We'll
15:02
Speaker 2: have to see, but it's certainly in a season that's
15:05
Speaker 2: been you know, the Constructor's title was wrapped up ages ago.
15:08
Speaker 2: It's been a season that's been dominated by I guess
15:11
Speaker 2: you could say three drivers because the Stappans come so
15:13
Speaker 2: good late in the season. This does feel like an
15:15
Speaker 2: unusual wildcard, and it's not because necessarily you're talking about
15:19
Speaker 2: whether or just one of those crazy calamitous sorts of
15:21
Speaker 2: Grand Prix. It's a track layout because of the amount
15:25
Speaker 2: of trip wise around this place, and we've we've not
15:28
Speaker 2: had the races in Vegas have been pretty intriguing because
15:32
Speaker 2: they don't conform to a script. And I think you've
15:35
Speaker 2: got a live championship fight going on as well, of course,
15:37
Speaker 2: which we're going to touch on. But this feels like
15:39
Speaker 2: the race with the most jeopardy and there's a lot
15:42
Speaker 2: of people with a lot of lot to lose in
15:44
Speaker 2: a race weekend like this. Ferrari, as we've discussed in
15:47
Speaker 2: the last fifteen minutes, have absolutely nothing to lose really
15:50
Speaker 2: because it's you know, the only way is up when
15:52
Speaker 2: you're fourth in the constructors Championship and your high price
15:54
Speaker 2: siding hasn't stood on a Grand Prix podium yet. This
15:57
Speaker 2: is an opportunity. And so if there's one of these
16:01
Speaker 2: last three races of the season that's going to perhaps
16:03
Speaker 2: put a result in their favor, it strikes me that
16:06
Speaker 2: this is the one. But it's a bit of a
16:08
Speaker 2: strange race weekend. I haven't really you know, you watch
16:12
Speaker 2: these over a number of years, you get a feel
16:13
Speaker 2: for how these things are going to play out. Who
16:15
Speaker 2: might be strong, certain drivers, have affinities with certain places.
16:18
Speaker 2: This one still feels like the first time we've been
16:21
Speaker 2: to Las Vegas three years. It doesn't really seem to
16:23
Speaker 2: follow any sort of script, and a lot of the
16:25
Speaker 2: time you've just got the palms upturn and say, well,
16:27
Speaker 2: I don't know what's going to happen here, and so
16:29
Speaker 2: I mean, it's great for the unpredictability factor for the viewers,
16:31
Speaker 2: and it's great that it's in an Australian time zone
16:33
Speaker 2: of course, But if something whack is going to happen,
16:36
Speaker 2: and something good for Ferrari, because God knows they need
16:38
Speaker 2: some good news at this point, maybe this is it.
16:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. They need their first win, Lewis Hamilton needs
16:42
Speaker 1: his first podium. Big question of course going into this
16:45
Speaker 1: weekend is what's going to happen with the driver's championship battle.
16:48
Speaker 1: Lando Norris leeds Oscar Piastri by twenty four points. Three
16:51
Speaker 1: rounds remain. That's three Grand Prix plus one sprint in Kata.
16:54
Speaker 1: This for me feels like I think we've said this before,
16:56
Speaker 1: an important round for the title, not just because they're
16:59
Speaker 1: running out of time more Oscar Piastri is running out
17:01
Speaker 1: of time if he wants to overhaul that gap, but
17:03
Speaker 1: because this doesn't feel like it's going to be a
17:05
Speaker 1: strong McLaren circuit now. The team thinks it's improved the
17:08
Speaker 1: weaknesses that have made this such a weak circuit over
17:10
Speaker 1: the last couple of years, but nonetheless we've seen similar
17:13
Speaker 1: tracks and at some other tracks this year as well,
17:16
Speaker 1: its advantage can be muted by track characteristics like long
17:19
Speaker 1: straits and cool temperatures, which is mostly what Las Vegas is.
17:22
Speaker 1: And I can't help but think that that means it's
17:25
Speaker 1: not simply a matter of maybe fewer points being on
17:27
Speaker 1: the table for the McLaren drivers this weekend than we've
17:30
Speaker 1: come to expect, but the potential for a big swing
17:32
Speaker 1: if one of them gets it right, or maybe perhaps
17:34
Speaker 1: if one of them gets it very wrong.
17:36
Speaker 2: Well, and also the chance for more interlopers from other
17:39
Speaker 2: teams to figure into the mix. Like you know, there's
17:42
Speaker 2: been tracks this season where if you're in a McLaren
17:44
Speaker 2: you're having a bit of an off day, you could
17:45
Speaker 2: still finish on the podium, and I don't think that's
17:48
Speaker 2: the case here. And there's a bit of an optical
17:51
Speaker 2: illution with this race. I think there's so many of
17:53
Speaker 2: these night races we see now and less. I remind
17:55
Speaker 2: you Formula one's done its last daytime lapse of the
17:57
Speaker 2: season three rounds from the end, but that'll make you
18:01
Speaker 2: feel good. But this we have these things. With all
18:04
Speaker 2: the night races that we have on the calendar these days,
18:06
Speaker 2: they're characterized by being in hot climates and so they
18:09
Speaker 2: do play out kinder similarly in a way you think
18:11
Speaker 2: of the way Bahrain works and Saudi andav is generally hot.
18:15
Speaker 2: Vegas in November at a certain time of night is
18:18
Speaker 2: properly cold. It's a it's a curve ball that we
18:23
Speaker 2: don't necessarily take into account because so many of these
18:25
Speaker 2: races we see are under lights, are very very hot runs,
18:28
Speaker 2: and yet it's not a track both climate and characteristics.
18:31
Speaker 2: It's going to necessarily suit McLaren. That's the interesting thing
18:34
Speaker 2: for me in that, Yeah, there's been races this season
18:37
Speaker 2: where if you're Piastri or Norris and you can finish it,
18:39
Speaker 2: So so sort of a fourth on a day where
18:42
Speaker 2: you don't really have it. If you have one of
18:44
Speaker 2: those days this weekend, you might be seventh. There's absolutely
18:47
Speaker 2: a chance for other people to get in the mix here.
18:49
Speaker 2: Mercedes had a strong record here, they'll be probably stronger
18:52
Speaker 2: relative to other tracks that they've been at Ferrari, who knows.
18:55
Speaker 2: And then you've got the for stapp In factor because
18:57
Speaker 2: he's now right on the precipice of being out of
18:59
Speaker 2: the World Championship fights. Forty nine points off the lead.
19:02
Speaker 2: It must win is probably a bit much, but he's
19:05
Speaker 2: certainly he has to have a really strong weekend relative
19:08
Speaker 2: to the two guys that he's fighting against to at
19:10
Speaker 2: least be part of the narrative for the two rounds
19:13
Speaker 2: that follow. So there's a lot of moving parts here.
19:15
Speaker 2: But yeah, the tractor characteristics and the cold temperatures. McLaren
19:19
Speaker 2: will feel vulnerable here despite the fact that they feel
19:22
Speaker 2: they're going to be stronger than they were last year.
19:23
Speaker 2: But what were they sixth and seventh in the Grand
19:25
Speaker 2: Prix last year and never really factored into it. And yeah,
19:28
Speaker 2: we've got such a limited database of information with Vegas
19:32
Speaker 2: because he's so new that it's hard to imagine there's
19:35
Speaker 2: going to be a dramatic turnaround on that front. So
19:38
Speaker 2: I'm all for a bit of chaos because we want
19:39
Speaker 2: this to stay live for as long as we possibly can.
19:41
Speaker 2: But it's who gets in the mix potentially between the
19:44
Speaker 2: two McClaren drivers and what order those McClaren drivers are in.
19:48
Speaker 2: That's the really interesting part of this weekend, I.
19:50
Speaker 1: Think, particularly when you consider I think a couple of things.
19:52
Speaker 1: One is the chance of a safety car here, which
19:54
Speaker 1: you'd have to think is pretty high considering that the
19:57
Speaker 1: nature of the circuit. But also we've seen, as only
20:00
Speaker 1: his last week, that you don't have to qualify that
20:02
Speaker 1: far down the grid for incidents to affect your race.
20:04
Speaker 1: Oscopiastri obviously his race completely undone by an incident while
20:08
Speaker 1: battling for a spot on the podium, so not even
20:10
Speaker 1: very low at all. He qualified only on the second row,
20:13
Speaker 1: So you don't have to qualify that far down. If
20:15
Speaker 1: we're working with the assumption that McLaren won't be as
20:17
Speaker 1: potent as usual for your race to be heavily compromised
20:21
Speaker 1: and only by strategy, but perhaps by incidents. The first
20:23
Speaker 1: turn in Vegas, Okay, there's a lot of wall right
20:26
Speaker 1: right out the outside, but we see cars go off
20:28
Speaker 1: there regularly, particularly given the temperatures, cold, ties and breaks,
20:31
Speaker 1: all that kind of thing at the start, So there's
20:34
Speaker 1: a pretty high potential for chaos. Having said all that,
20:37
Speaker 1: just because the first two races are very interesting, I
20:39
Speaker 1: feel like every race is due a bad one, Like
20:42
Speaker 1: I think back to Aservaijan. Well, it was due a
20:44
Speaker 1: bad one straight off the bat and then the good
20:46
Speaker 1: races came. I certainly hope that's not the case, but
20:49
Speaker 1: it should be interesting nonetheless, because I think, as you said,
20:52
Speaker 1: the form guide doesn't feel like it really applies here.
20:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit. It's a bit of an outlawer.
20:56
Speaker 2: And the safety card thing you just said, then that's
20:58
Speaker 2: super real that you look down the list of entrance
21:01
Speaker 2: for this weekend and we could probably have a discussion
21:03
Speaker 2: about this off there. But I could give you three
21:05
Speaker 2: people right now who are most likely to create a
21:07
Speaker 2: safety car over the course of the weekend. I mean
21:09
Speaker 2: and it might not necessarily could get a poorly time
21:12
Speaker 2: red flag in qualifying, it's got potential for that too.
21:14
Speaker 2: So it's not just in Sunday's race. It's what happens
21:18
Speaker 2: through the rest of the weekend. Are people taking gred
21:20
Speaker 2: penalties for new gearboxes and other such and what happens
21:24
Speaker 2: at crucial points of qualifying because qualifying has is a
21:27
Speaker 2: chance that qualifying could be pretty chaotic here because people
21:30
Speaker 2: are pushing so hard. I think if that the last
21:33
Speaker 2: corner coming off the strait, I think as we're even
21:36
Speaker 2: coming on to the big straight where colpinto bindit in
21:38
Speaker 2: the Williams and shifted one of the barriers, that was
21:41
Speaker 2: a lengthy delay. So there are a lot of tripwise
21:44
Speaker 2: around this place, and you add cold temperatures and some
21:46
Speaker 2: curb writing and yeah, lookout.
21:48
Speaker 1: A great thing is though, that at three pm Eastern
21:51
Speaker 1: daylight time, we can afford lengthy delays for a nice change.
21:55
Speaker 2: Bring on the delays water time. They can have eleven
21:59
Speaker 2: red flags and the lights can go out and they
22:01
Speaker 2: can fill in potholes or whatever they want to do.
22:02
Speaker 2: At Las Vegas we've seen that in the past. Bring
22:05
Speaker 2: it on, because Australia will still be awake wonderful times.
22:08
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Let's move out a Move of the week brought
22:10
Speaker 1: to you by Shannon's. We had two categories in action
22:14
Speaker 1: over the weekend, both Murdo GP and Supercars. We will
22:17
Speaker 1: get into them in a little bit more detail in
22:19
Speaker 1: a moment, but Matt, I caught your e this week move.
22:21
Speaker 2: Of the Week. I'm actually going to be partially sensible here,
22:23
Speaker 2: which I know is unlike me in this particular segment,
22:26
Speaker 2: but I'm going to take you to the second last
22:29
Speaker 2: lap of the Motor GP season in Valencia last weekend.
22:32
Speaker 2: Notable because on that lap Ducatti's Fabio de jan Antonio
22:37
Speaker 2: took third place off Katm's Pedro Acosta and held that
22:40
Speaker 2: place to the check and flag. That's the eighty eighth
22:44
Speaker 2: straight Grand Prix, Michael, that a Ducati has been on
22:46
Speaker 2: the podium. If you can believe that, it extends the
22:49
Speaker 2: all time Moto GP record that goes back to the
22:51
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one British Grand Prix, and so de jan
22:55
Speaker 2: Antonio getting third on that penultimate lap of the season
22:58
Speaker 2: preserve that record. And it was in interesting in that well,
23:01
Speaker 2: two things. I mean, that's nearly what's over four years.
23:03
Speaker 2: That's wild for a brand to have a bike on
23:06
Speaker 2: the podium and every Grand Prix for eighty eight straight races.
23:09
Speaker 2: But it also shows you how hard it is for
23:11
Speaker 2: someone like Ducatti. When Mark Marquez a sidelined as he
23:14
Speaker 2: was this weekend, you know, Alex Marquez was a bit
23:17
Speaker 2: lost in the race, had some entire life issues. Yet
23:20
Speaker 2: another Peco DNF just pour out another had hardly a
23:24
Speaker 2: drink for Peco because he probably needs one at this point.
23:26
Speaker 2: But it shows you that Katti can be vulnerable. And
23:29
Speaker 2: the fact it took until a pass for the last
23:31
Speaker 2: podium place on the second last lap of the season
23:33
Speaker 2: for that record to be preserved, I thought was noteworthy.
23:37
Speaker 2: But while we're on the Mark Marquez thing, by the way,
23:39
Speaker 2: this is a trivia question for you. We had twenty
23:41
Speaker 2: two rounds in Motor GP this year, twenty two full
23:44
Speaker 2: time riders. How many rounds do you think that we
23:46
Speaker 2: had the entire grid for the season fit and racing?
23:49
Speaker 1: Good question. That is a great question, I'm going to say,
23:53
Speaker 1: because we've had especially because I think of Juge Martin
23:57
Speaker 1: who didn't turn up until quite late in the year,
23:59
Speaker 1: I reckon it's going to be like three.
24:02
Speaker 2: Okay, once if you can believe that I.
24:05
Speaker 1: Thought I was low.
24:08
Speaker 2: So once in twenty two rounds this year it was
24:11
Speaker 2: it was the Grand Prix of Catalunya in round fifteen.
24:14
Speaker 2: Did we have all twenty two regular full time riders
24:18
Speaker 2: start the Grand Prix on the Sunday one in twenty
24:20
Speaker 2: two rounds? Soay Motor GP longer seasons, not Horay Motor
24:25
Speaker 2: GP longer seasons. One time, if you can believe.
24:27
Speaker 1: That, good year for the on track medical team, which
24:31
Speaker 1: is not indeed, yes, remarkable always good year for that.
24:34
Speaker 2: Well. I've got move of the Week into useless trivia here,
24:36
Speaker 2: so you can choose to one or both of these,
24:38
Speaker 2: but I should probably ask you what your move of
24:40
Speaker 2: the week is, and I'm suspecting it's going to have
24:41
Speaker 2: two more wheels in mine.
24:42
Speaker 1: Yes, So I regret that I didn't bring any fun
24:45
Speaker 1: trivia for you. Set the bar high for this one.
24:48
Speaker 1: Shannon's will be very pleased. I'm going to go with
24:51
Speaker 1: almost a little bit of a left field Matt Clayton
24:53
Speaker 1: style move because it's not one, it's twenty seven moves,
24:57
Speaker 1: it's Will Brow. I'm going to go I give pick
24:59
Speaker 1: my favorite on though it's will brew move on ryan
25:00
Speaker 1: Wood on Saturday afternoon in Sandown obviously Sandown five hundred
25:05
Speaker 1: to claim a second place as it was behind when
25:08
Speaker 1: it has most it that was up from fifteenth on
25:12
Speaker 1: the grid, remarkable, fifteenth on the grid where he qualified
25:15
Speaker 1: when we assumed, because he started this weekend, we're going
25:17
Speaker 1: to get in the Supercars final system in just a moment.
25:19
Speaker 1: Started this weekend outside the top four, and only the
25:21
Speaker 1: four progressed to the Grand Final. So qualifying fifteenth right there,
25:26
Speaker 1: then you were mentally riding him off as a championship defense.
25:29
Speaker 1: Recovered to second, remarkable, then qualified seventeenth on Sunday, made
25:35
Speaker 1: fundamentally the same problem, which was he watched the end
25:38
Speaker 1: of Q two from his garage, never a great place
25:40
Speaker 1: to be finished back on the podium a double he
25:44
Speaker 1: was the only triple eight driver to score a double podium.
25:47
Speaker 1: Just fuck qualifying there and despite brock Feeni continuing to
25:51
Speaker 1: lead that the championship table, the race pace was on
25:54
Speaker 1: another planet. This wasn't a These weren't results that were
25:57
Speaker 1: born of you know, even though it was a bit
25:59
Speaker 1: wet and dry on on Sunday, that were born of
26:01
Speaker 1: you know, whacky. Weren't even any safety guards in fact
26:03
Speaker 1: in the web on Sunday. No, no whacky results, just
26:07
Speaker 1: very fast. He is a very fast driver. Made twenty
26:10
Speaker 1: seven passes, got two podiums. He's through to the Grand Final,
26:13
Speaker 1: not even in fourth, in third place. Just a remarkable
26:17
Speaker 1: weekend for him and I think maybe we will reflect
26:21
Speaker 1: just in time for his title defense. Just an incredible performance.
26:25
Speaker 2: Twenty seven moves of the week. That's the highest ub
26:28
Speaker 2: we've had in this category. For that is extraordinary because
26:32
Speaker 2: it's such a Sena. Is not the easiest track for
26:34
Speaker 2: these things to pass mus be perfectly honest, even if
26:36
Speaker 2: you've got a car advantage, So to do it twice
26:38
Speaker 2: in twenty four hours is pretty impressive. So I only
26:42
Speaker 2: have one move of the week. I think your twenty
26:43
Speaker 2: seven tops MNE in terms of number and quality. But yeah,
26:47
Speaker 2: that is quite a remarkable turnaround. Considering again, dire it
26:49
Speaker 2: looked well.
26:50
Speaker 1: Let's go back to Motor GP though in interested versus
26:53
Speaker 1: expert final time this year, I suppose because it was
26:56
Speaker 1: the final race of Moto GP for the season. We
26:59
Speaker 1: are in that final month of motor racing pretty much
27:01
Speaker 1: unless him by the one of those random off season categories.
27:05
Speaker 1: Final race of the we don't have as you mentioned,
27:08
Speaker 1: most of the full time riders or many of the
27:10
Speaker 1: full time riders were not there, but was beginning to
27:13
Speaker 1: look a little bit regular. I suppose for Bacco Betzeki,
27:15
Speaker 1: who scored his second straight Grand Prix victory again in
27:18
Speaker 1: quite comfortable, dominating fashion. What was your take on this
27:22
Speaker 1: this final weekend of racing, and I suppose a little
27:24
Speaker 1: bit of the season overall.
27:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, super interesting that so Buzeki wins in Valencia, led
27:30
Speaker 2: every lap from pole, as he had done in Portermow
27:32
Speaker 2: the previous week seven days previously, and it just underlines
27:36
Speaker 2: how much Aprilia has improved this season. It's the most
27:38
Speaker 2: successful season they've ever had. It's the first time of
27:40
Speaker 2: the one back to back Grand Prix they finished one
27:43
Speaker 2: two in this race at Valencia, with Ralphernandez, the Australian
27:45
Speaker 2: Grand Prix winner, finishing six tenths of a second behind Betzeki.
27:48
Speaker 2: And the interesting part for me is that you know,
27:51
Speaker 2: we mentioned before that Mark Marquez has been out and
27:54
Speaker 2: it's the last four rounds have been pretty interesting where
27:57
Speaker 2: you see the reliance that Decati has on the biggest
28:00
Speaker 2: difference maker in the sport. But it also shows that
28:03
Speaker 2: I don't think there's any doubt now that the Aprilia
28:05
Speaker 2: is the second best bike on the grid, and you
28:07
Speaker 2: look at the turmoil that Aprili has gone through this season.
28:10
Speaker 2: They spent a lot of money signing Jorge Martin after
28:13
Speaker 2: he basically just cracked THEU SADS and left your canty,
28:15
Speaker 2: which was understandable to go to a Prillier and the
28:18
Speaker 2: guy they spent all the money on and they had
28:20
Speaker 2: all the high hopes for has basically not featured at
28:22
Speaker 2: all because he did seven Grand Prix for the entire year,
28:25
Speaker 2: because he just lurched from one injury to the next.
28:28
Speaker 2: The Bozeki things interesting for me because we saw a
28:30
Speaker 2: bit of this in twenty twenty three. He won three
28:33
Speaker 2: Grand Prix that year's third in the championship. Last year
28:35
Speaker 2: he was twelve. He was just kind of not really
28:37
Speaker 2: out the races. Last year he was signed with a
28:41
Speaker 2: Prillier very much to be their second rider. I don't
28:43
Speaker 2: even think he was their second or third choice. They
28:46
Speaker 2: wanted Maverick Vinalez to stay. They probably wanted an Italian
28:49
Speaker 2: on the second seat. In Abasien. He was possibly going there,
28:52
Speaker 2: Bazeki was kind of a consolation prize. And while we're
28:56
Speaker 2: talking stats, hit for you this back half of the season,
28:59
Speaker 2: so two round season, the final eleven rounds of the
29:02
Speaker 2: season after the German Grand Prix in July, Berzeki was
29:05
Speaker 2: the highest point scorer in the back half of the
29:07
Speaker 2: season out of anyone on the entire grid. Now, the
29:09
Speaker 2: astor Is scare courses that Mark Marquez missed the final
29:12
Speaker 2: four rounds, but over the last eleven rounds of the season,
29:15
Speaker 2: Berzeki two hundred and twenty three points, second rider in
29:18
Speaker 2: that category. Interestingly enough, also not a Ducati Pedro Acosta
29:22
Speaker 2: two hundred and eight points on a KTM in those
29:24
Speaker 2: final eleven rounds, Alex Marquez two hundred and six just
29:27
Speaker 2: behind on a Ducati Mark Marquez two hundred and one
29:29
Speaker 2: points and missed the last four Grand Prix of the year.
29:32
Speaker 2: So I mean, does that stat change if Mark is
29:34
Speaker 2: upright for the final four? Yeah, probably does. But it
29:37
Speaker 2: shows you that in a championship that Ducati's won again,
29:40
Speaker 2: Aprili has made massive steps forward and a Costa is
29:43
Speaker 2: just proving to be this enormous and difference maker on
29:46
Speaker 2: a bike that nobody else really seems to be able
29:48
Speaker 2: to ride at the moment, so really interesting into the season.
29:53
Speaker 2: Also a couple of little shout outs Jack Miller fifth
29:56
Speaker 2: top ten finish of the season. He was ninth in
29:58
Speaker 2: the race, qualified on third rowing. It's really quite solid.
30:02
Speaker 2: You look at jack season and the points in the
30:04
Speaker 2: championship finishing position don't look great relative to his previous seasons.
30:08
Speaker 2: But I think he you know, he proved himself to
30:10
Speaker 2: be the second best Yamaha rider all year. He secured
30:13
Speaker 2: a contract for twenty twenty six, and we know Yamaha
30:16
Speaker 2: is moving to that V four engine for next year.
30:18
Speaker 2: And Jack spent all but this year riding V fours
30:20
Speaker 2: for Honda and Decatti and Katim beforehand. So Jack's a
30:24
Speaker 2: hugely valuable asset there. And then in the wacky races
30:28
Speaker 2: corner of interested versus expert this week, which I've just invented,
30:31
Speaker 2: can we talk about Franco Morbidelli. Oh, please, Franko Morbidelli.
30:34
Speaker 2: He usually dawdles on the racing line or hits people
30:37
Speaker 2: during races, but he was actually able to do something
30:39
Speaker 2: even he'd never done before, pulling into his grid spot
30:43
Speaker 2: before the Grand Prix on Sunday, got distracted or something
30:46
Speaker 2: and ran into the back of Honda's Aleisha Spargaro, who
30:49
Speaker 2: was stationary on the grid awaiting the start. If anyone
30:52
Speaker 2: that follows murdor GP knows that the Morbidelli Aspargaro beef
30:56
Speaker 2: is one of sports more underrated ones because it's got many,
30:58
Speaker 2: many chapters. The worst part for Morbidelli he falls off
31:02
Speaker 2: his own bike and breaks his left hand at about
31:05
Speaker 2: two kilometers an hour and the bike falls on top
31:07
Speaker 2: of him. He's now out of the postseason test in Valencia,
31:11
Speaker 2: which is happening Tuesday Australian time, because he's broken his
31:14
Speaker 2: own hand in a two kilometer an hour accident and
31:17
Speaker 2: now can't test the twenty twenty six bike. And that
31:19
Speaker 2: is the most Franco Morbidelli story that I could possibly
31:22
Speaker 2: come up with to sum up the season. One of
31:24
Speaker 2: the weirdest things I think I've seen in about twenty
31:26
Speaker 2: odd years of Motor GP, and certainly the slow speed crash.
31:29
Speaker 2: But yeah, of all the things we're going to remember Valencia,
31:32
Speaker 2: for a guy falling off his own bike on the grid,
31:35
Speaker 2: breaking his own hand is going to be right up there.
31:37
Speaker 1: A remarkable way to end the season, not with a bang,
31:40
Speaker 1: but with a crunch. I suppose just to crash.
31:42
Speaker 2: Well, and just a pathetically slow one at that. But yeah,
31:46
Speaker 2: probably no such a grid silliness at Sandown, but I
31:49
Speaker 2: must have been when we approach interested versus expert. I
31:52
Speaker 2: thought to myself, I wonder what the weather was like
31:54
Speaker 2: in Sandown. Then I remembered it was Sandown in Melbourne
31:56
Speaker 2: in November. So it's going to rain at some point,
31:58
Speaker 2: it's just a matter of when. But you mentioned the
32:01
Speaker 2: Will Brown entry into the Grand Finalists before. What I'm
32:06
Speaker 2: interested in is this, three of the names that are
32:07
Speaker 2: in the Grand Final for Adelaide that I would have
32:09
Speaker 2: predicted before the season and one that I absolutely would
32:12
Speaker 2: not have.
32:12
Speaker 1: Yes, and this is the most interesting part. And I
32:15
Speaker 1: feel like, if you are Supercars, you are getting one
32:18
Speaker 1: hundred percent what you wanted out of this final. Absolutely
32:21
Speaker 1: it is delivering precisely what you wanted. Not only because
32:24
Speaker 1: we've had some really great jeopardy over the last two
32:27
Speaker 1: rounds on the Gold Coast and Sanddown, will Brown being
32:29
Speaker 1: a great example of having to get into that final four,
32:32
Speaker 1: but you've got three drivers who absolutely you would expect
32:36
Speaker 1: to be there and have been standout performers for the
32:39
Speaker 1: year or late in the year. In brock Feene, unsurprisingly
32:41
Speaker 1: he top the title standings chas mostts. Really strong late
32:44
Speaker 1: finish really just in the finals has got him into
32:46
Speaker 1: second place. In fact, he was briefly in top spot
32:49
Speaker 1: on Saturday night after winning that race, and then Will
32:52
Speaker 1: brown sneaking into third. Fourth though, is the rookie Kai
32:55
Speaker 1: Allen from Grove not his teammate Matt Paine who ended
32:59
Speaker 1: the Guess what we call the regular season the home
33:02
Speaker 1: and away season doesn't make any sense. In second is
33:05
Speaker 1: the championship standings. He's out. He's out of the finals,
33:08
Speaker 1: somewhat controversially after a variety or one class anyway, with
33:12
Speaker 1: Cam Borders who's also out, another driver you might have
33:14
Speaker 1: expected to have taken that fourth place if not Matt Payne.
33:18
Speaker 1: So we've got this tremendous random element in the Grand Final.
33:23
Speaker 1: And the beauty, of course is when you crunch up
33:25
Speaker 1: all the points, as they do at every finals round,
33:27
Speaker 1: you close up all the drivers. Kaion's only fifty points
33:30
Speaker 1: off the title lead, and we've got three races in Adelaide,
33:33
Speaker 1: which is in a fortnight so not this weekend, but
33:35
Speaker 1: the next. That's entirely achievable if you know, only needs
33:39
Speaker 1: one weird result to happen to some of the other
33:42
Speaker 1: finalists and he wins, and suddenly he's going to be
33:44
Speaker 1: the favorite to be the champion out of nowhere in
33:46
Speaker 1: his rookie season. And he has had a great rookie season.
33:50
Speaker 1: It is worth saying he's really come on the second
33:52
Speaker 1: half of the year. Now, you know, I love a spreadsheet.
33:53
Speaker 1: I've been keeping my Supercar stat sheet up to date.
33:56
Speaker 2: Spreadsheet World Champion. You are unofficially but.
33:58
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, even in the finals format, people will have
34:01
Speaker 1: been wondering, and they will wonder at the end of
34:03
Speaker 1: Adelaide no matter who wins the title. Okay, brock Phenie
34:05
Speaker 1: wins the title, it's going to be pretty easy to say, well,
34:07
Speaker 1: he would have won it in the normal format anyway, presumably,
34:10
Speaker 1: although I will point out, considering how strong an ending
34:13
Speaker 1: chas Moster's had to the season, if we were to
34:14
Speaker 1: have regular points, he would be less than one hundred
34:17
Speaker 1: points off the leads. Okay, a little bit distant, but
34:20
Speaker 1: very much still within the possibility of pinching it. In Adelaide,
34:24
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be super comfortable for Phoenie, but you know,
34:26
Speaker 1: if he wins the title, we can say he's done
34:28
Speaker 1: it old way in the new way. This is the standings.
34:32
Speaker 1: If we had normal points, it would be Phoene mostered
34:35
Speaker 1: and Brown, so exactly as has happened. So that sort
34:39
Speaker 1: of immediately eliminates anyone who'd be saying, wow, it's all
34:42
Speaker 1: artificial finals whatever, even if the points are closer. Unsurprisingly
34:46
Speaker 1: it's then Matt Paine, who would have been in the
34:48
Speaker 1: top four under the normal points. But then it's Kai Allen,
34:52
Speaker 1: so he's only moved up one place in the finals. Whatever.
34:57
Speaker 1: To call it the way we're doing the finals format
34:59
Speaker 1: and eliminations, that's how strong an end of the year.
35:02
Speaker 1: He's had a guy who only just snuck in. As
35:04
Speaker 1: we talked, I guess two months ago now whenever it
35:06
Speaker 1: was about as we went from Baptist into the finals
35:09
Speaker 1: and he just got into the ten. He would have
35:11
Speaker 1: been on merit fifth in the standings and potentially could
35:16
Speaker 1: have finished fourth on merit as well in the finals.
35:17
Speaker 1: He's now got a chance to win the championship. So
35:19
Speaker 1: this isn't as as much as it's very much random
35:22
Speaker 1: if you'd looked even only a couple of months ago
35:23
Speaker 1: and Certney at the start of the season, he's there.
35:26
Speaker 1: I'm willing to say pretty much just basically on season
35:28
Speaker 1: long merit, he's in that conversation.
35:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And I think the reason we perhaps pause
35:33
Speaker 2: at that is at the start of the season, we
35:34
Speaker 2: wouldn't have necessarily thought he'd be one of the four
35:36
Speaker 2: that's still alive at this point. But you mentioned it before,
35:39
Speaker 2: like if you were setting up a new format and
35:41
Speaker 2: you wanted to script what you wanted for these final four,
35:45
Speaker 2: the Grand Final with the final four drivers, it's absolutely
35:48
Speaker 2: perfect because you've got guys with championship pedigree, You've got
35:52
Speaker 2: someone in Moster who's come along really, really strong, and
35:54
Speaker 2: then you've got this I don't want to use wildcards.
35:56
Speaker 2: That makes it sound like it's a bit fluky, but
35:58
Speaker 2: certainly not someone that expected. We expected to be there.
36:01
Speaker 2: And they all have an equal opportunity for the biggest
36:04
Speaker 2: prize in the last round, and you know that there's
36:07
Speaker 2: going to be peril and all sorts of silliness and
36:09
Speaker 2: controversy and everything else. It's perfectly set up. But I
36:12
Speaker 2: like the mix of the drivers that are in this
36:14
Speaker 2: because at the end of the day, we say this
36:16
Speaker 2: all the time, we cheer the narrative here. Whoever wins
36:19
Speaker 2: out of this four it's a good story, right, it
36:21
Speaker 2: doesn't matter because in terms of where they've come from
36:23
Speaker 2: late season resurgence, you know, defending champion really digging his
36:27
Speaker 2: heels in with Sander and then someone who perhaps we
36:29
Speaker 2: wouldn't have seen coming at the start of the season.
36:32
Speaker 2: Four really good storylines. So yeah, it's going to be
36:34
Speaker 2: super intriguing. And if you were going to draw up
36:36
Speaker 2: an idea way to finish this season, it would look
36:38
Speaker 2: a bit like this.
36:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've just gone back through my trustee spreadsheet. Kay
36:42
Speaker 1: Allen finished in Bathurst, so this is when the finals,
36:45
Speaker 1: the finalists were decided. He finished tenth. You've got into
36:48
Speaker 1: the finals by three points, three points away from missing
36:52
Speaker 1: the top ten completely and here he is with a
36:53
Speaker 1: shot at winning the championship in the Grand Final. It
36:57
Speaker 1: is remarkable. I just want to take you very quickly
36:59
Speaker 1: through those finalists and what I thought was interesting this weekend,
37:02
Speaker 1: well we talked about Ky Allen. Remarkable, he capitalized on
37:04
Speaker 1: some bad luck from Matt Pain, just great results. He's
37:07
Speaker 1: increasingly just his fall in the last couple of months.
37:10
Speaker 1: He is just constantly there. Shows very astute for Grove
37:13
Speaker 1: to have pinched him. I suppose from Dick Johnson Racing's
37:15
Speaker 1: junior driver program for this year. Chasmstad though, is the
37:20
Speaker 1: one I think is really interesting. He's clearly defining peaking
37:23
Speaker 1: at the right time. He really only started winning in
37:25
Speaker 1: a big way since we turned up to the finals.
37:27
Speaker 1: He third winning a row was Saturday and Sandown, which
37:30
Speaker 1: meant he knew he was going to the Grand Final
37:31
Speaker 1: regardless of what happened on Sunday. That's how the rules work.
37:34
Speaker 1: I thought it was really interesting hearing him speak after
37:36
Speaker 1: the race. As he said they then used Sunday to
37:39
Speaker 1: test some things for Adelaide, so essentially had a day's
37:42
Speaker 1: head start if you like, on the Grand Final, had
37:45
Speaker 1: good pace, was a little bit unlucky with the switch
37:47
Speaker 1: from drives to wets because his poor old team at
37:50
Speaker 1: bryan Wood, who did help him to victory on Saturday,
37:52
Speaker 1: had a pit stop problem. He was stuck in the
37:54
Speaker 1: pit box, couldn't pit could moster it. But that doesn't matter.
37:57
Speaker 1: He was in the Grand Final anyway. He's going to
37:58
Speaker 1: start second. He's only how many points. Is he going
38:01
Speaker 1: to start behind it's only twenty five points. I think
38:03
Speaker 1: it is behind. No twenty points. I think you behind
38:06
Speaker 1: brock FENNI. Brock Feennie though he's back to he's winning ways.
38:09
Speaker 1: He hasn't won since Ipswitch, which was before even the Enduro's.
38:12
Speaker 1: He's won again. He's won from pole, so it looks
38:14
Speaker 1: like standard brock Feenie issued twenty twenty five. That's good
38:18
Speaker 1: obviously for him coming into the Grand Final because he
38:20
Speaker 1: needed that little No one say he's been out of form,
38:22
Speaker 1: but just needed that little bit of momentum to charge
38:24
Speaker 1: in there. And then we've already talked about Will Brown.
38:27
Speaker 1: I mean he he could also argue he's peaking at
38:29
Speaker 1: the right time, just not in qualifying. The race pace
38:32
Speaker 1: is clearly there would be harder, I guess, as hard
38:34
Speaker 1: as it is to pass a sand down, but it's
38:35
Speaker 1: pretty difficult on the street circuit like Adelaide, much riskier
38:38
Speaker 1: anyway if you want to pull off moves like that.
38:41
Speaker 1: But if he can sort out his qualifying you would
38:44
Speaker 1: almost notwithstanding the thirty five points is to brock Finil,
38:47
Speaker 1: that's not very much. Is it almost call him to favorite?
38:50
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think we've got quite a few
38:51
Speaker 1: contenders for favorite, so it's really well set up. You know,
38:53
Speaker 1: if anyone was skeptical about the Grand Final format, where
38:56
Speaker 1: you're entitled to be, obviously because it is a change.
38:58
Speaker 1: But the outcome we've got, I think is simultaneously the
39:02
Speaker 1: jeopardy you'd want from this kind of format as well
39:04
Speaker 1: as being pretty representative of the form drivers at this
39:08
Speaker 1: point in the year.
39:08
Speaker 2: Well, and you can make a case for all four
39:10
Speaker 2: and that's the beauty of all of these. You didn't
39:12
Speaker 2: want it to be a situation where you're like, well,
39:13
Speaker 2: it's probably one of two guys, and now the guys
39:15
Speaker 2: are kind of making up the numbers. The evolving nature
39:18
Speaker 2: of Adelaide's interesting too, because you mentioned the three races,
39:21
Speaker 2: all of these predictions and where's this going to go
39:23
Speaker 2: in points gap? This is going to be something that
39:25
Speaker 2: shifts over the course of the event, which makes it
39:27
Speaker 2: really interesting as well. So you know what happens early
39:30
Speaker 2: in the weekend, how does that change what each driver
39:33
Speaker 2: needs to get out of the subsequent races. Yeah, it's
39:36
Speaker 2: like I said, if you're going to come up with
39:37
Speaker 2: a new format, you'd be pretty happy with the way
39:39
Speaker 2: it's come.
39:40
Speaker 1: Out, absolutely right. So the Grand Final is in a
39:42
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. But before we get to the Grand Final, obviously,
39:45
Speaker 1: is this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix. And of course
39:48
Speaker 1: the crystal ball, brought to you by Complete Home Filtration,
39:51
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be about this weekend's the race. Of course,
39:53
Speaker 1: there's still a few weeks of racing to go. But Matt,
39:56
Speaker 1: what's the crystal ball telling you?
39:58
Speaker 2: Crystal ball's telling me that daytime Formula one is a
40:00
Speaker 2: great thing. Actually, don't need a crystal ball to tell
40:02
Speaker 2: me that it is a wonderful, wonderful thing. We mentioned
40:05
Speaker 2: before how this is the least predictable of the three
40:09
Speaker 2: Grand Prix we've got left to confirm a Formula One
40:12
Speaker 2: champion this year. So my crystal ball is telling me
40:14
Speaker 2: that we're going to have three different teams each have
40:17
Speaker 2: one driver on the podium this weekend.
40:19
Speaker 1: Oh, I like it.
40:20
Speaker 2: And the reason I'm saying, and let's be honest, if
40:22
Speaker 2: you're choosing three team, there's going to be three teams
40:25
Speaker 2: out of four teams because the four teams that are
40:27
Speaker 2: clearly and that's at a category A of the championship
40:29
Speaker 2: I'm still thinking that Ferrari is going to have a
40:31
Speaker 2: driver on the podium this weekend, which is probably against
40:33
Speaker 2: the run of play, and certainly in obate. John elkn
40:36
Speaker 2: will be pleased about that. I think I think Ferrari
40:40
Speaker 2: is going to be that we're gonna have a Ferrari
40:42
Speaker 2: driver on the podium. Now, you mentioned the Lewis Hamilton
40:44
Speaker 2: podium draft. Wouldn't that be quite something? But I'm going
40:46
Speaker 2: to basically say one of those top four teams is
40:49
Speaker 2: not going to have a driver on the podium this weekend.
40:52
Speaker 2: And if the team that's not represented on the podium,
40:54
Speaker 2: if we don't see McLaren up there, or we don't
40:56
Speaker 2: see Max Bastappen up there, I won't mention Red Bulls
40:58
Speaker 2: other driver because we don't care they don't either. If
41:02
Speaker 2: it's a McLaren or a red Ball that misses out
41:04
Speaker 2: on the podium, doesn't that shape what's going to come
41:07
Speaker 2: for Qatar and Abi Dhabi coming up after that? But
41:12
Speaker 2: your that's quite a sensible crystal ball by my standards.
41:15
Speaker 2: I'm wondering if you're going to go a little.
41:16
Speaker 1: Bit whack you well. I like to think that I've
41:20
Speaker 1: put some have I really put any sort of rational
41:24
Speaker 1: effort into my chrystal. I've certainly made them genuinely, but
41:27
Speaker 1: have I thought deeply about them before? Not always? Sometimes,
41:30
Speaker 1: but not always. And I can't believe I'm going to
41:33
Speaker 1: say this about this week's crystal Ball, but I had
41:36
Speaker 1: a dream yesterday that Lando Norris has one more DNF
41:42
Speaker 1: in him. Oh boy, I'm not going to say when
41:44
Speaker 1: it's going to happen. Doesn't have to, it doesn't have
41:45
Speaker 1: to be this weekend. It may not happen at all.
41:48
Speaker 1: It was just a dream. But this is my crystal ball,
41:51
Speaker 1: is that Lando Norris's title campaign has one more DNF
41:55
Speaker 1: in it. I wasn't the dream wasn't clear on the circumstances.
41:58
Speaker 1: It was a very messy race. The track it's unfamiliar
42:00
Speaker 1: to me, right, But that's that's my prediction, is that
42:04
Speaker 1: there's one more twist and it's going to be another
42:06
Speaker 1: failure to finish.
42:08
Speaker 2: Did your dream have a sad Sky Sports commentary soundtrack
42:12
Speaker 2: and perhaps some violin explaining, because if it was that,
42:14
Speaker 2: I'm on board with this.
42:15
Speaker 1: I don't know, because in my dream, I'd switch to
42:17
Speaker 1: the F one TV commentary feed, as you can do on.
42:21
Speaker 2: You don't need a crystal borderside whether that's a good
42:23
Speaker 2: idea or not. But I'm super interested in this because
42:26
Speaker 2: it does show that at the end of a season
42:28
Speaker 2: where you've done about forty million races, give or take,
42:32
Speaker 2: you're a little bit delirious at this point in November.
42:34
Speaker 2: So I do like the fact that work is invading
42:36
Speaker 2: your subconscious in the rare time that a relatively new
42:39
Speaker 2: father gets to sleep. But yeah, I'm more interested in
42:42
Speaker 2: the soundtrack, and there's just a bit of oh dear
42:44
Speaker 2: going on in the background when it all goes pair
42:47
Speaker 2: shape for our Lando. So yeah, super interesting. And if
42:50
Speaker 2: that happens, then I'm going to be mining whatever else
42:52
Speaker 2: you dream and perhaps go to toab or something because
42:55
Speaker 2: there could be something in that.
42:57
Speaker 1: It will be very interesting. I'm more invested than usual
43:00
Speaker 1: in the outcome of the next But that's all the time.
43:03
Speaker 1: We have a bit talk today. You can subscribe to
43:06
Speaker 1: bittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you can
43:08
Speaker 1: leave us a rating and a review as well. This
43:11
Speaker 1: weekend is the Las Vegas Grand Prix. You'll like this, Matt.
43:14
Speaker 1: The antipenultimate round of the Formula One season.
43:17
Speaker 2: Oh, very good.
43:18
Speaker 1: Qualifying is at a very comfortable three pm on Saturday,
43:20
Speaker 1: and the race also at three pm on Sunday. That's
43:23
Speaker 1: Australian Eastern daylight time. You can keep up to date
43:26
Speaker 1: with all the latestef one, Supercars and Moto TP news
43:28
Speaker 1: at Foxsports dot com dot Au from Matt Clayton and
43:31
Speaker 1: me Michael Lomonato. Thanks very much for your company. It'll
43:33
Speaker 1: catch you next week.