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Six lessons from the Australian Grand Prix · Pit Talk

0:05
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannons.
0:09
Speaker 1: On today's episode, the twenty twenty six Formula One season
0:12
Speaker 1: is underway, with George Russell leading a Mercedes one two
0:15
Speaker 1: to victory in Melbourne, but not every driver was thrilled
0:19
Speaker 1: by their first experience of the new rules. How come
0:23
Speaker 1: and what can be done about us? My name's Michael Lomonatto.
0:26
Speaker 1: It's great to have your company and the company of
0:28
Speaker 1: my co host. He was typing so hard and so
0:31
Speaker 1: fast in the media center on Sunday he gave himself
0:34
Speaker 1: permanent nerve damage. It's Matt Clayton.
0:37
Speaker 2: Who would have thought that writing stories about Formula One
0:40
Speaker 2: Michael would be almost as dangerous as driving a Formula
0:43
Speaker 2: One car in twenty twenty six, But the ego. But
0:45
Speaker 2: I probably had a better and more fulfilling weekend than
0:48
Speaker 2: Fernando a Lotso or LARTs Stroll. But let's just say
0:50
Speaker 2: that is the lowest possible bar that even in my
0:53
Speaker 2: fatigued Monday post agp state, I can probably fall over
0:57
Speaker 2: at this time of the afternoon, So not great. If
0:59
Speaker 2: you're in Anton, Martin fan or I don't know if
1:01
Speaker 2: you say you own that probably not so good bene
1:04
Speaker 2: for you and I definitely.
1:05
Speaker 1: Not you own you own the team and having a
1:07
Speaker 1: great day no.
1:08
Speaker 2: Matter what I think you are not.
1:11
Speaker 1: We had a really interesting weekend in Melbourne, plenty to
1:15
Speaker 1: talk about, as of course we predicted, given this was
1:17
Speaker 1: the first race weekend under all these new regulations, both
1:21
Speaker 1: chassis and engine, even some new sporting rules in there.
1:23
Speaker 1: A new team in Cadillac, new driver in Avid lynn Blad,
1:26
Speaker 1: lots of new stuff. Not a new pit building though
1:28
Speaker 1: that's going to wait for another year. It can be
1:31
Speaker 1: about next year's podcast. Yes, And so I thought, Matt,
1:33
Speaker 1: we'd go through what lessons we learned from this weekend,
1:36
Speaker 1: acknowledging of course that this coming weekend is the Chinese
1:38
Speaker 1: Grand Prix. We're going to learn a lot more. And
1:40
Speaker 1: I was gonna say the race is flow, thick and fast,
1:43
Speaker 1: but they may well not give them the state of
1:46
Speaker 1: the Middle East at the moment, and the Bahrain and
1:48
Speaker 1: Sadi even Grand Prix that could be coming up a
1:50
Speaker 1: little bit later, another story for another day.
1:53
Speaker 2: Why I kick us off.
1:54
Speaker 1: With the most wine, It MIGHTI you, the biggest lesson
1:57
Speaker 1: that we've learned, because the big news was, of course,
2:00
Speaker 1: the rule changes going into this weekend. That was what
2:01
Speaker 1: we were all eager to see. Clearly proved controversial among
2:07
Speaker 1: many drivers. They're not all drivers, but we got two
2:11
Speaker 1: very different, let's say, glimpses into the potential of these
2:15
Speaker 1: rules between qualifying and the race. My lesson, I think,
2:18
Speaker 1: and police free to disagree with me, is that things
2:21
Speaker 1: are not as bad as many of the drivers were saying.
2:25
Speaker 1: We've heard some pretty dire commentary from Orlando Norris even
2:28
Speaker 1: claiming last year's cars were better, even though if you
2:30
Speaker 1: rewind to last December, I think every single driver was
2:33
Speaker 1: happy to get out of those cars that were causing
2:35
Speaker 1: them back damage, never mind the nerve damage of the
2:37
Speaker 1: Asen Martin and Max for Staff and say, essentially it
2:40
Speaker 1: sounded actually quite defeated on Saturday's essentially saying things like
2:43
Speaker 1: there's no hope for these regulations. We're stuck with them
2:45
Speaker 1: for a long time. George Russell was more optimistic, but
2:47
Speaker 1: of course it would be winning from pole position. But
2:49
Speaker 1: I think it's not as bad as all that negativity.
2:53
Speaker 2: What did you think I would agree with that statement
2:55
Speaker 2: simply because I was braced for the worst. And I
3:00
Speaker 2: also think that after qualifying on Saturday, I think we
3:04
Speaker 2: got the order of the grid was probably the correct
3:08
Speaker 2: order of the grid. I don't think we've got any
3:10
Speaker 2: crazy outliers, but the actual spectacle of qualifying was so unedifying.
3:15
Speaker 2: And you know, you always talk about Albert Park and
3:17
Speaker 2: the signature turn there and it has been for years
3:20
Speaker 2: is the turn nine ten Chicane. It's one of the
3:22
Speaker 2: highlights of that circuit. You know, it's a very flat,
3:25
Speaker 2: featureless track. It's very quick these days because of the
3:27
Speaker 2: redevelopment done in twenty two. But there are better race
3:30
Speaker 2: tracks in Formula one bikele as you know, but that
3:32
Speaker 2: sequence of corners was always an absolute highlight on the
3:36
Speaker 2: calendar every time Forbula one came to Australia, and the
3:38
Speaker 2: cars just looked, frankly a bit pathetic through there. They
3:41
Speaker 2: were so much slower than they had been previously. You
3:45
Speaker 2: knew the drivers weren't pushing the challenge wasn't there. So
3:48
Speaker 2: my I guess pessivism about things wasn't helped by Saturday
3:52
Speaker 2: being yeah, we got the correct grid, no silly outliers,
3:55
Speaker 2: but I'm like, I'm not really enjoying this spectacle of this. Conversely,
4:00
Speaker 2: one day with the race I thought it depends what
4:03
Speaker 2: business we're in here, right. We're sort of having this
4:05
Speaker 2: discussion in the media center last night if Formula one
4:08
Speaker 2: is in the entertainment business and you can decide whether
4:10
Speaker 2: it's a sporting spectacle or an entertainment business or an
4:13
Speaker 2: amalgam of the two. The opening ten to twelve laps
4:16
Speaker 2: of the twenty twenty six Australian Grand Prix we're really
4:19
Speaker 2: really good TV and I likened it. The analogy I'll
4:22
Speaker 2: use here is like this is like me watching a
4:24
Speaker 2: Marvel film, quite frankly, because like I'm enjoying what I'm
4:28
Speaker 2: watching to a degree, but I'm not one hundred percent
4:31
Speaker 2: sure what's going on. This is the chat that I
4:32
Speaker 2: was having with my daughter offline today in that I'll
4:34
Speaker 2: sit and watching and go that was fine. Don't tell
4:37
Speaker 2: me actually what happened or how we got here, because
4:38
Speaker 2: I don't really know. And that was the confusing part
4:41
Speaker 2: about the race in that because the way to drive
4:44
Speaker 2: these cars is so different to anything we've seen previously.
4:47
Speaker 2: The fight at the front, on its face, was really fun.
4:49
Speaker 2: It was really dramatic. There were lots of really big
4:52
Speaker 2: overtakes and people getting their elbows out. It was really
4:55
Speaker 2: really good TV. I'm not quite sure we one hundred
4:58
Speaker 2: percent understood what was that we were watching because of
5:01
Speaker 2: the energy deploid of these cars. What's more, I'm not
5:04
Speaker 2: quite sure the participants in the race completely understood what
5:06
Speaker 2: was going on either, because I think we'll look back
5:09
Speaker 2: at the AGP as being this first step into the
5:11
Speaker 2: voyage of the unknown, and as the rule set and
5:14
Speaker 2: the year gets more mature, there'll be just this sheer
5:17
Speaker 2: amount of data that Formula one producers, right, there'll be
5:19
Speaker 2: more things known than this weekend. This felt like a
5:22
Speaker 2: bit of a sucker and c weekend and no one
5:24
Speaker 2: really quite knew how it was going to play out.
5:26
Speaker 2: You know, you mentioned George Russell being happier than most
5:29
Speaker 2: with the rules, a bit like Ladder Doris was happier
5:31
Speaker 2: the most with lastiest cars. So there's always going to
5:34
Speaker 2: be vested interests if one at its core is the
5:36
Speaker 2: most selfish spot on the planet, because everyone likes things
5:38
Speaker 2: when they're going well for them, don't they. But my
5:41
Speaker 2: thought was entertaining enough race didn't one hundred percent understand why,
5:46
Speaker 2: because I don't think the participants do either, And maybe
5:49
Speaker 2: less pessimism than I thought. But then how you feel
5:53
Speaker 2: about this? I still think there's something a little bit
5:55
Speaker 2: missing with these cars and the way they need to
5:58
Speaker 2: be driven that's not quite Formula One.
6:00
Speaker 1: I think qualifying definitely demonstrated that. I don't think anyone,
6:04
Speaker 1: even George Russell, who was happy to take pole position,
6:07
Speaker 1: even he wasn't particularly effusive effusive about the cars afterwards.
6:11
Speaker 1: It wasn't too negative about them, but of course again
6:13
Speaker 1: he wouldn't be. He took pole position, but by no
6:16
Speaker 1: means was praising them because the challenge. You only have
6:18
Speaker 1: to look at the onboard of his pole APP and
6:20
Speaker 1: I went just out of curiosity to compare to the
6:22
Speaker 1: onboard of Lando Norris's pole app last year. Oh yeah,
6:25
Speaker 1: very different. They have very different spectacles. Debatable whether or
6:30
Speaker 1: not this year's pole app was even a spectacle. That's
6:33
Speaker 1: not to diminish a the challenge of driving a Formula
6:35
Speaker 1: one current General or B. Clearly this challenge that is
6:39
Speaker 1: poorly understood by anyone who's not in the car, of
6:42
Speaker 1: getting the lap right, the balance between deploying your energy,
6:44
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. But it doesn't mean all
6:46
Speaker 1: looks great or it's what we want from a from
6:48
Speaker 1: what until now and through pretty much every regulation change.
6:53
Speaker 1: We have some random, wacky ones, probably dating back all
6:56
Speaker 1: the way to when you had to qualify with race fuel,
7:00
Speaker 1: when you had to use the ties you want to
7:01
Speaker 1: start on. Yes, the qualifying spectacle has always remained I
7:06
Speaker 1: hesitate to use this word but pure, because it's always
7:08
Speaker 1: just been just go as fast as you can. Yes,
7:10
Speaker 1: your tires just goes fast as you possibly can, and
7:12
Speaker 1: that's diluted this year, and I think that that is
7:14
Speaker 1: a problem. But I also I just I think we
7:17
Speaker 1: should caution that this is one of the worst tracks
7:20
Speaker 1: albert Park for these engines. Is what the team's.
7:22
Speaker 2: About to say exactly that.
7:24
Speaker 1: Yes, so I think your average in inverters in commas
7:28
Speaker 1: Can it's twenty four race schedule, your average track will
7:33
Speaker 1: look much more normal. You certainly won't have I mean,
7:36
Speaker 1: the back straight at albert Park is deceptively long because
7:40
Speaker 1: it's not straight, but it's taken flat out much longer
7:43
Speaker 1: than we think. I think the average track is not
7:45
Speaker 1: going to look like that. The average track is going
7:46
Speaker 1: to look much more normal, which I think then goes
7:49
Speaker 1: onto the second alle model, which is the race was
7:51
Speaker 1: very interesting. Some drivers said it was artificial the way
7:54
Speaker 1: the overtaking was happening because of the essentially the push
7:57
Speaker 1: to pass button, the boost buttons we should call it,
8:00
Speaker 1: and that it was a little bit unpredictable and sometimes
8:03
Speaker 1: hard to follow or sometimes hard to understand. Maybe not
8:05
Speaker 1: hard to follow. But again I think at your average
8:08
Speaker 1: track it will be.
8:09
Speaker 2: It will look more normal.
8:11
Speaker 1: But I think the thing I really want to drill
8:12
Speaker 1: down into is that I'm not convinced that what we
8:15
Speaker 1: saw on Sunday should be described as artificial. I was
8:18
Speaker 1: thinking about this today. There's a piece on the Fox
8:20
Speaker 1: Sports website as well. I wrote up whire go into
8:23
Speaker 1: this a little bit, but I'm not convinced actually what
8:25
Speaker 1: we're seeing is any worse than a button, a driver
8:28
Speaker 1: getting DRS pressing the button, breezing past before the breaking zone,
8:32
Speaker 1: and just overtaking. If anything, I actually prefer this as
8:35
Speaker 1: much as it's a little bit chaotic, because you have
8:38
Speaker 1: to use something to make your overtake. You know, you've
8:41
Speaker 1: got that battery charge, You've got to get the overtake done.
8:43
Speaker 1: If you don't, then you're vulnerable to the guy behind
8:46
Speaker 1: the other driver can also fight back, which I like,
8:48
Speaker 1: whereas with DRS. You're leading by a second and you're
8:51
Speaker 1: at the wrong track where the DRS is too effective,
8:53
Speaker 1: you have no hope. In the same way, you know Belgium,
8:56
Speaker 1: sometimes the best place to start is second because you
8:58
Speaker 1: know your DRS passed and to go up with no
9:00
Speaker 1: hope of catching up. So I actually kind of think
9:03
Speaker 1: that what we saw on Sunday was strange and new,
9:07
Speaker 1: and as Charlotte Claire said, a little bit different in
9:10
Speaker 1: some ways, not necessarily positively different. But I'm willing to
9:13
Speaker 1: give the benefit of the doubt and say it could
9:17
Speaker 1: in an overall sense and we get to the end
9:18
Speaker 1: of the season, could be a positive difference on Sundays.
9:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, you mentioned before the two worst words put together
9:25
Speaker 2: in Formula one DRS train. At least we don't have
9:28
Speaker 2: to talk about those anymore. I'm going to take I'm
9:30
Speaker 2: going to take slight issue with you here. This is
9:32
Speaker 2: controversial for you and I know, but there's something about
9:35
Speaker 2: DRS in Yes, it was inherently a bit false and
9:39
Speaker 2: a bit fake at all of that. The thing I
9:42
Speaker 2: didn't mind about it relative to what we saw on
9:44
Speaker 2: the weekend is I felt that with DRS, the operator
9:47
Speaker 2: of the car was in charge of when it was deployed, right,
9:50
Speaker 2: So hey, you used it tactically, Whereas I think the
9:52
Speaker 2: way these cars store and get rid of the energy
9:56
Speaker 2: they have stored, it feels like the cars were in
9:59
Speaker 2: control of the driver a lot of the time. The
10:01
Speaker 2: driver is restricted very much by the capability of their
10:03
Speaker 2: machinery as opposed to with the RS. You could deploy
10:06
Speaker 2: that strategically, but it was the driver that was making
10:09
Speaker 2: the decision, not the car. I know this is a
10:11
Speaker 2: very very thin delineation here, that's the look, and this
10:15
Speaker 2: will make more sense, as you said to start as
10:17
Speaker 2: the fact that the Albert Park revised layer ironically the
10:21
Speaker 2: old Albert Park player might have been better for these
10:23
Speaker 2: cars would have thought that bring back the chicade across
10:26
Speaker 2: the back that might have been part of this. And
10:29
Speaker 2: also because no one we had not been in a
10:32
Speaker 2: live ray situation yet, so you can simulate these things
10:35
Speaker 2: as much as you like. There were twenty two pioneers
10:38
Speaker 2: out there on Sunday trying to make sense of what
10:41
Speaker 2: exactly was going on. But I think with more data,
10:45
Speaker 2: with more time, and perhaps some more and I'll use
10:47
Speaker 2: air quotes here, which is useless of video on an
10:49
Speaker 2: audio podcast normal tracks, then we will probably see a
10:54
Speaker 2: bit of a pattern emerge. At the moment we have
10:56
Speaker 2: a sample set of precisely one, it's way too early
10:59
Speaker 2: to come up with any conclusions about how the racing went,
11:03
Speaker 2: but the look I never I don't miss DRS. No
11:08
Speaker 2: one's ever going to miss DRS. But there was an
11:10
Speaker 2: element of when that was operated that felt like it
11:13
Speaker 2: was much more in control of the driver than some
11:15
Speaker 2: of the stuff that we were seeing on the weekend.
11:17
Speaker 2: And I'm not shedding a tear for DRS and I
11:19
Speaker 2: do not want it to return, And I'm hoping that
11:21
Speaker 2: I'll get a little bit more satisfaction and perhaps understanding
11:24
Speaker 2: of what's going on once we have a series of
11:27
Speaker 2: races at a different set of sequence of tracks coming up.
11:31
Speaker 2: You know, obviously got China and Japan coming up, both
11:34
Speaker 2: very different to each other and both very very different
11:36
Speaker 2: to Albert Park. So I think it'll be interesting to
11:39
Speaker 2: see which races that sometimes you look at the calendar
11:41
Speaker 2: and go that might not be great TV might end
11:43
Speaker 2: up actually becoming more compelling. For the first time in
11:46
Speaker 2: many years, I'm actually quite looking forward to watching BODICCO
11:48
Speaker 2: because i think the cars are going to look super
11:49
Speaker 2: alive around there, which is not something I've said for
11:52
Speaker 2: a long time, but I am concerned about when you
11:55
Speaker 2: mentioned the turn six to nine ten Chican and Albert
11:59
Speaker 2: Park now and it's a straight, but it's not a straight.
12:01
Speaker 2: I just kept thinking of Baku coming out of those
12:03
Speaker 2: last couple of quarters where the cars are completely running
12:07
Speaker 2: out of breath for twenty five seconds on what used
12:09
Speaker 2: to be full throttle. That's going to be super interesting.
12:11
Speaker 2: But yeah, I didn't mind it, but I need to
12:15
Speaker 2: see more. If you know where I'm coming from.
12:17
Speaker 1: I think that's good. I think funnily enough not to
12:19
Speaker 1: heighten the formulave e comparisons because no one needs that,
12:22
Speaker 1: But I do think these cars could actually be great
12:24
Speaker 1: at street tracks.
12:25
Speaker 2: I think this.
12:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, it could be a bit of a good news
12:27
Speaker 1: for the calendar that there has increasing numbers of street
12:29
Speaker 1: tracks on the way, I guess. But yeah, Baku will
12:31
Speaker 1: be very interesting. Some interesting comments from I think George Russell,
12:35
Speaker 1: who suggested that any track essentially that isn't just a
12:37
Speaker 1: bunch of long straight so Bonds is obviously not going
12:39
Speaker 1: to be great, will be fine even if you run
12:41
Speaker 1: out of battery down the long straight and it's probably
12:43
Speaker 1: gonna look silly as you run out of power towards them.
12:46
Speaker 1: The rest of the track will look much more normal,
12:48
Speaker 1: whereas most of the Melbourne track just looked a bit compromised.
12:51
Speaker 1: But we'll wait and see as you see. And also
12:53
Speaker 1: development will change these things. But what lesson did you
12:56
Speaker 1: take away from our weekend in unusually stable, climated Melbourne
13:01
Speaker 1: and Albert Park.
13:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, Melbourne in autumn where it didn't actually rain over
13:05
Speaker 2: the course of the race weekend. That's pretty bizarre, isn't it.
13:07
Speaker 2: What lesson did I learn? I learned the value of
13:10
Speaker 2: being a full works team is higher than perhaps I
13:14
Speaker 2: would have thought. And the context of this is Mercedes
13:17
Speaker 2: going one who on the greed of ones who in
13:18
Speaker 2: the race. But I'm more thinking about this from McLaren's
13:21
Speaker 2: point of view, and I'm not saying I'm not suggesting
13:24
Speaker 2: this is this is evidence that McLaren might have dropped
13:28
Speaker 2: the ball here or they haven't got things right. I
13:31
Speaker 2: just think that these regulations and these engines are just
13:34
Speaker 2: so different and so new. If you are a works team,
13:38
Speaker 2: you are starting so much more on the front foot
13:41
Speaker 2: than a customer team, and you know the secrets in
13:43
Speaker 2: the naming of it. Right, if you're a works team,
13:45
Speaker 2: you have built your chassis with this engine in mind,
13:49
Speaker 2: as opposed to buying it from someone else. And McLaren
13:51
Speaker 2: of the top four teams, and there is a clear
13:53
Speaker 2: delineation between the top four and everybody else. McLaren's the
13:56
Speaker 2: only one of those four teams that is not a
13:58
Speaker 2: works team because Red bulld designs to zewe engined in house.
14:02
Speaker 2: I thought that was really it was really indicative of
14:05
Speaker 2: how both teams performed in qualifying in that if you
14:09
Speaker 2: do a bit of a deep dive into where the
14:11
Speaker 2: deficit was between George Russell and Poll and where the
14:13
Speaker 2: McLaren's were in fifte and six of Piastre and Norris,
14:16
Speaker 2: it was mostly about how Mercedes deployboard it had and
14:20
Speaker 2: perhaps McLaren searching a little bit to try and find
14:23
Speaker 2: the ideal way to do that. I wouldn't go as
14:25
Speaker 2: far as saying that McLaren's got a Turkey vshassis and
14:27
Speaker 2: they're going to be no good. I don't think that's
14:29
Speaker 2: going to be the case. We've seen evidence of them
14:31
Speaker 2: being able to develop over the last couple of years.
14:33
Speaker 2: As we've talked about. But wasn't it interesting that the
14:37
Speaker 2: customer teams felt like they were on their back foot
14:39
Speaker 2: and had more to learn simply because they just don't
14:42
Speaker 2: have the lapse and the hours and the miles in
14:44
Speaker 2: these machines than the works teams do.
14:46
Speaker 1: I thought as an interesting connected point to this, it
14:50
Speaker 1: seemed like it was really only the Mercedes teams that
14:53
Speaker 1: seemed to be raising this. Now there's some context there.
14:56
Speaker 1: One is Mercedes obviously ultimately dominated the weekend, so the
15:00
Speaker 1: looks bigger. The other is that the other brands all
15:03
Speaker 1: have pretty unusual or more different connections. You know, Ferrari
15:06
Speaker 1: has hearts heart actually had quite a good weekend. The
15:09
Speaker 1: only other customer is Cadillac, which no one's wondering about
15:11
Speaker 1: engine performance there. And then red Bull and it's the
15:14
Speaker 1: sister team which also performed quite strongly. Actually relevant to
15:18
Speaker 1: Red Bull Racing did racing bulls. But you're not going
15:21
Speaker 1: to hear racing balls criticizing were Bull racing for anything,
15:24
Speaker 1: if that were even the case. So the situation Mercedes
15:28
Speaker 1: is particular, But I did think that was interesting. Elpine
15:32
Speaker 1: didn't criticize because they said they don't know what Mercedes
15:34
Speaker 1: normally like is the first time they've taken them. I
15:36
Speaker 1: think that's fair enough. But both James Vows and Andrea Stella,
15:39
Speaker 1: the Williams and McLaren bosses, respectively, both suggesting in different
15:45
Speaker 1: ways that they're not getting as much information as they
15:49
Speaker 1: would have liked from Mercedes now. They both said that's
15:51
Speaker 1: pretty normal because information now relates directly to performance in
15:54
Speaker 1: a weight didn't under the old frozen rules, where it
15:57
Speaker 1: was pretty much as long as the engine set up correctly,
15:59
Speaker 1: it'll be reliable, that should all perform the same. There's
16:02
Speaker 1: so much in let's say, the software, all the inputs
16:05
Speaker 1: into the software about understanding how the engine works and
16:08
Speaker 1: then choosing how to harvest ends, all that kind of
16:10
Speaker 1: stuff that does make a difference, and so the works
16:13
Speaker 1: team is suddenly not going to give you all of that,
16:15
Speaker 1: and I wonder, I don't I don't think. I don't
16:17
Speaker 1: think it'd be fair to say it's it's complacency that's
16:19
Speaker 1: crept in. I just think it's it's almost like a
16:21
Speaker 1: muscle that's never had to be flexed because it's a
16:24
Speaker 1: the engine is now a different kind of performance part.
16:27
Speaker 1: I think because it's just so all encompassing in the
16:30
Speaker 1: in lap time. And Orlando Norris, I think you said
16:32
Speaker 1: it after qualifying that it's not just you know, you
16:35
Speaker 1: have a bit more combustion power, right, because the electrical
16:37
Speaker 1: energy is all the same in every car. You have
16:39
Speaker 1: a little bit more combustion power, which means you can
16:42
Speaker 1: roll off a little bit more earlier into the corners,
16:43
Speaker 1: which means you charge your battery a bit more, which
16:45
Speaker 1: got you've got a bit more electrical power at the
16:46
Speaker 1: start of the straits, change your car's faster by the
16:49
Speaker 1: time you get to the corner, which whence you can
16:50
Speaker 1: roll off even more. And it's this virtual circle. And
16:53
Speaker 1: then if you have an efficient car, which is always
16:55
Speaker 1: the challenging formulae efficient aerodynamics, which Mercedes clearly also has,
16:59
Speaker 1: there is are effect here, not just an engine effect.
17:02
Speaker 1: Then it all just compounds and suddenly you look pretty dominant.
17:05
Speaker 1: And so I think Andrea Staler was sort of suggesting
17:07
Speaker 1: maybe half his team's deficit and was a second, wasn't
17:10
Speaker 1: or just under a second, just over a second in
17:12
Speaker 1: qualifying a tense maybe half of it's engine. And then
17:17
Speaker 1: you wonder, well if if you could get that half back,
17:19
Speaker 1: because the telemetry suggests McLaren is getting nowhere near like
17:22
Speaker 1: you were saying what Mercedes was getting out of the
17:25
Speaker 1: corners down the straits. Does that compound into the chassis,
17:28
Speaker 1: like how good or bad is the McLaren chassis. It's
17:31
Speaker 1: sort of difficult to say, So it's become very intriguing.
17:35
Speaker 1: But I think you're absolutely right, because I mean, it's
17:37
Speaker 1: no question or no surprise. I guess we should say
17:39
Speaker 1: that the top two teams obviously competing for victory were
17:42
Speaker 1: works teams. Maybe the top three in the race. You know,
17:46
Speaker 1: Isaac Katzer obviously retired with an engine problem early, but
17:49
Speaker 1: he was thereabouts, I guess, and he's also from obviously
17:52
Speaker 1: a works team. Now I think it is tallic.
17:54
Speaker 2: The intrigue for me is I think we can take
17:56
Speaker 2: what you just described there as a given given that
17:59
Speaker 2: we've got twenty So we've got twenty one rounds left.
18:02
Speaker 2: We're just going to cancel a couple here. How long
18:05
Speaker 2: is it going to take McLaren to be able to
18:08
Speaker 2: get to a point where they feel that they are
18:09
Speaker 2: completely understanding what's propelling their car, And then, as you
18:12
Speaker 2: said before, if they're just throwing a figure out, they're
18:15
Speaker 2: saying half the deficit could be chassis, half of it
18:17
Speaker 2: could be engine. Is that actually the case? How long
18:19
Speaker 2: does it take them to be able to get a
18:22
Speaker 2: decent approximation of what Mercedes is doing out of the
18:25
Speaker 2: works engine? And then and only then will we know
18:27
Speaker 2: where it's chassis stacks up. And I think the something
18:30
Speaker 2: that we probably should discuss is that I think there
18:33
Speaker 2: was this feeling that mercedes advantage was all engine, or
18:37
Speaker 2: that very vast majority engine. It's pretty clear that Shassi
18:40
Speaker 2: is very good, and they've obviously had eggs in this
18:43
Speaker 2: basket for a really long time because they haven't thought
18:45
Speaker 2: for anything meaningful for a while. I think it would
18:47
Speaker 2: be incorrect to purely put what they did down or
18:51
Speaker 2: you know, a vast majority of what they did at
18:53
Speaker 2: Albert Park down to well, they've got this great engine
18:55
Speaker 2: and it's in house and they built everything around it.
18:57
Speaker 2: Clearly that chassis is really really good. And we discussed
19:00
Speaker 2: this in the preseason. You know, George Russell has often
19:06
Speaker 2: been in advantageous situations but just not at the best time.
19:09
Speaker 2: And we got our first demonstrations like all right, this
19:13
Speaker 2: guy can do something. He just looked he never looked
19:16
Speaker 2: like he was going to lose the weekend off his
19:18
Speaker 2: own bat right, And I think if you put him
19:20
Speaker 2: in a car that's this sharp and it's this good,
19:22
Speaker 2: he's already proven that he's more than ready to take
19:26
Speaker 2: up the task there. And it sets the season up
19:28
Speaker 2: really nicely. Because we've had these couple of championship fights
19:31
Speaker 2: of you know, two teams going ahead to head. We
19:33
Speaker 2: still have a two team head to head fight this year.
19:35
Speaker 2: It might just be two different ones.
19:37
Speaker 1: Yes, I think that is a good call that leads
19:39
Speaker 1: me nicely onto what I'm going to call the third lesson,
19:42
Speaker 1: which is that I think actually the summary of Ferrari's
19:45
Speaker 1: weekend is more positive than negative. I think there's a
19:49
Speaker 1: lot of pessimism after qualifying when the gap seemed pretty large,
19:53
Speaker 1: much larger than anyone had hoped for. But I think
19:55
Speaker 1: it is also fair to say, is the track called
19:57
Speaker 1: down on Saturday evening Both McLaren and Ferrari in fact
20:01
Speaker 1: just didn't seem to kick on in Q three, Yes,
20:03
Speaker 1: both let's talk about Leclair and Piastre anyway, said pretty
20:07
Speaker 1: much the same lap times they did in Q two,
20:08
Speaker 1: where George Russell did find more time, So I think
20:10
Speaker 1: that accounts with some of the gap, and then okay,
20:13
Speaker 1: in race conditions, it's clear that Mercedes was the quicker car,
20:16
Speaker 1: but not by that much. And okay, there's probably a
20:19
Speaker 1: degree of Mercedes backing off at the end of the race,
20:22
Speaker 1: but I think Ferrari probably did as well, because they
20:23
Speaker 1: didn't really gain at all in that second half. In
20:26
Speaker 1: any way, I think it was clear the race that
20:28
Speaker 1: had been cooked by the time they got into the
20:29
Speaker 1: second half of the race. But I actually think Ferrari
20:32
Speaker 1: is enough in the ballpark that I'm willing to be
20:37
Speaker 1: hopeful perhaps that as we go to some different tracks
20:40
Speaker 1: where characteristics are going to play different different cars, particularly
20:43
Speaker 1: when we go to more street style tracks or tracks
20:45
Speaker 1: just with more corners, probably where that Ferrari engine is
20:49
Speaker 1: so good out of the corners thanks to that small turbo,
20:51
Speaker 1: great on track. And it's also just a recent historical
20:55
Speaker 1: trait of Ferrari cars. To be honest, that I think Ferrari,
20:59
Speaker 1: with a little bit of a helopment push as well,
21:00
Speaker 1: because so much of this season is going to be
21:02
Speaker 1: about development, can say that they're in the mix. I
21:04
Speaker 1: think Ferrari, I'm not so dispirited to say that this
21:08
Speaker 1: is a Mercedes season. I think Ferrari can actually still
21:11
Speaker 1: have a good crack at this.
21:12
Speaker 2: This is where we've got to with Ferrari. We go
21:14
Speaker 2: it's not as bad as we thought, as opposed to
21:16
Speaker 2: just giving them actual praise like less bad. So that's
21:19
Speaker 2: all good. But you're right about I think. I don't
21:23
Speaker 2: think anyone was surprised to see Mercedes at the front.
21:25
Speaker 2: I think the fact that Ferrari made them work for
21:28
Speaker 2: it and perhaps exceeded our expectations is a good sign
21:31
Speaker 2: for what's to come. And you mentioned the fact that
21:35
Speaker 2: that car was the most predictable thing that happened in
21:38
Speaker 2: the Grand Prix on Sunday was that Charlote Clair was
21:40
Speaker 2: in the lead at turt One, And we were talking
21:42
Speaker 2: about this, you know, three or four days beforehand. If
21:45
Speaker 2: for the sake of the spectacle, we're actually hoping that
21:47
Speaker 2: a Ferrari wouldn't qualify the front row, they'd be second,
21:50
Speaker 2: third row, because we know that thing is an absolute
21:52
Speaker 2: rocket ship off the line, and were it not for
21:55
Speaker 2: charloa Cler getting to turn one in front, then the
21:57
Speaker 2: whole narrative of the race probably up to the point
22:00
Speaker 2: where there's the Hagi safety car like eleven. I think
22:03
Speaker 2: it was the opening ten laps of the race were
22:05
Speaker 2: made by the first two hundred and seventy meters because
22:07
Speaker 2: the Ferrari got to turn white in front, and that's
22:09
Speaker 2: going to be I don't think that's a trait that's
22:12
Speaker 2: going away necessarily. I think, you know, they may suffer
22:15
Speaker 2: in race trim because of it, but you get the
22:16
Speaker 2: feeling this could be a season where Ferrari are more
22:20
Speaker 2: dictating things from the front of races early than perhaps
22:24
Speaker 2: we've seen in previous years. And then what that does
22:26
Speaker 2: for We know Charlotte Clair's quality. We also know Lewis
22:30
Speaker 2: Hamilton can get a bit of a peppitie step when
22:32
Speaker 2: you know things are looking pretty good. He's got something
22:34
Speaker 2: to be optimistic about. It was nice to see optimistic
22:36
Speaker 2: Lewis this week. I've haven't seen that for a while.
22:37
Speaker 2: It's a bit a bit doom and gloom. Even when
22:39
Speaker 2: he didn't finish on the podium, he was still very
22:41
Speaker 2: positive about things. But I think the the hierarchy of
22:45
Speaker 2: the teams is not a surprise, but maybe the fact
22:49
Speaker 2: that Ferrari seems to be more in the ballpark than
22:51
Speaker 2: we thought as a starting point, I think is really
22:53
Speaker 2: good for the narrative of the season because we know
22:56
Speaker 2: there's no issue there in terms of the driver quality.
22:59
Speaker 2: And I like these two lineups in a head to
23:02
Speaker 2: head with each other. That's what it turns into because
23:05
Speaker 2: they're so different. You've got the Antonelli inexperience and youth
23:08
Speaker 2: and the Russell's like, we think he can do this,
23:10
Speaker 2: but we're not entirely sure. Leclair, to me, has been
23:13
Speaker 2: a world champion hiding in playing sight for years. He
23:15
Speaker 2: just hasn't had the equipment to do it in and
23:16
Speaker 2: we know Lewis Hamilton's CV. So if that's what it
23:19
Speaker 2: ends up becoming, it's actually a really good narrative for
23:21
Speaker 2: Formula One to see the two biggest, probably strongest teams
23:26
Speaker 2: going head to head in a battle, coming at it
23:29
Speaker 2: from really different directions.
23:30
Speaker 1: Yes, I did enjoy Lewis Hamilon the return of the
23:33
Speaker 1: old Lewis Hamilton this weekend. Ye rus is back fairly
23:36
Speaker 1: close in face to Charles, which is fine, you know,
23:39
Speaker 1: this weekend when everyone's learning a lot. I think I
23:42
Speaker 1: think Leclair is a little bit his adaptability, he's maybe
23:45
Speaker 1: a little bit underestimated. I think he's just very good
23:48
Speaker 1: at getting the most from the car, and I think
23:50
Speaker 1: maybe that's just not appreciated because as be honest, it's
23:52
Speaker 1: never been a position to really show it off like that.
23:54
Speaker 1: I mean, of course we have to ask for schol of.
23:56
Speaker 1: This was the same people making the strategy decisions on
23:58
Speaker 1: the pit wall understood in I understood to some extent
24:02
Speaker 1: the gamble they took not stopping that first BSc and
24:06
Speaker 1: then the second one. Unfortunately the pit lane was closed,
24:08
Speaker 1: and I mean there's some debate about whether or not
24:10
Speaker 1: Hamilton could have entered pit lane. They just went ready
24:12
Speaker 1: for it. But it just feels like that we already
24:16
Speaker 1: know what the handicap on Ferrari season is and it
24:18
Speaker 1: may not be the car, probably the pitwall. But let's
24:22
Speaker 1: see how they go in the next couple of races.
24:25
Speaker 1: But I think reason if you're a Ferrari fan, to
24:27
Speaker 1: at least be a little bit cautiously optimistic that this
24:30
Speaker 1: year is still on the track the team would have
24:32
Speaker 1: hoped for last year. Now, before I ask you what
24:34
Speaker 1: your next lesson is, let's go to Move of the
24:36
Speaker 1: Week brought to you by Shannon's a lot of it
24:40
Speaker 1: for me to one boasted of the amount of overtaking
24:41
Speaker 1: this week, and I think they said it was one
24:43
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty up from forty or forty odds last
24:46
Speaker 1: year the Stralian Grand Prix, so well, obviously the rules
24:49
Speaker 1: are working, no asterisks required. But what caught your eye.
24:52
Speaker 2: What court why eye? Was something that I didn't realize
24:55
Speaker 2: that had happened until probably two hours actually after the race.
24:57
Speaker 2: So to peel the curtain back here, Michael and I
25:00
Speaker 2: standing in the as per tradition, standing in the Albert
25:02
Speaker 2: Park Media Center window watching the cars file out for
25:05
Speaker 2: their practice starts on the reconnaissance laps, and then I
25:08
Speaker 2: see the medical cargo barreling out and obviously because Oscar
25:11
Speaker 2: Piastre has been on the way there. But what I
25:14
Speaker 2: didn't see off the actual start of the race, because
25:16
Speaker 2: I was too busy pecking words into my laptop at
25:18
Speaker 2: the time about Oscar Piastre was the move of the
25:20
Speaker 2: week is Franco Colopinto not completely rear ending Len Lawson
25:23
Speaker 2: off the start line. And when you saw the replay
25:26
Speaker 2: of that, you knew it was close by watching the
25:29
Speaker 2: reaction of the podium finishes in the cooled down room afterwards,
25:32
Speaker 2: where it's obviously the first time they had seen it
25:34
Speaker 2: as well, and Liam Lawson's car just did not move
25:37
Speaker 2: off the line. How Franco Colopinto missed Lawson, missed anyone
25:42
Speaker 2: else and didn't hit the pitball on the inside. There's
25:46
Speaker 2: a good fortune and good judgment, whatever you want to
25:48
Speaker 2: describe it as. We avoided a very very nasty accident
25:53
Speaker 2: through a bit of a stroke of luck. The move
25:54
Speaker 2: of the week to me is Franco Colopinto's reflexes on
26:00
Speaker 2: very limited evidence, very very well suited to driving in
26:02
Speaker 2: Formula One, because when you saw that back on the
26:05
Speaker 2: replay from multiple angles, I still can't believe those two
26:07
Speaker 2: cars didn't make contact.
26:09
Speaker 1: It is remarkable, isn't it. And I think you know,
26:11
Speaker 1: I'm probably guilty of this as well. I was always
26:13
Speaker 1: thinking we're talking about that. We've been talking about the
26:15
Speaker 1: risk of the starts for quite a few weeks. Andrea
26:18
Speaker 1: Staler was one of the few to really say we
26:20
Speaker 1: need to think about this, but several others did. But
26:22
Speaker 1: it was a lot of it was talked about because
26:25
Speaker 1: the cars at the very back of the grid wouldn't
26:27
Speaker 1: have the time to make their It was comical hearing
26:29
Speaker 1: in real life at the first time their cars rev
26:32
Speaker 1: up to maximum screaming for ten seconds off getting away
26:36
Speaker 1: that because they'd arrived last, they wouldn't have the time
26:38
Speaker 1: to do that, they'd probably get worse starts. But Lawson,
26:41
Speaker 1: I think was eighth on the grid, thereabouts in the middle,
26:44
Speaker 1: let's say, pretty much in the middle, which means that
26:47
Speaker 1: by the time those guys who did start at the
26:49
Speaker 1: back got going, they're already up to speed by the
26:52
Speaker 1: time they get to laws them Like. It wasn't as
26:53
Speaker 1: if it was a rear ending in your local shopping
26:55
Speaker 1: car park. This would have been an enormous highway style accident.
27:00
Speaker 1: And I think that suddenly, you know, maybe we're fortunate
27:04
Speaker 1: that that's happened in that way, because it feels like
27:07
Speaker 1: the lesson to be learned there is We've got to
27:09
Speaker 1: take it seriously because we've got quite lucky to have
27:14
Speaker 1: missed something that could have been more significant. So I
27:17
Speaker 1: think that is a good call. I'm very happy with
27:19
Speaker 1: that one. I'm going to go maybe even slightly more
27:22
Speaker 1: left field than that is Move of the Week. I
27:24
Speaker 1: was going to give it to Charlotte Clair for his
27:26
Speaker 1: great off the start line threading of the needle, because
27:29
Speaker 1: as good as the Ferrari car was. He also I
27:30
Speaker 1: think didn't have very much battery power, so they're all
27:32
Speaker 1: affected by not a lot of battery but just slicing
27:35
Speaker 1: between Isaac Adder and George Russell. Needed a little bit
27:37
Speaker 1: of cooperation or not silliness from those ahead, and he
27:40
Speaker 1: did a good job. But I'm going to go and
27:42
Speaker 1: give my move of the week I think to the
27:44
Speaker 1: whole Aston Martin team, at least Fernando Alonso, but the
27:49
Speaker 1: whole Aston Martin team for effortlessly I think shifting one
27:54
Speaker 1: hundred percent of the blame for their problems on to
27:56
Speaker 1: Honda in weekend long campaign. Now let's look, let's up
28:01
Speaker 1: there around the bush. Clearly the Hondre engines unreliability is
28:04
Speaker 1: the first order problem of this car. I'm not sure
28:08
Speaker 1: I believe what Adrian Nui and Fernando Alonso was saying,
28:11
Speaker 1: which is if it had any other engine, essentially it
28:13
Speaker 1: would be leading the race, so it'd be right at the front.
28:16
Speaker 1: But we don't know, to be fair with them, we
28:18
Speaker 1: don't know exactly how good it is because the end
28:20
Speaker 1: keeps breaking down. But I just thought it was remarkable
28:23
Speaker 1: how quickly, how quickly it went straight toward Honda's done it,
28:27
Speaker 1: Adrian Nuei claiming that they didn't know Honda was behind
28:31
Speaker 1: until visiting the factory last November, despite I think he
28:35
Speaker 1: literally years of reporting rumors that Honda was behind, despite
28:39
Speaker 1: him working for the previous Honda Works team at Red
28:41
Speaker 1: Bull Racing and seeing them dissolve and reform. And then
28:45
Speaker 1: I'm just gone to try and find the quote from
28:47
Speaker 1: Fernando Alonso after practice, when I think he completed a
28:50
Speaker 1: grand total of something like that, didn't run an FP one,
28:54
Speaker 1: not much learning, to be honest, he said, Unfortunately, and
28:57
Speaker 1: I'm adding a little bit of emphasis here, but if
28:59
Speaker 1: you listen to audio, his emphasis also there. Unfortunately, the
29:03
Speaker 1: Honda issue in FP one and some Honda issues as
29:06
Speaker 1: well in FP two a little bit limited our number
29:08
Speaker 1: of laps today, and that was not needed because we
29:10
Speaker 1: need to recover, and then asked about his prospects for
29:13
Speaker 1: the rest of the weekend, which actually competed more laps
29:15
Speaker 1: in the race than I expected. Must be the nerve damage.
29:18
Speaker 1: I don't know. I just drive the car. It's more
29:20
Speaker 1: of a question for Honda, and then said it was
29:23
Speaker 1: disappointed that despite Honda supplying only one team they've run
29:26
Speaker 1: out of parts already at round one. So move of
29:29
Speaker 1: the week the blame goes to Honda.
29:32
Speaker 2: Yes, they didn't so much just throw Honda under the bus.
29:34
Speaker 2: They reversed the bus back over Honda several times on
29:37
Speaker 2: the way out. But man, the comedy, the unintentional comedy
29:42
Speaker 2: moment of the entire weekend was Adrian Neue's press conference
29:45
Speaker 2: to talk about how bad things were Aston Martin and
29:47
Speaker 2: Honda and the microphone that he was using just basically
29:50
Speaker 2: wouldn't work and just get falling over. It was an
29:53
Speaker 2: absolute joke of a press conference. And yeah, we made
29:56
Speaker 2: the very very unkind analogy on I think it was Thursday,
30:00
Speaker 2: whatever day that was where the press Copperatece worked for
30:03
Speaker 2: twenty minutes, which was probably more lapse. So we actually
30:05
Speaker 2: figured that Aston Martin would go to do over the
30:07
Speaker 2: course of the Grand Prix, Lancetroll had Lancetro was playing
30:11
Speaker 2: a bit of cricket on the weekend that he did
30:12
Speaker 2: a few laps. He came in and had a cup
30:14
Speaker 2: of two, jumped out, they fixed a few things on
30:15
Speaker 2: the car and then he went back out again. So
30:17
Speaker 2: we've now got a mandatory beverage breaks in Formula one.
30:21
Speaker 2: It is an absolute embarrassment for everything that's going on there.
30:25
Speaker 2: No may whether you want to point the blame at
30:26
Speaker 2: Aston Martin or hondro It or falls in the embarrassment basket.
30:29
Speaker 2: It is pretty wifle.
30:31
Speaker 1: It is great, but things can only well. I say
30:34
Speaker 1: things can get better. Sometimes things gets worse before they
30:36
Speaker 1: get better. Sometimes things get worse before they get worse.
30:38
Speaker 1: So I'll have to wait and see how it goes
30:40
Speaker 1: in Aston Martin. But let's get back to our lessons
30:42
Speaker 1: from the Australian Grand Prix. Matt, what else did you
30:45
Speaker 1: learn this weekend?
30:47
Speaker 2: Let's go a little left field here. I wasn't one
30:51
Speaker 2: hundred percent convinced about the whole avidlynd Blood thing. I've
30:54
Speaker 2: got to be okay, very good in not necessarily because
30:57
Speaker 2: I thought that he was worthy of being in Formula one.
30:59
Speaker 2: But some times you see these guys in F two
31:01
Speaker 2: and you're like, eh, you know, like there's something there,
31:04
Speaker 2: but it's not super consistent. And he was incredibly impressive
31:08
Speaker 2: with what he did on track. He was also incredibly
31:10
Speaker 2: impressive with just how he handled the entire thing. You
31:12
Speaker 2: have to remember he's eighteen years old, right, and I mean,
31:15
Speaker 2: I know the grid Sku's younger, and these guys come
31:17
Speaker 2: in so ready now you're not worried that they're going
31:19
Speaker 2: to be some sort of risk to their rivals or
31:21
Speaker 2: what have you. But I thought, you know, even obviously
31:23
Speaker 2: Lawson had the compromise start, we never really got to
31:25
Speaker 2: see how he was going to race, But I thought
31:28
Speaker 2: Limblad was incredibly impressive given the complexity of driving these cars. Yes,
31:33
Speaker 2: a track that he'd been on inn F two before,
31:35
Speaker 2: but still it's a completely different challenge. I wasn't expecting
31:38
Speaker 2: him to be terrible by any means, but he was
31:40
Speaker 2: really really quite impressive given the stakes, his age, his experience,
31:44
Speaker 2: And that car looked halfway decent, didn't it.
31:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, it did. I think, as we mentioned, whether or
31:49
Speaker 1: that's all power unit or the car actually just looks
31:51
Speaker 1: a bit better put together than it certainly didn't testing.
31:54
Speaker 1: In testing it was hard to place, I suppose, so
31:56
Speaker 1: maybe it's just a somewhat obscure, but it looked arguably
32:01
Speaker 1: near the head of the midfield. I think has probably
32:03
Speaker 1: emerged front of the midfield by the end of the weekend,
32:05
Speaker 1: but Racing Bulls was right there. Obviously. World Points contender.
32:09
Speaker 1: I wasn't thought. I thought you'd very well. I thought, also,
32:12
Speaker 1: I've been a little bit skeptical of linn Blad's rapid
32:15
Speaker 1: elevation to Formula one. I thought his F two season
32:18
Speaker 1: last year was pretty ordinary. There is this vibe now
32:22
Speaker 1: in F one that it's not F two results anymore,
32:25
Speaker 1: it's about you. You get him in for practice, you
32:27
Speaker 1: see how they go in a testing of a previous car,
32:29
Speaker 1: and you read into that because F to become a
32:32
Speaker 1: bit random, I guess, or that they were usually good
32:35
Speaker 1: teams are not necessarily there anymore, or whatever the case.
32:38
Speaker 1: That seems to be it. But nonetheless, it seems like
32:42
Speaker 1: we know now there was some reporting, wasn't it, that
32:43
Speaker 1: this was sort of helmet Marco's last action was to
32:46
Speaker 1: unilaterally promote him when no one else at Red Bull
32:49
Speaker 1: thought he was ready and so and then Hart Marco was.
32:53
Speaker 1: He left in the commas. So I was a little
32:57
Speaker 1: bit skeptical, and I thought, actually that meant there was
32:58
Speaker 1: a bit of pressure on him to prove his elevation.
33:01
Speaker 1: But on the evidence of the first weekend, I think
33:04
Speaker 1: he did very well. I'd like you say, we are
33:06
Speaker 1: missing that comparison with Lawson a little bit this weekend.
33:08
Speaker 1: He was that qualified by Lawson, but not by much.
33:11
Speaker 1: And Lawson will be a good bar you know. He's
33:12
Speaker 1: a tough racer and he's pretty quick as well. But
33:15
Speaker 1: I thought, considering he's also the only rookie, it's not
33:18
Speaker 1: like last year we had six and it was all
33:20
Speaker 1: you know, I think we were sort of anticipating a
33:23
Speaker 1: tough ride for all of them and they could be
33:25
Speaker 1: compared and whatever. I think he fit in pretty well
33:28
Speaker 1: as a new guy on the grid.
33:29
Speaker 2: He did. I was also pleased to know that we
33:32
Speaker 2: had lots of it's Sussex versus Chelmsford commentary outside of
33:37
Speaker 2: the outside of the top six, So add that to
33:40
Speaker 2: your big go card for every coverage this year. Enjoyed
33:42
Speaker 2: that took not but he was impressive. I wasn't expecting
33:47
Speaker 2: him to be terrible by any means, but a victory
33:50
Speaker 2: lap for Helbert Marco he might have to come back.
33:52
Speaker 1: Yes, remarkable first race in probably twenty years without helmet
33:57
Speaker 1: marker at the racetrack. Considering I don't think he ever
33:59
Speaker 1: missed one time, so it was living with him. Not sure.
34:03
Speaker 2: Well, a few journalists where he was giving you unscripted
34:07
Speaker 2: soundbites and he wasn't supposed to be giving the journals,
34:09
Speaker 2: but we wished that a little bit. But Red Bull
34:12
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six, it's just odd when they turn up
34:14
Speaker 2: to Melbourne and there's no Christian Order and there's no
34:16
Speaker 2: helmet Marco and there's no I mean, there's another new
34:18
Speaker 2: teammate for Max for Staffan, but that's not exactly new.
34:21
Speaker 2: But it felt very very different.
34:23
Speaker 1: Yes, well, let me give you one other lesson of mine,
34:25
Speaker 1: and I thought felt very different. In a not unrelated note,
34:29
Speaker 1: that the guy who's in the same car as Max
34:32
Speaker 1: for Staffen did okay, which is real shock. Isaac hadja
34:37
Speaker 1: from the beginning of the weekend, in fact looked like
34:41
Speaker 1: he had a good handle on the car. And this
34:44
Speaker 1: is important to say, not just in the context of
34:46
Speaker 1: the previous how many were there three teammates in the
34:50
Speaker 1: last twenty five weekends that a Max of Staffin had
34:52
Speaker 1: three previous drivers occupants of that car struggling, but also
34:56
Speaker 1: even in pre season testing, while there was no obvious
34:58
Speaker 1: signs of struggle other than that crash in the rain
35:01
Speaker 1: in Barcelona in what feels like one hundred years ago,
35:03
Speaker 1: it was only about a month ago, I think, but
35:05
Speaker 1: didn't ever really look like he was on the Staffan's
35:08
Speaker 1: pace throughout testing. Perhaps he wasn't because of course, for
35:11
Speaker 1: Stappen dropped the car in Q one, so there was
35:13
Speaker 1: no direct comparison by the time Hadjo got to Q three.
35:16
Speaker 1: But he got to Q three, which was very impressive.
35:18
Speaker 1: He qualified right up the front on the second row,
35:21
Speaker 1: had a shot at leading the race, but ran out
35:23
Speaker 1: of batteries. Everyone seemed to now the run to the
35:26
Speaker 1: first turn and was really right there in the opening
35:29
Speaker 1: stage of the race. I don't know. He probably wouldn't
35:32
Speaker 1: have finished on the podium. I suppose that seemed really
35:34
Speaker 1: locked down by Ferrari the last opportunity there, but probably
35:36
Speaker 1: would have finished a pretty comfortable fifth by the end
35:38
Speaker 1: of the race. Would have been a really good start.
35:41
Speaker 1: I wrote it after qualifying on the Fox Sports website.
35:44
Speaker 1: That's the first time any Red Bull racing drivers qualified
35:49
Speaker 1: so well that he isn't Maxi Stappen obviously. Since the
35:53
Speaker 1: Azerbaijan Grand Prix of twenty twenty four, I think it
35:55
Speaker 1: is you go to go really back all the way
35:57
Speaker 1: to Sergeio prayers. I wish I had it open for
35:58
Speaker 1: me now so I can get these stats real. It's crazy,
36:02
Speaker 1: real good drought breakers that he achieved over the course
36:05
Speaker 1: of qualified. Yeah, and important as well, just in the
36:09
Speaker 1: context that we shouldn't forget what Red Bull Racing's doing there,
36:12
Speaker 1: which is supporting maxwas staff at all costs and the
36:15
Speaker 1: reason they have a second driver, Yes, it is because
36:17
Speaker 1: they're bledsho under the rules, but they just want someone
36:20
Speaker 1: there to pick up the pieces that Max might very
36:22
Speaker 1: occasionally drop. This weekend, he dropped a lot of pieces.
36:25
Speaker 1: He crashed, and Isaac Kadja did what Red Bull Racing
36:29
Speaker 1: probably probably the maximum, let's be honest, for Red Bull
36:31
Speaker 1: Racing by qualifying that car in the second drive.
36:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's not a lot of requirements in that position description.
36:37
Speaker 2: You know, if you're putting a job out there, really
36:39
Speaker 2: it's just you know, just just be there with your
36:41
Speaker 2: dustpad and brusher and just sweep up if maxwistab and
36:43
Speaker 2: drops and he crumbs, and Isaac Kajar did that. Cathy third,
36:47
Speaker 2: as you said, probably look like a nailed on top five,
36:49
Speaker 2: but for the unreliability, really good sign. Also can't say
36:52
Speaker 2: I'm super surprised with him because there's something something I
36:56
Speaker 2: really enjoy about him is that he is his own
36:58
Speaker 2: harshest critic in he holds himself incredibly accountable. And I've
37:03
Speaker 2: felt how to say this diplomatically, Ah, let's just you
37:07
Speaker 2: can you can rethrow my Deploymacy. The previous occupants of
37:11
Speaker 2: that seat, shall we say, going back to back you
37:13
Speaker 2: twenty four or whatever you were talking about it, it
37:15
Speaker 2: always seemed to be something or somebody else's fault most
37:18
Speaker 2: of the time. And I think that Isaac will probably
37:21
Speaker 2: beat himself up a fair bit when things his fault,
37:23
Speaker 2: and he probably also will do that when they're not.
37:26
Speaker 2: But yeah, really good sign for him. And yeah, I
37:28
Speaker 2: really redbel might have two competent drivers in its car.
37:31
Speaker 1: Imagine, yes, imagine, I mean we over the course of
37:34
Speaker 1: this sort of review, it feels like we almost have
37:36
Speaker 1: all top four teams with fully competent lineups this year,
37:40
Speaker 1: which is really remarkable. I've pulled up those statistics for you.
37:42
Speaker 1: Here go you like these an Anie could stat Isaac
37:45
Speaker 1: Kadja is the first Red Bull Racing driver to qualify
37:47
Speaker 1: inside the top ten on their debut since Max Forstaffan
37:51
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen at the Spanish from Prison.
37:53
Speaker 2: Yeah.
37:53
Speaker 1: Third on the grid is the best starting position for
37:56
Speaker 1: the second Red Bull Racing cars in Sergio pairs at
37:58
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty four Belgian Grand Pre nearly six hundred
38:01
Speaker 1: days prior Wow, and it was the first time for
38:03
Speaker 1: stap and had been quite out qualified by his teammates
38:05
Speaker 1: since the twenty twenty four hours of by Jiangrandbrix. That's
38:07
Speaker 1: what I was thinking of. So some long old droughts
38:10
Speaker 1: broken by Isaac Cadja, which I think can only be
38:13
Speaker 1: a good sign. I mean, touch wood. If there's any
38:16
Speaker 1: new you right now, shame if you're in the car.
38:19
Speaker 1: But it seems like a good sign for the start
38:20
Speaker 1: of his Red Bull Racing career, which is good news
38:24
Speaker 1: for that team as well as attempts to build itself
38:26
Speaker 1: up under these rules. Matt, last lesson from you for
38:30
Speaker 1: the weekend.
38:32
Speaker 2: We're thirty eight minutes into this. I don't know whether
38:34
Speaker 2: this is a lesson or a lament. Michael. Do we
38:36
Speaker 2: have the Oscar Piastric conversation at this point because we
38:39
Speaker 2: have with the Fox Sports we probably should, well we
38:42
Speaker 2: probably should thirty eight minutes in and we've not really
38:44
Speaker 2: mentioned him yet because of Yeah, it was I don't
38:48
Speaker 2: think I've ever heard one hundred and thirty five thousand
38:52
Speaker 2: people gasp and then be completely silent, or whatever the
38:55
Speaker 2: crowd was onside that, I can't remember. At the same time,
38:58
Speaker 2: it was astonishing what happened before the race. It would
39:02
Speaker 2: have been a terrible set of circumstances at any race track,
39:06
Speaker 2: but to do it in the first race of the season,
39:07
Speaker 2: when you've just come off a season where you've led
39:09
Speaker 2: for two thirds of it, and the amount the color
39:13
Speaker 2: palette of Albert Park last weekend was so interesting, and
39:16
Speaker 2: it was this mixture of green and gold and orange,
39:20
Speaker 2: and then in an absolute instant, half an hour before
39:23
Speaker 2: the race, it felt like everybody was inappropriately dressed. They
39:25
Speaker 2: should have been in black because Albert Park was incomplete
39:29
Speaker 2: morning at this point. There's a part of me that
39:31
Speaker 2: still can't quite believe it. But I mean, where do
39:35
Speaker 2: we unpick this, because it's not a matter of simply
39:38
Speaker 2: pointing the finger at the car in this situation or
39:40
Speaker 2: the driver. It was, unfortunately a bit of column at,
39:43
Speaker 2: a bit of Columbarie, wasn't it. Yeah?
39:44
Speaker 1: I think it was, which feels very uncharacteristic. Yes, you know,
39:47
Speaker 1: you had such an uncharacteristic crash and qualifying from Max
39:50
Speaker 1: and then backed it up with usually the rock solid,
39:53
Speaker 1: dependable Osco Piastre. It's spinning out on the reconnaissance Lamb. Yes,
39:56
Speaker 1: said there was a little bit of unexpected engine behavior,
39:59
Speaker 1: but also you just on the curbs, and ultimately that's
40:01
Speaker 1: down to him. If he wasn't on the curb, he
40:02
Speaker 1: wouldn't have crashed, notwithstanding out having used the curb for
40:06
Speaker 1: pretty much every lap that he undertook at Albert Park.
40:09
Speaker 1: Very unfortunate, very awkward. I was sure because of his
40:12
Speaker 1: helmet for this weekend and there's a lot of bright
40:13
Speaker 1: yellow or something on there. I'm sure it was Norris advice,
40:16
Speaker 1: I possibly the Oscar, and then of course it was
40:20
Speaker 1: I don't know if that was just a little bit
40:21
Speaker 1: of me preparing to cover my home race speaking there,
40:24
Speaker 1: but that's what it looked like because of that helmet
40:25
Speaker 1: to me. Anyway. I wonder if the lesson here though,
40:30
Speaker 1: is yet to be learned. I mean, Oscar's certainly learned
40:32
Speaker 1: some kind of lesson out of all of this, out
40:34
Speaker 1: of the curbs maybe, but is that he will Well,
40:38
Speaker 1: let's find out this is the lesson bounce back from this,
40:40
Speaker 1: because It's remarkable, isn't it that much like last year?
40:44
Speaker 1: He's going to start the season or round two with
40:46
Speaker 1: practically no points. Last year exactly where I was going. Yeah, correct,
40:49
Speaker 1: this year it's zero points. He's only I think it's
40:53
Speaker 1: at ten points behind Lando Norris think he's got ten
40:55
Speaker 1: points this week he did, but still of course twenty
40:57
Speaker 1: five points behind tidally to a Drussell. And that's the
41:00
Speaker 1: that we want to keep an eye on, at least
41:01
Speaker 1: for now, until it becomes clear whether or not McLaren
41:03
Speaker 1: is in the title fight or will be in the
41:05
Speaker 1: title fight. But the lesson may be that he's got
41:08
Speaker 1: to dig deep again. Last year he took the lead
41:10
Speaker 1: by after the fifth round in Saudi Arabia, so who
41:13
Speaker 1: took him four weekends to overhaul that twenty three point deficit.
41:17
Speaker 1: It's obviously a very different context this year, but funny
41:21
Speaker 1: that he should be engaging in the exact same sort
41:24
Speaker 1: of comeback two years in a row.
41:26
Speaker 2: Well, and the fact that we're going to Shanghai a
41:28
Speaker 2: week after Melbourne that we did last year. He won
41:30
Speaker 2: there last year. All of these analogous things you could
41:32
Speaker 2: look at from twenty twenty five to twenty twenty six.
41:35
Speaker 2: But the difference for me this time is that last
41:38
Speaker 2: year he in McLaren were in a comfortable one too
41:41
Speaker 2: last year and they were clearly the class of the field,
41:43
Speaker 2: and at the end, towards the end of the race,
41:46
Speaker 2: Norris survived a range shower and Piastre didn't necessarily and
41:50
Speaker 2: drop down the order, but McLaren it was pretty clear
41:52
Speaker 2: they had a significant advantage, so it looked like it
41:54
Speaker 2: was going to be a race between the two of them.
41:56
Speaker 2: We can't say that about McLaren right now for reasons
41:59
Speaker 2: that we've discussed earlier this podcast. There's certainly not in
42:01
Speaker 2: that position of ascendency yet and yet might be the
42:04
Speaker 2: key word in that, because there's a big story to
42:06
Speaker 2: unfold here, but I don't think it's all. Look, he
42:10
Speaker 2: was the better of the two McLaren drivers the entire
42:12
Speaker 2: weekend until we got to race Daty. He was faster
42:14
Speaker 2: and every single practice session all the elements of qualified
42:17
Speaker 2: higher on the grid. Norris just seemed. Norris wasn't quite
42:22
Speaker 2: in for stappad level grumpy, but he was certainly grumpy
42:24
Speaker 2: of the most about the cars, and obviously, when you've
42:26
Speaker 2: come off a world championship. You've got the most to
42:28
Speaker 2: lose if things aren't going your way. But it's not
42:31
Speaker 2: all doom and gloom. But man, of all the races
42:34
Speaker 2: to do that in, given the expectation and the build up,
42:38
Speaker 2: and I mean, you know, you've been doing this event
42:41
Speaker 2: for a million years. Same with me. I don't think
42:43
Speaker 2: I've ever seen Daniel Ricardo was incredibly popular. Mark Webber
42:46
Speaker 2: was popular for what if one was back in twenty
42:49
Speaker 2: ten to twelve or thirteen. Whenever he finished, there was
42:52
Speaker 2: something just different about the way that felt this weekend.
42:54
Speaker 2: And to just see the air come out of the
42:56
Speaker 2: balloon before the race even began and we didn't actually
42:58
Speaker 2: get to see it play out, was a pretty disparting.
43:01
Speaker 1: He's clearly collected a pretty broad constituency of fans. I
43:05
Speaker 1: think Oscar Piastre there's nothing, there's nothing interesting about him.
43:09
Speaker 1: So I think everyone not that there really was any
43:11
Speaker 1: about Daniel Riccardo, either me, even Mark Weber. I guess,
43:13
Speaker 1: but I guess generally the constituency of the sports audience
43:17
Speaker 1: has changed as a result, as you say, And you know,
43:20
Speaker 1: I got to admit the Orange and Green Caps they
43:22
Speaker 1: kind of worked weally, those colors in my head don't work,
43:24
Speaker 1: but I thought they looked good. So it's a shame
43:26
Speaker 1: that they were all for nothing and the Australia curse continues.
43:30
Speaker 1: We get to rupt about it again next year. Matt.
43:32
Speaker 1: That's still no home podium at a World Championship Grand Prix,
43:37
Speaker 1: sad state affairs. Also still no victories for Osco Piastree
43:41
Speaker 1: since that Burger dearly did late last year to give
43:43
Speaker 1: away free burgers.
43:45
Speaker 2: Well that maybe maybe the real curse, maybe there's a
43:48
Speaker 2: story and that he might need to go vegetaria or so.
43:51
Speaker 1: Well, let us know what you took away from the
43:54
Speaker 1: season opening Australian Grand Prix at Fox Motorsport. And all
43:57
Speaker 1: your social media channels are on YouTube with it's up
44:00
Speaker 1: on YouTube by now wherever you like, send someone an
44:02
Speaker 1: email if you like, and just mentioned the podcast. But
44:04
Speaker 1: that's all the time we have for pit Talk this week.
44:06
Speaker 1: You can subscribe to Pittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts,
44:09
Speaker 1: and you can leave us a rating and review as well.
44:11
Speaker 1: This weekend, Formula one continues with the Chinese Grand Prix
44:14
Speaker 1: at six pm on Sunday Eastern daylight time. As it
44:19
Speaker 1: still is, there's also a sprint on Saturday at two
44:22
Speaker 1: pm if you want extra racing, and who knows how
44:25
Speaker 1: that's going to go on to these new rules. You
44:26
Speaker 1: can catch every minute of Formula one and MotoGP and
44:29
Speaker 1: Supercars on Fox Sports and KO and you keep up
44:32
Speaker 1: today with all the latest F one, Supercars and MotoGP
44:34
Speaker 1: news from Fox sports dot com dot Au from Matt
44:37
Speaker 1: Clayton and me, Michael Lamonato. Thanks very much for your company.
44:40
Speaker 1: We'll catch you next week. Wo