Latest / Pit Talk / Is Toyota really back in F1? United States GP Preview

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Is Toyota really back in F1? United States GP Preview · Pit Talk

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to pit Talk, a Fox Sports and
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Speed Cafe Formula one podcast. On today's episode, Formula one
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: is back for the United States Grand Prix, the first
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: of six rounds in eight weekends to conclude the season,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: and Toyota makes its F one come back sort of.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: My name's Michael Lomonato, motorsport rider for Fox Sports Australia.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: It's great to have your company and the company of
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: my co host from Speed Cafe. Oh what a feeling.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: It's Matt Cosh.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: It's good to be back. Marvelous For those who didn't
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: get that one. Toyota was a big sponsor at the
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Cricket back in the day. Yeah, what where a couple
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: of weeks it's been. It's been a hot minute since
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: we've been, since we've had a chat, and there's been
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: both a lot and not a lot happening all at
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: the same time, depending which end of Pitlane you really
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: choose to look at, I guess it's been a stranger,
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: or choose not to look at Pitlin at all.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Yes, for that matter, you'd be perfectly entitled to enjoy
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: the breakaway. You can consume other sports if you like,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: but now you welcome back into the Formuda one fold.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: It has been weird because it has been the exact
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: same length as the mid season break, but only a
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: month or two after it. No one knows why it's well,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: we know why it's happened. The scheduling hasn't gone exactly
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the plan. But here we are, having enjoyed a little
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: break before we have these six in eight races, some
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: of which, though, are in decent Australian time zones which
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: you might be excited to hear. Others though very bad,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: but we'll get to them when we get to them
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: later on in the season. But Matt, some things have
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: happened in the last couple of weeks news wise. Because
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: there was no shutdown, things were allowed to progress on
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: various fronts. So let's get into the top five stories
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: you might have missed over the last couple of weeks
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: since Formula one has been adjourned, and we're starting in
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: France with Reno, where Reno ceo Luca Demeao has defended
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: his decision to shut down his company's engine operation after
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: almost fifty years in Formula one due to exorbitant costs,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: without being set to become a customer team from twenty
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: twenty six.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a bit of lip service in that because
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: obviously after it was in nineteen ninety seven Reno pulled
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: out that went to Mecha Chrome, so there was all
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: sorts of funny games there, although they was still Renos.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: And but yeah, it's it's kind of a big deal
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: and that we're going to have a factory team that's
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: not a factory team because it's going to be a
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: customer team of a factory. I've got no idea what's
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: going on with this one, basically, but Demayo insists that
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: it's not our pen or Reno group shaping up to
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: sell the organization. I'm still not convinced by that, because,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: you know what, there's value in having an engine program.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: If you're a factory operation, if you don't have an
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: engine program, why not just cut your losses and be
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: a sponsor and rather than spending hundreds of millions, you
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: can spend tens of millions for the same exposure with
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: less risk.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about earlier in a second, but my favorite
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: part of interview, this was all from interview with the
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Keep the French newspaper, was that he just constantly threw
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the engine program under the bus, you know, won't put
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: enough no matter how much money they spent, why would
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: they be any better later? So really, you know he
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: went to town. I guess they're closed down now, so
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: there's nothing they can do about it.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Well, well, they look like jokers, he said. There's some
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: really good lines in that. We were spot as journalists.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: What we do We see these quotes as journalists, we
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: go through and we look for the big line, the
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: most controversial thing, he said, And that's our sort of hook,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: and we just spoilt for choice. Yes, you just throw
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: it a dart and your land on another one.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Olphane's been really good for those quotes in the last
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: couple of years, So may it continue. Let's move kind
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: of towards the United States now. Michael Andretti, head of
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Andretti Global, will step back from day to day running
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: of the company bearing his and his father's famous surname,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: but he says it's not connected to his so far
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: unsuccessful attempt to crack Formula one. In fact, his Formula
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: one program is still building steam ahead of what it
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: hopes will be a twenty twenty sixth entry.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in fact, it will have a twenty twenty six
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: spec chassis before Christmas. That's one that I managed to
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: break a week or so back. So production there is
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: going really strong, and I've got a staff of around
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty plus connections through the industry. They
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: can't actually recruit more people at this point because the
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: facility that I've got in Silverston is still being fitted out,
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: so they don't physically have more space to recruit more people.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: They've got more people basically, I've got contracts that can't
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: yet start, so that number will swell to over three
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: hundred once that work completes sort of early early in
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: the new year or late this year. But the Michael
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: Andretti stepping back thing, that's really interesting. If you go
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: back and look at the publication that broke the news
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: Sportaco it's owned by a bloke named Jay Penske. Now
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: I don't know how much you're across IndyCar, Michael, but
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Michael Andretti has been having a bit of a stoush
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: with IndyCar about the marketing and so on, and there
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: was a bit of like a fuffle about about the charters.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Just remind me, I've had a bit of a moment
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: who owns IndyCar these days.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I think it would be j Dot Penske, wouldn't.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: It would be Roger Roger yeah, Roger yeah yeah. See,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: And that's exactly my point. Curious how Andretie submits its
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: charter which is sam signed by Dan Twis, and that
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: then finds its way into a media organization owned by
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Roger Pensky's son. Coincidentally that the charter was signed by
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Dan Tarris. We don't need to read too much into
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: that because all the Formula one paperwork is also signed
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: by Dan Turris. He is a business partner in and
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: Tredi Global. He's basiced on the man behind game original
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: sort of stuff. He's the money man in that organization.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Michael Andredi stepping back, it's just logical. He's now got
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: an IndyCar team, Formulae Extreme E Formula one program across
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: the other side of the world as well, so he's
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: got too many hats to wear to be focusing on
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: on one thing, be that the IndyCar organization. So it's
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: just and logical that he steps back from day to
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: day that business should be able to run without Michael
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: pushing all the buttons.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: It is quite a big gamble the way they've set up,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: and it Diefle with a one team with no entry.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: So we'll see how that one pans out over the
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: coming years.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: We will see how that one punds out.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Looks look at the drive market now, because we've only
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: got a couple of races left for it to be settled.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Helmut Marco, who's been told several times not to speak
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: on behalf of Red Bull, spoken on behalf of Red
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Bull to F one Insider that Yuki Sonoda is an
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: option to replace Sergio Perez next season at Red Bull
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Racing in his opinion at least, as well as Liam
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Lawson in what I think is quite possibly the first
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: or most explicit admission so far that Perez might not
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: be racing for Red Bull Racing next year despite having
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: signed a contract.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Well, we know he's in breach of that, don't we,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Going back to the first summer break, not this summer break,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: the one before it, he had to be within X
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: number of points of Maxi stapp and he wasn't, and
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: therefore he's in breach of his contry for next year.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: We believe that was a clause that was introduced as
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: part of the negotiation for the twenty five deal. Interesting
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: that Sunuda has been linked to Rebula. I wonder if
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: that's just helmet mark or playing pressure, because a little
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: birdie has told me that Sunda didn't want to be
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: at RB this year. He wanted to move elsewhere, but
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: Red Bull and Honda basically had options on him, and
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: so that's where he's stuck. Of course, Honda isn't with
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Red Bull or RB therefore at the end of next year,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: so it could be interesting to see where Yuki Snerda
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: ends up and if he looks good in Green.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Well we will see. Let's move closer to home now
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: where the Australian Grand Prix if you're interested in going
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: next year, too bad despite surge pricing and that's a
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: ticket paster roundage every Saturday and Sunday general admission of
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: grandstand ticket has been snapped up within an hour. In fact,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: there are still some Thursday and Friday teach it's available
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: if you're interested, as well as hospitality passes for the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: weekend for those particularly well healed among us.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and this just speaks to the demand that they
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: see down in Melbourne, and it's not unique to Melbourne.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: There are a lot of events that sell out these days.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: It was somewhat unfortunate that ticket Master had a massive
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: outage the day or like twenty minutes before those tickets
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: were about to go and sale, and that had to
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: be postponed by by a day. But yeah, Australian Grand Prix,
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: it looks like it will be a seller and it
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: looks like it will break attendance records as well, because
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: I've been told Travis All down to the CEO, I
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: spoke to him a few weeks ago, and they are
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: just marginally increasing capacity. They want to just gradually ramp
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: that up next year and then in twenty six there's
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: a new train station that comes on. Basically it's the
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: ingress and egress or the entry and exit from the
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: circuit and controlling the crowd. I get caught up. I
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: love me a bit of jargon. So basically getting fans
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: into and out of the circuit in orderly and reasonable
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: time and manner. That's a that's not easy at the moment.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: I've got trams and things, but it's not the simplest thing.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: There's only so many entry points in the circuit. But
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: there's a new train station that will come online for
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: twenty six, which will then allow that movement of spectators
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: to happen a little bit more freely and as a
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: result they can then lift capacity. So they're building towards that,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: but they're not there just yet. I think we could
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: also expect to see more things more like more overpasses
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: and what not, just to try to ease movement around
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: the facility, and supercars being on the outside of the
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: circuit will create a bit more space in the middle
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: as well, so there's lots over there, just on top
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: of the Australian Grand Prix ticket sales themselves, which have
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, hotcakes don't even sell that quickly. Hotcakes are
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: going to have to start being sold like Australian Grand
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Prix tickets.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Hotcakes need a new marketing manager. I think that's or
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: a Netflix series about them. I suppose marginally increased capacity.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: By the way, is fundamentally when you boil it down
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: to code for they found more portable toilets, because that
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: is really one of the major limiting factors. So correct
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: if you're in the portable toilet business, you're probably doing
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: quite well. And finally, a member of European Parliament going
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: all the way back to Europe now has asked the
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: EU Commission, which is the competition commission essentially in Europe,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: to investigate a possible competition concern stebbing from Liberty Media,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: the owner of Formula one' commercial rights, their plan to
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: buy Dawners Sports, which is the promoter of Moto GP.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: And it's interesting. So the member of the European Parliament
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: who's raised this is Pascal Aramont. He is Belgian. He
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: represents basically the SPA region. It's called the Belgian Speaking
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Electoral College to give it as proper term, but basically
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: that's the area that encompasses the SPA frankishamp circuit. He's
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: born in Melbourny, so he's he's got a vested interest
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: in that. This builds off some concerns that Alejandro A
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Gag raised Formula E co founder a few weeks ago. Basically,
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: the concern is not like in the United States, where
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: it's to do with competition surrounding an entrant. This is
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: to do with competition in terms of Liberty Media owning
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: multiple high profile motorsport assets, be that Formula one. It
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: also owns a commercial rights to Formula two and Formula three.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: It has an interest through its Liberty It's not Liberty Global.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Is Liberty Global Global that owns Formulae or a stake
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: in Formula E. And obviously Liberty Media is looking to
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: acquire Dawn a four point nine million Australian dollars is
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: that is that the right figure? Is that US dollars?
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: But basically it puts Liberty Media in a position where
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: it controls basically all the key motorsport assets globally, and
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: that creates the potential. Even though Liberty says it would
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: never do this to do things like structure a calendar,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: negotiate with sponsors, corporate hospitality, all those sorts of things,
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: it's got that market corner so it can do with
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: it what it wants and it can say that it won't.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: But previously, CBC Capital has held MotoGP and Formula one
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: and it was told by the EU Commission to divest
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: itself of MotoGP. That was back in two thousand and six,
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: so there is precedent for this. Liberty Media argues that
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: the game has changed, but it's difficult to understand how
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: that really works given that, yes, the game is, but
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: it's also got more assets to its name.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: It's not a great time or if it's a great time,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: depending on how they're paid to be a liberty lawyer.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: I suppose, because facing not only like you said.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: I just lost one. Yes, Social wood Hell, who've been
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: there since Bernie's days back in the nineties. She's just resigned.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Yes, workload quite high presumably, but also facing not only
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: as you mentioned in the US in the F one guys,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: but also various antitrust investigations through Live Nation, the business
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: that owns Ticketmaster in the US and UK, and maybe
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: a class action as well in Australia. That's been a
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: story that's been big this week. So a lot of action.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: I hope they're all being paid by the hour in
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: the legal department of Liberty Media. Let's be won our
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: mats to matters. Back in very much the Formula one
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: world and in the last week, in the build up
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: to the United States Grand Prix, Formula one's only American team,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: American Asterisk Headquarters in America, broke the news by announcing
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: that it was entering a technical partnership or it is
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: entering a technical partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing. It'll be
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: to first major F one affiliation. I guess we can
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: call it since withdrawing from the sport at the end
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: of two thousand and nine. Did have a thing with
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: McLaren last year, didn't it. But well, far from major
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: is that people talk about it then I don't think
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: it qualifies. This doesn't affect Hass's power unit supply deal
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: with Ferrari to run at least until the end of
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty eight, as per a contract they signed earlier
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: this year, nor is it going to affect the team's
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: model of buying as many pass as it can from Ferrari,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: at least in the short term. In Dela, it says
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: is still designing. It's chassy, but there is a lot
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: still in this deal, Matt simulators, drivers, technical knowledge, what's
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: in it for both sides for what is really still
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: quite a big deal despite the official line being Toyota
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: is not back in Formula one and stop asking.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: It's a very good point. It should also be noted
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: that Toyota has a relationship with Andretti. Andretti is using
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: one of its wind titels as exclusive use of that
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: wind tunel I understand as running sixteen hour shifts throughout
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: the week, just another string to the Andretti story. But yeah,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: the Twyota deal is a fascinating one because hass has got,
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: by some considerable margin, the most complicated structure of any
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: of the existing teams. So the race team is based
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: in Bambury. It's got a design office in Marinello, in
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: the Ferrari campus. It's got views over the Ferano test track.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: I've been into the office. I've seen it first, and
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: and then up the road an hour or so in
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: Palmer has got Dallara where the manufacturing and stuftime. So
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: it's got wind tunnel and all that sort of stuff
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: in Marinello, manufacturing done in Delara, and then the race
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: team actually operates out of Bambury. And then they've got
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: Ferrari power unit's coming in and they bring all that
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: together and they go racing a couple of times a year.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Forget the office and the most important part, Matt, the
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: most important part is the headquarters in America, isn't it.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Oh yes, yes, whoops, I'll add that. I'll add that
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: to my mud map now, shower. So what it doesn't
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: have is things like a simulator, a dedicated test team.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: So it's got all these assets, and my assets I
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: mean older spect cars, and there is a value in
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: running those, not just in terms of what you might learn,
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: because that's comparatively minimal. You're not running on tires or
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: anyway comparable. You're running an older spectrum machinery, different weather conditions.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: The value is really in developing, and by developing, i'm
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: talking about drivers for one for one point, but also
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: technical stuff has has got a workforce of around three
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: hundred people. If someone resigns, that's a big hole. Certainly
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: if you can compare to a thousand people teams elsewhere,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: you can't just easily backfill that. So if say a
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: data engineer leaves, you know you've got to go and
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: recruit that. You could have a hole in your team
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: for two or three months, maybe more, until you find
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: someone that you can drop in. So you want to
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: start that production line now if you can lean on
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: Toyota to fill that hole a little bit, have a
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: relationship there and basically, second, someone from Toyota give them
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: some experience by running the TPC program. Perfect Toyota has
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: experienced with simulators. It's got the hardware, it's got the NOHOW,
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: it's got all that sort of stuff brilliant. Just grab that,
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: drop it down into bambury because at the moment has
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: is using Ferrari's simulator in Marinello, and even then it
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: doesn't have full access to it like other teams do
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: with their own simulators. From Toyota's standpoint, let's almost forget
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: about Toyota as being a car company and also treated
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: as a motorsport consultancy firm, because that's in essence what
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: it is. It provides services, and in doing that it's
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: incentivized to keep its expertise current. It's very difficult to
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: keep your expertise current if you're not working in the industry.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: So what Toyota gets out of this is development of staff,
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: development of expertise. There's probably some practical stuff in there,
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: maybe even some assets and things that they acquire to
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: support this that they wouldn't have otherwise had. And what
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: that does is offer out a more rounded service that
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: they can then use. Because this won't be exclusive, they'll
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: be able to go and sell this sort of program
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: elsewhere if they so choose. It also develops our own
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: motorsport program, and in time, if they ever choose to
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: own to Formula one, they're not starting from scratch. So
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: it's a really smart move. I think from both sides
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: of the fence. It's a realization of where they are
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: and the strength that the other has and leveraging that.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: So I think it's I like this stuff. It makes
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: a lot of sense, and it's the sort of thing
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: where you look at it now and you go, well,
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: why weren't they doing that already?
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: It's really interesting, isn't it, Because there's really no other
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: team on the grid for which a deal like this
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: would make sense, or make as much sense, or be
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: as valuable. There was an agreement last year between I
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: think it continues to exist I assume between Toyota and
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: McLaren that involves some driver development stuff.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: Yes, it does still exist.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: And that sort of is the genesis of I guess
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: where this idea is, which is the Toyota essentially once
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: I think they described it as such this time last year.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: The Japanese Gonverery essentially is a knowledge sharing expedition, but
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: also gives Toyota to young developing drivers in Japan the
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: ability to say that we're across all different forms of
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: motorsport at a time where Honda can say it is
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: in Formula one, and you know that rivalry in Japan
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: is very real, and that's an element that Toder was
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: missing out on. So there's that prestige element of it there.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: But what I really like about this is that one
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: of the let's say, negative effects of the cost cap
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: is that it kind of locks in the teams where
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: they have been in terms of the historical development. Right, Like,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the biggest teams continue to be performing at the highest
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: level because in the times of unrestricted spending they could
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: upgrade their wind tunnels constantly or their factories or whatever
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: and build that institutional knowledge and that infrastructure pretty uninhibited.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: It's now much harder for teams to catch up now,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: even how they actually have the money to do so.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: We've seen Aston Martin's been able to do it because
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: they've obviously got quite a wealthy owner. But it's been
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: a process because they haven't been able to just do
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: it all at once in a way they might have
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: been able to do it once upon a time. And
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: so if you're Hals or if your gene Haas in particular,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: you're looking for reasons to sort of gradually increase your investment,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: that the road to any kind of meaningful improvement is
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: really extremely long. Like you say, there are only three
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: hundred staff working there, so just getting to anywhere near
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: that even most midfield teams in terms of infrastructure of
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: staff and buildings is quite a big journey. This almost
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: shortcuts a lot of that by being able to rely
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: on Toyota to do that. Like you've sort of said,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: simulator is going to arrive at some point, I know,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: by the end of the year or whatever it is,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: without them having to invest in building it all themselves
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: or sourcing a supply or whatever. Toad is just going
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: to do that. They're going to get an injection of staff,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: which is really important. The driver development stuff will be
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: interesting as well. You know, Hals up to this point
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: is essentially relied on Ferrari for junior reserve drivers, so
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: no sign necessarily that's going to change yet, but be
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: a secondary pool from which they might be able to
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: develop and broaden out. And I think what's going to
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: be really interesting is where it goes from here, because
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: like you say, there's certainly that element of well, if
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Toyota does decide at once to get involved in Formula
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: one after all, whether that's as an engine supplier, or
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: as a team constructing, and it does say it. It's
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: not on the radar at the moment, but things might
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: change after twenty twenty six, it's going to know more
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: about how that is going to happen. But hers is
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: also going to develop as a team because they do
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: have this sort of bizarre model where they're buying all
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: the stuff from Ferrara and then Delara is involved as well.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: It wouldn't be surprising to see particularly the Delara component
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: or parts associated with chassis development, and Toyota specifically uses
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: the phrase car development. I think in expresses they have
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: to go back and look, some of those things come
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: under the remit of Toyota, and at some point in
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: the future we actually see Hass and Toyota being being
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: almost like the Toyota team operated by Hass. I think
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: it'll be really interesting to see if that's the pathway
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: they go down in let's say, probably post twenty twenty six.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the really exciting thing here, because what this
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: is is another manufacturer coming into Formula one. Okay, it's
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: through a bit of a backdoor, and it's a toe
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: in the water rather than diving in the head first,
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: but it's still one of, if not the world's leading
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: almost prolific automaker being involved in the sports. So you've
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: got ferrari Aston, Martin Reno, General Motors potentially coming in
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: with with Andretti Olpanes, the McLaren's, their Mercedes is there.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: You're looking at like ten brands ish represented on the
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: gridden Formula one. How is that a bad thing? And Okay,
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: it's not a full program, and it's a commercial agreement,
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: and it's not even commercial. It's it's more collaboration, isn't it.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: But ultimately this is a good thing for Formula one,
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: it's a good thing for hass It's fascinating, it's gonna
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: be fascinating to see how this this shakes out. And
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: I actually just wonder how much Io Kamatsu has driven this,
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: because there's no reason this in theory couldn't have been
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: done last year or the year before by Gon Deesteiner.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: But I just wonder how much Iokimatsu has driven this
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: and his connections back back at home in Toyota.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well absolutely, and it's also such a great I
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: guess feather in his cap obviously, but it's been such
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: a good year as his first as team principal, and
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: to be able to say he's got this deal over
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: the line as well, he's very impressive. You know, he's
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: probably one of the more understated principles in the pit lane.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: Maybe Mi Crack similar level where people don't think about
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: them too much because there are other personalities in the
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: team that kind of dominate are overshadow. But he's done
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: a really good job this year. He can't go credit
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: to all of it. Of course, the car is being
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: developed last year. It's not like he's just rocked up
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: and the car's got faster. But I all at once
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: the team is operating better. Well, you can see it
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: on the track. It's operating better. And a deal like
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: this is a really big vote of confidence. And I
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: think the final element of this before we move on,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: is that if your Toyota, what a great way to
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: get back involved in a sport that kind of burned
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: you or you burned yourself in fifteen years ago. You know,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: there's talk about the billions spent on the original Toyota
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: F one entry without a win, with however many poems
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: it ended up being, and all the various reasons that
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: that didn't work A great way to ease yourself into it,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: to just find out, well, can we do this? Was
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: it us? Was it just the sport? Was it the circumstances.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: You're going with a team that's already there, figure out
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: what's going on, and then who knows, Like we say,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: after twenty twenty six, maybe they realize, maybe we can
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: actually run a Formula One team again.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: It'd be interesting. Yeah, what there's one tourt to sorrow.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to tell from way back in the day.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: So Turda pulled out the end of two thousand and nine.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: It actually developed a car two thousand and eight.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: They ran in two thousand and nine because they had
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: the double difusion in two thousand and nine as well.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: No, you're correct, you are correct, I'll stand corrected. Then,
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: so they rand two thousand and they pulled out the
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: end of the year. The rumor goes that their twenty
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: ten car would have just blown the field away. That's
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: obviously we never know that. But this was even going
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: into the year. It's not just looking back and roost
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: into class, but there was a story going around this
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: is so twenty ten is a year when USF one
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: was going to come in manor k Trum Hispaniard did
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: while Lotus racing as kat Trum was at that point,
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: and was it Mauritia at that point, No, it was Virgin.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: That team went through a lot of different name changes.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: But when the USF one project collapsed, there was this blog.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: You might remember this Stephen gps He tried to acquire
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: the Toyota cars and ip and effectively take the USF
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: one place on the grid. He sent a container of
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: office furniture or Toyota sent its container of office furniture
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: to Bahrain for the opening round. I believe it's still
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: there really, So if you want some cheap office furniture,
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: head to Bahrain. Somewhere on the docks. There is a
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: container full of all the hospitality year because in Bahrain
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: all the teams are going to take the hospitality stuff.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: It sent that in good faith to Stephan gp. Stephan
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: didn't get the didn't get the entrance, so he just
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: didn't bother. That was the first Stephan gp apperioce. But yeah,
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: so if you want some cheap office furniture, head to
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: the Bahrain wharves.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Let's move on now, Matt to this weekend's United States
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Grand pre Formula on his back six rounds in the
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: last eight weeks of the season to wrap this one up.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Of course, among them are Austin, Texas, Mexico, Brazil, our
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: powers it's called now then of course we're going to
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: go to Las Vegas, Kata and then wrapping it up
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: as per usual in Abu Dhaby, but we resume with
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Formula one potentially two championship battles alive if you need
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: a reminder, Max forstaff and Lando Norris by fifty two
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: points in the divers Championship on McLaren is forty one
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: points ahead of Red Bull Racing in the team's title table,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: with Ferrari only thirty four points further behind as well,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: so the Red Bull actually closer to Ferrari behind them
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: than McLaren ahead of them. We've also got, in addition
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: to those six last Grand Prix three sprints starting with
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: this weekend's race, something I keep forgetting, and then in
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Brazil and Kata as well. It's sort of It's funny
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: is that we've been talking about let's start with the
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Constructor's Championship before we think about Landa Norris' odds here.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: We've been talking about it for a few months now
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: that the championship is very much alive because McLaren was
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: closing in on Red bull racing at a rate of knots.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: But is it actually still alive now that it feels
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: like McLaren's kind of taken the bat on and run
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: away with it.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: Closing it. So even if red bulls form reverses and
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: it starts to become dominant once again, it's not going
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: to be trivial to run that gap down because McLaren's
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: going to be there or thereabouts, you would think. So,
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: I'm not prepared at this point to say the championship
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: is McLaren's. Probably have at some point on his podcast,
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: so that the championships McLaren's. But I'm just gonna put
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: a little asterisk next to that. I reckon if we
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: get to sal Paolo I almost said Brazil. If we
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: get to the sal Paolo Grand Prix and McLaren still holds,
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: say a forty point lead, it's game over because it's
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: just going to be too hard to reel that back end.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: Even with the sprints. There's just not enough points on off.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: You need too much of Sergio Perez. You're basically relying
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: on McLaren failing. Of course, Oscar Piastri is the only
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: driver who's completed every lap of every race all year.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: So he's the most consistent driver in the field, the
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: most reliable car. Not to say that you know that
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: won't go unblemish this year, but you know he's doing well.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: Lando is performing well. He's stepped up this year. There's
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: nothing from McLaren's side to suggest that it's going to
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: slow down. But conversely, Red Bulls get upgrades coming, could
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: it step up and if so, by how much? And
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: is that going to work on both sides of the
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: garage or one side more than another. It's basically all
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: this balls back down to Sergio Perez, just as it
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: did when we were discussing this before the first preseason break, preseason,
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: mid season, the preseason break that was a long time ago.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: It's not one that I'm biting my nails over. I
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: still think McLaren's got the upper hand. Red Bull's got
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: a massive job ahead of it. And even with upgrades,
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: even if that turns that car back into a race winner,
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: and it's been a hot minute since it's been a
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: race winner, I just don't think that they're going to
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: have enough to stem the tide and then reverse it
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: to the tune of forty two points in six races.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Because a big question here really with that Red Bull upgrade,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: which is one of the big stories of this weekend,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: because they think it's an upgrade that might solve the
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: problems it's been afflicting that car really since just before
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: the mid season break. I suppose all the mid season
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: break anyway, is whether or not it can prevent McLaren
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: from running further way. No one expects Red Bull Racing
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: to return to the dominant ways of the first month
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: or so of the season because McLaren's also made progress
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: in that time, so it's not as if we can
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: reverse the form guide completely. The idea is that it
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: might only become equally as competitive as McLaren, which case
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: you look at that forty one points, and yes, it
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: is closable because when you got two cars, or theoretically
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: two cars, like you say, Serjeo Prair is a question
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: mark in the fight, that gap is smaller. But you know,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: if McLaren's going to win half the races, then it
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: can't be done. It's too late to make that kind
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: of gain. So the constructive stanmagep for me is much
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: less competitive. I actually think there's an interesting question to
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: be asked there about if Ferrari can solve its problems. Well,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: for Ai, he does have two drivers in the fight,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: it's suddenly thirty four points. Maybe that is closable, So
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: that's interesting to me. But the point of the Red Bull,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: or the intrigue of the Red Bull upgrade, is whether
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: or not it's going to be enough to make max
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: for Stappens. Still, it's still a comfortable lead fifty two points,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: let's be honest, with six rounds to go. But it's
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: only comfortable if Red Bull can consistently finish on the podium.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: And that's really only happened since the mid season break
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: in Singapore, and I was kind of unexpected considering how
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: the team did last year, and that was partly to
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: be fair, because Ferrari underperformed so badly in qualifying and
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: Mercedes completely lost its way, so maybe also exaggerated how
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: competitive Red Bull Racing looked in Singapore. But if it
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: can become a regular podium contender, then it's pretty difficult
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: to see how Land and Norris can win this title.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: But if it doesn't solve its problems. If it's still
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: battling with Ferrari and Mercedes, then yes, fifty two points
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: will still require an almost perfect performance from Norris all
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: the way to the end of the season. But he
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: is coming off a dominant victory in Singapore. Untouchable in
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Singapore where he touched the wall a few times, I suppose,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: But by and large, it does feel like he might
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: be able to generate some momentum if that gap between
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: him and Red Bull Racing is large enough.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: But he's relying on Ferrari and Mercedes continuing to perform
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: largely as it did in Singapore. To an extent, we
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: know that fer Our and merseades we're competitive. In Austin
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: a year ago, Charlie Clair was on poll for the sprint.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: Max obviously went through one, but you know, we know
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: that those two cars are competitive there. They were both excluded,
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: but they were quick, and that was probably more a
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: result of the weekend format. That's not to say that
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: the cars were just genuinely fast. They were genuinely fast.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: But if the issue I have with this is every
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: team for the last two seasons has been working to
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: upgrade its car and at some point has failed and
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: upgrade has been introduced and it's sent the car backwards.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: There's been no consistency, with the exception of McLaren since
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: Austria last year. Since then, it's been a steady, steady rise.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: Everything they've bought has worked for one reason or another.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: Hopefully they understand that, because clearly the other teams don't
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: understands that. There's correlation issues all the way through the field,
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: and all the teams are speaking about it, and by
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: that I mean, you know, they're seeing differences in the
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: real world versus what they're expecting to see of the
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: virtual world and through the wind tunnel, and a lot
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: of the issues just can't be replicated in the wind
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: tunnel because you can't run the cars low enough to
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: generate the sort of downforce because you know, if you've
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: got a rolling road and whatever, it just sucks the
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: road up and it's not a trivial thing to do
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: a ground effects car in a wind tunnel. There's things
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: that you just cannot replicate. But that limitation is introducing
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: some correlation issues and Red Bull has not been exempt
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: from those. And given the inconsistency of updates and given
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: the Red Bull arguably saw this issue a year ago.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: Christian Horner said that we began to see this issue
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: this event last year. They've had a year to fix
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: that they haven't. Why is this suddenly the magic bullet.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: I'm not sold just yet. I hope that it is
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: to an extent because I want to see putting the championship,
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: so I don't want to see competitive racing, and at
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: the moment we don't really have competitive racing because the
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: cars are just that there's a little bit too much
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: variation in them. McLaren's consistently good, Red Bull's a little
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: bit hit and miss. Ferrari and Merced's even more so.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: But if if this is a good upgrade, with any luck,
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: we see Red Bull on McLaren's pace and then we
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: have some good racing, That's what I want to see,
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: because I'm less concerned by the championship. I think Max
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: has won that, but yeah, it's to be seen. I'm
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: not going to jump on the Red Bull'll solve all
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: these problems this weekend bam wagon just yet.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: It would be a surprise if suddenly all problems were solved.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: But I guess one of the upgrades presumably has to
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: do it. Well, maybe they don't. Maybe they never solve it,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: so that's a question for next year or even twenty
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: twenty six. Finally, matt first race at the Circuit of
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: the Americas without Daniel Ricardo in it is this weekend
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: because anyone who has not been paying attention he's been
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: sacked by Harvey and replaced by Liam Laws. He'll make
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: his full time debut. It's weird to say that when
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: there's only six rounds left, but that is his seat
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: now for the rest of the year. He's not filling
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: in to justify whether or not he'll be retained next year,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: although I don't think there's any circumstances which he won't
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: be in the Red Bull program next year. It's more
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: about Red Bull racing, as we've already talked about, and
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: as helmet Marco has talked about about length to various
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: meter organizations. But he'll start this grand return to Formula
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: one with a penalty be starting down the grid probably
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: last considering the form of the RB car won't take
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: him too much further up the grid. You could cut
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: that two ways, couldn't you. In the one sense that's
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: well pressures off, I guess because you're not going to
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: have too much expected of you. But on the other hand,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: it's just a bit flat, isn't it.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, somewhat event Klermax, Welcome back. You're way down the
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: bank there. Yeah, it's a bit of a bout to
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: fire obviously, because Liam drops into the car that Daniel
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: has been driving. He picks up whatever components in terms
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: of engine engine elements that have used thus far. So
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: if Daniel was on the brink of a penalty, Liam
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: cops that penalty for engine components. It's not like RB
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: can bring in a new driver and get a whole
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: new pool of components for that driver. It's basically attached
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: to the car, if that makes sense. So yeah, it's
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: a bit of a baptism of fire for him. Obviously,
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: he's never been to the Circuit of Americas before either,
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: so he's got to learn the circuit and he's a
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: professional racing drive or do that pretty quickly. It'll have
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: been on the sim and done all that sort of
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: stuff already. But he's not gonna have a lot of
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: practice either. He's a sprint weekend, as you mentioned, so
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: only gets that one hour to begin with. Maybe that's
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: a good thing. But starting town the back, I think
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: that's not going to phase him. Liam is such a
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: relaxed individual, you know. We saw that all the way
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: through last year we had that five race stint in
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: place of Daniel. Even this year, he's not been phased
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: with all this stuff that's been going on in the background.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: We know he's that Red Bull in some way, shape
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: or form. We don't know which team, but we know
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: he's there for next year. There's no way he's going
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: to sign a contract to come in for six races
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: now and that's it. So let's just just go out
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: there and have fun, learn use the weekend. It's I
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: actually think it's a really smart move from Red Bull
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: to take the penalty now or from RB to take
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: the penalty now, because it gives Lim a weekend with
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: zero expectations to go out there, learn the car, learn
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: how it feels, get yourself a little bit more race sharp.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: Because he's not raced since the Singapore Grand Prix. It
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: was the Japanese Grand Prix last year, which one came
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: as Japanese. It was it was his last, so.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: Would have been his last, sorry Kat would have come
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: after that.
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: We should know this stuff. We're professional a long time ago,
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: a lot of a lot of absolutely right it was.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: It was guitar, So you know, you can just go
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: out there with very little pressure. Imagine he going out
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: there with with a car that was fully competitive. Yuki
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: goes and sticks at six. Not beyond the reals unlikely,
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: but not beyond the realms of possibility. Pressure is that
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: immediately on Liam. Now I Fuki goes out there and
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: sticks at six. Matter, Liam's down the back. He's got
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: an Indian penalty. So yeah, not a bad position to
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: be in for Liam in my opinion.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: Also not a bad situation. I mean, notwithstanding has to
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: learn the track. But he does get two race starts
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: this weekend. He gets some sort of practice in the
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: sprint and then the real one non Sunday, so you know,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: he gets a little bit of bang for his buck
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: there in terms of bringing himself back up to I
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: guess racing fitness if you want to call it that.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: So there's something in there for him. In any case,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: he's got no choice. Matt's the most important part of
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: the podcast, the Alternative Championship. Now we have had a
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks off, of course, but the championship rests
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: for no one except when we didn't do the podcast.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: It's back now, would you like to start proceedings?
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: I am going to start proceedings. I've written down who
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: I'm giving points to, but I've foolishly left the points
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: column blank. So this is I mean, the Alternative Championship
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: is usually pretty loose. We arbitrarily reward points just based
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: on which way the wind's blowing or whatever other reason
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: we've got at any given point in time. I'm going
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: to start things off with Toyota, and I'm going to
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: give Toyota how many points on I reckon. I'm going
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: to give them fifty points because that seems like a
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: good arbitrary number because I think they've made a good
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: move for Formula one, for hass and for themselves. I
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: think fifty points seems like a good number for that.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, I've also got Toyota on my list. I'll bump
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: them forward, just in the sense of keeping it thematically consistent.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: I'm going to give one consolation point to Toyota chairman
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: a Kyo Toyota for begging sub editors not to run
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: headlines reading the Toyota's returning to Formula one only to
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: wake up the next morning to read if One's own
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: website confirming that Toyota has returned and to Formula one.
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: Magnificent. I love the way the media works. Sometimes it's
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: just it's just great. Did you did you run a
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: Toyota returns to F one? I absolutely, yeah, It's the
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: only way to tell that story.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: But they are Look, I stand by the fact that
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: this counts. It's not a sponsorship. It's technically they're back
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: in a way.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: Yep. I agree, and I ran exactly the same headline
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: for exactly the same reason. Yeah, good, good, cool, good cool.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: My second, my second lot of points goes to Andretti.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: They're not even in Formula one, but I'm giving you
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: points anyway.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, they've got a team, they may as
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: well get some points.
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: That's true. They're spending huge amounts of money, Hugh, like,
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: you have no idea how much money that joint is spending.
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: I've had a little bit of intel on that one,
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: and it's it's I watering, It's it's on par with
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: what the current teams are spending. So it's a serious
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: business and as a result, they deserve a serious number
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: of points. I'm going to give them twenty and twenty six.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: Wow, okay, I see what you've done there. Yeah, it's
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: the points for the year that they're not going to
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: get into Formula one. I like that, all right. I'm
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: going to go with one hundred points off. Taking a
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: hundred points off. Supercars CEO Shane Howard.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: Yes, I like it. I like it exactly.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: He was showing respect by saying he would contact Daniel
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: Ricardo only at the appropriate time about a possible Supercars drive,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: while simultaneously making it the day's biggest headline in the
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Australian motorsport media, just a week after Daniel had been
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: sacked in a naked publicity drive for the Baptist one thousand.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: It was, Yeah, it was pretty I should take actually
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: one two thousand points off because.
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: Of even better. I like it. I'll let Shane know
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: that he's now on the leaderboard or off the bottom
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: of it.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: He's probably probably in the top ten percent even with
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: a thousand points of.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: Probably true, be honest. Actually it puts him tired with
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: an unnamed McLaren manager.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: That was the rules.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was that was a bit shameless. It was
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: in poor taste and what I liked is. So it
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: was a television news story that first made the claim,
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: and it was that Supercars had asked Daniel Ricardo. And
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: I got wind of this because speak cafe, as Fox
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: Sports does, we're among the few, i guess publications that
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: cover both Formula One and Supercars equally, so we've got
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: a vested interest and obviously through Formula one we've got
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: connections to Daniel. So I emailed a message rather Daniel's
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: manager saying so supercar has been touched. Nope, like that,
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: and this is before seven o'clock in the morning. And
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: then the next bullutten that story being corrected because we're
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: at that stage run a story saying that Supercars hadn't
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: been in touch even though they claimed it had. So yeah,
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: it was a bit poor form.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: I thought they had they had a gap with no
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: other racing on. They knew what was big of Australia,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: Daniel Ricardo. They put the two and two.
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: The yeah and they yeah one on one makes seven yep.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: So all right, my turn to round this out. I
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: need to come up with a suitable number of points
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: here because Ticketmaster, Oh, I need to work out how
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: many points to take off.
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: Ticket Master oh, well, whatever number you come up with.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: I think they're quite high demand on this championship rating,
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: so he probably double it, or even.
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: Maybe I should make this an on demand price. So
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: this is an on demand I'm giving. I'm giving Ticketmaster
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: an on demand penalty, and they is double whatever the
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: greatest deficit is at this point. So James Vows is
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: currently minus one hundred and sixty eight thousand and one.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: I'm going to make Ticketmaster last times two.
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: So they've got one job, one job, that's it, and
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: they can't do it. And did we mention that the
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: Ticketmaster is owned by Liberty or not own, but at
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: thirty point eight steak it's the primary shareholder. So currently,
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: I say, currently Ticketmaster is on minus three hundred and
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: thirty six thousand and two points.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: It difficult for them to come back from there.
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: Well, particularly given that scale is if we give someone,
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: if we penalize someone more, their penalty just gets worse,
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: because that's how this on demand stuff works. I like,
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: so Lived by the Sword, Die by the Sword?
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: Good, all right, I'll bring it home. This one caught
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: my interest and I wasn't sure how I was going
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: to grade it. So it's probably a little bit of
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: a middling grade, but I thought it was interesting. Nonetheless,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: it's ten points off Howard Stern, the American radio host.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure if this came across your desk, mat.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: I only found out that it was only a day
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: or so ago. He's some kind of radio host in America.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: He was interviewing US Vice president and presidential nominee Kamala Harris,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: and they talked briefly about Formula I think she brought
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: it up, or he brought up that she has an
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: interest in Formula one and she said. He said, oh, well,
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: who's your favorite driver? And she said Lewis Hamilton straight away.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: I feel like she's probably a genuine Formula one fan
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: as well. I'm not just saying it because it's popular,
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: because she seemed to know a bit about it. And
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: he said, I've never even heard of Lewis Hamilton, which
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: I just thought was very But I don't knock like
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: that's probably not his fault, is it? Almost I'm going
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: to take ten points off him just to capture the
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: vibe of this, But I just thought that was very
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: interesting for a couple of reasons. One that the sport
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: is popular enough that Kamala Harris knows what it is
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: in America. More of the point, popular in America, which
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: has always been the big question for F one, but
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: clearly not so popular that one of the biggest media
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: personalities in the United States has ever heard of it.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: So you know it works still to do I suppose
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: before we ade in cracking the United States.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this dick cross my desk. It is fascinating that
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: of all the people that Howard Sterner's interviewed, this is
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: the first time he's ever heard of Lewis Hamilton. And
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: Lewis Hamilton has a lot of a lot of friends
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: in that sort of industry, in the music and Hollywood space,
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: so he's never heard of Brad Pitt's new new.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: Movie, never heard of Sonny Hayes.
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: That line of dialogue, Lift Hower, that line of dialogue ten.
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: Points off to you, ten points off On that note.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: That's all the time we have for pit Talk today.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: We will be back next week to wrap up all
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: the actions from Austin. You can subscribe to pit Talk
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you can leave
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: us a rating and review as well. You can keep
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: up to with all the latestef ON news throughout the
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: round at foxsports dot com, dot a U and Speedcafe
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: dot com. From Matt Costion me Michael Lomonado. Thanks very
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: much for your company and we'll catch you next week.