00:00:01
Speaker 1: Today's episode, Oscar Piastre is Australia's fifth Formula One Grand Prix winner after leading home a dominant McLaren one two in Hungary that wasn't controversial in any way, and Max for staffman doesn't win again. Instead, he fumes that Red Bull Racing is getting complacent after a new upgrade bails to fire. My name is Michael Lomonato, motorsport rider for Fox Sports Australia. It's great to have your company and the company of my co hosts from speed Cafe. He was up until three am in the simulator, but his performance is showing no ill effects as a result. It's Matt Cash.
00:00:36
Speaker 2: The question is it wasn't a Formula one simulator. It was goat simulator that I was playing.
00:00:41
Speaker 1: Very so you were of a farm simulator man.
00:00:44
Speaker 2: Funny enough, I do have the game. I also have truck driving simulator. I haven't yet dabbled with bus simulator, but I'm very, very tempted.
00:00:52
Speaker 1: Maybe on a quite a rare quite maybe it's a mid season break project for you to be simulator operator.
00:01:00
Speaker 2: But I can see the hours just ebbing away in my future. I'm well spent. Don't get me wrong.
00:01:05
Speaker 1: I mean I think that whenever I'm on a bus, just think about the time ebbing away from me. That's inaccurate simulator in that situation.
00:01:12
Speaker 2: Did you just see me? We'll get to zamboge if he stood in the corner holding an imaginary strap, pressing imaginary button, going and ding to myself.
00:01:22
Speaker 1: He's finally broken. Fust simulators finally broken. And let's move on the matters form to one. Matt, and before we get into a course the big events of the weekend, and we are in the middle of a double header, let's take you through the news you need to know from the last week in five minutes or less, sometimes more, though I shouldn't say all less. Usually it's actually been usually more than five minutes. But Matt, let's start with Kevin Magnison news that broke shortly after our previous podcast. He has at the moment and probably in the future, no seat for twenty twenty five after Half announced it wouldn't be renewing his contract at the end of this season, with Esteban Ochon expected to replace him.
00:02:00
Speaker 2: I'm I love this new style of announcement where yeah, we're not renewing his contract, but the announcement is this guy's leaving, which we already knew.
00:02:09
Speaker 1: So it was the.
00:02:09
Speaker 2: Announcement of the bleeding obvious in many respects as we all lost Esteban's confirmation there. It was expected over the of the Hungary and Grand Prix and obviously delayed because this way from a PR perspective, you get two bites of the cherry. One Magnuson's leaving get headlines. Two O Gon arrive, so you get the headlines. It's good PR. But yeah, it's an interesting little trend.
00:02:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, and nice amount of respect I suppose for Kevin Magnuson. Two. They were very effusive in their praise of his contribution to the team, so it gave him his own little moment to bask him being sacked. Let's move on now.
00:02:44
Speaker 2: Too, contract expired.
00:02:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is quite a significant difference, of course, and Tray give me Antonelli fresh off winning the Springe in Silson a couple of weeks ago, He's now won a feature race victory in Budapest. He's risen to sixth in the Championship if as a result, he is the Mercedes prodigy who's been connected to Lewis Hamilton's seat next season, but after winning in Budapest, the Italian said he's not sure if he's ready for a Formula One promotion.
00:03:12
Speaker 2: Of course it's going to say that, because that's when everyone else is saying. That's kind of the line that Mercedes will be giving him to spout because you don't want to give the game up at this stage. Ultimately, who else does Mercedes have? Maybe we'll just a little bit of that later on. But I heard a while ago that the plan was Fantinell to do a second year in Formula two. The prema hasn't been good. That's the team he's driving for there with this new car, it's just been a little bit at sea. So the results that he's getting there, at least in the early part of the season, were reflective of him. And the media attention has also got to him a little bit, I've been told, So we'll see, we'll see. I don't know what other options they realistically.
00:03:50
Speaker 1: Have, though, could be Carlos Science, which would be good news for Jack doing it. Al that's true, it's great. Really, Let's move on to red Bull now, and some of the heat sort of has been taken out of Red Bull Racing for the time being with Helmut Marco redoubling his commitment not just to the brand map but to team Red Bull Racing. And that's of course interesting in relation to the clause in Maxwastappen's contract which was reported earlier in the year that would allow him to leave the team if Marco left the team, but now it seems that that might be taken off the table.
00:04:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an interesting new agreement. So Marco helped doctor Helmt Marco has been Red bulls Motor sportifyser. That's been a deal with Red Bull GmbH, basically the Austrian drinks company directly. Now he has a contract with Red Bull Racing or in agreement with Red Bull Racing or some sort of commitment to Red Bull Racing that's been formalized, which is a fascinating development. Exactly why and exactly what that is, who knows, but it's an interesting thing.
00:04:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. And apparently reportedly according to the Dutch media, you'res for Staffen and Christian Horner are talking again, which is remarkable. Saying with Red Bull Race, though Max Verstappen has admitted to racing with blurred vision in the latter half of the twenty twenty one season, he's made entitle winning season after that fifty one g crash with Lewis Hamilton at Silverston. He said it in an article that appeared in the Red bullowned Red Bulletin. It's since been taken down, or rather the part of the article in which he referred to it's been taken down. In this article he likened driving the bumpy circuit of the Americas to like riding a speedboat.
00:05:27
Speaker 2: That's really concerning, basically because it shows that he was passed fit to race when he clearly wasn't. The part of that article was he considered stopping the car, which is pretty significant for someone like Max with Staffen, who he doesn't stop the car and give up points for anything. So for him to make that revelation suggests it was pretty serious and that's alarming. Given that he was past fit to race. There was something missed there and that needs to be looked at pretty sharply.
00:05:56
Speaker 1: I'm interesting to see if that one has followed up. And finally, Matt unbelievably the second time, not just this year, but I'm just looking at my calendar this month, I think McLaren's motor home is out of action after catching fire in Spain, had its roof ripped off by a storm in Budapest. Coincidentally, though, Matt Lenda Norris took pole on both races at which these disasters struck.
00:06:18
Speaker 2: And for all our Australian listeners here, remember Clark and Door if you can think back to that one about the front fell off the boat. That kind of happened in Monaco as well that we got there on the Thursday and the hospitality center in the paddock didn't have a didn't have a front of it. So yeah, they've not had a great run of late. But I mean ultimately this time, no massive issues other than the fact that there's no roof on it. You know, there's no fire or whatever. But no one went to hospital. But it's no idea, really is it. Oscar had to use a smaller of his driver's rooms. He's got two of them, but it had air conditioning and in Hungry that's kind of the one you want anyway.
00:07:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it worked out in the end, well, it worked out for it's worked out on track in the end of it. I've had that motor home. It's out of action now again. I Saly must be cursed some other explanation for it, because this is a different I don't know if anyone really follows motor home chat in Formula one, but McLaren used to have what it called the brand Center.
00:07:24
Speaker 2: This is the brand Center. This structure is a more.
00:07:28
Speaker 1: Modest version of it, so at the start there's no spiral staircase.
00:07:33
Speaker 2: At the start of the last year they went and refurbished it basically to downsize, to to make logistics a little bit more straightforward, to reduce car for and all of that sort of stuff. I went through this rejuvenation process. It is the brand Center, slightly different facade and internals, but it is exactly the same structure. This thing goes back to run Dennis back in about two thousand and five. Isch off the top of my head. It's it's older than Lewis Hamilton's.
00:08:02
Speaker 1: Certainly showing its age at unfortunately for it.
00:08:05
Speaker 2: It's yeah, yes, it's a little bit.
00:08:08
Speaker 1: It is a little bit less obstentatious than the original version of it. But well, certainly at the moment it is. Let's move on, Matt to action on track at the Hungarian Grand Prix, and of course Oscar Piastri's first win. Don't talk about the sprint last year doesn't count. Very satisfied actually that afterwards he pretty much said as much. The sprint was nice, but this is the win that really counted. Obviously, wasn't super straightforward in the end, despite having the pace throughout the Grand Prix, pinching the lead at the first turn from polgetter Orlando Norris didn't look back after that until well, the team really made him look back in that team orders fiasco. But let's start with him winning that first of all, because this was I've actually found it interesting trying to describe this variously as being a long time coming on the one, but it has been Formula one long enough to really be a long time coming, I suppose, only thirty four to thirty five races, and also in some senses quite unremarkable, because we've all known it was going to happen sooner or later. This win, to me almost just feels like, well, of course he was going to win. It's a box checked, and now let's move on to bigger and better things.
00:09:13
Speaker 2: Well, I'd like to point out that he is exactly average. Here is the fiftieth percentile when it comes to Australians winning in Formula One in terms of the speed with which they've done it, Jack Brabham and Alan Jones were faster with their first wins, but Daniel Ricardo and Mark Webble was slower. So he's exactly average when it comes to Australians winning in Formula one them. But yeah, so it has been both a long time coming and very quick. But yeah, it does feel like that we've been speaking about Oscar for so long, even the year before he was in Formula one, he dominated that August. Obviously, he entered the sport with a huge junior career, so he's been on the radar four a long time. You know, he was Kimmy Antonelli before Kimy Antonelli was So that conversation comes with a huge amount of expectation and the way McLaren's been traveling that you know, everythinge I think has been on the journey with McLaren. Because if you're a reb Bull fan or not, what you want to see is competition. Yes, it's nice to see your team win eight nil, nine nil, whatever, but there's nothing more exciting than a than a one nil win. At the end of a competitive game with the kick of the ninetieth minute, so you want to see some competition out there. So I think everyone was enjoying the journey with McLaren because you could see where it was going to end up. And to see that with Oscar as well, knowing that backstory, knowing and you know the ringer that he went through just to get to formula. Knowing that just makes it a little bit more round it. We're a little bit more invested, I think, and that's why it feels like it's taken so long, because we'll be on this journey with him. At the same time it feels so quick because he's only been there for five minutes.
00:11:03
Speaker 1: There's also the element that it feels like it could have happened already this season. He has a tragically small trophy cabinet this year when really should have had much more silver are for mostly circumstances outside of his control. Very rarely has it been something within his power to have scored a better result this year. So it's also been that element of it that it's been hard for him to make it to that top step. Although that said, that's been a bit of a McLaren thing as we talked about last week, many missed opportunities by the team and really still to still have only two wins for this season doesn't seem right for a team that dominated so comprehensively in Hungary. And I guess sucked into those who wanted are closer battle because well they got a different winner, but it wasn't much closer about it.
00:11:44
Speaker 2: In the end, I was going to say, well, it did get a little bit interesting. There was definitely some intrigue.
00:11:50
Speaker 1: Yes, well, it's exactly my point, because there was one point where it did get very close and very interesting in the final stint, the final third of the Grand Prix, when matt I had already written most of my report talking about how oscopiastri had fundamentally cruised to his first Crumfrerie win and what a result there was this team orders debacle or well fiasco or just mind a point of interest, depending on your perspective and whether or not you work for McLaren. I suppose it was a very conservative strategy from McLaren that had Lando Norris jump Oscar piastre in and undercut they were protecting against Lewis Hamilton behind. He wasn't really a threat, but I guess considering how much. Just for example, we last week said they missed opportunities they really wanted to belt embraces this one. And I suppose Matt counted on Lando Norris and Oscopiastri's history together the last eighteen months, but the longer history for Lando Norris two have never really questioning team orders, never really questioning the team in general, to just do so again, despite the stakes for him being markedly higher with a race wind being on the line, and I think were surprised despite what the team said afterwards that the response they well, at first, they got no response back and then subsequently got various negative responses back before three laps from the Lando Norris finally obeyed the orders.
00:13:04
Speaker 2: Andrea Stella, McLaren team principal, said some interesting things post race when questioned about this. The point that really stuck in my crawl was the interest of the team comes first. If you mess up on this matter, you cannot be part of the McLaren Formula One team. The team comes first. If you mess up, you're not part of McLaren. Lando Norris put himself first. Okay, he eventually conceded, but he made very clear that he put himself before the team. And then Andrea Stella went on to defend Lando's behavior, saying that it's sort of, you know, it's part of bigger racing driver, you have to be selfish. It's totally understandable. But he was absolute professional, but an absolute professional dragging a conversation, a needless conversation up for twenty laps when there was only ever going to be one outcome. And if Lando hadn't seeded the place back, he'd have won that battle, but civil war would have broken out within the team, and Lando probably would have lost the team in the dressing room and all those those things as well. Because Oscar, through his eighteen months with McLaren has more than once sacrificed himself for the greater good of the team. He's shown himself to live by the premise that Andrea speaks of the interest of the team comes first. Oscar has lived by that. Lando has demonstrated that that's an after thought. So that's one interesting point. But I do have a little bit of empathy for the Lando because he was put in that position and he didn't understand how or why, And that comes back to a fundamental communication issue from McClaren. If they'd explained to Lando, we're going to box you to cover off the undercut from Hamilton, you will let Oscar back through. We're protecting you in second place. We're not giving you first, we are protecting you in second That message never came through, and it was only when he was in the lead, or at least from the radio broadcast that we've had, it was only when he was in the lead that he was told to let Oscar back through. It's well, I'm in front now, why would I give up that? And it's not just giving up a lead, it's giving up seven points in a championship fight when Max was looking at thirty ultimately ended up fifth, but that was by the bye he gave up seven points as well. So there are two issues there that I didn't like about that last third of the race. One the selfish responses from Lando Norris, but to the way McClaren dropped minute in the first place.
00:16:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's important to emphasize that second part, in particular that McLaren's role in this, because I've certainly seen a lot of feedback on our Fox Sports social accounts that it felt to some people that this was a Team Orders victory on Piastre's behalf, when really it was the opposite. It would have been a Team Orders defeat had he not been soft back, and it would have been more outrageous for that reason that the team put them in that order. You can argue about and Piastre has been open about the fact that he's pacing the last stint wasn't as good as in his first two, and we can say, well, who was the faster car at the end, But we only really would have got a convincing answer that had Norris obeyed the team order more quickly and then potentially have shown himself up as being the faster driver, and then maybe we would have got a race for the victory. Who knows, and that would have been a totally different prospect. And they were race, yes, exactly, but we didn't get the race that could have been because he was so intent on creating that gap in that last stint to make a point when maybe he could have used that pace after having dropped back immediately after the fit stops to try and tell him. So it's kind of a moot point, but it's impossible to argue that this was a team orders victory when really the opposite is true. I really thought though Lando Norris's quotes after the race deserves some mention here. At first, he insisted that there was no controversy. Was always what are you talking about it? I was always going to give the position back. One of people complaining about it was in the press comers afterwards that he sort of gave a little bit of an insight into the anguish. I guess he says he was feeling in the cockpit anyway, and I quote from him, You've got to be selfish in this sport. Sometimes you've got to think of yourself. That's parody number one. But I'm also a team player, so my mind was going pretty crazy at the time. It wasn't easy, but I also understood the situation and I was quite confident always by the last lap I would have done it. And I find that kind of interesting because Landa Ross has grown up at McLaren right. He's a product fundamentally of McLaren. They gave him his first shot, he developed at that team, and he's now leading the team. There's always been that loyalty with McLaren, but there's never been a reason for him to think about himself as a driver almost in his own right, because McLaren's never been in that position. Even last year when they were going for wins, they were going all out because wins were such a rare thing. This year, though, while he's obviously desperate to back up his Miami Grand pre victory because there have been so many missed opportunities, he is also thinking about the championship. He mentions it he knows it's a long shot, but it's it is a long shot. It's not out of the question. It's worth a try. And suddenly his mind is operating in a way I guess it's never had to during his McLaren tenure. And I find that interesting because, to go back to things that Andrea Seller was talking about after the race, the principles of McLaren are racing for the team and you always put the team before yourself. I mean every team would say that, but the way he talks about it in these Sunday morning meetings a year about that, it's really meant to be a big thing at McLaren. I guess the conditions that got Orlando Norris there are different now because the conditions that would have got him too. That mindset originally was that, well, we hope we could race for a championship in twenty twenty six. Until then we're building up. Well, no, they're racing for championships today. How does that process and procedure and structure stack up is going to be the question of this second half of the season, because the McLaren from today really, but let's just for neatness the second half of the year, he's different to the one we're talking about even a few months ago.
00:19:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, pre Miami McLaren was midfield, upper midfield, but midfield and the championship. Norris is in with a shot. It's a long shot, but it is a shot. And Terry Pratchett wrote that medi in the one shots happened one hundred percent of the time, so you know he's got a good chance. It's a good quote, that one. I'm a big fan of Terry Pratchett. I wonder I'm not a psychologist by any stretch of the imagination, but I wonder how much of this is actually a result of the fact that Norris is part of McLaren that has been for so long. He's been brought in, groomed to lead McLaren told how good he is, Told he's the future, told he's you know, they're guiding light. So of course that's eventually going to seep in. Then you're going to start believing your own pr you know, he's going to start thinking, I'm the leader of this team, I'm in charge, I'm the best. Whatever it is. With power of positive thinking and all that sort of stuff, it does eventually seek In Conversely, you've got Oscar, who is so appreciative to be there because he knows what it feels like to not be appreciated, to be held backwards, to be pushed backwards, to be completely nutterly screwed over by olpam let's don't throw bodes about it. And he got that olive lit branch from McLaren and he's appreciated for it. Every single quote that you read he talks about the appreciation that he has for Zach, the fact that he loves being there, that he feels enthused and energized because they show that faith in him. So it's a different it's the same thing for Oscar and Lando. I think they're just looking at it from different sides of the coin. Lando's never had that never had that roadblock that Oscar had and as a result him being told he's the future, he's the best, that him is all, Yeah, that makes sense where Oscar's like, hey, you guys believe in me a lot. That means a lot. So it's it's curious and I just again I'm not a psychologist, but that that's an interesting thing that I take out of that as well, just a the mental approach of the of the two drivers.
00:21:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think, as I suppose a final notn on this before we move on to other matters from this race, what's fascinating about this rivalry because it is a rivalry now and if it's a quiet one, particularly given championships are on the line, it can very quiet. Oscar doesn't say much, Yes, but he's very quiet, very understated man, but didn't celebrate all that much after this race when really speaks to he's very level headed, very cool.
00:21:51
Speaker 2: Stoic I think is the word.
00:21:52
Speaker 1: Yes, stoic, I like it a lot. Is that that the threat of him to Norris has been pretty far radical up until now. We've talked a lot about the single lap pace and Norris having to lift his game, and Lando himself has talked about how Oscar's made him lift his game, but it still really remained on paper. We've seen Oscar get close and then Norris respond winning his first race, beating Lando Norris in a straight fight him and he beat him down to the first corner, had the pace through the race lasting. Besides, it's now a real threat. There's now a real battle for position in McLaren. I know Andreas Stella will say there's no number one and number two driver. That's true, but there is in every team, if not emotionally, then just purely by results. Whoever's getting the best results ends up becoming a lead driver, whether it's temporary or it ends up being a long term thing. That battle's on now that's a real thing now that Oscar's off the line as we knew he always would be. I'm glad it's sooner rather than later for his sake, but I think sooner rather than later also sets this up for a long slog to the end of the year, because, of course, regardless of whether McLaren wins one or no or two titles this year, next year, you've got to believe that they're going to start. But as a favorite, they're going to start on even footing with Red Bull Racing, maybe Mercedes and prior who knows, but it'll that we properly in with a shot and then positioning in terms of which drivers performing better and what's the form book like is way more important because one hundred everything will be on the line, and that's what makes the second half of the season McLaren so interesting, regardless of whether or not they actually take the fight to Red Bull Racing.
00:23:23
Speaker 2: Having duel number ones works brilliantly in a Formula One team. It works for Williams in nineteen eighty six with Nigel Mansellin and Nelson p K. It worked at McLaren with Alain Prost and end Center. It worked in Mercedes with Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. There's very very few examples in Formula One history. We're having two highly rated, highly credentialed, equal status drivers works very few.
00:23:58
Speaker 1: Let's move on now, Matt though, to Red Bull Racing, a team that does not have to equal number one drivers. Sorry, Serjo Perez. An interesting weekend for the Raining Constructors Championship winning team. This was the biggest upgrade of the year so far for Red Bull racing designed almost specifically for Hungary or the conditions of Hungary anyway, low speed performance, opening up the set up window, even cooling, even hot weather, which happened to be very much the case in Budapest, and Maxistappen said it worked, but clearly not enough because Red Bull Racing. I don't want to sound so dramatic and say it wasn't out the races, because it still was the second quickest car, but wasn't really in competition for Pole. The margins in the end were false in the sense that they looked really close beer because Lando and Rris didn't get his second lap in, so it probably would have been bigger, and in the Grand Prix wasn't really there and some of that inevitably would it be Max of Staffin's frustration to talk on in the second But even then the car performance wasn't as we'd come to expect, where he's capable of winning from anywhere on the grid and almost anywhere in the race. And of course most people will remember this Grand Prix from the Red Bull perspective as being the one or one of the few I suppose the handful when Max with Stafford felt like he was truly having a breakdown in the cockpit. He's angry at everything and at every one drivers he'd come across on the track, the stewarding, the performance of the car, his race engineer, the pitball, developers of the car, the design office. Nothing was spared from his ire and I think, Matt it gives us a little bit of an insight. I mean, we already know what Max is like as a racer and that this is not wildly out of character for him, but I think it does give you an insight into pressure is maybe not exactly the right word, but the fact that there is more going on behind the scenes, and that he does genuinely feel like the season is slipping away from him. Maybe not the title per se, but that he feels like that era of absolute domination is escaping him.
00:25:52
Speaker 2: There's multiple things happening at the moment. Firstly, if we look at Formula One, over the last decade, we have historically had a clear favorite team. There's been very few seasons where you've had a proper competition. We had a little bit of that in twenty one. Obviously, there's a little bit of that at the start of twenty two, but they're almost the anomaly where there is competition in a proper battle, usually it's a team at the front that runs clear and is battling it out between themselves. So we're in something of an anomaly in recent history, so that by itself is already a little bit unusual. Red Bull, also within this regulation set, is reaching the top of a development curve. It's getting more and more marginal gains from what little wind tunnel time it has, and it does have reduced wind tunnel time. It's increased versus what it had because some of the some of the penalties and things have come off, but also proportionally McLaren has moved up and other bits and pieces. But they're making smaller and smaller gains to the point where it's almost a few should see is now more than gains that they're finding. Others are still finding gains, so they're getting closer, which is only serving to remp the pressure up even further. Then you cast your mind back six or so months, and Red Bull was in the headlines for a lot of off track reasons that were well documented. Don't need to go back over those, but at the time Christian Horner himself said it was a distraction. We know it was a distraction. There was stuff that left through that time for whatever reason, but that's going to have had an impact. And I had a conversation over the weekend with a few people and it's like, maybe this is where it's starting to show, because there's obviously a lag time, you know, in terms of developing upgrade packages and formulating how that's going to be dripped out and working it all out. There's a lead time in developing, producing whatever. Maybe what we're seeing now is the hangover of what we saw at the start of the year, which is an interesting thing as well, particularly given the developments that we've seen over the last week or so with Helmet Marco now having a contract with Red Bull Racing Max for Stappen's attitude throughout the Hunger and Grand Prix, and it wasn't just the race that he was surly in that, you know, he was short throughout the weekend and I just question him racing in what was a neurburgering twenty four hour virtual race. He's in the middle of a world championship battle, the biggest form of motor spot on the planet, and he's willing to distract himself racing until the wee hours. But if I'm Christian Horner, I'm having some pretty stern words.
00:28:52
Speaker 1: I don't think you are. If you're Christian Horner, I don't think he's capable of having.
00:28:55
Speaker 2: And that's the point that I'm getting to. It's like, who now runs Red Bull? Where is the power in that relationship? Is it with the staffman and Marcos such that they can do that what they want? And is that the contributing factor to what they're seeing? Now? There's so many layers to this onion that and there's probably elements of truth in every layer that it's almost impossible to wonder. It's going to be fascinating to see how this exact. We don't have to wait long because the Belgian grow ond Prix. I don't think Red Bull go there as favorites. They go there as contenders, but I think they go there as favorites. I think McLaren are favorites. When was the last time you said that? When there was the last time the ball went into a race weekend? Arguably is the underdogs and on the back foot. So it's going to be fascinating to see, you know, how much fight is left in that team and what we saw in Hungary. What does that mean? Is that Max for stuff fighting? Is that him panicking? Is that him just sleep deprived? Is it just him having a bad weekend? I mean we all have him. Yeah, it's it's gonna be fascinating. Really, really is.
00:30:13
Speaker 1: It's going to be. I mean, I liked I'd always try to avoid making sweeting statements. But it's all over obviously, But it's no. It's this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix is really interesting you talk about the form guide because this has been absolute Red Bull territory. Under this set of rules. The team has been embarrassingly fast at this circuit, regardless of the problems it's had. I mean, Max is one from all sorts of good places here. If it can't win this weekend, that really does mean what we've seen, and it's a Claren winning presumably in this scenario, it'd be weird if for someone else. I suppose that really does mean that the form guide has changed. Because I still expect what I mean, I don't know, it's interesting to contemplate who might be the favorite this weekend. I still expect Red Bull to be back in much better form. But if Max doesn't mean Orlando wins, of Oscar wins or someone else wins. It'd be interesting. Then I think we can put a line under Red Bull turning up to some tracks and dominating this year, because this is the track that it should dominate at. So there's a lot actually quite on the line for Red Bull Racing this weekend, or at least in terms of how we understand it. Because then if you look at the Constructors Championship twenty seven points, I think McLaren took out of Red Bull Racing finally actually second in the standings as well, so we can stop ignoring Ferrari and just say that they're third and not mention them again. That's down to fifty one points I think off the top of my head, or fifty odd points. I mean, that just tells you if they do the same thing a couple of races in a row, they will lead the constructor standings by the end of the Italian Grand Prix or thereabouts by Singapore at a minimum. So it really is on here and Red Bull needs to respond, I think, or show that it can respond. Rather, responding is usually quite a long timescale kind of thing in Formula one, so like you said there's a lot of different elements here. There's a number element I do want to touch on, of course, though, and that is so Jo Peri's's performance this weekend. This has become almost explicitly now a two race shootout or window for him to save his seat. He says it's not, but help Michael Christian Order of heavily allude to the fact that it is. Even Daniel Ricardo alludes to the fact that it is now so certainly On started the weekend with what I feel like, in any other context, would be a backhanded compliment best Friday since China, as Christian Order described it. Then crashed out of Q one in a way that even I felt uneasy watching and felt bad watching it, like you're watching a career die on the line with it on the vine. Then had quite a reasonably good Sunday. In fact, Christian Orner went back to China as the example best Sunday since China. Scored points, finished seventh, got ahead of George Russel after falling behind him early in the race. Not enough points to prevent McLaren taking a big bite out of the Constructors Championship lead, but a better race, but Matt. I still feel like, as I think we spoke about last week, that can't be enough, can it. You know, a good enough race to seventh after crashing out in Q one and still a lot of points taken out of Constructors Champion Chip, I don't know if it cuts it.
00:33:03
Speaker 2: And I'm with you, Yes he scored points, but what he's got six points? Okay, So that means from the past four races. In fact, from the past six races, he scored seventeen points, and that's that's a poor return and investment from any driver. You know, you look at you look at his peers in in that sort of top three, top four bracket. Maximustappen had absolute shocker, one of his worst race weekends, probably his worst race that I can remember in terms of just you know, pure driving. You know, I didn't think Monaco was that bad. He just wasn't wasn't there. But in in Hungary he made mistakes and he still he was still scored ten points. Louis Hamilton scored fifteen, Charleclair scored scored twelve, Carlos scored eight. Sergio was still the lowest scoring of that scoring individual of that group. The team lost ground, and it's because he's not pulling his weight. When Max Verstappen doesn't have a good weekend, that's where you need Sergio to be having a fantastic weekend. That's what he's there for. He's not there to push Max and you know, finished second by a second. He's there for when Max can't finish first or second or third, to plug that gap. It's kind of that simple, and he's still not doing it. So yeah, I think he goes into Belgium staring down the barrel of well, this could be my last Grand Prix. It is that serious. And you know, I've had messages from a few people over the last few weeks talking about this, some connected people as well, and they basically said as much. They're not willing to tell me categorically that my question obviously relates to to Daniel's involvement in a potential promotion to red Ball. They cannot and will not categorically rule it out, and wouldn't the team absolutely want to do that, because all it does is introduce uncertainty. If if you can absolutely categorically work that out, you do it. You don't. We don't comment on speculation or whatever. We'll know more later, is what we're what they're saying, and that's a hell of a thing to say. That showed zero faith in Sergio Perez. And I don't care what Christian Horner said after the Hungary and Grand Prix. It wasn't good enough. Okay, starting p nowhere on the group P sixteen shouldn't have been there. Have that same performance starting P five you're probably on the podium the way that race panned out, and so it was a missed opportunity, massive, massive missed opportunity, and for a driver in a car of that level, it's not good enough. A change has to be made Otherwise, to your previous point about McLaren and its challenge for the Constructors Championship, you know, a couple of races back, we were having a similar conversation about by the end of the year McLaren might just get there, might just be a challenger. We're now talking about Singapore. They could be leading the Constructors Championship. I mean that's a hell of a turnaround in the space of two or three races.
00:36:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it was actually last week we were talking about the end of that, right.
00:36:34
Speaker 2: So you know they're fifty one points down, you get forty three for finishing first and second hypothetically by the Italian Grand Prix. Mathematically it's highly unlikely, of course, but mathematically McLaren could be leading the Constructors Championship and on current form you'd have to say that it's almost inevitability. Because Red Bull is fighting with one hand behind his back. It has to do something about the surger's problem. It's that simple.
00:37:02
Speaker 1: It seems to me now after the Hungarian Grand Prix that Daniel Ricardo would be at the top of the list to replace Sergio Perez. And there's been a lot of talk about Liam Lawson. Looks good every time the camera crosses to him, look serious and focused. I think you'll be in an RB before too long, a minimum, by the start of next year, because that makes much more sense when you've got Daniel Riccardo's experience, as we've talked about in previous episodes, but also we talk about him needing a certain number of good results. This was a good weekend. The result didn't look that impressive. It was twelfth, a few places behind Yuki Sinoda, but they had qualified Yuki race players actually really quite good. Should have finished well ahead of Sonoda, had RB not put him on a really quite baffling strategy pitting him with the soft tire starters when he was on the mediums. Yuki started on the same mediums and finished the race in a one stop strategy, finished ninth relatively comfortably. Riccardo would have done the same. Some stats'm putting together for a Fox Sports article shows you that he should have been had he'd run the same strategy as Yuki. Sonoda got those only one seconds back from the pit stop. Looking at his improved pace compared to Sonoda in that second stint, would have finished perhaps as much as thirty seconds up the road of Sonoda because he had that much pace in hand in that second stint. He was in good form this weekend, and you could tell after the race. It's probably the most worked up in a while we've seen Daniel really frustrated, really furious. This is after he'd said at the start of the weekend, you know, and this was his admission that these could be the two most important race of his career. I still think despite the results, the showing was good. I think if the aim was to prove that he's that upturn inform we've talked about in the last month is continuing. I think he still managed that despite what looks like quite a poor head round the headline result.
00:38:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is often the case with Daniel really anyone outside of the headline grabbing teams. You've got to dig below just the surface level result because fighting in the midfield is often a very nuanced, nuanced thing. And you're right. It all came down to why the hell did Daniel pit on lap five or whatever it was when he could probably have gone a lot longer, as evidenced by Yuki Snoda. So I hadn't delved into it quite as deeply as you had, but it was just surface level. You could see that right there. It was clear that was a strategic screw up that the team has now admitted. As much Daniel's knew from within the as he was coming in ped entry. He was questioning it, he said post trace, if he can see it from from the cockpit, it's a little bit like McLaren and silver Soon, I guess why couldn't make the pit wallh it ahead of time? It's really in excuse. It's interesting there's a lot of strategic errors happening at the moment. But you're right in that it was a good weekend for Daniel. It it started well enough. He delivered in qualifying. Yes, he was ninth and Yuki Soda was only one spile behind, But the difference was that Daniel didn't crash. Yuki crashed the car. And if you're trying to demonstrate to a prospective employer, even if it's just for a promotion, you want to demonstrate that you can do the job, and you can do it without any fanfare. You can do it without drumas, you can do it without extending yourself. Daniel has the track record, but he needs to revisit that a little bit. I think he did that in a hungaring and it sort of follows on this trends really from sort of spain Ish where he started to deliver. He started to get that confidence back and the punchiness of his comments really speaks to the fact that he believes again.
00:40:43
Speaker 1: I think that's very interesting. I think that that scenario was quite the pressure situation over the course of the weekend was really interesting to watch play out among all the different drivers. And I think in the next one we will inevitably in the next couple of weeks know how this is going to pan out. Rib Racing has said he will take a decision after the Belgian Grand Prix, Matt, which is this weekend. Before we wrap this podcast up, it is time for our ratings for the week. Would you like to start us off? This is now the my favorite part of the podcast.
00:41:11
Speaker 2: I love it. I feel that we probably need to explain what we're doing here. It's people coming cold. Basically, think of it as an alternative World Championship. Everyone's a contender. Michael, you're in You're in contention for the World Championship. It doesn't matter who you are, what you are. We just arbitrarily give or take points away based on how we feel. It's kind of that's that's the pistic end. That's that's as intelligent as it gets. Some of it's funny, some of it's just stupid, and all of it meaningless. So with that in mind, I'm going to start things off and my first lot of points goes to Oscar Piastri okay, and I'm going to give them a healthy five because it's a fifth Australian to win a World Championship Grand Prix, and I say World Championship Grand Prix because there's been plenty of non championship Groands Prix and many that won't even Formula One that Australians won. But in the World Championship and it's not Formula One, but in the World Championship, he's the fifth. I'll get off that high horse one day, but today it's not that day.
00:42:16
Speaker 1: Yeah. I like a good technical call. It's very good. Funnily enough, my first five points also goes to Oscar Piastre. The number five was less in detail thought out than your five was. I just thought it was a satisfying but I give it to him for perhaps controversial reasons, Matt, and I give it to him for not doing the shoey after he won, because it's funny. I get it. Drinking from a shoe, it's not it's not a usual drinking vessel. I get it. But we don't all have to do it whenever anything good or interesting and notable happens. And I'm to me, yes, I'm at the end of every podcast, you're cracking.
00:42:58
Speaker 2: Out the shoe drink shoes kicking around, just only one shoe left in them though.
00:43:03
Speaker 1: So I was quite pleased to see that he's going to find his own way to celebrate, even though I know you did the shoey in Silverston for.
00:43:08
Speaker 2: Some reason, but it was my point in Silverston, wasn't it.
00:43:14
Speaker 1: I don't follow the shoey trainers, so I'm perfectly happy with these five points.
00:43:20
Speaker 2: Well, it was a good day for Oscar Piastre. He he won a little race in Hungary and scored ten big points in our alternative championship, and I know which one means more to him.
00:43:31
Speaker 1: We didn't celebrate that hard after Hungry, so it's possibly our one.
00:43:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, did see all mate give him the cash and say you're going to win this week? And yep, that was that was pretty good. All right? My second one of points. Then what we give we must take us away. Given that Oscar has been given ten for winning, I'm going to take eighty one away from from Lando Norris.
00:43:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've just.
00:43:57
Speaker 2: Taken the number at random. Eighty one. Don't know where that's come from, but I thought that was that was just poor form. And you know what, I'm going to take eighty one away from McLaren as well. Just oh wow, it's not a slash McClaren, because I think they both made a Millise.
00:44:14
Speaker 1: Okay, that's interesting to see how the statiticians de code that kind of entry in the championship standings. At least it's not half points. I'm happy with that. My I'm taking going back to the negatives taking fifty points off RB, because that's roughly the disparity between where Daniel Riccardo finished and where he should have finished fifty seconds up the road. It would have been ninth place, would have scored two points, we wouldn't have been talking about how disappointed he was afterwards. It was just as Riccardo said in his two hundred and fifty odd races, it's the worst strategy he's ever had and just poor form all round.
00:44:48
Speaker 2: Well, I can tell you it's two hundred and fifty two race starts, two hundred and fifty three pre hundred and fifty two starts. So I know that because that's how many points I've taken from RB this weekend.
00:45:00
Speaker 1: Oh it's gonna be did come back from RB?
00:45:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, three hundred and two points gone like that for For RB, they're really going to have to a little bit like the Bridge Grand Pre organizers. They're going they're going to have to lift from from monears, but.
00:45:21
Speaker 1: It's been a rough week for Abbi. Way fewer points in our championship than obviously in the actual one and Formida one. But my final one is Max for Stafford. He gets minus one point, not for competing in the twenty four hours of Noboobering or whatever it was. Per se. I don't mind that he was up till three am. I sure he slept before and afterwards. He knows what he's doing. He's done it before. In fact, I think he did it before winning the Midi Romania Grand Prix. One point off for appearing not to have a life like entering so many overnight Well, I have to be overnight. I guess they're twenty four hour races, SIM races when your day job is racing a Formula one car. I mean, someone's got to take him out to show them a good time, because I just find that a little bit sad.
00:46:05
Speaker 2: Isn't it that most Formula one drivers use the SIM to improve their real racing. Max uses real racing to improve previously.
00:46:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yes, I suppose that's probably true.
00:46:17
Speaker 2: Actually that's from everything I've seen. I don't think Max needs too much encouragement to have a good time, but.
00:46:27
Speaker 1: No, that's true actually, so maybe maybe later down the line will give him some points showing that he's having a good time. But for me, I just thought, just take the time off, go and do something. Can't do have a meal, go out, I don't know, it's pets a great city anyway. There are rankings for this week. We'll be back with the rankings and other content next week, of course, because that's all the time we have for pit Talk after the Hungarian Grand Prix. Next week will be wrapping up the Belgian Grand Prix, the last race before the August break, and what driver market moves may or may not be eventuating at Red Bull Racing before then. So Jo Peri's all lives will be on you. You can subscribe to pit Talk wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you can leave us a rating review as well. You can also keep up to date with all the latest step on news throughout this weekends round at foxsports dot com dot Au and Speedcafe dot Com. From and me, Michael Lomonado, thanks very much for your company and we'll catch you next week.
Speaker 1: Today's episode, Oscar Piastre is Australia's fifth Formula One Grand Prix winner after leading home a dominant McLaren one two in Hungary that wasn't controversial in any way, and Max for staffman doesn't win again. Instead, he fumes that Red Bull Racing is getting complacent after a new upgrade bails to fire. My name is Michael Lomonato, motorsport rider for Fox Sports Australia. It's great to have your company and the company of my co hosts from speed Cafe. He was up until three am in the simulator, but his performance is showing no ill effects as a result. It's Matt Cash.
00:00:36
Speaker 2: The question is it wasn't a Formula one simulator. It was goat simulator that I was playing.
00:00:41
Speaker 1: Very so you were of a farm simulator man.
00:00:44
Speaker 2: Funny enough, I do have the game. I also have truck driving simulator. I haven't yet dabbled with bus simulator, but I'm very, very tempted.
00:00:52
Speaker 1: Maybe on a quite a rare quite maybe it's a mid season break project for you to be simulator operator.
00:01:00
Speaker 2: But I can see the hours just ebbing away in my future. I'm well spent. Don't get me wrong.
00:01:05
Speaker 1: I mean I think that whenever I'm on a bus, just think about the time ebbing away from me. That's inaccurate simulator in that situation.
00:01:12
Speaker 2: Did you just see me? We'll get to zamboge if he stood in the corner holding an imaginary strap, pressing imaginary button, going and ding to myself.
00:01:22
Speaker 1: He's finally broken. Fust simulators finally broken. And let's move on the matters form to one. Matt, and before we get into a course the big events of the weekend, and we are in the middle of a double header, let's take you through the news you need to know from the last week in five minutes or less, sometimes more, though I shouldn't say all less. Usually it's actually been usually more than five minutes. But Matt, let's start with Kevin Magnison news that broke shortly after our previous podcast. He has at the moment and probably in the future, no seat for twenty twenty five after Half announced it wouldn't be renewing his contract at the end of this season, with Esteban Ochon expected to replace him.
00:02:00
Speaker 2: I'm I love this new style of announcement where yeah, we're not renewing his contract, but the announcement is this guy's leaving, which we already knew.
00:02:09
Speaker 1: So it was the.
00:02:09
Speaker 2: Announcement of the bleeding obvious in many respects as we all lost Esteban's confirmation there. It was expected over the of the Hungary and Grand Prix and obviously delayed because this way from a PR perspective, you get two bites of the cherry. One Magnuson's leaving get headlines. Two O Gon arrive, so you get the headlines. It's good PR. But yeah, it's an interesting little trend.
00:02:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, and nice amount of respect I suppose for Kevin Magnuson. Two. They were very effusive in their praise of his contribution to the team, so it gave him his own little moment to bask him being sacked. Let's move on now.
00:02:44
Speaker 2: Too, contract expired.
00:02:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is quite a significant difference, of course, and Tray give me Antonelli fresh off winning the Springe in Silson a couple of weeks ago, He's now won a feature race victory in Budapest. He's risen to sixth in the Championship if as a result, he is the Mercedes prodigy who's been connected to Lewis Hamilton's seat next season, but after winning in Budapest, the Italian said he's not sure if he's ready for a Formula One promotion.
00:03:12
Speaker 2: Of course it's going to say that, because that's when everyone else is saying. That's kind of the line that Mercedes will be giving him to spout because you don't want to give the game up at this stage. Ultimately, who else does Mercedes have? Maybe we'll just a little bit of that later on. But I heard a while ago that the plan was Fantinell to do a second year in Formula two. The prema hasn't been good. That's the team he's driving for there with this new car, it's just been a little bit at sea. So the results that he's getting there, at least in the early part of the season, were reflective of him. And the media attention has also got to him a little bit, I've been told, So we'll see, we'll see. I don't know what other options they realistically.
00:03:50
Speaker 1: Have, though, could be Carlos Science, which would be good news for Jack doing it. Al that's true, it's great. Really, Let's move on to red Bull now, and some of the heat sort of has been taken out of Red Bull Racing for the time being with Helmut Marco redoubling his commitment not just to the brand map but to team Red Bull Racing. And that's of course interesting in relation to the clause in Maxwastappen's contract which was reported earlier in the year that would allow him to leave the team if Marco left the team, but now it seems that that might be taken off the table.
00:04:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an interesting new agreement. So Marco helped doctor Helmt Marco has been Red bulls Motor sportifyser. That's been a deal with Red Bull GmbH, basically the Austrian drinks company directly. Now he has a contract with Red Bull Racing or in agreement with Red Bull Racing or some sort of commitment to Red Bull Racing that's been formalized, which is a fascinating development. Exactly why and exactly what that is, who knows, but it's an interesting thing.
00:04:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. And apparently reportedly according to the Dutch media, you'res for Staffen and Christian Horner are talking again, which is remarkable. Saying with Red Bull Race, though Max Verstappen has admitted to racing with blurred vision in the latter half of the twenty twenty one season, he's made entitle winning season after that fifty one g crash with Lewis Hamilton at Silverston. He said it in an article that appeared in the Red bullowned Red Bulletin. It's since been taken down, or rather the part of the article in which he referred to it's been taken down. In this article he likened driving the bumpy circuit of the Americas to like riding a speedboat.
00:05:27
Speaker 2: That's really concerning, basically because it shows that he was passed fit to race when he clearly wasn't. The part of that article was he considered stopping the car, which is pretty significant for someone like Max with Staffen, who he doesn't stop the car and give up points for anything. So for him to make that revelation suggests it was pretty serious and that's alarming. Given that he was past fit to race. There was something missed there and that needs to be looked at pretty sharply.
00:05:56
Speaker 1: I'm interesting to see if that one has followed up. And finally, Matt unbelievably the second time, not just this year, but I'm just looking at my calendar this month, I think McLaren's motor home is out of action after catching fire in Spain, had its roof ripped off by a storm in Budapest. Coincidentally, though, Matt Lenda Norris took pole on both races at which these disasters struck.
00:06:18
Speaker 2: And for all our Australian listeners here, remember Clark and Door if you can think back to that one about the front fell off the boat. That kind of happened in Monaco as well that we got there on the Thursday and the hospitality center in the paddock didn't have a didn't have a front of it. So yeah, they've not had a great run of late. But I mean ultimately this time, no massive issues other than the fact that there's no roof on it. You know, there's no fire or whatever. But no one went to hospital. But it's no idea, really is it. Oscar had to use a smaller of his driver's rooms. He's got two of them, but it had air conditioning and in Hungry that's kind of the one you want anyway.
00:07:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it worked out in the end, well, it worked out for it's worked out on track in the end of it. I've had that motor home. It's out of action now again. I Saly must be cursed some other explanation for it, because this is a different I don't know if anyone really follows motor home chat in Formula one, but McLaren used to have what it called the brand Center.
00:07:24
Speaker 2: This is the brand Center. This structure is a more.
00:07:28
Speaker 1: Modest version of it, so at the start there's no spiral staircase.
00:07:33
Speaker 2: At the start of the last year they went and refurbished it basically to downsize, to to make logistics a little bit more straightforward, to reduce car for and all of that sort of stuff. I went through this rejuvenation process. It is the brand Center, slightly different facade and internals, but it is exactly the same structure. This thing goes back to run Dennis back in about two thousand and five. Isch off the top of my head. It's it's older than Lewis Hamilton's.
00:08:02
Speaker 1: Certainly showing its age at unfortunately for it.
00:08:05
Speaker 2: It's yeah, yes, it's a little bit.
00:08:08
Speaker 1: It is a little bit less obstentatious than the original version of it. But well, certainly at the moment it is. Let's move on, Matt to action on track at the Hungarian Grand Prix, and of course Oscar Piastri's first win. Don't talk about the sprint last year doesn't count. Very satisfied actually that afterwards he pretty much said as much. The sprint was nice, but this is the win that really counted. Obviously, wasn't super straightforward in the end, despite having the pace throughout the Grand Prix, pinching the lead at the first turn from polgetter Orlando Norris didn't look back after that until well, the team really made him look back in that team orders fiasco. But let's start with him winning that first of all, because this was I've actually found it interesting trying to describe this variously as being a long time coming on the one, but it has been Formula one long enough to really be a long time coming, I suppose, only thirty four to thirty five races, and also in some senses quite unremarkable, because we've all known it was going to happen sooner or later. This win, to me almost just feels like, well, of course he was going to win. It's a box checked, and now let's move on to bigger and better things.
00:09:13
Speaker 2: Well, I'd like to point out that he is exactly average. Here is the fiftieth percentile when it comes to Australians winning in Formula One in terms of the speed with which they've done it, Jack Brabham and Alan Jones were faster with their first wins, but Daniel Ricardo and Mark Webble was slower. So he's exactly average when it comes to Australians winning in Formula one them. But yeah, so it has been both a long time coming and very quick. But yeah, it does feel like that we've been speaking about Oscar for so long, even the year before he was in Formula one, he dominated that August. Obviously, he entered the sport with a huge junior career, so he's been on the radar four a long time. You know, he was Kimmy Antonelli before Kimy Antonelli was So that conversation comes with a huge amount of expectation and the way McLaren's been traveling that you know, everythinge I think has been on the journey with McLaren. Because if you're a reb Bull fan or not, what you want to see is competition. Yes, it's nice to see your team win eight nil, nine nil, whatever, but there's nothing more exciting than a than a one nil win. At the end of a competitive game with the kick of the ninetieth minute, so you want to see some competition out there. So I think everyone was enjoying the journey with McLaren because you could see where it was going to end up. And to see that with Oscar as well, knowing that backstory, knowing and you know the ringer that he went through just to get to formula. Knowing that just makes it a little bit more round it. We're a little bit more invested, I think, and that's why it feels like it's taken so long, because we'll be on this journey with him. At the same time it feels so quick because he's only been there for five minutes.
00:11:03
Speaker 1: There's also the element that it feels like it could have happened already this season. He has a tragically small trophy cabinet this year when really should have had much more silver are for mostly circumstances outside of his control. Very rarely has it been something within his power to have scored a better result this year. So it's also been that element of it that it's been hard for him to make it to that top step. Although that said, that's been a bit of a McLaren thing as we talked about last week, many missed opportunities by the team and really still to still have only two wins for this season doesn't seem right for a team that dominated so comprehensively in Hungary. And I guess sucked into those who wanted are closer battle because well they got a different winner, but it wasn't much closer about it.
00:11:44
Speaker 2: In the end, I was going to say, well, it did get a little bit interesting. There was definitely some intrigue.
00:11:50
Speaker 1: Yes, well, it's exactly my point, because there was one point where it did get very close and very interesting in the final stint, the final third of the Grand Prix, when matt I had already written most of my report talking about how oscopiastri had fundamentally cruised to his first Crumfrerie win and what a result there was this team orders debacle or well fiasco or just mind a point of interest, depending on your perspective and whether or not you work for McLaren. I suppose it was a very conservative strategy from McLaren that had Lando Norris jump Oscar piastre in and undercut they were protecting against Lewis Hamilton behind. He wasn't really a threat, but I guess considering how much. Just for example, we last week said they missed opportunities they really wanted to belt embraces this one. And I suppose Matt counted on Lando Norris and Oscopiastri's history together the last eighteen months, but the longer history for Lando Norris two have never really questioning team orders, never really questioning the team in general, to just do so again, despite the stakes for him being markedly higher with a race wind being on the line, and I think were surprised despite what the team said afterwards that the response they well, at first, they got no response back and then subsequently got various negative responses back before three laps from the Lando Norris finally obeyed the orders.
00:13:04
Speaker 2: Andrea Stella, McLaren team principal, said some interesting things post race when questioned about this. The point that really stuck in my crawl was the interest of the team comes first. If you mess up on this matter, you cannot be part of the McLaren Formula One team. The team comes first. If you mess up, you're not part of McLaren. Lando Norris put himself first. Okay, he eventually conceded, but he made very clear that he put himself before the team. And then Andrea Stella went on to defend Lando's behavior, saying that it's sort of, you know, it's part of bigger racing driver, you have to be selfish. It's totally understandable. But he was absolute professional, but an absolute professional dragging a conversation, a needless conversation up for twenty laps when there was only ever going to be one outcome. And if Lando hadn't seeded the place back, he'd have won that battle, but civil war would have broken out within the team, and Lando probably would have lost the team in the dressing room and all those those things as well. Because Oscar, through his eighteen months with McLaren has more than once sacrificed himself for the greater good of the team. He's shown himself to live by the premise that Andrea speaks of the interest of the team comes first. Oscar has lived by that. Lando has demonstrated that that's an after thought. So that's one interesting point. But I do have a little bit of empathy for the Lando because he was put in that position and he didn't understand how or why, And that comes back to a fundamental communication issue from McClaren. If they'd explained to Lando, we're going to box you to cover off the undercut from Hamilton, you will let Oscar back through. We're protecting you in second place. We're not giving you first, we are protecting you in second That message never came through, and it was only when he was in the lead, or at least from the radio broadcast that we've had, it was only when he was in the lead that he was told to let Oscar back through. It's well, I'm in front now, why would I give up that? And it's not just giving up a lead, it's giving up seven points in a championship fight when Max was looking at thirty ultimately ended up fifth, but that was by the bye he gave up seven points as well. So there are two issues there that I didn't like about that last third of the race. One the selfish responses from Lando Norris, but to the way McClaren dropped minute in the first place.
00:16:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's important to emphasize that second part, in particular that McLaren's role in this, because I've certainly seen a lot of feedback on our Fox Sports social accounts that it felt to some people that this was a Team Orders victory on Piastre's behalf, when really it was the opposite. It would have been a Team Orders defeat had he not been soft back, and it would have been more outrageous for that reason that the team put them in that order. You can argue about and Piastre has been open about the fact that he's pacing the last stint wasn't as good as in his first two, and we can say, well, who was the faster car at the end, But we only really would have got a convincing answer that had Norris obeyed the team order more quickly and then potentially have shown himself up as being the faster driver, and then maybe we would have got a race for the victory. Who knows, and that would have been a totally different prospect. And they were race, yes, exactly, but we didn't get the race that could have been because he was so intent on creating that gap in that last stint to make a point when maybe he could have used that pace after having dropped back immediately after the fit stops to try and tell him. So it's kind of a moot point, but it's impossible to argue that this was a team orders victory when really the opposite is true. I really thought though Lando Norris's quotes after the race deserves some mention here. At first, he insisted that there was no controversy. Was always what are you talking about it? I was always going to give the position back. One of people complaining about it was in the press comers afterwards that he sort of gave a little bit of an insight into the anguish. I guess he says he was feeling in the cockpit anyway, and I quote from him, You've got to be selfish in this sport. Sometimes you've got to think of yourself. That's parody number one. But I'm also a team player, so my mind was going pretty crazy at the time. It wasn't easy, but I also understood the situation and I was quite confident always by the last lap I would have done it. And I find that kind of interesting because Landa Ross has grown up at McLaren right. He's a product fundamentally of McLaren. They gave him his first shot, he developed at that team, and he's now leading the team. There's always been that loyalty with McLaren, but there's never been a reason for him to think about himself as a driver almost in his own right, because McLaren's never been in that position. Even last year when they were going for wins, they were going all out because wins were such a rare thing. This year, though, while he's obviously desperate to back up his Miami Grand pre victory because there have been so many missed opportunities, he is also thinking about the championship. He mentions it he knows it's a long shot, but it's it is a long shot. It's not out of the question. It's worth a try. And suddenly his mind is operating in a way I guess it's never had to during his McLaren tenure. And I find that interesting because, to go back to things that Andrea Seller was talking about after the race, the principles of McLaren are racing for the team and you always put the team before yourself. I mean every team would say that, but the way he talks about it in these Sunday morning meetings a year about that, it's really meant to be a big thing at McLaren. I guess the conditions that got Orlando Norris there are different now because the conditions that would have got him too. That mindset originally was that, well, we hope we could race for a championship in twenty twenty six. Until then we're building up. Well, no, they're racing for championships today. How does that process and procedure and structure stack up is going to be the question of this second half of the season, because the McLaren from today really, but let's just for neatness the second half of the year, he's different to the one we're talking about even a few months ago.
00:19:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, pre Miami McLaren was midfield, upper midfield, but midfield and the championship. Norris is in with a shot. It's a long shot, but it is a shot. And Terry Pratchett wrote that medi in the one shots happened one hundred percent of the time, so you know he's got a good chance. It's a good quote, that one. I'm a big fan of Terry Pratchett. I wonder I'm not a psychologist by any stretch of the imagination, but I wonder how much of this is actually a result of the fact that Norris is part of McLaren that has been for so long. He's been brought in, groomed to lead McLaren told how good he is, Told he's the future, told he's you know, they're guiding light. So of course that's eventually going to seep in. Then you're going to start believing your own pr you know, he's going to start thinking, I'm the leader of this team, I'm in charge, I'm the best. Whatever it is. With power of positive thinking and all that sort of stuff, it does eventually seek In Conversely, you've got Oscar, who is so appreciative to be there because he knows what it feels like to not be appreciated, to be held backwards, to be pushed backwards, to be completely nutterly screwed over by olpam let's don't throw bodes about it. And he got that olive lit branch from McLaren and he's appreciated for it. Every single quote that you read he talks about the appreciation that he has for Zach, the fact that he loves being there, that he feels enthused and energized because they show that faith in him. So it's a different it's the same thing for Oscar and Lando. I think they're just looking at it from different sides of the coin. Lando's never had that never had that roadblock that Oscar had and as a result him being told he's the future, he's the best, that him is all, Yeah, that makes sense where Oscar's like, hey, you guys believe in me a lot. That means a lot. So it's it's curious and I just again I'm not a psychologist, but that that's an interesting thing that I take out of that as well, just a the mental approach of the of the two drivers.
00:21:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think, as I suppose a final notn on this before we move on to other matters from this race, what's fascinating about this rivalry because it is a rivalry now and if it's a quiet one, particularly given championships are on the line, it can very quiet. Oscar doesn't say much, Yes, but he's very quiet, very understated man, but didn't celebrate all that much after this race when really speaks to he's very level headed, very cool.
00:21:51
Speaker 2: Stoic I think is the word.
00:21:52
Speaker 1: Yes, stoic, I like it a lot. Is that that the threat of him to Norris has been pretty far radical up until now. We've talked a lot about the single lap pace and Norris having to lift his game, and Lando himself has talked about how Oscar's made him lift his game, but it still really remained on paper. We've seen Oscar get close and then Norris respond winning his first race, beating Lando Norris in a straight fight him and he beat him down to the first corner, had the pace through the race lasting. Besides, it's now a real threat. There's now a real battle for position in McLaren. I know Andreas Stella will say there's no number one and number two driver. That's true, but there is in every team, if not emotionally, then just purely by results. Whoever's getting the best results ends up becoming a lead driver, whether it's temporary or it ends up being a long term thing. That battle's on now that's a real thing now that Oscar's off the line as we knew he always would be. I'm glad it's sooner rather than later for his sake, but I think sooner rather than later also sets this up for a long slog to the end of the year, because, of course, regardless of whether McLaren wins one or no or two titles this year, next year, you've got to believe that they're going to start. But as a favorite, they're going to start on even footing with Red Bull Racing, maybe Mercedes and prior who knows, but it'll that we properly in with a shot and then positioning in terms of which drivers performing better and what's the form book like is way more important because one hundred everything will be on the line, and that's what makes the second half of the season McLaren so interesting, regardless of whether or not they actually take the fight to Red Bull Racing.
00:23:23
Speaker 2: Having duel number ones works brilliantly in a Formula One team. It works for Williams in nineteen eighty six with Nigel Mansellin and Nelson p K. It worked at McLaren with Alain Prost and end Center. It worked in Mercedes with Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. There's very very few examples in Formula One history. We're having two highly rated, highly credentialed, equal status drivers works very few.
00:23:58
Speaker 1: Let's move on now, Matt though, to Red Bull Racing, a team that does not have to equal number one drivers. Sorry, Serjo Perez. An interesting weekend for the Raining Constructors Championship winning team. This was the biggest upgrade of the year so far for Red Bull racing designed almost specifically for Hungary or the conditions of Hungary anyway, low speed performance, opening up the set up window, even cooling, even hot weather, which happened to be very much the case in Budapest, and Maxistappen said it worked, but clearly not enough because Red Bull Racing. I don't want to sound so dramatic and say it wasn't out the races, because it still was the second quickest car, but wasn't really in competition for Pole. The margins in the end were false in the sense that they looked really close beer because Lando and Rris didn't get his second lap in, so it probably would have been bigger, and in the Grand Prix wasn't really there and some of that inevitably would it be Max of Staffin's frustration to talk on in the second But even then the car performance wasn't as we'd come to expect, where he's capable of winning from anywhere on the grid and almost anywhere in the race. And of course most people will remember this Grand Prix from the Red Bull perspective as being the one or one of the few I suppose the handful when Max with Stafford felt like he was truly having a breakdown in the cockpit. He's angry at everything and at every one drivers he'd come across on the track, the stewarding, the performance of the car, his race engineer, the pitball, developers of the car, the design office. Nothing was spared from his ire and I think, Matt it gives us a little bit of an insight. I mean, we already know what Max is like as a racer and that this is not wildly out of character for him, but I think it does give you an insight into pressure is maybe not exactly the right word, but the fact that there is more going on behind the scenes, and that he does genuinely feel like the season is slipping away from him. Maybe not the title per se, but that he feels like that era of absolute domination is escaping him.
00:25:52
Speaker 2: There's multiple things happening at the moment. Firstly, if we look at Formula One, over the last decade, we have historically had a clear favorite team. There's been very few seasons where you've had a proper competition. We had a little bit of that in twenty one. Obviously, there's a little bit of that at the start of twenty two, but they're almost the anomaly where there is competition in a proper battle, usually it's a team at the front that runs clear and is battling it out between themselves. So we're in something of an anomaly in recent history, so that by itself is already a little bit unusual. Red Bull, also within this regulation set, is reaching the top of a development curve. It's getting more and more marginal gains from what little wind tunnel time it has, and it does have reduced wind tunnel time. It's increased versus what it had because some of the some of the penalties and things have come off, but also proportionally McLaren has moved up and other bits and pieces. But they're making smaller and smaller gains to the point where it's almost a few should see is now more than gains that they're finding. Others are still finding gains, so they're getting closer, which is only serving to remp the pressure up even further. Then you cast your mind back six or so months, and Red Bull was in the headlines for a lot of off track reasons that were well documented. Don't need to go back over those, but at the time Christian Horner himself said it was a distraction. We know it was a distraction. There was stuff that left through that time for whatever reason, but that's going to have had an impact. And I had a conversation over the weekend with a few people and it's like, maybe this is where it's starting to show, because there's obviously a lag time, you know, in terms of developing upgrade packages and formulating how that's going to be dripped out and working it all out. There's a lead time in developing, producing whatever. Maybe what we're seeing now is the hangover of what we saw at the start of the year, which is an interesting thing as well, particularly given the developments that we've seen over the last week or so with Helmet Marco now having a contract with Red Bull Racing Max for Stappen's attitude throughout the Hunger and Grand Prix, and it wasn't just the race that he was surly in that, you know, he was short throughout the weekend and I just question him racing in what was a neurburgering twenty four hour virtual race. He's in the middle of a world championship battle, the biggest form of motor spot on the planet, and he's willing to distract himself racing until the wee hours. But if I'm Christian Horner, I'm having some pretty stern words.
00:28:52
Speaker 1: I don't think you are. If you're Christian Horner, I don't think he's capable of having.
00:28:55
Speaker 2: And that's the point that I'm getting to. It's like, who now runs Red Bull? Where is the power in that relationship? Is it with the staffman and Marcos such that they can do that what they want? And is that the contributing factor to what they're seeing? Now? There's so many layers to this onion that and there's probably elements of truth in every layer that it's almost impossible to wonder. It's going to be fascinating to see how this exact. We don't have to wait long because the Belgian grow ond Prix. I don't think Red Bull go there as favorites. They go there as contenders, but I think they go there as favorites. I think McLaren are favorites. When was the last time you said that? When there was the last time the ball went into a race weekend? Arguably is the underdogs and on the back foot. So it's going to be fascinating to see, you know, how much fight is left in that team and what we saw in Hungary. What does that mean? Is that Max for stuff fighting? Is that him panicking? Is that him just sleep deprived? Is it just him having a bad weekend? I mean we all have him. Yeah, it's it's gonna be fascinating. Really, really is.
00:30:13
Speaker 1: It's going to be. I mean, I liked I'd always try to avoid making sweeting statements. But it's all over obviously, But it's no. It's this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix is really interesting you talk about the form guide because this has been absolute Red Bull territory. Under this set of rules. The team has been embarrassingly fast at this circuit, regardless of the problems it's had. I mean, Max is one from all sorts of good places here. If it can't win this weekend, that really does mean what we've seen, and it's a Claren winning presumably in this scenario, it'd be weird if for someone else. I suppose that really does mean that the form guide has changed. Because I still expect what I mean, I don't know, it's interesting to contemplate who might be the favorite this weekend. I still expect Red Bull to be back in much better form. But if Max doesn't mean Orlando wins, of Oscar wins or someone else wins. It'd be interesting. Then I think we can put a line under Red Bull turning up to some tracks and dominating this year, because this is the track that it should dominate at. So there's a lot actually quite on the line for Red Bull Racing this weekend, or at least in terms of how we understand it. Because then if you look at the Constructors Championship twenty seven points, I think McLaren took out of Red Bull Racing finally actually second in the standings as well, so we can stop ignoring Ferrari and just say that they're third and not mention them again. That's down to fifty one points I think off the top of my head, or fifty odd points. I mean, that just tells you if they do the same thing a couple of races in a row, they will lead the constructor standings by the end of the Italian Grand Prix or thereabouts by Singapore at a minimum. So it really is on here and Red Bull needs to respond, I think, or show that it can respond. Rather, responding is usually quite a long timescale kind of thing in Formula one, so like you said there's a lot of different elements here. There's a number element I do want to touch on, of course, though, and that is so Jo Peri's's performance this weekend. This has become almost explicitly now a two race shootout or window for him to save his seat. He says it's not, but help Michael Christian Order of heavily allude to the fact that it is. Even Daniel Ricardo alludes to the fact that it is now so certainly On started the weekend with what I feel like, in any other context, would be a backhanded compliment best Friday since China, as Christian Order described it. Then crashed out of Q one in a way that even I felt uneasy watching and felt bad watching it, like you're watching a career die on the line with it on the vine. Then had quite a reasonably good Sunday. In fact, Christian Orner went back to China as the example best Sunday since China. Scored points, finished seventh, got ahead of George Russel after falling behind him early in the race. Not enough points to prevent McLaren taking a big bite out of the Constructors Championship lead, but a better race, but Matt. I still feel like, as I think we spoke about last week, that can't be enough, can it. You know, a good enough race to seventh after crashing out in Q one and still a lot of points taken out of Constructors Champion Chip, I don't know if it cuts it.
00:33:03
Speaker 2: And I'm with you, Yes he scored points, but what he's got six points? Okay, So that means from the past four races. In fact, from the past six races, he scored seventeen points, and that's that's a poor return and investment from any driver. You know, you look at you look at his peers in in that sort of top three, top four bracket. Maximustappen had absolute shocker, one of his worst race weekends, probably his worst race that I can remember in terms of just you know, pure driving. You know, I didn't think Monaco was that bad. He just wasn't wasn't there. But in in Hungary he made mistakes and he still he was still scored ten points. Louis Hamilton scored fifteen, Charleclair scored scored twelve, Carlos scored eight. Sergio was still the lowest scoring of that scoring individual of that group. The team lost ground, and it's because he's not pulling his weight. When Max Verstappen doesn't have a good weekend, that's where you need Sergio to be having a fantastic weekend. That's what he's there for. He's not there to push Max and you know, finished second by a second. He's there for when Max can't finish first or second or third, to plug that gap. It's kind of that simple, and he's still not doing it. So yeah, I think he goes into Belgium staring down the barrel of well, this could be my last Grand Prix. It is that serious. And you know, I've had messages from a few people over the last few weeks talking about this, some connected people as well, and they basically said as much. They're not willing to tell me categorically that my question obviously relates to to Daniel's involvement in a potential promotion to red Ball. They cannot and will not categorically rule it out, and wouldn't the team absolutely want to do that, because all it does is introduce uncertainty. If if you can absolutely categorically work that out, you do it. You don't. We don't comment on speculation or whatever. We'll know more later, is what we're what they're saying, and that's a hell of a thing to say. That showed zero faith in Sergio Perez. And I don't care what Christian Horner said after the Hungary and Grand Prix. It wasn't good enough. Okay, starting p nowhere on the group P sixteen shouldn't have been there. Have that same performance starting P five you're probably on the podium the way that race panned out, and so it was a missed opportunity, massive, massive missed opportunity, and for a driver in a car of that level, it's not good enough. A change has to be made Otherwise, to your previous point about McLaren and its challenge for the Constructors Championship, you know, a couple of races back, we were having a similar conversation about by the end of the year McLaren might just get there, might just be a challenger. We're now talking about Singapore. They could be leading the Constructors Championship. I mean that's a hell of a turnaround in the space of two or three races.
00:36:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it was actually last week we were talking about the end of that, right.
00:36:34
Speaker 2: So you know they're fifty one points down, you get forty three for finishing first and second hypothetically by the Italian Grand Prix. Mathematically it's highly unlikely, of course, but mathematically McLaren could be leading the Constructors Championship and on current form you'd have to say that it's almost inevitability. Because Red Bull is fighting with one hand behind his back. It has to do something about the surger's problem. It's that simple.
00:37:02
Speaker 1: It seems to me now after the Hungarian Grand Prix that Daniel Ricardo would be at the top of the list to replace Sergio Perez. And there's been a lot of talk about Liam Lawson. Looks good every time the camera crosses to him, look serious and focused. I think you'll be in an RB before too long, a minimum, by the start of next year, because that makes much more sense when you've got Daniel Riccardo's experience, as we've talked about in previous episodes, but also we talk about him needing a certain number of good results. This was a good weekend. The result didn't look that impressive. It was twelfth, a few places behind Yuki Sinoda, but they had qualified Yuki race players actually really quite good. Should have finished well ahead of Sonoda, had RB not put him on a really quite baffling strategy pitting him with the soft tire starters when he was on the mediums. Yuki started on the same mediums and finished the race in a one stop strategy, finished ninth relatively comfortably. Riccardo would have done the same. Some stats'm putting together for a Fox Sports article shows you that he should have been had he'd run the same strategy as Yuki. Sonoda got those only one seconds back from the pit stop. Looking at his improved pace compared to Sonoda in that second stint, would have finished perhaps as much as thirty seconds up the road of Sonoda because he had that much pace in hand in that second stint. He was in good form this weekend, and you could tell after the race. It's probably the most worked up in a while we've seen Daniel really frustrated, really furious. This is after he'd said at the start of the weekend, you know, and this was his admission that these could be the two most important race of his career. I still think despite the results, the showing was good. I think if the aim was to prove that he's that upturn inform we've talked about in the last month is continuing. I think he still managed that despite what looks like quite a poor head round the headline result.
00:38:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is often the case with Daniel really anyone outside of the headline grabbing teams. You've got to dig below just the surface level result because fighting in the midfield is often a very nuanced, nuanced thing. And you're right. It all came down to why the hell did Daniel pit on lap five or whatever it was when he could probably have gone a lot longer, as evidenced by Yuki Snoda. So I hadn't delved into it quite as deeply as you had, but it was just surface level. You could see that right there. It was clear that was a strategic screw up that the team has now admitted. As much Daniel's knew from within the as he was coming in ped entry. He was questioning it, he said post trace, if he can see it from from the cockpit, it's a little bit like McLaren and silver Soon, I guess why couldn't make the pit wallh it ahead of time? It's really in excuse. It's interesting there's a lot of strategic errors happening at the moment. But you're right in that it was a good weekend for Daniel. It it started well enough. He delivered in qualifying. Yes, he was ninth and Yuki Soda was only one spile behind, But the difference was that Daniel didn't crash. Yuki crashed the car. And if you're trying to demonstrate to a prospective employer, even if it's just for a promotion, you want to demonstrate that you can do the job, and you can do it without any fanfare. You can do it without drumas, you can do it without extending yourself. Daniel has the track record, but he needs to revisit that a little bit. I think he did that in a hungaring and it sort of follows on this trends really from sort of spain Ish where he started to deliver. He started to get that confidence back and the punchiness of his comments really speaks to the fact that he believes again.
00:40:43
Speaker 1: I think that's very interesting. I think that that scenario was quite the pressure situation over the course of the weekend was really interesting to watch play out among all the different drivers. And I think in the next one we will inevitably in the next couple of weeks know how this is going to pan out. Rib Racing has said he will take a decision after the Belgian Grand Prix, Matt, which is this weekend. Before we wrap this podcast up, it is time for our ratings for the week. Would you like to start us off? This is now the my favorite part of the podcast.
00:41:11
Speaker 2: I love it. I feel that we probably need to explain what we're doing here. It's people coming cold. Basically, think of it as an alternative World Championship. Everyone's a contender. Michael, you're in You're in contention for the World Championship. It doesn't matter who you are, what you are. We just arbitrarily give or take points away based on how we feel. It's kind of that's that's the pistic end. That's that's as intelligent as it gets. Some of it's funny, some of it's just stupid, and all of it meaningless. So with that in mind, I'm going to start things off and my first lot of points goes to Oscar Piastri okay, and I'm going to give them a healthy five because it's a fifth Australian to win a World Championship Grand Prix, and I say World Championship Grand Prix because there's been plenty of non championship Groands Prix and many that won't even Formula One that Australians won. But in the World Championship and it's not Formula One, but in the World Championship, he's the fifth. I'll get off that high horse one day, but today it's not that day.
00:42:16
Speaker 1: Yeah. I like a good technical call. It's very good. Funnily enough, my first five points also goes to Oscar Piastre. The number five was less in detail thought out than your five was. I just thought it was a satisfying but I give it to him for perhaps controversial reasons, Matt, and I give it to him for not doing the shoey after he won, because it's funny. I get it. Drinking from a shoe, it's not it's not a usual drinking vessel. I get it. But we don't all have to do it whenever anything good or interesting and notable happens. And I'm to me, yes, I'm at the end of every podcast, you're cracking.
00:42:58
Speaker 2: Out the shoe drink shoes kicking around, just only one shoe left in them though.
00:43:03
Speaker 1: So I was quite pleased to see that he's going to find his own way to celebrate, even though I know you did the shoey in Silverston for.
00:43:08
Speaker 2: Some reason, but it was my point in Silverston, wasn't it.
00:43:14
Speaker 1: I don't follow the shoey trainers, so I'm perfectly happy with these five points.
00:43:20
Speaker 2: Well, it was a good day for Oscar Piastre. He he won a little race in Hungary and scored ten big points in our alternative championship, and I know which one means more to him.
00:43:31
Speaker 1: We didn't celebrate that hard after Hungry, so it's possibly our one.
00:43:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, did see all mate give him the cash and say you're going to win this week? And yep, that was that was pretty good. All right? My second one of points. Then what we give we must take us away. Given that Oscar has been given ten for winning, I'm going to take eighty one away from from Lando Norris.
00:43:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've just.
00:43:57
Speaker 2: Taken the number at random. Eighty one. Don't know where that's come from, but I thought that was that was just poor form. And you know what, I'm going to take eighty one away from McLaren as well. Just oh wow, it's not a slash McClaren, because I think they both made a Millise.
00:44:14
Speaker 1: Okay, that's interesting to see how the statiticians de code that kind of entry in the championship standings. At least it's not half points. I'm happy with that. My I'm taking going back to the negatives taking fifty points off RB, because that's roughly the disparity between where Daniel Riccardo finished and where he should have finished fifty seconds up the road. It would have been ninth place, would have scored two points, we wouldn't have been talking about how disappointed he was afterwards. It was just as Riccardo said in his two hundred and fifty odd races, it's the worst strategy he's ever had and just poor form all round.
00:44:48
Speaker 2: Well, I can tell you it's two hundred and fifty two race starts, two hundred and fifty three pre hundred and fifty two starts. So I know that because that's how many points I've taken from RB this weekend.
00:45:00
Speaker 1: Oh it's gonna be did come back from RB?
00:45:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, three hundred and two points gone like that for For RB, they're really going to have to a little bit like the Bridge Grand Pre organizers. They're going they're going to have to lift from from monears, but.
00:45:21
Speaker 1: It's been a rough week for Abbi. Way fewer points in our championship than obviously in the actual one and Formida one. But my final one is Max for Stafford. He gets minus one point, not for competing in the twenty four hours of Noboobering or whatever it was. Per se. I don't mind that he was up till three am. I sure he slept before and afterwards. He knows what he's doing. He's done it before. In fact, I think he did it before winning the Midi Romania Grand Prix. One point off for appearing not to have a life like entering so many overnight Well, I have to be overnight. I guess they're twenty four hour races, SIM races when your day job is racing a Formula one car. I mean, someone's got to take him out to show them a good time, because I just find that a little bit sad.
00:46:05
Speaker 2: Isn't it that most Formula one drivers use the SIM to improve their real racing. Max uses real racing to improve previously.
00:46:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yes, I suppose that's probably true.
00:46:17
Speaker 2: Actually that's from everything I've seen. I don't think Max needs too much encouragement to have a good time, but.
00:46:27
Speaker 1: No, that's true actually, so maybe maybe later down the line will give him some points showing that he's having a good time. But for me, I just thought, just take the time off, go and do something. Can't do have a meal, go out, I don't know, it's pets a great city anyway. There are rankings for this week. We'll be back with the rankings and other content next week, of course, because that's all the time we have for pit Talk after the Hungarian Grand Prix. Next week will be wrapping up the Belgian Grand Prix, the last race before the August break, and what driver market moves may or may not be eventuating at Red Bull Racing before then. So Jo Peri's all lives will be on you. You can subscribe to pit Talk wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you can leave us a rating review as well. You can also keep up to date with all the latest step on news throughout this weekends round at foxsports dot com dot Au and Speedcafe dot Com. From and me, Michael Lomonado, thanks very much for your company and we'll catch you next week.
