Alex Powell: NZ Herald Sports Journalist previews Austrian Grand Prix

F1 is headed to the Red Bull Ring in Austria for the next round of the Formula 1 World Championship. 

This comes amid rumours that Liam Lawson may be out of a seat next season, as some news outlets are reporting that F2 Driver Nikola Tsolov has been guarenteed Lawson's position at Racing Bulls. 

Sports Journalist Alex Powell told Matt and Tyler that Lawson's camp has no knowledge of this, but the story has to come from somewhere. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
So Round eight of the twenty twenty six Formula One
season heads to Spielberg for the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend.
Joining us now is New Zealand's premiere F one reporter
with the New Zealand Herald, Alex Powell. Get a, Alex,
what's the.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Story with Liam Lawson and the Spanish rumors that he's
losing his place next year? Alex?

Speaker 4 (00:34):
It's really taken the whole sort of driver market by
storm these last couple days, hasn't it. So obviously it
came out of Spain on us what Wednesday morning our time,
Tuesday morning our time, that Nikola Solov, the Bulgarian red
bull back driver and F two has been guaranteed a
place in racing balls next year and that'll come at
Lean Lawson's expense. I reached out to the team very

(00:54):
quickly and they said, yeah, we don't really know anything
about this. I reached out to Liam's camp and they said,
we done anything about this. But the funny thing is
that story has come from somewhere. Someone has told that
journalist and he's been confident enough to run it. So
you worry it might be a smoke with fires and
no smoke without fire type thing. But all we can
do is wait and see.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Tell us about the Austrian track.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
Alex Austria is one of my favorite tracks. It's very
similar to Spain what we had last week there. It's
a fast circuit. It's you know, the Red Bull Ring
for a reason. It's basically it's not a circle, but
there's not too many tight technical bits. You can really
drive flat out. I think we will see a lot
of overtaking just with the new cars and your regulations
this year. So yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
And it is the Red Bull Ring, as you say,
it's got the massive beast in the middle.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Ah.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
Does it being a red bull situation help Liam out
of it?

Speaker 4 (01:48):
Well, I mean it did last year. If you remember
what happened last year, maxwistapp and got taken out on
the first quarter. I mean Leam did too, and he
fought back from ninth fall up to sixth and he
was the highest place of Red Bulls four cars and
that result really kickstarted a year if you remember. So
if we can anything like that. I think Kiwis would
be really grateful. The really interesting thing though, is because
it's Red Bulls home race, all of Red Bulls big

(02:10):
powerbrokers are there, so Oliver them and Slaugh the group CEO,
and then the head of the Tie side and the
head of the Austrian side. They're all going to be
in attendance this week and that's really set tongues Wang
of what they're actually there for. Are they there to
try and make some sort of last ditch attempt to
get Mex for Stepping to stay next year? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Well he didn't even make it to the Mex with
Stepham stand last year. Did He didn't even drive past
them once in the race. It was quite impressive. Hey yeah, finally,
is Sir Lewis Hamilton back or has he just had
a bit of luck lately around the Ferrari.

Speaker 4 (02:40):
I mean, I'm a personal believer that there's no such
thing as like you make your own luck in life.
I think he's had a really good couple of weeks.
I think Ferrari have really found something that you juxtapose
what Lewis has done with what's happened to Charles Clerk
the last couple of weeks as well, and he just
can't buy a trick. If he can really get over
the line this week and show that he is there,
I think he is right in this title fight now.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
And just on this heat waves, I understand the heat
hazard rules were activated. What is that going to mean
for this race, alex.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
So So drivers do have the option of a cooling
system within their car, which is sort of like this
little vest set up they wear. You don't have to,
you can choose to, but if someone does, then basically
the cars have to all be at the same weight,
so the cars and drivers that don't use it will
have extra weight added to their cars. It's really complicated
and how it works. I know a lot of the

(03:29):
drivers don't like it. But you know, if it's as
bad as we hear, and it was really bad in
Barcelona last last time, I mat remember that. You know,
Lewis Hamilton's a three stop strategy because the track was
so hot and did so much damage to its tires.
So if it's worse than that, then we really could
be in some chaos.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
All right, exciting stuff. So qualifying Sunday morning one am
and in the race roughly one am Monday morning. Bring
it on.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
I think qualifying's two am, two.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
Am, qualifies, two am. All right, good on you, Chech maclock,
all right, good on you. If one's scheduling on the
IF one website, you know they've got that wrong.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Alex, thank you. Just might have wrong, no, Alex, thank
you very much mate. That is Alex Powell, New Zealand's
premiere IF one reporter with the New Zealand Herald.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
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