August 5, 2025 • 37 mins
Lando Norris sliced his title deficit down to nine points after beating Oscar Piastri to victory in Hungary with an ambitious one-stop strategy. With Piastri locked into making two stops, was the Aussie hard done by in defeat? And after slipping from pole to a very distant fourth, what went wrong for Charles Leclerc?
Midroll: 18:22.000
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to pitt Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
On today's episode, Lando Norris heads into the mid season
break on a high after claiming a strategic victory over
Oscar Piastre in Hungary, and after slumping from pole position
to fourth. What does char Leclair's roller Coaster Race tell
us about Ferrari. My name is Michael Lamonado. It's great
to have your company and the company of my co host,
(00:22):
Toto Wolf was photographed leaving the Ferrari motor home at
the weekend, and in the absence of any information, I'm
going to speculate that he was talking about Matt Clayton.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Almost certainly, Michael, Toto and I we're in each other's
conversations quite a lot, if you believe what you read
on social media, which of course is complete garbage. But
I did enjoy your preamble before where you said made
it to the mid season break, and that's kind of
how you and I are making it to the mid
season break. I'm not sure we've made it there that well,
but it is funny when you get fourteen rounds into
(00:49):
a twenty four round season and you realize there's not
a race or a couple of weekends. There's the collective exhale,
which is when we all realize that we're about to
get sick and we're all going to button up and
get ready for the last ten rounds. I'm kind of
happy there's not a triple header, I will say that.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, so a realization of sickness came very early for me.
It didn't have me thinking this is fairly off topic.
In struct me during the week the end of every season,
or the last couple of seasons, anyway, we have had
the paddock wide illness. Oh yeah, strike really in those
last three races. What normally does it is the silly
time zones of Las Vegas, which is getting slightly less
silly this year, it's still pretty silly. And then that's
(01:25):
in a triple header with Katar and Abu Dhabi, and
that has affected personnel and even driver. I think George
Russell last year was quite sick. Perhaps was the year before.
I wonder if that'll play a role in this championship fight.
You know, if we're talking less than ten points, we're
talking less than a race win to second place in
the last race. Someone's got a bit of a sniffle
that could make the difference.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Well, and it's not even the fact that it's so
compact at the end of the year. It's where you're going.
I mean, Vegas is notoriously cold. You've got Qatar in
and around there, which is usually roasting even to that
time of year. And then Abu Dhabi is its own
bizarre sort of microclimate anyway, So it is it is
certainly a strange one. But maybe you just need to
sit out FP and then go well for the rest
of the weekend. It worked out for Fernando also, maybe
(02:03):
that's maybe that's the tactic, just don't practice.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, maybe that is it. Who knows. Everyone says it
lacks the testing in the middle of the year, maybe
it actually is even less and get her off. Landa
Norris completed the full complement of practice sessions and he
did win the Grand Prix, so he's got his own
theories on that one. And he won the Grand Prix
despite qualifying behind Oscar Piastre and being well behind him
early on in this race. This was a strategic victory,
(02:26):
a one stop versus a two stop in some senses.
The second chapter to Belgium, where he also had a
different strategy to Oscar Piastre. He had the one stop
a Piastre pulled off a one stop despite the tire
choice and managed to prevail. There. Here it went Norris's way.
A couple of things I want to unpack from this one.
I guess let's start with the big question. It's the
one everyone's asked in the aftermath from Sunday night till now,
(02:49):
which is do you think Oscar Piastre has a right
to feel a little bit aggrieved by this? There's no
team orders, no one speculating that it's old. This is
a sign that McLaren's obviously favoring Lando Norris, but he
had almost similar to Silverston, obviously very different circumstances. But
he had this race, at least from the Interra team
point of view, well covered very early in the Grand Prix,
and yet emerges second best again.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, I don't know about aggrieved. Annoyed, yes, Aggrieved maybe not
so much because it wasn't a race where he had
the high ground and then was stitched up by a
strategy that meant that he had absolutely no chance to
win the race. You could see the way those final
ten laps were playing out it was a matter of
when he was going to catch Norris, not if, and
(03:32):
with about five laps to go, I messaged you and
said last lap, first corner, because I figured that's probably
where it was going to be. I was a lap
too late at that point, but he put himself in
a legitimate position to win this Grand Prix. Now it
wasn't able to pull it off on the penultimate lap
going into the first corner. So I think you would
be more aggrieved if the contrast strategy which Norris was
(03:55):
rolled the dice on because he was fifth on lap
one and had absolutely nothing to lose at that point
where it had a pretty ordinary first quarter and got
shuffled behind Russell and shuffled behind Alonzo's Aston Martin. I
think Piastre will be more annoyed that he wasn't still
able to convert despite being on them or advantageous tire
and the last five laps, and aggrieved by it. I
(04:15):
don't think it was any sort of you know, sort
of cunning decision or something that was going to put
him on the back foot, but it does bring into
questions something that we spoke about a couple of episodes ago,
where it was at four one, two's McLaren in the
last five rounds. There's ten rounds to go. I will
be absolutely shocked if McLaren don't win nine of those
ten the way it's looking at the moment, particularly with
twenty twenty six and this rule change looming. You remember
(04:37):
earlier in the season they were very very open about saying, look,
these guys are going to be on the same strategies.
We're not going to try and play strategic games within
the team because we feel that's the fairest way to
go motor racing. And you mentioned it was an extension
of Belgium. Yes, it was a little bit in that
Norris made that decision in Belgium from a relative position
of strength and was it able to pull it off.
(04:57):
Piastre drove that last stint on them brutal tie really
well there here. The Norris strategy that he basically lucked
into was a product of him being so poor on
the first lap, and I think if he had held
grid position, if he'd been third on lap line, or
even if he'd been a little bit higher on that one,
that strategy doesn't come into play. So I'm not sure
aggrieved is quite the right word. But annoyed definitely, because
(05:20):
this is a day where Piastre was the better McLaren
driver for the vast majority of this weekend and yet
ended up seeding seven points to his teammate in the championship.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, I think that's a good way to sum it up.
I think what's an interesting element to all of this
is we've talked a lot this year about how, for
a long time this has clearly been a straight championship
fight between the two McLaren drivers, but that the field
is not so spread out. McLaren's advantage isn't so massive
that there can't be other winners and therefore other influencers
in how this championship has decided. And this it came
(05:52):
from an unusual place, came from Charla Clair in the
Ferrari that still surprises me was there. But this was
an example of that where like a god, a pole
position that was unexpected and then had enough pace in
the right well for the first two thirds of the
race anyway to lead the Grand Prix. That had a
direct impact on the strategic thinking of Oscar Piastro in
his side of the garage, and as a result of that,
(06:14):
Piastre lost the race, but to Lando Norris, because Norris
had no need to be thinking about who was ahead
of him, only that there were cars ahead and he
needed to pass them with a different strategy, to try
something different. And I think that's interesting because I don't
think that's the last time that's going to happen. I mean,
I think you're probably right to say McLaren is probably
going to win in the vicinity of nine more races.
I know this is the second biggest margin between McLaren
(06:36):
and the next big tea, the next team on the
road this season, after Miami being the biggest. So there's
that tells you that advantage is still as large as ever.
But you know, Ferrari was clearly within striking distance for
reasons we might get to a little bit later on.
There'll be some tracks where EDWULLD racing will be competitive
again with high speed corners maybe cut up. For example,
(06:57):
Mercedes might win in Las Vegas like they did last year.
How will that influence the points picture? I think that's
very interesting because that's the and it was summed up
by a radio message late in the race from Tom
stellar Oscopiastri's race engineer. I confused between them sometimes talking
about what was you like your last stop to be
directed at? Do you want to beat Lando Norris or
(07:18):
do you want to beat Charlotte Clair? And it seems
very obvious, it's not even retrospect coould to be obvious.
At the time. There's only one driver that he's racing
for the championship, that's Lando Norris. But that question becomes
very interesting now after him having lost this race, not
because he chose Charlot Clair, but it's just by then
it was too late to do anything other than try
and respond to Lando Norris. But if a similar situation
(07:39):
comes up where there's another team that's competitive, another driver
could be in contention for the race, do we actually
see McLaren for the first time in years or at
least eighteen months, not target victory but target intra team victory,
because that's a very different state of mind.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, I mean, it's interesting because the constructor's championship is
basically over and the driver's championship as far as it
going to another team, is clearly over as well at
this point, So it is an interesting one. You look
at the races left to come on the calendar where
someone through by a virtue of the way they set
the car up, or just the nature of the circuit,
or as you mentioned Katar, there was a good one
Vegas with it being called Singapore is one of those
(08:16):
ones that if someone like Leclaire, who is a magician
over one lap as we know, produce an absolutely unbelievably
good lap in Singapore and then have the track position
on a circuit where it's incredibly difficult to pass it.
There are some tracks for the rest of the calendar
where you could see similar races to Hungary playing out. Now,
not many of them, but there are some of them.
(08:37):
And given this is so finely poised, you do wonder
if that idea of intra teem fairness I'm using air
quotes here comes into play, but it is. This is
one of those situations. I always think that you can
tell McLaren hasn't won a driver's championship for a very
long time when we're debating things like this, because I
(08:58):
get the feeling other teams, you know, edies where they
were winning championships for fun or I mean, I was
going to say Red Bull, but they already have one driver.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Motion.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Yeah, anyway, but I think there's a little bit of
as much awkwardness because I think McClaren know they're going
to win both championships this year. It's just the identity
of the driver's championship is the one that's up in
the air. There's a little bit of almost ring rust
with all of this because they're not used to being
in this position, and there's a lot of I found
that Tom stale art message really odd, to be honest,
because is that even a question of course you're raising
(09:26):
the guy you're fighting for the championship with. He just
happens to be in the same car. The rest of
the drivers in terms of championship terms are kind of
irrelevant at this point. Nobody's in it, so I thought
it was really odd. But I'm super curious to see
we've now had two Grand Prix where Norris, by virtue
of being the second of the two McLaren's on the road,
(09:46):
has probably been overtly or inadvertently placed on the superior
of the two strategies. It's just that Piastre was good
enough to make what he had work in Belgium, and
then wasn't quite good enough in order to make what
he had to make work in hungary work. So there's
a couple of races in a row now where the
perception is well Norris, by being the second McLaren has
actually kind of lucked his weight in probably being in
(10:08):
the best situation. It's just that it's one all in
those two races. But given that we have ten rounds
to go, I'll be super curious to see how many
more times this comes up.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, I mean, you're right, and if we assume, and
like you said, I don't think every race is going
to be like this, but let's just assume for a
second that every race, after a few lapse it's clear
there are two McLaren's out front, no one else is
going to threaten. You can argue that it is a
real disadvantage being in the lead because whoever's second can
respond more easily. If McLaren's drivers are really allowed to
(10:38):
not pull any punches strategically or the way they want
to approach it, you can just simply respond to the
other time. You know. The most extreme visceral example of
this is, of course, oh dear, we mentioned this race
again twenty twenty one, and abo it was an advantage
to be second when that safety car came out because
you could do whatever was everything, get you ahead, or
give you the better tires for.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
The restart, everything to gain, nothing to lose.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yeah, exactly. So there's that, there's that that interesting element.
So I think that's what that's this this extra spice
to this championship of you like, is that we talk
about it being a straight fight, and in terms of
pace it will be, and there's so little between them.
But because there's so little between them, there's so much
go for circumstances to affect outcomes of each rays. Just
before we move on, I think it's probably worth reflecting
(11:21):
here as well that race by race, circuit by circuit
is going to be really affecting. I thought it was interesting.
You know, Oscar Piastri had a pretty good handle and
everything in Belgium. That's long been one of his favorite tracks.
He calls it one of his favorite tracks. But even
in terms of performance, every year has been in Formula One,
he's been the better perforre McLaren here. This was in
the Norris column. He's never been out qualified by a tear.
He had never been qualified by a teammate until this
(11:43):
weekend input a pest did emerge with the victory, though,
I think that kind of at least reflects again where
those tracks would have been in each column. But I
want to look briefly and we will do again when
the season resumes. But the next two races I think
is again one apiece. The Dutch Grand Prix is a
pretty good track for Norris, but Piastre, as he showed
last year, is very quick in Monds and I think
(12:03):
that's that additional way of looking at that last ten
race breakdown is actually it could just be the tracks
we're visiting.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Well, and it might come down to know what results
can you glean at tracks that are not necessarily on
the topic of your shopping list. It'll be, you know,
make it making the best of your worst days if
you like. It strikes me as being one of those
sorts of championships, and you look at where the gap
is between the two of them and the moment effectively,
they both had a dn F. I'm you know, Pastre's
(12:29):
Australian crand Prix was more or less a d an F.
Given the points that he was going to be scoring.
He ended up with two that day. It was too
wasn't it. Yes, it was two and Norris obviously had
the DNF in candidate. So it kind of feels that
this is because of how tight it is, and because
of how dominant, how good the car is, and because
it's so hard to really pick a favorite over the
(12:50):
other in terms of the ebbs and flow of this.
This is going to come down to what do you
do on those worst days that maybe some of your
not so great circuits? So do you need to have
an outlier result at a good track? Like you mentioned
good tracks? Qutars won for PSTRE. Isn't it that there's
certain circuits where you know that he's going to be strong.
I don't want to say this out loud, but I
just did think it, so I man as well. I
(13:10):
don't think ab aber Dave he's not a fantastic PSTRE track,
is it?
Speaker 1 (13:13):
I don't think historically No, Well he was wiped out.
Was he second on the good last year? No? But
he was second on the grid. So I knows. We've
said it out there. Save it for the crystal ball. Yes,
let's move on now to Move of the Week, brought
to you by Shannons. This was, as we talked last week,
(13:34):
look hungry It ebbs and flows but it's usually a
pretty reliably interesting race these days, at a minimum, and
we did get that. Even though there's a long stretch
in the middle of the race, race thought, oh, my
race reports complete and I have nothing to do for
the next one five minutes famous last words. Yeah, absolutely.
I did end up being really quite an exciting climax
to the race, even though there was no overtake for
the lead. But what's your move of the week? Now?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I'm only going to mention this person and this team
because they're probably not going to get podcast otherwise, and
I would like to shoehorn them in there just for
the sake of it, and also because you know that
I like to go a little bit left of center
with move of the week. My move of the week
is Aston Martin being the worst team in Formula One,
and then seven days later you.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Are kidding.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Seven days later as amazing. We've not discussed this seven
days later finishing fifth with Fernando a lot So and
seventh with lad Stroll. And the reason I enjoyed this
so much is there's a there's a degree of mischief
that comes with Fernando a lot So being higher in
the top ten than he probably should and that I
literally had the giggles earlier on the race where you
(14:38):
could see that, you know, after Norris had retaken him
and he'd settle back into his natural position of fifth,
the way he was managing the pace of every single
driver behind him in the race, so there was this
absolutely enormous DRS trade going on, that he was backing
everybody up to best advantage his own position when he
wants it to go. And then there came a point
in that first stip where it's like, all right, now
(14:58):
I'm just going to start driving properly and started gapping
everything to preserve that league before he went into the pits.
It's just this, and it's what happens when you're forty
four years old. You've done the Hungarian Grand Prix twenty
times or have many times. A lot so has done it.
But I do love the sense of mischief that comes
with Fernando and the upper areas of the top ten,
where he hasn't spent too much time this year unfortunately.
But move of the week from the from the outhouse
(15:22):
to the penthouse, I was thinking of the polite way
to call that it deserves some consideration, but also move
of the week. I cannot believe of all the things
you could have come up with on your short list
to talk about, that is we are spending far too
much time together.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Remarkable, isn't it? But literally from the tenth order of
the fastest lap in qualifying the slowest car in Belgium
to the second fastest remarkable turn around, incredible, barely anything
off the fastest lap as well less than three tenths
the fastest McLaren lab just for no There there were
reasons this second was very beneficial to the car, and
(15:56):
there's clearly a configuration of the upgrades they've brought in
the last month or so work depending on the circuit.
But a really remarkable turnaround. But I'm still going to
I'll look, I'll give a different one, but I'm still
going to be Alonzo centered. I'm going to go for
a Lonzo's move off the line. That was also which
Tolonso saw an opportunity capitalized on a driver, in this
case Norris getting a good start but ensuring he was
(16:17):
boxed in and had to yield and had to lose places.
It's exactly what he did ground the outside to turn one,
then in the down the inside to turn two almost
got Russell exiting turn too as well and would have
been up to third place, which had been really remarkable.
Didn't hold him up for too long because he knew
his race wasn't holding up Norris, but in holding up
everybody else and good for him and got a really
great result out of it. Maximize his result, and it's
(16:39):
it's interesting. I was looking back at the season. I'm
putting together the driver ratings, which will be up on
the Fox Sports website sometime this week. How he had
a relatively quiet start to the year, but once the
car began to get a little bit more go about it,
suddenly his tails in the air and he's pulling off
some I don't want to say they're absolutely vintage Alonso
performances because they deserve pod and victories, not just fifth
(17:01):
places or points, but they are. They show you that
he's still got that or how much his experience counts for.
I think that's why he's so valuable to Aston Martin.
It's obviously that the prestige that he's fundamentally a very
good driver, but it's his experience that is delivering results
in this car. And this was just not a great
example of it.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
And off the start. There's always been something magical about
him because I feel that he always sees opportunities that
split second before anybody else does, and he's so decisive.
You mentioned that move there where he basically gave not
us an impossible situation to have to resolve in real time,
and knowing that he could put him in that situation
before he did. But this is one of those conversations.
I remember having this chat with Daniel Ricardo Watson. We're
(17:40):
talking about starts to races, and he would always say,
know who's besides you know the row in front of you,
know the row behind you, and know where Fernando is.
And that was almost like one of his is because
he knew that, you know, that little gap appears down
the middle of two cars and a group, Fernando's probably
in it. You've seen over the years the amount of
brilliant starts where he's had two wheels on the grass
and done all sorts of absolutely miraculous things in cars
(18:02):
that shouldn't be up the front. That was a vintage start.
But I'm still shaking my head that we've got the
same entry to this category.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yeah, I thought for sure that I was in the clear,
but I was like, I gets the first one, but
I've got it.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
On this I think next week you just need to
take the first one and stop being such a gracious host.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Let's look to one other element of this Grand Prix now, Matt,
and that is Ferrari. Before we get to the results
on track, I think we should actually start with what
happened last week, which was that long last the team
announced that it had re signed team principal Frederick Masser.
The hyphen was there was nothing else and for other
it is the best kind of Formula One contract, a
(18:43):
multi year contract. Paddick ri is another three years, which
would take him to six years, which would make him
remarkably the equal longest serving Ferrari team principle since Stefana
Tamenicali back into the two thousands. I guess now runs
Formula One, so that's interesting in its own right. It
took a little bit of time to get there. It endured,
he had to endure some rumors that weren't fully swatted
(19:04):
away by the team. I think it's fair to say
a month or two ago, but they've stuck with him.
It would have always been a strange time to change
team boss they had of a big regulatory change, but
at least this gives the team a bit of medium
term stability to move forward.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah, completely, And you know you mentioned the timing of
twenty six coming in and the effectively the hard reset
for next year. We don't need to add another element
of chaos here or you know, an unknown quantity into
a time of such change elsewhere. To my mind, there
was a lot of noise about a lot not much
with this situation here because I'm you always think, well, okay,
(19:40):
if that is not the guy in the job, then
someone else needs to be in the job, or someone
else should be in the job already. Are they going
to do anything better and or different? That was always
the that was always the thought for me in that
it just seemed, what are we doing a change for
change's sake here? Allah alping when things don't go well
or or is there actually something legitimate here? There's been
(20:03):
a lot of change behind the scenes there.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Obviously.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
The Hamilton acquisition hasn't really been something that neither team
nor driver has been particularly happy about so far, and
I'll caveat that with so far because we do need
to play with a longer lens here. But to my mind,
I think it's the right move. I think it was
a sensible move. I was a little bit surprised to
some degree that it was such an issue in the
lead up to him being re signed include the hyphen
(20:26):
but then again, this is Ferrari, and this is the
Italian press, and we should know how this works by now.
But I don't know if you thought that it was
the correct or incorrect decision. But to my mind, it
seemed that having a pillar of stability, given there's going
to be so much change next year, seemed to be
the sensible move.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
I think so. And it's the I think you summed
it up well as like, what is the purpose of
the change? If there's no purpose of it other than
what we're Ferrari, it seems like the thing he would do.
Then I think that that's a good summary, and I
think he was going to consider the building a successful formulae.
Team is a project, and the project here is that
You've got Charlot Claire probably entering his peak. You've got
(21:02):
Lewis Hamilton, maybe we'll talk about a second, might be
past his peak, but nonetheless brings extreme experience to the team,
like you have a lineup that is ready to win,
and you've got a technical team that's that's shown itself
capable of some innovative solutions to the regulations that got
very close to an Inconstructors Champion Championship last year, and
you've got this chance with new rules that you know
(21:24):
you could take that step that every team wants to
next year. It would be silly to disrupt that for
no reason. Do it next year if you like, if
the team is six in the championship with no hope,
then go for it. But it seems silly to do
it now and based on what and then who will
you get? You know, it's it would be nonsense. So
I think it's the right call. I think any Ferrari,
any Ferrari fan must surely be satisfied there's not just
(21:46):
more unnecessary bloodshed at that team, just as things might
be kind of getting good and for a time mat
it looked like actually there would be a little signature
bounce there with Charlote Clair getting pole position at the
Hungary and grown free most unexpectedly. He is in the
fourth fastest car, but the conditions were just so in
Q three that he was able to put together a
clean lap to get it done. A nice reminder, and
(22:07):
you know, I think it was after the British Grand Prix.
Wasn't more recently that he talked about how he felt
like he had lost his that little qualifying magic dust
that he seems to have had throughout his whole career.
He's just so superb over one lap that he couldn't
access it this year. But he got in a big
way in Hungary and then led the first two thirds
of the race with pace that certainly surprised me. I
didn't expect the Ferrari to be that competitive in the
Grand Prix, and then he finished fourth, forty two seconds
(22:30):
off the lead. Forty two seconds off the lead. I'm
quite frustrated as well. There have been a lot of
reasons Matt given as to why that might have happened,
but Ferrari, as is its way, hasn't really confirmed any
of them or said for sure what they are. What's
your take on this or is this just Ferrari being Ferrari?
Speaker 2 (22:48):
A little bit of Colin Boe. I think when it
comes I like you, I thought amazing and got popposition fantastic.
You will be fifteen seconds behind both McLaren's body till
we get to the first and that was all very
nice on Saturday, but congratulations, you might be able to
get a podium. I think if you'd said coming into
the weekend, hey, charloa clare is going to finish fourth
in Hungary, you go geez, you said a good weekend,
(23:09):
doesn't he That's probably where overachieved. So it's all being
looked at through the lens of qualifying on pole and
leading for a good chunk of this race. But the
entire thing just completely unraveled after that second pit stop.
It's unbelievably slow. I mean you mentioned the forty two
second deficit to the winner. There's a five second penalty
there for driving erratically while he was trying to defend
(23:31):
third place against George Russell, so that factors into the
equation as well. But it all seems to come down
to how high or not they can run this car.
And you know we're talking about plank. Were as far
back as China, it was about two Still haven't really
got on top of that, and so much of the
way they're setting that car up is trying to keep
it in a decent performance window but also not fall
(23:54):
for out of these plankware regulations that they've skirted around
the edges of now for the best part of what
five months, So I don't necessarily think that's going to change.
But his lap times in that last twenty odd laps
were alarmingly bad, and I'm sure he wasn't driving any worse,
but yeah, he was, to use a David croftism, he
was very het up over.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
The rate he was. And yes, there is the speculation
that it is all related that actually the upgrades that
the team had broad in the last couple of rounds,
or ending with that package, the suspension package brought at
the Belgian Grand Prix, which had appeared or had seemed
to have been targeted at being able to run the
car and its happy place more effectively, perhaps hasn't been.
(24:36):
The hung car ring has been resurfaced. It was partly
resurfaced as part of its reconstruction efforts since the last race,
but memory serves, was resurfaced entirely not that long ago either,
in the last few years. So was by no means
rough and tumble saved by a pre iron curtain circuit.
That yes, so this shouldn't have been a track while
it does undulate a little bit. That really made that
(24:57):
a massive risk. Perhaps it was a calculated risk whereby
they hope they'd be far and up ahead, they'd be
able to absorb some of the pain later on. But
now I know you're like a statistic and I've put
together some of these after Sunday. But Claire has twenty
seven pole positions. It was him eleventh eleventh on the
all time pole list. Only two menel fandre Quid equal
that later this year. Who knows only five of those
(25:18):
have ended with victories. From his last sixteen pole positions,
only one of them has ended in a win. That's remarkable.
That's very upsetting.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
I mean, uncharitably, you could say, well, he should be
used to it, so I can't be that upset anymore
because this is just part of the course. He'd be
more like, oh, I won imagine that. But it's always
been the story of his career. And you mentioned it before.
He's one of the better, particularly where the cars a
little bit better than this year is, but maybe not
the absolute class of the field. He's one of the
(25:49):
best one lap drivers we've seen in a very very
long time. And there's certain Q three sessions that I
always look forward to each year if he is in
it in a car that's not the gold standard, because
you know that he's going to produce something special. The
one that I always think of is Asvajan. I love
watching him around there in that middle section where they
go past the castle and across the top of the city.
There he's absolutely electrifying through there, and he's just got
(26:12):
this ability to completely transcend his machinery. But then, of
course over the full race distance it reverts to the meme.
But what one of the last sixteen is And don't
think that he and the team and everyone doesn't know
that that's one of those that's not a you know,
that's not a monkey on your back, that's a gorilla
at this point, is it?
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yes, he has the worst I think I did the
statistics recently. I believe they still hold up the worst
poll to victory conversion rate, but five he's in the
bottom five. The only drivers with worst pole conversion rates
is renhe Hanu had two poles or two varies. David Coulthard,
Jean Pierre Jabouille and Ralph Schumacher the only ones. And
(26:51):
then it's char Leclair, so he's got a little bit
of work to do. But I think, as we've probably
said in the past, and as we've sort of summed
up here, it's not really on him failing to can victories.
It's normally on him qualifying higher by which I'm in
pole than that car belongs. And I think that was
very much the case this weekend. The fourth fastest car well,
I finished fourth on the roads there you go. In
fact finished it as the third best car ahead of
(27:12):
the red Wall racing cars. In some senses, he still overachieved,
although I'm sure that won't make him feel any better.
I want to talk about Lewis Hamilton before we wrap
this one up, though, because this was another disappointing weekend
for him. Is it related to me predicting he would
win again? Maybe? Maybe not, Let's say no. But he
qualified outside of the top ten, it was lockdown Q
two in twelfth and he finished twelfth. So unlike at
(27:35):
the Belgian Grand Prix, where at least in race trim
he was more competitive, particularly in the wet and I
was able to recover from pretty much the back of
the grid to score points, this weekend he went nowhere.
He was as we said last week where he still
is the most successful driver ever in Hungara Ring history.
He has pretty much every meaningful record at this circuit,
but could not score points this weekend. His worst ever
finish here and he's worst ever qualification here without a
(27:57):
technical problem, And he sounded pretty grim about everything at
all times. Man, I think they were say after qualifying,
after the race, not a lot of words from him,
but the few words he did give away sounded pretty despondent.
Is that I mean that's part of Hamilton, isn't that
he comes out of the car his heart's on his sleeve.
(28:18):
But do you feel like this is a new level
of disappointment from him? And is it because it's this
circuit and it's his teammate on Pole.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Yeah, there's a few factors coming into play there. I
think the only person that wants her mid season breaking
a few weeks off more than you is probably Lewis
Hamilton at this point, like he one hundred percent needs
to just get his head out.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Of it for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
It must be particularly galling when you know that you
have been very good on this circuit in the past,
when you've had the best car, and when you haven't
had the best car. You've been able to really create
some magic at this track. Then to see your teammate
pull a lap out of the bag to be on pole.
The gaps were so tight in qualifying that there wasn't
a lot between them when they were in Q two. Anyway,
(28:58):
Laclare was just on the right side of it, Hamilton
on the wrong side of it. We know that it's
a track position circuit and if you get stuck in
a DRS train, that's where you will stay. It's the
way it works out there, But he just seems the
wearing his heart on his sleeve is one of the
things that we've enjoyed about him, and he's been doing
this for a very, very long time. This was one
of the things he did, but he was a very
young driver where people thought, oh wow, that's a bit
(29:19):
confronting that he's prepared to be so blunt about his
own performances. Maybe he'll grow out of that, or as
he becomes older and wiser that will stop, and it hasn't. Really,
it's just the way that he tends to roll. He
rides the emotional highs better than anybody, so you'll guess
the contrast to that is that you're going to have
those lows as well. But I think it was a
combination of this circuit, his teammate doing an amazing lap
(29:40):
in the same car which is clearly not a fantastic
car right now, and coming off the back of Belgium,
and it's just been a bit of a blah start
to life at Ferrari really, And you know, there's a
lot of questions now. It's like, well, is he past
his best? Which you would expect a driver at his forties,
it's usually past his best, but also doesn't mean that
he'sh puts and he shouldn't be on the grid. But
(30:02):
you just wonder what is the ability like to be
able to dig in here when things are really getting bad?
And is it only going to be the potential of
a fresh start for twenty six and he's been through
so many rule changes that he knows that things can
flip very very quickly. Is it the at least potential
for things to change pretty rapidly next year? Is going
(30:22):
to be the thing that gets him through these remaining
ten races because twenty twenty five as it stands right
now is a bit of a write off. I can
only see it sort of flattening out and maybe neutralizing.
From here, I can't really see it getting a hell
of a lot better.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Yeah, it's a bit of a shame because it had
felt like in the races before Belgium that he'd started
to turn a bit of a corner there. You know,
our qualified Charlie Clair I think three times from the
previous four or five races, and in terms of the
pace difference that had come right down I think on
average in that run of races in Europe, let's say
to less than a tenth of a second, so perfectly
respectable for a driver's change teams in a regulatory year
(30:57):
that I think we can probably say doesn't really suit
Lewis Hamilton that well. And then these two really poor
at least qualifying. In Belgium again the race was okay,
but in Hungary the race was pretty ordinary as well.
Overtaking it is difficult, but whatever, it just felt just fields.
I mean, I probably underlines the problem this year, which
has just been inconsistency. It's not as if he's been
just bad in every session. He's been so up and
(31:18):
down that it's been hard to grab a handle on anything.
And I think he'll be very much looking forward to
next year. But you can't go into next year. It's
almost a likeness to be made here to the way
Sauber has approached this year. You can't go into your
your time is oudy. Having finished last with no points.
I don't feel like it'll be right for Lewis Hamilton
to go into next year, the year that his contract
was predicated on being successful, and it wasn't about this.
(31:40):
He was always going to be back next year. But
having been absolutely smacked by char Leclair in every session,
constantly in qualifying, finishing last one on the front run
was all that kind of thing. So his response next
year I think will be very interesting for him because
it's a you know, like I say, it's a big
one for him. Now let's wrap up that, but we
(32:02):
have to visit the crystal ball by complete home filtration.
For me, it's proved absolutely cursed. It's curse Lewis Hamilton's end.
Babs attended his career. Who knows, But why don't you
kick us off with your prediction for the next how
long you like?
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Well, given what happened earlier in this episode, my crystal
ball is telling me that I actually need to give
you first crack at the crystal ball, and then I'll
come back behind mine. So my crystal ball is going
to be one hundred percent right on this because I
don't want to steal your answer this time. I think
that would be very uncharitable of me. So I'd like
you to come up with something, and I guarantee you,
I absolutely guarantee you that it's not going to be
when I come up with here, So crystal ball the way.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
So all right, well, let's we're at the mid season break.
McLaren has a pretty comfortable lead in the Constructor's champion
It's two hundred and ninety nine points ahead of forer Ori,
more than double Ferrari's points. The average advantage over the
course of the first fourteen races. This statistic, I do
know is twenty one points per round. My crystal ball
tells me that trajectory continues and McLaren and win the
(33:00):
Constructors Championship in Azerbaijan, which would be just three races
from now, which will be seven rounds to spare, which
will be the earliest championship win in the history of
Formula One for a team. That's incredible. It struck me.
We talked about I don't think we mentioned today, but
it was talked about in the aftermath of the race.
This is the fourth consecutive one to finish for McLaren.
The last time they achieved that was in nineteen eighty eight.
(33:23):
Nineteen eighty eight was until Red Bull Racings run in
two and twenty three, the most dominant season in Formula
One history. I think by some metrics you can still
call it that, but by percentage Red Bull Racings every
win but one in a twenty four race season or whatever
it was, does surp it. But the idea that this
McLaren team is now starting to be mentioned in the
same breath as the nineteen eighty eight team on some
statistics and could in this particular category you surp it.
(33:47):
I think, is just a reminder of how remarkable a
year this is. And much like the Senna and Prost's rivalry,
we have two McLaren drivers that are probably going to
take this title down to the wire, hopefully with less aggression,
but you never know. But that's what why Crystal Ball
is telling me that in just three races time we'll
have a new Constructors champion.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
And I think that one has stuck up on us
a little bit. It feels like a stat that we
knew the Red Bull dominance as it was happening, and
obviously anyone that was covering a sport back in eighty
eight I knew exactly what McLaren we're doing, given that
driver lineup and what that car looked like and how
good it was. But it feels that it's obvious but
surprising at the same time, and that we've been watching
these races and we've seen the McLaren dominance. Yet a
(34:28):
stat like that is still quite startling when you consider
seven races to go, they could have this completely wrapped up.
I think that's also a function of the entire year.
It's not actually been that obvious who the second best
team is because it's really waxed and weighing through three
different teams. When it started the year red Bull winning races,
they all looked fine and it was all going semi
okay at least with a Stappen, and then Ferrari had
(34:49):
a bit of a turn, and then Mercedes won with
George Russell, and so the identity of the challenger in
air quotes has changed quite a bit throughout the course
of the season, McLaren's just been there. It's been the constant,
so that probably explains it. But that has snuck up
on me a little bit. But you're not going to
believe this, But I had exactly that I didn't have.
I didn't have exactly the same thing. The reason I
(35:11):
mentioned before that there are ten races to go. I'm
not looking for ex for reasons here to try and
give race wins to anybody else over the remaining ten rounds.
But I'm going to put on record right now we're
ten rounds to go that there are going to be
two rounds that McLaren don't win.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Oh okay, there we go.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
One of them is going to be Brazil because I
think Max Forstappan's going to win there because it's going
to rain. It's going to be my big prediction. And
there'll be another insert random one here at some point.
I wonder if at the end of the season, when
the crystal balls packed up and put in the box,
we'll look back at the couple of races that McLaren
don't win between now and the end of the year,
and given how tight this championship is, it might be
who does best out of Norris and Piastri on those
(35:48):
days that they can't win. That might determine which one
is center and which one is prossed at the end
of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Yes, and you know what, I think, we do want
to a couple of big this up. We do want
liken it to the nineteen eighty eight season. How close
this is Prost won that championship. I'm pretty sure no
Cena won that championship, but Prost had more points. But
it was the drop score rule, So that's how close
it was. That it was a funny rule change the
change that the winner of the championship, so it could
(36:15):
be so close that whoever finishes fifth instead of seventh
at a wet Brazilian Grand Prix later in the year
could design the championship.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Wins the title on countback. Wouldn't that be?
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Wouldn't that be? Excited? I spreadsheet, It's gonna be working
very well for me, that's all very I like a long, good, long,
couple of long range predictions. Very good to send us
out from this part of the season. That's all the time.
We have a bittalk today, though you can subscribe to
bittalk wherever you get your favorite podcast and you can
leave us a rating and review as well. Formula One
is on it's mid season break, but this weekend is
(36:47):
the Supercars Ipswitch Super four forty, with two races on
Saturday afternoon and another on Sunday at quarter past three
that's Eastern Standard time. You can keep up to date
with the Lateste f one, Supercars and Botochipy news at
Fox Sports dot com dot Au from Matt Clayton and
me Michael Lomonado. Thanks very much for your company and
we'll catch you next week
Hello, and welcome to pitt Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
On today's episode, Lando Norris heads into the mid season
break on a high after claiming a strategic victory over
Oscar Piastre in Hungary, and after slumping from pole position
to fourth. What does char Leclair's roller Coaster Race tell
us about Ferrari. My name is Michael Lamonado. It's great
to have your company and the company of my co host,
(00:22):
Toto Wolf was photographed leaving the Ferrari motor home at
the weekend, and in the absence of any information, I'm
going to speculate that he was talking about Matt Clayton.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Almost certainly, Michael, Toto and I we're in each other's
conversations quite a lot, if you believe what you read
on social media, which of course is complete garbage. But
I did enjoy your preamble before where you said made
it to the mid season break, and that's kind of
how you and I are making it to the mid
season break. I'm not sure we've made it there that well,
but it is funny when you get fourteen rounds into
(00:49):
a twenty four round season and you realize there's not
a race or a couple of weekends. There's the collective exhale,
which is when we all realize that we're about to
get sick and we're all going to button up and
get ready for the last ten rounds. I'm kind of
happy there's not a triple header, I will say that.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, so a realization of sickness came very early for me.
It didn't have me thinking this is fairly off topic.
In struct me during the week the end of every season,
or the last couple of seasons, anyway, we have had
the paddock wide illness. Oh yeah, strike really in those
last three races. What normally does it is the silly
time zones of Las Vegas, which is getting slightly less
silly this year, it's still pretty silly. And then that's
(01:25):
in a triple header with Katar and Abu Dhabi, and
that has affected personnel and even driver. I think George
Russell last year was quite sick. Perhaps was the year before.
I wonder if that'll play a role in this championship fight.
You know, if we're talking less than ten points, we're
talking less than a race win to second place in
the last race. Someone's got a bit of a sniffle
that could make the difference.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Well, and it's not even the fact that it's so
compact at the end of the year. It's where you're going.
I mean, Vegas is notoriously cold. You've got Qatar in
and around there, which is usually roasting even to that
time of year. And then Abu Dhabi is its own
bizarre sort of microclimate anyway, So it is it is
certainly a strange one. But maybe you just need to
sit out FP and then go well for the rest
of the weekend. It worked out for Fernando also, maybe
(02:03):
that's maybe that's the tactic, just don't practice.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, maybe that is it. Who knows. Everyone says it
lacks the testing in the middle of the year, maybe
it actually is even less and get her off. Landa
Norris completed the full complement of practice sessions and he
did win the Grand Prix, so he's got his own
theories on that one. And he won the Grand Prix
despite qualifying behind Oscar Piastre and being well behind him
early on in this race. This was a strategic victory,
(02:26):
a one stop versus a two stop in some senses.
The second chapter to Belgium, where he also had a
different strategy to Oscar Piastre. He had the one stop
a Piastre pulled off a one stop despite the tire
choice and managed to prevail. There. Here it went Norris's way.
A couple of things I want to unpack from this one.
I guess let's start with the big question. It's the
one everyone's asked in the aftermath from Sunday night till now,
(02:49):
which is do you think Oscar Piastre has a right
to feel a little bit aggrieved by this? There's no
team orders, no one speculating that it's old. This is
a sign that McLaren's obviously favoring Lando Norris, but he
had almost similar to Silverston, obviously very different circumstances. But
he had this race, at least from the Interra team
point of view, well covered very early in the Grand Prix,
and yet emerges second best again.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, I don't know about aggrieved. Annoyed, yes, Aggrieved maybe not
so much because it wasn't a race where he had
the high ground and then was stitched up by a
strategy that meant that he had absolutely no chance to
win the race. You could see the way those final
ten laps were playing out it was a matter of
when he was going to catch Norris, not if, and
(03:32):
with about five laps to go, I messaged you and
said last lap, first corner, because I figured that's probably
where it was going to be. I was a lap
too late at that point, but he put himself in
a legitimate position to win this Grand Prix. Now it
wasn't able to pull it off on the penultimate lap
going into the first corner. So I think you would
be more aggrieved if the contrast strategy which Norris was
(03:55):
rolled the dice on because he was fifth on lap
one and had absolutely nothing to lose at that point
where it had a pretty ordinary first quarter and got
shuffled behind Russell and shuffled behind Alonzo's Aston Martin. I
think Piastre will be more annoyed that he wasn't still
able to convert despite being on them or advantageous tire
and the last five laps, and aggrieved by it. I
(04:15):
don't think it was any sort of you know, sort
of cunning decision or something that was going to put
him on the back foot, but it does bring into
questions something that we spoke about a couple of episodes ago,
where it was at four one, two's McLaren in the
last five rounds. There's ten rounds to go. I will
be absolutely shocked if McLaren don't win nine of those
ten the way it's looking at the moment, particularly with
twenty twenty six and this rule change looming. You remember
(04:37):
earlier in the season they were very very open about saying, look,
these guys are going to be on the same strategies.
We're not going to try and play strategic games within
the team because we feel that's the fairest way to
go motor racing. And you mentioned it was an extension
of Belgium. Yes, it was a little bit in that
Norris made that decision in Belgium from a relative position
of strength and was it able to pull it off.
(04:57):
Piastre drove that last stint on them brutal tie really
well there here. The Norris strategy that he basically lucked
into was a product of him being so poor on
the first lap, and I think if he had held
grid position, if he'd been third on lap line, or
even if he'd been a little bit higher on that one,
that strategy doesn't come into play. So I'm not sure
aggrieved is quite the right word. But annoyed definitely, because
(05:20):
this is a day where Piastre was the better McLaren
driver for the vast majority of this weekend and yet
ended up seeding seven points to his teammate in the championship.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, I think that's a good way to sum it up.
I think what's an interesting element to all of this
is we've talked a lot this year about how, for
a long time this has clearly been a straight championship
fight between the two McLaren drivers, but that the field
is not so spread out. McLaren's advantage isn't so massive
that there can't be other winners and therefore other influencers
in how this championship has decided. And this it came
(05:52):
from an unusual place, came from Charla Clair in the
Ferrari that still surprises me was there. But this was
an example of that where like a god, a pole
position that was unexpected and then had enough pace in
the right well for the first two thirds of the
race anyway to lead the Grand Prix. That had a
direct impact on the strategic thinking of Oscar Piastro in
his side of the garage, and as a result of that,
(06:14):
Piastre lost the race, but to Lando Norris, because Norris
had no need to be thinking about who was ahead
of him, only that there were cars ahead and he
needed to pass them with a different strategy, to try
something different. And I think that's interesting because I don't
think that's the last time that's going to happen. I mean,
I think you're probably right to say McLaren is probably
going to win in the vicinity of nine more races.
I know this is the second biggest margin between McLaren
(06:36):
and the next big tea, the next team on the
road this season, after Miami being the biggest. So there's
that tells you that advantage is still as large as ever.
But you know, Ferrari was clearly within striking distance for
reasons we might get to a little bit later on.
There'll be some tracks where EDWULLD racing will be competitive
again with high speed corners maybe cut up. For example,
(06:57):
Mercedes might win in Las Vegas like they did last year.
How will that influence the points picture? I think that's
very interesting because that's the and it was summed up
by a radio message late in the race from Tom
stellar Oscopiastri's race engineer. I confused between them sometimes talking
about what was you like your last stop to be
directed at? Do you want to beat Lando Norris or
(07:18):
do you want to beat Charlotte Clair? And it seems
very obvious, it's not even retrospect coould to be obvious.
At the time. There's only one driver that he's racing
for the championship, that's Lando Norris. But that question becomes
very interesting now after him having lost this race, not
because he chose Charlot Clair, but it's just by then
it was too late to do anything other than try
and respond to Lando Norris. But if a similar situation
(07:39):
comes up where there's another team that's competitive, another driver
could be in contention for the race, do we actually
see McLaren for the first time in years or at
least eighteen months, not target victory but target intra team victory,
because that's a very different state of mind.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, I mean, it's interesting because the constructor's championship is
basically over and the driver's championship as far as it
going to another team, is clearly over as well at
this point, So it is an interesting one. You look
at the races left to come on the calendar where
someone through by a virtue of the way they set
the car up, or just the nature of the circuit,
or as you mentioned Katar, there was a good one
Vegas with it being called Singapore is one of those
(08:16):
ones that if someone like Leclaire, who is a magician
over one lap as we know, produce an absolutely unbelievably
good lap in Singapore and then have the track position
on a circuit where it's incredibly difficult to pass it.
There are some tracks for the rest of the calendar
where you could see similar races to Hungary playing out. Now,
not many of them, but there are some of them.
(08:37):
And given this is so finely poised, you do wonder
if that idea of intra teem fairness I'm using air
quotes here comes into play, but it is. This is
one of those situations. I always think that you can
tell McLaren hasn't won a driver's championship for a very
long time when we're debating things like this, because I
(08:58):
get the feeling other teams, you know, edies where they
were winning championships for fun or I mean, I was
going to say Red Bull, but they already have one driver.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Motion.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Yeah, anyway, but I think there's a little bit of
as much awkwardness because I think McClaren know they're going
to win both championships this year. It's just the identity
of the driver's championship is the one that's up in
the air. There's a little bit of almost ring rust
with all of this because they're not used to being
in this position, and there's a lot of I found
that Tom stale art message really odd, to be honest,
because is that even a question of course you're raising
(09:26):
the guy you're fighting for the championship with. He just
happens to be in the same car. The rest of
the drivers in terms of championship terms are kind of
irrelevant at this point. Nobody's in it, so I thought
it was really odd. But I'm super curious to see
we've now had two Grand Prix where Norris, by virtue
of being the second of the two McLaren's on the road,
(09:46):
has probably been overtly or inadvertently placed on the superior
of the two strategies. It's just that Piastre was good
enough to make what he had work in Belgium, and
then wasn't quite good enough in order to make what
he had to make work in hungary work. So there's
a couple of races in a row now where the
perception is well Norris, by being the second McLaren has
actually kind of lucked his weight in probably being in
(10:08):
the best situation. It's just that it's one all in
those two races. But given that we have ten rounds
to go, I'll be super curious to see how many
more times this comes up.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, I mean, you're right, and if we assume, and
like you said, I don't think every race is going
to be like this, but let's just assume for a
second that every race, after a few lapse it's clear
there are two McLaren's out front, no one else is
going to threaten. You can argue that it is a
real disadvantage being in the lead because whoever's second can
respond more easily. If McLaren's drivers are really allowed to
(10:38):
not pull any punches strategically or the way they want
to approach it, you can just simply respond to the
other time. You know. The most extreme visceral example of
this is, of course, oh dear, we mentioned this race
again twenty twenty one, and abo it was an advantage
to be second when that safety car came out because
you could do whatever was everything, get you ahead, or
give you the better tires for.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
The restart, everything to gain, nothing to lose.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yeah, exactly. So there's that, there's that that interesting element.
So I think that's what that's this this extra spice
to this championship of you like, is that we talk
about it being a straight fight, and in terms of
pace it will be, and there's so little between them.
But because there's so little between them, there's so much
go for circumstances to affect outcomes of each rays. Just
before we move on, I think it's probably worth reflecting
(11:21):
here as well that race by race, circuit by circuit
is going to be really affecting. I thought it was interesting.
You know, Oscar Piastri had a pretty good handle and
everything in Belgium. That's long been one of his favorite tracks.
He calls it one of his favorite tracks. But even
in terms of performance, every year has been in Formula One,
he's been the better perforre McLaren here. This was in
the Norris column. He's never been out qualified by a tear.
He had never been qualified by a teammate until this
(11:43):
weekend input a pest did emerge with the victory, though,
I think that kind of at least reflects again where
those tracks would have been in each column. But I
want to look briefly and we will do again when
the season resumes. But the next two races I think
is again one apiece. The Dutch Grand Prix is a
pretty good track for Norris, but Piastre, as he showed
last year, is very quick in Monds and I think
(12:03):
that's that additional way of looking at that last ten
race breakdown is actually it could just be the tracks
we're visiting.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Well, and it might come down to know what results
can you glean at tracks that are not necessarily on
the topic of your shopping list. It'll be, you know,
make it making the best of your worst days if
you like. It strikes me as being one of those
sorts of championships, and you look at where the gap
is between the two of them and the moment effectively,
they both had a dn F. I'm you know, Pastre's
(12:29):
Australian crand Prix was more or less a d an F.
Given the points that he was going to be scoring.
He ended up with two that day. It was too
wasn't it. Yes, it was two and Norris obviously had
the DNF in candidate. So it kind of feels that
this is because of how tight it is, and because
of how dominant, how good the car is, and because
it's so hard to really pick a favorite over the
(12:50):
other in terms of the ebbs and flow of this.
This is going to come down to what do you
do on those worst days that maybe some of your
not so great circuits? So do you need to have
an outlier result at a good track? Like you mentioned
good tracks? Qutars won for PSTRE. Isn't it that there's
certain circuits where you know that he's going to be strong.
I don't want to say this out loud, but I
just did think it, so I man as well. I
(13:10):
don't think ab aber Dave he's not a fantastic PSTRE track,
is it?
Speaker 1 (13:13):
I don't think historically No, Well he was wiped out.
Was he second on the good last year? No? But
he was second on the grid. So I knows. We've
said it out there. Save it for the crystal ball. Yes,
let's move on now to Move of the Week, brought
to you by Shannons. This was, as we talked last week,
(13:34):
look hungry It ebbs and flows but it's usually a
pretty reliably interesting race these days, at a minimum, and
we did get that. Even though there's a long stretch
in the middle of the race, race thought, oh, my
race reports complete and I have nothing to do for
the next one five minutes famous last words. Yeah, absolutely.
I did end up being really quite an exciting climax
to the race, even though there was no overtake for
the lead. But what's your move of the week? Now?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I'm only going to mention this person and this team
because they're probably not going to get podcast otherwise, and
I would like to shoehorn them in there just for
the sake of it, and also because you know that
I like to go a little bit left of center
with move of the week. My move of the week
is Aston Martin being the worst team in Formula One,
and then seven days later you.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Are kidding.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Seven days later as amazing. We've not discussed this seven
days later finishing fifth with Fernando a lot So and
seventh with lad Stroll. And the reason I enjoyed this
so much is there's a there's a degree of mischief
that comes with Fernando a lot So being higher in
the top ten than he probably should and that I
literally had the giggles earlier on the race where you
(14:38):
could see that, you know, after Norris had retaken him
and he'd settle back into his natural position of fifth,
the way he was managing the pace of every single
driver behind him in the race, so there was this
absolutely enormous DRS trade going on, that he was backing
everybody up to best advantage his own position when he
wants it to go. And then there came a point
in that first stip where it's like, all right, now
(14:58):
I'm just going to start driving properly and started gapping
everything to preserve that league before he went into the pits.
It's just this, and it's what happens when you're forty
four years old. You've done the Hungarian Grand Prix twenty
times or have many times. A lot so has done it.
But I do love the sense of mischief that comes
with Fernando and the upper areas of the top ten,
where he hasn't spent too much time this year unfortunately.
But move of the week from the from the outhouse
(15:22):
to the penthouse, I was thinking of the polite way
to call that it deserves some consideration, but also move
of the week. I cannot believe of all the things
you could have come up with on your short list
to talk about, that is we are spending far too
much time together.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Remarkable, isn't it? But literally from the tenth order of
the fastest lap in qualifying the slowest car in Belgium
to the second fastest remarkable turn around, incredible, barely anything
off the fastest lap as well less than three tenths
the fastest McLaren lab just for no There there were
reasons this second was very beneficial to the car, and
(15:56):
there's clearly a configuration of the upgrades they've brought in
the last month or so work depending on the circuit.
But a really remarkable turnaround. But I'm still going to
I'll look, I'll give a different one, but I'm still
going to be Alonzo centered. I'm going to go for
a Lonzo's move off the line. That was also which
Tolonso saw an opportunity capitalized on a driver, in this
case Norris getting a good start but ensuring he was
(16:17):
boxed in and had to yield and had to lose places.
It's exactly what he did ground the outside to turn one,
then in the down the inside to turn two almost
got Russell exiting turn too as well and would have
been up to third place, which had been really remarkable.
Didn't hold him up for too long because he knew
his race wasn't holding up Norris, but in holding up
everybody else and good for him and got a really
great result out of it. Maximize his result, and it's
(16:39):
it's interesting. I was looking back at the season. I'm
putting together the driver ratings, which will be up on
the Fox Sports website sometime this week. How he had
a relatively quiet start to the year, but once the
car began to get a little bit more go about it,
suddenly his tails in the air and he's pulling off
some I don't want to say they're absolutely vintage Alonso
performances because they deserve pod and victories, not just fifth
(17:01):
places or points, but they are. They show you that
he's still got that or how much his experience counts for.
I think that's why he's so valuable to Aston Martin.
It's obviously that the prestige that he's fundamentally a very
good driver, but it's his experience that is delivering results
in this car. And this was just not a great
example of it.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
And off the start. There's always been something magical about
him because I feel that he always sees opportunities that
split second before anybody else does, and he's so decisive.
You mentioned that move there where he basically gave not
us an impossible situation to have to resolve in real time,
and knowing that he could put him in that situation
before he did. But this is one of those conversations.
I remember having this chat with Daniel Ricardo Watson. We're
(17:40):
talking about starts to races, and he would always say,
know who's besides you know the row in front of you,
know the row behind you, and know where Fernando is.
And that was almost like one of his is because
he knew that, you know, that little gap appears down
the middle of two cars and a group, Fernando's probably
in it. You've seen over the years the amount of
brilliant starts where he's had two wheels on the grass
and done all sorts of absolutely miraculous things in cars
(18:02):
that shouldn't be up the front. That was a vintage start.
But I'm still shaking my head that we've got the
same entry to this category.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yeah, I thought for sure that I was in the clear,
but I was like, I gets the first one, but
I've got it.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
On this I think next week you just need to
take the first one and stop being such a gracious host.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Let's look to one other element of this Grand Prix now, Matt,
and that is Ferrari. Before we get to the results
on track, I think we should actually start with what
happened last week, which was that long last the team
announced that it had re signed team principal Frederick Masser.
The hyphen was there was nothing else and for other
it is the best kind of Formula One contract, a
(18:43):
multi year contract. Paddick ri is another three years, which
would take him to six years, which would make him
remarkably the equal longest serving Ferrari team principle since Stefana
Tamenicali back into the two thousands. I guess now runs
Formula One, so that's interesting in its own right. It
took a little bit of time to get there. It endured,
he had to endure some rumors that weren't fully swatted
(19:04):
away by the team. I think it's fair to say
a month or two ago, but they've stuck with him.
It would have always been a strange time to change
team boss they had of a big regulatory change, but
at least this gives the team a bit of medium
term stability to move forward.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah, completely, And you know you mentioned the timing of
twenty six coming in and the effectively the hard reset
for next year. We don't need to add another element
of chaos here or you know, an unknown quantity into
a time of such change elsewhere. To my mind, there
was a lot of noise about a lot not much
with this situation here because I'm you always think, well, okay,
(19:40):
if that is not the guy in the job, then
someone else needs to be in the job, or someone
else should be in the job already. Are they going
to do anything better and or different? That was always
the that was always the thought for me in that
it just seemed, what are we doing a change for
change's sake here? Allah alping when things don't go well
or or is there actually something legitimate here? There's been
(20:03):
a lot of change behind the scenes there.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Obviously.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
The Hamilton acquisition hasn't really been something that neither team
nor driver has been particularly happy about so far, and
I'll caveat that with so far because we do need
to play with a longer lens here. But to my mind,
I think it's the right move. I think it was
a sensible move. I was a little bit surprised to
some degree that it was such an issue in the
lead up to him being re signed include the hyphen
(20:26):
but then again, this is Ferrari, and this is the
Italian press, and we should know how this works by now.
But I don't know if you thought that it was
the correct or incorrect decision. But to my mind, it
seemed that having a pillar of stability, given there's going
to be so much change next year, seemed to be
the sensible move.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
I think so. And it's the I think you summed
it up well as like, what is the purpose of
the change? If there's no purpose of it other than
what we're Ferrari, it seems like the thing he would do.
Then I think that that's a good summary, and I
think he was going to consider the building a successful formulae.
Team is a project, and the project here is that
You've got Charlot Claire probably entering his peak. You've got
(21:02):
Lewis Hamilton, maybe we'll talk about a second, might be
past his peak, but nonetheless brings extreme experience to the team,
like you have a lineup that is ready to win,
and you've got a technical team that's that's shown itself
capable of some innovative solutions to the regulations that got
very close to an Inconstructors Champion Championship last year, and
you've got this chance with new rules that you know
(21:24):
you could take that step that every team wants to
next year. It would be silly to disrupt that for
no reason. Do it next year if you like, if
the team is six in the championship with no hope,
then go for it. But it seems silly to do
it now and based on what and then who will
you get? You know, it's it would be nonsense. So
I think it's the right call. I think any Ferrari,
any Ferrari fan must surely be satisfied there's not just
(21:46):
more unnecessary bloodshed at that team, just as things might
be kind of getting good and for a time mat
it looked like actually there would be a little signature
bounce there with Charlote Clair getting pole position at the
Hungary and grown free most unexpectedly. He is in the
fourth fastest car, but the conditions were just so in
Q three that he was able to put together a
clean lap to get it done. A nice reminder, and
(22:07):
you know, I think it was after the British Grand Prix.
Wasn't more recently that he talked about how he felt
like he had lost his that little qualifying magic dust
that he seems to have had throughout his whole career.
He's just so superb over one lap that he couldn't
access it this year. But he got in a big
way in Hungary and then led the first two thirds
of the race with pace that certainly surprised me. I
didn't expect the Ferrari to be that competitive in the
Grand Prix, and then he finished fourth, forty two seconds
(22:30):
off the lead. Forty two seconds off the lead. I'm
quite frustrated as well. There have been a lot of
reasons Matt given as to why that might have happened,
but Ferrari, as is its way, hasn't really confirmed any
of them or said for sure what they are. What's
your take on this or is this just Ferrari being Ferrari?
Speaker 2 (22:48):
A little bit of Colin Boe. I think when it
comes I like you, I thought amazing and got popposition fantastic.
You will be fifteen seconds behind both McLaren's body till
we get to the first and that was all very
nice on Saturday, but congratulations, you might be able to
get a podium. I think if you'd said coming into
the weekend, hey, charloa clare is going to finish fourth
in Hungary, you go geez, you said a good weekend,
(23:09):
doesn't he That's probably where overachieved. So it's all being
looked at through the lens of qualifying on pole and
leading for a good chunk of this race. But the
entire thing just completely unraveled after that second pit stop.
It's unbelievably slow. I mean you mentioned the forty two
second deficit to the winner. There's a five second penalty
there for driving erratically while he was trying to defend
(23:31):
third place against George Russell, so that factors into the
equation as well. But it all seems to come down
to how high or not they can run this car.
And you know we're talking about plank. Were as far
back as China, it was about two Still haven't really
got on top of that, and so much of the
way they're setting that car up is trying to keep
it in a decent performance window but also not fall
(23:54):
for out of these plankware regulations that they've skirted around
the edges of now for the best part of what
five months, So I don't necessarily think that's going to change.
But his lap times in that last twenty odd laps
were alarmingly bad, and I'm sure he wasn't driving any worse,
but yeah, he was, to use a David croftism, he
was very het up over.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
The rate he was. And yes, there is the speculation
that it is all related that actually the upgrades that
the team had broad in the last couple of rounds,
or ending with that package, the suspension package brought at
the Belgian Grand Prix, which had appeared or had seemed
to have been targeted at being able to run the
car and its happy place more effectively, perhaps hasn't been.
(24:36):
The hung car ring has been resurfaced. It was partly
resurfaced as part of its reconstruction efforts since the last race,
but memory serves, was resurfaced entirely not that long ago either,
in the last few years. So was by no means
rough and tumble saved by a pre iron curtain circuit.
That yes, so this shouldn't have been a track while
it does undulate a little bit. That really made that
(24:57):
a massive risk. Perhaps it was a calculated risk whereby
they hope they'd be far and up ahead, they'd be
able to absorb some of the pain later on. But
now I know you're like a statistic and I've put
together some of these after Sunday. But Claire has twenty
seven pole positions. It was him eleventh eleventh on the
all time pole list. Only two menel fandre Quid equal
that later this year. Who knows only five of those
(25:18):
have ended with victories. From his last sixteen pole positions,
only one of them has ended in a win. That's remarkable.
That's very upsetting.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
I mean, uncharitably, you could say, well, he should be
used to it, so I can't be that upset anymore
because this is just part of the course. He'd be
more like, oh, I won imagine that. But it's always
been the story of his career. And you mentioned it before.
He's one of the better, particularly where the cars a
little bit better than this year is, but maybe not
the absolute class of the field. He's one of the
(25:49):
best one lap drivers we've seen in a very very
long time. And there's certain Q three sessions that I
always look forward to each year if he is in
it in a car that's not the gold standard, because
you know that he's going to produce something special. The
one that I always think of is Asvajan. I love
watching him around there in that middle section where they
go past the castle and across the top of the city.
There he's absolutely electrifying through there, and he's just got
(26:12):
this ability to completely transcend his machinery. But then, of
course over the full race distance it reverts to the meme.
But what one of the last sixteen is And don't
think that he and the team and everyone doesn't know
that that's one of those that's not a you know,
that's not a monkey on your back, that's a gorilla
at this point, is it?
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yes, he has the worst I think I did the
statistics recently. I believe they still hold up the worst
poll to victory conversion rate, but five he's in the
bottom five. The only drivers with worst pole conversion rates
is renhe Hanu had two poles or two varies. David Coulthard,
Jean Pierre Jabouille and Ralph Schumacher the only ones. And
(26:51):
then it's char Leclair, so he's got a little bit
of work to do. But I think, as we've probably
said in the past, and as we've sort of summed
up here, it's not really on him failing to can victories.
It's normally on him qualifying higher by which I'm in
pole than that car belongs. And I think that was
very much the case this weekend. The fourth fastest car well,
I finished fourth on the roads there you go. In
fact finished it as the third best car ahead of
(27:12):
the red Wall racing cars. In some senses, he still overachieved,
although I'm sure that won't make him feel any better.
I want to talk about Lewis Hamilton before we wrap
this one up, though, because this was another disappointing weekend
for him. Is it related to me predicting he would
win again? Maybe? Maybe not, Let's say no. But he
qualified outside of the top ten, it was lockdown Q
two in twelfth and he finished twelfth. So unlike at
(27:35):
the Belgian Grand Prix, where at least in race trim
he was more competitive, particularly in the wet and I
was able to recover from pretty much the back of
the grid to score points, this weekend he went nowhere.
He was as we said last week where he still
is the most successful driver ever in Hungara Ring history.
He has pretty much every meaningful record at this circuit,
but could not score points this weekend. His worst ever
finish here and he's worst ever qualification here without a
(27:57):
technical problem, And he sounded pretty grim about everything at
all times. Man, I think they were say after qualifying,
after the race, not a lot of words from him,
but the few words he did give away sounded pretty despondent.
Is that I mean that's part of Hamilton, isn't that
he comes out of the car his heart's on his sleeve.
(28:18):
But do you feel like this is a new level
of disappointment from him? And is it because it's this
circuit and it's his teammate on Pole.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Yeah, there's a few factors coming into play there. I
think the only person that wants her mid season breaking
a few weeks off more than you is probably Lewis
Hamilton at this point, like he one hundred percent needs
to just get his head out.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Of it for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
It must be particularly galling when you know that you
have been very good on this circuit in the past,
when you've had the best car, and when you haven't
had the best car. You've been able to really create
some magic at this track. Then to see your teammate
pull a lap out of the bag to be on pole.
The gaps were so tight in qualifying that there wasn't
a lot between them when they were in Q two. Anyway,
(28:58):
Laclare was just on the right side of it, Hamilton
on the wrong side of it. We know that it's
a track position circuit and if you get stuck in
a DRS train, that's where you will stay. It's the
way it works out there, But he just seems the
wearing his heart on his sleeve is one of the
things that we've enjoyed about him, and he's been doing
this for a very, very long time. This was one
of the things he did, but he was a very
young driver where people thought, oh wow, that's a bit
(29:19):
confronting that he's prepared to be so blunt about his
own performances. Maybe he'll grow out of that, or as
he becomes older and wiser that will stop, and it hasn't. Really,
it's just the way that he tends to roll. He
rides the emotional highs better than anybody, so you'll guess
the contrast to that is that you're going to have
those lows as well. But I think it was a
combination of this circuit, his teammate doing an amazing lap
(29:40):
in the same car which is clearly not a fantastic
car right now, and coming off the back of Belgium,
and it's just been a bit of a blah start
to life at Ferrari really, And you know, there's a
lot of questions now. It's like, well, is he past
his best? Which you would expect a driver at his forties,
it's usually past his best, but also doesn't mean that
he'sh puts and he shouldn't be on the grid. But
(30:02):
you just wonder what is the ability like to be
able to dig in here when things are really getting bad?
And is it only going to be the potential of
a fresh start for twenty six and he's been through
so many rule changes that he knows that things can
flip very very quickly. Is it the at least potential
for things to change pretty rapidly next year? Is going
(30:22):
to be the thing that gets him through these remaining
ten races because twenty twenty five as it stands right
now is a bit of a write off. I can
only see it sort of flattening out and maybe neutralizing.
From here, I can't really see it getting a hell
of a lot better.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Yeah, it's a bit of a shame because it had
felt like in the races before Belgium that he'd started
to turn a bit of a corner there. You know,
our qualified Charlie Clair I think three times from the
previous four or five races, and in terms of the
pace difference that had come right down I think on
average in that run of races in Europe, let's say
to less than a tenth of a second, so perfectly
respectable for a driver's change teams in a regulatory year
(30:57):
that I think we can probably say doesn't really suit
Lewis Hamilton that well. And then these two really poor
at least qualifying. In Belgium again the race was okay,
but in Hungary the race was pretty ordinary as well.
Overtaking it is difficult, but whatever, it just felt just fields.
I mean, I probably underlines the problem this year, which
has just been inconsistency. It's not as if he's been
just bad in every session. He's been so up and
(31:18):
down that it's been hard to grab a handle on anything.
And I think he'll be very much looking forward to
next year. But you can't go into next year. It's
almost a likeness to be made here to the way
Sauber has approached this year. You can't go into your
your time is oudy. Having finished last with no points.
I don't feel like it'll be right for Lewis Hamilton
to go into next year, the year that his contract
was predicated on being successful, and it wasn't about this.
(31:40):
He was always going to be back next year. But
having been absolutely smacked by char Leclair in every session,
constantly in qualifying, finishing last one on the front run
was all that kind of thing. So his response next
year I think will be very interesting for him because
it's a you know, like I say, it's a big
one for him. Now let's wrap up that, but we
(32:02):
have to visit the crystal ball by complete home filtration.
For me, it's proved absolutely cursed. It's curse Lewis Hamilton's end.
Babs attended his career. Who knows, But why don't you
kick us off with your prediction for the next how
long you like?
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Well, given what happened earlier in this episode, my crystal
ball is telling me that I actually need to give
you first crack at the crystal ball, and then I'll
come back behind mine. So my crystal ball is going
to be one hundred percent right on this because I
don't want to steal your answer this time. I think
that would be very uncharitable of me. So I'd like
you to come up with something, and I guarantee you,
I absolutely guarantee you that it's not going to be
when I come up with here, So crystal ball the way.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
So all right, well, let's we're at the mid season break.
McLaren has a pretty comfortable lead in the Constructor's champion
It's two hundred and ninety nine points ahead of forer Ori,
more than double Ferrari's points. The average advantage over the
course of the first fourteen races. This statistic, I do
know is twenty one points per round. My crystal ball
tells me that trajectory continues and McLaren and win the
(33:00):
Constructors Championship in Azerbaijan, which would be just three races
from now, which will be seven rounds to spare, which
will be the earliest championship win in the history of
Formula One for a team. That's incredible. It struck me.
We talked about I don't think we mentioned today, but
it was talked about in the aftermath of the race.
This is the fourth consecutive one to finish for McLaren.
The last time they achieved that was in nineteen eighty eight.
(33:23):
Nineteen eighty eight was until Red Bull Racings run in
two and twenty three, the most dominant season in Formula
One history. I think by some metrics you can still
call it that, but by percentage Red Bull Racings every
win but one in a twenty four race season or whatever
it was, does surp it. But the idea that this
McLaren team is now starting to be mentioned in the
same breath as the nineteen eighty eight team on some
statistics and could in this particular category you surp it.
(33:47):
I think, is just a reminder of how remarkable a
year this is. And much like the Senna and Prost's rivalry,
we have two McLaren drivers that are probably going to
take this title down to the wire, hopefully with less aggression,
but you never know. But that's what why Crystal Ball
is telling me that in just three races time we'll
have a new Constructors champion.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
And I think that one has stuck up on us
a little bit. It feels like a stat that we
knew the Red Bull dominance as it was happening, and
obviously anyone that was covering a sport back in eighty
eight I knew exactly what McLaren we're doing, given that
driver lineup and what that car looked like and how
good it was. But it feels that it's obvious but
surprising at the same time, and that we've been watching
these races and we've seen the McLaren dominance. Yet a
(34:28):
stat like that is still quite startling when you consider
seven races to go, they could have this completely wrapped up.
I think that's also a function of the entire year.
It's not actually been that obvious who the second best
team is because it's really waxed and weighing through three
different teams. When it started the year red Bull winning races,
they all looked fine and it was all going semi
okay at least with a Stappen, and then Ferrari had
(34:49):
a bit of a turn, and then Mercedes won with
George Russell, and so the identity of the challenger in
air quotes has changed quite a bit throughout the course
of the season, McLaren's just been there. It's been the constant,
so that probably explains it. But that has snuck up
on me a little bit. But you're not going to
believe this, But I had exactly that I didn't have.
I didn't have exactly the same thing. The reason I
(35:11):
mentioned before that there are ten races to go. I'm
not looking for ex for reasons here to try and
give race wins to anybody else over the remaining ten rounds.
But I'm going to put on record right now we're
ten rounds to go that there are going to be
two rounds that McLaren don't win.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Oh okay, there we go.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
One of them is going to be Brazil because I
think Max Forstappan's going to win there because it's going
to rain. It's going to be my big prediction. And
there'll be another insert random one here at some point.
I wonder if at the end of the season, when
the crystal balls packed up and put in the box,
we'll look back at the couple of races that McLaren
don't win between now and the end of the year,
and given how tight this championship is, it might be
who does best out of Norris and Piastri on those
(35:48):
days that they can't win. That might determine which one
is center and which one is prossed at the end
of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Yes, and you know what, I think, we do want
to a couple of big this up. We do want
liken it to the nineteen eighty eight season. How close
this is Prost won that championship. I'm pretty sure no
Cena won that championship, but Prost had more points. But
it was the drop score rule, So that's how close
it was. That it was a funny rule change the
change that the winner of the championship, so it could
(36:15):
be so close that whoever finishes fifth instead of seventh
at a wet Brazilian Grand Prix later in the year
could design the championship.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Wins the title on countback. Wouldn't that be?
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Wouldn't that be? Excited? I spreadsheet, It's gonna be working
very well for me, that's all very I like a long, good, long,
couple of long range predictions. Very good to send us
out from this part of the season. That's all the time.
We have a bittalk today, though you can subscribe to
bittalk wherever you get your favorite podcast and you can
leave us a rating and review as well. Formula One
is on it's mid season break, but this weekend is
(36:47):
the Supercars Ipswitch Super four forty, with two races on
Saturday afternoon and another on Sunday at quarter past three
that's Eastern Standard time. You can keep up to date
with the Lateste f one, Supercars and Botochipy news at
Fox Sports dot com dot Au from Matt Clayton and
me Michael Lomonado. Thanks very much for your company and
we'll catch you next week
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com