April 29, 2025 • 34 mins
Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari dream has turned into a nightmare, and the seven-time champion says he can't see light at the end of the tunnel this season. How did it all go so wrong in just five grands prix? Plus Christian Horner and George Russell have reportedly sounded each other out over 2026 availability in an early start to the silly season.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
On today's episode, Lewis Hamilton sees no reason for optimism
all this season after his dire start to life as
a Ferrari driver and silly. Season starts early with Christian
Horner and George Russell reportedly exploring each other's availability for
twenty twenty six. My name is Michael Lomonado. It's great
(00:25):
to have your company and the company of my co host.
He knows the difference between Miami and Miami Gardens. It's
Matt Clayton.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Is there a difference, Michael, I guess this is the question.
But race around your favorite stadium car park as I
like to call it, the Miami Grand Prix. But yes,
it's time for fake marinas and all sorts of other nonsense.
But a six am race star on a Monday morning.
For Australians, breakfast Formula one is an underrated thing.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I would say I'm a big fan of the breakfast
Grand Prix concept. You put your coffee on, you have
your toast or breakfast or choice perhaps of porridge, something
like that. With the Americans, maybe bacon and eggs if
you American or pancakes.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, a stack of about fourteen of them.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Ye, that'll go down easy. You'll be good and sorted
for the six am start to get excited about that.
Not too bad at all. Certainly we've had worse. But
let's look at the a little bit of a retrospective
and prospective this weekend, because Lewis, Hamilton and Ferrari has
certainly been one of the major talking points of the
(01:23):
opening five Grand Prix of the season, at first for
positive reasons, not only of course, because he's one of
the biggest driving moves of a generation. But he did
okay in Australia, and then of course one sensationally the
sprint in China, just the second round of the season,
and suddenly we all thought, well, here we go, it's
all clicking into place. Since then, however, it's been a
story of woe, culminating with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix,
(01:44):
where he was effectively last in class, last among the
front runners, had nothing of the pace of teammates char
La Clair, who finished on a podium for the first
time this season and ended the weekend by saying no
reason to think anything will get better for him this Yeah,
now Lewis Hamilton map is good. Of course, I always
say he tends towards pessivism when things are not going
(02:05):
his way. So perhaps we shouldn't read that absolutely literally.
But there's been no doubt that this has been more
down than up so far in twenty twenty five. What's
a bird's eye view of how this has been going
so far?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
It's funny, is it's the most British thing that Lewis
Hamilton does these days. I always think if you ask
a British person how they are, they say not bad
when they mean good. They always ask, they always answer
with their negative when they trying to be positive. But
I would like to point our listeners towards an excellent
story with the title f on that lessons Learned so
Far on Fox Sports dot com dot A You've written
by a black called Michael Lamonato. The first word of
(02:39):
the Lewis Hamilton section is grim and it's a bit
of a favorite word for you and I discussing many things,
not just Lewis Hamilton. But it's so interesting, isn't it.
How Look, we know the glass tends to skew more
towards more. It's being half empty when Lewis is in
these situations. I mean, it happened at McLaren we're talking,
you know, a decade and a half ago. Now it
happened a very very long time ago. But it's interesting
(03:01):
how you know it's China was round two, won the
first sprint. Everything's happy days now we know. He was
disqualified from the Grand Prix the next day, as was
Charlote Cliff for completely different reasons, one of one of
the Ferrari Bingo car for if I'm playing at home.
But since then it's just been not only has it
been poor, there's a degree of it being comparatively helpless
(03:25):
and hopeless. At the same time, there doesn't seem to
be an answer. He's lost France's the team is trying
very very hard to say the r. I think you're
probably thinking they're wondering what's actually happening here, And I
think it's probably a conflation of two things that yes,
there's a bit of old dog nutrix going on here,
because obviously Lewis is in his forties and it's I
(03:46):
think it's much harder for a driver to make a
big move and perhaps change the way they operate driving
style and what have you the older they get into
their career. Filed under Riccardo Comment, Daniel, We've discussed this
story at infinitum, but I think there's two things happening here.
It's a problematic car that he's finding it very hard
to get his head around. I also think it probably
under sells a little bit just what Charlotte Clair is
(04:07):
doing because I don't think that that car is particularly good.
I think Leclare is doing pretty amazing things in a
car that's not particularly good. But I don't know from
your perspective, But the Hamilton thing, it's all gone very
very south, very very quickly. And from your perspective, is
that a dose of reality for him? Or is he
trying to perhaps temper expectations for the rest of the
(04:28):
season if they can't find a way out of this.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah, I think there's definitely a degree of the latter.
I think, like we were already saying, that tends to
be Hamilton's way, even when he seems like he's on
the cusp of some decent results or has had some
okay weekends, He just does tend towards even personal expectation
management or the psychology of Hamilton, something that is maybe
a little bit lesser explored, just because he's had so
much success in the last decade. It's not really something
(04:52):
you have to think too much about. But I don't.
I've always had the sense he doesn't mind being in
a corner a little bit, you know. I think back
to the end of his title losing season in twenty sixteen,
where you had to feel like even the team was
against him. At one point suggested that maybe he was
getting unequal machinery. Did that actually a little bit of
Mercedes last year as well, when he was on the
receiving end of a pretty decent qualifying beating from George Russell,
(05:14):
And then sometimes that makes him lift. So I think
there's a degree of that. I think it's also making
us assess and there is a there is I guess
a little bit of a Daniel Ricardo parallel here that
these ground effect rules haven't suited everyone. And the further
along the line we've got in this regulatory era, and
every team's talked about how it's so hard to add
performance to these cars without making them harder to drive.
(05:36):
The further along we've got, the harder they are to drive,
the more difficult it must be to switch teams. We've
seen other drivers struggle, admittedly not to this extent. Your
Carlos Signs did take quite a few races to get there.
I say quite a few. He still got there by
the end of the five race run, but clearly was difficult.
And then there is that element, and you sort of
mentioned old dog new tricks. There's definitely a learning curve
and that speaks to some of that. But the question
(05:58):
that we can't answer yet, and I think we probably
won't be able to say definitively until next year because
if we assume the ground effect rules are part of it, well,
they're not changing this year. I think that's part of
the pessimism. But is it just that he's left it
too late in his career to learn not an entirely
new team, but a new car concept, a new way
of working. You talk quite a lot in Melbourne, didn't
it the season opening Australian Grand Prix, about how him
(06:20):
and the telemetry is upside down at Ferrari compared to
the way it is at the same It's just one
example of the different way of working. So all of
those things that are combining to what's being a pretty
ordinary result. I think it's qualifying for me though, that
it really sums up the difficulty because and this is
going to be one of the interesting battles, wasn't it.
Arguably the quickest driver informing on today, char Leclair has
so many more poles than he does wins and they're
(06:42):
not all his faults. That's Ferrari's fault, and I think
that actually underlines how quick Ye is. Rather than the
opposite up against the most prolific pole getter of all time,
Lewis Hamilton, the guys, he's got more poles than anyone else.
The qualifying difference between them on average this season is
just under three tenths of a second zero point two eight.
But if you look at the last three rounds after
that disqualification in China, where it seems like Ferrari's had
(07:03):
to rethink the way it's setting up its car, it's
almost half a second. It's four four seven zero point
four four seven seconds. That's in Formula one. That's enormous
and to the point of where I think it's very
early to be saying any of this. But if you
are at Ferrara and you alluded to the same, surely
there are maybe not an alarm bell ringing, maybe the
blue light before the red light starts going off on
(07:24):
the roof.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
But this is I mean that sort of difference between teammates.
That's the thing that gets teams paying drivers out a
year early to leave their contract again. File under McLaren
and Daniel Ricardo because that was what was going on there.
But you mentioned something really interesting before, where the more
mature this rule set has become, there's a law of
diminishing returns with these things. You're looking for such marginal
(07:46):
gains through a tiny, tiny aperture. Everyone knows that these
rules are going in the bin basically at the end
of this season, and that will provide the definitive answer
as to has Lewis's career gone on the other side
of the hill it is going down or is this
just a byproduct of the machinery and the rule set
that he's been given to work with. We're not going
(08:06):
to have an answer to that until twenty twenty six.
We still have seventeen more round nineteen more rounds to
go kind of account ahead of Yeah, he is hoping
nineteen more rounds, by the way, was considerably longer than
the actual length of the entire season when Lewis deputed
back in two thousand and seven. So if this is
(08:27):
going to be his lot, this is going to be
a really difficult time for both him and the team because,
let's be honest, Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton, you know, the
biggest most popular brand on the team, on the grid
with seven time world champion who's a legend in his sport.
You marry those two things together. It's an amazing story
for the sport and the fact that Australia got to
(08:49):
see the first laps of that marriage in anger was fantastic.
I love the fact that we got to have that
slice of history. There's a lot of pressure on everybody
involved here for the sport, for Ferrah, for Hamilton. This
needs to work as a narrative, particularly if we're going
to go into the final season of a rule set.
We've talked about this on previous podcasts, where one of
(09:09):
two things tends to happen. You end up with this
really fraught championship fight between two teams at different stages,
like in twenty twenty one, but more usually you end
up with a team that gets it very over a
right and everyone starts to switch the tap off for
next year. So if we do have what looks to
be an intra team McLaren fight with occasional cameos from
Maxiwstapp and the rest of the way, the Hamilton Ferrari
(09:30):
story is perhaps not a story for winning races, but
it's something else to watch that's very, very high profile
behind what might be battles for victories. If this doesn't work, Yes,
we know there's an end date to this particular rule set,
and perhaps that's the what solves these problems for both parties.
But now nineteen more rounds of this and it's escalated
(09:53):
so quickly. It was three rounds ago that it was
all fantastic and he was winning a sprint, and you
mentioned that qualifying deficit. Since that it's not that's not
tenable as a storyline even at that for the remaining
nineteen rounds, the littlone if it gets worse, and there's going
to have to be a hell of a lot of
patients from both parties here to try and engineer their
way out of something. For a team where if you're Ferrari,
(10:18):
you're not winning this year's championship. You're not winning the drivers,
you're not winning the constructors, they will certainly be having
much more of an eye on twenty six before too long.
So how does that play into the equation when you've
got such a high profile signe to the team who's
really struggling relative to the guy that he's racing against.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
It's not really a scenario that I think too many
people countenance. For a couple of reasons, there was always
a risk right that he was going to go to
Charlotte Clair's team. LaClair's so embedded there, knows it inside out,
has a habit of being able to get the most
out of it when the cars just in its sweet spot,
and we're starting to see that now. Actually, in fact,
I think he's getting performance out of this despite it
(10:54):
perhaps not being in sweet spot. He's now at the
level where he's able to force it into that zone
when the cart doesn't even want to be in there,
which I think is part of the problem. But I
just or I certainly I didn't think, and maybe it
was a naive of me that the only outcomes are
really going to be Lewis Hamilton's going to go there
get the second win. He may yet next year and
either match or beat Leclaire, or alternatively, it would be
(11:14):
like almost a passing of a baton sort of scenario
where Okay, Laclaiir would have the upper hand for most
of the time, but Hamilton would would play a great
team game, He'd win some races for Ferrari, he ticked
the box. Maybe there was no championship involved, whatever, but
it would at least be somewhat satisfying end to his story.
Lewis Hamilton bowing out and again, look we're five races in,
(11:36):
but this does illustrate how confounding this performance gap has been.
But the idea of him going to Ferrari, getting belted
for two years and then bowing out just doesn't really compute.
I'd hate to see it. It is not me speaking
from any biased perspective, but a legend of the sport
going out that way, even existing in that way, I
(11:58):
just think doesn't really work. So you really see what
happens here. But I think there is a to draw,
perhaps another not quite parallel, but an example here. I
think part of the element is that it's difficult to
drive Ferrari car, as you mentioned earlier on because this
isn't the step forward the team thought they were going
to have from last year in the car was relatively
easy to drive, was probably the fastest car. In fact,
(12:19):
by the end of the year, it hasn't worked so far,
and we did learn last few things can change pretty quickly,
so who knows. By the end of the year, maybe
some of these problems are solved. But Chal knows how
to set up this car. He's figured out rather how
to set up this car in spite of itself, essentially
to put it mechanically in a position where he can
get some performance out of it. It's difficult, but he's
managing it. And by performance I mean just scraping in
(12:39):
for third in Saudi Arabia. It's the other part of
this is that Ferrari generally is underperforming, so it's not
all necessarily on Hamilton Lewis just doesn't have those tools,
and I'm sort of reminded, maybe most viscerally, but this
happens from time to time. When Max forstaff and joined
Red Bull Racing in twenty sixty, he was beaten, of
course in qualifying immediately by Daniel Riccardo had been there
for so long, but his response afterwards was I just
(13:01):
didn't know how to make this car better in the
way Daniel couldney. He looked afterwards the way Ricardo had
changed front wing levels or whatever, and he said, Oh,
if I knew that, it would have been obvious. Lewis
doesn't have any of those tools at the moment, and
he's in a car that just isn't working, so there's
probably reason to be more optimistic than he is. But nonetheless,
that gap is enormous. I think that's the thing. It's
really going to need team and driver to close. It
(13:22):
needs a car to get better before Lewis can probably
be thinking about himself improving.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, I mean a couple of thoughts here. I think
Leclaire is so accustomed to bending a Ferrari against its
will or exceeding its performance curve because he's basically done
at the entire time he's been there. And I think
this is a weird thing to say for a guy
who's won Grand parin is one of the best qualifiers
we've ever seen. I still think he's a little bit underrated,
(13:49):
which is a silly things. I think he's an absolutely
spectacularly good driver who's never really been in a position
to win the big prize at someone of his talent
probably deserves, but on a wider level, and we were
to talking about previous Mercedes Championship fights personally for me
that run into the end of twenty twenty one, when
Lewis had his back absolutely against the wall in the
(14:11):
final year of that rule set, that changed how I
felt about him as a driver, because I thought what
he did in those final five races of that year
was absolutely spectacular. I thought that was the best Lewis
Hamilton we've ever seen because everything had to go right,
but he had to make it go right, and Valorie
Bosj has kind of checked out at that point. He
was fighting, fighting a bit of a lone hand. He
(14:33):
was unbelievably good and I think it was an end
of season performance that probably deserved a World championship. And
then Abu Dhabi and you and I sending each other
sighing text messages at three am or whatever it was.
But there was a little part of me after that
that kind of felt like the old Lewis. It was
like the death of the old Lewis in a lot
of respects. I don't think he's quite had that sustained
(14:54):
level of just not commitment, but the hunger, and there's
a bit of weariness that's crept in over the last
couple of years, and that when you've had as much
much success as he's had, you don't get out of
bed to finish fourth. You don't get out of bed
to finish fifth. He hasn't been in that mindset since
because of what happened in twenty one, and to my mind,
when he moved to Ferrari, this was for me. It's like,
(15:15):
all right, he needed maybe a change of scenery to
get out of where he'd been for so long, to
sort of kick that old Lewis back into gear again.
And so far, at least, it's all been a little
bit too difficult. And you know, I'm not prepared to
rule a line through a guy with us who's had
the success that he's had and as talented as he is.
But the more time ticks by, both this season and
(15:35):
in terms of the calendar, because he's going to be
a forty one year old next year, you do wonder
if it's going to be there any more than intermittently.
And that's not what he went to Ferrari for, and
that's certainly not for what Ferrari paying for.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah, it's a lot of the questions that we're trying
to be asked last year, but he was using the
Mercedes car to keep a decent gap to them that
under pulling Mercedes car, they now at the door, aren't they?
And you can only probably hold them at the door
for a few more months, I think, till next season.
Surely he'll get the benefit of that. Even this season
gets worse somehow, But if it's if next year under
new rules, you can't make it work. Relative to Leclear,
(16:09):
there are going to be some really serious evaluations or
reevaluations about this whole latter phase of his career. Ferrari
switch of course chief among them. But only five races
in like you say, nineteen rounds to go, nineteen rounds
to go, nineteen five sprints, plenty of time for him
to bounce back. Matt. Let's look now at move of
(16:30):
the week brought to you by Shannon's only Moto GP
over the course of the weekend in her at the
return to Europe, the return to regular timing. Very excited
about that. A couple of standout moves. I think I'll
let you kick us off.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I am going to go with something that we haven't
seen for a really long time because I so enjoyed
seeing this guy back up to the front again. I'm
going for a lap one term one of the sprint
race at Hareth where Pole sit at Fabio Quaturra. I'll
say that again, Poles at Fabio Coutura after one of
the best Motor GP qualifying laps I have seen for
a very very long time. Was absolutely mesmerizing. What he
(17:07):
did on Saturday, got beaten off the start by Mark
Marquez into term one and center pass on Marquees. That's
the sort of pass that you send where you're thinking
it might be a while until I'm back on the
front row or at least on Pole again. Completely clean,
completely decisive, completely caught Marquez out. He said afterwards, I
thought that was done and was pretty stunned to see
(17:28):
Quatro come through. It was a brilliant weekend for him,
generally obviously finishing on the podium in the Grand Prix,
but I think of all the good things he did
that weekend, that was the standout one because it's like,
I'm not fighting for a championship here, this is my moment.
I've done something pretty amazing, and by the way, here's
how good I can be when I'm in a position
to do something. So it was for nostalgic reasons it
(17:50):
was really really nice to see. But in terms of
clean and clinical and opportunities, that was the absolute move
of that herth weekend for me. But it sounds like
by your intro that you might have another one stashed
up for me.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Well, nothing as a dramatic as that, because you're right.
It was one of those great lap one moments. Was
not where everyone had to try and put their cards
down at once and suddenly had a higher card than
Mark obviously was expecting, and it was great to see
him at the front again. But for me this was
more about the outcome, which was Alex Marquerz moving on.
This is the Yuni and yer I guess taking first
place off Guadrares. It ended up being after Mark christ
(18:22):
out of the race. It was a pretty clinical move.
It was nothing too exciting. It was into the first corner,
but he had to get it done because Fabia was
in such a successful mood this weekend, let's say. But
I liked that when Mark went down this race was
up for grabs, and it could have been up for grabs.
I guess between three different riders, between Alex and Fabia
and maybe even Peco Banyaya, considering that he is in
(18:43):
the championship contention on the same bike as Mark Markerez,
but only one of them really stepped up and said
it is going to be my race, and it was
Alex And it's actually so I had to think back
and he had won a sprint. We're talking about this beforehand,
but it almost surprised me. This was his first victory
and this is him taking the lead of the championship
as well, maybe because he's had such a would start
to the year. Generally it felt like it had to
have already happened. But him to win his first Grand Prix,
(19:05):
I just thought that that move very straightforward, but a
great outcome for him, an important one potentially in the
context of the championship.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah, I think for him it's interesting, like when you've
been the nearly man for so long, I mean, you
forget He's a Murder three and Motor two world champion.
He's a very very accomplished writer. He just happens to
have one of the greatest hit history living in the
same house as him growing up. Of all the things
you have to deal with. But this was the first
time you felt that. All Right, Mark's crashed out, he's
back in the pack. This is the best opportunity he's
(19:33):
ever going to have when you've never done it before
and you've been a murder GP for as long as
he has when that moment arrives. Is the writer going
to be ready for it? That's always a question for me.
And Quatro is not a guy who generally makes mistakes.
He's incredibly difficult to pass, and we know Herretha's a
pretty tough track to pass at the best of times,
even if you're on it to catty like Alex was
(19:54):
so spotted his chance, took it and then completely cleared
off and won that race in a matter befitting a
guy who'd won eleven Grand Prix. Not one outstanding performance.
Don't think it'll be the last this season, but yeah,
don't mind that selection by you at all.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Let's we've got now back to matters in Formula one,
Matt because the other one of the other little interesting
stories of this little break between the opening five rounds
and the Miami Grand Prix, which is this weekend, comes
from the race, which is reported that Christian Horner and
George Russell have been having some off the record chat,
some little communications. Not sure if Whatsapple was involved or
(20:30):
not about twenty twenty six availability. So this is the
driver market certainly firing up early. The background context of this,
of course is Max with Stafford, who we've been talking
about pretty much since last year, since it was clear
that the wheels were beginning to wobble on the Red
Bull car, that he could perhaps trigger an early exit
before the end of his contract, which currently is due
(20:52):
to expire in twenty twenty eight. A little bit of
security perhaps from Christian Horner for his team by talking
to another front running driver, should Max for staff and quit.
Also interesting in that report was the idea that well
Max's exit clause could be triggered by the middle of
the year, and I think too unusual about that, but
the claim that it could require him only to be
outside the top two in the Driver's Championship. I'd suggest
(21:13):
that if Red will sign that contract, probably need to
get some new lawyers involved. But it certainly sets us
up for a pretty interesting silly season to perhaps climax
a little bit earlier than those sort of late September
October months.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Not gonna be as silly as last year. Mostly this
won't be. But look, I think it's from a red
bull point of view, it is smart because if you
just take the question of, well, if Max for Stapfan's
not going to be in your car for next season
for whatever reason, breaking a clause or retiring or doing
whatever he's going to do, you look at the rest
of the grid and say, who would you want in
(21:47):
that team that you might be able to get your
hands on. Now, the correct answer to this question last
year was Carlos Science, which you know you and I
have discussed at infinitum, But who is the next guy
that you would want? And it seems to be a
very sensible discussion to open. You do wonder how much
of this is a bit of Horner Toto Wolf destabilization,
(22:11):
getting the Netflix bloome mic in there and let's discuss
that line and get a whole episode out of for
the next series of Drivers of Vibor. You wonder if
there's a little bit of that going on there as well.
But in terms of who you would target to take
over that seat, it's a sensible name to throw into
the mix. The question that i'd have and for George
if he was on this podcast, which is not. But
I'll ask you instead, is that an advance that you
(22:34):
absolutely want right now? Going into a rule set for
next year where Red bulls a new engine partner. We
know what happened to the last time Formula One had a
big engine change, but Sodas did rather well out of
that back in twenty fourteen, so you have to wonder
how much that factors into the equation. And given what's
gone on so publicly with Red Bull over the past
couple of years, with oh, look there's another driver in
(22:56):
red Bull overalls that seems to be every two or
three races quite chaotic. Would you want to go to
Red Bull Racing? And of all the drivers that would
go to Red Bull Racing other than just putting Fernando
a lot So in there because he's the master of
being in the right place at the wrong time. If
you're George Russell, would you like to go there? Because
I don't see right now how that's a better option
(23:17):
than where it is your thoughts.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
I think that's such a great question because it was
only about twelve months ago. I guess when we were
first talking about the idea that Max with Stafford might
be leaving Red Bull more for political reasons than anything
else in fact, and he was linked to Mercedes largely
because Toto Wolf has made it no secret of the
fact he'd love to see him in a Mercedes. And
then it took a little while, but the question was asked, well,
hang on, Mercedes had a dreadful a couple of years
(23:39):
under these rules, and redneral Racing the previous season won
every race but one, Why on earth would he go
to Mercedes? And it's just interesting how quickly that equation
is flipping. I'm not sure it's one hundred percent flipped yet,
because maybe you could argue Red Bull and Mercedes right
now are in quite a similar place competitively, but you're right,
the applook is certainly in mercedes favor. And there are
a couple always to break down why these conversations might
(24:02):
be happening, other than it just being prudent to avail
yourself of all the options. And one is of course,
that Maxwithstappen leaves two Mercedes, in which case one of
the drive is going to be displaced, and it's almost
certainly not going to be Andrea Kimi Antonelli, considering how
well hyped he is and how solid a start he's
had to his career, it's probably going to be George Russell,
in which case you get a straight swap scenario. Everyone's
(24:24):
kinder happy, relatively happy. But what's really interesting to me
is that if Max were to quit and he would
go to Aston Martin, because there's some momentum there, maybe
not behind the car at the moment, but behind the team.
Obviously a lot of money being spent their brand new
facilities and putting a new wind tunnel, and most of all,
Adrian Newey, the former chief technic officer of Red Bull Racing,
(24:46):
is now designing next year's car, as well as the
Hondomotor tie up, which is obviously one that maxwith Stapfen
has worked pretty well. There seems to be maybe at
least as many reasons to go there next year as Mercedes,
even if right now that team is not proving that
it's capable of being at the front. But if that's
the case, then that question absolutely comes into play, doesn't it,
(25:07):
Because suddenly it's Red Bull Racing in need of a driver,
trying to convince other drivers to come into the team,
and if I were George Russell, I would be saying no,
because what reason is there other than a ludicrous paycheck,
which Total Wolf could probably match, because if he's got
no one else he doesn't want to lose. George Russell
I could actually see by the end of this year
or by the mid season break whenever these moves might
(25:29):
be made that rather than as Mercedes was last year
scrambling to replace Lewis Hamilton, even if Total Wolf insists
it took only five minutes to decidden his replacement. And
it's Red Bull Racing again going oh, well, who's gonna
go in this car? Now?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Well, what you're actually saying, if you read between the
lines here, is that Maxis Stappen will go to Aston
Martin and then Lance Stroll end up at Red Bull Racing.
And given that the Red Bull Racing car this year
is basically a Q one car in anyone's hands other
than Verstappen, then Lance Stroll will be out in Q
one and the world keeps turning because that's what happen
with Lance Stroll, as we know based on our previous podcast.
(26:02):
But isn't it interesting you just said they're tried to
convince someone to go to Red Bull Racing eighteen months
after they were winning every race but one in the season.
And here we are where you've got to a position
where the when the greatest asset in a team of
that size, with that much compedigree and that much money
(26:23):
to behind it is one driver. It shows you how very,
very tenuous this is. And so you go back a
previous era where they also had a four time world
champion in the car at a particular time named Sebastian Vattal.
The reason that Vattle leaving after twenty fourteen to go
to Ferrari wasn't as big of a blow as it
was because they had Daniel Riccardo there and he was ascendant,
(26:45):
and it was twenty fourteen, and he's winning races and
he's happy to be there, and he's the only guy
winning races that's not driving Mercedes that year. The thought
of Sebastian Vettle not being in a Red Bull for
twenty fifteen was unthinkable at the end of twenty thirteen.
So things can escalate super super quickly here. The curious
part about it for me is Vastapan's never been the
(27:07):
sort of guy to me that's going to hang around
in Formula one on the Great Kimmy Rerchen and superannuation
to it. He's going to be a guy who gets in,
does he's winning, doesn't necessarily care where he sits in
the pantheon, a great World champions, wins a lot of stuff,
and then goes off and does things with the rest
of his life because he doesn't need the rest of
what Formula one he is. It's really curious whether would
(27:27):
he want to leave and try and win somewhere else
to almost I'm sure you have the belief that he
could do that, But is that the sort of thing
that motivates him enough to want to go and tie
get tied in with as you said, Adrian Nuey and
Honda in a different address and try to win there.
Or is he just going to be the sort of
guy because I'm twenty nine years old, that's all fine,
You'll never see me in the paddock again. Sort of
(27:49):
a guy. So it's different, you know, you look at
the different personalities in this case. Sebastian Vatta was a
guy who was always in love with F one and
the things that are around it and hung around probably
a little bit too long in the but you couldn't
begrudge him that because of the success that he had,
and he turned into this statesman like spokesperson for the sport,
and I think left the sport in a better place
than when he arrived. He's a different cat to for Stappan.
(28:10):
And so you do wonder if the Stappens next movie
is sideways or out where. I don't think that was
ever a question for Veattle in that time when he
was a four time world champion at red Bull Racing
a decade ago.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yeah, even the prospect of a sabbatical has been raised,
perhaps with no great impetus, let's say, behind it, but
it has been raised. And my first instinct was people
love just to say sabbati. It was in the Mika
Hacken and took a quote marks sabbatical.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
He's still on his, isn't he?
Speaker 1 (28:39):
He's still on Equally, maybe he'll replace him at Red Bull.
I believe he had a Red Bull time at some point,
but you know that loves to be raised. But then
I think you know exactly as you outlined, but Stappan's
motivation is wildly different to what you might expect for
a young four time world champion. He doesn't really not
really made in the same mold as as Sebastian being
a great analogy there, and has a kid on the
(29:02):
way this year, which is something that sort of struck
me earlier. Maybe he does want some time off, you know,
maybe he can he does. He obviously obviously has the
Cachet's a four time world champion, presumably won't add to
that this year. But I guess you never know four
time world champion to take a year off, suss out
who's going to do well under the next regulations next year,
and then just force his back into wherever it is.
(29:25):
I just couldn't totally discount that. I mean, stranger things
have happened in Forbid one.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Well, because he's so sort of direct and everything. There's
not much sort of you know, fluff around in the
periphery with Max. He's the sort of guy that could
absolutely do that, sit out for a year and then
just pick the phone up. Every team principle is answering
that court. It's like, I've seen what you're doing. It's
going really well. There's potential for upside, how about it? Yeah,
that would be a that'd be a contract that would
be signed in five minutes. We all know that, yes,
(29:51):
and so he's still young enough to do that. He
has the power and the pedigree to do something like that,
and probably the belief too. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
And a lot of contracts are up next year. They're
not this year. A lot of them are up at
the end of twenty six, precisely for that reason, because
drivers want to keep their options open under those new rules.
Maybe his option is just to come back into the sport.
It would be a fascinating twist on a story of
all assumed would end at one of two teams. Perhaps
it ends at none of those two teams. And it's
still Red Bull Racing looking for yet again a driver
(30:20):
to fill one of its cars. Apps trying to argue
the point mat. Before we wrap up, let's look at
the crystal ball, brought to you by Complete Home Filtration.
He said. Nineteen f one grand free still to go,
Plenty of Moto GP rounds, lots of supercars rounds, a
lot of motorsports still to go. It is only the
end of a start of back. What are you predicting
in your crystal ball this week?
Speaker 2 (30:41):
I did tease this with you before we got on.
I've gone deep in the deep in the archives here,
but of f on trivia for you, I've given the
crystal ball a good polish for this week's episode. My
crystal ball is telling me that Oscar Piastre is going
to become the first Australian to win three consecutive Grand
Prix since and I'll let you finish this, since when and.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Who three consecutive Grand Prix. Now I know that Alan
Jones won two consecutively because I think I've brought that
stat a couple of weeks ago in nineteen eighty. It
couldn't well, I'm going to just guess that it must
be Alan Jones.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
I'll put you out of your misery here. So Alan
Jones in nineteen seventy nine and one in Germany, Austria
and the Netherlands. So that was the last time it happened.
Mark Webber won two in a row once, Daniel Rocado
won to in a row. Also once. Jones won two
or more races in a row three times. I did
it in nineteen eighty, had two doubles in nineteen eighty
(31:40):
and he also won if you go the first race
in nineteen eighty one. He actually won the last two
of eighty in the first race of eighty one. But
that'd be a good stat for you if it's twenty one,
forty six years since an Australia won three Grand Prix
in a row. If you're wondering what the record is,
and I know you are because you like these sorts
of things. Sir Jack Brabham won five Grand Prix in
a row in nineteen sixty, including one at a circuit
(32:02):
that I didn't know existed in Portugal, so that was
a little bit of a deep a little bit of
a deep dive in forex for you. But yeah, my
crystal ball's telling me that we're going to have the
first time in Australian wins three consecutive Grand Prix in
forty six years this weekend.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
I like it a lot, you know. I love a
good stat and you've found some very good ones there
and made my prediction look totally under as a result.
But I'm a big fan.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
I did probably spend at least five more minutes on
mine than.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
You have, so I like it. I'm all for it.
I'm raising the game. My prediction is very in a
very similar way. I haven't predicted specifically the outcome. I
suspect part of the prediction is to predict Thedoscopyastri. Yes,
we'll win this weekend, but that's only because my prediction
is there will be a record low number of references
to the safety car that helped Lando Norris win last year,
(32:48):
because I think the story this week it's all going
to be about our Lando going back to Miami where
he won his first Grand Prix. No asterisk required one
that totally because he led it the whole time. Don't
remember started from pol who could possibly rememberho started from
pole last year and he won it totally on THERI.
He did have a very good race. The McLaren car
was fast in the second half of that race, but
(33:08):
we should not forget that it was Oscar Piastri was
the fast McLaren driver. Had he pitted only one lap later,
he would have won that Grand Prix.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
And isn't it so funny? Like at the time I
remember that because it was a Monday morning, obviously we
were kicking ourselves, going, oh man, that's a first Grand
Prix win. That's just gone completely begging through no fault
of his own. It's different if you don't achieve that
Grand Prix win because you've made a mistake. This was
one of those just complete confluence of circumstance and when
you hadn't won one before us Oh, man, is this
(33:37):
guy going to win one? Because at the first half
of last year you didn't necessarily think that was going
to happen. But isn't it funny how Miami last year
was like, Oh, this McLaren team's turned up, haven't they?
And then do you look what happened for the rest
of the year. That was the thirty point of last year.
But hopefully twelve months on Oscar gets what perhaps he
should have got this time last year.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
I think that should be the story this weekend. We'll
wait and see if it is. But that's all the
time we have for Pittalk today. You can subscribe to
Pittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you can
leave us a rating and review as well. This weekend
is the Miami Formula One Grand Prix at six am
Monday Australian Eastern Standard time, and you can keep up
to date with all the latest F one news as
well as Supercars ad Werdo TP news at Foxsports dot
(34:18):
com dot Au from Matt Clayton and me Michael Lomonado
thanks very much for your company. We'll catch you next week.
Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
On today's episode, Lewis Hamilton sees no reason for optimism
all this season after his dire start to life as
a Ferrari driver and silly. Season starts early with Christian
Horner and George Russell reportedly exploring each other's availability for
twenty twenty six. My name is Michael Lomonado. It's great
(00:25):
to have your company and the company of my co host.
He knows the difference between Miami and Miami Gardens. It's
Matt Clayton.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Is there a difference, Michael, I guess this is the question.
But race around your favorite stadium car park as I
like to call it, the Miami Grand Prix. But yes,
it's time for fake marinas and all sorts of other nonsense.
But a six am race star on a Monday morning.
For Australians, breakfast Formula one is an underrated thing.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I would say I'm a big fan of the breakfast
Grand Prix concept. You put your coffee on, you have
your toast or breakfast or choice perhaps of porridge, something
like that. With the Americans, maybe bacon and eggs if
you American or pancakes.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, a stack of about fourteen of them.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Ye, that'll go down easy. You'll be good and sorted
for the six am start to get excited about that.
Not too bad at all. Certainly we've had worse. But
let's look at the a little bit of a retrospective
and prospective this weekend, because Lewis, Hamilton and Ferrari has
certainly been one of the major talking points of the
(01:23):
opening five Grand Prix of the season, at first for
positive reasons, not only of course, because he's one of
the biggest driving moves of a generation. But he did
okay in Australia, and then of course one sensationally the
sprint in China, just the second round of the season,
and suddenly we all thought, well, here we go, it's
all clicking into place. Since then, however, it's been a
story of woe, culminating with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix,
(01:44):
where he was effectively last in class, last among the
front runners, had nothing of the pace of teammates char
La Clair, who finished on a podium for the first
time this season and ended the weekend by saying no
reason to think anything will get better for him this Yeah,
now Lewis Hamilton map is good. Of course, I always
say he tends towards pessivism when things are not going
(02:05):
his way. So perhaps we shouldn't read that absolutely literally.
But there's been no doubt that this has been more
down than up so far in twenty twenty five. What's
a bird's eye view of how this has been going
so far?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
It's funny, is it's the most British thing that Lewis
Hamilton does these days. I always think if you ask
a British person how they are, they say not bad
when they mean good. They always ask, they always answer
with their negative when they trying to be positive. But
I would like to point our listeners towards an excellent
story with the title f on that lessons Learned so
Far on Fox Sports dot com dot A You've written
by a black called Michael Lamonato. The first word of
(02:39):
the Lewis Hamilton section is grim and it's a bit
of a favorite word for you and I discussing many things,
not just Lewis Hamilton. But it's so interesting, isn't it.
How Look, we know the glass tends to skew more
towards more. It's being half empty when Lewis is in
these situations. I mean, it happened at McLaren we're talking,
you know, a decade and a half ago. Now it
happened a very very long time ago. But it's interesting
(03:01):
how you know it's China was round two, won the
first sprint. Everything's happy days now we know. He was
disqualified from the Grand Prix the next day, as was
Charlote Cliff for completely different reasons, one of one of
the Ferrari Bingo car for if I'm playing at home.
But since then it's just been not only has it
been poor, there's a degree of it being comparatively helpless
(03:25):
and hopeless. At the same time, there doesn't seem to
be an answer. He's lost France's the team is trying
very very hard to say the r. I think you're
probably thinking they're wondering what's actually happening here, And I
think it's probably a conflation of two things that yes,
there's a bit of old dog nutrix going on here,
because obviously Lewis is in his forties and it's I
(03:46):
think it's much harder for a driver to make a
big move and perhaps change the way they operate driving
style and what have you the older they get into
their career. Filed under Riccardo Comment, Daniel, We've discussed this
story at infinitum, but I think there's two things happening here.
It's a problematic car that he's finding it very hard
to get his head around. I also think it probably
under sells a little bit just what Charlotte Clair is
(04:07):
doing because I don't think that that car is particularly good.
I think Leclare is doing pretty amazing things in a
car that's not particularly good. But I don't know from
your perspective, But the Hamilton thing, it's all gone very
very south, very very quickly. And from your perspective, is
that a dose of reality for him? Or is he
trying to perhaps temper expectations for the rest of the
(04:28):
season if they can't find a way out of this.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah, I think there's definitely a degree of the latter.
I think, like we were already saying, that tends to
be Hamilton's way, even when he seems like he's on
the cusp of some decent results or has had some
okay weekends, He just does tend towards even personal expectation
management or the psychology of Hamilton, something that is maybe
a little bit lesser explored, just because he's had so
much success in the last decade. It's not really something
(04:52):
you have to think too much about. But I don't.
I've always had the sense he doesn't mind being in
a corner a little bit, you know. I think back
to the end of his title losing season in twenty sixteen,
where you had to feel like even the team was
against him. At one point suggested that maybe he was
getting unequal machinery. Did that actually a little bit of
Mercedes last year as well, when he was on the
receiving end of a pretty decent qualifying beating from George Russell,
(05:14):
And then sometimes that makes him lift. So I think
there's a degree of that. I think it's also making
us assess and there is a there is I guess
a little bit of a Daniel Ricardo parallel here that
these ground effect rules haven't suited everyone. And the further
along the line we've got in this regulatory era, and
every team's talked about how it's so hard to add
performance to these cars without making them harder to drive.
(05:36):
The further along we've got, the harder they are to drive,
the more difficult it must be to switch teams. We've
seen other drivers struggle, admittedly not to this extent. Your
Carlos Signs did take quite a few races to get there.
I say quite a few. He still got there by
the end of the five race run, but clearly was difficult.
And then there is that element, and you sort of
mentioned old dog new tricks. There's definitely a learning curve
and that speaks to some of that. But the question
(05:58):
that we can't answer yet, and I think we probably
won't be able to say definitively until next year because
if we assume the ground effect rules are part of it, well,
they're not changing this year. I think that's part of
the pessimism. But is it just that he's left it
too late in his career to learn not an entirely
new team, but a new car concept, a new way
of working. You talk quite a lot in Melbourne, didn't
it the season opening Australian Grand Prix, about how him
(06:20):
and the telemetry is upside down at Ferrari compared to
the way it is at the same It's just one
example of the different way of working. So all of
those things that are combining to what's being a pretty
ordinary result. I think it's qualifying for me though, that
it really sums up the difficulty because and this is
going to be one of the interesting battles, wasn't it.
Arguably the quickest driver informing on today, char Leclair has
so many more poles than he does wins and they're
(06:42):
not all his faults. That's Ferrari's fault, and I think
that actually underlines how quick Ye is. Rather than the
opposite up against the most prolific pole getter of all time,
Lewis Hamilton, the guys, he's got more poles than anyone else.
The qualifying difference between them on average this season is
just under three tenths of a second zero point two eight.
But if you look at the last three rounds after
that disqualification in China, where it seems like Ferrari's had
(07:03):
to rethink the way it's setting up its car, it's
almost half a second. It's four four seven zero point
four four seven seconds. That's in Formula one. That's enormous
and to the point of where I think it's very
early to be saying any of this. But if you
are at Ferrara and you alluded to the same, surely
there are maybe not an alarm bell ringing, maybe the
blue light before the red light starts going off on
(07:24):
the roof.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
But this is I mean that sort of difference between teammates.
That's the thing that gets teams paying drivers out a
year early to leave their contract again. File under McLaren
and Daniel Ricardo because that was what was going on there.
But you mentioned something really interesting before, where the more
mature this rule set has become, there's a law of
diminishing returns with these things. You're looking for such marginal
(07:46):
gains through a tiny, tiny aperture. Everyone knows that these
rules are going in the bin basically at the end
of this season, and that will provide the definitive answer
as to has Lewis's career gone on the other side
of the hill it is going down or is this
just a byproduct of the machinery and the rule set
that he's been given to work with. We're not going
(08:06):
to have an answer to that until twenty twenty six.
We still have seventeen more round nineteen more rounds to
go kind of account ahead of Yeah, he is hoping
nineteen more rounds, by the way, was considerably longer than
the actual length of the entire season when Lewis deputed
back in two thousand and seven. So if this is
(08:27):
going to be his lot, this is going to be
a really difficult time for both him and the team because,
let's be honest, Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton, you know, the
biggest most popular brand on the team, on the grid
with seven time world champion who's a legend in his sport.
You marry those two things together. It's an amazing story
for the sport and the fact that Australia got to
(08:49):
see the first laps of that marriage in anger was fantastic.
I love the fact that we got to have that
slice of history. There's a lot of pressure on everybody
involved here for the sport, for Ferrah, for Hamilton. This
needs to work as a narrative, particularly if we're going
to go into the final season of a rule set.
We've talked about this on previous podcasts, where one of
(09:09):
two things tends to happen. You end up with this
really fraught championship fight between two teams at different stages,
like in twenty twenty one, but more usually you end
up with a team that gets it very over a
right and everyone starts to switch the tap off for
next year. So if we do have what looks to
be an intra team McLaren fight with occasional cameos from
Maxiwstapp and the rest of the way, the Hamilton Ferrari
(09:30):
story is perhaps not a story for winning races, but
it's something else to watch that's very, very high profile
behind what might be battles for victories. If this doesn't work, Yes,
we know there's an end date to this particular rule set,
and perhaps that's the what solves these problems for both parties.
But now nineteen more rounds of this and it's escalated
(09:53):
so quickly. It was three rounds ago that it was
all fantastic and he was winning a sprint, and you
mentioned that qualifying deficit. Since that it's not that's not
tenable as a storyline even at that for the remaining
nineteen rounds, the littlone if it gets worse, and there's going
to have to be a hell of a lot of
patients from both parties here to try and engineer their
way out of something. For a team where if you're Ferrari,
(10:18):
you're not winning this year's championship. You're not winning the drivers,
you're not winning the constructors, they will certainly be having
much more of an eye on twenty six before too long.
So how does that play into the equation when you've
got such a high profile signe to the team who's
really struggling relative to the guy that he's racing against.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
It's not really a scenario that I think too many
people countenance. For a couple of reasons, there was always
a risk right that he was going to go to
Charlotte Clair's team. LaClair's so embedded there, knows it inside out,
has a habit of being able to get the most
out of it when the cars just in its sweet spot,
and we're starting to see that now. Actually, in fact,
I think he's getting performance out of this despite it
(10:54):
perhaps not being in sweet spot. He's now at the
level where he's able to force it into that zone
when the cart doesn't even want to be in there,
which I think is part of the problem. But I
just or I certainly I didn't think, and maybe it
was a naive of me that the only outcomes are
really going to be Lewis Hamilton's going to go there
get the second win. He may yet next year and
either match or beat Leclaire, or alternatively, it would be
(11:14):
like almost a passing of a baton sort of scenario
where Okay, Laclaiir would have the upper hand for most
of the time, but Hamilton would would play a great
team game, He'd win some races for Ferrari, he ticked
the box. Maybe there was no championship involved, whatever, but
it would at least be somewhat satisfying end to his story.
Lewis Hamilton bowing out and again, look we're five races in,
(11:36):
but this does illustrate how confounding this performance gap has been.
But the idea of him going to Ferrari, getting belted
for two years and then bowing out just doesn't really compute.
I'd hate to see it. It is not me speaking
from any biased perspective, but a legend of the sport
going out that way, even existing in that way, I
(11:58):
just think doesn't really work. So you really see what
happens here. But I think there is a to draw,
perhaps another not quite parallel, but an example here. I
think part of the element is that it's difficult to
drive Ferrari car, as you mentioned earlier on because this
isn't the step forward the team thought they were going
to have from last year in the car was relatively
easy to drive, was probably the fastest car. In fact,
(12:19):
by the end of the year, it hasn't worked so far,
and we did learn last few things can change pretty quickly,
so who knows. By the end of the year, maybe
some of these problems are solved. But Chal knows how
to set up this car. He's figured out rather how
to set up this car in spite of itself, essentially
to put it mechanically in a position where he can
get some performance out of it. It's difficult, but he's
managing it. And by performance I mean just scraping in
(12:39):
for third in Saudi Arabia. It's the other part of
this is that Ferrari generally is underperforming, so it's not
all necessarily on Hamilton Lewis just doesn't have those tools,
and I'm sort of reminded, maybe most viscerally, but this
happens from time to time. When Max forstaff and joined
Red Bull Racing in twenty sixty, he was beaten, of
course in qualifying immediately by Daniel Riccardo had been there
for so long, but his response afterwards was I just
(13:01):
didn't know how to make this car better in the
way Daniel couldney. He looked afterwards the way Ricardo had
changed front wing levels or whatever, and he said, Oh,
if I knew that, it would have been obvious. Lewis
doesn't have any of those tools at the moment, and
he's in a car that just isn't working, so there's
probably reason to be more optimistic than he is. But nonetheless,
that gap is enormous. I think that's the thing. It's
really going to need team and driver to close. It
(13:22):
needs a car to get better before Lewis can probably
be thinking about himself improving.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, I mean a couple of thoughts here. I think
Leclaire is so accustomed to bending a Ferrari against its
will or exceeding its performance curve because he's basically done
at the entire time he's been there. And I think
this is a weird thing to say for a guy
who's won Grand parin is one of the best qualifiers
we've ever seen. I still think he's a little bit underrated,
(13:49):
which is a silly things. I think he's an absolutely
spectacularly good driver who's never really been in a position
to win the big prize at someone of his talent
probably deserves, but on a wider level, and we were
to talking about previous Mercedes Championship fights personally for me
that run into the end of twenty twenty one, when
Lewis had his back absolutely against the wall in the
(14:11):
final year of that rule set, that changed how I
felt about him as a driver, because I thought what
he did in those final five races of that year
was absolutely spectacular. I thought that was the best Lewis
Hamilton we've ever seen because everything had to go right,
but he had to make it go right, and Valorie
Bosj has kind of checked out at that point. He
was fighting, fighting a bit of a lone hand. He
(14:33):
was unbelievably good and I think it was an end
of season performance that probably deserved a World championship. And
then Abu Dhabi and you and I sending each other
sighing text messages at three am or whatever it was.
But there was a little part of me after that
that kind of felt like the old Lewis. It was
like the death of the old Lewis in a lot
of respects. I don't think he's quite had that sustained
(14:54):
level of just not commitment, but the hunger, and there's
a bit of weariness that's crept in over the last
couple of years, and that when you've had as much
much success as he's had, you don't get out of
bed to finish fourth. You don't get out of bed
to finish fifth. He hasn't been in that mindset since
because of what happened in twenty one, and to my mind,
when he moved to Ferrari, this was for me. It's like,
(15:15):
all right, he needed maybe a change of scenery to
get out of where he'd been for so long, to
sort of kick that old Lewis back into gear again.
And so far, at least, it's all been a little
bit too difficult. And you know, I'm not prepared to
rule a line through a guy with us who's had
the success that he's had and as talented as he is.
But the more time ticks by, both this season and
(15:35):
in terms of the calendar, because he's going to be
a forty one year old next year, you do wonder
if it's going to be there any more than intermittently.
And that's not what he went to Ferrari for, and
that's certainly not for what Ferrari paying for.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah, it's a lot of the questions that we're trying
to be asked last year, but he was using the
Mercedes car to keep a decent gap to them that
under pulling Mercedes car, they now at the door, aren't they?
And you can only probably hold them at the door
for a few more months, I think, till next season.
Surely he'll get the benefit of that. Even this season
gets worse somehow, But if it's if next year under
new rules, you can't make it work. Relative to Leclear,
(16:09):
there are going to be some really serious evaluations or
reevaluations about this whole latter phase of his career. Ferrari
switch of course chief among them. But only five races
in like you say, nineteen rounds to go, nineteen rounds
to go, nineteen five sprints, plenty of time for him
to bounce back. Matt. Let's look now at move of
(16:30):
the week brought to you by Shannon's only Moto GP
over the course of the weekend in her at the
return to Europe, the return to regular timing. Very excited
about that. A couple of standout moves. I think I'll
let you kick us off.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I am going to go with something that we haven't
seen for a really long time because I so enjoyed
seeing this guy back up to the front again. I'm
going for a lap one term one of the sprint
race at Hareth where Pole sit at Fabio Quaturra. I'll
say that again, Poles at Fabio Coutura after one of
the best Motor GP qualifying laps I have seen for
a very very long time. Was absolutely mesmerizing. What he
(17:07):
did on Saturday, got beaten off the start by Mark
Marquez into term one and center pass on Marquees. That's
the sort of pass that you send where you're thinking
it might be a while until I'm back on the
front row or at least on Pole again. Completely clean,
completely decisive, completely caught Marquez out. He said afterwards, I
thought that was done and was pretty stunned to see
(17:28):
Quatro come through. It was a brilliant weekend for him,
generally obviously finishing on the podium in the Grand Prix,
but I think of all the good things he did
that weekend, that was the standout one because it's like,
I'm not fighting for a championship here, this is my moment.
I've done something pretty amazing, and by the way, here's
how good I can be when I'm in a position
to do something. So it was for nostalgic reasons it
(17:50):
was really really nice to see. But in terms of
clean and clinical and opportunities, that was the absolute move
of that herth weekend for me. But it sounds like
by your intro that you might have another one stashed
up for me.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Well, nothing as a dramatic as that, because you're right.
It was one of those great lap one moments. Was
not where everyone had to try and put their cards
down at once and suddenly had a higher card than
Mark obviously was expecting, and it was great to see
him at the front again. But for me this was
more about the outcome, which was Alex Marquerz moving on.
This is the Yuni and yer I guess taking first
place off Guadrares. It ended up being after Mark christ
(18:22):
out of the race. It was a pretty clinical move.
It was nothing too exciting. It was into the first corner,
but he had to get it done because Fabia was
in such a successful mood this weekend, let's say. But
I liked that when Mark went down this race was
up for grabs, and it could have been up for grabs.
I guess between three different riders, between Alex and Fabia
and maybe even Peco Banyaya, considering that he is in
(18:43):
the championship contention on the same bike as Mark Markerez,
but only one of them really stepped up and said
it is going to be my race, and it was
Alex And it's actually so I had to think back
and he had won a sprint. We're talking about this beforehand,
but it almost surprised me. This was his first victory
and this is him taking the lead of the championship
as well, maybe because he's had such a would start
to the year. Generally it felt like it had to
have already happened. But him to win his first Grand Prix,
(19:05):
I just thought that that move very straightforward, but a
great outcome for him, an important one potentially in the
context of the championship.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah, I think for him it's interesting, like when you've
been the nearly man for so long, I mean, you
forget He's a Murder three and Motor two world champion.
He's a very very accomplished writer. He just happens to
have one of the greatest hit history living in the
same house as him growing up. Of all the things
you have to deal with. But this was the first
time you felt that. All Right, Mark's crashed out, he's
back in the pack. This is the best opportunity he's
(19:33):
ever going to have when you've never done it before
and you've been a murder GP for as long as
he has when that moment arrives. Is the writer going
to be ready for it? That's always a question for me.
And Quatro is not a guy who generally makes mistakes.
He's incredibly difficult to pass, and we know Herretha's a
pretty tough track to pass at the best of times,
even if you're on it to catty like Alex was
(19:54):
so spotted his chance, took it and then completely cleared
off and won that race in a matter befitting a
guy who'd won eleven Grand Prix. Not one outstanding performance.
Don't think it'll be the last this season, but yeah,
don't mind that selection by you at all.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Let's we've got now back to matters in Formula one,
Matt because the other one of the other little interesting
stories of this little break between the opening five rounds
and the Miami Grand Prix, which is this weekend, comes
from the race, which is reported that Christian Horner and
George Russell have been having some off the record chat,
some little communications. Not sure if Whatsapple was involved or
(20:30):
not about twenty twenty six availability. So this is the
driver market certainly firing up early. The background context of this,
of course is Max with Stafford, who we've been talking
about pretty much since last year, since it was clear
that the wheels were beginning to wobble on the Red
Bull car, that he could perhaps trigger an early exit
before the end of his contract, which currently is due
(20:52):
to expire in twenty twenty eight. A little bit of
security perhaps from Christian Horner for his team by talking
to another front running driver, should Max for staff and quit.
Also interesting in that report was the idea that well
Max's exit clause could be triggered by the middle of
the year, and I think too unusual about that, but
the claim that it could require him only to be
outside the top two in the Driver's Championship. I'd suggest
(21:13):
that if Red will sign that contract, probably need to
get some new lawyers involved. But it certainly sets us
up for a pretty interesting silly season to perhaps climax
a little bit earlier than those sort of late September
October months.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Not gonna be as silly as last year. Mostly this
won't be. But look, I think it's from a red
bull point of view, it is smart because if you
just take the question of, well, if Max for Stapfan's
not going to be in your car for next season
for whatever reason, breaking a clause or retiring or doing
whatever he's going to do, you look at the rest
of the grid and say, who would you want in
(21:47):
that team that you might be able to get your
hands on. Now, the correct answer to this question last
year was Carlos Science, which you know you and I
have discussed at infinitum, But who is the next guy
that you would want? And it seems to be a
very sensible discussion to open. You do wonder how much
of this is a bit of Horner Toto Wolf destabilization,
(22:11):
getting the Netflix bloome mic in there and let's discuss
that line and get a whole episode out of for
the next series of Drivers of Vibor. You wonder if
there's a little bit of that going on there as well.
But in terms of who you would target to take
over that seat, it's a sensible name to throw into
the mix. The question that i'd have and for George
if he was on this podcast, which is not. But
I'll ask you instead, is that an advance that you
(22:34):
absolutely want right now? Going into a rule set for
next year where Red bulls a new engine partner. We
know what happened to the last time Formula One had a
big engine change, but Sodas did rather well out of
that back in twenty fourteen, so you have to wonder
how much that factors into the equation. And given what's
gone on so publicly with Red Bull over the past
couple of years, with oh, look there's another driver in
(22:56):
red Bull overalls that seems to be every two or
three races quite chaotic. Would you want to go to
Red Bull Racing? And of all the drivers that would
go to Red Bull Racing other than just putting Fernando
a lot So in there because he's the master of
being in the right place at the wrong time. If
you're George Russell, would you like to go there? Because
I don't see right now how that's a better option
(23:17):
than where it is your thoughts.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
I think that's such a great question because it was
only about twelve months ago. I guess when we were
first talking about the idea that Max with Stafford might
be leaving Red Bull more for political reasons than anything
else in fact, and he was linked to Mercedes largely
because Toto Wolf has made it no secret of the
fact he'd love to see him in a Mercedes. And
then it took a little while, but the question was asked, well,
hang on, Mercedes had a dreadful a couple of years
(23:39):
under these rules, and redneral Racing the previous season won
every race but one, Why on earth would he go
to Mercedes? And it's just interesting how quickly that equation
is flipping. I'm not sure it's one hundred percent flipped yet,
because maybe you could argue Red Bull and Mercedes right
now are in quite a similar place competitively, but you're right,
the applook is certainly in mercedes favor. And there are
a couple always to break down why these conversations might
(24:02):
be happening, other than it just being prudent to avail
yourself of all the options. And one is of course,
that Maxwithstappen leaves two Mercedes, in which case one of
the drive is going to be displaced, and it's almost
certainly not going to be Andrea Kimi Antonelli, considering how
well hyped he is and how solid a start he's
had to his career, it's probably going to be George Russell,
in which case you get a straight swap scenario. Everyone's
(24:24):
kinder happy, relatively happy. But what's really interesting to me
is that if Max were to quit and he would
go to Aston Martin, because there's some momentum there, maybe
not behind the car at the moment, but behind the team.
Obviously a lot of money being spent their brand new
facilities and putting a new wind tunnel, and most of all,
Adrian Newey, the former chief technic officer of Red Bull Racing,
(24:46):
is now designing next year's car, as well as the
Hondomotor tie up, which is obviously one that maxwith Stapfen
has worked pretty well. There seems to be maybe at
least as many reasons to go there next year as Mercedes,
even if right now that team is not proving that
it's capable of being at the front. But if that's
the case, then that question absolutely comes into play, doesn't it,
(25:07):
Because suddenly it's Red Bull Racing in need of a driver,
trying to convince other drivers to come into the team,
and if I were George Russell, I would be saying no,
because what reason is there other than a ludicrous paycheck,
which Total Wolf could probably match, because if he's got
no one else he doesn't want to lose. George Russell
I could actually see by the end of this year
or by the mid season break whenever these moves might
(25:29):
be made that rather than as Mercedes was last year
scrambling to replace Lewis Hamilton, even if Total Wolf insists
it took only five minutes to decidden his replacement. And
it's Red Bull Racing again going oh, well, who's gonna
go in this car? Now?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Well, what you're actually saying, if you read between the
lines here, is that Maxis Stappen will go to Aston
Martin and then Lance Stroll end up at Red Bull Racing.
And given that the Red Bull Racing car this year
is basically a Q one car in anyone's hands other
than Verstappen, then Lance Stroll will be out in Q
one and the world keeps turning because that's what happen
with Lance Stroll, as we know based on our previous podcast.
(26:02):
But isn't it interesting you just said they're tried to
convince someone to go to Red Bull Racing eighteen months
after they were winning every race but one in the season.
And here we are where you've got to a position
where the when the greatest asset in a team of
that size, with that much compedigree and that much money
(26:23):
to behind it is one driver. It shows you how very,
very tenuous this is. And so you go back a
previous era where they also had a four time world
champion in the car at a particular time named Sebastian Vattal.
The reason that Vattle leaving after twenty fourteen to go
to Ferrari wasn't as big of a blow as it
was because they had Daniel Riccardo there and he was ascendant,
(26:45):
and it was twenty fourteen, and he's winning races and
he's happy to be there, and he's the only guy
winning races that's not driving Mercedes that year. The thought
of Sebastian Vettle not being in a Red Bull for
twenty fifteen was unthinkable at the end of twenty thirteen.
So things can escalate super super quickly here. The curious
part about it for me is Vastapan's never been the
(27:07):
sort of guy to me that's going to hang around
in Formula one on the Great Kimmy Rerchen and superannuation
to it. He's going to be a guy who gets in,
does he's winning, doesn't necessarily care where he sits in
the pantheon, a great World champions, wins a lot of stuff,
and then goes off and does things with the rest
of his life because he doesn't need the rest of
what Formula one he is. It's really curious whether would
(27:27):
he want to leave and try and win somewhere else
to almost I'm sure you have the belief that he
could do that, But is that the sort of thing
that motivates him enough to want to go and tie
get tied in with as you said, Adrian Nuey and
Honda in a different address and try to win there.
Or is he just going to be the sort of
guy because I'm twenty nine years old, that's all fine,
You'll never see me in the paddock again. Sort of
(27:49):
a guy. So it's different, you know, you look at
the different personalities in this case. Sebastian Vatta was a
guy who was always in love with F one and
the things that are around it and hung around probably
a little bit too long in the but you couldn't
begrudge him that because of the success that he had,
and he turned into this statesman like spokesperson for the sport,
and I think left the sport in a better place
than when he arrived. He's a different cat to for Stappan.
(28:10):
And so you do wonder if the Stappens next movie
is sideways or out where. I don't think that was
ever a question for Veattle in that time when he
was a four time world champion at red Bull Racing
a decade ago.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yeah, even the prospect of a sabbatical has been raised,
perhaps with no great impetus, let's say, behind it, but
it has been raised. And my first instinct was people
love just to say sabbati. It was in the Mika
Hacken and took a quote marks sabbatical.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
He's still on his, isn't he?
Speaker 1 (28:39):
He's still on Equally, maybe he'll replace him at Red Bull.
I believe he had a Red Bull time at some point,
but you know that loves to be raised. But then
I think you know exactly as you outlined, but Stappan's
motivation is wildly different to what you might expect for
a young four time world champion. He doesn't really not
really made in the same mold as as Sebastian being
a great analogy there, and has a kid on the
(29:02):
way this year, which is something that sort of struck
me earlier. Maybe he does want some time off, you know,
maybe he can he does. He obviously obviously has the
Cachet's a four time world champion, presumably won't add to
that this year. But I guess you never know four
time world champion to take a year off, suss out
who's going to do well under the next regulations next year,
and then just force his back into wherever it is.
(29:25):
I just couldn't totally discount that. I mean, stranger things
have happened in Forbid one.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Well, because he's so sort of direct and everything. There's
not much sort of you know, fluff around in the
periphery with Max. He's the sort of guy that could
absolutely do that, sit out for a year and then
just pick the phone up. Every team principle is answering
that court. It's like, I've seen what you're doing. It's
going really well. There's potential for upside, how about it? Yeah,
that would be a that'd be a contract that would
be signed in five minutes. We all know that, yes,
(29:51):
and so he's still young enough to do that. He
has the power and the pedigree to do something like that,
and probably the belief too. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
And a lot of contracts are up next year. They're
not this year. A lot of them are up at
the end of twenty six, precisely for that reason, because
drivers want to keep their options open under those new rules.
Maybe his option is just to come back into the sport.
It would be a fascinating twist on a story of
all assumed would end at one of two teams. Perhaps
it ends at none of those two teams. And it's
still Red Bull Racing looking for yet again a driver
(30:20):
to fill one of its cars. Apps trying to argue
the point mat. Before we wrap up, let's look at
the crystal ball, brought to you by Complete Home Filtration.
He said. Nineteen f one grand free still to go,
Plenty of Moto GP rounds, lots of supercars rounds, a
lot of motorsports still to go. It is only the
end of a start of back. What are you predicting
in your crystal ball this week?
Speaker 2 (30:41):
I did tease this with you before we got on.
I've gone deep in the deep in the archives here,
but of f on trivia for you, I've given the
crystal ball a good polish for this week's episode. My
crystal ball is telling me that Oscar Piastre is going
to become the first Australian to win three consecutive Grand
Prix since and I'll let you finish this, since when and.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Who three consecutive Grand Prix. Now I know that Alan
Jones won two consecutively because I think I've brought that
stat a couple of weeks ago in nineteen eighty. It
couldn't well, I'm going to just guess that it must
be Alan Jones.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
I'll put you out of your misery here. So Alan
Jones in nineteen seventy nine and one in Germany, Austria
and the Netherlands. So that was the last time it happened.
Mark Webber won two in a row once, Daniel Rocado
won to in a row. Also once. Jones won two
or more races in a row three times. I did
it in nineteen eighty, had two doubles in nineteen eighty
(31:40):
and he also won if you go the first race
in nineteen eighty one. He actually won the last two
of eighty in the first race of eighty one. But
that'd be a good stat for you if it's twenty one,
forty six years since an Australia won three Grand Prix
in a row. If you're wondering what the record is,
and I know you are because you like these sorts
of things. Sir Jack Brabham won five Grand Prix in
a row in nineteen sixty, including one at a circuit
(32:02):
that I didn't know existed in Portugal, so that was
a little bit of a deep a little bit of
a deep dive in forex for you. But yeah, my
crystal ball's telling me that we're going to have the
first time in Australian wins three consecutive Grand Prix in
forty six years this weekend.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
I like it a lot, you know. I love a
good stat and you've found some very good ones there
and made my prediction look totally under as a result.
But I'm a big fan.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
I did probably spend at least five more minutes on
mine than.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
You have, so I like it. I'm all for it.
I'm raising the game. My prediction is very in a
very similar way. I haven't predicted specifically the outcome. I
suspect part of the prediction is to predict Thedoscopyastri. Yes,
we'll win this weekend, but that's only because my prediction
is there will be a record low number of references
to the safety car that helped Lando Norris win last year,
(32:48):
because I think the story this week it's all going
to be about our Lando going back to Miami where
he won his first Grand Prix. No asterisk required one
that totally because he led it the whole time. Don't
remember started from pol who could possibly rememberho started from
pole last year and he won it totally on THERI.
He did have a very good race. The McLaren car
was fast in the second half of that race, but
(33:08):
we should not forget that it was Oscar Piastri was
the fast McLaren driver. Had he pitted only one lap later,
he would have won that Grand Prix.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
And isn't it so funny? Like at the time I
remember that because it was a Monday morning, obviously we
were kicking ourselves, going, oh man, that's a first Grand
Prix win. That's just gone completely begging through no fault
of his own. It's different if you don't achieve that
Grand Prix win because you've made a mistake. This was
one of those just complete confluence of circumstance and when
you hadn't won one before us Oh, man, is this
(33:37):
guy going to win one? Because at the first half
of last year you didn't necessarily think that was going
to happen. But isn't it funny how Miami last year
was like, Oh, this McLaren team's turned up, haven't they?
And then do you look what happened for the rest
of the year. That was the thirty point of last year.
But hopefully twelve months on Oscar gets what perhaps he
should have got this time last year.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
I think that should be the story this weekend. We'll
wait and see if it is. But that's all the
time we have for Pittalk today. You can subscribe to
Pittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you can
leave us a rating and review as well. This weekend
is the Miami Formula One Grand Prix at six am
Monday Australian Eastern Standard time, and you can keep up
to date with all the latest F one news as
well as Supercars ad Werdo TP news at Foxsports dot
(34:18):
com dot Au from Matt Clayton and me Michael Lomonado
thanks very much for your company. We'll catch you next week.
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