July 15, 2025 • 37 mins
Broc Feeney is extending his grip on the championship, leaving rivals scrambling as he charges ahead in spectacular fashion. Meanwhile, Marc Marquez is showing no signs of slowing down, adding another dominant win to his growing legacy. But the motorsport world is buzzing most about F1’s silly season, which is edging toward a major turning point following the shock dismissal of Christian Horner at Red Bull Racing.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Speaker 1 (00:19):
This is the moment, man, that we've all been waiting
for for.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
In a romax, he cups Oscar Piastree, Lando Norris.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
They aren't playing hardball out there at the moment. Sleeve
Piverchool Moment to twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Hello and welcome to Pittalk, brought to you by Shannons.
On today's episode, brock Feenie extends his championship lead in
the supercars as the end of the Sprint Cup approaches.
In moder GP, it's Mark Marquez winning again to inflict
yet more pain on his would be title rivals, and
the F one Silly season is heading towards a crunch.
In the aftermath of Christian Horner's shock dismissal from Red
(00:59):
Bull Racing, my name is Michael Lomonado. It's great to
have your company and the company of my co host.
Today he will be flowing because he will not be
at his extra limit.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
It's Matt Clayton. I'm not flowing at all. It's be
perfectly honest. Any Monday after a murder g weekend, there's
not a lot of flow going on. But if I'm
half as good at what I do in life as
Mark Marquez is it riding a murder GP bike, then
I shall be very satisfied.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yes, how close are you to your extra limit?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Possibly over it?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
You know we're all view the extra limit.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
We'll get into the supercars and murder gyp action in
just a moment, but I want to start with Formula
one because we're only a few days after Christian Horner's
shocked dismissal from Red Bull Racing. We talked about in
a special episode of the podcast that should be in
your podcast Speed if you go back and have a
look late last week. It was Thursday morning Australia Times
was all confirmed or Wednesday night, and the repercussions of
that have been really interesting because, like we said last week,
(01:50):
it has been a surprise to pretty much everybody except
the very inner sanctum of Red Bull. We can only
assume unless he was sacked by accident, which seems unlikely,
but the driver market percussions are also very interesting because
this is tied inextricably with Max Verstappan's position of the team.
It's been a story we've been talking about for quite
a while. Will he stay whether he go to Mercedes,
where he go elsewhere, or will he just bite his
time for now that has not gone effect for the
(02:13):
rest of the driver market. I want to start there
before we look at some of the looser hinds of
the driver market, because if he's tied with George Russell,
that obviously puts George Russell is his express in a
pretty unusual position whether or not he gets a contract,
because it seems to be looming over him.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
It is funny too, because George Russell should have all
the bargaining power right now because he's been so good
this year, and yet we feel that we're waiting. He's
just constantly waiting. We're at the halfway point now. He's
done everything he needs to do to justify a pretty
decent pay rise. I would have thought, and some tenure
wherever he wants it. But you're in this limbo position
because there's the speculation on what Max for Stappen will do.
(02:50):
I look the Christian Horner as ex Red Bull team principal.
Thing when you said that before, that's still jarring. I'm
still taking some time to process that. But I think
one of the things that happened last week, I'm more
convinced now that stap In stays but for next year,
and we did touch on this a little bit in
the podcast last week. I think he will want to
have an inside look at where the competitive order is
as we go into this new rule reset for twenty
(03:12):
twenty six, and then maybe read things from there. So
I think this probably increases the chances of him staying,
but maybe only for the shorter term. So I would
imagine that he will be at red Bull and Russell
will be at Mercedes for next year, But then what
happens after that. We know, with these big rule changes,
We've lived this several times, the competitive order can be
completely turned on its head overnight. And the one I
(03:34):
keep thinking about is twenty thirteen into fourteen, where at
the end of twenty thirteen it never looked like any
other team than Red Bull was ever going to win
a Grand Prix, and then we got to Melbourne in
twenty fourteen and Daniel Riccardo got to qualified and let's
not talk about that, but that season Red Bull went
from a championship winning force winning four championships in a
row to barely being able to win a race, lucked
into a couple win. The Mercedes got stripped themselves over
(03:55):
a couple of times. These things can change very, very rapidly,
and I think the STAPAN is going to have a
look at where this sits, maybe early next year. So
I think this sort of driver market merry go around.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
It might have pressed.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Pause on it at the top end of the grid
for the short term, but I can see it really
firing up next year. If you get a six or
eight race sample size next year and somebody we don't
know who that somebody is has stolen a really big
march with this early stage of the rule reset. That's
I think where Verstappan becomes a player, because every team
Moss is taking the call. If you look at the
caller idea as Maxim staffin on the line, sorry, we're
(04:27):
happy with our two drivers. Thanks for asking. You're taking
that call. He's got the pick of what he wants.
Where will he want to go?
Speaker 4 (04:33):
That's the thing we do know, yes, and I think
there's a difference as well. You know, the thirteen fourteen
analogy is interesting a because I mean, just like potentially
next year is engines.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
A tripped up right, Yeah, completely more than the chassis.
And that's a big question mark for Red Body.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Is that power unit their first in house one, albeit
with some Ford collaboration.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Is it any good?
Speaker 4 (04:51):
That's that's number one question, and no one knows because
it's it's so difficult to try and even speculate over
relative competitiveness because the engine only exist on test benches
at the moment. But the other element of that I
think is interesting is if you would compare Sebastian Verel,
who did move.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
After that first year of regulation. Yes, he was I
don't want to say in declines.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
It's probably not fair, and he's still performed well at Ferrari,
but he was being beaten by Daniel Ricardo that year.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Correct, No one's beating.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Max Mustaffin at the moment, which means his stocks will
remain as high next year as they have been now.
Whereas if there was this additional competition, maybe you'd say
he'd be more motivated to take a leap of faith.
There's no need for that now because he's going to
still be the four time world champion.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Next year he won't be a five time world champion.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
I'm pretty confident that, but everyone is still going to
be answering that call. The George Rasselaman I think is
interesting and now I want to go to the Mercedes
reserve driver Eltie Botas because if he were to be
displaced where the next year or the year after, it's
not obvious where he would go, because he should be
it's ideal place. The Red Bull Racing idea of a
straight swap is kind of interesting because without Christian Horner there, suddenly,
(05:53):
to my mind, maybe.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
That's possible becomes more possible.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Yeah, but there's also this rumor that Aston Martin could
be his ultimate destination. Aston's obviously ambitious, spending a lot
of money day have Adrian you in now to have
Hondaworks power. Maybe leading a different manufacturer could be an
alternaty for it.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
I'm really curious with the Aston question because there's this
perception that it's going to be very good at some point,
but that at some point, how does that fit into
a driver's career timeline? Do you go there and say,
in three years time, we're going to be great or
do you need to go there and get an instant
return from that? And I think that's going to be
really interesting as to who really wants to go there.
(06:28):
There's just this expectation that it is going to work.
They don't lack for resource, they don't lack for ambition,
they don't lack for budget. Let's be perfectly honest, but
you can't just spend your way to a world championship.
You can put all the blocks in place, it may
not work. So it's going to require a leap of
faith that if I'm a top race winning driver, I
don't think I'd be willing to make that decision now.
(06:49):
Now ask me that question in eighteen months perhaps, But
it's going to require someone to take a bit of
a flyer at the moment because they are unproven. Theoretically,
this is a great team and great personnel, great resource,
but theory doesn't win you anything.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Does it. So that's why it's this really interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
They're they're the big player in all of this, but
it's just when that's going to be.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I don't think it's yet.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
So how that aligns with some of these other driver's
timetables George Russell is a genuine a lister and would
be willing to and able to lead any team. He
will have his pick after for stabborn of what he
wants to do. But then where do you go because
we know you can pick the right team at the
wrong time. See Fernando Alto, he's been well chairing to
doing this. Yeah, well correct, and it would be a
(07:32):
very very Alonso thing to do for him to retire
or go and do something else and then all of
a sudden they get really good. So maybe we should
just be watching what Fernando does and then do the
opposite to that.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Weirdly quite good career advice. Yeah, I don't mean to
talk about that, Martin idea. I saw this only recently
after the race, the previous race we had in Great Britain.
If you go and find Lance Strol's post trace radio
gives you.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Yes, where he is, possibly where he is.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
But I want to talk abou about botas now because
this is an open seat situation. A little bit less
speculation here about drivers being displaced, because this is related
directly to the Cadillac, the new team that'll be arriving
in Formula One next year. Obviously, doesn't have any drivers
to replace there and he is in the mix there
where the team started all those years ago, and it
is years ago now as Andretti warning to bring American
(08:19):
drivers into the sport, has realized, well, they aren't pretty
many ready now to go and experience might be better for.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
A new team.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Valdrie Botas has very experienced, a ten time Grand Prix
winner closely linked to the Cadillac team, and Cadillac wants
to make its first driver announce but probably by the
mid season break we can see a lot of things
start to roll. So it's in the next couple of
weeks on the two races left, but also sought after
by Alpine. This is something we've learned in the last
few weeks because Alpine doesn't really know what's what it's doing.
It seems like with that second seat start with Jack Down.
(08:48):
Now Franco Golapindo bots the money to the team, but
he hasn't performed any better than Jack Down has, by
some metrics, has performed worse.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
It's almost like their rookie driver is not giving much
of a shot.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
But anyway, funny that Valtrie botass now is been asked
or Mercedes has been asked whether or not would be
willing to release him from his reserve duties to race
as soon as this year at some point, which does
present him with a bit of a question. This question
from Alpines arrived exactly when he seems to be in
the final stages potentially negotiating.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That contract with Cadillac. It must be quite a quandary.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
For it, Isn't it funny you can go from having
no options to having two options and none of them
are necessarily bad. I'm just wondering with botas how much
does his past dictate where his future goes. Because one
thing we know about Alpine is that they're putting their
engine program in the bin and they're going to approach
these new regulations with a Mercedes powerplant. And that might
(09:37):
be the key in all of this, because the success
that he had in Formula one was driving with a
Mercedes powerplant. That's a known quantity. He also knows because
he was on the grid and saw his firsthand how
right Mercedes got that big engine change for twenty fourteen.
So I'm wondering, Yeah, it would be very tempting to
get him with a startup with Cadillac. You don't have
any experience with them or their engine provider. Yes, you
(09:59):
get in on the ground floor and you get to
create the story. Theoretically, Alpine should be more competitive on track.
We know that it's been, let's be polite, dysfunctional behind
the scenes. Unusual for me, it's like, so you do
wonder how much his performance as opposed to future It
depends how long he wants to hang around. I guess
(10:20):
wou'd be the question. If you want a last short Hurrah,
and you're purely going on performance, then may be Alpine
with a Mercedes engine that becomes where you go. But
if you want to build something and be at ground
zero for a brand new startup, which has got to
be attractive in a lot of respects, then you can
see the merits of Cadillac. But what's really interesting to
me is if you're a team principal of Alpine or Cadillac,
(10:43):
who do you want? Because it's not just about the
driving and the there's a commercial aspect to this. We
know that Sergioperiz wants to get back on the grid.
He's he more attractive from a commercial point of view,
given that the market that they're in.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
It's an interesting.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Conundrum for the teams as much as it is for Botas.
I feel that Botas has the whip in terms of
he can choose I think where he wants to be.
But what do the teams want? And is it purely
about performance on the Stopwatch given that we don't know
who the second car is going to be driven by?
Speaker 4 (11:11):
H It's a good question because they both and this
goes a little bit back to the Alpine perspective of
you know, a joke, I don't really know what they
want or what's going with the second seat.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Was that a joke?
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Wow, I mean really actually turned out, But it is funny.
They clearly need a stabilizing influence. Now, whether that's a
lot of experience or just some experience, or a driver
who's very resilient to these kinds of ructions in a team,
I think none of those factors really matter. But Valtibodas
does fit the bill on all those counts, right Like
he's driven in a Mercedes that was dominated by Lewis Hamilton.
(11:41):
He went through and he'spoken quite openly about those mental demons,
about overcoming that idea that he can't be the greatest
when he's in a team with Lewis Hamilton, because he's
driver statistically now the great civil time, so he's been
through there, he's done that. He has one ten Grand
Prix in relation to Lewis Hamilton qualified really well. He
has a really good qualifying record, the most prolific polgetter
of all time, So it kind of fits the bill
on all of those, and that he's very experienced and
(12:03):
has kept his hands in it by being the Mercedes
reserve driver, so he's also very involved in the sport.
But all those, all of those criteria are very important
to Cadillac, all at the same time in a way
where Alpine kind of would be happy probably to take
any of those, yes, because Cadillac has no experience, has
doesn't have a car at the moment, doesn't have any
drivers at the moment, doesn't know what it's in for
(12:24):
next year, doesn't know whether the car is just going
to be last or might have like a Hals esque
debut where it's kind of all.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Right, sort of not that bad, sort of being okay, in.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Which case it needs a driver who can kind of
deal with any of those situations, and that is also
Valtrie Potass, but by a more important degree to my mind,
Alpane does have Pier Gazzt. Experienced driver, a race winning driver,
a fast driver clearly can put up with everything that's
going on at Alpane without his performance dropping off. Had
quite a good weekend last time out of the last
couple of races, so they don't need that driver as much.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I think. So if your Cadillac I.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Suspect you are well, you're probably putting slightly bigger number
on the table.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Now, great move by Valterie podcast perhaps to put his
name out there at Alpine. He does what he did.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yes, this is all broken nicely for Valterie Botas because
I think the decimal place might have just moved in
the offer that he's going to be asking for. So
all good news for him. But your point on Gasly
is very well made. I don't think the driver mix
at Alpine is necessarily the problem here, if they had
just given Jack doing the whole season, or if they've
given Franco colopinto the whole season, or if they've given
anyone some stability and a chance to grow. Because you've
(13:28):
got Ghastly he's very experienced and he's won a race,
and he's always good for a podium when you don't
expect it. There's your leader and your shining light. There's
an opportunity there for them to bring another less experienced
driver through if they just give them time.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
And that's the key sentence.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
So I think Botas is probably more needed at Cadillac
than he is at Alpine. But it depends whether Botas
wants short term performance, which is probably going to get
with Alpine only because Cadillac is an unknown because it
is a startup.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Yeah, but I think there's perhaps we've talked about this before,
but anything good that happens at Cadillac, if he were
to go there, he can claim a little bit of absolutely.
Is it Alpine, there'll be a little bit of extra
expectation because the team's established, even if it's going to
be starting with quite a low base last in the
Constructors Championship, and anytime he's beaten by Ghasly that's going
to look a little bit bad for him. Not really bad,
because you know, Gasies was a very good driver, but
(14:15):
it's just going to be reputationally. It is the last
roll of the dice of building some kind of legacy
that isn't just being the second best driver at Mercedes. Frank,
you know, Alpine's risky in that sense, even though the performed,
he might get a podium somewhere or you're more likely
to whereas a Cadillac, you know, first point score. Regardless
whether or not he gets it, he'll have developed that car.
He'll probably be the one that gets it, and then
maybe you'll get the first podium or whatever, first Q
(14:36):
three exact.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
He'll be.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
He'll be there for eternity in their history books as
the guy that was at base camp who achieved the
first success the team has, assuming it has some, and
I think that's as a legacy play.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
You know, you get a nice company car too.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I bet you know.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
I like first driver for a General Motors team in
Formula One, so for me, I'd say that that's winning.
But if the prospect is getting an LPN this season,
you never know, race and drivers love to race, so
maybe there's an element there. I'll leave that as a
comment because we do have to move on to super cars.
They are in action to towns are at the weekend.
The town's full five hundred split over three races, and
(15:13):
a really interesting weekend. If we throw our minds foreward
forward to the finals. We talked about this briefly at
the end of last week's podcast. Our first street circuit
real street circuits of Calendar and Albert Park whatever, And
two of the last three tracks in those finals in
that finals campaign are on street circuits.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
So there's a little bit to riden into that.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
But before we talk about that, I want to talk
about some of the raw performance elements. This is an
extended intro into interested versus expert versus interested.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
We still haven't got a sting for interesting or a
T shirt or something. But now last week you did say, look,
this Shapes is being a brock Fenny weekend, and that
is literally the sum total of my notes. This Shape
is a brock Fenny weekend. It was a brock Fenny weekend.
But what's interesting is that, you know we were talking
about this before, wasn't the fact that he was winning.
The gap to his teammate is probably bigger than we
(15:59):
were thinking. Now we know he's very good on street circuits,
but I was a little bit surprised by the level
of dominance, not the fact that he was dominant.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Yeah, and this is something that's just been now the
story of all year, and for me, it's obviously been
growing that as a narrative for a while and Brown's
probably just coming out of the reigning champion Will Brown's
just coming out of this really fallow. Perhaps the last
couple of rounds in Darwin Peenie always dominates there as well,
sort of no competition there. But what struck me is
that so by the end of this weekend We'll finished
(16:27):
second on the podium to Brock and did challenge for
a victory briefly, but was really desponded afterwards because he's
been another weekend where qualifying has been really disappointing for him.
Didn't get back into the shootout on Saturday and Sunday
the first time since Perth, but still just didn't have
Brock's pace at any point. A couple of polls again
for Brock, which is not surprising. Again ten poles now
for him to one for Will, and now qualifying gaps
(16:49):
the struggle because while it's easy to look at the
headline stats and you know Brock's running away with it
and what there's the finals were running away the top
of the standings and triple it's obviously doing very well, the.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Gap between the cars is all really still quite close.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Like victory are still up for grabs, podium are still
up for grabs, which means qualifying, even you qualified seven
to eighth, I think it was Will for Saturday and Sunday.
Friday was a bit of a right off of the team.
That's a lot of work to go through over the
course of a race when you're racing Matt Pains or
Grove cars in several elements or Wu had a good
weekend eventually, and there are a lot of competitive cars
that are usually in that top seven or five even
(17:23):
that just undo his whole weekend, and that's been his
problem here. And that's interesting for a couple of reasons.
One is that he had a lot of this all
his own way last year. And I think Townsville was
an interesting race because if you cast your minds back,
they sort of qualified Phoenie just ahead. I think it
was eighth and thirteenth or something like that last year.
But Brown, as he did inevitably in every race last year,
finished on the podium and passed Phoene easily on that way.
(17:46):
This year has really kind of been the opposite, where
even though Phoene maybe didn't have quite as much pace
on Sunday, still won the race, So there's been that
total turn around there. But what interests me about Will's
response being pretty disappointed is that it doesn't matter because
we've got the finals, but he knows it matters because
the performance is not there.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Well, there's a momentum element. This isn't there.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Positive, positive or negative momentum go such a long way,
which is bizarre in such a data driven sport here
no matter whether it's four or two wheels, and yet
the emotional momentum side can really take over the hard
data and what you know to be true. So every
time he is significantly outqualified, there's the shoulders go down.
I've got to do this again to fight my way
(18:27):
back to where I think I should rightfully be, and
that wears on you over the course of a season.
But as you were saying, because the format is different
this year, individually that doesn't mean as much, but psychologically
that's the thing.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Yeah, absolutely, look at some of the numbers. I've written
some down here and I'll consult my notes. Right qualifying,
it's Feeney twenty to round two, like that's pretty that's
damaging and by an average of four point nine places,
and it's only a tenth in a little bit, but
that's actually pretty big for SUP because only so many
teammates that separated by that. It's fifteen to sixteen races
average of just over a place thirty one points per
(18:59):
week and a little bit more tofeening.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
It adds up to quite a lot.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
And like I say, with the finals, it kind of
doesn't matter like Brown's going to start second. He means
the points gap when they reset, it's not going to
be massive, that's right. But he hasn't been able to generate,
like you say, that momentum. And while we've still got
three races till the finals, two of them are in
duros and they're kind of a little bit they're be wacky.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
It's harder to generate that kind.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Of individual momentum, yes, even if you're the one having
great qualifying, because it's just not quite the same. So
to change that, it's not even about changing the narrative,
it is literally for himself generating that momentum. And the
other difficulty this weekend is between Darwin and Townsville. They've
done and it's always a little bit of a red
flag isn't for a driver when they say, well, we've
taken the car apart, We've looked at the chassis for problems,
(19:42):
haven't found the problems.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
We're looking at it again in Townsville.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
Like, that's a dire place for a driver to be,
especially when it's your teammate that's doing it all.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
It's not like they're racing another car where you can say,
well the car is just fast.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Yeah, correct, and you can see the smooth sailing that's
going on the other side of the garage. That again
plays into the psychological narrative. I just wonder if they're
almost needs to be a less public sort of flagellation
of things going long and you need to play a
better poker face and not let on that he's so
affected by this.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
But yeah, those stats are pretty damning.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
Yeah, so there's a lot of work for him to do.
There's only one Sprint Cup race left in hips which
it's almost certainly going to be seen his Sprint Cup win,
first Sprint Cup winner for supercars. There are others in
jurors to come. But then I guess, look the finals.
You can you can look at it both ways, can't you?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
One way?
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Is that why would you expect the qualifying changes to happen,
But the pressure is going to ramp up in a
way none of these drivers have experienced for the first time.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
That changes things.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
But I want to come back to that idea that
maybe this race Townsville is a good finals indicator.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
There's a little bit of an asterisk come out.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Every street track is obviously quite different, and the first
finals is the Gold Coast, which is a pretty wacky
street track straight and then those funny chicanes. It's probably
maybe a little bit more indicative Adelaide, so grand Final
picture not exactly the same, but maybe we can use
that as that. And I thought it was really interesting
this weekend. So I've done collected all the fastest laps
of each team over the course of the weekend, and
(21:00):
it's Grove that had the fastest lap and advantage of
almost nothing ahead of DJRS so teams J and j
Our's case.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Very inconsistent season.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Yeah, but it does show you, I mean, because Techy
won from poll on Friday, breakthrough victory for this team switch,
but it shows that he can just about get all
things right and when he does, he will win.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Which will be so interesting when you get to the
point end of the season because when it's knockout, well yeah,
and he will have an influence in how this even
if he may not win it himself, he's going to
influence who might.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
And it's that classic spoiler role.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
That you love this at this end of the season
when it gets to a really really high stakes that
if someone's going to spoil somebody's day, it's probably going
to be in.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yeah, And that's sort of the role he's playing.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
Also one at the Gold Coast last year, just indict
these are the sort of previous stats will break out
when we get there. But that's really interesting. If we
also want to liken this to Adelaide, the format is
going to be the same. It's not going to be
in the Gold Coast and Sandown with the two race weekends,
but in Adelaide we're racing on Friday. It is a
four day weekend format. It's a little bit different in
terms of practice, but a lot the order was shaken
(22:02):
up on Friday. Here Trivia eight was nowhere on Friday,
which is one day of that Grand Final that brock
Feenie may qualified outside the top ten as he did
this weekend yep, and only just get back into those
big points, and that could be influential. While the Friday
pays relatively fewer points, even more so in Adelaide than
it did here, that doesn't matter. You know, we're talking
about that last race where it's sort of a bit
(22:22):
of a reset, and if you're looking at that, well,
then you've got WAU that could be in the mix.
They started really badly this weekend, but by the end
their car was among the fastest on.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Saturday, arguably once I got there.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Yeah, for Chasmsten might have been the fastest race car,
but was starting so far back that he didn't have
an influence. Tickford really quick over one lap in the race,
was a little bit less influential.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Even team eighteen.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
I was really impressed to see if I averaged this
season qualifying about four tenths off the fastest time down
to two tenths this weekend on the street track. That's
kind of interesting. So I'm going to write this up
over the course of the week in Fox Sports. A
bit hard to get stats off across in the podcast
and the way I want, but there were some little
interesting lessons in towns that I think could have some
teams thinking about how they're going to approach the finals,
(23:05):
because again it is knockout. You only get a couple
of chances over the course of the weekend to score
big points. If you start badly, you may not be
able to recover in the way you want, yep, because
you will only have one extra race, Gold Coast Sandown.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
It's going to be interesting. We're getting to that point
where we can think about it now.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
I do enjoy you road testing feature story ideas and
the podcast to convince yourself that it's something that you
want to write. And the more I'm not at you
will write it for you with me and anyone else
would like to read it. But go ahead, I'm looking
forward to read this one now.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Very good.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Well that's you can read about it later on the
Fox Sports website. But tell me a little bit about
motives you've actually before we do that one, we do
Move of the Week, and I'm going to go back
to something we're already talked about with Brock Feenie and
I know we've looked sometimes we've taken Move of the
Week to meet our own things. I'm going to say
defensive move of the Week, defensive drive of the week,
(23:52):
even because it was on Sunday where he had the
wind just about sewn up.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
But Will Brown came on really strong in that last thing.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Uncomfortable.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
It was uncomfortable and for a while, and it is
uncomfortable as well because he had the pace to a
potentially undercut Phoenie. But the team doesn't allow that kind
of thing when to sort of do it on the road,
which is fair enough, and he took that as a
fair cop. But I thought to go back to the
idea that last year in Townsville, Brown kinda ran rings
around Phoene, at least on the Saturday race. I thing
on Sunday race is a little bit different and sort
(24:22):
of asserted that dominance. It ended up winning in the title.
That consistency, dependability, it's really flipped around this year and
I can't couldn't help but feel that Sunday result was
important because if Brown ended the very end of Sunday
is the faster car still couldn't deliver the victory. Another
victory for Phoene extended championship lead. It was enough for
Brown to hold on the second We were only just
ahead of that pain. I just felt that was a
(24:43):
really important defensive move.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
No. Agree.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
So the wins that you get sometimes when you're not
the fastest, and we see this in all levels of sport,
they are worth more than the points that you get
for them. Yes, because of your ability to not squander
an advantage you have against a faster opponent.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
I think it's pretty significant.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I think so. So it's going to be my defensive
move of the week for Rock Seen.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
I'm going to go more attacking given you've taken the
defensive side of things. Motor DP and Saxon Ring in
the sprint race, and we have only ever had if
you can believe this, one wet sprint race before last
Saturday Saxon Ring.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Has been one in three years.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Before last Saturday at sax Ring, which is bizarre to think.
And Mark Marquez and Saxon Ring, we know how that
normally ends.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
But he messed up the.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
First corner, so it was fifth after the first lap.
And it's interesting because he was saying the whole way
through the weekend, I will not risk, I will not risk,
I will not risk. He's got a big championship lead.
The thing I loved about what he did in this
race is he eventually got himself back to second place
with about five laps to go, and Marco Betzeki on
the aprilias two and a bit seconds up the road.
(25:46):
The sensible thing to do would be, all right, there's
only three points difference between first and second and a
sprint race. I'm just going to take my points and
go home. I've got a pretty significant lead. But he's
fighting with his instincts. If there's something to win, Mark
can't help himself. It could literally just be a game
of scrabble, like he wants to just demolish everybody. And
he did one lap and went, oh, I took four
(26:06):
tenths off him on that lap, and he's like, all right,
let's go. And then so you end up with the
last two laps where Marquees is closing in at such
a rapid rate, and it wasn't a question of whether
Marques was faster as whether it's going to.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Run out of time or not.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
And of course we get to the first corner of
the very very last lap and move of the week,
Mark just absolutely sends it on like Opazeki and then
goes and wins by nearly a second on the last
lap by keeping the hammer down and I love the
fact the move of the week for me is that
he knows he shouldn't have been doing it. His team
had said play it carefully. He knows everyone's looking at
him saying you did not make a mistake here, But
(26:39):
he's still prepared to do it, even with the advantage
that he's got.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
And I love that.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
The move to me is wrestling with your instincts and
trying to play the championship picture. Yes, they're so long
to go, but if anyone needs reminding about how things
can turn very quickly, it's Mark Marquez still prepared to
back himself and yes, winning at the Saxon Ring, but
not in the way we thought he might.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Yeah, and to go back to something you were talking
about last week, I doubt he was feeling any dispressure.
But there was that interesting statistic this year that all
the tracks is traditionally excelled at. Yes, he's ended up
with nothing, he's out of them. To go back to
Coder as a great examples, where is this? So this weekend,
That's what I was thinking of over the course the
most weekend. It was clearly had his big pace advantage,
but you know, sometimes those statistics just work out and
(27:19):
so taking a big risk in the sprint. Okay, the
sprint doesn't count the Grand Prix for the sake of
that stat but nonetheless, how much was he willing to
play with that? But you know, to quote him, he
wasn't even at his extra limit, so he felt.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Comfortable to it.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Indeed, yes, he had other limits he could reach, didn't
need them.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Yes, exactly. Well, let's go under the German Grand Prix
in Moto GP. The headline takeaway I guess was that
Mark Marquez wins again quite comfortably in the end.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Is it as simple as this? You go to the
sax Ring and you turn left, and he's just going.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
To win it more or less.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
I think he's won nine Premier class races at this track. Now,
he's won twelve World Championship Grand Prix. If you go
back to his one, two, five and Motor two days,
he's base sick been unbeatable there since twenty ten, which.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Is wild when you think about it.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
But if you gave Mark a blank sheet of paper
and a pen and said, design what your ideal circuit
would look like the Saxon Ring, I'm glad it's on
the calendar. You wouldn't want more than one or two
real outline circuits like this. It's such a bizarre racetrack
in that it's thirteen corners and ten of them go left,
and so it's just climbing and going left on itself
the entire time, which is great for a visual podcast.
(28:27):
Here I'm drawing circles, but with his dirt track background
and how good he is in left handed corners relative
to how he is in right handed corners now because
of all of the surgeries on that right arm, it
becomes a case of who's going to finish second, and
they all go into the weekend knowing that, but watching
him play with the bike in those left handed turns
where you're very rarely stood up straight on this track,
(28:49):
you're constantly leaning over and watching him just hit the
same lines. It's a combination of being metronomically perfect but
also just willing to risk more than anybody else. And
Fabio de jen Antonio talked about this in the Grand
Prix on Sunday. He sort of emerged out of a
big battle pack to sit second and was really competitive
did year for the whole entire race, and he said
(29:09):
he was just watching Mark and he couldn't believe that
he wasn't even half a meter offline. He was breaking
at the same point every time. He said, it was
actually quite mesmerizing watching how much of a zone he is.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
It's a hard track.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
I mean, yes, it's a bit small for motor GP
bikes and they certainly don't stretch their legs there. There's
a lot of jeopardy at this track, and so to
just be constantly on it left all the way through
incredibly impressive. So not surprising in the slightest, but it
doesn't get any less impressive watching him ride a motor
GP bike around.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
There is there any significance thinking back to because to
my mind then the deer of his post surgery career
was also here. Yes, the frustration of not being able
to will his bike around in the way that he's
clearly made it look so easy this weekend. As in
the past, it's been clear that he's been back for
quite a while now, and particularly this year, back on
(29:57):
a competitive bike and able to run rings around anyway.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Does that play a role in the meaningfulness of this result?
Speaker 1 (30:02):
I think so, because it was there that I think
he crashed six times that year where he was just
trying to bend a honder into places it couldn't possibly
go to the point where he was just going to
hurt himself again, and he actually pulled out of the
race weekend. I think psychologically that was a real turning
point in his relationship with Honda's I cannot keep doing
this to myself, given the physical anguish that I've gone through.
(30:25):
There was that race, and then there was the race
in Australia when he finished on the podium where he said,
I realized that it's not me anymore, it's the bike.
It's the bike that's holding me back. And that set
in chain this whole series of events that's now got
him to the best bike.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
On the grid.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
But it's a significant circuit in that he won a
race there between surgeries in twenty twenty one, which made
absolutely no sense because his arm was still thirty four
degrees out of its natural alignment and one anyway, And
still one of the best post race interviews I think
I've ever seen in Murder GP because of how raw
he was and Matt Burt was doing the interview and
didn't over ask the question, and it's like, what's going
(31:01):
through your head right now? And you could see Mark's
eyes just spinning trying to get the emotions of what
this meant into words, which is a rare sign of
Mark letting his guard down.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Doesn't often do that.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
But there's something special. We've talked about this before, watching
a driver or a rider that has an affinity with
a place and you know what it's going to be
like before it starts. But watching perfection never gets.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Old to me.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
And yes, it was a very very predictable result over
the course of the race weekend, but it's still great
to watch, particularly in the context of what he's gone through.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
Yeah, you said this is all about who could finish second.
A couple of writers had a crack and decide they.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
Didn't want to most writers did.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
Yes, only ten finishes. Crazy, it's been a while since
we've had so few finishes.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Yeah, Now, I dug very very quickly when we got
down to about twelve runners, I thought, all, this is
starting to get to historical territory here. Twenty eleven Australian
Grand Prix ten finishes. Casey Stone won that race, one
of the world championship and so it was a bizarre race
and that we only had a very limited grid to start.
We only had eighteen starters on Sunday because we had
(32:03):
Franco Morberd earlier and Maverick Vignales injured themselves.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
During the weekend.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
We had somemcat Chancer who wasn't there, had a training
accident and aambastine and he didn't travel because he had appendicicitus.
So the whole exactly so the Tech three KTM had
no bikes on track from Saturday morning. They could have
just packed up and gone early to Bruno. But when
you had this bizarre situation where it rained all day Saturday,
all Saturday night Sunday, the sun was out, but the
(32:27):
track had absolutely no rubber on it and no one
had done any real long runs in the dry, so
you had a dry track with no rubber laid down,
and the wind had flipped, so was a tail wind
going into turn one at saxon Ry, which as you know,
is downhill and off camber. So once a lot of
riders got twelve fifteen laps into the race, about half distance,
tires wearing down, no grip, tailwind pushing you faster into
(32:50):
the corner, and they all kept going down at the
same corner, so There were eight crashes from the race,
and six of them were at turn one because riders
were getting down to turn one tipping the bike. Jack
Miller said he almost lost at the Quatarero. Did Mark
said he had a bit of a moment there. So
even the guys that stayed on that was the real
problem spot. And Picoba said after the race, I basically
took it easy through the first corner for the last
(33:11):
ten laps and tried to push everywhere else because I
knew what was going to happen, because you remember last
year he inherited a race win there because Juge Martine
crashed there on the last lap of the race. So
it is a problem, but I think it was more
a confluence of really green circuit and that tailwind in
a big downhill stop at that track. That's what makes
that track so unique. But it really was survival of
(33:32):
the fit. It's ten finishes in a motor GP race
is absolutely bizarre. Mean, it's half a full sized grid.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
Yeah, I was watching the totem and sworn I'd forgotten
someone or it had had an error or something like
that didn't make any sense.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
And just finally Jack Miller quite a good weekend for him.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
Quite a productive weekend for him, not only in terms
of points scores, but for his future. This has been
the subject the last couple of weeks at Fox sports
dot com Dot you on Monday, what did we learn
from it?
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Great timing, Jack's strongest weekend he's had all seasons in
terms of points. Finished fifth in the sprint. It's the
best sprint result he's had in his last twenty sprints
going back to Austria last year. Eighth in the Grand Prix,
which is a little bit disappointing. He is hovering around
fifty six for most of the race and lost a
couple of places in the last two or three laps.
But for him to get thirteen points out of a
weekend where it's been a little bit barren lately, he's
(34:20):
quite good there. He's often been pretty good at Saxon Ring.
But we know that it's going to be him or
Miguel oliver or perhaps the Yogo Mira from Moto II
who's going to come in and take that second promac seat.
Olivera was the first crasher in the Grand Prix and
didn't score a point for the entire weekend, and marera
If you've read anything that I've written in the last
twenty four hours. Was committed one of the craziest things
I've ever seen in a Moto II race by just
(34:40):
pulling on track without looking and getting completely wiped out
by David Alonso and that so stocks down for Rolvera
and Morrera this weekend. But in terms of Jack's timing,
given that Yamahara said they want this done by the
mid season break, we've only got the Czech Republic GP
to go. Now Jack's put himself. I think he was
in a good position anyway, but I would now describe
him having one hand and perhaps four fingers on a
(35:02):
contract for next year, which when you consider that he
was the last writer signed for this year and only
on a one year deal, it's fantastic news for Australian fans.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
I think, yeah, really good news.
Speaker 4 (35:12):
Hopefully it will be a lot of optimism by timing
you to Philip violand obvious a bit later in the year,
almost ting to wrap up Matt. But let's go to
the crystal ball by complete home filtration. First of all,
how would you like to predict so relatively quiet week
by motorsports standard, It's only the Motor GP this weekend.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
I just want to know if anyone had Christian Horner
not being Rebels team principal in their crystal ball.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
We seeing a number, I'll buy it off you. It's
clearly a better crystal ball than you and I have got.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
But I'm going to stick with a Jack Miller theme here.
We've got Bruneau coming up this weekend. My predictions. I
think that Jack Miller is going to be confirmed for
twenty twenty six, either just before or just after the
Bruno weekend. We have a four week gap before the
Austrian Grand Prix, and I think we're going to know
that Jack's going to be on the twenty twenty six
Motor GP grid imminently. Very good, very good timing for him,
(35:58):
I suppose, yes, and for us Crystal war for you
probably know Christian Horner extremities, but no.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
I'm going to stay away from Christian Horners, who could
predict you after twenty years. I'm going to go with
Valterie Botas to go back something to talk about a
little bit earlier. I know Cadillac wants to agree to
someone before the mid season break, just one driver for now,
to give a little bit of momentum to the team
a little bit certainty as well, and at least one
driver gives you some security and then the other one you.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Can play off against circumstances.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
You know, if it's gonna be Sergio Perry's as the
second driver, but maybe Yuki Sonoda could appear on the
market later or whatever, maybe George Russell.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
But I think it's gonna be Valteri Botas first.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
I think, as we sort of discussed, for me, Cadillac
makes the most sense more than Alpine, unless Alpine was
strictly speaking second half of the year and then you
get to go to Cadillac later, which seems a little
bit much, but you never know. But I think it's
going to be Valteri Botas at Cadillac. I think it's
a good first choice driver for a new team like Cadillac.
I think it's a good place for him to go
and write the last chapter of his kore and it
can be a long one. I'm like, is that old
(36:51):
and Fernando Alonso certainly pushing the age shiling up, as
is Lewis Hamilton, so it could be quite a long
last chapter of his career. But I think it would
be really important one one that would be last for him,
and I think that of the drivers they have available
to them, he's certainly the best choice.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
I like it for him, and I think I specially
like it for Cadillac. I think it gives them a
level of credibility that's really hard when you're a startup.
No matter what in the name says above the door,
no matter the financial support you've got behind you, that
gives you instant credibility. A guy who's won a lot
of racism, has gone head to head at least over
one lap with Lewis Hamilton.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
It's a pretty good starting point.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
Yeah, I think so, and great for social media content
on social media. But that's all the time we have
for pit Talk today. You can subscribe to pittorg revi
you get your favorite podcasts and leave us a rating
and review as well. This weekend, it's just the check
Motorcycle Grand Prix gets all of your attention. Lights out
at ten pm as usual on Sunday, and you keep
up to date with the latest photos of your pcuper
cars and Formula One news at Fox Sports dot com
(37:46):
dot Au until next week. From Matt Clayton and me,
Michael Lomonado. Thanks very much for your company and we'll
see them
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Speaker 1 (00:19):
This is the moment, man, that we've all been waiting
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In a romax, he cups Oscar Piastree, Lando Norris.
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They aren't playing hardball out there at the moment. Sleeve
Piverchool Moment to twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Hello and welcome to Pittalk, brought to you by Shannons.
On today's episode, brock Feenie extends his championship lead in
the supercars as the end of the Sprint Cup approaches.
In moder GP, it's Mark Marquez winning again to inflict
yet more pain on his would be title rivals, and
the F one Silly season is heading towards a crunch.
In the aftermath of Christian Horner's shock dismissal from Red
(00:59):
Bull Racing, my name is Michael Lomonado. It's great to
have your company and the company of my co host.
Today he will be flowing because he will not be
at his extra limit.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
It's Matt Clayton. I'm not flowing at all. It's be
perfectly honest. Any Monday after a murder g weekend, there's
not a lot of flow going on. But if I'm
half as good at what I do in life as
Mark Marquez is it riding a murder GP bike, then
I shall be very satisfied.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yes, how close are you to your extra limit?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Possibly over it?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
You know we're all view the extra limit.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
We'll get into the supercars and murder gyp action in
just a moment, but I want to start with Formula
one because we're only a few days after Christian Horner's
shocked dismissal from Red Bull Racing. We talked about in
a special episode of the podcast that should be in
your podcast Speed if you go back and have a
look late last week. It was Thursday morning Australia Times
was all confirmed or Wednesday night, and the repercussions of
that have been really interesting because, like we said last week,
(01:50):
it has been a surprise to pretty much everybody except
the very inner sanctum of Red Bull. We can only
assume unless he was sacked by accident, which seems unlikely,
but the driver market percussions are also very interesting because
this is tied inextricably with Max Verstappan's position of the team.
It's been a story we've been talking about for quite
a while. Will he stay whether he go to Mercedes,
where he go elsewhere, or will he just bite his
time for now that has not gone effect for the
(02:13):
rest of the driver market. I want to start there
before we look at some of the looser hinds of
the driver market, because if he's tied with George Russell,
that obviously puts George Russell is his express in a
pretty unusual position whether or not he gets a contract,
because it seems to be looming over him.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
It is funny too, because George Russell should have all
the bargaining power right now because he's been so good
this year, and yet we feel that we're waiting. He's
just constantly waiting. We're at the halfway point now. He's
done everything he needs to do to justify a pretty
decent pay rise. I would have thought, and some tenure
wherever he wants it. But you're in this limbo position
because there's the speculation on what Max for Stappen will do.
(02:50):
I look the Christian Horner as ex Red Bull team principal.
Thing when you said that before, that's still jarring. I'm
still taking some time to process that. But I think
one of the things that happened last week, I'm more
convinced now that stap In stays but for next year,
and we did touch on this a little bit in
the podcast last week. I think he will want to
have an inside look at where the competitive order is
as we go into this new rule reset for twenty
(03:12):
twenty six, and then maybe read things from there. So
I think this probably increases the chances of him staying,
but maybe only for the shorter term. So I would
imagine that he will be at red Bull and Russell
will be at Mercedes for next year, But then what
happens after that. We know, with these big rule changes,
We've lived this several times, the competitive order can be
completely turned on its head overnight. And the one I
(03:34):
keep thinking about is twenty thirteen into fourteen, where at
the end of twenty thirteen it never looked like any
other team than Red Bull was ever going to win
a Grand Prix, and then we got to Melbourne in
twenty fourteen and Daniel Riccardo got to qualified and let's
not talk about that, but that season Red Bull went
from a championship winning force winning four championships in a
row to barely being able to win a race, lucked
into a couple win. The Mercedes got stripped themselves over
(03:55):
a couple of times. These things can change very, very rapidly,
and I think the STAPAN is going to have a
look at where this sits, maybe early next year. So
I think this sort of driver market merry go around.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
It might have pressed.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Pause on it at the top end of the grid
for the short term, but I can see it really
firing up next year. If you get a six or
eight race sample size next year and somebody we don't
know who that somebody is has stolen a really big
march with this early stage of the rule reset. That's
I think where Verstappan becomes a player, because every team
Moss is taking the call. If you look at the
caller idea as Maxim staffin on the line, sorry, we're
(04:27):
happy with our two drivers. Thanks for asking. You're taking
that call. He's got the pick of what he wants.
Where will he want to go?
Speaker 4 (04:33):
That's the thing we do know, yes, and I think
there's a difference as well. You know, the thirteen fourteen
analogy is interesting a because I mean, just like potentially
next year is engines.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
A tripped up right, Yeah, completely more than the chassis.
And that's a big question mark for Red Body.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Is that power unit their first in house one, albeit
with some Ford collaboration.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Is it any good?
Speaker 4 (04:51):
That's that's number one question, and no one knows because
it's it's so difficult to try and even speculate over
relative competitiveness because the engine only exist on test benches
at the moment. But the other element of that I
think is interesting is if you would compare Sebastian Verel,
who did move.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
After that first year of regulation. Yes, he was I
don't want to say in declines.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
It's probably not fair, and he's still performed well at Ferrari,
but he was being beaten by Daniel Ricardo that year.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Correct, No one's beating.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Max Mustaffin at the moment, which means his stocks will
remain as high next year as they have been now.
Whereas if there was this additional competition, maybe you'd say
he'd be more motivated to take a leap of faith.
There's no need for that now because he's going to
still be the four time world champion.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Next year he won't be a five time world champion.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
I'm pretty confident that, but everyone is still going to
be answering that call. The George Rasselaman I think is
interesting and now I want to go to the Mercedes
reserve driver Eltie Botas because if he were to be
displaced where the next year or the year after, it's
not obvious where he would go, because he should be
it's ideal place. The Red Bull Racing idea of a
straight swap is kind of interesting because without Christian Horner there, suddenly,
(05:53):
to my mind, maybe.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
That's possible becomes more possible.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Yeah, but there's also this rumor that Aston Martin could
be his ultimate destination. Aston's obviously ambitious, spending a lot
of money day have Adrian you in now to have
Hondaworks power. Maybe leading a different manufacturer could be an
alternaty for it.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
I'm really curious with the Aston question because there's this
perception that it's going to be very good at some point,
but that at some point, how does that fit into
a driver's career timeline? Do you go there and say,
in three years time, we're going to be great or
do you need to go there and get an instant
return from that? And I think that's going to be
really interesting as to who really wants to go there.
(06:28):
There's just this expectation that it is going to work.
They don't lack for resource, they don't lack for ambition,
they don't lack for budget. Let's be perfectly honest, but
you can't just spend your way to a world championship.
You can put all the blocks in place, it may
not work. So it's going to require a leap of
faith that if I'm a top race winning driver, I
don't think I'd be willing to make that decision now.
(06:49):
Now ask me that question in eighteen months perhaps, But
it's going to require someone to take a bit of
a flyer at the moment because they are unproven. Theoretically,
this is a great team and great personnel, great resource,
but theory doesn't win you anything.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Does it. So that's why it's this really interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
They're they're the big player in all of this, but
it's just when that's going to be.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I don't think it's yet.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
So how that aligns with some of these other driver's
timetables George Russell is a genuine a lister and would
be willing to and able to lead any team. He
will have his pick after for stabborn of what he
wants to do. But then where do you go because
we know you can pick the right team at the
wrong time. See Fernando Alto, he's been well chairing to
doing this. Yeah, well correct, and it would be a
(07:32):
very very Alonso thing to do for him to retire
or go and do something else and then all of
a sudden they get really good. So maybe we should
just be watching what Fernando does and then do the
opposite to that.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Weirdly quite good career advice. Yeah, I don't mean to
talk about that, Martin idea. I saw this only recently
after the race, the previous race we had in Great Britain.
If you go and find Lance Strol's post trace radio
gives you.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Yes, where he is, possibly where he is.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
But I want to talk abou about botas now because
this is an open seat situation. A little bit less
speculation here about drivers being displaced, because this is related
directly to the Cadillac, the new team that'll be arriving
in Formula One next year. Obviously, doesn't have any drivers
to replace there and he is in the mix there
where the team started all those years ago, and it
is years ago now as Andretti warning to bring American
(08:19):
drivers into the sport, has realized, well, they aren't pretty
many ready now to go and experience might be better for.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
A new team.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Valdrie Botas has very experienced, a ten time Grand Prix
winner closely linked to the Cadillac team, and Cadillac wants
to make its first driver announce but probably by the
mid season break we can see a lot of things
start to roll. So it's in the next couple of
weeks on the two races left, but also sought after
by Alpine. This is something we've learned in the last
few weeks because Alpine doesn't really know what's what it's doing.
It seems like with that second seat start with Jack Down.
(08:48):
Now Franco Golapindo bots the money to the team, but
he hasn't performed any better than Jack Down has, by
some metrics, has performed worse.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
It's almost like their rookie driver is not giving much
of a shot.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
But anyway, funny that Valtrie botass now is been asked
or Mercedes has been asked whether or not would be
willing to release him from his reserve duties to race
as soon as this year at some point, which does
present him with a bit of a question. This question
from Alpines arrived exactly when he seems to be in
the final stages potentially negotiating.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That contract with Cadillac. It must be quite a quandary.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
For it, Isn't it funny you can go from having
no options to having two options and none of them
are necessarily bad. I'm just wondering with botas how much
does his past dictate where his future goes. Because one
thing we know about Alpine is that they're putting their
engine program in the bin and they're going to approach
these new regulations with a Mercedes powerplant. And that might
(09:37):
be the key in all of this, because the success
that he had in Formula one was driving with a
Mercedes powerplant. That's a known quantity. He also knows because
he was on the grid and saw his firsthand how
right Mercedes got that big engine change for twenty fourteen.
So I'm wondering, Yeah, it would be very tempting to
get him with a startup with Cadillac. You don't have
any experience with them or their engine provider. Yes, you
(09:59):
get in on the ground floor and you get to
create the story. Theoretically, Alpine should be more competitive on track.
We know that it's been, let's be polite, dysfunctional behind
the scenes. Unusual for me, it's like, so you do
wonder how much his performance as opposed to future It
depends how long he wants to hang around. I guess
(10:20):
wou'd be the question. If you want a last short Hurrah,
and you're purely going on performance, then may be Alpine
with a Mercedes engine that becomes where you go. But
if you want to build something and be at ground
zero for a brand new startup, which has got to
be attractive in a lot of respects, then you can
see the merits of Cadillac. But what's really interesting to
me is if you're a team principal of Alpine or Cadillac,
(10:43):
who do you want? Because it's not just about the
driving and the there's a commercial aspect to this. We
know that Sergioperiz wants to get back on the grid.
He's he more attractive from a commercial point of view,
given that the market that they're in.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
It's an interesting.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Conundrum for the teams as much as it is for Botas.
I feel that Botas has the whip in terms of
he can choose I think where he wants to be.
But what do the teams want? And is it purely
about performance on the Stopwatch given that we don't know
who the second car is going to be driven by?
Speaker 4 (11:11):
H It's a good question because they both and this
goes a little bit back to the Alpine perspective of
you know, a joke, I don't really know what they
want or what's going with the second seat.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Was that a joke?
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Wow, I mean really actually turned out, But it is funny.
They clearly need a stabilizing influence. Now, whether that's a
lot of experience or just some experience, or a driver
who's very resilient to these kinds of ructions in a team,
I think none of those factors really matter. But Valtibodas
does fit the bill on all those counts, right Like
he's driven in a Mercedes that was dominated by Lewis Hamilton.
(11:41):
He went through and he'spoken quite openly about those mental demons,
about overcoming that idea that he can't be the greatest
when he's in a team with Lewis Hamilton, because he's
driver statistically now the great civil time, so he's been
through there, he's done that. He has one ten Grand
Prix in relation to Lewis Hamilton qualified really well. He
has a really good qualifying record, the most prolific polgetter
of all time, So it kind of fits the bill
on all of those, and that he's very experienced and
(12:03):
has kept his hands in it by being the Mercedes
reserve driver, so he's also very involved in the sport.
But all those, all of those criteria are very important
to Cadillac, all at the same time in a way
where Alpine kind of would be happy probably to take
any of those, yes, because Cadillac has no experience, has
doesn't have a car at the moment, doesn't have any
drivers at the moment, doesn't know what it's in for
(12:24):
next year, doesn't know whether the car is just going
to be last or might have like a Hals esque
debut where it's kind of all.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Right, sort of not that bad, sort of being okay, in.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Which case it needs a driver who can kind of
deal with any of those situations, and that is also
Valtrie Potass, but by a more important degree to my mind,
Alpane does have Pier Gazzt. Experienced driver, a race winning driver,
a fast driver clearly can put up with everything that's
going on at Alpane without his performance dropping off. Had
quite a good weekend last time out of the last
couple of races, so they don't need that driver as much.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I think. So if your Cadillac I.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Suspect you are well, you're probably putting slightly bigger number
on the table.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Now, great move by Valterie podcast perhaps to put his
name out there at Alpine. He does what he did.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yes, this is all broken nicely for Valterie Botas because
I think the decimal place might have just moved in
the offer that he's going to be asking for. So
all good news for him. But your point on Gasly
is very well made. I don't think the driver mix
at Alpine is necessarily the problem here, if they had
just given Jack doing the whole season, or if they've
given Franco colopinto the whole season, or if they've given
anyone some stability and a chance to grow. Because you've
(13:28):
got Ghastly he's very experienced and he's won a race,
and he's always good for a podium when you don't
expect it. There's your leader and your shining light. There's
an opportunity there for them to bring another less experienced
driver through if they just give them time.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
And that's the key sentence.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
So I think Botas is probably more needed at Cadillac
than he is at Alpine. But it depends whether Botas
wants short term performance, which is probably going to get
with Alpine only because Cadillac is an unknown because it
is a startup.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Yeah, but I think there's perhaps we've talked about this before,
but anything good that happens at Cadillac, if he were
to go there, he can claim a little bit of absolutely.
Is it Alpine, there'll be a little bit of extra
expectation because the team's established, even if it's going to
be starting with quite a low base last in the
Constructors Championship, and anytime he's beaten by Ghasly that's going
to look a little bit bad for him. Not really bad,
because you know, Gasies was a very good driver, but
(14:15):
it's just going to be reputationally. It is the last
roll of the dice of building some kind of legacy
that isn't just being the second best driver at Mercedes. Frank,
you know, Alpine's risky in that sense, even though the performed,
he might get a podium somewhere or you're more likely
to whereas a Cadillac, you know, first point score. Regardless
whether or not he gets it, he'll have developed that car.
He'll probably be the one that gets it, and then
maybe you'll get the first podium or whatever, first Q
(14:36):
three exact.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
He'll be.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
He'll be there for eternity in their history books as
the guy that was at base camp who achieved the
first success the team has, assuming it has some, and
I think that's as a legacy play.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
You know, you get a nice company car too.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I bet you know.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
I like first driver for a General Motors team in
Formula One, so for me, I'd say that that's winning.
But if the prospect is getting an LPN this season,
you never know, race and drivers love to race, so
maybe there's an element there. I'll leave that as a
comment because we do have to move on to super cars.
They are in action to towns are at the weekend.
The town's full five hundred split over three races, and
(15:13):
a really interesting weekend. If we throw our minds foreward
forward to the finals. We talked about this briefly at
the end of last week's podcast. Our first street circuit
real street circuits of Calendar and Albert Park whatever, And
two of the last three tracks in those finals in
that finals campaign are on street circuits.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
So there's a little bit to riden into that.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
But before we talk about that, I want to talk
about some of the raw performance elements. This is an
extended intro into interested versus expert versus interested.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
We still haven't got a sting for interesting or a
T shirt or something. But now last week you did say, look,
this Shapes is being a brock Fenny weekend, and that
is literally the sum total of my notes. This Shape
is a brock Fenny weekend. It was a brock Fenny weekend.
But what's interesting is that, you know we were talking
about this before, wasn't the fact that he was winning.
The gap to his teammate is probably bigger than we
(15:59):
were thinking. Now we know he's very good on street circuits,
but I was a little bit surprised by the level
of dominance, not the fact that he was dominant.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Yeah, and this is something that's just been now the
story of all year, and for me, it's obviously been
growing that as a narrative for a while and Brown's
probably just coming out of the reigning champion Will Brown's
just coming out of this really fallow. Perhaps the last
couple of rounds in Darwin Peenie always dominates there as well,
sort of no competition there. But what struck me is
that so by the end of this weekend We'll finished
(16:27):
second on the podium to Brock and did challenge for
a victory briefly, but was really desponded afterwards because he's
been another weekend where qualifying has been really disappointing for him.
Didn't get back into the shootout on Saturday and Sunday
the first time since Perth, but still just didn't have
Brock's pace at any point. A couple of polls again
for Brock, which is not surprising. Again ten poles now
for him to one for Will, and now qualifying gaps
(16:49):
the struggle because while it's easy to look at the
headline stats and you know Brock's running away with it
and what there's the finals were running away the top
of the standings and triple it's obviously doing very well, the.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Gap between the cars is all really still quite close.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Like victory are still up for grabs, podium are still
up for grabs, which means qualifying, even you qualified seven
to eighth, I think it was Will for Saturday and Sunday.
Friday was a bit of a right off of the team.
That's a lot of work to go through over the
course of a race when you're racing Matt Pains or
Grove cars in several elements or Wu had a good
weekend eventually, and there are a lot of competitive cars
that are usually in that top seven or five even
(17:23):
that just undo his whole weekend, and that's been his
problem here. And that's interesting for a couple of reasons.
One is that he had a lot of this all
his own way last year. And I think Townsville was
an interesting race because if you cast your minds back,
they sort of qualified Phoenie just ahead. I think it
was eighth and thirteenth or something like that last year.
But Brown, as he did inevitably in every race last year,
finished on the podium and passed Phoene easily on that way.
(17:46):
This year has really kind of been the opposite, where
even though Phoene maybe didn't have quite as much pace
on Sunday, still won the race, So there's been that
total turn around there. But what interests me about Will's
response being pretty disappointed is that it doesn't matter because
we've got the finals, but he knows it matters because
the performance is not there.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Well, there's a momentum element. This isn't there.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Positive, positive or negative momentum go such a long way,
which is bizarre in such a data driven sport here
no matter whether it's four or two wheels, and yet
the emotional momentum side can really take over the hard
data and what you know to be true. So every
time he is significantly outqualified, there's the shoulders go down.
I've got to do this again to fight my way
(18:27):
back to where I think I should rightfully be, and
that wears on you over the course of a season.
But as you were saying, because the format is different
this year, individually that doesn't mean as much, but psychologically
that's the thing.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Yeah, absolutely, look at some of the numbers. I've written
some down here and I'll consult my notes. Right qualifying,
it's Feeney twenty to round two, like that's pretty that's
damaging and by an average of four point nine places,
and it's only a tenth in a little bit, but
that's actually pretty big for SUP because only so many
teammates that separated by that. It's fifteen to sixteen races
average of just over a place thirty one points per
(18:59):
week and a little bit more tofeening.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
It adds up to quite a lot.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
And like I say, with the finals, it kind of
doesn't matter like Brown's going to start second. He means
the points gap when they reset, it's not going to
be massive, that's right. But he hasn't been able to generate,
like you say, that momentum. And while we've still got
three races till the finals, two of them are in
duros and they're kind of a little bit they're be wacky.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
It's harder to generate that kind.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Of individual momentum, yes, even if you're the one having
great qualifying, because it's just not quite the same. So
to change that, it's not even about changing the narrative,
it is literally for himself generating that momentum. And the
other difficulty this weekend is between Darwin and Townsville. They've
done and it's always a little bit of a red
flag isn't for a driver when they say, well, we've
taken the car apart, We've looked at the chassis for problems,
(19:42):
haven't found the problems.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
We're looking at it again in Townsville.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
Like, that's a dire place for a driver to be,
especially when it's your teammate that's doing it all.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
It's not like they're racing another car where you can say,
well the car is just fast.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Yeah, correct, and you can see the smooth sailing that's
going on the other side of the garage. That again
plays into the psychological narrative. I just wonder if they're
almost needs to be a less public sort of flagellation
of things going long and you need to play a
better poker face and not let on that he's so
affected by this.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
But yeah, those stats are pretty damning.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
Yeah, so there's a lot of work for him to do.
There's only one Sprint Cup race left in hips which
it's almost certainly going to be seen his Sprint Cup win,
first Sprint Cup winner for supercars. There are others in
jurors to come. But then I guess, look the finals.
You can you can look at it both ways, can't you?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
One way?
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Is that why would you expect the qualifying changes to happen,
But the pressure is going to ramp up in a
way none of these drivers have experienced for the first time.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
That changes things.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
But I want to come back to that idea that
maybe this race Townsville is a good finals indicator.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
There's a little bit of an asterisk come out.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Every street track is obviously quite different, and the first
finals is the Gold Coast, which is a pretty wacky
street track straight and then those funny chicanes. It's probably
maybe a little bit more indicative Adelaide, so grand Final
picture not exactly the same, but maybe we can use
that as that. And I thought it was really interesting
this weekend. So I've done collected all the fastest laps
of each team over the course of the weekend, and
(21:00):
it's Grove that had the fastest lap and advantage of
almost nothing ahead of DJRS so teams J and j
Our's case.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Very inconsistent season.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Yeah, but it does show you, I mean, because Techy
won from poll on Friday, breakthrough victory for this team switch,
but it shows that he can just about get all
things right and when he does, he will win.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Which will be so interesting when you get to the
point end of the season because when it's knockout, well yeah,
and he will have an influence in how this even
if he may not win it himself, he's going to
influence who might.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
And it's that classic spoiler role.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
That you love this at this end of the season
when it gets to a really really high stakes that
if someone's going to spoil somebody's day, it's probably going
to be in.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yeah, And that's sort of the role he's playing.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
Also one at the Gold Coast last year, just indict
these are the sort of previous stats will break out
when we get there. But that's really interesting. If we
also want to liken this to Adelaide, the format is
going to be the same. It's not going to be
in the Gold Coast and Sandown with the two race weekends,
but in Adelaide we're racing on Friday. It is a
four day weekend format. It's a little bit different in
terms of practice, but a lot the order was shaken
(22:02):
up on Friday. Here Trivia eight was nowhere on Friday,
which is one day of that Grand Final that brock
Feenie may qualified outside the top ten as he did
this weekend yep, and only just get back into those
big points, and that could be influential. While the Friday
pays relatively fewer points, even more so in Adelaide than
it did here, that doesn't matter. You know, we're talking
about that last race where it's sort of a bit
(22:22):
of a reset, and if you're looking at that, well,
then you've got WAU that could be in the mix.
They started really badly this weekend, but by the end
their car was among the fastest on.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Saturday, arguably once I got there.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Yeah, for Chasmsten might have been the fastest race car,
but was starting so far back that he didn't have
an influence. Tickford really quick over one lap in the race,
was a little bit less influential.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Even team eighteen.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
I was really impressed to see if I averaged this
season qualifying about four tenths off the fastest time down
to two tenths this weekend on the street track. That's
kind of interesting. So I'm going to write this up
over the course of the week in Fox Sports. A
bit hard to get stats off across in the podcast
and the way I want, but there were some little
interesting lessons in towns that I think could have some
teams thinking about how they're going to approach the finals,
(23:05):
because again it is knockout. You only get a couple
of chances over the course of the weekend to score
big points. If you start badly, you may not be
able to recover in the way you want, yep, because
you will only have one extra race, Gold Coast Sandown.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
It's going to be interesting. We're getting to that point
where we can think about it now.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
I do enjoy you road testing feature story ideas and
the podcast to convince yourself that it's something that you
want to write. And the more I'm not at you
will write it for you with me and anyone else
would like to read it. But go ahead, I'm looking
forward to read this one now.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Very good.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Well that's you can read about it later on the
Fox Sports website. But tell me a little bit about
motives you've actually before we do that one, we do
Move of the Week, and I'm going to go back
to something we're already talked about with Brock Feenie and
I know we've looked sometimes we've taken Move of the
Week to meet our own things. I'm going to say
defensive move of the Week, defensive drive of the week,
(23:52):
even because it was on Sunday where he had the
wind just about sewn up.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
But Will Brown came on really strong in that last thing.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Uncomfortable.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
It was uncomfortable and for a while, and it is
uncomfortable as well because he had the pace to a
potentially undercut Phoenie. But the team doesn't allow that kind
of thing when to sort of do it on the road,
which is fair enough, and he took that as a
fair cop. But I thought to go back to the
idea that last year in Townsville, Brown kinda ran rings
around Phoene, at least on the Saturday race. I thing
on Sunday race is a little bit different and sort
(24:22):
of asserted that dominance. It ended up winning in the title.
That consistency, dependability, it's really flipped around this year and
I can't couldn't help but feel that Sunday result was
important because if Brown ended the very end of Sunday
is the faster car still couldn't deliver the victory. Another
victory for Phoene extended championship lead. It was enough for
Brown to hold on the second We were only just
ahead of that pain. I just felt that was a
(24:43):
really important defensive move.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
No. Agree.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
So the wins that you get sometimes when you're not
the fastest, and we see this in all levels of sport,
they are worth more than the points that you get
for them. Yes, because of your ability to not squander
an advantage you have against a faster opponent.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
I think it's pretty significant.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I think so. So it's going to be my defensive
move of the week for Rock Seen.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
I'm going to go more attacking given you've taken the
defensive side of things. Motor DP and Saxon Ring in
the sprint race, and we have only ever had if
you can believe this, one wet sprint race before last
Saturday Saxon Ring.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Has been one in three years.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Before last Saturday at sax Ring, which is bizarre to think.
And Mark Marquez and Saxon Ring, we know how that
normally ends.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
But he messed up the.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
First corner, so it was fifth after the first lap.
And it's interesting because he was saying the whole way
through the weekend, I will not risk, I will not risk,
I will not risk. He's got a big championship lead.
The thing I loved about what he did in this
race is he eventually got himself back to second place
with about five laps to go, and Marco Betzeki on
the aprilias two and a bit seconds up the road.
(25:46):
The sensible thing to do would be, all right, there's
only three points difference between first and second and a
sprint race. I'm just going to take my points and
go home. I've got a pretty significant lead. But he's
fighting with his instincts. If there's something to win, Mark
can't help himself. It could literally just be a game
of scrabble, like he wants to just demolish everybody. And
he did one lap and went, oh, I took four
(26:06):
tenths off him on that lap, and he's like, all right,
let's go. And then so you end up with the
last two laps where Marquees is closing in at such
a rapid rate, and it wasn't a question of whether
Marques was faster as whether it's going to.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Run out of time or not.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
And of course we get to the first corner of
the very very last lap and move of the week,
Mark just absolutely sends it on like Opazeki and then
goes and wins by nearly a second on the last
lap by keeping the hammer down and I love the
fact the move of the week for me is that
he knows he shouldn't have been doing it. His team
had said play it carefully. He knows everyone's looking at
him saying you did not make a mistake here, But
(26:39):
he's still prepared to do it, even with the advantage
that he's got.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
And I love that.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
The move to me is wrestling with your instincts and
trying to play the championship picture. Yes, they're so long
to go, but if anyone needs reminding about how things
can turn very quickly, it's Mark Marquez still prepared to
back himself and yes, winning at the Saxon Ring, but
not in the way we thought he might.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Yeah, and to go back to something you were talking
about last week, I doubt he was feeling any dispressure.
But there was that interesting statistic this year that all
the tracks is traditionally excelled at. Yes, he's ended up
with nothing, he's out of them. To go back to
Coder as a great examples, where is this? So this weekend,
That's what I was thinking of over the course the
most weekend. It was clearly had his big pace advantage,
but you know, sometimes those statistics just work out and
(27:19):
so taking a big risk in the sprint. Okay, the
sprint doesn't count the Grand Prix for the sake of
that stat but nonetheless, how much was he willing to
play with that? But you know, to quote him, he
wasn't even at his extra limit, so he felt.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Comfortable to it.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Indeed, yes, he had other limits he could reach, didn't
need them.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Yes, exactly. Well, let's go under the German Grand Prix
in Moto GP. The headline takeaway I guess was that
Mark Marquez wins again quite comfortably in the end.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Is it as simple as this? You go to the
sax Ring and you turn left, and he's just going.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
To win it more or less.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
I think he's won nine Premier class races at this track. Now,
he's won twelve World Championship Grand Prix. If you go
back to his one, two, five and Motor two days,
he's base sick been unbeatable there since twenty ten, which.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Is wild when you think about it.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
But if you gave Mark a blank sheet of paper
and a pen and said, design what your ideal circuit
would look like the Saxon Ring, I'm glad it's on
the calendar. You wouldn't want more than one or two
real outline circuits like this. It's such a bizarre racetrack
in that it's thirteen corners and ten of them go left,
and so it's just climbing and going left on itself
the entire time, which is great for a visual podcast.
(28:27):
Here I'm drawing circles, but with his dirt track background
and how good he is in left handed corners relative
to how he is in right handed corners now because
of all of the surgeries on that right arm, it
becomes a case of who's going to finish second, and
they all go into the weekend knowing that, but watching
him play with the bike in those left handed turns
where you're very rarely stood up straight on this track,
(28:49):
you're constantly leaning over and watching him just hit the
same lines. It's a combination of being metronomically perfect but
also just willing to risk more than anybody else. And
Fabio de jen Antonio talked about this in the Grand
Prix on Sunday. He sort of emerged out of a
big battle pack to sit second and was really competitive
did year for the whole entire race, and he said
(29:09):
he was just watching Mark and he couldn't believe that
he wasn't even half a meter offline. He was breaking
at the same point every time. He said, it was
actually quite mesmerizing watching how much of a zone he is.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
It's a hard track.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
I mean, yes, it's a bit small for motor GP
bikes and they certainly don't stretch their legs there. There's
a lot of jeopardy at this track, and so to
just be constantly on it left all the way through
incredibly impressive. So not surprising in the slightest, but it
doesn't get any less impressive watching him ride a motor
GP bike around.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
There is there any significance thinking back to because to
my mind then the deer of his post surgery career
was also here. Yes, the frustration of not being able
to will his bike around in the way that he's
clearly made it look so easy this weekend. As in
the past, it's been clear that he's been back for
quite a while now, and particularly this year, back on
(29:57):
a competitive bike and able to run rings around anyway.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Does that play a role in the meaningfulness of this result?
Speaker 1 (30:02):
I think so, because it was there that I think
he crashed six times that year where he was just
trying to bend a honder into places it couldn't possibly
go to the point where he was just going to
hurt himself again, and he actually pulled out of the
race weekend. I think psychologically that was a real turning
point in his relationship with Honda's I cannot keep doing
this to myself, given the physical anguish that I've gone through.
(30:25):
There was that race, and then there was the race
in Australia when he finished on the podium where he said,
I realized that it's not me anymore, it's the bike.
It's the bike that's holding me back. And that set
in chain this whole series of events that's now got
him to the best bike.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
On the grid.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
But it's a significant circuit in that he won a
race there between surgeries in twenty twenty one, which made
absolutely no sense because his arm was still thirty four
degrees out of its natural alignment and one anyway, And
still one of the best post race interviews I think
I've ever seen in Murder GP because of how raw
he was and Matt Burt was doing the interview and
didn't over ask the question, and it's like, what's going
(31:01):
through your head right now? And you could see Mark's
eyes just spinning trying to get the emotions of what
this meant into words, which is a rare sign of
Mark letting his guard down.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Doesn't often do that.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
But there's something special. We've talked about this before, watching
a driver or a rider that has an affinity with
a place and you know what it's going to be
like before it starts. But watching perfection never gets.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Old to me.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
And yes, it was a very very predictable result over
the course of the race weekend, but it's still great
to watch, particularly in the context of what he's gone through.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
Yeah, you said this is all about who could finish second.
A couple of writers had a crack and decide they.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
Didn't want to most writers did.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
Yes, only ten finishes. Crazy, it's been a while since
we've had so few finishes.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Yeah, Now, I dug very very quickly when we got
down to about twelve runners, I thought, all, this is
starting to get to historical territory here. Twenty eleven Australian
Grand Prix ten finishes. Casey Stone won that race, one
of the world championship and so it was a bizarre race
and that we only had a very limited grid to start.
We only had eighteen starters on Sunday because we had
(32:03):
Franco Morberd earlier and Maverick Vignales injured themselves.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
During the weekend.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
We had somemcat Chancer who wasn't there, had a training
accident and aambastine and he didn't travel because he had appendicicitus.
So the whole exactly so the Tech three KTM had
no bikes on track from Saturday morning. They could have
just packed up and gone early to Bruno. But when
you had this bizarre situation where it rained all day Saturday,
all Saturday night Sunday, the sun was out, but the
(32:27):
track had absolutely no rubber on it and no one
had done any real long runs in the dry, so
you had a dry track with no rubber laid down,
and the wind had flipped, so was a tail wind
going into turn one at saxon Ry, which as you know,
is downhill and off camber. So once a lot of
riders got twelve fifteen laps into the race, about half distance,
tires wearing down, no grip, tailwind pushing you faster into
(32:50):
the corner, and they all kept going down at the
same corner, so There were eight crashes from the race,
and six of them were at turn one because riders
were getting down to turn one tipping the bike. Jack
Miller said he almost lost at the Quatarero. Did Mark
said he had a bit of a moment there. So
even the guys that stayed on that was the real
problem spot. And Picoba said after the race, I basically
took it easy through the first corner for the last
(33:11):
ten laps and tried to push everywhere else because I
knew what was going to happen, because you remember last
year he inherited a race win there because Juge Martine
crashed there on the last lap of the race. So
it is a problem, but I think it was more
a confluence of really green circuit and that tailwind in
a big downhill stop at that track. That's what makes
that track so unique. But it really was survival of
(33:32):
the fit. It's ten finishes in a motor GP race
is absolutely bizarre. Mean, it's half a full sized grid.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
Yeah, I was watching the totem and sworn I'd forgotten
someone or it had had an error or something like
that didn't make any sense.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
And just finally Jack Miller quite a good weekend for him.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
Quite a productive weekend for him, not only in terms
of points scores, but for his future. This has been
the subject the last couple of weeks at Fox sports
dot com Dot you on Monday, what did we learn
from it?
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Great timing, Jack's strongest weekend he's had all seasons in
terms of points. Finished fifth in the sprint. It's the
best sprint result he's had in his last twenty sprints
going back to Austria last year. Eighth in the Grand Prix,
which is a little bit disappointing. He is hovering around
fifty six for most of the race and lost a
couple of places in the last two or three laps.
But for him to get thirteen points out of a
weekend where it's been a little bit barren lately, he's
(34:20):
quite good there. He's often been pretty good at Saxon Ring.
But we know that it's going to be him or
Miguel oliver or perhaps the Yogo Mira from Moto II
who's going to come in and take that second promac seat.
Olivera was the first crasher in the Grand Prix and
didn't score a point for the entire weekend, and marera
If you've read anything that I've written in the last
twenty four hours. Was committed one of the craziest things
I've ever seen in a Moto II race by just
(34:40):
pulling on track without looking and getting completely wiped out
by David Alonso and that so stocks down for Rolvera
and Morrera this weekend. But in terms of Jack's timing,
given that Yamahara said they want this done by the
mid season break, we've only got the Czech Republic GP
to go. Now Jack's put himself. I think he was
in a good position anyway, but I would now describe
him having one hand and perhaps four fingers on a
(35:02):
contract for next year, which when you consider that he
was the last writer signed for this year and only
on a one year deal, it's fantastic news for Australian fans.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
I think, yeah, really good news.
Speaker 4 (35:12):
Hopefully it will be a lot of optimism by timing
you to Philip violand obvious a bit later in the year,
almost ting to wrap up Matt. But let's go to
the crystal ball by complete home filtration. First of all,
how would you like to predict so relatively quiet week
by motorsports standard, It's only the Motor GP this weekend.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
I just want to know if anyone had Christian Horner
not being Rebels team principal in their crystal ball.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
We seeing a number, I'll buy it off you. It's
clearly a better crystal ball than you and I have got.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
But I'm going to stick with a Jack Miller theme here.
We've got Bruneau coming up this weekend. My predictions. I
think that Jack Miller is going to be confirmed for
twenty twenty six, either just before or just after the
Bruno weekend. We have a four week gap before the
Austrian Grand Prix, and I think we're going to know
that Jack's going to be on the twenty twenty six
Motor GP grid imminently. Very good, very good timing for him,
(35:58):
I suppose, yes, and for us Crystal war for you
probably know Christian Horner extremities, but no.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
I'm going to stay away from Christian Horners, who could
predict you after twenty years. I'm going to go with
Valterie Botas to go back something to talk about a
little bit earlier. I know Cadillac wants to agree to
someone before the mid season break, just one driver for now,
to give a little bit of momentum to the team
a little bit certainty as well, and at least one
driver gives you some security and then the other one you.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Can play off against circumstances.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
You know, if it's gonna be Sergio Perry's as the
second driver, but maybe Yuki Sonoda could appear on the
market later or whatever, maybe George Russell.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
But I think it's gonna be Valteri Botas first.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
I think, as we sort of discussed, for me, Cadillac
makes the most sense more than Alpine, unless Alpine was
strictly speaking second half of the year and then you
get to go to Cadillac later, which seems a little
bit much, but you never know. But I think it's
going to be Valteri Botas at Cadillac. I think it's
a good first choice driver for a new team like Cadillac.
I think it's a good place for him to go
and write the last chapter of his kore and it
can be a long one. I'm like, is that old
(36:51):
and Fernando Alonso certainly pushing the age shiling up, as
is Lewis Hamilton, so it could be quite a long
last chapter of his career. But I think it would
be really important one one that would be last for him,
and I think that of the drivers they have available
to them, he's certainly the best choice.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
I like it for him, and I think I specially
like it for Cadillac. I think it gives them a
level of credibility that's really hard when you're a startup.
No matter what in the name says above the door,
no matter the financial support you've got behind you, that
gives you instant credibility. A guy who's won a lot
of racism, has gone head to head at least over
one lap with Lewis Hamilton.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
It's a pretty good starting point.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
Yeah, I think so, and great for social media content
on social media. But that's all the time we have
for pit Talk today. You can subscribe to pittorg revi
you get your favorite podcasts and leave us a rating
and review as well. This weekend, it's just the check
Motorcycle Grand Prix gets all of your attention. Lights out
at ten pm as usual on Sunday, and you keep
up to date with the latest photos of your pcuper
cars and Formula One news at Fox Sports dot com
(37:46):
dot Au until next week. From Matt Clayton and me,
Michael Lomonado. Thanks very much for your company and we'll
see them
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