Max wins the title; F1 braces for Cadillac joining in 2026: Las Vegas GP Review

Max Verstappen is a four-time world champion after finishing fifth in Las Vegas behind a dominant Mercedes one-two, while off the track Formula 1 announces General Motors will enter the sport in 2026 with a new Cadillac-branded team based heavily on Michael Andretti's failed bid.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, a Fox Sports and
Speed Cafe Formula one podcast. On today's episode, Max Verstappen
wins his fourth consecutive World championship after finishing fifth behind
a dominant George Russell led Mercedes one two in Las Vegas,
and General Motors is set to join the grid in
twenty twenty six with its Cadillac brand. Just don't call

(00:22):
it ANDRETTI. My name's Michael Lomonato, motorsport writer for Fox
Sports Australia. It's great to have your company and the
company of my co host from Speed Cafe. He likes
to think of himself as the Cadillac of Australian motorsport journalists.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
It's not gosh, I don't know quite what that means,
but we'll go it. Does that make me like the
luxury varieties, isn't it? Yes?

Speaker 1 (00:44):
I feel like. I mean, it only really applies in
America because I don't think Cadillacs are sold anywhere else.
But it's sort of like it's the answer to the
Rolls Royce, isn't it if you're a Cadillaca whatever, you know,
it's a thing.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yes, I like that. Yes, I'm the I'm the Cadillac
in Australian motorsport journalism just a bit in Australia.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, leather, interior, wood paneling probably, Yeah, you know, one
of those weird gearboxes that are on the side of
the steering column. They've understood that that's all about.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Because I don't drive it that they drive it. Could
you drive a stick, yes, versus a well what else
do you drive?

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Hopefully that's an innovation they bring to Formula One in
two twenty six, so we will talk about that a
little bit later on. Let's catch you up though, before
we get into the Las Vegas Grand Prix title winning
antiques and of course the big news about the expansion
of the grid in twenty twenty six. To the five
top news stories you might have missed in the last week.
And let's start with a story close to home. It's
Jack Dowan who's confirmed the race number he'll be competing

(01:44):
with next year. He's adopting Kimmy reichen AND's former number
of seven, though that wasn't his first choice.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
No, he wanted number twelve, didn't he, And that was
being taken by Kimmy Antonelli. You've got the paperwork in
first sofa rules, first come, best dressed. But I love
that doing has gone. That kim me such an idol
of mine. I want to sort of represent. So ye,
I'm going to be number seven. KIMMI chose seven because well,
that's the number that you already had.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
So without I forgot about that. That's very good. Let's
go home at a Red Bull now. Well, Helmut Marco,
the Red Bull Motorsport advisor, has confirmed there'll be a
meeting of F one shareholders at the end of the
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to finalize the brand's four car
driver lineup. And this is of course with Sergio Peer

(02:33):
is still very much in the spotlight after another disappointing
qualifying and Grand Prix.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, it's interesting because I don't think frankcolor Pinto did
himself any favors during qualifying in Vegas either, so I
think his stocks dropped a little bit. Yeah, it's funny
that there's now where was where there was once really
easy solution. There's not so many easy solutions there, so

(02:59):
to be curious to see exactly what happens at Milton
Keynes in the weeks around Christmas.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Let's go over to Mercedes now and picking up off
something we mentioned last week, comments from Toto Wolf in
an official Mercedes Behind the Scenes book linking Lewis Hamilton's
short term contract and eventual departure to him nearing the
end of his shelf life. Toto Wolf's insisted those comments
were taken out of context, and he since clarified that
he made everyone has a shelf life, including himself, and

(03:27):
that both him and Hamilton have since spoken and cleared
the air.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, I mean, he's not wrong. Everyone does have a
shelf life, of course, but when you put it in
black and white like that, then it's printed in a
effectively an authorized book, Mercedes authorized book, then it just
stings a little bit. So yeah, he sort of moved
to clarify that when he tried to clarify it on
Radio four during the week as well, and again over

(03:54):
the weekend when he was asked about it. So ultimately
I went, Lewis has got two more races with with Mercedes,
and then he changes color. He'll go off wearing red,
and Toto's got the opportunity to build the next Lewest,
so to speak. So it's all sort of worked out
the way he almost saw it.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Sticking with Lewis Hamilton as well. Now it's been confirmed
that he won't be getting his first taste of a
Ferrari car until next year, with Mercedes absolutely holding on
to him through the end of December for what it
says will be an enormous parade of postseason celebrations of
one of the most successful single stints with the team
in Formula One history. That will deny him, of course,

(04:34):
appearance in the postseason Test with Ferrari. Not so though,
for Science, which Ferrari is happily allowed to race for
Williams in that postseason test.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, slightly different arrangement science from Ferrari to Williams as
opposed to Hamilton to Ferrari. But it makes sense as well.
If you get a blockbuster signing like Hamilton, you want
to make a big deal of it. You don't want
to put him in white overalls and a nondescript Tolmot
and a sponsorer's car like I did with Aston Martin

(05:04):
did with Fernando Alonzo a year or two back. You
want to make a big song and dance about it.
You'll want you want that PI hit. So that's one
reason even if you could get him not to test him.
But there was not even any attempt to buy Ferrari
to go and get him because they just knew it
wasn't really going to be an option. And Hamilton equally,

(05:25):
you know, he briefly had a conversation with Toto Wolf
and he's going to stop. Really an option, isn't That's
not really an option. So everyone's sort of on the
same page with it. It's not it's not that he's
been denied, it's just they're a bigger commercial interests out
there and it didn't serve anyone's best interest to make
a move. What three weeks earlier then he'd otherwise be

(05:48):
able to jump in a Ferrari.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yes, and can you imagine the hype Ferrari will be
able to build that first private test in an old cars.
I think they've already foreshadowed. It's always great. I always
liked seeing, you know, the Ferrari test track when people
gather around the fences, not in the track because they're
always closed, but there's always a way to see the
car going around so well.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
That there's this bridge that runs over one end and
you can stop there jump a fence, and I've never
done it obviously because you can't stop. You can't there,
but yeah, you can see actually quite a fair bit
of the Actually, you know, the best place to watch
the Ferrari test track. I can't remember all bates name now,
but so many restaurant has his office. Whoever's now in

(06:30):
his office, it looks out over over two thirds of
the circuits. Makes magnificent view. That's where you want to go.
And I've got no idea how you yourself in there,
but best seat in the house.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Become a technical director for obvious you get there, all right,
that's all you need if you just want to watch
some promotional.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Light that over. By early January you'll.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Be sorted and coming back close to the home. Former
if One driver Tim Schenkin and former race Supercars race
director as well. We'll depart the role of Clark of
the Course for the Australian Grand Prix. It's a role
he's held since the eighties, that's spanning back to the
Adelaide edition of the Grand Prix. Very long tenured career,
essentially being one of the senior officials of Australia's biggest motorrate.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah, he's held all sorts of positions with the FAA
as like a circuit inspector and Safety Commission member and
all sorts of things. Doesn't hold any of those commission
memberships now. But yeah, he was deputy race director of
the Australian Grand Prix in that eighty five and eighty six,
took the sorry deputy clerk of course in eighty five
and eighty six, became clerk of course from eighty seven

(07:34):
and held that threw up until this year and then
next year he will no longer hold that role. The
word I'm hearing is it will be David Murray, which
makes sense because he's been the clerk of course in
aby Daby for the last couple of years, so he's Australian.
He's already doing the job in other regions.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
A little indicator there of the different states where from
our pronunciation of clerk and clerk isn't it?

Speaker 2 (07:59):
Is it lego lego? This is this is the big one.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
I didn't even know that was up for dispute because
it's not. It's the story we left out is of
course the Formula one Lego sponsorship. You would have seen
it on the Giants for you, you're very excited about it.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Man I'm going to need a bigg bookshel oh I
have my hot wheelsion one lego and the other.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Let's move on there to the Las Vegas Grand Prix,
and before we talk about, of course, the race itself,
which does have some pretty interesting permutations with the Constructors
Championship and maybe even the form guide going into the
last two rounds of the season. The big story, of course,
to come out of Formula one's premier event is that
Max for Staffan is a four time world champions the
championship we've seen coming for quite a while now, but

(08:46):
expt as good relief. In fact, that was his word,
relief to get it finally sealed and done. It took
him only fifth place on the road despite running as
high as second at one point in the race. All
you needed to do was finish ahead of Lando Norris
and with McLaren have. I think it's least competitive round
in months in the start of the year. Really was
as good as done by the time we got to

(09:06):
the end of the Grand Prix. It's it's sort of
interesting that I was thinking about this today because he's
won four in a row. It just feels like the
status quo in some respects, and I think it's important
to recognize that four world titles is not only a
big number of world titles, actually is extremely rare. He's
now one of only six who have won that or more.

(09:28):
He is in the elite of the elite Formula One
drivers club.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, he now surpasses in center Jackie Stewart, Nikki Lauder.
All these three time world champions and three time champions
has nothing to seize that at all. Winning a Grand
Prix full stop is a hard enough feat. Tag on
the podium is if you. But what's what's great is

(09:57):
that this championship has been different to his previous three.
Twenty one obviously very combative all the way through, had
to get the elbows out and muscle is way by
at points with Hamilton, and that was great. Twenty two
he came back from a sluggish start, reeled in Leclair

(10:20):
and then ran away with it, sort of from a
French Grand Prix on which really wasn't it last year
obviously it was the Red Bull World Championship and everyone
else just competed. And then this year, yeah, he had
that really strong start, but he'd been playing a reguard
action pretty much since what the Spanish or austring Or
or pri He said post race that for sort of

(10:43):
seventy percent of the season he's not had the fastest car.
It's just he's made the most of the opportunities he's
had and then he's lucky that others haven't done that.
And if you look at it, he's definitely got a
point because McLaren should have had a one two in Silverston.
There's a couple of other instances where they have had
better results than what they did, probably Austria where they retired,
Lando as well, where Max stayed on track and got

(11:06):
a couple of points. It's those sorts of things that
in the moment don't look that significant, but the cumulative
effect can be astronomical. And it's doing that. It's that consistency,
just doing what you have to do, making sure you maximize.
It's that word. It's maximized. I always talking about maximizingal happen.

(11:26):
It's maximizing the opportunity. If that opportunity can only bring
you fifth, which is what it could do on Saturday
night for Max, you take fifth. So yeah, I think
of the four World Championships that he's one, I think
this is probably the most mature, it's the most composed,
just not the most impressive, because nothing is going to

(11:47):
top last year, but it just shows another side to Maxims.
There's still flashes of the old Max but it just
showed that he's now more mature, more rounded, more complete
racing driver than what we saw in twenty one and
twenty two.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
It was interesting to hear him sort of try to
compare titled, because of course nothing lives up to the first,
because your first world championship win, the emotions of that unmatchabum.
Obviously he won that in not just the controversial circumstances
but in a real bare knuckle fight with Lewis Hamilton.
Over the course of the season. There's not literally nothing
between them going into that last race, a really harder

(12:25):
earned championship victory. The second one, for me was always
sort of like one off a wave of Red Bull's
momentum in the new title ear and I say that
not to minimize his efforts there, but sort of just
was the championship the defense that felt inevitable as Ferrari's
challenge collapsed last year, though I thought it was really
interesting to hear him continue to say and as he
is entitled to that. It remains an underratedly difficult title win,

(12:48):
and I think it is worth remembering how hard it
is to be so close to perfect, for Red Bull
to win all races but one, for him to win
all but two of those races as well to set
the records that he did. Obviously, we have more Grand
Prix now to win to accumulate those big numbers, but
just that the mental and physical toll of being so
close to perfect shouldn't be underestimated. But I do think

(13:11):
you're right, and it was interesting to hear he's an engineer.
Jean Pierre Lambias said GP talk afterwards about there is
this different element of him now not needing to win everything.
I think that was almost his exact words. He doesn't
feel like he needs to go out in every race
and throw his car around and really get his shoulders
out to win every Grand Prix. He's happy to play
the numbers game more. I think this is really the

(13:32):
first time we've seen that, and as you mentioned, we
do still sometimes see the old I have to win
Max for Stafford, particularly in some of those battles at
Lando Norris. I think he's one also, we talked about
at the time He's one sort of almost joker race
of the year was the Hungarian Grand Prix where he
just kind of got stoppy. He wasn't happy, But I
also think that was kind of the race he had
to have because afterwards, I think he accepted that the

(13:52):
car couldn't not that it could win Anymorks. It has
obviously won since, but it wasn't the car from the
start of the year, and he went into that mode subsequent,
which was that I've got to win this championship by
playing this defensive game. Just worth pointing out. You're talking
about the Spanish Grand Prix and that was the last
race he won before Brazil. So before that ten race
victory drought his lead after the Spanish Grand Prix was

(14:14):
sixty nine points. His lead now is sixty three points.
So over the last twelve races he's lost six points
to Lando Norris. And that's the period really in which
Ian McLaren was arguably the faster as faster car. A
little bit before that, dating back obviously to the Miami
Grand Prix we remember, but in that period of time,
obviously McLaren was ahead of Red Bull Racing pretty much

(14:34):
in every race I think I would say every race
in that period, and the margin was six points. And
that's not just as tempting as it's going to be
in the wash up just about McLaren and Lando Norris
missing chances that that's undoubtedly part of the story. It
is the fact that Max mistappened to use your word maximized,
to use his name maxed. He maxed his opportunities to
play that defensive game, and I think that is something

(14:56):
that is the way he's not won a championship before,
and I think that is to obviously, to his credit
is the world champion, but it's another stringing his bow
that'll be fascinating to see deployed overcoming years, particularly next
to you, when we expect the title to be more competitive.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah, I'm now really excited about next year because we
do have three or four teams that genuinely seem to
have a chance mersaities that still sort of comes and goes.
I'm sure we'll talk about them in a little bit,
but yeah, it's this year has been a little bit
prost esque from Max and Prost. For those that aren't

(15:33):
as old and nerdy as I am, alarmed, Prost used
to basically work out what he needed to do and
do that, do no more? Well, why risk the car?
Why go out and try and set the fastest lapping
qualifying when fourth was good enough? Why go out there
and try and risk passing Center or Mansel or whoever

(15:54):
it might be to get third when the points are
fourth was good enough. It do that routinely through his career.
I think I think he damaged one chassis during his
entire time with McLaren. I can't think of too many
cars he damaged, but that was the sign of a
really mature, composed driver, and that there's a reason he

(16:15):
was called the professor. And I just got a little
hint of that, particularly the back half, not Mexico. Put
that one aside, because that was that was more of
the old brash Max. But okay, that one weekend out
of it, and I think you've got a really different
looking Max with Staffan. And that's a frightening thought because

(16:36):
if he's as fast as he was, as canny on
track as he's always been, and now this composed, this mature,
the sure himself, that's a hell of a combination.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
The only thing left really now and there is there
is no gap in Max with Staffan's legacy, this no
one becomes a full time world champion and leaders going, oh,
but what if you know this se that good? Like obviously,
we can rank world champions in ways that aren't simply
the number of titles they won. People will have opinions,
for example about Sebastian Vettle being a four time world

(17:07):
champion I had instead of having three. You may rank
them in a different way, and that's perfectly fine, and
you may r bax this happen a different way. I
don't think he's anything we need to see from him
to know how good he is. I think he's obviously
in that generational talent category. I think the last thing
we need to see now, and this goes back to
the point about twenty twenty five, is how does he
manage potentially a multiple car title fight, because we've seen

(17:30):
him head to head with Lewis Hamilton, but there's not
a not an asterisk come back to me. I'm not
talking about AVDB again, just that it was his first title.
He's clearly much more mature now. I've no doubt he
would approach that season a different way now. But then
there was also the angst of that bit of feud
as it became by the end of the year, particularly
in the between the teams, almost more between the teams

(17:51):
and the drivers themselves. That really colors how that title
panned out, like it was such a rivalry, almost more
than that a pure on track battle, if you like,
the the subc two to one, because he had a
performance advantage and need to execute that. But that's how
they were this year's defensive. As we said, next year,
if it's a multiple car battle, that's going to be
a fascinating test of all the qualities we know about

(18:12):
him Because we haven't seen him in that situation yet.
I think we're still unlikely next year, regardless of his teammate,
to see how he goes up against a competitive teammate.
I guess that will be another element that we haven't
seen yet. But then again, not every World champion champion
has to deal with that. In fact, often we find
that the drivers who really dominate don't have particularly competitive teammates.
And that's not necessarily a slide on the teammates as
much as it is a pump up of how good

(18:32):
these drivers are. But that's going to be that fascinating
final chapter, particularly because inevitably, with the exception of I
suppose if Lewis Hamilton ends up in that mix, which
he may well, he obviously won't have gone head to
head over the course of a season against any of
these guys because in his competitive era, none of them
have been competitive.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, it's going to be really interesting. It'll give you
an idea of who the most complete driver is, who
can drive around the inherent weaknesses and strengths of their
caro to flatten that curve out and produce week in
week out the most consistent performances. Because that's what next
year is going to be. It's it's not going to
be winning on your good days, it'll be minimizing your

(19:11):
losses on the bad days.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
All Right, let's change tack now Matt to the Las
Vegas Grand Prix broadly, because while Max with Staffan obviously
was the story for winning the title, would have on
any other weekend been the biggest story as well. McLaren Mercedes,
where did that come from? A one two finish, not
just a one two finish, but a dominant one to finish.
George Russell once he' fended off Carlos char Leclair early

(19:34):
in the race, and that battle last there only a
couple of laps before the Ferrari's tires absolutely went off.
The cliff was totally unchallenged. Could have done this race
without stopping twice, really only stopped twice because everyone else
did and wanted to cover off the possibility. Lewis Hamilton
rose from tenth on the grid to finish second and
was only five seconds behind the last few laps before
that gap grew slightly larger after that showed the pace

(19:55):
he had to be able to cut through the field comfortably.
The team's most convincing weekend of the year, and this
is after probably his least convincing weekend of the year
in zau Palla. Weekend so bad that Louis Hamilton suggested
he didn't want to I didn't want to come back
to finish the season. That's how bad it was. I mean,
where did this come from? We talk about the cold conditions,

(20:15):
the smooth track, but at several points this weekend I
certainly got the sense that even the team wasn't totally
convinced what was going on.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
So I remember after FP one, I wrote the session
report and I wrote that Mercedes was fast, but let's
not put anything in that. Ferrari McLaren is where it's
going to be, and then we'll work out what red
Bull was doing. Then after FB two, Ferrari's fast, McLaren's there.
Still don't know what red Bull are doing, but Mercedes

(20:43):
has started to look interesting. FP three Mercedes is kind
of looking good, but Ferrari's still fast, McLaren's still fast.
Still don't know what red Bull was doing. Then quality
and then the race. They did it all, even though
they topped every session. They also managed to do it
somehow by going under the radar because no one expected

(21:07):
that form to continue. Ferrari, by rights is a faster
Carria's just in those conditions it wasn't. And I think
it's got a lot to do with tires and graining
and everything else. We know the Mercedes is very good
when the conditions are cool. The conditions were very cool
in US Vegas, and that's we've seen now sort of

(21:27):
two extremes. At one end, you see the extreme heat
where tires grain, and one nge you see the extreme
cold where tires grain, and at some point in that
spectrum in between, there is a happy place for every team.
For some it's very narrow. For some it's a lot broader,
but Claren's, for instance, seems to be quite broad somewhere
in the middle of that, maybe towards the hotter end,

(21:51):
but messages we know it's an arrow towards the bottom
end of that range. So all the raw ingredients and
in hindsight look back on, it was obvious Mercedes was
always going to be fast there. I don't know why
I didn't consider them more seriously heading in, because once
you stepped back and realized what was happening, there's obviously

(22:12):
this place to what we saw in even sour Palla,
if you take the red flag out of it. There.
George was very quick cooler conditions given the rain in
Belgium it was cooler that weekend. Even the British Grand

(22:33):
Prix was cooler again, so there's a trend here. Now
we're going to Katar next weekend that's not going to
be cool and funnily enough, George still seems to think
it'll go well there, but that's a different one for Vegas.
I don't know how we all missed it. It was

(22:53):
there right in front of us. That has been all
season for our Mercedes was going to absolutely decimate everyone
and we all, every single one of us. I feel,
mister Well to be fair. So did Mercedes. I say
this just because they seemed confused as the week went on.
But to go back to those comments of George Russell,
at one point he was saying he didn't want to
take a new engine this weekend. He wanted to save
it for Katar because he didn't expect to be competitive.

(23:14):
He does expect to be competitive in Ktar because the
layout should suit the car, which is high speed and smooth.
Though the heat element is the big unknown there obviously,
or would appear not to be unknown, it wouldpep to
be known that it won't be good. But nonetheless he
seems to think it'll be okay this weekend. While the
cold conditions were in place, the layout shouldn't have suited
the car because it hasn't typically been good in these

(23:35):
sort of short duration traction zone, all that kind of stuff.
It's normally Ferrari territories. Isn't really where Mercedes has been competitive.
But it was cold enough that and they got the
set up right enough. That's the other element. They really
set the car up well. It's a little bit more
downforce but that turned out to be exactly what was
needed to print the tize from graining up in the
way Ferraris did that made the car work, So they

(23:56):
really did surprise themselves there. So don't don't feel you
are still the car lack of Australia.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
You're okay. It's all right. Sadies didn't know either. What
was interesting about Mercedes winning this though, was that have
been Ferrari obviously did not recovered to third and fourth,
despite after qualifying sounding pretty confident both Carlos Science and
Charlotte Clair that they would win this race because for
all the reasons we expected them to be competitive here
that it was going to be well. The call was

(24:21):
actually the twist in this because they typically aren't not
as strong in cool conditions to see like they were
last year. But the layout should have been all Ferrari
in the same way that Baku was very much Ferrari race,
even monster similarities there because of all the high speed
nature of it, but couldn't manage the tires this weekend,
didn't set up the car properly. Three and four is
still pretty good behind such a dominant Mercedes team, but
it means crucially that they did not outscore McLaren by

(24:44):
very much in the Constructors' Championship, was just twelve points
I think it was. It's what is the twenty odd
points now between them? Twenty four points with two rounds
to go, so damage still done. And in fact, if
you go back and look at how many points they've
outscored McLaren by in this America's leg the last four races,
it is twelve point seven points around I think. So
if they continue that trajectory, actually they will win the

(25:05):
constructors Championship. We do have two very different races coming
up compared to everything we've seen before. But what do
you feel like is the vibe around Ferrari after this weekend,
because it is in a sense job done. Did comfortably
outscore McLaren, not by as much as they would have accepted,
but it turns out that was never on the cards
because the ads were so good. But two more difficult
rounds coming up. How do you think they'll reflect on

(25:27):
this weekend and the points scored against McLaren.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
I think we've got a really interesting insight into Ferrari
at the moment on the cool down lap and Charla
Clair's comments to his race engineer Brian Bozzi the response
to Carla science and disobeying team orders allegedly, but then

(25:55):
he refused to be joining it. It was bizarre. He's
had a long ran and then immediately afterwards Carlos has
been spoken about something completely different when when he was
asked why Charles might be unhappy, and then when Charles
was asked he refused to speak about it, So that

(26:16):
there's something bubbling away behind the scenes there. I wonder
if there's this growing sense that Carlos doesn't need to
drive for Ferrari anymore because he doesn't He's not going
to drive for Ferrari anymore, so he may as well
drive for Carlos and therefore he doesn't need to worry
about team orders, who just worry about Carlos orders. So

(26:40):
there's that winter of discontent bubbling away behind the scenes.
You know, those sort of comments from from Charles talking
about how you know, being the nice guy always screws
him of paraphrase, there tactical that's not the work of you.
That's not one on track pass, that's not one disobeyed

(27:03):
team order, that's the culmination of a number of them.
So I wonder if that's growing pressure, growing concern that
it is starting to slip away. They need to close
up on McLaren maybe a little bit more quickly than
they have done, to really make sure that they've got
a good shot of the Constructor championship. And also I

(27:25):
wonder if it's just a frustration thing that Carlos and
Ferrari thought they would win that race and shot up
for that matter, thought that they would win that race
and then got their pants bean off them by by Mercedes.
So they was sort of bruised ego on a few
different fronts. Wrap that all together and you've got a

(27:48):
team that heading into the weekend had a degree of
swagger about it, coming out of the weekend just doesn't
feel like it's got that same confidence. And even though
it beat McLaren, you still look at McLaren, I think, yeah,
they're probably gonna be world champions, don't you.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
Yeah, because this is a track that just absolutely didn't
suit McLaren and the next one absolutely will. Kat Arts
where Osco Piastre won the sprint last year, and Abi
Dhabi maybe I think might be a bit more of
a toss up the McLaren probably still just simply because
McLaren's been so good at so many tracks this year,
probably ahead, but could be a fascinating conclusion. The ferrari
thing for me. The more I've been thinking about it,
the more interesting I feel it is because there is

(28:24):
the team orders element. I think you're right, there's a
degree of Carlos science feels relatively unencumbered by team orders.
He didn't do it in any aggressive way. If he
in fact did ignore team orders, it's unclear. I had
gone back and looked through the on bards to try
and hear all the radio but there is an element
of that for me, though Charletclair's outburst, there's a little

(28:44):
bit of the fact that this has sort of happened before.
I think was it was it Silverston, I was earlier
this year. I have to go back and remember the
race where there was sort of a little bit of
unhappiness as well around the way that the drivers had
responded to team orders. So there's clearly something that's happened
before around Charlot Clair's under standing of whether or not
Carlos has been obeying what he believes to be the
rules of engagement or whatever. Is that element of it.

(29:07):
But I think there's also a degree of and we
saw it a lot in this race from Carlos that
he's really able to take the race on himself, and
that includes the strategy role, the pit roll he saw
before Ferrari seemed to this was going to need to
be a two stop race. For Ferrari felt like he
lost time waiting for that to happen. Did execute a

(29:28):
team order, I thought really well by letting char Leclair
through while Lewis Hamilton was behind both of them without
letting Lewis through it it was really quite masterfully done
as much as a team order can be done. And
it seems like the unhappiness actually stems from the fact
that after Carlos signs had made so many of the
strategy calls, had sort of run the race for himself
emerged as the faster to kind of that last stint,
and when Charles was told he wasn't going to be passed,

(29:49):
just barged passed rather than lose lap time waiting to
be told he could go through, or waiting for Charles
Ties to warm up after that pit stop. Part of
for me, part of that frustration we see from Charles
from time to time in relation to science is the
fact that he doesn't have that in his game, that
Carlos Science may not be faster than him, although they're
pretty close, but let's say outright speed, he's not quite

(30:11):
as fast as him, be kind of better at managing
these complicated races where things don't go to plan, where
Ferrari can't just win the one two in the way
they expected them to. It's not surprising to me that
Carlos Science ended up ahead, even though Charlotte Claire was
ahead on that first lap and looked quicker. I think
the frustration is there and sort of and this is
maybe a question for us later in the year when
we do a season wrap up or look forward to

(30:32):
next year or whatever. But I'm also not sure that
Lewis Hamilton is that guy either, And that's going to
make it a really interesting line up for me, because
how many times do we hear at Mercedes Lewis Hamilton
will occasionally argue back around strategy calls, but it's usually
after the factory he goes, ah, this was the wrong goal,
rather than in Carlos Seins's case, he'll tell them beforehand
and maybe nine times out of ten they'll change their

(30:53):
mind and do whatever he says, because they kind of
trust him. That's kind of interesting to me because I
do think that Ferrari was pushed to a two stop strategy,
that the strategy that ultimately got them the three to
three four OLO. I think they might have got it
anyway because of Carlos's insistence. If they don't have a
driver like that next year, they'll lack a little bit
I think for that. So I just thought that was interesting.
I think that just a real little bit of mindset.

(31:14):
Maybe it's a little bit of Charles also recognizing, and
he's very good at recognizing his weaknesses, that he'll be
lacking something next to your relative to Lewis. So I
find that that that situation sort of interesting in a
broader perspective. Let's just talk really quickly that I wrap
this up before we move on about McClaren, because this
was it was his worst qualifying performance of the year
by pure pace. I wasn't the lowest starting position, but

(31:36):
worse by pure pace. And then I think probably it's
least competitive race since bah Rain. Looking back at it,
I have to go back and look at the numbers.
It was the first time they've gone two races in
a row without getting a podium, that's for certain. Since
Bahrain and Saudi at the start of the year, they
are really talking about this being a one off and
in fact, weirdly bit of a profitable one because they learned.
They think why the car didn't work this weekend. Are
you confident that the last two races they can bounce

(31:58):
back or in this really weird and wild season where
we've seen form swing so dramatically for every team except McLaren, really,
is this the moment where McLaren's form starts to swing
a little bit?

Speaker 2 (32:08):
Well, I think firstly, let's not put too much on
a single result. Every team has an achilles heel. You know,
we saw Singapore last year for the all conquering red ball,
so let's keep it in context a little bit. We
know the guitar on paper should suit that, you know,

(32:30):
the McLaren so we should see an improved result. You know,
it was the team's worst result since round four. What
was that? Japan? Off the top of my head, Bahrain, Saudi, Australia, Japan.
Yet so it was the worst result since Japan, the
third worst result of the season fall and the worst
being the Bahrain grow on pre So it's been a
long time since I've had a performance like this, and

(32:52):
that's I think what's jarring, especially when you consider that
Mercedes has often had up and down results. Ferrari to
an extent that has had up and down results. I've
been more consistent of late, of course, and Red Bulls
were very consistent in the side of the year, but
they've dropped off a little bit, so I've almost sort

(33:13):
of become accustomed to seeing swings from the other teams,
not McLaren. So now we see a little bit of
a wobble from McLaren It stands out to us, and
that's why I don't think we need to rate take
too much from it. They still scored fifteen points, so
they did go home empty handed, by by any stretch

(33:34):
of the imagination. They're still leading the Constructors Championship, still
comfortably in the points. You know, it's not like they
were scraping through in ninth and tenth. So if that's
one of the worst races of the year for them,
then you kind of take that, don't you.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yeah, I mean it's a it's a rare race in
which they were the fourth quickest car, but emphasizes that
it was a rare race and they're still didn't leader
the championship. They've still got some points to defend, so
not at but it'll be interesting to see how they
respond to what should be one of the strongest tracks
of the year for them in Kata. Let's change tack
now again, Matt, to wrap this up to the big

(34:09):
news of the week. In fact, just before we recorded
this it broke, so it gave us a good chance
to talk about all of the details, and that is
that Cadillac will be joining Formula One in twenty twenty six.
Is the eleventh team, don't call it Andretti, even though
that is the team that will be entering fundamentally, but
in a rearranged structure. And this is a couple of
different interesting elements to this one. I think it's worth

(34:32):
reminding people how we got to this point because this
team that will be entering has been that long running
saga that has been the Andretti squad for the last
couple of years. Really will be based out of Silverston,
the factory that Andrettie has been building up and hiring
people for and developing a car for. And I think
you wrote earlier this year that they're going to have
their first twenty twenty six shassis before the end of
the year, so they're well ahead of the curve on

(34:53):
that one. But it will now be a team owned
by General Motors, a critical difference worth thirty. Then Formula
One announcing this team, they did not mention the name
Andretti at all. Is that what this is about, was
it Andretti the sticking point the entire time, The irritant
in the process for Formula One to accept this team
is that the change that was needed to be made.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
There's a couple of different factors at play, and the
truth will probably be somewhere in a mix of all
of them. There is the Andrettie element. Michael Andretti, for
some reason had enemies, Greig Mafe, Liberty Media CEO notably
one of them. But if you remember back to when
Michael Antretti was an F one driver, he tried to
do it from the US. He'd jet in for events,

(35:38):
even though that's thirty years ago. Memories in in Formula
one along for whatever reason, him coming in being bright
and brash about all of this just it got people
off site. He didn't win any friends so that has
been a little bit anti Michael. But it's important also
to realize that Andretti Global and Michael Andretti was only

(35:58):
ever really a front for Dan Towers anyway. The Towers
is where the money is. He's Gamebridge and Group of
thousand and one and the rest of it. He's got
the money, he's got the connections. So by the restructure
that's taken place at Andretti in recent months, Michael's gone

(36:19):
off into a different advisory strategic sort of role. Towerist
is running at day to day, So basically where you
see TWG Group just superimposed Andretti Global over the top
of that. Because the same thing, there's also been a
little bit of window dressing happening about how this team

(36:41):
is structured. The entrant, i understand is still TWG Group.
That's the entrant that applied to the FAA and we
had its application approved. This isn't a new application. There's
not been a second expressions of interest process that's been opened.
That happened last February. Four applicants were received, one of
them the Andrette. The Andretti application that was approved last

(37:05):
October got passed on to Formula one for commercial approval.
We got rejected in January. Ten months on, it's now
been accepted. It is the same project. You can change
the name above the door, you can put a different
sticker of it, you can paint in the carr a
different color if you like, but it's the same project.
Many of the reasons that Formula one said Andretti cannot
come into Formula one still exist. This is hypocritical of

(37:28):
Formula one to be living the team in now rather
than ten months ago, and that speaks to me that
being a personal issue rather than any way commercially founded.
There's a whole Department of Justice investigation. There were FBI
agents on the ground in Vegas investigating this, right. There's
some serious stuff happening behind the scenes. In addition to this,

(37:52):
this is part of quelling some of the concern that
surrounds that Greg Mafey is leaving Liberty Media at the
end of the year. Year Who will be replaced by
John Malone, Liberty Media's founder. If I have been there
for nineteen years there is no replacement. That's odd, isn't it?
Nineteen years or nearly two decades of service and you

(38:12):
don't future proof, you don't have a succession plan, you
just right off into the sunset. I don't think he's
riding off into the sunset at all. There's also been
changes that Liberty media is such as Formula one is
basically the only business left there. This stinks to me.
I've been across the story in great detail for a long,

(38:36):
long long time. I know more about this than I
know more about the Andretti story and everything else, and
I do my own children's birthdays. I really wish I
was joking when I said that this is a complicated thing.
What we've been sold this morning Australian time is fabulous news.

(39:00):
Formula one first and foremost. It is amazing to have
an eleventh team. We need it. An American team is
good news. It's a shame it's not gonna have the
in Jurney name because I think that would be a
good selling point. But it's gonna be general motives and
that's still amazing from Australia. We're gonna have GM versus
Forward in Formula one pretty soon, so we're gonna have
that red versus Blue rivalry sort of thing. This is
good news and Formula one because it will bring him

(39:21):
in new sponsors. Yes, it'll be competition for sponsors in
the market, but that's that's a free market economy. You
get that anywhere. But General Motive is going to pump
in some money. But you don't think it's going to
take up some tracks on advertising and some corporate hospitality
and the rest of it. Of course, it is what
do you think this is going to do for viewership
in America? Do you think TV figures just went up? Absolutely,

(39:41):
they did. The money that's going to come into Formula
while off the back of this, I think it's going
to be phenomenal. Hence I don't see the other team's
arguments against it. Winding back six or eight months. I
really want to see how this plays out. Don't get fulled.
This is not General Motives in Cadillac designing a Formula

(40:01):
one car and then in a couple of years time,
putting their own power in it and going racing. This
is Dan Towers and the Andretti project doing what they
were already doing, selling naming rights or however they've structured
that so that it looks like it's General Motors. It's
exactly the same project, and it pisses me off that

(40:23):
most people aren't seeing that and that there are people
who think that we're stupid enough not to see that.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
You've summed it up well and it is. It's sort
of interesting because it's a little bit different to most
Formula One teams. Isn't it the idea that you have
a brand that has actually another company operating the team.
It's maybe a little bit more familiar. I think it
happens in Formada a little bit. But certainly the World
Endurance Championship. In fact, Cadillac in the World Durance Championship
is chip Ganassi right like.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
That, I disagree. Look at Mercedes, Yes, look I suppose,
isn't it Mercedes has run under license Aston Martin has
run under license Olpean it's turn by group when no,
but it's effectively its own entity running a Formula One
team on behalf of the of the factory, say most teams.

(41:08):
Most teams do it, so I would disagree with you
on that one.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Yeah, it's a good point, I suppose, But they are
their own. Where it's different is that it's not as
if Mercedes is licensing its name to a racing organization
that then that also does other stuff, right, It's not
licensing it to an independent specialist that then runs the
Mercedes car, right like Mercedes owns a percentage of the business.
That is Mercedes' Formula One team and its job is

(41:31):
to race Mercedes F one cars. It's not like in
Wild Students Championship, Chip Nassi, which is a huge independent
racing organization, has been chosen to operate the Cadillac cars,
or even in again in week af course are running
the Ferrari car like. It's different in that way, is
what I mean? Is that what it is is that
General Motors has gone to market. Essentially, it happened actually
in the reverse of this way, but it's gone to market,

(41:51):
and said and Dreddi the team, the company and Dreddi Global,
which runs all these teams, is going to be the
independent race team that operates a car with our name
on it. And that's the way that I mean it
is a little bit different, because you're right, it is
for most manufacturers and formula it's not exactly what it
looks like. But this is a little bit different. Again,
it's a little bit of a different model. And the
reason I emphasized that is that because that is how

(42:12):
this is essentially still exactly the same project that it
was last year with a little bit of tweaks, maybe ironically.
One of the tweaks is that it seems like the
power unit may come online later than twenty twenty eight.
That was the promise originally by Andretti, but now the
Cadillac press release is only by the end of the decades.
That gives it another I guess a year or two,
depending on your interpretation of what that means before it
builds its own power unit, which means one of the

(42:33):
major criticisms of Formula one in January and it denied
the team, which is that it would be a customer
and theref will bring no value. It still stands because
it will be a customer for a couple more years.
It also doesn't have, as it did last year, a
pre existing agreement as it did with Reno to supply
because Reno is folding its engine supplied year between twenty six.
It's now tipt to be Ferrari or the backup being

(42:55):
Honda of course, which is the supplying the fewest teams.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
So I believe it will be high. There are two arguments.
If it's a Ferrari deal, it's a commercial agreement, and
TWG Group has gone out and secured that supply deal
with Ferrari. If it's Honda, it's obligation to supply of regulations.
Obligation to supply regulations. Basically, any existing power unit manufacturer,

(43:21):
should a new team come in and not have a
power unit suppier, or an existing team and not have
a power unit supplier, has an obligation to supply that team. Now,
the FIA decides which manufacturer is that does that based
on a criteria that's outlined, which basically is the team
that supplies the least number. Honda is an existing supplier,

(43:41):
even though it's dressed up with RedBull power trains. At
the moment, it's still considered to be a Honda power
unit in the eyes of the FIA. In twenty twenty
six and beyond, its only team is Acid Martin, so
Honda will supply one team. It'll be interesting come to
twenty twenty eight should that change. But for twenty two
twenty six, when GM CADILEC comes in, if he is

(44:04):
obligation to supply, it will be a hond of power unit.
But every other manufacturer should be fighting tooth and narrator
get that supply deal because another team is more data,
and in a new power unit regulation cycle, data is
gold dust. It's why Mercedes is so smart in signing
our pen.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
But there would be an interesting question there because you
I mean, I know there are obviously a lot of
intellectual property, fireworlds and all that kind of thing. But
if you know you're entering a two year deal and
General Motors is going to be the team that takes
over the power unit supply, there, I wouldn't blame another
manufacturer from being a little bit worried that all you're
doing is giving people two year access to how your
new power unit works. It's not forget, it's not the

(44:41):
current power units where everyone kind of knows what's going on.
Essentially a brand you've very similar but brand new formula
from twenty twenty six. There is that element of it
there which I do think is interesting. This is a
final note before we wrap up and move, of course,
to the Alternative Championship. I was thinking about driver lineups
because training twenty six, fifteen months away to the first
race or probably we don't know what the country is,
probably fifteen months ago. Probably a January start now, won't it,

(45:04):
which is even sooner til the first race of twenty
twenty six. Next year, in contrast to this year, actually
quite a low key contract year for drivers. In fact,
I counted only four drivers who are out of contract
next year. The two Mercedes drivers, George Russell and Chimi Antonelli,
who will almost certainly be resigned. There's the best risk
over whether the Maxim staff joined is very hypothetical, so

(45:24):
that's not worth thinking about. Jack Douan is the other.
But if he is not resigned by Alpine, we can
probably take it as read that he's not going to
be on the market because he hasn't seized his f
one chance. We all hope that's not the case and
he gets retained by Alpine. The only one really is
Yuki Sonoda, which certainly tallies with the idea that maybe
it becomes a Honda supplied team. It's the only driver

(45:44):
I think has the reputation to go to market and
actually be sought out. Who may well be on the
market because the Hondre engine deal with the Red Bull
teams ends at the end of next season. He's a
Honda backed driver doesn't necessarily mean you can't continue there
or potentially at Red Bull Racing. Since he's really still
pushing hard to replace the pairs with and all that
that happens. He's really the only driver who emerges as

(46:06):
an active, experienced F one candidate to become one of
Andretti's drivers. Then after that you have to look at
drivers who've either recently retired or drivers from outside the sport,
So it does put them in a little bit of
a difficult position.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
I yeah, to an extent, but looking around that there's
a really good driver, experienced choice. We are on the
sidelines next year battery Botas.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
Yes, I think he's a good choice. He would be
a good choice.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
You know, what a new team wants is some experience
to just bring a little bit of calmness to the
garage and to help settle down what's going to be
a chaotic place at times. And then it's an American team,
it's going to want an American driver. You know, you
go out there and you try and get someone like

(46:54):
a Jack Crawford. I think he's tied up with Williams Disney,
but he's looking at doing Formula two next year. You know,
thinking ahead to kids who are in Formula three this year,
you know, I'll be looking at some of the Americans,
maybe even somebody the the IndyCar Kids, a Colon Herder.

(47:14):
There's a Max Esterston. I don't know much about Max,
and that I don't know much about him suggests that
he's probably not high on that that that list, but
you could. Hurd has been long linked with a move
into Formula one. Need didn't give a super license for

(47:37):
I didn't qualify for a super license when they tried
to get him one before so and then could they
go on could they go and raid the cupboard elsewhere
and bring them like a Patoy Award, someone who's got
some some good but clarity experience. So there's some some
experience out there, and there's some American with Asterix options

(48:03):
out there as well that I don't think that they
will be coming into Formula one with a couple of wabblers.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
All right, Alternative Championship time. This episode's going on. Funny,
longest championship winning episode's gone on pretty long, the Alternative
championshpcause we're heading towards the final weeks. In fact, this
could be there. We could only have more two more
weeks after this of the Alternative Championship.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
It's yeah, it's it's been a thing. It's it's been
a roller coaster, it's been. It's been my favorite part
of the the pod half of your intros, which get
more and more elaborate every week. I do see here,
as you're doing the intro, I want to what's the

(48:47):
I'm Australia's leading hot air balloonist or something. Yeah, the
complish swords swallower. Right, So alternative championship where we just
give random points for random reasons, because why not. So
I'm I'm I'm going to start positively nice. So I'm

(49:09):
going to give fifty points to Simon Lesmbie. Oh okay,
the sky Scary off One host for describing the Las
Vegas Strip circuit as spider pigs. That I genuinely laughed
at that. I thought, you know what, there's some points
right there, Son, You've deserved that.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
Like because the outline does look like a little bit
like the silhouette of a pig. I do like that.
In some people's minds, circuits can't be rotated like it
could just be a regular sided pig. It doesn't have
to be upside out. You just turned it around.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
I like it, but it's hungry. He's a camel.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
Oh Okay, that's interesting. Thought about that one. Okay, you've
never really kind that's what.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
There's the hump. I don't know what his legs are doing,
but you know, maybe it's riding a surfboard or something.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
Oh yeah, yes, I kind of do. Said, yeah, yes,
the legs are a bit of a question mark, but
it's not the craziest one I've seen. Yeah, okay, that's good.
The only one I really can really think of is
that Monza and Monza and Hockenheim have always looked like
a sock to me. It's not very exciting out like.
It's a fairly sort of ambiguous shape. Sock can really
kind of look like anything.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
Well, it sort of makes sense because Italy is a boot.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
Well, yeah, there you go. It's all continues in that
feet realm. All right, I'm going to start well, in fact,
I'm exclusively taking points off today. I really should think
more positively, but I feel like it has to be done.
I'm starting with a big one, four million points of
chief F one, Chief Operating Officer Emily Praser, first entry.

(50:45):
I believe it feels harsh, but there's a reason for it.
For saying that Las Vegas doesn't need a sprint because
it's already so fast, even though it's not even the
fastest race in Formula one, and notably neglected that it
would have nothing that it might have, although apparently would
have nothing to do with the reported four million US
dollar hosting fee for a sprint. Of course, the F

(51:06):
one is the promoter of Las Vegas can't charge itself
that money, obviously can't, and we'd have to take that
money out of the kitty from some other race. So
I think that the four million dollars off, Maybe I'll
just take it off F one. I feel bad taking
it off as specific person.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
Okay, that's a lot less exciting, but okay.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
Yes, well, I mean just go for F one. Just
take it off F one, because I do think that
Las Vegas would be an obvious and good candidate for
a sprint. I think this particularly if you looked at
some of the shots of the attendance, the audience in
any of the practice sessions. I know they're just practice sessions,
but even qualifying was not sold out this year the
race they was year. Yes, well, obviously improvement, improvement is improved.

(51:45):
You can't argue with that, But I look, I say
the argument that it's only practiced and it's ten pm,
but it's ten degrees outside. Who wants to be sitting
around watching that? But if it's a sprint, people will
be motivated to go and you might sell those last
tickets that weren't sold. But of course you can't charge
Las Vegas is for a sprint SOT it probably never happen.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
Yeah and yeah, yeah, basically when you can fleece some
other promoter for them, why wouldn't you. I'm being positive
here again.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
Good if we never need maybe that's how we can
stick with that. You can be positive.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
I'm giving seven points to Jack Dowan for having a
reason to choose number seven because it's the first time
at number seven has been used in Formula one for
a legitimate reason, even if the reason is I'm doing
it because the last bloke didn't have a win. I
thought it was but he was cool.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
It's a real pity, isn't it that Elphane dropped the
ball at the paperwork again? Did not get that because
Jack Dowan was obviously long ago confirmed for as a
driver for next year, they should have just got in
ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelle, who rocked up late and
just said, yeah, I want that number, and.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
He got it. It's that German efficiency, is what it is. Yeah,
well is it?

Speaker 1 (52:49):
Or is it alphane? Anyway, I'm going to continue by
taking three hundred and fifty two points off Toto Wolf.
Undred fifty two points is the page number of the
Inside Mercedes F one book, and I take the points
off for claiming, as we mentioned earlier, that the comments
he made about Lewis Hamilton were taken out of context,

(53:10):
despite the fact this was a heavily authorized and surely
approved book, that the marketing material would have been approved
ahead of time, probably by Toto Wolf himself. I just
thought it was rather a little bit silly for him
to walk back, try to walk back comments that he knew,
he knew what he was saying now, probably in a
formal interview and everything, trying to walk them back slightly
to take some of the heat off. I think the situation,

(53:32):
particularly as they came the week after probably Lewis's worst
race of the year.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
Yeah, it was all a little bit awkward that it's
going to shelf lap her outside milk. Yeah yeah, yeah,
he can try and explain that one away all his likes,
but he put it in print a Mercedes book less

(53:59):
Mercedes say his book. All right, I'm joining the negative club.
Oh okay, and if you knocked them over, I'm kicking
them while I'm down. Oh you hit F one with
four million, I'm taking two hundred million off them.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
Wow, all right, that's huge.

Speaker 2 (54:20):
I'm taking the anti dilution fee from Formula one for
allowing the Andrette entry in now when ten months ago
it wouldn't and the project basically hasn't changed. So I'm
taking the anti dilution fee from them. It seems quite serious. Actually,
now I do this, these are all imaginary points. Keep

(54:41):
your mind.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
Yes, they won't have to pay, but.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
Yeah, that's that's that.

Speaker 1 (54:47):
Probably end up paying more than that as well, I suspect,
because depending on whether or not they're paying the new
anti dilution fee after the new Concorde agreement comes to
effect or a negotiated fee, I think there are reports
from the BBC that it'll be somewhere in the middle.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
Yeah, I've read those as well. I don't see how
it could be something in the middle, because you sign
up to a Concord agreement. The probably is at the
moment they can't sign up. You can't sign up to
twenty twenty six because the entries haven't opened. So it
can be approved to enter, but it can't actually enter
because entries haven't opened for twenty twenty six yet. And
part of that also means that the Concord agreement needs

(55:23):
to be in Concord agreements. There's not one, there's there's
two agreements. There's a regular trend commercial side. That document
needs to be in a position to be signed at
the moment. We know conversations ongoing. They're going to be
resolved reasonably soon. But until that's resolved, they can't, you know,
they don't actually know what they're on the hook for.

(55:43):
So let's go with what we know, which is the
two hundred million dilution fee for the moment, and everyone
should count themselves lucky. Then it's not twenty twenty six already,
and I've not taken six hundred million off them.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
Yes, imagine that they'd have no hope at all. And finally,
I'm going to take just a minor twenty seven points
off the Las Vegas Grand Prix organizers. I know that
is technically formula one. Well that's create a difference here
and that's for every minute between the end of the
race and the podium ceremony, because this year, contrary to expectations,
they persisted with that silly car ride to the fountains

(56:18):
out the front of the hotel, and it just killed time.
I think it kills the vibe, kills a little bit
of the like hype of the thing. They didn't even
I mean, I suppose that you could look at it
two ways. At least this time they didn't all stop
and look at the fountain like they did last year,
so they saved a bit of time, but it still
was just some massive delay. Just do the interviews somewhere

(56:40):
else like it it's not necessary, or do them after
the podium, take them, make it a PostScript. I just
thought that was a bit of just I found it
to be a bit of a mood killer, But I
am pleased. I can't get points with this already done
my three and I hadn't thought about this earlier that
they did include Max with Staffan and all of it.
So I do think it's always been quite an awkward
and frustrating thing for Formula One when the title winner
wins not on the podium. You just don't really see

(57:01):
or hear from them for the rest of the night.
And I think that's always been underwhelming. Brother, So I'm
glad they did that, but god, they could have goodness,
they could have done it a little bit quicker.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
Yeah, it was. It was a really awkward thing to watch,
particularly when you've got Max and GP. You know, you
got look, w's a table and then you've got the
three other blokes huddled together, you know, without room to
swing a cat in there in their car. And then
they drove a walking speed like seriously, they could have

(57:30):
gotten there. They could have had that by driving twice
as fast, and they.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
Should have got managed to drive the other podium finishes
would have been good, wouldn't it. I would have been
supportive of that.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
I reckon what the is the thing? What they need
is the winner of the support category gets to drive
the F one winners to the interviews. But then I think,
here we go. We need to get more vegas on this.
Just having even walk up to the fountains, that's not
good enough. We need some red carpet, we need we

(58:00):
need a big line of photographers there. We need to
be asking them who they're wearing. These are the questions
that aren't being asked. If we're going to do this
American style, we're going to do it properly. Let's let's
let's turn that into some sort of reality TV show
for the chance to be in the support race to
drive the winners to that and then have this big

(58:20):
long red carpet thing and awards ceremony at the end.
There maybe envelopes. I like it. The envelopes a bit
of Billy Crystal Rickey Chavas. Let's do this properly, Vegas,
stop half asking it.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
Yees. So well, there you go. I like that a lot.
Advice for next year. Now, no, no, that is all
the time. We have a bit talk today. We'll be
back next week to wrap up all the action from
the cut out Grand Prix. You can subscribe to bittalk
wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you can leave
us a rating and review as well, and you can
keep up to date with the Lates step on news
throughout the week and the round at Fox Sports dot
com dot Au and Speedcafe dot com. From Matt Cosh

(58:58):
me Michael Lomonato. Thanks very much for your company. We'll
catch you next week.