April 14, 2025 • 31 mins
Michael Lamonato and Matt Clayton dissect Oscar Piastri’s pole-to-flag masterclass in Bahrain, and what that means for teammate Lando Norris, as another huge week of Motorsport is in the books.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the moment then, that we've all been waiting
for for in a romax.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Here comes Oscar Piastree, Lando Norrith.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
I aren't playing hardball out there at the moment, Steve
Peverchel Moment of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
On this week's episode, Oscar Piastri claims a comprehensive victory
at the bar rain In Grand Prix to get three
points within the championship lead. And on let's be honest,
pretty hectic week of motorsport, we're gonna be checking in
with the Kata Motorcycle Grand Prix and over in Topaur
the Supercars Round.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
My name is Michael Lomonado.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
It's great to have your company and the company of
my co host. I know we missed out on hearing
this over the course of the weekend, so I'll do it.
Thank you ever so much for getting up for this podcast.
Matt Clayton, I'm not sure it be to bed together.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
It's definitely been one of those weekends where everywhere you
look this something going around a track somewhere.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
But I kin't have too much of that, can you.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, Well, this weekend might have found.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
You can probably get any close to having too much
of that because we were operating in virtually every time
zone around the clock. Matt, Yeah, have been to bed yet,
but we're we're going a soldier on. Well, thanks not
only for getting up but staying up. I suppose let's start,
yes with the bar Rain Grand Prix, Round four of
the championship Oscar Piastre one. That's his second Grand Prix
victory of this season, now just three points off the
(01:21):
championship lead. The leader continues to be Lando Norris. Had
Norris not finished on the podium, we'll talk about this
as we go through this, he would have taken the
championship lead first Australian driver. Preempting this a little bit,
he would have been the best Australian drivers in s
markwere but in twenty ten to lead the championship. This
felt like, I mean, it felt very similar to his
Chinese Grand Prix winning many respects. Led from pole, no
(01:41):
one seemed to bother him very much throughout the race.
Very straightforward victory, very Oscar Piastre victory. But this one
in the context of how Lando Norris performed on the
same weekend seemed to carry a little bit more meaning,
certainly if you read into Norris's response.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, I thought it was actually more emphatic than China,
simply because China there was that specter of or Islando
going to catch up in the final stint? What's going
on with his breaks? Is there a possibility of a
late race charge here? This was never in doubt, and
it was never in doubt twice because we had the
inverted Commas Hollywood safety car towards the end of the
race to make things interesting when there was some Debrison
(02:15):
track and that brought the field back into contention after
Oscar pretty much left everybody for dead in that first
couple of stints, and he thought, well, you know, perhaps
there's some jeopardy here for him, and then very calmly
just drove away and continued on his merry way and
the whole weekend from qualifying and how unflustered he was,
and right the way through the race, just outstanding from
(02:36):
start to finish. He's not had a race win like this,
and I don't think that's going to be the last
time we see this, because you can just see the
confidence and I think the calmness with Pastre at the moment,
he knows he can do this, he knows he's got
the machinery, he knows he belongs and now it's just
a matter of methodically executing that.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
And I just thought it was a completely flaw this weekend.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
There's been this interesting element as well with Oscar this season.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I know, were only four rounds in and this is
what his ass I've emphasized for Grand Prix and enough
in the twenty four Grand Prix season make any conclusions,
but it's interesting that in this sumple size we had.
I know we're going back a bit here, but Australia
and China in particular Bahrain's a bit of an outline
because McLaren's always been quite bad here. It hasn't been
an Oscar Piastre thing. But nonetheless, we've seen a lot
of races where Oscar hasn't had great results in the
(03:19):
last couple of years of his career, and he's turned
up this season. He's been really quite good at all, well,
he's been quite good at all Grand Prix. I think
you can even mount an argument that he's been the
fastest race driver so far this season.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
If he hasn't won all of the races.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
That step seemed that step we talked about during the
off season about what he needed to become potentially a
world championship contender. It feels a lot like at this
stage it's been made.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
It feels like it's happened very quickly.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Too.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
You look at some of the rough edges that he's
earned out over the past couple of years. He had
the big qualifying deficit last year and Norris was twenty
to four, and that's emphatic in Norris's favor. But he
seems to have addressed that very very quickly and is
less of those little mistakes in qualifying. And we know
that he cleaned up a lot of his time management
linelast year, so he's much more proficient at that. He
is the very different definition of a fast learner, and
(04:05):
you can see the change in him just in four
Grand Prix weekends this year. I think the most surprising
thing to me is it looks totally unsurprising that he's
a front run and he looks so assured it's happened
super fast, and you know, we're four rounds into a
twenty four round season. This looks a legitimate and be
like it has staying power, and you know you don't
want to get too far ahead of yourselves here because
(04:26):
he's still off the championship lead. But this looks like
a championship push that can sustain the whole way through.
Now if McLaren continues with this car advantage they've got
at the moment, and you would expect in the final
year of a rule set, you quite often see these
baked in advantages carry on for longer in a season
because the other teams turn the development tap off and
they look towards twenty twenty six. So if we have
(04:46):
a fairly standard season like we've had when we've had
these really big rule changes in the past, I think
twenty thirteen is the one for me. When red bullwarp dominant,
everyone else looked at twenty fourteen, sob actually INVERTI wiped
the floor with everybody at the end of twenty thirteen.
This has got that claren feel about it. Other than
extenuating circumstances like a bit of rain or Maximstaff and Suzuka,
so you know you're looking at the possibility of two
(05:08):
guys fighting for the world title. I'm not sure I
was ready to say Piastre was ready to win that
this time last year.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
He looks completely legit to me.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Yeah, he's really interesting that step change, because we talked
about at the beginning of last year and it was
a little bit easier to say because it was his
rookie season, and of course he's going to make progress.
But that trajectory that McLaren talks a lot about just
feels completely uninterrupted at this point. I think it's going
to be really interesting to see how that develops over
the course of the season because he continues to get better.
That's the sort of interesting element of this. We talked
(05:39):
about this, and we joked about this on the podcast
during the week, which you can go and find at
the Fox Sports website or wherever you get your favorite
podcasts that you know. Christian Horner said after the Japanese Grandfer,
which Maxwis staffin one, that McLaren's problem was having well,
two competitive drivers and it's made its bead and must.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Lay in it.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Now.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I think it's his phrase in a weird way.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
There's this tiny little shred of life that you can
kind of take out of that, which is that for
the driver's championship perspective, Well, Lando and Oscar both can
be taking points of each other, but Max is just
going to be the only driver on his behalf when
Red Bull Racing.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Is competitive winning those points. I kind of get that element.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
But the other part of this is that McLaren's always
there and for example, Red Bull Racing wasn't this weekend,
and Mercedes always the second fastest, but I haven't got
the senset that they're a car that could win a race.
They con finished second a lot, but not there and
Ferrari's Ferrari maybe later on in the year. But so
it does feel like regardless of whether land Or and
Oscar competing with one another, they've got enough clear air
(06:35):
to score points on themselves and be okay. So I
want to talk about Lando Norris here because he was
the missing element in this. In China, as you said earlier,
there were these circumstances that men Aka was never comfortable
with that track, but he was kind of competitive enough
and at the end of the race maybe he was
there about to those break problems. There was no sense
this weekend that Lando was on Oscar's pace. This was
Oscar's weekend, not just McLaren's weekend. Let's say it like
(06:56):
that and really quite despondent, significant amount of despondency, I
think zerry word I can think of that really sums
it up so clearly for Lando, especially after qualifying. I
mean we see he's fond of a bit of self flatullation.
I think when he does not danger well, we've got
a lot of that after qualifying and even after the race,
recovering with the podium, saying well I should have finished
at least second and I finished third and that's disappointing.
(07:19):
That's part of his game, isn't it this sort of
intense self criticism. But does it revealed do you think
a little bit about where the dynamic in this potential
potential championship battle is going to play out?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Well?
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I think, particularly if you contrast the way that Oscar
goes about his racing, where there's minimal radio chatter and
it's very flat line. It's not super peaky good or bad.
He just wants information, doesn't say a whole lot very reserve.
This is a man that's in control and he has
complete belief in what he's doing, and he if he
has some vulnerabilities, he's not willing to share them, and
(07:51):
I think that's something that he can seize upon. Now,
there could be a cultural thing here or personalities, but
the way Norris reacts to adversity, to me, I think
you can perhaps Look. I appreciate the honesty, and I
think every Formula One driver goes through these periods of
doubt like this. But you can get away with this
in a championship where the other protagonists in the championship
and not just within your own team. If you've got
(08:11):
a deeper championship field and you're spreading this around, there's
different guys that are winning races and they're not you,
then perhaps you can get away with this. But when
the person that is most likely to capitalize on your
worst days is your teammate in the same car, in
the same team, I don't know whether you should be
showing all of your cards here because I think it's
an area that Piastre can really chip away at, because
(08:34):
you know that psychologically Orlando can get very, very.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Down on himself.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
And I just think the dynamic of this is going
to be super interesting because Piastre is managed by Mark Webber,
and one of Mark Weber's sayings was you know, I
am giving nothing. He would give you absolutely nothing except
for the odd f moment and radio message, which Piastre
is not going to do. Piastre is going to show
Norris absolutely no vulnerability psychologically. And this strikes me as
(08:59):
a championship be one as much between the years as
between the white lines. I think there's a lot going
on with these two different personalities here and the way
Pastre's working it. I think he sees that he's got
something here that he can use it to his advantage.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
I think it's really interesting.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
In the post race press conference, obviously both drivers are asked, well,
why is the car working for you, Oscar and not Lando?
And Lando doesn't have any answers at this moment. I'm
sure he's got some ideas and he's not going to
give them all away, but he did say he was
really just confounded by the fact he can't take this
car to the limit like he could last year's car.
McLaren has talked about the fact that it's made some
compromises on driveability to try and take a step forward,
(09:33):
and then Oscar has asked the question, well, what's going
on with you? You're finding these struggles with the car
and he said, no, Cark was great. I'm getting a
lot of pace out of it. Seems like it's working
fine for me. And I don't think he was stirring
the pot in any deliberate way because it's not really
Oscar style. But the contrast there was stark and if
you Orlando, they're sitting and you're obviously hearing him the
debrief as well in the team. Because Oscar's not giving
(09:53):
any negative feedback about the car presumably or nothing as
dire as Lando's would be, You're starting to think, well,
why can't I get that out of the car. And
it's certainly nowhere near as significant as, for example, Lewis
Hamilton's current grappling with the Ferrari in this transitional if
you want to go back to even Daniel Ricardo McLaren
against land know Norris, because Norris is still finishing on
the podium and still polkand and and all that kind
(10:15):
of thing, but there's just that little element of well,
why can't I do that?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
And I think the interesting part for me is if
you roll reverse and this will happen with this car
this year because it clearly is the class of the field.
There will be a weekend where Norris does to Piastre
what Piastre did to Norris this weekend in Bahrain. How
Oscar responds to that, I don't think he's going to
give as much away. He's not going to be as
raw and exposed, and that he'll take his medicine and
(10:41):
he'll say, look, there's plenty of learnings to come and
so on, but there'll be a lot more measured, a
lot more reserved. He's not going to leave any low
hanging fruit out there that could be seized upon. Because
if this shakes out the way we think it's going
to shake out psychologically, this championship takes a different term,
perhaps after mid season, if everyone else is buttoned off
and they're looking at twenty twenty six. If this is
ahead to head battle and you look at Norris as
(11:02):
the homegrown protege within McLaren and Pastre's coming in after
he swirmed his way out of the Alpine deal. If
he comes in and sort of beats the guy that
they've raised since he was seventeen years old, you know,
head to a world championship fight. Now they have a
car to do it. It'll be so interesting from a
mental perspective as this season goes on.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Something that we'll be watching before we move on for
the next couple of races. As well as that, I
felt like there was a little bit of a dynamic
shift this weekend, not the internal power of McLaren because
I don't really believe there's any big changes in the
way they're approaching things. They're going to be even handed.
Lando Norris, as we've said, still an extremely quick driver.
This is one race we're talking about as well. They
could win the next four races. We're having completely different discussion.
(11:39):
But so much of this season was about, well, how's
Lando going to beat Max with staff into the championship.
That was the rivalry that we saw at the end
of last season.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
We've got a little bit of glimpse of that this year.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I mean in Japan, obviously Max was on form, and
in Australia as well it was challenging for victory. But
I think this weekend emphasized that Red Bull Racing has
some pre significant problems to overcome, and suddenly I wonder
how much land those thinking Oscar is not just going
to be here a winning like.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Every three or four races like last year.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
It was often in contention but maybe not absolutely sething
the deal, and it's Max is the guy who's going
to be winning the races now. I wonder how much
is an adjustment to think, well, actually it's the guy
in the other garage now that I really need to
be thinking about, because Max may not come good, Red
Bull racing may not come good.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
They're hinging.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
It feels like they're hanging a lot on this rule
reinterpretation the Spanish Grand Prix out front wings. McLaren's adamant
nothing's going to change, just like it didn't with the
rear wings a couple of rounds ago. It really could
just be between the two of them, and that is
an approach shift.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
It's almost easier to focus on your main opponent if
they're not wearing the same Overall, it's very much an
US versus them. When it's us versus us, that's a
really different dynamic because then there's a degree of paranoia
that starts to creep in too. Is he getting the
new parts before me? Is he getting a better strategy
than me? Why is he getting the undercut?
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Why am I not?
Speaker 1 (12:54):
What's happening in engineering briefings? Are they keeping stuff back,
there's all that level of paranoia because you know how
the team operates internally, whereas if it's Norris versus Verstappen,
Atlanta has no idea what goes on within the walls
of Red Bull and how to operate. Sometimes it's easier
to fight someone when you don't know necessarily what they're doing,
because there's that degree of a lack of knowledge. They're
(13:14):
just the guy in the other team I need to be.
When it's within your own team, it's a very different dynamic.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Yeah, when you don't know what they're doing, and when
more importantly you know they don't know what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
So that's part of the reason as well.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
I wouldn't have said that better.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
I'm sure you could bout a way. Let's move on
now to move of the week by Shannon's.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Now.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Unlike last week or the week before, and it was
a lot going on of course motorsport. We had no
shortage of options, plenty of racing action over three different
disciplines this weekend. What caught your eye over the NonStop
twenty four hours, seven days a week.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Of racing, Yes, a coupmember, a time where there was
no racing I'm going to go two wheels here.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Motor GP.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
YEP.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
We had a situation that was so shocking that even
Mark Marquez didn't know what was going on because he
was passed for second place by a KTM on Lap
ten of the Catar Grand Prix on Sunday, and quite rightly,
he thought that KTM is probably Pedro Acosta, given that
a cost as usually the guy getting most out of
the KTM. To his great surprise, he realized it was
Maverick Vignalees, who we have not seen or heard from
(14:17):
the entire season, and Vignales was just on one of
his I'm going to be you know, Maverick and Mercurial
at the same time put an incredible move on Mark
to get to second place and then took the lead
of the Catar Grand Prix. And afterwards Marquez is like, well,
I got passed by KTM. That was interesting, and then
I was shocked that it was him. And this is
what happens with Maverick Vinales. Once or twice a year,
he looks like the best rider in Motor GP, and
(14:38):
then you'll look at the classification and realize that he
is eighteenth. Yeah, it's always the good and the bad
and nothing in between. But that was my move of
the week A because it was very audacious and B
it was very surprising.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Yeah, and we will get back to Maverick Vinalas a
little bit later on as well. I'm going with Formula
one very early on in the bar Aim Grand Prix
wasn't a battle for the lead in factors, battle for
drivers and finished way off the podium. It was between
Lewis Hamilton and Carlos since a nice long running battle
from the start all the way through to the middle
sector didn't all rely on DRS, which, as much as
we enjoyed the action bar Raim, let's be honest, a
(15:10):
lot of it was just DRS initiated. And of course
there's the poignancy of this isn't it is a significance.
Carlos Science is driving a car that he's struggling with
at the moment. Is sort of a little bit of
an untold story so far this season, and maybe we'll
get you once we get to Europe. But not having
a great time in the Williams this weekend looked a
little bit better, and likewise, Louis Hamilon not having the
best of times at Ferrari. In fact, I feel like
it's in the last week that realities hit him a
(15:33):
little bit. You can see in his body language, and
there they were scrapping for sort of middling points would
have been significant for Carlos obviously, but for Lewis Hamilon
it's still like, well what am I doing here? And
Carlos put up a fight, like he argued the position
here knowing that his car wasn't gonna be able to
do it, And in the end Carlos eventually retired from
this race and Lewis Hamilton kind of finished middling in
the middle of the points. But I know, I love
(15:55):
it when drivers who find themselves in these kinds of
situations find themselves on track because inevitably there's that little
bit of extra significant.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
And isn't it funny when you can see the body
language of a car in a fight as well, which
is like a ridiculous thing to say about a car,
but you could see that if Science's car had elbows,
they were I love the fact that he just fought
his corner in an inferior machine so strongly because it's like,
hang on, you're driving the car I used to drive.
You can have some ideas for the time. It was
very good fun nostulus.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Yeah, it was one of the many great passages of
racing from the vah Rain Grand Prix that was moving
the week thanks to Shannon's Matt. Let's move on to
one of my favorite segments of this video podcast, Interested
versus Experts. Many motorsport disciplines, of course covered on the
Fox Sports website with between them between us cover all
three of them this week, though I'm interested in Moto
(16:44):
GP interesting mostly because of the time zone meant I
was watching it a one replay obviously, I wasn't watching
it live, yes, but a great race in Kata overnight
or depending on when your listeners overnight during the day
if you're in Perth, maybe it's still technically at night.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I'm not sure exactly how the.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Time zone is converted, but I want to start with
I think the biggest takeaway from this race, which was
Jorge Martin's return and now pretty hasty return to hospital,
really quite injured in a significant crash, had a reasonable start.
I guess to the weekend that he finished the sprint
but couldn't finish the rates.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
He has encountered a black cat and walk beneath the
ladder and done every possible thing you could be to
be unlucky. We know that he had a big crash
in preseason testing in Malaysia. He had the motocross accident
where he broke his left wrist. He was back this
weekend and then had a fall in the Grand Prix
and was hit by Fabio to jan Antonio, and they've
(17:34):
reassessed Monday night, Australian time. The extent to Martine's injury.
It looks like he has eight broken ribs and a
punctured lung. He's not been able to leave Katar, he's
still in the hospital.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
There.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
One of those accidents that when you see it in
the moment and you know the consequences of bikes hitting
riders prone across the track, you do sit up that
little bit straight. So we're very, very thankful that it's
no worse than eight broken ribs and a puncture lung.
As much as that sounds terrible to say, incredibly unlucky,
but incredibly lucky at the same time. And I think
(18:07):
you only had to see Fabio dejan Antonio's face after
the race when he realized what he had done. There
was still eight or nine laps to go in that race.
He's riding around afterwards saying, I'm looking at the big
screens to see how he's being treated because I don't
know if he's okay, because I know that I hit
him and the mental toll that takes on a rider.
But for Martine, it's just been an absolute nightmare since
(18:29):
he's come to a Prillier. He's done one Grown Prix weekend,
he's injured again. This season is a complete right off.
It was probably before he came to Qatar. He's not
on a to Caddy, so he's not going to win
to Caddy win everything. But at this point I think
his health and safety and the longevity of that contract
with a Prillier is far more important. So we're thankful
that he's okay, but my goodness, he is just so
so unlucky at the moment.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Bit a blow as well because it felt like he'd
timed his comeback relatively responsibly in the contact.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yeah, as far as motor GP goes, I think I
was hoping to get through this. He can unscale the
following races at Hereth in Spain, and there is a
one day test after that race. So he missed basically
all the preseason testing. He just needs to do laps
on that RGP and get used to it, get used
to the team, speak the common language with them. He's
effectively at base camp of pre season and where four
rounds into the season. So that's why I said, I
(19:18):
think the rest of the season is really longer. Lends
twenty six rule change for twenty seven. What happens after that,
but just shocking luck for him, But we're glad he's okay.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yeah, Well, let's talk about the winner of this race.
M Marquez? Is that right?
Speaker 1 (19:31):
If I read that correctly, I might have heard of him,
might have seen that name before. For those counting at home.
That's seven wins from eight starts this year, and the
one that he didn't win he crashed from at the
lead in Texas, as he is wont to do. But
the thing I'm loving about what Mark's doing this year
is old Mark would go out there on the best bike,
or not the best bike if he was riding a Honda,
(19:51):
and try and pulverize everybody with pace and risk taking.
It's just maybe a bit of age and the fact
he's come back from so many injuries riding super smart
this year in that there's yes, I'm qualifying on pole,
I'm not going out there as.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
The hair at the start of these races.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Frankeo Morbidelli took the lead at the start of this
race and lead for probably the first half of it,
and Mark was like, well, you're going to burn your
tires up, so that's fine. I'll just sit here and
wait for you to kill your tires and then I'll
come past. Then we had the afore mentioned Vignalez cameo,
which kind of came from nowhere, but again Mark was like,
I'm saving my tire.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
I'm saving my tire.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
I'm waiting for my chance, six laps to go, take
the lead, sets the fastest lap, sets another fastest lap.
Vignale has got nothing. Peco Banno has chewed his tires
up because he's come back from the fourth row with
the grie because he crashed in qualifying his charge. Pete
it out and then Mark just canters to another victory.
So he's riding the best bike on the grid, and
he's riding it faster than everybody else. He's also riding
it smarter than everybody else. And I think this is
(20:47):
the evolution of a rider that is now he's got
the belief back that he lost I think from being
injured for so long. He's managed to work his way
in very Machiavelli of Marquez style and the best team
in the sport, and he's now making up for lost time.
But he's not the same Mark Marquez that won those
six titles in seven years between thirteen and nineteen. I
think he's a different, better version because he's got the
(21:09):
wisdom and the racecraft to go with the speed.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Just an absolutely outstanding.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Performance, alarming that there's a better version of.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
It that will concerning and just very briefly we talked
about Maverick Vinales didn't end up winning the race, but
in fact was penalized after the race for this tire
pressures issue that continues almost after every race.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
At this point. I understand why type.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Pressure issues are in Moto GP the aerodynamics of the
sport at the moment, but it's not a sustainable way
to regulate the sport, is it when we have drivers
that have handed these significant penalties just because they unexpectedly
were quick on race day.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
I mean, and look, this is part of the reason
that when these rules change through all the aero package
is coming off these bikes. In a couple of years,
you're not going to have this as a problem anymore.
Sixteen second time penalty which pushed Vinales down from a
very very surprise and very well earned podium in second
place to fourteenth, which is where can be found on
most classifications at the end of most Grand Prix. But
it is a difficult situation because you have got teams
(22:06):
playing with tire pressures based on where they think they're
going to be running during the race. It's not a
great way to go racing. I understand why the rules
in there, because it needs to be in there so
safety reasons. Teams are running these tires virtually flat because
if you sit behind another rival in dirty air, your
tire pressure spikes, so you want to run them as
low as possible. There is a safety element to this
that I understand. But there's nothing like a post race
(22:28):
investigation and then you get the final ruling and the
complete change of the results and everything else at about
five o'clock Australian time in the morning. So it was
the double wheremy of here's the ninety minute way and
you can have it at five they and so good.
Good times all around. But funnily though, Vinales didn't seem
that disappointed, because well, I had a lot of fun.
I was really fast. It's been really bad for KCM
(22:48):
this year, so all good. And I think he was
going to ask for his podium bonus as long as
Chick's Internet banking in the morning and he might be happy,
so he should.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Well, I was very interested. I was very interested. I
enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
So if we're going to go with this interested versus
expert theme here, we know you mentioned that supercars are
in New Zealand over the course of the weekend, but
there was something that happened in the lead up to
that that I found particularly interesting. Perhaps you can fill
in the blanks with this Alligations story.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Yeah, one of the great motors words from Alligation I
think you did. It's in my auto spell check in
the computer topically updated. Obviously, just felt it as frequently
as the need to in supercars is the general motors
from Alligation team. Obviously winding back a little bit earlier
in the season's Triple eight. Who has filled that role
for many years now, but it's defecting to Ford to
replace dj R as the whole alligation team there and
(23:38):
the search has been on for General.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Motors to replace them.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
But of course, of the GM teams remaining, there aren't
any powerhouses like Triple eight. And this is the problem
because we found with the advent of Gen three and
while the rules are not changing anytime soon, we do
have two to coming next year. There may be some
work involved in paratizing the cars. At that point it
is a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
DJR has struggled under the weight of being the ford
hamuligation team or a regular powerhouse team that hasn't been
able to convert results. So it's been a really interesting
search in that regard. There was some rooms or maybe
they'll post someone. They ended up doing that, but they've
chosen Team eighteen Charlie Schwerkults team based in Mount Maveley
in Melbourne. Not a massive team, but a team that
has bigger aspirations, a race winning team at least, But
(24:19):
the approach they're taking is a little bit different and
I think this is interesting in the long term of
the sport. I suppose, which is essentially General Motors is
taking it in house. Now there isn't team mateen is
not going to be the traditional homoligation team that does
the work and then kind of gets ticked off by
GM or in association with GM, whatever, however you want
to describe that. It seems like, particularly because General Motors
(24:40):
been able to take the triple A technical to a
former technical director Jeremy Moore, now in house in an
in house role still to be defined after some gardening leave,
that they're kind of just going to be designing these
race cars themselves in house. Teamteen as the Conduit obviously
is the most responsible team I guess, if you like,
in the field of the one representing General Motors. It
is still a big honor and responsibility for them, and
(25:02):
I want to downplay that at all, but it does
seem to be a bit of a shift Whereby and
General Motors acknowledges as well. It's going to be a
collaborative effort, a word they've used quite a bit over
the last couple of weeks in the lead up and
during the announcement between all the GM teams are going
to be clicking a lot of data together and then
into a central data bank, I guess, if you like.
And it is interesting because it is a different approach,
(25:24):
and you wonder, you know, in the last couple of
years debating about how GM is committed to the sport,
is it different to the way Forwards committed to the sport.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
It is just a different take on it. I mean,
it's maybe the right time.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
To do it, because there shouldn't be any significant changes
over the next few years short of General Motors highly
secretive transition to whatever's replacing the Camaro because the commarow
is now essentially extinct. They won't say when that's going
to because at least a couple of years away because.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
We go through NASCAR first before it ends up in supercars.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
So there is work on the horizon, but for now
keeping cards close to the chest. Essentially it could end
up paying off, particularly in this era where parody is
so tight and always argument in supercars.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
So an interesting twist there.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
And then the second element here when we're considering the
GM teams is of course this manufacturer shuffle. Now we
know Toyota's got WAU that is their homoligation team.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Love using the word next again, said it again. They
get a little bit of money every time.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I wish they're looking for their next team. And then
of course there's a general shuffle going on and the
talk is Premiere of course wanted to be the GEM
homuligation team, and there's been a rumor going around that
that might now, having not got that role, maybe they'll
be considering their options outsewhere. Of course they're really closely
associated with Triple eight. They've been buying the cars directly
from them. They're based in Queensland to be close to
(26:36):
Triple eight. Will they move to the Ford Camp and
Brad Jones Racing as well? They're four car entries. That
would be a really big blow to this idea of
General Motors wanting this collaborative everyone involved, all data gathered effort, could.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Defect perhaps to Toyota.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
These are all rumors and everyone's sort of keeping them again,
keeping their cards close to their chest, but that could
be quite a big blow because it's this whole side go.
As highlighted anything for GM, it's that there was a
lot of reliance on Triple eight. Yes, there's now a
real shoring up of the position for them. They've got
a lot of really great independent teams there. I say
there's not to downtalk any of their efforts. We've seen
(27:11):
them win races again, podiums, all that kind of thing.
But there's an important restructure happening there and it's not
complete just because the homologation team's been decided. Like I say,
teams could yet be shifting and that's that's still to
be seen. I thought that was a big talking point
in New Zealand. Of course, a big talking point as
well is that Matt Payne won the Jim Rich Trophy
over there by winning the round.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Two race wins.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
It's rare you get a home win in supercar unless
you're talking about state by state. So I thought that
was really good. The New Zealand fans are so enthusiastic.
We see that. It's a bit of a New Zealand moment.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
I think you're like even an international motors sport.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Yeah absolutely, I mean, look, there's nothing like a home winner,
right Yeah. And to win it in the style that
he did, yeah, I think it was h I don't
think too many people left that circuit.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Unhappened nothing on Sunday, And it's great because obviously in
the post shanevan gizebegan era.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Where you know they go over there and you're like, wow,
you'll probably winn't yes now. At least it's good to
see this in such a big and talented generation of
TV's as well racing in the supercars, and the rumori is,
of course we'll have a second race over there, maybe
as soon as.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Next year, so Nolan will be too disappointed by that, Matt.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Before we wrap this one up, though, it's time for
the crystal Ball, one of the great segments, of course,
brought to you by Complete Home Filtration. You can pick
whatever discipline you like, whatever time frame you like, to
predict what's going to happen before our next episode or
during the next episode.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
If your bowl, my crystal ball is in for a service,
because it's been absolutely rubbish in the last couple of weeks.
So for those I'm going to fess up to the
fact that I had Kinne Antonelli on the podium. My
rain didn't score a point, so it's almost like the
kiss of death rather crystal ball. But let's hope that
I actually have my crystal ball, right, I'm saying that.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Well.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Oscar Piastre won two Grand Prix last year, He's won
two Grand Prix this year. I think he's going to
win in Jeddah, and I think he's going to take
the lead of the World Championship for the first time,
in the first time for an Australian, as you said,
in fifteen years. So that's it my crystal for this
coming week's motorsport.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
But what's in yours?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Where do you get a crystal ball service?
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Excellent question. We need a sponsor for.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
That Crystal WALLT servicing. I know you're out there, Yes,
please come. We're happy to have supplementary sponsor for this segment.
I like that because I was thinking of a similar
line because Oscar does very well in JEDN and that
as part of my thinking.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, track is done that even in his debut year,
even Formula.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Two, he's always done very well at this insane circuit.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
So I like that one a lot.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
I have been on the Jack do and bandwagon for
a little while now. I predicted, if we're going back
to visit our prediction that he's going to score his
first points this weekend.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
You were closer than me.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
I felt like I was close before the safety card.
I was. I actually came to my head. I was like, oh,
it's two thirty.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
You were ready for your victory lab.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
I was very ready, but I'm going to double down.
I'm going to say these are going to be his points.
He knows this track from Formula two. Of course he's
competed here before if memory serves, but memory may not serve.
He's may have been his first Formula two race when
he got that jump up from F three correct.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And I believe he qualified second. Yeah, he was on
the front row behind Oscopiastri very good.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
All Australian front right.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Great front, one of the great front roads.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
This could be finally his points chance because this is
a big race for him. This is where the rumor
was going to be there was gonna be his last trace.
I don't think it's gonna be his last trace, but
nonetheless will be a great opportunity to just say, well
the doubters can be quiet for a little bit because
he's going to find to get his points. The speed's
been there, the points have just been missing to be
fair up in and he just scored its first points
this weekend. I think that's what we're going to see.
(30:28):
Very straight seat of Australian predictions. But I'm happy to hear.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
It fly the flag.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Yes, And with that note, that's all the time we
have for pit Talk this week. You can subscribe to
pit Talk wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you
can leave us a rating and review as well, and
of course you can see us on YouTube. If you
haven't already been listening to this and you want to
see what it looked like, well you can go and
find out.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
This weekend is the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. It's at
three a m. Eastern time.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
You can you up to date with the Lake step
on news at Fox sports dot Com, tod AU from
Matt Clayton and me Michael Lamonado.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
We'll catch you next week.
This is the moment then, that we've all been waiting
for for in a romax.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Here comes Oscar Piastree, Lando Norrith.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
I aren't playing hardball out there at the moment, Steve
Peverchel Moment of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.
On this week's episode, Oscar Piastri claims a comprehensive victory
at the bar rain In Grand Prix to get three
points within the championship lead. And on let's be honest,
pretty hectic week of motorsport, we're gonna be checking in
with the Kata Motorcycle Grand Prix and over in Topaur
the Supercars Round.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
My name is Michael Lomonado.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
It's great to have your company and the company of
my co host. I know we missed out on hearing
this over the course of the weekend, so I'll do it.
Thank you ever so much for getting up for this podcast.
Matt Clayton, I'm not sure it be to bed together.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
It's definitely been one of those weekends where everywhere you
look this something going around a track somewhere.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
But I kin't have too much of that, can you.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, Well, this weekend might have found.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
You can probably get any close to having too much
of that because we were operating in virtually every time
zone around the clock. Matt, Yeah, have been to bed yet,
but we're we're going a soldier on. Well, thanks not
only for getting up but staying up. I suppose let's start,
yes with the bar Rain Grand Prix, Round four of
the championship Oscar Piastre one. That's his second Grand Prix
victory of this season, now just three points off the
(01:21):
championship lead. The leader continues to be Lando Norris. Had
Norris not finished on the podium, we'll talk about this
as we go through this, he would have taken the
championship lead first Australian driver. Preempting this a little bit,
he would have been the best Australian drivers in s
markwere but in twenty ten to lead the championship. This
felt like, I mean, it felt very similar to his
Chinese Grand Prix winning many respects. Led from pole, no
(01:41):
one seemed to bother him very much throughout the race.
Very straightforward victory, very Oscar Piastre victory. But this one
in the context of how Lando Norris performed on the
same weekend seemed to carry a little bit more meaning,
certainly if you read into Norris's response.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, I thought it was actually more emphatic than China,
simply because China there was that specter of or Islando
going to catch up in the final stint? What's going
on with his breaks? Is there a possibility of a
late race charge here? This was never in doubt, and
it was never in doubt twice because we had the
inverted Commas Hollywood safety car towards the end of the
race to make things interesting when there was some Debrison
(02:15):
track and that brought the field back into contention after
Oscar pretty much left everybody for dead in that first
couple of stints, and he thought, well, you know, perhaps
there's some jeopardy here for him, and then very calmly
just drove away and continued on his merry way and
the whole weekend from qualifying and how unflustered he was,
and right the way through the race, just outstanding from
(02:36):
start to finish. He's not had a race win like this,
and I don't think that's going to be the last
time we see this, because you can just see the
confidence and I think the calmness with Pastre at the moment,
he knows he can do this, he knows he's got
the machinery, he knows he belongs and now it's just
a matter of methodically executing that.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
And I just thought it was a completely flaw this weekend.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
There's been this interesting element as well with Oscar this season.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I know, were only four rounds in and this is
what his ass I've emphasized for Grand Prix and enough
in the twenty four Grand Prix season make any conclusions,
but it's interesting that in this sumple size we had.
I know we're going back a bit here, but Australia
and China in particular Bahrain's a bit of an outline
because McLaren's always been quite bad here. It hasn't been
an Oscar Piastre thing. But nonetheless, we've seen a lot
of races where Oscar hasn't had great results in the
(03:19):
last couple of years of his career, and he's turned
up this season. He's been really quite good at all, well,
he's been quite good at all Grand Prix. I think
you can even mount an argument that he's been the
fastest race driver so far this season.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
If he hasn't won all of the races.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
That step seemed that step we talked about during the
off season about what he needed to become potentially a
world championship contender. It feels a lot like at this
stage it's been made.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
It feels like it's happened very quickly.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Too.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
You look at some of the rough edges that he's
earned out over the past couple of years. He had
the big qualifying deficit last year and Norris was twenty
to four, and that's emphatic in Norris's favor. But he
seems to have addressed that very very quickly and is
less of those little mistakes in qualifying. And we know
that he cleaned up a lot of his time management
linelast year, so he's much more proficient at that. He
is the very different definition of a fast learner, and
(04:05):
you can see the change in him just in four
Grand Prix weekends this year. I think the most surprising
thing to me is it looks totally unsurprising that he's
a front run and he looks so assured it's happened
super fast, and you know, we're four rounds into a
twenty four round season. This looks a legitimate and be
like it has staying power, and you know you don't
want to get too far ahead of yourselves here because
(04:26):
he's still off the championship lead. But this looks like
a championship push that can sustain the whole way through.
Now if McLaren continues with this car advantage they've got
at the moment, and you would expect in the final
year of a rule set, you quite often see these
baked in advantages carry on for longer in a season
because the other teams turn the development tap off and
they look towards twenty twenty six. So if we have
(04:46):
a fairly standard season like we've had when we've had
these really big rule changes in the past, I think
twenty thirteen is the one for me. When red bullwarp dominant,
everyone else looked at twenty fourteen, sob actually INVERTI wiped
the floor with everybody at the end of twenty thirteen.
This has got that claren feel about it. Other than
extenuating circumstances like a bit of rain or Maximstaff and Suzuka,
so you know you're looking at the possibility of two
(05:08):
guys fighting for the world title. I'm not sure I
was ready to say Piastre was ready to win that
this time last year.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
He looks completely legit to me.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Yeah, he's really interesting that step change, because we talked
about at the beginning of last year and it was
a little bit easier to say because it was his
rookie season, and of course he's going to make progress.
But that trajectory that McLaren talks a lot about just
feels completely uninterrupted at this point. I think it's going
to be really interesting to see how that develops over
the course of the season because he continues to get better.
That's the sort of interesting element of this. We talked
(05:39):
about this, and we joked about this on the podcast
during the week, which you can go and find at
the Fox Sports website or wherever you get your favorite
podcasts that you know. Christian Horner said after the Japanese Grandfer,
which Maxwis staffin one, that McLaren's problem was having well,
two competitive drivers and it's made its bead and must.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Lay in it.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Now.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I think it's his phrase in a weird way.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
There's this tiny little shred of life that you can
kind of take out of that, which is that for
the driver's championship perspective, Well, Lando and Oscar both can
be taking points of each other, but Max is just
going to be the only driver on his behalf when
Red Bull Racing.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Is competitive winning those points. I kind of get that element.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
But the other part of this is that McLaren's always
there and for example, Red Bull Racing wasn't this weekend,
and Mercedes always the second fastest, but I haven't got
the senset that they're a car that could win a race.
They con finished second a lot, but not there and
Ferrari's Ferrari maybe later on in the year. But so
it does feel like regardless of whether land Or and
Oscar competing with one another, they've got enough clear air
(06:35):
to score points on themselves and be okay. So I
want to talk about Lando Norris here because he was
the missing element in this. In China, as you said earlier,
there were these circumstances that men Aka was never comfortable
with that track, but he was kind of competitive enough
and at the end of the race maybe he was
there about to those break problems. There was no sense
this weekend that Lando was on Oscar's pace. This was
Oscar's weekend, not just McLaren's weekend. Let's say it like
(06:56):
that and really quite despondent, significant amount of despondency, I
think zerry word I can think of that really sums
it up so clearly for Lando, especially after qualifying. I
mean we see he's fond of a bit of self flatullation.
I think when he does not danger well, we've got
a lot of that after qualifying and even after the race,
recovering with the podium, saying well I should have finished
at least second and I finished third and that's disappointing.
(07:19):
That's part of his game, isn't it this sort of
intense self criticism. But does it revealed do you think
a little bit about where the dynamic in this potential
potential championship battle is going to play out?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Well?
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I think, particularly if you contrast the way that Oscar
goes about his racing, where there's minimal radio chatter and
it's very flat line. It's not super peaky good or bad.
He just wants information, doesn't say a whole lot very reserve.
This is a man that's in control and he has
complete belief in what he's doing, and he if he
has some vulnerabilities, he's not willing to share them, and
(07:51):
I think that's something that he can seize upon. Now,
there could be a cultural thing here or personalities, but
the way Norris reacts to adversity, to me, I think
you can perhaps Look. I appreciate the honesty, and I
think every Formula One driver goes through these periods of
doubt like this. But you can get away with this
in a championship where the other protagonists in the championship
and not just within your own team. If you've got
(08:11):
a deeper championship field and you're spreading this around, there's
different guys that are winning races and they're not you,
then perhaps you can get away with this. But when
the person that is most likely to capitalize on your
worst days is your teammate in the same car, in
the same team, I don't know whether you should be
showing all of your cards here because I think it's
an area that Piastre can really chip away at, because
(08:34):
you know that psychologically Orlando can get very, very.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Down on himself.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
And I just think the dynamic of this is going
to be super interesting because Piastre is managed by Mark Webber,
and one of Mark Weber's sayings was you know, I
am giving nothing. He would give you absolutely nothing except
for the odd f moment and radio message, which Piastre
is not going to do. Piastre is going to show
Norris absolutely no vulnerability psychologically. And this strikes me as
(08:59):
a championship be one as much between the years as
between the white lines. I think there's a lot going
on with these two different personalities here and the way
Pastre's working it. I think he sees that he's got
something here that he can use it to his advantage.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
I think it's really interesting.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
In the post race press conference, obviously both drivers are asked, well,
why is the car working for you, Oscar and not Lando?
And Lando doesn't have any answers at this moment. I'm
sure he's got some ideas and he's not going to
give them all away, but he did say he was
really just confounded by the fact he can't take this
car to the limit like he could last year's car.
McLaren has talked about the fact that it's made some
compromises on driveability to try and take a step forward,
(09:33):
and then Oscar has asked the question, well, what's going
on with you? You're finding these struggles with the car
and he said, no, Cark was great. I'm getting a
lot of pace out of it. Seems like it's working
fine for me. And I don't think he was stirring
the pot in any deliberate way because it's not really
Oscar style. But the contrast there was stark and if
you Orlando, they're sitting and you're obviously hearing him the
debrief as well in the team. Because Oscar's not giving
(09:53):
any negative feedback about the car presumably or nothing as
dire as Lando's would be, You're starting to think, well,
why can't I get that out of the car. And
it's certainly nowhere near as significant as, for example, Lewis
Hamilton's current grappling with the Ferrari in this transitional if
you want to go back to even Daniel Ricardo McLaren
against land know Norris, because Norris is still finishing on
the podium and still polkand and and all that kind
(10:15):
of thing, but there's just that little element of well,
why can't I do that?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
And I think the interesting part for me is if
you roll reverse and this will happen with this car
this year because it clearly is the class of the field.
There will be a weekend where Norris does to Piastre
what Piastre did to Norris this weekend in Bahrain. How
Oscar responds to that, I don't think he's going to
give as much away. He's not going to be as
raw and exposed, and that he'll take his medicine and
(10:41):
he'll say, look, there's plenty of learnings to come and
so on, but there'll be a lot more measured, a
lot more reserved. He's not going to leave any low
hanging fruit out there that could be seized upon. Because
if this shakes out the way we think it's going
to shake out psychologically, this championship takes a different term,
perhaps after mid season, if everyone else is buttoned off
and they're looking at twenty twenty six. If this is
ahead to head battle and you look at Norris as
(11:02):
the homegrown protege within McLaren and Pastre's coming in after
he swirmed his way out of the Alpine deal. If
he comes in and sort of beats the guy that
they've raised since he was seventeen years old, you know,
head to a world championship fight. Now they have a
car to do it. It'll be so interesting from a
mental perspective as this season goes on.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Something that we'll be watching before we move on for
the next couple of races. As well as that, I
felt like there was a little bit of a dynamic
shift this weekend, not the internal power of McLaren because
I don't really believe there's any big changes in the
way they're approaching things. They're going to be even handed.
Lando Norris, as we've said, still an extremely quick driver.
This is one race we're talking about as well. They
could win the next four races. We're having completely different discussion.
(11:39):
But so much of this season was about, well, how's
Lando going to beat Max with staff into the championship.
That was the rivalry that we saw at the end
of last season.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
We've got a little bit of glimpse of that this year.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I mean in Japan, obviously Max was on form, and
in Australia as well it was challenging for victory. But
I think this weekend emphasized that Red Bull Racing has
some pre significant problems to overcome, and suddenly I wonder
how much land those thinking Oscar is not just going
to be here a winning like.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Every three or four races like last year.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
It was often in contention but maybe not absolutely sething
the deal, and it's Max is the guy who's going
to be winning the races now. I wonder how much
is an adjustment to think, well, actually it's the guy
in the other garage now that I really need to
be thinking about, because Max may not come good, Red
Bull racing may not come good.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
They're hinging.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
It feels like they're hanging a lot on this rule
reinterpretation the Spanish Grand Prix out front wings. McLaren's adamant
nothing's going to change, just like it didn't with the
rear wings a couple of rounds ago. It really could
just be between the two of them, and that is
an approach shift.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
It's almost easier to focus on your main opponent if
they're not wearing the same Overall, it's very much an
US versus them. When it's us versus us, that's a
really different dynamic because then there's a degree of paranoia
that starts to creep in too. Is he getting the
new parts before me? Is he getting a better strategy
than me? Why is he getting the undercut?
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Why am I not?
Speaker 1 (12:54):
What's happening in engineering briefings? Are they keeping stuff back,
there's all that level of paranoia because you know how
the team operates internally, whereas if it's Norris versus Verstappen,
Atlanta has no idea what goes on within the walls
of Red Bull and how to operate. Sometimes it's easier
to fight someone when you don't know necessarily what they're doing,
because there's that degree of a lack of knowledge. They're
(13:14):
just the guy in the other team I need to be.
When it's within your own team, it's a very different dynamic.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Yeah, when you don't know what they're doing, and when
more importantly you know they don't know what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
So that's part of the reason as well.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
I wouldn't have said that better.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
I'm sure you could bout a way. Let's move on
now to move of the week by Shannon's.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Now.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Unlike last week or the week before, and it was
a lot going on of course motorsport. We had no
shortage of options, plenty of racing action over three different
disciplines this weekend. What caught your eye over the NonStop
twenty four hours, seven days a week.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Of racing, Yes, a coupmember, a time where there was
no racing I'm going to go two wheels here.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Motor GP.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
YEP.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
We had a situation that was so shocking that even
Mark Marquez didn't know what was going on because he
was passed for second place by a KTM on Lap
ten of the Catar Grand Prix on Sunday, and quite rightly,
he thought that KTM is probably Pedro Acosta, given that
a cost as usually the guy getting most out of
the KTM. To his great surprise, he realized it was
Maverick Vignalees, who we have not seen or heard from
(14:17):
the entire season, and Vignales was just on one of
his I'm going to be you know, Maverick and Mercurial
at the same time put an incredible move on Mark
to get to second place and then took the lead
of the Catar Grand Prix. And afterwards Marquez is like, well,
I got passed by KTM. That was interesting, and then
I was shocked that it was him. And this is
what happens with Maverick Vinales. Once or twice a year,
he looks like the best rider in Motor GP, and
(14:38):
then you'll look at the classification and realize that he
is eighteenth. Yeah, it's always the good and the bad
and nothing in between. But that was my move of
the week A because it was very audacious and B
it was very surprising.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Yeah, and we will get back to Maverick Vinalas a
little bit later on as well. I'm going with Formula
one very early on in the bar Aim Grand Prix
wasn't a battle for the lead in factors, battle for
drivers and finished way off the podium. It was between
Lewis Hamilton and Carlos since a nice long running battle
from the start all the way through to the middle
sector didn't all rely on DRS, which, as much as
we enjoyed the action bar Raim, let's be honest, a
(15:10):
lot of it was just DRS initiated. And of course
there's the poignancy of this isn't it is a significance.
Carlos Science is driving a car that he's struggling with
at the moment. Is sort of a little bit of
an untold story so far this season, and maybe we'll
get you once we get to Europe. But not having
a great time in the Williams this weekend looked a
little bit better, and likewise, Louis Hamilon not having the
best of times at Ferrari. In fact, I feel like
it's in the last week that realities hit him a
(15:33):
little bit. You can see in his body language, and
there they were scrapping for sort of middling points would
have been significant for Carlos obviously, but for Lewis Hamilon
it's still like, well what am I doing here? And
Carlos put up a fight, like he argued the position
here knowing that his car wasn't gonna be able to
do it, And in the end Carlos eventually retired from
this race and Lewis Hamilton kind of finished middling in
the middle of the points. But I know, I love
(15:55):
it when drivers who find themselves in these kinds of
situations find themselves on track because inevitably there's that little
bit of extra significant.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
And isn't it funny when you can see the body
language of a car in a fight as well, which
is like a ridiculous thing to say about a car,
but you could see that if Science's car had elbows,
they were I love the fact that he just fought
his corner in an inferior machine so strongly because it's like,
hang on, you're driving the car I used to drive.
You can have some ideas for the time. It was
very good fun nostulus.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Yeah, it was one of the many great passages of
racing from the vah Rain Grand Prix that was moving
the week thanks to Shannon's Matt. Let's move on to
one of my favorite segments of this video podcast, Interested
versus Experts. Many motorsport disciplines, of course covered on the
Fox Sports website with between them between us cover all
three of them this week, though I'm interested in Moto
(16:44):
GP interesting mostly because of the time zone meant I
was watching it a one replay obviously, I wasn't watching
it live, yes, but a great race in Kata overnight
or depending on when your listeners overnight during the day
if you're in Perth, maybe it's still technically at night.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I'm not sure exactly how the.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Time zone is converted, but I want to start with
I think the biggest takeaway from this race, which was
Jorge Martin's return and now pretty hasty return to hospital,
really quite injured in a significant crash, had a reasonable start.
I guess to the weekend that he finished the sprint
but couldn't finish the rates.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
He has encountered a black cat and walk beneath the
ladder and done every possible thing you could be to
be unlucky. We know that he had a big crash
in preseason testing in Malaysia. He had the motocross accident
where he broke his left wrist. He was back this
weekend and then had a fall in the Grand Prix
and was hit by Fabio to jan Antonio, and they've
(17:34):
reassessed Monday night, Australian time. The extent to Martine's injury.
It looks like he has eight broken ribs and a
punctured lung. He's not been able to leave Katar, he's
still in the hospital.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
There.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
One of those accidents that when you see it in
the moment and you know the consequences of bikes hitting
riders prone across the track, you do sit up that
little bit straight. So we're very, very thankful that it's
no worse than eight broken ribs and a puncture lung.
As much as that sounds terrible to say, incredibly unlucky,
but incredibly lucky at the same time. And I think
(18:07):
you only had to see Fabio dejan Antonio's face after
the race when he realized what he had done. There
was still eight or nine laps to go in that race.
He's riding around afterwards saying, I'm looking at the big
screens to see how he's being treated because I don't
know if he's okay, because I know that I hit
him and the mental toll that takes on a rider.
But for Martine, it's just been an absolute nightmare since
(18:29):
he's come to a Prillier. He's done one Grown Prix weekend,
he's injured again. This season is a complete right off.
It was probably before he came to Qatar. He's not
on a to Caddy, so he's not going to win
to Caddy win everything. But at this point I think
his health and safety and the longevity of that contract
with a Prillier is far more important. So we're thankful
that he's okay, but my goodness, he is just so
so unlucky at the moment.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Bit a blow as well because it felt like he'd
timed his comeback relatively responsibly in the contact.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yeah, as far as motor GP goes, I think I
was hoping to get through this. He can unscale the
following races at Hereth in Spain, and there is a
one day test after that race. So he missed basically
all the preseason testing. He just needs to do laps
on that RGP and get used to it, get used
to the team, speak the common language with them. He's
effectively at base camp of pre season and where four
rounds into the season. So that's why I said, I
(19:18):
think the rest of the season is really longer. Lends
twenty six rule change for twenty seven. What happens after that,
but just shocking luck for him, But we're glad he's okay.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yeah, Well, let's talk about the winner of this race.
M Marquez? Is that right?
Speaker 1 (19:31):
If I read that correctly, I might have heard of him,
might have seen that name before. For those counting at home.
That's seven wins from eight starts this year, and the
one that he didn't win he crashed from at the
lead in Texas, as he is wont to do. But
the thing I'm loving about what Mark's doing this year
is old Mark would go out there on the best bike,
or not the best bike if he was riding a Honda,
(19:51):
and try and pulverize everybody with pace and risk taking.
It's just maybe a bit of age and the fact
he's come back from so many injuries riding super smart
this year in that there's yes, I'm qualifying on pole,
I'm not going out there as.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
The hair at the start of these races.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Frankeo Morbidelli took the lead at the start of this
race and lead for probably the first half of it,
and Mark was like, well, you're going to burn your
tires up, so that's fine. I'll just sit here and
wait for you to kill your tires and then I'll
come past. Then we had the afore mentioned Vignalez cameo,
which kind of came from nowhere, but again Mark was like,
I'm saving my tire.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
I'm saving my tire.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
I'm waiting for my chance, six laps to go, take
the lead, sets the fastest lap, sets another fastest lap.
Vignale has got nothing. Peco Banno has chewed his tires
up because he's come back from the fourth row with
the grie because he crashed in qualifying his charge. Pete
it out and then Mark just canters to another victory.
So he's riding the best bike on the grid, and
he's riding it faster than everybody else. He's also riding
it smarter than everybody else. And I think this is
(20:47):
the evolution of a rider that is now he's got
the belief back that he lost I think from being
injured for so long. He's managed to work his way
in very Machiavelli of Marquez style and the best team
in the sport, and he's now making up for lost time.
But he's not the same Mark Marquez that won those
six titles in seven years between thirteen and nineteen. I
think he's a different, better version because he's got the
(21:09):
wisdom and the racecraft to go with the speed.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Just an absolutely outstanding.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Performance, alarming that there's a better version of.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
It that will concerning and just very briefly we talked
about Maverick Vinales didn't end up winning the race, but
in fact was penalized after the race for this tire
pressures issue that continues almost after every race.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
At this point. I understand why type.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Pressure issues are in Moto GP the aerodynamics of the
sport at the moment, but it's not a sustainable way
to regulate the sport, is it when we have drivers
that have handed these significant penalties just because they unexpectedly
were quick on race day.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
I mean, and look, this is part of the reason
that when these rules change through all the aero package
is coming off these bikes. In a couple of years,
you're not going to have this as a problem anymore.
Sixteen second time penalty which pushed Vinales down from a
very very surprise and very well earned podium in second
place to fourteenth, which is where can be found on
most classifications at the end of most Grand Prix. But
it is a difficult situation because you have got teams
(22:06):
playing with tire pressures based on where they think they're
going to be running during the race. It's not a
great way to go racing. I understand why the rules
in there, because it needs to be in there so
safety reasons. Teams are running these tires virtually flat because
if you sit behind another rival in dirty air, your
tire pressure spikes, so you want to run them as
low as possible. There is a safety element to this
that I understand. But there's nothing like a post race
(22:28):
investigation and then you get the final ruling and the
complete change of the results and everything else at about
five o'clock Australian time in the morning. So it was
the double wheremy of here's the ninety minute way and
you can have it at five they and so good.
Good times all around. But funnily though, Vinales didn't seem
that disappointed, because well, I had a lot of fun.
I was really fast. It's been really bad for KCM
(22:48):
this year, so all good. And I think he was
going to ask for his podium bonus as long as
Chick's Internet banking in the morning and he might be happy,
so he should.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Well, I was very interested. I was very interested. I
enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
So if we're going to go with this interested versus
expert theme here, we know you mentioned that supercars are
in New Zealand over the course of the weekend, but
there was something that happened in the lead up to
that that I found particularly interesting. Perhaps you can fill
in the blanks with this Alligations story.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Yeah, one of the great motors words from Alligation I
think you did. It's in my auto spell check in
the computer topically updated. Obviously, just felt it as frequently
as the need to in supercars is the general motors
from Alligation team. Obviously winding back a little bit earlier
in the season's Triple eight. Who has filled that role
for many years now, but it's defecting to Ford to
replace dj R as the whole alligation team there and
(23:38):
the search has been on for General.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Motors to replace them.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
But of course, of the GM teams remaining, there aren't
any powerhouses like Triple eight. And this is the problem
because we found with the advent of Gen three and
while the rules are not changing anytime soon, we do
have two to coming next year. There may be some
work involved in paratizing the cars. At that point it
is a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
DJR has struggled under the weight of being the ford
hamuligation team or a regular powerhouse team that hasn't been
able to convert results. So it's been a really interesting
search in that regard. There was some rooms or maybe
they'll post someone. They ended up doing that, but they've
chosen Team eighteen Charlie Schwerkults team based in Mount Maveley
in Melbourne. Not a massive team, but a team that
has bigger aspirations, a race winning team at least, But
(24:19):
the approach they're taking is a little bit different and
I think this is interesting in the long term of
the sport. I suppose, which is essentially General Motors is
taking it in house. Now there isn't team mateen is
not going to be the traditional homoligation team that does
the work and then kind of gets ticked off by
GM or in association with GM, whatever, however you want
to describe that. It seems like, particularly because General Motors
(24:40):
been able to take the triple A technical to a
former technical director Jeremy Moore, now in house in an
in house role still to be defined after some gardening leave,
that they're kind of just going to be designing these
race cars themselves in house. Teamteen as the Conduit obviously
is the most responsible team I guess, if you like,
in the field of the one representing General Motors. It
is still a big honor and responsibility for them, and
(25:02):
I want to downplay that at all, but it does
seem to be a bit of a shift Whereby and
General Motors acknowledges as well. It's going to be a
collaborative effort, a word they've used quite a bit over
the last couple of weeks in the lead up and
during the announcement between all the GM teams are going
to be clicking a lot of data together and then
into a central data bank, I guess, if you like.
And it is interesting because it is a different approach,
(25:24):
and you wonder, you know, in the last couple of
years debating about how GM is committed to the sport,
is it different to the way Forwards committed to the sport.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
It is just a different take on it. I mean,
it's maybe the right time.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
To do it, because there shouldn't be any significant changes
over the next few years short of General Motors highly
secretive transition to whatever's replacing the Camaro because the commarow
is now essentially extinct. They won't say when that's going
to because at least a couple of years away because.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
We go through NASCAR first before it ends up in supercars.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
So there is work on the horizon, but for now
keeping cards close to the chest. Essentially it could end
up paying off, particularly in this era where parody is
so tight and always argument in supercars.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
So an interesting twist there.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
And then the second element here when we're considering the
GM teams is of course this manufacturer shuffle. Now we
know Toyota's got WAU that is their homoligation team.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Love using the word next again, said it again. They
get a little bit of money every time.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I wish they're looking for their next team. And then
of course there's a general shuffle going on and the
talk is Premiere of course wanted to be the GEM
homuligation team, and there's been a rumor going around that
that might now, having not got that role, maybe they'll
be considering their options outsewhere. Of course they're really closely
associated with Triple eight. They've been buying the cars directly
from them. They're based in Queensland to be close to
(26:36):
Triple eight. Will they move to the Ford Camp and
Brad Jones Racing as well? They're four car entries. That
would be a really big blow to this idea of
General Motors wanting this collaborative everyone involved, all data gathered effort, could.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Defect perhaps to Toyota.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
These are all rumors and everyone's sort of keeping them again,
keeping their cards close to their chest, but that could
be quite a big blow because it's this whole side go.
As highlighted anything for GM, it's that there was a
lot of reliance on Triple eight. Yes, there's now a
real shoring up of the position for them. They've got
a lot of really great independent teams there. I say
there's not to downtalk any of their efforts. We've seen
(27:11):
them win races again, podiums, all that kind of thing.
But there's an important restructure happening there and it's not
complete just because the homologation team's been decided. Like I say,
teams could yet be shifting and that's that's still to
be seen. I thought that was a big talking point
in New Zealand. Of course, a big talking point as
well is that Matt Payne won the Jim Rich Trophy
over there by winning the round.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Two race wins.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
It's rare you get a home win in supercar unless
you're talking about state by state. So I thought that
was really good. The New Zealand fans are so enthusiastic.
We see that. It's a bit of a New Zealand moment.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
I think you're like even an international motors sport.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Yeah absolutely, I mean, look, there's nothing like a home winner,
right Yeah. And to win it in the style that
he did, yeah, I think it was h I don't
think too many people left that circuit.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Unhappened nothing on Sunday, And it's great because obviously in
the post shanevan gizebegan era.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Where you know they go over there and you're like, wow,
you'll probably winn't yes now. At least it's good to
see this in such a big and talented generation of
TV's as well racing in the supercars, and the rumori is,
of course we'll have a second race over there, maybe
as soon as.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Next year, so Nolan will be too disappointed by that, Matt.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Before we wrap this one up, though, it's time for
the crystal Ball, one of the great segments, of course,
brought to you by Complete Home Filtration. You can pick
whatever discipline you like, whatever time frame you like, to
predict what's going to happen before our next episode or
during the next episode.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
If your bowl, my crystal ball is in for a service,
because it's been absolutely rubbish in the last couple of weeks.
So for those I'm going to fess up to the
fact that I had Kinne Antonelli on the podium. My
rain didn't score a point, so it's almost like the
kiss of death rather crystal ball. But let's hope that
I actually have my crystal ball, right, I'm saying that.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Well.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Oscar Piastre won two Grand Prix last year, He's won
two Grand Prix this year. I think he's going to
win in Jeddah, and I think he's going to take
the lead of the World Championship for the first time,
in the first time for an Australian, as you said,
in fifteen years. So that's it my crystal for this
coming week's motorsport.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
But what's in yours?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Where do you get a crystal ball service?
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Excellent question. We need a sponsor for.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
That Crystal WALLT servicing. I know you're out there, Yes,
please come. We're happy to have supplementary sponsor for this segment.
I like that because I was thinking of a similar
line because Oscar does very well in JEDN and that
as part of my thinking.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, track is done that even in his debut year,
even Formula.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Two, he's always done very well at this insane circuit.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
So I like that one a lot.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
I have been on the Jack do and bandwagon for
a little while now. I predicted, if we're going back
to visit our prediction that he's going to score his
first points this weekend.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
You were closer than me.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
I felt like I was close before the safety card.
I was. I actually came to my head. I was like, oh,
it's two thirty.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
You were ready for your victory lab.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
I was very ready, but I'm going to double down.
I'm going to say these are going to be his points.
He knows this track from Formula two. Of course he's
competed here before if memory serves, but memory may not serve.
He's may have been his first Formula two race when
he got that jump up from F three correct.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And I believe he qualified second. Yeah, he was on
the front row behind Oscopiastri very good.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
All Australian front right.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Great front, one of the great front roads.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
This could be finally his points chance because this is
a big race for him. This is where the rumor
was going to be there was gonna be his last trace.
I don't think it's gonna be his last trace, but
nonetheless will be a great opportunity to just say, well
the doubters can be quiet for a little bit because
he's going to find to get his points. The speed's
been there, the points have just been missing to be
fair up in and he just scored its first points
this weekend. I think that's what we're going to see.
(30:28):
Very straight seat of Australian predictions. But I'm happy to hear.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
It fly the flag.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Yes, And with that note, that's all the time we
have for pit Talk this week. You can subscribe to
pit Talk wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you
can leave us a rating and review as well, and
of course you can see us on YouTube. If you
haven't already been listening to this and you want to
see what it looked like, well you can go and
find out.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
This weekend is the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. It's at
three a m. Eastern time.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
You can you up to date with the Lake step
on news at Fox sports dot Com, tod AU from
Matt Clayton and me Michael Lamonado.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
We'll catch you next week.
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