Piastri masterclass extends title lead over Norris: Belgian GP Review

Oscar Piastri's perfect first-lap pass and expertly judged race to keep teammate Lando Norris at bay has extended his championship buffer again after a rain-delayed race in Belgium. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen is set to stay at Red Bull Racing for 2026, but the team's biggest winner for the weekend might be Yuki Tsunoda, who's got a boost from new boss Laurent Mekies.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.

(00:03):
On today's episode, Oscar Piastre scores a decisive victory over
Lando Norris at the Belgian Grand Prix, but it took
eighty minutes to get the race going. With maxistaff and
railing against race controls, conservatism in the West. My name
is Michael Lomonato. It's great to have your company and
the company of my co host. He's just come back
from the therapist after suffering from Belgium twenty twenty one

(00:23):
flashbacks at around about one am on Monday.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
It's Matt Clayton. Michael, it's good to join you. It
wasn't great to be conversing with you on Sunday night
where you can see this sort of unfolding horror story
coming out in front of you. But yes, I've managed
to emerge from underneath my easy up and I'm ready
to go for enjoyable podcast fun this morning. More Easy
Up commentary coming up later.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Do they go easy down? Though? Does one is?

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Do you have to use easy whenever you use the
verb association.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
There's never any mention of the descent, is there.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
It's always about the assembly. It's easy to go up.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Clearly easy up does what it says on the tip,
but the whole down bit never discussed.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
Better not talk about it.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
I think let's talk instead about Oscar Piastre, who did
not have an easy way up to the top post
step of the podium. What it depends on that you
look at it. It looks dominant on Friday Matt I
thought on Friday that this was going to be a
really emphatic result and it wasn't the end, but in
quite a different way to what I expected, because he
took quite a securitus throute to get there, didn't get
a he got sprint polled, did not win the sprint,

(01:20):
did not get pole position, but did have a pretty
decisive victory in the end of Orlando Norris after that
pass on the first lap of racing like five anyway,
and I felt, and then after that obviously had to
manage his way to the end one stop on a
set of tize that Parali didn't think was going to
make it to the end competitive that he managed to
do it. And I think this race really demonstrated maybe

(01:41):
all of the reasons he's become such a formidable title contender.
There is the execution in the past, there is the
race management after the fact, and even dare I say,
Matt a tiny bit, a small bit of emotion after
winning the race.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Just a small bit.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
You want to get too carried away here when you've
won the most races by it Australia to Formula One
season ever, so you know the we'll see what happens
if he gets to seven, eight nine or more than that.
But I like what you said there. This was if
you were playing pistre dominance bingo here. This ticked a
lot of boxes for him because it's the decisiveness in
will to will battle early in races that's been a

(02:17):
feature of a lot of his victories this year. He
has made that move where he's had the one opportunity
to do it and.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
Made it stick.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
The interesting part for me was he was clearly on
what was probably not an ideal tire to do the
rest of that race after that, I think it was
lap ten pit stop, but clearly was managing it to
a point where he had so much in reserve that
he set his fastest lap of the race I believe on.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
The second last lap of the race.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
And so while it was being built up as being
the you know Norris's coming, He's on the hard at tires,
them more durable, he can push. And there's a narrative
that's being pushed in the commentary that will probably get
to at some point in the rest of this podcast.
But I don't know about you, but watching it with
a just completely cold analytical view, it never felt like
it was in danger once we got out of the

(03:03):
end of the pit stops. And look, I mean, could
McLaren have double stacked their drivers to perhaps reduce the
disadvantage that Norris had by coming in a lap later? Look, possibly,
And Norris threw the hail Mary roll the dice heavy
you want to describe it, by going with the tire
that nobody else chose to use the remainder of the race.
But there was an inevitability to the way that Piastre

(03:24):
won this race. And it's interesting, isn't it, And that
if you look at Piastre's victories this season last season,
that win that he had in Azerbaijan was one of
the more exciting Grand Prix we've seen in a while
because he made a fantastic pass and him was clearly
hanging on for dear life, but did a fantastic job
against Charla Clair in that race. That was one of
the most tense and consistently tense races that we've seen

(03:48):
for a very long time. A lot of the races
he's won this year are a little bit dull, but
that's fine because it is a means to an end here.
He gets his work done early and then things from there,
and it's that push pull of the when to be aggressive,
how to be decisively aggressive, and then change tack and
not nurse the car home, but driver in a certain

(04:10):
way that you don't stress the pit wall, you don't
stress the machinery, and you don't stress yourself, and there's
an inevitability to these victories once he gets out there.
It ticked every box and it was just another reason
why this championship is going to be won by McLaren
driver this year. But I don't think we can say
that it's a fifty to fifty championship fight right now.
It's close enough that it's not decisively one way's Piastre's,

(04:33):
but I would say it's fifty seven forty three if
we're going to put a number, or sixty forty somewhere
in that sort of range, because yes, Piastre has a
points advantage, we can see that, but it's how he's
achieved it as much as what he's achieved that to
me makes him a slight favorite for this world title.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah. I like the specific numbers. I appreciate That's what
this podcast is about, the details.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
I like that.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
You're right, though dominant victories are really the thrilling ones,
they do tend to be dull. There was a little
bit maybe manufactured excitement in this. It was remarkable how
many times Lando Norris took half a second out of
Oscar Piastre without the gap changing from about eight and
a half seconds. You noticed that as well until I
think the last ten laps and the gap did close.
But like you say, second last lap, it actually reminded
me a little bit of Daniel Ricardo's victory Italy was

(05:18):
a twenty three one two twenty three one? Wasn't it
twenty one over Lando norris s where there was there's
a bit of Lando was the faster driver, they should
have let him through whatever, But then on was a
last lap I think in his case, wasn't it where
he said coreational best and the fastest lap of the race,
I think as well to just emphasize that the pace
was in hand and he was managing. Coincidentally enough, this

(05:39):
is also the win with which Oscar Piastre equaled Daniel
Riccardo's total victories of eight. Some stats up on the
Fox Sports website and social media pages he might have seen.
This was, I say, his eighth career victory. That's one
short now of Mark Webber's career total of nine, not
that far away from the all time records for Australians
at Jack Bradmont fourteen Alan Jones on twelve. But more interestingly,

(06:02):
I suppose they're all interesting. I won't drank them. But
sixth victory for this season, which is more than any
Australian has ever had in one Formula One season ever.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
And it's funny like this is a stat that we've
you know, we talked about this months ago, given that
you could sort of see the way the season and
the circumstances of this season based on what's going to
happen next season, where we've got this hard reset and
a whole new formula. The last season of an existing
rule set tends to weed out a dominant team fairly
early and then it tends to be fairly plain sailing

(06:33):
for that team, and you just hope that team has
two drivers that are capable of winning races or motivated
to win races. In twenty thirteen we didn't see that
because Mark Webber was about to retire and Sebastian vast
one of the last nine Grand Prix of that year.
I'm looking at this now with eleven rounds to go,
it's very hard to see unless there's an exceptual circumstance
anyone beating m McLaren on pace for victory, and there's

(06:55):
probably going to be I think as the fourth, one
two in the last five, or the third in the
last four. I can't remember the start off the top
of my head. But with eleven rounds to go, we're
going to get a lot more races like this. So,
in context of the Piastre win total eight career wins,
now Weeber with nine is next up the road. Alan
Jones has twelve. I would imagine, based on the fact
that there's eleven rounds to go, I can see Piastre

(07:16):
winning four more races to at least equal Alan Jones
over the remainder of the season. There's one that's in
play now that has really stuck up on us and
I still can't quite believe. So Jack Brabham had fourteen
career Formula One wins. Piastre would need to win six
of the last eleven Grand Prix to tie to Jack Brabham,
and that seems completely doable based on the pace advantage

(07:38):
that McLaren hasn't. Yes, there's going to be some outlives
and there'll be a weird weekend, or there'll be a
Maxistap and Red Bull weekend where he is just absolutely
mega and transcends the cart. That's going to happen. You
would think that record is absolutely in play. And that's
a sentence I can't believe that. I'm saying in July
twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, in his third season in Formula One, and I
hope people will say, obviously, there were many fewer races
in the days of Brabhaman and Joe, and certainly in
Jack Bravam's days in the year in which he won
five Grand Prix in a season, so we were talking about
that record that was fifty percent of the races.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
It was a ten round season.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
Those are the days, but he can also equal it
one percentage terms, you say he needs six to equal
his career title. If you win seven more times this year,
he'll have won more than half the races this season
and then he will have that record outright, if you
want to talk web percentage tens, he only needs a
couple more race wins to do it for Alan Joe
As I think it's three times, which I think is
going to happen, and surely three more races for the

(08:32):
end of the year season if he doesn't, yes, so
I think outright those records will fall and suddenly we're
talking about, you know, all time great numbers for an Australian,
which is really remarkable again to think about this is
only his third season and that he's up against a
driver like Lando Norris, who while we're going to be
exposing each of drivers weaknesses and strengths in this championship battle,

(08:53):
as it comes down to it, a lot more of
them will be exposed as well. We're going to know
them in great detail by the time we get to
Abu Dhabi. He's no slouch. He's very fast, he's a
race winner. He was a race winner before this season
and he's been in Formula One for a long time,
so there's nothing to take away from that. But I
do want to talk about norrisse for a second, because
he struck. We've talked a couple of people about it,
and it's not just me that it struck. It wasn't
just my like one am brain thinking oh this unusual.

(09:16):
But his responses this weekend I found very interesting. Obviously, Friday,
he started very much on the back foot. He was
six tenths down in sprint qualifying, but it was only
sprint qualifying, but nonetheless that was the first competitive session
of the weekend. Finished behind Pastre, obviously in the sprint
because it was a lot of passing, as he wasn't
for the whole weekend. But then even after pipping Piastre

(09:37):
to poll and he didn't beat that track record Piastre
he said on Friday, and Piastre had made some mistakes
so there was a reason for it, seemed very defensive.
And then after the race, obviously he was defeated, so
there's no reason to expect he's going to be happy
about it. But his response even then just seemed a
little bit flat, and I couldn't help but wonder whether
coming back from the mini break, which would have probably

(09:57):
felt like a mid season break for a lot of them,
and taking Stock and Max with staff and now very
far behind and it's a one on one title five.
Whether this was maybe a little bit of a maybe
demoralizing is now too judgmental because we don't know what
he's thinking, but almost like a little bit of a
reality check that actually, just getting ahead of Piastre after
winning two in the row and feeling like you had

(10:18):
a bit of momentum is not going to be maybe
as easy as he thought or not straightforward.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
He was a little bit muted, and I can understand
that because this car now has been proven to have
such a significant advantage that quite frankly, finishing second is
a little bit disappointing because if you've finished second, you've
probably been beaten by the other guy in the same car,
and that's going to be the way the rest of
this season plays out. I do wonder there's so much
of this in that we know that Norris is very

(10:44):
much an open book in the way that he runs
his Formula one. You know, he rides the emotional rollercoaster,
at least publicly a lot more than Piastre. Does Piastre
will A give you nothing and B be more robotic
when he has these days that are good and bad,
And that's just a product of his character and perhaps
the way he's being managed. In a whole bunch of
other things. Norris is much more of an open book,
so there's never any ambiguity over how Norris is feeling

(11:07):
about something. And I wondered if this was almost I
wouldn't say deliberate or rehearsed, but perhaps the way this
championship is going to be won from here is not
getting too high or too low. And I think that
applies for both drivers when you are in a fight
where there's probably only two cars in it. I wonder
if this is going to be the way he frames

(11:27):
the not so good days for the rest of the season.
I mean, look, guys still qualified on pole and finished second.
It's a pretty good weekend. It's a better weekend than
eighteen other people had. And so I wonder if that's
almost a deliberate ploy here, because we are playing the
long game. It is a long long way to the
end of the season. You mentioned the ten round season
before you be on holidays. Now, if it was not six,

(11:48):
you go. But I do wonder if this is a
way that he's going to manage the back end of
this season, particularly because you know, as we're about to
hit August here, we've still got eleven rounds until the
first week of December. It comes really thick and fast.
There's a lot of doubleheaders. It's very compact after we
get back from the not quite mid season break. So
I wonder if there's almost like a disappointment management exercise

(12:10):
going on here, because you can live to fight another day.
The margins are very small and the opposition is very
far in the review, So I wonder if that's one
of those ones that, particularly on the eve of back
to back with Hungary this weekend, you sort of dust
yourself off and go again. But he was a little
bit muted. Perhaps that was also It wasn't one of
those races where you could say, oh, look, this could

(12:30):
have happened. That could have happened. He was comprehensively beaten
when it mattered. But I'm going to go slightly off
running order here, assuming we actually have a running order.
We have a thirty second discussion before we start this podcast.
Can we have three minutes here indulge me what on
earth was going on with the coverage on Sunday night,
because you mentioned this earlier. There was a time after

(12:54):
the pit stops had shaken out. Pstre was on the mediums,
Norris was on the hard tires, and we kept getting
told by the common that he was taking half a
second off here and six tenths off here. And I
kept looking at the timing tower and kept seeing the
same margin between first and second, to the point where
I actually started looking at the F one timing appt
to see if was there something wrong with the coverage?
Am I not seeing this? I'm looking at the driver

(13:15):
tracker and the two orange dots are kind of circulating
in the same space. And something that really bothered me,
and I'm sure a lot of our listeners over the
course of the weekend, particularly on Sunday, was that I
understand that we take a British commentary feed and they're
going to be it's in their interests and it's completely explainable.
They are going to be more excited when a British

(13:36):
driver does something than a non British driver does something.
There's one thing to have some enthusiasm for one driver
over the other. If you are going to blatantly misrepresent
the facts, because this is a data driven sport. If
you are going to tell basically an incorrect narrative to
suit your viewers or yourself, you are doing the viewing
public a disservice and you are not being genuine in

(13:58):
the way that you are presenting this to the world
like a global audience.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
I'll leave that with.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
You, because there was something there was something about it
that really felt off to me in that yes, you
can cheer inverted commas for the chief of the Chief
of the Flag rather than the driver, but when you're
blatantly misrepresenting facts in order to build up a false narrative,
then I've got a problem with it.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Your thoughts, yes, not the only one I think has
brought it up this weekend, and I do have at
least a small amount of concern that now it's boiled
down to it is just Norris and Fiastro as much
as McLaren's still weary of Estaffa, and I understand why
because it's Max with Staffan. But this is the situation
for the rest of the season, and like you say, whatever,
it is three from last four to four, from the
last five to one to two is there's going to

(14:41):
be a lot of direct battles between these drivers, and
some people with certain passports may have vested interest in
a particular outcome. Look, I mean if I want to
if I want to play Devil's advocate, let's say you.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Want to play Devil's advocate, that'll be I like you.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
Yeah. I don't envy commentators who can see a ninety
minute racer of them where there's clearly going to be
almost no overtaking. You've got to try and it's like
a football commentator in the last quarter as a big margin,
I would know this is Melbourne supporter, and you've got
to try and pretend there's something at stake, and then
actually sometimes there's something can stake, you know, to make it.
You know, I thought I was telling her at the
end of the race. I think when David Croft finally

(15:17):
conceded that Norris wasn't going to get him, that mart
ruddles of where he never was going to anyway, almost
saying the quiet bit out loud. Maybe there was a
bit of that, but you know, the post race coverage
there was a lot of questions to McLaren people about
why Norris couldn't win rather than White Piastrick did win. Yeah,
I think that as some people might be wondering what
the rest of the season is going to look and

(15:38):
sound like, but can't argue with the results. At the
end of the day, Oscar Piastre not only the winner,
but a sixteen point championship leader. You can't you can't
fudge those ones. You can't fudge those numbers, regardless of
how you might like to. Before we move on, Matt,
I do want to touch briefly on the rain delay.
A lot of people about talking about the rain delay.
I'm surprised actually, because it's just a lot of people

(15:59):
were up quite like to watch this race, and I
don't know what kind of state they were in on
Monday to.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
Go to work. But I salute you.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
You watched a great Oscar Pias Street victory, even if
it's about one or two overtakes, with the entirety of
the race. But it was mildly controversial, at least for
Max for Staffan who said he would have got the
race started immediately. Lewis Hamdon also said there were probably
too many safety car laps. After the resumptions, there are
two different complaints but they seem to really be the
only complaints, and I think we probably can't take competitive

(16:26):
interests out of this one. But I mean, other than
the fact that it was late for us and we
had flashbacks to twenty twenty one, I had a real
concern when I heard that the race clock had not
started after the formation map, that we're in for it again.
I mean, what was your take on the way this
was handled.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yeah, I'm going to give a quick shout out here
to Hannah Kennely at the Age colleague of mine who
was assigned to do a live blog for the Belgium
Grand Prix on Sunday night, and then when things were
delayed by eighty minutes, I said to her my commiserations and said,
let's hope this doesn't end up like twenty twenty one
when you were not doing a life blog on this
particular Grand Prix. But look, I there's not a one

(17:00):
size fits all answer to this, and there's a few
things to take into account here. We had a wet
race at Silveston last time out where we had an
accident where Isaac Hadja and Kimi Antonelli came together with
absolutely no visibility in the rain. After a restart, and
that was particularly bad. There's something about SPA and that
low lying mist and where the water gets thrown up

(17:23):
because of the undulation of this particular track, and it's
always along the camel straight after they've gone through rouge
and radion, the water hangs in the trees and you
cannot see a thing. I also think, whether this was
overt or not, we've seen accidents at SPA in the
not too recent pass where we've had fatalities in different categories.
I think that's also got a player factor aspart from

(17:46):
the mild inconvenience of people working in this part of
the world and anyone who was digesting their Sunday Roast
City on the couch watching the sky coverage in the UK.
I thought it was the correct decision to delay it,
and I didn't think there was too much of a
controversy about it that purely because of this circuit and
historical precedence at this circuit. I didn't have a massive
problem with it. But I don't think it's a one

(18:07):
size fits all for every circuit. I think it should
be taken a case by case basis. Yes, the people
who wanted to go racing were the people who had
the most to gain and the least to lose, and
Max Pastappen's always going to Watchford I would like to
race because he knows he's a genius in the wet
and he's proven that in the past. There is a
competitive advantage for him and his car in a situation

(18:28):
like that. I didn't have a massive problem with it,
despite the inconvenience. There is an argument that, you know,
should they have gone out and at least run behind
the safety car for a bit at the original race time,
start to at least try and disperse some of the water,
because there's nothing better to clean a wet Formula one
track than twenty Formula one cars going around hoovering up

(18:48):
all the water. Copyright button bundle, there's an argument for that.
But then about half an hour into that delay, it
really chucked it down and we would have had red
flag anyway. Quite frankly, so I didn't have had that
much of an issue with it, but I was a
bit like you. It became much more of a talking
point in this part of the world than I expected
it to be on the Monday after the race, which

(19:08):
I guess is good because it means lots of people
are watching Formula One because well we.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
Know why, yes exactly now. I think that's right, and
I've found it actually a little bit frustrating that there
was some commentary afterwards saying that, well, they don't race
in the wet anymore, when literally the previous race was
a wet race, and arguably race controls should have intervened
a little bit more in that race, considering there were
crashes there due to visibility they had Jant and another
crazy thing as you mentioned, and perhaps some others were

(19:32):
due to that as well. So you can't argue that
when literally the previous race was a fully wet race
at Silverstone, but really different circuits, like you say, Silverston
is wide and flat and there's a lot of run off.
Even though it's a high speed circuit that is dangerous.
Spa is much more dangerous, like you said, we've learned
that to devastating effect recently. So I think that's perfectly
fine that they called that, And I think there's also

(19:53):
a bit of a I associate this with Michael Massey,
but I and I think it was him that sort
of brought this print, which is that it's better to
try and manage a racer that you get the maximum
number of racing laps, and if that means delaying the
start a bit or a lot in this case, that's
better because the alternative was, yes, you lose five laps
circulating behind the safety guard to get some water off.

(20:14):
Maybe you would have got three laps free, and then
the rain would have arrived and you would have red flagged,
and then by the time you restarted another couple of
laps behind the safety card, you've lost a quarter of
the race distance effectively, And then what's the point of that?
May as well, wait, we got well, it wasn't quite
forty four laps because we spent four behind the safety car.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Maybe that could have been short of.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
But we've got forty laps, let's say, of racing, which
is a better outcome.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
I think a better outcome.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
For the sport as well, considering we are now in
that championship mindset where every point is going to count.
For those two tidal leaders, it would have been frustrating,
certainly if they'd walked away with half points or something
else some other silly results. So I think actually the
result for the sport was better, which is maybe I
was a little bit surprised in the end that we
got such a straightforward sporting spectacle. I suppose, not the

(20:58):
overtaking per se, but just that we've got a pretty
standard race rather than one that was interrupted a lot
and had some kind of silly outcome of no reason.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
And we're probably a little bit jumpy still with this
venue in twenty twenty one, which we were laughing about
it before was an absolute nonsense because there was no
way that anything was going to go around that day,
and they basically did two laps and corded a race
so that the promoters were told, well, you had a
car race, and you if anyone's asking for refunds, then
you have to deal with that and we don't have to.
So it was declared a Formula one race even though

(21:26):
that it two laps. Information behind the safety car, so
confluence of circumstances, circuit history, a whole bunch of things.
But I think in the end of the day, like
you said, we got a race away at the end,
it was a little bit delayed. The last thing you
want here is for there to be some outlier of
a result or half points or something that doesn't make
this pure championship fight, and the good news is we

(21:47):
have eleven rounds of that.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
Still to go.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
Let's move down map to Move of the Week, brought
to you by Shannon's. Not heaps of moves this week,
but there were some moves. I suspect it's gonna be
one that probably at the top of the table, but
I'm going to give you the chance to give me
your move of the week.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
First.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
Well, I've just called up our good friends at forexx here.
I've just had a look at there were twenty five
overtakes apparently in the Grand Prix on Sunday, which is
more than I thought. I remember about three of them.
I'm going to go moves of the week plural here
because the move of the week is qualifying second, because
we know how that we know how that works out.
Because Oscar Piastre had pole for the sprint race, Max

(22:26):
Tostaff and was second, overtook Piastre on the first racing lap,
went off to win the race, and in the Grand Prix,
Norris on pole, Piastre second. Piastre over took Norris on
the first racing lap of the race, lap five, I
think you said, and then went on to win the race,
and it's the way this track is configured that starting
second and having the toe all the way up the
hill from Orouge through Radion down the camel straight, that

(22:48):
is your chance. And it becomes more heightened with the
fact that these cars spar is so fast and so
narrow and places where you could overtake in the past
and no longer overtaking places anymore, like the bus do
used to be the spot there used to be a
lot of people going down as a La Saurce or
turn one if you like, if you were to Michael
Labonatto Courner numbers rather than names. But there's not too

(23:09):
many places you can pass on this track now. And
we were discussing golf there before, how SPA has kind
of become still a fantastic race track, a real driver's track,
but not a track that encourages great races anymore. And
its cousin in this sense of modern day Formula one
is Suzuka and they were two of the races that
you would always look forward to back in the day
because they were such unreal layouts with fantastic places to pass.

(23:32):
These aren't passing tracks anymore, so you've got to take
your chance, so moves plural of the week. Whoever qualified
second at SPA Verstappan in the spread, Piastre in the
Grand Prix, hats off to you because that was probably
the major fact of you won on Saturday and Sunday.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yes, I think so, well, look at me, just compliment
that and say, because my backup was going to be
back to Staffen's pass and past in the s taking
both of them. But that's two we only need to
give away too. We don't need to be overly generous,
but both in a different way. V Stappan's more conventional
by starting on the grid and just doing the job well.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
I thought.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Piastres, though, as we sort of talked about, was more
impressive for the way that he had to deal with
a rolling start and in the wet so much harder
to judge the circumstances. The way he tackled o' rouge
as well, for the first time at racing speed with
racing fuel in wet conditions really guts it, really brave,
you can go and find so there's some publications of
the telemetry as well, just to see what he did to.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
Manage that gap.

Speaker 1 (24:26):
Awesome really and managed the speed even out of the
first turnal the source, if you will, to make sure
that he didn't catch Norris too quickly and then lose
his momentum. It was just so well judged, even the
way that he kind of I'm not even sure one
hundred percent certain how intentional it was, but kind of
dummied into that first corner to force Norris to kind
of cover him, compromise the exit. Everything about that, because

(24:46):
it's a long run up to where the pass was,
was so well managed and judged. And I think that
goes back to the point we started with, which was
that he really showed everything he's got this weekend and
emerge with the victory as the result.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
And this is one thing to know that this is
going to be your opportunity. But as you said, dealing
with a rolling start and dealing with the wet, he
actually did it so well that I almost thought that
he'd overtaken him too early, because it wasn't luck he
got him. He didn't get Norris in the breaking zone
at the end of the Kemel straight there. He got
it well before that, and I thought, oh, if you
showed your hand a little bit too early there. But
this is part of what we're talking about before. There's

(25:18):
this clarity of determining where to take your advantage and
then coolly executing that that you know you mentioned it before.
The guy still in his third Formula One season, it's
not like he's been around for ten years and he's
got heaps of experience doing this at particular tracks, and
this is such a particular track. Yet the execution of
something he made something that was very difficult look very easy,

(25:40):
and if you go back and watch the onboards or
look at the telemetry, as you said, that was far
from an easy overtake.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
So yeah, hats off.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
Now let's be on to a couple of other matters
from the week, and I feel very embarrassed mat that
we haven't even talked about the sprint, which is obviously
an integral part of Felt and Grop.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
Pre weekend there was a sprint on was it?

Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah? There was, I believe so ironically it was actually
really quite a convenient time and was not delayed by
the rain, which must to be very exciting for people
watching it.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
Can I tell you a story about the sprint before
you can go any further, please, let's take the Let's
take the listeners behind the curtain here. So Saturday night
convenient time, as you said, also convenient time for living,
like doing other things under than formula one, which I
was doing at the which I was doing at the time.
And my plan was to get home a little late
and then watch the sprint without knowing the result, which
in modern day social media is basically impossible. And I

(26:29):
saw the results, and I sent you a message and said,
let me guess for stappan overtook Piastri at the end
of Kemel straight on lap one, and then everyone else
read around in order for the remaining eleventh laps, and
you came back to me and said, yeah, pretty much,
So hand up here. I have not watched the sprint,
and I will not watch the sprint because that's twenty
five minutes of my life.

Speaker 3 (26:48):
That I can have back.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
And I just think it shows the general apathy to
the very inconsistent nature of having sprints on the calendar
these days. Because you mentioned this afterwards, all three podium
finishes in the sprint, they were asked about the sprint
and they basically came out and said, oh, yeah, but
it was only the sprint. No one really cares. And
it was just so yes, it was a car race

(27:09):
that it was five, but it was a little bit
flat and I can't say that I shed too many
tears from missing it in the moment and have had
no desire to watch since. But perhaps that's a little
bit harsh. But this is where we are with sprints
in twenty twenty five, and it's not even to me
the number of sprints that we have over the course
of the season.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
It's where we have them.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
And we know that the six best tracks for sprints
are ever going to be the six that are chosen,
because that's not why the sprints get chosen, is it.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
Yes, Well, I think I've seen I'm not sure there's
been confirmed, but I think the Dutch Grand Prix organizers
potentially have accidentally announced they've got one next to you
for their last race.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
And that's not a tracking. Additionally, not at all of
a high.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
But I actually I was thinking about this during this sprint,
in which not a lot happened. There's a bit of
tension you ask of Pastory obvious had the quicker car,
but Max was just too good out of that first turn,
and there was no strategy obviously in the sprint, but
almost you almost want to give them to where racing
is more difficult because the race is not long enough
for you get too frustrated by it. You know, had

(28:06):
there been had this been the race and that had
been for stapping the lead and been the dry, we
know McLaren would have got ahead eventually through strategy because
that had the fast race car either would have undercut
or overcut and it would have merged the lead either way,
and then it would have been over and you'd be like,
all right, that's what it is. But at least in
a short race, you know, the only way is for
him to make a move on track. The problem, of course,
is that with stapp and not in the championship fight,

(28:28):
there wasn't that much motivation to take that much risk.

Speaker 3 (28:30):
You know, he had to go. I'm not saying that
he didn't.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
As long as you've injured ahead of Norris, that's all
that really mattered.

Speaker 3 (28:34):
Let's be honest. Even if he was behind him, it
would have.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
Been one point loss. It wouldn't have mattered that much.
So we talked a lot about the sprint last week.
If you want any more about opinions, you can go
and listen to last week's episode. I think the format
is fine, but it's just so inconsequential it's not even
worth talking about it any further.

Speaker 3 (28:49):
Let's talk about some other methods.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
They need to ask us to pick the six circuits
that we have sprints and scanning up and down the calendar.
I'm saying we should have won at Azerbaijan.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yes, well, I'm surprised that they started it there, didn't
they Well, that was one of the first or in
the first season, and I don't remember it was good
or not, but it's one that would be good, you
would think.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
All I remember from that year was that the slogan
for the race was the speeds are higher in the
land of Fire.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
That was all I.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
Remember from the very first days of Grand Prix. Other
than that, I couldn't tell you. But there are six
circuits that would be better than Spa to have sprints.
Intel Goss is wide and I'm glad we've got that
that's always served up a good sprint, But there's some
you can just work your way down the order and go, no,
we're not down there, We're not going there. But when
they call us to ask us which six we want,
we'll we'll put our claim.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
In we'll have the list ready to go. I'm doing
about a couple of other stories from this weekend, first
weekend without Christian Horner on the Red Bull Racing pitball.
Don't think anyone noticed after too long. Things moved pretty quickly.
In Formula one, Laura Meggie has got his career as
Red Bull Racing team principle off to the perfect start
with Maxi Stafford winning that forgetable sprint. But it didn't

(29:53):
I obviously wasn't able to finish on the podium in
the Grand Prix. Was Maxis stapp and frustrated. It wasn't irony.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
You know.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
We talked about the rain earlier on that in Silverston
had set up his car as a dry and it
turned out to be wet. In Belgium, he set it
up for the wet and most of the race and
being dry, but that's sometimes just the luck of things.
But I actually want to talk about Uki Sinodo, who's
scored no points again, but actually I think much better
weekend from him, certainly qualifying because his best qualifying at
Red Bull Racing, both in terms of being seven on

(30:19):
the grid and the percentage difference between him and the
staffen so in terms of pace, got an upgrade this weekend.
Still not on the same class of upgrades, but there's
a little difference there. But I thought it was actually
the way he talked about his feeling after qualifying, of
having Lauren on the pit wall, felt like he felt
like he was back at racing Bulls where he must
have fond memories of his own high level of performance.

(30:41):
That I think is actually something we might see changing
relatively quickly, that maybe just this change of manager might
activate that second driver a little bit.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah, you mentioned not many people had missed Christian Horne
and not being there, including the Red Bull Comms department
that still had a Christian's name above Laurel Mickeys's quotes
and their post race press release of I forgot the
age the template.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
There would quotes. We don't know.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
It could have been his quotes. He's probably on a
horse somewhere or doing something.

Speaker 3 (31:06):
It shows you.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
We've discussed this in the past with Sonoda. We forget
sometimes because this is a mechanical, data driven sport, there
is a human element that is less important for some
drivers and more important for others and some you know,
it's the character stick approach, isn't it. Sonoda is someone
who needs an arm Randy's shoulder to perhaps flatten out
some of the emotional peaks and troughs that we've seen
him go through. He clearly responds to a different type

(31:31):
of management structure, and as Sir Jeo Buru Is memorably
said in an interview just recently, the whole Red Bull
set up is the second driver is somewhat of an
inconvenience there. Let's be perfectly honest, because the whole thing
is based around for stapit and for some drivers they
might take that as a well, you know, I'll show you,
I'll make you care about me because I'll get great
results and there's a bit of us against the world

(31:52):
and you know, fight your own corner. Maybe Sonoda's not
that driver, and that's not a criticism of Sonoda in
any way. Different people need different things to go racing
and be the best version of themselves. And there's a
personal touch there with the Mechias stuff, because we know
that there is a history between the two of them.
But even little things like coming off the pit wall

(32:12):
or out of the garage to sort of give him
the thumbs up and the round of applause after a
particularly good session. Sonoda wasn't getting that in the past,
and there was absolutely no way and hell he was
going to get that in the past. And whether that
is consciously annoying him or not, that's something that's not
allowing you to be the best version of yourself. And
so if he feels that there's a little bit more
belief and investment in what he's doing, perhaps that contributes

(32:34):
to just being a little bit better on track. He
was actually really unlucky, just unfortunate in the race. I
think he got called in the call for him to
come into pit came too late and he was already
past the pit lane entry point, so he didn't pit
when he was supposed to and fell outside.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
Of the points.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
Pace Wise, it was a lot more convincing. I don't
think there's suddenly going to be this huge transformation and
that Red Bull are suddenly going to have two cars
in Q three every weekend and they're going to be
fighting for something meaningful. But it was the first time
you could actually say since Sonoda has been there that, oh,
there is an uptick in his performance. And there is
so much of this season left to go. We know

(33:08):
that Redbell's winning need the championship this year, but it
does pose an interesting question for twenty twenty six because
we've got a new rule set coming in. The whole
Red Bull thing is very up in the air. We
know that v Stappens likely to stay now, which we'll
get into in a bit, but the identity of who
drives that second car it still seems to be, well,
who's going to be driving at and in the past,
does anyone care who's driving it? Because it didn't really

(33:30):
feel like they did. I wonder if this is the
first step to him having a perfectly decent end of
the season and doing enough to at least maintain the
status quo because there is a fast Formula One driver
in there. We've seen that he's never going to be
the most metronomically consistent driver because that's not in his nature.
But he's also someone that can throw a surprise result
from time to time if he feels that the team's

(33:52):
behind him and he's got some beliefs, So it wouldn't
surprise me if at all, if this becomes the rule
rather than the exception. I don't think he's going to
be amazing. I think he's going to be better than
he has shown since he's been at Rebull Racing.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
Yeah, and we shouldn't forget. I mean, notwithstanding that maybe
policies changed a little bit under a new team Vincible,
but really what Red Bull Racing has wanted acknowledging that
Max wi stapp and regardless of the folly of potentially
building a team exclusively around him, is very good and
they've only wanted a driver who can get within about
three tenths of him. That's usually pretty respectable. Maybe these
days it's so much closer at Theront you want a
little bit less, but that was essentially where he was

(34:25):
this weekend. So as long as he can be thereabouts,
that's good enough.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
And I think there's.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
Maybe almost a bit of a perverse advantage in these
circumstances of him having had such a bad start that
the only way he's up for him in a weird way,
And yeah, it doesn't matter. You know, there's a momentum alember.
There's also a you know, everyone loves to say you're
only as good as your last result. But if we
get to the end of the year and he's gone
from being regularly out in Q one and Q two
to being regularly in the top ten and regularly scoring.

(34:50):
That's going to look like, well, it will be real progress,
even if it's still down on what he was doing
at other teams or at Racing Bulls any other team.
I think that will count for something. I'd be surprised
when we don't know how the second half of the
season looks for him. Maybe it's just as bad as
the first, and then we do have more difficult conversations,
but wouldn't be surprised with some improved results if they
make what I think will be the right decision, short

(35:10):
of some much more experienced driver suddenly rocking up on
the market, and give him that second year in a
new car that, hopefully for the sake of the team
as much as the driver doesn't have all those negative
traits built into it that make it so undriveable for
anyone who isn't max with Staffen, and then he can
perform in the way that we know and the way
that he proved I think in the last well eighteen months,

(35:31):
or let's say the year and a bit before he
moved to Red Bull Racing, that he deserves that shot
at being a front running driver, But that remains to
be seen. I guess for next year. We do know
now or ninety nine percent certain that Max with Staffann
will be staying next year because Helmet Marco, who was
told not that long ago to stop talking to the media,
has told the media that Max with Staffen is locked
in now for next year. But we kind of knew
that Matt, didn't We from what we knew about the

(35:52):
contract clauses, the escape clauses that this was always likely
going to happen.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
Well, if we're understanding the same clause here, I believe
that Verstaffen would have had freedom to do whatever he
wished or at least break the contract he had if
he was outside the top three in the World Championship
at the mid season break, and looking at the points
table now he cannot be outside the point of the
top three and the mid season break which is coming
up after Hungary, he is what is that eighteen points
ahead of George Russell who is in fourth. But even

(36:18):
if George Russell was to tie him after Hungary, Verstappam
would have the tiebreaker by virtue of winning more races.
So maxis staying where he is at least for twenty
twenty six. So I think it takes that out of
the equation, and I think you'll probably see a Russell
George Russell deal with Mercedes announced in pretty short order now,
So it's going to maintain the status quo. Now, what
happens after twenty six comes in and new engines and

(36:39):
are red Bull any good and what's going on with
the power trains and so on and so forth. That's
a subsequent conversation. But I think the Max Boltington Mercedes stories,
we can probably press pause on those for a while.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
Yes, And a hash tip I suppose to Nico Rosberg
and think I'd say that too often for trying to
get some answers out of yours for stuff about this entire.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
Can we talk about Nicoburg for a second here? There
is a loose.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
Canned element to him being on the sky f one broadcast, because,
let's be honest, Nico Rosberg doesn't need to be there.
Nico Rosberg may even not want to be there all
that much. Nico Rosberg doesn't care what you think and
doesn't care about protocols or anything else. So there is
a delightful element of kind of car crash TV going
on when he's got a microphone and it's live, and

(37:24):
he joined Martin Brundle on the grid walk before the
Belgian Grand Prix, and it was probably the most fun
I've had watching Nico Rosberg do anything for quite some time,
because it was slightly unhinged and you knew that he
was just going to wade in there and asking difficult
questions because he does not care what you think about
you in terms of the response. I thoroughly enjoyed it
and it was quite fun seeing your squirm a little bit,

(37:46):
wasn't it.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
Yes, it's amazing.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
What affected has it a person when they know they're
probably wealthier than everyone on the.

Speaker 3 (37:52):
Grit they're going to talk to what do you mean? Probably?

Speaker 1 (37:54):
Yes, there was that point where you're not allowed to
talk to the drivers anymore because it's close to end
them time and you can hear Martin Brundle, please h
Rosford not to try to talk to or any drivers
because someone will particulably get in trouble for it. Before
we wrap up, I do want to touch very briefly
on Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari. Dreadful weekend for Lewis Hamilton,
but a reasonable outcome I suppose in the context, not

(38:14):
in the context of what he expected himself. Seven to
the Belgian Grand Prix, not great someone who's wanted so
many times, but coming from eighteenth on the grid made
many of those twenty odd overtakes that you mentioned all
in the wet, though in the dry couldn't overtake anyone,
at least of all Alex Elbon, who finished ahead of him,
not for the first time this season as well. So
that says a little bit of something, but a little
bit of optimism at the end of a weekend in

(38:36):
which Ferrari brought that significant suspension change. Char Leclair, at least,
who had a better weekend, was much more positive about them,
so he could feel the difference that had worked. Lewis
Hamilton as his way when things aren't going his way,
says nothing is good and everything is bad. But I
suspect this week and in hungry he might actually realize
the upgrade was okay. But I thought there's two sizes,
isn't there. On the one hand, Ferrari emerged looking like

(38:59):
a competitive for sex and best with red bull racing
this weekend and scored more points and red bulls. But
on the other hand, I thought it was very telling
how unenthusiastically charlote Cliff finished third on the podium, realizing
there's twenty seconds to McLaren in a race with no
safety cards. I think that's sort of that's that tells
you everything about Ferrari season.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
Really, yeah, it does.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
I mean, he was not the happiest buddy on the
podium there when he's standing there with a bunch of
people wearing orange. He was in there for the team photos,
but not super enthusiastic about it. But the Hamilton weekend,
I think it was what happened on Sunday salvaged a
pretty dire weekend for him personally. But we also know
that there's probably plenty of head room with him in
that upgrade package for the Ferrari to get better. The

(39:39):
interesting part for me is that yes, we already have
one race before the mid season break. It's a what
you might say is he's best historically his best circuit.
He's been amazingly good at Hungary over the years, and
I think if we're ever going to see him come
to terms with a new package for a new car
that he's only intermittently shone with this year, I think
this weekend in Budapest, assuming that we get a sensible,

(40:01):
dry race weekend where they're clearly not going to be
fighting for the top step. It'd be really interesting to
see what difference he can make at a circuit where
he's typically been really, really good with a weekend of
getting used to this upgrade package under his belt. I
think this conversation that you and I have right now
might be very different this time next week, because if
he is able to have a strong top five, say

(40:21):
in Budapest, and certainly be the equal to or maybe
even ahead of Leclaire, I think that's a real step
in the right direction.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
Yeah, it's worth saying. In the last or the four
races before Belgium, let's say, has been really much closer
to Charlott Clair, qualifying ahead of him regularly, in fact
more often than not, and in the races he's been
reasonable as well. Yes, Laclire maybe hasn't had the cleanestrun,
but it shows that that progress was there. But there
are a couple of things that take him back. I mean,
an upgrade on sprint weekend is always a risk, I think,

(40:47):
particularly for a driver who is still adjusting to some
of the nuances of this car. A change in brake
material we've learned now as well. It's probably worth I
thought it was an interesting or an important time to
remember that his years of Mercedes, everything that happened at
that time is essentially iterative. Once you get used to
the car for the first time, everything just changes gradually
and you're part of that gradual change. At Ferrari's had

(41:08):
to get used to brand new car and then all
these sudden changes sort of throw him out of that
process a little bit. We should make excuses. He's a
seven time world champion. He would have been expecting to
do better than this at this point. But it all
feels explainable, especially when the target is next year anyway,
when everyone's going to start from a clean page. So
as long as he's not embarrassing himself out there this season,
I think there's still reason to feel like this Ferrari

(41:30):
chapter doesn't have to be a Peter out and can
at least deliver some high points.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
Yeah, and Dan, and I think you mentioned the back
end of the season here. It was a characteristic of
all of his championship winning seasons at Mercedes, or even
seasons in his career where he's not been fighting for
a World Championship. He's always been a much better second
half driver than a first half driver, and a lot
of the times he would win his championships with Mercedes
is we would get the other side of the mid
season break and he would just be absolutely lights out.

(41:56):
For the rest of the season, he would be fantastic,
including quite frankly, the season that he didn't win the
World Championship in twenty twenty one, where I don't I
think that might be the best he's ever driven. Over
the last five or six races of that season, he
was absolutely perfect, and we know why he didn't win
the World Championship. But there is a trend there. He
is really really good towards the back end of seasons.

(42:16):
That's when he tends to peak. When you mentioned before,
he's comfortable with the environment and the machinery and the
way it's developed, and then he can be the best
version of himself. I think the arrow will point up
for him for the rest of the season.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
We pretty much used up all of our time him out,
but we cannot end without visiting the crystal ball by
complete home filtration. I don't think either of us have
much of a record on this this season, we should
have been keeping a tally within again, maybe better that
we don't. Boy certainly think whatever I wanted to predict
the Hamilton's Sprint, wind of a staff and race win.

Speaker 2 (42:44):
Dire I had a Mercedes or the podium. It's even
more dire if we're going to have a competition to
see whose crystal ball needs to go in the bin
the first. But yeah, I've managed to plug by crystal
ball in this week and actually get some sort of
battery in it. And I'm going to stick with something
we discussed before in terms of the Yuki Sindo question
at Red Bull Racing. So, Yuki Sonoda is currently in
seventeenth place in the World Championship standings with ten points,

(43:06):
and he has not scored since round seven, which is
a very very long time ago. Round seven, he says,
hovering his mouse over the table, here was back in
the Amelia Romonia Grand Prix. Lest we forget that one.
I'm going to go out on a limb. Here my
crystal ball says that by the end of the season,
Yuki Sonoda is going to score at least thirty points.
So he's going to score twenty points in the remaining

(43:27):
eleven rounds of the season. That's actually not a lot.
But you can get to thirty points if you can
get to thirty points, if you have a sixth here
and a couple of sevenths there, and I think that's
entirely possible. So we can revisit this one in December
if I'm correct, and if I'm not correct, I will
never mention it again, and neither will you.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
I like that if he scores thirty points, not thirty
additional points or thirty in total.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
No, thirty total. I'm not going to give thirty more.
I'm going to get He'll get to the he's going
to have to score twenty one more points for the remainder.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
Of the season.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
I think it's happening.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
So he still finishes behind Nikko HOLKENBERGA very probably.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
That's I do. I know he's got thirty seven seven.
It's thirty seven to twenty seven. I like it. I
like the long range.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
I like the simultaneously low but high bars somehow, so
I'm very excited to see that. I'm going to continue
I think probably flogging a dead horse with this one.
I've made a lot of Lewis Hamilton predictions that obviously
have not come true. But like you say, this is
one of his arguably his best track probably with Silverston,
and he's got eight victories here, way more than anybody else,

(44:29):
and Hungry is a long standing circling forward on.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
It's been around for a long.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
Time and he's just consistently been fast here. I think
he's not going to win it, but I think he's
going to get onto the podium. That's as good as
any anyone else can aim for this season, obviously, because
I think McLaren's gonna have things in pretty straightforward fashion
like they did last year with the one two. I'll
be McLaren one to where things with Lewis Hamilton complementing

(44:54):
the podium.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
I do like this because you're working on the theory
that a stopped clock is right twice a day. So
you're just going to keep we Habilton predictions out there
and sometime between now in December you're going to go
see I got my Habilt one right, and I won't
have to remind you that the previous ten were complete rubbish.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
Yeah, well, let's see what happens.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
But I don't have high homes personally Considay, how often
I've been wrong, but that's okay. That's all the time
we have for pit Talk today. We can subscribe to
pit Talk wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you
can leave us a rating and review as well. This
weekend is the Formula one Hungarian Grand Prix, with lights
out at eleven pm on Sunday. You can keep up
to date with all the latest F one, supercars and
MotoGP news at foxsports dot com. Dot are you from

(45:32):
Matt Clayton and me Michael Lomanato. Thanks very much for
your company. We'll catch you next week.