May 27, 2025 • 33 mins
Pole and victory for Lando Norris has cut his title deficit to Oscar Piastri to just three points, and his most comprehensive performance in months could be the turning point he needs in the championship fight. But after another Monte Carlo race lacking in action, is there anything F1 can do to spice up the show?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Pit Talk brought to you by Shannon's.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Cars are our passion, building, restoring or modifying.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
It's about making it our own.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
It's an obsession. Shannons know what it's worth. That's why the.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Agreed value includes all your modifications.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Get a quote online today. This is the moment, then,
that we've all been waiting for for in a romax.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Here comes Oscar past three, Lando Norris.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I aren't playing hardball out there at the moment. Steve
pipercheol Moment of twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Four, Hello and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you
by Shannon's. On today's episode, Lando Norris swins the Monaco
Grand Prix to shave his championship deficit to Oscar Piastre
to just three points and did the new two stop
pit stop r all work at all in Monte Carlo.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
My name is Michael Lomonado.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
It's great to have your company and the company of
my co host, who, according to my parish notices is
Matt Quaeton.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Parish notices time rather than mentioned parish notices. Seriously, at
least this is an ongoing conversation thanks to our good
friends at Sky Sports. But yes, in answer to your question,
did it work at Monaco. No, but that would be
the world's shortest podcast. We probably need to elaborate.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
At least another twenty nine minutes to feel so there
is a little bit more to talk about than that.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
But there is, of course the result as well. With
Monico Grand Prix.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Forget the fact that the race is typically was typically
pretty straightforward. Lando Norris wonder and that is significant. His
first Monaco Grand Pritty victory, his sixth degree victory and
a really important one in the sense of this championship.
Actually less about him winning, although that does shrink the
championship deficit.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
But I think, as I've been saying a lot, or
only eight rounds.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
In, it's probably a bit too early to be counting
points if it's less than a Grand Prix worth of points.
But qualifying on pole, and you know, at a circuit
where it is such a pressure moment to take pole
position in Q three, got three laps to do it,
They're already good, They're already complete.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
This felt like a very important weekend from that perspective.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
For him, Well, he hasn't had much momentum for a while,
has he. So I think that qualifying in caps related
everything about his weekend that he had poll lost it,
reclaimed it. Fantastic last two or three corners of that
lap when you go back and watch the end of it.
And that's been a McLaren's strength a we year in
terms of being able to have enough tire life for
the final sector or the final couple of corners. We
saw that in Australia. I mentioned Australia because that was
(02:18):
the last time Norris looked like the class of the field.
Since then, Piastre has had a run of wins. We've
had various max Fistappen interventions as the season has gone along,
but this is the first time Lando looked like he
was bossing Formula One again. And so much of this
race obviously is one on Saturday, but coming into this
weekend I wasn't sure that he was going to put
(02:39):
it together in that way on Saturday. Hugely impressive, but
in terms of redressing some of the momentum lost in
the series and also within his own team, really significant result.
And look, we're what one third of the way through
the longest season in the history of Formula One, as
we get told every year, so points tables as such
are not particularly relevant. What this does for momentum and continuity.
(03:02):
Getting him back to where he wasn't the beginning of
the season I think is almost more important.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah, it's also interesting as well.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
You know it was ahead of this weekend he was
saying that the problems he's facing with this car could
take him not weeks, but maybe even months to fully
understand and return to that kind of qualifying form Worth
noting that after qualifying he said, look, this is one result.
As important as it is, it's one we've got to see.
If I can do this at multiple races is also
one very particular circuit. But as I think Andrea Stella said,
(03:27):
the mclarentine principle, there is no.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Stronger validation than Monaco for if you.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Can qualify in formul one, qualify well and like you say,
there's three laps is something that almost would have been
unimaginable at any.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Week since Australia.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yes, because it's those last tens of a second that
he just hasn't found, and on three occasions he found them.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
I think this could be.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
It's also very interesting because it feels like a very
asymmetrical result, doesn't it, Because it's Norris making a lot
of gains and that potentially being significant in the championship
is maybe being a turning point. But I don't feel
like we can necessar read anything negative in Oscar Piastre's
weekend here. Yes, it was a bit of a scrappy
build up, messy round, as he said. But while I
think it is fair to say Norris's execution you can
(04:09):
take away from this because execution is the same at
any track, Monaco feels so particular that I'm not convinced
we can say that Piastre has lost anything this weekend.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, absolutely, particular is the correct word here, because look,
in isolation, this is a terrific weekend for Lando Norris,
you know, got back some of them are mentioned he'd
lost internally at McLaren since Piastre went on this run.
Because it is so particular, it's hard to really extrapolate
too much out of it in terms of what this
means going forward. I'm not sure this weekend bears no
relevance to any weekend, Let's be perfectly honest, even some
(04:39):
of the other tight street circuits we go to later
in the season, like Singapore, for example, Singapore and Monaco, yes,
they're both street tracks, but not all street tracks are
created equal. This is the outlier of out liars. I'm
not sure. Piastre was a little of percentage points off
where he has been and it's been at such a
high level now for so many weekends. You know, he
used the word MESSI it was a little bit messy.
(05:00):
He also did to finish on the podium for the
seventh consecutive GROWNDBURI, So this is what constitutes a messy
weekend now. So these are the margins we're playing with.
So Norris definitely rose to the occasion, but I think
we probably need maybe a greater sample size to see
whether is he really back like the start of the season,
or is this an outlier based on track position, circuit
(05:20):
and just the peculiarities of the Monaco weekend because there
is nothing like this Grand Prix.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I like the idea that this could be viewed as
a leveler rather than a step forward for Norris and
now he's going to control the next furations. Obviously we
don't know. Maybe that's exactly what it will happen, but
I think it was easy to lose over the last
few rounds of the fact that these are two drivers
who are extremely closely matched, very different psychological makeups and
therefore some subtle differences in strengths and weaknesses.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
But this should be a very tight battle between them.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
We're now a third of the way of the season
and it's three points and it feels like that's about right.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
But this is what I like about the way these
two guys go about it, and for anyone playing drinking
game at home with the podcast Styles make Fights, it's
one of my favorite expressions. I love the fact these
two guys have both got six Grand Prix wins now,
but you look at the way they go about it emotionally,
the body language of their cars have, the way they
deal with the press and the stress and the pressure
and everything that goes into making a Grand Prix weekend.
(06:16):
They come at it from such different angles a lot
of the time, racing the same car for the same
team and ending up three points between them and the championship.
It's almost a dead heater for eight rounds. It's going
to be the most interesting part of the rest of
the season for me. If they do have this baked
in car advantage, it's not going to be two guys
doing the same thing going head to head to see
who's better. I think they're both going to have their
strengths and weaknesses depending on the circuit and the circumstances
(06:39):
of the weekend. And yeah, the styles that each of
these guys employees is going to make this more interesting
as we head through the rest of the season.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah, it doesn't feel like just because although this will
be something will come to later in future weeks, just
because McLaren feels like it's got the upper hand.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
I think it could still be a really great championship. Doll.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I want to talk about Ferrari now, Charlie Claire second
best result of the year for him, for the team.
He was in this great mixed emotional mood afterwards. I
think after qualifying second and after finishing second recognize on
the one hand that this is much better than Ferrari
had been expecting that they've achieved so far this year.
But to finish second at Monaco is very difficult, especially
when he had that great breakthrough victory at this home
(07:17):
race last season. He is, I think, more than almost
more than any driver at any track, lifts higher. I
can't think of another driver who lifts higher for any
track than he does at Monaco because he was special
to watch this weekend, would have been a deserving winner
and he somehow manufactured that result.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
But what do we take away from Ferrari for this weekend?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Because it was a high water make even Lewis Hamilton
finished so distantly in fifth, was still pretty competitive over
the course of the weekend.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
It was a qualifying penalty that really affected his rates.
Is this a good result for Ferrari? Good takeaway for Ferrari?
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Look from how erratic that it's been. I don't think
you can look at this anything other than a great
result for the circumstances. We mentioned the word outlier. Leclere
is fantastic at this race track and there's an energy
to the way he does everything here. And it's so
interesting to see that home race pressure and what that
does to drivers. And we see it every year in
albert Park when we had Mark Webber or Daniel Ricardo
(08:12):
Oscar Piastri. There is something about a home race and
you remember going back f one and a bygone era.
Jensen Button was always awesome in Australia and terrible a
Silverstone and Mark Webber was the opposite. They wish they
could trade a lot of the time. But I love
Lacleur at this circuit because he does stand taller and
he does feel a sense of expectation with what he
wants to do. What can we take away with from
(08:34):
this with Ferrari? Look, I have trust issues. Perhaps it's me.
It's not you, it's me. I have trust issues because
every time we think we've got them figured out and
there's a trajectory there, positive or negative, they'll turn up
at the next Grand Prix and it'll be completely tipped
upside down. You look at where we're going in a
week's time. Is there a more different circuit than the
(08:56):
circuit of Barcelona? Cattle and you're for a Formula one
car than Monaco. I always think that the Spanish Grand Prix,
if there's an inherent weakness in your car, that track
exposes it brutally because of the nature of that layout,
and there's just nowhere to hide there. It's never a
particularly great Grand Prix, ReSpectacle but it's not a place
(09:16):
that tells any lies. And if you've got some issues
with your car, this place will expose them. And so
in answer to your question, I'm going to sit on
the fence for seven whole days here because if we're
still having a semi positive conversation after Cataloonia, then look,
maybe you know the thing that the light for Ferrari
is not the oncoming trainer at the end of the tunnel,
but Leclaire at this race track is special and you
(09:38):
have to think that when Lando Norris locked up into
turn one there, his eyes would have got very, very big.
It's like this Chad's to be a back to back winner,
but considering how bad he's luck usually is there, I
think the second place in the circumstances is pretty good.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Well remarkably just his second podium, yes after victory last year,
despite him being the three three time pole.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Well, he barely finishes a race there all last year
because it would always be poland then be some sort
of disaster where it didn't even start one year. I remember,
everything that could go wrong did so at least he
banished that last year and that was a hugely emotional
part of the twenty twenty four season. But as good
a weekend as could be imagined, but also not a
surprise because it's charlat Clerk and it's Monco.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
At least the curse was broken by the victrinalistic and
aim for more than just finishing in the points of
finishing at all.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Before we move on, and I do want to talk briefly.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
About Red Bull Racing because two teams came to this
track feeling pretty pessimistic. One was Ferrari and they ended
up having a reasonable weekend. The other was Red Bull Racing.
I think Max with Stappan got exactly what he thought
he was going to get out of this, which was
not a podium, a trying and a bold strategy that
didn't work. I think the evidence of this weekend for
Red Bull Racing, or the takeaway is that this car
(10:46):
has all the same problems as last year's car. Maybe
it's slightly more benign in some circumstances, but its weakness
in slow corners still exists cannot be ameliorated in the
same way.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Clearly Ferrari managed to do so at this.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Track, and I think we should be questioned about taking
it too much away from this weekend because it is
such an outlier. But this felt very validating for everything
we thought we understood about this car. It does it
will be an interesting piece to fit into the puzzle
of whether or not this championship campaign is real because
it does feel like that question we thought were getting
an answer to a Nimola Yeah, was put on ice
(11:17):
this weekend, and it's hard to know what to interpret
from it. Well, I feel like I understand Ferrari less right,
but I feel like I'm beginning to understand red Bull more.
This car does not like being monster over curbs. We've
seen that for.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
The last couple of years, and you could see that
in the way that Max Stepan was trying to drive
it compared to the way Yuki Sonoda was trying to
drive it, and that's a separate conversation. Max has shrugged
his shoulders and said, well, this car doesn't like this,
I'll just drive around that, which is what you can
do when you're a four time world champion and pound
for pound, the best guy in the sport at the moment.
This was just a par weekend for them to see
(11:51):
a four time world champion for a team of that pedigree. Basically,
goal hanging for a safety car or a red flag
was a little bit undercoming quite franickly, but by the
same time, and what other cards did they have to play?
They weren't in the race with Ferrari. They went in
the race with McLaren. They had Mercedes had a weird
sort of weekend point this weekend, so they had them covered.
He did the only thing he could do in that
(12:13):
I'm going to leave this second stop as late as
humanly possible. Something might happen, and if it doesn't, I'm
just going to finish where I was probably going to
finish anyway. So it was nothing ventured, nothing gained. But
I feel I feel we've got a pretty good hold
on what Red Bull is. Max will make that cargo
place as it probably shouldn't. Is it as bad as
Sonoda's making it look? No, The sweet spot somewhere in
(12:34):
the middle, probably closer to where Max is. He's still
going to have tracks where his sheer ability and the
strength of that car and track position is going to
get him. He's going to be a disruptor where the
rest of this season goes. But I still think it's
a two driver to fight for the championship, with Max
being probably annoying to both of them at some point
through the back end of the year where he just
has awesome weekends that you can't explain well.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Like you said, I think Barcelona will be the limbus
test for so much of what we think we know
about this campaign.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
So that'll be this weekend.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Before were on from Monaco, though, we've got to talk
about what was the talking point leading into this weekend.
This rule change to mandate two stops in Monte Carlo.
This was brought in. It was relatively recently he was
brought in, but it was in response the last year's
shocker of a race, when, of course that early red
flag went there were effectively no pit stops, at least
among the leaders of the top ten. Two stops mandatory
at least fixes that, because even if that were to
(13:20):
happen again, there'd be one more stop. It's probably worth
considering at the end of this that the top four
finished in grid order effectively the top ten did. When
you take out Fernando Lonso's retirement, Lewis Hamilton recovering from
the penalty you got after qualifying. Everyone finished pretty much
where they started, So in one sense you could say
two stops at the same track makes no difference because
it's at Monaco. We did, though, get this interesting battle
(13:43):
in the lower reaches of the points. Say battle, it's
probably not exactly the right word, it's not a race.
It wow, it's not a race. It really was a race.
The racing bulls started it with Liam Lawson backing up
the pack for Isaac Hadja to make his two pit
stops for free.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Essentially, William saw that and said, well a bit of that.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
They did exactly the same, but twice as significant, because
then they swapped their cars and got Alex al wanted
to do exactly what Parlo Signs had done for him.
Mercedes then presumably would have found a way to double that,
but George Russell's brain just broke. I overtook alex Alban
I think it was all the time off the track,
and then copped a drive through penalty and thinks that
was better for him.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I'm not certain what to conclude from this. I've been
thinking about it all day. In some respects, all of
this stuff is pretty part of the course in Monaco,
but it felt much more exaggerated and much worse.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Or was it much better?
Speaker 1 (14:35):
It wasn't necessarily much worse. It's just with the two
pit stops we had twice the opportunities to lament how
bad it was. Literally, that's literally I'm saying it normally
it's like, well there's only one stop and everyone's driving
around information, but at least we've got the stops done.
It's like we have to do this again. And so
you had two separate things going on. I think the
top four we're having a race much as they are
(14:55):
constrained by having a race in Monaco. And I'm not
sure what everyone else in the pack was doing because
you mentioned the Alonso retirement. Unlucky it's going Formula one
just yea, he should have scored points. He was fantastic
this week, Hare and Lewis Hamilton sort of settling into
where he probably should have been post penalty. But watching
what racing bulls were doing in that Liam Lawson literally
he may may as well have had a caravan on
(15:17):
the back of that thing, you know, not getting on
the on the hard shoulder, and Haja does two pit
stops and basically stays exactly where he is, and then
the domino effect that caused and William's doing it worse
but pointing at racing bulls that we'll get it first.
It people became a bit school yard, didn't it. But
I don't know how you solved this because it's Monaco,
(15:38):
and it's Formula one. It's an outlier and it's great
that it exists, but it's also great there's only one
of them. But as a spectacle, normally you have a
slow car race at Monaco. I'm not sure anyone passed
about position five last night was actually having a car race.
It was a procession and the rules were being gamified
to a point that it actually kind of jumped the
(15:58):
shark a little bit. It got a little bit silly,
and George Russell just basically saying, I'm going to deliberately
overtake somebody and copper penalty, and surely that will even
be better than what I'm doing, because breaking his brain
is completely right. I can't do this anymore. I'm not
getting any points anyway, so I may as well have
some fun and try and do something and then copp
a very severe penalty for doing it. But look, it's
(16:21):
the nature of this place. The cars. Now. It's funny
because Monico's got this incredible history. You see old vision
of old Formula one cars around Monaco, when they were
lighter and more nimble and didn't just take up so
much real estate on the circuit. These cars now look
insanely big in some of these really really narrow parts
of the track. And we mentioned this last week. The
(16:42):
last five minutes of Q three is awesome too, that
because everything's on the line, you almost don't know where
to look. I'd actually almost one shot qualifying for Monica.
I actually wouldn't mind that everyone gets to go out
and does their lap independently without anybody else. That would
be awesome to be because I fe you miss a
lot of the stuff in qualifying in Monica. So much
going on. Yeah, the race, you'd be happy to miss it,
(17:02):
quite frankly, because once you get past the first quarter
and any potential jeopardy, not a hell of a lot happens.
But racing Balls saw the double pit stop strategy as
a way to really gamify this race and look full
credit to them, they qualified well and they scored a
lot of points doing it. Was it a great spectacle?
I would suggest not.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah, I think it was really interesting. To go back
to George Us, I thought it was very interesting that
the reason he overtook off the track, Yes, part of
this brain breaking moment, but he said, I just want
to have I just want to enjoy being at Monaco
because he'd spent the whole time in traffic and he'd
lost qualifying. I think that was also the critical part
because he had a technical failure at the very beginning
Q treies, so they didn't even have a real chance
(17:42):
to really open the taps and have a crack here.
So I'm just can I take it off the track?
I know I'm going to get a penalty. In fact,
teams were warned that if this exact scenario happened, it
would be more than just the ten seconds.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
It would be the potential for a driver. So he
even knew that.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
I'm doing it anyway, he said, The last twenty five
laps had great fun.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
It doesn't matter. I was going to score points anyway
I could. Doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
But I think that's important because even an ordinary and
now last year's is unusually bad. So let's just say
a normal bad race like the kind we had at
the very front. Yeah, were was sort of like bit
of tension, but nothing too serious. The drivers still come
out of the car and have enjoyed themselves. Because they
were at Monaco. They knew what they were getting themselves
into when they qualified. They knew that was where they're
going to finish, but they still enjoyed what the Monaco
(18:22):
race was, which is very which is unique and should
be unique. If drivers then get out of the car
and have had a really bad time on Sunday, then
the spectacle completely falls down because you can just about
stomach the race being bad. If at least the drivers
can express afterwards the challenge of staying out of the
wall and of being relatively fast around the track. If not,
(18:42):
then it doesn't make any sense at all.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Well, the two Williams guys in the pen after the
race were so honest. I'm not sure that you know,
the organizers and the governing body would have loved it
all that much. But Alex Albom basically apologized, I'm really
sorry that you had to sit through this because of
the way we did it, but we had no choice,
and Carlo Science was similarly forthright with his comments. There're
(19:06):
two good guys to get a sound bite out of
in a situation like that. They're two grown ups in
the room. But even as they're doing it, I can't
quite believe we're going through with this. I also can't
quite believe that everyone's watching it. But I don't know
about you. We have this conversation every year with Monaco.
How can we fix Monocac? How can we fix Monaco?
You can't fix Monico. The only way you have a
different Monoco is if you don't have Monoco at all.
(19:27):
So you have to go into this weekend with the
lowest possible expectations that it's going to be anything other
than a slight variation on what it's been. And we
watch the cars go around, and qualifying's great, and it
looks great on TV, and there's some shots of the boats,
and then we all go to the next round and
you just have to see it as one round in
twenty four. You can't fix everything. It is what it is.
It's there for a reason. We move on.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
I think the solution, if anyone for everyone is watching,
is genuine by the way you're doing the format exactly
as it is now. But then Sunday morning, after you
have qualifying Saturday night, you have your one shot qualifying
with just the top ten a little bit Bathist style,
except obviously Bathist gets its own day. But the reason
I say move that to Sunday is that at least
at the end of Sunday, the talking point is where
did they qualify because that's where they finished, inevitably, and
(20:10):
you get your one shot qualifying, which you spectacular at Monaco.
It makes Sunday more meaningful than just asking Christian Horner
why the track should be extended, which inevitably happens and
will never happen. So I think, do one shot qualifying,
make it Sunday, get more qualifying, which is what's good
about Monaco, more Bank fee Buck, and Sunday then becomes
meaningful because the race is You can put it in
brackets afterwards.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
And you could say, well, why we're making an exception
for this one Grand Prix Monaco is an exception by
true the fact that it even exists. It's a two
hundred and sixty kilometer car race. It's not like any
of the other races on the calendar. We're already making
so many concessions to keep this thing on the calendar.
So sure, let's have our top ten one qualify.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
I think that's the one for it.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Let's run the track in reverse one year, let's go
completely let's go completely crazy, let's do something different because
it is a different Grand Prix.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, and I think that's that's all it needs to
be done. We don't need these extra stops. You can
keep it if you want. Maybe next year will be fixed remarkably, Matt,
it's time for Move of the Week, brought to you
by Shadons. Now we're going to transition soon to some
other sports, so I'm going to kick us off, and
this is less of a move of the week and
more of an appreciation of the week because I watched
(21:17):
back the Monaco Grand Prix.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Sadly you did.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Gabrielle bought a leto made an overtake on Andrea Kimi
Antonelli one overtake he did, and Niko Holkenberg overtook Yuki Sonoda,
both on the first lap. They're the only two overtakes
I could find. So they're going to share for me
the move of the week because they made overtake move.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yes, Gabriel immediately ended up in defense after his but
you know what he tried first.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Tom Souber has been mentioned on this podcast possibly ever
the greatest overtaking car in Formula One.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Yes, they got they were the only teams that moved forward.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
On the first They had a crack.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
They had a good crack and as a result, they
are my moves of the.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Week Moves Plural were speaking of having a crack. I'm
going two wheels here. You and I were messaging as
this was going on the Motor II race that the
British Grand Prix. Sylveston Sener Ags pulled the Stephen Bradbury
on the final lap of the Motor two race, made
the most of some silliness going on between Aaron Connett
and David Alonzo i'pen ahead of him, played the last
(22:19):
two corners of the final lap of the race absolutely
spectacularly and ends up becoming Australia's first intermediate class winner
since Remy Gardner five years ago. First Grand Prix win
for him and certainly won't be the last. He's nineteen
ags and there's just something about him, the way he
carries himself, how rapid the learning curve has been. We
(22:40):
remember him on the podium a philipp Island last year
completely out of mirror. This was that opportunistically brilliant win
taken from a position of composure. These are the wins
that these guys have that are going to make it
coming through. Fantastically opportunistic. Great to see an Australian on
top step of a Motor GP podium. Haven't seen one
for a while, but Move of the Week. I don't
know if it gets any better when you go from
(23:01):
third to first with two quarters to go, will your
first grond brew.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
I love that as well because some people think, I know,
when there's two riders or drivers battling, it's just easy
wait for to make a mistake. But you could really tell,
and this was a great example of it.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
You've really got to.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Think ahead to make a move like that work. You've
got to predict what's going to happen, and he nailed it.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Well, and also knowing the personnel in that situation, like
Aaron Connett is not going down wondering in that sort
of situation. He's not going to be bullied by an
eighteen year old kid that's come up from Moto three.
So you knew that Canett was going to very robustly
defend their last quarter, and I just knew the personnel
that was ahead of him and played it perfectly. And
he's a Grand Prix winner.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Yes, congratulations to him. Now.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
In a related note, let's move to interested versus experts.
A lot of me being interested this week and you
being the expert because it was. There was no supercars
this round this weekend. Rather we've still got a couple
of weeks before the roundover in Perth. But it was
the British Grand Prix, British Motorcycle Grand Prix. It was
typically a British Motorcycle Grand Prix as well because yet
again not a repeat winner.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Yes, but a lot of action.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
It was NonStop, a lot to think about, a lot
to talk about. What were your take a love.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
This is one of the most bizarre streaks in world
sport at this point. So Marco Betzeki wins that race
for a Prillia on Sunday night Australia. At the time,
that is the eleventh different rider to win the past
eleven British Motorcycle Grand Prix. It makes absolutely no sense
and coming into the weekend you would have thought, well,
surely this is the year that this gets overturned because
(24:25):
Aprillia hasn't really been anywhere this year, but Zaki joined
them at the start of this season hasn't been great.
Aprilia has been in the news for other headlines, with
Jorge Martin trying to get out of a Prillia having
not even completed a single race distance for them.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yet I wonder what he was thinking.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
And so there's all this going on in the background
and then it's tenth on the grid. It was a
bizarre race wind but completely in character for motor GP
at this particular circuit, and it's funny Silverstone and that
it's a great layout for bikes with the high, high
speed sweeping corners. It's a bit of a long lap.
It's the longest lap motor GP, and I think whenever
(25:01):
you get motor GP laps that are starting to fall
into the two minute range, it's a little bit too long.
And you see it at the tracks where circuit in
the America is where F one goes. Silverston obviously met
British Grand Prix for F one, but as a spectacle,
this was the earliest this race has been held ever
since it's been at Silvers and it was in May.
Normally it's in August September. It was cold, so you're
talking fifteen degree ambients barely twenty five degree track temps.
(25:25):
It completely changed the way this race was won and
it was all about being on the correct tire, probably
the atypical tire at the right time. You needed to
be on a soft front tier here because it was frankly,
it was too cold for anything harder than that. But
then you also had to live with the fact that
that soft front tire is probably going to go off
towards the end of the race. So you had this
(25:45):
real catamouse strategic race going on. Fantastic win for Btzeki,
but Fabio Quascerero and Yamaha the hardest of hard luck stories.
If anyone ever doubted this guy as an absolute top
liner in Motor GP three straight pole position as Yamaha
is starting to ascend again, that race was done. He
had a four and a half second lead twelve laps
(26:06):
into a nineteen lap race and was doing it with
a league in the air, and of all the things
to happen, rear ride high device gets stuck, can't disengage it,
and he has not won a race since midpoint of
twenty twenty two, and there's been a lot of reasons
for that that haven't been him. And so to see
him ride on the cusp of breaking that drought and
then having that taken away from him, Look, he was
(26:28):
absolutely devastated, as you could imagine. But I think if
anyone wondered where this guy sits in the top line
of motor GP riders on the current grid. He is
right up there that the Amaha project is really coming
along At the moment he will be in winning positions again.
But for a weekend that he dominated that race on
Sunday deserve far better. But it was just another subplot
(26:49):
in I think motor GP only does crazy races at
the moment. It seems that, you know, we're talking about
France last week with jons Arko winning every second race
seems to be completely nuts at the moment. It's great TV, yeah,
but a bit of variety at the front end of
the championship and I'm here for it.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Yes. Well, I was a very exciting point just before
he crashed, I suppose, but there were.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
No de Caffies on the podium well, and because we
had a restart and race. I think that was part
of what I was saying before about being on the
correct tie there, because we had a race that was
abandoned on the second lap after we had both Marquez
brothers down in the first two laps and then a
bike on fire and oil all over the track in
the last couple of corners. That prompted the red flag,
so the Markeu's brothers effectively got to do over little
(27:27):
known ruling motor GP. If there is a red flag
within the first three laps, all riders can take the restart,
and so that's something a lot of people were saying,
why these guys back in the race like anyone that
had crashed out in those first two laps, and there
were a few of them, They effectively got a hard reset.
So you know, Mark Marquez actually extended his championship lead
through all of the silliness on Sunday at Silvestone admitted
afterwards he got very very lucky, finished third. Not a
(27:50):
particularly good weekend for him, but these are the weekends
where you just stack points relative to your rivals and
they all count towards the end of the year. But
suitably bonkers at Silveston and a very enjoyable Yes, sales man,
as ya as you say, this year reliably has been.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Yes, it is very exciting.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Let me very briefly engage your interests before we wrap
this one up, because it wasn't a supercars on the weekend,
but there was news that there will be two races
in New Zealand for the international expansion.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
We consider New Zealand international. Of course it is a
different country.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Continues and it sounds like it will be back to
It will be a double headed they will be obviously
right alongside each other, because why would you go all
the way there to come back and go back and
go back again.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Yes, but it sounds like it will be.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
It's being billed by ceoshanaw it as a fortnight two
weeks of supercars mayhem on the North Island and the
South Island. So we're looking at probably consecutive weekends, which
would be very exciting. Doesn't normally happen in supercars. I'll
be interested to say, well, first of all the response,
I mean, this is now a nationwide thing for New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Both islands are covered. But also the.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Response in how that back to back is handled, because,
like I say, supercars doesn't do it that often. No,
what's that going to mean from momentum? If we're going
to have the same race formats next year, that's six
races in it'll be less than it'd be about eight days.
I suppose it's a lot of racing in a few days.
How are you bounced back? What if there's a big crash,
you're very far away from home in New Zealand, especially
if the cars are all being taken by boat.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Again, like logistically is very interesting.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
It's great for New Zealand, and I think it's great
for supercars because while there's been a lot of talk
in the last few years, let's say about really sending
it overseas to Asia whatever, I think we're going to
expand anywhere, first, it's got to be in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
The fan base is pretty big there.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
We've got plenty of kiwee drivers, Matt pain foremost among
them at the moment. Great legacy obviously New Zealand's well,
great history in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
They needed more than one.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
They deserved more than one race, and it's really great
that this has now come about and it's going to
be I think a really interesting little experiment to be
racing that much overseas, all in one block, all in
such a short period of time.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
I like it from the perspective of the Aussie fans
in the air, you were thinking of potentially going over
to see an international race, and that was one of
those things. Look, it's only just that weekend. Can I
justify the cost. You can go over there and lock
into this festival. It's going to be over there for
a couple of weeksbsolutely justify the span. It'd be really
interesting to see what the Australian fan contingent that goes
over to see this, because that's now a significant carrot.
(30:07):
See two different parts of the country, two different racetracks
within a ten day period. It's a lot of racing
to enjoy. I could see there being quite a tourist boonsh.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yeah, absolutely topor obviously already touristy. And then christ Church
continues to rebuild. I guess after the earthquakes. I was
there only last year. I think beautiful part of the world.
I mean New Zealand is part of the world, but
christ Church in that South Island area particularly so tracks
right near christ Church, so I think it's only fifteen
kilmeters away or something like that, very close.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
I would be a great trip. Now you got me thinking,
maybe do you think about going to New Zealand?
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Maybe you should go hit talk on the road.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
I look, Shannon's want to support it. I'm all for it.
Let's trap this one up.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Matt with a crystal ball by complete Home filtration in
the middle of an F one triple header. A bag
of JP races are flowing now, supercars not trying away?
Speaker 3 (30:54):
What are you thinking?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I'm going to get a little bit naughty here. My
crystal ball tells me that Isaac Hajar is going to
be mentioned as a Red Bull racing driver gossip very
very very soon, and all jokes aside because he's performing
were Lee Lawson didn't and Yuki Sonoda isn't. Isaac Hajar
has massively surprised me this year in that I thought,
(31:16):
of all the rookies this year, he was the one
that was probably going to have the most crash damage
and was going to be the most erratic. He's been.
He's ticked every box for me. He's been very very good,
surprisingly calm, taken every opportunity and yes, we talked about
the Monaco confluence of circumstances, but he was there to
be the beneficiary of that strategy. And look, who on
(31:38):
earth knows what's going on with Red Bull second driver?
Do they know they've got a second driver? Do they
even care they've got a second driver? But right now,
of the three other Red Bull back drivers on the grid,
he seems to me to be the most qualified to
be Max Fastavan's teammate, which is also a poison chalice,
so you've got to be careful what you wish for.
But I think very soon we're going to see some
serious conversations about Hajar potentially being in that car because
(31:58):
quite frankly, the two guys that have been in it
this year, I'm not delivering.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
I mean, this is such a big talking point, I
can't complete it right back, no point. But all I
would say is that we were saying the same thing
about Yuki Sanoda about a month ago when he was
at racing points. So I think the problems are really
big at Red Bull Racing. I'm going to stick with
the Red Bull Racing for my prediction. Something we haven't
talked about this week, but we will debrief next week
is that there are some rule changes coming or all
the reinterpretations coming this weekend to the flexibility of front wings.
(32:25):
All very exciting and technical, But Red Bull Racing has
been telling us or hinting non stop for a month
that this is the thing, this is what's going to
break this Championshi Open.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
They're going to be back after this rule change.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
It brings McLaren back more than it brings back any
other team. I'm going to say McLaren's going to win
by sixty seconds, not sixty seconds. They're going to win comfortably,
and then Red Bull Racing is going to have to
come up with some new reasons as to why the
car is not quite there.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Well, we mentioned before that Catalonia is this great litmus
test of what Formula one car can do. We often
get really dominant wins there. You think back in the
Mercedes domination, they would absolutely demolish everybody. Whichever team has
got the car in the sweet spot. It tends to
be magnified at this particular track. So if McLaren, even
with this new technical directive, come out and demolish everyone
(33:10):
this weekend, then Christian Horner's press debrief will be a
manage reviewing.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Go think yeah, I think so. I'm looking forward to it.
That's all the time. We have a pit talk today.
You can subscribe to pit talk where if you get
your favorite podcasts and you can leave us a rating
and review as well. This weekend it is the Spanish
Formula one Grand Prix. Lights are out at eleven pm
on Sunday, night, and you cube up to date with
all the latest F one, Moto GP and supercars news
at Fox sports dot com dou until next week. For
(33:34):
Matt Clayton, I'm Michael Lamonado. We'll catch you then
Pit Talk brought to you by Shannon's.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Cars are our passion, building, restoring or modifying.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
It's about making it our own.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
It's an obsession. Shannons know what it's worth. That's why the.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Agreed value includes all your modifications.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Get a quote online today. This is the moment, then,
that we've all been waiting for for in a romax.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Here comes Oscar past three, Lando Norris.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I aren't playing hardball out there at the moment. Steve
pipercheol Moment of twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Four, Hello and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you
by Shannon's. On today's episode, Lando Norris swins the Monaco
Grand Prix to shave his championship deficit to Oscar Piastre
to just three points and did the new two stop
pit stop r all work at all in Monte Carlo.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
My name is Michael Lomonado.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
It's great to have your company and the company of
my co host, who, according to my parish notices is
Matt Quaeton.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Parish notices time rather than mentioned parish notices. Seriously, at
least this is an ongoing conversation thanks to our good
friends at Sky Sports. But yes, in answer to your question,
did it work at Monaco. No, but that would be
the world's shortest podcast. We probably need to elaborate.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
At least another twenty nine minutes to feel so there
is a little bit more to talk about than that.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
But there is, of course the result as well. With
Monico Grand Prix.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Forget the fact that the race is typically was typically
pretty straightforward. Lando Norris wonder and that is significant. His
first Monaco Grand Pritty victory, his sixth degree victory and
a really important one in the sense of this championship.
Actually less about him winning, although that does shrink the
championship deficit.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
But I think, as I've been saying a lot, or
only eight rounds.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
In, it's probably a bit too early to be counting
points if it's less than a Grand Prix worth of points.
But qualifying on pole, and you know, at a circuit
where it is such a pressure moment to take pole
position in Q three, got three laps to do it,
They're already good, They're already complete.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
This felt like a very important weekend from that perspective.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
For him, Well, he hasn't had much momentum for a while,
has he. So I think that qualifying in caps related
everything about his weekend that he had poll lost it,
reclaimed it. Fantastic last two or three corners of that
lap when you go back and watch the end of it.
And that's been a McLaren's strength a we year in
terms of being able to have enough tire life for
the final sector or the final couple of corners. We
saw that in Australia. I mentioned Australia because that was
(02:18):
the last time Norris looked like the class of the field.
Since then, Piastre has had a run of wins. We've
had various max Fistappen interventions as the season has gone along,
but this is the first time Lando looked like he
was bossing Formula One again. And so much of this
race obviously is one on Saturday, but coming into this
weekend I wasn't sure that he was going to put
(02:39):
it together in that way on Saturday. Hugely impressive, but
in terms of redressing some of the momentum lost in
the series and also within his own team, really significant result.
And look, we're what one third of the way through
the longest season in the history of Formula One, as
we get told every year, so points tables as such
are not particularly relevant. What this does for momentum and continuity.
(03:02):
Getting him back to where he wasn't the beginning of
the season I think is almost more important.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah, it's also interesting as well.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
You know it was ahead of this weekend he was
saying that the problems he's facing with this car could
take him not weeks, but maybe even months to fully
understand and return to that kind of qualifying form Worth
noting that after qualifying he said, look, this is one result.
As important as it is, it's one we've got to see.
If I can do this at multiple races is also
one very particular circuit. But as I think Andrea Stella said,
(03:27):
the mclarentine principle, there is no.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Stronger validation than Monaco for if you.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Can qualify in formul one, qualify well and like you say,
there's three laps is something that almost would have been
unimaginable at any.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Week since Australia.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yes, because it's those last tens of a second that
he just hasn't found, and on three occasions he found them.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
I think this could be.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
It's also very interesting because it feels like a very
asymmetrical result, doesn't it, Because it's Norris making a lot
of gains and that potentially being significant in the championship
is maybe being a turning point. But I don't feel
like we can necessar read anything negative in Oscar Piastre's
weekend here. Yes, it was a bit of a scrappy
build up, messy round, as he said. But while I
think it is fair to say Norris's execution you can
(04:09):
take away from this because execution is the same at
any track, Monaco feels so particular that I'm not convinced
we can say that Piastre has lost anything this weekend.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, absolutely, particular is the correct word here, because look,
in isolation, this is a terrific weekend for Lando Norris,
you know, got back some of them are mentioned he'd
lost internally at McLaren since Piastre went on this run.
Because it is so particular, it's hard to really extrapolate
too much out of it in terms of what this
means going forward. I'm not sure this weekend bears no
relevance to any weekend, Let's be perfectly honest, even some
(04:39):
of the other tight street circuits we go to later
in the season, like Singapore, for example, Singapore and Monaco, yes,
they're both street tracks, but not all street tracks are
created equal. This is the outlier of out liars. I'm
not sure. Piastre was a little of percentage points off
where he has been and it's been at such a
high level now for so many weekends. You know, he
used the word MESSI it was a little bit messy.
(05:00):
He also did to finish on the podium for the
seventh consecutive GROWNDBURI, So this is what constitutes a messy
weekend now. So these are the margins we're playing with.
So Norris definitely rose to the occasion, but I think
we probably need maybe a greater sample size to see
whether is he really back like the start of the season,
or is this an outlier based on track position, circuit
(05:20):
and just the peculiarities of the Monaco weekend because there
is nothing like this Grand Prix.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I like the idea that this could be viewed as
a leveler rather than a step forward for Norris and
now he's going to control the next furations. Obviously we
don't know. Maybe that's exactly what it will happen, but
I think it was easy to lose over the last
few rounds of the fact that these are two drivers
who are extremely closely matched, very different psychological makeups and
therefore some subtle differences in strengths and weaknesses.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
But this should be a very tight battle between them.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
We're now a third of the way of the season
and it's three points and it feels like that's about right.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
But this is what I like about the way these
two guys go about it, and for anyone playing drinking
game at home with the podcast Styles make Fights, it's
one of my favorite expressions. I love the fact these
two guys have both got six Grand Prix wins now,
but you look at the way they go about it emotionally,
the body language of their cars have, the way they
deal with the press and the stress and the pressure
and everything that goes into making a Grand Prix weekend.
(06:16):
They come at it from such different angles a lot
of the time, racing the same car for the same
team and ending up three points between them and the championship.
It's almost a dead heater for eight rounds. It's going
to be the most interesting part of the rest of
the season for me. If they do have this baked
in car advantage, it's not going to be two guys
doing the same thing going head to head to see
who's better. I think they're both going to have their
strengths and weaknesses depending on the circuit and the circumstances
(06:39):
of the weekend. And yeah, the styles that each of
these guys employees is going to make this more interesting
as we head through the rest of the season.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah, it doesn't feel like just because although this will
be something will come to later in future weeks, just
because McLaren feels like it's got the upper hand.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
I think it could still be a really great championship. Doll.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I want to talk about Ferrari now, Charlie Claire second
best result of the year for him, for the team.
He was in this great mixed emotional mood afterwards. I
think after qualifying second and after finishing second recognize on
the one hand that this is much better than Ferrari
had been expecting that they've achieved so far this year.
But to finish second at Monaco is very difficult, especially
when he had that great breakthrough victory at this home
(07:17):
race last season. He is, I think, more than almost
more than any driver at any track, lifts higher. I
can't think of another driver who lifts higher for any
track than he does at Monaco because he was special
to watch this weekend, would have been a deserving winner
and he somehow manufactured that result.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
But what do we take away from Ferrari for this weekend?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Because it was a high water make even Lewis Hamilton
finished so distantly in fifth, was still pretty competitive over
the course of the weekend.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
It was a qualifying penalty that really affected his rates.
Is this a good result for Ferrari? Good takeaway for Ferrari?
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Look from how erratic that it's been. I don't think
you can look at this anything other than a great
result for the circumstances. We mentioned the word outlier. Leclere
is fantastic at this race track and there's an energy
to the way he does everything here. And it's so
interesting to see that home race pressure and what that
does to drivers. And we see it every year in
albert Park when we had Mark Webber or Daniel Ricardo
(08:12):
Oscar Piastri. There is something about a home race and
you remember going back f one and a bygone era.
Jensen Button was always awesome in Australia and terrible a
Silverstone and Mark Webber was the opposite. They wish they
could trade a lot of the time. But I love
Lacleur at this circuit because he does stand taller and
he does feel a sense of expectation with what he
wants to do. What can we take away with from
(08:34):
this with Ferrari? Look, I have trust issues. Perhaps it's me.
It's not you, it's me. I have trust issues because
every time we think we've got them figured out and
there's a trajectory there, positive or negative, they'll turn up
at the next Grand Prix and it'll be completely tipped
upside down. You look at where we're going in a
week's time. Is there a more different circuit than the
(08:56):
circuit of Barcelona? Cattle and you're for a Formula one
car than Monaco. I always think that the Spanish Grand Prix,
if there's an inherent weakness in your car, that track
exposes it brutally because of the nature of that layout,
and there's just nowhere to hide there. It's never a
particularly great Grand Prix, ReSpectacle but it's not a place
(09:16):
that tells any lies. And if you've got some issues
with your car, this place will expose them. And so
in answer to your question, I'm going to sit on
the fence for seven whole days here because if we're
still having a semi positive conversation after Cataloonia, then look,
maybe you know the thing that the light for Ferrari
is not the oncoming trainer at the end of the tunnel,
but Leclaire at this race track is special and you
(09:38):
have to think that when Lando Norris locked up into
turn one there, his eyes would have got very, very big.
It's like this Chad's to be a back to back winner,
but considering how bad he's luck usually is there, I
think the second place in the circumstances is pretty good.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Well remarkably just his second podium, yes after victory last year,
despite him being the three three time pole.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Well, he barely finishes a race there all last year
because it would always be poland then be some sort
of disaster where it didn't even start one year. I remember,
everything that could go wrong did so at least he
banished that last year and that was a hugely emotional
part of the twenty twenty four season. But as good
a weekend as could be imagined, but also not a
surprise because it's charlat Clerk and it's Monco.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
At least the curse was broken by the victrinalistic and
aim for more than just finishing in the points of
finishing at all.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Before we move on, and I do want to talk briefly.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
About Red Bull Racing because two teams came to this
track feeling pretty pessimistic. One was Ferrari and they ended
up having a reasonable weekend. The other was Red Bull Racing.
I think Max with Stappan got exactly what he thought
he was going to get out of this, which was
not a podium, a trying and a bold strategy that
didn't work. I think the evidence of this weekend for
Red Bull Racing, or the takeaway is that this car
(10:46):
has all the same problems as last year's car. Maybe
it's slightly more benign in some circumstances, but its weakness
in slow corners still exists cannot be ameliorated in the
same way.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Clearly Ferrari managed to do so at this.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Track, and I think we should be questioned about taking
it too much away from this weekend because it is
such an outlier. But this felt very validating for everything
we thought we understood about this car. It does it
will be an interesting piece to fit into the puzzle
of whether or not this championship campaign is real because
it does feel like that question we thought were getting
an answer to a Nimola Yeah, was put on ice
(11:17):
this weekend, and it's hard to know what to interpret
from it. Well, I feel like I understand Ferrari less right,
but I feel like I'm beginning to understand red Bull more.
This car does not like being monster over curbs. We've
seen that for.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
The last couple of years, and you could see that
in the way that Max Stepan was trying to drive
it compared to the way Yuki Sonoda was trying to
drive it, and that's a separate conversation. Max has shrugged
his shoulders and said, well, this car doesn't like this,
I'll just drive around that, which is what you can
do when you're a four time world champion and pound
for pound, the best guy in the sport at the moment.
This was just a par weekend for them to see
(11:51):
a four time world champion for a team of that pedigree. Basically,
goal hanging for a safety car or a red flag
was a little bit undercoming quite franickly, but by the
same time, and what other cards did they have to play?
They weren't in the race with Ferrari. They went in
the race with McLaren. They had Mercedes had a weird
sort of weekend point this weekend, so they had them covered.
He did the only thing he could do in that
(12:13):
I'm going to leave this second stop as late as
humanly possible. Something might happen, and if it doesn't, I'm
just going to finish where I was probably going to
finish anyway. So it was nothing ventured, nothing gained. But
I feel I feel we've got a pretty good hold
on what Red Bull is. Max will make that cargo
place as it probably shouldn't. Is it as bad as
Sonoda's making it look? No, The sweet spot somewhere in
(12:34):
the middle, probably closer to where Max is. He's still
going to have tracks where his sheer ability and the
strength of that car and track position is going to
get him. He's going to be a disruptor where the
rest of this season goes. But I still think it's
a two driver to fight for the championship, with Max
being probably annoying to both of them at some point
through the back end of the year where he just
has awesome weekends that you can't explain well.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Like you said, I think Barcelona will be the limbus
test for so much of what we think we know
about this campaign.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
So that'll be this weekend.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Before were on from Monaco, though, we've got to talk
about what was the talking point leading into this weekend.
This rule change to mandate two stops in Monte Carlo.
This was brought in. It was relatively recently he was
brought in, but it was in response the last year's
shocker of a race, when, of course that early red
flag went there were effectively no pit stops, at least
among the leaders of the top ten. Two stops mandatory
at least fixes that, because even if that were to
(13:20):
happen again, there'd be one more stop. It's probably worth
considering at the end of this that the top four
finished in grid order effectively the top ten did. When
you take out Fernando Lonso's retirement, Lewis Hamilton recovering from
the penalty you got after qualifying. Everyone finished pretty much
where they started, So in one sense you could say
two stops at the same track makes no difference because
it's at Monaco. We did, though, get this interesting battle
(13:43):
in the lower reaches of the points. Say battle, it's
probably not exactly the right word, it's not a race.
It wow, it's not a race. It really was a race.
The racing bulls started it with Liam Lawson backing up
the pack for Isaac Hadja to make his two pit
stops for free.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Essentially, William saw that and said, well a bit of that.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
They did exactly the same, but twice as significant, because
then they swapped their cars and got Alex al wanted
to do exactly what Parlo Signs had done for him.
Mercedes then presumably would have found a way to double that,
but George Russell's brain just broke. I overtook alex Alban
I think it was all the time off the track,
and then copped a drive through penalty and thinks that
was better for him.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I'm not certain what to conclude from this. I've been
thinking about it all day. In some respects, all of
this stuff is pretty part of the course in Monaco,
but it felt much more exaggerated and much worse.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Or was it much better?
Speaker 1 (14:35):
It wasn't necessarily much worse. It's just with the two
pit stops we had twice the opportunities to lament how
bad it was. Literally, that's literally I'm saying it normally
it's like, well there's only one stop and everyone's driving
around information, but at least we've got the stops done.
It's like we have to do this again. And so
you had two separate things going on. I think the
top four we're having a race much as they are
(14:55):
constrained by having a race in Monaco. And I'm not
sure what everyone else in the pack was doing because
you mentioned the Alonso retirement. Unlucky it's going Formula one
just yea, he should have scored points. He was fantastic
this week, Hare and Lewis Hamilton sort of settling into
where he probably should have been post penalty. But watching
what racing bulls were doing in that Liam Lawson literally
he may may as well have had a caravan on
(15:17):
the back of that thing, you know, not getting on
the on the hard shoulder, and Haja does two pit
stops and basically stays exactly where he is, and then
the domino effect that caused and William's doing it worse
but pointing at racing bulls that we'll get it first.
It people became a bit school yard, didn't it. But
I don't know how you solved this because it's Monaco,
(15:38):
and it's Formula one. It's an outlier and it's great
that it exists, but it's also great there's only one
of them. But as a spectacle, normally you have a
slow car race at Monaco. I'm not sure anyone passed
about position five last night was actually having a car race.
It was a procession and the rules were being gamified
to a point that it actually kind of jumped the
(15:58):
shark a little bit. It got a little bit silly,
and George Russell just basically saying, I'm going to deliberately
overtake somebody and copper penalty, and surely that will even
be better than what I'm doing, because breaking his brain
is completely right. I can't do this anymore. I'm not
getting any points anyway, so I may as well have
some fun and try and do something and then copp
a very severe penalty for doing it. But look, it's
(16:21):
the nature of this place. The cars. Now. It's funny
because Monico's got this incredible history. You see old vision
of old Formula one cars around Monaco, when they were
lighter and more nimble and didn't just take up so
much real estate on the circuit. These cars now look
insanely big in some of these really really narrow parts
of the track. And we mentioned this last week. The
(16:42):
last five minutes of Q three is awesome too, that
because everything's on the line, you almost don't know where
to look. I'd actually almost one shot qualifying for Monica.
I actually wouldn't mind that everyone gets to go out
and does their lap independently without anybody else. That would
be awesome to be because I fe you miss a
lot of the stuff in qualifying in Monica. So much
going on. Yeah, the race, you'd be happy to miss it,
(17:02):
quite frankly, because once you get past the first quarter
and any potential jeopardy, not a hell of a lot happens.
But racing Balls saw the double pit stop strategy as
a way to really gamify this race and look full
credit to them, they qualified well and they scored a
lot of points doing it. Was it a great spectacle?
I would suggest not.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah, I think it was really interesting. To go back
to George Us, I thought it was very interesting that
the reason he overtook off the track, Yes, part of
this brain breaking moment, but he said, I just want
to have I just want to enjoy being at Monaco
because he'd spent the whole time in traffic and he'd
lost qualifying. I think that was also the critical part
because he had a technical failure at the very beginning
Q treies, so they didn't even have a real chance
(17:42):
to really open the taps and have a crack here.
So I'm just can I take it off the track?
I know I'm going to get a penalty. In fact,
teams were warned that if this exact scenario happened, it
would be more than just the ten seconds.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
It would be the potential for a driver. So he
even knew that.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
I'm doing it anyway, he said, The last twenty five
laps had great fun.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
It doesn't matter. I was going to score points anyway
I could. Doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
But I think that's important because even an ordinary and
now last year's is unusually bad. So let's just say
a normal bad race like the kind we had at
the very front. Yeah, were was sort of like bit
of tension, but nothing too serious. The drivers still come
out of the car and have enjoyed themselves. Because they
were at Monaco. They knew what they were getting themselves
into when they qualified. They knew that was where they're
going to finish, but they still enjoyed what the Monaco
(18:22):
race was, which is very which is unique and should
be unique. If drivers then get out of the car
and have had a really bad time on Sunday, then
the spectacle completely falls down because you can just about
stomach the race being bad. If at least the drivers
can express afterwards the challenge of staying out of the
wall and of being relatively fast around the track. If not,
(18:42):
then it doesn't make any sense at all.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Well, the two Williams guys in the pen after the
race were so honest. I'm not sure that you know,
the organizers and the governing body would have loved it
all that much. But Alex Albom basically apologized, I'm really
sorry that you had to sit through this because of
the way we did it, but we had no choice,
and Carlo Science was similarly forthright with his comments. There're
(19:06):
two good guys to get a sound bite out of
in a situation like that. They're two grown ups in
the room. But even as they're doing it, I can't
quite believe we're going through with this. I also can't
quite believe that everyone's watching it. But I don't know
about you. We have this conversation every year with Monaco.
How can we fix Monocac? How can we fix Monaco?
You can't fix Monico. The only way you have a
different Monoco is if you don't have Monoco at all.
(19:27):
So you have to go into this weekend with the
lowest possible expectations that it's going to be anything other
than a slight variation on what it's been. And we
watch the cars go around, and qualifying's great, and it
looks great on TV, and there's some shots of the boats,
and then we all go to the next round and
you just have to see it as one round in
twenty four. You can't fix everything. It is what it is.
It's there for a reason. We move on.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
I think the solution, if anyone for everyone is watching,
is genuine by the way you're doing the format exactly
as it is now. But then Sunday morning, after you
have qualifying Saturday night, you have your one shot qualifying
with just the top ten a little bit Bathist style,
except obviously Bathist gets its own day. But the reason
I say move that to Sunday is that at least
at the end of Sunday, the talking point is where
did they qualify because that's where they finished, inevitably, and
(20:10):
you get your one shot qualifying, which you spectacular at Monaco.
It makes Sunday more meaningful than just asking Christian Horner
why the track should be extended, which inevitably happens and
will never happen. So I think, do one shot qualifying,
make it Sunday, get more qualifying, which is what's good
about Monaco, more Bank fee Buck, and Sunday then becomes
meaningful because the race is You can put it in
brackets afterwards.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
And you could say, well, why we're making an exception
for this one Grand Prix Monaco is an exception by
true the fact that it even exists. It's a two
hundred and sixty kilometer car race. It's not like any
of the other races on the calendar. We're already making
so many concessions to keep this thing on the calendar.
So sure, let's have our top ten one qualify.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
I think that's the one for it.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Let's run the track in reverse one year, let's go
completely let's go completely crazy, let's do something different because
it is a different Grand Prix.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, and I think that's that's all it needs to
be done. We don't need these extra stops. You can
keep it if you want. Maybe next year will be fixed remarkably, Matt,
it's time for Move of the Week, brought to you
by Shadons. Now we're going to transition soon to some
other sports, so I'm going to kick us off, and
this is less of a move of the week and
more of an appreciation of the week because I watched
(21:17):
back the Monaco Grand Prix.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Sadly you did.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Gabrielle bought a leto made an overtake on Andrea Kimi
Antonelli one overtake he did, and Niko Holkenberg overtook Yuki Sonoda,
both on the first lap. They're the only two overtakes
I could find. So they're going to share for me
the move of the week because they made overtake move.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yes, Gabriel immediately ended up in defense after his but
you know what he tried first.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Tom Souber has been mentioned on this podcast possibly ever
the greatest overtaking car in Formula One.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Yes, they got they were the only teams that moved forward.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
On the first They had a crack.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
They had a good crack and as a result, they
are my moves of the.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Week Moves Plural were speaking of having a crack. I'm
going two wheels here. You and I were messaging as
this was going on the Motor II race that the
British Grand Prix. Sylveston Sener Ags pulled the Stephen Bradbury
on the final lap of the Motor two race, made
the most of some silliness going on between Aaron Connett
and David Alonzo i'pen ahead of him, played the last
(22:19):
two corners of the final lap of the race absolutely
spectacularly and ends up becoming Australia's first intermediate class winner
since Remy Gardner five years ago. First Grand Prix win
for him and certainly won't be the last. He's nineteen
ags and there's just something about him, the way he
carries himself, how rapid the learning curve has been. We
(22:40):
remember him on the podium a philipp Island last year
completely out of mirror. This was that opportunistically brilliant win
taken from a position of composure. These are the wins
that these guys have that are going to make it
coming through. Fantastically opportunistic. Great to see an Australian on
top step of a Motor GP podium. Haven't seen one
for a while, but Move of the Week. I don't
know if it gets any better when you go from
(23:01):
third to first with two quarters to go, will your
first grond brew.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
I love that as well because some people think, I know,
when there's two riders or drivers battling, it's just easy
wait for to make a mistake. But you could really tell,
and this was a great example of it.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
You've really got to.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Think ahead to make a move like that work. You've
got to predict what's going to happen, and he nailed it.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Well, and also knowing the personnel in that situation, like
Aaron Connett is not going down wondering in that sort
of situation. He's not going to be bullied by an
eighteen year old kid that's come up from Moto three.
So you knew that Canett was going to very robustly
defend their last quarter, and I just knew the personnel
that was ahead of him and played it perfectly. And
he's a Grand Prix winner.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Yes, congratulations to him. Now.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
In a related note, let's move to interested versus experts.
A lot of me being interested this week and you
being the expert because it was. There was no supercars
this round this weekend. Rather we've still got a couple
of weeks before the roundover in Perth. But it was
the British Grand Prix, British Motorcycle Grand Prix. It was
typically a British Motorcycle Grand Prix as well because yet
again not a repeat winner.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Yes, but a lot of action.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
It was NonStop, a lot to think about, a lot
to talk about. What were your take a love.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
This is one of the most bizarre streaks in world
sport at this point. So Marco Betzeki wins that race
for a Prillia on Sunday night Australia. At the time,
that is the eleventh different rider to win the past
eleven British Motorcycle Grand Prix. It makes absolutely no sense
and coming into the weekend you would have thought, well,
surely this is the year that this gets overturned because
(24:25):
Aprillia hasn't really been anywhere this year, but Zaki joined
them at the start of this season hasn't been great.
Aprilia has been in the news for other headlines, with
Jorge Martin trying to get out of a Prillia having
not even completed a single race distance for them.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yet I wonder what he was thinking.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
And so there's all this going on in the background
and then it's tenth on the grid. It was a
bizarre race wind but completely in character for motor GP
at this particular circuit, and it's funny Silverstone and that
it's a great layout for bikes with the high, high
speed sweeping corners. It's a bit of a long lap.
It's the longest lap motor GP, and I think whenever
(25:01):
you get motor GP laps that are starting to fall
into the two minute range, it's a little bit too long.
And you see it at the tracks where circuit in
the America is where F one goes. Silverston obviously met
British Grand Prix for F one, but as a spectacle,
this was the earliest this race has been held ever
since it's been at Silvers and it was in May.
Normally it's in August September. It was cold, so you're
talking fifteen degree ambients barely twenty five degree track temps.
(25:25):
It completely changed the way this race was won and
it was all about being on the correct tire, probably
the atypical tire at the right time. You needed to
be on a soft front tier here because it was frankly,
it was too cold for anything harder than that. But
then you also had to live with the fact that
that soft front tire is probably going to go off
towards the end of the race. So you had this
(25:45):
real catamouse strategic race going on. Fantastic win for Btzeki,
but Fabio Quascerero and Yamaha the hardest of hard luck stories.
If anyone ever doubted this guy as an absolute top
liner in Motor GP three straight pole position as Yamaha
is starting to ascend again, that race was done. He
had a four and a half second lead twelve laps
(26:06):
into a nineteen lap race and was doing it with
a league in the air, and of all the things
to happen, rear ride high device gets stuck, can't disengage it,
and he has not won a race since midpoint of
twenty twenty two, and there's been a lot of reasons
for that that haven't been him. And so to see
him ride on the cusp of breaking that drought and
then having that taken away from him, Look, he was
(26:28):
absolutely devastated, as you could imagine. But I think if
anyone wondered where this guy sits in the top line
of motor GP riders on the current grid. He is
right up there that the Amaha project is really coming
along At the moment he will be in winning positions again.
But for a weekend that he dominated that race on
Sunday deserve far better. But it was just another subplot
(26:49):
in I think motor GP only does crazy races at
the moment. It seems that, you know, we're talking about
France last week with jons Arko winning every second race
seems to be completely nuts at the moment. It's great TV, yeah,
but a bit of variety at the front end of
the championship and I'm here for it.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Yes. Well, I was a very exciting point just before
he crashed, I suppose, but there were.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
No de Caffies on the podium well, and because we
had a restart and race. I think that was part
of what I was saying before about being on the
correct tie there, because we had a race that was
abandoned on the second lap after we had both Marquez
brothers down in the first two laps and then a
bike on fire and oil all over the track in
the last couple of corners. That prompted the red flag,
so the Markeu's brothers effectively got to do over little
(27:27):
known ruling motor GP. If there is a red flag
within the first three laps, all riders can take the restart,
and so that's something a lot of people were saying,
why these guys back in the race like anyone that
had crashed out in those first two laps, and there
were a few of them, They effectively got a hard reset.
So you know, Mark Marquez actually extended his championship lead
through all of the silliness on Sunday at Silvestone admitted
afterwards he got very very lucky, finished third. Not a
(27:50):
particularly good weekend for him, but these are the weekends
where you just stack points relative to your rivals and
they all count towards the end of the year. But
suitably bonkers at Silveston and a very enjoyable Yes, sales man,
as ya as you say, this year reliably has been.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Yes, it is very exciting.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Let me very briefly engage your interests before we wrap
this one up, because it wasn't a supercars on the weekend,
but there was news that there will be two races
in New Zealand for the international expansion.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
We consider New Zealand international. Of course it is a
different country.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Continues and it sounds like it will be back to
It will be a double headed they will be obviously
right alongside each other, because why would you go all
the way there to come back and go back and
go back again.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Yes, but it sounds like it will be.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
It's being billed by ceoshanaw it as a fortnight two
weeks of supercars mayhem on the North Island and the
South Island. So we're looking at probably consecutive weekends, which
would be very exciting. Doesn't normally happen in supercars. I'll
be interested to say, well, first of all the response,
I mean, this is now a nationwide thing for New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Both islands are covered. But also the.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Response in how that back to back is handled, because,
like I say, supercars doesn't do it that often. No,
what's that going to mean from momentum? If we're going
to have the same race formats next year, that's six
races in it'll be less than it'd be about eight days.
I suppose it's a lot of racing in a few days.
How are you bounced back? What if there's a big crash,
you're very far away from home in New Zealand, especially
if the cars are all being taken by boat.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Again, like logistically is very interesting.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
It's great for New Zealand, and I think it's great
for supercars because while there's been a lot of talk
in the last few years, let's say about really sending
it overseas to Asia whatever, I think we're going to
expand anywhere, first, it's got to be in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
The fan base is pretty big there.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
We've got plenty of kiwee drivers, Matt pain foremost among
them at the moment. Great legacy obviously New Zealand's well,
great history in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
They needed more than one.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
They deserved more than one race, and it's really great
that this has now come about and it's going to
be I think a really interesting little experiment to be
racing that much overseas, all in one block, all in
such a short period of time.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
I like it from the perspective of the Aussie fans
in the air, you were thinking of potentially going over
to see an international race, and that was one of
those things. Look, it's only just that weekend. Can I
justify the cost. You can go over there and lock
into this festival. It's going to be over there for
a couple of weeksbsolutely justify the span. It'd be really
interesting to see what the Australian fan contingent that goes
over to see this, because that's now a significant carrot.
(30:07):
See two different parts of the country, two different racetracks
within a ten day period. It's a lot of racing
to enjoy. I could see there being quite a tourist boonsh.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yeah, absolutely topor obviously already touristy. And then christ Church
continues to rebuild. I guess after the earthquakes. I was
there only last year. I think beautiful part of the world.
I mean New Zealand is part of the world, but
christ Church in that South Island area particularly so tracks
right near christ Church, so I think it's only fifteen
kilmeters away or something like that, very close.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
I would be a great trip. Now you got me thinking,
maybe do you think about going to New Zealand?
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Maybe you should go hit talk on the road.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
I look, Shannon's want to support it. I'm all for it.
Let's trap this one up.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Matt with a crystal ball by complete Home filtration in
the middle of an F one triple header. A bag
of JP races are flowing now, supercars not trying away?
Speaker 3 (30:54):
What are you thinking?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I'm going to get a little bit naughty here. My
crystal ball tells me that Isaac Hajar is going to
be mentioned as a Red Bull racing driver gossip very
very very soon, and all jokes aside because he's performing
were Lee Lawson didn't and Yuki Sonoda isn't. Isaac Hajar
has massively surprised me this year in that I thought,
(31:16):
of all the rookies this year, he was the one
that was probably going to have the most crash damage
and was going to be the most erratic. He's been.
He's ticked every box for me. He's been very very good,
surprisingly calm, taken every opportunity and yes, we talked about
the Monaco confluence of circumstances, but he was there to
be the beneficiary of that strategy. And look, who on
(31:38):
earth knows what's going on with Red Bull second driver?
Do they know they've got a second driver? Do they
even care they've got a second driver? But right now,
of the three other Red Bull back drivers on the grid,
he seems to me to be the most qualified to
be Max Fastavan's teammate, which is also a poison chalice,
so you've got to be careful what you wish for.
But I think very soon we're going to see some
serious conversations about Hajar potentially being in that car because
(31:58):
quite frankly, the two guys that have been in it
this year, I'm not delivering.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
I mean, this is such a big talking point, I
can't complete it right back, no point. But all I
would say is that we were saying the same thing
about Yuki Sanoda about a month ago when he was
at racing points. So I think the problems are really
big at Red Bull Racing. I'm going to stick with
the Red Bull Racing for my prediction. Something we haven't
talked about this week, but we will debrief next week
is that there are some rule changes coming or all
the reinterpretations coming this weekend to the flexibility of front wings.
(32:25):
All very exciting and technical, But Red Bull Racing has
been telling us or hinting non stop for a month
that this is the thing, this is what's going to
break this Championshi Open.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
They're going to be back after this rule change.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
It brings McLaren back more than it brings back any
other team. I'm going to say McLaren's going to win
by sixty seconds, not sixty seconds. They're going to win comfortably,
and then Red Bull Racing is going to have to
come up with some new reasons as to why the
car is not quite there.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Well, we mentioned before that Catalonia is this great litmus
test of what Formula one car can do. We often
get really dominant wins there. You think back in the
Mercedes domination, they would absolutely demolish everybody. Whichever team has
got the car in the sweet spot. It tends to
be magnified at this particular track. So if McLaren, even
with this new technical directive, come out and demolish everyone
(33:10):
this weekend, then Christian Horner's press debrief will be a
manage reviewing.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Go think yeah, I think so. I'm looking forward to it.
That's all the time. We have a pit talk today.
You can subscribe to pit talk where if you get
your favorite podcasts and you can leave us a rating
and review as well. This weekend it is the Spanish
Formula one Grand Prix. Lights are out at eleven pm
on Sunday, night, and you cube up to date with
all the latest F one, Moto GP and supercars news
at Fox sports dot com dou until next week. For
(33:34):
Matt Clayton, I'm Michael Lamonado. We'll catch you then
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.