November 18, 2024 • 47 mins
F1's follow-up visit to its premier Las Vegas Grand Prix comes with title permutations, with Max Verstappen on the brink of sealing a fourth championship, while Ferrari is targeting big gains on McLaren at the top of the teams standings.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to pitt Talk of Fox Sports and
Speed Cafe Formula one podcast. On today's episode, it's Las
Vegas Grand Prix week, as if One prepares for the
final tripleheader to get us to the end of the season,
and FIA race director Neil's Vitch says he was sacked
from the position suddenly ahead of one of the highest
pressure races of the season. My name's Michael Lamonato, motorsport
(00:23):
writer for Fox Sports Australia. It's great to have your
company and the company of my co host from Speed Cafe.
He always gambles responsibly. Imagine what you could be buying instead,
It's Matt Cash.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I problem is I spent far too much time imagining
what I could be buying instead. This is why I
can't have nice things. You can imagine them, Yeah, I
imagine very, very vividly. The problem is I'll indulge you
with a guilty pleasure of mine. At the moment. Hot
Wheels going to release this F one stream next year,
(00:57):
but I don't know of those out there thatrently into
hoot Was. I'm not a collected by any stretch, but
they currently sell lotus forty nines and I don't know, Michael,
she probably can't quite see on my camera, but just
over my shoulder here, I've got about forty of them.
For forty of them, I'm trying to get forty nine
lotus forty nine. That's where all my money goes. And okay,
(01:21):
they're not the most expensive thing in the world, but yeah,
I've got about I've got nearly fifty lotus forty nine
sitting over there. It's it's yeah, I can I can
imagine more vividly.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
That is extremely specific, extremely specific.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
It was. It was. It was voted the greatest racing
car of all time. You go, just pick up a
small handful.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
No, I guess looking at a whole packet. It is
very It's the most visual podcast I think I ever
been involved in. I'll paint the picture for you. Is
that's brilliant. Now here we go, Oh, we've got quite
We've got several packets of the five four A packet there.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
One, two, three, and four. There's seven there, so there
must be there must be twenty odd just in that group.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, I saw because of this. You know, Formulae has
a bit of a hot wheeled partnership, as you mentioned
a post on social media about how the hot Wheels
cars is way off topic, isn't it. I have become
decreasingly detailed as time has worn on because and I
remember this because you know, I was a kid. I
had some hot Wheels cars and if you slipped them
on upside down underneath it would have sort of like
(02:29):
the outline molded in of drive train one the various
parts of the underneath of the car. But increasingly now
if you buy a new one, it's just sort of
like a flat surface underneath. Yes, there you go. I
can't really see any detail on the one who.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Show detail mate, it's just a flat bit of I
think I think it might be plastic. Yeah, I was
always a matchbox car round the hotel. Maybe I like
I like the real cars rather than the fictitious ones exactly.
This has been a fun, fun Formula one podcast so far.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yes, yes, well, you know, people want people need to
be east back in. We've had two weekends off. People
want to feel like it's a slow and steady transition.
But to help eas you back into the first week
of racing in only two weekends off, it hasn't been
that long. We'll catch you up with all the news
you might have missed in the last ten days or
so since the previous podcast. And let's start with the
Monaco Grand Prix, which has earned a six year contract
(03:21):
extension that'll take it to the end of twenty thirty one.
But it's had to make a key concession on its
long running May date to get that deal over the line.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, and I'm sort of in two minds about this.
I don't I don't mind the new day. I'm a traditionalist.
I don't like change. You know, cars should have no
wings and you look a bit like a Lotus forty
nine just to pick a car at random. But at
the same time, I also don't think that Formula one
has a place in Monaco anymore because the sport has
just outgrown it and it doesn't provide the return on
(03:52):
investment that some of the other events. Do you know
you think Singapore, Yeah, Monico used to be this blue ribbon,
blue chip, high profile event for one now has many
of them, so it's not special in that regard anymore.
Remaining on the calendar, yeah, okay, it makes sense to
move it as well. You get some rationalization when it
comes to logistics and carbon offsets and all that jazz. Yeah,
(04:14):
I guess, I guess it makes sense and they're paying
more money, so it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
That's going to say all your traditionalist views paired with
the ultimate non traditionalist, we don't need Monaco position anymore.
It's quite the leap there, but good for Monaco. I
guess good from Monico to extend it does mean that
Canada is also going to move earlier into calendar from
twenty twenty six, so we don't jump back and forth
between Europe and North America for no reason. Let's move
on to staff personnel now, and Aston Martin and its
(04:41):
technical director or former technical director, Dan Fellows have parted
ways with immediate effect during the break was last week
after only around two years together, and this follows the
team slump down the pace rankings this year. In fact,
it was the slowest car hall in Brazil. Fellows, though
will remain within the Aston group, but specifically not in
the F one projects.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
This is interesting. I got wind of this over the
United States Grand Prix and unfortunately it was fhemently denied
by Dan Fellows at that point. The trick with these things, though,
you have to ask exactly the right question, and if
you don't ask exactly the right question, they'll take that
little avenue and they'll deny it or whatever. So it's
(05:24):
been floating around for a while and ultimately dan Fellow's
left Red Bull to get out from under the skirt
of Adrian Newey. Well, guess who's just been announced to
Aston Martin. It was always on the cards as soon
as Adrian Nue was announced it and asketon dan Fellow's
future was limited.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Yes, and I mean the top heaviness of the technical
structure there as well. I always felt like someone had
to go, and sure enough it's the technical director who's
presided over. Yes, a big jump at the start of
last year, but really perpetual decline since then. So dan
Fellow's making his own way in Formuda one again. Let's
move to one of the biggest open secrets now confirmed
certainly recent months in the Formula one padding, and that
(06:05):
is that Alpine will be taking Mercedes customer engines from
twenty twenty six in a deal that's also going to
include gearbox supply at least for the first season. On
that lad account, that sees Alpine returned to the status
that it enjoyed, suffered. However you want to describe it
a couple of years ago. As an independent constructor, I.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Don't really know how I feel about this. The one
thing I will point out is that I'm absolutely baffled
as to why the likes of Ferrari or Audi or
any of the other power manufacturers weren't fighting tooth and
nail to get that supply deal with our pain. Because
you think about it, we go into twenty twenty six,
(06:44):
all new regulation cycle, data is going to be king.
Mercedes has more data points than any other manufacturer, particularly
the likes of Honda is going to have one team,
Audi is going to have one team, Ford is going
to have two teams, or Red Bull. Ferrari is not
going to have that many data points. Mercedes has just
given itself a massive competitive advantage, and it's having someone
(07:07):
pay for the privilege. That's just brilliant business in my book.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, I'm surprised for Arian Hondre. At least I can understand,
how do you maybe not feeling prepared to do more
than one team in the first year and.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
That's the best way to do it. Though similarly, I
think the first year that's the best time to do it,
because that's when you get all you're learning done. That's true,
no doubt, Just accelerate all that. Yeah, I'm absolutely staggered
as to why that wasn't more of a contest.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Well, good news for Mercedes in that case. Let's talk
about about Sergio Perez, who's been talking to GQ magazine
saying that he turned down two offers from rival teams
to re sign with Red Bull Racing instead at the
start of the year. Says this, of course, as the
news titans around his career towards the end of this season,
following months now of underperformance.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I'd love to know the timing around when those offers
were made, because I think that's the most important thing.
They're unlikely to have been made in the last week,
for instance, they would have come somewhere towards the start
of the year. His first six races of the season
were actually pretty good. He scored what's one hundred and
three points or something off the top of my head,
and six races. That's not a bad return. So at
(08:12):
that point it makes sense that he's attractive to other teams. However,
since then, you know, did he sign with Red Bull?
Because that was the only offer he had left on
the table. It'd be interesting just to understand where those
offers came from, not even necessarily who they were, but
where they came in, sort of the timing of the season.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, you can understand Sergio Perez and Red Bull Racing
resigning at the start of the year when he was
performing well looked like a no brainer sort of at
the time, although it was very early, but certainly the
circumstances have changed since then. Let's move to williams Now,
which in the last week has been forced to deny
what it says a spurious rumors that it won't be
at the Las Vegas Grand Prix after it's highly damaging
(08:49):
weekend in Brazil that featured three big crashes, to for
alex Albon and another for Franco Colapindo, which team boss
James Valves described afterwards as unsustainable amounts of damage.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
What's been unsustainable all season. It's why they got rid
of Ergan Sergeant, isn't it. But ultimately there was I
don't understand where this doubt about William's participation in Vegas
has come from, because they're contractually bound to compete, you know,
even if they have to pull you know, some components
off of Lapsi's car and paper mache them to make
(09:20):
to meet the new REGs. You know, you do what
you have to do to get a car on track.
It doesn't have to be competitive, it just has to
be there. Otherwise there's all sorts of penalties that are
that are every day you're under the Concord Agreement, So
it was always going to be there. It seems a
bit of a story about nothing and some rumors and
whatever being stirred up for for no real reason in
(09:43):
my opinion.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Yes, and don't forget everything. You know, Triple Header is
linked together. You don't go to Vegas, You're not gonna
be on the flight to Kataut, So it would have
really made any sense for me to turn up in
the first place. What state they turned up in though,
of course, does remain to be seen. And finally, a
bonus sixth story this week, since it's been ten days
or so since the last EPISOD, that is Greg maffay,
CEO Formula one Commercial Rights hold to Liberty Media, will
(10:04):
step down from the role at the end of the
year after more than nineteen years at the helm, which
paves the way for board changes that will better reflect
the company's change direction as it becomes really quite more
significant a player in category level sport.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Well you say category level sport, but realistically it's Formula one.
And the way they've divided the business up, they've spun
off Serious Exam and a couple of other businesses to
the point where Liberty Media is effectively Formula one group.
That's really all that's left in there. It's even split
off Quinn, which is a hospitality business. But MAFE specifically,
(10:40):
his exit is interesting. He was out of contract at
the end of the year. That's fine, but he's leaving.
There is no replacement. Chairman John Malone is going to
step in an interim basis, so there's no replacement, which
suggests this was not planned, because if it's planned, you
have someone waiting in the wings that's just able to
seelessly takeover. That's not the case, so this wasn't planned.
(11:03):
I have heard of growing tensions between MAFE and Malone
for quite some time. The word I've also been given
is that just the restructure of Liberty Media and the
reduction in the scope of the role has meant that
MAFE is just not interested. I've also heard some interesting
claims about Moto GP and its contribution to the audial
(11:25):
so it's it's interesting. There's definitely more to this than
Mafe saying I'm done, because if he was going to
say I'm done, then you have six or twelve or
eighteen months of planning and you have the successor in
the line. This one smells funny to me.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Well, Greg's last roll, first race after his announcement that
this will be his last few races will be the
Las Vegas Grand Prix, which was the big project of
Liberty Media era Formula one. The headline event the Blue
Red Band Spectacle as we all saw last year, the
big all singing, all dancing Grand Prix in a music
festival just before it last year. I think they're doing
the opening ceremony again.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Went off with a bang too. If you're a manhole covery, yes.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Well you're you're a Ferrari car. Yeah, yes, we all
remember that.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Carlos definitely enjoyed it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Hopefully no two am practice sessions this time around. We
are back in Las Vegas this weekend for the first
of the last triple header of the season. To get
us to the end of the year. This is Formula
one's most hyped Grand Prix by a long long way.
You might have noticed it already on if on social
media and all sorts of things. Good for Australia though,
(12:33):
because the time zone is actually great because of the
slightly bizarre running time of the race at ten pm
local in Las Vegas. Shame if you're in New York
to watch one of your American Grand Prixs. For us,
it's great. It's five pm Eastern time. What's that two
pm if you're ever in Perth and you can calculate
that it's in the middle. But it's really interesting that
leading into this race to hear from the organizers in
(12:54):
Las Vegas, and now, of course they're not about to
talk down the race, will you talk up how effective
or how big a deal last year's race was? And
I think it's interesting to kind of recontextualize the setting
up of this Grand Prix. There are lots of street
circuits in Formula one, but this is probably the most
ambitious in the context. Right Like, for a long time,
(13:14):
Las Vegas and the casinos that pretty much run that
place were fairly opposed the idea of closing streets for
an event like this. Now they've gone to great pains
to make sure the streets are closed as limited a
time as possible, which is why we get these strange
running times. But actually, in review of that first year's race,
they're talking about this as being it was last year's November,
as the race was timed last year, I think the
(13:35):
second biggest weekend in the city's history, the exposure being
much greater than even expected, And I think what was
almost most interesting was them saying it could be half
or even I think a third as well exposed as
last year's race and it would still count as a success.
So I think it's a little bit of expectation management,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Or it's just a load of pr because if you'll
get how much money they've spent, I think looking at
the finances, it was about three ninety million dollars that
they spent. That was the cost of revenue difference in
Q four last year. It was huge, all attributed to
Las Vegas. So there will be some set up costs
(14:14):
in that obviously, and then that all sort of advertize
over the coming years. But Vegas is a little bit
different as a Saturday night race for a start, which
works out to be a lovely Sunday afternoon in front
of the TV for us. But it's also promoted by
Formula One. As you mentioned, it's not a it's not
a revenue stream. It's almost a lost leader in that
(14:37):
it goes out there, it promotes the best of Formula one,
and the intent is that it goes out and into
tracts partners that initially do a deal with the event
and then come into the business more broadly. And you
look at you know, dealers with like Amex and a
couple of others around the place. That's the value that
(14:58):
Vegas adds. Beyond that, it also goes to my point
of it diminishes what Monaco is because you've now got
this high profile, blue ribbon exciting event that they're pushing
really hard to turn into something extraordinary. And let's be honest,
it is something pretty extraordinary to be racing down the
strip in Vegas. That's that's I mean, can you imagine
(15:21):
this ten years ago, five years ago, absolutely extraordinary? Half
years well at two am this time last year. So
it just goes to show that Formula one is building
not just races now, it's building events and experiences. It's
(15:42):
been working hard to diversify its ticket offering this year
and that's resulted in a number of different options coming
on sale. Will really late in the piece, like the
last couple of weeks. That's something I think they need
to get their head around a little bit more. But
beyond that, I'm just looking at it and it's an
(16:02):
exciting race. You know, I've got three to go. We're
in the midst of a championship battle. The title could
be decided this week, and you know, it's just what
I don't like is that we're racing in the strip.
We're racing somewhere absolutely extraordinary, and you know, on TV
it looks like Singapore or Guitar or not Kaitar, because
(16:23):
that's not a street race or Saudi. It just like
looks like another street race at night in Formula one.
There's not a lot to differentiate it unless you see
the big wide shots going down the strip.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Yes, I'm glad you brought that up, because that was
something I think we talked about this last year, because
there was something that really stood out to me about
this race is that on television, it actually in the
it generally didn't look as impressive, as you would think
for this big they're racing down the sprint, the strip idea.
They generally use the landscape well over the course of
the whole week. Obviously they turned Las Vegas into the playground,
(16:56):
into the setting of the race. The race itself at
night I thought was a little bit underwhelming, and I
couldn't help but think, actually, it looked better in the daytime.
We're at dusk. You know, there were some shots I think,
actually weirdly, if you remember that golf tournament they had
on Netflix last year and a lead up to the race,
because that went from day to night, it was that
dusk period that looked great. I actually remember thinking this.
(17:18):
I watched Moto GP and KATA all last year, as
it was it was shortly after Vegas, and I thought
the same about that as well. A flood lit circuit,
they all look the same. You mentioned it. I know
you sort of went back in it, but I think
you're right. They all look various tones of gray and beige,
Whereas I think during dusk you actually get a sense
of the city sky and I think that's right. But
I think that also goes to during another one of
(17:40):
your points, the place of Monaco on the calendar is
that when you watch Monaco, you know it's there, you
know it looks visually spectacular, even with the racing is
always processional these days, and it's identifiable with Formula one
in a way that none of these night races really are,
even if the concept of Vegas or Singapore might be
(18:01):
more intrinsic to Formula one today because everyone knows it
and understands at Singapore has become a really popular event
to go to, particularly in our part of the world.
Vegas obviously has this big hype around it, this big expectation,
but people still know Monaco like Monaco is form of
the one in the minds of a lot of very
casual fans of the sport, or even people who aren't
necessarily Formula one fans but kind of have a general
concept of what it is, not even know what Formula
(18:22):
one is, but they know that some cars race around
Monaco and that happens to be Formula one. I doubt
they're thinking of the Formula EE pre so maybe they are.
Who knows, I should I shouldn't prejudge.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Very few are most of.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
The people who are working with I think, but I
think to go back. It's become weird. A little bit
of a theme in this episode that the place of Monaco.
I think that that's still it still owns that visual
spectacle in a way. These night races don't really because
I just don't think night racist pop on television in
the way I think sport organizers think they will. It's
(18:53):
not like running football or whatever at night, where really
you can tell the difference obviously, but it doesn't really
make a big visual diference to what you're looking at.
Racing at night just doesn't look that great.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
You lose something, don't you. You just don't have the
same visceral is the wrong word, but this sensory perception
of speaking. Ultimately, we can't tell with the naked eye
for cars five seconds like quicker or slower. If you're
there in person, yes you can, but on TV you
just you don't have that reference to your point about
(19:25):
you know the backdrop. I'm a massive cycling fan, and
you know, the Tour de Front is a massive event,
not just for cycling nerds like me, but for my
in laws. Watch it, my parents watch it. They've got
no interest in cycling, but it's just such a pretty
couple of hours of television because I've got these big, wide,
expansive shots of the towns that they go through, of
(19:46):
the mountains, of everything else. You've got this backdrop that
paints a picture of the race, and a night race,
You're just you're stripping all that away, You're putting it
against a green screen effectively.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
And I think that that is I think that's not
to be under stated. Run as a great example more
slow TV in Formula one. That's what I want. I
wanted to just be single camera, stuck on a single
car for the whole weekend, just to see how the
whole thing unraveling.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
This big wide shots. I remember going back and showing
my age the early Australian Grand Prixs and Adelaide. They
used to have a helicopter follow the cars through the
S's and up through East Terrace and onto Joan Straight
and they'd sit with this camera shot for four or
(20:32):
five corners and you could see the cars, you know,
this cordion effect between cars and then lapping back markers,
and you wouldn't you get this real notion of speed
versus you know, the leaders versus the back markers, because
suddenly a back marker had flash into shot and it'd
be gone again because I just hold this one comparatively
wide shot and you get this real idea that the
walls are close, these things are moving, and they're sort of,
(20:54):
you know, closing up and pulling away from another. It's
just I think the working too hard to show the
cars and the fact that they move around or whatever.
We need to see more atmosphere. So this has turned
into a critique of television production Formula one, hasn't it?
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Yes? So well? As a final note on that that
it will change this year and they will have learned
a lot. Last year is the first time they did it.
It's underestimated how much work goes into camera positioning and
that kind of stuff, and they had no history or
playbook to do it. So this year expected to probably
look quite different. And then we can come back and
do a special episode of the podcast just critiquing the
Talision podcast. Let's talk about that championship though, because the drivers, well,
(21:31):
both championships are still up for grabs, but the drivers
championship could be decided this weekend in Las Vegas, and
wouldn't Formula One just bloody love that Lando Norris is
sixty two per points points behind Max Wstappen. After Las Vegas,
there will be sixty points remaining, which means Norris must
outscore Max by three points or more to keep the
(21:52):
title alive. Now, Matt, we'll talk about this before the podcast.
We've got probably slightly different opinions on how this is
going to play out in my mind, and I think
it's likely actually that it's not decided this weekend, just
because looking at the track layout and looking at Red
Bull's recent form. Although form has been so hard to
read this season. It's been so up and down for
most teams, every team except McLaren really, but you should
(22:15):
say that Lando Nora should finish at least a couple
of places ahead of Max. Withstaff on pure pace, I
expected to be McLaren and Ferrari at the front, then
Red Bull racing in that third position. Say, he's very
good in cold conditions though, and this is going to
be very cold, so who knows. Maybe that could be
a bit of a wild card team this weekend. But
I think Norris can get those three points. I'm certainly
not saying he's going to win the championship. I think
(22:36):
it'll then be decided, probably in the sprinted Katar again,
but I think he'll walk away from Vegas in the lead.
But you've got some good counterpoints, I think.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yeah. I looked to Asbojan and Okay. Oscar Piastre drove
really well to win that race for McLaren, but Sergio
Perez was right there towards the end as well. There
are strong similarities between Baku and Vegas long straits. Not
(23:06):
much in the way of sort of even meeting my
high speed stuff. It's largely ninety degrees stuff and comparatively
tight nine degree stuff. So I can see Red Bull
doing well. We know Max won this event last year.
Lando basically has to win. Lando has to finish top
eight or better, and then if he finishes a second
(23:29):
or third, depending where Max finishes, and if he gets
fast at SLAP, it's game over for Lando. I can
see the championship being over this weekend, and I'm saying
that purely because I called it weeks and weeks ago.
The championship will be decided in Vegas, and I stand
by that. I think Lando's I don't think he's given
up the fight, but he's more pragmatic about it now
(23:51):
that the Championship and the Constructors Championship is more important
if you're going to defend against Max, who's going to
show on and risk taking you both out because if
neither of them finish in Vegas, Max's champion. So you're
going to jump out of the way because you want
to protect the Constructors Championship advantage. You need the points
(24:12):
for that. Given where Ferrari is, and I expect Ferrari
will be strong this weekend, so I can see a
little bit of a little bit of elbows out action
from Max and just harrying that car. I think what
South Paolo did will come a massive shot in the arm.
That was an incredible drive. The more I think about it,
(24:32):
the more impressive that drave was. I sort of downplayed
it at the time, but I think I'm wrong in
that it was exemplary. Take that confidence forward that the
McClaren hasn't been the fastest thing in a straight line.
It's got changes to its rear wing that are comparatively
untested on this style of circuit because it's post the
bacou changes. It does have its mini drs and all
(24:55):
that sort of jazz, So it'll be interesting to see
what happens. Either way, Susafan has won the championship. Whether
it's this weekend or whether it's Qatar in a week's time.
I don't think it makes a whole lot of difference.
I just like the breaking rights of being able to
say I told you so.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Either way, it's probably going to be decided on a Saturday,
which is weird. But well, then again, it was last year,
so let's talk just to go back, well, not to
go back to Brazil per se, but I think the
effect of that race was interesting on the constructors Championship
because that's the championship that is very much alive and
is probably going to take us all the way to
Abu Dabil. The McLaren is close to having a full
race worth of points advantage over Ferrari because I was
(25:32):
comparatively underwhelming in Brazil in the wed at least compared
to its recent form. McClaren now leads Ferrari by thirty
six points in the Constructors Championship. It's also forty nine
points ahead of Red Bull Racing in third, and Mercedes
can't finish higher or lower than fourth. That season's done.
They may as well pack it up now and then
Aston Martin. That's a pretty comfortable lead for fifth. In
the battle between Alpine Harsen rbs all pretty close. There's
(25:54):
an outside chance someone could get Aston Martin if they
have another Brazil style thirty odd point score swing. That
remains to be seen through three races to go. But
that battle of the constructors Championships with a lot of money,
so with a lot of pride, particularly given that I
think in April no one thought anyone other than Red
Bull Racing would be winning this thing. Now the team
struggling even to race for second. This is a big
(26:15):
weekend for McLaren and Ferrari in particularly because we've already
sort of touched on this is a track that should
suit Ferrari in particular, although no Charlotte Clair has said,
oh like, the tire advantage might not be as big
this year because the cars much more gendle on its
ties and the cold weather might make that a little
bit different. McClaren is interesting because, like you say, the
rear wing that had worked so well in Azerbaijan won't
(26:36):
be the same rear wing they use this weekend. But
Red Bull full of confidence. I think, in particular the
fact that max for Staffen one with such ease on
Sunday in Brazil, and even in the sprint on Saturday
was competitive, got stuck behind Charlotte Clair. Had he not
been may well have been able to win that race
as well. Could we be seeing a late resurgence from
Red Bull Racing here? Is it too late to win
the constructors Championship? Is it really just second place they're
(26:58):
aiming for now?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Going to be the second place that best? Doesn't it?
It's that far down, you know, forty nine points. It's
not again mathematically it's it's possible, but you're relying on
four cars ahead of you, having three comparatively poor weekends.
Just having like a spreadsheet that I've got here and
(27:20):
I can't think of a weekend where McLaren has not
delivered strong points all weekend or just having a quick look.
I think the fewest points I've scored all weekend was
fourteen in China. That's the worst weekend I've had all season.
Red Bulls worst was eight points in round eight whatever whatever.
(27:40):
That was also eight points in round twenty. So what
was the one before Southlia Mexico?
Speaker 1 (27:48):
My surgery didn't score, which is normally the common denomination.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Ouch, that's the truth. Yea, it is true. And look,
I ran a piece on Speak Cafe today that Sergio's
performance is going to cost Red Book thirty million dollars.
This is what we say about You know, the Constructors
Championship is worth money, in significant amounts of money. Exactly
how much depends. It's based on a calculation off of
(28:15):
Formula one's projected revenues. We can safely predict that that'll
be something like about one point seven billion dollars next year.
So if that's the case, the difference between finishing first
in the Championship, for which you get fourteen percent of
the prize spot versus third, which you get twelve point
(28:37):
two percent of the prize spot, works out to be
about thirty million dollars, which also turns out to be
about what Sergio Perez's commercial backers bring to the team,
So he's also now not really contributing either on the
financial standpoint.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
It's a lot of kid cats, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
So that's a lot of kickouts, a lot of mobile
phonecations of that deals then, isn't it so it's a
lot of hot wheels. There's a lot of other spreading lines.
Let me just do quick maths. But and that's the
you know, looking at at this on my projections, McLaren
(29:22):
shouldn't win the championship this year. It's looking at more
than two hundred and twenty million dollars in prize money
next year by my rough maths. So obviously that depends on
Formula one's earnings. But yeah, two hundred and twenty six
ish million dollars in prize money. That's more than the
cost cap. The top seven team should actually have the
(29:43):
cost cap paid to them in prize money. But even still,
you want as much money as you can because there's
other things that you can use that on the hospitality marketing,
all those sorts of things.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Let's move on now, Matt, not entirely, because Las Vegas
is still very much on the horizon for all of us,
but stepping back a little bit to some drama in
the FIA that's been bubbling along really ever since President
Mohammed Bensalon was elected a couple of years ago. Now,
in the aftermath of the twenty twenty one ABB Grand Prix,
but ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix race, Director
neil's Vitch has left the race directorship. Now the FIA spun.
(30:20):
This is stepping down to pursue new opportunities. One of
the great lines in hr Hes since told German language
Motorsport magazine that he did not resign, that he was sacked.
No one's entirely sure why. It'd certainly come out of
the blue, that much is absolutely certain. Maybe maybe you
know some whispers of a little bit of tension at
the top there, but certainly no one expected this to
(30:41):
be moving with three races still to go, and certainly
not ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, surely one
of the highest pressure races in which to be in
race control, if not just because it's only the second
running of this race, and we all remember how difficult
it was to manage the race last year, not least
because of the exploding drain cover obliterated Carlos Sciences car
(31:01):
and of course, most importantly the swearing in the press
conference subsequent to that. This is gonna be the fourth
race director in as many years. Of course, Michael Massi
in twenty one, Nils Vitisch was in twenty twenty two,
along with Eduardo Fretas, who left at the end of
that year. And now in twenty twenty four we'll have
Roy Marquz, who's the Formula two and Formula three race
(31:22):
director promoted this weekend to Formula one. Not sure if
that means he's also actually gonna be doing F two
and F three and Katar and Abu Dhabi the last
two or only F two rather and Kato and Abu
Dhabi the last two rounds of that championship. But that's
a question for next week, I suppose. And things are
moving so quickly at the FIA, but it's not exactly
a great look culminating with Nils Vitich leaving the organization.
(31:44):
Considering just how many high profile people have left in
the last twelve months.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
It's not a great look, particularly when you look at
the history of the race director role in that usually
has been pretty stable prior to Michael mass Let's not
forget Michael MASSI inherited that job when Charlie Whiting sadly
died over the days prior to the Australian Grand Primum.
Was that twenty.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Nineteen, I think, wow, that long ago.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
There you go, But Charlie Whiting had been in that
role for twenty twenty five years or something. It was
some extraordinary period. And before him, Buncher Ryder was also
in that role for a long time, going back into
the eighties. So you know, for thirty years we had
sort of two race directors and now in four years
(32:31):
we've had four race directors. There's been no obvious mistakes.
It was a little bit wobbly from vitic when he
first took over, but there's been no obvious mistakes. You know,
he's not impacted the outcome of a race or completely
screwed something up or made, you know, controversial decisions. So
(32:53):
what's happened behind closed doors? Because this can't be performance related,
can it?
Speaker 1 (32:59):
No, you wouldn't have thought so, particularly not in the
context of Okay, Michael Massi. It all came down to
Avid hab twenty twenty one. Had been tensioned with the
teams before that. I still think that while the FIA's
own report afterwards found that he wasn't sufficiently supported in
the role, but they used him as a scapegoat anyway.
Maybe because of the tensions with the team's just made
that easy. Arduado Freds left after the Japanese Grand Prix
(33:20):
of twenty twenty two, in which you might remember Pierre
Gazzi was released onto the track not in red flag conditions,
just before red flag conditions, while there was a tractor
on the track in monsoon rain, extremely dangerous situation. He
was forced to pay the price for that. Neils Wit
did she like you say, no obvious trigger for this.
I do want to go back to, Oh goodness me,
the Michael Massi situation, not abu dab twenty twenty one.
(33:42):
Don't panic, but that finding that he was not sufficiently
supported by the FIA, because for me, this is kind
of the core of the problem. Charlie Whiting's long tenure
was obviously earned, but the role evolved with him over
the twenty odd years he was in that position. He
kind of made the race directorship also safety delegate ship,
if we can call it that, a role he made
(34:04):
his own that is tied to being the race director
as well. His workload was quite significant, but he was
able to manage that because he kind of invented it
all for himself as the sport grew and evolved, So
he really was those roles to throw first of all.
Michael Massey in he was being trained up to take
that position, but he wasn't near the completion of that
apprenticeship because obviously Charlie Whitings, he said, tragically died so
(34:25):
suddenly and unexpectedly was thrown into that had to learn
as he went also during the pandemic. That can't have
been very easy. And despite the FIA finding after his
tenure that he needed more support, invented this remote race
control that we very rarely hear about, and at certain
times I've certainly thought we probably could afford to hear about,
because there have been times it feels like it could
have been needed to intervene more strongly. I've never got
(34:47):
the sense that actually race control has changed that much.
The pressure remains really quite great. Certainly we learned that
with Eduardo Fratis and the way the Japanese Grand Prix
was handled that year. Maybe some incidents this year, but
nothing really controvert nothing beyond the remit of what is
normal regulatory controversy in any sport. You can never make
everyone happy when you're running a sport. But it still
(35:08):
feels to me that we're going to get this churn.
Regardless of whatever is the reason that visage is left.
There's could have been some kind of tension. But we're
going to get churned for whatever the reason for as
long as this role remains so big and the preparation
for it is so sleeem I think it's ironic. Actually,
Muhammed Ben Slam told Alto Sport last year. I think
it was he recognized that you can't just buy race
(35:30):
directors from Amazon, I think was what he said. They're
rare and they're hard to groom, and getting rid of
one and promoting one suddenly it's a big step up
from the junior categories to Formula one. I think only
exacerbates the problem. And I think we're only going to
get to a position we're going to have more rotation,
which does not serve anyone in the.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Sport, particularly when if you look at the F one
steward side of things and they're talking about bringing in
some consistent stewards because the rotation is introducing consistency. I mean,
that's that's a debate that's been had many, many, many
times over over the years, and there's arguments for and
(36:08):
against it. I don't really care one way or the
other which way it goes, but the race director is
a significant member of the Formula one community. And the
Formula one paddock. When Charlie Whiting was doing it is
last season twenty eighteen, there were twenty one Girls Prix.
When he took over, there was sixteen, maybe seventeen, depending
which year it was. So over the years the job
(36:32):
grew just as a race director side of things. He
was also doing circuit inspections and a number of other
things that Michael Massey took on as well. So you'll
imagine you've been doing a job for ten years and
you get a little bit more responsibility. It's not difficult.
Then you get a little bit more it's not difficult,
and you just build up, and then you eventually move
on for one reason or another. The next guy comes
in and suddenly what wasn't especially difficult but a pretty
(36:54):
busy job for you is just absolutely untenable. I wonder
if there's a degree burnout involved. Let's also remember that
Protest and Vitage were NBS appointments, so something has also
changed in that relationship. I wonder if there was a
bit of pushback from Vitage saying that I'm a race director,
(37:18):
I manage things, or pushback in some of the other
elements of the FIA, and perhaps what the governing body
wanted of him, because doing twenty four races a year
is a huge, huge commitment. I'll do a good third
of that this year, and a toilet takes is significant.
(37:39):
To travel involved, the time away from home, the sacrifices
you make with family. It's huge to do this. And yes,
we're in the greatest sport in the world, but you
can't turn your nose off at the fact that this
is people's lives. I don't know what the cause is.
Remarkas is he's been put in there pretty quickly. I
(38:01):
have not heard bad things about him, But at the
same time, he's not done anything like Formula one before.
There is nothing like Formula one, even the Warden Durants Championship.
We saw that with Fratus. They're very different beasts because
you're going from a handful of professionals and a group
of amateurs to ten hyper competitive teams that know the
rules inside out better than you do and will exploit
(38:24):
every little chick in the armor of those regulations. So
it's a very very different beast. And again, like I
said with MAFE, this one just doesn't pass the sniff test.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah, and I think thinking about how Roy's going to
be taking over this weekend. Two championships still live. Regardless
of what you think about the Drivers' Championship, it is
still up for grabs and the teams will fight till
the finish. You don't have to look back at when
the Constructive Championship plays a role in this as well.
But Red Bulls response to the use of red flags
in Brazil really dialed it up to ten between Christian
Horne and Max withstaff and this new race director will
(38:57):
be subjected to that pressure if anything like that happens
again in Las Vegas. And then you do consider the
Constructors Championship. Not only the three leading teams, but the
midfield teams arguably have even more reason to fight because
every million dollars is worth more to them consideringly incomes
a relatively less and that fight is going down to
the why because it's only three or four points between
most of them. It's a high pressure situation. There could
(39:19):
not be a worse way to jump into Formula One
with no formal handover, no transition, no apprenticeship, with three
back to back races, I mean, fire him might already
be looking forward to the end of the season. I
think regardless of how big a step it is, and
I'm sure it's pleased to be able to call himself
a Formula One race director, but also just in the
context of the way all this is unfolded, it can't
be a great way to take that position. And this
(39:41):
weekend let's not forget as well. The follow up is
going to be on the Grand Prix Drivers Association letter,
which we talked about in the last podcast. The team's
really clapping back at FI president in particularly with at
THEFI in general about the way that the sport is
administered when it comes to drivers and fines and punishments
and all those kinds of things. That's going to become
a major talking point this weekend. That's going to put
the new to race director on the spot as well.
(40:02):
He's going to have his first drivers briefing. It probably
it's going to be something like one am on Saturday
morning or Friday morning, whenever it is. It's just going
to be a difficult transition. So look, hopefully it all
goes smoothly, but then again, last years Las Vegas Grand
Prix was anything but smooth. That's amount of next week's podcast.
They will wrap up Las Vegas Grand Prix. Matt, let's
(40:23):
get to the alternative Championship, the most important part of
the podcast.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
That's what you've all been hanging out for, isn't it.
Let's be honest, right, the alternative Championship where the points
are just made up and don't really matter. I'm going
to kick it off, and I think I've been quite
sensible with my picks this week, and probably a little
bit too sensible, but we'll go with it. I'm going
to give ten points to start with to Stefano dominic Canti. Okay,
(40:50):
that's nice because I think what he's done with the
calendar makes a lot of sense. I don't you know.
I've said my piece about Monaco, but it makes sense
to regionalize some of that stuff, get some more of
deficiency there. It just makes life easier on everyone. There's
a lot of work that's got into this. I know
Canada was particularly stubborn, so I think for Stefano to
(41:12):
get that across the line, I think that's that's worth
a couple of points.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Yeah, and it's a long project, isn't it. Managing race
calendar slots are not the work of the moment because
contracts are often so long and the Liberty Media is
locked in quite a few long term contracts now as well,
so the margins for changes are probably relatively narrow these days.
The only outline now is Singapore sitting on its own.
I do like in the press release announcing Canada is
going to move and they're going to have your double
(41:36):
header in America. Then all Europe they like, and then
of course we go to Azerbaijahan, which precedes Singapore the
logical back to back. But anyway, look we'll forgive them
that one because that's just how Singapore has always been.
But it is, it's a great move. I think I'm
a great fan of it. I'm going to start in
the traditional way by taking some points off. Fourteen points
off Sergio Perez for the interview he gave to GQ
(41:57):
magazine in which he said rumors about his future, we're
down to and I quote one two bad races. So
that's a point off for every bad race he's forgotten
about this year.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
I think that's fair. Well, fairness, it has only been
one or two races. The problem is it's been seven
or eight times, so yeah, that makes it there's only
fourteen bad races. He's had. It feels like a lot
more than that.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Yeah, it's been a long season. It should have been
more than that. I guess were only up to round
twenty one. He had five or six good runs at
the start of the year.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
We'll let him off. We'll let him off. Actually, you
know what, No, we won't because i'ming to take some
more points off him.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Here we go.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
It's just Ja Barrier's pylon. In fairness, I've not been
quite as dracroning as yourself. I'm only going to take
two points off him, one for each contract he knocked back.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
Are we convinced the contracts were there? Though? Maybe some
two ghost points?
Speaker 2 (43:01):
He didn't say the contracts were in their one Did
you say they were?
Speaker 1 (43:04):
It could have just been cleaning contracts, could be commercial contracts,
have been new sponsors they didn't want. They clashed with
KitKat Mars. No way get away from here.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Yeah, he wasn't prepared to take a.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Break, saying very good staying in the red Bull family.
I'm going to give some points. Going to give forty
seven points to Liam Lawson for suggesting that McLaren really
should be playing the New Zealand national anthem after weeks
founder Bruce McLaren. Yes, a big found this forty seven
(43:34):
point has been forty seven years since New Zealand adopted
is it? God defend New Zealand over the anthems call
these days? And I like this. I understand why it
doesn't happen obviously, because the anthem is just based on
wherever the team buys it takes out its racing license.
Red Bull chooses to take one out in Austria and
so it gets the Austrian national anthem and so on.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
But I like it.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
You know, I think the history of the McLaren teams
a little bit underrated. I think a lot of it
and I understand why because team because Ron Dennis started
the car current incarnation of McLaren and he's extremely Brittish.
But the history of the you know, he is a
New Zealand national icon and I think it's a shame
that the has been broken. Yes, but all the teams
are British, then we shouldn't.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Have It was founded and operated out of out of
the UK since inception was Red Bull, that was what
was that Stuart back in the day. But either way,
what you'll be doing putting in the New Zealand national
anthem on McLaren will be trying to rewrite whitewash history.
(44:33):
You're trying to make it something it's not. Okay, the
founder of it might have been a ki We, but
the nationality of the founder is irrelevant when it comes
to the nationality of the company. So there's a British team. Yeah,
I look, I disagree with that.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
I understand the logic.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
I don't mind laws, laws and being nationalistic. That's fantastic wholeheartedly,
you know, down for a bit of patriotism. It's not
like where immune to it here, not by on that
one not buying lego.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
This might be the most controversial entry on the championship table.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
You know what, I was going to take ten points.
I was going to take ten points off f one
for the lord concept it is. I'm going to take
forty seven points off you for tabling that suggests.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Okay, that's okay, they're going to take them off.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Lass No, no leaves in times he's wrong, he's in,
but he's wrong.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
But I know it's Indefenbbly Top ten with minus it's defensible.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Absolutely that outrageous minus forty seven points of Michael Lemonart.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
That's your third picks.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
It was the last minute pivot. I was going to
take points off the F one launch, which you haven't
discussed at all, which is finely correct. Here we go.
How many points am I going to lose? Now?
Speaker 1 (45:54):
No, no, no, I stick the course come up until
be in a future episodes. I'm taking ninety nine points
off Toto Wolf for saying in the book Inside Mercedes
has been recently released I think or will be released soon,
that Lewis Hamilton's sudden departure from the team was bad
because he possibly missed out on negotiating with other drivers
(46:16):
who had signed contracts a few weeks earlier, like Charlott
Clair and Lando Norris, despite Carlo Science obviously becoming instantly
available at that time, but then also simultaneously claiming that
Lewis hamilton leaving was actually a good thing because he
didn't have to sack him himself. So he hasn't chosen,
hasn't chosen a narrative clearly and concisely, so he gets
fifty five plus forty four points off. That's ninety nine points.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
It's gonna be careful where he gets those splinters on
that fence. It's just typical politics. Really. You know, if
you say one thing, you've got to say the other
thing in that way, you can take it to me
whatever you want, and he's not actually said anything. Yeah,
that book will be interesting reading. I'm not sure how
(47:00):
much weight I'll put into it because it's I think
there will be a lot of pr in that book.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
Well, I mean it is an insider's guide, isn't it.
So yeah, it might be interesting. I mean I've already
found this a little bit interesting. He's taking two different positions.
But anyway, that's something that'll be unraveled also over the
next three races, because that'll be when people will be
able to be asked about Lewis Hamilton's shelf life to
quote Toto Wolf. But maybe matter for a future podcast
because that's all the time we have a pit Talk today.
(47:27):
Will be back next week to wrap up all the
action from the Las Vegas Grand Prix. You can subscribe
to Pittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you
can leave us a rating and review as well, and
keep up to date with all the latest F one
news throughout the round at Fox sports dot com, dot
a U and Speedcafe dot Com. From att costioned me.
Michael Lomonato, thanks very much for your company. We'll catch
you next week.
Hello, and welcome to pitt Talk of Fox Sports and
Speed Cafe Formula one podcast. On today's episode, it's Las
Vegas Grand Prix week, as if One prepares for the
final tripleheader to get us to the end of the season,
and FIA race director Neil's Vitch says he was sacked
from the position suddenly ahead of one of the highest
pressure races of the season. My name's Michael Lamonato, motorsport
(00:23):
writer for Fox Sports Australia. It's great to have your
company and the company of my co host from Speed Cafe.
He always gambles responsibly. Imagine what you could be buying instead,
It's Matt Cash.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I problem is I spent far too much time imagining
what I could be buying instead. This is why I
can't have nice things. You can imagine them, Yeah, I
imagine very, very vividly. The problem is I'll indulge you
with a guilty pleasure of mine. At the moment. Hot
Wheels going to release this F one stream next year,
(00:57):
but I don't know of those out there thatrently into
hoot Was. I'm not a collected by any stretch, but
they currently sell lotus forty nines and I don't know, Michael,
she probably can't quite see on my camera, but just
over my shoulder here, I've got about forty of them.
For forty of them, I'm trying to get forty nine
lotus forty nine. That's where all my money goes. And okay,
(01:21):
they're not the most expensive thing in the world, but yeah,
I've got about I've got nearly fifty lotus forty nine
sitting over there. It's it's yeah, I can I can
imagine more vividly.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
That is extremely specific, extremely specific.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
It was. It was. It was voted the greatest racing
car of all time. You go, just pick up a
small handful.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
No, I guess looking at a whole packet. It is
very It's the most visual podcast I think I ever
been involved in. I'll paint the picture for you. Is
that's brilliant. Now here we go, Oh, we've got quite
We've got several packets of the five four A packet there.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
One, two, three, and four. There's seven there, so there
must be there must be twenty odd just in that group.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, I saw because of this. You know, Formulae has
a bit of a hot wheeled partnership, as you mentioned
a post on social media about how the hot Wheels
cars is way off topic, isn't it. I have become
decreasingly detailed as time has worn on because and I
remember this because you know, I was a kid. I
had some hot Wheels cars and if you slipped them
on upside down underneath it would have sort of like
(02:29):
the outline molded in of drive train one the various
parts of the underneath of the car. But increasingly now
if you buy a new one, it's just sort of
like a flat surface underneath. Yes, there you go. I
can't really see any detail on the one who.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Show detail mate, it's just a flat bit of I
think I think it might be plastic. Yeah, I was
always a matchbox car round the hotel. Maybe I like
I like the real cars rather than the fictitious ones exactly.
This has been a fun, fun Formula one podcast so far.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yes, yes, well, you know, people want people need to
be east back in. We've had two weekends off. People
want to feel like it's a slow and steady transition.
But to help eas you back into the first week
of racing in only two weekends off, it hasn't been
that long. We'll catch you up with all the news
you might have missed in the last ten days or
so since the previous podcast. And let's start with the
Monaco Grand Prix, which has earned a six year contract
(03:21):
extension that'll take it to the end of twenty thirty one.
But it's had to make a key concession on its
long running May date to get that deal over the line.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, and I'm sort of in two minds about this.
I don't I don't mind the new day. I'm a traditionalist.
I don't like change. You know, cars should have no
wings and you look a bit like a Lotus forty
nine just to pick a car at random. But at
the same time, I also don't think that Formula one
has a place in Monaco anymore because the sport has
just outgrown it and it doesn't provide the return on
(03:52):
investment that some of the other events. Do you know
you think Singapore, Yeah, Monico used to be this blue ribbon,
blue chip, high profile event for one now has many
of them, so it's not special in that regard anymore.
Remaining on the calendar, yeah, okay, it makes sense to
move it as well. You get some rationalization when it
comes to logistics and carbon offsets and all that jazz. Yeah,
(04:14):
I guess, I guess it makes sense and they're paying
more money, so it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
That's going to say all your traditionalist views paired with
the ultimate non traditionalist, we don't need Monaco position anymore.
It's quite the leap there, but good for Monaco. I
guess good from Monico to extend it does mean that
Canada is also going to move earlier into calendar from
twenty twenty six, so we don't jump back and forth
between Europe and North America for no reason. Let's move
on to staff personnel now, and Aston Martin and its
(04:41):
technical director or former technical director, Dan Fellows have parted
ways with immediate effect during the break was last week
after only around two years together, and this follows the
team slump down the pace rankings this year. In fact,
it was the slowest car hall in Brazil. Fellows, though
will remain within the Aston group, but specifically not in
the F one projects.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
This is interesting. I got wind of this over the
United States Grand Prix and unfortunately it was fhemently denied
by Dan Fellows at that point. The trick with these things, though,
you have to ask exactly the right question, and if
you don't ask exactly the right question, they'll take that
little avenue and they'll deny it or whatever. So it's
(05:24):
been floating around for a while and ultimately dan Fellow's
left Red Bull to get out from under the skirt
of Adrian Newey. Well, guess who's just been announced to
Aston Martin. It was always on the cards as soon
as Adrian Nue was announced it and asketon dan Fellow's
future was limited.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Yes, and I mean the top heaviness of the technical
structure there as well. I always felt like someone had
to go, and sure enough it's the technical director who's
presided over. Yes, a big jump at the start of
last year, but really perpetual decline since then. So dan
Fellow's making his own way in Formuda one again. Let's
move to one of the biggest open secrets now confirmed
certainly recent months in the Formula one padding, and that
(06:05):
is that Alpine will be taking Mercedes customer engines from
twenty twenty six in a deal that's also going to
include gearbox supply at least for the first season. On
that lad account, that sees Alpine returned to the status
that it enjoyed, suffered. However you want to describe it
a couple of years ago. As an independent constructor, I.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Don't really know how I feel about this. The one
thing I will point out is that I'm absolutely baffled
as to why the likes of Ferrari or Audi or
any of the other power manufacturers weren't fighting tooth and
nail to get that supply deal with our pain. Because
you think about it, we go into twenty twenty six,
(06:44):
all new regulation cycle, data is going to be king.
Mercedes has more data points than any other manufacturer, particularly
the likes of Honda is going to have one team,
Audi is going to have one team, Ford is going
to have two teams, or Red Bull. Ferrari is not
going to have that many data points. Mercedes has just
given itself a massive competitive advantage, and it's having someone
(07:07):
pay for the privilege. That's just brilliant business in my book.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, I'm surprised for Arian Hondre. At least I can understand,
how do you maybe not feeling prepared to do more
than one team in the first year and.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
That's the best way to do it. Though similarly, I
think the first year that's the best time to do it,
because that's when you get all you're learning done. That's true,
no doubt, Just accelerate all that. Yeah, I'm absolutely staggered
as to why that wasn't more of a contest.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Well, good news for Mercedes in that case. Let's talk
about about Sergio Perez, who's been talking to GQ magazine
saying that he turned down two offers from rival teams
to re sign with Red Bull Racing instead at the
start of the year. Says this, of course, as the
news titans around his career towards the end of this season,
following months now of underperformance.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I'd love to know the timing around when those offers
were made, because I think that's the most important thing.
They're unlikely to have been made in the last week,
for instance, they would have come somewhere towards the start
of the year. His first six races of the season
were actually pretty good. He scored what's one hundred and
three points or something off the top of my head,
and six races. That's not a bad return. So at
(08:12):
that point it makes sense that he's attractive to other teams. However,
since then, you know, did he sign with Red Bull?
Because that was the only offer he had left on
the table. It'd be interesting just to understand where those
offers came from, not even necessarily who they were, but
where they came in, sort of the timing of the season.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, you can understand Sergio Perez and Red Bull Racing
resigning at the start of the year when he was
performing well looked like a no brainer sort of at
the time, although it was very early, but certainly the
circumstances have changed since then. Let's move to williams Now,
which in the last week has been forced to deny
what it says a spurious rumors that it won't be
at the Las Vegas Grand Prix after it's highly damaging
(08:49):
weekend in Brazil that featured three big crashes, to for
alex Albon and another for Franco Colapindo, which team boss
James Valves described afterwards as unsustainable amounts of damage.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
What's been unsustainable all season. It's why they got rid
of Ergan Sergeant, isn't it. But ultimately there was I
don't understand where this doubt about William's participation in Vegas
has come from, because they're contractually bound to compete, you know,
even if they have to pull you know, some components
off of Lapsi's car and paper mache them to make
(09:20):
to meet the new REGs. You know, you do what
you have to do to get a car on track.
It doesn't have to be competitive, it just has to
be there. Otherwise there's all sorts of penalties that are
that are every day you're under the Concord Agreement, So
it was always going to be there. It seems a
bit of a story about nothing and some rumors and
whatever being stirred up for for no real reason in
(09:43):
my opinion.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Yes, and don't forget everything. You know, Triple Header is
linked together. You don't go to Vegas, You're not gonna
be on the flight to Kataut, So it would have
really made any sense for me to turn up in
the first place. What state they turned up in though,
of course, does remain to be seen. And finally, a
bonus sixth story this week, since it's been ten days
or so since the last EPISOD, that is Greg maffay,
CEO Formula one Commercial Rights hold to Liberty Media, will
(10:04):
step down from the role at the end of the
year after more than nineteen years at the helm, which
paves the way for board changes that will better reflect
the company's change direction as it becomes really quite more
significant a player in category level sport.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Well you say category level sport, but realistically it's Formula one.
And the way they've divided the business up, they've spun
off Serious Exam and a couple of other businesses to
the point where Liberty Media is effectively Formula one group.
That's really all that's left in there. It's even split
off Quinn, which is a hospitality business. But MAFE specifically,
(10:40):
his exit is interesting. He was out of contract at
the end of the year. That's fine, but he's leaving.
There is no replacement. Chairman John Malone is going to
step in an interim basis, so there's no replacement, which
suggests this was not planned, because if it's planned, you
have someone waiting in the wings that's just able to
seelessly takeover. That's not the case, so this wasn't planned.
(11:03):
I have heard of growing tensions between MAFE and Malone
for quite some time. The word I've also been given
is that just the restructure of Liberty Media and the
reduction in the scope of the role has meant that
MAFE is just not interested. I've also heard some interesting
claims about Moto GP and its contribution to the audial
(11:25):
so it's it's interesting. There's definitely more to this than
Mafe saying I'm done, because if he was going to
say I'm done, then you have six or twelve or
eighteen months of planning and you have the successor in
the line. This one smells funny to me.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Well, Greg's last roll, first race after his announcement that
this will be his last few races will be the
Las Vegas Grand Prix, which was the big project of
Liberty Media era Formula one. The headline event the Blue
Red Band Spectacle as we all saw last year, the
big all singing, all dancing Grand Prix in a music
festival just before it last year. I think they're doing
the opening ceremony again.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Went off with a bang too. If you're a manhole covery, yes.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Well you're you're a Ferrari car. Yeah, yes, we all
remember that.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Carlos definitely enjoyed it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Hopefully no two am practice sessions this time around. We
are back in Las Vegas this weekend for the first
of the last triple header of the season. To get
us to the end of the year. This is Formula
one's most hyped Grand Prix by a long long way.
You might have noticed it already on if on social
media and all sorts of things. Good for Australia though,
(12:33):
because the time zone is actually great because of the
slightly bizarre running time of the race at ten pm
local in Las Vegas. Shame if you're in New York
to watch one of your American Grand Prixs. For us,
it's great. It's five pm Eastern time. What's that two
pm if you're ever in Perth and you can calculate
that it's in the middle. But it's really interesting that
leading into this race to hear from the organizers in
(12:54):
Las Vegas, and now, of course they're not about to
talk down the race, will you talk up how effective
or how big a deal last year's race was? And
I think it's interesting to kind of recontextualize the setting
up of this Grand Prix. There are lots of street
circuits in Formula one, but this is probably the most
ambitious in the context. Right Like, for a long time,
(13:14):
Las Vegas and the casinos that pretty much run that
place were fairly opposed the idea of closing streets for
an event like this. Now they've gone to great pains
to make sure the streets are closed as limited a
time as possible, which is why we get these strange
running times. But actually, in review of that first year's race,
they're talking about this as being it was last year's November,
as the race was timed last year, I think the
(13:35):
second biggest weekend in the city's history, the exposure being
much greater than even expected, And I think what was
almost most interesting was them saying it could be half
or even I think a third as well exposed as
last year's race and it would still count as a success.
So I think it's a little bit of expectation management,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Or it's just a load of pr because if you'll
get how much money they've spent, I think looking at
the finances, it was about three ninety million dollars that
they spent. That was the cost of revenue difference in
Q four last year. It was huge, all attributed to
Las Vegas. So there will be some set up costs
(14:14):
in that obviously, and then that all sort of advertize
over the coming years. But Vegas is a little bit
different as a Saturday night race for a start, which
works out to be a lovely Sunday afternoon in front
of the TV for us. But it's also promoted by
Formula One. As you mentioned, it's not a it's not
a revenue stream. It's almost a lost leader in that
(14:37):
it goes out there, it promotes the best of Formula one,
and the intent is that it goes out and into
tracts partners that initially do a deal with the event
and then come into the business more broadly. And you
look at you know, dealers with like Amex and a
couple of others around the place. That's the value that
(14:58):
Vegas adds. Beyond that, it also goes to my point
of it diminishes what Monaco is because you've now got
this high profile, blue ribbon exciting event that they're pushing
really hard to turn into something extraordinary. And let's be honest,
it is something pretty extraordinary to be racing down the
strip in Vegas. That's that's I mean, can you imagine
(15:21):
this ten years ago, five years ago, absolutely extraordinary? Half
years well at two am this time last year. So
it just goes to show that Formula one is building
not just races now, it's building events and experiences. It's
(15:42):
been working hard to diversify its ticket offering this year
and that's resulted in a number of different options coming
on sale. Will really late in the piece, like the
last couple of weeks. That's something I think they need
to get their head around a little bit more. But
beyond that, I'm just looking at it and it's an
(16:02):
exciting race. You know, I've got three to go. We're
in the midst of a championship battle. The title could
be decided this week, and you know, it's just what
I don't like is that we're racing in the strip.
We're racing somewhere absolutely extraordinary, and you know, on TV
it looks like Singapore or Guitar or not Kaitar, because
(16:23):
that's not a street race or Saudi. It just like
looks like another street race at night in Formula one.
There's not a lot to differentiate it unless you see
the big wide shots going down the strip.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Yes, I'm glad you brought that up, because that was
something I think we talked about this last year, because
there was something that really stood out to me about
this race is that on television, it actually in the
it generally didn't look as impressive, as you would think
for this big they're racing down the sprint, the strip idea.
They generally use the landscape well over the course of
the whole week. Obviously they turned Las Vegas into the playground,
(16:56):
into the setting of the race. The race itself at
night I thought was a little bit underwhelming, and I
couldn't help but think, actually, it looked better in the daytime.
We're at dusk. You know, there were some shots I think,
actually weirdly, if you remember that golf tournament they had
on Netflix last year and a lead up to the race,
because that went from day to night, it was that
dusk period that looked great. I actually remember thinking this.
(17:18):
I watched Moto GP and KATA all last year, as
it was it was shortly after Vegas, and I thought
the same about that as well. A flood lit circuit,
they all look the same. You mentioned it. I know
you sort of went back in it, but I think
you're right. They all look various tones of gray and beige,
Whereas I think during dusk you actually get a sense
of the city sky and I think that's right. But
I think that also goes to during another one of
(17:40):
your points, the place of Monaco on the calendar is
that when you watch Monaco, you know it's there, you
know it looks visually spectacular, even with the racing is
always processional these days, and it's identifiable with Formula one
in a way that none of these night races really are,
even if the concept of Vegas or Singapore might be
(18:01):
more intrinsic to Formula one today because everyone knows it
and understands at Singapore has become a really popular event
to go to, particularly in our part of the world.
Vegas obviously has this big hype around it, this big expectation,
but people still know Monaco like Monaco is form of
the one in the minds of a lot of very
casual fans of the sport, or even people who aren't
necessarily Formula one fans but kind of have a general
concept of what it is, not even know what Formula
(18:22):
one is, but they know that some cars race around
Monaco and that happens to be Formula one. I doubt
they're thinking of the Formula EE pre so maybe they are.
Who knows, I should I shouldn't prejudge.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Very few are most of.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
The people who are working with I think, but I
think to go back. It's become weird. A little bit
of a theme in this episode that the place of Monaco.
I think that that's still it still owns that visual
spectacle in a way. These night races don't really because
I just don't think night racist pop on television in
the way I think sport organizers think they will. It's
(18:53):
not like running football or whatever at night, where really
you can tell the difference obviously, but it doesn't really
make a big visual diference to what you're looking at.
Racing at night just doesn't look that great.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
You lose something, don't you. You just don't have the
same visceral is the wrong word, but this sensory perception
of speaking. Ultimately, we can't tell with the naked eye
for cars five seconds like quicker or slower. If you're
there in person, yes you can, but on TV you
just you don't have that reference to your point about
(19:25):
you know the backdrop. I'm a massive cycling fan, and
you know, the Tour de Front is a massive event,
not just for cycling nerds like me, but for my
in laws. Watch it, my parents watch it. They've got
no interest in cycling, but it's just such a pretty
couple of hours of television because I've got these big, wide,
expansive shots of the towns that they go through, of
(19:46):
the mountains, of everything else. You've got this backdrop that
paints a picture of the race, and a night race,
You're just you're stripping all that away, You're putting it
against a green screen effectively.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
And I think that that is I think that's not
to be under stated. Run as a great example more
slow TV in Formula one. That's what I want. I
wanted to just be single camera, stuck on a single
car for the whole weekend, just to see how the
whole thing unraveling.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
This big wide shots. I remember going back and showing
my age the early Australian Grand Prixs and Adelaide. They
used to have a helicopter follow the cars through the
S's and up through East Terrace and onto Joan Straight
and they'd sit with this camera shot for four or
(20:32):
five corners and you could see the cars, you know,
this cordion effect between cars and then lapping back markers,
and you wouldn't you get this real notion of speed
versus you know, the leaders versus the back markers, because
suddenly a back marker had flash into shot and it'd
be gone again because I just hold this one comparatively
wide shot and you get this real idea that the
walls are close, these things are moving, and they're sort of,
(20:54):
you know, closing up and pulling away from another. It's
just I think the working too hard to show the
cars and the fact that they move around or whatever.
We need to see more atmosphere. So this has turned
into a critique of television production Formula one, hasn't it?
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Yes? So well? As a final note on that that
it will change this year and they will have learned
a lot. Last year is the first time they did it.
It's underestimated how much work goes into camera positioning and
that kind of stuff, and they had no history or
playbook to do it. So this year expected to probably
look quite different. And then we can come back and
do a special episode of the podcast just critiquing the
Talision podcast. Let's talk about that championship though, because the drivers, well,
(21:31):
both championships are still up for grabs, but the drivers
championship could be decided this weekend in Las Vegas, and
wouldn't Formula One just bloody love that Lando Norris is
sixty two per points points behind Max Wstappen. After Las Vegas,
there will be sixty points remaining, which means Norris must
outscore Max by three points or more to keep the
(21:52):
title alive. Now, Matt, we'll talk about this before the podcast.
We've got probably slightly different opinions on how this is
going to play out in my mind, and I think
it's likely actually that it's not decided this weekend, just
because looking at the track layout and looking at Red
Bull's recent form. Although form has been so hard to
read this season. It's been so up and down for
most teams, every team except McLaren really, but you should
(22:15):
say that Lando Nora should finish at least a couple
of places ahead of Max. Withstaff on pure pace, I
expected to be McLaren and Ferrari at the front, then
Red Bull racing in that third position. Say, he's very
good in cold conditions though, and this is going to
be very cold, so who knows. Maybe that could be
a bit of a wild card team this weekend. But
I think Norris can get those three points. I'm certainly
not saying he's going to win the championship. I think
(22:36):
it'll then be decided, probably in the sprinted Katar again,
but I think he'll walk away from Vegas in the lead.
But you've got some good counterpoints, I think.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yeah. I looked to Asbojan and Okay. Oscar Piastre drove
really well to win that race for McLaren, but Sergio
Perez was right there towards the end as well. There
are strong similarities between Baku and Vegas long straits. Not
(23:06):
much in the way of sort of even meeting my
high speed stuff. It's largely ninety degrees stuff and comparatively
tight nine degree stuff. So I can see Red Bull
doing well. We know Max won this event last year.
Lando basically has to win. Lando has to finish top
eight or better, and then if he finishes a second
(23:29):
or third, depending where Max finishes, and if he gets
fast at SLAP, it's game over for Lando. I can
see the championship being over this weekend, and I'm saying
that purely because I called it weeks and weeks ago.
The championship will be decided in Vegas, and I stand
by that. I think Lando's I don't think he's given
up the fight, but he's more pragmatic about it now
(23:51):
that the Championship and the Constructors Championship is more important
if you're going to defend against Max, who's going to
show on and risk taking you both out because if
neither of them finish in Vegas, Max's champion. So you're
going to jump out of the way because you want
to protect the Constructors Championship advantage. You need the points
(24:12):
for that. Given where Ferrari is, and I expect Ferrari
will be strong this weekend, so I can see a
little bit of a little bit of elbows out action
from Max and just harrying that car. I think what
South Paolo did will come a massive shot in the arm.
That was an incredible drive. The more I think about it,
(24:32):
the more impressive that drave was. I sort of downplayed
it at the time, but I think I'm wrong in
that it was exemplary. Take that confidence forward that the
McClaren hasn't been the fastest thing in a straight line.
It's got changes to its rear wing that are comparatively
untested on this style of circuit because it's post the
bacou changes. It does have its mini drs and all
(24:55):
that sort of jazz, So it'll be interesting to see
what happens. Either way, Susafan has won the championship. Whether
it's this weekend or whether it's Qatar in a week's time.
I don't think it makes a whole lot of difference.
I just like the breaking rights of being able to
say I told you so.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Either way, it's probably going to be decided on a Saturday,
which is weird. But well, then again, it was last year,
so let's talk just to go back, well, not to
go back to Brazil per se, but I think the
effect of that race was interesting on the constructors Championship
because that's the championship that is very much alive and
is probably going to take us all the way to
Abu Dabil. The McLaren is close to having a full
race worth of points advantage over Ferrari because I was
(25:32):
comparatively underwhelming in Brazil in the wed at least compared
to its recent form. McClaren now leads Ferrari by thirty
six points in the Constructors Championship. It's also forty nine
points ahead of Red Bull Racing in third, and Mercedes
can't finish higher or lower than fourth. That season's done.
They may as well pack it up now and then
Aston Martin. That's a pretty comfortable lead for fifth. In
the battle between Alpine Harsen rbs all pretty close. There's
(25:54):
an outside chance someone could get Aston Martin if they
have another Brazil style thirty odd point score swing. That
remains to be seen through three races to go. But
that battle of the constructors Championships with a lot of money,
so with a lot of pride, particularly given that I
think in April no one thought anyone other than Red
Bull Racing would be winning this thing. Now the team
struggling even to race for second. This is a big
(26:15):
weekend for McLaren and Ferrari in particularly because we've already
sort of touched on this is a track that should
suit Ferrari in particular, although no Charlotte Clair has said,
oh like, the tire advantage might not be as big
this year because the cars much more gendle on its
ties and the cold weather might make that a little
bit different. McClaren is interesting because, like you say, the
rear wing that had worked so well in Azerbaijan won't
(26:36):
be the same rear wing they use this weekend. But
Red Bull full of confidence. I think, in particular the
fact that max for Staffen one with such ease on
Sunday in Brazil, and even in the sprint on Saturday
was competitive, got stuck behind Charlotte Clair. Had he not
been may well have been able to win that race
as well. Could we be seeing a late resurgence from
Red Bull Racing here? Is it too late to win
the constructors Championship? Is it really just second place they're
(26:58):
aiming for now?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Going to be the second place that best? Doesn't it?
It's that far down, you know, forty nine points. It's
not again mathematically it's it's possible, but you're relying on
four cars ahead of you, having three comparatively poor weekends.
Just having like a spreadsheet that I've got here and
(27:20):
I can't think of a weekend where McLaren has not
delivered strong points all weekend or just having a quick look.
I think the fewest points I've scored all weekend was
fourteen in China. That's the worst weekend I've had all season.
Red Bulls worst was eight points in round eight whatever whatever.
(27:40):
That was also eight points in round twenty. So what
was the one before Southlia Mexico?
Speaker 1 (27:48):
My surgery didn't score, which is normally the common denomination.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Ouch, that's the truth. Yea, it is true. And look,
I ran a piece on Speak Cafe today that Sergio's
performance is going to cost Red Book thirty million dollars.
This is what we say about You know, the Constructors
Championship is worth money, in significant amounts of money. Exactly
how much depends. It's based on a calculation off of
(28:15):
Formula one's projected revenues. We can safely predict that that'll
be something like about one point seven billion dollars next year.
So if that's the case, the difference between finishing first
in the Championship, for which you get fourteen percent of
the prize spot versus third, which you get twelve point
(28:37):
two percent of the prize spot, works out to be
about thirty million dollars, which also turns out to be
about what Sergio Perez's commercial backers bring to the team,
So he's also now not really contributing either on the
financial standpoint.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
It's a lot of kid cats, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
So that's a lot of kickouts, a lot of mobile
phonecations of that deals then, isn't it so it's a
lot of hot wheels. There's a lot of other spreading lines.
Let me just do quick maths. But and that's the
you know, looking at at this on my projections, McLaren
(29:22):
shouldn't win the championship this year. It's looking at more
than two hundred and twenty million dollars in prize money
next year by my rough maths. So obviously that depends on
Formula one's earnings. But yeah, two hundred and twenty six
ish million dollars in prize money. That's more than the
cost cap. The top seven team should actually have the
(29:43):
cost cap paid to them in prize money. But even still,
you want as much money as you can because there's
other things that you can use that on the hospitality marketing,
all those sorts of things.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Let's move on now, Matt, not entirely, because Las Vegas
is still very much on the horizon for all of us,
but stepping back a little bit to some drama in
the FIA that's been bubbling along really ever since President
Mohammed Bensalon was elected a couple of years ago. Now,
in the aftermath of the twenty twenty one ABB Grand Prix,
but ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix race, Director
neil's Vitch has left the race directorship. Now the FIA spun.
(30:20):
This is stepping down to pursue new opportunities. One of
the great lines in hr Hes since told German language
Motorsport magazine that he did not resign, that he was sacked.
No one's entirely sure why. It'd certainly come out of
the blue, that much is absolutely certain. Maybe maybe you
know some whispers of a little bit of tension at
the top there, but certainly no one expected this to
(30:41):
be moving with three races still to go, and certainly
not ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, surely one
of the highest pressure races in which to be in
race control, if not just because it's only the second
running of this race, and we all remember how difficult
it was to manage the race last year, not least
because of the exploding drain cover obliterated Carlos Sciences car
(31:01):
and of course, most importantly the swearing in the press
conference subsequent to that. This is gonna be the fourth
race director in as many years. Of course, Michael Massi
in twenty one, Nils Vitisch was in twenty twenty two,
along with Eduardo Fretas, who left at the end of
that year. And now in twenty twenty four we'll have
Roy Marquz, who's the Formula two and Formula three race
(31:22):
director promoted this weekend to Formula one. Not sure if
that means he's also actually gonna be doing F two
and F three and Katar and Abu Dhabi the last
two or only F two rather and Kato and Abu
Dhabi the last two rounds of that championship. But that's
a question for next week, I suppose. And things are
moving so quickly at the FIA, but it's not exactly
a great look culminating with Nils Vitich leaving the organization.
(31:44):
Considering just how many high profile people have left in
the last twelve months.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
It's not a great look, particularly when you look at
the history of the race director role in that usually
has been pretty stable prior to Michael mass Let's not
forget Michael MASSI inherited that job when Charlie Whiting sadly
died over the days prior to the Australian Grand Primum.
Was that twenty.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Nineteen, I think, wow, that long ago.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
There you go, But Charlie Whiting had been in that
role for twenty twenty five years or something. It was
some extraordinary period. And before him, Buncher Ryder was also
in that role for a long time, going back into
the eighties. So you know, for thirty years we had
sort of two race directors and now in four years
(32:31):
we've had four race directors. There's been no obvious mistakes.
It was a little bit wobbly from vitic when he
first took over, but there's been no obvious mistakes. You know,
he's not impacted the outcome of a race or completely
screwed something up or made, you know, controversial decisions. So
(32:53):
what's happened behind closed doors? Because this can't be performance related,
can it?
Speaker 1 (32:59):
No, you wouldn't have thought so, particularly not in the
context of Okay, Michael Massi. It all came down to
Avid hab twenty twenty one. Had been tensioned with the
teams before that. I still think that while the FIA's
own report afterwards found that he wasn't sufficiently supported in
the role, but they used him as a scapegoat anyway.
Maybe because of the tensions with the team's just made
that easy. Arduado Freds left after the Japanese Grand Prix
(33:20):
of twenty twenty two, in which you might remember Pierre
Gazzi was released onto the track not in red flag conditions,
just before red flag conditions, while there was a tractor
on the track in monsoon rain, extremely dangerous situation. He
was forced to pay the price for that. Neils Wit
did she like you say, no obvious trigger for this.
I do want to go back to, Oh goodness me,
the Michael Massi situation, not abu dab twenty twenty one.
(33:42):
Don't panic, but that finding that he was not sufficiently
supported by the FIA, because for me, this is kind
of the core of the problem. Charlie Whiting's long tenure
was obviously earned, but the role evolved with him over
the twenty odd years he was in that position. He
kind of made the race directorship also safety delegate ship,
if we can call it that, a role he made
(34:04):
his own that is tied to being the race director
as well. His workload was quite significant, but he was
able to manage that because he kind of invented it
all for himself as the sport grew and evolved, So
he really was those roles to throw first of all.
Michael Massey in he was being trained up to take
that position, but he wasn't near the completion of that
apprenticeship because obviously Charlie Whitings, he said, tragically died so
(34:25):
suddenly and unexpectedly was thrown into that had to learn
as he went also during the pandemic. That can't have
been very easy. And despite the FIA finding after his
tenure that he needed more support, invented this remote race
control that we very rarely hear about, and at certain
times I've certainly thought we probably could afford to hear about,
because there have been times it feels like it could
have been needed to intervene more strongly. I've never got
(34:47):
the sense that actually race control has changed that much.
The pressure remains really quite great. Certainly we learned that
with Eduardo Fratis and the way the Japanese Grand Prix
was handled that year. Maybe some incidents this year, but
nothing really controvert nothing beyond the remit of what is
normal regulatory controversy in any sport. You can never make
everyone happy when you're running a sport. But it still
(35:08):
feels to me that we're going to get this churn.
Regardless of whatever is the reason that visage is left.
There's could have been some kind of tension. But we're
going to get churned for whatever the reason for as
long as this role remains so big and the preparation
for it is so sleeem I think it's ironic. Actually,
Muhammed Ben Slam told Alto Sport last year. I think
it was he recognized that you can't just buy race
(35:30):
directors from Amazon, I think was what he said. They're
rare and they're hard to groom, and getting rid of
one and promoting one suddenly it's a big step up
from the junior categories to Formula one. I think only
exacerbates the problem. And I think we're only going to
get to a position we're going to have more rotation,
which does not serve anyone in the.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Sport, particularly when if you look at the F one
steward side of things and they're talking about bringing in
some consistent stewards because the rotation is introducing consistency. I mean,
that's that's a debate that's been had many, many, many
times over over the years, and there's arguments for and
(36:08):
against it. I don't really care one way or the
other which way it goes, but the race director is
a significant member of the Formula one community. And the
Formula one paddock. When Charlie Whiting was doing it is
last season twenty eighteen, there were twenty one Girls Prix.
When he took over, there was sixteen, maybe seventeen, depending
which year it was. So over the years the job
(36:32):
grew just as a race director side of things. He
was also doing circuit inspections and a number of other
things that Michael Massey took on as well. So you'll
imagine you've been doing a job for ten years and
you get a little bit more responsibility. It's not difficult.
Then you get a little bit more it's not difficult,
and you just build up, and then you eventually move
on for one reason or another. The next guy comes
in and suddenly what wasn't especially difficult but a pretty
(36:54):
busy job for you is just absolutely untenable. I wonder
if there's a degree burnout involved. Let's also remember that
Protest and Vitage were NBS appointments, so something has also
changed in that relationship. I wonder if there was a
bit of pushback from Vitage saying that I'm a race director,
(37:18):
I manage things, or pushback in some of the other
elements of the FIA, and perhaps what the governing body
wanted of him, because doing twenty four races a year
is a huge, huge commitment. I'll do a good third
of that this year, and a toilet takes is significant.
(37:39):
To travel involved, the time away from home, the sacrifices
you make with family. It's huge to do this. And yes,
we're in the greatest sport in the world, but you
can't turn your nose off at the fact that this
is people's lives. I don't know what the cause is.
Remarkas is he's been put in there pretty quickly. I
(38:01):
have not heard bad things about him, But at the
same time, he's not done anything like Formula one before.
There is nothing like Formula one, even the Warden Durants Championship.
We saw that with Fratus. They're very different beasts because
you're going from a handful of professionals and a group
of amateurs to ten hyper competitive teams that know the
rules inside out better than you do and will exploit
(38:24):
every little chick in the armor of those regulations. So
it's a very very different beast. And again, like I
said with MAFE, this one just doesn't pass the sniff test.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah, and I think thinking about how Roy's going to
be taking over this weekend. Two championships still live. Regardless
of what you think about the Drivers' Championship, it is
still up for grabs and the teams will fight till
the finish. You don't have to look back at when
the Constructive Championship plays a role in this as well.
But Red Bulls response to the use of red flags
in Brazil really dialed it up to ten between Christian
Horne and Max withstaff and this new race director will
(38:57):
be subjected to that pressure if anything like that happens
again in Las Vegas. And then you do consider the
Constructors Championship. Not only the three leading teams, but the
midfield teams arguably have even more reason to fight because
every million dollars is worth more to them consideringly incomes
a relatively less and that fight is going down to
the why because it's only three or four points between
most of them. It's a high pressure situation. There could
(39:19):
not be a worse way to jump into Formula One
with no formal handover, no transition, no apprenticeship, with three
back to back races, I mean, fire him might already
be looking forward to the end of the season. I
think regardless of how big a step it is, and
I'm sure it's pleased to be able to call himself
a Formula One race director, but also just in the
context of the way all this is unfolded, it can't
be a great way to take that position. And this
(39:41):
weekend let's not forget as well. The follow up is
going to be on the Grand Prix Drivers Association letter,
which we talked about in the last podcast. The team's
really clapping back at FI president in particularly with at
THEFI in general about the way that the sport is
administered when it comes to drivers and fines and punishments
and all those kinds of things. That's going to become
a major talking point this weekend. That's going to put
the new to race director on the spot as well.
(40:02):
He's going to have his first drivers briefing. It probably
it's going to be something like one am on Saturday
morning or Friday morning, whenever it is. It's just going
to be a difficult transition. So look, hopefully it all
goes smoothly, but then again, last years Las Vegas Grand
Prix was anything but smooth. That's amount of next week's podcast.
They will wrap up Las Vegas Grand Prix. Matt, let's
(40:23):
get to the alternative Championship, the most important part of
the podcast.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
That's what you've all been hanging out for, isn't it.
Let's be honest, right, the alternative Championship where the points
are just made up and don't really matter. I'm going
to kick it off, and I think I've been quite
sensible with my picks this week, and probably a little
bit too sensible, but we'll go with it. I'm going
to give ten points to start with to Stefano dominic Canti. Okay,
(40:50):
that's nice because I think what he's done with the
calendar makes a lot of sense. I don't you know.
I've said my piece about Monaco, but it makes sense
to regionalize some of that stuff, get some more of
deficiency there. It just makes life easier on everyone. There's
a lot of work that's got into this. I know
Canada was particularly stubborn, so I think for Stefano to
(41:12):
get that across the line, I think that's that's worth
a couple of points.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Yeah, and it's a long project, isn't it. Managing race
calendar slots are not the work of the moment because
contracts are often so long and the Liberty Media is
locked in quite a few long term contracts now as well,
so the margins for changes are probably relatively narrow these days.
The only outline now is Singapore sitting on its own.
I do like in the press release announcing Canada is
going to move and they're going to have your double
(41:36):
header in America. Then all Europe they like, and then
of course we go to Azerbaijahan, which precedes Singapore the
logical back to back. But anyway, look we'll forgive them
that one because that's just how Singapore has always been.
But it is, it's a great move. I think I'm
a great fan of it. I'm going to start in
the traditional way by taking some points off. Fourteen points
off Sergio Perez for the interview he gave to GQ
(41:57):
magazine in which he said rumors about his future, we're
down to and I quote one two bad races. So
that's a point off for every bad race he's forgotten
about this year.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
I think that's fair. Well, fairness, it has only been
one or two races. The problem is it's been seven
or eight times, so yeah, that makes it there's only
fourteen bad races. He's had. It feels like a lot
more than that.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Yeah, it's been a long season. It should have been
more than that. I guess were only up to round
twenty one. He had five or six good runs at
the start of the year.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
We'll let him off. We'll let him off. Actually, you
know what, No, we won't because i'ming to take some
more points off him.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Here we go.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
It's just Ja Barrier's pylon. In fairness, I've not been
quite as dracroning as yourself. I'm only going to take
two points off him, one for each contract he knocked back.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
Are we convinced the contracts were there? Though? Maybe some
two ghost points?
Speaker 2 (43:01):
He didn't say the contracts were in their one Did
you say they were?
Speaker 1 (43:04):
It could have just been cleaning contracts, could be commercial contracts,
have been new sponsors they didn't want. They clashed with
KitKat Mars. No way get away from here.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Yeah, he wasn't prepared to take a.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Break, saying very good staying in the red Bull family.
I'm going to give some points. Going to give forty
seven points to Liam Lawson for suggesting that McLaren really
should be playing the New Zealand national anthem after weeks
founder Bruce McLaren. Yes, a big found this forty seven
(43:34):
point has been forty seven years since New Zealand adopted
is it? God defend New Zealand over the anthems call
these days? And I like this. I understand why it
doesn't happen obviously, because the anthem is just based on
wherever the team buys it takes out its racing license.
Red Bull chooses to take one out in Austria and
so it gets the Austrian national anthem and so on.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
But I like it.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
You know, I think the history of the McLaren teams
a little bit underrated. I think a lot of it
and I understand why because team because Ron Dennis started
the car current incarnation of McLaren and he's extremely Brittish.
But the history of the you know, he is a
New Zealand national icon and I think it's a shame
that the has been broken. Yes, but all the teams
are British, then we shouldn't.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Have It was founded and operated out of out of
the UK since inception was Red Bull, that was what
was that Stuart back in the day. But either way,
what you'll be doing putting in the New Zealand national
anthem on McLaren will be trying to rewrite whitewash history.
(44:33):
You're trying to make it something it's not. Okay, the
founder of it might have been a ki We, but
the nationality of the founder is irrelevant when it comes
to the nationality of the company. So there's a British team. Yeah,
I look, I disagree with that.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
I understand the logic.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
I don't mind laws, laws and being nationalistic. That's fantastic wholeheartedly,
you know, down for a bit of patriotism. It's not
like where immune to it here, not by on that
one not buying lego.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
This might be the most controversial entry on the championship table.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
You know what, I was going to take ten points.
I was going to take ten points off f one
for the lord concept it is. I'm going to take
forty seven points off you for tabling that suggests.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Okay, that's okay, they're going to take them off.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Lass No, no leaves in times he's wrong, he's in,
but he's wrong.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
But I know it's Indefenbbly Top ten with minus it's defensible.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Absolutely that outrageous minus forty seven points of Michael Lemonart.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
That's your third picks.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
It was the last minute pivot. I was going to
take points off the F one launch, which you haven't
discussed at all, which is finely correct. Here we go.
How many points am I going to lose? Now?
Speaker 1 (45:54):
No, no, no, I stick the course come up until
be in a future episodes. I'm taking ninety nine points
off Toto Wolf for saying in the book Inside Mercedes
has been recently released I think or will be released soon,
that Lewis Hamilton's sudden departure from the team was bad
because he possibly missed out on negotiating with other drivers
(46:16):
who had signed contracts a few weeks earlier, like Charlott
Clair and Lando Norris, despite Carlo Science obviously becoming instantly
available at that time, but then also simultaneously claiming that
Lewis hamilton leaving was actually a good thing because he
didn't have to sack him himself. So he hasn't chosen,
hasn't chosen a narrative clearly and concisely, so he gets
fifty five plus forty four points off. That's ninety nine points.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
It's gonna be careful where he gets those splinters on
that fence. It's just typical politics. Really. You know, if
you say one thing, you've got to say the other
thing in that way, you can take it to me
whatever you want, and he's not actually said anything. Yeah,
that book will be interesting reading. I'm not sure how
(47:00):
much weight I'll put into it because it's I think
there will be a lot of pr in that book.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
Well, I mean it is an insider's guide, isn't it.
So yeah, it might be interesting. I mean I've already
found this a little bit interesting. He's taking two different positions.
But anyway, that's something that'll be unraveled also over the
next three races, because that'll be when people will be
able to be asked about Lewis Hamilton's shelf life to
quote Toto Wolf. But maybe matter for a future podcast
because that's all the time we have a pit Talk today.
(47:27):
Will be back next week to wrap up all the
action from the Las Vegas Grand Prix. You can subscribe
to Pittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you
can leave us a rating and review as well, and
keep up to date with all the latest F one
news throughout the round at Fox sports dot com, dot
a U and Speedcafe dot Com. From att costioned me.
Michael Lomonato, thanks very much for your company. We'll catch
you next week.
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