March 26, 2025 • 15 mins
Representatives for Liam Lawson say they're in the dark relating to reports of his demotion from Formula One team Red Bull Racing just two races into the season.
Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf claim Lawson will be swapped with Yuki Tsunoda for the next race in Japan.
Tsunoda drives for Red Bull's second team - Racing Bulls.
The newspaper is reporting on a meeting in Dubai, where Thai major shareholder Chalerm Yoovidhya lives.
Engine supplier Honda - who financially back Tsunoda - are also understood to be involved.
Lawson failed to finish in Melbourne and was 12th in China.
Tsunoda was 12th and 16th in those respective races.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Darcy Waldergrave
from News Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Bob McMurray joins us now. Thirty years in McLaren, you
would have seen plenty of this action before, the skull buggery,
the backstabbing, the knee jerk reactions. Formula one A hasn't changed,
has it, Bob good A.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
No, it hasn't changed, Darcy. But look, first of all, Dars,
I've got to say, normally it's really difficult to comment
on speculation, and we shouldn't comment on speculation because we're
just speculating on speculation, and that's all it is at
the moment in that Red Bull have made no official
announcement whatsoever, and the announcement I'm sure will be coming
(00:48):
because too many people have said too much about it,
and it's all through the Dutch newspapers, it's all through
the telegraph and stuff like that, and its strangers come
from Holland. Nonetheless, it is let's say, I'll take it
with smoke and fire at the moment, no smoke without fire.
And it looks like so many places got hold of
this information that Liam is going to be dropped from
(01:09):
the main team, that is difficult not to worry on
his behalf. And you know, I've got to say again,
first up, Darcy, he is not a bad driver. He's
a very fast driver. He's a very accomplished driver, and
he's proven that he doesn't have to prove anymore. It
just needs to get together with this damn car that
he's trying to drive. At the moment you.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Say damn carm We'll talk about that shortly because that's
a lot to do with it. And this is the
common denominator with Maxvist Steppen's teammates over the years, that
damn car. But it's been leaked to the Dutch media,
and I'm told that reboard a tendency to leak stuff
to the Dutch media if they do so. I don't
know what traction is in that comment, but it may
(01:51):
very well be the truth.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
It may well be, but it's speculating. As I sit here,
as we talk during the day, I think it is
still speculation. But you've got to treat the speculation with
the amount of worth that you think it and I
obviously I think there is a certain amount of Yeah,
what's coming is what's happening. Unfortunately for the end.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Look, he's had a rotten ale run of it, and
people say start making excuses Darcy because he's got to
the top and he's failing. But the excuses in this
case Bob McMurray are extremely relevant. What he's faced and
has three races so far, the two GP and a
sprint race. I'd say anybody facing that would struggle regardless
(02:37):
of the vehicle.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, I'd agree with that. I in all my years
in and around the sport, Darcy, and even after I
returned from Formula One, I have never ever seen a
driver being dropped after two Grand Prix and one sprint race.
Three qualifying sessions. Never happened in my experience. I was
there when Andrettie was dropped for McLaren and all the
(03:02):
Red Bull drivers were dropped half a season. Well, they
had a chance. It doesn't seem like Liam Lawson is
being given once again, go back to speculation, but it
doesn't seem that Liam Lawson has been given any more
time in that car than he's had already, which is
as much a reflection on the Red Bull engineers, the
(03:24):
Red Bull management, and the Red Bull set up for
bringing young drivers on. It's as much a reflection on them,
in fact, more than it is on Liam. So you know,
nobody's going out of this blameless. And if red Bulls
think they're going to say, oh we got rid of
him because he was no good, absolute rubbish, He is good.
He is a good driver and he's proven that. As
I said before.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Taking firm aim with the biggest gun, they've got at
their feet yet again, as I said, the common denominator
is the car, therefore the team. So instead of addressing
that they just tuning through drivers is going to be
the fifth one? Now will they not learn? What are
they hoping for? What are they waiting for?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Bob Open, for Max, for stap in two point zero?
And that ain't going to happen. They come along once
in a generation, you know, they come along with a
Schumacher and then a Hamilton, then of a Stappen. You
don't they just don't wind them up from before the
way to have treated this in the first place. And
hindsight is great. But he's not lost yet, is what
(04:26):
Mercedes did with Antonelli. Gave him eleven thousand kilometers approximately
of testing time in that car. Lim Lawson's had six
Grand Prix whatever it was last year in a Visa
cash app. He's had a couple of a good few
simulated sessions. He's had maybe one and a half days
at Bahrain when half the time the car was in
(04:48):
the garage. He's had a practice or a practice session
that was disrupted in Australia, a place he hadn't driven
before at He's had various systems put on the car,
taken off the car, put on the car. It's a
different car, has been almost different car every time he's
gone out, has had the weather issues in Australia. What
(05:11):
good knows? What has the guy got to do to
get a clean race? Just a clean race is all
he needs, but he needs three or four or five
of them. So yeah, that's that's where I'd blame the
red ball management completely.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
An engineer, well, you know all about the way it
works in Formula One. It's hugely ego driven with these
guys that run this show. So how much of this
is a sting toward the guys like Horner who gave
laws and the drive It hasn't been immediately successful. Are
the feeling it pens from an ego point of view?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
I guess no, I don't think it's an ego point
of view, necessarily. I think it is purely driven by
the fact they think they're superior in their team to
most other teams and they need another driver equal to
Maxistappen to be the number two driver, and they're looking
at the points, the points disappearing at the moment because
Liam frankly is not scoring any points at all, has
(06:05):
not scored any points at all. And what is more
worrying from their point of view is that there's Max
for Stapping, vying for pole position, not making it. It's
not getting in there because the car is difficult for
him to drive this year, and Liam not getting out
of last position. This is the problem. If Liam was
closer and closer and closer, then fine, it would they'd
(06:26):
give him more of a chance. So I don't think
it's an ego thing. I think they are desperately hunting
for something that doesn't exist, and that is somebody that
can chat Max for Stappen and possibly beat him for
the future if Max decides to leave. So no, I'm
not sure it's ego, although the ego in Red Bull
is possibly only exceeded by the the riches that they've got.
(06:52):
So no, I don't you know if it's if it's
a confidence thing, give him confidence, get him confidently. The
thing they should do immediately is take him back to
Red Bull's base. They should have done it already. Give
him any this endless, endless hours in the simulator at
Suzuka the next race, then Bahrain the race after that,
(07:13):
both of which he's driven at, and then maybe jeddo
give him a bit of experience for that. But the
only but the engineers are the ones when he says
I'm over steering, I can't wunetize. The engineers are looking
at one, looking at the ones, looking at the data.
They can say, then okay, what you're doing is this?
What you're doing is that for him to leap into
(07:33):
that car, probably with great, great anticipation of what he's
going to do, and then be let down by the
engineers just not being able to give him the car
that he can drive, which is, in my opinion, what
is happening. I think that is just unconscionable by the
team itself.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Even Max vers Steppen has come out and said this
car is hard to drive, and it's designed for him.
It gets the struggle that Liam's got so the question
is Yiki Sonoda Is he the answer? The Racing Balls
car that he's in, Yeah, is performing well, easier to drive,
so they switched them. At worst, Liam gets dropped kicked altogether,
(08:12):
but he switches back to Racing Ball and Yuki goes
to the red Ball at his home track at Suzukah
where Liam has raced very well as well. Is that
going to actually solve anything or answer any questions?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Bob, Well, that's the question to be answered, isn't it.
Is he going to be better or worse or the same.
He comes in, incidentally, with a huge amount of money
that apparently Honda have put up to get him into
into this situation to drive at Suzuka. They've come up
with a seven figure amounts or seven figures to me,
(08:43):
there's an awful lot of zeros and not too many
numbers at the moment at the front, so they've paid
a huge amount of money to get him into the car,
which once again doesn't vote well for Lidian Lawson. I
don't know that he's going to be any better. I
don't know that he's got any more experience than Liam,
unless they are doing what I just said, and they've
got him in the simulator in England, just running through
(09:06):
every possible scenario with him, which if they have decided
to make this move they are undoubtedly doing because they've
got to bring him up to speed. They probably would
have learned their lesson with Liam not having enough experience
to get into that car. The problem that then comes
up with Liam is if he the best scenario out
(09:28):
of all this, providing he's not dropped, that's the very
best scenario. The second scenario is that he goes to
racing bulls in place of Sonoda and he gets comfortable
back in that car and he starts racing fast and
beats Sonoda. That's the first thing, and then by getting
comfortable in the car, he can get more confidence racing
and that sort of stuff. By doing that, he probably
(09:51):
won't go back to RB because they have never re
employed a driver, so he's if this happens, then he's
probably out of it completely. But if that happens, with
getting more and more experience in the Visa Cash Chapel,
he's putting himself on the showcase again for any other
teams that might want to pick up a driver that
is proving himself to be quite good. He's got to
(10:12):
do that business, of course, But the nest case scenario
is that he is out of the team completely because
Helmut Marco has been talking to Flavortory and Oliver Oaks
of the helping team asking about the availability of Colo
Pinto Franco Colopinto. They want to put him into the
junior team. I'm not sure that will happen because I
(10:34):
think Briratory wants to keep hold of him. So there's
all sorts of scenarios that potentially if this comes off,
potentially you're going to be faced with Liam. So how
it's going to work out, I'm not sure. I honestly
don't know. I don't think any of us going until
Red Bull actually make some sort of announcement.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
One thing you do know is Liam Lawson, you've tracked
them right the way through from the early days right
through toy in a racing model was called. Then mentally,
how is this going to be affecting Liam Lawson? Is
the mental dessindigration on here? Do you think that he's
strong enough to get through this regardless of what happens.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
I don't think so. I mean it's going to affect anybody,
you know, any one of us trying to put ourselves
in a scenario where you've got a job and you've
been dumped out of that job that you've been headhunted
for after just a weekend work. That is not a
good scenario for anybody. But knowingly and being fair for Liam,
every single interview he's given since he got in that car,
(11:35):
so it was saying, basically, I've got to do better.
I don't have time. You know I need time, but
I don't have time. It's not good enough. I've got
to do better. So he's not shying away from it.
He's admitting the fact that you know, he can see
the riding on the wall as well as any one
of us. He's in the middle of it, and he's
been given the word I'm sure by the good doctor
Helmet Marco. So the mere fact that he's still there
(11:59):
is his testament to his strength. And he hasn't collapsed
in a heap of tears in the corner. He is
still driving as hard as he possibly can and talking
to the engineers as best he can and all that
sort of stuff. So he is a resilient person. He's
very resilient as a driver. He had to be to
hang about red Bull all those years when they kept
(12:19):
him on and said, yeah, yeah, you're going to get
a drive. You're going to get a drive. Any any
driver could have given up at any point during that,
but he I believe he's got the capability to do it.
And I believe, as Max of Stappan has already said,
if Liam went down to the junior team, he would
he would excel, he would be faster because the cars
(12:41):
are better. And I think Liam might actually think to himself, Okay,
you know this hasn't worked for me. I've got to
do something better. I've got to work harder and if
I drop down a league into the junior team, that's okay,
that's okay. I just got to get my head down
and get on with it again with the car.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And could you do this in Layman's turn, Bob mcnuran,
as always, thanks for your time and the expertise. What
makes it are incredibly difficult to drive?
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Well, let's start off with Maxwell Stappan is the one
that's been earning points a year on year on year,
and he's the one that they you know, pieces, I
want a balloon under my seat and there's going to
be a balloon under your seat. Whatever he wants on
that car to make it faster for him and to
win is going to be done. Therefore, when they design
(13:32):
new chassis, it's not a question of just adjusting things
necessarily for Liam Lawson. Inherently, when they design a whole
new car, you've got to think about the things that
begin to the bottom. Where is the center of gravity
of the car going to be, Where is the driving
position going to be. What suspension are we going to use,
push rob pull rod that sort of thing. How is
(13:54):
the engine going to be attached to the chassis. What
gearbox is going to work? So all these things are
fundamental things that you cannot change in the blink of
an eye. It takes a whole new car to do that.
They haven't done it yet. They've never made a car
that is unsuitable for Max. Forstappen, perhaps he's having difficulty
with this one, but although it's not designed around him,
(14:17):
it's designed to do the things that he wants in
the car. Now, he has a particularly aggressive Droga style
on turning into corners, very sharply into corners. He needs
the front of the car to work immediately. No other
car has that you listen to all the other drivers
that have gone through there, no other car has got that,
or no other driver has been able to conquer that.
(14:39):
And Liam is another one that has never driven a
car with such a very sharp turning and unbelievably catlike
sort of reflexes to whatever Max is doing behind the car.
So it's not a question of just putting a wing
on or adjusting the front or winding the shock absorbers
up a little bit. It's the fundamental characteristics of the
(15:03):
basic parts of the car that you can don't change
inside of eighteen months.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
So you can't lean down and grab their little piece
of plastic under your steering and just wedge it up
a couple just the Seaton, Bob, thanks so much as always,
a real pleasure speaking to you about Formula one. Hey,
Suzuka is a week and a half away. Enjoy it
because it is a stunning race regardless of what happens
such as Formula one. Thanks for your time as always.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Tiers Darcy. But if Liam's not there, I'll look at
it with slightly different eyes, I've got to say.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to News Talks.
It'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Darcy Waldergrave
from News Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Bob McMurray joins us now. Thirty years in McLaren, you
would have seen plenty of this action before, the skull buggery,
the backstabbing, the knee jerk reactions. Formula one A hasn't changed,
has it, Bob good A.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
No, it hasn't changed, Darcy. But look, first of all, Dars,
I've got to say, normally it's really difficult to comment
on speculation, and we shouldn't comment on speculation because we're
just speculating on speculation, and that's all it is at
the moment in that Red Bull have made no official
announcement whatsoever, and the announcement I'm sure will be coming
(00:48):
because too many people have said too much about it,
and it's all through the Dutch newspapers, it's all through
the telegraph and stuff like that, and its strangers come
from Holland. Nonetheless, it is let's say, I'll take it
with smoke and fire at the moment, no smoke without fire.
And it looks like so many places got hold of
this information that Liam is going to be dropped from
(01:09):
the main team, that is difficult not to worry on
his behalf. And you know, I've got to say again,
first up, Darcy, he is not a bad driver. He's
a very fast driver. He's a very accomplished driver, and
he's proven that he doesn't have to prove anymore. It
just needs to get together with this damn car that
he's trying to drive. At the moment you.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Say damn carm We'll talk about that shortly because that's
a lot to do with it. And this is the
common denominator with Maxvist Steppen's teammates over the years, that
damn car. But it's been leaked to the Dutch media,
and I'm told that reboard a tendency to leak stuff
to the Dutch media if they do so. I don't
know what traction is in that comment, but it may
(01:51):
very well be the truth.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
It may well be, but it's speculating. As I sit here,
as we talk during the day, I think it is
still speculation. But you've got to treat the speculation with
the amount of worth that you think it and I
obviously I think there is a certain amount of Yeah,
what's coming is what's happening. Unfortunately for the end.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Look, he's had a rotten ale run of it, and
people say start making excuses Darcy because he's got to
the top and he's failing. But the excuses in this
case Bob McMurray are extremely relevant. What he's faced and
has three races so far, the two GP and a
sprint race. I'd say anybody facing that would struggle regardless
(02:37):
of the vehicle.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, I'd agree with that. I in all my years
in and around the sport, Darcy, and even after I
returned from Formula One, I have never ever seen a
driver being dropped after two Grand Prix and one sprint race.
Three qualifying sessions. Never happened in my experience. I was
there when Andrettie was dropped for McLaren and all the
(03:02):
Red Bull drivers were dropped half a season. Well, they
had a chance. It doesn't seem like Liam Lawson is
being given once again, go back to speculation, but it
doesn't seem that Liam Lawson has been given any more
time in that car than he's had already, which is
as much a reflection on the Red Bull engineers, the
(03:24):
Red Bull management, and the Red Bull set up for
bringing young drivers on. It's as much a reflection on them,
in fact, more than it is on Liam. So you know,
nobody's going out of this blameless. And if red Bulls
think they're going to say, oh we got rid of
him because he was no good, absolute rubbish, He is good.
He is a good driver and he's proven that. As
I said before.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Taking firm aim with the biggest gun, they've got at
their feet yet again, as I said, the common denominator
is the car, therefore the team. So instead of addressing
that they just tuning through drivers is going to be
the fifth one? Now will they not learn? What are
they hoping for? What are they waiting for?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Bob Open, for Max, for stap in two point zero?
And that ain't going to happen. They come along once
in a generation, you know, they come along with a
Schumacher and then a Hamilton, then of a Stappen. You
don't they just don't wind them up from before the
way to have treated this in the first place. And
hindsight is great. But he's not lost yet, is what
(04:26):
Mercedes did with Antonelli. Gave him eleven thousand kilometers approximately
of testing time in that car. Lim Lawson's had six
Grand Prix whatever it was last year in a Visa
cash app. He's had a couple of a good few
simulated sessions. He's had maybe one and a half days
at Bahrain when half the time the car was in
(04:48):
the garage. He's had a practice or a practice session
that was disrupted in Australia, a place he hadn't driven
before at He's had various systems put on the car,
taken off the car, put on the car. It's a
different car, has been almost different car every time he's
gone out, has had the weather issues in Australia. What
(05:11):
good knows? What has the guy got to do to
get a clean race? Just a clean race is all
he needs, but he needs three or four or five
of them. So yeah, that's that's where I'd blame the
red ball management completely.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
An engineer, well, you know all about the way it
works in Formula One. It's hugely ego driven with these
guys that run this show. So how much of this
is a sting toward the guys like Horner who gave
laws and the drive It hasn't been immediately successful. Are
the feeling it pens from an ego point of view?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
I guess no, I don't think it's an ego point
of view, necessarily. I think it is purely driven by
the fact they think they're superior in their team to
most other teams and they need another driver equal to
Maxistappen to be the number two driver, and they're looking
at the points, the points disappearing at the moment because
Liam frankly is not scoring any points at all, has
(06:05):
not scored any points at all. And what is more
worrying from their point of view is that there's Max
for Stapping, vying for pole position, not making it. It's
not getting in there because the car is difficult for
him to drive this year, and Liam not getting out
of last position. This is the problem. If Liam was
closer and closer and closer, then fine, it would they'd
(06:26):
give him more of a chance. So I don't think
it's an ego thing. I think they are desperately hunting
for something that doesn't exist, and that is somebody that
can chat Max for Stappen and possibly beat him for
the future if Max decides to leave. So no, I'm
not sure it's ego, although the ego in Red Bull
is possibly only exceeded by the the riches that they've got.
(06:52):
So no, I don't you know if it's if it's
a confidence thing, give him confidence, get him confidently. The
thing they should do immediately is take him back to
Red Bull's base. They should have done it already. Give
him any this endless, endless hours in the simulator at
Suzuka the next race, then Bahrain the race after that,
(07:13):
both of which he's driven at, and then maybe jeddo
give him a bit of experience for that. But the
only but the engineers are the ones when he says
I'm over steering, I can't wunetize. The engineers are looking
at one, looking at the ones, looking at the data.
They can say, then okay, what you're doing is this?
What you're doing is that for him to leap into
(07:33):
that car, probably with great, great anticipation of what he's
going to do, and then be let down by the
engineers just not being able to give him the car
that he can drive, which is, in my opinion, what
is happening. I think that is just unconscionable by the
team itself.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Even Max vers Steppen has come out and said this
car is hard to drive, and it's designed for him.
It gets the struggle that Liam's got so the question
is Yiki Sonoda Is he the answer? The Racing Balls
car that he's in, Yeah, is performing well, easier to drive,
so they switched them. At worst, Liam gets dropped kicked altogether,
(08:12):
but he switches back to Racing Ball and Yuki goes
to the red Ball at his home track at Suzukah
where Liam has raced very well as well. Is that
going to actually solve anything or answer any questions?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Bob, Well, that's the question to be answered, isn't it.
Is he going to be better or worse or the same.
He comes in, incidentally, with a huge amount of money
that apparently Honda have put up to get him into
into this situation to drive at Suzuka. They've come up
with a seven figure amounts or seven figures to me,
(08:43):
there's an awful lot of zeros and not too many
numbers at the moment at the front, so they've paid
a huge amount of money to get him into the car,
which once again doesn't vote well for Lidian Lawson. I
don't know that he's going to be any better. I
don't know that he's got any more experience than Liam,
unless they are doing what I just said, and they've
got him in the simulator in England, just running through
(09:06):
every possible scenario with him, which if they have decided
to make this move they are undoubtedly doing because they've
got to bring him up to speed. They probably would
have learned their lesson with Liam not having enough experience
to get into that car. The problem that then comes
up with Liam is if he the best scenario out
(09:28):
of all this, providing he's not dropped, that's the very
best scenario. The second scenario is that he goes to
racing bulls in place of Sonoda and he gets comfortable
back in that car and he starts racing fast and
beats Sonoda. That's the first thing, and then by getting
comfortable in the car, he can get more confidence racing
and that sort of stuff. By doing that, he probably
(09:51):
won't go back to RB because they have never re
employed a driver, so he's if this happens, then he's
probably out of it completely. But if that happens, with
getting more and more experience in the Visa Cash Chapel,
he's putting himself on the showcase again for any other
teams that might want to pick up a driver that
is proving himself to be quite good. He's got to
(10:12):
do that business, of course, But the nest case scenario
is that he is out of the team completely because
Helmut Marco has been talking to Flavortory and Oliver Oaks
of the helping team asking about the availability of Colo
Pinto Franco Colopinto. They want to put him into the
junior team. I'm not sure that will happen because I
(10:34):
think Briratory wants to keep hold of him. So there's
all sorts of scenarios that potentially if this comes off,
potentially you're going to be faced with Liam. So how
it's going to work out, I'm not sure. I honestly
don't know. I don't think any of us going until
Red Bull actually make some sort of announcement.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
One thing you do know is Liam Lawson, you've tracked
them right the way through from the early days right
through toy in a racing model was called. Then mentally,
how is this going to be affecting Liam Lawson? Is
the mental dessindigration on here? Do you think that he's
strong enough to get through this regardless of what happens.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
I don't think so. I mean it's going to affect anybody,
you know, any one of us trying to put ourselves
in a scenario where you've got a job and you've
been dumped out of that job that you've been headhunted
for after just a weekend work. That is not a
good scenario for anybody. But knowingly and being fair for Liam,
every single interview he's given since he got in that car,
(11:35):
so it was saying, basically, I've got to do better.
I don't have time. You know I need time, but
I don't have time. It's not good enough. I've got
to do better. So he's not shying away from it.
He's admitting the fact that you know, he can see
the riding on the wall as well as any one
of us. He's in the middle of it, and he's
been given the word I'm sure by the good doctor
Helmet Marco. So the mere fact that he's still there
(11:59):
is his testament to his strength. And he hasn't collapsed
in a heap of tears in the corner. He is
still driving as hard as he possibly can and talking
to the engineers as best he can and all that
sort of stuff. So he is a resilient person. He's
very resilient as a driver. He had to be to
hang about red Bull all those years when they kept
(12:19):
him on and said, yeah, yeah, you're going to get
a drive. You're going to get a drive. Any any
driver could have given up at any point during that,
but he I believe he's got the capability to do it.
And I believe, as Max of Stappan has already said,
if Liam went down to the junior team, he would
he would excel, he would be faster because the cars
(12:41):
are better. And I think Liam might actually think to himself, Okay,
you know this hasn't worked for me. I've got to
do something better. I've got to work harder and if
I drop down a league into the junior team, that's okay,
that's okay. I just got to get my head down
and get on with it again with the car.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And could you do this in Layman's turn, Bob mcnuran,
as always, thanks for your time and the expertise. What
makes it are incredibly difficult to drive?
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Well, let's start off with Maxwell Stappan is the one
that's been earning points a year on year on year,
and he's the one that they you know, pieces, I
want a balloon under my seat and there's going to
be a balloon under your seat. Whatever he wants on
that car to make it faster for him and to
win is going to be done. Therefore, when they design
(13:32):
new chassis, it's not a question of just adjusting things
necessarily for Liam Lawson. Inherently, when they design a whole
new car, you've got to think about the things that
begin to the bottom. Where is the center of gravity
of the car going to be, Where is the driving
position going to be. What suspension are we going to use,
push rob pull rod that sort of thing. How is
(13:54):
the engine going to be attached to the chassis. What
gearbox is going to work? So all these things are
fundamental things that you cannot change in the blink of
an eye. It takes a whole new car to do that.
They haven't done it yet. They've never made a car
that is unsuitable for Max. Forstappen, perhaps he's having difficulty
with this one, but although it's not designed around him,
(14:17):
it's designed to do the things that he wants in
the car. Now, he has a particularly aggressive Droga style
on turning into corners, very sharply into corners. He needs
the front of the car to work immediately. No other
car has that you listen to all the other drivers
that have gone through there, no other car has got that,
or no other driver has been able to conquer that.
(14:39):
And Liam is another one that has never driven a
car with such a very sharp turning and unbelievably catlike
sort of reflexes to whatever Max is doing behind the car.
So it's not a question of just putting a wing
on or adjusting the front or winding the shock absorbers
up a little bit. It's the fundamental characteristics of the
(15:03):
basic parts of the car that you can don't change
inside of eighteen months.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
So you can't lean down and grab their little piece
of plastic under your steering and just wedge it up
a couple just the Seaton, Bob, thanks so much as always,
a real pleasure speaking to you about Formula one. Hey,
Suzuka is a week and a half away. Enjoy it
because it is a stunning race regardless of what happens
such as Formula one. Thanks for your time as always.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Tiers Darcy. But if Liam's not there, I'll look at
it with slightly different eyes, I've got to say.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to News Talks.
It'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
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