Midseason review: The defining moments of the season so far

Published Aug 8, 2024, 1:46 AM

Michael and Mat look back on two defining moments from the 2024 Formula 1 season so far and run through the interim results of the Pit Talk Alternative Championship ahead of the second part of the campaign.

Hello and welcome to Pit Talk of Fox Sports and Speed Cafe Formula one podcast. And it's the mid season break in Formula One. No racing has happened last week, no racing will happen this week, but that doesn't mean the podcast stops, at least for this week. Next week we might be on a break. My name's Michael Lomonato, motorsport rider for Fox Sports Australia. It's great to have your company and the company of my co host from Speed Cafe. He was also offered one hundred million dollars to join Aston Martin but didn't want to pump up lant Stroll. His name's Matt Cosh.

One hundred million dollars. I'll be willing to pump up a lot of things. That's that's an extraordinary amount of money, isn't it. Yeah, it's good to be here. I'm honestly not on a beach sunning myself somewhere I feel I should be because everyone else is. But yeah, it's that weird break. Is that weird week or so in the middle where all the teams are on that mandatory shutdown, so there's just nothing, nothing really happening. There's no news coming out, everything sort of extending on what we already know, really, isn't it.

Yes, And I'm very conscious about not calling it the summer break because for the southern hemisphere, like us, there is no summer to be had unless you're in far North Queensland, I suppose, and it's always summer, but it's important to remember the little guys down here to have a Grand Prix. So it is the mid season break in my books. Not much news has happened, Matt, but there was a little bit because I don't know about you, but I feel like every year that I've existed following Formula one, I always sort of let I feel like I relax a little bit after that last race before the mid season break, and then forget that. All of the news breaks that week because the teams want to bury it or just want to get it out of the way before the second half of the season. So there was some stuff to go through. And let's give you your five top stories from the last week in five minutes, and Matt, we're going to start with Helmet Marco, who's revealed the reason Red Bull Racing has kept Sergio Perez is simply for Stability's sake, According to his column in the Red Bull owned speed Week, He also denied rumors that Liberty Media has pressured the team into keeping Perez for his home Mexico City Grand Prix later in the year.

And that tell is with what I heard through other channels at Red Bull, there was no pressure from Liberty and even if there have been, they wouldn't have listened to it because it's not Liberty's bat and ball. And also the whole Carlos them domit stuff and him pressuring Red Bull into maintaining the relationship with with Sojo Perez that also didn't work. Just that the timeline of the decision, you can prove that CARLUSLM didn't have any influence in in the way that happened. So, yeah, I get it. You know it's Perez has done the job. He's not at the moment. But can you guarantee that Daniel Ricardo or Linham Laws would jump in and do a better job. No, So it goes back to the catch cry of this podcast, it's the least worst option.

It's good to know Red Bull Racing is finally taking our advice sticking with Red Bull Racing in a relatively surprised stuff to the mid season break. In terms of news, RBR sporting director Jonathan Wheatley will leave the team at the end of this year to become audi's first F one team principal from sometime next season ahead of the team's full debut in twenty twenty six.

Yeah, he's gonna be job showing a little bit with Mitia, but not so there'll be a little bit of overlap between those two. His departure. Jonathan Wheaky's departure from Red Bull not a huge shock. If I'm honest, I've got to be a little bit careful about what I say, but it's not as not as it seems. What I loved was Red Bull's announcement which they named his departure point as well. Very unusual and clearly all ASO is that that doesn't suggest that they've left on the best of terms.

Also, massive power move over AUDI. Really, I'm owned by a VW company that ultimately fell out with Red Bull Racing a few years ago via Porsche. ODI didn't get its press release anounce me out till I think four or five hours later. From the top of my head, so welcome to Formula one. I suppose staying still with Red Bull Racing, but via Silverston. The hunt Forrader in Nui is over, at least according to Italy's Auto Sprint, which reported this week that the former Red Bull Racing Chief technical officer has signed to join Laurence Stroll's team for an eye watering one hundred million dollars. I think that'd be US dollars as well, over four years.

You kind of need to do the Doctor Evil one hundred million dollars with a little finger to the corner of your mouth. Yeah, over four years, twenty five million a year, plus a few other bits and pieces. It makes some sense as a relationship there. You we designed the Aston Martin Valkyrie, which they will be racers of the Valkyria the Vulcan. I get those two confused. I think it's the Valkyrie which we use in Ward Endurance Championship next year. You know, he's got aspirations to continue doing road cars and that sort of stuff, and it's another opportunity to develop a midfield team into a world championship winner. He's done it sort of with Williams, a little bit with Mclaren'soil in the late nineties, certainly with Red Bull. So yeah, it'd be interesting to see why the Ferrari deal fell apart, because I heard from a reliable source that he was house hunting a Marinello at one point.

Maybe just couldn't find a house. It didn't fancy, the commune didn't like it wasn't up for public transport connections. Not great in Marinello. Let's go to McLaren now. Andrea Stella has been rewarded for the team's upturning performance this year with a fresh multi year contract, the best kind of contract for the team's big improvements this season, locking him in alongside Lando Norris and Oscar Piastu for the foreseeable future in what's fast become a title contending at least team.

Confusingly, in my notes, I've got Stella resigned because I forgot the signed. No, so he's hang around. That's good news because you look at the top end of that team. You've got Zach Brown who's recently signed. I think it was back in March or April that he signed a new deal. Orlando and Oscar both have comparatively long deals. I mean nothing in Formula one is long term. We're talking a multi year deal, so two or three years. So having stability is great. Every successful team in Formula one history has had stability. So look for good things to McLaren in the years to come, because I think they're setting themselves up for success.

Well not even years to come, maybe this year, but we'll get to that in the moment. And finally over to Alpine, where the worst kept secret of the Last Fortnight at least has been confirmed with high Tech co founder that's the junior high Tech team in Formula two and Formula three and other series. Oliver Oaks announced as Alpine's new team principle, replacing the outgoing Bruno Fermum after.

The break, Yeah, and curious to see what happens here. From what I understand, that's a endorsement from Flavio Briatore that Luca Demeyo accepted. He replaces Bruno Famine. Of course, what will be important is how much autonomy and authority Oaks has in doing what he needs to do or what he thinks he needs to do to that team to make it work without the influence of Reno, because the biggest hang up that that team has is Reno's influence. So make it an independent team and let Oliver Oaks run it as as a proper race team and there might be success, but he needs time to do that. This isn't going to be something that transforms the team overnight. We're talking a little bit like what James Vows is doing it Williams. We're talking a couple of years before we see some serious, serious progress there. Hopefully Jack doing lands on their doorstep at just the right time, then.

We're really I mean, the big test for him and his authority will be which car park he gets relative Lavio bout or isn't it like his number two move. Well, that's going to tell you everything. So that's all the news from the last week before the teams gloriously went on their midseason shutdown, the mandatory two week break and which nothing is allowed to happen. Thing has crossed anyway for our sake. But Matt, let's look back at the first part of the season, because I think it was fair to say, far more dramatic than we expected, not only after Prezason testing, but even after the first two months. I think at the end of April, I can't of imagine we'd be talking about the season being as close as it is with as many winners as we've had with the storylines that we've enjoyed. So I thought we'd go through our top storylines of that first part of the year, which might, in fact, then shed a little bit of light of what we're expecting for the second part of the season. Let's kick off with you, Matt. What stood out to you is the big talking points of the first half of twenty twenty four.

So I'm going to tell a little story if I may. I'm going to go back to Bahrain testing and it was M've even been the first afternoon going into the evening of Bahrain testing and having a conversation with someone in the paddock, and they said to me, red Bull could stop developing that car now, and I'll win next year's World Championship. And you know what, the first part of the year played out that if red Bull stopped developing their car, they out of won next year's World Championship. Only everyone else didn't get that memo, and they kept developing their cars, and it's created this interesting snow. Well, we've sort of got the pre Miami World Championship, which was red Bull dominated, and then you've got the post Miami World championship, where you've got a world championship and then almost since I don't know if it's if the British Grand Prix is a defining moment, but you've almost now got a three way scrap as well because Mercedes seems to be buying in a little bit. They're probably a little bit too far back to do anything by the end of the year, but there are a threat and they can take points off of McLaren and Rebel when they therefore have a meaningful impact on the way the championship's going. But for me, it all comes down to that Miami Grand Prix weekend. It was a sprint race. McLaren was hugely confident in itself in that it brought an update package, it had an hour of testing or hour of practice to get on top of that, only had one of them bolted one too, Tolando Norris's currently went out and won the race. Now there were some circumstance in that that did internally at McLaren. It reinforced that the development trajectory and direction is correct. It showed Lando Norris that he is a Formula One race winner. It gave everyone on the pitwall confidence that they can go out and win races. It gave everyone else in the Formula one paddock belief that Red Bull can be beaten in a normal race. Okay, there was safety card there, but even still in the first half of the race with the oldest spec McLaren Oscar Piastre was chasing Max down, he was as near as competitor with a new McLaren. Once he was in clear our outfront, Landa was able to hold the lead and win comparatively comfortably. So that race for me is the defining moment, not just of the first half of the season. I think we'll reflect on it as being the defining moment of season twenty twenty four because it's the point at which Red Bull became vulnerable and we went from being a one horse race where it's another steamroller like we saw last year Australia growl prity side that was reliability and suddenly we have a competitive world championship and the interest that that has done, that that has generated, the good that it's done for the sport is immeasurable because suddenly we're not just talking about one team or who can beat Max. We're talking about well, Redbell need to lift their game or they're going to lose to McLaren. We're talking can Lando with the right support win the World Championship. These are very different talking points to what we had that opening day of testing in Bahrain when I was told that next year's championship was already wrapped up. So yeah, that is a critical critical point, not just for this year either, I think for next year as well, because it sets us up in a really good, really good trajectory into twenty twenty five. In the last year of these REGs.

It's there's a couple of points I want to pull out from that because it is such a fasting twist in this season, because it's not as if we had one or two races in which are red will you know it was on favored tracks and they just nailed everything and other teams are warming up. But we're talking about five Grand Prix into the season, long enough and on a variety sufficient of tracks to go well, this looks like it's going in only one direction. And the performance margin at those five tracks was enormous. You know, Australia, maybe Ferrari would have actually been in contention there. It is a little bit of an unusual track, but we'll never find out at every other circuit. It was domination like we'd enjoyed well, like we had bullet enjoyed anyway last season. So that's really remarkable. The McClaren upgrade story in Miami is really interesting because it exceeded even the team's own expectations. I think it was after that race, or perhaps it was the subsequent one in Imola, when Andrea Stella said, Wow, we're doing way better in the slow corners than we expected. We need to understand why, because otherwise we won't be able to improve the car further. And clearly the team has understood it. But this was a problem the team didn't expect to solve even this year. This was part of the long term skime of improving this car to become a title contender that wasn't on the cards this year. Really bold, as you said, to bring that upgrade to Miami, and I wonder what you think, because in retrospect it seems even bolder, because this year we've seen way more teams than usual struggle to apply upgrades to the car, Red Bull perhaps being one of them. There's never been a big step forward for Red Bull Racing. I think back even to the Hungarian Grand Prix, which Maxwist happened didn't win despite having an upgrade package that seemed directly targeted to tracks and conditions like Futa Pest. You know, we've seen our b step backwards with upgrades in Aston Martin's slide perpetually backwards with upgrades, Ferrari struggling with upgrades. That McLaren gambled on a one hour practice session with this major season changing upgrade package and it worked out, I think is really extremely bold.

It is. It's sort of what the rules sets us up for these days, isn't it, Because they're very prescriptive. We've got more prescriptive rules than we've ever had and formed on. Remember in the nineteen seventies we had six form of the cars, the two P thirty four. There used to be this huge variety in freedom for engineers. They don't have that. Now we're talking about little tweaks and minuscule, almost imperceptible differences and only the anaraks really notice it. And that includes more people that are more of an anniact than I am, because to be honest, the aerodynamics are so far beyond me that that yeah, we'll just leave it there. It's exactly. I was only off at ninety eight. Anything less than one hundred I'm just not willing to take. But as a result, we now have this situation where the more you develop your car, and the more progress you find in the car, the less progress you're going to find in your car. You hit this point of marginal gains. And that's where red Bull is. Finding big chunks is near on impossible. Finding little chunks is increasingly difficult, and as a result, is going to condense the field. The problem is, at some point everyone's going to hit that ceiling, and we're pretty much there with these regulations. It seems unless someone goes out and find something you know, brown esque over the over the European winter, which seems highly unlikely. Again because of the rules, we're just going to end up with this perpetual cycle of new rules are introduced, field expands, as the rules mature, field condensers, we hit the glass ceiling, rules change, and the cycle will repeats. So that's where I think we are. And as a result, the boulder and the braver, those who've got strong engineering processes and structures and very refined correlation between the virtual systems and the real world. And that's the key here, that the correlation because you can't test. Basically, you're developing everything thinking that that's the right thing, and then you're bolt on the car and it might not be. If your systems show that this is going to give you three points and you get two point seven points of downforce, then beauty. But if it says you get three points and you get minus ten, you know, then you've got major issues. And that's where refinement in systems is going to become ever more important. And that's where I wonder if Red Bull, because they had last year, that they were allowed to be a little bit lax on that because I had no challenges. You know, if an item was only giving them sixty percent of the forecast gain, that was still good enough. Now sixty percent isn't good enough. We're talking about very, very magor game. Is the one percent is now know a pit stop, the efficiency of a team in a pit stop and their consistency of being able to deliver it that at speeds of sub three seconds, that's now critical. So yeah, this is just the game we're now in where we're talking about almost imperceivable differences between the teams having defining impacts on not just a race but a season as well, and teams willing to take calculated risks backed up by the confidence that they have in their systems and everything else. How much risk can Red Bull realistically take. It can't afford almost to take any at the moment, because if it gets it wrong, it hands the championship lead to McLaren. But if it takes none, then if Red Bull, then if McLaren rolls the dice and lucks onto something, then it could get steamrolled anyway. But similarly, if Red Bull, sorry, if McLaren takes too much risk and gambles too much and goes the wrong way, then it loses a chance at the title. So it's this delicate balancing act. It's understanding risk management, and that's fundamentally what formul one has been for a long time. It's risk management. The difference now is that the differences between teams are so imperceivably small that a tiny difference has a massive difference.

Closer the field gets. Actually, I'm reminded of Red Bull Racing's launched at the start of the year, when Adrian Nue said, in a way that I think most people dismissed as just general downplaying of expectations the way every team does. Past did a great job of downplaying expectations start the year, saying that this was the limit of the rule, that he'd felt that this car was close to the limit of the rules. They'd changed some things this year, but that he expected other teams to catch up this year because he didn't see a massive development pathway from this point. And it turned out he was right. Despite those first five races. It turned out actually he was fot on the money, not for the first time in his career. And it's not just the regulations maturing all that's obviously a significant part of it, and what a pity it is. I think we may reflect on the fact that the rules are changing again in only eighteen months time. Perhaps it's spreading out the field dramatically, just as everything's building, this tremendous crescendo of four teams potentially fighting for a title next year, maybe more, maybe less, who knows. But there's also the equalization measures of the sport at play here and feels like they're finally starting to have an affair. These were brought in thankfully even a year earlier than planned thanks to the pandemic. For the final year of the previous rules twenty twenty one, that tremendous Title five. Depending on your perspective, I suppose brought in essentially ahead of the twenty twenty two season for these rules limited spending on development and also instituted this development cap based on your championship position, whereby let's just say Red Bull Racing, because it's been leading ever since then pretty much has said the least amount of time to develop, and the teams at the bottom had the most. That also feels like it's having an effect, because who knows what an extra five, ten, fifteen percent wind tunnel time might have done to Red Bull Racing this season with the upgrade packages that's brought that sort of haven't really fired or delivered the gains expected or hoped for. Maybe that would have been enough to make the difference in Inversely, McLaren, which has had much more time in the wind tunnel over the last few years, considering from how from how far back it started, is enjoying the fruits of that equalization process. So it is all working together now. It feels like the rules are set up really well, and perhaps come back to my point and contradict myself. Maybe we should be more optimistic about twenty twenty six in that case, because if those equalization meachs are having a role now, it's not the only story, as he said, it is the rules maturing, But perhaps we can hope that in twenty twenty six it won't be a case of one team being way further ahead of everybody else because the resources available to everybody, it sort of evens out over time.

Yeah, and there's lots more to play out in this as well that the cost cap measures and everything else that's still comparatively immature. They've been in place for a couple of years now, but there's still teams like Williams Lack Salba who have facilities and machinery and those sorts of things that are still below the standard of say a Red Bull or a Mercedes. So there's still a delta between the top and the bottom teams. Closing that is a massive, massive issue because there are capex rules and all sorts of things that live team's ability to invest deliberately. So, but they do have some some knock ons to some of these smaller teams. But yet fundamentally it's all working. And I'm I'm a big one. For now we've got this equalization built into the regulations. Let's throw the rule book away. I mean, you've got a limited amount of money. Use it however you want, go out there and create a car that is the fastest that you can make. You know, six wheels. Who cares go out and do it? And I want to see that because.

You just want to say six wheels pack? Don't you mentioned twice already this episode?

Seriously that Peece therety four on my desk, on on the shelf behind my desk. Here I've got I've got a couple of my favorite cars from lotus forty nine's Williams W fourteen B from ninety two, a couple of more current spec things. But you know, it's the diversity. Looking at the cars. In the nineteen seventies, you had this enormous diversity, and then through the nineteen eighties they all sort of began to began to look the same. And then through the nineties you've got a little bit more. As you know, they're discovered high noses and things, and now they all look the same again. We've got some of the brightest minds in engineering in the sport's let them loose, don't charge them with reading the rule book and finding the gray areas right the rules, so that you can actually exercise the brilliance of some of these people. You know, maybe put some broad restrictions. You know, you can't can be this wide and this long and use this much fuel. Otherwise, do what you like you as, as a friend of mine once said, many many moons ago, you've got a leader of monkey spit, go and do your best with it. So and I like that. That's what Formula one should be. It was always I don't subscribe to this. Formula one is the technological peak of Formula one of the world. It's not. Formula one has actually developed very little. ABS was developed in the aerospace industry, so was DRS for that matter, in World War Two. There's all sorts of things over the time that Formula one has been credited with, but Formula one hasn't actually developed. So Formula one isn't the technic technological peak of design that it proclaims itself to be. So let's accept that, let's not pretend to be it's something that it isn't. And just open the rules up again. What's the harm. I've got one hundred and thirty million dollars a year. Let's go.

It would be a fascinating experiment, wouldn't it, to see how the field would develop. Perhaps one day we'll get to that point once those financial rules and development restrictions are sufficiently bettered in and we're confident no one is finding any loopholes. Maybe that is the way of the future. Let's move on now, Matt, to the second talking point. My talking point for the first half of the season ties into yours a little bit in the sense that it certainly involves McLaren and I want to talk about Oscar Piastre's first victory, long awaited first win that was not in a sprint. Let's not talk about that in Grand Prix conditions. Earlier this year at the Hungarian Grand Prix, just snuck in before the mid season break. But more important than just being Piastre's made in Grand Prix victory, because we all knew that was coming. Really, it was only a matter of time. Even the way he celebrated afterwards sort of really suggested even he knew that that he's aiming for bigger things. Wasn't a massive celebration. In fact, said afterwards, all he did was go to mcdonald' while he was waiting for a delayed flight. So sort of the days of big celebrations are along god in Formula one, I suppose. But we also got a glimpse of this potential rivalry between him and Lando Norris. So I think this is important for a couple of reasons. Less so probably for the second half of this season, because while Lando is theoretically a driver's title contender, that's a really big long shot, and a way bigger long shot than mcl claren playing for the Constructor's title, which is very much alive. In fact, on current trajectory we've said in the last couple of episodes, could be leading the title by the time F one rocks up in the US in October, after only the next four races let's say around four races on the current trajectory. So that's really the priority for the team. But it's the long term implications of Oscar Piastre beginning to increasingly match Norris in all conditions and on occasion surpasshim. In fact, we saw at the Belgian Grand Prix he was just the better McLaren performer full stop in difficult conditions on a difficult weekend when victory was up for grabs, all that kind of thing. McLaren is one of the few teams to have a stable lineup, not just for next year but for the foreseeable future. As we've sort of mentioned at the top of the show, it's certainly the closest driver lineup in terms of their results in qualifying on the races to be stable next year. You know. The only other ones on paper the Red Bull teammates, which may or may not continue to next year, and the Aston Martin teammates, where there's obviously a relatively large gap between them. Even if Lancetra's been able to close that a little bit in the last few months on Fernando Orlonso before the mid season break, all the others are changing or all the others are way further apart. So it's really interesting in that sense that McLaren has ended up obviously choosing youth in Piastre, not that much younger than Lando Norris but less experienced, but has ended up with very quickly to essentially alpha drivers in its team. And if things are going the way we expect Matt next year, which is that McLaren will just start as a title contender, as if we didn't have the first five rounds this year, the championship were to start in Miami. That's going to really apply pressure to the team's processes and practices in a way we've sort of seen this year. Let's reflect on those team orders in Hungary where they almost collapsed but just about survived, and the team needs to be ready for that. And if we go back to that premise that McLaren wasn't thinking it was going to be a title contender in such a short term timeframe, that is a big test for how this team's going. It's a great opportunity as well, obviously, but this team suddenly needs to be really ready for what could be quite an explosive if not second half of this season than twenty twenty five.

Massively, it's Oscar Pastre managers. I wrote this actually a week or two back. The Oscar Pastric managers to fly under the radar a little bit because he's understated, he doesn't go in for hyperbole, is extremely self critical, and as a result, he almost highlights his weaknesses more than his strengths. He doesn't use the media the way some drivers do to promote themselves because he just doesn't feel the need. Is that kind of guy. He's so confident in himself that he doesn't feel the need to go on boast about his accomplishments because he's comfortable in his own skin, which is a character trait that Andrea Stella has said will serve him extremely well, because he's just so assured, just so calm, just so relaxed. And what you see on what you see on camera is very similar to what you see of Oscar. You know, just day to day. He's a little bit more relaxed away from cameras and formal interviews and things, but that's just Oscar. He's a very relaxed, very chill guy. Clearly, nothing flusters him. I mean you just think of August a couple of years ago. I mean, that was a monumental moment in his career. Just okay, whatever, roll on. Similarly, his race win in Hungary, as you say, he went out and got some chicken nuggets. That was his celebration. But what I find is interesting is the commentary that surrounds McLaren is all very pro Orlando Norris and sort of plays down the involvement of Oscar Piastrin. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, and I think the reason that is because of Oscar's personality. You know, he doesn't feel the need to jump up and down and yell and shout. But at the same time, for the most part, the English speaking world picks up its Formula one news and commentary other than from Fox Sports and Speak Cafe, from the UK Press and the UK Press like we're going to be inherently probably biased towards Oscar Piastrian, Daniel Ricardo and Liam Lawson and Jack Doing. They're going to be inherently biased towards Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, Orlando Norris and Alex Albon. It's just natural, you know, there's some patriotism there. So as a result, they're going to be pushing landon Norris. And if you look at the championship standings, it makes sense because Lando is a head But if you actually break it down, he's yes, he's ahead. I think it's thirty two points off my head now as they sit now. It was a little bit more than that, but that was because of one or two races. Every other instance where they've gone head to head, Oscar has been either right there or ahead. So it's been very very as you're saying, qualifying terms, in race terms, has been very very little between them. And Oscar's still getting better. Lando is too, but his trajectory has shallowed a little bit because he's just more experienced. It's that marginal games like we're talking about before with the teams. Oscar's still getting better, and you saw that in Hungary and Belgium with his hire management. Twelve months ago. In Hungary he faded because he just chewed the tires up, didn't have any grip left and the race got away from him. Not that he was really in contentent for the race win, but the race just moved away from ahead. This year, he didn't have the same problems. In Belgium. He was the fastest car on track really in the final stint and but for a couple more laps, probably would have won that race. So there's proof there that Oscar is making very clear, substantial progress. And he's thirty five, thirty six races into his Formula One career. There's a hell of a lot more to come from him and This takes me back to the mid to late nineties at McLaren and you had Mika Hackenan who was a very highly rated driver but never really done much, and David Coulthard, who had shown genuinely strong potential at Williams. And I sort of equate it as though Lando Norris is cool, tard, very fast, always seems to be there or thereabouts. But I wonder if in the end he's just going to get beaten by Oscar. He's a little bit cooler, a little bit calmer, and just seems to have a greater maximum if that makes sense, Because if they're very close as they are, and Oscar's still growing at the rate that he is, where is Oscar's endpoint? So yeah, I think it's a good call. Oscar's win in Hungary is going to create a fascinating second half of the year and a fascinating twenty twenty five as they roll on with that relationship as well, and probably create a headache Andrea Stella and Zach Brown will have to manage very very carefully otherwise it could easily, I imagine, descend into a Mercedes Hamilton Rosberg era sort of sort of in.

Fight Yeah, you can really break down his season and see exactly where those points come from. They come almost all in that first part of the campaign when the car wasn't quite upgraded Bahrain, China and Japan. He was four places behind Norris, but on none of those occasions was Norris on the podium. They all contributed massively. But so true did in Miami, where as you said earlier, he was actually maxist Happen's closest challenger up until the safety car. He should have been in the position to win the race had the timing of the safety car been different. Instead, after a crash with Carlos Science, you finished outside the points. There's a twenty four points string Tolando Norris, And yes, Norris will argue that then in Austria, essentially the reverse happened to him, and that's true. But you can already just see where the points are and they're no longer being shipped Norris's way. In the last few months, it's simply changed. Like the Constructors Championship has changed since May, so too has that dynamic between the drivers at McLaren. It is now much more even, and really thirty two points is not all that much Okay, it's a little bit more than a race win. Might be able to close it over the course of the season, but it's close enough that you're not looking at it going oh, someone's pulling their weight and someone really isn't, as some people I thought a little bit misguidedly suggested in the opening few months when Piastre wasn't on the podium, but then McLaren wasn't really in that podium contention early on, and we can't forget as well he suffered so much poor luck, particularly during May, when I also think, as we said on this podcast, he was the better performer at McLaren already as early as that in Imola, Monaco, obviously Miami, but didn't get the results and the rewards to show for it. I think that's going to be a really interesting storyline next season, particularly when you consider then that this lineup will be up against Charlete Clair and Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, George Russell, probably Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes. It's a bit of a wild card line up still in my mind. And then certainly Max was staffing at Red Bull Racing and either Surgeo Pairs or anyone else really, it could be anyone who knows how that's going to go. The stability works.

My current and Michael Lemonato at Red Bull.

Could be I'm more than one hundred million dollars personally.

But little bit tall. You might go for Williams instead.

Well that's okay. I'm happy to race anywhere on the crew, just happy to be there. Really, So it's going to be fascinating set up to the second half of this year to see how that develops to place as a lot of the second half of the year is going to be for next season. But Matt, let's conclude this week's episode in the now traditional way looking at the Alternative Championship we've been accumulating. Now it is the mid season break, which means no points are going to be awarded today, but I thought it was important to take stock on where this championship is, considering it has developed a great deal in the only month or so that it's been running. To keep people up to speed and where we're at ahead of the next round of not just Formula One action but Alternative Championship action in the Netherlands at the end of the month.

Let's face it, it's the one everyone wants to win. Yeah, they don't know it, but they really I figure the easiest way for us to go through this arbitrary awarding of points or subtraction of points, as the case may be. We've got seventeen entrants on the on the leader board. Now let's just run through them from seventeenth to first. I pause a couple of times to you here and then have a laugh at a couple I imagine. Starting with the British Grand Prix organizers who still looking for that big half of the year. Minus one hundred and sixty eight thousand.

Yeah great, they're only going to lose more if we consider how they performed at the Motor GP round over the course of the weekend, where almost no one turned up. They could have used some points I think to make up for it.

In sixteenth places. Alpine at minus twenty twelve points. That was to do with the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the lotus that they tried to dress up as an Alpine. Lando Norris is in fifteenth place one for I think that was a Hungarian Grand Prix and the team orders shimozzle that was there. Red RB rather in fourteenth place minus three hundred two. I think I've been a little bit harsh on them. That was that was for the I can't even remember what race it was, but but Daniel Ricardo said that that was the worst strategy he's had in his career, So yeah, that must have been hungry. There must have been another subtraction in there as well, because that was two hundred and fifty odd points that they lost in a heartbeat there. But yeah, their they're minus three hundred two. And the reason I think they've been hard done by is that thirteenth place is McLaren's strategist who've arguably lost more, and yet there are minus forty four points.

Well that's still I think it still counts. It's not beyond the realm of closing. How many points behind was RB did say three three hundred and two, oh so they should be behind Lando Norris It was eighty one points of oh oh yeah, see this is going to say the gap were closing, but then then then they didn't.

This is why I write and not count.

So they are going to need a big second half of the season, are they If they want to win the championship.

Maybe they could signed the Bridge Grand pre organizers and yeah, yeah, yeah, so McLaren not, but.

Sonny Hayes minus twenty.

Five probably deserved more. Oft The more I think about that dialogue line that he needs a calf a combat just shows such a lack of understanding of Formula one. It's surprising he's even a Formula one driver.

How is he going to do that?

Yeah?

That was We've got two lines of how am I going to do that safely? Who cares about safety? Really?

Really?

Mate? All right?

I think I was thinking of Mario Kart. I think that's what he was thinking about.

The Blue Shehell yeah, sorry, Sonny Hayes's twefth place. Eleventh place is McLaren at minus fifteen.

To stick from the strategists, which is important.

Correct. I don't remember why we've not fifteen points off, but claren would have to go back through the pods, please do.

Yeah. Yeah.

In tenth place, the Ifon graphics department for the Great Brighton.

The Great Britty and Grand Prix. Yes, yes, of course of one of the Blue Riband events are Formula one was totally misspelled. It was the proceeding race Austria. I think this season of Spain Austria, I think wasn't it. Just get the spell checker involved, guys, you can, you can download an extension in most apps.

You see. You throw in some mud here, but as journalists we know full well help.

I think that's why I reduced the points deficit the minus points for them, because I reckon I probably had a typo in the rundown on that episode.

Anyway, they're only one point off the back of David Croft nine points minus known points.

Yes for the corner with no name turn nine, despite having at least one other name possibly too, maybe more.

Yeah. Then Max was staffing at minus one.

Just for not being cool, I think because he prefers to do twenty four hours races during pree weekends.

That's right. Yeah, Christian Hornet at zero in seventh place. He's had points come and go a few times.

Yes, Yeah, he's at mill Plat deservedly. Yes, that's okay, but that's look. He can build from there half of the championship by being on zero points, isn't it.

Yeah, he's in the points playing positions right now. Ay Lewis Hamilton in six with nine. That was through his ninth winning the Bridge Grown Prayer. I feel like I've cheapened him a little bit there. Probably deserved a bit more for that, but yeah, nine points for for Lewis, he's doing a right.

Maybe one hundred and four, one hundred and five, whatever victory number that.

Was for him to get another one we can there.

Yeah that's true. He gets one hundred and ten. That's a nice round Numberah yeah, there we go. That's the bar. That's you don't get one hundred and ten wins, you haven't impressed us.

No, actually I want him to get one hundred and eleven to he ends up one hundred and twenty points. I like round NUMBERSOD, Yes, it's just Jehan top On ten points in fifth place.

Yes, this was recent, but it's because of the Institute in equalization measures in the budget cap during the pandemic that I think has resulted in quite a close championship this year. As we explained earlier.

I like that you've ordered it to him and not the Formula one commission that came up to it. But yes, that's right, someone's going to someone's going to take the blame, and it may as well be Jean top then Niko Holgerberg. This is a genuine p for Nico Holgenberg sixteen points. I feel like, oh did you have that joke? Pre candle, No, I didn't. Disorder is a total surprise to me. I enjoying going through it as any listener would be. I think that's fair. I think he's had a really good first half of the year. So yeah. And then Oscar Piastre P. Three with twenty five points also feels legit.

Yes, that's good. I'm happy with Jesus. The points at the top of the order of less than the points at the bottom. Oh wait, wait, let's significant.

You wait, you wait. P two ralph S, you macket three hundred and twenty nine.

Okay, that's quite a lot of points.

That's all. That's he's gonna what's that three hundred and four point advantage? O Rosco Piastre so that.

His career points tally we landed nine.

Yeah, okay, yep, because the points tally points in Formula one don't matter anymore, because I've just been watered down to the point where you get one for participating carry. I don't don't get that one, but okay someone will. And then leading the Alternative Championship mm hmm. I feel like we needed drum rolls and we're not going to get it drum roll or something, Yuki Sonoda one nine hundred and sixty eight points. We told you these points were arbitrary.

So how on how many Why did he have so many points?

Well, because that was the year that open faced helmets were phased out.

A reason to be leading the championship.

Nothing to do with the actual racing or the championship.

Very good, Well, I'm very pleased with that. Look, at least he's going to get something out of his I suppose he's not going to get promoted the Red Bull Race.

Yeah, he can win the CHAMPIONSHP because he ain't getting a Red Bull contract Rebel Racing. Well, he's got a Red Bull Racing contract, doesn't he?

Yes, just doesn't apply. It doesn't get him a swipe card into Milton Keynes. Unfortunately, I only could have applied for that. That's the state of the Alternative Championship at the halfway point of the season, or just after the halfway point of the season. Ten more rounds to go, ten more well, we one ten weeks. Actually, I think we do this every week, don't we? So we many more weeks of confusing entries in which we'll need to keep better track of before the end of the season to add some kind of explanatory note to how it's being decided, but Yuki Sonoda is certainly sitting pretty at the top of the standings at this point. That's all the time we have for Pittalk this week, but we'll be back in a couple of weeks ahead of the return to action at the Dutch 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 you can keep up to date with all the later steff On news through the week at Foxsports dot com dot AU and Speedcafe dot Com. From Matt Cosh and me Michael Amonado, thanks very much for your company and we'll catch you later this month.