Pit TalkLando Norris beats Max Verstappen to victory in wet-weather Melbourne after home favourite Oscar Piastri spins off the road to ninth, and what's the story behind Ferrari's big flop?
Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannons. On today's episode, Lando Norris defeats Max Forstaffen to victory in a chaotic Australian Grand Prix, while home favorite Oscar Piastre gets his year off on the back foot after spinning off the road and finishing ninth. My name is Michael Lomonato. It's great to have your company and the company of my co host, and thank you ever so much, indeed as ever for waking up at four am.
Matt Clayton, I think I happy waking up at four am for about the last week combining the Australian Formula One Grand Prix and a motor GP weekend in Argentina. Not not anyone's idea of a great fun weekend, but what's a good motorsport to talk about? And well, chaotic was the word of Sunday at the Australian Grand Prix. There was just a little bit going on, wasn't there.
It's a little bit too much going on everywhere. Yes, as we said last week, of course, motorsport everywhere, well except for some parts of Sunday. Of course, there was no supercars on Sunday or Formula two because the weather really set the tone for race day Sunday. Heir really heavy rain in the morning, easing off enough that thankfully we've got the Grand Prix going largely without a hit necessit. Isaac Kadjar might mention him a little bit later on, but by and large we got to the end of this race, not an unscathed because we had quite a few retirements, but all told, quite a good Grand Prix in the end to open the season. Cried a good Grand Prix for Orlando Norris in particular. Of course, we emerged the winner ahead of Max Withstappen by less than a second point eight tenths of a second. And I want to start here because of course, the big question of the Australian Grand Prix being round one was always going to be well where's everyone actually who's leading this pack? We suspected it was going to be McLaren. I think that was pretty comprehensively proved. Maybe before we look at that end battle that decided this race map. Let's have a look at that first qualifying and the first sint of this race where it really looked like all that talking down of McLaren's pace advantage by McLaren was exactly that talking down of something that they knew was there all along.
Yeah, it's funny, isn't it. Pre season it's always this race to the bottom and no we're not good. Look at them. There's always ever everyone trying to trying to run away from what the stop watching the eye test tells you after pre season testing. But I think what was most impressive for me was that this was a set of circumstances. As you said, no supercars, no Formula two. The track was super greasy. Track timp was less than half what it was in qualifying. So Melbourne Weather remains undefeated in the Alexicus of things. But this was the perfect set of circumstances for the front running team and in this case the front running driver and Lando Norris, to trip up on something. There were so many trap doors and trip wise for them. In that opening stint of the race. No one had done any wet running. The track was super changeable. Bits were wetter than others, as you know with Albert Park, with some parts that never really dry out because of the canopy of trees. I'm thinking of that run between turn five and six across the back there where Albert Road is so lot of a lot of tripwise for McLaren early on. But what we got was this demonstration of the pace they have in hand. We knew that it was there in the dry. To me, it was almost more accentuated in the wet because Norris just had this completely control, particularly because he had for Stappen between him and Piastre in that first into the race, after the Stappen had taken second place on turn two when Oscar got a little bit wide there on the first lap. So you know, yes, for all this talk of yes McLaren does have a pace advantage, I think that wasn't for debate. It was the extent of the pace advantage. And yes he ends up winning this Grand Prix by less than a second, but realistically there was it was more than that. I thought they had this pretty much under control.
Yeah, you'd almost think if this was a dry Grand Prix, and in that circumstance, probably Oscar Piastre gets a perfectly normal start hold second place because it was really only that he got onto the wet stuff in sort of turn one on two on the inside there this could have been a much more straightforward and extremely straightforward Grand Prix one's aspects sore very thankful for the rain in that context and that first in once Piastre got past Max and started chasing down Lando for the lead, they were pulling away at something like eight and a half tenths a lap from Verstaff. And it's important to note while Red Bull Racing had concerns coming into this race they weren't going to be competitive in the wet at least and in the dry and qualifying, but in wet race conditions he was still or Red Bull Racing was still the second quickest car. George Russell wasn't catching him, no one else had the pace to catch him. So this is a head of the field advantage again in these conditions and again at this circuit. But it seems clear that that's certainly the order of things as we anticipate the Chinese Grand Prix.
I like how you said he in relationship the staff and then corrected yourself to Red Bull Racing because it is still a one car team, and that's something that we'll probably get to a little bit later in this podcast. But to my mind, that and gap that you were talking about the advantage they had in that first stint. It was interesting to see where it was and it was all the third sector, Like they were unbelievable in that third sector of the lap. You saw that through qualifying on Saturday, but it was like they were taking a shortcut or something through the third sector of the lap, Like from turns eleven through to fourteen, that thing was absolutely on rails and you could see that every other team and driver was compromised to some degree. The confidence that those guys had even that semi wet through that final sector of the track just showed the the characteristics of that car and where it has its advantage over the rest at the moment.
Before we consider Norris and Vestapan's various attempts at winning this race. I thought it was interesting after the race listening to Andrea Stella talk the mclarentine principle, and he said, because the whole weekend has been, as we sort of alluded to earlier, bit of a cat and mouse game about why are you going to be the fastest. Well, I don't think we're going to book a Ferrari. They were very quick in practice all this kind of thing, and he got as close as I think he did to sort of admitting they knew that they were going to go all right, which is that they understood why they were fast, which was tie usage. Did you alluding to it to there, because that's fundamentally what made or break the third sector? Did you have any ties left after the rest of the lamp? And McLaren always did, and he said, yeah, that was an objective of us over the off season was to make sure our tie wear was very good, but we didn't expect it to make us fast. And it was sort of like, of course you did, that's why you do that. So there was sort of this little I suspect what it really is at times like that is as we saw often in the last two years, once McLaren started to become a competitive is this instinct to keep a lid on it right, not overplayhand, not get too excited. I suspect there must also be a degree of Well, the opposite happened last year, right McLaren started back and ended up winning the Constructor's Championship, or Red Bull Racing started very well and finished third in the title. So there's this interesting aliment here. And yes, it is one track, and everyone likes to say Albert Park is no longer representative, although we have so many circuits on the calendar these days that it's hard to know what is representative. But let's talk about Oscar Piastre's role in this, because there was a period of time when it seemed like him at least battling for the lead, if not taking it was inevitable. He had the pace on Lando Norris round about the middle of the Grand Prix. Once he broke past Max with Stafford and then was told to stop racing hold position, lost a bit of momentum and INDI end. He eventually went off track when the rain arrived later in the race and that was his day done. What did you make of his weekend, but in particular his Grand Prix performance tier because there's a lot of pressure on his shoulders. He says he doesn't feel it to perform at home. We've talked a lot and I think it's official curse territory now. I've seen that word floated around the Australian curve. So what did you make of it?
We need like an exorcism or something at this point. For all of the weekends, you thought that this podium curse for Australian drivers at Albert Park was going to be put in the bin. It was a weekend where the one of the two Australian drivers in the field was clearly in the best car and had qualified on the front row. But yeah, ding dong, the curse lives. We won't talk about that anymore. If we don't talk about it, maybe it'll be broken. But in answer your question, I thought his weekend was genuinely excellent, but just that tiny little bit less excellent than Norris. And that's the key part of all of this in that, and we'll get to the team instruction in a moment, I think we worked out. Wasn't it on Saturday that pstre had lost Pile by about five meters over a five point three k lap to Lando Norris and that minute margin zero point zero eight four seconds. That was pretty much set in place every single thing that happened thereafter in that he wasn't first into term one. He then lost second place to a stap and a turned two on the first lap took him seventeen laps to get back past. After Max had made a mistake, he was second on the road and closing. Therefore he was the one that was issued the police hole position order. He was the second driver to encounter the really wet weather late in the race where both Norris and Piastre went off at Piastre went off worse than Norris did and that compromise his final result. So he had a genuinely excellent weekend. I think he handled the attention and the pressure. I think he handled all of that incredibly well. He was just that tiny little bit less good as Norris was. But I was going to ask you about the team instruction here. I mean, it didn't play out very well in the press room, as you and I know, there was a bit of a harrumphing going on in a very very pack press room at Albert Park. But to my mind, well two things. A do you think the instruction would have been issued had the cars been in the reverse order, if it was Piastre leading and had let the whole race Norris tried to undo a rubbish first corner? And also do you think there was some context here? Because it was a very wet tracks, particularly offline, it was very treacherous. We'd see people go off they were about to lap a couple of cars. You didn't want to be in a situation where to let them race while lapping traffic on a bit of a slippery track, you could put yourself in peril. Did you understand why they made it? But secondly, do you think it was necessary at this point of the season.
Yeah, I think that's a good way to divide up that question. I can, particularly after hearing from Stellar after the race, I do understand why they made it because there is always context missing in team radio over broadcast because they just sort of broadcast the number of the issue so you know what's going on. The context was, yes, the back markers, the weather, the fact that rain was on the radar meant well, let's not overuse the tires now because you might need them later on. And I can understand it from the perspective further that McLaren, you've rocked up with a pace advantage. You want to make a big statement. You're the raining constructors champion. You've already said you want to win the driver's title as well. To have walked away from Melbourne without a victory, worse still without a victory because you drive made a mistake or you let race it in a poor context. I can understand why McClaren decided that they didn't want to do that. That said it was strictly a temporary ban on racing if you like, It was only a couple of laps. It was more about those back markers in the end, because once they'd cleared the back markers, they decided the rain threat was a little bit too distant to worry about and all that kind of thing. And I just also think and in the context of trying to get your season off on the right foot, to me, it seems really quite heavy handed in the context of, well, how much does the team plan to micromanage these situations, putting aside whether you think they should ever be team models or not, because I think these again were understandable if you've talked about how much you trust your drivers, and they've said they've talked all off season about how the rules of combat all that kind of thing, are you going to issue don't race every time there are some back markers up the road every time the facts a bit wet, And I just think that the risk here having been a little bit sloppy last year. Admittedly for McLaren they've improved a lot in that regard. Are they at risk of going too far the other way of attempting to micromanage every result, even if their intention is here in the last ten laps, second race or whatever, because I think there's risk in that as well if you keep doing this, and I think Oscar paid a little bit of a price for that, lost a bit of momentum, ended up off the road, cost him a few seconds. They allowed him to race again, he was too distant, had to close the gap, you know, in a more fraud situation where Max was closer, for example, maybe that could have lost them set well, they eventually second place, but you know, they could have lost them another place there. Who knows. So I just wonder whether McLaren ends up now accidentally inadvertently going too far in the other direction, end up essentially in the same place where calls from the pitwall have adverse effects or unintended side effects.
So I reckon part of that. It's almost an overcorrection to last year, where when they were faced with situations like this they tended to dither yeah, or it was a bit sort of like, oh, maybe can you do this? They were almost trying to be overly decisive at a point where they perhaps didn't need to be, whereas last year there seemed to be a lot of indecision and it was a bit wishy washy, and have we discussed this beforehand? And you've got Norris digging easy. It was in Budapest last year when he clearly inherited the lead through a pitch stock phase and so there's almost like they were going the other way. There'll be a happy medium they strike between these two. But I thought maybe it was a little bit heavy handed, a little bit too soon perhaps.
Yeah, and I think as well, maybe to cut them some slack, I mean, Indian they won the Grand Prix, but this was maybe underratedly. So it really quite a difficult race to strategize your way through the changing radar, the conditions, the uncertainty, having seen how heavy the rain was earlier and the threat of that rain. It almost did get that heavy right at the end, in fact, after the race had got that heavy as well. So I can understand why again, you know, McLaren didn't want to walk away from here having lost the race off its own bat, as it did several times last year. So I understand it from that context. It'll be interesting to see, you know, the team has said it expects to be in this situation many more times, but presumably in dry conditions how that plays out, and I think that'll be more of the test. So I blame them too much, but I do think there's a little question like about their intention there to manage that going forward. But the end, it was Oscobiastri finishing ninth after running off the road, being second in the rain. As you said, I think, just to put a bow on this, I really thought he's charged back up the order because he emerged last after reversing out of the grass. Very few people reverse out of that grass trap. In fact, even the timing screen decided to retire du track. But that move on Lewis Hamilton, which I think will take us nicely to chatting about Ferrari in just a second, I thought was a really it was a little bright spot at the end of a really disappointing second half of that race for him driving a little bit angry, I suppose, But maybe in that there's something to say that even when Oscar Piastri's driving angry, he's super controlled.
There's a decisiveness with which he makes his overtakes that only the truly great ones have, And I think That's one of the things that we were so excited about as Australian fans last year in that he races like someone who's far more experienced than someone who has a great amount of belief in their ability. And to my mind, yes, we know that Hamilton was struggling around a bit at that point, and the red mist might have been down for Piastre a little bit, given that he knew the laps were kicking down and he wasn't going to get on a podium that looked pretty much a sure thing. So yeah, there was a little bit of anger in there. But as impressive as it was, it was almost inevitable, I thought, and that I looked at the timing screens coming into that last lap, I thought, oh, he might catch him in the last sector. He ended up catching it before the last sector. But what a pass. That's not a place that you put passes on people at nine to ten fastest corner sequence on the track in the semi wet on the last lap of a race where there's a lot to lose, And he wasn't off the track, and he wasn't sideways and he didn't cause Hamilton to lift. It was just clinical and clean against a guy who's a seven time Formula One World champion. I mean, I think that was a nice little reminder that, look, Oscar's clearly going to win races this year. McLaren does have a car advantage at the moment. It wasn't his day on Sunday at his home Grand Prix, and that will sting. But the twenty five points are twenty five points no matter where you get them, and I think there are going to be several races this season, because there are approximately two hundred and thirty races on this year's Formula One calendar, there will be some of them that he wins. It was just a shame that this fantastic pass that he made on the final lap of his home Grand Prix was to take ninth place. But it was very good though.
Let's talk about Ferrari now, because coming into this race Ferrari Lewis Hamilton was always going to be a big talking point. Also because Ferrari finished last season in such good form. Over the last five Grand Prix, I think I had the fastest car, was outscoring McLaren. Took the Constructor's title right down to the wire and there was great optimism heading into this season because of that, and because of course they were inducting the seven time world champion Lewis Hamilton. This was his first Grand Prix. Very happy in the Thursday press conference, as happy as he's been all year, really buoyant, answered many questions, discovered theirre Italian people in Australia. Is very excited to learn that because he loves faster and pizza, as he said, and then that continued into Friday. I think even though there was quite a gap between him and Charlotte Clair and it was interesting and I guess positive you're a Lewis Hamilton fan to see that that gap shrunk over the course of the entire weekend and race date. Still a deficit, but was in the Lacler vicinity. So that's positive. But also I think a little bit of a reality check for him, wasn't it. I think he sort of suggested this on Saturday or Sunday night, that the mountains a climb to adjust to Ferrari and let's start with Lewis before we look at Ferrari's weekend overall is bigger than I think he anticipated, and I think this is a really big reminder of that on a high pressure weekend where the driver really needed to be hon it in the car, to be a one with the car that wasn't quite him.
Yeah, biggest task for him, biggest task for the team, bigger task for the Ferrari fans than perhaps we perhaps we should have seen this, given that you know, he's obviously in his forties, he's driven a particular car for a very very long time. Difficult circuit to debut in a car where you've done no wet running, You're still learning your way around the procedures and the switches, and you know, there's a there's a cultural element to driving for an Italian team that's very different to what he's driven for an English German team for so long now, So much was different. I think a couple a couple of things. I think he'll improve and the team will improve knowing how to work with him in leaps and bounds very very quickly. I don't think this is going to last very long at all. But there was just a sense of new boy at school, don't quite know what to do, where to go the whole weekend in terms of the radio communication with the team and where are the wet sittings on my steering wheel and what's this procedure doing? So the excitement of being there and the adrenaline that that's clearly gotten, catch a side of himself in a window or a mir and goes, look at me wearing there's red overalls. This is fantastic, But there's still the reality of having to deal with the white hot pressure of a Grand Prix weekend that no matter how long you've been doing it, and he's been doing it for a very very long time, it's going to be different. You are going to be more setting your ways because you've been where you are for a long time. I don't expect this is going to last. And the set of circumstances in Sunday's race where you're driving that car in the wet for the first time, still you don't have that relationship with your race engineer that him and Bono were basically thinking what each other was going to say before they were saying it because they've been together for so long. There was just a lot of first at school vibes for mine, and what he actually needed to fast track his adaptation was a really quite benign, sort of predictable race where he could just do his race and oh, look, I finished sixth or whatever it might be, and use that as a stepping stone towar's forward. They'll go to China this weekend, and assuming they get a dry, normal weekend, they're almost back at base camp again. Because yes, they've done this first Grand Prix, they would advance along a little bit. But it was such a strange weekend in so many respects that I'm not sure how much he and the team really learned about each other, other than the fact they still have a lot of work to do, but you've got time to do that. They were a little bit unlucky Ferrari, and we'll get to that in a sect in terms of when the safety car came when they pitted, they probably deserved better than where they finished. But I thought they were going to issume more of a challenge. Orlando Norris certainly thought that he was the team. Ferrari was the team that he was referencing was probably going to be their biggest challenge. So yeah, look, I think one in the we'll learn a lot basket for Ferrari, but for Hamilton, maybe we shouldn't have been surprised. It was a bit difficult.
Yeah, I think that's a good call. I think it was also interesting in retrospect to think back to how much Carlos Science was aggrieved after testing about the prospect of him having had only three days in the Williams. And he's a driver who's changed teams regularly in his career, so you think he'd be best place to be in the mindset to adapt correctly. Whatever. And maybe it is a case that these cars are just becoming over the last decade or however long you want to pick, probably overall time, more particular more difficult to jump into. And maybe we're learning that with one of the most experienced drivers on the grid that actually it's pretty hard and he has probably chosen one of the biggest jumps, as you said, from the UK to Italy, from the Sadies to Ferrari, pretty different setups there. But it'll be interesting to see how it evolves. Like you say, Chinese Grand Prix is coming up Sprint weekend though, and it's hard to know whether that's gonna be good or bad in the sense it's less practice and maybe it's harder, but it does just mean more competitive seat time. Maybe that ends up being a positive but probably they could use a little bit less pressure after Australia. But let's look at Ferrari overall now, because the talk was that it was probably going to be the second quickest team, even if it looked maybe harvestep behind McLaren. Friday practice suggested as much. In fact, Charlotte Clair was pleasantly surprised as it turned out, but also optimistic that contending for Pole could be on the cards, and that just got less and less through the closer they got to qualifying, until eventually they were nowhere near it and in the race where when the rain sort of levels things out and changes things a bit, but weren't really ever in contention for victory for bigger points, as you said, but never for the win. Disappointing for Ferrari is no other way to cut it, particularly given that McLaren seems to have this advantage and was let off a little bit in this weekend. Is it too early to say that Ferrari's has been dramatically overestimated And I've got a long season ahead of us, But how big do you suspect the task is for Ferrari to go back to where it wanted to be.
Yeah, I mean it was reminiscent. It was a bit sort of pre Freadvess Ferrari for mine. It was a bit indecisive and a bit inconclusive, and they sort of wildly flight trail. Oh look they're right up the Oh no they're not so. The ebbs and flows of the weekend reminded me of you know, Ferrari, of days of your and not particularly good ones. Look, this is classic small sample sized theater, right, so you know, we've had one particularly odd weekend with a new driver and the team, things fluctuating quite a bit. They will, as they say say in football parlance, be better for the run. I don't think it everything that could have every fifty to fifty thing from my mind over the course of the weekend that could have swung things in their favor basically didn't. And you had other teams step through that achieve results that probably they shouldn't. We'll get to those later in the podcast. But small sample sized theater. I don't think there's too much to be worried about yet. I think in a more normalized weekend, it still to me looks a quicker car than the Mercedes. It still looks a quicker car than one of the Red Bulls, and we're obviously talking about Max at some point. But I don't think there's too much to be worried about, simply because there's so much of the season to play out. But I was a little underwhelmed with what they did based on what Friday showed, and then it just kind of just bled away from Saturday. And even if things had gone very right for them on Sunday, I don't think they are continuing for a podium. They might fix fifth or something and might have been a decent result, so I would have expected better, But a lot of upside I would say for that too.
Yeah, I think qualifying behind one Williams and one racing ball from memory suggests to you that this was an underperformance on Ferrari's part. As good as Williams and Women's in particular, and racing balls looked compared to expectations, no one thinks that they should be Ferrari beaters, So there's definitely pace to be found as soon as this weekend, perhaps, but interesting to see where that eventually tops out, or whether they've reached a little bit of a ceiling in the last year of these regulations. Let's have a look at the order and what we've learned now from this race, because it being the first race of the year means there was a lot of learning to do, great unknowns going in no form book going in to Melbourne. We now get a little bit of that. We'll go it by constructors Championship order because that'll also give you a bit of an indication of where everyone shook out over the course of the weekend.
It's going to be grim listening for a couple of teams.
Yes, there's quite a few teams I think that didn't expect to be quite so far down the order. McClaren. We've talked about. We know they've done very well. We know they're going to be contending for both titles. We don't have to go back through that, but I want to start with Mercedes second in the order and equal on points twenty seven points after Andrea Kimmy Antonelli was put back into fourth after having it briefly stripped from him with a five second penalty. Good use of the review system by Mercedes after the race, even if it took quite a while to reach a decision. The quiet achievers I think of this weekend is how I'd probably assess it, considering very rare. Did we have any reason to think about them? But then there was George Russell on the podium and there was Kimmy Antonelli up from sixteenth. I think, wasn't it to fourth in the final order? A remarkable performance by him? But what do you think Mercedes after this will be thinking about its season, because I think they were one of the bigger uncertainties among the front runners after testing.
Yeah, they were kind of hiding in plain sight for the whole weekend because I think we knew that McClaren will probably the seem to beat. But every time we were having a conversation, all right, so who's going to issue them the big challenge? And it was well, perhaps it's Ferrari, and perhaps it's a Verstapan driven Red Bull. And never at any point did I really think, well, you know, maybe things break right, this could be a Mercedes weekend to get on the podium will really challenge. Now, obviously pastre taken out of a potential podium position opened the door for someone to step on that third step, and that someone was George Russell. But I thought they were just methodically consistent across the weekend and they got their reward. Antonelli was the beneficiary of being pitted at exactly the right time when that rain came down on lap forty four, so he jumped quite a bit forward there. But to my mind, you mentioned the fact that they're the team that we're not quite sure about. I think if any of these front running teams are going to not turn the twenty twenty five tap off but perhaps look a little bit more closely at twenty six and the rule change, I reckon they might be first to jump in that. I don't think they're coming into this season thinking well, we're an outside shot of the championship here, and I think that changes your outlook where it's like, well, if we win some races and do well, that's nice. But with this existing rule set, we've hit our head on a ceiling. It's not gone great over the course of the set. Let's get this next one right, which we know they did very famously, very very well in two thousand and four. So to my mind, they're the team of that front running quartet that perhaps thinks about next year first, and it'll be interesting to see if they have some good results, whether that changes the timetable on that or whether they're going to put all their eggs in the twenty twenty six basket and whenever they get out of this this year is a bonus, and this weekend was one of those bonus chips.
I guess yeah. You kind of feel like if they're in a similar situation to last year, in the sense that they're the team that can capitalize on your random weekends or when there's a mistake up front, that'll probably be a success. Not slipping backwards, not ending the year feeling like they didn't actually understand anything about these rules at all over the last few years would probably be a bit of a win. I want to talk briefly about Antonelli here as well, because we'll go through the rookies as we go through these teams. A little bit disappointing after qualifying. I've had some car damage, it turned out, which is why he struggled so greatly to get out of Q one. But in the race well strategy certainly felt his way. He had to be there to capitalize, and at that point four out of the five rookies were four out of the six rookies were no longer there to capitalize. I thought, actually this ended up being a little glimpse into why Mercedes rates him so highly.
And the thing that I loved about his whole weekend was that he just seemed a very happy to be there and be not overwhelmed at all by what was going on. And you have to keep reminding yourself that you look at the date of birth and think you do a double take when years old as me and go, come on, but what do we doing here? This kid's eighteen years old. Surely you should be a little bit more nervous or jumpy, or flighty or erratic. Nothing seemed to phase him. And this was a race weekend where there were a lot of things that should be you know, phasing a lot of a lot of drives, particularly some older ones. He seemed to just take it all in his stride. Now, whether that's youthful exuberance or confidence or preparation or whatever it might be, I think you're right, we got a glimpse into why Mercedes is so high on this guy. He looked so assured. And yeah, maybe the result was a little bit better than could have been on paper, but I don't think it was some outlier. I don't think he's going to take much time at all, and yeah, super interested to see how he goes once he you know, early in the season, everyone's got the right attitude and it's all fantastic. When you get to race seven or eight and you're on the Triple Header or whatever it might be, it'd be curious to see where he is then. But I think the signs from the start it absolutely justifies the hype, doesn't it.
Yeah, I think so. Red Bull racing next in the order on eighteen points. At the end of all this, all of them from Max for steffign it sounds like we've heard this story before, haven't we. They didn't expect to be contending this weekend. I think that's still the context of this race and the conditions. Well, in qualifying, I suppose that was a bit of Max brilliance, but conditions allowed Max to break into it, didn't really allow Liam Lawson to break into it though. In the end he crashed out of this Grand Prix. Not a great way to sy his debut, is it, obviously, but he's full time DEBI I don't know how we want to keep referring to this as just stop preferring to his a rookie. Yeah, wasn't ideal, but there were some mitigating circumstances. I think to Lawson's first weekend. There was the lack of testing. There was the lack of practice, which left him out in qualifying. Admitted to some mistakes. But if you're red Bull racing, are you starting to fear that you're going to repeat the mistakes after this round?
I mean that whole one car team thing. It was a bit like last year, with fewer kick kats in the media center, I guess, but.
It was.
Look, the circumstances were right in that he had some difficulties with a car problem on Saturday rain and the race on Sunday. The only driver that had never raced anything at our park before this weekend, which was a strange stat when you think that, yes, we had all these rookies, but at least they had done Formula two and they knew their way around in an open wheel around here. He did not. I was going to say things will get better, because quite frankly, they could not get worse. It was a bad as bad as it could be imagined. But I think he's proven over the eleven races he did before this race weekend that there is a better level than what he showed, So I'm not worried about that yet, despite lots of yelling from people with Mexican ties on social media, but that's fine as for a stapp and this is where you really find out how good the really really great are in that realistically that car didn't have any business being in a podium fight or know less than a second behind a race win. I still think at points that as good as Lando Norris is, he still needs a car advantage to beat Max Withstappen and it just shows you Verstappen in those conditions, it was Taylor made for him. We were joking on Sundays, so who's getting ready to write there? Max Forstappen wins Australian Grand Prix and the rain story because we've seen this happen before and we know how good he is. But his weekend was one of extracting every single bit out of what it was that he had, and what it was that he had wasn't much relative to who he was racing against, so a massive tick for him. But Gie, they need that second car scoring points because it's been pretty grim for about the second half of last season and certainly on this weekend. So if they're not going to finish fourth in a four horse race at the front of the field, then they need more from Leam Lawson. They need it quickly.
Yesugi Sinoda had a pretty good qualifying at least, and I think had a good race until the rain came. We'll talk about racing Bullson just the second. Williams is next in the Constructor's Championship points. Massive start for them could have been more, of course than Carlos. Signs not crashed out at the end of the first lap behind the safety car said that was also part of his learning process, not understanding the talk mapping under the safety car safety car engine map, I suppose in the car, and that's the reason why he crashed. But Alex Albon did what Alex Albon often does, which is just puts his head down and nails it and lo and behold there they are with ten points. They are I think, in my opinion, the surprise packet of this season so far. I know the race is an asterisk because of all the rain and that, but even before in qualifying and through practice looked competitive. It's a big unexpected step for a team that sort of started the year saying, well it's all about twenty twenty six is and it totally care what happens is.
Ye massively so. I mean it's a classic Alex Albot Australian Grand Prix. Look up and go, oh, there he is. He has been so he's so consistent yet not doing anything that's grabbing headlines, and he's just always there. You remember when Williams was the worst car in the field and you bob up in tenth place with one pit stop on the fighter of the penultimate lap of the race. But I like the noises that are coming out of that. It's not the glasses fully empty. It's not even a paper cup with those guys. But they don't over promise things, and so everything they do in the context of that is seen to be a little bit of over delivery. Their driver lineup is a really good driver lineup for a team at this stage of its development, if you want to call it that, because they've got two dependable guys who will work well together. They each have strengths that complement the teams and they will always extract the most out of what it is that they given operationally, they seem a lot sharper than they have been. I think James Vows is a particularly good figurehead for that team. It feels much more like a serious Formula One team, which is not something we've said for a while, which is a strange thing to say about a team that's had so much historical success. But we've not looked at Williams as a normal team down the back because of the historical success in the past. I think we've looked at them through a different lens. They look to me, you know, there's this going to be this battle all season who's the fifth best team. I think we know there's probably a top four and then who's there with that driver line up and that leadership and that trajectory. Yes, a little bit of a surprise, but perhaps it'll crystallize in the next year. Ransom go. These guys look a legitimate get into Q three scrabble for sevenths through to tenths on a normal weekend. They look like a team that can absolutely do that well.
The team that did finish fifth last year and is fifth in the standings this year is Aston Martin eight points. Pretty quiet weekend over all. I would say double Q two elimination. Fernando Alonso bidden himself out of the Grand Prix later when it was less wet. But advidly everyone was being at some point or other in this race, and as a Lance Stroll who delivered the goods in the end with the sixth place. I don't think I heard Lan Stroll talk hardly at all this weekend, but it was pretty pleased on Sunday. But I think this is my suspicions, this is a little bit, a little bit of a reprieve for Aston Martin what's going to be a bit of a so so sile start to this season.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And for full disclosure here for the listeners, you and I looked at each other on Sunday after the race with Stroll finished sixth, who knew he barely see him on the cover, barely noticed them all weekend, obviously notice them when clearly not experienced enough. Fernando a lot so he didn't have enough knowledge of how to drive Albert Park in the rain, and that's why he bind it. But to me that was a little bit of an outlier result because at no real point over the weekend did they look like they were capable of that, so I think they were the beneficiary of a lot of circumstances. It is going to be a tricky start to the season for them. We know that their focus is further down the road than twenty twenty five, so they'll take it while they can get it. But I guess the real thing for me is how grumpy is Fernando going to get between now at the end of the season, because his Friday press debrief was quite something, wasn't it.
He's already not answering questions and they haven't even had a full race weekend. Man, I just can't wait to see how this one evolves, because you got this is the feeling after testing that this was going to be a bit of a tough year for him, and he doesn't do toughy as well. I think generally they're all sixth in the order, which means ahead of Ferrari in seventh is Souber the team. Everyone expected to be battling with themselves to finish last as they did last year, but here they were having a better week than anyone expected. Obviously, I want to give credit to Gabriell. Bortoletto didn't crash out of the race unfortunately, but did really well in qualifying, maybe one of the stars of qualifying, considering he is a rookie who has probably come in with the least F one experience or mileage, notwithstanding he was ere n F two last year obviously when he won the title. This I really genuinely don't know how to read this one for Salva, because there's sort of this impression that actually they got testing a bit wrong and there's a bit more pace in there, certainly not an enough to fishy head of ferrari normal circumstances, but that there might be a little bit there. But what did you think of their weekend?
A lot to be optimistic about. I thought Bortiletto handed himself really well when we know how good the Junior CV is, and there was nothing that we saw over the weekend that made you doubt that he's going to be a very dependable rookie and do as well as that car enables him to do. But to my mind, this whole weekend for Sowbery is a They bought a lot of new parts from testing and transformed the car because it did look like a bit of a shedded barrain awful. It was clearly the worst car on the grid and bahrain and testing. But this is also why you're high Nico Holkenberg, because with the experience and the dependability and the adaptability, that race was tailor made for someone like him to come through and get a result that they shouldn't already beaten last year's points tally, which admittedly is which admittedly is a very low number. So let's not get too carried away here, but they could not have come to Melbourne with any expectation that was going to be the case. They were. It's faint praise. They were less bad than I was expecting. So it's about as excited. It's about as excited as I've got to get about. So Albert look good, really good race operationally for them. Hulkenberg's a very very safe pair of hands, and look excellent weekend for them relative to some of the teams that they're going to be around. In the Constructor's title.
Yes, so for Ari seventh, we've talked about the disappointments of their weekend and where they can improve. L Pine eighth, I would have thought there'd have been a couple of points in the story for them Pierre Gasly was in good form this weekend, and of course we should talk about Jack doing here, who I think actually had spite crashing out of the race on the first lap. A fairly solid weekend considering the pressure he's under. A. It's his home race. B the presidence of Franco colo Pinto looking in the shadows as the reserve driver, the talk about five races to prove himself, et cetera. I thought you'd actually looked pretty assured, like a driver was a little bit more experienced than he was. But no points was the story for a helping And let's talk about Jack doing here. How did your set his weekend look.
The first lap in those conditions, I mean, Isaac Kadja didn't make the start, Carlos Signs crashed before the first lap had finished. You had a four hundred and one race Veterani Fernando a lot So throwing it at the fence. It was one of those sorts of days. And so you can give Jack a pass to a degree for what happened on the first lap. I thought generally on track he looked pretty assured. The margins and the comparison to Gasley was pretty favorable, probably better than maybe we were expecting. Across the sessions and through qualifying, he's qualifying got ruined by a yellow flag on his best lap in the last sector. I think what was more impressive for me was he knew what the narrative was going to be coming into this weekend with all of the Colopinto stuff, and he's at home and all the pressure. I thought he handled that incredibly well. He was assertive without being overly punchy and aggressive about it, but he also wasn't just going to sit back and cop it either. He was very much on the front foot. He used that classic set of Australian humor, let's to diffuse a situation. There are a few earnest questions being peppered at him in the Thursday pre race press conference. I thought you handled that incredibly well. I think if there was any other narrative than perhaps this guy's a dead man walking with this five race deal or whatever it might be, we'd look at his weekend very, very differently. I thought he handled the weekend pretty well. I think the gap between he and Ghastly would give Alpine pause for thought, because perhaps it was better than they were expecting it was a perfectly dependable I'm going to say debut, even though it wasn't his first race of his second, but really starting a first full season under that microscope. I actually thought he had a pretty decent weekend and they should be pretty optimistic with Yeah.
I've been a big advocate of his raw speed because that was clear enough to qualifying. He did do a little bit better than I expected because he was ahead of Ghastly until those yellow flags, so quite a lot of pace there. And you do hope that if Alpin is considering turfing him later, that this is giving them a little bit of a moment to think that, actually, the guy that invested so much money over the last few years, maybe he's worth a bit of a crack. Racing Bulls in ninth place in the constructors Championship again another team that looked like there could have been a point or two, particularly in the rain considering where Yuki Snoda started, but also Isaac Hadja having qualified eleventh, the fastest of the rookies. I guess this doesn't he hasn't had He hasn't started his first race, has it? The statistics books will show zero starts. I believe. So maybe his debut wasn't a write off because it technically hasn't happened yet, but a lot I think actually to be excited about for this team, considering their testing performance looked pretty unremarkable, but this weekend in the dry and qualifying and even wow, the WED is a little bit harder to read, I suppose, but Yuki Sonoda probably could have scored point said strategy for and more of his favor. This team looks more together than I expected.
Yeah, much more so. I thought Sonoda was clearly the second best Rebel back driver over the course of the race weekend. And as we know, we'll never see Red Bull's main team that's another story, but to my mind he probably would have finished around where Hulkerberg was. I thought that was probably like a seventh or eighth for that team based on where they were in qualifying. He was excellent the entire weekend. I think he's really matured as a driver at a point where it's probably not going to matter within that organization unfortunately. But to my mind, they were the team that could be the most disappointed of that other group leaving Melbourne because they probably should have had some points as you mentioned, Haja was good the entire weekend. We know that he's probably going to be a bit spikier in terms of performance trajectory than in the other rookies. I think the high points will be very high. I think there'll be some races that are not so great, or he'll do some things that are a bit regrettable. Now, obviously what happened on Sunday on the formation lap could happen to anybody, probably always going to be happening to a rookie. I don't know what you made of the scene as he came back into the paddock and was consoled by Anthony Hamilton, who is the father of Ajar's absolutely idol in Lewis Hamilton. I thought that was a nice touch and showed the compassion of a parent. I guess, you know, look looking knowing how Haji must have been feeling at that time, I'm not sure I quite subscribe to the helmet Marco theory that I was just embarrassing and just dismiss at all. There is a human element to this sport that's particular. Members of that team seem to have a look from time to time. But I thought racing bulls had a much better weekend than we were expecting and taking some of the randomness out of the back end of the race. I thought Sonoda was one of the quiet underachievers of the weekend.
Yeah, certainly don't subscribe to Helmet Marco's viewpoint there. I thought that was on most things one most on most things, I mean showings, a human emotion, a kind of what makes sport. And so I'm glad we heard, you know, an unvarnished look at that, and you know he did the classic keep your homet on. But that's that's part of it. And also they'll have been at a minimum massive adrenaline, adrenaline release or let down after crashing out as you're going to the grid. I think it's all pretty understandable. And yeah, you're right, I think it's I think ironically, actually he's walked away from this race, maybe with his reputation and expectations a little bit embellished, weirdly enough because of the speed he is shown and because I think it and that sort of reflects on the fact that that formation lap accident was understandable, even if it was a little bit unfortunate. And finally, let's talk about half the team I didn't think would be attempting to constructive standings no points. I mean, at this point the constructive standings are kind of meeting this. But tenth and last is also where this team seems to be on pure pays. They did the same thing last year we're in testing. They did no qualifying lap running and they turned up to the first race and they were reasonable and they had a pretty good year. Same strategy this year has not delivered. Have shown no one lap pace whatsoever. No race face admitted was in the wet. So maybe we give him a little bit of a little bit of a leave pass on that respect. But Oliver Bherman atrocious weekend v here haven't got about fourteen laps in total before the race, did at least finish, but he finished had last. This is a little bit concerning after such a good year for us, after so much positivity last season. This feels like a real admittedly on the basis of one race, but a real step backwards.
You probably should have paused for about a minute before we started talking about hass because that's how far they were behind everyone else relative to the forwards over the Australian Grand pre weekend. It was slow, it was unreliable. Oliver Bherman, the man from Chelmsford, is he was probably discussed on the coverage, managed to hit a lot of stationary objects and wasn't very fast when he was on track. We know that he's better than that because we saw it, you know, those cameos that he made last season. But it was alarming for me that, I mean, look, someone has to be last as the place sport works. But they were so nailed on last with absolutely nowhere to go. And you know, it's not like they're lacking in experience with estebanoc On on the other car, but it just wasn't capable of being in a position to even capitalize on a bit of late race craziness. It was absolutely nowhere. And you're right, I mean, they have had this plan the last couple of years where we're not going to chase performance runs in testing, going to make sure the car's reliable, it's works well on heavy fuel, so and so forth. You would hope for their sake that this was a bit of an outlier because it started badly and never got better at any point. They were completely cast to drift off the back. Funnily enough, they probably did have a little bit of a say in how this race was run, as we discussed a little while ago about McClaren saying, hold station while we're lapping these cars because they're so slow and we don't know where they're going to go. But man, they have got a I don't know to my mind who I think the ninth best team is based on Melbourne, because it was a little conclusive and a bit of ratic. Whoever that is halfs is a long long way behind them.
Yes, and with approximately as you said, a million races still to go, very long season for them in twenty twenty five. Before we wrap this one up, mat of course, we need to visit in with not only what's happened in the last week of motor sport in terms of action, but also our predictions. Let's start with the move of the week by Shannon's no shortage of motor racing over the course of the weekends. It hasn't been too tricky for us to pick some thing. Why don't you go first?
Well, the best bit I like about this is neither of us have shared our answers beforehand, so we can we can surprise one another. I go go back and watch this, but I overtaken them over taken. The week for me in Motor GP was it was the last lap. It was Fabio de gen Antonio on Joanes Ziko for fifth on the last lap in Argentina. Not because fifth there's anything to write home about other than the fact it did lock out the top five places in the race. Fu Jucati, which is another story, but it was an unbelievable move at turn eleven, big long left hand, you basically can't pass there. It's that place where you would only try to pass on the last lap. And the best part about it was did Year afterwards said I had to invent somehow the overtake and I want the video of this overtake. So that was why he sent it on the last lap, so he requested the video, He got the video, he got the per finishing in the top five, but underlighting Ducatti's dobbitt, it's with a brilliant pass on the last lap. Although a Honda and sixth place is not something we've said for a while, so I don't think Johannes Zarko was too disappointed with that. But that's my overtake of.
The week anyway, I like, you know, I don't know when exactly it took hold, but this the idea of sending it to becoming overtaking parlance in other sport. I like the idea that I've requested the video will be the new You've gone for a big, gutsy overtake. I requested the video and I got it.
I think that's very Yeah, he aimed high and I hit the target.
Yeah. I also like, wasn't it only a week ago that he described his shoulder as being at zero percent after injury and was still declared victoration.
Righter declared fit the greatest three words in Bodo GP. It's partially while we love it, it's like it'll be, it'll be fine. One of my shoulders works. Nothing to see here.
Yeah, look my pick I think was much more well, I don't know, it was much more straightfward. It was certainly straightforward. It's something we've already mentioned. In fact, that Oscar Piastri's move on Lewis Hamilton into the turn nineteen she came laid in the races is, of course, after Oscar had already spun off the track. He's podium dreams were dashed. He'd gone to the back and was recovering admirably. I can't really think of the last time I saw and move through there that wasn't on a back marker, although maybe you could argue the Ferraris were a little bit backmarker vibe this weekend considering where they were relative to McLaren. Certainly, certainly Oscar made the Ferrari look like a different category of much lower category of car. But I just liked that controlled anger that I think we sort of talked about the way he was driving there. Not every driver can drive angrily, certainly, and every driver can overtake their angrily such a clean clinical part. Of course, he needed Hamilton to play ball there because he could have so easily punted them both out of the race and made his Ferrari debut even worse. But I mean it took a lot of guts in the wet to pull that off, and I just did superbly.
Well, that's very much one of those you can't pass their corners, as one of those ones where if you are the faster car, you set yourself up for the rundown to turnal eleven and dive down the inside and get it done there with a significantly less peril. But I think final lap of the race, and as we discussed before, a bit of a hometown red mist, he was sending that and did it rather nicely. The point you made about Hamilton is very true, because a less experienced driver or maybe someone realizing, you know, I need to give this guy some space. Yeah, and to be fair to Pastri, there was no lock up, there was nothing sideways, he wasn't on the curve, got it done cleanly and clinically, I feel like it should have been worth more than one extra point. It was pretty good, nonetheless.
Worth more than just ninth place. Maybe a future I wonder if that'll just give everyone a little bit of a nudge to try it in the future. I think that qulit end disastrously. Oh yeah, people were attempting at nine to ten, But we'll wait and see. That's the last week of racing as it was, But Matt, we can't end without looking forward. Thanks to complete home filtration, our crystal ball for the next week of motorsport. Much quite a week this weekend of motorsport. But of course you can look beyond that. The crystal ball has no limits the crystal You can predict something for twenty twenty eight if you really wanted to. So what are you looking forward to? Crystal ball?
The way it's going to get. The moment will Mark makes lose a race before twenty thirty eight, I think I'm going to go down that path.
But look not so good, oh man.
The next week of Motor GP, of course, is where we go to the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, where he's quite good. You may have heard over the course of time, so I could say, look, Marquees is going to keep this unbeaten streak for twenty twenty five going at Coja, But that would be the most lame prediction of all time. So what I'm going to predict is Ducati won't lock out the podium in Texas, which is they've been doing for fun basically in every race and sprint so far this year. I think we're going to see an Aprillia on the podium there, and I think it's going to be Marco Bidzeki, simply because I think he's leading the charge there at the moment with Juge Martine still being out injured, and lets we forget Aprillia won a race. They won both races at Coja last year with Maverick Vignalez. That was the last Grand Prix Ducati did not win. That's nineteen some days ago, almost a full calendar year. So it's about time we had this streak of Decati podium lockouts end. And I'm saying it's going to be Buzeki at Cota.
Well, it would be spectacular because you're also means you well, I mean you're necessarily predicting Mark Marque is not going to have things all his own way, are you, But it's not going to be one hundred percent Caddy, which would be very impressive. So you're going to have Mark Marquez, Alex Marquez and then a brilliant.
Correct Well, actually no, I think I think the Berzekie could actually split the Marquess boys. Alex Marquez isn't brilliant around Coda as much as he's been a new rider this year. But picking against anyone other than Mark Marquez at Cota most years are silly, and this year is even sillier.
Well, I look forward to seeing it. I could have gone, you know, the popular choice for this weekend's Chinese grand friends said, you know Oscar's going to avenge the disappointment. It's going to win the race, going to show us the championships on I still think that will probably happen, but that's just not what I'm going to predict. I'm going to say that Ferrari's start of the season is going to get a little bit worse before it gets better. I think this is a bit of a longer term fix. I'm not going to say who. I'm going to say one of them is going to be knocked out lowly in Q two. I think it's not going to be a double Q three, so even worse than they're doing. I know it's very middle of the road prediction now I think about it, but it will be dire because this is Ferrari. Don't forget saying that it was Friday practice that was indicative of their pace. Of course, when Charlottelair topped Friday practice and not the low qualifying and the race results, I think there's a little way to go on this Ferrari. I I thought it was interesting that after the race that you know, often on a Sunday when the team's you know, made a mistake on Saturday, I don't say it at the time, but by Sunday night they say, ah, look, we know we did this wrong this X and Y, and they didn't ever really say that, So I think that there's a little bit more for them to discover before this season gets going well.
And also we've got a sprint weekend too, so Friday practice singular, there's only going to be one of them, so we're straight into sprint qualifying on Friday, So the time for that team to cure whatever ills it had on Sunday at Albert Park is pretty limited this weekend, so I don't mind that prediction at all.
That's all the time we have for pit Talk today. You can subscribe to Pittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts and leave us a rating and review as well, and you can keep up to date with all the latestef one Supercars and motosup news, and there was a lot of that over the weekend at Fox sports dot com dot AU from Matt Clayton and me, Michael Lomonado. Thanks very much for your company and we'll be back next week.
