Antonelli delight & Piastri disaster: Chinese GP Preview

Hello and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shannon's.

On today's episode, Andrea Kimi Antonelli becomes Formula 1's 116th winner after claiming

his maiden Grand Prix victory in China at the weekend, but it's disaster for McLaren

and for Oscar Piaestry, who's now yet to start a Grand Prix in 2026 after a technical

problem on the grids.

My name's Michael Lomadato, it's great to have your company and the company of my co-host.

When he plays Mario Kart, he always chooses the character with the most efficient energy

recovery system to reduce the need for super clipping.

It's math pleasure.

Isn't that the way everyone plays Mario Kart?

I thought you were going to go down some path about mushrooms and then talking about some

sort of spurious habits that I might have had as a young man and I was a little concerned

about this, but I will take that and yeah, who would have thought that in 2026 we'd be

referencing Mario Kart multiple times in Grand Prix race reports, but this is the new

look Formula 1 and whether you like it or not, Max Verstappen does not, he's entirely

up to you.

But yes, plenty of that and more to discuss in his episode, I'm sure.

Yes, I will say word to Max Verstappen with Mario Kart Joe, which wasn't his, was Charlotte

Claire's.

It's funny one, saying it more than four weeks, you know, where it wears out.

I think he's got to come up with some new rhetorical argument.

A little bit, yes.

A little bit.

But it's up to him.

He's the world champion, not me.

Let's look at the race though, in which he barely figured and we'll talk about Max Verstappen

and Red Bull Racing's woes a little bit later on as we will McLaren's problems, of course.

But we've got to talk about Formula 1's new winner, Andrea Kimi Antonelli in his 26th

Grand Prix with Mercedes and of his career is a race winner.

He did it from pole position.

He did get pole position after George Russell had some engine problems in Q3, though they

both did complete their final laps and he led the Mercedes front row.

Lockout, briefly lost the lead to Ferrari, as I think is just going to be every race for

whoever starts on pole position.

But got it back and then really controlled this race, I think it's fair to say, barely

a problem.

One lock up about three with three laps to go, which was its own little heart attack moment

for Mercedes, but secured the victory nonetheless.

And this was, I think really, I'm thinking of the most appropriate word.

He invalidation or vindication for Mercedes and total wolf in particular who gambled big

on who what was an 18 year old when they gave him his debut last year.

Yeah, vindication's probably the word.

I'm also a little bit surprised with the narrative of this because there was nothing

that we saw last year with Antonelli that made me think that he might not have it.

I think there were your standard peaks and troughs of a rookie season and some, you

know, strange run of results where he did nothing on tracks that he knew and then went tracks

that he didn't know and did particularly well.

I don't think the speeds ever been in question or the talents have been questioned.

And a lot of that just came down to what the date is on his birth certificate.

I think if he'd been a little bit older, we might have been framing it a little bit

more differently last year, but there's never been a lack of quality or potential there.

I think it's interesting now how quickly he has adapted to life at the front now that

he has a genuine front running car, but maybe that's just a trait of all the really good

young guys.

And we've seen it in the past with Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vatel guys who come in

and when they get their hands on proper race building machinery, the age is not super

relevant anymore.

So I guess look vindication because total wolf cops him heat about it, but there was nothing

last year that made me think this wasn't going to be in his future.

Now, whether I saw the future being this soon, the chance of a real reset for 26 always

opened the door to that.

And we knew over the offseason that look like Mercedes had a bit of a march on everybody

else and these first two rounds have just confirmed that, but it's good for the world

championship that we have different Mercedes drivers within Grand Prix because that might

be the narrative for the season because at the moment they are absolutely miles ahead

of everybody else.

And as we live through 2023, where there was a particular car miles ahead of everybody

else and the same guy wanted it all the time.

So that wasn't super interesting, but yeah, it's a fight at the front between two drivers,

but it's better than a fight at the front with one.

Yeah, well, you've got to take what you can get.

I think it'd be circumstances, Tony.

I think it was an important result though, Frantinale, and I do at your point, I don't

think I don't think anything we saw last year was dire, but certainly there were a lot

of things that you would put down to what inexperiences age and being thrown into a car with

front running aspirations, let's say it was last year's Mercedes car, but alongside

a driver who I think was peaking last year, or not at his peak, I guess, because he could

still get better, could do a drussle, but I think it quickly attained a higher version

of himself.

But I think the reason it's important is because we saw last year when the Mercedes car

was struggling and Russell was struggling relatively less, that those bad weekends really

compounded on Antonelli, I think psychologically, there were rounds at which it seemed like

he'd have almost been broken, and they were talking about having serious chats about

his execution and that kind of thing.

And I think that's important this year because let's say we got five, six rounds in whatever,

George Russell's won them all, or he's beaten Antonelli in all of them anyway, whatever

the outcomes are.

The question in a car like this would eventually become, well, when are you going to win

your first race?

And that pressure then builds.

Even if he's executing relatively well, constantly finishing second, that would have become

a thing, I think, for him, because he's young, and I think that that's still the case.

So ticking this off now, regardless what happens with the rest of the year, you know, probably

not if he doesn't win another race for the rest of the year, but even if he goes now

long stretch without getting that next win, as long as he's competitive, I think this

win now is important to prevent that question from being asked, because from this point on,

and I thought it was interesting, Toto Wolfen, and even Antonelli's dad, in some post-race

interviews, when asked about, you know, is this the championship fight now, or both?

They didn't say no, but they said in many more words, essentially, the same thing, I

think, well, he's very young and inexperienced.

I think now the work to take the pressure off him in that perspective can be done much more

easily, because he's proved he can belong there, and we can recognize now how young and

inexperienced he is.

Yeah.

And then some of that, I think, even goes back, you know, you've rewind all of what eight

days before his first Grand Prix, we forget that if one was in Australia so recently,

when he'd been to turn one, two in practice at Albert Park on the Saturday, and it was

the race against time to get the car ready for qualifying, to think that eight days later,

he's ticked off his first pole position, and he's first win.

I think that's a really good sign, because, you know, the, the FP3 shunt at Albert Park

was a classic sort of driver overreaching a little bit, and it played into the narrative,

like, oh, here we go again, big moment, it's all a bit, you know, the lights are a bit

bright, that sort of thing magnified more by the fact that you've got the class-led

car right now.

So, for him to be able to turn that around in the space of eight days and take his first

pole position, okay, George Russell's qualifying was slightly compromised, but he still had

to do the lap, and then convert from pole to do that eight days after you've thrown it

in the fence right before the first qualifying of the season.

Is testament to perhaps the resilience that last year brought for him a little bit, because

he had to deal with some, some difficult times last year.

I think what we saw over the weekend, you know, you've, you've been around long enough,

you see this when guys win that first Grand Prix, and you're like, well, okay, that's

fine, and then the wait for the next one, like it's an unsustainable peak.

Now, clearly, he's got a great car, but I think that belief factor, the fact that

he now knows that he can do it, as you've said, two rounds into a 22-round season.

Boads really, really well for the future for him and within that team as well, because

I think we can now remove the easy, the right guy for the job in the number two seat, which

is what it is at the moment.

The answer to that is yes, and anything else that happens now, yeah, vindication, I think

was a good word that you used earlier.

Yeah, I think also really fitting from the broadermost Mercedes perspective in the context

of having promoted him so quickly was to have Lewis Hamilton on the podium and him to sort

of say, oh, the guy took my seat with my engineer who was also on the podium, Peter

Boddington, receiving the constructors trophy, and then also George Russell there, I guess,

he had a role to play as Hamilton's teammate, current teammate now, championship favorite,

all that kind of stuff.

It felt to me, I don't want to say changing of the guard, because that sort of makes it

feel like Lewis Hamilton's going to retire after this, now that he's got the podium for

Ferrari that he's wanted for 26 rounds.

But there was this moment, because we shouldn't forget that Mercedes really believes it

has potentially the next Hamilton or whichever champion you want to put in the box.

I think more, probably more specifically from Total Wolf's perspective, the next was

to happen, but nonetheless, on its hands with Anton Ali.

So there was this moment, and Hamilton said it multiple times over the weekend, I don't

think he said it in any way maliciously, I think it was warmth to it, but I just thought

it was interesting, he kept saying, this is the guy who took my seat, and I just can't

help but be coming back to that, because that is what Mercedes wants, he doesn't want,

they didn't want just someone to simply feel the seat by Hamilton, they wanted someone

to take his position, if you like, not in seniority terms or in ability terms, that comes

back to all the contract chat, I guess in the middle of the last year about George Russell

too.

So I just think that's sort of an interesting, I wonder how important this race will come

back to be reflected upon, we don't always remember the first wins by all of the greats,

but this was perhaps not a classic race from Anton Ali's perspective, because we don't

want to, took the lead from Hamilton, we didn't really think about him again after that,

fine, the first win for someone who's probably going to accumulate quite a few, an interesting

way to achieve an interesting podium configuration to achieve it.

Yeah, I like the podium, it felt like it was that sort of, you know, satisfying completion

of the puzzle, like everything was in its right order, the fact that Pete Bonington was

up there, and it all felt sort of very nice, close to circle and all of that, but I mean,

he's Kimi Ann's Nelly, the next Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton, I mean, what two of the

best three or four drivers in the history of Formula One, I mean, let's just pump the brakes

a little bit on that one, but as a first building block in what that narrative might be,

it was pretty convincing, you know, other than the lock up three laps from the end, which

gave everyone a jump scare on the Mercedes-Benz Peugeot, I think it was not really in doubt,

once he got back to the lead, they're the sorts of wins that as a young driver and as a driver,

who's not done it before, generally hold you in pretty good stead, but yeah, it was the,

I know you're a man of order, you don't like half-point, you know, all these other sorts of things,

it was a, it was, it was a neat completion of the circle and the narrative, and I've got to say

two, I mean, we'll get on to Lewis in a second, but I think happy, deferential Lewis is a

nice Lewis to do, it's in Formula One, there's a degree of positivity because God, those

are not negativity up there, they're the gridrock now, but happy Lewis, when he sees the big

picture, he offers the good sound, but he's a good place for Formula One. Yes, I'm a man of order,

and you can imagine how upset I was when I heard Ann's Nelly, it locked up three laps to go

with my race report, pretty much done, very pleased, he retained it, very good. Let's get, let us

get along to Lewis Hamilton, now finally has that podium for Ferrari, he's the driver who's taken

the longest to get there in Ferrari, he's street buddy got there, which is what's important,

and he got there not in some unusual random way, he got there in a race, which he had to fight for,

he had to fight his teammate for it, and had to, well, at one point, fight some Mercedes for it,

looked on the pace all weekend, this was a pretty good weekend for him, similar, I guess, to China

last year, although I think more comprehensive, notwithstanding the one, the sprint from pole last

year, and probably one of his most convincing weekends is a Ferrari driver so far, I think,

you know, notwithstanding Charlotte Claire has admitted he's just in one of his tracks, I think

that's probably true, but I don't think that discounts it by any means, because I think also what

we saw in Australia was Hamilton pretty much there, he's in the ballpark with Leclerc, I don't think

we can hope, but too much more than that, at least until the car gets a little bit more competitive,

we can really put the spotlight on it, but this for me also felt like, speaking about that

completeness of the podium and the importance of that result, that this wasn't important result

from how, for Hamilton, beyond just the monkey being on the back about the podium, but perhaps

signifying that we're back to seeing him at, I don't know, he's best, he's best maybe he's not

it, but in good form, at least. Yeah, I mean, I don't, I can't see a world, to me, the best Lewis

Hamilton has ever driven in Formula One was at the end of 2021, when he was pursuing Max Verstappen

for that title, and then Abu Dhabi, and then let's not talk about that anymore, but that was the

best, that was the best we've ever seen from him, I think, and as he gets, you know, he's been

around for so, so long now, and he's had all the success that he has, there was a definite,

he's much more on the rollercoaster now than you would expect of a driver who's been around

this long, but when he's motivated and he's got something to fight for, the old magic is still

there, and you have people wanting to make reference that there's still life and the old dog and

that sort of stuff, which was, I know, I know what he was saying, I'm not sure if it's the most

charitable bit, but it was a confluence of a few things here, China's a really good Hamilton

track historically, and China is not a great Leclerc track historically, so we would need to see

a little bit more evidence from a few other tracks where perhaps the clear is a bit stronger,

or it's more neutral between the two of them, but I liked the fact that this drought was broken

through, no sense of fortune or luck or some opportune safety car or everyone else crashed out,

whatever it might have been, it was done completely on merit, I love the fights, you know,

so I think the, the great part about the battle between Hamilton and Leclerc was it was

allowed to happen, you know, you can discuss whether it was genuine or fake based on battery usage

and other such, but it was very, very entertaining, and it was pretty ferocious, and my favorite part

of the entire race was Charlotte Clare on the radio guy, yeah, that was kind of fun, I enjoyed that,

because we all did as well, and it was great that there wasn't any, you know, make sure you don't

hit your teammate, so on and so forth. It was properly on the edge, and it was really nice to see,

because, you know, obviously when Leclerc and Hamilton came together as teammates last year for

the first time, we weren't quite sure we were going to get with 40-year-old Lewis Hamilton, you know,

going through the, as you memorably wrote once, the midlife crisis of man in his 40s, switches to

Bifurgery, we weren't quite sure we were going to get, was there going to be hangover from Mercedes

and what if it doesn't go well? And we saw what happened last year, it was the, you know, leanest

statistical season of his career, whether he's still got the ability to dial that in race by race,

week by week, I don't know, but I'm glad that we don't have to talk about the podium drought anymore,

it was achieved on complete merit, and you know, it's exciting to see where this might get to,

because I think an invigorated, feisty Lewis Hamilton at the front of Formula One races just adds

an element that this season's probably going to need, because I don't think we're going to have

red ball other than it's emittingly at the front of races for a while, it just adds a little bit of

adding some red to the color palette Michael, that's what we want, we want nice vivid paintings

in Formula One, we don't want lots of silver and black, it makes for good for Mercedes, but very

dull TV, so inject a little bit of red, and there's nothing like watching, I like to refer to this as

old guy still got it in any sort of sport, I love this when you've got these guys that are clearly,

you know, the clock's about to strike 12 of their career, we're just about done here, but it's nice

to get that reminder of someone's ability, and thoroughly enjoyable, and Ferrari doing good things

for Formula One at the moment, which is not something we've had to say for the last couple of years.

Yes, no strategy here as this week either, and I do like, I think at a minimum with Hamilton now,

you know, we'll find out this year, presumably, if Ferrari gets any better, even if it doesn't,

you know, where he is in terms of his ability relative to his best, only anyone who expects him to

beat his best, but you know, even just off his best is still obviously very good, but I like that

this year, unlike last year, it feels like, and we are speaking only two out into the season,

but nonetheless, that we will get, you know, at least one of those Hamilton classic races, it feels

like he's at least in the mind frame where we're going to see, we're going to see at least one

weekend where Hamilton probably is at his best, whereas last year it was just totally inconceivable

that he would ever achieve it. So I think that's exciting at least, maybe that means a race win

who knows with that Mercedes car, and before we move on though, because it is a good result for

Ferrari, and I think Ferrari offered the biggest highlights of this race. There were some great

battles in the midfield, but that race-long duel with Hamilton and Leclerc was great.

But you touched on it there, you know, whether or not you consider it artificial Leclerc,

as he enjoyed a lot, Hamilton says he's having a great time racing these cars. Max was

staffing very much of the opposite opinion. We'll get onto his race in general a little bit later,

but after two rounds of these new rules, has your opinion changed after Australia? What are you

thinking about these regulations? Because reports are now that where the sport was poised to make

some changes before the Japanese Grand Prix, that we're now going to use that much longer break

after Japan to reflect on what if any changes will be required. Emilia, it depends how you measure

success with these things, right? So if you're counting the number of overtakes or if you're counting

the amount of social media engagement, what are you as a sport? I guess it's the more existential

question with all of this, because if we are saying that you are in the entertainment business

which you could argue that we are, when it comes to professional sport these days, there's so

there's so little time for so many people's eyeballs these days, you've got to do something

all people will switch off. It's been thoroughly entertaining. Now you look at the way these early race

jewels have planned it played out. I still don't think we know or understand enough about why

the fighting is going on at the moment, and that's maybe the frustrating bit, or maybe that's

something we're not being told simply because it might not paint the sport in a fantastic light if

we actually really know what's going on. But in terms of an entertainment product, I mean, you have

people in your life that are nowhere near in the weeds as much of it as you and I are, and they'll

watch and go, oh, that was fun. So yeah, it was fun on its face. It was completely fine. So

is there a lack of purity to what's going on? I'm enjoying the racing way more than I'm enjoying

qualifying, qualifying right now is just so massively compromised because of the way the cars are,

and as someone that's an F1 purist losing the magic of what qualifying should be,

is something that is slightly frustrating right now. But then at the end of the day,

is the sport trying to sell itself to you and I, and plenty of people listening to this? No,

because we're invested in a way that is going to transcend that. Entertaining on its face? Yeah,

absolutely, but I'd still like to know why it's entertaining. I think that's the frustrating part

right now. You look at it and go, yeah, that was actually quite fun without really understanding

what was going on, a bit like the opening laps in Australia. So I'm not sure I've really changed

my view on that, but is that sort of, does that hold with how you're still thinking about it,

like the lack of understanding is kind of the impediment to all of this? To a degree, yes,

certainly of the same opinion with qualifying. I think qualifying just lacks that edge,

and I think that's a little bit concerning because this circuit is one of the better ones,

if not the best one, or the best one that's not a street track, I think, for these power units in

terms of the ease of regeneration. So the fact that the on board looked a lot, certainly a lot

better than they did in Albert Park. We can definitely say that, but there was still clear

lifting and coasting or cruising. There were fast corners of China that just weren't being taken

that fast. And I think that that's painful to watch and painful for the drivers clearly.

But the racing, there is an understanding element, but I think if you watch

the entire, I mean, average, we were watching the entire Grand Prix. I think it was clear that

there were overtaking zones. And to my mind, that's still not that different to DRS,

right? Back in the old days, and of course, you'd see DRS. And I think that does make a difference

back. You'd see the rear wing open. It was very easy to understand, even if you're watching

your first Grand Prix ever. But it was all about, you know, if you're very close to the car behind,

where you've got to get to the DRS zone and see if you can get a good exit onto that straight,

and then you might pass. And then the guy might pass you back if the cars are similar pace.

The fact that a lot of the action was taking place at that here pin, which was pretty much where DRS

passes would have taken place in the old days. But then also it turned one, like there was an obvious

fight back moment. And then occasionally we'd get some unpredictable racing in the middle that I

guess is a little bit more interesting. But I thought that at least this weekend, you know, we had

that. So you had a level of expectation about what was happening. And we got very few massive

power past the other driver. You've clearly saved your battery. How did you save your battery

compared to that? Very few of those questions relative to Albert Park. I thought we got a lot more

of those in Melbourne. The only ones that really happened, I think, off the top of my head in China,

were by the Mercedes cars, which I think is probably indicative of an advantage that hasn't maybe

been fully expressed yet. But you know, if we take that Ferrari battle, again, as an example, or

the midfield battle that I think was after the safety car between who was at Okon and Colour Pinto

and some others, it felt like they were just constantly close. And you know, if you know enough

about the rules that obviously battery was playing a role there because these cars, any single

city car can't usually race that close for that long otherwise. But the fact that no one ever had

none of them at any point had some massive advantage than there's another massive advantage passing

back. I think for me that's acceptable enough, like even me knowing that it's not you know,

inadvertent commas pure racing. I think that's okay because I think the other element is if we want

to accept form into one, remains as fast as it is. And notable qualifying was less than a second

slower than last year, which I thought was interesting. You have to kind of accept that overtaking

is going to be really hard because it's aerodynamic downforce. That's just the nature of single

city racing at this level. And anything that helps that, I'm not saying the balance is right.

Like I think probably the ideal balance is a more powerful combustion engine and a slightly

detuned electrical one that makes this less push buttony. That's Mario Karty and that should be

the last time we use Mario Karton analogy. I think to go back to that comment is probably right.

Yeah, it won't be though. But I think at a track like this, which again is one of the better ones

for the engines, I don't think it was too bad. I think this race was more enjoyable than Australia

for that reason. I felt like I was getting less nonsense.

Yeah, I'd agree with that. I also wonder if China had been round one. Like we,

Australia, we didn't know how the racing was going to be portrayed. So it was a step into the

unknown. Everything we watched this weekend in China was based on the fact that we had a sample set

of exactly what we ended Australia to base that on. How did you feel about the battery graphic?

Because I felt myself just getting a bit sad, but it was all getting a bit depleased like it was,

oh no, it's got that battery left. It's all a bit sad. Oh, he's got some battery left.

There was a part of it when the battery chamber was just empty and a rapid rate that I just

sort of sunk in the chair. I guess that's the end of that then. But I don't know, it's another

variable. Maybe we need like sound effects or emojis or stuff. For me, the one just needs to

wait into this probably, don't they? There is a lot of emojis. I mean, I'm all for the graphics,

but there's certainly where the fact we need so many, I think, probably speaks to the level of

complexity. But there's also a question of whether or not you do need them to enjoy it. I'm not

sure. It's an interesting question. You know what we don't need on the graphics? Just 10 second

minor diversion rant here. Can we just get miles an hour off the graphics? No. Most of the world

is dealing in kilometers an hour. The kilometers an hour numbers are higher than the miles per hour.

Sounds more impressive. Just get on board. Everyone who's not doing kilometers an hour and just get

two lines of text off my graphic and let these things breathe. Thank you, rant over. Absolutely

right. This should be F1's mission is to civilise the numerical world by bringing kilometers

to the globe, stopping me from ranting maybe yes. Let's move now. To move of the week,

brought to you by Shannon's plenty of racing artificial or otherwise at the weekend in Shanghai,

not least because we have a sprint race as well rather than just practice, which was entertaining

enough. I think maybe these are actually good rules for sprints. I'm sure where we sit on that one.

Which move or moves? Of course your eye this weekend. Will you be shocked to know that I've

reached into the left field? My move of the week is Esteban Ockon's spinning Franco-Colopinto.

That's the one I had. You're kidding. I was like, that's going to love this one. If you do

that, yes. I'm going to have furiously here to give you time to think of another one, but

this is why I like this, right? So I don't like it for Esteban Ockon. It's bad for him, but

Esteban Ockon's spinning Franco-Colopinto, lap 33, then puts his hand up a bit at fault,

yet that's all my bad. So the move of the week here is Jack Duan going to have a couple of weeks

ago, simply because after two rounds, Olly Bamin has all of Harsers' points. And so maybe Jack Duan's

in a particularly good position here because we talked about this last year that if things went

all of it south for Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari, then maybe is there a 2027? Who knows at this point?

And if there was no Hamilton at Ferrari, then it's probably going to be Olly Bamin that gets

the call up. And it's interesting that there is a degree of frustration at Harser you hear

creeping in now to some of the post-race comments about the Ockon contribution and the way he's

raising in the direction it's going there. So you could have a situation where Bamin could

potentially move up or Ockon could potentially move out if they get super frustrated with him.

And either way, I will be surprised if they retain the same driver line up for 2027.

And maybe by some happenstance, Jack Duan might have got himself into a good situation at a good

time because God knows things weren't like that at the end of 2025 or 2024, obviously 2025,

because things didn't work out there. So move of the week is Estimate Ockon spinning Franco

Colip into our round, getting a penalty, and everything on the wider level that symbolizes.

And I am very, very sorry that I broke into your house and the Olly, I was at the small again

stole your notes for this. So I did put the key back where you left it. So now that I've given you

at least 90 seconds to come up with an alternative and there were 17 white overtakes just read the

formula one graphics. What have you got for me? Yes, now I did like the Ockon one. I also just thought

being indicative of what's happening inside Harser at the moment. My male was that Ockon

was considered for replacement late last or after last season anyway, nothing got over the line.

And the dissatisfaction you hear race to race actually started before testing.

It did. It's like, well, I wasn't very good last year, was he? So I think that's a pretty good one.

Thanks. I'm going to go look. I'm going to go for a race straight forward one. In particular though,

one move Lewis Hamilton into third place for his podium. We've talked a lot about his podium already.

On lap 40, the inside line of turn one. Oh, yeah. It was really good through the turn one,

two sequence, the entire race and the sprint as well. Possibly the detriment of his tires,

but in the race, I guess there was nothing to lose because for I was locked into third and fourth,

no matter what happened. But I think just to go back to something we were saying, it felt like

Hamilton was a bit alive again this weekend. And I think that's why this was important. This felt

like Hamilton was really out there going for it. It felt like he was at least on the clearest level,

which again, very rarely possible to say over the last 12 months. So I just feel like the importance

of this weekend to him and getting that third place regardless of breaking the drought,

just getting ahead of his teammate essentially. It was really important. I thought it was also

important that Ferrari let them race. There's only one other element that I think is sort of worth

considering here, which is that we see how much time drivers are losing. Always drivers always lose

time to the cars ahead when they're battling or the drivers behind as well, obviously. But it feels

very exacerbated in this era. Perhaps because there is so much passing and reparsing, it's never

just one move anymore. But I do wonder where Ferrari might have finished. Well, they would have

finished it in fourth, but how much closer they would have finished to Mercedes. Had they agreed

next 20 laps, once Russell had gone past them, or perhaps even before Russell got past them,

let's just go forwards and see actually where they would have finished. So that was interesting

that the drivers suggested, well, look at the gap to Mercedes afterwards. Ferrari boss Fred Vassar

even suggested that they were in contingent for engine concessions relative to Mercedes after

Josiah thought was really interesting because it doesn't look like that to me, but we also don't

know the formula they're using to calculate that. But what would it have looked like actually had

they done what Anthony was enjoying up front and had just had clear air, we're getting it's harder

to identify those answers in this era. So Hamilton has a contributing role to that by continuing the

fight, but I think it was good that he did anyway. Controversial opinion on this, I think it would have

made absolutely no change whatsoever simply because I don't believe that Mercedes were pushing

at all in the last third of that Grand Prix. It was a very stable gap between first and second and

you know, first and second were completely submitted at that point. They were in cruise control,

but the last third of that Grand Prix from what it looked like. And so they had the ability to

up their pace if they had to, they just didn't have to. And I think the way races have played out

these first two race weekends, that might be a bit of a narrative we see for the rest of the year

in that the first third of these Grand Prix is going to be like, this is a Ferrari start so well,

wow, look at these, look at these early laps, it's super intense. And then there'll be a pit stop

and the order will sort of shake out into its natural order. And then the last thirds of a lot of

these races will be an opportune time for people like you to write race reports and then people

have flat spot their tyres at the end, because I can't see short of a Mercedes on Mercedes

battle at the front of the pack, which we may see. I don't see a lot of jeopardy in that last third

of these races, certainly not compared to the first third because the first third of the

Albert Park race and in China were super super entertaining, better kind of physical out from there,

didn't it? Yeah, and to move swiftly on, but on that note, why would Mercedes choose not to push too

hard? Well, the Mercedes engines and the McLaren cars aren't doing too well at all. They weren't even

being pushed, except off the grid, which is where the day started and ended for both Landon Horace

and Oscar Piazzri. Norris, in fact, and even make it to the dummy grid, his car developed a fault

in the electrical side of the power unit. Before even going on these reconnaissance laps,

Oscar Piazzri, at least completed his reconnaissance, it's got this cleanly, which is a little bit

further than he got in Australia, but no further than that, he did not take the start, he was

wheeled off the grid during the title sequence. So you can imagine everyone's surprise as the

title sequence ended and no Oscar Piazzri on the grid and he succumbed to exactly the same fate.

This is only the second time in McLaren's history of running two cars that it's failed to get

to the start. The last time that, you'll like this if you didn't already know it, 2005 United States

Grand Prix, which wasn't a technical problem. Yeah, I'm still slightly, that's my second most

traumatising Grand Prix. I think I've come to my career after I bid 2020, but I'm glad you've

bought this up because I've actually got the abacus out of the sporting. I've done some counting

for you. Oh, so the acronym HPP, Mercedes High Performance Power Trains, was used eight times

in McLaren's post-race press release, which is even more times than the number of staff they

have on the ground in their communications teams. Also, eight more times than you'll actually get

to drive a quote one of their useless pre-race preview press releases. They keep winging out at the

moment, but that was interesting. Eight times HPP was mentioned in the McLaren post-race press release

for a race in which neither car completed a single lap. So if you're wondering what McLaren

thinks the problem is, there is eight times there is a finger being pointed at an external supplier,

I believe it would be cool if you were being a little bit more diplomatic than that, but you

mentioned that PS3 being wheeled off the dummy grid, the visual, the classic drone shot where they

fly over the grid now. It looked even worse because the two McLaren's were set to light up next

week. So there was just this giant hole on the grid. It's like, oh, that's where those cars should

be. Oh, they're also the raining constructors champion and they run the raining world champion

with number one on the nose kind of his car. So it's hard to imagine it gets any worse than that,

but for Oscar PS3 2 have started as many Grand Prix this year as you and I, is not a great sign

when we're two rounds into a season. And of course, I will get to this later. We have two

fewer rounds in the season than originally planned. So that's our G here is McLaren hitting

rock bottom in the only ways up from there, but it certainly wasn't great for a race in a very

nice time zone for Australia, was it? No, very grim for all the Australian fans who thought we

had three races in a row at least to watch it with the sun still shining outside, just about

anyway. Very underwhelming for McLaren's title defense as well, Lano and Horace, by

shortly beating his title defense as finished before it's even started. And because it's not

withstanding though, and this is something I want to go to before just after we move past the

McLaren thing specifically, which is that unreliability is playing a much bigger role this season

than I expected after pre-season testing seemed to get away with very little problems for

anyone. That is right. But McLaren's aspect in particular here, yes, there is the engine

element, let's talk about that in just a second, but they also know, and I think Oscar Piaestry said

this in every interview he's done this weekend, including after he'd done nothing on Sunday,

unfortunately, for him, which was yes, we've got problems reliability, whatever, but we also know

the car is not fast enough. So there are two elements here as much as the fingers being pointed

repeatedly at Mercedes, and then Andrea Stella did say after as well, you know, we're all one team

though, and that's why we're treating it, which is fine. There is also this element that McLaren

was shown this weekend, and we had two qualifying sessions approved it plus the sprint race, which

both drivers did complete, that they're just not really in Andrea Stella's words in the same

category as Mercedes. Mercedes is in the wrong category for everybody else, and the fact that the

engines are the same when they're running, notwithstanding what we're reading and talking about in

Australia where there's a gap in knowledge, and they're not running them as effectively.

Suggest that gap is, what do we want to say, 90% of the car? Yeah, well, when we keep talking at

the moment about Mercedes, as in the works team, has this massive engine advantage. I mean,

we're probably underplaying the chassis, right? I thought that in Australia too, because yes,

McLaren are at a knowledge deficit, if you like, to the factory team, factory team, talking about

the works team. What was Norris, 50 seconds off the win in Australia, and yes, there is going

to be a knowledge deficit they need to pick up there, but the Mercedes chassis is probably being

a little bit underplayed right now, because even when the McLaren runs, and that is a key state

of this week, it just, it just at best, it's the best car, and not even a very convincing third at

the moment, and there's other teams that are doing a far better job with it. So it's very underwhelming,

and like you said, that weird thing about this was, I expected pre-season testing to just be

an absolute disaster in terms of everyone breaking down, and so much unreliability. Maybe that

raised a little bit of our expectations, even with Australia, I was asked in the lead-up to

Albert Park, I said, oh, I think if you finish today your score points, I felt like it was going

to be one of those races at Albert Park, where if you were still running at the checkered flag,

you're probably going to get some points to take home, didn't end up working out like that,

but you look at the way China worked out, we had four cars not start the race, and that's got to be,

you know, other Indianapolis 2005, don't say it, there's not too many times where you have cars

just not even taking up their positions on the grid before a race. I mean, that's what 20% of the

fuel, more or less, it's out before anyone's done a lap. So everyone, well, some teams clearly have

problems, but McLaren have more problems than everybody else, but say HPP eight times, and it'll

be fine. Six DNS is so far this year, everything as you said before, just yesterday, seven failures to

finish, or not North Star, I guess, seven cars did not see the checkered flag, I'd say that way

in China, which is, yeah, the nutrition rate is, the nutrition rate is much more reflective of,

I think, concerns last year than expectations after testing, which I think is very interesting,

but particularly for, I mean, everyone's experienced it, except perhaps Ferrari, which feels to me,

I haven't crunched any numbers on this yet, something I'm going to look at during the week, I think.

But Ferrari actually seems like they're doing okay, engine-wise, certainly, the start's very good,

but Mercedes has had problems several this weekend. I don't think Alex Elvon's failure to start

was Mercedes Related, I think it was Hydraulics Related, but we don't know specifically what,

but George Russell's problem in qualifying, they're almost knocked him out of qualifying,

and the double Mercedes failure to start. Quite a few little issues this weekend, a couple in

Australia as well. We know in the first week of Bahrain testing, Mercedes completed surprisingly

few laps, because they had all of these niggles rock up at once, but Claren also had the same thing,

I think, in Barcelona, maybe in Bahrain as well. So clearly, there are, despite this engine strengths,

and there are many, I think that there's some clear weak spots there, which makes you wonder to

bring this full circle. How much is the Mercedes works team pushing that engine, knowing that there

are some potential gremlins towards the top end if you're pushing it hard enough, although not that Claren

was obviously pushing too hard to get to the grid, but nonetheless. No, and that's also something that's

good for the narrative in terms of, you know, you're looking at the car advantage that the Mercedes

has right now, and you'd be thinking, well, you know, how do they not win every race this season?

It's exactly why they won't, because they're clearly pushing it very, very hard, and all of the Ferrari

powered cars seem to be pretty reliable so far, so maybe that's what we need for a little bit of

performance variance at the front of some Grand Prix, because it is going to come back and bite

somewhat at an opportune time right now. In a steady state running where everyone's got reliability,

Mercedes hands down the fastest team right now, but we know that's not how these seasons play out.

We've got so many races still to do, even after losing a couple, that there is going to,

there are going to be some weekends where it just doesn't work, and the problems that have hit

Claren might hit Mercedes or one of the other customer teams. And that's when there's time for someone

like Ferrari to jump in and Lewis Hamilton, perhaps when he can race in red, there you go.

Yeah, notable that we haven't mentioned Red Bull racing at all this weekend. I don't think they

deserve too much of a mention, but this team was a midfield team this weekend, which is pretty

remarkable. Max was definitely retired. Isaac Hadja, I didn't really have a shot, because he was

tipped into a spin on the first lap and ended up last at the end of lap one and making a pit stop,

so he's positioned in the middle of the points, paying places, probably not representative of speed,

but then again, there wasn't much speed to really speak of for Red Bull racing. Max was

stepping very critical of the car, said pretty much everything about it is bad. The engine perhaps

as well, because it was an engine-related retirement. He said anyway, and he RS calling problem,

I think he said in his post-race interviews, not so grace for them. And I think it's interesting

that there's some suspicion, at least at this point, that it's just that this engine is efficient

in the way, and Mercedes suspected during pre-season testing, so it tracks where there's not a lot of

electricity to harvest, remarkable sentence. It does well, like Melbourne, but at a conventional

track like China, it's nowhere near. And despite the count of being pretty big these days,

still many more conventional tracks than unconventional tracks.

Yeah, correct. And the weird part about this story for me is, I'm a little bit surprised

that people are surprised. I mean, Red Bull, yes, they've been around for a really long time,

they've been super successful. The sheer undertaking of becoming your own engine builder,

when you've never done that before. As you could put all the money and the talent and the resource

in this, this is going to take a little bit of time, let alone with the complexities of a new

formula like this. So they know what they signed up for here. It's a massive undertaking. You know

that when the improvement comes, based on the track record of that team, it'll happen pretty

quickly. But I'm not sure why anyone's quite surprised right now. I think the only constant right now

is that an open microphone, a max for staff enough for a ball of brew right now, is great for

people like you and I, and I'm sure someone in F1HQ quietly cringes because, yeah, he's,

this, for better or worse, there's no edit button with max for staff. We love it because he'll

always tell you what's on his mind. And right now there's a lot on his mind that's not super positive.

Yes, a lot on his mind related to GT3 racing as well, I think, which is, and that'll be it, yes.

Something could be, and before we wrap this up, Matt, of course, the news of the weekend,

we can't avoid touching on, is that the Formula One calendar has shrunk by two,

Grand Prix this year with the F1HQ used to word cancellation or postponement, the non-racers of

the Bahrain, very casual. Very casual. The Arabian Grand Prix, they will not take place in April,

was the sentence. I think in brackets, you could say, they will not take place at all this year.

Because of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, no surprises there, they had to make a decision

this weekend because freight goes from China, or some of it does, and from Europe this week,

two Bahrain, and some of it's already there. In fact, from pre-season testing left there,

and then would have been taken to Cheddar for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Obviously, no way to

fetch that, so neither race can take place. Formula One now has quite a long break for weekends.

I think it is four or five weekends between the Japanese Grand Prix at the end of the month,

and the Miami Grand Prix at the start of May. So, a little bit unusual for the sport.

Sometimes we'll be very glad to have a bigger break to think about this, I think, to work through

problems. But it does change the shape of the counter a little bit. Look, 22 races still a lot of

racing to go. So, 20 Grand Prix to go. I think that's still the 2018 season or something like that.

Yes. Still to go. So, let's not be too dire about the effects on the championship. But,

if we're thinking about Mercedes, one thing I think about in particular, that's a couple of races

less to have your supposed compression ratio advantage, which still changes in June. That could

be one, well, disadvantage for them or benefit for others, I suppose.

I think if you were polling teams up and down the grid who's

slightly happy about this and who isn't. I mean, right now Mercedes is probably like a race

every weekend for the next four weeks, because they're probably going to win all of them.

And if you're a team like McLaren, I think the yes, your championship aspirations have just

been reduced by two potential large-point scoring weekends, of course. But right now, there are

some teams that the biggest gift they could have is time and time, something that's really,

really hard to find in the middle of a Formula One season. We've not had a delay in a season like

this. I mean, you can't even count 2020 with COVID because it never actually started.

There will be some teams that will be like Ferrari, probably won't be super happy. There's a

break Mercedes because I've got the advantage right now. There will be other teams that will be

quite thankful for the break, because yes, okay, there's no one track action, no Grand Prix

weekends. There will be a lot of work going on back at base with some of these teams.

And so, Japan, because everyone's out at the moment and you'll get to Suzuka and I can't

imagine there will be a massive change in the pecking order there. After that, it kind of

resets the season quite nicely, and then we get this sort of, it's like the admission, isn't it?

It's a little bit more like the admission. And some teams will really welcome this. And what it

could mean is that once we get through what, so what is it, Miami Canada, then we head back to

Europe again. Picture might slightly change. So for all of us that are invested in how the season

narrative plays out, it gives us another variable where, is if these two races had happened,

and we were just in this every two weeks or three and four weeks or whatever it ends up being,

not much variance there, I think this potentially gives some teams a chance to reset.

And for a team like McLaren, I think they will be very, very glad to have that time because

stuck out in a normal run of races right now, given they have no momentum and just a massive

knowledge deficit would be a bad thing for them. Yeah, no shutdown unlike the middle of the season

breaks of the correct weeks or four weeks of work or whatever it is for every team. So not quite

the break, but at least no travel for a lot of them. I think if you're going to ask any team

who's mostly, who's be most excited for that break, I think Fernando Alonso would put his hand up,

although he can't feel them. So it's hard to say. Oh my god, if you get them all the way above his hand.

The Aston Martin thing, oh my god. What was the quote? I began to lose all feeling in my hands and

feet. I did have to give a hat tip to Valentin Hiroshi from the race, who wrote this great line

that I knew you would enjoy. One car gave up after nine laps and the other forced it strived to

give up after 32 laps. Last rolls, Carlos went, no, I've had enough of this and Fernando Alonso

is like, I literally can't feel my hands and my feet anymore. May I please stop as he was running

around in whatever position he was, but unexpected highlight of the race. Have you watched Alonso's

first lap? By the way, he did it in Australia too. He was 10th after lap one. It was just absolute,

fantastic, cutting Fernando and he's best. Go back and watch what you'd be having already,

because it was awesome TV and then, yeah, then Aston Martin progressed to Aston Martin territory.

But it was fun for a lap. It was. I was going to say I've seen the onboards of his car

shaking down the streets and him taking his hands off the wheel. Oh my god. Yes. But he's a good

stat for, he just speaking of Alonso's starts. Only driver to make up five places in both Grand Prix.

The driver's made up the most places on the first lap of anyone so far. Of course,

Aston Martin's starting very far back. There's a lot of places to make up every race. But

when everything's a bit equalised off the line, it's still one man you trust. I think about

any other to make up places and that's Fernando Alonso. Yes, he's doing well in the battery world

championship as he put it after the Grand Prix. On that note, that's all the time we have for

Pit Talk this week. You can subscribe to Pit Talk wherever you get your favourite podcasts

and you can leave us a rating and a review as well. This weekend is the Brazilian motorcycle

Grand Prix from 5 a.m. Monday, Eastern Daylight Time and you can watch every minute of the race live

and ad-break free on Fox Sports and KO. And you can keep up to date with all the latest F1

Moto GP and Supercars news at foxports.com.au. From Matt Clayton and me, Michael Lavinado.

Thanks very much for your company. We'll catch you next week.