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

On today's episode, Cadillac confirms Valtrie Botas and Sergio Perez will form it's inaugural driver lineup in twenty twenty six, and we look ahead to this weekend's Dutch Grand Prix and the final ten rounds of the championship battle between Osco Piastri and Lando Norris.

My name is Michael Lomonato.

It's great to have your company and the company of my co host KitKat.

Cadillac give Pez a home.

It's Matt Playton.

That is one of your better intros, I must say, and yeah, always talk about Kitkats.

I didn't go out and buy one today, actually not in tribute of Sergio Perro's being back, but they were just cheap, so I decided on cheap out and buy some good chocolate.

But there you go.

He's back.

And I guess if you'd said at the start of this season the likelihood of Sergio Perez being in Formula one in twenty twenty six and Christian Horder not being in Formula one in twenty twenty six, you would have got some pretty good odds.

You probably would have got no odds because no one would have seen that one.

Yeah, remarkable twist of face, isn't it.

Yeah, scholar should be out, but Sergia Peis is back in.

You can chart it to in fact, that those lines to intersect.

Though the more struggles that second red bull seed has had, the harder it was for horned toling On, But the better of the odds were of Sergio Peis convincing he was worth a crack to come back.

Indeed, it was like two fingers of a kinkat just break it up.

Sergia can stay the other way, he can give to somebody else.

That's how this works.

It's the perfect chocolate, really, isn't it.

If you want to sponsor us, kidcat, we are very available to chocolate sponsorship, even if it's in kind.

I'm perfectly happy with that.

That was the news of the mid season break.

Thankfully, formed On enjoyed an actual mid season break before this frenetic final ten races of the season came in the week leading up to the Dutch Grand Prix just a day or so ago, depending on when you're listening to this, It is that Vultry Potas and Sergio peir Is the true most heavily rumored drivers to be connected to Cadillac are connected to Cadillac on contracts that'll see them race for the new team next season.

I think it makes this team, immediately, despite being brand new, the most experienced lineup on the grid and the oldest, which is also pretty remarkable, but probably tell us a little bit about how long Potacid pairs have been around.

It's five hundred and twenty seven Grand Prix starts between them, sixteen Grand Prix victories, twenty three poles, one hundred and six podium trophies.

I mean that sounds pretty good for a team that barely exists, has no car, and is understaffed.

I'd like to congratulate and Creunrichlake Cadillac for organizing a fantastic driver line up for twenty nineteen.

I think it's a really, really solid pairing for the twenty nineteen season.

All we've moved on from there, but I must admit, look A, this shows you the power of you in this podcast, because you were able to almost get through the entire mid season break before you had to come back and do an emergency pod.

So I'm glad you had the line into Cadillac for this week.

But I don't know about you, but when I saw the lineup, it was of no great surprise, and I was a little bit uninspired.

And then I thought about it and thought, but what else were they going to do?

Because you look at where Cadillac's starting from next year.

It's hard enough to bring a new team into Formula One as it is, and then it's equal it's doubly hard, but you've got a new rule set where you're not even playing with an existing set of regulations that you can try and bring this new team in with.

So this is going to be a season for them of variables under every stone.

And one way you remove one of those variables is you take the driver variable out of the equation.

You've got two wise experience heads.

You read the CV, it's all very impressive.

If things aren't going great for Cadillac next year, and newsflash, they probably won't for a long part of the season.

It's not going to be one of those things where you're going to wonder, well, what if we had some more experienced drivers in there?

So, yeah, a little bit uninspiring, but part of me was like, well, of course they're going to take one of the variables off the table, and there wasn't really anyone else that you could think was making a hugely compelling case to be considered, at least in this short term.

I'm a little bit surprised, not so much to see Botasspack on the grid because it felt like he wasn't quite done.

It felt like Sergio Perez was absolutely capital d done at the end of last year, with the way that that spiraled so badly, So you do wonder how much of it is experience, how much of it is for marketing reasons.

It gives this team instant credibility before they've turned a wheel, the fact that they've got the signatures of these two guys with the CVS that you mentioned.

But I don't know how you felt about the driver lineup.

Part of me was like, well, if it wasn't these two, then who was going to be?

Yeah, And I think, in fact, if you were to scroll back to our interview with Mario Andretti, who's a non executive director on the board or one of those American style titles, yes, who sort of said it as much as like, well, there aren't very many drivers available.

When we tried to question about who his team was going to hire, and he's right, there were a lot of relatively inexperienced drivers, you know, drivers like Joe BrandNew who was connected to the team, Mick Schumacher.

After that, you're then looking at straight up rookie drivers who would need time to be broken into Formula One by a team that at the moment, as I said, has no car, including obviously an older car.

They're going to buy or rent perhaps a Ferrari later on in the year to get some mileage and essentially do some practice Formula One team activities, but that's still not really the same thing, so that would just be giving yourself automatically a start on the back foot and a massive backfoot.

It was a rookie, so actually quite fortunate I think that they've turned up in a year when two massively experienced drivers relatively recent drivers.

It's not as if these guys have been out of the sport for several years in the way that you know, a couple of older heads rocked up in the last big new intake of teams prior to half obviously with the cater and Maurusia and HRT et cetera teams where some drives have been out of the sport for a while turned up in seats.

They are relatively recent editions.

Like you said, at least in Valtribotas's cases kept himself in the paddock because he's been committed to returning to the sport and that experience, I think for them is actually quite complementary.

To talk more about the fortune of having these two particular drivers.

You've got Potas, who's an excellent qualifier, so you know he's going to probably get the most in terms of single lap speed out of this car when he was up against Lewis Hamilton.

Is essentially two to one that Hamilton beat him in qualifying, which sounds like a lot, but Hamilton's the most poles of any driver in Formula one history, so the record for pols is actually pretty good.

And then Sergio peir Is.

Okay, there is this question mark about Red Bull racing.

May we talk about this in a second, but if you look at his career overall, a pretty effective midfield driver.

Maybe Cadillac won't be in the midfield even by the end of next year, that it hopes to be there at some point during the course of his contract.

A guy who tends who has tended any way to get the most out of his sundays.

There is that question mark over his last couple of years at Red Bull Racing, which the team says it's satisfied it has answered itself.

But on paper, these two drivers are the guys you would want to test and thoroughly put the car through its paces, as well as, as you said, being a sufficient known quantity that you don't have to worry about.

Oh, this young guy, is he's not cutting it?

Is he losing his confidence?

Whatever?

You know what you're getting.

Yeah, two veterans with complimentary skill sets, I think is the key point there.

You mentioned that Botas has had the one lap pace.

To my mind, you know, you take away just how grim the last part of Perez's Red Bull time was.

His whole career has been one of overachieving.

You know, we know how good he has been on tire management through some of his days at Souboro and for Cindia, and he was always the guy who did that little bit more than you expected him to do.

When he was in the midfield team.

He was I wouldn't say an overqualified midfield team driver, but he was always a guy that you look at the way he had his seasons.

There were so many seasons where you're like, wow, he's fourth the driver's standings like you always were taken by surprise because he was so consistent.

And yes, the Red Bull stuff was a disaster by the end.

By the way, we should actually congratulate him because he was signed by Red Bull last year, immediately paid out, and then gets paid again by signing another contract within the remaining twelve months.

That's that's even better than some of Dadiel Ricardo's boots before the end of his career.

That's absolutely Outstaddy worked by his management there.

But what's interesting to me is, yeah, it's a perfectly solid lineup for year one.

I'm more curious and I'll put this one to you as well, Like this strikes me as a sort of team.

Given the name and the resource and the way that they should trend upwards, you almost want to be there in about year three, year four?

Is that sort of young more experienced, young young veteran an inverted commerce driver.

So which of these two drivers that they've signed you think has the longer shelf life given the way that this project's going to move along in the next three to four years, who's the more valuable asset of the two?

And we have to take into account there it's not just about driving, it's about presence and marketability and everything else.

That's who has the longest staying power of these two?

Do you think?

Yeah?

I think that's a really interesting question because they've also both already been through the ringer during their careers, right veltrii Botas talked really openly about the confidence hit of being thrashed by Lewis Hamilton Jo pare Is.

Obviously it's very recent that he was belted by Max Withstappen and in one of the greatest cars ever designed in Formula One.

They've both had that mental toughness developed in them to go into a battle that I think, like you say, probably not this year, it's not going to really matter, but maybe next year, or rather next year, maybe the year after the year after that, it will become a question of, Okay, which of these guys are you going to keep?

That's a really good question.

I think for me at the moment, Valtrie Bodas is the guy who stays, just because I think there are fewer question marks about his consistency.

I think at Mercedes, okay, you always dip and dive a little bit relative to Lewis Hamilton, but that was relative to Lewis Hamilton, right, and he was He was never embarrassingly off the pace.

He never had those Perez spells where you're like, oh god, he's out of a Q one again.

Yep, and he might score a point or he might not, and that's never happened during his career.

The last three years at Sober, they look bad and packet his worst ever career in terms of points last season, but that was obviously about the car, whereas pairs does just have that little question mark or big question marked when your perspective from red Bull.

So if we're talking about two years down the line or three years down the line, three years that might be really quite difficult.

We don't know how they're going to go.

I think that it's botass who might just have the resilience to stick around in that case, and then you put him up against because the other question is and you touched them it.

It's not just about driving.

There's the marketing element.

I think.

I don't want to say that Sergio Peters is just their marketing because he isn't.

He's extremely experienced, like we've talked about, very valuable to this team, but he does tick the well we couldn't get an American, but he's from North America.

Bots.

Yeah.

If the idea is you get an American rookie is your next guy, hopefully by then they found someone, then you also don't need that pairs angle to the marketing anymore.

Yeah, So whoever comes in as the Cadillac's next driver in three years time might determine which one of these two actually stays the longer term.

But the thing for me is I think that with Botas, I don't think there'll be any questions about ultimate performance.

So if you want to find out how far advanced this car is and what the ceiling of this car is, I think you're going to get more of a definitive answer from him that you're going to get from Pereer.

The weird part.

About that is if they go together for two years, I would almost put my house on the fact that I think the bothouse will be faster and Perezo score more points.

Yeah, and you know you're going to have this really strange conundrum with it too, But can I go a little bit fourteen and a half degrees off topic here because I reckon that this driver lineup doesn't just speak to Cadillac.

I think there's another team, and I think there's another team that we need to ask questions about here, because quite frankly, either of these two guys could have been driving for Alpine and decided that a Formula One team that hasn't done a race yet was a better bet than perhaps stepping into the whirlpool of chaos that is Alpine.

Interesting decision, isn't it when you look at it in the cold light a day like that.

Yeah, one hundred percent a team.

The last thing that Cadillac had done when they signed was practice being on the summer break.

I think those are the words that came as well.

Nice.

Whereas you've got Alphine that's well pretending perhaps to be a real Formula one team, if you want to put it harshly, it says a lot about Alphine because both of them drivers we know were approached.

We don't know how seriously they were approached, considering everything that happens at Alpine is a little bit chaotic, but we know the Tota Wolf said, yes, we have talked about releasing veldri Botas or sending him to Alpine or whatever releasing him from his contract earlier in the year.

So we do know at least that there were more than just some inquisitive phone calls about that.

This was after it he started to become clear that Franco Colapinto wasn't the immediate massive trade up on Jack Do and that he was sort of sold to be and continues not to be.

Yeah, the fact that that team has been overlooked for a team that barely exists, I think says a lot.

But you can sort of write it down pretty straightforward me on paper, isn't it one team's going in white.

Well, Cadillac's obviously going in one direction, which is going from not existing to existing, which is very positive.

And Alpine is going from a direction where it was the works team.

Well, it's given up on that.

It's shuttered one of the most historic engine divisions in Formula one history, one of the most successful as well.

It's going to take my stages power.

Okay, that might be an immediate little tick for next year, but I don't know, friendnods can continue continue to own the team.

Well, Flavio Brety is the de facto team principal, but he was appointed by the former CEO who resigned unexpectedly this year.

Is he going to continue to run the team?

What direction will that take?

What is Alpine anyway?

And there's a lot of uncertainty there.

I'm just wondering if neither Valterie Bodas nor Serge Opera is what did a five race contract to prove themselves?

So that seems to be what happens in that second seat, even though Franco Colopinto seems to get a reset on the fifth race every second weekend at the moment.

But there ego.

But isn't that interesting?

How you know, you wouldn't have even countenanced that as a discussion two or three years ago, saying these two guys are choosing this team that hasn't turned a will over Alpine?

What are we actually doing here?

But in Formula one twenty twenty five it makes perfect sense, doesn't it.

Yeah, And there's also, you know, talk briefly about Alpine.

I just want to touch on before we move on, the few seats that are available now at Cadillacs signed both of It's up at once, which is a little bit unexpected.

I thought they'd say one till later in the year in case someone like NK.

Sinoda were to come into the market.

Yeah, and also by before you go into your next point, you had your or marketing presence by doing them both on the same day, which.

I thought was really strange.

You could have gotten two bites at the news cycle by doing these three weeks apart, and get a whole bunch of press for a team that doesn't exist yet and steal some of the oxygen of your rival.

So there's a rookie team mistake of ever obviously one.

Yes, Well, they're still practicing their communications, I guess, so you know, it's a.

Half fark for them.

But there was the report that Alpine couldn't wasn't ready to decide even though they're in this unusual position where Franco Colopindo is not performing the way they expected.

I think it's become clear to them they kind of need the Cadillac solution, which is there are a point where they need some more experience in that team.

Pierre Gas is great, but you could certainly use someone and the other car is also doing that job, rowing in the same direction, so that just sort of speaks to the ongoing uncertain and what's going on at Alpine.

There are only a few seats left now in Formula one.

Let's race through very briefly.

Alpine is one of them, and they're now in the situation Cadillac hoped not to be in, which is well, who do you go for talks?

Maybe Franco Colopindo will be retained a minimum.

It seems like Colopindo is going to have the rest of the year now, just because there's not really so many other obvious alternatives to him to prove that he can get there.

Maybe some signs of improvement just before the mid season break, but certainly it's been no massive step up on jack Do and which makes that whole situation feel a little bit silly.

But the big one, of course, is the red Bull situation.

Will Yuki snow to be retained?

Who will replace him?

Will it be Isaac Kadja?

What does that mean for Liam Lawson?

Will Aarvid Lindblad, who's completing his Formula two campaign on the other side of the break, I think the next round is in Monza, not this weekend.

Can he make a case for promotion at expense of one of these drivers.

That now becomes the most interesting driver market question.

It becomes the most interesting driver market question with absolutely no answers that I like.

And that's and they're all perfectly fine answers to a point, but that point is very high or very load, depending on who you like in there, because they're all imperfect solutions to a long running problem.

And I mean, look, you would have to say on performance like hat ja to me?

And we discussed this with Alex Jakes and we had him on just recently.

He's been the biggest surprise of the rookies this year, not because I thought he was going to be bad, because we know he's fast.

He's fast and a bit of ratic of what we've seen in the past.

He's been genuinely excellent and probably based on well the CV of the other guys who've had a crack at that seat, he probably actually deserves.

To get a chance.

But then what are we actually doing here?

And then we're talking about Arvid Lynn Bladden, Alex Pelow's name comes up, I mean, where else, I mean you and I must be getting closer to sort of almost on the waitlist of this thing, because they seem to have cast the net very, very far and wide here.

But none of these answers.

You can't even squint and go, yeah, okay, I can see that might be a good thing to do in twelve to eighteen months.

The biggest question still with that team is that, yes, we know we've got the maxim staff and commitment for the time being, but the keywords in that sentence so for the time being, what if this rule set Red Bull really stumble out of the gate and get things very wrong?

Are Las twenty fourteen when they stumbled out of the gate and got things very very wrong.

You do wonder whether they might not just be looking for a second driver, They might also be looking for a first one, and then the first driver decision changes who the second driver might be.

So there's so much to play out here.

They would be better served for probably just holding the line and staying with what they've got for the time being.

But then, is the Sonoda performance sustainable given that I think we've talked about it before.

I think the Stappen's called ninety seven percent of that teams boids to the first half of the year, and we've seen what happens when it's not a race winning car anymore.

So Yeah, it's the most intriguing seat, but I just see a whole bunch of imperfect solutions to a long running problem.

And twas ever, thus when it comes to red Bull.

Yeah, I think I'm inclined to agree with you.

I think if Sonoda can just show obviously the team wants him to show something what he has shown, and I think we're starting to get some glimpse of it just before the break, now that he's closer to car parody with the stafford.

But if you can just show some improvement, the team will be able to say, all right, look next to you, a new car, clean slate.

Let's just sit where we are because, like you say, Vistappen could become a live issue again after that.

At least you haven't played cards that you might need in twelve months time.

But it'll be interesting to see.

He will need to make that point for himself.

And there's no reason lind Blood can't stay in Formula two for another year if that's the case.

And of course not to discount the Mercedes two seats, but it's pretty clear they're going to be resigned.

George Russell and Andre Kimi Antonelli.

It's just a matter of when.

Probably he the Italian Grand Prix, one imagines.

Let's move on, though, Matt to Move of the Week, brought to you by Shannon's Now.

Whilst Formula One was on a break for three weekends, Motor GP was not.

It was resuming with a double header and at the weekend it was the Hungarian Grand Prix, but not the Hungaro Ring at a new and unusual circuit.

Yes, Balloton Park, first time MotoGP's been in Hungary since nineteen ninety two, which is a race won by a certain guy called Mickdo and I wonder whatever happened to him.

But look, miya, I'm going to go moves plural of the week because this was a very odd track where apparently you couldn't overtake and a check by the name of Juge Martin started sixteenth on the grid on Sunday and finished fourth and made an absolute mockery of the fact that you can't overtake.

He made up seven places on the first lap, so that was pretty handy.

He is looking quite ominous for a guy who's done four Grand Prix this year on a bike that he doesn't even know.

He actually said after the race that he was still playing around with the positioning of the handlebars and settings and things as the race was about to begin, and then propably just blasted everybody on the first lap there.

So we know that the aprilia is coming on really strong.

We know how good he is.

We also know that he's getting back to full fitness and now he's in love with the team and it's all fantastic.

Everything's unky dory.

It wasn't a.

Few weeks ago watch this space, but moves of the week to finish twelve places higher than you started on a track where you apparently can't pass the stat for me his teammate Marco Betzek.

He started second on the grid and Jey Martin finished three seconds behind him after twenty six laps and started fourteen places below.

Yeah, he might be on the way back, But I'm going Moves of the week because quite frankly, there were so many of them.

I'm wondering, given the relative dearth of motorspoort options for this week, where you are going with this, Because I know you were watching Moto GP, but there was no four wheel action for you, So what have you got?

Yeah, I was very tempted to find something a little bit left of center, but I enjoyed obviously.

I enjoyed watching Mojo of V this weekend because there was certainly nothing else on the motorsport field to watch.

And I'm going to go with Marco Beitzeki though, Yeah, for his I guess this count as a move of the week, doesn't it?

Where he retook the lead.

The first and second turns early in the race, when Mark Marquez was inevitably attempting to pass for Leed he did eventually take.

But it's become so inevitable, hasn't it.

We've often seen Mark Markez lose the lead, start of the race whatever, and you just know it's a matter of time until he gets there.

And then he gets there, and then you think, all right, well the race is done now before there's twenty laps to go.

But then when Buttzeki fought this one back, it was so unusual that it made me physically sit up straight and go, oh is this going?

Are we going to have a race here?

And I think we did for one will lap and then Marquez was inevitable.

But just for that little bit of injection of hope, that all this race might actually not go the way I expected.

And because it was a great move, well, judge, you know not everyone can pull that off.

Obviously, it's Mark Maker's way win so much I'm giving it to bit.

I like it.

It's two races in a row that Berzeki's lost the lead immediately fought back and put a pass on Marquees and made Marquez go deeper into the book of well where can I pass you?

Because he's never he never tries to make the same overtake twice in the same part of the race track.

He made him have a reset and think again.

He did it at the Red Bull Ring, did it on the weekend.

But yeah, was saying before that probally is really coming along and forcing Mark Marquees to actually have to sweat to win races.

At the moment.

If you've done that, then you're doing a pretty damn good job because no one seems to be able to beat him.

So yeah, I do like that suggestion for you.

He nicely done sweat, but not too much the good scheme of things.

Let's move on now to this weekend's Formula one Dutch Grand Prix.

The resumption of the season.

Ten rounds to go, I said earlier.

It annoys me the mid season break is not exactly the middle of the year, but I do like coming back and saying ten rounds to go.

It's a very nice round.

Number Four of those rounds will be complete in the next five weekends, which is alarming, but it does mean we will be that much closer to finding out who will win the championship.

It's Oscar Piastri, only just ahead of Lando Norris, nine points after the Hungarian Grand Prix, which Landon Norris won ahead of Oscar Piastre.

Many one two's now going McLaren's way, which does make you think, actually, for most of the remaining races, and we might get into this in a little moment, we're probably looking at a lot of straight fights between these two drivers, though I think in my mental calendar anyway, there are a couple of asterisks there about some other players.

But let's look ahead to this Dutch Grand Prix first, because last year this was all about Lando Norris.

Scott Pole not for the first time, couldn't hold Pole off the line, but made very easy work of Maxis stab And, who had never been defeated at his Home Grand Prix Stampy's authority on this race back when he thought maybe he could win the Driver's champions if he did not.

But Oscar Piastric can barably have had a more difficult weekend, and I wonder whether or not we can read anything into that as a form guide twelve months on.

Yeah, I don't know about that.

I know, when you said we were going to talk about the Dutch Grand Prix, I'd actually done a real deep dive and in depth analysis on the lyrics to the super Mac song.

For you, but clearly we're not going to go down that part.

So I've done all that research.

Or nothing, but you like, well, it'll be shut.

But it's interesting in that you know, you mentioned this is going to be an ongoing storyline for the remainder of the season, talking about, well, how has Oscar Piastre done at these particular races previously, And I'm almost saying that what he's done at these particular races previously is irrelevant because he's not the same Oscar Piastre in twenty twenty five.

He's come along a very very long way in a very very short time.

Again referencing something that Alex Jakes was saying on our last podcast, we know that the name is the same and the still unruffled and all of the character traits, but we've not seen a hell of a lot of legacy play the year With Piastre, he continues to raise the bar on what we think he can achieve, So I'm not sure historical precedent's going to make a massive play for the rest of the season.

As far as he goes, we'll read far more into it.

With Norris, you mentioned obviously he won here last year.

I think we're much more likely to say, well, this is a Norris track.

This one's not a Norris track right now.

They all could be Pastre tracks, because I don't know if there's necessarily what we've seen on the previous fourteen rounds.

There's no places where we go, well, he's not a great year, or he's a bit susceptible.

There.

He's changed the perception of what we think he can achieve this year.

I think in the short short term, if we're talking about the Dutch Grand Prix, the thing we have to remember here is that this will be the fifth one since it's been back on the calendar in twenty twenty one.

This is a Saturday qualifying race.

All of these have been won on one from pole position and the only two years that they weren't absolute routes for the winner where when we had late safety cars in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three.

All four of these races have been won by the polesitter and twenty one and twenty four by massive margins.

It's a fun driver's track which when you hear the drivers say that is code for it.

You can't pass.

It's very very narrow, it's very very high speed.

It looks wonderful on TV, but you've got the combination of corners, how wide these cars are, and it's a very very attractive high speed procession, but a procession nonetheless.

So to my mind, I bringing this really ramps the pressure up for qualifying.

I think there's going to be huge stakes in qualifying, by the way.

I do like the fact that qualifying is an hour earlier, by the way for this race.

I'm not sure why wonderful news so Saturday night.

I don't care why, just say thanks, But I think you know you have these races like Suzuka is a bit like that to watch now in that you know that qualifying carries outside importance, and in a championship fight where the margins are so fine between teammates, Q two Q three becomes massive on Saturdays.

I'm super looking forward to that the race, unless you get a bit of weather or a bit of chaos, that's a little bit artificially injected.

Maybe not so much, but I do think that this strikes me as a race where Norris has proved it.

Here he's been particularly good, so it's not so much a free swing for Piastre.

But I think if he's able to be ahead of or on part with Norris for the majority of the weekend, I think that's a super positive because I don't know about you, but going into this this feels more like a Norris weekend than a Piastre weekend, and obviously if the reverse is true, that's psychologically a pretty big feather for Piastre this time of year.

Yeah, I think so.

I like the way you put it.

It's more about which tracks and Norris tracks, and not Norris tracks.

You kin't of expect Piastri to be there all the time.

I mean, he's worst qualifying result this year is fourth, and likewise his worst finishing result I includ Australia obviously, which is an outlier in terms of how he got there, but in terms of pure pace he was Canada a fourth place, just off the podium, so you know he's always going to be a threat, whereas Norris has been much more up and down.

And this to me looks a lot like the Austrian Grand Prix.

Obviously the history is a little bit less solid in Norris's favor, but he was just very good last year to qualify Max fistappen the margin Oscar Piastre was half a second in qualifying Piastre.

Yes, he had to fight back, and this is such a difficult overtaking track that it meant he was never going to get back in touch with the leader.

Similar to Hungary, should have gone for Norris except for the strategy twist that ended up happening.

Maybe the same will happen in reverse year.

But if Piastre can really solidly challenge Norris this weekend, then suddenly I do feel like we might start to talk about not necessarily momentum, but that being a bit of a sign that this next part of the year, which was mostly difficult for Piastre last season.

Once we left Europe anyway, might actually be a little bit more in his favor and you might start to feel more confident with that kind of margin.

To my mind, there maybe only two or three other, not let's say Norris circuits that I'd be looking at in terms of his performance.

I think the following one from the Dutch Grand Prix.

It is in Italy despite him having got poll there last year.

He was very solid in Singapore.

Yes, Singapore is a little bit of an unusual circuit last year, but he was really solid from start to finish in a weekend that maybe could have got him back into title contention again that obviously never quite happened.

It was a similar result for Piastre, who qualified poorly and that set up his rais.

But the one after that, for me, I think it's going to be and I think its position in the run could be really important.

Is the United States Grand Prix is the track Piastre he has never really clicked with, Yes in the sport for two years prior this, but in those two years never really clicked with it.

Norris comparatively has, so the measure of Piastre in the last two years there.

I think if that could be one if the points remained as close as they are up to the United States Grand Prix, which is fifth in this block of ten races to close the championship, that could tell us which direction the wind is blowing well.

And the other factor to take into account here is that we've talked about this all year and it's going to be something we talk about more as we get to the end of the season.

The other teams are not massively incentivized now to be pushing for major performance because you've got this twenty twenty six rule set coming in and effectively you're just spending money on things that are going in the bin at the end of these ten races.

So I do wonder that even on whichever one of the McLaren drivers is having an inverted Commas bad day, I still wonder if a bad day is still second place, and this might become one of those championships where I'm not ruling out one or two maxivstap and wins before the end of this season, because I think of places like Mexico and I think of Brazil, particularly when it rains.

Let's be honest, not if it rains it will at some point over the course of the season he will be one of those guys who will stick his nose in and have one of those weird interloping results where he might finish, he might split the McLaren somewhere.

You could see that happening.

But I think as this boils down to an intra team championship fight, there's two things to watch.

For me, what are the other nine teams doing?

And if they're going for race wins and putting a lot of resource in twenty twenty five, then I'd ask what on earth are they do in because this season's gone as far as they're concerned.

And then how McLaren plays this strategically.

Because we know that the constructors Championship is done, they're going to win the Driver's Championship.

We just don't know which drivers going to win it.

So you do wonder they've been so you know, they haven't split strategies necessarily.

Norris has thrown a couple of hail Mary's with tire strategies, one of which has worked and one of which hasn't.

In recent races, you do wonder if they allow strategic intra team fighting to happen when the result at the end of the races that McLaren's going to win, and that will be really interesting to see if that because they held the line on that they haven't done that, but allowing the drivers to perhaps try to use different means to achieve the same end given that you're going to win both championships anyway.

I think that's a storyline to watch as we head deeper into this last ten races.

It's difficult to hypothesize a great example of it, but I think it would be very difficult for McLaren to walk away from a where they haven't allowed one of its drivers to attack the other driver because they wanted to secure let's say a one two for the team or whatever maximize the team result when there's really nothing on the line in the Constructors Championship anymore.

I think that'd be a very difficult position for McLaren to take in a year they've worked really hard to be fair between its drivers.

I think the definition of fair has changed now that they're so far ahead.

Earlier in the year.

We can compare it to the very first round in Australia where they called off the fighting somewhat controversially before managed to make a move, but it was for the team greater good.

They wanted to make sure they didn't lose a victory in the very first race of the year to maxim stuff and like they had so many times the previous year, rain on the radar, backpackers, all that kind of stuff.

I kind of get that.

Then, when there are no points and everyone doesn't know where the field lies, there's no reason to make a call like that again now because there is nothing on the line for the team but everything on the line for the drivers.

Yeah, well, let's fast forward here.

Let's just say we're in Abu Dhabi and one of them's on pole and one of them second.

So the one that's on pole is going to Shoo's strategy the preferable strategy.

Are they going to allow the second driver to perhaps take a different strategic approach to the race in an attempt to win the World championship.

If we have a live championship fight where the only outcome is that McLaren's going to win the World Championship, are they going to allow that to happen, because that would be different to what they have done throughout the season.

Now, obviously for the spectacle.

We would love to see that because you don't just want the championship to be decided.

If we have a live championship in the final round, you don't want it to come down to who qualifies fastest out of the two of them, and then they both just mimic each other's strategy and on a track where you can't overtake, it'll come down to the first quarter and that'll be that.

We actually hope that you'll get some sort of strategic fight between the two of them where they're coming at it from different approaches.

I hope that is permitted.

It won't that be a storyline?

A Is it going to be permitted?

And B will that depend on who's leading the championship coming into these last the final rounds of the season, which whether it's the British driver or Thestructing driver that's leading the world champion and how that's going to play out because we know how it's going to be done in the commentary that we hear here in Australia.

We also know a lot of the English language content that all Formula One fans consume in Australia.

We know where that comes from, so they'll be super interesting to see how that plays out.

Given the backdrop of how we're going to consume that championship fight.

I'm for what.

I'm all for it.

I'm hoping it does come down to this last couple of races where we do have to see McLaren perhaps take the hands off the will a little bit and just let them sort it out.

Because at the end of the day we'll look back at twenty twenty five and say a McLaren driver won the World Championship and the McLaren won the Constructors Championship.

Horay, what a fantastic year.

How we get there's the important bit.

Yeah, particularly for us in the last ten rounds.

Just briefly, I want to talk about some of those possibilities for other drivers to and you mentioned Maxwistap and sow Paolo.

That just sounds about right.

Mexico City as well, was pretty quick there last year, except had a bit of a brain explosion racing Lando Norris.

Don't know who he might have finished in a regular situation.

I'm keeping an eye though on the Italian Grand Prix for two reasons.

One is Ferrari just almost always seems to do well there.

Chickuly in a year where they don't have much going on, they tend to them think, oh, how can we do well at the home race.

But not only that, but the layout on paper should also suit Mercedes at least if it's not too hot, long, straight, slow Chicanes very similar on paper at least to Canada.

And by that same token, of course, Las Vegas almost the biggest outlier on this part of the calendar.

It is Las Vegas taking place a little bit earlier in the evening this year, so it won't be quite as chilly as it has been in previously.

I think it's five pm local maybe or seven pm local, whatever it is.

It's good here, that's all you need to know.

But it is still cold there.

It is still a night race that the layout is very fast, straight, slow corners.

Mercedes dominated this race last year with a one too and lowse Hamilton's hated a tenth from memory and still finished a competitive second.

I think there are opportunities for and Las Vegas is an interesting one considering it's so lo late in the year.

What is that third last round I think of the season where suddenly you have a really close title fight, the seven points between them, whatever, and one McLaren driver finishes second the other one fifth because McLaren's been pushed around a bit as they were last year, that could really space things up.

Well, wouldn't it be funny if you know, we've talked about wins and podiums and all these one twos and everything else, and it might be decided by Norris finishing sixth and Pastri finishing eighth because the car doesn't work and it's freezing cold, and there's all these other guys that would have no business being in front of them being in front of them.

If that becomes the decisive factor in a season where they're going to win eighty percent of the races between them, wouldn't that be just very Las Vegas Forbula one.

I think if it's not going to go to Abu Dhabi, and I suspect it will, then it'll surely just be decided in the sprint and Katar the pronouncement round.

We've done that before, let's not do that again.

Deeply underwhelming, but it we'll be fascinating to see how this one unfolds because there is so little in it.

The only thing I think we've really learned in that last month before the mid season break.

Is that if Lando Norris really has got over his qualifying problems and he hasn't had a qualifying mistake since Canada so quite a while ago, then there really is almost nothing to pick between these two drivers as a fight we thought we were going to get at the start of the year.

It seems like it's back on and now it's ten races to settle who will win McLaren's first drivers' championship since Lewis Hamilton.

Wow loud, Yeah, incredible.

Interesting.

Let's wrap this one up with a visit to the crystal Ball by complete home filtration, deliberately just forgetting the things I've predicted in previous races in previous weekends, because they're almost always wrong.

Please don't let that turn you off.

But I'll start with you, Matt, what are you predicting?

Look, I feel bad saying this.

I'm going to preface this by saying, don't take my passport away.

I need it.

It's very, very important.

My crystal ball is telling me that Oscar Piastri is going to relinquish the leader of the World Championship for the first time since Saudi Arabia in round five this weekend when he finishes third behind Pulses, Orlando Norris and Max for Stafford.

Now I say that my passport I think will be fine because when I make predictions on the Crystal Ball, ninety nine percent of them are complete rubbish.

So what I just said in the last fifteen seconds will not happen.

But that's kind of where I'm going because I feel this is a strong Norris track, perhaps not a great Piastre track, and I can see Max just doing one of the super Max things and perhaps doing this Suzuka special of just parking himself in front of a faster car and not making a mistake for seventy two laps.

But I'd like to be wrong.

But yeah, I'm going to hold onto my passport just in case.

What have you got for me?

I like that?

Well I don't like that, but I like where you're going with it.

Anyway, It's still be nine or I we'd be back next week saying still nine rounds to go.

Don't worry, that's right.

I'm going with in this.

You know, in this era of blockbuster concert tours sellouts, everyone's talking about the tours.

I'm predicting the biggest tour yet the Sergio pair.

As I told you, so, tour commences now he's going to be at first this.

I don't know if he's going to be the Dutch ground free this weekend.

I know he's pretty much commenced work with Cadillac immediately, but he's already started at the press conference announcing his signature for Cadillac next year.

And I quote, I feel like there's nothing to prove, not just because of the current Red Bull Racing drivers or the next drivers that are in my seat, but even the drivers before that.

Everyone forgets it.

But it's a very tricky place to be.

They've scored like five points for the entire season.

Don't forget how many points he scored one hundred order fantastic.

Yeah, I think this is going to be NonStop.

He says he's got nothing to prove, he's certainly acting like a man who's got something to prove.

Yes, we've only got six more months of this.

In media speak, I think we call that Sergio will be available for interview, I believe is the term that we might hear over the course of the weekend.

But no, I do like that very much because I love a good rewriting of history from a position of advantage.

It's going to be wonderful.

The fact that Christian Horde is not in the paddict to run up to sky and refute every single thing that he says is going to be fantastic.

Can I extingd you with a bonus miniature crystal ball question, like a very small golf ball size, not the Las Vegas to be a size crystal ball?

How many times is the Championship League going to change between now and the end of the season.

Oh, that's a great question.

It's annoying because it's just over seven.

But if we assume there's going to be a first and a third in there could change regularly.

I reckon, I reckon, we're going to get I better say it's a number.

Obviously, go get three three lead.

I do know it needs to be even number, doesn't it.

We have four lead changes.

I beg your pardon.

Okay, well that's a lot.

That's almost every second round.

Okay, this is why this is why I've just set you up, because as you were going through that, I reckon, it's going to be two.

Yeah, I think it'll be two.

I think could be this weekend.

Why not let's go with your crystal ball.

It's it gonna be right, And then why don't we say it interesting sprints just for a bit of excitement.

Oscar Pastric sweet Spot, the Caitask Briunt.

But isn't it interesting?

With ten rounds to go and you're looking at it?

Oh, it's so finally pause you think how many times is this championship lead actually going to change hands?

And when you start thinking about force, like, oh, that is quite a lot, isn't it, considering it hasn't changed hands since round five?

Yeah, super super interesting, but just a miniature crystal ball just to completely hijack your running order for the end of the podcast.

No, that's good.

I like that's a great question.

Can be pondering that one and the lead up to the Dutch Grand Prix, particularly if it happens this weekend.

But that's all the time we have for pit Talk today.

You can subscribe to Pittalk wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and you can leave us a rating and review as well.

This weekend it is the Formula one Dutch Grand Prix with lights out at eleven pm on Sunday.

The first to four races in five weekends.

You can keep up to date with all the LATESTEP one, supercars and MOTORGPN news at foxsports dot com.

Today you from Matt Clayton and me Michael Lomonado.

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