Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Thanks for tuning in to the Undercuts review of the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you listen and enjoy the show.
[00:00:19] Speaker A: By being a racing driver, you are at the risk all the time.
By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you're no longer a racing driver.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Well, boys, the last race before the summer break, and what a doozy it was, in my opinion, obviously, the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix. And Lando was able to make it done. Although it was not looking simple all the way through, but quite a chaotic race in some respects. And like Martin pointed out to me before the podcast, that's five race winners in five races. Right?
[00:01:00] Speaker A: So five different. Yeah, five different race winners. Yeah, for sure. I feel like this race, as a. As a Ferrari fan, and I guess there's different fans of different teams. I bet everybody had a different opinion because I was watching this race from the perspective of what. What can Ferrari do to get in the mix? But I'm guessing, Jason, you were watching it from the perspective of, like, I don't know. Maybe not. I don't even. Not even sure, like, how can McLaren secure the win? Or are we even. What was your perspective? I mean, we pulling for Lando Piastri.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: I was just going to say. I'm going to be honest. I feel badly that I felt this way, but I was pulling for Lando. I wanted, like, even though all of what Oscar had to go through, losing the championship last year and all that, I couldn't help but root for Lando
[00:01:48] Speaker C: because Lando was phenomenally quick.
Yeah, he was so fast. And he was stuck behind Piastri, and, you know, every driver stuck behind their teammate and say, I'm faster.
He was way faster.
He was way faster.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: But he made a mistake, Right. As Lando did. Like last year when he was going for his World Championship, he was constantly making mistakes. So he made a mistake on what, Turn three, turn four, whatever. Yeah, exactly.
[00:02:19] Speaker C: Like the left. The left one.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: Yeah, the left hand. Yeah, the back stepped out. He went too deep. The back stepped out. Piastri went through.
And then that. That's kind of what happens in Formula one. You get stuck behind your teammate and. Yeah, you.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:32] Speaker C: And this is a notoriously difficult circuit to pass on.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: Yeah, right. You.
[00:02:37] Speaker C: You just look, not just in the. In the case of Lando behind Oscar, but you look at Lewis behind Kimmy all throughout. I mean, Lewis behind Max.
I mean, Max behind Lewis. Maybe not. Because that in a way like that, you know, if you, I mean we're a couple of days removed now and just by virtue of our respective schedules and stuff. But the like years from now, the one thing that people will remember is Max's pass on Lewis. Lewis was trying to get by him, couldn't get by him. They went through the stops and he made it happen. Lewis got by and then he was like, oh, I'm by now he can't get by me. I mean Lewis, seven time world champion, you've got to think he should be smarter than that. Why was he not covering off? I mean, I think that part of it may have been to do with he was giving a bit of blast on the battery to get make sure that he got past.
I think it was Liam Lawson at the time in good shape, but whatever.
On a track that's not supposed to be Power Limited, it seems like did he run out of power on the straight either way he just didn't cover off, he didn't move, he didn't cover off. They overtake and the one shot that Max got he took because it's Max, that's what he does. And it was a great overtake.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean insert Jason the center quote once again. If you see a gap and you don't go for it, you know, there it is. But no, that I don't think this
[00:04:14] Speaker C: was a controversial gap though. In the same way as that quote is is attributed. But at the same time it's like you just, you just, you know, you open the door just a little bit, Max is going to stick his car in there and you know, know in the same way a little bit, it's like 2021 Abu Dhabi. I don't want to bring that one up again but I don't know, it just seems like Lewis, his whole career has just been get in front and just go. And as soon as he's like put under threat, he does, he doesn't defend very well.
[00:04:42] Speaker A: I mean maybe he's not had to too much.
[00:04:45] Speaker C: He hasn't had but it's just a part of his game that he just doesn't take in the same way because you constantly look at. It's like he gets a, he's overtaken too easily. I'm sorry to say it, I'm a huge, huge fan.
Not just in the last year and a half Martin like through the full arc of Mr. Hamilton's career, like big fan of his. Sir Hamilton, Sir Lewis Hamilton indeed.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: But.
[00:05:11] Speaker C: And he's always been great at overtaking he's always been super fast but the one thing that just sticks with me the whole time is like especially when it's Max.
[00:05:20] Speaker B: He just, I was just gonna say
[00:05:22] Speaker C: that he doesn't close the door like you would expect of a seven time world champion.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: Do you think it's just fear at this point?
[00:05:31] Speaker A: No, guys, I can't.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: He's not
[00:05:36] Speaker A: turning.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Not, not, not like Fury's gonna die. Like fear that Max is gonna do something crazy. And we have come together so many times and Max almost landed his car on top of my head one time.
[00:05:50] Speaker C: It's a legit point to make Martin
[00:05:54] Speaker A: steady well overtake your extrapolation. Not just one.
[00:05:58] Speaker C: But I'm just. But no but the point is that's how Max has always been. Max has always been sharp elbows. I'll take you out rather than let you come out of this corner ahead of me.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: And as he overtook Hamilton he got on the radio complaining that Hamilton was moving under braking or something.
[00:06:18] Speaker C: Rubbish.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: Which wasn't rubbish. I don't see that at all.
[00:06:22] Speaker C: He didn't move at all.
But I mean he moved late.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Great move by, great move by Max. Like one of those ones where it's like I'm so far back he's not going to expect this kind of thing. Like it's catch them napping kind of thing that you can just go, you know, for what, for whatever reason. I'm not going to extrapolate it into a whole thing for this whole career. Lewis is easy to overtake but, but great move by Max and
[00:06:50] Speaker C: it was a great move. I mean like, like, like I said before we went down this whole thing, it's like yeah, if, if you, if the rest of the race was forgettable, which it wasn't because it was a. Compared to Spa last time out and Silverstone before where they're very power dependent turkeys have got people running out of energy and getting overtaken and then re overtaken and just running out of juice.
This was, this was more like it's supposed to be.
This was a real, it was a good race in a way that the last two have just not suited these regulations.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: I mean, I mean here's a, here's a question for you. Let's move, let's move on a little bit. But. But what? Based on what you just said around people changing positions and the orders, I'm trying to think what was the starting order of the race versus what was the order of the cars after the end of the first lap.
Like because Norris was on pole Right. But Piastri led after the first lap was completed for Claire.
[00:07:50] Speaker C: For reasons we discussed.
[00:07:51] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, for reasons we discussed. Leclerc started second. I think he crossed the line fifth.
After the first lap, Hamilton was definitely past him. Verstappen was past him.
[00:08:00] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: You know, he was on the dirty
[00:08:04] Speaker C: side of the track. I mean it's worth like 10 meters, I think they said so. Which, well, it's 8 meters between cars.
It automatically puts you third.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: And with everything else it's just a massive mix up. And of course, well, dirty side of the track or not. Like George Russell, once again, no luck. You know, if he didn't have any luck, it would only be bad luck or whatever the correct phrasing is. But I mean, he couldn't get off the line at all, could he? Anti stall and everything.
[00:08:30] Speaker C: He went into anti stall. It was interesting. I don't know. Did you guys hear the, the drivers in the cooldown room, the first three, when Kimi Antonelli kind of said, I don't know what this actually means. So infer no wisdom from this at all. But it's like he said something along the lines of it looks like he got to the top of the packet.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: Oh yeah.
[00:08:54] Speaker C: And it wiped out the battery or something. I don't know what the packet is, but I was like curious, what does that mean? But it basically, it looked like it was a pretty long start sequence.
And it looks. And based on what he said, it almost sounds like George built up too much energy and he got to like 100% battery. And when you do that, it basically cuts all the battery or something bananas like that.
And so he got off the line and just had nothing.
And when he had nothing off the line, that's what put it into anti stall. And he had to, you know, know just like if you're trying to save your car from stalling, when you drive a manual transmission, the first thing you do before it stalls is you put the clutch in. He puts the clutch in and tries to restart.
But then you gotta go through the whole sequence again because there's a science to it all. And basically long and short of it was he started what, seventh on the grid.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: He was down there.
[00:09:55] Speaker C: I forget when FPOA started, he was
[00:09:58] Speaker A: on the dirty side of the track. So he must have been an even number. So he was probably six or eight. One of those. Yeah.
[00:10:03] Speaker C: But he was back in 21st by the time they got to the first corner and he battled his way back to sixth. So the pace in the car was there. It's just that he had a lot of cars to get through, like 15 or so of them by the. Between the start of the race and the end.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: I mean, we didn't see. We didn't see much of George the whole race, but because of his, you know, the start, you know, messed him up so badly. But, yeah, I mean, we're just writing him off race after race now. We can't write him off anymore. He's barely in the.
[00:10:37] Speaker C: I think that the summer break has come at a good time. He can just go to Monaco and do some jet skiing and whatever he needs to do to get his mind off it. I think Kimi Antonelli is just going. Go karting constantly for the whole time.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: Can you be sad on a jet Ski? I don't think you can.
[00:10:55] Speaker C: I have been sad on a jet Ski in scrank. I have. I just. I'm. I'm not very good on.
On sea.
I'm. I'm definitely a landlubber. And my wife and I, we may not have even been married at that point. Maybe just married. We went to Grand Cayman. We went out to Stingray City, but we didn't want to do the boat thing. We. So we just went. We just got jet skis and we went out there. And then because we spent, like, more than you really should for a couple of jet skis. They. They felt obliged to take us snorkeling, and they took us to this cove where it was, like, really, really choppy. And so I basically rode this jet ski in, like, hurling off the side of it the whole way in because I was just like.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: So see, is it possible to be sad on a jet Ski in Monaco when you're a Formula one driver? Well, I'm not a Formula one driver,
[00:11:46] Speaker C: but Monaco versus Grand Cayman. Grand Cayman's very nice.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: Grand Cayman's very nice. I've been to Stingray City, but not on a Jet ski. It.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: Anyway, sorry, I wasn't. I didn't. I was just trying to make a funny joke. I wasn't supposed to send us on. On such a tangent.
[00:12:01] Speaker C: Well, I guess such is life, Martin.
[00:12:05] Speaker A: I'll wait for the George Russell sad on a Jet Ski memes to be posted.
[00:12:10] Speaker C: Well, I don't think we're talking about sad.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: If we're talking about sad things, we might as well talk about Carlos. Right?
[00:12:17] Speaker C: Well, I mean, that was.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: It.
[00:12:19] Speaker C: Was that a turning point in the race? I mean, great segue, Jason. I appreciate that, but seemingly there was an issue throughout the whole race with basically everyone being Shown blue flags. Blue flags were just flashing all left. All right, whatever. And from what I understand and have heard and read a little bit about over the last day or so is that it's GPS driven automated system and it flashes and normally it shows your car number underneath or whatever, but basically just the blue, the blue thing was flashing at everyone, like really nearly.
[00:12:55] Speaker A: You tried trying to work out who, who's it for? Is that for me, how close they are?
[00:13:01] Speaker C: And so eventually it gets to the point it's like, well, I'm getting blue flags again. Is there anyone around? And da di, da.
I mean Carlos should know better. It wasn't like Oscar just showed up on the straight between turns 1/2 and 2/3.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:23] Speaker C: So Carlos would be the first person to complain about someone doing that to him.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: Right, right. Such as when he was in his Ferrari a couple of years ago.
[00:13:34] Speaker C: Yeah, maybe even now, I guess. But I get the argument that the, the, the type of turn, the angle and all of that, he didn't see him and that's why they hit.
But he should have known he was there because he should have known he was there.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: Well, the engineers should be in his ear.
[00:13:51] Speaker C: He should 100%.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: Was he not or she?
[00:13:55] Speaker A: I don't know.
Who knows?
[00:13:57] Speaker C: We don't know.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:13:59] Speaker C: But anyway, point being, Carlos did get a five second penalty, right?
[00:14:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:06] Speaker C: Rather than a ten because they mitigating or whatever. But they called him to the stewards and all that sort of stuff. But anyway, yeah, it was, it. Did it ruin Oscar's race? I don't think so. Was it the reason that Lando got by?
Maybe because of where it came in, that Oscar had pitted a few laps earlier, he was making up. Lando went a little bit longer. But the fact is Lando was stuck behind Oscar as soon as Oscar pitted because they were covering Lewis, I think at that point. Right then they had, they had to pit piastri.
Lando was calling, saying he wanted to, to be pitted, to be undercut and get by. Of course, McLaren rules of engagement, that's not going to happen. So they, once Lewis pitted, they pitted piastri. But what that basically did was it that freed up Lando to use up the rest of his tires and he was way quicker. You know, the undercut was supposed to be pretty strong on this track, but Lando just blew straight through that even with old tires. Now I don't think Oscar was particularly good on the hard tyre compared to the medium. And I'm going on a bit at length here. Because this was really the turning point of the race and Lando I think was really on it.
And yes, if they hadn't touched Oscar and Carlos, it would have been closer when Lando came out the pits.
But I, I, you know, Lando was the quicker guy so you know, who, who really cares, the, the faster guy won on the day.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I said the same to, to Martin before we, before we started. It looked like it was waiting for me.
[00:15:50] Speaker C: You mean, say it,
[00:15:54] Speaker B: you might have been there. I don't remember, but yeah, exactly the same that you said.
He might have overcut him anyway. I mean, likely not. He likely still would have come out behind but he would have been on fresher tires and way faster. So it probably would have happened in the end anyway.
[00:16:12] Speaker C: But unfortunately, nonetheless, yeah, you saw the tire offset when like when Lewis came out and was it Hajar? And he just drove right around the outside of him at the, the hairpin right hander turn five or whatever it was.
There was a big difference in the tires.
[00:16:29] Speaker A: The same with Lando when he was behind Kimmy. Right when he came out, he just drove right around Kimmy when. Before Kimmy made his last stop. Yeah, that's right. But I mean, I guess it's, it's, and in our minds it's somewhat moot. Right. Because obviously Piastri's gearbox gave up. So whether he, it was probably going to give up whether he was in the lead or in second place either way. Right. But yeah, tough to take for Oscar going back to the garage and then watching his teammate win the race and him getting zero points. That's gotta be a tough one.
[00:17:03] Speaker C: Yeah, but I think McLaren bought a ton of upgrades and they've really worked, which is good to see. Obviously we talked after Spa about the difference that the new Mercedes engine had made that Lando had in the last race that Oscar didn't. I didn't quite keep track in terms of did, did Oscar get the new engine, but obviously they were very, very close, so I'm assuming he did.
So I think that McLaren, they exceeded their own expectations.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:38] Speaker C: This race, I don't think that they were expecting to be competing for the win. I think they thought that perhaps they'd get, they'd be able to compete for a podium.
But after Friday it looked like it was Ferrari's race.
Ferrari.
I don't know, Martin, I don't want to pile on here, but you kind of hinted at it a little bit earlier on, but they have to have been disappointed from being In a position where they were on Friday and into early Saturday, obviously with Lewis and the whole Piastri blocking incident that put him three spots back even.
It was not Ferrari's finest hour for a track. That should have really suited them better.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: Yeah, everything that was successful for Ferrari this weekend seemed that it came not because they were good, but because other people kind of either messed up or, you know, obviously Leclerc was what, P2 for qualifying, but only because other people got penalized, you know, for yellow frag infringements or whatever.
And then it was clear off the line and in the race, they, they, they had, they had the pace to be in the mix but then they couldn't quite get it done. They seem to have fixed their issues around strategy for the most part. The last few races they've had some really good calls. And even pitting Hamilton at the end there for fresh tires when Kimmy and Verstappen stayed out, I thought was the, was the right call.
Um, it didn't, it didn't work out. Um, but yeah, they just, they weren't making things happen themselves. It was just, they were just in the. Whatever was happening was, was a result of other teams maybe messing up more than them doing it themselves. And of course Hamilton speeding in the pit lane at the end.
[00:19:32] Speaker C: Penalties in three weekends, that's.
[00:19:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Now, now it's becoming sort of Alonso esque, right, where Alonso was constantly having bad luck. You know, it is Alpine or whatever it was a few years ago. Now Hamilton is just picking up penalties like left, left and right.
[00:19:50] Speaker C: But, but the, the qualifying penalty against Piastri.
Oh, that was just brutal because you could hear, it was like, wait, he was on a lap.
You could hear they'd not even told him and he just finished his lap. And because they sent. The Ferrari guys went out first and McLaren went out last. But when Lewis finished his lap, he's not used to there being so many people behind him.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:17] Speaker C: Would have been on a hot lap. He kind of thought the session was over. And maybe it's just a mental lapse on his part, but they should have said, piastri's coming up behind you on a lap.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting point because as viewers, you know, live, I think we have access to more information and we're given more information than almost the drivers are.
[00:20:44] Speaker C: I mean, you can't, the drivers get no information other than what comes through their ear.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: Right. And you, the guys on the pit
[00:20:50] Speaker C: will have a ton more information than
[00:20:52] Speaker A: we do and protocols hear the drivers the drivers are always complaining, like, don't talk to me in the braking zone. Don't talk to me when I'm doing this, don't talk to me when I'm doing that. Leave me Kimmy Raikkonen, you know, leave me alone. I know what I'm doing. You know, we love those radios. And the Ferrari chats post race, you know, are talking, you know, maybe not, not necessarily conspiracy theory, but they're talking about how leclerc was told about Hamilton's five second penalty. Well, many laps before they told Hamilton. But then other people are saying, well, Hamilton was fighting Kimmy at the time, so they didn't want to bother him with information. That isn't going to change. So who knows, right? Monday morning quarterbacking. But yeah, how do you get the information to the driver? You think that they know everything that's going on, but they've got their hands full and, yeah, maybe it's just the way it goes. Although speeding in the pit lane, though, the Monaco thing was one thing. Cutting corners. How can you speed in the pit lane in Hungary? What happened there?
[00:21:56] Speaker C: Yeah, Jason, you saw like Anthony Davidson on the skypad. I don't know which coverage you were watching.
If I manage to watch it live, I watch it on sky, but then on the replay, it's usually the F1 crew. So I was watching it live and Anthony Davidson was watching going, I cannot see how he speeded. It must have been this. They must have set the whole thing wrong because it's 80 kilometers per hour and they give them 0.5 of a buffer. So he was actually going 80.6, which is 0.1 over. But it's like just set it for 80. The fraction that you're out. I mean, that's not the difference. It might be the difference between getting across the safety car line before Kimmy.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: Right.
[00:22:48] Speaker C: So maybe it was, maybe it was a difference, but it wasn't. At the end of the day, I
[00:22:54] Speaker A: don't know, I mean, maybe. I mean, who knows? I, I could go conspiracy. Sorry, Jason, did I cut you off?
[00:22:59] Speaker C: But it's like it's been the Martin and Nick show for the last five minutes. I was like trying to leap you in, dude.
[00:23:05] Speaker B: I appreciate it, but I mean, what is there to say? You know, I don't have the telemetry readings. Right. I mean, was he speeding or wasn't he speeding?
[00:23:14] Speaker A: Who knows if Hamilton. Okay, here's. I'm just making this up off the top of my head now, but if Hamilton knows that there's like there Is that like half a kilometer an hour buffer. And he knows whatever's been set on his car and he knows how tight it's going to be with Kimmy.
Maybe he thinks he can flip it off just a few meters before the line and the buffer will carry him through.
[00:23:40] Speaker C: But that was the whole thing with Anthony Davidson. He was like. He broke it down slow motion and was like he braked in. And then as they went across the line, it was like, you know, it falls into that steady state.
And then when he was going to the line, he hit the button or he released the button or hit the button, whatever it was, to speed up. And he looked at it and he was analyzing it, and it's like the second he crossed the line, he was gone. It wasn't that he was increasing early or doing anything. I think this was. I think this was a Ferrari era.
[00:24:11] Speaker A: But then why wouldn't it have happened on every pit stop then? I mean, anyway, whatever. I mean, it is what it is. I mean, it didn't make that much difference for Ferrari. It was leclerc, head of Hamilton instead of Hamilton instead of Leclerc. It didn't matter. Hamilton couldn't get by Kimmy.
You know, maybe he shouldn't have stopped, but I don't think it was a terrible call.
And fair play to Kimmy. Right? What a. What a weekend for him.
[00:24:35] Speaker B: Great race for him and. And Max, which we haven't even really spoken about him either. Even though he complained the whole race
[00:24:42] Speaker A: through, he still finished in P 2000%, Jason. 1000%. The truest thing that's been said on this podcast. The guy is never happy. And it's kind of frustrating. Like, dude, come on.
[00:24:54] Speaker C: Like, he's a perfectionist. That's how he is.
[00:24:59] Speaker B: And that's just spoiled from winning so much.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: I mean, that's how I feel. Jason, too. I mean, that's crazy, but. Yeah, well, well played to Max. I mean, that overtaking maneuver, we spoke about that. But solid race and solid race from Kimmy to, you know, get demoted from his qualifying position, but then make his way back to the podium.
[00:25:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:19] Speaker A: Uh, beating. Beating everybody that is close to him in the championship, so extending his lead. You know, Norris winning in Verstappen, coming second ahead of him is, you know, still a neck. Yeah.
[00:25:30] Speaker C: If you're going to finish third, this is the kind of circumstances you want around your third place finish.
[00:25:36] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:36] Speaker A: I mean, driving like a guy that's, you know, 29 when he's 19, you know, he's.
He's not putting a wheel wrong. Yeah, so far.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: I mean another team that's also seemingly, you know, in perspective for where they are in the grid. But racing bowls another double points scoring weekend. I mean they're just dominating.
[00:26:02] Speaker C: I think they were tied on Alpine with like what, 61 points? I think it was, don't quote me on that, but they were tied with Alpine coming into this weekend. Obviously double points finished, no points for Alpine with Gasly in 12th and Colapinto in 16th. But that's some. Again, solid points. Lawson in 8th and Lindblad in 10th.
[00:26:23] Speaker B: Yeah, and Nico finally getting some points
[00:26:25] Speaker C: this year for Audi Hulkenberg actually. I mean it's really Audi versus racing bulls at this point. Obviously racing bulls I think is, is doing the better job. They're consistently getting two cars in the points. Audi are doing a solid job.
I think their engines down on power, but they're, you know, because it's new.
Not that the Red Bull powertrains isn't, but there you go, they're doing this. They're doing a solid job, both teams.
Lynnblad, I saw some interview afterwards. He didn't seem happy because he'd been beaten by his teammate. But I do appreciate their on track battles. That's how like two teammates should go at each other in a race.
Hard but fair.
Nudge each other. Elbows out, a little bit of running each other off the track just enough to kind of not get well.
No one's complaining to the stewards when it's the teammates just getting a little bit pushy.
[00:27:24] Speaker B: Right.
[00:27:25] Speaker C: So I just like that, I just like the whole way that they're going racing right now at Racing Bulls and two drivers that are really well paired. I like that, that driver lineup.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it's really working out for them. It's like what we expected from Williams is what racing bulls is, is doing.
So yeah, super impressive from them.
[00:27:48] Speaker C: I think that's pretty much last week I kind of, I made a bold prediction.
[00:27:56] Speaker A: We are in so sync, Mr. Watterson. We are in sync. I was about to bring it up and I'm gonna give you some kudos too.
[00:28:02] Speaker C: It wasn't a, maybe it wasn't a bold prediction, but it was kind of a prediction.
[00:28:07] Speaker A: It was a bold prediction. That was how you, how you set it up. And yes, your prediction was wrong. Your prediction was Aston to score points, I believe.
[00:28:16] Speaker C: Yes. But was it 13th and 14th or 14th and 15th?
[00:28:20] Speaker B: 13th or 14th. Yeah.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: Respectable was respectable.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: Their best weekend by far.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: Yeah. There wasn't six retirements that moved there.
[00:28:30] Speaker C: That's right, they were racing against people of the cars, Williams's Alpines.
They were racing.
[00:28:39] Speaker A: Yeah, they didn't quite, quite get there. I mean, Stroll beat Alonso, driver of
[00:28:45] Speaker C: the day,
[00:28:48] Speaker A: I mean 13, 13th position. I mean he was only.
Well, hang on, it's hard to say. I don't know, see in my thing here how far he was behind.
[00:28:57] Speaker C: Oh, because they were laps at that point, were they?
[00:28:59] Speaker B: They were all laps.
[00:28:59] Speaker A: They were lapped down, but yeah, I
[00:29:02] Speaker C: mean, but they were only one lap down.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: It's gotta be good.
[00:29:06] Speaker C: Behind them, like so 13th, 14th were Lance and Fernando behind them. Franco Colapinto was two laps down.
[00:29:14] Speaker A: All right, well how far in that lap were they behind? I don't know, but nobody knows. They, they weren't.
How could you, how could anybody possibly know? That's information that's been lost to.
[00:29:25] Speaker C: Lost in time.
[00:29:26] Speaker A: Yes, maybe archaeologists will discover what actually happened in the future. But I mean you believed it almost came true. You needed just a couple more retirements at the front. A collision at the front could have possibly got them a point. You never know.
They're in the mix.
[00:29:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:48] Speaker C: So a good weekend for them. Now as I understand, that was just the car upgrade, the chassis upgrade, which they say was worth about two seconds. I kind of put it this way, maybe it was close to, but compared to every other upgrade that Aston Martin have brought in the last five years, this is a glorious success. Because I think one thing that's blighted them throughout is like even when you think back to when Fernando was on the podium in Bahrain and he pulled off those fantastic maneuvers against Lewis and Carlos right throughout the season, the development war, they just went backwards. They've never delivered an upgrade certainly in their Aston Martin guys, you know, going back racing point and Force India, yes, maybe. But since they've become Aston Martin, they've never ever delivered an upgrade during the course of the season that's worked successfully. They finally got that monkey off their back, I think. And in Zandvoor, I think there's a Honda engine upgrade that could maybe not give them two seconds, but it could maybe give them a quarter of a second, a third of a second, which might get them pushing towards Q1.
[00:31:01] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe. I mean they beat, they beat both Williams's, they beat both houses and they were sandwiched in, in between the Alpines
[00:31:10] Speaker B: and beat both Cadillacs
[00:31:13] Speaker C: who kind of beat themselves.
[00:31:15] Speaker A: All right, you know, I mean they're a new team.
[00:31:18] Speaker C: The brake issues that Bottas had are like constantly plaguing them. Was Perez another suspension Issue. I can't remember what took.
[00:31:27] Speaker A: Yes, his like wheel fell off pretty much, didn't it? And he drove down the whole track on one wheel. On three wheels.
[00:31:33] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, but they're a new team. You've got to cut them a bit of slack. I think in terms of performance, they're doing a decent job as well as anyone could really have ever expected of them. But it's just. This is difficult.
This is difficult.
Yeah.
[00:31:49] Speaker B: Well, I guess that brings us to Coops F1.
[00:31:53] Speaker A: Jesus. Well, why don't you give. Why don't you give us the Coops F1? I mean, you can go to the website just as much as anybody, Jason. I mean, the only one that really
[00:32:01] Speaker B: matters is the one that scored the
[00:32:03] Speaker C: most points on the week. You know, that's really all that matters.
So what happened there then? I've not looked.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: JAY LAZZIE, 92 with the top score this week. 240 points.
He drank that. Let's go.
He drank that papaya juice.
I was worried. Good.
[00:32:21] Speaker B: It worked out in the end.
[00:32:23] Speaker A: I mean, looking at your picks. You had Lando first. 40 points. You had Oscar in seventh. Like you didn't. You. You didn't. You believed in Lando but not Oscar. I mean, I told you, bro. I mean, hey, it worked out. I'm not going to say but you know, could have been a lot. Could have been, you know, egg on your face there, actually.
[00:32:46] Speaker C: I also had Oscar in seventh. I'm looking at my picks now.
[00:32:49] Speaker A: You didn't have Lando in first.
[00:32:51] Speaker C: I had him on the podium though. I had him in third.
[00:32:54] Speaker A: Fair enough. Fair enough. Yes. So let's see who else got high scores. Peach Petrie, 513 with 230 points. And freaking Fast Frank with 228 overall.
B Voltaro holds onto top spot. The original team Williams up, up three places to second.
Matt D down one to first.
Jay Lazzie up to sixth overall, up four spots.
You were like an also ran at the start of the season, sugarcoat it, weren't you, Martin? Yeah, but you're storming up the table.
[00:33:36] Speaker C: But 240 points for the best score of the week. We just 10 clear of the next best score, which is highly respectable. Highly respectable.
[00:33:48] Speaker A: Is this the last time I'm going to mention Toto's undervash? Probably not because I love the name down. They stayed in eight. They tamed in. I can't do my German pronunciation. But they stayed in eighth spot. But Jason ahead of them. I actually pop. I actually popped up 10 spots to 67th and Nick right on my heels in. In 75th, up 21 places.
Only nine points between us now.
So play for.
[00:34:19] Speaker B: It's still pretty tight. I mean, even though you guys are, whatever, 75 back, you're only 200 away from first, which is highly irregular.
[00:34:28] Speaker A: I mean, there's a lot more points available, but. I know, I know. Jason. I don't know what season. I've been doing this for 23 years and I still. I've never finished top three. Nick with his multiple trophies.
[00:34:39] Speaker C: Jason, I think that the news. The news isn't very new. You can't quite see that on my phone. Catalunya RESULTS UPDATED TO REFLECT COLAPINTO PENALTY that's not very new.
[00:34:49] Speaker A: Oh, well, I only. I only put. That's not news. That's just like when I have to make edits to the retraction. The scores for breaking for late penalties,
[00:35:03] Speaker B: double McLaren DNFs last year or disqualifications last year.
[00:35:08] Speaker A: There is news, right, that there's an additional Grand Prix, right.
[00:35:12] Speaker C: Bahrain Grand Prix.
[00:35:13] Speaker A: The Bahrain Grand Prix is going to be in Malaysia.
[00:35:16] Speaker C: That's right, yeah.
[00:35:17] Speaker A: At some point, I forget exactly what date it's going to be, but it's minimal.
[00:35:22] Speaker B: It's gonna be the really hot.
[00:35:23] Speaker C: Yes, it is. It's the week before the Singapore Grand Prix.
[00:35:28] Speaker A: Okay. So between Azerbaijan and Singapore. Okay. Azerbaijan on the 26th, in Singapore on October 11th.
[00:35:36] Speaker C: So yeah, that's gonna be a triple header.
[00:35:38] Speaker A: Triple header there.
[00:35:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:35:41] Speaker C: It's. So the last.
So the last Malaysian Grand Prix was when my son was three days old.
It was.
[00:35:52] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:35:52] Speaker C: It was like October 1st or 2nd or whatever it was 2017.
So there's not been a race at Sepang since 2017. Good circuit. I don't quite know how it's going to be with this current generation of cars because you got a really. You got a long straight to the final corner and a long straight to the first corner.
So we could have shades of Spa in there because there's not enough opportunity to regen after that first straight.
But it's a twisty. There's lots of opportunity to like charge the rest of the time. So I don't know. I'm just glad that there's a. We got a race back in what year? Like in future years, F1 Trivia will be in what country. What country hosted the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix.
But yeah, I mean, just glad to get a race back and glad to be on a legit track as well. Hopefully the current generation of cars doesn't mess it up for everyone. But it's a good track. It's a good track.
[00:37:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:04] Speaker C: Just got our first bolt of thunder
[00:37:07] Speaker B: in the, in the background.
[00:37:09] Speaker A: All right. And now we have like a three and a half week break as we record until the Neons.
[00:37:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:18] Speaker C: Unless we get some of the last
[00:37:19] Speaker B: crazy silly season stuff that drastically changes what to expect, which I don't see happening.
[00:37:28] Speaker A: No, I mean it's all, it's all going to be.
It's going to happen.
Do you think it's a.
It's a. Is it Alonso's decision that's going to start going to be the first domino to fall. It's going to be like a decision
[00:37:40] Speaker B: like Seb a few years ago when he dropped the news that he wasn't coming back and then all of a sudden the silly season kicked off.
[00:37:47] Speaker A: Everything kicked off.
[00:37:48] Speaker C: But Fernando, I mean if today, this weekend's update hadn't worked, Fernando would have probably announced his retirement over the course of the next three weeks.
It's delivered some promise.
Maybe he's going to hold off.
[00:38:06] Speaker A: Yeah, he could go but would Alpine want him back?
[00:38:12] Speaker C: At this point he'd probably just cash in his chips.
[00:38:17] Speaker B: Would that be his fourth time at that team in different iterations? Right.
[00:38:22] Speaker A: Right between Renault and Renault twice and
[00:38:25] Speaker B: Alpine or Alpine tw, I don't know what.
[00:38:28] Speaker C: Whatever Lotus, what it was were they one point.
[00:38:33] Speaker A: I think he's the guy who's just call him to move.
It's not potentially, it's not going to be a Lewis Hamilton situation where he like announces it, you know, like a year year ahead before it happens.
[00:38:44] Speaker B: He's going back to Mercedes after the end of next year.
[00:38:50] Speaker A: But yeah, we'll see. But yeah, big all stuff stuff could happen. But yeah, quite a bit of time off between now and the next race.
[00:39:04] Speaker B: Thanks for listening to the undercuts review of the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And we'll be back after the summer break for the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix. We'll see you there.
