Episode 107

December 04, 2025

00:31:47

Max Keeps on Winning and Picking Up the Pieces from McLaren's Mistakes - 2025 Qatar Grand Prix Review

Hosted by

Jason Lazrus Martin Cooper Nick Watterson
Max Keeps on Winning and Picking Up the Pieces from McLaren's Mistakes - 2025 Qatar Grand Prix Review
The Undercut
Max Keeps on Winning and Picking Up the Pieces from McLaren's Mistakes - 2025 Qatar Grand Prix Review

Dec 04 2025 | 00:31:47

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Show Notes

Max continues to take advantage of the mistakes of McLaren, and forced the Championship battle to the final race of the Season. Can Lando hold on and turn the championship papaya, or can Max defy the odds and come from oblivion and win his 5th drivers' championship in a row. Find out that and much more on The Undercut's review of the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix. 

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:10] Speaker B: Thanks for tuning in to the undercuts review of the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you listen and enjoy the show. [00:00:20] Speaker C: By being a racing driver, you are. [00:00:23] Speaker B: Under risk all the time. [00:00:25] Speaker C: 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. [00:00:34] Speaker B: All right, go ahead. Well. [00:00:38] Speaker B: Second to last race of the year, Lando had a chance to lock it all up. And that's how I put it in coops that that was going to happen. And that is not what happened. [00:00:50] Speaker B: Obviously. The crash between Pierre and. [00:00:56] Speaker B: Nico Hulkenberg on lap seven threw everything into flux and Max stormed away with an easy victory. And McLaren look like assholes, apparently. [00:01:09] Speaker C: Jason, you're just trying to speed run the podcast. You don't talk about it anymore, all right? [00:01:15] Speaker A: Are we done? [00:01:18] Speaker A: No, but I. You know, as I said on our spoilers chat, it's like it happened on lap seven in a 57 lap race where there were restrictions on tyres, that they could only run 25 laps, which basically was the worst possible lap for it to happen. Because it meant that everyone, or so I thought, was going to come into the pits all at once, and then everyone does a one stopper, which kind of defeats the whole. Ooh, look at all these varied strategies we have. Only McLaren thought there was a different strategy at play and stayed out, whereas everybody else. Everybody else pitted. Which also meant that then everyone else pitted on lap 32, because that's the only time they could pit. Because they pit earlier, they'd have to pit again. If they pitted later, then they'd be disqualified for not following race director's orders or whatever. Although that's a sporting penalty. So maybe they're just gonna. [00:02:16] Speaker A: Maybe just get a. [00:02:19] Speaker A: Anyway, that's not the rabbit hole we're gonna go down. The rabbit hole we should be going down is. How On Earth did McLaren think that it would be a good idea to not pit behind the safety car? And then the entire field is right back up behind them having stopped. It essentially means that they've got to do an extra stop to everyone else, which on a 26 second pit, lost Delta is a lot of time to make up. [00:02:49] Speaker C: I can see Jason. I mean, I. I can see Jason's video. He's just holding his head in his hands and he can't. He's been thinking about this for 24 hours and he still hasn't got an answer that makes any sense. [00:02:59] Speaker B: Like, why not pit at least one of them. Right. You. You see Max is going in. Why not send Lando in too? I don't. [00:03:07] Speaker C: Yeah. Were they nervous of the. The double stack? I mean, did they just. They just paused and the moment was gone. [00:03:14] Speaker A: I mean, how is it that they didn't scenario this out? [00:03:18] Speaker B: Right. [00:03:18] Speaker A: Is if there's a safety car before lap seven, we stay out. If there's a safety car between laps seven and I don't know, 14, I don't even know, like then we pit under the safety car. [00:03:36] Speaker C: Yeah, they did say on the radio, confidently on the radio, oh, everybody else has lost their flexibility. You know, lose some flexibility. [00:03:47] Speaker A: Six seconds quicker than everyone else. [00:03:49] Speaker C: Exactly. Yeah. [00:03:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:03:55] Speaker C: Just. Yeah, it cost. It cost McLaren the. The victory or the, the shot. The shot of the victory. [00:04:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:01] Speaker A: I mean, obviously they did have a quick car, as you know, evidenced by the fact that I don't know what the gap back to Carlos was from. From Oscar was like 20 something seconds. [00:04:13] Speaker B: Right. [00:04:15] Speaker A: But they forgot to factor in that Max is really, really good at this and he, he managed to get that car, that Red Bull. It was a lot quicker than anyone probably thought. But still 26 seconds the given up. I don't know it like, were they worried about double stacking? Maybe, but. [00:04:36] Speaker C: But still, that just costs the driver behind a couple of seconds, not 26 seconds. [00:04:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, obviously we, we did see a lot of. With the traffic going through the pit lane, it's like the first one could get held up going out and then the second one has to wait and then they get held up potentially by other cars coming by. But net. Net how far back? Maybe he'd have lost four or five spots. Maybe. Maybe Lando would have come out in sixth or seventh and had to battle his way through. Maybe with zero tire offset. Maybe he stayed there. I don't know. I can see why they maybe did it, but at least pit one of them. [00:05:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And I mean even. What even made me more mad was at the end when it was looking hopeless. When you have a shot, at least go on to the soft tires. What do you have to lose at that point? [00:05:26] Speaker B: At least go for the race win. I mean. [00:05:29] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, they pitted before lap 50, right. So they were gonna. Yeah. I mean, could they. Should they have gone to lap 50 and then gone onto the soft? I don't know. Would the soft have lasted seven laps? You'd hope so. I mean, you'd think the soft would last nine or ten, obviously. Heavy. Dag. It's a very tire intense, you know, circuit. But yeah. Give it a whirl. [00:05:56] Speaker C: I mean Bortoletto went onto the soft on lap 32. Like his last stint was on soft. I don't, but I don't know what his lap times were like. So maybe they took a look at that. But everybody, everybody else at the top went onto hard tires for their last stint. Of course the McLarens had both had gone medium, medium. So they had to go either hard or soft. They couldn't. Sorry. Yeah, they had to go either harder soft. They couldn't go medium again. But who know, maybe Bortoletto's times were terrible. That was their only marker that they could have looked at. [00:06:32] Speaker A: Yeah, because they, they wouldn't obviously Hulkenberg was the car that retired. So they didn't have a view of Bortoletto and Hulkenberg to sort of say how are they relative to one another on different tires? If they'd have different tires. I don't know. [00:06:48] Speaker C: Hamilton started on softs but of course that was only seven laps in when he got rid of them anyway so. [00:06:54] Speaker A: And did he make up any places? I didn't, I missed the fact that he was on softs. [00:06:58] Speaker C: He did, but he was so far back. Who knows what the, you know, he went from what, 19th to 16th or something. I mean, don't let's not as much as you got your head in your hands about McLaren. I mean Ferrari are just. [00:07:10] Speaker A: Oh, they just want the season to be over. [00:07:12] Speaker C: Just want it to be. I mean Hamilton wants it to be over. He couldn't get out of qualifying again. I mean Leclerc got into the points. I mean Howlinson's just having an absolute nightmare. It looks like he wants to be anywhere but a Grand Prix right now. [00:07:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:25] Speaker A: They just seem to be forgotten how to set up a car. [00:07:28] Speaker C: Yeah, like, I don't know, they just, are they just saving money? Like are they trying to come under a cost cap or something? You're not sending all the people out. They're just not putting in the resources. They're just, I don't know, there's something weird. They've just dropped off dramatically. [00:07:44] Speaker B: Is there a chance Lewis just retires at the end, at the end of this year? Is there a chance of that? [00:07:50] Speaker A: No, I don't think so. With the new rules he, you know, the thing that's defined Lewis of the last. Well since Abu Dhabi 2021 has been. He's just not gotten to grips with this rule cycle, these ground effect cars and, and the way that. [00:08:04] Speaker A: You know you get the. Was it high speed understeer low speed, oversteer. It goes against Lewis's driving style because he likes to lean on the front right corner going into the, you know, front right corner of the car, heading in into the like left hand corner. So which is inherently not how you drive these cars. He's never been able to adjust for it and hopefully next generation of cars that come in next year would suit him better. But you know it's all well and good building a car that handles better and more consistently with how he wants to drive it but I think that next year is going to be largely dependent on the engines until such a time as these adjusters kick in because I think isn't that something that's in the rules where if someone's off the pace they can, they can adjust things to, you know, it's got, you get the, the boost on your video game when you're behind your rival and it gives you a little bit extra so you can catch up. I don't know. [00:09:06] Speaker B: Right, right, right. Push to pass. [00:09:09] Speaker A: Yeah, just, just some sort of equalization. I don't know but it's. [00:09:16] Speaker A: 50, 50 on if Ferrari is going to be decent next year. [00:09:21] Speaker C: I hope, I mean you hope so but it can't get much worse. Or maybe it can but you hope it can't get much worse. [00:09:29] Speaker B: Look at the Aston Martin of it. [00:09:31] Speaker C: All right. Yeah, yeah. [00:09:33] Speaker B: But although Alonzo did have a pretty good, pretty good weekend especially for how his season has gone. But not Carlos. [00:09:43] Speaker A: He did have a spin though. [00:09:44] Speaker C: He did, he did, he did. A quite a few people like had close to spinning and Alonso was just the one who went all the way around. Guys were catching their cars sliding all over the place, place. It was quite. [00:09:56] Speaker B: Both the McLarens almost lost it. [00:09:58] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:10:00] Speaker C: But yeah, it was definitely a good one of Alonzo's better races in from the recent rounds for sure. [00:10:08] Speaker C: Where did he finish? 6th, 7th. [00:10:10] Speaker B: 6Th or 7th. And obviously compatriot Carlos finishing on the podium for the second time this year and it was. Wait, where was it? It's the first time that Williams has had multiple podiums in a season since 2015. Yeah, yeah. [00:10:27] Speaker C: I mean great for Williams. [00:10:28] Speaker A: That was Bottas and Massa right back I think so at the beginning of the. Because they obviously Williams had the Mercedes power unit in the early hybrid era so that was, you know, particularly on quicker tracks meant that they were actually pretty solid. [00:10:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:10:45] Speaker A: And, but yeah, good to see by Williams boys up there again. [00:10:50] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:10:52] Speaker A: Drive from Carlos. [00:10:53] Speaker C: Did he end up with driver of the day Carlos? He was in the shout or did he give it to Max in the. [00:10:57] Speaker B: Max got it. [00:10:58] Speaker C: Yeah, it was pretty close. But I mean, I guess that's understandable. But. [00:11:04] Speaker C: I mean, Max, I mean, I mean the, the, the call aside to, to pit, it's not even his call. But Verstappen was, was in the le going back to the beginning. Right. Verstappen took the lead. [00:11:20] Speaker A: No, he went into second. He overtook. So he was. So Oscar was on pole. I mean, Oscar had a great weekend all around. Didn't put a foot wrong. [00:11:30] Speaker C: Oh, that's right. It was Norris. [00:11:32] Speaker A: Norris was on. In second on the dirty, you know, side of the track and he lost out to. To Max into turn one. [00:11:41] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. That's who we overtook. And you overtook him. I forgot which McLaren it was. Yeah, so. All right, fair enough. My point is invalid. I was just going to say, like last week, you know, Verstappen took the lead and he went in there. He won from the beginning no matter what any of them did. But no Piastre was ahead of Verstappen at that time. [00:11:58] Speaker B: Yeah, Carlos should have been driver of the day in my opinion. What does it matter anyway? [00:12:04] Speaker C: Yeah, there's no points for that. [00:12:06] Speaker A: No, because behind him it was. Kimmy was fourth and who's fifth? [00:12:13] Speaker C: No, you mean in the final classification. [00:12:16] Speaker A: So, so behind or at the beginning behind Carlos. For the majority of the race it was Kimmy. [00:12:23] Speaker B: Right. [00:12:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:12:24] Speaker A: And. [00:12:26] Speaker A: That was. Then. [00:12:29] Speaker B: He went. [00:12:30] Speaker A: Kimmy wasn't really challenging. Wasn't really challenging. Carlos. It was just so difficult to pass on this circuit. It's like, guys, we've got Monaco already. This is like Monaco without walls. But no, that's Hungary. But this is Monaco without walls, without any sort of prestige. So it's kind of. Why are we here? It came in during COVID because they needed to host a race somewhere and it seems to have stuck around. But this is a MotoGP track. It's great for motorbikes. Really cool because they can go three wide through these corners and it's, you know, it's brilliant, but it doesn't lend itself because to F1 because it's a lot of high speed, medium radius corners that you can take really fast. The drivers love it. Obviously it's a challenge, but in the same way that Monaco is. [00:13:16] Speaker C: But it doesn't have the big heavy. Doesn't have the big like heavy braking going into a corner, you can outbreak something and it's very, very dusty as well. Right offline. There's like dust everywhere, which must Affect. [00:13:28] Speaker A: The grip, but it's like it's in the middle of a desert or something. [00:13:33] Speaker C: Is it? [00:13:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I mean, there's, there's lots of storylines to. I mean, the storylines of this race weren't particularly deep. Right. You know, the result is the result. It was a big screw up by McLaren. You know, but what. It leaves the door open for so many different possibilities next week. Right. [00:13:53] Speaker A: But the big, the big move was the error by Kimmy, which Lando threw. [00:13:59] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, that was a legit. Yeah, legitimate. [00:14:01] Speaker A: He legitimately lost it. I mean, he had a moment in a corner before it ended up being too tight. Going into a corner because he was, he went in too fast because he had Lando behind him, made an error. [00:14:16] Speaker A: And despite what Red Bull say, he didn't wave him through. [00:14:20] Speaker C: No, no. Well, Red Bull have come out and apologized for saying that now. And Kimmy's got a lot of hate online from supposed fans, I guess, which obviously is terrible for just, you know, trying to do his job. 19 year old kid. But you know, people on the, when they're anonymous on the Internet will say stupid stuff. But yeah, yeah, could be, could be critical. I mean, those points that. Narrator. [00:14:46] Speaker A: Those two points were super huge. [00:14:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:14:49] Speaker A: Like super huge. [00:14:52] Speaker A: Because that meant that as long as Lando finishes on the podium, right. [00:14:58] Speaker C: He doesn't, it doesn't matter. He doesn't have to beat Verstappen. He doesn't have to beat Verstappen and Piastri. He can finish behind them and Max wins. [00:15:08] Speaker B: He takes it though, right? [00:15:09] Speaker A: No, if Max wins and Lando's on the podium. [00:15:13] Speaker C: Podium. He's good. Lando's. [00:15:15] Speaker A: All Lando needs to do is get a podium next weekend. If, if. [00:15:23] Speaker A: If he hadn't got those two points, then it would have been, you know, two points further back. He would have had to have come second. [00:15:32] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, it all almost seems written that Verstappen is going to win next week. Somehow we're just assuming that. [00:15:39] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, what would be super interesting is if Max was leading the race and George was second and Oscar was third and Lando was fourth in the latter stages of, of the race, would. [00:15:52] Speaker C: Oscar let Lando through to take the championship? [00:15:57] Speaker B: I think he would. [00:15:58] Speaker C: I think he would. Right. [00:16:01] Speaker B: If it's Max Orlando, he has no shot at winning it. Yeah. [00:16:07] Speaker C: So I don't know. I mean, so how does Oscar rules? Oscar wins it if the, you know. [00:16:14] Speaker B: He'S got it right. [00:16:15] Speaker C: He has to win and then Verstappen and, and Norris have to kind of mess up. I mean, Norris a bit less. Sorry, A bit more than Verstappen. If he. [00:16:24] Speaker A: If. If Oscar wins, Max is second. [00:16:30] Speaker A: I think. Does that put them equal on points? But. But if Oscar wins, he's got eight wins to Max and Lando's five. So he'd win on a countback. But as. But as long as Lando didn't finish on the podium. So if. If Oscar. I've not really done the math, but just mental arithmetic tells me if Piastri wins and. [00:16:56] Speaker A: And Lando's off the podium, I think Oscar can be champion. [00:17:00] Speaker C: No, Norris has to be P. P6. [00:17:04] Speaker A: Is that right? [00:17:05] Speaker C: For Piastri to. Piastri to win, Nurse is going to be P6 or lower. [00:17:09] Speaker A: Okay, right. Okay. So it's a little bit more. [00:17:11] Speaker C: Almost impossible. And then Max has to. Max can be somewhere in there, I guess. But. [00:17:15] Speaker B: Right, say almost impossible. He was practically P5 in this race. I mean. [00:17:19] Speaker A: Right. Anything can happen. [00:17:21] Speaker C: That's true. [00:17:21] Speaker A: You know, you look back to 2000, 2008, when. [00:17:25] Speaker C: When Raikkonen won over 2007. [00:17:28] Speaker B: 2007. [00:17:30] Speaker A: That was. Yes, 2007. That was. [00:17:35] Speaker A: That crazy first corner or. [00:17:37] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:17:38] Speaker A: In. In Brazil or like it was the turn four, wasn't it, with the end of the first straight where Lewis overloaded his electronics and had to restart everything. Ended up coming P6. In that race. He lost the championship. [00:17:51] Speaker C: He lost like 20 plus seconds. Yeah. Or something. [00:17:54] Speaker A: Yeah, of course. [00:17:55] Speaker C: Of drive. And yeah, that was a great day for us Ferrari fans. Especially those. [00:18:01] Speaker A: I remember it well. [00:18:02] Speaker C: Especially those of us that are married to people from. That have finished heritage as well. So even. Even better. [00:18:09] Speaker B: So were you more a Ferrari fan that day than a British fan? [00:18:13] Speaker C: Me? Yeah, definitely. Still. I never. I was never really a big, like, Hamilton guy. Even when, like Schumacher was driving for Ferrari, you know. [00:18:23] Speaker C: I was a Ferrari guy. Usually us Brits hate the Germans, but not in this case. [00:18:29] Speaker A: Well, in this case. [00:18:33] Speaker A: Yeah. F. Assuming obviously he's gone through very difficult times since his retirement. So now I look, you know, kind of puts a positive spin on history a little bit. But no, I didn't really like him at the time. [00:18:46] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:46] Speaker A: But actually. But I. I'm using my phone to join the podcast. Otherwise I'd check on like ChatGPT or something like that. What. What would the status be in the championship now if McLarens hadn't been disqualified in Vegas? Would the championship still be going on? [00:19:10] Speaker C: Oh, I didn't even know. Huh. [00:19:14] Speaker A: That's something for our listeners to. To go away. [00:19:17] Speaker C: Lando would have got second. Lando would have got second. Right. [00:19:20] Speaker B: Lando would have gotten second. [00:19:22] Speaker C: Oscar. Fourth. Fourth. [00:19:24] Speaker A: Right. [00:19:25] Speaker C: But which would have. That would have put Lando. Yeah, well ahead of Verstappen, I think. Yeah. [00:19:32] Speaker A: Because he would have got eight. He'd be 18 points further ahead. [00:19:35] Speaker B: He'd be 30 points ahead. [00:19:37] Speaker C: Yes. [00:19:41] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. So, you know, it makes for compelling viewing, you know, Liberty. Liberty Media saying, stay out. They're hacking into the McLaren radio feed. Stay out, boys. Stay out. [00:19:55] Speaker A: I did see a funny meme or a picture on Twitter of someone in a Red Bull outfit with a helmet on with sandpaper and, like, sanding a plant. [00:20:10] Speaker A: After Las Vegas. I don't think that was quite fun. [00:20:13] Speaker B: Funny. [00:20:13] Speaker A: But, yeah, I mean, that's what a huge mistake. I mean, if ultimately, if. If that is what, you know, say Max does win it. That tiny error, that tiny mistake that they made is cost of everything. [00:20:28] Speaker C: I mean, when it's that when. When the margins are this tight, that you just go right through the whole season and see where. Where mistakes are made, there's plenty of them. They're supposed to even out at the end of the day, but, I mean, Max has drove pretty flawlessly the back half of the season to put himself back in contention. I mean, if he wins. And I was looking on the BBC, they had an article about times when it's been up for grabs amongst three drivers to. Going into the last race, Vettel won coming from. Coming from third. He was the third driver of the three beating out. [00:21:06] Speaker A: And Webber. [00:21:06] Speaker C: Yeah, but that was the first time that a Red Bull had led the championship, was when he won the championship, which would be. [00:21:16] Speaker C: Like, effectively what Max would do as well if he wins. He's never been in the lead of the championship at all this season, not for one second until winning the actual. [00:21:24] Speaker B: Thing, and that was with Kiki Rosberg was that way as well, I believe. [00:21:29] Speaker C: Oh, was it? I don't know. I didn't read. I didn't read the ones where they went way back in time because Farina and Fangio. [00:21:39] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:21:40] Speaker A: I didn't read it. But I do remember 2010, and that was when Webber pitted and Alonso pitted to cover him and came out behind Vitelli Petrov and got stuck behind Moreno for the whole. The whole rest of the race. And then, you know, Vettel came in and. And scooped it. [00:21:57] Speaker C: One of my. One of my earliest Formula One memories is Mansell's Tire exploding in Adelaide in 1986 when I was only 12 years old. I wasn't didn't really quite understand what I was watching at the time. I was just so new to the sport. But everybody assumed Mansell would win. He just needed to much like. Much like Norris, he just needed to finish on the podium. I believe Mansell to win that year, and his tire just exploded down the Brabham straight in Adelaide and that was it. Prosthetics, win the championship. So that could happen. That could happen, Jason. [00:22:31] Speaker B: All the bad things. All the bad things that can happen to Lando. [00:22:35] Speaker C: Lando could get spun out on the first corner and then that's it, you. [00:22:38] Speaker B: Know, hey, as long as Max goes with him, you know, that's. [00:22:44] Speaker C: Yeah, it's hard to take out three cars simultaneously, you know. [00:22:47] Speaker B: Well, I, you know, if one McLaren goes, as long as Max goes with him, the other McLaren stays, we're good. [00:22:55] Speaker C: You're. You're agnostic. You're McLaren agnostic, are you? [00:22:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I just want to. I want Max not to win. Honestly, at this point in my F1 fandom, anyone but Max. I mean, obviously it's better that it's McLaren that makes me happier, but literally anybody else would be okay. [00:23:12] Speaker A: First corner. Last year in, in Abu Dhabi. [00:23:16] Speaker A: Max punted Piastri off at the first corner. We'll say there's a, you know, he repays the favor on this occasion. [00:23:25] Speaker B: Yeah, if he was out of the championship fight, I think he might consider it. [00:23:29] Speaker A: But. [00:23:31] Speaker A: Yeah, anything can happen. So, you know, it's going to be interesting to get past the pit stop because there's only ever going to be one right, and, and see where, see where cars are, see if someone's going to make a move. [00:23:45] Speaker C: There's a lot of. There's a lot of key moments that are going to be coming up right from the setup of the cars for, for qualifying. Who can be at the front? Nobody. Don't. Don't mess up. Right. Don't get. Don't screw yourself and get knocked out in Q1 somehow by having a mental error. And I get through the first corner, get through the pit stops, get through everything. There's so many spots where it could go all wrong. So much on the line. [00:24:11] Speaker B: And Oscar is not going to be in FP1, I think I read. So he's going to have one less practice session. [00:24:20] Speaker A: I did hear that a couple of weeks ago as well. [00:24:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:22] Speaker C: Does he have to do that contractually? Is he obligated to sit out a certain number of grand pre practice sessions a year or something? [00:24:28] Speaker B: I think, yeah. Everyone has to sit out one, I guess. He hasn't done it. [00:24:32] Speaker C: Oh wow. [00:24:33] Speaker B: This is not a good time for that if that's true. Yeah. [00:24:40] Speaker B: Well, I guess you know, we've spoken about. There really weren't that many necessarily highlights during the race. Obviously one big one, which is what brought out the safety car is Pierre and Nico crashing on lap seven. I mean just like Nico said, he left him a bunch of room. It was just kind of. He just under. Under steered into Nico. It was pretty bad. [00:25:02] Speaker C: Yeah. Kind of a racing incident really. Yeah. But yeah, unfortunate for, for both of them. [00:25:08] Speaker A: Yeah. The way the track just kind of cuts back a little bit more at the end just meant that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time to racing incident on that one. So don't think anyone's to blame. Speaking of safety cars though, riddle me this. What if Yuki crashes like six laps from the end of Abu Dhabi and. [00:25:25] Speaker C: Oh my God. [00:25:30] Speaker B: You go into, you go into the pits and get new tires. That's what you do. You get new tires. [00:25:37] Speaker C: You got. It's like that meme from like it's always sunny in Philadelphia where the guy's got all the pictures on the wall with a red string, joining all the teams together, like you know, who's, who's pulling for who's working on who. You know, I think they were talking about at the end of this Grand Prix how maybe Sainz was going to back up a little bit to give Kimmy a toe or to give Kimmy some drs so that Lando couldn't get by, you know, all sorts. [00:26:01] Speaker A: I don't know, the way he came on the radio. Oh no. [00:26:07] Speaker B: If Michael Massie gets elected as race director for this race, I'm going to really be pissed off. [00:26:14] Speaker C: No, Mikey, no. [00:26:19] Speaker C: Oh dear. [00:26:19] Speaker B: We're going racing, Toto. [00:26:21] Speaker C: Exactly. [00:26:23] Speaker A: I'm reliving the trauma. Please stop. [00:26:26] Speaker B: It's called the race, Toto. [00:26:33] Speaker A: I mean seriously, other than that one incident and the subsequent pit strategies. [00:26:42] Speaker C: What. [00:26:42] Speaker A: Else really happened in this race? [00:26:44] Speaker C: Ollie Bearman had a shocker, right? They, they released him but his back tire wasn't on or something. He had like an un. [00:26:51] Speaker A: Yeah, he just saw the in car view and they dropped him down and then he couldn't go and then he went up again and then he went down and then he left and then he got a 10 second stop go. [00:26:59] Speaker C: And then they just retired the car. [00:27:01] Speaker B: I guess I didn't notice any of that. [00:27:05] Speaker A: Padjar had something going on with his front wing. I didn't see that. [00:27:08] Speaker C: Oh, that happened right at the very end yeah, he had a puncture. He had a puncture. And so he, he dropped out. Although that didn't affect the, the very top runners. But he promoted a few people into the points. He was running in the points at the time. Yeah. [00:27:20] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, he was running in six, wasn't he? And then, yeah, he had a good race. He was in sixth. [00:27:24] Speaker C: But he managed to at least limp around and get off the track. So he didn't cause a safety car or anything like that. [00:27:32] Speaker C: But yeah, there really wasn't, you know, apart from, yeah, Ferrari disaster science, you know, masterclass. I guess it went perfectly for him for sure. Yeah, McLaren screw ups and you know, Max not disappearing. [00:27:51] Speaker C: I mean, I wish I was. I mean I was sick. I was sick of Max last year with all the winning, you know, we wanted something new, something fresh. Well, we certainly got that. But then if Max ends up winning again, like, oh, insane. [00:28:09] Speaker B: It's very, you know, reminiscent of like you were talking about earlier, the Red Bull run with Vettel earlier on. I mean it's just crazy, the parallels. [00:28:20] Speaker C: It just gets, the stress gets so ramped up. Who can handle it the most? You can't. Because I think that that, that sort of happened to Lando and Piastri at different times during the season. Maybe the stress was getting to him a little bit. They were trying to like over drive the car. I think Lando, we criticized him for that a little bit when he was making mistakes, trying to be too careful. [00:28:43] Speaker C: How do you, how do you put yourself into that state for this last race when everything's on the line? [00:28:49] Speaker A: Yeah, but you know, when you, when you hear them talking, they just seem sad. They do just really generally seem quite calm about the whole situation. So it's, you know, they spend a lot of time thinking about it and probably a lot of time being coached through it mentally. [00:29:05] Speaker A: To, you know, put themselves in a headspace where it's like their best position just to get in the car and get on with their job. [00:29:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:15] Speaker C: Well, well, we'll see. [00:29:16] Speaker B: That brings us into Coops F1. [00:29:20] Speaker C: Yeah, another. Yeah, another week of tough going. Rigzaroni with the top score this week, 260 points. Beaver Terro 253. [00:29:34] Speaker C: And as far as the overall standings go, I mean, as you were at the top, R. Heatley still leading the way with Tablet ID in second and Jason, you in third. But Nick, you've pulled yourself up to fourth. So, you know, I would say all to play for, but I mean, it's distilling out a little bit you, you know, who knows isn't. It's going to take a big call. It's going to. You're going to have to get some of those positions at the bottom of the prediction. Spot on, you know. Yeah. 10th through 10th through, you know, fifth. You know, who knows who could show up in that. In that group of drivers. [00:30:11] Speaker C: But all to play for. You've only got. [00:30:15] Speaker C: The planks. [00:30:16] Speaker B: Ruined me. [00:30:17] Speaker C: That's right. I mean, it's only. You got 4031, Nick in fourth and Jason 4055. So, you know, barely 20 points between you. [00:30:30] Speaker C: So who knows? Nick looking for that third trophy to go after his name and Jason looking for his first. [00:30:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:37] Speaker C: There's not many. I don't know if there's anybody in the three trophy club. It looks like R Heatley's going to add a third. Are you gonna hang with him, Nick? We'll see. [00:30:45] Speaker A: Better get it right. [00:30:47] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [00:30:48] Speaker B: Hopefully we can both jump. Tablet id, right? [00:30:52] Speaker A: Yes, I do. Yeah. [00:30:55] Speaker B: All right. [00:30:56] Speaker A: Yeah. F that guy. [00:30:58] Speaker A: Tablet id, if you're listening, I didn't mean it. [00:31:01] Speaker C: Don't listen to this. Well done. [00:31:02] Speaker A: You're doing a great job. [00:31:04] Speaker B: Keep listening. [00:31:05] Speaker C: He's got you. They've got you covered off nicely. Yeah. Tablet ID is closer to our Heatley than. Than to Jason. [00:31:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:16] Speaker C: By. Only by a few points, but he. [00:31:20] Speaker B: Has to give up the corner. I had the nose ahead. [00:31:23] Speaker C: What is wrong with these people? [00:31:26] Speaker B: Thanks for listening to the Undercuts review of the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and join us next time for our review of the last race of the season, the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. We'll see you there.

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