Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Thanks for tuning in to the Undercuts review of the 2025 Miami Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you listen and enjoy the episode.
By being a racing driver, you are at 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. All right, guys, so what is this? Round six or seven? This is round. It's going fast. Round six.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: We're a quarter of the way through already.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Wow. Crazy. It is flying by and obviously this is the Miami Grand Prix. The. We haven't had a sprint race weekend in a few. We've had two so far. Right before this one. Two sprint race weekends before this one.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: At least one because Lewis.
[00:01:02] Speaker C: Lewis won the Sprint in China.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: I guess that was the only one. I think that was it. Yeah, I guess that was the only one.
But obviously a lot of the talk was about the sprint race and Lando getting another safety car to help him out in the sprint race and then Oscar coming in saying that not going to be buying any lottery tickets in Miami with. With Lando around because he seems to have all the luck. But that all changed for the big race, didn't it?
[00:01:32] Speaker A: Oh, I mean, McLaren wasn't safe car.
[00:01:35] Speaker C: Luck, but it was. There was some luck involved, I think.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: But yeah, I think Oscar can say that not easily. I think he'd rather win the main race than come second in the sprint race than the other way around.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: Not giving much up.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: No.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Yeah. There was so much happening over the whole weekend with the sprint race, like delivering, like starting off with Kimmy on pole. Right. That was awesome.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: That was amazing.
[00:02:04] Speaker C: And then it rained and then it was drying and then it was. Well, the story of my sprint race was so this past weekend, I was at my daughter's cheer competition in Myrtle Beach. Hell on earth, as I. As I describe it.
But I was watching this. So we were in this. It was at this place and there's a. There's a bar and I was sat watching it, but it's one of those entertainment bars, so they had it on a big screen and I was watching it, or at least I was trying to watch it. But about lap 12, the MC of the bar decided he was going to have to, you know, bring a couple of dads up. And despite me looking in completely the opposite direction, my eyes glued to the sprint race, my son and his mate, they're like this. This guy. This guy.
So I got yanked up to do this ridiculous challenge, which I won, I hasten to add.
Not that I'm competitive in any way. It involved a race on these little scooter things that you could propel by just turning the wheel. And I kicked this guy's butt. He cheated to try and beat me, and he didn't. And anyway, so I missed the last five laps of the sprint race.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Missed everything.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: It sounds just.
[00:03:28] Speaker C: Like the big.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: It sounds like the beginning of the real race, you know, because Max tried to cheat again and it didn't work out for him in the end.
[00:03:36] Speaker C: Wow, those be fighting words.
[00:03:42] Speaker B: Honestly, this one was not as bad as the last one with Max. I felt this one was more.
Lando didn't have the corner as much as, you know, in the last race, but. Yeah.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: The sprint race or the main race? What are you talking about?
[00:03:56] Speaker B: The main race?
[00:03:58] Speaker C: Yeah, but let's. Yeah, I mean that. The thing is, though, Max ran wide, so of course Lando's going for that gap.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: Right.
[00:04:08] Speaker C: It's just that Max was able to just get on the power enough to get to the right place, but he was on the power a little too much. There was just this hint of a bit of a slip at the rear, bit of oversteer, and then that's the jink that sent it, you know, countering. That was the jinx that sent him off. Right. Which ultimately forced Lando off the track.
Lando couldn't not go for it.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: You're giving Max way too much.
[00:04:37] Speaker C: No, put it this way.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: He just drove to the edge of the track like he always does.
[00:04:40] Speaker C: No, we've watched the. In car, you see his hands kind of steer towards Lando. Now, if he had steered toward Lando intentionally. Slam dunk penalty. They didn't give a penalty. Even on the first lap. If he steers into someone, that's gonna be a penalty. The fact that they didn't give a penalty kind of points to the fact that, yeah, maybe that was that little bit of oversteer because he was a little too aggressive getting on. On the gas to try and get to the next corner ahead of Lando. Ultimately, you know, Lando probably had a fraction of a second in which to bail, but not really.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I mean, Paul, we. We're talking about this race. There's so much to talk about. I don't know what order we're going in, but Lando, that sort of ruined his. His race. Right. You know, from that point on, he was what, he dropped down to fifth or sixth, I think, but it was.
[00:05:34] Speaker C: All that Oscar needed. I mean, on the day, the car was just so much faster. I mean, even McLaren, knowing that they had the pace in hand, probably didn't realize how much pace they did have. 0.4 half a second. Right.
[00:05:49] Speaker A: It was miles ahead and. But what great racing it gave us for the first 20 laps of the main race with Piastri fighting Max, trying to keep Piastri behind him, and then ultimately trying to keep, you know, once Lando had worked his way back up to keep trying to keep Lando behind him, he couldn't in the end. But awesome racing. So close. Real good display of the skills, the drivers. Nobody, you know, that's definitely gonna end up in a crash nine times out of the 10 in the past, like, 15 years in my mind. I don't know. Like, it just seems to crash more often than not. But recently they've been.
Yeah, keeping it on the track. So it was great to watch.
[00:06:29] Speaker B: Well, I think people know Max's tool, his tricks by now, so they can kind of, like, avoid the crash, although it's delaying what other drivers are able to do for a couple laps. But you saw, like, Oscar saw what he was doing over and over and over again and then just breaked ahead of time, let Max fly by, and then just cut right. Cut right underneath him and was able to take it.
[00:06:52] Speaker C: Yeah, he played it really well. And Max knew that that wasn't going to happen again. Right. So he knew now how tight that he needed to. How he could break on a tighter line and still make the corner, which made life much more difficult for Lando. I don't. I've not really counted the laps that Oscar was behind Max and then Lando. It wasn't actually that much different.
The problem was that it was for the lead of the race. And so Oscar wasn't losing time, Lando was losing time because once Oscar was by, he was being gapped. So the point at which.
The point at which Oscar got by Max, I think Lando was only about a second and a half to two seconds behind. He was really, really close, such that I think once Osc got by, Lando was having a go at Max on, like, the next lap or maybe, maybe two. It was really, really, like one after the next for him.
And if Lando had got by at that first attempt. Well, the first attempt at.
Well, if he got by that first attempt at turn one, he'd have, you know, we'd have had a race even if he'd have got through at the first attempt at turn 11, where he had to give the place back cuz he couldn't keep it on the track. I think at that point it was only maybe five seconds apart, in which case we could still have had a race. But the fact that he had to give the place back and he lost another couple of seconds there, it was like 8, 9 seconds by the time he didn't finally get past Max. And that's all that Oscar needed at that point.
He just managed the gap even though it did creep back towards the end. That was probably just more a case of just Oscar just nursing it home rather than any real pace advantage that Lando had. But I think Lando was quick. He was the quicker of the two guys this weekend, I think. But just that first corner incident was all Oscar needed to get ahead and make the race his own.
[00:08:54] Speaker A: I mean, if you look back, if you take it back to last Grand Prix too, when Lando crashed in qualifying, right. And ended up starting 10th, that's just one mistake, I. E. The crash in qualifying. But that cost him the race weekend and the ability to attack Oscar basically because they're both driving at a high level. The. The cars are both the fastest.
[00:09:17] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: Hard for them to take each other.
[00:09:20] Speaker C: And Oscar's just not making mistakes. And Lando makes like one mistake a weekend, whether it be in qualifying in China breaking for the chicane or you know. Yeah, that one. And it was.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Going to be the difference. It's going to be. I mean, go back to Australia right when it suddenly started raining and Oscar span out when they were both in the or. They both span Albert. Oscar obviously more severely and ended up losing a whole minute. But it's going to come down to mistakes between those two probably for the title now and Lando's making more of them.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Jason, I can see from your. Your screen that you've already changed your allegiance to Oscar.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: I've been on the Oscar bandwagon since last year, guys. You guys always doubted me. You're like, okay, okay, you're a Lando guy. But no, okay. The demeanor of Oscar, it just, it's like you said, it only takes like one lap of mistakes. That can be the chance that second and a win. Right. And it seems that it takes Lando whether it's. Whether it was close between the two of them being able to get by Max. It takes Lando that little bit longer. It all. It always seems like it takes Lando that extra lap to figure out how it is to get by him where Oscar's able to figure it out that much Quicker and obviously it's showing in the standings.
[00:10:43] Speaker C: Yeah, but then how often have you seen Max make a mistake?
[00:10:47] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:47] Speaker C: The fact that Lando. Well, the fact that Oscar forced him into making that mistake because Max thought. So Oscar made Max think that he was going to go around the outside and Oscar stitched him up.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: Well, maybe Max. Max just not used to driving defensively. Right. Usually he's got the better equipment. He's usually the hunter, not the hunted.
[00:11:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: So he doesn't have so much experience doing that. But he was. He was complaining about his brakes. He was complaining. This is Max. He was complaining about his brakes and other parts of the car. So, you know, the car isn't as obviously clearly not as dominant as he's had the past few years, so this is going to be the reality for him. But yeah, Oscar just drove a perfect race and probably a perfect weekend. Right. He only didn't win the sprint because of the safety car when it came out with our friend, what was it? Liam Lawson tipped Alonso into the barrier.
[00:11:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
It was clumsy to say the least.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: Why is he trying to come back onto the track there? Liam, just go straight and just rejoin. But.
[00:12:00] Speaker C: Or just don't accelerate into the side of Fernando Alonso.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: But I mean, Alonso, I mean, the Astons had a weekend to forget anyway because Alonso spun all on his own at that corner in the race as well.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: Sure did.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: And the two Astons were just. They were both dead last.
[00:12:19] Speaker C: Last on the road.
[00:12:21] Speaker A: Yeah, they weren't even close.
[00:12:22] Speaker C: So, yeah, it's going to be interesting. I mean, at this point, obviously, Aston have written off 20, 25.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: Right.
[00:12:31] Speaker C: Any. Any time that they say. I know, I think we've probably said in the first couple of weeks, Adrian should just kind of just do a bit of something to give him a bit of time. Come on. But no, any time that Adrian Newey spends on this car is going to be time wasted from devoting his efforts and energies and brilliance to next year's car.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: For sure. Yeah, for sure.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: I think this is going to be the real test for what Adrian Newey really is. Obviously we know that he's one of the best designers ever in the sport, but if he can turn this team around. Because I feel like we have this idea of like, that's half a season increment right out of the regulation change when they looked like one of the top three cars. But yeah, ever since then, I mean, they have the one race win with Checo when they were racing point, like forever ago, but it's been crap pretty Much the whole time since they've been.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: They have only gone backwards really. Yeah. For the past as much as McLaren who were like terrible at the beginning, what two or three seasons ago and clearly have gone in the right direction as whatever aston has lost, McLaren's gained. Right.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:47] Speaker A: In opposite direction.
[00:13:48] Speaker C: Yeah. Maybe Newey is like sabotaging the car to make him look like even more of a genius.
[00:13:54] Speaker B: Yeah, it'll help. It'll help, I promise.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: We need conspiracy theory.
If there's, if there's conspiracy theories, what the hell's going on at Ferrari? Is it just incompetence or is there some nefarious background?
[00:14:12] Speaker C: I mean I think Ferrari is just be. They're just doing Ferrari things.
[00:14:17] Speaker A: What was Charles doing driving on a, wasn't even a warm up lap. What was he doing driving? So in the sprint, in the sprint.
[00:14:27] Speaker C: Race, Aquaplane into the half an hour.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: Before the, the race even was going to start, he was just driving to the grid.
[00:14:34] Speaker C: Yeah, just a planed it into the wall.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: Oh my gosh.
[00:14:38] Speaker B: Didn't get much better for Ferrari for the regular race either. I mean with the switching back and forth, they just pissed both the drivers off in that instance and they didn't gain anything.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: They tried, I'll say this, they tried because Hamilton was obviously at that point they were both next to each other but Hamilton had the medium tires so supposedly had the faster tires. So he had a point. Let me through, let me attack. But the car's just not good enough. So they were just dragging each other along. Whoever was behind could keep up because of Drs. And that's just the performance of the car. It didn't matter who was in front. That's just as fast as the car goes. So yeah, you could switch cars all day long. It's not going to make a difference. I think is the ultimate risk.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: I think the timing was, was the biggest complaint from the drivers. Right. Like they just, they just did it too late. By the time like Lewis was able to get a front, he had cooked the best part of the tires and then, you know.
[00:15:31] Speaker C: Yeah, but it shouldn't have been, it shouldn't have even been a conversation in the race. As soon as they put Lewis on the hard tire to start the race and Charles on the medium, it should become a discussion of if there comes a point in the race where someone's on a faster tire, they go by, we'll figure it out five laps from the end or whatever. But, but whoever lets the other one by, if you know they've been compromised by doing it, we can switch them back.
It really shouldn't have. And what kind of came through to me in some of the messages was that they hadn't even started talking to Charles about it.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:16:17] Speaker C: It was like they were coming up and Lewis was asking to do it and then it's like, oh, crap. And then they kind of talk amongst themselves for a lap and a half.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Rather than. Are they missing a big personality on the pit wall? Like, clearly they've got big personalities in the car, but on the pit wall you need somebody making the decision or, you know, to move things forward. I mean, gone are the days of, you know, Ross Braun or Jean Todt. Right.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: Maybe Fred needs to stop making jokes.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: What's that?
[00:16:45] Speaker B: Fred needs to stop making so many jokes and just make a decision up there.
[00:16:49] Speaker A: Oh, my God. I mean, I mean, it gave us some great, like radio, though, with Hamilton saying, just have. What do you say? Have a cup of tea. Yeah.
[00:16:59] Speaker C: And my favorite radio communication of all time, there is like a hall of fame radio message that came shortly after that when Adami came on and said science 1.5 seconds behind. And Lewis says, well, you want me to let him through too?
[00:17:15] Speaker A: That was pretty good.
I don't know if Nick, you got my mind spinning now. Like, I can't. Oh, you're talking about top radio communications of all time. I don't know. In my mind, I can't get past like, I think all top five of mine would be Kimi Raikkonen, leave me alone. That know what I'm doing.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: Or just screams oh, dear. But yeah, I mean, Ferrari, that's, that's just where they're at now. They, they're, they've been passed by Williams, right? Williams, Yeah.
[00:17:50] Speaker C: I mean, Carlos on the last corner trying to get back into that number two Ferrari.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: I mean, that, that was also what.
[00:18:00] Speaker C: Daylight dollar short, wasn't it? Yeah, that was aggressive. Cool. Crikey. But thankfully that, you know, they were going slow enough and neither car got broken and.
[00:18:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:10] Speaker C: And all of that. But that could have been, that could have been messy. And the stewards didn't actually do anything. I guess they thought they was like, they just felt sorry for Carlos or something. Know. But that was.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: Yeah, that's my opinion.
Play on a computer game normally.
[00:18:23] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And Lewis did move over. He didn't move under breaking, but he started his turn in just a tad earlier than, than normal. But even if they had given Carlos a five second penalty, behind him was Yuki. And Yuki got a five second Penalty.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:42] Speaker C: And on the last lap, Isaac Hajar was less than five seconds behind, but somehow managed to lose like a quarter of a second at the first corner. And so Yuki kept the Last point for 10th by 0.158 or something of a sec.
[00:18:59] Speaker A: It was very, very tight. Yeah, I was keeping an eye on that because I think in my prediction I had Hajar a tenth, so I think that cost me. I could have got some more points there, but did I see you also.
[00:19:08] Speaker B: Had Lance in your top 10, Martin?
[00:19:10] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[00:19:12] Speaker C: Anyway, moving on.
Did he get this in the sprint or something? No. Was it his sprint?
[00:19:18] Speaker A: He scored points in the sprint. And if, you know, if you've listened to this podcast, you know that for some reason I have a blind spot when it comes to Aston. I still think that they can improve, like with Adrian Dewey and stuff. And, you know, my actions follow my words, but clearly I need to get off of. Off of Aston and onto the racing Bulls.
[00:19:40] Speaker C: Yeah, but I think, you know, you did.
We went from Ferrari. You did talk about Williams. Great weekend for them really in terms of pace.
Unfortunate for a couple of different things happening in the main race. Lap one, Carlos and Alex coming together in the first corner, which isn't ideal. Thankfully it didn't compromise their race too much. They both managed to continue, so that was great. And then Alex, under the safety car, got hit with a five second penalty for falling too far behind.
Max, was it? I didn't see that. Is that what that was for? I didn't really see because that was kind of coming through as I was otherwise engaged in stupidity at a bar in Myrtle Beach.
[00:20:30] Speaker A: I missed that one too. I don't know, actually.
[00:20:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I didn't notice that either.
[00:20:33] Speaker C: That's five points gone for. He was finished. He was going to finish fourth, I think in the sprint and. Or he finished fourth on the road and that dropped him out of the points. And that's five points gone, which for Williams is huge.
But they obviously got a good haul of points with a fifth and a ninth.
[00:20:54] Speaker A: They're a legitimate. They're a legitimate team now behind.
You know, I'd put them ahead of Ferrari probably for performance or at least, at least on equal footing.
[00:21:05] Speaker C: I think they're probably the same right now, but I guess operationally they're one in front of the other. Sometimes they'll get something wrong and it's like, who messes things up worse? Because it wasn't a slick weekend really for Williams in terms of operation, but the car was really good, so you can Fix other stuff, but you can't fix a slow car. So that's good.
But you know, lap 31, the first corner of lap 31, just after the virtual safety car, when in the same corner you got Alex Albon getting past.
Who was it Kimi Antonelli, was it?
[00:21:43] Speaker B: I think so.
[00:21:44] Speaker C: Past Kimi Antonelli and then like five seconds later or three seconds later, you had Carlos get by Charles Leclerc. Yeah, that's a. That's a good. A good corner for Williams right there.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, Carlos definitely enjoyed that, right?
[00:21:58] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:58] Speaker B: But Carlos did end up losing both spots to both Ferraris in the turn. Like in the matter of two corners, though. But it was almost another Silverstone situation. Lewis almost passed two people at one moment as they both go wide like.
[00:22:14] Speaker A: He was going to do it. Didn't.
[00:22:15] Speaker B: Crafty was getting ready and if it.
[00:22:17] Speaker C: If it hadn't been his teammate, Lewis would have stayed in there long.
[00:22:21] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:22:21] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. And there was. Was it Lewis and Esteban Ocon through 11, 12, 13, like side by side going round that, that the Heineken arena bit.
[00:22:37] Speaker A: They were.
[00:22:38] Speaker C: They were.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: Which again, close again, is a little disappointing as something else you have to swallow as a Ferrari fan that we're like racing, you know, the Alpines wheel to wheel when you.
[00:22:47] Speaker C: No, no, not an Alpine.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: I'm sorry. A hass.
Even worse.
[00:22:52] Speaker C: Martin's having a stroke right now.
[00:22:58] Speaker A: You're gonna tell me it's a kick Stalber in a minute. Oh, no.
Oh, dear. And once again, the.
What is it? Mercedes. Just get on with it. Right.
Not much screen time, but just, you know, there and thereabouts.
[00:23:17] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, we talked. Yeah. The ups and downs of Kimi Antonelli this weekend, putting it on pole for the sprint and then he got a little. I feel for him in that first corner because he's on pole for his first race. Thankfully it was a sprint and not the main race.
And Oscar did kind of what he did to Max last time out. Right. Pushed him as far out, but Kimi bailed a little bit on it. I think if he'd have been a bit more forceful and come across just a little bit more and shown his elbows on Oscar, then I think Oscar would have breaked a little bit earlier.
[00:23:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:52] Speaker C: But I think he twitched first and got schooled by the. Well, he's not a wily veteran. He's like year three. Right. But you know, compared to Kimmy. Compared to Kimmy, I mean, he's like nine years older than Kimmy or whatever was he 24, right. Oscar's 24. And Kimmy's.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: I think he's younger than that, isn't he?
I feel like Oscar's like 22.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: Oh, my God. And Kimmy's only. But Kimmy's only 18, so it doesn't really matter.
[00:24:23] Speaker B: They're both babies.
[00:24:24] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. But the big, the big talking point again that I missed in the sprint race at the time was the unsafe release Max Verstappen Red Bull releasing the car straight into the path of the Mercedes. I mean, thankfully these guys have got reflexes that are ungodly. Right?
[00:24:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:49] Speaker C: And as Kimmy's coming in, he sees the, you watch the onboard, you see the Red Bull mechanic stepping back. Yeah. And then you see the car come and like, boom, straight to the side and end plane of the, the front wing comes off. Debris all over the place. Poor Kimmy has to go back around again. He can't, he can't go into his pit box. And at that point, you know, he's, you know, the 10 seconds that Max got penalized for it, it pales in comparison with what Antonelli got, which was really, really unfortunate. He went round again and destroyed his race.
[00:25:26] Speaker A: I mean, what's going to happen to, I mean, they gave a 10 second penalty to Max, but is that, is that the end of it? I mean, that's the, it's not on Max. That's on the team.
[00:25:33] Speaker C: That's on the team. I, I don't know. They should be fine.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: It shouldn't, it should really shouldn't happen. Right. Like there's supposed to be procedures in place to, or people do, you know, following procedures to stop that kind of thing happening. These cars aren't small. It's pretty obvious that it's there. But rules touch.
[00:25:52] Speaker B: Pull out in front of you on the road without turning left either. Without looking left either. But you see that all the time.
[00:25:57] Speaker A: So you're supposed to look. But the driver can only do what his team tells him to do. But yeah, that was scary. But yeah, poor old Kimmy from pole to end up what. He's ended up seventh, I think in that race.
[00:26:08] Speaker B: But he did have a great start for the future race. I mean, he jumped up to P2. Obviously the McLarens were able to make quick work of him fairly easily. But.
[00:26:21] Speaker C: I think just really, he really just lost out to the VSC pit stops. Right. Because he stopped before George and the Ferraris, maybe I don't forget, were kind of pitting at the right time. And so while George was in fifth, heading you know, when the VSC came out he came out of the pits ahead of Verstappen in third and managed to hold him off. It's another sneaky George podium which he's got such a knack for that just running his own race, doing his own thing and then like all chaos breaks out and he just kind of comes walking through and you know, it's better to be lucky than good sometimes. Not saying that George is not good because he's had a great season so far. I've not got the standings in front of me but you know, he's still in with a shot, albeit not much of one given what we've seen from McLaren.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: He's fourth right now, right behind Verstappen. But yeah, McLaren are just going to keep pulling away. But no, yeah, great. You're absolutely right. The Mercedes is looking very solid and like Kimi from the rookies perspective is doing amazingly well.
[00:27:40] Speaker C: Yeah, he's way ahead.
[00:27:41] Speaker B: I mean he's.
[00:27:42] Speaker A: I mean this. And the news is that this could be the. Or could have been the last race for one of the rookies right in Doohan could be losing his seat.
[00:27:50] Speaker B: Looks like it is. Yeah.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: To Colapinto.
[00:27:53] Speaker C: Yeah, it's. I've been reading a couple of things.
The race is a. Is a good. I don't know if you guys listen to the race podcast or read any of their stuff.
[00:28:02] Speaker B: Read their stuff. Yeah.
[00:28:04] Speaker C: But that was something that was coming through in the past paddock after the race that D was going to make way for Colapinto.
Andrew Benson from the BBC has put it out on the BBC site that it looks like it's going to happen. So they're not going to put that out unless it's pretty much a done deal. So I'd expect to hit work pretty soon.
[00:28:26] Speaker B: Feel real bad for him. I mean, I mean he, he's had this over his head all season.
[00:28:31] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean he got bumped today. Oh, sorry. Yeah. In this race he got bumped into. Right. And is basically.
[00:28:37] Speaker C: Yeah. Lawson took him out.
[00:28:38] Speaker A: Lawson.
[00:28:39] Speaker C: He got Lawson.
[00:28:42] Speaker A: Oh my God. Liam is the new Latifi. Is it the new Mazin Latifi?
[00:28:51] Speaker C: No, but Lawson, I'm so shocked at the season he's had so far. He came in, he did, you know, the last two seasons, stepping in, did a solid job but he's a bit all at sea at the moment and which is a shame.
[00:29:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:07] Speaker A: I guess Red Bull have solved their second driver dilemma right now. Tsunoda's sort of in there. He's not really relevant for race wins. But he's doing well enough that he's doing well enough.
[00:29:20] Speaker C: I mean, looking at some of the qualifying gaps, he's still quite a bit behind. Yeah, but he's not going backwards in the races. And I think that's probably a. Yeah.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: And look. And Red Bull, nobody's. Nobody's spending their time criticizing Red Bull's car and how they've created it just for Max and nobody else could drive it anymore. They've got a driver in there that's taking the heat off them a little bit. So.
[00:29:45] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I mean, it seems like. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead.
[00:29:48] Speaker C: No, I was gonna say just with. With Yuki, I think he's made some good games. He was supposed to apparently have been driving a prior generation car at Silverstone between Saudi Arabia and this week, but being in England, it got washed out. So he didn't have a chance to kind of get some miles and get used to. Used to some of the handling characteristics. But he's had now what, three races? Four races.
It was four because it was Japan that he came in, which was race.
[00:30:23] Speaker A: Three and then four races.
[00:30:25] Speaker C: Yeah, it's four races now.
So I don't think he can get away with being new to the car.
But he's doing like you say, just enough. He should be used to it now. It's going to be harder to get faster from here, but we'll see how he goes.
[00:30:40] Speaker B: I mean, he's not doing any worse than right now. He's not doing any worse than Checo was at the end of his tenure with the team. Right.
[00:30:51] Speaker C: And he just needs to be picking up points. That's all Right.
[00:30:55] Speaker B: And it seems like the car, Max was able to put a crazy lap in, one lap to get a crazy time, but the race pace isn't there. So I think they probably have more leeway with him. I feel badly that, like we said, like, Liam didn't have that chance, but I felt like he didn't deserve that chance in the first place anyway. So I think they'll probably stick it. Stick with this for the rest of the season. I can't see them making another change, but staying with.
[00:31:22] Speaker C: With Red Racing Bulls. Of all of the rookies, I mean, well, let's say of all of the rookies. If you look at the rookie breakdown, right, we've got Kimi Antonelli doing a great job. Hajar far outseeding, certainly my expectations. He's been, I don't want to say anonymous the last couple of races, but he's been unspectacular but just on the edge of the points. Right. He's the Yuki Tsunoda of 2025. He's finishing 11th all the time it seems. I'm not looking at results to back this up but obviously he's.
But yeah, it's going to be. It's a challenging car and he's doing well with it.
Doohan they say. Unfortunate. Like Martin you were saying he's had it hanging over him all year even before.
You know, it wasn't even the off season. I think it was about a week after the Abu Dhabi race that big Flav signed Colapinto to be there. Test and reserve driver for three years or whatever on this massive contract which is never going to fare well. They've got a thousand seemingly test drivers at Alpine.
[00:32:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:36] Speaker C: But you got to feel for doing. Because I don't think he's really done much wrong. He's just been in the wrong place at times and maybe it's a case of he just doesn't know how to avoid getting into these disasters. But I'm not sure that Colapinto is seasoned enough to either. So unfair. Unfair for doing.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:58] Speaker C: And that's a shame.
Yeah.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: Yeah, it really is.
[00:33:03] Speaker A: I have a question going back to the sprint race, right. With the drying track, the wet track and the drying track. So all the cars are tootling around on Inters, right. And there's about how many laps of the sprint race? Like 18.
[00:33:18] Speaker C: 18. There were like six laps left.
[00:33:20] Speaker A: Right. There's like six laps left and then everybody starts going in for dry tires. Well the bottom half, the people are outside of the points and I'm like. That makes perfect sense. Like do something to try and you know, maybe you can get into it. But why did all the guys at the front of the race go in for tires? I didn't. I didn't get it. And certainly Lando once everybody was in, Lando was out. He was the last one on Inters. He had a 22nd lead with what, four laps to go?
[00:33:48] Speaker C: Four or five laps left.
[00:33:49] Speaker A: Why not just stay out?
[00:33:51] Speaker C: I mean I don't get it either. It was a bit. I was scratching my head on that one. Yeah.
[00:33:55] Speaker A: I mean unless they were you really potentially going to lose like four or five seconds a lap.
[00:34:01] Speaker C: That would be two seconds maybe.
[00:34:04] Speaker A: Yeah, it was, it was. It was very strange. But unless, I mean maybe they. He could have. Could the tires fail if they get.
[00:34:14] Speaker C: Too hot or something or not over four laps? I don't think.
[00:34:18] Speaker A: Was there a minimum? Minimum like from a Constructor's perspective. It's a sprint race. We're going to get first and second anyway. It's eight points. Seven points.
[00:34:27] Speaker C: Yeah. But it's interesting because I was thinking about Kimi Antonelli after he's failed, attempted a pit stop when Max pulled into him.
He had to go around anyway. Why did he not just stay out at that point and see if he could salvage something? Because, yeah, he'd lost a bunch of time, but that was still probably worth four or five seconds.
[00:34:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Even. Yeah. Net seemed like it would be faster to stay out, but. Yeah, I didn't get that at all. But then I'm not an F1 strategist and you know, that's not a hard calculation to do. So I don't know what was thinking there, but I haven't seen anything about that. But at the end of the day, it's only. It's literally one or two points we're talking about, so it's not exactly gonna, you know, change the course of a season. Yeah, I did. It didn't make sense to me.
[00:35:11] Speaker C: Yeah. But then the rest of the rookies all retired. Yep. Ollie Bearman with his. His Ferrari engine just blew. And then Bor was out. Lawson was out. Right. How did he actually finally, you know, I think he just damaged his.
[00:35:30] Speaker B: I think he just retired. I think he just came in.
[00:35:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:35:32] Speaker B: Like the side pod or like the floor where the side pod was.
[00:35:35] Speaker A: Was.
[00:35:36] Speaker B: Was real damaged, but I think it was just from crashing into like three people. So.
Yeah, that's what happens.
[00:35:42] Speaker A: And Bortoletto, bman and doing. Yeah. Or dnf.
[00:35:47] Speaker B: Do you think it was doing hissy fit after qualifying that was the. The final straw. Well, I guess I didn't hear about that.
[00:35:54] Speaker A: Yeah, I missed that. What was that?
[00:35:56] Speaker B: Well, he.
There were like four drivers that weren't able to get their final lap. Like they'd come out not quick enough. Like Yuki was the. Was the first one. Like he ju. He didn't get a second lap, which is why he didn't end up getting out of Q1. He just crossed the line as the checkered flag. It went out and there were three other guys doing. Being one of them that also were not able to get final lap. So he was like freaking out on the. On the radio and then still freaking out once he got into the garage and. But I mean, it's just compiled on all that's happened already and all the talk. I'm sure he's just so frustrated.
[00:36:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:37] Speaker B: I think we've pretty much hit on everybody. We didn't really talk about the Pierre, I guess, but kind of a silent, silent race for him. And we talked about Ocon a little bit, but didn't really do much.
[00:36:53] Speaker C: Other than that little battle with Lewis.
[00:36:56] Speaker B: Right.
[00:36:58] Speaker C: I mean, so we just ended up with. One thing we didn't mention is Oscar Piastri's third win in a row. Yes. The first time that that's been done by a McLaren driver, they pointed out, since 97, 98 with Mika Hakkinen. And to be frank, from what I recall on that one, the last race of 97, I think Coulthard gave him that win or teammates at the time. Yeah, there was something that. Basically, because Mika Hakkinen never won a race at that point over a good number of years, and he's obviously very, very good driver. And so I think they just kind of defaulted him into that first win and then he went and won the first two the next season on the bounce with the McLaren. Tricky braking system from 1998 when they changed the colors. Did they change the color scheme then? I can't remember, but it was.
Yeah. Have you watched that season yet? I'm sure, yes. You've seen every season, haven't you?
Yeah, it's been a while. But yeah, go back and watch that Last race of 97, the last few laps. I'm sure that there's something with Jacques Villeneuve or something. Or maybe Villeneuve handed the win because he was already world champion and they kind of were buddies like the. Anyway, there's something going on there, but yes, three in a row, that's a great achievement. 35 seconds, I think was the margin of victory. Somewhat flattered by the fact that the McLarens did pit under the VSC and managed to get. We see a good bit of advantage there. But, you know, then again, so did George. Right. So George was 35 seconds behind.
So the reference point, I guess, is. Is Max.
[00:38:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:47] Speaker A: Yeah. But still, I mean, absolutely domination from McLaren in, like every facet. And yeah, all you can pick apart is just like mistakes that their drivers are making. And even, even then it might have cost Lando the win, but he still came second even after making a mistake, a small mistake at the beginning, getting pushed off by Max, if you want to call it mistake. And.
[00:39:09] Speaker C: Yeah, and two years ago in this race, I think they finished two laps down or something. They were way off the back.
[00:39:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:16] Speaker C: This time last year was their first win and then they just won by 30 something seconds. They've done something. Apparently they spent a lot of time over the winter, focusing on the rear tyres and the cooling, stopping them from overheating.
And that really is a big difference. You see, in qualifying, it's is a lot closer. But then in the race, dirty air is obviously a big problem. That's maybe hampering trying to get by, which has helped Max certainly in Japan.
But once they're into the lead, they're off to the races.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:51] Speaker B: Well, Martin, I guess we need to talk about. Kurtzev won.
[00:39:56] Speaker A: Your favorite part.
[00:39:59] Speaker C: Anyway, I did not put my picks in. I actually. I did think it was going to be an Oscar win, but I didn't. I can't take any credit for it because I didn't put it in.
[00:40:08] Speaker B: Well.
[00:40:09] Speaker A: Massive points this week. I mean, it's the way Coupes F1 works. You get 40 points if you get the driver in the right position in the top 10. And then there's 20 points available for fastest lap and pole position. So redeaded. Redeaded. I don't know if that's how you pronounce it. 350 points this week. Almost perfect prediction. Unbelievable.
So others all scoring 305 and 300 points, but redeaded with 350 is very impressive. But yes, our very own JLAZIE92 moves up one spot to first overall with 1,206 points.
Just. And you were. You were quite a way back a few races ago, right?
[00:41:02] Speaker B: It seems like a lot after last week. It was like 70 points up or something like that.
[00:41:08] Speaker A: And then, you know.
[00:41:09] Speaker C: How many points did you get, Jason?
[00:41:11] Speaker B: 275. 275.
[00:41:15] Speaker A: Well. And Nick, maybe you did.
[00:41:17] Speaker C: I got 273.
[00:41:18] Speaker A: You didn't put in your picks, but you got 273.
[00:41:21] Speaker C: I got like first. I got first, second, third, fourth in the right order and sixth.
[00:41:27] Speaker A: There you go. So there you go.
[00:41:29] Speaker C: Just leave it. I'll just leave that there.
[00:41:31] Speaker A: That's Formula one. That's like, you know, just putting Max in first for the last two seasons. You know, you got a banker, but yeah, Nick, you're up to sixth overall. Yeah. So, you know.
[00:41:42] Speaker C: Genius. Freaking genius.
[00:41:45] Speaker A: I thought I did quite well, but I ended up slipping back. I forget. Where am I now? I'm. It's still in the. Oh, no. I went way down. Oh. 178th I am now. Oh, geez. Just a disaster.
But yeah, long way to go. But that's where you want to be, Jason. A quarter. I think we're a quarter of the way through the season, so it's got to keep quickly. Yeah.
[00:42:09] Speaker C: Can you believe we're a quarter of the way through the season already?
[00:42:11] Speaker B: That's been so exciting.
[00:42:13] Speaker C: I mean, we're two months in, right? Not even.
[00:42:18] Speaker A: I mean, that's probably one of the best for racing. Like the sprint race was. I thought it was great with the weather and the strategy and changing tires and all that. And then the first 20 laps, obviously it settled down. The main race settled down in the second half. But the first 20 laps with the overtakes and the guys driving close and racing each other hard were just excellent television.
[00:42:40] Speaker C: But then also, I mean, the battles that were going on through the field, like with the Ferraris, with the Williams, there's, you know, there was enough to keep you entertained throughout the whole thing.
[00:42:53] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Right up to Carlos trying to shoulder barge Lewis out the way on the last corner of the last lap.
[00:43:02] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean, so I was at my folks watching it with my dad and they're not, they, they don't watch Formula one, but even he was like fully entranced in it because it's just. There's action everywhere this season. You never know how it's gonna go. You know, he's. He's screaming at Max for pushing Oscar off on the second lap and I'm like, yeah, dad, you're right.
But it's just, it's just a crazy season and I just hope it stays like this for the, for the rest of the season, hopefully. I mean, as much As I want McLaren to win, would be nice if we got some more racing going forward and it's looking like we will.
[00:43:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:41] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, it's just, I hope a little cool weather because in the, in the temperatures, seems the McLaren is insurmountable.
So maybe in Britain there'll be a chance for, for a Mercedes or a Ferrari.
But once you get into the likes of Hungary, where it could be really, really hot, then I think that McLarens are going to go.
But, you know, the Red Bull is in the hands of Max, still able to, you know, be he's a difference maker. Right. And you'll get races like Monaco or places like that where it's just, you know, he'll have, he'll have a legit shot. It's going to be interesting to see how things go in Spain. Spain's the biggest inflection point maybe of the season because with the new flexible aero regs coming in effective in Spain, people are kind of looking around and thinking, well, who could this affect more than others? Who could it benefit who could, who could lose out?
So hopefully that will shake up the order a little bit.
Come Spain. So we're Emilia Romagna next, right? And then it's Spain after that.
[00:44:59] Speaker B: Monaco, I think is right after that. And then Spain after Monaco.
[00:45:03] Speaker C: Monaco and then Spain. Yeah, yeah.
[00:45:06] Speaker A: Is it a triple. It's a triple header though, right? It is.
[00:45:09] Speaker C: Another triple header, yeah. Wow. Imola. Monaco and Spain.
[00:45:16] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:45:16] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:45:18] Speaker B: Well, I think that's pretty much it. Oh, I don't think we need to talk about it on the show, but did you see there's a new documentary on Netflix about Kimmy Antonelli getting his seat at Mercedes. It just came out. It's called like the seat or something.
[00:45:34] Speaker A: Oh, my God. His PR team's working overtime, huh?
[00:45:38] Speaker C: Yeah, I like the kid. Actually, I didn't want to because he's. Because he's like guys like Max Verstappen, you know, this little kid coming through and doing all that. But he's nice. He just seems like. He seems so nice. You know, his dad's there and his dad seems kind of cool and, you know.
[00:45:54] Speaker B: Right.
[00:45:54] Speaker C: He's got his 8 year old sister or whatever. 11 years old.
[00:45:58] Speaker B: Isn't it so cute? He's like bringing her around the. Bringing her around the paddock.
And it's a reason for the media not to give him such a hard time because he's got this like little kid with him. So she's just like, all right, just walk through.
[00:46:11] Speaker C: You know, she's on her iPad. She's not paying attention. She's like watching. Playing Roblox or something.
[00:46:16] Speaker B: Right? Watching Bluey or something. Who knows?
He has to give up the corner.
[00:46:21] Speaker C: I had the nose ahead. What is wrong with these people?
[00:46:25] Speaker B: Thanks for listening to the undercuts review of the 2025 Miami Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you listen. And join us next time for our review of the 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. We'll see.
