Is It Smart for Oscar Piastri to Back McLaren Success Amid Title Fight? | Unlapped

Hello, hello. Welcome to Unmapped. I'm Nicole Briscoe. Lawrence Edmondson is here. Can you, like,

can you zoom in? Can I see with your face a little bit? I don't know if you want to. I don't know if you want to.

Do you have some chipmunk cheeks going on? You don't. Yeah, a little bit. How are you feeling? A little bit.

For those who don't know, he had his wisdom teeth out, so we got to make sure he's okay.

Yeah, so I'm not, as you can tell, anybody watching on YouTube, I'm not in Baku. I'm still in London.

And so I thought I'd take the opportunity to get some dental work done with a wisdom tooth,

which at my age is quite unusual, but in this case, it was definitely better now than never.

So, yeah, one tooth down, but other than that, I'm feeling... Wait, just one? Yeah, it was only one that went out.

Only one that went out. The others were just letting them do their own thing.

Did you have anyone in the room with you when you woke up that could record you when you were coming out of the anesthesia?

Yeah, I've heard this has become a very popular thing. Fortunately, it was just a local anesthetic, so it was kind of just in that area.

But yeah, I've never done the full... I don't know, have you done the full anesthesia thing and come out of it?

I've never done it, but it looks like it can be quite a lot of fun.

I did the wisdom teeth thing, I think when I was 19 or 20. No one recorded me, though. They loved me.

And no, I've had three knee surgeries in the last five years. No one's ever recorded me coming out of anesthesia,

which I feel like is probably a mistake. I feel like that is a missed opportunity for some sort of blackmail on me.

I mean, fingers crossed it doesn't happen again any time soon.

Oh yeah, hopefully.

We know to send someone in with a camera.

Yeah, exactly.

All right, listen, we're watching Unlapped. Remember, Unlapped is presented by Oracle.

Right now, Oracle is offering to cut your current cloud bill in half if you move to OCI.

See if your company qualifies at oracle.com slash Unlapped.

If you're watching on YouTube, obviously thank you, like this video, like and subscribe, leave us a comment.

If you're picking us up someplace else, cool, great, just hit us up with a five star review.

But remember, if you are watching on YouTube, we are there all year long.

That's where you can get all of our F1 content, including our brilliant producers.

I try to be nice to them every week, our brilliant producers who ask us the most lovely of questions.

Because you actually had a really, before you had your teeth ripped out,

you actually had a chance to sit down with Oscar Piastri and talk to him about the title fight,

how he's feeling, the quote unquote like battle between him and his teammate.

What do you think was like the biggest takeaway that you had from that conversation?

Well, it was an interesting one actually because the reason I was doing the interview was for a much wider feature about Oscar

that we're going to run ahead of the US Grand Prix and trying to get a little bit more of whose personality is.

So a lot of it was about actually his history, how he moved to the UK when he was 14 years old

and his dad stayed with him for six months and then just left him.

And he was at a boarding school. I say he just left him.

He had everything in place, but he was at a boarding school and doing go-karting.

And this was all part of his progress towards becoming a professional racing driver.

So I mean, that was fascinating.

And actually, I spent too much time talking about that.

But when we got onto the subject of Monza, I was told one question left.

So I asked him, you know, how had things gone?

And had there been conversations since everything that happened in Monza?

And he said they had.

And actually he was fairly similar in how he felt about it as he was when he got out of the car in Monza,

which was actually surprisingly OK with it and kind of saying that.

Let's recap what happened in Monza in case like you forgot.

So there was the slow pit stop.

They're basically papaya rules and they asked them to swap late in the race.

Dando got the win.

Oscar did not.

But after the slow pit stop, it could have been or Lando finished in front of Oscar

and it could have been the other way around.

So he's now saying it is what it is.

Yeah.

And that's kind of what he said afterwards as well.

So he's happy with where it's gone.

There have been conversations about what happens next.

They're not really giving too many details of that.

Maybe a little bit more will come out on media day in Baku.

But one thing I wanted to ask him was, you know, OK, we're at this stage of the season.

There's still whatever it was, eight races left.

And you have a call out that come from the team further down the line.

Are you prepared to be more ruthless about this?

And his answer was kind of interesting.

I thought kind of telling that he said not at the cost of future success with McLaren.

Kind of not completely ruling it out, but also saying that if it upsets the situation of McLaren,

if it means the team turns against him,

if he does something which he thinks isn't going to be accepted by the team in the long term

or is going to cause damage to his relationship with the team in the long term,

then he wouldn't be ruthless in that sense.

Of course, very easy to say on a Zoom call between races,

you know, with several races left and a 31 point lead in the championship

could be very different if we're in Abu Dhabi and it comes down to a decision in the final race.

But I think, you know, Oscar at the moment is still playing the long game,

knows there's a long way to go, but he also knows he's in a good position.

So it was very much, you know, saying the right things, playing it all down, keeping cool.

He doesn't want this to be a bigger thing than it has to be.

I don't think because the one thing about Oscar and there's something else I learned from the interview is that

he is able to just cut out all the noise, all the nonsense going around

and just focus on what matters on the track.

And I think ultimately that's what's going to win in the championship above

whether he obeys an order or not down the line.

I honestly think that that is not a surprise based on every conversation you've ever had with him,

based on every interview I've done with him,

based on every interview I've ever seen with him.

If you were to say, give me a driver who, you know, besides Max,

give me a driver who has the ability to just black out all the noise.

There's nothing about the way that Oscar presents himself that doesn't make me think that that's him.

However, the maturity with the concept of if I'm going to do something,

I know down the line, the team needs me and I need the team.

So I can't do anything that's going to put my relationship with the team at risk.

I do think that that is incredibly mature because you think about it from the perspective of

this was a 14 year old kid who's dropped off in England

and at the age of 14 was set up to do something that most people dream of doing.

And at the age of 14, he had to start wrapping his head around that

and having the maturity back then to make the right decisions

to put himself in a position where this was even an opportunity.

So now here he is at a young age after living that life,

after making all those decisions and essentially the care it's right there.

It's just right there in front of him and all he has to do is now go out and grab it.

So the maturity to handle that situation in the way that he is,

I think it speaks a lot about him as a person because I think it would be so easy to almost feel panicked,

to almost feel like you've got to go out and do something stupid

because your whole life has been set up for this moment to win that world championship.

And he doesn't.

He just seems calm, cool and collected.

I mean, even on the radio in Monza and obviously when you're watching the broadcast,

you don't hear the entirety of the radio message back and forth.

But you really did get the impression.

He made his case about we had said in conversation that a slow pit stop was just racing,

but okay, he made his piece, he said it, and then he just did it.

So I just continue to be impressed by the way he goes about life,

the way he goes about putting his case out there and the way he goes about race weekends.

He seems unflappable and that is a rare quality, I think, across the board in most people.

Yeah, and it shouldn't be confused with having no emotions at all about these things.

He says he does.

And then this is also something I talked to his boss, team principal at McLaren,

Andreas Sellar about is that he just knows how to control those emotions.

He just knows that for the benefit of his whole career and for this championship,

it's better to pick the important bits, use it as motivation when necessary,

but also just control what comes out.

And that seems like a trait of the really great drivers.

Obviously, every now and again, we hear a radio outburst from Max,

or even we've heard them from Lewis Longerline as well,

but just the coolness and the calmness and the ability to control the emotion

or use the emotion in the right way,

and then also have this ability, and this is something else that I talked about,

to be fast enough that you can start to compute everything else at the same time

when these things do get thrown at you.

You've got to give your position back to your teammate.

It's not a complete shock when you're in the middle of a corner

and you're struggling to figure out what you're going to do at the end of the lap.

It's just this computing power that's always there, always in reserve.

And that's because he's just so capable behind the wheel

that he has this excess computing power to be able to make the right decisions

in those situations.

And that's something that really does stand out among the top drivers,

but I think Oscar just has so early in his career for one.

And it just seems like so natural to him.

It's not something he seems to have had to work on.

It's just something that comes naturally to him.

It's just who he is.

And I think that's such a strong trait in any championship battle.

And going into this year,

we weren't sure exactly how Oscar would react to a championship on the line.

And the same with Lando,

because we only saw Lando get semi-close to a possibility last year.

It was never really down to the last race.

But with Oscar, just the deeper he gets in,

the more he gets in, the more difficult situations he faces,

the calmness just stays the same.

And that, I think, is a remarkable quality.

And probably one that's going to win in the championship like so.

I just think, too, it sets him up for not just this championship,

but championships in the future.

Because it doesn't really get more difficult, I think,

than when you're chasing your first championship,

because everything is new.

You've never experienced any of this before.

You don't know what it's like until you're in that situation.

And there might be different situations down the line

where maybe he's not competing against his teammate for a championship.

Maybe it's somebody else.

But all of the things that he's in right now are brand new situations,

brand new scenarios to work through, brand new,

even the fact that he's winning the way that he is.

And then he'll win.

And then maybe he doesn't have a great weekend.

All of that is just like the fluctuations

and figuring out how to deal with it.

All of this sets him up, too, for future success.

Who was it that started calling him Baby Max?

Do you remember?

I think it was me.

No, I don't know.

No, no, it wasn't me, but it was one of us.

It was somebody who was like Baby Max.

And every time I listened to him now, I'm like, God,

the dude is like Mini Max,

like the way he handles every situation.

And you can just sort of see it developing

more and more down the line.

That said, sometimes you look at him and it's like,

I'm not sure I'd want to really have a conversation

with you outside of this.

I'm afraid you wouldn't really tell me how you feel.

But you're a cold-blooded killer.

Dude, go get it.

I don't care.

It's just an interesting thing that you see develop

in people and Baby Max is just having himself

success down the line.

Yeah, I think it's just being in complete control

of everything.

I mean, in those conversations, I'm sure if it made sense

for Oscar to reveal a bit about what he's thinking

and all that kind of stuff, he would.

But he's in complete control of that.

He never seems to say something that he shouldn't say.

It never gets away from him.

And that's the same on track as it is

when he's talking to the media.

That is something.

And what I've found interesting and another reason

why I'm writing this piece is that last year,

if you'd asked about Oscar, I think a lot of people

might have been a bit flat about him.

They're like, well, he's clearly talented,

but I don't really get him.

I don't really know him that well.

I think by being in the spotlight this year,

actually, we've learned a lot more.

And it's not Oscar.

I mean, he does hold stuff back.

But this is just who he is as well.

This is just the kind of guy he is

and also the reason why he's successful.

And I think people are really latching onto that.

I think people are really getting behind Oscar

as the person he is, as a personality is.

And I think also he has opened up a lot

when he first was around the periphery of F1 at Alpine.

He really was quite straightforward

and I don't think he enjoyed media at all.

And now I think he sees the benefit of it.

He sees how he can perhaps not necessarily influence stuff,

but he can certainly give a good impression of himself.

That helps further down the line when things go wrong,

if you've done a good job at kind of building up this persona

that people like.

People are going to forgive you a lot more

when things go wrong down the line.

So I think he just fully gets it.

And what we're starting to see is a genuine character

in Formula One that perhaps a couple of years ago

people wouldn't have said about Oscar.

Don't sleep behind me there.

I think he's sneaky funny.

I remember a lot.

Yeah, he is.

Yeah, he's got good sense of humor.

Really sneaky funny.

You know what, it's not even sneaky.

Like there are times when he's sneaky funny,

but then he's just like funny.

Because I remember walking away from a conversation

that I had with him in Miami

and having genuinely laughed out loud

at a number of things that he said.

And he's not like, that's just who,

that's just part of like his personality.

And I think sometimes you don't get a chance to see that

unless you've got an extended period of time with him.

But I wonder if, if he becomes more comfortable

down the line, if that starts to come out

at various points as well.

Speaking of things that have come out this week,

you know how I love a good sprint race.

You know that I love a good weekend of activity

because I find, I find all three practice sessions

to be a little bit on the mind numbingly boring side

at times.

So I like a good race thrown in there.

There will be not five, but six sprint races in 2026,

including for the first time in Canada,

Netherlands, Singapore, and just like little bit of crumbs

being dropped from Formula One that they are considering.

So the six races is in 2026,

but they're considering a few changes down the line

by maybe doing more sprint races.

They've talked about reverse grids potentially being discussed.

I'm not sure I like that.

Not sure I like the gimmick of that,

but I do like the fact that we're getting more sprint races.

What do you think?

Yeah, it sounds like in 2027,

they probably push it up to 12, nothing's decided,

but that would then be half the races would have sprint races

and half wouldn't.

And F1 look at it,

and they have exactly the same view as you,

and Stephanie Domenicali has been on the record about this,

that practice sessions are really only interesting

to the real nerds,

and I include myself in that group,

but even I, I mean,

I would rather watch a competitive session

than a practice session.

In my opinion, what they should do is probably hit

about 12 sprint races.

You know, I think it is good.

And then I think the other race weekends,

they should just cut down to two days.

So you turn up on, well, you turn up on the Friday

and it would be media day,

but then you'd have a practice session on Saturday morning

and then straight into qualifying

and then the race on Sunday.

Of course, I don't think F1 will do that

because the potential revenue for race circuits

of having an extra day of track action is too valuable.

But I do wonder sometimes, you know,

who's tuning in for, you know,

for the practice sessions on a Friday,

for two practice sessions.

I mean, I am, but, you know...

Yeah, I mean...

I try to count.

It's part of your job as well, you know,

but I don't know if I often think

if I start working in F1 next year,

I don't think I tune into those.

As much as I love it,

I'd probably keep an eye on what's going on,

but would I tune into it?

I don't know.

I mean, I'd be interested

to see what readers say, comment away,

let us know if you enjoy practice sessions or not.

But I think when you add a competitive element,

certainly if you're up the track as well,

and instead of two one-hour practice sessions,

you have an hour practice and then a quality on Friday night,

and then you go into Saturday morning

and you're straight into watching some racing action.

I've really been getting into MotoGP recently,

and they've gone all sprint races at all races.

Yeah.

And I think that's an avenue

that F1 definitely is going to explore, discuss,

whether they should go that way.

But I actually quite like it.

I mean, well, I don't necessarily watch

or get to watch all the sprint races in MotoGP,

but it's great when they're on

and you can just turn on the TV

and you've got that action straight up for you.

And I don't really miss the fact that

they have a different practice setup anyway,

but I don't miss the fact that

there aren't more extensive practice sessions

in the weekend.

So yeah, it would be an interesting one

because I think there will be purists

and there will be engineers in F1

that push back against it because there's practice sessions.

You hear about the engineers, they're fine.

Exactly.

I mean, this is a thing.

This is a very good point about F1 in general

and regulations is that should they be,

how much should they be set by engineers

and how much should they be set by people

who are in the entertainment business

and there's a balance, I think.

It is still an engineering sport,

an engineering spectacle to some extent,

but there needs to be a balance between

it being entertaining and it being purely cars,

you know, just trying to find a minutia

of setup details so that when they're going

to qualify and they're fully prepped

because actually it's more exciting sometimes

when they're not fully prepped going into those sessions

and they're thinking a bit on the fly

and the drivers are having to react,

drive around issues.

Of course, there are situations where that works

against the championship battle and for it,

but still I think having that element

of unknown going into a competitive session

is a great thing.

But yeah, I mean, sad news maybe for

anyone who is keen on going to Austin

and that Austin has got the sprint race this year,

but it won't have it next year.

So I know the US fans going who enjoy the sprint,

that won't be such a thing.

But Miami has it and Canada has it.

Yeah, that's true.

At least it's staying in North America.

So that's something.

And then also interesting on the Canada one,

something that F1 was just keen

to make sure everyone was aware of

and something that we had talked about previously

is that Canadian Grand Prix,

usually starts at 2 p.m.

It's going to start at 4 p.m.

to try and create a window.

I know weather can get in the way of everything,

but try and create a window for the Indy 500

to play out, finish,

and then the Canadian Grand Prix to start

because they're both happening on the same day

in the same time zone next year.

And I know for a few fans,

that was considered a little bit sacrilege,

having a North American Formula One race.

There's not many on the calendar

clashing with the Indy 500.

But yeah, another little update

on where the calendar is for next year.

I appreciate the fact that they're attempting to,

they're acknowledging the fact,

because I think, and we talked about this

when the calendar came out for 2026.

There are people who watch the Indy 500

and won't watch another Indy car race

the entire season

because the Indy 500 is a thing.

It stands on its own.

So to take that race

and to put it up against anything else

felt a little, one, you're like,

man, how big is the ego in Formula One?

Or two, you're taking something away

from your fans.

You're taking an opportunity away from your fans

because I always loved,

like that's the greatest day in motorsports.

I prefer the first two races to the last one.

But in the US, you've got,

you'd wake up in the morning and you'd get Monaco

and then you'd have the Indy 500

and then you'd have the Coke 600.

But like when Ryan was racing the Indy 500,

we'd wake up in the morning and you'd throw on the Formula One

and you'd watch that

and you'd sort of like let that calm your nerves a little bit

and just like kind of get you in the mood for the day

and then you go through the chaos of the Indy 500

and then you'd sit down

and inevitably be having some sort of beverage

and you'd be watching the Coke 600.

It's just that was how the day unfolded.

So there's part of me that's really going to miss

even if I don't have the middle chaos

in my own personal life.

There's part of me that's going to miss

the traditions of that

and I hate the fact that as a fan

I now have to pick

if I want to be in Montreal

or if I want to be in Indianapolis

because you can't possibly sort of like be

in the space to watch them both all on the same day

because that is an opportunity

like in terms of a North American event

I could go to both

and I can't do that anymore.

They're on the same day.

But I appreciate Formula One's like

no, we're going to try to create a window

because there was an ego part of it where

you and I discussed this when the schedule came out.

We were like how big is Formula One's ego?

How big is it that they'll just be like

no, screw it.

We're going to put our race when we want our race

and then you're just going to see how it plays out.

So I appreciate the fact that that's going to happen.

Speaking of IndyCar.

And receive a $15 O'Reilly gift card after rebate.

Upgrade to a Wix XP oil filter for just $2 more.

Limits apply.

See store for details.

Stop by your local O'Reilly Auto Parts store

or shop online at OReillyAuto.com.

The new LinkedIn hiring pro can't clone you

but it can streamline your hiring workflow

from posting jobs to shortlisting candidates

to interviewing.

LinkedIn hiring pro is the hiring partner you need

so you can focus on connecting with the right talent.

In fact, small businesses report saving

over six hours per week.

So hire right the first time with LinkedIn hiring pro.

Post your first stop today and get $100 off

at LinkedIn.com slash quality offer.

Terms and conditions apply.

This has been a topic of conversation for years now

particularly in light of the fact that Cadillac

is coming into the sport with Andretti for years

trying to make it happen.

And obviously there is still the Andretti involvement

even if it's more driven by Cadillac.

Cole Herda's name has been attached

to this venture for years.

And the hold up has always been and still is

I guess to some degree the fact

that he doesn't have the super license points.

You just can't get them without finishing

in the top three in IndyCar.

So some changes on the IndyCar side.

Will Power is going to Andretti.

The seat opened up because Cole Herda is going to.

And did you hear him on the podcast

where he was talking about

this is essentially an effort for him

like his dream since he was yay big

was to race and former the one

and the only way for him to do this

is to take a stick back from IndyCar

go race F2 and see if he can make that happen.

So that's what we're going to see next year.

Cole Herda in F2 in the Cadillac family

attempting to maybe get the seat someday.

Yeah, I didn't actually hear the podcast

but I need to go back and listen to it.

So I think this is interesting.

I think it's brave as well to do this

because he's 25 years old,

which in any normal walk of life

is still very, very young

and in reality is young.

But in the world of former to former one

making your debut in former one.

It's now or never, you know,

he needed to make this decision

and he is really keen to pursue F1

and has been for some time.

He did the McLaren development test

back in the day.

I think it's at Porta Mau and looked pretty quick

but because of the way that the F1

Super License points are weighted

towards all the FIA junior series

and less so IndyCar.

It's quite remarkable that a nine-time winner

in IndyCar doesn't have a Super License

or isn't considered good enough

in the eyes of the FIA to have a Super License.

I think, you know, that's a clear oversight

in the way that whole system works

and when you have point systems,

that often happens.

But if he is competitive in F2

then he will easily get

the five points he needs

to complete the 40 to go there.

Also, if he does some F1 sessions,

which I imagine he will as a test driver for Cadillac,

that's one point every time he goes out

in one of those.

So I think he's going to get to 40 points

by the end of next year.

The bigger question then

is how he's got on in F2

and how competitive he looks

and that shouldn't be overlooked

as something to do to go from IndyCar

which is an incredible series in its own right,

with a skill set

that I think many F1 drivers

would struggle to adapt to immediately

to go the other way and into F2

which also is a series

that is pretty random at the best of times.

It's often the case that drivers will go there

and there will be various reasons

why they couldn't quite get it together.

You only have to look as far as Kimmy Antonelli

and Oliver Bearman last year,

both went to the Premier,

considered one of the best teams in F2.

Premier just had a really bad year

getting used to a new car

and neither driver Sean.

Yeah, they both still made the step to F1.

So there's so many other factors going on

but I think those that know

and those that are part of

the team that Herter ends up at

what level he's at,

where he is compared to the other F2 drivers

and then I think that will ultimately dictate

whether he goes to F1

but we talked about this before

whether Cadillac needs a US driver

and I agree with everything that Graham Loudon said

on this subject which is the

it's got to be on merit.

If he's good enough, if he shines in F2

and obviously if he gets super license points

which I think he will, then sure

but he has to be good enough

but fair play to him for saying

he's a good car.

So my way's had reasonable amount of success

and go across and just try and make that F1

debut because

that's a big, big, big life decision

at 25 years old.

A massive life decision at that age

because you think about the people

who will be up against in F2

he's going to essentially be geriatric

in comparison.

I mean, look at how young Antonelli

and Bearman are still now this season

in Formula One.

We talked about this too.

I don't believe they need an American

in the Cadillac team.

I don't.

I think if I'm going to cheer

for a team, I'm going to cheer for a team

because I like the team, I like their drivers

I could care less if they're an American

or Spanish or English

or I'm going to

that's not what's going to make me cheer

for a driver or a team.

I do think it would be

I do think if

let me go back

the one thing that I think would be different

about this particular situation

is if you look at the feeder

system into Formula One

for the last several years

Alexander Rossi was there

came over to the US

when the Indy 500 and people were like

who is this person

because he grew up racing in Europe

if you look at Jack Crawford

same situation if you look at

oh my god

my brain going blank

Logan Sargent

those were those are

American drivers

but they didn't race

here growing up there is there isn't

sort of like a book on them for

American fans now if you are deep into

the system you might know them

but there isn't that like built up

fan base so Colton is sort of

doing it in reverse one his dad raced

here Brian Herter was part of that you know

really those cool years with

Marty where they were basically winning everything

with Canaan and Frankeity and Dan

Weldon and

he was part of that mix

so there is a tie to Colton

because of his dad

but then also just watching Colton

come up through IndyCar

the way that he did so he has

in a way a built in

fan base

built in name recognition

that those other drivers don't

and it could be interesting to see

if that is the thing that helps

maybe unlock that part

of the American base the American fandom

that doesn't exist when it comes to

the other drivers there is a recognition

there's a name recognition there's

even just like the face hey I know that guy

why do I know that guy

so that's maybe the only

benefit to doing this in reverse that

it could be like sort of an interesting

social experiment we'll see

but I also think it'll be very

interesting to see how he does

next season because he didn't finish

in the top five in IndyCar

this year and

with Formula 2 being

as sort of hit and miss as it can be

what happens

if he goes to F2 and is just

crap

that's the world that we have to live in

yeah and I think

actually it won't

you know early on I think it's going to be tough because

the

the whole way F2 is set up is as a feeder series

F1 so that he will learn some

crucial stuff there but it means

getting hold of getting head around

ready tyres and they're

being designed to basically degrade

during a race and make the race exciting

in that way and

like you said no one is going to be up against

kids who are younger than him

going through into F2 or

most of them but also kids who

have probably been through Formula 3

where you get that first sense of the

ready tyre and then also

he'll be up against drivers who have been in

F2 for sometimes 2, 3, sometimes

4 years you know guys do hang around

so it's quite easy to look pretty

average even if the underlying

talent is there but you've just got to get

your head around some of this stuff and I

didn't know enough about her to be completely honest

to know whether he's been a particularly quick

learner in IndyCar but if

he's going to succeed in F2 he's going to have to learn really quickly

he's going to have to adapt really quickly

but if he can do all of that

those are all things that are going to work

for him in F1 as well so

it'll be fascinating to see how it goes

and actually I wish there was more of this

I wish there was more

movement from IndyCar to

I mean ideally Formula 1 rather than Formula 2

but between the two series

and there was

a better way to build up

name recognition on both sides

of the pond because I think it's actually beneficial

to both series and often

the two series kind of pitch themselves against each other a little bit too much

I hate that

but it's a bit of IndyCar and the Canadian Grand Prix

and it's motorsport

and motorsport is fantastic

no matter which side of the Atlantic it's being

raced on no matter exactly

what the track looks like whether it's an oval

or whether it's the Monaco street circuit

all of it is fascinating in its own right

and I think actually

the drivers have a huge amount of respect

for each other across those lines as well

so the more this happens I think

they're better and better play to her to

for making it happen and being

one of the drivers brave enough to

make that step. We've seen quite a few drivers go the other way

it has to be said from either F1

and not making a career in F1 and going to

IndyCar

Romain Grosjean

Yeah exactly yeah

and even F2 drivers going across as well

so the more we're the better as far as I'm concerned

Yeah. Alright let's get to the stack of the week

it is brought to you by Oracle

right now Oracle is offering to cut your current cloud bill

in half if you move to OCI

see if your company qualifies at oracle.com

slash unlapped.

The stat this week is more of a number

like a target if you will

and I'm not at all

surprised that we are already having this conversation

given the success of McLaren

this season but the magic number this weekend

is 9

that's all McLaren needs to

outscore Ferrari by and they can already

clinch the constructors championship

this weekend. Now there's me personally

who's like thank god it's only the constructors

championship and not the drivers championship

that's being clinched this weekend

but they just need to finish in either

a combination of first and second

or first

and third and it actually won't

matter at all what Ferrari

does in this race

if they are

crown champions it will be the earliest

ever in F1 history with

seven races left that

after this weekend that this is what we're

talking about

so here we go.

I mean what I find so impressive

about this and because it is quite easy just to

be like you know people don't get excited

about the constructors championship anyway

and it's even more boring when it's been decided

this early but it just underlines

what a brilliant job McLaren has done

and I don't think that should get lost

in potentially

controversial finish to the season

between there to drivers in the

drivers championship or you know more

incidents like Monza what shouldn't be lost

is what brilliant job McLaren have

done because if you rewind

to last year

this same championship the constructors championship

went down to the final race

of the final season even the final few laps

of the final race

of the season and you know

that

to make that step

from being basically level with

Ferrari level

or perhaps behind the fastest

Red Bull in Max Stappen but of course

Red Bull didn't have a two car team to be able

to take it the fights of the championship

last year and haven't again this year

but to be able to do that and have that

balance across the two cars

is impressive I know it's

probably going to be a footnote if

they win it this weekend or if they win it

the next round in Singapore

but wherever they do it

it has been a remarkable season from McLaren

Yes indeed it's a foregone conclusion

let's talk about the race this weekend

what

can we expect

let's just go back to the track itself

what is this track like

what should I expect

track nerd me out let's go

it is a weird and bizarre

circuit because

it is a street circuit

and at parts it resembles Monza

with really long flat out

wide straights

and at parts it resembles Monaco

with a section around

a part of

UNESCO heritage city

which I don't think happens anywhere else

in Formula 1 or pretty much any race circuit

in the world

is scourged around this UNESCO heritage site

and at that point at turn 8

the track is only

7 meters wide and remember

the Formula 1 cars themselves are 2 meters wide

and it's a switch left right

left as well so

it feels even narrower for the cars as they go through it

so really weird and actually quite hard

circuit for the drivers

and the teams to get their heads around to get the cars

set up on

but we do seem to have

either amazing races there

because something triggers a safety car

and then all the tyre temperatures go down

and then it's all chaos when it restarts

and then we might get another safety car

and then we get a weird order and we get cars out of position

and we get fantastic

bizarre and very

entertaining racing or it can be a bit dull

if nothing really triggers

there's no spark no

catalyst to get the race

going into a wild direction

so it can go both ways but

this year they brought some softer tyres along

in the hope that it encourages people

to two stop but I think we'll have to

see how the tyres are getting on in practice

before we start making conclusions as to

whether anyone will do that because it's usually a one stop

you know how I feel

I'm always team chaos like let it rain

have there be some sort of like

weird situation team chaos

let's mix it up a little bit

though we did have

we can consider it a bit of a mix up last

it wasn't last week it would have been the week before

with with Monza because

McLaren didn't win the race that was a

Verstappen win and I think

it may have been

a bit of a surprise

it's hard to look at any Verstappen win and be like

ooh that's a shock because

again it's max

however given the success that McLaren

has had this season I think we go into every

race weekend expecting it to be a McLaren win

and then it's like who else

is going to finish on the podium

is there any reason to think

that this weekend is not the same thing

so I think

like of all the circuits

that we're going to over the rest of the season

this is probably one where if you're quick

at Monza you might still stand a chance

in Baku and

the remarkable thing about that Verstappen win

it wasn't like

Suzuki where he just won completely

against the odds pulled off an amazing qualifying lap

and then held on in the race

in Imola okay started to have a little bit of

advantage but in Monza it was a huge advantage

and that's the first time we've seen anyone have

that over McLaren the shit so

like I say a pretty pretty unusual race

I suppose it was Canada with Mercedes

which was a one off as well but

I think yeah that combination of very long

straights and then actually being able to get

the car rotated into corners that's

what Verstappen seem to be able to unlock

in Monza where other drivers couldn't

and what will be interesting

from a Red Bull perspective

is how much they're able to do that again

because there was some talk after that race

that this was basically

a new set up direction the team had been able

to take and it helped

having Lauren Meckies there asking the right

questions pushing the engineers in

the right directions

and ultimately

listening to what Max was saying and going with

some perhaps things that they

would have normally done with setup but Max

was suggesting and they went with it so

look if they can get the car dialed in

and know how good Max is and

he could potentially win that. One interesting stat

I came across while researching Baku Wadi

this week is that there's been

eight races there since Formula One

started racing in Azerbaijan

and they've been one by seven different drivers

and the only multiple winner is

a man called Sergei Perez who will

not be on the grid this year but will be next year

with Cadillac but no one else has won it

twice so yeah

kind of something to aim for

for Max this year

but of course we shouldn't be rolling out

McLaren

my gut instinct

is that there will be

the fastest car there just because

they have been so competitive everywhere

but I think there's a real reason

to look at Max and say there's a potential

victory on the cars again.

There were some interesting comments

after

Monza frankly out of Toto Wolff

and sort of looking at

earlier in the season we were looking

at Kimi Antonelli and being like

this is amazing

he's far and away the best

rookie and even when we were

saying those things

I think there were parts of us

we were like wait hold on

it's gonna be like this he's still a rookie

he's a very young rookie

there are going to be mistakes that are made

and all along it seemed like

Mercedes has just sort of

not blindly

but they've had his back without

reservation

then came the comments

after Monza where Toto was like

yeah he's underwhelming and it was

the first time that there was sort of that crack

in the armour where you thought

okay well they're admitting to the fact

that it's not been amazing

first of all

just go with that art where you would all

surprise to hear him say that

about Kimi just like yeah he's

underwhelming.

I was because a week earlier

in Zambor he had defended

Kimi so much

and kind of put forward all these

reasons why he was struggling

and the Zambor performance

I thought was

quite a bit worse than what happened in Monza

okay the fact that

he beached the car in the gravel

in consecutive races during

practices was obviously

a knock on the thing that happened in Monza

but you know the way

he took out Leclerc in Zambor I thought

it would be the time when you'd be like

you know that was underwhelming

that should not have happened

so I think Wolf is

quite carefully

kind of managing the situation with Antonelli

but I also think it is healthy

that he's treating him like perhaps

he would another driver

there were times when Valtteri

was Mercedes and similar

comments were made about him when

he just went missing on certain weekends

just wasn't competitive. There were other weekends

where he was right up there with Lewis Hamilton

the team were praising for that

but when his performance wasn't there

you know the team said it

and I think it is important

the team bosses are realistic about it

they don't just keep defending drivers

over and over again because

I'm not sure really where gets anyone

but I was just surprised because how quickly

that 180 came from one week to the next

I think it is healthy that

you know as long as it's constructive criticism

as long as it's not just

driver out to dry you know but

kind of saying actually we do expect a bit more

and holding him to

the same level that they expect from

Russell or any driver

I think that's important and

another thing that Wolf has said recently is that

the mistakes that Antonelli

made or has made this year

is kind of forgivable

because it's easy to forgive because

they're not in a championship battle for the constructors

or for the drivers championship

or anything like that. I think

next year when we're expecting

to be very competitive

the spotlight's going to be really turned on

Antonelli and if Wolf is just starting

to kind of say look this is what it's going to be like

next year you know we're going to have to be honest

about these things when they go wrong

that's probably not a bad thing

so that Antonelli doesn't have a complete

shock when he gets into 2026

and the spotlight's even brighter.

That's actually how I took it I think a little bit

there was it did seem at the moment

like a abrupt like 180

because again it was back to back weekends

where like you said

he just really had his back and then the next weekend

it was sort of not but it does

feel like a slow transition

into a more realistic

set of expectations

so he now has the rest of the season

to

maybe adjust to some of the other

things that are going to come with him

next year and that's the thing

you put somebody in a car who was a rookie

you expect to have things like this

you put somebody in a car who's a rookie

you expect them to make rookie mistakes

you expect them to maybe not be able to

have the broadest of shoulders at times

and unlike

other teams that don't seem to have

their drivers backs

Mercedes does and I do think

that they are setting him up for the future

in a way that maybe Alpine

have not been supporting their younger

drivers obviously they see

something in Kimmy where they're like yes he is

the future of our team we're going to build on

him he's got

the talent that he needs to really

succeed in this sport so we're going to support him

we're going to make sure that he's able to

handle the criticism when it comes

time for him to actually be

criticized and I do think

it's sort of this gradual shift

but also

you hit the nail on the head

Mercedes is going to be in the championship fight next year

if they have all the things go according

to plan and I think that that's the way

that everyone sort of feels about them

you should be under different expectations

you should be able to handle the things

that McLaren drivers are handling this year

so we can't always have your back

we're going to have to have some very tough conversations

with you this is a part of growing up

and forming a one

it was brought from one weekend to the next

but it is sort of maybe

a switch in how

they're exposing him to things

as they go down the line

do we have any movement

on Yuki do we have any

thoughts on what's going on there

so there's been some stories

this week I think from

motor motor and sport in Germany which is usually reliable

the Isaac Hadjar is

basically all but confirmed

to take Yuki's seat

at Red Bull next year

but from more from what we've heard

and what the music's been so far as the

Yuki does still have

a few races left to turn this around

we've kind of

Mexico Grand Prix

Mexico kind of round of October time

being where it starts to make a final decision

but I mean

Yuki there was damage to the car

in Monza after

he had contact with

a couple of drivers and then

also he was running an old

floor there whereas Max got the new floor

on the car which seemed to bring it

alive a bit more so

the frustrating thing with this whole Yuki situation is that

I think everything is

seemingly working against him at once

you know his car does always seem to be

a couple of updates behind

I know Czecho Perez fans will be shouting

at their computers saying

it was the same with him

and you know and it is the way that

Red Bull do seem to run the

two cars but

he's got that going on and then

Hadjar meanwhile is performing

an exceptional level

and it's all just

that pressure kind of on his shoulders

and he just doesn't seem to be able to get

where he needs to get out of it so

I mean I saw those reports

earlier this week that Hadjar

is going to get the seat next year and

to be honest I first glance wasn't surprised

but it sounds like it's not yet

final final but I think

it's absolutely going that way and then what happens to Yuki

that was where I was

yeah what happens then

Alpine would be potentially

a landing spot I think the really

unfortunate thing about this for Yuki is that

even if you rewind

about a year ago

and certainly too

I think he re-signed with

or Red Bull took up their option with him around

the Canadian Grand Prix last year

around that time there was lots of interest from lots of teams

now those teams either have drivers

in place or the interest has waned

because of what's happened at Red Bull

but you know this is the nature of F1

you have to be competitive

in every scenario

if you're stuck to remain high enough

for teams to I mean invest in you

to put that contract on the table

to put them in one of your cars

in one of their cars it's

the pressure is so high and I think

for Yuki it's all just falling apart

at the wrong time

I do want to get your thoughts real quick on the

point system and the penalty points

because there were a couple of things to keep in mind

one

Williams managed to successfully overturn the science penalty

with the Liam Lawson

Zandvort thing

we talked after Zandvort and

wait was it you and me or me Nate

that doesn't matter because we were all

sort of like

I wasn't sure I got it in the moment

I wasn't sure I understood

why that penalty was there but they did

get it overturned

also

there is Williams sort of on the cusp of

it seems a little bit like the last couple of races

where both drivers have been

near getting in the points

or they have both been in the points

there's been some science stuff

in there but they've been a bit up and down

that seems to be

then kind of knocking on the door

of finding a bit more consistency

even though they've basically turned off everything for

2025 and are focusing on 2026

so there's finding consistency

with the drivers within those parameters

then when it comes to the penalty points aspect

of it Ali Bearman

is only two penalty points away from a race

band

like I'm not really

I

just you know ran into it a little bit

do you think that that's something that could be a talking

point this weekend the penalty point

situation

yeah I think it definitely will

so Williams

had what's called a right of review

which is basically

they have to bring new evidence to the same

stewards to try and convince them

first of all just to open up the case

again and then to change their mind

and so with the science one

which we all looked at and we thought well that doesn't

look like it should be a penalty

I understand why under the driving guidelines

you might give a penalty but

doesn't look like it should be

and so Williams were able to

get this over time which very rarely happens

the amount of stories

I've written in the last kind of five

years or so where teams have

attempted to have this right of review and just got nowhere

just been chucked out almost immediately

but they brought two camera

angles that weren't available to the stewards

when they made their decision during the race

one was the rear-facing camera from

Liam Lawson's car the other was

360 camera from Carlos Sainz's car

and that showed that Lawson

kind of lost a bit of control in the corner

and while

Sainz didn't really have a right

as per the guidelines to be

in terms of where he was

he still probably had an expectation

that Lawson wasn't going to lose control

and therefore they decided that it wasn't

Lawson's fault but it wasn't

predominantly or holy

to blame which is what you need to give a penalty

it was in fact a racing incident

which I think everyone when they first

looked at but it was the case

so that's kind of good in a way

the one the stewards are able

to admit and put their hands up

when something is wrong and change it

it's also good for Sainz's

penalty point hall because

he had got two penalty points for that

and that brought him up to four in total

he's now back down to two but

the kind of downside to all of that of course is that

if you have these reviews

two weeks after the race

it's not going to impact the result

I mean if you were to

minus the ten seconds

that Sainz had added to his race time

you still would have finished in the same position

but still you know

I think there needs to be

a way that these penalties

are done properly and you can't have a situation

where it gets overturned

two weeks later but you can't actually change the result

because if that had been for a victory

it would have been a whole different

Andorra's box full of stuff

that you don't really want flying around

they need to get to a point

where when they have reviews

they have questions it isn't

you need to know when the race ends

that this is the result

you can't have things overturned

hours later like last year in Austin

the whole thing

changed on us

hours later and it puts everyone

in a box it puts fans in a box

sometimes you can just wake up in the next morning

and be like wait what?

I thought Louis Hamilton was on the podium

nope not anymore disqualified

they need to get to a point where

when the race finishes

within a reasonable amount of time

you actually know what the official results are

Yeah

and you know this is an issue

that has been around F1 for so long

and it is almost impossible

to solve because they've

got these guidelines of how you go

racing and where the two cars are

at the apex and then extrapolate

decisions from that and in a way

that is consistent because you are

dealing with a set of guidelines

but then you get these anomalies

of situations that were basically

never written around situations

that were never expected

when the guidelines were put down

so I think and I said this

having on the last podcast as well

the only way to really

have four permanent stewards

who are able to

start to make decisions that

make sense throughout the season

and a consistent decision

without having to refer

solely to driving guidelines

just for guys that you really trust

or girls as well you really trust

and can

make proper decisions so

hopefully that is something that F1

considers again going forward it's something

that has been on the table for a very long time

and has been taken up but ultimately

for whoever those stewards are

and whatever, whether they're rotating

or not incredibly difficult

decisions to have to make and

I was proven by that but us will

also be the case as you mentioned if

Ollie Berman gets himself into trouble

on track this weekend

or I think for another couple of races

at least he faces

a race ban and of course

that then puts this other

other element to it all as we found out

when Kevin Magnuson got a race ban

for Baku and Ollie Berman subbed in

so these things do happen

but we'll have to see how that

all plays out.

Alright let's wrap this up a little bit because

podium predictions are important

and we like to be feisty with each other

I appreciate consistency

and I appreciate the fact that I basically had

the lead in our little mini championship from the beginning

however sir you are only two points

behind me. Nate is also playing

but he is within striking distance

if he were to get

a trifecta.

We get one point for every podium spot

we predict correctly

but we do get the magic bonus of six whole points

if we get the podium correct

exactly that has not yet happened

this year.

You were the only one that picked up a point in Monza though

because you said Lando

second so congrats sir

I have 16 points

you have 14, Nate has 8

Nate is like landing in Baku

we'll just say now for the purposes of

where we are so he was

too good to join us

he's gone with Oscar

Leclerc Lando

top three

I have written down my predictions

they're there

I promise

I didn't see them so that's good

this is like random proof

because the number of times you've been like well that's the same

what do you got

okay I'm gonna

go I'm gonna mix it up a bit

I don't think this is what you're gonna go for

so I'm gonna go with Lando Norris Victory

okay

any of us three are gonna go with that

Max Verstappen in second place

building on what I was saying about

Red Bull's performance in Monza going forward

and then Oscar Piastri in third

I just switched Oscar

and Lando that's all I did

there's lots of reasons

to do that and that's what

initially came into my mind

but I'm gonna go with Lando to get a few points back

again I kind of I sometimes

I'm optimistic with this just for the championship

because I want this championship to go down to the wire

if Oscar takes another 10 points out of him

then we could be finishing up in Vegas

which could be fun for us

in terms of us being there

cause wait didn't Max win the championship

in Vegas last year too

he did yeah yeah

Lando just faltering as the season went on

yeah I had a very

well lubricated Max Verstappen

on the set with me at like

three o'clock in the morning

well that would be fun

if we get Oscar after a few beers

that would be tremendous

then we might get some really interesting answers

yes I also think I had

um

god who else do we have on the set with us

because we were live for a while

post Vegas and it was

it was it was funny

to watch just

as they were doing their

media stops just seeing

how much

sloppier

they were getting anyway okay

I'm gonna go with Oscar then I'm going

Max then I'm going Lando so

we'll see okay all right I hope you feel better

I hope your mouth

starts to like yeah whatever

you really can't tell

maybe ever so slightly

ever so slightly

remember if you were watching us on the ESPN

F1 YouTube channel awesome thank you

like subscribe we're here all season long

all year long for all of your F1 content

if you're picking us up somewhere else

also cool just hit us up with a five star review

unlapped is back every

single week it is also presented by Oracle

right now Oracle is offering to cut

your current cloud bill in half if you move to

OCI see if your company

qualifies at oracle.com

slash unlapped sir see you in a week

see them

at face quantum fiber internet loves that

face that's Jamila

she's thinking outside the box

from inside the box

quantum fiber wifi keeps your meeting game strong

from the back door to the front lawn

rushing all of the video calls

back to back to back video calls

quantum fiber internet blowin the soxies

upon those people in all those boxes

we hate you

switch today at

quantumfiber.com additional pods may be needed to

achieve wifi coverage in some locations limited availability

for service and select locations only

Is It Smart for Oscar Piastri to Back McLaren Success Amid Title Fight? | Unlapped

About this episode

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

More from Unlapped