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Concept
endurance racing
This is racing where the cars have to last a long time, not just go fast for a few laps. Teams have to think about fuel, tires, and keeping the car alive.
Concept
touring cars
These are race cars based on regular road cars. They’re built for door-to-door racing on circuits.
Topic
FIA WEC preview
They’re talking about a preview of a big endurance racing series. It’s basically the show’s setup for the next race and who to watch.
Topic
WEC packages
These are pre-recorded bits about the endurance racing series. They’re like short feature clips the show inserts into the episode.
Concept
Formula One
Formula One is the famous world championship with the fastest single-seat race cars. It’s the racing series most people think of when they hear 'F1.'
Topic
bikes
They’re also going to talk about motorcycle racing. In this context, 'bikes' means racing motorcycles.
Topic
double stint
This is about staying on track longer than usual before stopping. In endurance racing, that can save time but also makes the tires and driver work harder.
Concept
24 hours
This means a race that lasts a whole day. Teams have to keep the car running, the drivers fresh, and the strategy smart.
Term
Goodwood Members' Meeting
This is a famous car event in England where old race cars and special cars are driven on track. It’s a big weekend for motorsport fans.
Term
EVO
This means a bigger upgrade package for a race car. They’re saying the changes were too small to count as a full new version.
Term
sim
This is a computer-based driving tool. Teams use it to practice and test changes before they go to the track.
Term
fuel
They’re talking about how much gas the cars are using and whether other teams are hiding their pace. In endurance racing, that can change who looks fast.
Car
Toyota
Toyota is the car company being talked about here. They’re saying Toyota has a new race car that looks strong.
Company
Porsche-Pensky
This is Porsche’s racing team run with Penske. They build and race the cars together in big endurance events.
Brand
Ford
Ford is a big car company. They’re talking about Ford being part of the racing field next year.
Brand
McLaren
McLaren is a British car and racing company. They’re saying McLaren will be one of the manufacturers next year.
Brand
Ferrari
Ferrari is the famous Italian sports-car brand. They’re talking about Ferrari being very fast again this year.
Term
time sheets
Time sheets are the lists of lap times from practice or qualifying. They show which cars were fastest.
Term
endurance races
Endurance races are long races that last for hours, not just a few laps. Cars and teams have to be fast, reliable, and smart with strategy.
Concept
fractions of 1%
This means very tiny differences. In racing, even a tiny advantage can decide who wins.
Term
engineer
The engineer is the person on the team who helps the driver with the car and race decisions. They talk during the race to make the car and strategy work better.
Term
GT car
A GT car is a race car based on a road car, usually a sports car. Here they mean the slower cars the driver has to pass during the race.
Term
overtake
Overtake means pass another car. In racing, picking the right place to pass can make a big difference.
Term
strategy
Strategy is the race plan. Teams decide when to pit, what tires to use, and how to react to things like rain.
Term
wet
Wet means rain tires. If it starts raining, teams have to decide whether to pit and put on tires that work better in the rain.
Concept
Formula 1
Formula 1 is the highest level of open-wheel racing. Here, they’re talking about how drivers now need to understand the car’s systems and data, not just drive fast.
Term
telemetry data
Telemetry is the car sending data back to the team while it’s on track. It helps them see what the car is doing and make better decisions.
Concept
energy management
This means deciding when to use or save power so the car is fast when it matters most. In this conversation, they’re saying drivers have to think about it over a longer stretch of racing, not just one lap.
Concept
Le Mans
Le Mans is one of the most famous endurance races in the world. They’re mentioning it as a big event on the racing calendar.
Concept
double of points
This means the race is worth extra championship points. Winning or finishing well there can have a much bigger effect on the standings than usual.
Topic
Spa
Spa is a famous race track in Belgium. They’re talking about it as another important event coming up after Imola.
Brand
Michelin
Michelin makes tires. The speaker is talking about a new tire from Michelin that behaves differently and changes how the cars are driven.
Concept
IMSA championship
IMSA is a big sports car racing series in the U.S. They’re saying the new tire has already been used there, so they’ve seen how it behaves before.
Concept
tyre warmers
These are heated covers that make race tires ready before the car goes out. Without them, the driver has to warm the tires up while driving, which is harder.
Term
warm-up
This is about getting the tires hot enough to grip properly. Some tires work better right away, while others need more time before they feel good.
Concept
cold tyres
Cold tires don’t grip the road as well until they warm up. That’s why the first laps can be slippery.
Concept
championship drivers
This means the drivers who are fighting for the season title. They’re trying to score enough points to win overall.
Concept
championships
A championship is the title you win over a whole racing season, not just one race. It means you were the best overall.
Concept
manufacturers
This means the car company itself is competing for a title. It’s like a team award for the brand, not just the driver.
Car
Audi R26
This is Audi’s race car in the discussion. They’re talking about a car that’s having trouble starting and isn’t performing as well as hoped.
Term
turbo
A turbo is a part that helps an engine make more power by pushing extra air into it. They’re saying the turbo setup is too big and that’s causing problems.
Term
power unit
In racing, a power unit means the whole system that makes the car go, not just the engine by itself. It can include the turbo and other parts too.
Term
energy deployment
This means how the car uses its stored electric boost. In racing, it’s about when and how the extra power gets released.
Term
drivability
Drivability is whether a car feels easy and smooth to drive. A car can be fast on paper but still be hard to control or unpleasant to use.
Term
changing gear
This is just shifting from one gear to another. In racing, it matters a lot because bad shifts can slow the car down or upset it.
Term
braking
Braking is how well the car slows down. In racing, it’s a big part of whether the car feels stable and controllable.
Term
traction
Traction is how well the tires stick to the road when the car accelerates. If traction is bad, the car can spin its wheels or feel slippery.
Topic
Audi competitiveness timeline
This part is about how long Audi might need before it can win or at least run near the front. They’re arguing over whether that timeline is too long.
Topic
Madrid ring
They’re talking about a new race track in Madrid. The question is whether the track surface has finally been paved.
Topic
La Monumental
This is a named part of a race track. They’re discussing a big, banked corner that has just been paved.
Concept
tarmac
This is the black road surface cars drive on. They’re saying part of the track has been paved now.
Concept
street circuit
This means a race track made from normal city streets. The speakers are comparing this new course to other city races.
Concept
roundabout
This is the traffic circle you see on normal roads. They’re saying the race track even uses one of those.
Topic
Valencia
They’re talking about another city race track in Spain. It’s being used as an example of a not-very-pretty street circuit.
Concept
hospitality
This means the guest and VIP areas at a race. The hosts are talking about all the extra buildings and services a track needs.
Concept
access roads
These are the roads that lead to the race track. They’re saying getting in and out can be a bigger issue than the racing surface.
Concept
gravel traps
These are gravel areas beside a track that help stop cars safely. The speakers are wondering if this new circuit has any.
Brand
Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton is a very famous Formula One driver. The hosts are trying to figure out which driver the question is about.
Brand
Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso is a famous Formula One driver. The speakers are guessing about which driver the question is referring to.
Brand
Jenson Button
Jenson Button is a former Formula One champion who also appears in racing media. The hosts are talking about whether he wants to do more work in the sport.
Brand
Martin Brundle
Martin Brundle used to race in Formula One and now talks about racing on TV. The speakers are discussing how much work he’s doing and whether he’s stepping back.
Term
heir apparent
This means the person most likely to get the job next. The hosts are talking about Jenson Button being seen as the next person in line.
Concept
Red Bull Ring
This is the race track in Austria where Formula 1 races are held. The hosts are discussing it in connection with Helmut Marko.
Term
grand ambassador
It means someone is being used as a public face for an event or place. In this case, Helmut Marko is being presented as a representative for the track.
Concept
Austrian Grand Prix
This is the Formula 1 race in Austria. The hosts are talking about how a familiar figure is being brought back into the event’s spotlight.
Brand
Mercedes
Mercedes here means the Formula 1 team, not a road car. The hosts are talking about someone getting a test with them soon.
Car
Mercedes F1 car
This is the race car Mercedes uses in Formula 1. They’re talking about a test drive in an older version of that car, and that it has power steering to make it easier to handle.
Term
power steering
It’s a feature that helps you turn the wheel more easily. The hosts are saying the race car has it so the driver won’t have to fight the steering as much.
Term
two-year-old car
It means they’re not using the newest race car. They’re talking about an older version that’s about two seasons old.
Car
Mercedes 2024 F1 car
They’re talking about Mercedes’ 2024 race car in Formula 1. It’s the car the driver would test or race in once she gets in it.
Term
actual engine
They mean a real old-school engine instead of a complicated hybrid system. It’s a way of saying the car feels more mechanical and straightforward.
Term
throttle
This is the pedal you use to make the car go faster. Pressing it tells the car to give more power.
Concept
Formula Two
Formula Two is a lower racing series where drivers often try to prove they’re ready for Formula One. It’s a big step in a driver’s career.
Concept
replacement round
This means a race is being used to take the place of another race that couldn’t happen. It’s basically a substitute event on the schedule.
Concept
embargo
An embargo means you’re not supposed to share the news until a certain time. In journalism and motorsport, people often get information early but can’t publish it yet.
Concept
Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500 is a huge American race held every year at Indianapolis. It’s one of the most famous races in the world.
Car
Colton Herta
Colton Herta is a race driver. They’re talking about how his other racing plans affect whether he can drive in another event.
Concept
33 cars
At the Indy 500, only a certain number of cars can start the race. They’re talking about how many entries there are and whether the field is full.
Term
cough up some cash
This means someone has to pay money to make a racing seat happen. In racing, money can help a driver get an opportunity.
Concept
track-limit penalties
Racetracks have rules about staying inside the painted or paved edges. If a driver keeps going outside those limits, officials can punish them with time penalties or other penalties.
Brand
Paul Ricard
Paul Ricard is a race track in France. It’s well known because drivers can easily go a little too far off the racing line there and get penalized.
Concept
racing rules
Racing has a lot of rules, and if you don’t know them well you can get penalized or lose positions. The hosts are saying the team may have been caught out by that.
Topic
GC World Challenge European Jiu-Jitsu Cup
The hosts are joking around and giving a funny fake name to a racing event. They’re not talking about a real jiu-jitsu competition here.
Brand
Lawrence Stroll
Lawrence Stroll is a wealthy racing team owner and the father of F1 driver Lance Stroll. The hosts are talking about him as someone who also likes to race himself.
Topic
Come To You racing car
They’re talking about a race car that several people were in together. It sounds like part of a story about how a racing idea came up over dinner.
Concept
F1 cars
F1 cars are the super-fast race cars used in Formula 1. They’re built very differently from normal road cars and are designed only for racing.
Concept
GT3 car
A GT3 car is a race car based on a sports car, but changed a lot for racing. It’s the kind of car used in endurance and GT racing series.
Concept
F1 driver
An F1 driver is someone who races in Formula 1, the top level of open-wheel racing. It’s basically the elite tier of professional circuit racing.
Concept
seat fitting
A seat fitting is when they check whether a driver fits properly in the race car. They make sure the seat and pedals are in the right place for that person.
Brand
Formula Renault
Formula Renault is a lower-level open-wheel racing series for young drivers. It’s one of the places racers go to prove themselves before moving up.
Company
Carlin
Carlin is a racing team that runs young drivers in formula cars. They’re being mentioned as one of the possible teams involved.
Company
Fortec
Fortec is a racing team. They’re one of the teams the speaker thinks might have been involved.
Brand
Formula 3
Formula 3 is a racing series for up-and-coming drivers. It’s a step on the ladder toward the biggest single-seater championships.
Term
ballast
Ballast is extra weight put in a race car on purpose. Teams use it to make the car legal and sometimes to help it handle better.
Term
minimum weight
Racing cars have to be at least a certain weight. If they are too light, teams add weight to make them legal.
Term
crash helmet protectors
It's a case or cover that keeps a racing helmet safe when you're carrying it around. People use them so the helmet doesn't get scratched or crushed.
Term
carbon fibre
Carbon fibre is a super light, very strong material. Car people use it when they want parts that are tough but not heavy.
Company
Eagle MS
This sounds like a racing team or motorsport group. The speaker says Adam has gone back there.
Car
Pope mobile
It's the special vehicle the Pope rides in when he appears in public. It is built to keep him safe and let people see him.
Car
Carlos Sainz
Carlos Sainz is a well-known race car driver from Spain. The hosts mention him as the other obvious guess for who drove the Pope's special car.
LIVE
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It's car and endurance racing, rallying, touring cars and bikes. If it has wheels and an engine, and they keep score, it's on mid-week motorsport.
Hello, everybody. It's just after 9 o'clock Central European Summer Time, which is where I am because, as promised, I'm in Italy.
We've been listening over the last couple of days. You'll know because we've had our FIA WEC preview. We'll play that again tonight after some extra WEC packages and contents that we recorded today with a few more drivers.
At the track, it's just after 8 o'clock in the UK, which is where we find Tim Gray after his little sojourn last week. And on a pack show tonight, Tim, we have what?
We have all the usual features. Nick Damon will be here. We've talked about cars, Formula One cars specifically, and Formula One drivers actually.
We're also going to ask him something about bikes. We have Peter Mackay with a rally report. We have John De Geese with double stint, which we'll be linking to all the cars used. There's not a Tim Miller, although John De Geese is a Tim Miller.
We have a big interview with Pippo Zirani. He was called it earlier. And lots and lots more. Oh yeah, the answer is lots and lots of Dickson.
And Antonio Giovinazzi as well. And Antonio Giovinazzi, yeah. Yes, absolutely. Let's quickly then run through some parish notices in no particular order. Hello to our knife, raw poos, listening in live.
Is two hours long enough? Are we going on until midnight? Well, there'll be extra content after, so don't tune away. Yeah, we will be going on until nearly midnight, but that's actually going off.
Correct. Very good. To James O'Donnell, stellar lineup on the show. I was at the 2024 race and said this is a great part of the world to be in.
About it's Tom Marshalek listening in live today and looking forward to it. Kevin Payne listening live, just finished the WEC preview, which was great. I can't believe it was a year ago when I was there.
Looking forward to Monagor, historic in 10 days time. Bruce Jones and I will be doing the world feed for that. Hello to Jesse Young, to Jimmy Dwyer, no airfares tonight.
Himsa and WrestleMania double header on Saturday. He says it's our fantastic form of endurance racing at the weekend. NLS, Himsa, WEC and the preventing Michelin 24 hours.
N. G. Autoart, that's Neil. He's just completed what he thinks is the best piece of artwork he's ever created. It's a portrait. It's a 9-6-2 and it's fantastic.
And also Ed Moses looking forward to listening in as he sorts out his kit for a peaceful weekend at the Goodwood members meeting. At least.
Airfares for Jake Parrott tonight. He's listening on the archive and where the forecast high is only 32 Celsius. That's all right. Not great for schlepping bottles, but great for talking about gym good stuff.
Edwardian creation will be a sleep for Midweek Motorsport because the time changed, but his dinner, which is yesterday, tonight, whenever it was, was a lamb schnitzel with homemade chips, like the sound of that.
At Speck Entertainment, if you would like to get in touch with us, it's a patch or tonight, we have the Liquid Soup and the shoehorn and Tim is shuffling his papers to bring us their top story.
Midweek Motorsport
Well, we start with some FIA WEC content. There's going to be a lot of that on tonight's show. And earlier on, John caught up with Antonio Givernazzi and asked him if he was ready to get the season started.
Yeah, I can't wait. Finally, we are here in Imola. It's been a long winter, but on the other side, I'm, let's say, happy because in the night of Bahrain, I become dead for the first time.
So I enjoyed, let's say, to be dead for a few months. So I had time with my daughter. So yeah, now finally we are here.
Yeah, I'm lucky we didn't start in Qatar, but for a good reason. And now we are here in Imola. So start the season after we won the World Championship,
manufacturer and drivers started here. It's a good boost for the team, for myself as well. We can celebrate the start of the season together with our T4C.
So yeah, let's repeat what we did last year. We were really strong here. So let's hope we do have the same result as last year.
Does it put a little more pressure on that you are in Italy, that you are so close to the factory at Modena, Firano, and that you know that the bulk of the support here will be wearing red?
I know it's just a good pressure to be honest. It's a good boost for us. Like I mentioned, I think we need to just, you know, if we see where we were last year here in Imola,
we were in a good position. So we have a good car to fight for sure. Then of course every race is different or let's see the condition how it is.
But for us it's not a pressure, but just a good motivation to do well in front of them.
Some detail changes on the car over the winter, not enough to trigger an EVO. Can you fail those? And what differences does that make to set up to the feeling of the car?
Yeah, it's a little bit different, but we worked quite a lot on the sim during the winter just to try to put the car in the same window as last year.
I think yesterday was a positive day for us. We felt a good car straight away into condition because we drove in the dry condition, in the wet, in the damp.
So far we are happy with where we are. Of course we don't know where our competitors are in terms of fuel and all these things.
We know ourselves and we are pretty happy with the result. But let's see. I think Toyota, you know, the new car is quite nice.
It's really good and I'm sure they will be there. They will be there also. They showed a good pace yesterday. So yeah, let's see.
No Porsche-Pensky motor sport this year to fight against and they were one of your main competitors last year.
Okay, so maybe that's a little less competition, but does that make you sad that Porsche and Pensky aren't here?
Yeah, of course, you know, lose a manufacturer like Porsche. Porsche-Pensky is not good. It's not good for us. It's not good for the championship, but it's like this.
And I think, you know, we still have a good manufacturer there next year. We gained a Genesis this year. Next year we'll be McLaren, we'll be Ford.
So yeah, I think it will be good if Porsche was still here, but, you know, it's a choice and now we need to just fight with the manufacturer that we have, that they still have big names there, so it's good to have.
When we look at last year and moving into this year, if you look at the time sheets from yesterday, Ferrari were right at the top, all three cars.
There will be people out there, not me, but there will be people out there going, Ferrari again, Ferrari again. It's not going to be a walk over this year.
You guys seem to have an advantage last year, maybe have an advantage this year. I will see you on Saturday and Sunday, but you still have to deliver.
You still have to bring that performance and deliver that performance in the race.
Yeah, for sure. One thing is to be fast, one thing is to win a race. You know, especially in a race like endurance races, we have six hours on Sunday.
So you can be the faster, but in this championship, in this type of race, it's really small times that the faster we win the race, you know, because it's such many things that can happen in six hours that you need to be ready in everything you will just have.
So, you know, we focus on ourselves. It's a long race, it's a long season ahead. We are the champions so far, but like I mentioned, I think Toyota, they know how to win, they won so many times.
We have manufactured there that they are here to try to beat us like BMW, Peugeot, so yeah, I mean, we have good package, let's say, the car team, but it's not only that one that you need to have.
It's many small details that in them doing the difference.
Where are those small differences? Where are those tiny, not even 1% now, it's fractions of 1%.
Where do you make the difference? Where does the team make the difference? Where do you and the team work together?
Even maybe when you're driving in the race, is that the kind of thing do you have to be talking with your engineer during the race to optimize every single tiny part of the driving experience?
Yeah, in the end it's all the decision, the fast decision that you need to do it.
You know, I think about on the driver's side, you know, where you need to overtake the GT car in which corner and in which time of the race, you know.
So, that decision is compromise a lot your pace, your result in the end. It can be the wrong corner to overtake and you maybe lose 20 seconds.
It can be the right one and you can compare to your competitor for 5 seconds.
So, in the end it's also for the engineer, for the strategy guy, you know, start to rain, we go inside and we put wet or we stay on the drive.
So many things that, of course, the communication between drivers and team is really important and the decision needs to be in the end together.
But when it's a really fast decision, then you need to take responsibility of your decision
and you need to make sure that it's the right one.
All of those decisions, many times a lap, that's the thing I keep trying to tell people.
These cars are exceptionally complicated now. How much of your time behind the wheel in the race are you still a driver?
How much are you a software engineer? How much are you having to understand and work with the tools that you've got within the car?
Yeah, now I think in these new cars, I don't speak only about work, but if I think F1, you are a driver but you're already a driver, an engineer.
So you need to be all together because you cannot lose time if something happened that you need to react really fast on, I don't know, a reset, your software or all these things.
So it's just part of being a driver now, to be a little bit of an engineer.
Since karting already, to be honest, you are telemetry data to check in, so you grow up already in this scenario.
And then when you arrive that you are a professional driver, part of your driver skills is also inside some engineering skills.
A lot of talk at the moment about energy management. People look at Formula 1 and say energy management is bad, it's killing the sport.
We've had energy management for a long time. I know it's not exactly the same, but energy management has been a part of this championship for quite a long time.
Is that almost now becoming second nature to you drivers?
Yeah, it's different, I would say, compared to Formula 1. Of course we have an energy, but it's different because it's split during one stint, it's not a lap.
Then it's about you, how much you want to save in the beginning, but then the total is the end of the stint, not the end of the lap.
This is different. It's part of our championship for a long time now.
It's part of to be faster or slower during a stint, but it's not, let's say, the focus that is in the other championship now.
And you deal with it because that's part of your skill set, as you mentioned?
Yes, yes. So let's talk about the season. Great season last year for Ferrari.
Maybe your biggest competitors will be your teammates, and those guys in the mostly yellow car came second last year and they'll be wanting to beat you this year.
Yeah, you know, we are ready for anyone. First of all, we are happy if it's a yellow car or a car 50, to be honest.
So if either we don't win the championship, at least one Ferrari is winning the championship.
And if it's with the 83 or the 50, we are ready to, you know, of course we are teammates, so the respect is there.
We know how to deal. We know that the priority is Ferrari, the decision from Ferrari.
But if we are, you know, we came last year to the last race with the 83 to fight for the championship.
Went all well on our side, on a 51 crew, but we were ready to fight with them.
So this is a competition sport, so it's part of our game.
Just this race and Spa before Le Mans, so slightly different start to the season.
We all know the reasons why, and I'm just thankful we have a championship to talk about and for you to race in.
Does that slightly change the mentality as you come into this race this weekend?
This is the first race?
Yeah, we will have one last race before Le Mans, you know, only two races before the big one.
But in the end, you know, I think it's a long championship, you know, and then it's still eight races.
So you need to always focus on, if you want to win the championship, focus on score points.
We know how important is Le Mans for, you know, we need the best race of the world.
Plus we have the double of points.
So the focus is there because if you are good in Le Mans, part of the championship is on your hand.
But now let's focus on Imola.
It's a race that we want to win because it's our home race.
And so we want to start well and then we focus on Spa and then we focus on Le Mans.
A new challenge for you this year in some respects is the new Michelin tyre.
We've had it in the Imsa championship, so I've seen it being raced.
I've taught the guys this year.
There's definitely a difference in the warm-up and there's no tyre warmers.
Comes in much quicker.
Were you able to feel that yesterday in the test?
And how will that change strategy and potentially the way you guys drive and race?
Yeah, it's more easy for sure.
It's not still easy to go out, you know.
It's more easy, let's say, but it's not solved the problem 100%.
It's less difficult, is it?
Yeah, you're right.
So in the NDA, in terms of strategy, you need to just adjust the time lost after you change the tyres.
So I don't know, think about eight seconds before, now maybe it's half, so three, four seconds.
But then it will depend how hot it will be.
So let's see, I think the weekend will be hotter than yesterday, so maybe it will be more easy than yesterday.
But I think it just for several reasons in the end, because think about Spa, you know, that is much cooler
and you have a route straight away with cold tyres.
You know, to have a tyre that came together faster, it just helps, you know,
on the safe reason, let's say, the drivers for the championship.
Let's finish just looking again at last year and this year.
So last year Ferrari had the full set.
Championships, drivers, manufacturers, Le Mans win, victories at race tracks right across the world.
How is the motivation to continue?
What drives you, the team, the manufacturer on when you had such a good championship last year?
Really, I can tell you the motivation is really because I think when you win, then you gain motivation.
So more you win, more motivation you have.
The more you win, the more you want to win.
So you're hungry because, you know, when you feel that feeling, you know, that you are in the podium,
you are winning a race, you are in that, you know, feeling, you want to repeat that feeling.
So this makes the team really hungry to have more and I think we can do it.
You know, I think we have, we show last year we have the best team and the best car,
so we need to just continue to work and then, you know, it's only our fourth season in this championship.
So some people forget this because some people, they came to this champion
and they start to win after maybe four, five years.
We won really early, but it's only our fourth season.
So we are still a lot of work to do, a lot of things to improve and this is what we need to do this year.
But you cannot come here expecting to win.
You have to still be humble and know that you're going to have to fight.
There'll still be challenges.
For sure, for sure, the competitors are not there just to be a number in this race.
You know, they want to beat us and we are ready to fight.
You know, this is our mentality.
We know that, you know, they will be strong, Toyota will be strong.
We saw B&W really strong, so we need to just fight
and in the end we will be the best, we will win.
And you'll race anybody who's alongside you in front of you or behind you?
Sorry?
You will race anyone who is in front of you behind you alongside you?
Yes, yes, we are here for this.
Thank you very much indeed. Drive well, have a great season.
Thank you very much.
Time now to do some Formula One and that means we need to introduce our Formula One correspondent, Nick Damon.
Hooray from a balcony somewhere in the Middle East.
Nick is joining us on his telephone tonight because of the failure of internet in the part of the Middle East that he's in.
So apologies if there's any delay or stutter or echo on this.
Nick, let's start with the Audi R26. What's wrong with it?
Can't start.
And what else?
I know mainly it can't start because it's turbo's too big and therefore they can't sort the problems out with it for a long time
because it doesn't get off the line properly.
Have you got another problem they've got now? I just thought you just couldn't start.
Actually Binotto says we have a problem with our overall performance and the gap to the best teams
but the biggest performance to gain is on the power unit.
So most of our gap in performance is in the power unit which is not a surprise.
It's not, they kind of chose to go with the power in the biggest turbo in everybody
which has been the biggest turbo lag which theoretically gives you the most power
but also obviously is the hardest to spin up at the start.
Yeah, I think that's fair enough but the biggest obvious problem is that
it's not only about power, it's energy efficiency, energy deployment, it's drivability.
When you come to drivability it's also changing gear which is very hard for us at the moment.
That's quite a big list isn't it really? So it's the engine, it's the electricity, it's electricity deployment
it's how you get the power on the ground, how you start the car and how you change the gear.
The car is unstable and breaking.
Blimey. The car is unstable and in acceleration.
Well that is a man who's obviously got a very big to-do list.
I believe that the car itself on the chassis point of view, we've done a good job he said.
Right, but the mechanical element if it's got problems on the traction and breaking
that's also elements of the chassis isn't it?
Yes.
When does it have been enough to expect Audi to be competitive?
Three years.
2030.
That is three years isn't it?
That's four years really isn't it?
Three seasons, well three and a half seasons.
That's a bit rubbish, you should be competitive before that.
I don't know how you should win races but you should be competitive before that.
Which new circuit finally has a little tarmac on it?
Is it Madrid ring?
The mad ring, yes.
They have put some tarmac on the banked corner which is going to be called La Monumental.
The monument of corners?
Yeah I mean there's quite a lot of Google Maps and Google Earth images of what
and people are going oh it looks a bit, basically the thing is it is going around the industrial state
and it does use the roundabout so it's got a little bit, it's not a glamorous street circuit let's say that.
No.
It's not going round a port in the south of France.
I mean it's even probably less glamorous than Valencia, it went through a fish market
and the area of the town best known for ladies.
Ladies, thank you very much.
So to be less glamorous than Valencia is a pretty impressive achievement.
How many corners is this track supposed to have?
Oh I don't know, is it 17 or something?
Oh 22 it says and they've tarmacked as far as the entrance to turn 19.
Oh well they've got three to go then.
Currently they're on track for the U.A.
Obviously, yeah well it's probably, the thing is the track isn't, this is the interesting, the actual track is never the bit that causes,
it's all the infrastructure around the track that normally causes the problems.
It seems like there's a real photo that they've got a tunnel going under the track here.
Well that's good because therefore there is the paddock bill on the paddock buildings bill,
is all the stuff on the hospitality bill, how about the access roads,
that's the stuff that tends to get really tested on the first event.
Yes, there's not a lot around, I mean does it appear to be any gravel traps at the moment?
Perhaps it's a street circuit, they haven't got to have gravel traps,
they've got to run people in the barriers and still get a licence.
Moving on, who is not ready to retire and who's not going to replace him?
Well, I can only assume it's Louis, this is the first question, there's two aunts that could be,
which is either Fernando Alonso and Louis Hamilton,
but could you say who's not going to replace him?
I think it must be Louis Hamilton and Ollie Burtman.
No, it's Martin Brundle and Jenson Button.
I was close, two Brits.
Yes, that wasn't a bad guess.
Yes, because Brundle, of the 24 races, he was only doing 16 this year,
down from I think from 20, so I think he'd rather missing four, he's now missing eight.
What does he know, 66, Martin is he?
Obviously he's not missing one that has been cancelled anyway, so...
Then somebody, I think there's an article written which said that Jenson Button was like the heir apparent
and was poised to take over and Jenson wrote, I'm not poised to take over,
I'm doing what I want to do, I'm quite busy, thank you very much, I don't want to do any more.
Yeah.
Which I thought was fair enough.
Who is going to be returning to the world of Formula One next, no, two months time?
Who's returning to Formula One in two months time?
Yes.
So that's in May.
June.
Who? I don't know, who's going to be returning to Formula One in June?
Which 82-year-old?
Oh, not Bert, no, it's too young.
Look at him on Semolo.
Nope.
I think he was old and coming back.
He's coming back in time for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Oh, it's Helmut Marco, he's got a job, isn't he? The Red Bull ring, I remember that.
He has, yes, he's a grand ambassador for the ring.
If only, if only I could say he was sorely missed.
So the press release says, when Formula One returns to Austria next summer,
Marco won't just be a name from the past, he'll be a part of the show once again
as the face of a circuit that helped define his era.
Yeah, okay.
I mean, yes, there are other Austrians they could have perhaps chosen, but okay, we'll go with Helmut.
The Austrian Grand Prix has recently given extension to 2041.
You said they've signed quite a few very long extensions, didn't they?
2039 and things like that, but 2041, that's what, that's 15 years.
So obviously Red Bull are expecting to be selling drinks for a long time.
Who is getting a Mercedes F1 test soon?
Oh, I don't know the answer, but Fred Vesti, I suppose, he gets them quite often.
No, we're talking about Dorian Pan.
Oh, are they? Wow.
Venice, the F1 car's got power steering because she's quite tiny, Dorian.
She's a very tiny lady, but obviously a good driver.
But they'll be putting into a two-year-old car, won't they?
So it'll be a 24 round-effect car she'll be in.
Yes, this is for Mercedes.
She has already driven a Formula One car.
I don't know if she hasn't though.
So yeah, she'll be testing, it doesn't say when this test can be.
But yeah, the Mercedes from 2024 will be her car when she actually gets into it.
So absolutely, unlike anything F1 currently, it's got an actual engine
where you press the throttle and it does what you're supposed to do.
And you know, it doesn't suddenly accelerate and it doesn't run out of power
and have to go slowly round corners.
There must be a test, probably, in the current car.
Last week, no, two weeks ago, John mentioned that Montreal
is hosting a replacement round of Formula Two in the place of Saudi Arabia.
That information has now been made public.
And I stopped him from breaking the embargo on Miami
hosting a replacement to Bahrain, which has also now been made public.
And what is the knock-on-effect of Indianapolis of that announcement, Tim?
It means that there's something on track here.
No, it doesn't. It means that they're short of a car
because Colton Hurting was going to get a drive in Indianapolis 500.
And now he can't because he's doing F2 race in Canada.
It just means fewer people to be knocked out.
But they haven't got 33 cars at Miami, so now they have 32.
I'm sure they will in a month's time.
Yeah, but they need to find it, you see, otherwise.
I'm sure they will. They'll find somebody who wants to cough up some cash.
Now it's a guaranteed driver. Definitely find someone who's going to cough up.
But yes, that movement to Miami took Colton out of the Indian 500.
What's Ludd Stroll being up to at the weekend?
He's been getting the most penalties ever in the history of penalties at Paul Ricard.
How it was reported, actually, he just got some track-limit penalties out of the rest of his team.
It seemed like they came next to last in a difficult run.
But it does seem like it to me that people didn't really understand the rules
and hadn't actually done that sort of racing before, so they just fell foul of everything.
But I think the pace was OK.
Whose idea was this? This is the GC World Challenge European Jiu-Jitsu Cup.
I assume it was. Let's be generous. It was Lawrence Stroll.
It wasn't a Roberto Mary's idea.
OK.
Mary and Mari Boyo were in the Come To You racing car alongside Lawrence Stroll.
Apparently they had dinner together in Japan, and that's where the idea was born.
Well, you know, it's good to see Lawrence doing it.
I just hope he had a good time.
He doesn't often seem to be having a good time in racing in F1 cars.
I suppose he had a good time racing a GT3 car.
Obviously he's done the 24 hours of Daytona before as well, hasn't he?
Yes, a few did it before they were famous.
Some half they were famous.
Yes.
Was he ever famous?
F1 driver.
Whose father didn't want him to race one of the cars?
Blimey, that's a really good question.
Trying to think, who might it be?
I can only think of people who have had their fathers throw in enough cash to sink the battleships.
Help me out on that one. It's an obscure item you've read there.
This is Climi Antonelli.
I'm sorry, I didn't get that impression from Mr Antonelli at any point at all.
Race team owner Marco Antonelli didn't give him freshness.
He didn't want his son to go into motorsport.
No, the man who pushed him through the car and got him picked up by Ferrari.
Do you know about my maritro Averbeni?
Maritro Averbeni turned him down 11 years old because he was too small.
He's not an engineer, is he?
Maritro Averbeni, who basically was just a bloke who sold fags
and ended up, sorry, for our American audience, had cigarettes.
Then he got the gig from Marlborough into Ferrari
and was absolutely a disaster, both front-facing and into the team.
He turned down the chance to sign Climi because he was too small, so Mercedes swooped in.
There was a...
I can't remember which one it was.
I can't remember which team it was either.
One of the Christodoulos, either Adam or Ricky,
it must have been Ricky because he was the smaller of the two,
went to do a Formula Renault seat fitting
with either Carlin or Fordec.
And while he was there,
the engineer in charge of their Formula 3 program
put him in one of those cars
because they thought he was so small
that he'd be able to put the ballast to make it up to the minimum weight
in such an advantage as part of the car
that he'd be winning by huge margins.
It never happened, of course.
No. There's more to racing than ballast.
Do you know what Ricky does now?
Obviously Adam is still driving.
Ricky is selling very advanced crash helmet protectors.
So you've got these carbon fibre things to protect your crash helmet
when you're transporting them.
Wow.
There you go.
Adam, of course, has just gone back to Eagle MS.
Yes.
And finally, this week we can't avoid talking about the Pope.
Well, obviously not.
It's the first thing that came to mind when I think about Formula 1.
Who was not allowed to drive the Pope mobile?
Wow. When? How recently?
During the Pope's visit to Spain.
Was it Fernando Alonso?
It was, yes.
You're kind of about 50-50 at that point.
Him or Carlos Sainz, haven't you read?
Why was he not allowed to drive the Pope mobile?
Yaga Chieva, who was a coordinator of papal trips,
said the Vatican's security detail
didn't share the vision of Alonso
at the helm of the glass dome to Mercedes.
I don't know.
I kind of think he used to know
if he'd go into trouble to drive out of it quickly and accurately.
The Vatican's idea of safe hands
differed significantly from that
of the Madrid organisers of the trip.
Brilliant. So who did you know?
Who did drive it?
Was it like a rally drive
or was it just like Brian from Uber?
It doesn't say.
But this was in 2011, so 15 years ago.
Oh, right. Is that one pope or two popes ago?
That was Pope Leo.
That was two popes ago, wasn't it?
Sorry, Pope Benedict. One pope.
That was a lot of one pope ago.
Well, there's a double helping of Double Stint this week.
John De Geese joined in our WEC preview yesterday
but earlier today he spoke to John
about the rest of the day's sports car news
starting with Imza's trip to Long Beach this weekend.
With John Hintov and John De Geese.
BOP, I think, is the major talking point
going into the weekend.
For the first time, Imza has split the BOP
between the different specification Porsche 963s.
So we'll be seeing the Porsche Penske cars
with a significant 45 kilo weight increase since Sebring.
That's 99 pounds.
It's literally having a co-driver in the car.
They've had a little bit of a power increase
but it's not really that notable.
But notably is that the JDC car
actually only has a 5 kilo increase.
So there's going to be a 40 kilo swing between the
2025 and 2026 specification cars.
And the only difference within those cars are mainly Aero
which don't really play a huge part at Long Beach.
And then you add in the fact that you have none other
than Lauren Heinrich joining JDC
and the bulk of the season starting at Long Beach
and that car actually could be a contender for the win.
For the win, yes. Absolutely right.
That's on the streets of Long Beach.
So with no Aero changes, that weight
actually around Long Beach, I was going to say
is it going to matter?
But probably weight more than anything else at Long Beach
because you're accelerating, turning and stopping a lot.
Yeah, I spoke to Jonathan Dugud,
Penske Racing President recently
and they actually just tested
at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
with the added weight to see how it was
because the car is 1,100 kilos now.
It's the heaviest car ever
in LMDH or LMH specifications
since the onset of those regulations.
And they never tested for that weight
because they didn't expect to be in that situation.
So he said that the biggest concern is tires
but over a 100 minute race,
the last couple years,
all the winning cars haven't changed tires.
Now they may have to.
It's the new Michelin soft that hasn't really been used
that much yet, only for a few stints
at the roar as far as I know.
So someone knows there
on how things are going to play out.
IMSA teams are allowed, though,
one additional set of tires to use in practice
both in GTP and GTD for the weekend.
So that could help dial things in
during Friday's action.
Staying with people who I associate with Porsche,
we were speculating about what might happen to Kevin Estra
and lo and behold,
we were talking about this on last week's show
about will Kevin Estra find a place?
There's not that many places.
Well, he's found one.
Yeah, he's joining TDS's lineup
for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
A really interesting one because
it's an interesting lineup
and an effort because
this, I thought, was an auto-invite
from the Jim Truman Award winner
in the WeatherTech Championship.
That went to PJ Hyatt,
but it turns out it's not.
It's actually an entry that TDS earned
on its own for Le Mans,
but it has Toby Lutka in the car,
who's no stranger.
He'll be making his Le Mans debut,
but he's...
I sort of thought maybe that entry went to Toby
because PJ had two auto-invites for Le Mans,
winning LMP2 Pro-M and ELMS.
Turns out AO by TF has used that entry
for PJ.
Just got confirmation from IMSA
that they have not utilized that auto-invite
for the Truman Award.
And therefore will not now
because we've got the entry,
so that wasn't required to be used effectively.
Exactly.
So it'll be Estra, Lutka, and Mateus Besch
in a Pro-M lineup,
I believe, for LMP2
because Lutka's a bronze.
Great chance for Estra.
Obviously, we have
his Porsche-Pensky Motorsport teammate,
Julian Andla,
also in another car for LMP2,
car for Le Mans.
Great to see at least a couple of them on the grid.
Didn't Kevin drive a TDS in the past?
Am I making that up?
It's been 12 or 13 years.
Oh, dear, I'm feeling,
so the hind-off feeling,
that's not really a headline.
So that's the swing end.
Anything else interesting to come out of
the confirmed entry
for the weather tech?
We've only got the two classes this weekend,
we should say that.
Yeah, but there's some extra cars from GTD Pro
going down to GTD.
I think we talked about it before,
but FAF with a Temarario GT3,
Silver alongside Andrea Calderali,
then we have AO
with
Harry King in the car
with Michael
Pedersen,
and then also a second faster Sullivan
car, as they typically have done in the number 89,
Jack Hawksworth and Frankie
Monte-Calvo. So it would be interesting
to see how all those cars sort of fare
with the regular GTD cars
in the 100-minute race.
There were a lot of news items
from Hay-Air at Imola
that we didn't put in the preview.
There was
an accident for Mark Wussorgensen
in the Aston Martin
Valkyrie. He was fine.
The car, not so much.
No, this was a pretty
heavy accident and there was some
footage from a spectator.
It seemed like
he lost control of the car. It was a little bit
of a tricky conditions because
they started wet and then certain dry
and then wet again
and whatever.
The bottom line is Mark was okay, but
the chassis has been damaged.
Harder racing in Aston Martin now have to
rebuild around a brand new chassis.
Luckily they have one in the vicinity
and have respected all the rules
and having not having it on
site per FIA
and WEC regulations. But the good thing
is they have two days now
Wednesday and
Wednesday to rebuild the car in time
for pre-practice one and Friday.
They should be good, hopefully
learning stuff off the 007
car which completed the full day
at the prologue.
From what I
saw and overheard
in the back of the paddock, I happened to be there
just as the call was made
to start
the build
of the new chassis.
The car that was crashed
was due to be replaced
the chassis rather that was
crashed was due to be replaced after the
Imola race anyway. So this is actually
not exactly planned, it's come
one race
earlier because not the way they would have wanted
to do it, but it's
my point is it's not putting a dent in the rest of the season for them.
Yeah, kind of lucky on their part I think.
Yeah, and they had it here.
Now, Algarve Parole
they have ambitions.
Yes, while I was in Barcelona
last weekend during the ELMS
season opener
I spoke to Stuart Cox and
just wanted to ask him about Asian Le Mans
like how, you know, how are you
preparing for it? There's no calendar yet
we're sort of a little bit in the dark
because of the
unfortunate situation in the Middle East
but he came out
and boldly said they're trying to put
a hypercar program together for
the Asian series which
we should have a season
at least that's planned
but we'll have to see whatever the venues are
and the exact dates but
more interestingly enough this car
could end up being in
the IMSA Weather Tech Sports Car Championship
in 2027 if all goes to plan
as well. So it would be
a dual program
spending time in the winter in Asia
and then the normal season
in IMSA.
He says he has multiple bronze drivers
that are interested in this
and put a program together that's half-baked
he doesn't also want to have it be
a sacrifice to their current LMP2
operation which is ultra successful
in all three
Continental Championships right now. They're actually the most successful
team in
Asian Le Mans series history with
six LMP2 titles so
he said he actually has two
programs already confirmed for LMP2
and they could end up having
two Porsche 963s in Asia
for the upcoming season.
They would have to be existing cars
because Porsche and Motorsport
are not building any new chassis up
isn't it? It sounds
like they are. I spoke to
Urs Caradal
back at SeaBrain I believe
and they are talking
he said they can probably do
four or five more chassis
they were talking
he was projecting between two and four
cars alone for the Asian Le Mans series
and they would all be brand new chassis
The big
point here though is that
the deadline for all of this is like Le Mans
basically middle of June
and I'm not sure we'll get the Asian calendar by then
so
there's a lot of moving pieces here
and I wouldn't say APR is a sure-fired
deal but
I do know there's a couple other European teams
that are looking around for hypercars as well
so this is
an ongoing topic. I think with the Asian Le Mans series
and their
alliance on races
within what is still a conflict
on as we're talking about it now
force majeure
etc etc
we'll see how that but what I will say
is that if Sam and Stuart Cox
are putting their mind to it
I expect
that something
will come of it if they decide it's
the right program between
Mr and Mrs Cox
as you said they won't do it
they're half-baked. Now
last week
just before the NLS
the GR GT3
was testing at the Nürburgring
Nordschleife in black carbon
a couple of drivers in it
including I think Kami Kobayashi
was part of that who then raced at the weekend
with
David Pithard
KCMG's car
which took poor position
and should have won the race actually
but that's a whole different story
we mentioned this in the coverage
that I did with Peter Cate
there's a strong rumour that
KCMG will be taking
one of those GRG D3s
along with David and with Kami
into the Nürburgring
at some stage
and there was
I thought it might be as early
as this year. Yes
so I believe the original plan
and this is the plan for the
GR GT3 and the naming of it
and everything has changed multiple times
over the last few years
so this was at least one version of the plan
was to have it debut in the Nürburgring
24 this year
that's obviously off the cards now
because it's
Nürburgring 24s a month away
we haven't seen it in a competitive outing
anywhere since
and it's not homologated as
what would be an SP9 console would have had to go in SPX
I mean in fairness that has
happened before
but right now if they were flying
under the radar a DAC
say that with the new
150 car but the limit
there's actually no place. Yeah exactly
and I think
what I thought
was going to debut would have been
Super Tycoo in Japan
I think that made a lot of sense with
Rookie Racing
with
Akado Toyoda's team more or less
but now according to our
Jamie Klein who's
well informed in the Asian world
he lives in Japan
he seems to understand
that it will be an NLS race later in the year
so the GR GT3 will still
debut in 2026
but most
certainly in the SPX class
not homologated but
just post Nürburgring 24
at some point and
we think it
we're not entirely sure on what team it is
but I don't think it matters because
it's been a long time coming for this car
it's interesting that
they would decide to do that and
effectively birth it into a
very competitive
atmosphere on the Nürburgring Nordschleife
but we know
Toyoda in the past have
enjoyed doing things like I tell you what
depending on what we get for the later races in the year
that SPX category could be really interesting with
the HWA cars
with the potentially the
BMW 2 ring, the estate car
the fast wagon
is it an M3, is it an M4
it's an M3 underneath but it's an M4 body
because there's no M3 turret anymore
so we've been calling it an M3 and a half
we've been torn off for that as well
now
looking further forward get your crystal ball out
and whatever
forward
future looking devices you have
and say
what's happening with the
new gen LMP2 because
this is a bit like the GRGT3
this one has been going back and forth for a while as well
and we had an interesting
press release from the ACO
last weekend sort of just
confirming what we all
already thought
that it was going to debut in 2028
Gibson is the engine
part manufacturer
and Orica and Lige are the chassis
constructors so
the only thing I learned from this
release was that the performance levels
will be similar to what we see now
we thought they might have been tuned down
a little bit
it's still going to be I think 420 kilowatts
maximum power
Goodyear tires
I think that wasn't confirmed but that's
really I think only for the European Lemos series
Asian is fully
Michelin and Imsa is fully
Michelin so
and a 2028 debut
but they didn't specify
Imsa so we have to sort of wait and see if it'll
be at the Rolex 24
that year or maybe Imsa will wait a year
which might be more logical
but I guess it's good
news that this has been reaffirmed
that the new gen LMP2 is coming
and it'll have similar
bodywork characteristics as the current cars
which I think there was a push at some point
to have them almost
have like a center driver
a single seat
inside the car instead of being
a two seater
and also maybe some revised styling
cues similar to a hypercar
like a hypercar junior
of sorts but they're not going in that direction
at least there's been an agreement there
Is there any
news on
is there a price cap on these cars
because one of the things about the current
homologation is it's been there for a very long time
most people have amortized
their investment over a very
long period as well
and therefore
it's a very
cost effective way to go racing
nothing's cheap in racing but
most people know where they are with it
they're relatively happy with the
you never happy with having to buy spare parts
but you know what I mean they know where they are
and can budget for it
have we heard any further detail about that
nothing officially on a price cap
the current LMP2s are
they don't know what the current rate is
because of all the currency
conversions and stuff that's actually
that's actually a really good point
but I think the bigger question is how
will
how will this new generation LMP2
how will teams
what will convince teams to go to Lige
just because the auric has been so dominant
and it's been the
de facto car to be
what will make teams go the other route
that's my question at least
it might be supply and demand issue to be fair
actually that's a really good point yeah
but we'll have to wait and see
2028 is still a little bit away but
seeing this officially green lighted
is good news I guess
for the world of sports car racing
for pro-am racing especially
anything else we have to talk about
we've covered the WEC
Long Beach
at the weekend it's the Michelin
24 hour series and I think
Clowns Buckler's Buck isn't he
he's the defending European series champion
but he was with
Proton Huber there he's going to be with
Herberth this weekend
as if Herberth weren't difficult
enough to be the plugging Clowns
Buckler in yeah exactly
so that'll be interesting to see
how he juggles things because he does have
a lot of different programs this year including
Michelin endurance cup with
Manthai which
is going to be a little bit interesting
because there's a lot of clashes later
in the year including
6 Hours of Walkins Glen and
Spot 24 but that's a whole nother story
for another day
bottom line is I think there's 44 cars
increased field for
the Michelin 24 hour series
and looking forward to seeing how that unfolds
as well it's a split race
on Saturday and Sunday we'll have coverage
with Johnny Palmer
leading
the team down there at Simon Hill
and
Sarah Esser and Carla Velte
in the pit lane
for that Saturday and Sunday
live in Sound & Vision
just a thought on that
the guys at Craventing have been doing
a very good job for a very long time
and you and I have seen
that series develop
it really seems to have
found a
place now within
not necessarily a ladder system
but certainly within the hierarchy of GT
racing in particular
that we see
so many GT 3 cars now
the majority of the fail tens
now to be GT 3
particularly for the prestigious race
and Spa being one of those
this seems to have found a place
a level that people say
we can do that
even though these cars are quite
expensive to run and the racing's been
really good
you look at a team like Aero Motorsport
fully walked and loaded on that
series for its GT 3 program
Dwight Merriman and Ryan DL
and other drivers that swap in and out
they don't run that
GT 3 car anywhere else
it's just in the Michelin 24 hour series
so that shows
the level of
strength and momentum I think Curventec
has with
customer teams that are wanting a place
to race
in long distance endurance racing
without the
extra costs and the extra regulations
and all torque sensors and all the crazy
things that
wouldn't say crazy things but just the added
expenses that racing
in IMSA or WEC or even
SRO in some of their big key
races offer
and the calibre of the pro drivers
is just as good Maro Engel
was at the
Barcelona 24 hours and there's been
at the last couple of races that I've been
out for the Michelin 24
hour series, Klaus Backler
we've just mentioned
you look there there are
more than a smattering of factory
drivers the problem. Yeah and you only
used to see that in the 24 hours of Dubai
but now it's happening at almost every race
so that's I think a really good
sign for that series growth
and it fits nicely
in between what's
already out there from
some national races
it has effectively become sort of a
regional almost not like a European championship
because they travel away but
there is a European championship component
to it which has already started
I think it's a real
success story that we
should celebrate
and there's quite a few
drivers, I was talking to Matt Griffin actually
at, where was that
somebody races this year
and he
genuinely tapped me on the shoulder
when we were at the
drivers meeting at Abu Dhabi, yes thank you
at Yasmarina
right at the start of the season he said
there's so much about this series that
other series could work with
and learn from, like the flag
in the cab that they have
like those systems, the way they do
their big drivers meetings
and everything else
and make you feel wonder. So I think
it's a good thing to celebrate
and I know it's a busy weekend
but it's all free, it always is
it's on their YouTube
the Creventic Motorsports
YouTube channel
and with our voices on it, with our team's voices on it
and I do like to get to as many
as I can because it reaffirms why I love what I'm doing
to be quite nice, good success story
John thank you very much indeed
for joining us
and you'll be covering about six things
from Long Beach, yes? Yeah
I don't even
at Long Beach this weekend, yes for him
he's a Weather Tech Sports Car Championship
Porsche Carrera Cup
Anything in Carrera Cup that we need to know
Yes, Tom Sargent
is making his return
in a one-off outing
stay tuned
for some more details on that
if it hasn't already been announced
on Sports Car 365 but
he'll be in one of the GMG Porsches
and I look out for that
because there's a lot of new
drivers in that series that haven't been the Long Beach before
yet Tom was in the last
two years ago when Carrera Cup was there
most recently so
he's new to the 992.2
Porsche 911 Cup
but I expect him to be very competitive
on the streets of Long Beach
Travel well, enjoy the weekend
Thanks you too
In the second hour
of tonight's program
Timon will be back
I don't know if you'll have guessed more of Nick
it's always good to have more of Nick
that's what Nick says
he'll be talking sense about bikes
that's what it says on this card here
Peter Mackay will be looking
back on a very eventful
rally Croatia
and will be playing propaganda
yes the music that you love
it's rally reports but next
more from here at Imola
as this afternoon
I sat down with our big interview
subject for this evening
Genesis Magma racing
driver Peepo Durani
and that will kick off hour 2
here on Midweek Motorsport
well inside
well actually in the inner sanctum
of Genesis
Magma racing
this is actually the drivers changing room
that I'm in at the back of the paddock
no drivers are getting changed at the moment
which is probably just as well
even if they were it's radio
so we could say they are
but at least not it's Peepo Durani
who is alongside me
it's been a while since I've had
a proper chat with you people
because obviously you took on
this challenge of
developing the Genesis Magma
racing car so we haven't seen you
always at the tracks and even if I have
you've been dashing around places
so first of all thank you for the time
thank you James for setting
this up
how's it been how's the last 18 months
2 years been for you
hey John yeah it's great to be talking to you here
obviously we I think we spoke
just
about the time I announced
I was racing here and it's been
a while it's been a year and a half
more or less and I have to say
sometimes it feels like it went by
very quickly and at times
especially looking the races from TV
from my couch it felt like it was
an eternity
when you were still sending me messages
when you were watching the races so I knew
you were still watching yeah it was
believe me it was really really difficult
to be out of those races the big ones
especially but
you know the reason for it
was obviously
very clear and
being involved in such a project from the very beginning
was something I wanted to do
at least once in my life
and you don't get this this chance very often
you know to shape something from
the very very beginning
you actually make a very good point there people
because
even if you had gone to
a different manufacturer
maybe a manufacturer that had history
already in
racing
possibly not even in WEC
possibly not even in hypercar
they have a history
whereas Genesis Magma
is brand new
we know what they've done in motorsports
in other forms of motorsport
but for circuit racing this is their debut
and you were in there
one of the first two
that were signed to do this
how did that look then
on day one
when you turned up ready
for work
and what was that work
there's two sides of it
I think the first one is obviously the sporting side
which is
when you build something from scratch
when I first signed with them
alongside Andre there was nobody
not even an engineer so that's a challenge
in itself
we put a lot of faith
in the program
in his vision
but also they put
a lot of faith on us
and trying to help them develop
and create the team but also there's
another aspect of it which is
the
we're shaping the culture
of motorsports in Korea
that's something that you and I
and everybody else will not be able to see it
in one or two years
but perhaps in ten years time
when we look back or even a bit more
we may have
a lot of influence
on what motorsports
in Korea looks like
so I think that's also not a side of it
that is very special
you don't get to do that very often
not the two of them together
so it's something special
certainly and
I think when you think about it this way
it's fair to say that missing one year
of racing it's not that much
small price to pay to have the opportunity
as you rightly said
what we know about Korean culture
is that when they take
to something
they immerse themselves in it
look at the phenomenon
the global phenomenon that is K-pop
does K motorsports
end up being the same thing
we would hope so
we would hope that
we can have the same kind of energy
infused into the culture
because at the end of the day
we are in entertainment
business and what we want to do
is to
make people come to the races
to see what we do
and if we do a good job
if we create that sort of culture
then more people will come and see us
and then it becomes like a snowball
kind of a snowball situation
where it only grows by itself
so we hope that we can achieve that
by showing the world what we
can do as a team
as a sporting team but also
the Korean culture forward
and so we hope that
that can definitely help us
but yeah, here we are after a year and a half
we're here in Imola
starting
just before our very first race
so it's been a long ride
at the same time
he went by really quick, we wish we had more testing
we wish we had more
everybody, every engineer
I've ever worked with, ever talked to
when I was working at RML back in the day
and in all of motorsport
every engineer and everybody
on a project always wants more time
but one of the lovely things
about motorsport is, unlike any other part
of automotive, you can't
put that first green flag back
you can't have project slip
you knew where you had to be
by these times
we didn't have
the Cata race
which gave you a little more time
maybe a bit of breathing room
let me just take you back
before we come to right here right now
what were those first
days and months like then
when you had no engineers
there was a vision
was there even a workshop
at that point, what were those days like
for you
and the rest of the people involved
the very first
days basically
it was just me and Ray
and Cyril asking us
how the structure needs to be
how many engineers, how many chief engineers
how many technical directors
how do you see
an endurance race team shaped
so it was really
that basically
so just pure conversation
and we started
bringing some names to the table
people we believed were
would have been great additions
to the team and that's how it really started
so you start picking up
a few key names, key personnel
that will then
create the structure
from the top all the way down
and
that's the very beginning
then apart from that, James
who you see it right here in front of you
was pushing us to do a lot of marketing
a lot of media
that's his job you know
that is his job
so he managed to do that
quite well
he took us to quite a few places
Dubai being the first one to announce the project
and then obviously
a few more trips
down the road
for marketing but then very quickly we started
evaluating simulator
companies
people we wanted to be involved with
for the project
on the sporting side so
we went to a few places, evaluated a few equipment
hardware, software and so on
that's the first
of the real job for me and Andrew
so you are really talking about
when we say on the ground floor
actually you were just on the ground
there wasn't even a floor there
in that analogy
I can't imagine
that two drivers could have been
involved in any other project
that I can think of in
any class of motorsport
where you were literally
the first two names
on the employee register
and you've seen it from nothing
to grow in
500 days this weekend
since that Dubai
reveal
to having a real race car
where were the real
wow moments
for you
in that project
because obviously there's a lot has to be done beforehand
as you mentioned
some of that logistical setup
some of the identifying key rules
for every personnel
but where were the real wow moments
for you, what made you go
this is real
I think
it's hard to pick a specific moment
because throughout the project
when you have the birth of the car
the first time it drives and so on
that's one thing obviously
but
that's for every other team
or every other manufacturer
so that's something you experience
if you're lucky
but I think in our particular case
would have been
somewhere around our first endurance test
when we
stopped and looked and we start counting
the number of people on the team
and realizing that we were 50 plus
and then you say
at that time
maybe only been a year or even less
and we're like okay it's grown fast
and it's real and here we are
with a bunch of very smart people
trying to make this car go around the track
and now we are the ones
the least smart ones
because we only have to turn left and right
and press the pedals so
we've come a long way
I'm not sure that's entirely true
in the current world endurance championship
I do remember seeing some super pictures
that Andre took from trackside
when he wasn't in the car
he decided to take his camera out
I think it was at ReCard some of the ones
that I saw originally
the chronicling
the journey that you took
so as you say
testing, endurance testing
you've got a real car
you've got a real engine
you've got a real team
and now it's absolutely real
because you're in an FIA world endurance championship paddock
and you've just done the prologue
yeah it's
it's a bit surreal
it's then making sure you put the cherry
on top of the cake
now we start
and then now we can start
slicing a few pieces of the cake
and sharing it with the people we've worked with
but jokes aside
we miss Qatar
for obvious reasons but
we used to say
or we normally say we want more testing
but the reality is that
there's only so much testing you can do
and the real improvement comes
once you start competing because then you have deadlines
you have things you have to go
through it for good or bad
and you don't have
you cannot buy time
and I think it was about time for us
to actually be exposed to competition
because
well there's more variables isn't there as well
when you're testing you control quite a lot
once you get out on a track with
33 other cars as it's
going to be in two different categories
there's an element of control
that you don't have
yeah and I think also the fact that you add pressure
into people and I think pressure
can be good because
sometimes you get too complacent
you believe you have more time to fix things
and then you realize oh wait a minute
I gotta fix it now
and this kind of pressure also
will push us forward
as a team in a rate that we
haven't yet seen so
so far it's been
a long and very satisfying
journey to this point
but I think from now on
it will be even better
even nicer and
is it almost like a new beginning
now you get to this point
that the formation
of the team that you and Andrea were
so heavily involved with
and getting the car to this point
that is almost like one book
and it's not even another chapter
this is a whole different volume
it is yeah absolutely
now it's when the real
thing starts
but
sometimes you only see the tip of the iceberg
and
I mentioned in another interview
that what we did up until now was like
climbing the Mount Everest
and I don't take that very lightly
I think it really was
I'm proud to be a part of it
and to see it like you said
when was the moment that you realized this is real
and it's nice to look back
and realize you were part of something like that
and
would I do it again
I don't think so
it's a lot of work
it's a lot of faith
it's a lot of dedication
which is amazing
but I got to do it once in my life
and I hope this is the last
I hope I can stay here until the end of my career
and have this
be the one and only
I have some friends who built their own house
and they have a beautiful house
they built the plot of land and built the house
and they did a lot of the
planning and the design and work themselves
and therefore they have a beautiful house
and I say to them
this is lovely you've done really well would you do it again
no straight away
it's some ways then we're now at the point
that most people
most drivers would recognize
that the bit that you've done now is very
up until now is very
different I like the fact that
you and Andrea were involved very early on
talking to Cyril a bit
about this
you guys have been involved with a number of different manufacturers
down through the years
including with this
rule set
and therefore you know what
a car should feel like
and know what a car shouldn't
feel like
how important was that do you think
in the build up
to this point right now
that you and Andrea were able to say
good but we need to work on this
that's really good
we didn't need to do that at exact manufacturer
but sometimes
that's what you want to say isn't it
I think you touched at the right point because
what's nice about it
is the fact that you achieve
similar results in many different ways
so when we
started and we
set at the round table
and we were talking about how
they used to do things
and how we used to do things in my side
we realized
that okay there's good
and bad on both and you try
and pick the good
you try and push away the bad
but also
by doing that exercise you learn a lot
sometimes it's a hybrid between what they did
and what we did and that's
really where
we tried
the most or the best possible way
to eliminate the bad
and create
what we believe would be a stronger
package but
there's no
exclusively on good ideas
they can come from anywhere and what we should say
people and make the point
Genesis Magma Racing is a new team
you
and Cyril and everybody else
haven't just gone out onto the streets
and put an advert up at a
racetrack and said would you like to come and work for us
a lot of these people have huge
amounts of experience within
motor racing and within this form of motor racing
and it sounds to me
like you
Cyril has
fostered an environment where
everybody's voice is being heard
like I said there's no exclusively
on good ideas come and talk to us
let's find those
key attributes
that have made your last team
your last team your last team successful
yeah and I think the other good
thing about the way the teams
being the way
Cyril's approaching it is also allowing
like you said allowing us to bring ideas in
allowing us to develop some of those
ideas and
if we realize that they weren't the best way
forward then that's okay
and that's a good way
of it's the only way
really that you're going to move forward and
improve if you don't try you never know
so I think the mentality
has been fantastic in that
point of view and
being able to try different things
especially as a brand new team and brand new
manufacturer it might be that
what we discussed at the round table a year and a half ago
might not be adequate
for the current time because the sport
keeps evolving
so we have this
flexibility we have the ability
to then
change things if necessary
and on the other hand we also have
the leadership to say
now it's not the right time to change
and now it's the time
to stick to what we
currently have so that we
avoid mistakes and then when it's
time to change then we change so I think
it's
a very difficult position for
the leadership to be in because in such a new
project it's a moving target
all the time you always
have things that you look and you
spot and you say okay I want to change that
but you got to have a bit of
a handbrake
to avoid
making changes too quickly
that will actually hold you back
so that's how we are at the moment
so we've spent quite a lot of time
here talking about how you got
to this point you've got to go
race this car on Sunday
free practicing and qualifying
Friday and Saturday
where's the car at
are you ready is it where you want to be
are you going to be in the
ballpark John now the
easy part starts
do you know what I was almost going to
say that I was almost going to say that
because now you go out on track and you race
yeah now we do what we've what you
do what we do yeah exactly and so
now we get back into
I think I'm a bit rusty but
within a few laps I might be okay
have you actually raced
anything since
your last race if you say what I mean
I did Daytona last year
in a GT and I did
2 or 3 ELMS races
but then I stopped mid season
because there was a lot of clashes with
our program our testing so
I've only done 3 or 4 races last year
but
that's it and
yeah I'm actually looking forward
getting back into competition
and it's the car where you want it to be
I mean everybody's going to say we would like
more time as we said we would like to be
to know where you can't know where you are
nobody knows we did the preview
the other day with John DeGase of sportscar365
and we sort of decided
that we don't know where everybody is
and probably until after the month
but are you happy with
the tools that you're going to have
to go out
in that world endurance championship
race on Sunday for 6 hours
around Imola? I'm happy I think
we have a very solid base
and
a very good starting point with
the car
we feel like we have a tremendous amount
of potential that will
only be unlocked as we
go as we move forward
so I'm confident that we can do
we have a good
base to do a good first race
of course
as you mentioned we feel like we have a
lot of things to improve
but I think the very first thing
that we have to focus on is execution
at the end of the day the car has
a solid base to start
and we have not been
a team yet
until the very first official
qualifying
we haven't operated as a team
well everything you do this weekend
is Genesis Magma racing
is the first time in a competitive
environment, FP1, FP2, FP3
qualifying, hyper pool
maybe start of the race
first racing pit stop
all of these things
they're milestones as well
yeah absolutely and I think
if we execute
all those things well
and there will be things we will look
back after this race weekend
and realize we underachieved
but I think that's also part of
where we are
where we are as a team
in this particular moment
so having a solid
baseline and achieving
hopefully most of our goals
as we go through the weekend
and take the boxes we need to take
then I think
we have a great future ahead but
once one day at a time
and one day, one step at a time
walk before you can run
I know they're all cliches
but there's a reason that cliches
become cliches because there's a large element
of truth in them
with that said then people
and having spoken to
Cyril Abed Aboule about
the mentality of the team
what are you
looking to achieve this weekend
through the season
at Le Mans and at the end of the season
there's no imperative and nobody's expecting
you from what I've seen and heard
to go out and
win a race, get a podium
win Le Mans
so what is in your mind
for people and for
Genesis Magma racing
where is this season
what is the
the steps
of this season and what do you want to achieve
I think it's
again it's a moving target but the very first
thing I want to see
and I have to be honest I haven't said any
particular expectations
in terms of results I have not
but what I expect is
for us to
do a solid job
as a race team
perform the pit stops the way they need to
to be performed
have the car ready
just before green light every session
it's little things like that
that will set
the baseline for us going forward
and set the stone basically
for us going forward as a team so
if we don't get those things done
it doesn't matter how good the car is
6 months from now because results
will not follow if we cannot
operate at a good level so
for me in particular
no results
whatsoever
apart from let's say finishing the race
with the two cars would be an amazing achievement
for our first race
and then analyzing the
week after or maybe the second week after
when we get all back home
and have a little time to think
if the targets we set as a team
were achieved and then
move from there and realize
ok this was good
for the way now this wasn't so good
we should work on this
and have a list of things to improve
and then we do that two or three races
from now and hopefully
the second half of the season
we can be a tiny bit impressed
with where we are
and then of course
right now you
don't know where you sit in that hierarchy
of performance
in those that hypercar
failed maybe
after this race
and spa
you are getting ready for Le Mans
you are going to do the test here
at Le Mans
at that point do you think
we will get
as an overall view
an idea of where your competitors are
and
is it going to be Ferrari again
have Toyota's new car
changed the game
is BMW their EVO
and I am kind of asking you
to look a little bit in a crystal ball
but with your experience
when do you think we will start to see
that hierarchy of performance emerge
in this year's season
well to be very clear
we know very well the hierarchy
of where we sit and at the moment
we are at the very bottom
we are humble to
be able to say that
we haven't raced so we don't
we have no right
hierarchy and I think that's the way
to go as we move forward
and we start to understand
our weaknesses and our strengths
then I think perhaps we will be able
to
understand a bit where we are
in comparison to the competition
but
I mean you can never take away
the results from the past few years
and I think that will give
people an indication of
results to come
even if
you have variables
that come into play
you always have teams that have been operating
at a very high level from
years and years so
again
I think we have a solid base
to start and
that will definitely be very helpful
at some point once we are ready
to show something
and then we will see where we stand
to take
much wet running in the car
just in case
because the weather forecast has changed
markedly since I set off from the UK last Saturday
I had a few yesterday
a few laps at the end of the day
but it was kind of drying
my teammates had a little bit more
but yeah any lap
we do really
rainy, dry, snow
dirt
anything is good for us at the moment
let's finish off with this then
you've missed a year of racing
as you said
I should say as well
that
people has made quite a change in his life
because you've moved your whole family
to Europe for this championship
you think that's
a worthwhile investment
in your career
and in this project
I know you
as a
very pragmatic
thinking type of driver
so that as soon as I saw your name on this
and Andres' name on this
I thought we've got to take this seriously
this is not going to disappear after one year
so
we are going to have to get used to Genesis Magma racing
over the next few years aren't we
this is a serious serious challenge
Magma being built
as a part of the Genesis brand
as the sporting part of the Genesis brand
on this racing programme
like I said initially
you don't
build a culture in a country
if you're not in it for the long term
if you don't have a vision
this is a vision
that the group has
and again they're trying to infuse it
into the culture
and well I hope
it's many many years down the road
because that means
I'll be racing a few more years
I know this is not your decision
but would you like to get back
to the US and racing
in IMSA because you were so successful
well I have to say
I miss the racing over there
I miss the fact that
I've won many races
especially Siebring for example
and the last two I was
on my couch and the fact that I wasn't there
competing which is what I love to do of course
hurts but
you make decisions in life
and you don't look back
you know you
I had personal goals
and my personal goal when I decided to move
over to Europe was to eventually
put myself in a position to hopefully win
a world championship which
is missing for myself
is it a very
steep hill to climb
yes but what
do we achieve in life
if we don't have faith
and I put a lot of faith in this project
and
John yeah
at some point if they go to IMSA
when they go to IMSA if they want to have me
in the car maybe they think I can win
a few races over there then yeah
that would be a bonus but at the moment
I'm focused on
giving this project
full beams and hopefully we can
achieve something together here
in the WEC
if you look back on the archive
on our main website
you will find
a prologue
program down at
Paul Ricard
2015 yes exactly right
and people
was in the garage with a P2 car
up on the hijacks
and he's trying to get me to get into the car
which would have been and I would
quite a lot more than I do now and I'm still 105 kilos
and that was I think
the first time I properly met you
and watching your career since then
people genuinely from my point of
view has been an absolute joy
you've always been a gentleman to us
even in the bad circumstances
you've always talked to us
even when we've stuck microphone under your nose at difficult times
thank you for that, thank you for the
entertainment and
our listeners and viewers
I know would want me to wish
you good luck and good racing
in the new project
with Genesis Magma Racing
I have to thank you John it's been
over the years to be
listening to your commentating
on TV, radio
and so on the
space you give to the sport it's
remarkable so
you get to talk to people like me to listen
to those stories and maybe some people
on the other side are having a laugh
and at the end of the day again
entertainment business here we are
go out and entertain this weekend people and for the rest of the season
thank you, thank you so much
let's do two wheels now
where Nick Damon
is still here
well somewhere near here
not physically here
he's actually miles away
but still on the line to us
Nick
MotoGP
wants to do more in America
I'm not surprised because they're now
owned by Liberty who are American
they only have one race currently
at the circuit in the Americas
and much like Formula One they obviously feel
they want to
expand, perhaps go back to Laguna Seca
perhaps go somewhere else, there's a surprise
they want to try and get more in America
Justin Marks
who's the boss of Trackhouse Racing
which is also American
has been
saying that there is
more potential in America
he says I consider myself
an aggressive person when I see opportunities
I believe they should be pursued without failure
if you identify an opportunity
to bring MotoGP to a new audience
or a new region, you have to act decisively
and give it a shot
the biggest problem of course
is there aren't any American riders in MotoGP
and neither are they likely to be in the near future
what's going to
drop off the calendar
to give America
some more slots
oh that's a really good question
I didn't see this bit, tell me
who are they going to stab in the back
apparently one of the Spanish circuits
is going to be dropped
that is fair enough, because
they do visit four
which is enough for anybody really isn't it
Barcelona, Jerez
Aragon
and Valencia, so yes
that would seem fair
they are a little bit overspanied
but then again after the Spanish
but of course there's the point
liberty of taking over from Daun
whilst they're still based in Barcelona
the Latin
European focus I'm sure
will ease over the course of the next few years
which one do you think is going to go
which one do you think is going to go
my guess is it would be Aragon
that's correct
but Valencia will also suffer
because it's going to lose its last race
to the season position
not permanently, or just
during various
calendar shuffles
well it looks like for 2027
they've sold it to someone else have they
I think they want to
make Spain less
of a focus
for MotoGP
which is fair enough
yeah
I think the
weakness of MotoGP
is the fact that it doesn't have
a very international
rider make up
there are too many Italians
there are too many Spaniards
any of the Italians don't deserve to be there
it's obviously
caused by the way the
ladder is built
in Europe to Red Bull Rookies
and Moto3 and Moto2
but yeah it is a problem
we've got so many people from just two countries
what's
let's move on
what's McKaylee Pirro been doing at Mizzano
he's been testing
the new 850cc
Ducati with less
than 1.5L
no less cc by 150
no ride height device
and Pirelli tyres
yes
who is a Pirelli expert
who's going to be joining in the testing next month
was it Nicola Balea
it is
who doesn't have a ride because he's now not going to get a ride with Ducati
because they've found other people who ride
who want more
that's him yes
do you know what
notice in the last couple weeks Tim
you know that all the
rider changes for next year
are still official rumours so everyone knows they're going to happen
so for example
Pedro Costa is going to go to Ducati
and
Francesco Bigni is going to go to Aprilia
and Jorge Martin is going to go to Yamaha
do you know why it hasn't been officially announced yet
I don't know
because it isn't a 2027 MotoGP season yet
ah
because they haven't signed
the MotoGP equivalent
the Concorde Agree with Liberty
so there isn't a season yet existing
for these riders
to be signed to
so all these announcements waiting to happen
for a piece of paper to be signed
between Liberty and the MotoGP teams
where are we going to see all these new 850cc bikes
together
um
is there a collective test coming up
yes
in June
that's a different place to take them all to
well they're already racing there in June
so it kind of makes sense
to do a test
immediately following that race
you know the testing
perhaps is the idea
it's a more neutral circuit for people
so it doesn't particularly benefit anybody
it's not a track they go to regularly
so yeah, let's see why not
uh
let's talk about the tyres
and the tyres
the bikes got some new ones
what new ones for next year
because they're going to Disneyland next year
new ones for this weekend
oh
but Aston this weekend
Aston they have the second new tyre compound
in as many races
they brought new fronts
to Portugal
at the end of March
but a lot of riders crashed while using it
and
the Lager who won all the races
was on the old tyre
right, so they're now bringing another new tyre
this time they're bringing a new rear tyre
that's good
so they haven't changed the new front which isn't working
they've brought a new rear tyre to make both things have issues
well we don't know
that it might work better with a new front
exactly, it's balanced, all about the balance
and the balance and the tyres
uh
Andrea, you know me
yes
he's back into World Supra, surprisingly
uh Andrea
and yes, the man who was banned for four years
because he apparently had some dodgy meet
and didn't actually take any steroids honestly
uh came back last year
had a very successful year I think for a comeback
and then it disappeared again but he now has come back again
but somebody else has prepared to give him a few races
and
and
Johnny Ray
well yes, track
yeah, Johnny Ray is the official Honda test rider
which results obviously him actually doing a whole race weekend
at Portomale
where he was relatively
off the pace but that was deliberate
apparently because he was testing the bike
so he's just doing this bike testing thing now
and not really um
trying to compete for wins
he just tested the bike apparently
uh he'll be back in
Aston as well
yeah, they've got um Honda obviously got some real problems
with their official works riders for this year
they're both quite badly injured
Jake Dixon
missed another
event
uh
he will now aim to return for Hungary
on the 1st and 3rd of May
it's best not to rush these things as Mark has proved
what is Toprak's favourite circuit
ooh that's an excellent question
um
I'm going to guess it's whatever the next circuit
on the motor GP calendar is
that is very very
very cynical of you little
well you know
is there a little harass next are they
I don't know
which one is it then tell me which one it is
uh is
Top 3
he named as
Portomale
yeah good call
you like that
Manicourt
and
and Donnington park
well that's a surprise
back in the back in the UK but but yeah
he's done very well in those tracks so yeah
that's not a good idea
I said he said it's like a roller coaster
you don't see some of the corners
uh normally I like those corners in this
track I'm strong there and I've won
there many times with Yamaha and
different brands
fair enough let's give my
success move forward
uh
and that is all we're going to get from Nick Damon
this week
oh no I know
where are you next week Nick?
at home excellent so we'll
try and get a bit more of you and have you for the whole show
without running up and down that's a good idea
welcome to another
edition of rally report here
on midweek motorsport with me
Peter Mackay
well well well as if
things couldn't get any more dramatic
in the world rally championship
they do
total carnage on the coast
of Croatia
what a weekend we had when you think
a tarmac rally coming up you think
oh it can't be too eventful
surely oh surely this will be nice and
straightforward oh no no no
rallying not as simple as
that and right now in the world rally championship
it has never been
more wild and more open
than it is right now
Croatia is a rally that
has been on the world rally championship
calendar in the past it took a
years hiatus last year and hosted
very well the finale
of the European rally championship
but it was back again at its traditional
spring date for
2026 and like
many events in eastern
Europe it has
such a character to it
not as clean
and smooth as you'd maybe get in certain
parts of Spain
in France etc in eastern
Europe it gets a little bit more rough
around the edges and for rally fans
all the better for it
not many anti-cut devices
in the middle of the corner so
rally cars cutting the corner
massively and dragging
loads of loose gravel
out onto the surface making road
position absolutely critical
at rally Croatia
you want to be starting at the very
front of the road the exact opposite
if you're doing a gravel rally
doesn't really make sense does it but
bear with me at rally Croatia
the reason why you want to be out at the front
is because you get that nice clean road
and every cut that you go through
it's loose gravel that's thrown up for
the car behind you same thing for car
number two it's going to be worse behind them
car number three even worse behind them
and so on so
for championship leader
elvin evans and for
the very close second behind him
Oliver Solberg the two Toyota team mates
the two men of the moment
you'd think a perfect opportunity
to land a punch on
the opposition in the championship
tussle well it was
and yet they completely
crumbled Oliver Solberg
has been a revelation
in this 2026
World Rally Championship season
we know how impressive a young driver
he is winning the WRC
two title last year
winning of course first time out
in a rally one car
for Toyota at least in Estonia
and this year came straight
out the gates and wins in one of the most
difficult Monte Carlo's we've seen in years
amazing stuff
but we still have to remember
how early actually Oliver Solberg
is in his rally one career
and very very
inexperienced on pure tarmac
with this tyre and car
combination and unfortunately
for him that's what caught him out
on the very opening stage of the day
in the opening couple of miles
on hard tyres in slightly
cool conditions the tyres didn't
quite switch on the way he's
maybe used to and he understeered
off the road and it was game over
an accident which took them out
of the rally classification
they were able to restart though
for the second leg
on Saturday and again on Sunday
and starting from the
front of the road Solberg
went on to win 10 stages
of course the overall result
was gone but he did all that he could
and particularly on the Sunday
winning the roof power stage
to get 5 bonus points
and winning the Super Sunday
mini rally in itself where you get
an extra 5 bonus points so it could
have been a complete fat 0
for Oliver Solberg's championship campaign
but he managed to
at least extract the maximum
he could get from the situation
that he was in 10 points for
him so then
the attention went over to Elvin Evans
second in the championship
so many years leading the championship
going into this event and with
Solberg out that then put
Elvin's to the front of the road
fantastic stuff for the Welshman
and yet on stage 3
something that we hardly
ever see
is any WRC
co-driver not
delivering an absolutely perfect note
and it's not really clear
whether this is what happens
whether Elvin Evans co-driver Scott Martin
actually did deliver a wrong
note or not that is still a mystery
but Elvin Evans and Scott Martin
are such a great combination
so many rally wins together
such a finely tuned pairing
and such detailed notes
that Scott Martin stage after stage
after stage delivers
with perfect precision and timing
and yet for whatever reason
between the two of them whether it was the
note that was written on the recce
whether it was not read out correctly
or what is totally not
confirmed yet what it is
on stage 3 Elvin Evans came into
way too much speed thinking it was
a different angle of corner
and off into the undergrowth
he went rally over
for Elvin Evans
he managed to get 8 bonus points
on Sunday with second
in the Super Sunday standings
and second on the Wolf power stage
but again a little bit of a slip up
for Elvin Evans which drops him
to second in the championship
7 points of our championship
leader who will come on to
just a moment but it's neither
of the drivers that I've just mentioned
so with Solberg and Evans
out of the picture early on
must be said stage 3 of 20
both the top Toyotas out
and then
handed over to the impressive young
Finn Sammy Pirey who
quietly got himself
into a groove last year in his first
full season in rally one having
won the WRC2 title
in 2024 just
better than himself in gently
and this year been starting
to push a little bit more had unfortunately
a pretty disastrous Monte Carlo
but since then he's been
in superb form with a great
result in Sweden
and in Kenya and again
here in Croatia
but for Pirey it looked like
it could have been a win because
he held a gap of over
10 seconds for many stages
before stage 13
where a puncture
took him out of the
reckoning for the win
and left him on the fight back
to get back on to the podium
such a pity for young Sammy
Pirey but that puncture
was one of 12
in total for the rally
one field with Josh McAleon
for M Sport getting 3 in the same
rally Adrian Formo
for Hyundai and John Armstrong
for M Sport they got to
over Solberg got to
and pretty much the only driver
who didn't get a puncture in the whole rally
was Thierry Neuville
more on him in just a moment
so with Pirey just dropping
out of the hunt for the win with his puncture
that then put his Toyota
teammate Takamoto Katsuta
to the top of the
Toyota chart so
this is the thing where Toyota have
a really strong advantage having
four strong drivers
if one or two falter they're always
going to be in the fight
for the win
now Takamoto Katsuta
he then took up the charge
and then shortly after a puncture
for him as well meaning that
Toyota's challenge was completely
goosed by Saturday night
all four Toyotas had had
varying degrees of problems
the worst of course for Solberg and Evans
they were out of the overall reckoning
but with Sammy Pirey
and Takamoto Katsuta at least
in the fight for the podium
so on Sunday morning all of a sudden
having had all of the pace
Toyota were not looking like
winning this rally but for
Thierry Neuville and Hyundai
they sat in the perfect position
to score a really
important win not only for
the drivers championship for Thierry Neuville
to get himself back into the reckoning
after a very difficult start
to the season 25 points from the first
three rallies
he had a lead of over a minute
and at that point at this level
with a driver of Thierry Neuville's caliber
a world champion a couple of years ago
he could
cruise home
but that's not
how it played out
coming to the 18th stage of 20
he said to
one of the rally TV stage end reporters
I'm not pushing at all
there is no reason to take a risk
we need to bring a victory home
direct quotation
but then on the penultimate stage
stage 19 he said
one more to go this is
most important now what he meant
was
I understand is the power stage
where of course there is five bonus
points to be paid
and it was on the power stage
where it completely
imploded for Thierry Neuville
with the rally lead
he said well over a minute in hand
it all went wrong on that power stage
in the middle of the stage
understeering off the road
and crashing taking himself
out not only out of the win
but out of scoring any points
whatsoever
a complete disaster
for Thierry Neuville
personally but equally
for the Hyundai Motorsport team
who really really needed that victory
to try and stop the rot
of dominance that Thierry Neuville
have had for so many rallies
now since all year
they've been at the top as well
and only really Thierry Neuville's win
in Saudi Arabia at the end of last year
has been the break in that total
domination from Thierry Neuville
so who was there then
to take up the victory
well Neuville's loss
was very much Takamoto Katsuta's
game
because the Japanese driver
having won Kenya
for the first time ever
a first ever WRC win
he then goes and wins Croatia
and because of those two wins
he is now your leader
of the World Rally Championship
and how quick
the tides can turn
because
after the first couple of rallies of the season
Takamoto Katsuta had had a difficult year last year
had the chance to win
in certain events particularly at home in Japan
he didn't go his way
things went wrong, made mistakes here and there
this year it started off okay
6 points in Monte Carlo
not the best but then from Sweden on
it's all started
to click
and just like that Takamoto Katsuta
leads the World Rally Championship
going into the next round
at Rally Islas Canarias
just coming up next week
he only has
two more events to wait
before he goes for a homecoming in Japan
and it is entirely possible
that Takamoto Katsuta
could go into WRC Japan
at the end of May
as the World Rally Championship leader
what a story that would be
and shows you how quick
things can turn around
from one way to another
coming out of Monte Carlo
Takamoto probably would have been down in his boots
after a terrible event
whereas Oliver Solberg
on Cloud 9
and then you flip it around
two rallies later
and it's a completely different narrative all together
this is what makes the World Rally Championship
so exciting
it's such an unpredictable sport
that it's never ever over
until it's over
and when we go to Rally Islas Canarias
in just a week's time
we go to
again a completely different story
a very very smooth
Narmak Rally
very high grip
and an event where Toyota
completely dominated last year
now will that be the same this year
we'll only find out when we go to that beautiful island
in a week's time
so it was a 2-0 to 1-2
sounds very routine is what we've been seeing
in the WRC recently
but it was far from it
Takamoto Katsuta taking the win by just 20 seconds
in the end from Sammy Piety
but a driver I want to mention
here a friend of the show on Midweek Motorsport
Hayden Padden
first podium in 8 years
when his WRC
career ended at the top level
several years ago
he'd never stand on a WRC podium again
well he's done it
the affable Kiwi with this
long standing co-driver
John Kennard alongside
they did it they made
few mistakes when others made them
and they were rewarded
with silverware and
were the top Hyundai as well
so when Hayden
when he heard that there was going to be a space
in the team when Oik Tanak announced his sabbatical
he immediately got in touch
with Andrew Wheatley at the Hyundai team
and said don't forget me
I'm up for it give me a chance
and to Hyundai and Andrew Wheatley's credit
they gave him that chance and they've been immediately rewarded
on just his second event back
with the team very little experience in that car
or on this tyre
he's delivered well done Hayden
Padden
the other big bit of news at WRC Croatia
this year was in the WRC 2
category where Lancia
returned to the winner's
circle in WRC
for the first time in several
generations
it's just in WRC 2 for now
with the Lancia Y rally 2
but with new technical regulations coming next year
maybe Lancia
might be able to fit in there
and we could see Lancia's
maybe even fighting for the overall
WRC Championship as soon as next year
we don't know let's see
but Johan Russell the Frenchman
an absolute maestro
on sealed surfaces
and he displayed that in space
he had a difficult Monte Carlo
but came back and showed him
exactly how it's done
taking the win in his brand new
Lancia Y rally 2
I'm delighted to say that I will be
at Raleigh is this Canarias
next week
to work as a Stage N reporter
for the Raleigh TV team
so if you're listening
from around the world
you can get a Raleigh TV subscription
which includes every stage
of the World Raleigh Championship
and the European Raleigh Championship
which I'll be at this week
at Raleigh Sierra Morena
I'll have a review for that next week
on Raleigh Report for you
we'll have lots of gossip and lots to share
with you there I can't wait
I've been to Raleigh is this Canarias a few times
when it was on the European Championship
calendar but never as part
of the World Raleigh Championship
can't wait for that
and who's going to come out on top
I wouldn't want to predict it right now
if this weekend's anything to go by
you can never predict anything in the World Raleigh Championship
if you're based in the UK
and you have a TNT sports subscription
you're in luck
with every stage of the World Raleigh Championship
on there as well
so make sure to do that
and I'll see you next week for another edition
of Midweek Motor Sports Raleigh Report
love the music as I'm sure you do
John
now
we haven't got a huge amount of time left
and I think you probably
thought you'd get away without doing this
this week
but Indy Cars at Long Beach
along with the
World Raleigh Sports Championship
that we talked about in the first hour of the show
so it's time for you to do a very solo
the answer's not
Scott Dixon
okay
come on then fire away
there are
only three
people
only three races
only two people
who've won from pole position at Long Beach
and Indy Car
can you name them
Joseph Newgarden
and Sebastian Bode
no
Alexander Rossi in 2018
right
and Karl Kirkwood
2023 and 2025
so I didn't get a point there
against myself
okay so that's nil for me
now me
can you name
the most recent
and this has happened
six times one two
three four times
can you name the four occasions
where the pole sitter
no I want you to name the most recent
of the four occasions
where the pole sitter
finished 15th
or worse
last year
it wasn't last year no
it was back in 2022
and it was Colton Herter
okay
the others were
Ryan Hunter Ray who finished 20th
in 2014
Dario Frankitti who finished 15th in 2012
and Wilson who was 19th
in 2008
so that's no points to me again
now back to me
who won the first Indy Car race
at Long Beach
Indy Car
back in 1984
oh man that is
a long time ago
I have not a clue
guess
who was around in 1984
I honestly don't know
my mind is full of sports cars
it was Mario Andretti
of course it was
of course it was
so that's no points to me again
back to me
which two drivers
are the only California residents
in this year's race
residents
is Colton Herter
he's not racing of course
he's not racing
so California residents
ah now there's one of these
that's a catch isn't there
because he wasn't born in California
no they were both born in California
oh really?
I thought that was a bit of a
bit of a trick
question
one of them made his debut at Long Beach as well
well the other ones
winner at Long Beach previously
um
well
it's obviously not Scott McLaughlin
um
Rossi or Rearhal when all that
I will power
Santino Farucci
incorrect
he's from the other side of the country
Nolan Siegel
is from Palo Alto
made his debut there two years ago
Stingray Rob
and Alex Rossi
born in Nevada City
okay that's still no points to me
and finally
who is the winningest driver
at Long Beach
I hate that
of people who are there
of all time
in Indycar
in Indycar
Mario Andre
no but I think if you had a second guest
you'd have got it right
Alan Zajunia
I was in the right era
so John scores zero
and John scores zero
that's all we've got time for
probably just as well
stay tuned for more content
BMW in the WEC
comes next
and that's followed in about an hour's time
by
Tyler's long one
Phil Hansen
worth listening to that both of those
really good insight into what's going on
at WRT
and BMW in all of their
bits and pieces including some NLS
NLS chat which is appropriate
for the weekend
and Phil Hansen
talking about the emotion of winning
Le Mans
and it's not what you think it's going to be
tell you now really good stuff from Philly
really opened up when I spoke to him
earlier on the day
back to a more normal show
it's packed across the weekend
with our fantastic for
endurance events all the details
on the website at
www.imzaradio.com
www.radiodashio.co.uk
no time to explain the Lama
is well disappearing
off for a late pastor I think
About this episode
A packed Midweek Motorsport show from Italy/UK coverage, led by FIA WEC Imola build-up and a deep chat with Genesis Magma Racing’s Peepo Derani about launching a brand-new hypercar program, missing a year of racing, and focusing on execution (pit stops, readiness, learning fast). Formula 1 coverage tackles Audi’s R26 woes, calendar/circuit updates, and driver market chatter. Sports car news covers IMSA/Le Mans entries, BOP and Michelin tyre changes, plus LMP2 and GT3 development. Rally Croatia delivers a chaotic WRC recap, then rally report and a quick IndyCar Long Beach quiz close things out.
Original notes
John dagys previews IMSA at Long Beach in the Double Stint, Nick Daman has F1 news, Peter Mackay looks back at Rally Croatia and there’s a Big Interview with Pipo Derani. Plus Antonio Giovanazzi and another round of The Answer’s Not Scott Dixon.
Midweek Motorsport
Radio Show Limited
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