Midweek Motorsport s21 e24

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Racing, rallying, touring cars and bikes.

If it has wheels and an engine and they keep score, it's on midweek motorsport.

Hello everybody and welcome on.

It's just after eight o'clock on a Wednesday.

I'm John Hangoff.

I'm on my way to France.

So not in my usual spot, but up in London is Tim Gray with a bit of luck and a fair wind.

Hello.

Oh yes, wow, he's there.

It's like he's in my head.

Well, his noise was in my head.

In a packed program tonight, Tim, we have what?

So he's 21 episode 24, by the way.

So this really should have been the one either just before or just after Le Mans, but it

hasn't worked that way this year.

Did we start a week like this?

We missed out the first week, but also Le Mans was the weekend early, the next week.

It was on the 23rd weekend of the year.

Yes, I agree with that.

They're doing the same thing next year.

And it was the full moon this weekend, just gone as well, which is they normally have

it on a full moon.

Anyway, on a patch short tonight, we have what?

We have all the usual features, including Nick Damon's team by team review of the Austrian

Grand Prix.

We'll be looking ahead to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

We have Peter McKay's rally report from the Greece round of the World Rally Championship.

Can we still call it the Acropolis rally or is it not that?

I mean, I was about to say the word Acropolis.

Yes, I know.

I did the same at the weekend, funny enough.

And I'm not sure whether I think it's WRC Rally Greece or something.

Oh, no, Acropolis.

No, it does say EKO Acropolis Rally Greece.

There we go.

So that's given it's right one.

We can talk about MotoGP.

We'll have possibly if we have time, we'll do the option of not short Dixon because

in the past back this weekend, we'll do some pointers if we can.

And we've got some pointless press releases.

And your submissions as well.

Hello, I expect your team as usual.

Hello to Jerry Z who is trying to change the clocks on a Mustang, or at least the style

of the dashboard on there.

Hello to Ian McCarthy, to Steve McMaster who's on the ferry.

He doesn't tell me when.

He just says tonight.

Paris for a concert on Thursday.

Then the weekend for the classic with you guys in our ears.

Yes, we'll be there.

Andrew Murray at Bruce Jones and me.

And I've already started my journey as well.

Hello to MiniGTES who's also starting the journey.

Sarah Rigby's tuned in live.

Thanks for those superb comms on an epic Imsa race.

We'll be talking about that and how the endurance, crowd-strike endurance team work and speed

results.

She points out as you might expect from Sarah, an incredible race debut.

I'm interested to know which concert she's going to see in Paris because Guns N' Roses

are playing tonight.

They're also playing Friday but they're skipping tomorrow.

So who, oh well I hope he knows that.

Hello to Jesse tuning in live this morning from my neck of the woods.

And thank you for that.

Oh we've got some Australian news as well Tim haven't we?

We have some grills in you.

Yeah we have some grills in you.

No AFAs for Ed Moses.

He's on the Silverstone Marshals campsite looking forward to a peaceful weekend.

Much on he says.

And everyone else who knows me.

That's about it.

But I'm stretching trying to do that and connect to Tim at the same time from my remote

location en route to pick up the rest of the team.

Thank you for all the kind words about the weekend actually.

It was particularly bonkers as well.

What's it is?

And we'll talk about that a little bit later on.

Sure for your purpose Tim, let's have the top story.

All the latest motorsport news from around the world.

Midweek Motorsport.

And we're going to start with some bike news.

So let's bring in that.

What's your car?

Mike from the sponsors Nick Damon.

Good evening everyone.

Hello Nick.

Nick where out of every track that motor or GP goes where can we always always see something

noteworthy bonkers headline grabbing Harlins.

But it's the original Cathedral of Speed isn't it?

The other bit of Nick that name is always called wasn't it?

Yes it was.

And where were they at the weekend?

They were at Aston in the Netherlands.

And it was packed and it was hot and we had a sprint race of course.

And the sprint race was alright.

It was good.

It was entertaining.

I managed to catch both of them on catch up during the day.

But all the charts was about the Sunday race which was pretty bonkers.

Well yeah I think it was an interesting weekend overall because after a couple of races where it seemed that

Ducati and in particular Mark Marquez were back in the ascendancy.

Aston turned out to be mechanically because obviously he didn't go quite right.

An absolute Prilog benefit.

The four of them were fighting for victory in both races.

Unfortunately for championship standings overall, the track house, the satellite team came out on top of both the sprint and the main race.

And I'm fortunate to be in the main race.

I can only imagine by the way that that is the only time that a single team has won motor or GP and a NASCAR race on the same weekend.

I think you're probably right on that one.

But I mean it was interesting because you kind of think that there is an element where, whisper it, do you not think they've got a very obvious threat now for Ducati and Mark Marquez?

Do you not feel that team orders across a Prilog would be a better idea?

Well I don't disagree with that.

I'm not trying to take away the victories of Ralph Fernandez and the sprint and Iagoor in the main race, but it seems to me that they walked away from a potential 12 points for Jorge Martín who is now leading the championship.

And of course it was a much more difficult weekend for our first world previous leader.

We'll talk about that in a minute. Let's talk about Iagoor as victory.

It was his first win, 125th rider to win in GP Grand Prix. The 96th podium for a Japanese rider. Only six countries have reached that before. Any idea what they might be?

Italy, Spain, Britain, Australia.

Yes, two more.

US.

Yes, one more.

France.

Yes, well done. It was 22 years since Makoto Tomada took his victory at Motegi back in 2004 which was his second and final victory. Iagoor was three years old at that.

He is the 18th winner currently in GP.

There are four riders on the grid who haven't won yet. Any idea who they are?

Oh gosh. Four riders who haven't won. Well Toprak hasn't won, obviously.

Correct.

Because he's his first run.

Oh, Costa hasn't won.

Correct. Two more.

Moreira hasn't won.

Correct.

Stay with us.

It's a Marini one.

Correct. That's the other one. Stay with the other HRC.

That, believe it or not, was the 13th Japanese victory for him.

And he is the ninth rider to claim his first win at the TT Circuit of Vassen.

And the names here are, some of the names here are incredible. Nello Pagani, Remo Venturi, Barry Sheen, Will Hartog, Jack Middelburg, Alex Kravier, Ben Speese and Jack Miller.

Seven different Japanese winners, some of which you might have got.

I don't think I've got it. This is not going to be a strong point for me.

Toro Okawa, Tadiyuki Okada, Norikabe.

Yes, of course. We've got that one.

Takazumi Katayama and Hideo Kanaya as well.

I've only got two of those who I've reset and wasted a lot of the program's time by thinking very hard.

Now, it was something unique though in Mortland GP's 77 year history in terms of a Japanese winner. Do you know what it was?

Nope.

It was the first Japanese win with a rider not on a Honda or Yamaha, not on a Japanese brand.

No, that is a good stat.

He is also the first rider from Mortal Four Asia Cup to win in Mortal GP. That's a generational thing I would say.

A brilliant now. The only manufacturer to have all of their riders win either a sprint or a Grand Prix this year.

From Phillip Island. If you go back to Phillip Island last year, all of their riders have actually won a Grand Prix.

Fourth in the championship for him. Congratulations.

A very popular victory as well, it has to be said.

I loved his ex-crew chief who is now with a different team.

He was jumping up and down as if he just won the world championship for his team. It was brilliant.

He is a very popular rider. He did very well in the main race. Perfect timing on it.

You mentioned Bezekie, Bez, who came in leading the championship, goes away in second position.

We don't know whether he will make the next race yet.

An horrendous crash coming through the fast left-hander before the last chicane lost control of the bike.

He was pushing really hard. He was in the tumble dryer all the way at the fence.

Hit the fence really hard. Knocked unconscious for something like 10 or 15 seconds.

I don't know given that why we saw the replay so quickly.

That was an horrendous crash. He is now second in the championship as you see.

He is a brilliant works teammate. It is a good weekend for him.

That was a nasty crash. It has been coming for some time at that corner.

He went off at 120 or 130 miles now with very little stopping going 250 metres of tumbling over.

There has been no report of him breaking anything.

Every single part of his body is severely bruised with an airbag.

No real injuries for him. A concussion is a worry.

That is one you can't easily see your test for.

Saxon ring next up.

It is a good weekend.

Obviously we know that Marcus will win that one.

This is why they need to start working out proper team tactics.

Yes. Good point.

Crutchlaw steers with Castrol, Honda, LCR.

I didn't realise that Zarka's injury was so bad.

He was effectively ripped apart and had to rebuild ligaments.

Pedro Acosta has had right wrist surgery for Carpal Tunnel syndrome.

That was Monday or Tuesday.

Expects to be fit. You and I would be going, I can't pick up a glass of wine.

I want six pcs off.

Yes, exactly.

He will potentially be back right wrist.

He has been able to feel his fingers for quite some time.

There has been a rash of announcements about riders.

As we said, the equivalent of the Concorde agreement was signed.

It is not called that.

All the announcers knew it would be announced.

We know that Acosta will be sharing the works to Catty's next year.

We know that Angi has a very lucrative four-year deal at a pre-year next year.

We know today that Jorge Martí and I will be the works Yamaha riders.

So what is going to happen?

He is going to Honda and he looks like he is going to retirement.

It is a massive shake-up with all the major players,

with the exception of Bisecchi and Marques going somewhere else.

Marques was his usual self at the weekend, despite him just coming back from...

He just didn't have the physical strength for that track for that long.

He was fine.

The bike wasn't brilliant. It wasn't the best bike either.

He was up there with the rest of the Ducati's, but he faded badly.

This is not criticism because there has been a pulp.

He faded badly in the main race, but he did manage to get a reasonable amount of points,

which is key because he is now absolutely in the charts of championship

because I can guarantee that he will get well-hunted and support from Ducati.

Yes.

So as it stands now, Saxon ringing in two weeks.

It's Aprilia's Jorge Martín who leads on 193 points.

Seven points back now is Marques Bisecchi for Aprilia.

So those are the two team-mates.

Then the VR46 Fabricio D'Gian Antonio on 177, 16 back, 25 back from the leader,

Isayagura, Superphile Trackhouse Mortar GP team.

Then Marques.

It's 40 points in fifth place, but as we've seen, you get an injury and you miss a weekend.

That 40 points can disappear so quickly.

Dennis Ralph Fernandez Acosta Bagnaya.

Bagnaya down in eighth is only 63 away.

After that, Alex Marques who has missed a couple of rounds, he's 115 points away in ninth.

Aldergear, his team-mates is in tenth on 178.

But really you've got to see 60 points, 63 points.

The top eight are all still in it, aren't they?

Mathematically, yes.

I think if we're really honest about this, I think it's going to come down to a Martin versus Marques battle.

Do you? You think Bisecchi won't feature?

He's been falling off.

He's lost the advantage she had every single weekend.

Martin is getting better, he's recovering, he's learning more about the bike,

and he's a better rider anyway, and a world champion.

Again, everything he's borrowing is you absolutely say, John,

buying not falling off and hurting yourself, which is a big bar in MotoGP.

If you get a clear run to the end, it's going to be those two battling it out.

Just how close it'll be. I think how close it'll be will depend on the ebb and flow of tracks that suit the particular bikes.

Yes, I think that seems reasonable.

So Germany, tenth to the twelfth of July, then Britain early August, Aragon.

Love that. End of August. I think I'd like to call that.

I know it's in the middle of nowhere.

I'd like to call it the final in September, Austria the next week, actually,

from then Japan and Australia.

Did we finish it in Australia, too?

No, loads more. You've got Malaysia, Qatar, Portugal and Valencia,

because they've reinserted Qatar back in the season.

Which is all, because they're the 18 we've done, talking about motorsport.

most people are still cancelling things in the Middle East. I don't know why.

More about that in a minute.

So thank you for that. It's boiling up to a good season.

Is the answer to that? We're still cracking, overtaking, re- overtaking.

At one stage it was lead and significant positions were changing every corner.

I love that. It's a great event. It's a fantastic event.

I don't believe that they get another motorcycle fan in there without some liquid soap and a shoe horn.

Right, mid-reemortice sports.

There are 21 episodes, 24. Tim Grier, where would you like to go next?

Before we move on to other calendar news, I think we should do the rest of the bike news.

All right.

Ano Castamo, who was injured in the senior TT, says his recovery doesn't after a good start,

but his battling vision issues after a blow to his head, the finished racer,

crashed at the 11th mile during last month's senior TT, bringing out the red flag.

The race had only completed one lap and was due to be rescheduled for the following day,

but then was cancelled because of poor weather.

So Dean Harrison was found the winner having been the leader at the end of lap one.

Castamo's had two operations on his left leg and is having a third at the end of this month.

Okay, moving on.

Staying on the Isle of Man, but not on two wheels.

Right, rally?

Not deliberately on two wheels.

On two wheels. Okay, yes.

The World Downhill Skateboarding Championship returns to the Isle of Man this weekend.

Right.

Hang on a second. Doesn't that fair one of our key elements at the front of the show?

It doesn't have an edge.

They have wheels and an engine and they keep score.

They've got wheels and they keep score.

But grab it.

Grab it.

Yeah, it's got classic energy.

Yeah, it's the greatest power plant in the world, isn't it?

Who is it? It's Andy Lally, isn't it?

Andy Lally, who does longboard downhill skateboard.

He's mad at it.

It's street-louche he caught, it is, that he does.

That's lying down.

That's a separate discipline, yeah.

So this is stand-up skateboard.

They have downhill skateboarding and street-louche.

And actually the Isle of Man is having both disciplines.

The course runs from Joey's Corner to the Ramsey Hairpin.

And competitors from 17 countries, including the Isle of Man, are represented.

Jack, Killy and Juan Calista, the two Isle of Man.

I just hope the A&E in the hospital is open to business, that's all I'm saying.

I knew for this year a race village opposite Ramsey Bus Station, which opens on Friday.

A what village?

A race village.

Featuring big screen live TV, food and drink vendors, a beer tent, children's skateboard area, and rider t-shirt signings.

Many, many years ago.

And in 1975, everyone thought it was just going to be a craze.

Well, in 1970, one of my, I think my only broken born ever was I broke my wrist, fallen off a skateboard.

I was doing a handstand at the time on a, on a northeastern footpath.

And the front wheels got caught in between the flagstones.

The skateboard stopped.

I didn't, I once, I once did some downhill skateboarding, but on an unmodified standard length board.

And it gets really scary once you get moving quickly, because it just starts to weave.

It's like a caravan on the back of a car that's badly loaded and it just starts going and you can't stop it.

And at that point, there's only one thing to do is either tough it out or dive into the bushes.

I took the dive into the bushes route, because there was no way I could, I could keep it going in a straight line.

The disaster was coming.

So I just decided to bail out.

I also did commentary once on the, on side by side downhill mountain biking.

We were part of the team who put it all together for Coors.

It was called the Coors Lager Jewel Defender or Jewel something.

The famous Jewel something.

It wasn't Defender.

Downhill Jewel, downhill Jewel Jewelers or something like that.

That was it.

And side by side course, so basically like a Slalom ski course on mountain bikes, but not much pedaling required.

That was bonkers and, and you know, obviously tumbles were taken.

But that was, that was a, became a British championship and we went all around the country on that.

Putting up the attempts, funny enough, as well as doing a bit of commentary.

I kind of think that drinking and downhill mountain biking, they're really mixed.

Carry on.

Don't think it was for the competitors, Nick.

Jewel Slalom mountain biking.

Yes, that's kind of, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.

Well, that was the start of that anyway.

I don't know where we came up with that from because it didn't exist before we did it.

What about another one of our bonkers ideas?

Anyway, we digress.

You said, Callendan News.

Yes.

You do like a good calendar.

Some people have suggested going back to the Middle East and DHL has said, oh, no, you don't.

Because we're not taking any of your freight there.

WEC?

F1?

Yeah.

Okay.

Anyone else?

Yeah, they're trying.

Oh, it's not F1.

It's not F1.

Okay.

No, it was F1.

Yeah.

Well, it doesn't surprise me because this idea of slotting an extra race is attractive,

I suppose, financially, but not necessary because the 22 races will meet more than meet

the minimum requirements and liberty.

And I just think it's a kind of an effort.

Apparently, freight is currently more than twice the price it normally is going into the

Middle East, which regardless of what the other problems it's, there's a massive freight

hike.

Yeah.

And the problem is two-fold, there's still the uncertainty.

What a mark it's not like.

What is anybody not like uncertainty?

Yeah.

There's still the uncertainty about the stability or lack thereof of a fragile, if possibly

an even non-existent ceasefire and political machinations thereof.

The real issue is for the teams and Formula One end of the season may be not so bad, but

anybody else is going there and then having to come back out, GD3 teams, WEC teams, even

the Craventic teams, their kids, their cars are a business asset.

And if they aren't racing, they're not earning.

And they can't afford them to be, and I'm not talking about damaging it necessarily about

anything like that, they just can't get stuck there.

At the start of the year, and if you were listening to our LeMond coverage, you'll have

heard Sam Higner talking about Cadillac Hurts team, Jorta, along with a number of teams

were out in the Middle East at the back end of last year and the beginning of this year

to do some testing quite apart from the Cata Prologue and Orpina that were supposed to

happen for the WEC.

And I think they were in Barreirn actually doing some testing, which never happened or

certainly didn't get completed.

And then it's, well, we need to get our stuff out.

And apparently there is an app which is basically like Ship Watch, like FlightRid and all of

that sort of stuff, where you can track the ship.

And he said, I think he said they had seven containers on three different vessels, all

of which were pretty important and some of which were essential to get back to the UK

and start the European season.

And they got them, but there was a couple of sleepless nights and they weren't the only

team that that was applied to.

And you can imagine, Nick, can't you, that a GT3 team or an LMP, there's no LMP2s, but

a GT3 team, and for some of the regional championships as well, people who send out cars from Europe,

they just cannot afford for their kids, their car to get stuck there and miss the start

of a European season.

Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

It's always the uncertainty.

That's the one thing she said, no one likes uncertainty in anything.

Also, they don't like extra charges and extra insurance costs, but they don't like uncertainty

even more.

The Asian Le Mans series, of course, runs LMP2s, John.

Yes, they do.

Well, that's all going to be in Europe, isn't it?

The Asian Le Mans series has a little baby brother coming next year.

I saw that.

The Asian Le Mans Cup or something.

Yes.

Basically, they've seen the Michelin Le Mans Cup in Europe as a stepping stone into the

European Le Mans series.

And they again, have their own version, which will be LMP3 and GT3 cars.

We think the Asian Le Mans series will end up being in Europe at the end of this year

and the beginning of next.

We think they're going to be Istanbul.

Not Constantinople.

This said almost in unison.

Is that on the Asian side of the river?

It is on the Asian side of the river, isn't it?

That's a good point.

Is it still in Asia?

That's brilliant.

I think they're tracking it on the Asian side of the river, I think.

I think you might be right.

We are rapidly approaching the time when the FIA, WEC, the ACO, SRR who look after the

Asian Le Mans series on behalf of the ACO, they're going to have to put some dates into

the public domain.

That's not to say that the teams don't already know, although given the amount of team representatives

who are calling and sending me notes to ask about WEC, as if I'm making the decision

to call.

Absolutely not.

I'm not sure that's true.

There's been a number of rumours about what tracks the WEC could go to in October.

And remember, their last race is the first week of November.

So you talked about two weekends in what in Northern Europe is getting into winter, really.

Is winter.

And you've got to remember that Formula One now needs to fit into weekends in Southern

Europe around the same time.

And I expect that that is why everybody's waiting.

Do you think they're going to call off Qatar and Abu Dhabi?

Yes, because DHL has said you're not taking any freight there.

I think that was a warning about trying to stick extra races in rather than the races

already exist.

I think that is about rescheduling stuff, moving stuff around.

Having stuff where it doesn't need to be.

I don't think that applies to the two races on the calendar at the moment.

I really don't.

Whilst we're talking about calendar views, the calendars came out for most of the SRO

championships at the Crows.

Which is the next story, yes.

Look at this.

It's almost like a script.

If you jump forward a page and I'm going to start at Sneserton.

Yes, this is an odd one.

Because the British GT championships can start at Sneserton.

They always race there.

They never started there as far as I'm aware.

Yes, but it's ultimately starting, isn't it?

Nick, have you seen which weekend it is?

No.

It is the same weekend that the WAC returns to Silverstone.

Oh, that's ridiculous.

Who thought of that one up?

I mean, you could say that teams-wise there won't be a lot of crossover drivers rise.

Same crowd.

But it is absolutely the same audience in terms of TV.

Does the GT get the audience at the track?

Yes, I think they do.

I mean, not huge, but deep.

Yes, it's a thousand, I think.

It's much better than...

It's not ToriCard, obviously.

Well, see, how much does ToriCard get now?

ToriCard gets 30,000 to 40,000 at Sneserton.

Does it?

Yes.

Superbikes does really well as well.

Simple figures.

It's fancy going to World Superbikes at Dunniton next weekend, by the way.

The RUSH's GT, I'm thinking, is probably getting 5,000.

What's 5,000, though?

And of those 5,000, I mean, depends on the ticket prices, I guess,

but how many of them might take a day to go to Silverstone?

I mean, it's not even.

According to this, 15,000 people went to the first event of the year

of the park on the average.

I've averaged about 10,000, but the Silverstone's getting 12,000.

Yeah, OK.

It's a good weekend away.

It's a good DL, British GT.

Great racing.

I honestly, I despair.

I understand there's only so many...

There's only so many weekends in the year, but...

That must have...

That was known before they've released it.

It might not have been known before the...

When negotiating with the tracks, I just find that strange from SRO.

There's something else that happened at the weekend as well,

which you may want to talk about, Tim.

It was Stefan Rattel having said that he wouldn't move CrowdStrike 24 at Spa.

We'll come onto that when we move onto the...

OK, fine.

OK.

...Columnters.

Yeah.

So...

The British GT Silverstone meeting has now moved to the middle of August.

It'll be lovely.

It'll be absolutely lovely,

but it'll also be a week before the European Le Mans series at Silverstone, won't it?

Probably.

I have to say that I don't have room in my head for the LMS anymore

with everything else that we do.

The other 70-odd events we do during the year.

So that one kind of passes me by.

So let's move on to the World Challenge.

They're going to Imola the first time in five years with a three-hour race in May.

The finale of the Spring Cup is going to the Hungaro Ring.

Interesting.

And everything else is much the same.

And as you say, the 24 hours of Spa is on the 27th and 28th of June.

Which is the same weekend as it was pretty much the same weekend as it was this year.

Yes.

And it clashes again with Watkins Glen International, the seal, and six hours of the Glen.

Imsa's calendars for next year came out in March, so that kind of has been a surprise.

Steph and Mattel, in a Q&A session, as reported on Sportacar 365 said,

we can't help it, it's not going to move, it's just going to have to clash.

Now there were 30 drivers this year who were directly affected by this.

We had manufacturers who had to draft in non-works drivers into their work-centred cars at the CrowdStrike 24.

So it is an issue.

It's a big GT3 race and GT3 is the class, the GT class at the seal and six hours of the Glen.

69 cars started at the CrowdStrike, 24 hours, 54 of which more than half of that,

probably two thirds of that maybe, was GTs in terms of GTT pros and GTDs.

So you think, well he's had that forced on him because of the change in the F1 calendar,

and Spa doesn't have infinite number of wing ends free.

Okay, it's good, likelihood is that you won't get a splash away,

or then at Spa you might, which you did.

But okay, yeah, you're obviously not going to run it in May or October.

Yeah, alright, that's fine.

And then, later on the same weekend, he does another interview, again reported on Sportacar 365,

where he says, we've got a three week window for the Spa 24 hours,

the CrowdStrike Spa 24 hours next year.

We could move it one week forward or one week back into the year.

So one week either side.

And the reason he says that is, and he's not going to see whether he is doing it,

because he's waiting for the F1 calendar and he freely admits,

we'd like to get some F1 drivers here.

So hang on, Stefan.

You are prepared to move it to get here, or a couple of F1 drivers into a race

that has 70 entries normally.

So that's 210 drivers.

You were prepared to move it for that, but you're not prepared to move it to stop inconvenience in

the manufacturers and the works drivers and the privateers that support GT racing the whole year round.

I said this at the weekend and I'm going to see it again now.

And this may be an unpopular view from mine.

I think he's got his priorities wrong, Nick.

I really do.

He's seen what happened at the Nürburgring when Max turned up and he wants a bit of that.

I understand that.

He wants a bit of that.

He wants a bit of Max.

He wants a bit of Max in Spa.

Obviously his mother's home country.

He wants a bit of, you know, it's just, that's what he wants.

And I'm sure Ford would be happy to put in a Mustang GT3 for him because I bet your bottom dollar

he won't be driving an AMG next year if he does come and do GT3 racing.

But I just don't understand.

I think it's very laudable.

I understand where he wants to do it.

It'll make him more money.

He'll put more Euros into the pockets of his chinos.

Absolutely.

And I kind of understand that and bear in mind that that is part of the intercontinental

GT championship as well.

It'll focus more on that as was the Nürburgring as well.

They're sort of piggyback on a few events around the world like Bathurst and that.

They've also moved the American Race to Cota, which I'm sure Tim will talk about in a minute.

But I just think that you've got to look after your core audience and your core customers first.

I disagreed with the Nürburgring moving the NLS Race and inconvenience in several hundred drivers.

I absolutely disagree with this when he would have been better off saying nothing.

He would have been...this might actually be going on and that's fine.

I just think it's a bad look and it makes him say, I don't care about my customers.

I don't care about IMSA.

I don't care about the GT3 works teams and the pro-am teams and all the people who are putting large amounts, cubic amounts of whatever currency is from my gentlemen drivers around the world.

I just want Max or I just want Lance Stroll or I just want...

No one's saying they just want Lance Stroll.

There's more than Max.

No, there's only Max.

There's only Max is who will be allowed to do it.

None of the drivers will be allowed to do it.

Well, Lance, he can ask his dad.

But that's it.

The rest...they've already said that there's no way they're going to be allowed to do it.

They won't be allowed to do it.

And you know...

I just think he's been better off working behind the scenes to do it.

Because now...

Now, what I do agree is he's not saying that he is going to move at one way or the other.

What he's waiting for is the F1 calendar to come out because of course what he doesn't want to do is move it

and then find that F1 moves on to the same date of Canada or whichever weekend race it is.

So that bit I do understand.

So I don't think we'll know for sure when the CrowdStrike 24 is for next year

until after the F1 calendar comes out.

And with a bit of look, it will move one week either way.

If he moves it one week earlier, that'll be the weekend after Le Mans.

Which is not a bad thing.

I don't think that's a bad thing.

There's no clash with Nürburgring 24.

Because that's in May again next year.

Or maybe April actually.

If he moves it one week after, again, that's the week after the seal and six hours of the Glen.

So there'd be drivers who had Le Mans 24 weekend off, seal and six hours of the Glen, then back to Europe.

Which that's not difficult.

Nobody's moving the cars about, let's be brutally honest about this.

It's all about teams, journalists, support staff, PR, etc.

So you could either have next year Le Mans 24, Spa 24, seal and six hours of the Glen on consecutive weekends.

Or you could have Le Mans gap weekend, seal and six hours of the Glen and Crowdstrike 24.

Or you could have the clash again.

So it's an interesting one.

I'm conscious of the time here, Tim.

Do you want to do a bit about the other in the continental GT dates?

Not especially. I've got a different calendar that we need to talk about.

Just very quickly then, I think it's very interesting that they've finally given up on Indianapolis

and they've gone to Cota for the American race for the eight hours.

I think that's very interesting.

I've had a couple of people talking to me about courtroom, about why Imms are doing Cota

because the facilities are excellent.

And in terms of entertaining potential sponsors and sponsors and C-suite level of entertainment

then there isn't anything any better than Cota for that.

I'm passing no judgement on the racing that we get at the Glen or at Road Atlanta.

Actually that's pretty good too.

Or anywhere else.

But it's about facilities.

So I think that's an interesting one.

Right, different calendar, Tim.

Because Imms can't increase the number of races.

So which one do they drop to go to Cota?

And there's your problem.

And that is your problem.

And if you're going to go to Cota, I think you've got a minute and six hours as well.

I think what they ought to do is what we've seen with places like Mid-Ohio and Lime Rock

and have a Mission Pilot Challenge only weekend.

And maybe have alternate years of weather tech there.

Well, I don't know what the GTP manufacturer would think but certainly P2 teams who ultimately

somebody is paying for that and tends to be one of the drivers or some companies.

And they work very hard to raise the budget for that.

I think P2 teams would love to have them as a top class race as they do at CTMP for example.

But the daft thing about Cota of course is there's plenty enough room to have all four classes there.

So if there's enough room to have four classes there, there and have a six hour race,

if you're going to do it.

But then as you say, which one do you drop?

We've just put the road of marriott back in as a six hour race which I agree with.

And that'll be packed.

And I can't wait to go.

I cannot wait to go.

It will be absolutely packed with fans in the camp and the race will be great.

So anyway, carry on.

So CTMP is not.

And in fact, there is no Canadian race at all on the 2027 Portrait Guerrero Camp North America schedule.

Is there not?

No.

They will start at Daytona.

Oh, they'll start at De Tornado, doesn't it?

Yes.

So, Long Beach, Miami, supporting Formula One, Road America, Road Atlanta and Cota supporting F1.

Yeah.

So that's two again supporting F1.

Mustang Challenge.

There is some big gaps in this calendar as well.

Yeah.

After Road America, they have more than two months off.

And depending on when the Miami Grand Prix is, there could be three months off between Miami and Road America.

So you have a spell of nearly six months with just one race in it.

The other part of...

Rubbish.

Yeah.

It's difficult to build momentum, isn't it, for the teams and the drivers?

The other part of that crowd strike, Spa 24 and Sealen 6 hours of the Glen clash is the Ford Mustang Challenge.

You're doing an invitation all there next year in the same ways they did at Le Mans.

Was that last year?

Last year.

Yeah, last year.

Was that only last year?

Heavens.

Two Le Mans ago, but last year, yes, quite right.

And they're going to open it up to Mustang Cup in the US and in Australia.

They'll get 40 or 50 cars again.

But again, there you have an IMSA championship, albeit not a championship points goer event.

I know that.

But that is going on.

That's a IMSA sanctioned event going on on the six hours of the Glen weekend.

And some of those drivers, including some of the Ford Young Driver programs, the supported drivers, would be either in WeatherTech or in Mission and Pilot Challenge that weekend.

So that's an interesting one.

We haven't got the rest of the Mustang Challenge calendar quite yet.

I don't think it's far away though.

No, I don't either.

In fact, I know it isn't.

Have you got any more calendar news?

I have no more calendar news.

So let's look back at what's going on.

Yes.

What can explain?

We've only got time to look at the main race.

It was bizarre.

We had the most odd accident that I have ever seen in my years of being involved in calling motor racing where two prototypes came out the pit during a yellow flag.

And basically found the GT field pretty much stationary over the top of blind brow and ran into the back of them.

I am massively simplifying that.

But ultimately, that's what happened.

I've spoken to the, we spoke to the drivers involved, all three of them, the GT driver that got hit from behind, the prototype driver that got hit from behind and the driver that did the hitting, who hadn't slowed down, not Roman DeAngelo's fault at all.

And then went into the back of Colin Brown, who was slowing down, who went into the back of the Dragon Speed car.

And as you can imagine, they were absolutely distraught the Dragon Speed car, got back going again.

The two GTPs did not.

Nobody's ever seen this before at IMSA.

So I don't know whether this is a new edict from them.

It's when they're doing the class splits.

And I don't understand why, if that was the case, they decided to do it there through the SS and over the top of the brow instead of on a long straight, of which there are a good couple at Watkins Glean.

I understand the imperative to get back racing. Nobody understands that more than me.

But that was bizarre.

Before that in the pilot challenge race, congratulations to Phil Ellis and Bryce Ward, by the way, who won that.

I'm so happy for Bryce in the AMG GT4.

We had bits of the curb stones on the inner loop, the bus stop right hander coming up, big lump, complete curb stones, which I thought were a bit of plastic until I saw it took two of the EMR safety teams.

And I looked them up and threw them in the back of that Ford Raptor intervention vehicle or over the side of the Arm Corp.

It was incredible. And we're getting picked up like a piece of paper.

So there was a two hour delay after the end of the pilot challenge race.

They removed the rest of the curbs and just left the pyramid curbs there and the Arm Corp.

Decided the weren't going to enforce track limits at that point.

Ran the Lamborghini race and then we did the WeatherTech qualifying after that.

So well over two hours later than expected.

Long, long day for the Marshalls and for our camera operators as well out in the heat.

And we had no further issue with that.

But it significantly changed the entry to that. You do plenty of eye racing, Nick.

Imagine that entry curb not being there at all and no track limits.

It's difficult enough as it is.

But taking out the entry curb is going to change things massively.

Because you have to be so careful of the first curves in and out.

I know it's only pretend but in real life you have to be careful as well.

It just meant everybody took more speed in cars that could ride the pyramid curbs.

We're doing it like the GT cars.

Some of the prototypes tried it. Some of them got away with it. Some didn't.

But they hadn't seen it before qualifying.

And then some of the drivers never saw it until they first got in the car.

Which I found very bizarre.

That however, as we've said, wasn't even the most bizarre thing in the race.

Driving standards were questionable at times.

Getting on for, well certainly over a third of the race I think was run behind the

Blackwing Cadillac Safety Car. Very beautiful though it was.

The longest that we had green flag I think was an hour and 12 minutes.

Had it not been for that spell at the end it would have been well over a third.

And getting on for half the race.

Yeah, I agree. Very very very odd.

We had a situation where Action Express, Whelan Cadillac, Woon,

they were quick all weekend. Jack Ickon in particular was absolutely superb.

Clean as a whistle.

There was an incident that wasn't investigated.

That's got a lot of people talking.

Where he ran into Simon Mann in the EF course of USA Ferrari.

And absolutely totalled the Simon Mann car.

Ripped the right hand side door, front wheel, off, re-suspension, broken, etc.

Simon was fine. Very fortunate that was in the S's.

Now to me it looked like it was an error on, not deliberate,

Earl Bamber was at the wheel and he was battling four position with other GTP cars.

It was fantastic. If you haven't seen it I heard it go back.

I mean when we were battling the race it was exquisite.

However, coming up through the S's he got caught behind LMP2 car whilst they were passing GTs.

Simon Mann pulled over and gave more than enough room on the inside.

As they were going up through the first right hand as they came through the middle left hander of the S's.

Obviously he has to start turning and there was still plenty of room on the inside.

The combination of bang and the curb and I think a bit of air or wash on Bamber's Cadillac.

Just pushed him in. It was the lightest of touches and it wasn't deliberate.

And Earl's battling for position so he doesn't want to lift off.

Because if you lift off there it kills you over the top of turn four and you'll be overtaken by the BMW or whatever it was behind him.

Into said bus stop.

But I still think the responsibility is on, it's what we always get told in drivers meetings.

The responsibility is on the faster car doing the passing to make it clean and it wasn't clean.

It isn't even that I think it was the fact that it wasn't.

As far as I'm aware we didn't see it and nobody's talking about it.

Earl said he turned in on me. I think that is a bit harsh on Simon.

Because eventually when the road's turning left you've got to turn left.

Otherwise you're going to hit those blue arm court barriers on the right hand side.

I don't think, if I'm honest, I don't think Earl considered that car at all.

And I'm not saying that's a bad thing.

But his actions being there put Simon into the fence and ended his race.

It should have at least been looked at even if it had been cleared.

I don't understand that. There was a couple of odd things that happened.

Then at the end we had, right at the end, last lap, we had Nicky Cattsburg of all people.

In a fabulous battle for what was fourth and fifth I think at the time.

I was at fifth and sixth in GDD Pro with Chris Meese in the Ford Mustang.

And there was a bit of side by side, a bit of RG bar G.

And then coming out at turn eight which is the right hander,

which is what we call the heel of the boot there.

And coming up towards turn nine.

They'd been side by side. The Ford sort of got through and was just creeping away.

Coming into ninth, he would have been on the outside, absolutely.

And Cattsburg ran into him and just kept his foot in.

What the American police call the pit manoeuvre, which is taking the left hand rear quarter

and just keeping the acceleration going and spun him and put him hard into the barriers ended the race.

He got a penalty for that. But that just seemed really odd.

Whether people were getting a bit, it's been a long time since those cars,

all of those cars have raced together. It was a bit like the first day of term.

I said, I suspect risk control and risk direction will want to have a word with everybody

before the next race at CTMP, which doesn't have the GTP cars.

The next time we've got the GTP cars together, I think it's going to be Roda Moringa.

So I suspect there'll be a bit of chat about that.

And with time running out here, let's very quickly do the CrowdStrike

Endurance Teamwork and Speed Awards for the weekend.

The numbers are in. We had a choice of four in...

I said do pilot challenge first. We had a two car choice in pilot challenge.

And by the smallest of margins, it's gone to the number 77,

Stallion Motorsport TCR car with Gawr Racing, who did a cracking job.

The only came in the end, but on the algorithm through qualifying fastest laps, etc, etc.

They win the Endurance CrowdStrike Endurance Teamwork and Speed Award.

In IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Challenge, we had a choice of 42 prototypes and two GTs.

And again, by the smallest of margins, that goes to the car that came fifth, the 27 Hart of Racing,

Asked Martin, Dudi Baracello, by the way, was brilliant again at the weekend.

They all were very honorable mentions in that one, particularly to InteruPaul, who were brilliant again.

Didn't win, but the InteruPaul P2 car was quick as well.

So that's your CrowdStrike Endurance Teamwork and Speed Award from the weekend.

Now coming up after us this evening at 10 o'clock, it's the July edition of Historic Racing News.

And this week, Paul Tarsi will be giving his nomination as part of this ongoing series of drivers who almost made it.

Find out who that is when he listened to the show a little later on this evening.

Also, they're talking to Ross Braun about the Beneson days and how Flavio Bietori and Tom Walkinshaw were introduced by Bernie Eccleston.

That sounds like a fascinating story, but looking further ahead to this weekend,

we've got live coverage from the Nurburgring as the Michelin 24H series heads there for the latest European race.

And Nick Damon, we have a new car for Haas RT, bringing a BMW M4 GT3 Evo.

Yeah, it's interesting because Haas obviously have been absolutely Audi R8 StorWarts for a number of years.

But I suppose it comes to a point where with the Audi R8 now, effectively not having been in production for several years and therefore,

there will support light to drop. You've got to make a jump somewhere else, haven't you?

You've got to decide you're going to look at a different car and they've stayed in Germany with the GT3 Evo.

And the Gluenecks brothers, Nicholas and Peter Belgians will be racing that machine, the number 21 car.

So they'll be up at the front.

Now, the GT3 Championship is currently being led by the Get Speed team, PCX Racing, Mercedes AMG.

But there was quite a lot of competition in this field, isn't there?

Yeah, it's a very strong GT3 field again. You've got two Get Speeds, you've got the Art Brattastarvaka, you've got the Aeromotor Sport Ferrari, you've got Proton.

And of course, Hoffa, who were the surprise winners at Rekai, they just surprised themselves, but that was mostly built on using the rules and regulations and the Code 60s really effectively.

So they kind of won it on tactics, won anything else.

Yeah, it's a very, very strong field of GT3 in terms of the manual count.

Once upon a time in these entries, this is the stuff I have.

It did, it's a subsection, 15 GT3s, which is a really good performance.

There's a single Leisure in GTX and there's that normal massive amount of 992s.

What is missing from this list?

Which car, which has won its class in every race this season?

Oh, there's no Vortex.

There's no Vortex.

Remember, I can't believe that, wow, there hasn't been, there's been a Vortex in every convention race for the last good of so many years.

That is big actually, like a Vortex is.

Hmm.

So that's one to question why they're not there.

Maybe they just don't like the Nürburgring.

Anyway, coverage is on RS1.

It starts on a Friday afternoon at 2.20 UK time with qualifying.

We've got prototype cup qualifying as well.

The prototype cup races are 10 past 9 on Saturday and 10 to 8 on Sunday.

And the 24H series race is split into two parts, each one running or coverage starting at 20 past 10 on Saturday morning and Sunday morning.

And that's all on RS1.

And now, the race is on.

It's just 48 seconds to tell you what's coming in the next hour.

Well, that was a feisty first hour of Midway Mournersport Series 21, episode 24.

Nick's here, fever still playing up.

That's the sniffing in the background.

I'd spec your timing if you want to get involved.

People will be wondering, we haven't worked out what the click is, the five second click is, but we know what the sniffing is.

So, we've got a look at the results of tonight's programme at Formula One.

Hooray with Nick and that means team by team on Austria.

A look ahead to the British Grand Prix and we'll be off-road as well with Peter Mackay.

It was a brilliant, croppulous rally at the weekend.

That's all coming up next.

Let's start the second hour with Nick Damon's team by team review of the Austrian Grand Prix.

Hooray! It's too hot.

Oh, I'm melting. I'm on fire, Hooray!

On fire! The smoke has you right.

On fire! We're all on fire. Everyone's on fire.

Obviously, at that point, we could afford the copyright, we should have played the British Springsteen.

I think it was obviously very hot at the A1.

Toasty as it was in the rest of you.

Whatever you call it, Red Bull Ring now.

A1 Ring, I think it's the best way.

And yet other defunct Austrian mobile phone operators are available.

Are they?

Not so available. That one isn't.

It was great in all that heat to see Bernie Eccleston wearing a thick winter coat.

You know what? He's 94, you know.

He's warm, isn't he?

Also, you do know, for the open that coat, he'd have ladies' nylons and knocked off watches.

Allegedly.

I don't think he's going to sue us, Tim.

We're going to start team by team with Cadillac.

Yes, Cadillac bought a fantastic upgrade package.

They were really going to move them to compete with the rest of the field.

That's basically had an inability to actually keep the car going at any point.

Yeah, it's very ambitious for this new team.

It did seem actually when the car, joking apart, was running, it was improved.

But one of the things you need when you're a team that's learning,

and when it's a point where a team that's learning in regulation is also learning your upgrade package,

you need some laps.

And neither of them managed to get any.

The grand total of six laps were run by both cars in the final.

Valtteri Bottas caught fire spectacularly with his brakes.

And it looked like Sergio Perez was going to catch fire spectacularly.

So they just let him have a bit of a smolder.

But, you know, this is the problem.

People underestimate how difficult it is to be an absolute brand new team from scratch.

How do you have any problems?

They're not a brand new team from scratch.

They're a team that's been established for 36 years, Tim.

I think 1990 wasn't established like that.

Yeah, it wasn't, maybe.

So they're 37 years old. Yes, they've had a big re-reaching.

But it's not like starting from scratch with everything new.

And this is, you know, and they've turned up.

They've been there all their abouts.

A bit slower than they probably wanted to be.

Now, I've got this upgrade, but they're having a lot of problems with systems which other teams,

like braking systems, other teams have been developing these for 20 years.

The braking system itself, yes, the error around it has changed.

But how you run a braking system, that has been pretty much the same with minor improvements.

Certainly, certainly since the early 2000s.

So, you know, they are having to relearn stuff.

You only have to look at how difficult it is for teams to relearn things.

When you look at Aston Martin, you're making a gearbox for the first time in 12 years.

They've absolutely had it probably.

They've found it really difficult.

They've had all sorts of problems.

So they've run the task.

I think that, you know, the fact that it looks like they're getting something simple wrong,

probably means they've concentrated the difficult things and left the simple things out.

But obviously, what they need more than anything else is laps around the track.

What did Sergio Perez say about the upgrades?

I think they're all quite positive about them.

They thought they moved them forward by quite a chunk.

He said we took four or five steps backwards.

It's unacceptable.

Yeah, that was reliability-wise.

The actual upgrades, the error upgrades seem to make things a bit quicker.

But Sergio does like to be a bit minzy sometimes, but he's done well.

He then doubled back and said,

I think we underestimated the effect of traffic.

So there needs to be a massive process thinking on how we're doing things when it comes to upgrades.

I'm sure that we'll be able to sort it out for future races.

Of course, it's frustrating, but the most frustrating thing is not to see progress.

I think we always expected these things to occur to a new team,

but I think the frustration comes from lack of progress.

Well, I think he's being a bit harsh.

I mean, obviously, it's very hot and bothered in the normal course.

I think the app shut ways from the sessions when they ran.

They were bringing them a bit closer to the back of the midfield.

There we go. I'll give a positive spin there for you.

Is Aston Martin next?

Yes, it was.

So Aston Martin has, interestingly, Fernando Alonso has joined in with Toto Wolf

and the marveling at how all the other teams can bring some of the upgrades,

underlying room already spreading stuff like, oh, you're breaking the cost cap.

But Aston Martin has decided to not bring any upgrades because I think there's no point polishing a...

Anyway, so what they are doing in the next two or three races,

bringing effectively a completely bespect car, worked up from the ground.

They haven't wasted any money or time on just trying to move what they've got.

They're bringing out a bespect car that's going to be completely different.

Or, in fact, Aston Martin will have a similar concept with more developed.

That may not even be in check with the new Honda engine that's coming out.

So maybe they get the engine and then they get the aerodynamic package or vice versa.

But effectively, it means after the summer break, they'll have a much better idea of where they are.

Because currently, they're absolutely dead last.

They're now behind Cadillac when Cadillac aren't on fire.

But even then, they're not really finishing many races and Alonso is dead last.

I mean, you can't remake. You can't make any comment on Alonso or Stroll

whether they're good, bad or indifferent because they're just working with nothing.

You know, it's like well done for turning up and driving around and going home, really.

What did Adrian Newey have to say?

Lots of things.

But Adrian's been pointing out it's not his fault because he wasn't feeling very well last year.

And also, it's all about the simulation tools being rubbish.

He's much more now, very unhappy with the process.

He's said that some of the simulation tools haven't been,

have just been patched and repatched and repatched to Jordan with the team,

which is many, many years ago.

So, yeah, that's basically, that was a bit, I thought you said,

what did you think you said?

He said, I wouldn't say the direction we've taken is fundamentally wrong.

Yes, as I said, they're going to redo it in a different way.

So it's not fundamentally wrong, it's just mostly wrong.

So, fundamentally different car coming for Hungary.

Yes.

Well, he said based on the same concept, which is quite woolly, isn't it?

Because the concept could be a car with four wheels.

Yes, and an engine.

Well, they haven't had that so far, so that'd be plus point, wouldn't it really?

Let's look at Williams.

Yes, Williams, who would absolutely awful, I don't know if I can put it that way,

I don't know what would happen.

I mean, Williams, the car's still overweight, which is obviously costing them time.

But it also seemed quite recalcitrant at being developed in any way whatsoever.

So despite the fact they've been very good with their drivers,

their drivers have actually maximized the points they could score and they have got some points.

They were just nowhere all weekend.

I mean, the major contribution to the race they made was Carl or signs breaking down

and calling a virtual safety car because nothing else they did was of any interest.

And this track where to officially Williams have had their best races because they've tended to have a car that's low on downforce,

water low on drag and that actually works quite well around the red bull ring.

But yeah, I mean, it's just, it's a mess.

It's the kind of mess that if it was a football team, people would be starting to talk about James Vowell's job.

Wouldn't they?

They'd be rumours.

You might even have received a dreaded vote of confidence from the directors.

It's not football, it's motor racing.

I don't think you'll get more time, thankfully.

But it has been a very, very disappointing season after, don't forget,

they had a great season last year and they said they'd stopped developing

and wanted immediately to concentrate on this car, which is overweight and slow and badly designed.

So they've got what they describe as a medium sized upgrade for Silverstone.

Right.

And it's a big one for Asawaya John, isn't it?

And then they're going to do the whole thing.

And then almost entirely new car for Baku.

Yes.

And again, to Alonso, you're going, how can you spend money doing that?

But you know, the money, don't forget that everyone has got more money this year.

They're also having a weight reduction for Zandvoort.

Because obviously everybody tries to lose weight when they go to the beach.

Absolutely.

Can I just say, this is, I find this really annoying because this is not F1.

This is not F1.

I don't want to be back in my day.

This cost cap, this is the chance when people could actually throw everything at the car,

they could throw all their energy, they could bring upgrades every race,

and you could have a really, really interesting development war.

But they're all having to do, I can't spend too much money.

Just desperately think this cost cap is not what F1's all about.

What's different to the nose and side pods this week?

Of what?

The Williams.

Sponsor?

Close.

Color scheme?

Color scheme.

And they've got the new paint, have they been painted on?

They're going red, white and blue.

Oh, they?

Oh, that's good.

Because it's still in the stone.

Yes, it's absolutely.

The Haas is next.

Yeah, I mean, Haas also are in a bit of a bind now because they've been left behind by three or four teams in the midfield.

You would say that they are now behind Alpine, they're behind Red Racing Balls, definitely, and Alpine, definitely.

And I think they're now behind Audi as well.

So they can't, there was a bit of an, unfortunately some weekends, they're being out, driven by or out,

maneuvered by the Williams team and they're just not looking like points.

And it's, it basically started, the car that hit the ground at the start, it was actually pretty good for midfield standards.

They've had an inability to move it forward.

Underneath all that, Ollie Bearman still having an unspectacular, pretty good season, he's driving well, he's not making mistakes,

he's constantly beating Espar Nocon.

He's not, he's not having that sort of standout situation, his, you know, Earth World teammate of two years ago, Kimmy Andinelli has,

but that's now the opportunity that's going to go underneath you.

But yeah, it must be frustrating.

He was even more frustrated for Espar Nocon, who now everyone's saying he's going to get replaced by someone, who it's going to be, we don't know,

but I guess it's going to be someone with backing and, you know, there's a good chance it might be someone with Toyota backing.

So I very much doubt that Okon be in that car next year, but it'd be interesting to see who replaces him.

But he doesn't get a chance to show what he can do either because he's effectively really only racing Bearman because they're on their own in the middle of the field because the car is not able to do anything at the moment.

And that moves us on to Alpine.

Yeah, Alpine who've been the, with racing balls, they've alternated the class to field and certainly been the class to field during races.

They've been the other midfield class, the midfield field, which I'd say.

Just didn't really work this weekend and every got a handle on the car.

It is a very different circuit in a number of ways.

I mean, not least the first circuit has got any sort of altitude to it.

And while that isn't affecting them engine wise, because obviously they have the same engine as Williams and McLaren and Mercedes now.

It does affect them calling wise.

I think a lot of teams got caught up with that because you get less calling when it's high temperatures.

You get less downforce and it's a constant battle to keep the car in the window.

And they just missed it.

They just missed it with cooling and they missed it with some of the aero as well.

And of course, when you start losing aero load, the car starts sliding around and you get tired degradation.

It's a vicious circle.

So I think it's a race where they're going to put it to one side, Gazi beat Colopinto.

So that was probably the only interesting thing for them.

They still got quite a lot of points there in a battle for fifth overall with racing balls.

And they just need a better weekend coming up at Silverstone.

So they're going to be interesting where that midfield battle is at this point, because it's kind of had a bit of a vault fast this weekend with the excitement of the heat and the heat at Red Bull ring.

It's going to be hot this weekend, apparently, with Mark, who will be in the UK.

Oh, just after we got rid of that heat.

Audi had their best weekend of the year.

Thanks to some of the upgrades.

Yes. And they scored how many points, Tim?

None.

None. Yes, exactly.

Audi, who have been the architects of their own problems on a number of occasions this season, with the inability to get cars to start, the inability to get cars to run, the inability to get cars out for various sessions,

finally put together a race and a qualifying.

They seem to have the car running quite well the whole time.

And as you say, with Mark, it's quite quickly.

They then managed to have what's called the complete lack of any sort of good fortune, because I think for the first time this season, all eight cars from the top four teams finished,

which meant there are only two spaces for points.

And they're both taken up by the racing balls having an even better weekend than Audi.

So you've got to feel sorry for Matty, Benito, Alec, and the rest of the game, because realistically, what the performance they put in should have given some points.

But sometimes, you know, the gods just aren't on your side and you choose to be good whenever else is being reliable.

And that's why Audi got no points whatsoever.

A portaletto had one had it over Halkenberg all weekend, which is quite good because Halkenberg has been a bit in the ascendancy of a portaletto recently.

So yes, they got two drivers who delivered, but unfortunately, Lady Luck did not.

And we move on to RB, who clearly had very dull weekend because they started 9th and 10th and finished 9th and 10th.

Absolutely, but they did have a massive route between them.

This is because Lawson was told to call his brakes and was then told that Limblad wouldn't attack him while he was calling his brakes.

What did Limblad then do?

He attacked him and overtook him, which is a bit silly.

I think that there's an element there of immaturity, not inexperience, immaturity from Limblad, because he's not...

I don't understand what he thought he was going to gain with the team when he's been told not to do it and overtake him.

It doesn't give him anything in the long run because he had to give it back.

And then also, Lawson's got the high ground moving forward.

So yes, he felt good for five seconds as he went past Lawson, but it's a situation where you've just got to learn from that.

You've got to learn that you're in a team sport, yes, or racing, racing, but that's not how it works in F1.

If you remember, for these drivers who come into F1, they've never actually been in a team before.

They may have worked under the awning with someone, but the second driver in Formula 3, I can't remember who in the numbers, was it Campos?

He was willing... The second driver at Campos, yes, he's your teammate, but you're both completely independent as far as what you want to achieve,

because you are independently sponsored off and independently financed.

It is a case where yes, Campos are running both of you and they'll try and maximize the working together,

but there's no way you're ever going to move aside for someone in F2 or F3, your teammate, because that's not how it works.

So now they have to learn teamwork. You have to learn that you are actually racing for a team and the team is bigger than you.

If they say, hold station, how clever you think you are, you hold station.

Maybe because it's a rollercoaster and what goes around comes around, and he may be lost and do things for him later on,

and often may have no intention of doing it.

So yes, very immature by Lin Bern, a bit silly, but these are the mistakes drivers make.

Another young driver made mistakes, they're making mistakes, that's why they're inexperienced and they stop making mistakes and become experienced.

That's how the world rolls, but yeah, Lawson had a good weekend, they had a good weekend and they hadn't done that stupidness.

It would have been a very good weekend in total for the team, but as it is, they got three points, more than anybody else in the midfield,

but they have now been internal friction to ease.

Can I read you the comical press release quotes from Harvard Limbulat?

Yes, go for it.

Overall, it's been a good weekend. I was ahead for the hold of the second stint, and then the team boxed him a lap earlier,

and Joey Undercutme came out ahead because of new tyres.

I kind of saw that coming, I thought they were going to do that, but it doesn't really matter.

I had some fun, I think I did a good race.

Yes, you kind of missed the point why you were ahead of him, and they just turned it round again.

So, you know, your team will find a way of making it work, although they'll have you out of the team.

So yeah, I'm sure he was sat down, there was a very strong conversation with Alibaba Hamein about not doing that again, it's my guess.

For RRB next.

Well, yes, I think it's interesting that, you know, all the talk was about Ferrari having won the previous race in Barcelona,

and they were now absolutely championship contenders, and it was all going to be great.

I have to be honest, I understand why in a season where it looks like Mercedes are running away with it,

12 the press have to kind of, you know, absolutely manufacture this potential Ferrari comeback.

I'm not sure I won't win more individual races, but over the course of the season, it's just not a car that runs well everywhere.

That's a combination of a number of factors.

It is a bit heavier on tyres, and that's what cost it mostly here.

It was flatter to deceive in qualifying, but obviously they were first and second, we had the yellow flag incident,

but they were first and second, but the fact is that of the cars that were diffused later,

there was such a massive ramp up in that second run of qualifying that they went with the fries were out first.

If the staff hadn't fallen off and therefore hadn't slowed down, both of them would have been ahead of the fries,

and they would have been fourth and fifth on the grid, and therefore their final finishing race of fifth and eighth wouldn't have seemed quite so bad.

But they kind of flat out deceived in qualifying.

It was never really there.

The car wasn't great in the temperatures, it wasn't great on the tyres.

It's very, very quickly.

Lewis said he was able to hold with Russell for about three or four laps, and they just started falling off him because he just couldn't stand with him,

run the pace that Russell could.

Then for I kind of lived with this problem they've had, I think, for many years, Tim, where they don't run well on the hardest compound.

Weirdly, because the hardest compound changes every race.

It's not the same compound, but again, on the hard tyres, the car was just not as quick as the others.

They'd saved hard tyres for the race, and they were committed to running on them, even though they had no real pace.

Hamilton couldn't get it on Piazzarri, for example, when they're both in the same sort of tyre at the end of both sort of same tyre.

The Clare couldn't take Norris, none of them were close to the red bull of the Stappen or the Mercedes.

I understand the whole concept of let's build it all up, let's talk all about it, it's going to be great.

But the Ferrari power unit has a number of problems, even being slightly upgraded, it's still down on power, there's elements of the region that's not quite so good,

and harvesting, it needs a lot of work.

They're not awful.

They're second or third, fourth team every week.

Sometimes they're almost the first team.

People are going to be talking big about Hamilton, the Clare's chances for this weekend, but I think we're going to talk about that separately.

They're not great either, to be honest.

Where does Hamilton think the weakness is in the team?

I assume he thinks it's in operations and region or something.

I don't know, what's Lewis thinking it is?

Strategy.

Apparently after qualifying they had their meeting and the strategist said it's a two stop race, and Lewis thought it should be a three stop race.

And they said no, three stops would be four seconds slower, and clearly the three stop wasn't four seconds slower for them.

It would have been much faster.

He wasn't a three stop though.

Hamilton did do a three stop.

The second stop was under a virtual safety car.

I don't think that's fair because it was strategy that won in the race last week or two weeks ago.

I think it was a case where they didn't realise they hadn't run the hard tyre.

The strategy is only strong if you know that it's the strongest strategy.

That's true.

They ran the hard tyre for the first time in the weekend in the race.

They hadn't run it.

They only get two sets of hard tyres for the whole weekend.

They saved them both.

It gets on there and it just doesn't do anything.

It's just dead.

It's not awful, but it's just not doing anything.

So they end up where they are, and then they go, oh, strategy, strategy, strategy.

But it was a lack of knowledge of that.

So I don't think I necessarily blame the strategist.

I wouldn't necessarily say that Lewis is wrong either about saying they should have started on soft and gone for a three stop.

He perhaps had a better feel.

But that's what those conversations in every team, and sometimes the strategist gets it right and no one says anything.

Sometimes they get it wrong and they get it slated.

McLaren next.

McLaren had a weird weekend.

It's normally been a good circle for them.

I said a little bit off the pace.

The interesting thing is that the top four teams are just so far ahead of the next.

I think McLaren did an extra stop at the end because there's nothing else to do.

He's bored.

But I think at that point he was something in the region of 47 seconds ahead of Lawson.

And so the difference between the top four and the fifth place team is about three quarters of a second a lap, which is a chasm.

It's very, very strange because the four teams are quite interchangeable.

We must say that at the top, the other three teams can all have weekends where the second fastest is the third fastest, the fourth fastest.

And then this weird step change to the next team is really, really interesting.

Anyway, so McLaren had a small upgrade, but they just never really got on top of the event there.

It was interesting.

It was about, it was a change from last weekend or two weekends ago in Barcelona when Nano and I thought really, really good and maximized everything it could.

And Piazzurino looked very lackluster and was about 40 seconds behind.

This time around, Piazzurino maximized everything he could and landed, didn't look quite as lackluster.

They were 10 seconds behind, but certainly didn't look really on it, to be honest.

So it was certainly a one up for Piazzurino as far as performance of the McLaren is concerned, but the McLaren just needs to be faster.

You know, they just need to sort themselves out and get back to where they need to be.

I think, was it Stella who said, or was it Norwich?

Norwich is who you reckon the team was two months behind everyone else.

Which is, given how fast the development's been, being two months behind does put you quite a long way behind in post-term.

So that's quite an honest opinion, but it's fine.

You've been always now sorted out.

Now everyone in the Paddock in Austria was suggesting that Max Wischdappen's going to McLaren next year.

Sorry, not next year.

When his contract ends?

Well, who knows?

There was a lot.

I think there's a kind of element where Max and McLaren are doing it.

Well, Max's manager at McLaren would do a little bit of stirring, to be honest, because McLaren haven't got a seat for next year.

Max hasn't got any options for next year, apart from not doing it or staying with Red Bull.

There are some people who are saying that these conversations that were going on with other members of the Paddock are actually designed just to get them a better deal of what he's got.

Because he has the ability to walk away.

I think at the end of the summer before the end of the summer break, he can walk away from Red Bull because if he's not first or second in the championship, he won't be first.

He wins all the races. He won't be first or second at that point.

So he can walk away, contract, none on void.

And people are saying, well, this is negotiating just to get him more money.

So they're reading it.

Yeah, okay, I'll stay, but you're going to give him more money.

So it's just, you know, it comes down to he can't be fast.

He knows what will be rich.

It's just a cold, hard cash negotiation by his management team.

Because Red Bull hasn't got any options either because there's nobody in the top flight who's available.

So it's kind of like a marriage of inconvenience.

And now Max is trying to get a good settlement.

That is the thought of his conversations with McLaren who don't really make an awful lot of sense, to be honest.

What did Zach Brown have to say?

Zach Brown said his guys contacted him and therefore he had to have a talk with him.

He said, we've got two awesome drivers in Lando and Oscar.

No intention of a different lineup, but it's flattering.

The phone rings quite a lot.

He's a massive talent.

So we'll see what the future holds, what he ends up doing.

But I know what our plan is.

It's to keep going with what we've got.

Yeah, exactly.

But who knows?

But yeah, the next season is very nailed on as far as drivers are concerned.

So it's interesting.

It's interesting, but yeah, Max, I think is negotiating chip.

Max gets more cash.

And no papaya this weekend.

Not this weekend.

No, they've gone silver, haven't they?

For Silverson.

With a green stripe.

Yeah, I'm not sure.

It's more unfair on the commentator to work at New Nifreys every two seconds.

But yeah, I mean, yeah, it's marketing.

This is tribute to the McLaren M2B.

Really?

Yes.

Okay.

Right.

I suppose Silver with green stripe,

sort of very pale with a green stripe,

does look like the M2B.

Not sure enough.

It was 60 years ago.

60 years ago today.

Yeah, I mean, it's this whole tribute thing.

It's like, yeah, right wherever.

Just to try to get a bit of PR for, you know,

it's silver because of Google Chrome.

Let's be honest about this.

Not for anything else.

Well, Louise McEwen, Chief Marketing Officer at McLaren said,

the McLaren M2B represents the start of a journey defined by relentless innovation

and a belief in possibility.

And this design brings out spirits alive.

Our partnership with Google is grounded in those same principles.

Together we're exploring how technology can unlock new ways to innovate,

iterate and push performance forward both on and off the track.

Yeah, fair enough.

Word salad.

Why don't they just say we've painted it silver for our sponsor so it gets,

so people just notice it a bit.

That's all it is.

No one believes that rubbish he came out with was written by some chat GBT intern.

Google Gemini is the...

Sorry, Google Gemini intern.

Sorry, yes, written by Google Gemini with an intern.

Fans will have the opportunity to see the special delivery close up

tomorrow as a joint McLaren Google Gemini activation at the Truman Brewery in East London.

Lovely.

In fact, the one people, of course, who do really get off on all these deliveries are

the people who make the Amalek models and the 143 models.

So they get to produce another set of models based on a mould they already have for the car.

And they just paint it up and people will buy it.

So it's excellent to use a mini champ to whoever's doing the cars now and the more expensive stuff you see advertised as well.

So they can be Vandor Norris Silverstone 2026 and it's the silver car, not an orange car.

Let's move on to Red Bull.

Yes, massive upgrade package, which some people say was almost a beast spec of the car.

Obviously worked.

Well, did it obviously work is the question because Max Verstappen is a brilliant driver

and he is absolutely brilliant at the Red Bull ring.

So was this Max being brilliant at the Red Bull ring or was it a massive upgrade?

Because let's have a look at the other car half a minute behind.

Now, is that Isaac Hajar not being very fast or is it the fact the car isn't that much better?

It's very hard to tell when you've got such a huge drive.

I mean, Isaac Hajar's always half a minute behind.

Well, he's not always.

He was ahead at the beginning of the season.

So yes, that's the hard thing to tell whether it was how much this was the upgrade and how much this was Max.

Obviously Verstappen threw it off the road in qualifying.

Now the team immediately immediately took the blame for that.

Saying something didn't think that the active area didn't close.

I just kind of I know I'm a little bit cynical.

I just wonder whether they thought they'd do because they're having even conversation with Max about next year and they're trying to suck up to him.

Make sure he drives.

Do you think that probably the best thing is not to blame your driver for throwing it into the into the wall for trying a bit too hard and just say, no, it's awful.

Because it's as easy as it really just say that didn't close properly.

And yeah, so my I kind of wonder whether perhaps it was Max trying too hard and Red Bull decided just be very nice to him and keep smoothing the path and keep making sure he wants to be their friend.

But I could just be very cynical here.

In the race.

Max.

Some people say he could have won if he slightly changed his strategy.

Just a lapse come in.

I think I think the car came on really, really well in the middle of the end of the race.

You had a good battle with Lewis and a bit of moan about being taken being slightly moved off the track, which is obviously ironic because he's moved more more cars off the track than the rest of the field put together.

But let's be honest, irony is lost on most racing drivers.

Yeah, they made the race interesting.

He worried Mercedes Mercedes obviously immediately talked up Red Bull just like they immediately talked up Ferrari last week because obviously they're trying to avoid anyone pointing out that they're by far the best team and therefore they worry about what happened in previous years will happen again and start getting individually penalized.

So, yeah, it was a look at the upgrades work.

We won't really know till next race, which is only three days away.

And finally we have Mercedes.

Yes, I'm going to say running through the weekend and they looked a little bit quicker quicker during practice in qualifying George got his head around it more importantly George was head around the yellow flag situation.

And if the second went off, there was a yellow flag, single yellow flag, so you know flag means lift and carry on double yellow flag mean just give up stop in target it's about to go red.

And then the confusion about the flag I think it was interesting if you looked on the on boards that we saw, they had the signal board but it looks like the signal board was in a bad was on a bad frequency compared to the camera.

So I think it was kind of an element they were the camera and single board before we're out of even a bit green at one point.

So that camera didn't give us a very good shot because I don't think they were kind of phase correctly.

So you could say it was a single with double.

It's why you quite often see what appears to be a red and yellow striped flag when actually it's just a flashing yellow.

Yeah, I mean, this is so you can't read it so interestingly I thought that it was fair enough for the commentator thought it was double yellow, the accident should have been a double yellow, in my opinion, but yeah, that's not my call it became a bit later.

George went past it lifted it lifted enough because of this massive track ramp during that second run he still put it on pole and to know he did lift entire he thought he made a mistake.

He was double yellow.

And therefore he ended up fourth or fifth on the grid because he fought in the grid, because he didn't complete that second lap.

So it did spur seem to spark a great controversy.

I don't think there was a great controversy.

I mean, you know, if you look at the facts Russell didn't saw it was a single.

I think it seemed it was a double made a mistake.

Stop and fill off the track apparently wasn't his fault. Not sure if I believe that.

And that's what happened a bit.

It's called it should have been this it should have been that always dangerous. Well, you know, it's a fact is that they, yeah, if max had had that accident two minutes into qualifying, they would have read flagged it, because they do they read flag them early on much they did with

the accident at Barstow couple weeks ago but yeah they want to try and get the last laps in as they can.

We'll try and get they have this kind of idea of, you know, of sporting integrity over safety which is worrying sometimes.

And they want to keep it going and Russell kept it going and they didn't see a couple of spaces but I didn't have a committee, a comedy special the first couple of laps.

And so he made the breaking point for any of the corners, which dropped him down a couple of places.

He didn't fight his way back to the field.

But by the end of the race use comprehensive the fastest car and I would say with one more lap he would have got past the stopper wasn't one more that would have been one more that he would have got past the second place.

Russell suck it on pole, drive at the front.

It's very hard to say, you know, how much he was in trouble how much he was managing what would have happened because you're running a what if a reality at that point.

Fact is he started the front he led the race you won by a couple of seconds all you need to do.

Was it was it other people perhaps could have won the race they didn't George won it got his second win and managed to close 10 points on Antonelli but Anthony still needs very comfortably.

And it was I thought a very good race I enjoyed it very much.

Silverstone next.

Hmm.

So I'm afraid all of you going to Silverstone who are buying your special one off special.

Lewis Hamilton caps and probably aren't going to be throwing them up in the air at the end of the race because it's not going to rain whether it's going to be lovely about 28 degrees and what does so have very little opportunity for Tim.

Harvesting energy.

Exactly.

And what are what is Ferrari's weakness.

Driving the straight line at high speed.

Because they can't harvest the energy.

So it's going to be a it's going to be a almost certainly that this point I would I would predict now that I think for I would be the fourth fastest team.

I just don't think they're car suits.

So I want I hope you're wrong but I think that the improved Red Bull and of course the two Mercedes PowerPoints PowerPoints how fly be what we're off wouldn't it be a PowerPoint power plants will take the bump.

And so there'll be a three team fact with with Ferrari hanging on.

I just don't think they got the deployment.

They might be able to get the reduced lap one decent lap out of qualifying but not in the race.

I think they'll find themselves, you know, flipping towards the end of being quite sitting as an open duck as they were a couple of times during the last race.

So yeah, so first of all, I don't think that we're going to see for are you doing anything much at the front.

Do you think they might be in a suit with the Honda as well.

I mean, it doesn't even work.

I mean, also not not being able to regenerate.

Well, I mean, the point is the cars are never going to stop.

So if always got a 450 sorry 600 horse power is 450 kilowatt up and down the motor to provide them.

So they're just going to be super clippy.

So they're going to get very slow at the end of the track, straight.

It's going to be interesting to see what on board form decide to show us because I'm sure they don't want to see these cars going down the hangar straight at 200 and 200 miles.

That's almost going to be the worst part of the circuit, isn't it?

It's the end of the hangar straight because maggots and beckets, you're not breaking at all there.

No, it's going to be difficult because you come through.

You got a.

No, they might be with me.

Yeah, I mean, it's going to be quite bad.

Right.

Going into cops in F1 college.

You just lift.

No, they break into cops.

Obviously break into veil.

There's not yet.

I mean, it's like breaking the heavy breaking.

Obviously, it's carrying into the hammerhead and into the straight straight.

It's a reasonable push, but again, it's a very fast flowing circuit.

So I think it's the second worst, isn't it?

Or third worst of the year.

And Montes is the worst by country mile.

Obviously.

Yes.

And yeah, so it's going to be be.

Are we glad we don't do Hockenheim anymore?

Well, the original Hockenheim thing is about that though.

They use to be able to bridge it out quite a lot during the stadium section,

but no, you probably got a point around the back.

They just if you just be going.

But yeah, so it's going to be a challenge.

I think that it's going to Mercedes and Red Bull and then of course,

McLean McLean of a wild car because sometimes they just just nail it and they could just nail it.

And I think that they the short.

I think they've got some upgrades coming as well.

I think the shortcomings the team have are still a little bit arrow and obviously the engine is fine.

I think they've got on top of the deployment now after which they weren't obviously told how to do by the stage.

It's a bit naughty.

Yeah, I think it's going to do.

I think you've got six cars in in contention.

Well, I've had you and and it's every possibility that Red Bulls upgrades as good as it looked in in Austria,

and then they could really have a good chance of a win.

We also have the full set of support races.

Well, I just one thing I didn't realize is that I had no ideas.

I checked some times yesterday.

I didn't realize it was sprint race for the first of second time.

Yes.

Because obviously it was a sprint race in the first the first season ever.

It was a sprint race, but that was when he's a three to 13 points for a win.

And of course, that was the time back in 21 when Max went outside Lewis in the sprint race and got the win.

And then of course, Lewis wouldn't let Max go outside in the main race.

And that was the controversy of him of Max going off the track.

So Max, the last time the sprint race had a huge connotation of what happened next.

So it's very exciting.

I thought it was a sprint race at all.

I don't know to be honest if Silverstone is a great sprint race venue, but we'll find out.

We will indeed.

British interest in the Formula two race is going to be led by John Bennett fresh from his win.

At Austria last weekend.

Yeah, I mean, I think Formula two is, you know, again, it's a tight championship.

I mean, it's interesting that the people, personally, perhaps you're looking at most beginning of season Colton Hurter really hasn't managed to do anything particularly so far.

It's finding it a little hard on the expected.

I would think it's very competitive.

Some very good drivers, many of whom will get nowhere near a competitive F1 seat.

But yeah, I mean, it's a good season.

And I think that all the drivers like racing, the racing drivers into like racing at Silverstone.

I don't think it's great for spectators, but if you're spectating from inside the cockpit, you really like it.

We have two drivers at the top of the Formula three championship in the Gugucu and Freddie Slater.

I think it's got dropped by McLaren, didn't he? Who's he being picked up by?

I don't think he has yet.

OK, because I know it's a bit surprising he got dropped by McLaren because he didn't seem to have done anything wrong really.

But yes, so they got Freddie. Freddie is obviously the coming man of the British Motorsports.

He's only 17, isn't he?

Yes.

And he's won everything he's been put in front of him prior to this.

So he's certainly, who's he? Who's wing is he under, Freddie? I should know, I can't remember.

In terms of who manages him.

No, I mean which F1 team is he?

Again, I don't know that at the moment.

Off the top of my head.

Honestly, you're a single-speaker correspondent.

I know, but I don't look at Formula One management contracts.

No, I would, yeah, well, yeah.

What can you say?

One other name that you might, he's with the Audi plan. There we go.

Of course, there he is. Yes, Alan.

Hello, Alan McLeish.

Hello, Dave.

The fifth in the Formula Three championship at the moment is a young man called Bruno Bedoa.

Right.

Who is he? Sorry, Brando Bedoa.

Brando?

Who's he son of?

Luca.

Yes.

Luca Bedoa, yes, who had the, who's entire reputation got destroyed by two races in 2009,

which he covered for the injured Felipe Massa and had an absolute disaster.

And then we have...

Despite being the test drive for about 20 years.

Yeah.

And then he scored, I think, a third place for it.

He's about to score points for Menardia, like a reasonable point,

like third or fourth, and the car expired out of four laps to go.

Yes, I remember that.

It was a picture of him crying on the car, and you couldn't, you couldn't really blame him, to be honest.

We don't have the Porta Super Cup.

Okay, exactly, it's a sprint race.

It's just not on their calendar.

Surprise about that.

It's a race again until Spa in three weeks time.

They are halfway through their season at the moment,

and Flint Shoe Ring, leading that championship after a second place at the Red Bull Ring.

And we also have F1 Academy at Silverstone.

Okay.

And just got quite a few...

A reasonable program for the...

They say it might be record crowds ever, they say, aren't they?

Yes, for the first time they're expecting half a million people.

Sold out every day.

It's cost me a load of money, even though I'm not going.

I won't ask.

No, it's fine, because our carting venue is quite close to Silverstone,

so the hotels are unbelievably expensive.

I see.

What are saying you don't live nearby anymore?

That is true.

That is very true.

I would have had to in the hour commute to save the fortune, that's right.

And that, I think, is all the Formula One news.

Welcome to a bumper edition of Rally Report here on Midweek Motorsport.

With me, Peter McKay.

The WRC is now well into its summer gravel season,

and the Acropolis Rally in Greece is one of those iconic events

that is part of the very fabric of the history of the WRC

and continues to be one of the strongest tests anywhere in World Rallying.

And just at the weekend, we saw the World Rally Championship drivers

get pushed to their absolute limit of ability

and also patience in many cases.

17 stages across some of the most brutal terrain you will ever see.

Lots of loose gravel, rocks, and hugely intense heat in the car as well.

And heading into this event, Elvin Evans led the championship

after a great start to the season in the opening rounds at Monte Carlo,

Sweden, Kenya, Croatia, Canaries, Portugal, Japan as well.

And in that opening standard to the season, there were three pure tarmac rallies

and one partly tarmac rally in a rally at Monte Carlo.

But now, towards the whole end of the season, we have nothing but gravel.

And for Elvin Evans, the championship leader, that means he starts at the front of the road

and on loose gravel events, particularly events like Greece,

you're going to be severely punished because you're going to be sweeping the gravel

out of the way and revealing a grippier surface underneath.

And that's the same for the driver, second place in the championship, Takamoto Katsuta and so on.

And the further down the championship order you are, the better a road position

you ultimately have on gravel.

And we saw this last year with Elvin Evans having a fantastic start to the season

and it wasn't necessarily that his performance faded away,

he just had to do so many gravel rallies in a row starting first on the road.

In the end, it severely punished him and Sebastian Ocey took the championship.

Nothing to take away from Sebastian Ocey's championship, he won it fair and square

with some great performances on tarmac later in the year as well.

So going into Greece, Elvin Evans knew that he'd be really up against it going into this rally

and with such a strong set of rivals, particularly within his own Toyota-Gazzu rally team

with Sami Pairi and of course with none other than Sebastian Ocey back for this event.

And of course across the service park at Hyundai because Hyundai have really struggled

on tarmac with their i20 N rally one really since the car was first conceived.

But on gravel the car has been relatively solid and that in the end proved to be in Greece

with their really strong driver lineup of Danny Sordo, of Thierry Neuville and of Adrian Formole.

But kicking off on Thursday night, they had their super special on Thursday night

and then into the meat of the rally on Friday. And what an exciting morning it was.

With Thierry Neuville immediately gaining the lead back of Sebastian Ocey after he'd grabbed it on the opening

super special, then on stage three Adrian Formole took the lead of the rally

before the very next stage getting a puncture and falling back handing the lead back to Thierry Neuville

who kept it towards the end of the day. But one of the big talking points, the storyline of Friday

was the sheer amount of punctures. Now Greece is probably the most tough rally historically

for keeping the tyres in good condition or avoiding them being destroyed

until rally Saudi Arabia came onto the calendar for the first time last year.

But generally speaking Greece is one of the toughest challenges for Hankouk or indeed whoever the tyre supplier is at any given moment.

In the past acropolis has caused havoc regardless of the tyre supplier.

On stage two Martin Sess and Oliver Solberg they had a puncture. On stage three Danny Sordo had a puncture.

On stage four Martin Sess had two, Adrian Formole had one and Takimoto Katsuta had one.

On stage five Sammy Payary had one and then on stage six John Armstrong had two punctures.

Imagine that, so that's just on the first day a huge number of punctures really throwing up the order.

And there was technical issues as well, a brief stop for Sammy Payary with his Toyota which is normally absolutely bulletproof in any condition

and John Armstrong unfortunately after taking his first ever WRC stage win on stage five, the very next stage, two punctures

and then after the stage a turbo failure and it was rally over for him as far as getting a result was concerned.

But the calamity continued on the last stage of the day yet another crash for Oliver Solberg.

The season started so well for Oliver Solberg, his first full season in rally one coming in as not only the WRC two champion

but also having one rally Estonia outright in a rally one car last year.

Came in on a wave of optimism and then surprised everyone with a win on rally Monte Carlo,

an event which he said historically struggled at, backed it up with a reasonable result in Sweden.

And since then it's been really, really tough for Solberg, a crash in Croatia, a crash while fighting for the lead in rally Estonia,

a good result in Portugal and then another crash in rally Japan.

And here we are with another accident on that on an event four out of the opening eight rallies for Oliver Solberg.

He still remains 59 points behind the championship lead so he still remains in touch, particularly coming up to some events which should really suit him

like rally Estonia and rally Finland, but Oliver Solberg definitely is in a difficult moment right now after a string of mistakes of his own making

which have cost him dearly in terms of championship points.

But moving on to day two, thankfully on day two things were a little bit cleaner in terms of punctures,

only three punctures across the whole field on Saturday with Adrian Formol picking up another one.

He ended up with four punctures over the course of the weekend and then poor old Elvin Evans who was in the fight for a top five at the time,

he picked one up on the last stage of the day alongside Danny Sordo.

But the story of the day was could Thierry Neuville hang on to that lead that he gained overnight,

he went into the overnight halt on Friday with a 9.7 second advantage,

but slowly but surely across the day Sebastian Oje just chipped away at it with three stage wins out of six to close the gap to just 4.1 seconds by the end of the day.

So heading into the final day of the Acropolis rally, it was finally poised with two of the most experienced drivers in the WRC,

Sebastian Oje and nine time world champion and Thierry Neuville the 2024 world champion.

Toyota versus Hyundai, could Hyundai get a win at last and get that momentum back again and try and take some trophies away from Toyota

who are just on a steam rolling run of dominance in the World Rally Championship.

Well, when you put Sebastian Oje in these positions and I think this is what makes him one of the absolute true greats of the sport.

I mean probably the true greats that you could count on one hand, he is definitely in that group regardless of who you speak to.

And when you put him into that situation where it's a dog fight, it's a head to head, very, very rarely does he come out second best.

And that's exactly how things transpired in Acropolis Rally in Greece because first stage out on Sunday morning, bang,

puts in a hot time and takes the lead by 1.3 seconds by going 5.4 quicker than Thierry Neuville.

But Thierry Neuville, one thing you can say about him and is an inarguable fact around the service park is that Thierry Neuville,

regardless how bleak things might be or how tough things might be, he never ever gives in.

And that's exactly what he did. The very following stage set a rocking stage time, but then Sebastian Oje matched it to a within a tenth of a second.

An identical time on stage 15. So two stages to go, Oje leads by 1.3 after over 300 kilometres of hard flat out driving over some of the roughest terrain anywhere in the World Rally Championship.

How exciting is that? And then heartbreak for Hyundai and for Thierry Neuville.

Two punctures for Thierry Neuville on one stage costing him nearly a minute, putting Sebastian Oje in a comfortable lead going into the Wolf power stage,

a lead of 54.4 seconds. Now, Sebastian Oje is doing a park programme this year.

How much of a park programme is always up for debate? Usually he will miss, last year he missed I think three or four events and ended up still winning the championship anyway.

This year so far he's missed two events. Now he may miss more and he said in the press earlier on in the year that during the German school holidays where he lives,

his wife's German, during his son's school holidays he will not be competing. Whether that statement holds or not, I don't know.

And Sebastian Oje is known for keeping everyone guessing. He's a psychological master and tends to be able to keep his rivals in his pocket.

So going into this last stage you would think well you've got a 54.4 second lead. Just park the bus Sebastian, just park the bus.

Because you've got it in the bag. But two things to consider. There are the Super Sunday points which are awarded just for the Sunday stages,

five bonus points available for the top competitor on Sunday and another five points for the best stage time on the Wolf power stage.

And then four for second, three for third and so on down to one for fifth.

So if Sebastian Oje was planning on just doing a part season and not challenging for the championship,

it'd be fair to say that he's just going to cruise home on that last stage of the rally wrong.

The last stage of the rally he goes quicker than anyone by two points if in seconds and takes the maximum load of points and takes the maximum load of points from Super Sunday.

Maximum score of 35 and all of a sudden brings himself to within 37 points of championship leader, Elvin Evans.

In my view that is game on in the 2026 World Rally Championship.

So now not only does Elvin Evans have his teammate Takamoto Katsuta to worry about who finished on the podium yet again and trails Elvin Evans by only nine points now,

Elvin Evans life is going to be difficult over this summer.

But he's in my opinion has got so much more used to that after last year's experience and the one area where Elvin Evans has been better than anyone has actually been the point scored on Super Sunday and on the Wolf power stages over the course of the year.

And that's something that he wasn't doing last year.

That could be the key to whether he becomes World Rally Champion for the first time this year or if Sebastian Oji gets a tenth or if imagine this if Takamoto Katsuta would to become the first Japanese World Rally Champion in a Japanese car.

Having had the great privilege to spend a week in Toyota City during Rally Japan, I can't stress enough how much of a big deal that would be for the sport as a whole, but also in the local area of Toyota City.

It would just be amazing.

So that's where we stand at the moment in the World Rally Championship.

The results at the end Oji winning by 58 seconds.

You look at that result you think well another dominance from Sebastian Oji wasn't quite as easy as that.

Terry Nooville coming home in second, Takamoto Katsuta in third.

Sammy Piety once again booking the points fourth place.

He could have been better but a puncture unfortunately for him and Elvin Evans in a very difficult Rally finished fifth.

Now we must mention Josh McAleon who did finish fourth on the road.

His best ever WRC finish.

Unfortunately a late penalty for not doing up his straps after stopping on stage 15 of the event.

Unfortunately picked up a penalty for that but still a really really positive performance.

Not only for Josh but also for M Sport particularly when you consider John Armstrong's performance over a single stage as well.

But the World Rally Championship is not the only international series that we follow here on Midweek Motorsport Rally Report.

Because this week and we're heading off in fact tomorrow morning.

Six o'clock flight I'll be heading off from Edinburgh to Rome for Rally di Roma Capitale which is a staple event of the European Rally Championship.

Or more accurately I should say it has been a staple event of the European Rally Championship.

Because next year it is moving to the World Rally Championship.

And because of that we've seen quite a few drivers appear on the entry list for this event that we wouldn't normally see.

Like Lancia WRC 2 front runner Johann Broussell.

We have Nicolai Greizen who isn't unfamiliar to ERC but tends to do just WRC 2 over the last couple of years.

But he will be there.

But these WRC 2 superstars who are coming to take a look at this event ahead of next year.

They're going to have their work cut out because you have all of the local Italian stars.

Andrea Cugnola multiple champion in Italy.

A four time Italian champion and a double winner of Rally di Roma.

He's always super super fast.

Last year he was in a Citroen this year he's in the new Lancia.

Gian Domenico Best Basso 52 years old but the reigning Italian champion one of five that he scored over his career.

He is planning a multiple rally program in ERC this year.

When he finished on the podium in Sierra Morena he is the reigning winner at Rally di Roma.

He could feasibly be leading the European Rally Championship at the end of the weekend.

Who knows if that will happen or not.

You look at the defending champion Miko Marchek got onto the podium last year.

Timo Sunonen really quick on tarmac and it goes on and on and on.

In the top category of ERC this weekend there are 42 crews vying for that win.

42 that is how competitive points are only paid out into the top 15.

So it's going to be a tough tough weekend for our series regulars.

In total they are a maximum number of 87 entries in the ERC.

Quite a statement of the health of the European Rally Championship but also rallying as a whole.

I can't wait to get out there. I've got the Factor 50 packed because like Gian Domenico Basso I've got the low downforce haircut

which does require a little bit of extra Factor 50 applied.

It's going to be nearly 40 degrees Celsius which is going to make not only the war between the drivers incredibly intense

but the tyre manufacturers Pirelli, Michelin, MRF and Hankook.

This is the event where their tyres are put to the ultimate test because the temperatures are so high.

You can follow all the action on Rally TV.

If you've got a Rally TV subscription every stage, every minute of the action of all of the ERC rallies

and indeed all of the WRC rallies.

WRC Estonia is up next for them in a few weeks time.

If you've got the opportunity this weekend to follow along to Rally the Rullmer Capitari it's going to be awesome.

And that's what we've got time for.

Great to hear Peter Mackay on that music.

That is us at the weekend.

Don't forget the 12 hours of the Nürburgring Michelin 24H series.

We've got the team down there and we've also got the world feed on YouTube for Le Mans Classic this weekend.

That's where I'll be, wherever your motorsport travels take you.

Have a good one. We'll be back next week.

Simbat Time Simbat Channel. Bye for now.

Silverstone

Ford Mustang

Assen

Marc Márquez

GT3

LMP2

Spa-Francorchamps

Stéphane Ratel

Ford Mustang GT3

Circuit of the Americas

GTP

Ford Raptor

TCR

BMW M4 GT3 Evo

Audi R8

Mercedes-AMG GT3

Porsche 992S

Plymouth GTX

Red Bull Ring

cost cap

Adrian Newey

undercut

McLaren M2B

active aerodynamics

energy harvesting

Sébastien Ogier

Hyundai i20 N Rally1

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