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109:50
Topic
British Grand Prix
This is a Formula 1 race in the UK. The episode says they’ll review how the teams did, which usually means talking about results and key moments from the race.
Car
Mazda Mx5
This is a racing series where most competitors drive the same basic kind of car: the Mazda MX-5 (Miata). Because it’s a controlled series, it’s a good place to see how well drivers and teams perform with similar machinery.
Term
one-make racing series
In a one-make series, everyone races essentially the same car model. Since the cars are similar, it’s more about how good the drivers and teams are at tuning and racing within the rules.
Place
CTMP
CTMP refers to a specific race track in Canada. The hosts mention it because the Mazda MX-5 Cup cars will race there during the weekend.
Place
Le Mans classic
“Le Mans classic” is a motorsport event for older, historic race cars. It takes place near the famous Le Mans track in France, and it’s a chance to see classic racing cars in action.
Car
Morgans
Morgan is a British car brand that makes small, characterful sports cars. When someone says “Morgans,” they mean one or more Morgan cars—often the classic-looking roadster type.
Term
piston engine exams
A piston engine is the kind of engine that uses pistons moving up and down to make power. It’s the classic type you’ll find in most gasoline and diesel cars.
Topic
IndyCar
IndyCar is a major American open-wheel racing series. When drivers switch teams there, it can be a big deal because the team’s car setup and development affect results.
Person
Nigel Mansel
The host is comparing something to a famous IndyCar moment from 1999. The name sounds like it’s meant to be Nigel Mansell, a famous race driver who also raced in IndyCar.
Person
Scott Dixon
Scott Dixon is a very successful IndyCar driver. The discussion is about whether he would stay with his team (Ganassi) or move, which matters because IndyCar teams build and tune the cars around their drivers.
Brand
Ganassi
Ganassi refers to Chip Ganassi Racing, a major IndyCar team. In IndyCar, team backing and engineering support are crucial because the car’s setup and development are tightly tied to the team’s resources and the driver’s feedback.
Person
Bruce
They mention “Bruce’s legacy,” meaning a well-known person’s influence is part of the story. But this clip doesn’t say who Bruce is by full name, so it’s unclear exactly which person they mean.
Brand
Extreme E buggy
Extreme E is a special kind of racing that takes place in tough, remote environments. The “buggy” is the custom race car they use—built for off-road tracks and designed for that series.
Person
Emma Gilmore
Emma Gilmore is a professional race driver. Here, they’re saying she drove in Extreme E, which is a racing series with purpose-built off-road electric cars.
Brand
McLaren single seat
McLaren is a top racing team. “Single seat” means the open-wheel race car with one driver—like the kind used in Formula 1.
Person
Denny Holm
Denny Holm is the driver they’re talking about in this trivia question. They’re saying he’s the last New Zealander to drive for McLaren in that kind of one-driver open-wheel race car.
Person
Felix Rosenquist
Felix Rosenqvist is a professional race car driver. The hosts are saying McLaren signed him, which is a big deal because it changes who will drive the team’s cars.
Car
Seagulls
“Seagull” sounds like the name of a particular race car entry, not a normal car you’d buy from a dealership. In the podcast, it’s tied to a team called “Northern Seagulls” and a driver named Christian Lundgard. So it’s mainly being used to identify which car is being raced.
Person
Christian Lundgard
Christian Lundgaard is a professional race driver. They’re talking about whether his contract was up and whether he could negotiate a better deal by being a free agent.
Term
free agent
A free agent is someone who isn’t tied to one team by a contract. That usually means they can talk to other teams and try to get a better deal.
Term
dry run test
A dry run test is like practicing ahead of time. It’s meant to see if everything works smoothly before the real thing happens.
Term
limited in tyres
“Limited in tyres” means they don’t get unlimited tires to use. So they have to plan their running carefully to make the tires last.
Term
pit garages
Pit garages are the covered bays in the pit lane where a race team keeps the car. They let mechanics work on the car between laps in a more sheltered, organized space.
Term
tyre make
“Tyre make” just means the tire brand being used for the event. Different brands can grip and wear differently, so teams care a lot which one it is.
Term
gravel traps
Gravel traps are safety zones next to the track made of loose stones. If a car goes off, the gravel helps slow it down to reduce the chance of a crash.
Term
pit straight
The pit straight is the straight part of the race track next to the pit lane. It’s often where cars are fastest and where teams plan pit stops.
Person
Tilke
“Tilke” is shorthand for a well-known race-track designer. When people mention him, they’re usually talking about a modern, professionally engineered circuit layout.
Place
Circuit Zandvoort
Circuit Zandvoort is a well-known racing track in the Netherlands. People talk about it because it has a challenging layout that affects how cars handle and how events are organized.
Place
Circuit Spa-Franc Lechon Renovations
This is a famous race track in Belgium. The hosts are also talking about changes to the track (“renovations”), which can matter for what events can happen there.
Term
circuit homologation levels
Circuit homologation levels are official “approval levels” for a race track. They decide what kinds of events (or filming setups) the track is allowed to do based on safety and facility requirements.
Concept
filming day
A “filming day” is when a track is used for a movie/TV/commercial shoot. Even though it’s not a race, the circuit still has to meet safety rules and operating requirements.
Concept
two-year-old cars
They’re talking about a rule that limits which cars are allowed to run—specifically cars that are about two years old. The idea is that certain events only allow newer (or otherwise approved) cars.
Topic
Craventic Middle East Mission Middle East series
This is a Middle East endurance racing series. The key point here is that the schedule is being updated with a new 12-hour race.
Topic
Yas 12 Hours
This is a long-distance race called the Yas 12 Hours. It takes place at Yas Marina and is scheduled as part of a bigger Middle East racing series.
Place
Yas Marina
Yas Marina is a race track in Abu Dhabi. It’s where they hold events like the Yas 12 Hours.
Topic
Golf 12 Hours
The Golf 12 Hours is another endurance race mentioned as being discontinued. The discussion suggests a different 12-hour race now fills that spot on the calendar.
Company
Qatar Motor and Motorcycling Federation
This is Qatar’s motorsport governing organization. The hosts interviewed its president to understand what was going on with racing plans.
Topic
ATR of Qatar
This sounds like the name of an endurance race event in Qatar. They’re talking about the dates shown on the event’s official calendar.
Topic
24Hseries.com
This is a racing website used to post endurance-race schedules and updates. In this segment, they’re checking what dates are listed.
Place
Nurburgring
The Nürburgring is a well-known race track in Germany. It’s famous worldwide, and a lot of racing events and car testing happen there.
Person
Gottlieb Daimler Strasher
This refers to an early automotive pioneer connected to Daimler. The host seems to be pointing out a nearby place or reference connected to that name.
Topic
young driver test
In Formula 1, teams sometimes run special track sessions for younger drivers. It’s basically a chance for new talent to drive an F1 car and learn how the team operates.
Topic
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi is where Formula 1 holds its final race of the year. The hosts are talking about how the timing of other tests relates to that end-of-season event.
Person
Kimmy Antonelli
Kimmy Antonelli is a young Formula 1 driver being talked about as a future star. The hosts mention what he did on Monday as a contrast to what you’d expect around racing season.
Term
tyre test
A tyre test is when teams drive on track to see how tyres behave. They check things like grip and how quickly the tyres wear out.
Place
Silverstone
Silverstone is a well-known race track in the UK. Formula 1 teams use it not just for races, but also for testing things like tyres.
Brand
Pirelli
Pirelli is a tyre company that makes the tyres used in Formula 1. A “tyre test” means they’re checking how those tyres work on track.
Term
3.6 flat 6
A “flat-six” is an engine with six cylinders arranged in two sides that sit flat like a book. “3.6” means the engine’s displacement is 3.6 liters.
Term
4.1 engine
“4.1 engine” means the engine is roughly 4.1 liters in size. Bigger engines often sound different, and how loud it is depends a lot on engine speed.
Term
revs
“Revs” means how fast the engine is spinning, measured in RPM. When the revs are higher, the engine usually sounds louder.
Term
Formula 1 cars
Formula 1 cars are the top-level race cars in the FIA’s premier motorsport series. They’re famous for being extremely loud when they’re running at speed.
Person
Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso is a famous Formula 1 driver from Spain. The hosts are talking about how his time around McLaren and his results influenced who could win championships in the late 2000s.
Person
Lewis
Lewis Hamilton is one of the most successful Formula 1 drivers of the modern era. The hosts are comparing his early-career performance to Alonso’s during the late-2000s championship fight.
Concept
rookie
A “rookie” is someone in their first season. The hosts are saying Hamilton was doing extremely well even though he was still new to Formula 1 at the time.
Person
Vettel
Sebastian Vettel is a top Formula 1 driver who won multiple world championships. The hosts are saying Alonso’s results were affected because Vettel was performing at an especially high level at the time.
Person
Hamilton
Hamilton is Lewis Hamilton, and the hosts are pointing out he’s a record-setting world champion. They’re using his achievements to show how tough the competition was.
Person
Verstappen
Verstappen is Max Verstappen, another world-championship-winning Formula 1 driver. The hosts are using him as an example of how elite the competition was.
Person
Button
Button is Jenson Button, a former Formula 1 world champion. The hosts are mentioning him as part of a group of very strong drivers.
Person
Norris
Norris is Lando Norris, a top current Formula 1 driver. They’re naming him to emphasize that the grid has many excellent drivers.
Term
Formula One
Formula One is the top level of international open-wheel racing. Teams race cars around tracks worldwide and compete for a season-long championship.
Person
Austin Hill
Austin Hill is a race driver. In this story, he’s the one who got spun into the wall during the incident they’re talking about.
Term
spun hard into the wall
It means the car rotated out of control and hit the wall hard. In racing, that usually happens after a big mistake or contact with another car.
Person
Shane Van Gisburgen
Shane Van Gisburgen is another race driver. Here, he’s blamed for spinning Austin Hill into the wall, and the hosts say it may have been intentional.
Term
restart
A restart is when the race starts running at full speed again after a caution. Because everyone is close together, restarts can be chaotic and lead to crashes.
Topic
Brazil
They’re talking about racing in Brazil. The context is a specific endurance event in São Paulo, which is why the car gets a special paint scheme.
Car
BMW M4 GT3 Evo
This is a BMW race car built to compete in GT3-style racing. “GT3” is a common class for customer teams, and “Evo” means it’s an updated version of the car with improvements for racing.
Topic
six hours of São Paulo
This is a long race—six hours—in São Paulo, Brazil. Because it lasts so long, teams have to manage driving time, pit stops, and the car’s setup to keep it fast the whole way.
Term
livery
A livery is the car’s paint and sticker design. In racing, teams sometimes change it for different events or themes, like using a country’s colors.
Term
throwback liveries
A “livery” is the car’s exterior paint scheme and graphics used for racing. “Throwback liveries” are designs that deliberately reference a past era—often classic team colors or historical sponsor layouts—to create nostalgia and brand recognition.
Term
hypercars
“Hypercars” here means the very fastest, top-level race cars used in endurance racing. They’re purpose-built for racing and usually represent the newest technology.
Term
top class prototypes
These are the top-level race cars in endurance racing. They’re built specifically for racing rather than being normal street cars with a few changes.
Brand
Alpine
Alpine is a car brand that races in endurance competitions. The host is noting that Alpine is still participating in the top prototype/hypercar class.
Brand
Genesis
Genesis is a luxury car brand. In this conversation they’re counting Genesis as one of the brands running in the top prototype/hypercar category.
Brand
Ford
Ford is a major car company. The host is saying Ford hasn’t started racing in this specific top category yet, but is expected to.
Brand
Acura
Acura is Honda’s performance brand. They’re talking about Acura possibly stopping its racing program in IMSA.
Term
IMSA
IMSA is a racing organization that runs major endurance races in North America. Saying a team will stop racing in IMSA means they’ll stop competing in that series.
Brand
Delara
This is talking about the company that builds the race-car chassis. The host is saying BMW and Cadillac are using the same chassis builder, which can mean similar underlying design.
Brand
Cadillac
Cadillac is a luxury car brand. In this segment it’s mentioned because it’s using the same race-car chassis builder as BMW.
Term
spine
A “spine” is the main structural backbone of a race car. The hosts are saying that even sharing that backbone wouldn’t make it easy to launch brand-new cars for multiple teams all at once.
Term
platform
In car talk, a “platform” is the shared foundation a car is built on. The hosts are saying the RXOR6 was the first year that this shared foundation was introduced.
Term
Elysia
“Elysia” is mentioned as part of what McLaren is using, but the hosts don’t explain it here. It may be the name of a component or technical package on the race car.
Company
Orica
Orica is a company that shows up in racing through team support and sponsorship. Here, they’re mentioned because they’re associated with one of the racing entries being counted.
Company
Multimatic
Multimatic is a company that works on race cars—engineering and building them for competition. In this conversation, they’re being linked to Porsche as the only manufacturer they’re currently associated with.
Term
P2 chassis
“P2 chassis” means a race-car frame that’s tied to a particular ruleset/class. The discussion here is about whether teams are required to use that kind of chassis or can build their own instead.
Term
P2's changing
This means the rules for the P2 class are being updated. The host is saying that cars that previously didn’t qualify under the old interpretation can now be eligible.
Term
All sevens are now eligible
The host is saying that a certain group of race cars—referred to as “sevens”—now meets the rules to compete. It’s essentially an eligibility update: more cars can enter under the current framework.
Term
chassis manufacturers
In a race car, the chassis is the main frame that holds the car together. A “chassis manufacturer” is a company that specializes in building that frame for racing teams, because it’s complicated and has to meet strict rules.
Concept
draft regulations
Draft regulations are the “proposed rules” for a racing series. Teams look at them early to plan their cars, but the rules might still be updated before they become final.
Brand
Leisure
Leisure is mentioned as one of the companies that could build chassis work. The speaker is wondering if teams might choose companies like that again under the updated rules.
Brand
Andor
Andor is one of the supplier names mentioned. The speaker’s takeaway is that the rules don’t force teams to use only one chassis supplier.
Brand
Oracle
Oracle is being mentioned as one of the possible companies that could be involved in building a race car chassis. The speaker’s main point is that the rules don’t force teams to use only one supplier.
Brand
Peugeot
Peugeot is mentioned as another big brand that wouldn’t be forced into one standardized chassis. The speaker’s point is that teams still have room to engineer within the rules.
Brand
Ferrari
Ferrari is brought up as an example of a big car maker that wouldn’t be forced into using one shared chassis. The point is that the rules don’t eliminate manufacturer-specific engineering choices.
Brand
Toyota
Toyota is named as another major manufacturer that wouldn’t be locked into a single shared chassis. The speaker is emphasizing that the rules focus on technical limits, not one-size-fits-all parts.
Term
standardized chassis
A standardized chassis would mean most teams use the same basic chassis design. The speaker says the rules don’t appear to force everyone into that kind of shared setup.
Term
technical regulations
Technical regulations are the detailed engineering rules for the race cars. They tell teams what they’re allowed to build and how, even if there’s freedom to choose suppliers.
Brand
Lola
Lola is a well-known race-car constructor name. The speaker is suggesting that a company like Lola could be making cars again if the rules allow it.
Brand
Dome
Dome is another racing constructor name. The speaker is basically saying that companies like Dome might show up again depending on how the rules shake out.
Term
new chassis regulations
“New chassis regulations” means the racing rules are changing, and teams have to redesign the car’s main structure. It’s the kind of change that can make older designs obsolete and push teams to build something new.
Concept
LMDH car
“LMDH” is a racing class/category for certain prototype race cars. The key point here is that it’s one set of rules, and the discussion is about how the new regulations will be framed differently.
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Good evening everybody and welcome along to Midweek Motorsport. It is Series 21 at the
25 this week and correct me if I'm wrong on aspect attainment and after a
sweltering day here in the UK we are settling down for our usual two hours of
mayhem with a bit of news and previews and reviews and various bits and pieces
tonight up in London which I can only imagine is even more unbearably humid
than it is here in North North Hampshire. Exactly producer Tim Graham, Tim Gray.
Good evening, how are you? Good evening John, good evening everybody. I'm obviously a bit
loud, you've got to turn that down. I'm very well thank you. And on a packed
programme tonight we have what? We have all the usual features. Nick Damon will be
here with his team by team review of British Grand Prix. We have Peter Mackay
with a rally report. We have a point plus, we've got a big interview and we'll be
talking about some other things as well. Yes, I have to say that a right turn
lover has hit it on the head tonight I think when he says surely tonight it
cannot be possible for the answer not to be Scott Dixon. So I presume that'll
be a good one in the news. Our big interview by the way is Jonathan Applegate
from Mazda as we hit the halfway point in the Mazda, the wheel of Mazda MX-5 Cup
season presented by Michelin. They'll be racing at CTMP, it is a time-out
sport part of the weekend along with the other IMSA content and we'll have more
details of that. Shall I do some... Yes, you do that. Right, so we've mentioned
right turn lovers. From the future, Rusuku says looking forward to the
feed back from past legends, Nick's team by team calendar and speculation about
the future. A mix of Dalmarcani and chicken tikka etc. Very nice. I've taken you
our east of us if you're in the future. Chris, thank you, I'd expect your team.
James O'Donnell listening in after what was a great trip to the Le Mans classic.
I'm here indulging a cold adult beverage in the garden this evening. I've been
fairly abstinious since I came back from Le Mans. I had a beer on A beer on
Saturday night and I've had no other alcohol until I had a tiny glass of
rose wine this evening and I don't know, it must be something about the heat.
Hello to Alex Orkin. We call Roseade chilled or room temperature? Oh yes. No, no, very
chilled. A steak sandwich with shallots, salad, mustard and a chilled glass of
something feeling considered taller and more relaxed after a Cairo practice
appointment as well says Alex. Alan is working in the 311 shift, a portion 9 to
where early portion 9 to weirds. There's a 992 and some very, very lovely
Morgans in his car park at work at the moment. Kevin Payne is listening live
tonight. Plenty to talk about this evening. Brody is ear fierce. Hello mate.
High stress studying again for his piston engine exams next week. I'll be
listening on the podcast tomorrow. Little Brody. Apart from listening live or sorry,
no, that's just happened tonight. My what used to be called tweet deck is playing a little bit.
It must be the heat. Must Hello to Alex Orkin. Scroll back down as it's all
just disappeared. Why has it done that? That's very, very odd. Let's have a look. Sorry about this too.
I know I've missed a few people though because I'm not...
Hello to Vincent and everyone else who knows us basically. Get back in touch with us on
aspect attainment this evening. I suspect there will be quite a lot of things
for you to get involved with tonight. Writing. Top story. Shuffle some probably very
damp papers this evening as it's fairly hot and sticky. And take us to the top story.
OK. All the latest motorsport news from around the world. Midweek motorsport.
I can turn my headphones down because I'm very loud to myself. Hopefully I'm better to you.
It's OK. I can hear you over the top of the bed. That's the main thing.
Excellent. First of all, should we say good evening to Nick Damon?
Good evening, John. Good evening, Tim. Good evening. Everyone out there in Listerland and even in the UK.
Can I get behind a fan?
The reason we didn't introduce him is our Formula 1 correspondent. It was all our two-wheel correspondence
for that matter. So we're not starting with Formula 1 or two-wheel motorsport.
Gosh. Because the answer is not Christian Lungard.
Oh right, yes. This is...
Go on, Nick. No, I was just saying the massively trail biggest announcement ever in motorsport,
which they'd let everyone think just at the underworld when they already knew it.
Well, yes. There was quite a bit of that, wasn't there?
But it is. Didn't we talk about it last week? No, maybe not.
No, I think it was in the background of what was going to happen.
I don't think we did.
I think you had a conversation in the car to inform them on.
Right there, yes.
But the big part of the story, obviously, is that after 24 years, 25 years,
Scott Dixon has decided to leave Ganassi and go to McLaren,
which would be big news if this was a driver absolutely the peak of his career.
But no offense to Scott, who's a lovely guy. He's not even the number one Ganassi driver anymore.
No.
You know, so it's interesting news.
But to hype it up as the biggest thing since Nigel Mansel joined IndyCar in 1999,
it's just ridiculous.
I mean, this is probably overhyped. Everyone goes, no, not really.
Do you not feel though...
I have to say, I thought Scott Dixon would end his career at Ganassi.
I thought Scott Dixon would end his career this season.
Well, maybe that's the thing.
I'm with Tim on that one.
But the point is, when you're no longer the best driver in your team,
and he isn't, then at that point, you know,
Ganassi can go, oh, is it a very great time with Scott?
Obviously, finance has been fantastic with the constant backing for the car.
And I think for him to have a last couple of years with another team is a great idea,
but it's not. I don't think it's big news.
It's interesting.
When I saw the first press release, which was that Ganassi wouldn't have
Sir Scott Dixon in their car next year, I thought he's going to retire.
Not he's going to switch to McLaren.
I think you were saying, you know, it's all the, you know, being with Bruce, isn't it?
It's Bruce's legacy.
Wow.
That's a fair New Zealander. It's a fair New Zealander, you see.
Who was the last New Zealander to drive in for McLaren?
Blimey.
What, any type?
Yes, that is the correct answer.
It's going to be in Cannam, though, isn't it?
No, it's not. It's actually quite recently.
It's a female.
Oh, it's Emma Gilmore in the Extreme E buggy.
Correct, correct.
Yeah, correct.
I'd have been here all week and not got that.
Well, it's just because it annoyed me that so many people saying it's the first New Zealander
to drive a Bruce's team in the history of ever.
And I kept thinking, well, if you'd say a single seat or Indy car or real championship.
As opposed to something that runs once a year.
Well, and yes, but they didn't say that.
But it doesn't matter. They didn't say that.
So who was the last New Zealander driver in the McLaren single seat, Annick?
I'd go with Denny Holm.
You'd be correct.
Yes, well done.
That's why we employ you.
Does an employee involve being paid?
You'll get fed when you're here.
And we may eat your greens.
Your mother would approve.
She would.
Yes.
You've kept my vitamin levels up for a very long number of years.
Many, many times.
However, it's not the only new driver to the McLaren.
Right.
That's what I was going to say.
Yes, because it gets weirder.
Signed Felix Rosenquist.
Signed Felix Rosenquist.
So one Scandinavian replaces another Scandinavian potentially, although it's actually going to be a Northern Seagulls car.
Yes, but Christian Lundgard is going.
Yes.
He's already said he's going.
Yes.
And...
Probably to get assy.
Well, it was not surprising.
It's incredible.
What is going on?
What I don't know, and Nick and Tim, you might, when I was talking to a few people about this last week, just before the show, I think,
What we didn't know was what was the status of Scott Dixon's contract, whether he was out of contract at the end of the season anyway.
And I think he was, but certainly Lundgard was out of contract at the end of the season.
And having been so successful this year, particularly Indianapolis, I suspect that Lundgard thought that being on the open market, as in what's called a free agent,
he might be able to negotiate himself a better deal.
But I don't know, it's very odd.
Very odd.
It's brave.
Yes.
No, it's brave.
I mean, signing Scott Dixon is brave.
But he's...
No, signing Scott Dixon is PR.
Depends how much they're paying, I suppose.
You know, one thing I would say, at least they don't have a rather under...
Not very quick pay driver anymore.
Yeah.
Who will be in the other McLarens next year?
Pato Ward?
Yes.
And Ryan Hunter Ray, isn't it?
Ryan Hunter Ray?
What's the connection between Ward and Rosenquist?
They are married to sisters.
Very close, it is to do with getting married.
They got married on the same day.
Pato Ward was the free agent of Rosenquist's best man.
Aww.
That's sweet.
Very nice.
What do you think is going to happen to Chip Ganesi?
Well, they're obviously currently...
They're paying Alex Palau some money,
but they're also paying McLarens some money as well,
because as he pays off the money, he owns them.
And eats humble pie every week.
And then continues to lead the championship.
And I think Christian Lundgaard is going to join.
Do you think?
Yeah.
So Alex Palau is still ahead by 404 points to 348,
with Kyle Kirkwood in second place.
Christian Lundgaard in third is the first Chevrolet-powered driver.
And 339, one point ahead of David Maluchus for Team Penske.
The second of four Chevrolet drivers.
He's on 338, 310, Pato Ward 270, Joseph Newgarden.
And behind that, there's only another five points back
to Felix Rosenquist.
Then another three points back to Scott McLaughlin.
And the top ten made up by Scott Dixon,
who is another 38 points back
and two points ahead of Marcus Eriksson,
who's three points ahead of both Rainer's VK,
Marcus Armstrong, and one further point ahead of Graham Warehouse.
It's quite tight at the bottom end of the top ten,
but it's the gap between Scott McLaughlin and Scott Dixon
is the biggest gap in that top 15 or so.
But we aren't really very far into the season,
and they're back on an oval next, aren't they?
What?
Yeah, National Super Speedway, I think.
Oh yeah, they are.
Nashville next, yes.
For the Borschetter Bourbon Music City Grand Prix.
Yeah.
Excellent.
That's not...
Music and Bourbon.
That always goes well.
That's this weekend.
So this weekend?
What was next weekend?
No, it's next weekend.
You're absolutely right.
I had it planned to...
It is next weekend,
because it's the same day as the Football World Cup final.
On the Sunday?
Yep, 5.30 a.m.
Which I can't remember.
It's a motorsport event that the World Cup final runs into, isn't it?
But that's NASCAR,
and they're holding NASCAR in case there's extra time in penalties.
Oh.
So there's actually...
Yeah, because the World Cup kicks off at 3 o'clock sometime.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So 5.30 is the...
No, maybe it's the IndyCar they're going to hold.
Maybe it's the IndyCar they're going to hold,
because World Cup will be on Fox, won't it?
Yes.
No, so it is the IndyCar.
So they're holding the IndyCar, if required,
for extra time in penalties.
However, I have heard that Dario Franckini
has won two extra championships,
because they've gone back on VAR
to check out a couple of dodgy results.
That would make a lot of sense.
Well, I would have thought actually...
I'll show you what actually has happened, isn't it,
in the case that Judge Newgarden, Ryan Hunter Ray,
won every single championship ever,
because Don Trump made a phone call to the IndyCar.
Ah, yes, very good point.
Very good.
They've got that big race in Washington coming,
as well, haven't they?
Let's hope that goes better than some of the other
celebrities in Washington.
Indeed.
Moving on.
We were talking last week about the mad ring,
and how unready it was.
Yes, I know you're going with this,
because having had that conversation,
I was surprised to read what you've read as well.
What if I read, Nick?
You've read that Ferrari are going to use a filming day
to do a kind of a dry run test of the track.
Is it next week or something?
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow?
Oh, this week.
Really?
They're going to use their 200km filming days.
Filming days.
Going round the mad ring, yeah.
They're limited in tyres and a couple other things, but...
Yeah, apparently the organisers asked them to do it.
Obviously it's good PR.
I didn't even know the entire strip of tyre act was laid.
It does have tyre make.
It does not have complete pit garages.
It doesn't have gravel traps,
so let's hope they don't go off.
I thought it was a strip.
What license do you need to have?
Well, I thought this was a partial straight track.
Yeah, but it goes round like an industrial estate.
It's not going round at the middle of Madrid.
So it incorporates a roundabout, I think,
and some roads.
The pit straight is the industrial estate bit,
and then there's a purpose-built section
on some old waste ground,
which is nowhere near that,
and will be surrounded by ground stands
at some point in the future.
But not yet.
But not for this year.
Not this year.
Well, it was not this week.
It wasn't designed by Tilke then.
It was designed by Studio Dromo,
who designed Jass Marina,
and Circuit Zandvoort,
and Circuit Spa-Franc Lechon Renovations.
Interesting.
Well, you know, it's got some interesting features.
They finish it.
It might be quite a good track.
It's right near the airport.
My only question about that is,
is that what are the rules on circuit homologation levels
for filming day?
The filming day.
You can do it wherever you like.
If you wanted to take that good wood,
you could do it at good wood.
Okay.
Interesting.
Because, of course, they can't run.
They can't run the two-year-old cars there,
because there's a rule that stops you
running the two-year-old cars.
Any track that is new for that year
or has been significantly changed
from the last time it was used to prevent people
running TP cars to just gain extra knowledge.
The only car you can run that circuit
is a 2026 car.
Now, obviously, for I believe,
they're going to get some benefit from running there.
I suppose they might do, but it's oily tarmac.
It hasn't settled yet.
It's grip levels will be nothing,
but I suppose they'll find something out.
I'll find out whether their simulated model of it
is anywhere accurate, I suppose.
It might get a bit of GPS line elevation.
Look for the bumps.
I'm right in saying that this is nothing to do with Harama.
It's not a re...
No, no.
It's a complete different part.
It's a completely different...
I was going to say, I have to say,
I have been confused about...
I thought this was a reworking of Harama.
No, no.
Wow, okay.
It's a completely separate track,
which I assume is only going to be used for one week a year.
I suppose they're going to close the track.
The industry's set off all the time, don't they, Tim?
I wouldn't have thought so.
Harama...
We already have one street...
Harama's a 20-minute drive away.
Is it?
We already have one street track that's not really a street track,
and sits there all year not doing anything else.
We've got some former street tracks that sit there...
Well, there's a current street track
that has got a kind of a waiver for being a bit too risky,
because it's a street track.
It's not a street track at all,
because they don't actually ever run it as streets.
Saudi Arabia?
Absolutely.
But then you've also got the street track in Albert Park,
which you're not allowed to drive around most of the year.
Well, you can go back on a bicycle.
Right, moving on.
Yeah, the industrial estate bit is part of the circuit,
but the Parque Juan Carlos I is the other side of the motorway.
There we go.
Fine, yeah.
So it's near the Estadio Alfredo de Stefano.
Just to prove we're live?
Is that atletico's?
No.
Just to prove that we are live.
It's 66 days, 17 hours, 37 minutes, and 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
To what?
Something there.
I presume the first track action.
11th through the 13th of September.
Yeah, because we managed to choose the right day to be on,
because there's no World Cup today for the first time.
We might even get some listeners tonight.
They moved the World Cup because they were worried about it.
Well, in fairness, last week they kept the kickoff until after we'd finished.
That's true.
And we did previously generate a thunderstorm in Boston to keep our audience from our previous...
Yeah, that was very good.
Very good.
You've got no powers that be right behind the show.
What are we going to get more of next year in Formula One, Nick?
Oh, I don't know.
This is a great answer.
I think we're getting more sprints, aren't we?
They want to have 12 of them.
So half the race is at 6.
If we had the full 24 races, which we haven't due to race issues,
we would have had a quarter being sprints.
But we want to get a half being sprints.
I think it will be 10.
I mean, MotoGP has won every week.
It's different, though.
Yes, but MotoGP also has a lot of free practice as well.
Don't forget, it's one qualifying session for both the sprint and the main race team.
And it's not.
You still get two full practices before that one single qualifying session.
So it's less of a toss-up and hope for the best.
They're looking for 10 next year, apparently.
I was going to say, I thought they would get 10.
Oh, I heard 12.
I heard 12, but there we are.
Perhaps they thought 12 was a bit unpalatable, straight off.
They've done that Max Mosey thing of bunging up an unpalatable number,
then came back a little bit and went, oh, that's all right then.
So, hang on.
If they wanted 12, they're talking about 10, they'll get eight, won't they?
No, they'll get 10.
No, they've got that nine.
Single figures.
Yeah.
Hello to Otter, by the way, who's been fixing
lawn mowers and will tune in to the archive.
But yeah, I'm kind of a bit neutral.
I was anti-sprint and now I'm kind of thinking,
actually they kind of add something to the weekend.
It's nice to have both flows of the weekend.
I mean, I don't think the sprint race at the weekend was better than most of the others,
but that was mostly because of the deployment issues.
And the fact they were still learning how to do the deployment,
and perhaps that actually reduced some of the excitement in the main race,
but most of the sprints have not been brilliant.
So, if you're going to have 10 sprints,
make sure there are 10 tracks where things can happen.
Yeah, I agree.
Oddly, it's not always the ones you think.
It works well at Brazil.
We've always had good sprints at Brazil, haven't we?
Sao Paulo is great.
Yeah, I mean, it's places where people can normally overtake,
and then, yeah, they've had a couple of...
Well, you know, like anything, they've had a couple of dreadful ones,
but obviously the reason for having the sprints is money!
Not sporting integrity, but there we go.
Surprise, isn't it?
What significance about July the 26th, Nick?
By the way, you've sort of moved seamlessly from IndyCar,
and the answer is Scott Dixon,
into something that we should have introduced
as Formula One correspondent for, surely.
Yes, but he's missed it, so don't make it.
The listener won't like it.
Still got team by team, don't worry.
Ah, yes, good point.
We'll save it for team by team.
Hello to Tom Marshall,
to Jonathan Mann,
to Ed Moses,
to Sarah Rigby,
to Blur Fiend,
who is having an adult libation while listening in
from the top deck of a ship on a cruise.
And it looks fantastic.
I know.
That's showing off.
That is showing off.
He was hard at work last weekend.
Thank you for all the kind words from everybody
for last weekend's classic coverage.
And hello to Arnaz, Rob.
If they were going back on VAR on IndyCar,
Paul Tracey would have won the 2002 Indy 500.
Very good.
Very, very good.
Sorry, I found it.
So I thought I'd mention that before I lost it again.
Carry on, Tim.
So the 26th of July is the date of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Right.
But it's important for another reason.
Is it when contracts run out or?
It is the date that has been set
for a final decision to be made
as to where any other races might take place
at the end of this season.
Oh, really?
That's taken a bit of a kick in this morning, isn't it?
So, you know.
It's funny.
We were having a chat about this for a different context
with some people in the business.
Not who you might think, Nick,
but I was relaying the fact that we reported last week
that DHL didn't want to necessarily ship all the F1 stuff
to the UAE for the end of the season
and what that might mean and where people might be going.
The problem with this is until Formula One makes its mind up,
nobody else can do anything
because you know and I know, and the series knows,
that if, for example, let's take the WEC,
an FIA World Championship, who have picked,
I am led to believe, have picked their circuits
and have picked their dates to complete the season
with two one-and-a-half point races,
European circuits for the Cata race
that we didn't get at the start of the season
and the Bahrain race that we won't get at the end of the season.
But they don't want to set anything in motion
because Formula One haven't picked their dates yet
and even if WEC picked their dates,
if Formula One decides they want one of the dates,
then they will get first pick at that,
particularly if it's not the date so much as the track.
So if Formula One decides they want the same track
on the same date or potentially even the week after,
then WEC can't have it.
Because Formula One does need it for two weeks.
It's nearly three weeks.
Well, you've got some D-rig time afterwards, yes.
But you certainly can't have an event the previous weekend.
No.
You just about can have an event the following weekend.
The two weeks, the two weekends before
and you can just about have,
probably you couldn't have the WEC the weekend after a Grand Prix.
No, because you wouldn't have the set-up time for it.
Correct.
But you could have a little...
Clubbing.
B-I-S-E-C Tater of Championship.
Yeah.
If they were going to Luzar, for example,
up that calendar, which they're not.
So F1, 26th of July.
Oh, my God.
So that's when they decide whether they will go to
Cater on the 29th of November
or to Port-au-Maur on the 29th of November.
Right, hang on.
So we have got a date now.
We have Port-au-Maur on the 29th of November.
Right, that's great.
That doesn't clash with any of the dates that I've seen
for the WEC rehashes, right?
If they go to Port-au-Maur,
they will replace the final two races.
Yes.
They will not then go to Abu Dhabi.
If they go to Cater, then they will also go to Abu Dhabi.
And there is a third option.
Last week they talked about Saudi Arabia back in again,
weren't they?
Not Saudi Arabia, but Bahrain on the 4th of October.
That's not what happened.
A convenient little stopover between Baku and Singapore.
That's the way I'd go.
I mean, the whole thing.
It's all up in the air, obviously.
It's even more up in the air today than it was yesterday.
I don't know.
I think it would be disappointing if the races didn't take place
in the region at the end of the year,
but there are things more important than motor racing.
Absolutely agree with you.
But on both counts, it's good to try and keep your calendar.
And I'll say the same about FIA World and Juris Championship
and Creventnik and and and and.
But there are people dying and, you know,
with the greatest of respect, it's, you know, it's just a bit of racing.
But yes, 29th is late to make that decision.
That's another couple of weeks away.
Yeah.
So it's only gives you two months before you've got to make that decision.
There's two months later you would be in Bahrain if they had that one in.
Only F1.
There's nowhere that's going to happen.
There's nowhere they'll have that one in now.
The problem is only Formula One can do that
because only Formula One have the wherewithal and the infrastructure
to be able to make the decisions that late.
A championship like Creventnik who announced their Middle East calendar,
and Middle East trophy calendar recently, you know, they can't do that that late.
They have to make a decision earlier about yes or no.
Even the FIA World endurance championship to a certain extent can't wait that long.
I think it's an interesting.
Just just before I move on.
Hello to the those on the WhatsApp group who don't tweet.
Hello to Chris Ring, to Matthew Heinemann, to Owen, to Steen Clairsons,
and to Neil Charlesmouth, among others who were there.
And, and Austin Hilly and Racing who will catch the archive.
He's heading down to Lexington and Churchill Downs.
Oh, wow.
Yes, for an event.
Well, it's yes, it's a different type of horsepower, isn't it?
Okay, so not that down 20.
So, I have a question.
Who's the name I haven't seen for about five years, I would have said.
Yeah.
Says, are there any American listeners today?
As a Belgium, I am looking for one.
Very good.
Yeah, absolutely.
Meantime, of course, the responsible adult was very, very happy indeed with the Switzerland result.
Hop, sweet, hop, hop, as I'm contractually obliged to say.
And of course, it was so glorious.
Sorry.
Was that in your prenup?
Well, my mother-in-law, my much missed mother-in-law,
that was always in her honor when she was alive,
and she was, if she was chained in, and there was somebody Swiss,
which was the only raising she would have chained into anything that we were doing
if there was a Swiss connection.
Very proudly, Swiss was Marta,
and she would always make me say it, hop, hop.
And ring a cowbell if I had one.
In fact, we used a cowbell once on a Christmas quiz.
Yes, we did, yes.
Yeah.
So, anyway.
That was the one where Johnny Palmer turned up an hour late and still won.
Yes, well, did he have Neil Wooding?
He did, yes.
Yes, there you go.
So that's the one where Neil Wooding won, like all of them.
All of them, Neil Wooding won, yes.
I won the poetry round once, and I've won the drawing round a couple of times as well.
Yeah, Johnny's won the drawing round before.
I think the year that Neil Wooding was paired with Johnny Cocker,
Johnny Cocker won the drawing round as well.
Let's move on, where to next?
Well, let's talk about this craventic Middle East,
Mission Middle East series character,
because they've added the Yas 12 Hours,
which is at Yas Marina and is on the weekend before my birthday.
And conveniently, that's the weekend vacated by the no longer happening,
Golf 12 Hours.
Golf 12 Hours, yeah.
See, that replaces the trip to Qatar at the end of the year.
And I don't really know why that's happened and nobody's talking about it.
So perhaps that's better left alone,
but we had a lovely chat with the president of the QMMF,
the Qatar Motor and Motorcycling Federation,
about what was going on, whether they were back home for business.
That was at Le Mans, we were talking to him about that.
He gave of his time very freely and I enjoyed talking to him.
I think I just heard a cowbell in the background, by the way.
The Golf 12 Hours, of course, was quite a popular event
and therefore understandable why you would want to take over that slot.
Can I ask a question?
Yes.
Where are you seeing this?
Because on the actual craventic website,
it says the ATR of Qatar from 11 to 12 December.
And that was announced at the weekend.
24Hseries.com forward slash races.
Yes, it was announced at the weekend at the Nurburgring.
They've managed to get their calendars not agreeing.
So their website is not agreeing.
Well, it was announced at the weekend at their very successful
and highly exciting 12 Hours at the Nurburgring,
which was a double six, or Daimler.
There was a Gottlieb Daimler Strasher,
actually just down the road from the Nurburgring.
And this is...
I think this is very interesting.
I hope it happens because it's...
I would suspect that those big races are very important to them.
Let me put it that way.
And the current state of affairs in that part of the world,
as we've chronicled, are somewhat fluid.
Sorry, I've gone to the 24 Hours series website and you're right.
It has different dates from the Graventic website.
Yes, somewhat fluid is I think all we need to say about that.
But at least none of the dates clash with anything
that Formula One would be doing.
Way to hope not and this Formula One decides to go later.
Yep, absolutely.
29th of November, that's all right as well.
Because that doesn't clash with either of the dates that I've seen.
That's interesting how you said the week after the Grand Prix
you could run a BRSC event.
Because this 12 Hours of Yasmuirina is a week after the Grand Prix.
There we go.
Yeah, only if the Grand Prix happens though.
I think that suggests very much to me
that the Grand Prix wouldn't be happening because...
No, because that date wasn't held
because the Golf 12 Hours had moved to January,
hadn't it, before it got called off?
Correct, correct.
That's the old Golf 12 Hours date, the old one.
They only ran it in January once, didn't they?
Yes, but they were going to run it in January again.
Before they decided not to run it at all.
But, might I say that a Craventic race weekend
is very different from the Golf 12 Hours
because Craventic come in earlier in the week
and they have their Craventic track days
which is part of the whole weekend
and they start on a Tuesday
and Formula One will not have rigged out by Tuesday.
More importantly, it's a young driver test on Tuesday normally.
That's definitely moving supportive now, isn't it?
Yes. See, look, there you go.
We started to put it together.
We didn't even realise the story we have there.
That's F1, breaking news, big news in Formula One.
Formula One is not going to Abu Dhabi at the end of the season.
Well, not for a young driver test.
Actually, isn't the young driver test normally after Bahrain, Nick?
You know, it's after Abu Dhabi.
Remember, it also gives a chance.
It has given a chance in the past for people who are changing teams
to have a quick run out in the same car.
In their new car, it's obviously wearing plain overalls
and everything else if people are feeling generous.
Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't.
What did Kimmy Antonelli do on Monday, Nick?
He went to Wimbledon.
Yeah.
That's a bit silly because the football season is still miles away.
I know. What did he do the following day?
I don't know that.
Actually, it may have been today.
He went back to Silverstone for a Pirelli tyre test.
Did he?
Yeah.
I've got round, but either Monday, Tuesday or Tuesday, Wednesday.
George did one the day, did one day and he did the other day.
There was nothing at Silverstone yesterday.
Well, Wimbledon was there yesterday.
Really? I was at Silverstone yesterday
and there was no sign of any F1 activity.
What time were you there?
Well, well.
Certainly couldn't hear it.
And I had my windows down and my sunroof open.
I think it was Monday Tuesday.
It was certainly Monday because I saw the results.
Oh.
Mind you, I was somewhat enjoying the glorious sound of a 3.6 flat 6.
So you still hear a 4.1 engine over the top of that?
Depends what revs you're pulling.
Not as loud as they used to play Formula 1 cars, you know, Nick?
They're still very loud.
Anyway, sorry about that.
Moving on.
What don't you need talent for anymore?
Racing Formula?
No, somebody who's a bit humpy about how he's, once again,
he's managed to make a terrible career move,
or perhaps his team made a terrible career move for him,
has decided that because he's at the back and looking a bit average,
because he's even been beaten by the bosses' son occasionally,
he's going to just say that you don't need talent.
Is it Fernando Alonso then?
Yes, it is, yes.
Fernando Grampi Alonso, yes.
But I tell you something for nothing,
if he gets an upgraded car and he starts doing well,
you'll need all sorts of talent to do well, isn't it?
You know, he's 44, but he hasn't learned, has he?
He hasn't learned that we all see through this immediately.
Do you think Dan Tickton at 44 will have learned?
No.
It's unlikely, you know,
in these very monocled lives, don't they?
You know, but yes, it's just a Fernando quote
when he's unhappy about life.
Everyone's rubbish, you know.
He can't let things go.
He still holds grudges from 2007, which is quite amusing.
So...
I mean, look, I do think that it is in a world
where in an era of Formula One racing,
when there's been a lot of very, very average drivers,
the fact that Fernando Alonso hasn't won more championships
is absolutely extraordinary.
Where did you get that previous statement from?
What?
Who are these average drivers?
About 95% of them.
Who are these average drivers?
Tell me all the average drivers who won a world championship.
In Formula One terms,
not necessarily you've won a world championship,
but Alonso is the equal of people who have won championships.
And he's won two championships?
Yeah, but he should have won more.
But he's been bad at picking in here.
He could have won more.
He could have won more.
The reason Fernando Alonso...
There's only one reason Fernando Alonso has not won more championships,
and that's Fernando Alonso.
Ori's team, as you said, who's picking for him?
No, I think Fernando Alonso effectively
grenade the McLaren relationship.
There's multiple levels to it,
but that didn't have to break down 2007.
And he could have easily won the championship in 2008
when Lewis won it if he'd been in the same car,
even though, let's be honest,
Lewis was better than him in 2007 as a rookie.
Yeah, he had some good years in Ferrari.
He was unlucky, but he was up against Vettel
when Vettel was brilliant.
He got a seven-time world champion in Hamilton.
He got a four-time world champion in Verstappen.
The bits that were nibbled off the side
were still bitten by some very good drivers,
Rykanen, Button and Norris.
Yes, he's a very good driver.
And in that tier below the all-time greats,
because his results don't back up what he said,
and we all give him massive slag,
because basically, he can disappear for four races
and he has one absolutely blistering weekend.
We all say he's fantastic.
And the greatest driver ever, because he's sitting around,
he hasn't got to do it week out, week in and week out.
I think this sort of immaturity he comes out with,
I think just tarnishes his reputation.
Yes, but if he'd been in a better team and a better car,
because you could say that Verstappen's immaturity,
but he was in a dominant car.
He couldn't beat Lewis in the same car
in Lewis's rookie year.
That is the only piece of data we have.
And people say the reason for the fact is,
a rookie, he couldn't beat.
In the end, I think one point,
Lewis had a head-on count back.
He also granaded the team in doing it.
Obviously, they were architects of own destruction.
The reason it all came to light was because of him and his team.
So I haven't got a lot of sympathy about that.
He went to Renault in 2008,
and then he was apparently had no idea it was going to Singapore.
Okay, fair enough, let you off.
And then after that, he just bounced around
to make bad decisions.
He was probably unlucky with Ferrari,
but there's always a risk going to Ferrari.
And you have to make it work,
because it doesn't always work immediately.
It's taking a while for it to work for Lewis.
It doesn't work for Leclerc.
But, you know, I think I would say,
I would actually say I would put this grid,
or the grid of the last couple of years,
the 20 drivers in F1 against any other 20 drivers
you want to pick out of a grid,
even when we're 30 on the grid,
and this grid with better drivers.
Because the quality,
the bottom of the quality is way higher than it's ever been.
The 20th best,
they're not the 20 best drivers in the world.
They are 22 of the best drivers in the world.
And the 22nd driver is way better than the 22nd driver was
five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, and more.
No, I agree with that.
Hello to Sarah Rigby,
who's ringing her cowbell for my late mother-in-law.
Thank you very much.
Let's move away from Formula One momentarily.
Boo!
We'll have Nick Demers team by team review
of the British Grand Prix
in the second half of the show.
But ask this question,
who was a naughty boy in Chicago at the weekend?
Oh, that could be anybody on it.
Was that Dwight Smith from Deloitte at the conference?
John?
I was a bit busy at the weekend,
so other than watching IndyCar and Formula One,
when I got back after the football
and managed to stay up all night
and throw into Monday morning
and not go to sleep at all,
I have no clue.
I presume Chicago was a nice car.
Yes, it was a car that landed speedway.
Was there some crashing?
There was some crashing, yes.
Was there a fight?
Austin Hill was spun hard into the wall
by Shane Van Gisburgen.
Oh, Shane.
And Hill's team, which are children's racing,
thought that this was an intentional act
and a retaliatory act for what had happened two weeks ago
when Hill spun Van Gisburgen into the wall on a restart.
Oh, dear.
And after the race on TNT Sports,
Jamie McMurray looked at all the data
that they have from the cars
and decided that the data says
that it was absolutely intentional
that Van Gisburgen spun Austin Hill into the wall.
And there's a repealty for that?
NASCAR has taken no action
because Van Gisburgen did not admit any intent over the radio.
This is quite good, isn't it?
It's proper old-fashioned.
That's good.
I'll go and watch that now.
Brad Marani, managing director of NASCAR,
said we looked at it very closely.
We looked at everything on Tuesday, like we always do.
We conducted a comprehensive review, like we always do.
We include everything from telemetry to radio communication,
all the footage, race data,
everything we have before we get in the middle
of what really happened inside the race car.
And there wasn't enough evidence to say the incident was intentional.
Right.
We've got a packed second half coming up,
which I'll tell you about in about ten minutes' time.
Can we do a bit of sports cars?
We can.
And who is having a Brazilian?
Right.
So is this somebody who is missing IMSA to go to Brazil?
No.
Or somebody who is going to IMSA because somebody else is at Brazil?
No.
This is somebody who's repainted their car
in the colours of the Brazilian flag.
Oh, really?
Yes.
For what?
For what?
For the six hours of São Paulo.
Oh, really?
I have not a clue.
Is it about that?
Anastom Martin.
It's not.
It's BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Anthony McIntosh,
Dan Harper and Parker Thompson,
friend of the show Dan Harper and friend of the show Parker Thompson.
Because he is doing a different livery for every event this year.
I didn't expect a Brazilian this weekend for WR2.
Well, there you go.
He's had some spectacular throwback liveries from BMW's archive.
Well, that'll make him popular with the fans.
Yes.
How many teams will run orcas in 2030?
Well, do you mean hypercars?
Yes.
This is very, very interesting.
Top class prototypes is what I want to say there, Nick.
Because I want to call it hypercars.
Yes.
This is very interesting.
Because at the moment they have got four on the goal.
Yes.
The Alpine is still one of theirs, is it?
Alpine.
The Genesis.
Genesis.
Ford, which hasn't raced yet.
The Acura, which is going to stop racing.
Well, it's going to stop racing in IMSA.
I'm going to tell you now, I don't think it'll stop racing.
What's BMW?
BMW is a Delara, the same as the Cadillac.
Cadillac, yes.
Well, I think that's probably as many as they can do at the moment.
Possibly, depending on the new regs.
It's all going to depend on what the new regs are, isn't it?
And we had a chat with Andrew Cotton and John De Geese about this.
We'll catch up with John with another double stint, actually,
before the end of the month.
It's a different situation, isn't it, Nick?
Because they're supporting four different manufacturers,
but ultimately their chassis is exactly the same for all four of them.
It has to be.
It's what's hung on it, around it, and what powers it.
It's different.
But if you have a set of regulations where basically everybody can build their own
if they want to, then there's more freedom in what you can do.
And therefore, that would be more work for everybody concerned?
Yeah, I think also, you think about how they've taken on board
those various manufacturers.
It's been a very steady state.
They've added teams here and added teams there.
They had to build five pairs of chassis and plus spares from scratch
for the same start date, which is a very different requirement
than starting off with a team, adding another team a year later,
perhaps a couple of teams.
That's probably what it is, just sheer capacity to be able to do that
is probably what they're worried about.
The other thing is that even the four that they've done,
they haven't all come along at the same time.
This has been over a five year period.
It's been five or six years.
They say they can't support four teams with a brand new car in the same year.
No, even if they were using the same spine, I think that would be difficult
because you've got to build.
So the Acura was first, wasn't it?
And then everything else has come along.
Wasn't the Alpine first?
No, Acura was first.
The RXOR6 was the first one.
What year was that? 23?
That was the first year of the platform.
Alpine came in the next year, then the Genesis this year,
and then it'll be the Ford next year.
What's McLaren using?
McLaren are using...
That's a very good question.
McLaren are using a Delara, aren't they?
I think so.
Are they using Elysia?
They're using Elysia.
The...
Yes, Delara.
Delara came into my head straight away.
So that'll be the third one for Delara.
Right.
And four by...
four by Orica.
Multimatic still...
Multimatic have still only got Porsche.
Hang on, I take out these new rules.
Ferrari, Toyota and Peugeot
will be able to build their own chassis, won't they?
Correct.
They won't have to use a P2 chassis.
Whatever it is.
Well, it won't be a P2 chassis.
No, it won't be a P2.
P2's changing.
It was never a P2 chassis to start with,
as we were talking about funny enough.
In the classic at the weekend,
because there were some of the early cars...
The P2s are now eligible, aren't they?
Yes.
All sevens are now eligible.
It's incredible.
I mean, the point that I think was being made,
and actually I've now found the article on Sportacar 365,
which is, is it Pierre Taffer?
It is.
Who is...
No, it's Remy Taffer.
Remy Taffer, sorry.
He said, it's not an easy thing to do.
If you look at the likes of Ferrari, Toyota or whomever,
it takes literally hundreds of people to make one car.
We have to be pragmatic.
We can do one or two.
But when it comes to minute and three or four,
the fact is that time is going to go quickly,
and to be fair to everyone by the end of this year,
you should be able to ask any of the competitors
that wish to race in 2030 what's going to be their solution.
Because, and this is the key part of this whole article,
because, says Remy Taffer,
if they haven't got a solution by 2027,
they will not be racing in 2030,
which is very interesting.
But there's nothing to stop any of those people
who are racing now, Nick,
building their own chassis to the new wrecks.
Right.
But it's a question of whether people actually have
the ability to do that,
and whether they have the infrastructure, et cetera, et cetera.
Because building a chassis,
designing and building a chassis is not an easy thing.
It's a very specific thing,
and that's why you have people who are chassis manufacturers.
Now, does that mean that we might see a resurgence
of chassis manufacturers building to the new wrecks?
Because there's no,
as far as I can see from the draft regulations,
there is no mandate to only use
Oracle, Delara, Multimatic, Andor, Leisure,
or indeed anybody else,
because certainly Ferrari, Toyota, Peugeot
won't be using a standardized chassis.
The mandate is that you build your chassis
within a fairly restrictive set of technical regulations.
So could we see a Leisure?
You could see a Leisure?
Could we see a Lola?
You could absolutely see a Lola.
We need to...
A Dome.
Oh, gosh.
I haven't heard that name for a very long time.
Well, I was going to do it the other way.
Perhaps we'll get an Epsilani Skadi as well.
Well, ooh, an Epsilani Skadi.
I remember that.
Would we get a Ginetta?
Possibly.
What are you looking at here?
What about Zaytek?
Is Zotta Froschini?
Well, you see, now that's interesting.
Because right now,
the people think that
is Zotta is likely to come back.
I think they're far more likely
to come back with the new chassis regulations,
but they'll have to build a new chassis.
And the idea is to build,
and we're getting very close to nine o'clock.
Still haven't talked about it.
The idea with the new regulations
is instead of saying,
here's an LMDH car, here's an LMH car,
the idea is saying
here is a set of regulations
to build whatever you can
within that regulation.
And that is going back,
if you like,
before the mandate
of specific chassis manufacturers,
which let's not forget,
you have people like Stracker,
who were building that on LMP2 chassis,
and who were legislated out of existence.
And they had the Russians as well.
Who were the Russians who built the chassis
just before the regulations changed?
They upgraded to a P1, didn't they?
And Jensen ran it.
Yes.
Who were they?
I think that was just badge engineered.
Was it?
No, I know what you mean.
Yes, sorry, yes, I know the one.
It began with B.
That's B.R. Engineering.
B.R. Engineering, yes.
Yes, well done.
But could it be...
That was Lady Gin, wasn't it?
Lady Gin.
Yes.
Could it be...
Could it be a new golden era?
Because the thing is,
if you get in with the manufacturer,
it's not as if, like in the old days,
to make it worthwhile,
in LMP2, for example,
you had to build 12 or 20 or 40
or 100 and whatever it is that Orica have built.
If you get in with the manufacturer
as a luller,
and you build
BYD's chassis,
or Yamaha's chassis,
as they're branded Yamaha in Formula E,
congratulations for the win at the weekend.
Then
you might only build four chassis,
but it's for that person.
But it's built within a very,
very tight set of regulations.
This could be really interesting
come 2030.
But I found that, I found Remy's
that's...
If you haven't got a solution by 2027,
you won't be racing in 2030.
This could be a golden era
for chassis manufacturers.
And where are a lot of chassis manufacturers
here in the UK?
Anyway, we don't have any more time to discuss this,
because it's already after nine.
Would you like to hear
some of my experimental avant-garde poetry?
No?
Okay then. It's midweek motorsport
and still to come.
Well, you know that
we've still got Formula One team by team
from the British Grand Prix
and Nick promises
he won't end under a safety car.
We've got
we've got Peter McKay's rally
report. He was at the ERC,
the European Rally Championships
at the weekend.
We're going to try and squeeze in a bit of a preview
of WeatherTech Sports Car
Championship and
Michelin Pilot Challenge, maybe.
They're both at
Canadian Tire Motorsport
Park at the weekend
and we'll have that live for you.
And it will be him, sir, we talk about next.
Because also
across the border for the visit
to Canada is Mazda
MX5
and that's what we'll be talking about next
here on RS1
and midweek motorsport.
Right, let's kick off the second hour
of midweek motorsport
with
a good friend of ours who we haven't spoken to for
quite a long time. And in fairness
we normally have
Jonathan Applegate from Mazda
in the US in the booth
during some of our races.
We haven't been able to do that
quite as often this year because he's far too busy.
Jonathan, welcome to
midweek motorsport
and to the Airwaves of Radio Shore Limited
again. Already
we are in July and
we're halfway through the wheel and
MX5 could present by Michelin
season. How did that happen?
I know, can you believe it, John?
Every year I say it, but
we get to Petit Le Mans, the banquet
and I'm sitting here reflecting on a season how that just
blew by us.
But what's interesting is every single season
is different.
By some degree of stretch of imagination
and this season is no different.
It's absolutely, you can't script this stuff
can you, John? It's been
really, really different.
It's the beauty of live sport as we've seen
in the football world cup
as much as anything else.
It's always the same in motor racing.
People often say to me,
how do you know what to say?
Have you got somebody giving you notes?
It just happens in front of you
and normally, particularly with
wheel and Mazda MX5 Cup, it tends to be the
least expected thing.
Let's take you back to the off season
and coming into this season.
There is a saying
quite rightly, if it ain't broke
don't fix it.
Much the same for this year as we've
seen in the past.
The series, Jonathan,
is going from strength to strength.
We've got more rookies
in this series than ever before.
You're attracting an international
driver base as well.
We've had one of your British
contenders who was jumping in it
at Mid-Ohio
on the show as well.
Obviously you're biased as a Michael
because I talk about it, but what do you think
it is that keeps people coming to
wheel and Mazda MX5 Cup?
Yeah,
there's a recipe I think for success
but we've talked about this a few times
Jon, where it becomes like,
there are some X factors that
I think are unique to the MX5 Cup series
but we have to start it
on grassroots systems. That's where it all begins.
We're bringing carding kids
and most ambitious racers coming from
maybe even now e-racing
into wanting to become
a road racer and we bring those
kids and young men and women into
our classes, our cars
and our series in grassroots
with the SCCA and with NASA
and we've created a ladder system that
really teased into
MX5 Cup at this point.
For us, we love to see that
success and that success point
from our grassroots systems
but you also have to look at just the growth
and the success of MX5 Cup in and of itself
with IMSA, the community that we've created
the audience, the fanfare
all of those things I think
have really attracted and brought us to a new level
of audience
and even really participation
and let's just
as we've been calling it for a few years now
the new golden era of
sports car racing, we're in it
and I think that also has a lot
to play into with the participation
and just new eyes on sports car racing
in general. So we'll take all
angles and all variables and really
lean into that participation
number. You've actually mentioned something
there which I think we probably
don't talk about enough
because we see
and we talk about in our listeners and viewers
around the world
we call it appointment
to view racing because
on an IMSA weekend
of anything that you might say oh
I'll maybe catch up on that later or
I don't need to watch that practice session
Willa Mazda MX5 Cup
it's not one of those, people want to make
sure they see it and see it live
as it's happening at the racetrack
as well as further afield as well
but you've mentioned
something there about what goes
on behind that and what has led up
to some of these drivers getting there
the international components
being on
the Mazda Motorsport channel, the IMSA
YouTube channel has made
a big difference
as well
and you said it, it's a ladder system
that
really makes
Willa Mazda MX5 a destination
it's not a stepping stone, people say
oh they're just little cars
but they're properly built race cars
and if you want to stay there
and make a career out of it
then absolutely
you can do that and you can
dare our whisper this
because we don't often talk about this
in motor racing but actually
if you're any good at it, you can probably
make a bit of cash as well
absolutely
we're also seeing
and I failed to mention, we're also seeing that on the team side
where the model has now created
that ladder system where we've got grassroots racing teams
who have been fundamental
in the grassroots system
for many many years, have proven their success
have grown racers, have grown
their brand and now they want
to leap into professional racing with MX5 Cup
so there is that choice
if you want to become that
pro level and jump into a destination
location like MX5 Cup
or you can really just
decide you want to maintain
an establishment in grassroots
and I think that's what we're all about
is really meeting our racers right where we're at
and finding support and opportunities and development
and whether that may be
in terms of just boots on the ground and parts
but we really want to come alongside our racers
and our customers to understand what their ambitions are
and really try to carve that path
so for us, we're just confident
in what we've created
and really want to continue to maintain
and find new ways to evolve within that space
but grassroots
it's not going away and we're going to continue
to find ways to grow
that area with all of our
sanctioning bodies
and new ones emerging left and right
so that's really great to see
great partnerships up now with grid life
and with FARA down in the southeast region
Lucky Dog
some of these new sanctioning bodies
and not even fairly new but just
are emerging and have become even more
popular here in the last few years
that really allows us
to take a look at new racers
and diversify
our racing, our traditional
sports car racing as we've seen
is still something that we're going to maintain
but as you know
there is so much talent coming
from all angles of motorsport
it's an
advantage for us to take advantage
to get involved into other genres
and to really look at
who's out there and how we can come alongside
and go and develop those racers
so grassroots is just so important for us
and we'll continue to diversify, continue to grow there
an MX5 Cup
being our crown jewel of gem spec series
we just are so proud of it
and the growth that we've seen
hovering over 40 entries
we'll see
I think Canada's going to probably
tamper with that number a little
but we're going to be over 30 cars going into Canada
so I'm super proud about that as well
but to see the participation
from rounds one now going
into round seven and eight
I just couldn't be more excited
I'll come back to the teamelevement because
I think that's very important
and you brought that as you
I had it written down on me
little sheet of paper to the right here
I'll come back to that in a moment
but I want to look
at some of the names
before we talk about this season in particular
but I want to talk about some of the names
who have won the championship
Steven McAlea
back in 2012 Kenton Cook
in 2014
John Dean
2015
Nathalia Sparks, Nate Sparks
Patrick Gallagher
Brian Ortiz, Gresham Wagner
Jared Thomas
Jeremy Fletcher
those
type of names
and
a couple of those
at least in fact three of those I think
have gone on to become team owners
and run multiple cars
in the championship laterally
effectively using
the
the prize money to set up a business
now
that's not a usual
model
for going motor racing normally
is finding money, paying it over
and finding more money the next year
and paying it over
that's an extraordinary
thing that you've managed to do there
and surely that speaks to
the
character
of the championship
that people take that $250,000
and whatever else they've won through the season
nowadays by the way
and want to reinvest
it back with you and build
their own business out of it that must make you
absolutely delighted
absolutely it's
literally the racing dream that we've seen
we were just talking about this the other week
some of us internally
some of these names that you just called out
and even the
father son combinations of
those that have started literally as
the smallest team with a one car
gooseneck trailer
go sticker on the side
see success
grow race by race
stick your head in there continue to compete
and eventually see success
win a championship and then turn that money
right around continue to grow little by little
and now you
now clearly we see
teams like McAleer
teams like Jared Thomas racing who literally came
from exactly what I just explained
one car team him and his dad
Dave and have turned it into
an absolute phenomenal
race team across different series
different OEs they've done they're doing
so much for the sport
and I think that's part of it too is
we're super proud to see and it's
the dream come true to see these
teams and we always talk to the teams and we tell them
they're the lifeblood of our series and that's
something we're very serious about they're
absolutely the ones on the front lines
bringing our racers in
really being our mouthpiece
for Mazda for their brand
and the sport in our series
so I think without them
we don't succeed and so for us
to see the amount of teams that we have
now at our record almost you know hovering
over 11 sometimes 12 teams
and of those 12
5 you know call it
have been a formidable
teams in our series for many many years
that have come from the basics
and have evolved and grown
and moved into these
these big giant game running 5
plus cars on a round
it's such a
testament to the success of our series but it just
makes me reflect back and makes me proud
to see the affinity that these
teams have for the Mazda brand
the passion the loyalty that they have for the racing
and at the end of the day
the racing and the product speaks for itself because
if the teams
we're seeing those flaws or seeing those
inefficiencies seeing
inconsistencies and leadership but also
just quality of product on track
and away from then
we wouldn't have that you can
throw the money at it all you want but at the end of the day
you have to have that quality and that
consistency and that's something that
I think has really proven the test of time
and brings in a lot of these fundamental
racers and it's amazing to see these
you know I call now pioneers of our
sport and of our series because
you got guys like Chad McCumbie and Steven McAleer
Jared Thomas who's running
three different styles of cars
and racing you know even guys like Tyler Gonzalez
who maybe hasn't won something yet
for us but what a phenomenal
talent I mean he has championship
caliber Weston Workman
right didn't win a championship now on
doing amazing things in the
MSL ladder system yeah you know
there's just the names and the lists go on
obviously Connor Zillich that we like to throw out
so much oh yes I was going to ask you about
Connor he's kind
he's kind of done all right isn't he he's going to get his
face on a red bull can
with his team
with his teammates
Shane von Giesburg and I think you can
count that as a success can't you
I think so getting
your face stamped on a can
and signing that deal
to become a full-time cup driver
in a matter of this first four or
five years of pro racing
and he won the
shootout didn't he
Connor won the shootout in
21
21 won the shootout in 21 turned it
around by a landslide by the way his talent
was just so amazing now mind you
there was some good talent in that class as well
we had a guy by the name of
by the name of Thomas
who also had seen a
lot of success he was our runner up scholarship
that year so both of those guys
have done amazing things
I was just looking before
I spoke to you before
we start the show this evening I was
looking down some of the shootout skip
Barber class winners Elliot
Skier won back in 2011
when Michael Cooper won the championship
Elliot Skier was a classic
Le Monde at the weekend
and has carved himself out
a tremendous career
we had Joy Biggs who won
when Christian Shimchak won the championship
in 2013 Kenton Cook
was the skip Barber class winner
by the way Glen McGee who we
still see Celine Roulin
in 2017
in you've mentioned Connor
Gillick, Jeanette Cicero
and Weston Workman, Michael Carter
in there as well
but the one that I'd completely forgotten
and in fairness it wasn't a
shootout winner it was a skip Barber class
winner in 2015 Robbie Foley
was the skip Barber winner
and I'd completely
forgotten about
now he's done alright from
from Shelf as well
it just goes to proof though doesn't it
what you learn
with Mazda MX-5
cup racing you never forget
you look at those drivers and all of those
drivers that I've mentioned there
when it comes to close
quarters racing Jonathan
they're not intimidated by it
at all because that's effectively
what they grew up with
absolutely what I've
heard unanimous from
all racers who have moved around
and by the way Aaron Seacour
serious PR manager and I
and others have sort of kicked around
let's really come up with that
number what is that number of how many
racers have advanced and continue
to run at a professional level
in motorsports since the inception
of MX-5 cup and the number
is in the 30s
mind you we're in season 21
now so you know we've still got
active drivers from
you know a decade or two ago
that are still heavily involved in the sport
all the way till now fresh starters
and two and three years of their season
a sophomore or you know
a third year rate pro racer
and moving and advancing
and doing an amazing thing so
that's it that's just really
cool to see but what I'm hearing
is of unanimously is
the skill set that you develop
and that the racing and the situation
of awareness that you earn
as a racer in MX-5 cup
always translates
to other racing and to advanced
classes and series and
you know the next levels of pro
what sometimes doesn't
translate which is very interesting
and it's always cool to see as we see it
play out first hand in these races
is when someone that has been racing
at a higher level or in other series
decides to come race with us
and wants to see
test the waters and see what kind of
success they can bring and it's always interesting
to see that dynamic and that
paradigm between those have raced with
us for even a year
but multiple years and moving over
into evolving and seeing immediate
success versus the challenge
of coming into it if you have had
zero MX-5 cup experience.
I think it's very
brave when
I come from an era
where cross what I like
to call cross-code racing
was far more prevalent
so you would see the likes of the
brilliant quick Vic Elford
doing
formula racing, a bit of rallying
then jumping into a Moncard
the brilliant Jim Clark
would do similar things
Mario Andretti who started on the dirt
etc etc and sometimes multiple
different events over a weekend
and different disciplines
it's so specialised nowadays
to be able to do that particularly at the
highest level it is so hard
and I think it's brave when people
decide to do that in a championship
that is so
developed
as Willem
Mazda MX-5 because everybody
knows each other they know generally
how they race and for somebody to come
into that it can easily upset
the flow
a little bit but it tends
not to and I think it's really good
and I know that you've got a long line
of
highly
experienced drivers these
you know having said
Borda and Earl Bamba
earlier this season
I think they're good sports
by the way they did great
besides not making the podium
I think talking about not upsetting the
apple cart they came in there and
really stayed in the
front pointed end of the field
so who goes to them for even doing that
with the legacies that they have
I would assume nothing more
than them if not winning but
as we talked about there's been others
that have not been able to do that so
great to see them do that. I had a long chat with
Parker Cleagham and after
he did it I think
Road America he jumped to
I mean go talk about jumping
into the nest of
Vipers one of the hardest tracks
to jump into particularly for
MX-5 racing he just said
when can I do it again
he just wanted to go back
let's talk a little bit about this season
if I'm here Jonathan
half way through the year
you've got to be delighted
the racing as ever has been
great we kind of take that for granted
you talked about those grid numbers
showing no signs
of being depleted
at any stage
I mean the truth is we're
we're in a global
environment where things are more
difficult and where
money and finance and time
are all
resources that have to be
thought about
when you're employing them
particularly at this level
of racing what's your
take on the first half of the 26 season?
Well you know
you would almost think my response to
those points would be
how careful we're being
in terms of
the expenses
and we're always examining the
model and the financial
impact that
racing brings to these teams
and drivers but
it's just amazing to see the participation
and I think that is like
the dynamic
or the paradigm there as well as between
the
overinflated and sometimes
excessive and egregious costs of motorsport
but just due to impact of economy
but how
the passion
and the excitement
and the competition has really almost
out driven
that narrative so for us we see that as
well and again back to the model that we already discussed
grass roots and the excitement around them so
all those things that play into it but
the first half has really has just
proven a record
breaking season so far and we've got
45 cars
at Daytona to start
the Rolex 24 Daytona to kick off the season
series record
we went into St. Pete which we usually
always see some level of a drop off
and pretty significant quite honestly
as this Rolex Daytona is so popular
so you get a lot of regional racers
some locals
we did not see a drop off
so maybe two cars drop off two racers
from St. Pete still hovering
around the 42 43 mark
and then went into mid Ohio
and still around the 40
so for us as we see trends
manifest across seasons
usually by midpoint of the season
you're hovering around
a 25 to 40% loss at entries
and participation just due to championship
standings and the way that things play out
other racing going on to your point
expenses
and that financial model that some really
have to contain and hold on to the funding
to make sure that they have enough to
to maybe finish it like put themselves
on the map going into shootout season
and then start a season next year so
there's all these considerable and thoughts around
how far do I go through this
and which races do I choose to race
this year we're just not seeing that
it's just some degree always but we're seeing
a consistency there
and over half the field
rookies I mean that to me is amazing
that's a record for us like 21 rookies
across the
the whole season so far and mind you
rookies that are actually
highly successful we're not
seeing a lot of mistakes
we're not seeing a lot of
disconnect from the quality of racing that we're used to
so you'll see these rookies really running
in the top five we have two rookies
running in the top five Ethan Jacobs and Frankie
Baroso who at one point I believe
Frankie was even
in top at least top two maybe
three of the championship before
mid Ohio so
that's amazing in and of itself
and then you know out just outside of the top
10 we've got a handful of rookies
hovering so
from top to bottom
veterans sort of what you're
used to seeing Gresham the Gresham
Wagner's the Jerry Thomas's
you know Jeremy Fletcher now who's just
Mr. Consistent it seems
and then some of these
new names coming in that are really
proving a point immediately that they
their name is to be heard and then we can't
forget about Justin Ataconas that well
for me I think we've always seen that pace
but have never really seen it all
come together and this year has
has proven that he's putting it all together
and he's serious about winning
a championship so it's just
all the way around this whole season so far
and you know we have a lot to work on and we'll continue
to have
regular dialogue with our teams and our key
stakeholders to maintain consistency
and keep doing what we need to do to
to prove success but
just overall really exciting season
and I hope to see the second half
prove the success of the first
I was talking to Justin Ataconas
on this program a couple of weeks
ago and
we were talking about the rookie situation
and I think this goes back
actually to what you were saying
about your ladder system
I remember a time when in most championships
pretty much all championships a rookie
would come in and for the first season
whether it was
an open wheel series British Formula
3 or British
Formula Renault or something like that or even in
Will and Mazda MX-5 Cup
they would kind of just mind their own
business a little bit and learn
that first year, keep out the way
make sure they didn't upset anybody
make sure that there was going to be
no feuds going on
well that kind of got blown out
the water a few years ago
I remember Sam Peely challenging for
the championship Connor Zillich
as well in his first year
but what Justin said
and I think this is a credit
to you and to the organization
behind the scenes and that ladder system
also to the race officiating
I have to say because
the best refs, the best umpires
are the ones you never talk about
but
the confidence with which the rookies
are racing side by side
the respect that is given
and
received
by the veterans
I think that's a massive part of this championship
where people like Ethan and Frankie
John Salerno
sitting just outside the top
turn as well as Mark Novak as well
all of those guys can come in
and mix it at the front of the field
with
confidence, not over confidence
and that the guys around them
don't have to think oh what are they going to do next
I know they're a rookie
I think that's a massive part of how
this championships developed in the last
let's call it five or six years to be honest
Jonathan
with
absolutely and you made a good point
the race control
and the way that the officiating
has really orchestrated successful
racing on track
I cannot
not mention that
it's been impressive to watch that team
I usually
go up in the race control for our rounds
and I can tell you
there's not one round where it doesn't look
like the whole room is doing cardio
it is
we keep that room busy
Randy Buck as the race director among all of the
race officials
that are in there and really helping
determine calls and
assess what's going on on track
it's really impressive
to watch that room work
and they've done a phenomenal job of keeping
our racing clean
and really trying to do the right thing
as much as possible so kudos to that group
and what we've been able to do there
but
it's really
really cool to watch
the rookies and the dynamic
on track
the dichotomy of this all is
how vicious it is and how aggressive
it is on track yet
as soon as the checkered flag
flies
you got guys from opposing teams hugging each other
in victory lane
congratulating
you got tools from other teams being shared
when someone's in a rough situation
or late night
race setups that no one
saw coming because they just gotten to
trouble the round before and
another team mates helping
that's part of the value
of our community that proves its point
on track in a way that really allows
that
congruency
and that integration across teams
that feels like a family
and I think that's the way people approach it
vicious on track
but whatever happened
on track lets forgive and forget
and we'll move forward and I think that's a special part of our series
ultra competitive
ultra competitive on track but I mean
even to your point there
spare cars being loaned out
I'm sure for financial consideration
but when it's somebody else that you're battling
within the championship even to make that
available is brilliant right finish off
with a couple of things we've got
to come we've got
road Atlanta at the end of the season before that
it's Indianapolis motor speedway
before that it's VIR always one of my
favorites and this weekend of course
another up and down natural terrain
road circuit Canadian time motor sport park
which could almost
have been designed for
wheel and master mx5 cup
oh what a fast track
technical very
very challenging track we saw
a lot of great racing last year and the year
prior so we're excited to go back to CTMP
we've got a lot of fans waiting
for us to that that track packs it out
and I think there's
just as much mx5 cup race fans as
there any other series there so I'd love to go
to CTMP and interact
with the fans and see how excited they get
when we get on track
we'll have that for you of course both of the races
share out of joining me in the
IMSA global broadcast center
for all of the action
on the master channel
the master racing channel and also on the
IMSA
official YouTube channel and we'll have the audio
for you as well if you
are a little bit bandwidth challenged or you're moving
around you don't want to be taking your eyes off the screen
off the road rather than watch the
screen so we'll have that on IMSA radio
RS2 got to ask you about
next year I know it's bizarre as we're
basically coming to the halfway point
of this season
I said if it in Braw don't fix
it in terms of this year
and we're steaming through the year
plans for
20 27
Jonathan anything you can tell us
yeah nothing formal that I
can announce just yet we're still working with
IMSA and the other key stakeholders in the
series to really define
a the most exciting
schedule but I can tell you
with the you know we're getting
to a final at that scene schedules
announced across the board you know with IMSA
and some other spec series so we really want to
announce before petite as
we traditionally have in the last couple years we want
to get ahead of it because there will be
some changes but I think they're going to be
some very exciting
changes John very
exciting changes so I'm
excited to announce when we finally
get you're waiting on some final
last considerations and approvals
but once we get those
you'll see a lot of
some of the same tracks and I think you're
going to see some news so for us it's exciting
and we're always going to be mixing it up and
keeping the strength of schedule as
one of our top priorities so I'm excited to
announce when we get to that point John
and thanks for your time a busy leading
up to this weekend will you pass
pass our best please as
as enthusiasts as race funds
apart from anything else
apart from me calling the race
it's an absolute joy to be involved in this
series I thoroughly enjoyed it in the
past and I was delighted when it came back
to the
IMSA Paddock as well
it's going from strength to strength
and that doesn't happen by accident
Jonathan thank you very much indeed
for joining us Jonathan Applegate
from Wheeling Mazda MX5
Cup and from Mazda
Jonathan have a great weekend
thank you John it's always a pleasure
great having you and great hearing your voice
on calling those races for us
all the action this weekend as we say
Tim Gray is up in London midweek
motorsport series 21
episode 25 where to next Tim
starting for Nick Damon's team by team
review of the British Grand Prix hello
again Nick
Hooray!
I got one in
you did we're going to have to rush through
this today unfortunately
really? yes we don't have a lot of time
we've still got to get Peter Mackay in
with rally report and
preview motorsport this weekend
and try and get pointless in
so let's start
with Aston Martin again
they're rubbish keep going
let's move on to Williams
quite rubbish
yeah I think
they have really fallen off the back
of the midfield they are
I think as we said before they are behind
on they're heavy
they seem to be behind on
development it's really
a very poor show they are apparently
going to have some upgrades
that they've been completely left behind by the rest of the midfield
and only Carlos Sainz is excellent
driving it's given even brief moments
in the sun they need to think about the whole time
Carlos Sainz had a unique
penalty at the end of the race
to hear about this no
so he got penalised a lap
for unlapping himself when he shouldn't
have done because
with the safety car at the end of the safety car
all these cars can unlap themselves
yeah but
he'd gone in but
when he actually when the actual
called
unlapped themselves had been made
he temporarily wasn't a lap behind
because of the unique
design of the pit lane
he decided to come
in half way through the safety car to get
some new tyres
as he came in he obviously
went ahead of the train of cars and
ended up crossing the virtual line
in the pit lane ahead of Charlotte
Claire so he wasn't a lap down
so when they
two seconds later he was a lap down again
and when he counted the pit he was a lap down
and so when he went
but on the official time in scoring he wasn't
a lap down so he wasn't allowed to unlap himself
and then he did unlap himself and they said
no we've got to give you a lap again
everyone could tell it was a mistake
because no one got a fine or anything
it didn't affect anything but it was just like
a situation that
was in pit lane where you can actually go fast
in the lead at some point
I think it's Cadillac next
yeah I mean
it's hard
to play to Cadillac but the thing
I said before the interesting thing is that Sergio Peres
really is doing quite well this year
he looked like a spent force
two years ago
Bob is coming back with kind of a renewed vigor
and he's putting in a very good performance so
surprisingly I think better than
Valtteri Bottas they did manage to get
the cars to the end which is
I think both cars finished the Grand Prix
on the lead lap obviously helped the fact that they could unlap themselves
you know
which is a progress there
a little bit off the pace
it's probably not going to come this year
but just turning laps is a positive
though they were reporting the usual
over the hot brakes
yeah it was I think an encouraging weekend for them
that means it's not a has then
yeah not for an encouraging weekend for has
they have been left behind
by elements of the midfield
so they are now scrapping
just not looking likely to get any points
they are behind three other teams
who are trying to pick up a couple
of points that are available
yeah I mean it's not what would say
positively about has they just not done any divert
the cars which started okay hasn't
divert very much
Espanolcon was bid out of sorts this weekend
Oli Bevin might have been
a bit lucky if he hadn't been punted by
Alex Albon during the first
part of the race but the real pace wasn't there
and obviously whilst finishing
orders and taking any things
everyone was running nose to tail
behind the safety car they were actually
quite a long way off and it was interesting
if you've watched the timing they were kind of dropping back off
so I think Bevin was driving pretty well
Ocon's driving okay but the cars
were just not given men to work with
so that brings us onto Alpine
every one of the teams we still
have to talk about scored points
and both Alpine scored points
yes that was the advantage of course
of a large number of the top teams
we've come to
we've come to how luck plays a part
but of course we didn't last week
we had all eight of the top eight
finishing and this week only five did so
there were five points paying for other teams to pick up
due to the
problems for Piastri, Antonelli
and
for Stappen of course who didn't finish
and two of those were
picked up by Alpine
10th and 9th Franco
was ahead of Pierre Gattis that was mainly
due to
a slightly botched pit stop for
Gasly so he ended up falling
behind Colopin to be running very close together
but still he's been noticeably
quicker than Franco recently so it's a bit of a return
to form
you get both your cars
and the points in the midfield normally that's a really good score
and a chance to move forward in your
respective positions but of course other teams
scored more
Audi
so exactly what happened
has happened to the last couple of races is that
Gabriol Bortoletto finished behind
all the finishing top four
teams and the racing balls but luckily
this time to him other people broke down
so Gabi managed to get
himself in the eighth place but you know
it sounds like they're taking the mickey bit
basically he's doing what you can do with the car
you know this whole concept of out driving
out driving the car isn't possible
you can drive the car to 100% but you can't out drive it
it's not possible to out drive the car
it's not how it works
so he is obviously
getting close to 100% what the Audi can deliver
it could deliver a position of being
a few seconds off the racing balls
and this time in four points
Halkenberg
didn't finish
I missed what was problem with Halkenberg's car
in all the excitement so I just know he had a
mechanical issue I don't know exactly what it was
but he retired so they still haven't quite got to the finish
but have scored four points
which has tripled their points for the season
let's move on to RB
6
once again RB is proving to be
comfortably
the class of the field
after the top 14
they picked up 14 points
this resurgence of form has meant they're now right up
with our opinion
shot off ahead of everyone else in the early races
that battle between fifth and sixth is quite good
Lawson beat Limbal again
which is good for Lawson
but there was some very very bad news
in the Formula 2 of course
do you want the bad news from the Formula 2 was?
no
the Bulgarian
who is Solov
one both races
and he is the person
and he is the person
well he couldn't get a pole from both of them because it was a reverse grid race
he is the person
who is strongly tipped to be getting Lawson's job
he is red ball
he looks really good
and it is a strong tip
that Solov will be taking Lawson's job
regardless of the fact that Lawson is now doing quite a good job
because I suppose if you sit there
and you go right
what is the point of racing balls
and the point should be
to provide drivers to drive for
red ball
Lawson is never going back there again is he?
no
Limbal is matching
just below Lawson with very little experience
he is young
so he is obviously someone you are going to bang
he is looking absolutely brilliant
in Formula 2
he is going to come through
but Lawson's performance is good
and it does mean that he may well avoid
the fate that fell
and other teams may be interested in him
because he is driving really well
so I don't think he is going to be at racing balls next year
but hopefully for Liam he has got to drive somewhere on the grid
red ball the next
yes
do you remember what I said after the Austria accident
that I thought
it was very convenient when you run
under contract negotiations
to claim that your star driver didn't make a mistake
it was entirely a mechanical form
for his wing
well I don't know about you
but I watched the replay
of Max Verstappen's problem going into cops
and I did not see
the rear wing not attaching
I saw the rear wing swinging down
and attaching
now
he then got a bit of tanky on
he didn't catch it with worn old tyres
obviously
he is the greatest driver ever to TM
as far as red ball are concerned
certainly not going to criticise him
but I think again
people just cut him a little bit too much
I think he is probably
he could have gone a bit slow
the car was wobbly
perhaps it is the cynic in me
in thinking that perhaps he has contributed
to these problems
and they are not entirely car problems
but obviously
I will probably get a lot of dutch hate mail
but it just seems to me
rather convenient
visually
I couldn't see any issue with that
it attached back quite easily
it was obviously back in its position
there was no difference between previous laps
but if the car was becoming unstable because of tyre wear
and he pushed it a little bit
that is when you come off
if you override the grip
you are going to fall off regardless
whether the wing attaches or not
and yes
the reattachment will make the things more
nervous absolutely
but just saying that
could be completely wrong just putting it out there
part of that he has driven pretty good weekend
he was not qualified by Hadjar
in the sprint race
but immediately there was an excuse
from Red Bull saying Hadjar only qualified him
because he had a powertrain problem
so there is a lot of protecting of their star driver
who is still very
I am not saying he is not a very good driver
I am just saying it is interesting now
that he is unable to
make a mistake because they are
desperately worried about upsetting him
McLaman
didn't really do very much
Norris maximised
his weekend
both in the sprint and in the main race
he had 16,000 fans in his stand
and they were all bright yellow
and they all went hey go and land
the car was just not
it wasn't an alien to do any more than that
I suppose you would say
you drove really well
no I didn't
was he a good shot?
they all fell short
nearly all fell short of the ground stand
so if you think the front row
of that ground stand is probably
4 or 5 metres above
the ground
I am pretty certain if it is Red Bull
they will blame the gun
I would say it is a driver technique
Oscar Piastri calls
got squashed
between the
we never saw a replay
apparently because
Oscar is rear facing camera
at the time of the accident
in that third corner
squished his nose
changing his nose these days is a lot longer
because of course it is the actuators
for the straight line mode
he actually ended up in 11th half
just didn't quite make points
as he called up
his race was affected over at that point
he was a little bit slower than Norris
they are taking turns aren't they
one race Norris is faster than Piastri
the next race is the other way around again
so I predict in Belgium in 2 weeks time
Piastri will be faster than Norris
because it is his turn
the 2 very equally matched drivers that's why
Mercedes?
well yeah I mean this is a really interesting
because it does appear that
the one personal
one thing that can stop
Kimi Antonelli winning the world championship
is actually not Kimi Antonelli or George Russell
but actually Mercedes and their reliability
in issues
as they drove a fantastic weekend
he was comprehensive fast and Russell again
this must be really giving Russell heebie jeebies
he must be how on earth am I going to
get anywhere near this teenage phenom
the fact they didn't get a hat full of
points was in tying down to a kind of a freak
sort of breakage you likely went over a curve
and it's like a serrated curve
because when the curves and motorbikes go on
they're not allowed to be serrated
which broke the wheel shield
and that was really interesting what happened then
because you could see that complete
blockage of the aero on one side
actually made the car unable to steer
in a straight line
it took a while to work out what it was
by the time they worked out what it was
they had to cover the pits twice
Kimi had gone off the track
because he still had steering problems too many times
got a penalty that penalty wouldn't be quite so severe
they hadn't had a safety car
it just you know all went wrong from
in the race but he would have won that race
he was comfortably going to get past
Charlotte Claire but if some butts and maybes
but what it has done of course is tighten the
championship for everybody
especially for George Russell now George
was off the pace of Kimi
he wasn't awful, I've seen a lot of
very negative things about George
he had his own bad luck during the race
where he was battling hard with
to stop him in a third place
and he had to go have extra stop
for a puncture
so he was coming
so he then came back from that
obviously the removal of Antonelli
in the supplementary between third and then obviously
Thrive putting Hamilton in
made him second, yes he got second
was he lucky? I don't think his second was particularly lucky
the lucky bit was that Antonelli broke
that was the lucky bit
that portion of 18 points nearly is now 25
points and which is convenient one win
awfully
the problem is that Antonelli is quicker
in the moment so Russell needs to find a
way of being faster quite quickly
and finally Ferrari
well as you remember I told you
in last week's program there was
absolutely no chance that Ferrari would be
competitive at the circuit because
of their deployment and engine issues
and in the driver's briefing
in the driver's briefing on Thursday
Lewis Helm said there was no chance they were
going to be any good at the race because they
were 0.6 or 0.2 slow on the straight
and then they became
the team to challenge Ferrari and
over one lap
obviously Hamilton picked up the pole
lap in the sprint he ran well
in the sprint he just in the end
he couldn't hold back the faster
Antonelli with seven
points up and Charlotte Kerr looked like he has done
for past five or six races very second
rate now something happened over
over the course
of about three hours after the sprint race
I'm not sure what Charles did
whether he perhaps found
an effigy of someone to stab with something
but suddenly he just woke up
the season woke up in three hours
stuck the thing right towards the front
and ahead of Hamilton
for the race in the main
race itself he was
comprehensively quicker than Hamilton in the first
part of the race he was
you know
after they both jumped Antonelli
and he got a decent lead he wasn't going to win
at the end of the day but he was not going to lose by much
which is pretty impressive against a very
powerful Mercedes
Hamilton
apparently was a little bit slower in the main race
because he had taken some front wing out of the car
thinking he was going to oversteer and then he induced
understeer which is why he was having problems doing
the clear speed, the clear drive
absolutely perfectly for the entirety of the race
and then got that little bit of
good fortune you need which was Antonelli's problem
and one for the first time in 20 months
I'm sure that would give him a huge boost of confidence
it must get a huge boost of confidence to Ferrari as well
he won two of the last three races
they are the team that's picking up the pieces
which in previous Mercedes
dominance years had normally been Red Bull
who were there picking up the pieces but this time it's
Ferrari so it obviously keeps the pressure of everyone
everyone's got a bit closer to
Kim Antonelli and we go
to
Belgium in two weeks time
and that was Nick Damon's team battle review of the British
won three
Welcome to Rally
Report here on Midweek Motor
Sport with me Peter
Makai. Last weekend
we saw the European Rally Championship
visit the beautiful city
of Rome for the third round
of the 2026 season
and I was delighted
to be a part of the Rally TV team
once again interviewing the drivers
at the stage end in the very
heat of battle often
just a couple of hundred metres
after crossing the finish line of the
stage it's one of the great pleasures
to walk up the car arrives
at the stop line the brakes are often
actually quite literally on fire
brake dust
going everywhere, heat just
radiating off the car
and then you walk around you open the door
and then you go and the drivers
already got their helmet off and they look like they've just driven
down from the shops
it's galling really but
an amazing opportunity
nonetheless the one that I
really really enjoy
and this round of the European Rally Championship
was
well to start with it was a record
entry in the top category
39 entries
in the top category, certainly the biggest
there's ever been seen in the R5
and Rally 2 era and maybe even
overall in the entire
history of the European
Rally Championship
with drivers coming from a few different
places we had our ERC
regulars like Temo
Suninin, Andrea Mabellini
Miko Marchik last year's
champion Simone Tempestini, Will
Crichton and many many
others but also
we had the local Italian
championship stars we had
Andrea Krugnola the
three time Italian
champion we had Gian Domenico
Basso five time
Italian champion and of course
About this episode
Scott Dixon’s shock move from Ganassi to McLaren sparks debate over whether it’s truly “the biggest announcement in motorsport” or just smart timing as team dynamics shift. The hosts dig into IndyCar standings, contract speculation, and the ripple effects for other drivers, including Christian Lundgaard and Felix Rosenqvist. The show also tees up a British Grand Prix team-by-team review, a rally report, and a major Mazda MX-5 Cup interview tied to the CTMP/IMSA weekend. Expect news, previews, and plenty of lively fan chat.
Original notes
The team looks at Indycar’s driver merry-go-round, Peter Mackay looks back at the Rally Roma Capitale and Nick Daman gives his team by team review of the British Grand Prix.
Midweek Motorsport
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