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The Motorsport Brief | Baku blues as F1 heats up

The Motorsport Brief | Baku blues as F1 heats up

Rusty's Garage Sep 24, 2025 16 min
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About this episode

The latest Motorsport Brief dives into the thrilling developments of the 2025 F1 season, focusing on the Baku Grand Prix and its implications for the championship race. Discussion highlights include Oscar Piastri's challenging weekend, Max Verstappen's steady rise, and Carlos Sainz's impressive podium with Williams. Guests Matt Hickey and Rusty also touch on Christian Horner's substantial payout and future prospects, as well as predictions for the upcoming Singapore Grand Prix. The episode balances analysis with personal anecdotes, making it a captivating listen for F1 fans.

Topics: baku grand prix oscar piastri max verstappen carlos sainz christian horner payout singapore grand prix predictions team dynamics red bull performance driver lineups
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Welcome to the Motorsport Brief, the 2025 F1 story just keeps delivering.
Is the title fight about to go from a two-horse race to three?
Hi everybody, we'll talk Max Verstappen, a tough weekend for Oscar Piastri, a Carlos
Science Williams podium, and an unbelievable payout for Christian Horner with Matt Hickey
from Codesports in just a moment.
Have you checked out Mark Winterbottom's latest episode?
He came back on for a short cast last week where we talked about the Ben 500, his return
to the podium there, a best-selling book of his, and stirring triple M's Billy Brownless,
quite a funny story with Mark's business move into bakeries.
Now we also caught up with Jadno Jader on the road, the hard road that he has walked to
a career in professional motorsport and why he feels like he's there now.
He and Ryan Wood did a really good job at Taylen Bend, hopefully they have a good run
at Bathurst.
That is a great chat, and many of you were very supportive of Jadon's continued climb
on some of the social media posts we did too, so thank you for that.
Now to a Baku or Azerbaijan debrief, a Singapore pre-brief, Matt Hickey has been really measured
around the F1 conversations that we have had this year.
I owe him a case of beer at the very least because he has taken another break at Codesports
to come back on.
Thank you, mate.
No, I mean, had to this week, Rusty, what a wild weekend we just had.
Didn't we all, I think we felt the collective Australian sigh right around the country on
Sunday night for Oscar, high-pressure game, you know that it happens, but he hasn't really
had a race weekend like that all year.
Yeah, it was surprising, although I think in our last conversation we both kind of thought
that for Lando and Oscar there was going to be a couple of hiccups along the way.
We've been around, we've been around F1 long enough to know that it's never just smooth
sailing unless maybe your 2023 Max Verstappen, there's always something happens along the
journey.
And so in hindsight, looking at it now, the damage wasn't too big for Oscar because he
only lost a few points to his tight championship rival in Lando and we'll get to Max a little
bit later.
But at the time, I tell you what, there was, it was an interesting time to be watching
down and sitting on the couch taking all of that in.
I was stressed.
Yeah, not alone.
I mean, the start, the jump start was awkward and so was the subsequent crash.
Can I come to Oscar's ability, I feel, to quickly rebound from situations like this?
And I reckon we'll be perhaps in the weeks ahead talking about the way he's dealt with
it rather than the actual kind of Baku blew itself.
His ability to process things like this, to park it and move on is pretty good, isn't
it?
Yes, certainly.
I think what epitomized all of that and what symbolized that the best was those pictures
of him sitting trackside with his feet up, had the screen to watch along with the race
and he was just taking it all in.
He wasn't off in the corner sulking like we know some drivers sometimes do.
He was just happy to then be taking in the race because that was just what had happened
to him.
So I think that to me was a really good sign for him because it again shows that ability
and we'll find out in Singapore in about a week and a half that his ability just to move
on from it because what's done is done.
He can't go back in time now and not fall start.
He can't not run into the wall.
So he should be able to bounce back quickly and I think based off what we saw, it's good
signs for Oscar despite a really tough weekend.
Can I expand on your point about Lando a little bit?
That's a bit of a get out of jail free card for Oscar in some respects, minimal dint in
his points lead as you said there.
Will we look back on that moment for Lando and say, hey, massive missed opportunity there
to capitalise?
Yeah, potentially.
I mean, you only picked up the six points.
And I guess the good thing for Lando mentally now is he might see a chink in the armour
of Oscar.
Oscar has been pretty faultless throughout this 2025 season.
Now he might see a chink in the armour that lead is back down to just a single weekend,
a single race.
So maybe mentally there is a barrier that Lando has pushed through, but he will look back
at least across the next week and a half before we get to Singapore and say, even if I pushed
maybe not even into the top three, but into fourth, fifth, was there a bigger opportunity
for me to really crunch into that gap?
Because all of a sudden as we start to roll along a bit, the races led fewer and fewer
races and fewer, fewer opportunities for you to be able to buy back all those points.
The person who could make a difference here in the final outcome, and I can see you nodding
and you already agree, is Max Verstappen.
He trails Lando by 44 points now.
Now that is a decent number to overcome, but I have colleagues already saying to me,
write Max off, certainly in that fight for second at your peril.
Do you agree with that?
Yes, somehow we have underestimated Max Verstappen, which is quite remarkable to do considering
his resume, but he's just quietly creeping up, creeping up, creeping up and they'll be
seeing this in-fighting potentially within McLaren and we've seen the team orders in
previous races, etc, etc, and Max just continues to post good results, continues to be right
up the front.
The other thing that could be a positive from an Australian perspective for Oscar Piastri
is if Max Verstappen starts taking some wins, then that really reduces Lando's maximum points
that he can gather moving in to the back end of the season.
So if Oscar can hang around Max and be third to his first or second to his first or vice
versa, all of a sudden there's less points on offer for Lando to close that gap as well.
That chance to exploit that, there's probably another part to that and that's the rebound
of Red Bull really, since Christian Horner has left on others, there's been some concerted
effort around aerodynamics, particularly a new floor and making sure they get the analysis
of that right so they know where they're going with the car and so on.
Laurent Mekki is there now in that team principle role.
I mean they're showing in recent races a reversal in form that perhaps many of us didn't see
coming.
Yeah, Rusty, I always thought that there had to be a loser within a breakup, but you look
at these two parties, Red Bull, their performance have bounced back and Christian Horner's walking
away with a room at 80 million pounds just quietly over the next few years.
And he's free to help out another team in 2026.
So it's a win-win in terms of that separation, but yeah, Red Bull, what a bounce back for
them.
Yuki being there and thereabouts as well, he's starting to show a few glimpses of what
we've seen.
The fascinating thing, and there was an interesting point of discussion in the commentary as well,
was actually with the racing balls coming through, in previous years there would have
been an ask to switch positions in that spot where Yuki was.
Not this year because racing balls have been so strong as well, and that's a sign of the
whole program really starting to thrive again and be back to what we are used to them being.
We'll come to Liam and Yuki in a moment.
Let's go to Christian Horner.
You have covered lots of big sports and no doubt stories about lots of big sports payouts
over time.
The numbers vary anywhere between 52 million quid and 100 million, depending upon which
story you read.
He's free to play as you say from 2026 onwards.
This is up there with top flight CEOs or Premier League coaches when they're showing the door.
It's a huge payday, isn't it?
Massive, extraordinary money.
We're talking Australian dollars upwards of 150 million Australian to put that into context.
It is quite remarkable and that's not to bring him on board, that's to get him out the door.
So you're not paying that excess to try and bring someone in or bring them across from
somewhere else.
It's quite remarkable that the ability now for him to go elsewhere in 2026 is the part
that I find really fascinating as well because he could become a media competition as of
what six months from now.
So that's another fascinating part of that.
So not only are Red Bull forking over a big lump sum of cash, they might also have to
go toe to toe with Christian in 2026.
Which he would love.
Where could you see him turning up?
And people say that in the wake of what's happened, he would only want to go somewhere
where he could have a stake in something.
Despite the big payout, Formula One teams are worth a lot of money now.
I mean, kind of starting price is a billion.
I think McLaren was recently valued at three and a half billion.
So he'd probably need some investor support to do that.
But he wants to, I think, emulate in some respects his great rival in Toto Wolf.
Yeah, and look, I think there would be basically maybe 18, sorry, eight teams that would be
desperate to have him on board.
There might be two who in the form of McLaren and Mercedes, probably Ferrari in that mix as well.
The others will, and Red Bull, obviously, will be clamouring to get their hands on Christian
if they can.
But as you mentioned, what that proposition looks like, it's going to take a lot to get
him across.
But I mean, you think of anybody from Aston Martin down to Kicks, Sauber to Haas.
Like, imagine them just trying to get their hands on Christian Horner because that is,
for a lower table team, the difference that he can make can already shift you into the
mid-pack.
Yeah, I think Sauber pretty much sorted those.
So the options are minimal.
It'll be very interesting to see where he ends up.
Now, we want to talk Williams podiums.
We want to talk Jack Doohan, Liam Lawson, and more on the other side of the break.
Can we get you to hang in there for us?
Come on.
Welcome back.
You are listening to the Motorsport Brief, our Rusty's Garage Shortcasters.
We check in on F1 with the Singapore Grand Prix literally just around the corner.
Matt Hickey from Codesports is back with us.
That race, Marina Bay underlights.
That's typically, as you know, it goes two hours, hot, humid.
It's a little bit later in the season this year, the normal by a week or two, and that
kind of ventures into their rainy season or the start of it.
Lando Norris is the defending winner there.
Oscar finished third behind Max last year.
That was actually Daniel Ricciardo's final race too.
We haven't spoken, I don't think, about that announcement about him being a part of, I
guess you could say, Ford, but not with necessarily a bent towards him jumping back behind the
wheel.
I was a little bit gutted in that regard.
I was hoping we'd seem competing something again.
Yeah, yeah.
It was a moment that everyone just held their breath and got very excited and Daniel doesn't
disappoint me very often, but I was a little disappointed.
OK.
That's understandable too.
Flavio Alpine, sounds like they've shut the door on a jack deal in return.
What next for him?
It seems really hard to think of.
I mean, Hart says, I don't feel like he was given a fair enough shot.
It's a brutal game, Formula One, but that's what we'll remember, won't we, so it's hard
to get back in.
Yeah, it certainly is.
I'm a little surprised by how early that statement's been made, but as we know, Flavio
never afraid of coming out and telling the media exactly what he thinks.
I mean, you look at Alpine's performance and it hasn't really been phenomenal.
You only have to look back to the Grand Prix we've just had and they finished 18th and
19th with 20th, of course, being Oscar, who crushed out on the first lap.
So a little bit gutted for Jack Dylan and, of course, there were talks that, for Franco
Colpinto, it was only going to be a short stink to get a good look at him and then we'll
reconsider between the two.
We knew that was just spin.
That was never going to be the case, but either way, it is a little bit frustrating.
I'll be fascinated to see what's next for Jack.
I think he's a serious talent.
I do think he was a little bit hard done by when it comes to his opportunity.
You know, for one, I'd love to see him back there in what form that comes.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Carlos and Williams, that podium in Baku was so well received.
Big change of regulations, obviously, next year, but a massive shot in the arm for that
famous race team heading into that.
Yeah, fantastic.
I don't think there was anyone who was a fan of F1 or works around F1 that was not happy
just to see that result for Williams.
And it's something that's been building for a little bit now.
We've been waiting for them to start to get some momentum, starting to build up some points
in those lower placings and now the big podium.
And this is what happens when you bring somebody like Carlos Sines into this seat and experience
head.
He just was very professional about this race, knew what he was aiming for, knew how to go
about it while there was some, you know, some of the better teams or high-performing teams
coming up behind him.
But they planned and executed a great race, Williams, and just rapped for them as I think
many were.
You alluded to it there before, Liam Lawson.
What a drive.
I mean, there's talk of Arvid Lindblad, a bright young star who's already done an F1
practice session this year, maybe joining the Racing Bulls next year.
That could be timely for Liam, couldn't it, that result?
Yeah, massive, massive.
And when you think about what he has gone through from the start of the season to this
point and it wasn't easy for him when he stepped back into the Racing Bulls car as well, he
had some struggles early when he'd been moved across from Red Bull to get that result in
front of Yuki Sonoda as well, who was on his tail behind him.
Just a massive, not only a big booster for him, big booster from the team and also just
a little reminder to everyone, including those in charge at Red Bull and probably Helmut
Marko as well, that he's a serious driver.
It leads us to Yuki.
I mean, what Liam did was absolutely on merit there.
Those guys have come through junior formula together and battled over the years.
Where do you reckon he is likely to go in 26 as rumours of Isaac Hageard to the Red Bull
team, you know, would Yuki follow Honda and so on?
Yeah, this is the fascinating one.
Red Bull, I think they have to leave someone in that seat.
Now, whether they do or not will remain to be seen, but I don't think you can continue
to give people half or three quarters of a season to try and prove themselves.
Give them time through testing, give them a season to actually have a crack, you know,
right?
And I'd be interested in your thoughts as well, because it seems to me that what they're
doing at the moment isn't working for that second seat.
And I reckon Laurent Mechiers would absolutely subscribe to what you just said, which is
let's just calm everything down a bit here, get a bit of stability in key places.
You know, he's by the sounds of it, asking all the right questions in the way he connects
as a leader with, you know, the design and aerodynamics department and so on.
And they're now having two drivers, you know, what Yuki did in that drive at the week,
and that may also help him in that regard.
So there's a bit to shake out from a Red Bull standpoint for their driver lineup and who
goes where next year.
Let's get to the worst question in media, Matt, Singapore predictions from you.
What do you reckon?
I think McLaren will bounce back.
I think they're too good this year to have another terrible race, which in, I mean, you
take a sixth, sixth, seventh place, sorry, six points.
I mean, for some teams, that's great, but for a team that's been dominating and could
have sealed the constructors' championship on the weekend, they'll be really flat after
that.
I think they bounce back in a big way, whether it's a first and second or first and third,
I'm not sure.
I would like to hope it's Oscar Piastru, but these days with McLaren, it's a toss up between
the two.
It's been great to talk with you again, mate, and we'll get you back on the pod again real
soon.
Thank you.
As always, cheers, Rusty.
Big month on the road for Rusty's garage.
We're off to Singapore for the Grand Prix.
We'll be doing some stuff up there.
Bathurst, where I'm also working with our network brothers in Triple M and then the bike
GP at Phillip Island.
Work has meant that we haven't done a feature yet for a little while, two apologies.
I'll catch back up on that front very soon.
Thank you for listening.
We'll talk to you from Marina Bay in Singapore.
Bye for now.

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