Annotations will appear as you listen
0:00
19:02
Place
Silverstone Circuit
A famous, historic race track in England where the British Grand Prix is held. It was built on an old military airfield and is known for being incredibly fast.
Concept
Super2 Series
A junior racing series in Australia where up-and-coming drivers race older V8 Supercars to prove they are ready for the top-tier championship.
Concept
Trans Am Series
A racing series featuring loud, powerful V8 muscle cars that look like modern road cars but are built purely for the race track.
Person
Kimi Antonelli
A very young and extremely talented Italian race car driver who was signed by the Mercedes Formula 1 team because of his incredible speed in junior racing.
Term
pole lap
The fastest lap run during practice/qualifying that earns a driver the right to start the actual race from the very front of the pack.
Person
Oscar Piastri
A young Australian Formula 1 driver who races for McLaren and is considered one of the sport's rising stars.
Person
Liam Lawson
A talented young race car driver from New Zealand who got his big break in Formula 1 by filling in for injured drivers and scoring points.
Term
DNF
Short for 'Did Not Finish', meaning a driver had to stop racing before the end of the race, usually because their car broke down or they crashed.
Place
Red Bull Ring
A race track in Austria owned by Red Bull, famous for its beautiful mountain views and fast, short laps.
LIVE
Back to back weekends of Formula One, good action in Austria and the British Grand Prix
is always a fave.
Welcome to the latest motorsport brief, Matt Hickey from Codesports comes on regularly
during the season for a bit of a GP Convo, he is standing by to wrap up round eight and
look ahead to Silverstone this weekend.
We've had a fantastic response to the Todd Hazelwood feature, thank you for that.
But from his early days in dirtcarts to Formula Three, the insane personal commitment to
finding the support, the budget to contest Super 2 and the relief when he finally won
that title in 2017.
Full time frustrations in the main game, changing tack to co-driving and what that
bathest win with his good mate Brody Kostecki did for him.
It changed paddock perceptions, grappling with loyalty, the chance to stay at Erebus
versus a once in a lifetime opportunity with Dick Johnson racing that he dreamt about
as a kid, plus Trans Am, Pi Warmers and the formation of Todd's Garage, search for it
via the listener app or in any of the usual pod places.
Let's get to Rusty's Garage regular now, walking his mate Murph in what little spare
time he has playing guitar and channeling his inner Chris Stapleton, lead caller for
NBL One and covering all sorts of motor racing for code sports.
That sounds like a reality TV intro, doesn't it?
Hello, Matt Hickey.
I don't think I've ever had an intro quite like that.
I've got Murph, he's lying behind me, waiting for me to take him for another walk.
It's a bit wet here in Melbourne, but geez, Rusty, that's about as good as it gets for
me.
I might just log off now.
Happy days.
Top three covered by two seconds in the end there at Austria.
Hot, hard work, but I reckon that was a great race.
Did you enjoy it?
Yeah, really enjoyed it.
It was a great race.
I mean, this is what when you bring in the new regulations that you hope you start getting
racing like this.
And I think now that teams are starting to figure out the cars a little bit better, starting
to match each other with upgrades and things like that, this is what you wanted.
And you know, that second and third place went right down to the last few corners.
So no, great fun and exactly what you're after, I think.
Typically, we get the Max Army there, the Orange Army out in support.
You could hear them in full voice, which is great.
And it's a game that keeps innovating, not just in terms of the cars and what we bring
in a sporting sense.
I think you were quite captivated by some of the cool drone shots in the coverage.
They were mega made, weren't they?
Yeah, this is when you start to realise you're a bit of a media and broadcast nerd, Rusty,
is when the camera angles get you really excited when you're watching an F1 race.
But no, I thought they were fantastic.
I think it just brings a different element.
And it's, you know, there's so much money, you know, there's always been so much money
in F1, but we know over the last five or six years that that has just bloomed.
And it's, you know, I was waiting for some more innovations when it came to broadcast.
And I think this is a really good start.
And I was fascinated.
I really enjoyed those drone shots, took you right into the action.
Great coverage, great moments.
I think that they picked to use them as well.
So hopefully we continue to see that over the year.
First win for George Russell, I think, statistically, since Australia,
he is talking like he's 100% on board and staying with Mercedes for next season,
despite the kind of recent Verstappen rumours again.
I guess the result in Austria certainly helps that, doesn't it?
Yeah, I mean, I think Mercedes are pretty happy with where their two drivers are at
currently, I'd be shocked.
Of course, we've heard those Verstappen rumours and McLaren,
which is probably a discussion that we can get to a little bit later on,
is very intriguing when it comes to what they're going to do moving forward.
But George's in a great spot.
I found his comments really interesting where he said,
instead of focusing on where the data and where his gaps were to Kimmy Antonelli,
he just focused on driving the car, just focused on the feel of driving the car.
And it really worked for him, whereas Kimmy, on the other hand,
had some issues, despite showing some pretty good pace.
I think Toyota reinforced that too in some of the post race discussion.
They were keen, I think, just to eliminate him thinking about that.
What's that line out of the song from the F1 movie?
Just get in and drive, basically, hey.
Very, very good.
Yeah, 100 percent.
I think that's the experience coming into play.
George has been in this game for a while now.
I think some people still view him as a bit of a younger driver,
and that's because we still have the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso on the grid.
So they're all younger drivers in that sense.
But that's his experience coming to the fore.
One for you, though, Rusty, I'd like to throw back at you.
We saw this play-outs a little similarly with McLaren last year.
Is this going to come to a head with these two Mercedes drivers as the year progresses?
The one thing that I think works in Toto, Bono and all of the team's favour in the background there is
that they dealt with the incredibly intense, the very prickly situation
that was Lewis Hamilton versus Nico Rosberg in the middle of the last decade.
They know how tough that is to manage.
I'm sure there's a lot of learnings in that.
What Antonelli did toward the end of this race,
he may not have had the weekend in Austria that his teammate George did,
but the tenacious way he raced toward the end there, I think, just,
and what was the quote from Toto?
I mean, just to your point there, I think Toto said,
you can't accelerate a donkey, but you can calm down a racehorse.
And I thought that was awesome.
Incredible use of the English language right there.
You've got to appreciate that.
And I tell you what else I was impressed with with Kimmy Antonelli was that he didn't put in a gigantic,
crazy lunge in those last few corners.
I think sometimes young drivers in the heat of the moment when they know
that they're trying to save championship points can sometimes be prone to making big rush decisions,
especially when fatigue is coming into play, which, again, I don't think is necessarily something
we probably talk about enough when it comes to end of race,
especially in races where the heat is on and these guys are losing basically kilograms in sweat.
The fatigue that they are putting their bodies through and to still be making
sound decisions going at the pace they're going at is truly remarkable.
But I was impressed that he knew to stay measured and only go for that gap when it arrived.
It didn't arrive, so he just took third place and only goes to the next race.
The net result is that George does eat a little into Kimmy's championship advantage,
but it's not a massive enough dent at the moment and you're right.
He drove with a kind of eyes on the end of year prize in some respect.
I thought that was really good.
We'll come back to the McLaren Oscar thing in a moment.
Were you surprised that George kept the pole lap?
I thought Skye's analysis of that was excellent and it kind of indicated things.
George was okay. He did the right things under the rules.
I know rival teams have talked about that since then.
It does make you think that even with that little lift,
because Verstappen had gone off, there were yellows in that final sector there,
if that hadn't been the case, the lap would have been even more impressive, wouldn't it?
Yeah, 100%. What I found really fascinating was watching his on-board footage as he was going
past where Verstappen had had the incident. I was scanning you looking for where Verstappen
had gone off and it was very, very difficult to see where that had happened when you were
scanning looking at that on-board footage. Look, I think the right decision was come to eventually,
but yeah, with that little lift, you think what a lap he was going to put in.
I think George deserved to take pole and indeed did, but everyone had their opportunities
throughout the race, I think, to potentially make up ground and get a result.
Quick thought on Ferrari. They rolled into this round of the championship on the high of what
Lewis had done in Spain. I thought that was just an awesome story in the entirety of his Formula
1 career. They're talking, I think Fred Visser said it was more a pace scenario than strategic
decisions necessarily in the race. What did you make of Ferrari's weekend in Austria?
I agree with you regarding Lewis's win a few weeks ago. That was just great for the sport,
great for him, and I really enjoyed that looking on. I think we all know that it's that straight
line speed that they lack a little bit compared to Mercedes. I think that got found out a little bit
here in Austria. The concerns are obviously moving forward into other tracks where that's
going to become a factor. Last week, the championship talks a little premature,
perhaps, of the fact that they would be able to challenge. I think they will be there or
thereabouts, but I can't see them taking the title off Mercedes as it currently stands unless
they bring in some serious upgrades in the back half of the year. I reckon you are not alone
in that line of thinking. We still want to talk Oscar Piastri, McLaren, rumors, great performances
by Liam Lawson and a whole lot more, but Matt, can we get you to hang on there for us for a little
bit? Of course, Matt. Cool. More in a moment here on Rusty's Garage. Perhaps you are watching this
via the Rusty's Garage YouTube channel or listening via any of the good podcast platforms,
however you're tuning in. Thank you. The Motorsport Brief will sometimes be topic or issues-based
where we explore that with an expert. It might be a short interview with an up-and-coming racer who
still has plenty in the way of their own chapters to write in their racing careers or motorsport
careers, and we'll also do them around key events along the way too, like we're doing with Formula
1 today. We did a Darwin supercars debrief recently that you might enjoy, for example,
with Mark Winterbottom called in at the last minute as something of a super sub. Adrian Burgess,
Stephen Grove, Bruce Stewart from Walkinshaw TWG, and more. Let's get back to the F1 Convo now with
Matt Hickey. You mentioned prior to the break around the forstappen rumors kind of accelerating
with McLaren again. It's not the first time that we've heard this, but I think the detail in this
story now that you might want to expand on here is that it sounds as though the forstappen camp
rather were on the forward foot approaching McLaren about possibilities if they do exercise
that clause in a few races time. Yeah, they were the reports heading into this Austria weekend,
and that clause that you mentioned to my understanding is if they aren't coming within
the top two by midseason break, there is an out clause for him heading into 2027.
It's going to be fascinating. Obviously, McLaren is there's links there, multiple links there when
it comes to Max Verstappen. And from an Australian point of view, I think that if that were to happen,
Oscar Piazzari is the one who will end up on the outer. I can't see them McLaren and Zach
Brown parting ways in any way, shape or form with Lando Norris. There were some suggestions
and rumors that also that Mark Webber's links to Red Bull potentially there's some form of a
straight swap there. I'm not sure how that goes about when it comes to contracts and things like
that. It's not quite a trade period like we see in other sports, but that would most likely be
the scenario if Max and McLaren came to some form of an agreement. It does. I mean, in the
approaches that people have made to canvas this subject with Zach Brown, for example, he's been
quick to point out that both the drivers are happy. I thought what Oscar did in the race again was
another very impressive performance. I know you can join some dots around the idea of a straight
swap and Mark's long kind of deep links with Red Bull and so on. And then on the flip side,
as you detailed, some of the engineering might that has come across from Red Bull to McLaren
that would be tempting for the Verstappen camp. You do have to say that Max makes the difference
there at Red Bull, doesn't he, at the moment? I know the pressure is on them to provide a
better car and to do everything they possibly can to keep him in relation to that clause.
Would McLaren part with its current pairing and bring Max in? I guess that's the bigger
question, isn't it? Yeah. And look, we spoke a little while earlier this year, I think, about
the fact that I think it's time for people to stop thinking that it is underperforming from Max's
teammates instead of Max just completely overperforming and outperforming what the car is actually
giving him. I think he is the difference as opposed to his teammate going back the other way.
It would be very, very difficult. I mean, you put yourself in the shoes of any team
principal on the grid and if Max Verstappen is available and knocking on your door,
it is very, very difficult to knock back, arguably, someone who many regard will finish his career as
a top three, top two, top one driver of all time, depending on how long that career goes for, which
is a whole other conversation that we've touched on as well. It would be very, very hard to say no
to him regardless of the driver pairing that you have. And what would Lando Norris want on the other
side of the garage beside him? Would it be an Oscar Piastri preference or would he be prepared
and keen to go with someone who he's had a pretty good relationship with over the time,
head to head with Max Verstappen? Yeah. I mean, look, to be honest, if you're thinking selfishly,
I'm not sure if I really want Max Verstappen coming into the garage and being the big dog alpha that
he is, but you know, these guys are a competitive beast. So you got to assume that Lando would just
be up for anybody being on the other side of the grid and would be backing himself in to beat him.
Couple to wrap this up. Liam Lawson, I think, just keeps vindicating his position in the sport. I know
there was a rumour in the days leading up to Austria around a potential replacement with a Formula
2 driver and so on, but he keeps delivering in a point sense and in the final part of qualifying
as well in Austria. Good job. Yeah, 100%. I mean, fourth consecutive, I think points finish for him
and you compare where he is now to what he was going through last year at about this same time and
that brutal start to 2025 that he had and being ditched out of the Red Bull seat to beat the point
now that he is and there were some people at the start of the year saying that, you know,
potentially he didn't deserve to be on the grid, which I thought was a brutal assessment of a guy
who's clearly shown that he's got the talent and the skill and now he's reaping the rewards and
benefits of that hard work. And being pushed by a young teammate in Arvid Lindblad who competed
in our part of the world in the last 12 months and we realised he was pretty special when we
saw him do that in New Zealand. Just a few general subjects. Cadillac, both cars retiring, what do
we make of the newest player on the grid and how things are going there? Yeah, it's really tough,
isn't it? It's tough to watch. And I don't think anybody wants to see this. I think it's the third
consecutive DNF for Valtteri Bottas as a driver as well. I saw some comments from Sergio Perez that
said, you know, he was in a fight with the Williams. They were actually able to basically pass cars,
which, you know, has been rare for them at this point of the season. And it's a shame as well,
because you don't get to see the full effect of the upgrade. So I think they bought some upgrades
to the Red Bull ring. And because you have these reliability issues, you don't actually get to
see the fruits of your labour come to fruition on the track. So got some things to work out. I
think they'll be hoping, you know, the mid-season break, they'll be itching for that and just to
get some things right heading into the back half of the season. But I think they've done a lot of
things right, Cadillac. It's just at the moment they've found themselves in a bit of a tough patch.
Can we finish with the top man in the FIA and the talk around extending term limits and all
that sort of stuff? I think a lot of people would probably have preferred that democracy and rules
stay as they are and that we have a bit of variety in that position. What do you make of all that?
Oh, it's a bit of a theme around the world at the moment, Rusty. We won't dive too much into
what's happening away from the racetrack in terms of politics. But look, it's so much a play when
it comes to this type of thing. It'll be intriguing to see how it plays out. It's so hard to know
what's going on behind those closed doors and where it'll end up. At the moment, in terms of where
the sport's at, I don't think people will have too many complaints in terms of the position it's at
in the global landscape. And so, you know, let's see how it plays out. What happens?
Written, spoken and authorised by Matt Hickey. I love that British Grand Prix this weekend,
mate. And I mean, I know there was that little sprinkle of a rumour about would Lewis Hamilton
pull up stumps at his home race and call time and so on. Given the win recently, I don't know that
I think that will be likely to happen. And then what chance of a home race win for the British
contingent, do you reckon? Yeah, I think after that win, especially there would be very little
chance that Lewis Hamilton will do that. But you know, they've got some great options in terms of
coming through and taking victory. Of course, George Russell will probably be the leading
favourite of the home group when it comes to potentially winning the race. But it's just one
of the great, great weekends on the F1 calendar. The fans turn out in their droves. In terms of the
fan attendance, it reminds me a little bit of what we get here in Australia for the Melbourne
Grand Prix and just the history as well of that race track. I can't wait. It's always great racing too.
Lastly, what have you been working on at Codesports? Anything in the pipeline we should
be keeping an eye out for a read-off? Oh, there's always plenty going on in the pipeline. Of course,
the FIFA World Cup is taking a lot of attention at the moment. So we're getting behind the Socarus,
but continuing with all the great coverage of F1 supercars and everything motorsport
as well. And then the Com games just are in the corner too.
Who would have thought Mark Barretta would be the peacemaker between Mark Scaife and
Charlie Schwercold? Hey, nice work by Barretta at his birthday party, bringing all of that
lot together. You can find out more and follow all the great stories at Codesports. Give Murphy
Pat for us, mate. Thank you for coming on today. Thanks, Rusty. We'll do that.
That is it for today. If you have a short cast idea, let me know on social media. Hit me up there.
I've had one from a listener wanting to know more on the business side of supercars. So
leave that with me and we'll do a bit of planning there and find the right person to talk about it.
I have an interesting one coming up on a motorsport admin platform that works for all kinds of
disciplines, not just circuit racing and Aussie innovation that is making waves internationally
too. Enjoy the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this weekend. We'll catch you next week. Bye for now.
About this episode
Matt Hickey from Codesports joins the show to dissect a thrilling Austrian Grand Prix, highlighting George Russell's victory and Mercedes' resurgence. The duo debates Ferrari's straight-line speed struggles and praises the broadcast's innovative drone shots. The real excitement lies in the silly season, as rumors swirl about Max Verstappen's camp approaching McLaren. This leads to a fascinating discussion on what Verstappen's potential move could mean for Oscar Piastri's future and whether a dramatic straight swap with Red Bull is on the horizon.
Original notes
Rusty is joined by Code Sport’s Matt Hickey for a GP convo that could have been fueled by a Schnitty and some Apfelstrudel!
George Russell is back in the winner’s circle for the first time since Australia. Was he lucky to keep that pole lap?
Toto Wolff’s quote of the week and how Kimi Antonelli drove with real speed and smarts on the way to the podium.
Max Verstappen keeps making the difference and RedBull is pushing to keep him but with the summer break looming will a contractual escape clause be triggered?
What to make of the latest McLaren rumour now that Team Verstappen has reportedly knocked on the door there.
Would Lando Norris want to share the garage with Max and what could it potentially mean for Oscar Piastri?
Will it even be an option given that Zak Brown says they’re happy with things right now?
Plus Cadillac’s early pack up, Ferrari’s frustration and is the British anthem already cued up for the podium at this weekend’s race at Silverstone?
Head to Rusty's Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and give us your feedback and let us know who you want to hear from on Rusty's Garage.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Rusty's Garage
LiSTNR
0:00
19:02