2026 Australian Grand Prix Recap: Mercedes Score Dominant 1-2

Podcasting from Studio 2520, somewhere near Akron, Ohio.

This is Tackling the Chicane, bringing you all the latest talk in motorsport and soccer.

All right, here we go. So Audio-Technica can pound my ass because I've had these headphones for less than— I'd love to hear what you're hearing. It just, it keeps going left and right. You can tell that the— where you plug the headphone jack in is like not secure, even on the original cord. Yes.

So I just don't even know how that's possible. Well, well, defects happen, I guess. Um, well, maybe you can get a free set, or it as purchased on Amazon. So who knows? I don't know.

I'm right now, I've got it going left and right, but I'll deal with it. So, uh, anyhow, here we go. Here we are. Uh, have our first race for F1, uh, with the Australian GP. We're gonna cover that.

We're gonna cover what turned out to be one of the most exciting nil-nil matches that I've ever seen in the Scottish Premier League. Yeah. Um, and we'll get into that, but I, I had the I watched that match last night and, um, there's a lot of things that I want to unpack on what I— we'll get into it, but I feel like this team, the Celtic team, may have shown up in the best possible way that they have in a very long time. Yeah. Um, a lot to talk about with that match.

Did you— I don't know how much of Your broadcast showed it because I was watching on Celtic TV. Did you see the end, uh, post? Yeah. Okay, they actually— if you go back on Hulu, yeah, and it's— you can, you can do that, uh, they gave that like, uh, 5 minutes or so. So you saw the antics on the field?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so we'll talk about that as well. Yeah. Um, Yeah, that was interesting, most interesting, because I had not seen anything of that nature in the Scottish Premier League before.

Yeah, yeah. Um, so, okay, well, we will get into that Scottish Cup, uh, quarterfinal match at the, uh, second half of this show. Let's, uh, really, we— let's start in F1 land. So let's begin with the Australian Grand Prix, the first of many of this season. I think it's 24, uh, potentially, and we'll talk about it at the end of this segment.

Um, new regs have finally arrived and reared— I'm not going to say their ugly head, but they reared a head for sure in this Uh, race. So I'm kind of interested to see where you land on the impact of racing with the new regulations. Remember, DRS not a thing. It's all about the battery. Yeah, but I also noticed that, um, the wings were flapping.

Yes. So there must not be as— that wing must be part of the overtake, which I think we talked about Earlier in this preseason where it's still a thing. It's just not a zone necessarily. It's an on-demand button. Yeah.

So, so it's the wing is still kind of a component of it all.

We knew going in that Mercedes was going to be the team to beat and that proved to be true in Australia. Um, with Ferrari landing 3-4 in this one. So obviously, you know, spoiler alert, but it shouldn't be anymore. Mercedes land 1-2. George Russell in first, Kimi Antonelli second, 2.9 seconds down.

Um, clearly Mercedes the team to beat, and again, we kind of knew that going in. They were clearly ahead of the ball on, um, power unit development. And we're going to talk about some teams that were not and clearly, uh, have a lot of work to do— Aston Martin. Um, but I guess generally, where are you on the new regulations after we've seen a full Grand Prix? Uh, it's, it's too early to give a full summation of how this season is going to go.

I will say this, the cars behave very differently than they did before. Yeah. It's pretty clear that some teams have challenged with that, with this push-to-pass-ish button. And then there's other things that are going on in the cockpit. What I found most interesting is, is this Is the first GP that we have had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 DNFs.

And Hulkenberg, I think someone was out from the jump. Hulkenberg did not even start. Okay. So the rest of them were— and Piastri didn't because he crashed. He crashed.

So we had 3 power unit failures. Yeah. And that's not We have become accustomed to a pretty healthy power unit. So the last season that that was truly a big deal was 2022, which was the first year of a regulation set. Yeah.

So that I wasn't horribly surprised by that. So Hadjar, his blows fairly early on, then Bottas in the Cadillac. Um, blows up as well. And then this Aston Martin team, I don't know how you could fuck up development so bad, but there was an idea that they would pretty much start in park, uh, because their power unit was causing a vibration in the car that made it virtually undrivable. Um, and Adrian Newey was quoted to say, and I'm paraphrasing, but he was worried that such vibration would cause like nerve damage to the drivers.

Wow. So there is a reason why Alonso doesn't even finish and Stroll finishes 15 laps. Yeah, Aston Martin have a shitload to figure out with the Honda power unit. Which explains their horrific day. Um, so kind of getting that out of the way, but this race starts with the big scrap.

Well, first off, let's talk about the actual start. Clearly some of these drivers haven't figured out the race start with the new car. I think it was Lawson lost a ton of— maybe like 7 positions. Um, and then we saw Leclerc fly up the ranks. That's supposed to be Ferrari's big thing, is starts.

Um, and clearly it is. Um, but that first sort of 6, 7 laps, um, kind of a, a crazy series of events there. Yeah, I mean, it— I'm not surprised, to be honest. I didn't see anything egregious. I thought the racing was pretty clean.

There was a lot of— and we're gonna see this— there's quite a bit of focus on this new car, new power unit. I think we're gonna see that as we go through the season.

I thought that Most of the rookie drivers, or I guess, are you just a rookie for a year? And then after that, you're not really. I know your point being the younger, the younger drivers set.

Well played for the most part. What about this Lindblad kid? Clearly has some pace about him. Yes. Finishes 8th.

Finishes 8th for racing bowls. So he may be the star of the show. We'll see this. It's one race, you know, it could have been luck of the draw, but he seems to have the chops. Um, the question is, are we going to see an unseating through this, this campaign of— if Lindblad performs at a certain level and Hajar does not.

Well, which I don't, I don't see that happening. I don't anticipate that happening. I think Hadjar was having a fine day. And yeah, let's remember he outqualified Verstappen. Right.

So you can't listen when a PU failure happens. It happens. There's nothing you can do. I am not going to fault him for that. No.

And there was a lockup on that same Red Bull car. I don't recall if that was during practice or qualifying or during the GP, but Verstappen had a full lock on the rear axle. I, I think it was in qualifying. Yeah, and, and that served the purpose of why he started so low in the race. He has a great recovery drive, all things considered, to 6th.

Obviously, I think it's fair to say Red Bull are not going to be in serious championship contention, and I Kind of feel like we knew that. Verstappen is a different story, but that Red Bull team as a whole, it feels very much— and it's again incredibly early— but Mercedes is kind of going to be the, the pace setter, at least early in the season. Ferrari's talking about bringing upgrades to China, so which FP1 is 3 hours from now as we record, so, um, Lewis Hamilton finishes 4th in his GP. We haven't seen that kind of performance out of that particular driver in a Ferrari ever, ever. So maybe P4 was his best.

He's not been on the podium and they've, they fucked their strategy up. Yeah, that was pretty obvious. I think they could have split those Mercedes. I think Russell was always going to win, but Hamilton called on the radio Yeah. Because listen, you don't, you don't race in this series for as long as he has.

And he knew that they, they blew that. Yeah. They blew that. But still a good showing. I mean, 3-4 for Ferrari is great.

And they clearly have speed about them. They, they weren't necessarily blown out of the water by Mercedes. Their race start is going to continue to be something to pay attention to. I mean, Leclerc bombed it up to first place very fast. I'm looking at the differential in time.

And so Antonelli, which is who we can talk about that for a second. This kid is going to dazzle this season, I think.

Russell finishes Antonelli 2.97 seconds behind. And then we start to fucking go. From there. Yeah, 15 seconds to Leclerc in 3rd, and then it just goes 16 for Hamilton and then 51. Yeah, for the next highest driver.

And then 6— it's only 6 cars on the lead lap, so clearly there's about 2 and a half teams that have the current regs— now I wouldn't even say figured out, but they are And I knew that— I was saying this last year— there will be a team that'll just— they'll be ahead of the curve and be able to dominate early. And that is Mercedes. Ferrari are close, and then it's probably McLaren. But that you talked about, there's the huge gap between Ferrari and McLaren performance-wise. Then you have Red Bull, and then everyone else was a lap down.

Right. So I'm curious to see if we're gonna have similar results in the early campaigns of this season. Are we gonna see that delta be a minute or a, you know, possibly a lap behind? I don't know if it'll be so pronounced. Um, there aren't a— Australia is not a great track for overtake opportunities and It doesn't always— it very rarely, I should say, offers amazing racing.

So they're already saying, pundits and whatnot, experts quote unquote, that China will be more competitive. Um, so I, I would say give that some time. I don't think we'll see the domination of Mercedes quite like we did in Australia. I do think they're the team to beat Um, what do you think about the button, the battery, the, the overtake? You know, it— so it's a button on the steering wheel, it gets you a huge boost, you can get the move, make it happen, but then you are at a massive horsepower disadvantage until that battery recharges.

So we saw it at the beginning of the race, the back and forth between Leclerc and Russell. Whoever was with the uncharged battery was just a sitting duck. So is that— my question to you is, does that mean the regulations are going to kind of suck, or do the drivers need to just figure out how to use the battery properly? It's both. So until these drivers figure out the best possible strategy with the recharge and the button, we're gonna see in this first opening few races, we're gonna— I predict that we're gonna see the same type of result where you've got the top 2 or 3 at a certain time and then everyone else is gonna be way behind, um, until they figure out how to maximize that particular power unit and how teams figure out the strategy of using that and recharging that.

It's going to be this. We knew this was going to be a curve season, like a learning curve season. And I'm fine with that. Some people obviously have it dialed in, and other, other teams are still trying to figure that out. We're seeing drivers complain, which, okay, not that surprising.

But I think it was Ocon was pretty vocal about— he finishes 11th— how the, the button, the battery, you know, you can get that move done, but then you're just kind of a sitting duck. And again, I think it comes down a little bit to you need to be more strategic in how you use it. Well, and the other, the other part of the driving portion is the regen on these cars provides additional braking, so you're not relying strictly on the pedal as you go into a corner where you would normally brake.

You're, as soon as you lift, the regen is, is braking the car. So they have to figure out, it's a delicate balance and dance how you do that. So if I lift, I'm going to get regen automatic. That regen is going to slow the car. So you need to figure out how to modulate that between pushing the brake pedal and when you lift that regen modulation.

And that's going to be where these guys, they almost have to retrain themselves. Yeah, and, and that is kind of the point of new regulations. You, you try to add some type of new technology or something to the car, it changes the racing, makes it look different. I I'm more in the camp that I thought the racing was more exciting. I do get the argument that perhaps the battery and the regen kind of makes it a little quote-unquote artificial, but again, I think the driver— the drivers are gonna learn how to use that more strategically.

So I'd say by the end of the season, you're not gonna see what we saw the first 10 or so laps of this race, and obviously forth Obviously they've run this on simulators, but there's a huge difference between being in a simulator and being in the physical car. Yeah. During a race. Right. So it's, I think the best teams will sort it quickly.

Uh, and the teams who struggle will continue to struggle with that. Uh, So let's— I want to talk about some of the teams because we know who, who has kind of come out in flying colors in the regs. Clearly it's Mercedes. Ferrari's there. McLaren potentially with some upgrades perhaps.

I'm kind of more interested in the teams that look like they're in some trouble already. We talked about Aston Martin. In the sort of disaster that they are in with the Honda power unit. Again, they were thinking it might be a start-and-park situation at Australia. They did enough to get Stroll kind of to the finish, uh, 15 laps down.

Alonso parks it. Cadillac were what I expected. They're slow. And probably will be slow the whole year, but they got a car to the end. Perez.

That's better than some teams. Perez, you know, he brought it to the finish line plus 3 laps. Yeah. So again, it's the teams that have figured it out or, you know, are ahead are fast and the teams that clearly have a lot of development to do are slow as shit. I think it should be noted though that this Haas team with Toyota GR Racing is probably gonna show fairly good colors in this, in this car and in this series.

And we had a 7th place with Bearman, scores points. Good. Good day for him. Unfortunately, just out of the points was Esteban Ocon. But I think this team is going to come into them, into the series this year with enough knowledge of the car and a great team principal that we're going to see them be a contender in the, I won't say the mid-pack, but I think they're— they can fight for 5th easily.

Easily. And we might even see a podium from this team. That was, I think, one of your predictions. So maybe. Another disappointing team, Williams.

Where the hell are they? Sainz, 15th, 2 laps down Ocon or Albon. Sorry. 12th. Um, obviously a lap down, seemingly no speed.

They're a Mercedes power unit customer team. You'd think they would have it figured out a little bit more than what they do. Um, Alpine, Pierre Gasly rescues a point. They're a team that kind of has a lot of hype around them, but Colapinto, 14th, where's he? Um, those 2 teams I thought were a little— were more than a little disappointing in, in this weekend.

Um, after one race, of course.

Yeah, we're gonna have to keep an eye on the— this Lindblad chap.

Yeah, Arvid Lindblad, uh, representing Great Britain, 8th in the Racing Bulls. Does a lot better than Lawson, uh, who again I think really messed up the start and that sort of hampered his day. Piastri wrecks before in the recon lap. I don't know what the deal was with that. We didn't get a whole lot of info.

It was kind of tight-lipped from the McLaren team. Norris in 5th, never really in the race. Yeah, I don't know. So what we have here is a new era and clearly we're going to see results from the teams who capitalized on the research. And I, I think that this McLaren Mercedes team is probably going to they finally come up and out, and they— we might see Russell and Kimi Antonelli being the 2 guys that we're watching now.

It, it kind of feels like that.

That's a big gap between 2 and 3, you know, something like 12 seconds. I think Ferrari are, are, are there. They're close. They're not— I don't think it's gonna be a complete and total domination. People are talking about it's this 2014 Mercedes, the Silver Arrows, where, you know, they're just gonna be 1-2 every race and you're just seeing who finishes first.

I don't get that impression. I don't think it's gonna be complete domination, but they are clearly the team to beat. Yeah, and we'll— so as we come into the next campaign here in China, um, it'll be important to watch practice times. It's going to be important to watch qualifying times. And if we see another dominance by this team, then 2 or 3 races in, we're going to figure out who has, uh, this, this new rate, uh, regulation figured out.

Yeah, yeah. And I, uh, again, I think Mercedes is gonna be the team with the target on their back this campaign. Uh, shout out to Audi. Bordeletto piloting to 9th, 2 points for them with their Audi power unit. I mistakenly said that they were Ferrari last week.

Know that it's a factory team.

Um, so that's a compelling team just to see what they can do. And I was reminded watching a video, remember who Carlos Sainz was between when he was a free agent? Williams, of course, who he ended up signing for onto that project. The other team was Audi. Audi Score Williams, not even close.

Yeah. Wonder if what he's thinking. Yeah.

It's, you know, I still, I feel like this Williams team has something to bring to the table.

Whether or not they will, we don't know. But There's, there's something about the captain of that team that I really like. And maybe that's just romantically, I like James Vowles because I think he's, he seems like Williams needs to get back to where they were in the early 2000s. And this is the guy at the helm who can bring them there.

Um, but we'll— it, it's— we'll just have to see how this plays out. Yeah, not looking good for them after one round. No, but one round is one round, and yes, we're going to see a Red Bull team who doesn't quit. Obviously Verstappen is a a pilot of that car that if there's something to figure out, he will figure it out. So I'm looking forward to seeing that.

Uh, just kind of a complete mix-up here in this first campaign. Yeah, yeah, I'm excited to see what China brings, getting more data on the new regs. I texted you, but I thought it was noticeable, the sort of change in engine tone with the electric power. You can hear more of that, dare I say, electricity moving through there. You can hear that.

Yeah, the, the cars have a different, slightly different pitch to them, um, and it's very noticeable Um, in accelerations, if they do like a driver's cam, you kind of hear that more of a buzzier, um, engine tone with the 50/50 split in combustion and electric power. Um, interesting. Yeah, I like the— I like the changes. It, it does make it— I'm not saying the regulations were getting stale. I mean they brought about pretty damn good racing last season.

But I like the innovation. That's why people watch, at least, you know, motorsports fans. The innovation of F1 gets people in. So looking forward to China, which, like I said, 2 hours and 40 minutes as we record to FP1. Yeah, so just looking at this circuit, and I didn't realize if you Pull up the track map for China.

It is quite technical. Uh, there is some really crazy turns that happen in this race in 1 and 2. If you're looking at it, I don't know if you are or not, but look at 1 and 1, 2, and 3. Yeah, it, it's, it's a circle.

Um, so this will be great to watch. First GP, 20— uh, 2004. Um, fastest lap time is Michael Schumacher in that inaugural race. Still holds that, uh, first fastest lap time. Um, and we'll talk about that, uh, Schumi probably a little bit versus IndyCar.

But still, um, yeah, looking forward to it. And I don't know if you wanted to dip into Indy at all, or— I do, I have some thoughts. Okay, so we'll go ahead and table F1 for now and move into IndyCar, which for the first time since 2018 was racing at Phoenix Uh, what is Motor something or other? An oval race in Phoenix with the doubleheader with NASCAR, uh, on the Sunday race. Um, I thought the race overall was pretty interesting.

Uh, Rasmussen clearly was kind of the story of the show, clearly had the race-winning speed, and then gets into a tangle with Will Power, who hasn't started life at Andretti particularly well. Obviously, the big story I think is Palou not finishing the race. He gets into some issues with Rinus VK, and we have a new championship leader since 2024. So Alex Palou has led every single day of this IndyCar championship since about mid-2024. And now it is won Joseph Newgarden, who finished 7th at St. Petersburg and then gets the win at Phoenix.

What'd you think of Phoenix? Um, overall, I thought it was a good race. I like IndyCar and ovals, especially short ovals. I feel like rarely disappoints and we had a good race.

Um, yeah. And so IndyCar, the series always comes down to pit strategy above all. And so the teams who had that dialed in ended up being at the top. Newgarden. Of this.

Yeah. Of the rank here. Uh, Maloukas, uh, had a nice, uh, 3rd place finish. Um, just looking, it's, you know, 5 is Armstrong, uh, Alexander Rossi, Graham Rahal. Yeah, the Rahals had a nice weekend in Phoenix.

They did qualify well. Rahal qualified 3rd. Mick Schumacher qualifies 4th at Enoval. Finishes 18th, but he got laps, he finished a race, he got more than one lap, um, and qualified well. Clearly there's some chops there, um, and it's nice to see Rahal actually do something on ovals for once.

They've been horrible on ovals recently, so you know, you're, you're always thinking about May and IndyCar, and Rahal have been in some some last-row shootouts recently that I think they would rather not be in, in Indy. So, uh, good to see them finish well. Um, I knew watching the race that they— Malukas was not on the winning strategy pretty early on for whatever reason. Uh, I, I could kind— you could kind of piece together if you were paying attention that Newgarden clearly was on the best strategy for Penske, and that is why he won. Malukas, he took about 80-lap-old tires to the finish, and kudos to him because Pato O'Ward was on the same strategy as Newgarden, way fresher tires, and could not get around Malukas.

So I think if you flip Newgarden and Malukas strategy-wise Whoever's on that strategy would have won. Yeah. And that is just kind of what happened. Yeah. But with that being said, a good finish for Little Dave.

Yeah. I mean, he's podium finish. He's coming up. I think it could be any week at this point where he gets his win. And we're early still in this season, although this, I believe that was a 3rd campaign.

Second. Second. Third is this weekend. Okay. Quickfire start to IndyCar this year.

Yeah. Uh, so we— they are headed to Arlington, Texas for Street Race. Street Race, yes. Uh, which is the first of this event outside of Jerry World in, uh, Dallas— well, Arlington, Texas. Um, I don't know.

Could be horrible. It probably— it's more likely to be not a good race than it is to be a good race anytime they try to do these street races. Detroit is sort of the— I think the racing IndyCar-wise at Detroit has been better than you would expect, and that's kind of a ramshackle course, and this is basically IndyCar's answer to F1 at Miami. It's in a parking lot out front of a stadium. So I don't know, I'm looking forward to it just because it's a new race, but expect Palou dominance.

Yeah, and the track looks ridiculous.

Um, Very strangely laid out, but as most city street tracks are, uh, it looks like a very wide part at the right side of the track and then quite narrow at the left side. Yeah, I see that now. Yeah, I don't know. You don't, and you won't know until the race. That's just the way it goes with these street tracks.

Uh, we'll take a week off after and then head to Barber, which is a proper road course. I'm looking forward to one of those for once. But I understand expanding to new markets, new flashy events for IndyCar. They like that kind of stuff. I mean, F1 does the same thing.

Most of their new circuits are street circuits. Um, so let's give it a Honest try, but it's, I, you know, I'm not, I don't really like Joseph Newgarden. I actually would say I like Palou more than him, but it is refreshing to see someone else lead the championship since 2024. So this early on, yes. And I think we're going to see a little bit of a mix-up in that top 3.

Um, just based on, um, the performance of Melukkas, the qualifying of Melukkas, um, I think we're gonna see a bit of a mix up there. So, and that's good. I mean, you know my view of IndyCar, and I hate to see somebody just kind completely dominate. It doesn't feel right that somebody can come out and, and run that, uh, domination. But yeah, I mean, that's, that's it.

It's racing, but the whole point of it is to have some competitive theory there, sort of, right? Kind of. It's best car wins. So the team that figures that out the best, you put the best driver in the best car. I'd rather see that than, you know, not to punch to NASCAR, which I think has had a good season so far, but, you know, putting together some bullshit playoff format to try and make weird shit happen.

No one wants to see that. I give me Palou winning every race. I don't care. As opposed to some horseshit playoff bullshit. Yeah, that's not racing.

They're still struggling with that. Um, they changed the rules a bit, right, this year? Yeah, it's back to the chase, which is a, a still imperfect but much better way to crown a champion than genuinely the dumbest fucking format ever, so give them a little grace for that. And their season's been more compelling. IndyCar's 2 races in, but their season's been more compelling, um, so far.

Yeah, um, so I, I watch those races every— or so at least some of it as often as possible. Um, Bubba Wallace is 3rd in the standings behind his teammate Tyler Reddick in first. So yeah, maybe he'll go for a championship. Uh, but I think that's it for racing if you are good to move on. Sure.

Um, so our soccer segment is once again going to be dominated by Celtic and Rangers as they play for the second time in a week. And then I promise you more Premier League to follow next week. It was an FA Cup weekend. We haven't been covering the FA Cup this season, um, mostly because I can't really be arsed, and Scotland has been much more compelling this year.

So let me frame a couple things before we get into the match. This is a Scottish Cup match, not the league quarterfinal between Rangers and Celtic. Second time in a week that Celtic traveled to Ibrox for this one. You probably noticed if you had eyeballs that there were a lot more Celtic fans than, uh, well, what has become the new normal. Uh, 7,000-plus Celtic fans that got the full stand because of rules in the Scottish Cup where you have to give more tickets to the away team than in a league match.

Um, so that will eventually become relevant in this match. You, um, said at the beginning of the show that it was the most interesting nil-nil you've seen, and I guess I'll let you elaborate more. Well, first of all, I want to talk about the, the play of this Celtic team seems to have been elevated in this particular match. Um, strikes on the ball, getting to the ball, moving the ball more than I've seen in the last several matches. Um, very, um, like hard-nosed winning the ball.

We didn't, of course, we didn't have any scores in the first. This is the weakest lineup you'll ever see a Celtic team line out for a match. It didn't feel that way though to me. Maybe that was just the way I watched it. But so let's look at the lineup.

Rangers pretty much full strength in this one, um, and they really— they both teams have a goal disallowed. Rangers have 24 or 25 shots. Celtic had 1 shot in 120 minutes. 1. But look at the lineup that Celtic roll out.

Maeda, who has done fuck all this year, Tenechti, who did nothing. Yang, McCowan, Hatate, Negrin. Callum McGregor does not play in this game, he's injured. Uh, that was new, so I woke up to that. Scales' trusty Benjamin Arthur on loan from Brentford.

Julian Araujo, Gojami, Sinisalo. That is one of the weaker lineups you'll see Celtic team ever. I get what you're saying, the intensity was there, but Celtic, you know, were, were never really in a dominating this game ever. Well, I— they didn't dominate, but what they did do is create an atmosphere where I never thought that Rangers was going to go up.

I, I don't know. Rangers have that goal disallowed, which was obvious. Celtic actually were more— the one chance they created was unfortunately offside, um, and then they do nothing. I know what you're saying, Rangers didn't ever look super threatening. I guess there were a lot— I— there were a lot of clearance.

Celtic played well defensively, and I think that's where you're at. Like, defensively, they were sound. They were clearing the ball when they had to.

They— there were still a few kind of heart-in-mouth moments, but yeah, I don't know. Both teams are just fucking awful. And, and that shows on the pitch. The, the 2 matches they've played have just been kind of shit. Yeah, but I, I know what you mean.

It creates an atmosphere and occurrences on the pitch where you're thinking, well, there are certainly a lot of chances to score, whether or not either team could do it. A bit of a scrap in the 60th minute with both teams, so that kind of concludes the intensity of this game. Uh, so we go to PKs. Yeah. After, after overtime, which was pretty inconsequential.

I think both teams were just fucking tired, frankly. Yeah. And You know, Celtic had probably the last like 10 minutes of normal time, kind of felt like they were on the front foot and maybe could steal it. Joel Mvuka comes on and does it, maybe the worst 45-plus minutes you'll ever see from a Celtic player. Um, but yeah, I mean, this game comes down to the penalty shootout, which for Celtic to even be in the position where They basically smash and grab this one through a penalty shootout.

1, 1, 1 shot in 120 minutes, people. 1. That's bad no matter what. Yeah, so it's a smash and grab is what this result is. But yeah, the penalty shootout, I kind of had a good feeling about it.

I, I felt like Rangers are just— they are just They are amazing choke artists, and that showed again.

Um, so interestingly enough, after we go through the PKs, Celtic is victorious. I— was it 4-2? 4-2. Tav— James Tavernier hits the, uh, the crossbar right off the rip, which is funny because they subbed him on basically to take penalties. Celtic don't miss a penalty, and then Gidi Gassama for Rangers misses his.

Um, and Big, Big Tam, Big Thomas Schwantrager, uh, puts away the, the concluding penalty. Fucking big up to the Rangers fans. Celebrates in front of them. And then the— after the— so the antics. Yes, the masked supporters of Rangers, the Union Bears as they are called.

Not familiar, but they're an ultras group. Okay, well, we have the Green Brigade who have been banned from Celtic matches since November, but this is the first time that I've ever witnessed this type of activity post-match.

Masked people run onto the field en masse, start shooting flares into the opposing team's stands.

And they did a pretty decent job of covering it. But, uh, you mean like the TV? Yeah, I mean, they usually, they'll kind of cut away. Yeah, they showed it. They showed it.

And here's— so the Celtic fans, some Celtic fans run onto the pitch to celebrate. That is clear. That isn't really that egregious. That happens kind of a lot, not rarely from the away team. So that's kind of ballsy.

Then you have a moment where nothing kind of happens, and then 3 or 4 masked Union Bear individuals who are my age or younger, uh, because they usually are, then you can see them waving to get more Rangers fans on the pitch, and that's where the bullshit ensues. Um, which it could have been a lot uglier than it was. Um, first off, the security. What did— what the fuck do you people get paid to do? Well, I'll tell you this, they don't get paid enough to stop somebody from clearly leaping over.

Clearly not, because there were 50 or 60 of those max masked Rangers fans on the field. And then what my— the, the thing that sort of unnerved me a bit was the fact that they were allowing them to light off pyrotechnics and shooting those pyrotechnics into the stands. Yeah, I wasn't super shocked necessarily by the antics afterwards. I knew right when the Celtic fans went onto the pitch that trouble was gonna ensue because Rangers, the, the ultras were not just gonna let that one go. Um, but again, the security, what the fuck are you guys doing?

They did, they did start to lay off eventually. Yeah, but after they went the whole length of the fucking pitch. Yeah. And were trying to fucking punch players and yeah, all this fucking nonsense. It was quite, it was quite something to, to watch.

Schvantura had blood on his kit afterwards. Not a lot. It was quite interesting to watch how that played out. And I don't think that we've seen in this Scottish Premier League something like that for a while. No, and really, that's not what should be happening.

Um, I feel like this is probably the first time where you've really seen the, the true ferocity of this rivalry. It is, it is one of the ugliest rivalries in all of sports around the world. It is, it is incredibly intense for a number of reasons, many of which lie off and outside of the, the pitch. And it occasionally rears its ugly head, and that's clearly what happened. There were some pretty horrific videos of scenes outside the stadium afterwards where fans were getting into fights and people were not coming out of said fights in good condition.

They had alluded to the fact that it was going to carry. Yeah. And it— and I, I know this about this league is they have tried hard to stop that from happening. You know, we see the marshals during the game. They split both fan bases.

This was just a case of, um, this particular match, this outcome, and dare I say it was a bit exciting to watch. Yeah, I mean, a little bit. I mean, it's kind of bullshit, but at the same time I was like, wow, this is, this is a real thing. This is— these, these fans are that passionate. And I've been— and I know you get it, but I have tried to, to drill home the fact that this is not American sports, American professional sports, I should say.

It's not a sanitary Kind of fucking bullshit. You can sit wherever you want in an opposing stadium. There's just— there's, first off, way more history. There's more outside factors as opposed to just sports that separates these fan bases, be it politics. That's mostly what it is these days.

Historically religion and ethnic background. These are identities. They're not just sports teams. You know, I— the closest thing I think you can— could compare it to is like a Michigan-Ohio State, which I, I would say is probably the most intense American sports rivalry. But even then, what do you really have?

What's the difference really between a Michigan-Ohio State fan Nothing really other than the team you support. You go to, uh, you know, Glasgow, and I'm not even saying this is the way it should be. I think the, the rest of Scotland is kind of sick of these 2 teams' antics, 2 fan bases' antics. But a Rangers fan and a Celtic fan see the world differently. Be it political, be it religious background, be it ethnic background, be it whatever, um, what side of town you live on.

So things don't need much. This match doesn't need much of an opportunity for things to boil over. And when you give an opportunity for illicit activity to happen. In, in Celtic Rangers, it will. And, and we saw it, yeah, uh, in this one.

First time in the 4 years that I've been following this league that something like that has happened. Um, I don't know, uh Is this a geopolitical thing? Is, is it a religious— so are you, are you trying to say, or not trying to say, are you suggesting that we're talking about a Catholic versus Protestant? Historically, yes. Not so much anymore.

Um, but yeah, I mean, Celtic were founded by Irish immigrants. They were created to basically raise money for poor Catholic Irish immigrants in Glasgow, which is why you see so much Irish iconography surrounding the club. Um, and Rangers, you know, were historically a Protestant club. Which with that comes, you know, more of a loyalist background politically to the, the crown in the UK. Uh, it was basically an unwritten rule until about the '90s.

The Rangers didn't even employ Catholic players. If you were Catholic, they didn't explicitly go about saying that they didn't, but there weren't openly Catholic players uh, playing for Rangers through the '80s and into the '90s. So that was certainly a part of it. Um, there's, you know, sectarianism is just kind of part of life in Glasgow, and so much of it stems from Irish history, and you don't even really see it as much in Irish society. So Glasgow has taken this kind of very interesting.

It's just the way it's developed where Celtic fans traditionally are more progressive, they're more, uh, left-leaning politically, they have the Irish kind of background going for them, and Rangers are pretty much the antithesis to that. Um, so there's, there's more than just sports to why these fan bases hate each other. Well, that's the interesting part of, of all of this. So, um, yeah, a, uh, somewhat strange end to this particular match, but our boys come out on top, and they do. Uh, I'll take that.

I, I, as I said before, I think they played this match to the best of the ability of the management and the players that they have. Yeah. I think that's fair. So, and I'll take that over a 4-nil or getting their asses kicked. Um, yeah, and I don't know, I have not looked at the schedule, but will we see another rematch with this?

There will be in the league one more match in April probably, or May, um, in the split, which will, you know, have big implications to the league. Again, this was the Cup quarterfinal. So we know Celtic are playing St. Mirren in the semifinal, and then Dunfermline Athletic from the Championship in Falkirk, which is a rivalry in its own right, are on the other side. Um, remember Celtic lost to St. Mirren in the League Cup final. Um, as for the Premiership, uh, Celtic take on Motherwell Saturday.

Hearts are away to Kilmarnock, and Rangers will be playing on Sunday against St. Mirren away. And then we have a Dundee Derby. So looking at the league, Hearts still have a 5-point advantage at the top, uh, with 9 matches to play. It's Celtic in second, 58 points, Rangers in third, 57 points. So the league really still could go any given way.

I still kind of think it's hard to lose, but Celtic have been in good form, and if they can carry that into the league, who knows. So that's where we're at. All right, well, let's, uh, get going. We have the Chinese GP coming up in F1. We have the Java House, uh, Grand Prix of Arlington with IndyCar.

Um, NASCAR in the background and other things happening. But, uh, I think for that we should probably go. I would agree. We'll be back next week to discuss 2 more races, some English Premier League, that is. Of course, keep an eye on that crazy Scottish title race.

So that is next week. Okay, we're in the middle of the tune, but regardless, uh, we'll do it live. We'll do it live.

For Studio 2520, copyright 2026, executive producer Richard Tanaka. We'll see you next time.