Mexican Grand Prix 2025 Recap: Norris Takes the Points Lead

Podcasting from Studio 2520, somewhere near Akron, Ohio, bringing you all the latest talk in motorsport and soccer. This is Tackling the Chicane.

So there you go, there's your unlicensed, uh, music track. Not too shabby, actually.

I kind of like it. I could dig that for a while. It's funky. Maybe we'll let that, uh, we'll let that ride for a few weeks on the podcast until we can come up with something else. And my effects seem to get quieter and quieter for some reason.

I don't know what's going on with that either. Couldn't be the $50 soundboard. It could be. It could be. Santa Claus needs to bring us something different, maybe.

Yeah, we could use equipment upgrades across the board. Yeah, I mean, I would do a board before mics because I don't know, the mics are fine. Mics aren't too bad. The board, uh, I, I knew the brand of the one that I wanted to look for, and now it's been so long I I've forgotten. I suppose I could just go out on the internet and check it out.

We are operating at like a surplus in the 7 figures, our revenue from this show.

Well, that's good to hear.

Um, maybe I'll retire early. We got the Marlboro money coming in now.

Can you say that? Marlboro Smooth Original Flavor filter cigarettes. It's the Marlboro Golds. Philip Morris USA, Richmond, Virginia. So you used to be able— those were lights back in the day, but you're not allowed to call a cigarette light anymore, so now they just call it the Gold Pack.

Smoking by pregnant women may result in fetal injury, premature birth, and low birth weight.

So I noticed there's no like slogan or anything on here. Probably can't say anything cool about cigarettes. No, you don't see many advertisements for them anymore either. They used to be in all the magazines. You can advertise.

Yeah. Toasters with the price. Well, I suppose if the greedy tobacco companies would have stuck to just pure tobacco and not put all the chemicals in cigarettes that they did, that perhaps there would not be as much rampant cancer.

I don't know though. I don't know. All right, well, here we are for— I believe this is episode 1 44 of Tackling the Chicane, if you're keeping track at home. And, uh, the agenda pretty much completely got torn to shreds Monday night, um, which is fine, um, which is why we're not going to talk in depth about a particular soccer match. I threw that out the window when the entire world of Celtic FC pretty much, uh, got flipped on its head Monday, I believe.

Yeah, Monday. Um, but we did, we did travel up to the pub to see Celtic take on Hearts, and safe to say Celtic were second best in that one. Yeah, and you know, it, it takes a lot of the energy out of the room when they're not playing well, I noticed. Um, There was probably, I don't know, 10 to 12 of us there and just not quite the same zest that we've, that we've seen in the past. But I think that comes down to a couple of different things.

Number one, right now, this is not a very good team. They're not playing very well.

And when you have expectations of how you think the season is going to go, and now you're 8 points behind Hertz, there's definitely some dissent in the camp. And then with the news this week, yeah, it's, I feel like You know, just as a freshman fan of Celtic, I, even I feel like there's a lot of discombobulation here. Yeah, and it's been the case all season really. That gap is down to 6 with midweek results. Celtic won 4-0 against Falkirk.

A very— hearts drew with St. Mirren. Very important win, in my opinion. Yeah. Um, so if you've been, you know, haven't been plugged into the news, Brendan Rodgers, manager of Celtic Football Club, uh, resigned Monday, late Monday night, very late Scottish time, like 10:30 PM. I got the notification.

Uh, in the 5 o'clock hour here.

Um, many thought that if he didn't get the win against Hartz, there was a decent chance he was gonna get sacked, um, anyways. But I guess we will never know in that respect because he walked. Um, and it's, it's been a fairly tumultuous week in the Celtic world. Um, but this entire season has been kind of shit, shall we say. I mean, there's no real other way to describe it.

It started, you know, early on with the, the transfer window being bad, our best players leaving and not getting replaced. And then you have the Kairat Almaty Champions League debacle, and league form hasn't really been all that great. And now you sit 6 points behind Hearts and you're in the Europa League. And now we're on with an interim manager, Martin O'Neill, who, uh, is, is a club legend, but, uh, he did all of his legendary work for Celtic, uh, 20-plus years ago. And is 73 years old now and hasn't managed in 6 years.

Well, they just need somebody to fill the spot for a couple of games until they figure it out. Obviously, the pundits on various news outlets are all sort of keeping the same theme that Rodgers was not happy with the expenditures or lack of. I mean, this is a very, very wealthy football club. And I don't, if that's the case, I don't blame him one bit. I don't blame him one bit.

You should be putting the best talent that you can afford on the field, on the pitch, regardless of what it costs. Especially if you're sitting on just assloads of money. Yeah, it's a, it's a pretty poorly kept secret that Celtic is sitting on, uh, potentially 70-odd million pounds, which when you're a sporting organization, a football club, there's no real reason to be operating at such a large surplus. I'm not saying that you need to be, you know, billions of dollars in the hole like some of these Premier League outfits are, but the point of sports is not to make money for the people that own the club. It's for on-field success, for professional sports at least.

So what— why are we hoarding money that can be reinvested into the squad. It could be reinvested into the actual infrastructure of the club, be it stadium upgrades or whatever, training facilities. Um, and it's very clear that the ownership at Celtic, the higher-ups, are perfectly fine sort of cheaping their way through each season. And as long as we're better than Rangers, uh, you know, I guess everything's sunshine and rainbows. And I, I really do think Brendan Rodgers had seen enough.

I mean, clearly he wasn't getting the best out of the squad, and that, that's very apparent. I mean, I'm not going to sit here and say like Brendan Rodgers was managing what he had very well this year, but I, I don't think he was set up for a particularly great amount of success this year.

No, I agree. And, you know, everyone has their breaking point. And there is also some rumor that there could be another offer or was another offer on the table for him to go somewhere else anyhow. That's just speculation. We don't, we don't know that.

Well, yeah, nothing has surfaced yet. Uh, I doubt he sits on his tail the rest of the club season, but, um, I— yeah, that's complete speculation at this point. Just to, you know, add, I guess, an added layer to this entire situation, I would say adding salt to a pretty egregious wound. Monday night, very shortly after it's announced that Brendan Rodgers is sacked— or not sacked, resigned— too shortly after, about a 200-300 word statement comes out from Dermot Desmond, minority shareholder, 34% stake in the club, owner of Celtic FC. He's very He's not super involved until he wants to be.

Uh, but why don't we— I'm gonna read the statement because frankly, I, I think it's insanity. Carry on. Brendan Rodgers has today— this is Monday the 27th— Brendan Rodgers has today tendered his resignation as manager of Celtic Football Club. I want to acknowledge Brendan's contribution across his 2 spells as manager during which he helped deliver success that forms part of the club's modern history. However, I must also express my deep disappointment at the way the past several months have unfolded.

When we brought Brendan back to Celtic 2 years ago, it was done with complete trust and belief in his ability to lead the club into a new era of sustained success. Unfortunately, His conduct and communication in recent months have not reflected that trust. In June, both Michael Nicholson and I expressed to Brendan that we were keen to offer him a contract extension to reaffirm the club's full backing and long-term commitment to him. He said he would need to think about it and revert. Yet in subsequent press conferences, Brendan implied that the club had made no commitment to offer him a contract.

That was simply untrue. We met with Brendan regularly, including in December last year and at the start of the summer, with regular dialogue in between to discuss and agree our collective strategy, priorities, and approach. Every player signed and every player sold during his tenure was done so with Brendan's full knowledge, approval, and endorsement. Any insinuation otherwise is absolutely false. Let me just back up to that statement.

Can you read the part about every player? Every player signed and every player sold during his tenure was done so with Brendan's full knowledge, approval, and endorsement. As he had, as if he had a chance or as if he had a choice. Yeah, I just, I don't really believe that considering we made about 10 signings this summer and about fucking 4 of them play and the other ones haven't gotten a sniff in the squad. Yeah.

So I doubt that. Carry on. His later public statements about transfers and club operations came entirely, entirely out of the blue. At no point prior to those remarks had he raised any such concerns with me Michael, or any member of the board or executive team. In reality, he was given final say over all football matters and was consistently backed in the recruitment process, including record investment in players he personally identified and approved.

When his comments were made publicly, I sought to address them directly. Now, this is where it kind of gets funny. Brendan and I met for over 3 hours at his home in Scotland to discuss the issue. Despite ample opportunity, he was unable to identify a single instance where the club had obstructed or failed to support him. The facts did not match his public narrative.

Regrettably, his words and actions since then have been divisive, misleading, and self-serving. They have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and fueled hostility towards members of the executive team and the board. Some of the abuse directed at them and at their families have been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable. The rest is kind of a bunch of, uh, we back the club, blah blah blah. But yeah, so is this a, a desperate attempt to quell any uprising within Celtic Nation?

Yeah. What it is is, oh, Brendan resigned. He was the problem. He was the reason why this season's gone to complete garbage. The sole reason, if you would believe this statement.

And we know otherwise. I mean, just from the lack of having anybody dynamic, not anybody, but having a basket of dynamic players like we did just a few campaigns ago.

Now of which most are gone. Right. So that leaves you with, I don't know, 2 to 3 real firecracker players in the current squad. Yeah. I mean, you look to Daiza Maeda sometimes.

But see, here, so here's the thing with a lot. So it's all about the chemistry on the pitch. And when you take a Kyogo out and you take, give me somebody else that's, that's gone. Nicholas Kuhn. Yeah.

So there's 2 good examples. They, Matt O'Reilly, those guys, the Rayo Hatates and the guy, who's the guy you just mentioned?

My mind just went blank, but that's currently on the team. Yeah. So the guys that are left need players like Kyogo and Koon and that to keep things I don't— lively is the wrong word. To keep things lively. The chemistry is horrible right now.

Well, you sold all of our best players or let them leave, whatever. Okay, that's, that's soccer. But you replaced them with no one. You replaced them with shit, with garbage, with dick. Like, what the fuck did you expect when you went fucking bargain bin All summer.

You were okay. You sold Nicolas Kuhn for £10 million. Then you bought a fucking left winger when we need a right winger for fucking $300,000 from a fucking farm in Romania. Like, what the hell did you expect? Don't act like you've— you just dumped investment into this team.

And he talks about record investment. That was one player, Arne Engels. One player. You, you spent record investment on, which in modern soccer, £11 million is nothing. That's nothing.

No, that's like a tenth of— so I don't give a fuck about that. Yeah. And what I just cannot stand about this statement— does Dermot Desmond, who again is barely involved in day-to-day operations and is not even majority owner Does he think the people that support this club are 5 years old? Because do you really think that a season goes completely off the rails when we have all the— like, we were alive this summer when you did nothing in the transfer window and let all of our best players leave since last January. So you really want us to believe that it's solely on Brendan Rodgers that we're in this predicament?

That's bullshit. Is there similar opinion on like the Celtic? So the Celtic club that we are a part of here in Northeast Ohio, is there chatter about this, this very statement and how stupid it was? Or is there— I haven't seen anything like directly from them, but like just generally on Celtic Like social media, yes. No one thought this was a smart statement or even true.

Yeah, we're talking about the world. Yeah. The entire world of Celtic football, not just here in the United States and Northeast Ohio. So yeah, I mean, clearly, clearly this was just a, Somebody's got— he's hell-bent a little bit about something. Well, and all the protests coming from the fans in the stands this season was all directed at the board, not Brendan Rodgers.

Yeah. Well, I kind of— I can see why, whether or not Brendan has another opportunity, I can see why he wanted— he doesn't want any part of this. Anymore because when it get— when it goes bad, it goes bad. Oh, I mean, it at Celtic, like shit. Yeah.

Fast. So apparently there was a— there was not a good relationship between them to begin with, or else this guy wouldn't be rocked back on his heels trying to make the club look so great. Yeah. The thing is like, obviously the football on the pitch was shit and part of that is Brendan Rodgers. I mean, you want to talk about some boring-ass soccer, just watch Celtic this season.

But that is only part of the problem. If there's no talent, no, if there's no chemistry, if there's nothing to— it's really hard for a manager or a coach when he has nothing to work with. It's like you— I don't know, you're— to use like a racing analogy, let's say you're in the Indy 500 and you smash your— you destroy your, your car qualifying for the 500 and you're in a backup car and you're, you're like— your team owner's like, so why, why aren't you going as fast now? It's because I have shit equipment now, right? Like, you let Kyogo go.

Nicholas Kuhn, you sold and then didn't replace. Matt O'Reilly, you sold and then didn't replace. You let Jota go, didn't replace him. Luckily he came back, but now he's injured. Uh, so there's one there.

Um, when Joe Hart left, you replaced him with Kasper Schmeichel, another geriatric who has kind of been ass this season. Like, what the hell did you expect? And now you're not freshening up the squad either because the guys you're bringing in are garbage. They suck. They're not good because you, you went around Europe and went, where can I find the cheapest MFers possible?

It really makes no sense. From a standpoint of ownership.

From the opposite view, there, there has to be seasons in the Scottish Premier League where it's not Celtic being the champion. Could be looking at one right now. I think, well, I think we're definitely looking at one, to be honest. And I don't know who that's going to be. But we can't have Celtic be the champions year after year after year after year either, because then that becomes boring and ridiculous.

Yeah. But I would rather it be another team wins the cup because they outplayed us and we were still playing, not because Celtic are just dog shit. Right. And we were still playing at an absolute high level and they, they achieved a higher level. But yeah, right now, I mean, if whoever wins this year, if it's not Celtic, it's because we're not playing at a high level.

Yeah. I mean, that, that looks to be the case. Rangers now in their second manager of the year, maybe have found something there. They, what are they? They're only 5 points back.

They won against Kilmarnock yesterday. So we'll see what happens with them. They're not going to be so historically shit the whole year like they've started. So if Rangers come alive, there's no reason why they can't challenge for the league. Obviously with Hearts, it's, it's complicated because yes, they're playing incredibly well right now, but we've seen that we have 40 years of data to suggest that they're, they're gonna fall off at some point, and they'll probably fall off hard.

Um, so we'll see if they can continue. Honestly, for the sake of competitiveness, I, I would, I would welcome that challenge all day long. But again, there's just much more data suggesting that they are going to eventually fall off a cliff. But, uh, to be determined. I agree with your point.

I, you know, if Celtic are going to relinquish the league, let it be because someone It's just playing better than them, not because— right. Not because we have no atrocious— we don't have anyone to play. So we'll see. I, and I mean, that was the most painful thing about the match this past Sunday.

Nothing to get excited about. No, nothing to applaud. The thing was, it was mostly just hands in prayer trying to ward off the fact that this fucking team was going to get beat. Once they went down 3-1, you knew they weren't gonna— oh, there's no fucking way. You knew they weren't gonna score again.

You knew it. I mean, that's such a toothless attack right now. And yes, 4-0 against Falkirk, great. They were almost always gonna fucking win that game. First off, it's at home.

Second off, new manager, interim manager, guys playing for their spots. We have to rally after getting our fucking asses kicked at Hearts. They were always winning that. Albeit though, had that went the other way, then we're really, really in trouble. They needed that win to at least create some kind of hope.

Because if you start losing to teams like Falkirk, then you might as well just walk away. Yeah. The thing with this is like, it's such a long season. We played 10 out of 38 matches. They also, I mean, outside of the league, let's not forget how fucking failure, how much we failed in the, in the year, in the cup series.

What was the team that beat us from, from, how the hell do you lose to that team? You just suck, dick. Right. I don't know. Like my point is, is that there was a lot of It wasn't just league play.

No, it's like we just stink. We also have a semifinal against Rangers on Sunday in the League Cup that I fully expect us not to win. Well, so when is that? Sunday at 9 AM. Well, that's a good time.

Of course you'll be in Columbus. Yeah. I may watch it. Okay. For shits and giggles.

Well, we have to watch it.

All right, but I think Rangers are probably favored going into that match. Whether or not that's, you know, true, I don't know. I don't know anymore with the Celtic team. You used to be able to rely on them, uh, the domestic game in Scotland, we're probably gonna win, probably gonna win by a lot. Not so much anymore, and it really can be against any team that they could drop points.

And we haven't beaten Rangers in over a year. So what suggests— there's nothing that jumps off the page to me that would point to Celtic actually winning that. Yeah. But I don't know. I don't know.

We'll see. Maybe the 80-year-old manager will bring a— Martin O'Neill, actual club legend back in the day. He took over when Celtic had not, uh, had real success in a while. They had won maybe one of the past 11 or so leagues, and he got them to win a lot of trophies, including a treble in 2001 maybe, and then took them all the way to what is now the Europa League. Uh, back then it was called the UEFA Cup Final.

Which they sadly lost to Porto. But Celtic have not won a European knockout tie since that season, 2003. So he has a lot of history with the club. It's just, uh, at this point I would say he's a little bit washed. Well, and again, this is interim stopgap measure, but come on, really?

Like, that just kind of shows where the club is at. I mean, don't they— didn't they have somebody underneath Rogers that could, like in NFL, usually it's, well, in dire straits. He either left or quit or they got rid of him. Johnny, John Kennedy, Johnny. Okay.

Yeah. He gone. And then, yeah, let's bring in fucking Martin O'Neal. Quit fucking doing that. So, well, that's such a cocksucker.

That will, that'll make everybody feel better. Christ. Here's what fucking— all right, Neil Lennon's in. Sack him. Go with another manager.

Doesn't work out. Let's bring back Neil Lennon. Okay. Now it's, well, Ange Postecoglou left. Let's bring back Brendan Rodgers.

Oh, that, that'll work out well. Well, fucking Brendan Rodgers is out. Let's bring in fucking Martin O'Neill to be the interim coach from 20 years ago. And then people want Ange Postecoglou back. Yeah.

Well, please. That's a natural reaction. Come on. Do you want to move forward as a football club ever? Right.

You fucking jabronis. It's a natural reaction to go back to the person that brought the most success recently. And I saw, I was watching some CBS feed. I'm going to butcher this, but is it Golzilla or Golzalo? Golazo.

Whatever it is. I mean, they had a little 6-minute snippet on this, this whole subject, and the comments were flying underneath, and there was a lot of Ange Apostolakoglou. Just stop, stop. He's gotten sacked the last 2 places he fucking went. It's like every 30 days at night.

It's like, yeah, it's like every other sport. You have a bunch of, I don't know, commentary at People are idiots. I mean, I love Ange, but Jesus Christ, do you want him to come back into this? You want him to come back into this? At best, he wins the league.

Okay, then they'll be like, well, we should have— we're Celtics, win the league anyways. At worst, he doesn't, and then he's the worst person to ever exist. Yeah. So I don't know. We'll see.

I mean, at least— I don't know.

I don't want to say it's keeping it interesting, but it's keeping it interesting. And I would rather see a good product on the, on the pitch. And if you take a loss but still have a good product, that's a little bit easier to digest than just— this team isn't real fun to watch right now. And we said that before, but I can, I can attest to that now after having gone to the pub last Sunday. And it's like, it's, it must be sort of akin to what it's like to be a Browns fan.

It's just painful. It's painful to have to sit there for 2 hours and watch just absolute shit.

Yeah. Not good. Not good. Well, semifinal against Rangers in the League Cup Sunday. The other half of that bracket, very interestingly, is St. Mirren and Motherwell.

So those clubs don't get to this point in tournaments very often. So they should have a fun day out. And we'll see. Rangers are, you know, the new manager's in and he's a genius. So we shall see.

All right. Well, there you go. That's our update on the world of football and particularly on the world of what's happening with Celtic. I'm sure we'll have much more to talk about as we navigate because I don't, I see this guy as an interim. No, he is.

I mean, that's his role. So more interestingly, who will fill the spot after, you know, when they figure it out?

All right. So yeah, I did have a soccer agenda made on Monday, but that, that, that went up in flames. So it's fine. We'll be back to more regular content soccer-wise next time. In the meantime, Liverpool lost again last weekend and then lost again in the League Cup against Crystal Palace.

So what's going on over there, guys? Seems like they're, they're on the struggle bus, but, uh, maybe we can talk a little more in depth about them next time out. Arsenal top of the league. Yeah, and Man City, uh, not far behind. So Although they did lose last weekend too.

So Premier League is all sorts of wide open right now. Yeah. Of the two, I, I guess that's more interesting race right now. Well, Scotland's pretty damn interesting. I mean, it's interesting, I guess.

It, I would, it really stems on what Rangers and Hearts do. If they, if they can, if Hearts continue their good form and Rangers find good form, I think it's going to make it very, very interesting here, especially in this kind of busy midsection of the season, because I don't really know what to expect from Celtic. But, uh, we should move on. We've got a race to talk about. Motorsport.

The Mexico Grand Prix.

And a kiss, I guess.

Well, I think that was the injection we needed for F1. Oh, I mean, very entertaining race.

Okay, so I'll just go to the headline. Bearman gets 4th position, P4. And At one point and masterfully strategized by Haas, pitted at the right time, stayed in that window. And I honestly thought this kid's going to, he's going for a podium. Yeah, he was truly in the mix.

He really was. And had this not been A complete galactical— I don't know what you want to call it. I mean, let's face it. What did Norris— Norris was 28 seconds ahead of everybody by the end of this one. He won by 30.3 seconds.

Yes. So Leclerc in 2nd place, Verstappen in 3rd, and Bearman in 4th, 40 seconds behind the winner.

Um, but I mean, just a hell of a race by the Haas guys. And, and, you know, that kind of gives me a little bit of hope for what potential maybe this kid has. And if he sticks with Haas, what maybe Haas, what the Haas team can do in the future. Um, Other than that, uh, the more humorous, one of the more humorous points of this race was the, uh, George Russell radio exchange. Um, they, I guess Russell had adapted papaya rules or something requesting to get around, around Antonelli and to the point where, um, He radioed his engineer and said, there is a McLaren up my ass.

It's the, the actual quote is, there's a car in my ass or something like that. And, um, would you like me to just let him go around?

Well, yeah, that was, that was a pretty funny moment. The funny, I think the funniest part about that was Russell was trying to get around Antonelli to chase Bearman down and he never got past him. He couldn't get past Oliver Bearman. They end up switching again. No, they had to switch back because he said, he, Russell said initially, let me try.

And if I can't do it, then you can have it back. And which is ultimately what happened, which he gave back with what, like 3 laps left? Oh yeah. And Piastri had already gone by. Right.

Typical F1 fashion engineer. Okay. It's time to go back. And then 3 laps go by. Okay.

It's time to give the position back. But an entertaining race nonetheless.

I, I thought it sucked that it ended under VSC. Yeah. That was unnecessary. That was bullshit. That was complete bullshit.

It neutralized the field. I think there could have been a late battle. Perhaps. I mean, I, I really think Verstappen was probably going to get around Leclerc if there wasn't— at some point I thought he was too. So the fact that they brought this stupid virtual safety car out for a car that was clearly out off circuit and in a safe place makes no fucking sense to me.

I don't— I— sometimes the stewards piss me off more than anything because there's never any consistency in how they officiate. No, it's like every, every lap is officiated differently. Um, but yeah, I mean, this is a great race to watch. Obviously there was a lot of things playing out all the way through, even though Norris ran away, the real racing was happening in positions, you know, 2 through 6 basically, or 7. But yeah, I mean, look, we couldn't have asked for a better campaign than we've seen this year.

I mean, there's been just story after story. I think there's been a lot of what-ifs, you know, even in the McLaren camp, Piastri is not the indicative champion yet. Well, he's not in the lead anymore. No, that's what I'm saying. I mean, everybody thought there's been years where within the first 3 races, you know, it's pretty much that it goes that way for the rest of the season.

It just hasn't done that this year.

You know, it's, I guess, as far as an F1 campaign goes, this has been one of the more interesting ones to watch. Is how I will put that. It's been the best Drivers Championship by a bajillion miles. Yeah, Constructors was, you know, effed a long time ago. In this regulation, which I don't think has provided like the world's greatest racing.

I hope they fix that or attempt to fix for next time around. But yeah, I mean, we're 4 rounds left and I don't, I, I'm not even gonna try and guess who's gonna win the championship. Which is— you just don't know. There's actually 3 true contenders. I think Max has to win or greatly outscore McLaren next week, um, to stay in it, truly stay in it.

But there's no reason why he can't. And Piastri has sort of really gotten on the struggle bus. You know, he was qualified 9th and was riding around in, in 8th, 9th, 7th, most of this, and then he does well to get back to 5th. But the 15-point gap between Norris and Piastri in, in what they scored in this race means that Norris actually has taken over the lead of the championship by 1 point. By 1 point, which is significant considering I think some of us— me definitely was thinking about a month ago that this might be wrapped up.

Maybe even a month and a half ago when Piastri took a pretty sizable lead and Verstappen was way down, I was like, well, I don't, I don't really know if I see this changing. Yeah, now here we are. So also of interest, in, in your top 10 driver standing, you have these names, albeit at the end of the— or at the lower end of the spectrum. Kimi Antonelli, Alexander Albon, Nico Hulkenberg, Isaac Hadjar. That's 7 through 10.

But look at those names. You got 2 rookies, which is interesting. Nico Hulkenberg driving a tractor is in fucking 9th place. Yeah. You know, so it has been pretty interesting.

As a season. Um, Constructors isn't even worth talking about anymore except for maybe second. Uh, Ferrari was it, or Mercedes? Ferrari overtook Mercedes, correct? So 2-3 is a point, uh, differential.

356 to 355, Ferrari ahead. Red Bull, uh, RB Racing is about 10 points behind, don't really give a shit if that team ever wins anything. I mean, Williams of note in 5th place. This is going to be a season that they're going to really, they should be happy with that. You know, as a team who has struggled in the past and has really cemented themselves as a contender.

Now we say all this. Going into the next campaign where everything, I think it's a complete level set in 2026. You don't think so?

No. The teams that continue to have the best research and development programs like a Red Bull are still going to be like that. Well, that's— and Mercedes. On paper, that makes sense. I mean, I understand, like, I think, I think teams like, remember McLaren last season started out horrifically and then ended up winning a Constructors' Championship.

So that can happen. But I don't, I, I don't think that we're just going to suddenly see Williams be like in the top 2 or 3 teams just because it's new regs. That historically doesn't— No, but stranger things have happened when a car is brand, brand new. And sometimes even though you have all that money and support, sometimes another team figures something else out that gives them an advantage. So I would, I would be interested to see that.

I would like it to be like that. Don't get me wrong. But yeah, we'll see. I mean, I always have hope that that stuff will play out, but Um, yeah. So I guess we'll, we'll kind of, there'll be a lot to talk about in 2026 with all the car changes and, you know, Cadillacs coming in.

And I think it's going to be a fun, fun year next year for sure.

Other than that, I mean, obviously I don't have much to talk about this race. There was Quite a few things that happened throughout, but not anything really that stood out. We had a, what, like 3 DNFs? 4. 4 DNFs.

Lawson mechanical, a lot of mechanical stuff. And that was early. That was like 2nd or 3rd lap, I think, that he went out. But yeah, nothing, uh, or any like significant wrecks or anything. Like that.

But, um, just great racing for once. Thank God. Just run at Mexico the rest of the year. Who gives a shit? Just like, I just— we had Oliver Bearman actually racing Max Verstappen on track for a place.

Like, come on. Yeah, that's great. And I mean, holding his own too and not making— nobody, nobody binned the car either, which is That's pretty phenomenal. Usually when Max— I guess we could talk a little bit about the first lap where some cars decided, well, I'm just gonna cut the entire first turn and go through the grass, and then hopefully they'll just give me the position when I rejoin. Well, I mean, guys were— they were getting punchy with each other, and I think, you know, there were instances where maybe they were kind of ran off the road or not given, you know, maybe the space they deserved, but it all kind of sorted itself out, which was good to see.

We didn't see any lame penalties for this and that, uh, just, you know, racing incidents. That does happen in F1, stewards, believe it or not. Like, you— not everything is a 10-second penalty for racing, for God's sakes. But I did, you know, just a, a refreshing race. I think the racing has just been kind of piss poor for the past few races, and we finally got something that I was like, man, you know what, yes, Lando Norris runs away with it, but I mean, throughout the rest of the field, we were, yeah, duking it out.

Give us a pause here real quick.

Entertaining race. There was lots of challenges, I guess, and you know, the first lap in these GPs has started to become sort of a cover your eyes, not really sure what's going to happen.

Um, and that was the case with this one as well. I just, uh, it's always interesting to me how the rules are interpreted from race to race. Never really the same. No, it doesn't feel like it anyhow. Um, but yeah.

That particular first turn at Mexico, um, gives you the opportunity, I guess, if you get pushed off the track, you just drive in a straight line and re-enter in turn 3. So, but I think all of it was addressed fairly well. I mean, I don't recall any really egregious penalties or anything that, that were given for this particular race. But yeah, no, it was, it was a good one to watch. And now we're gonna off to, uh, in a week or so to, uh, São Paulo in Brazil.

Um, interesting track. First GP, 1973. Course length, 4.3 and change kilometers, that is. And Valtteri Bottas owns the fastest lap time in 2018. Uh, just a few more to go, right?

3, 4, 4 to go. Jeez, the never-ending season. It's always, it's always this long. Yeah, I know. I'm fine with it.

4 to go. We'll see what happens. Who are you tipping to win it all?

This is going to be against my normal hatred, but I just have a feeling that this is going to be one of those. It's going to come down to the last race.

And I think Verstappen has a chance to take the title back. 36 points adrift of Lando with 4 rounds to go. Now if I had to choose a driver within the McLaren camp, it would absolutely be Lando Norris. Piastri just seems flat right now for some reason. Yeah, maybe, uh, I would say maybe a week off, but he's had weeks off, so I don't know.

Uh, it doesn't seem like Piastri's in particularly great form. Right now. I think Norris is kind of the hot hand at the moment, but, uh, oh boy. I mean, could go— I could really go either way. I, like I said, I think Verstappen has to win in Brazil for it to really be, uh, real for him to still be kicking in the championship.

I think— I don't think it, you know, especially if one of the McLaren wins I think that would kind of spell the end for his title challenge. Um, but if anyone can come back from 36 points down with 4 to go, it's, it's Max Verstappen. I just— that, that's, that's a big gap. And I, and I do tip Norris, I think. Not thrilled about it, but I think I do just just barely would give him the edge over Piastri if I were going on kind of current form.

I like what I see more from him at the moment. Yeah, that's— I can't really figure out.

Piastri seemed to have a real calm, collected, easygoing race strategy at the beginning of this campaign, and it doesn't seem like that's the case. There's something, I don't know if it's a head game, which a lot of this shit is. I mean, let's face it.

Yeah, it just doesn't, it doesn't, he doesn't seem with it for some reason right now. So my nod is to Norris and a possible upset, which, you know, I'm ready for McLaren to have a driver. As the champion.

Um, but this guy just keeps hanging around, so we'll see.

Indeed. Well, I, I think that it's about what I got for this episode unless there's anything else that comes to mind, but I, I would say that puts a bow on it. Next time out we will have reaction from the Scottish Cup— Scottish League Cup semifinals and some Premier League. Of course, will Liverpool right the ship remains to be seen. F1 is off, but of course if any news comes out from there, we will talk about it.

And until then, I guess, uh, you can send us off here.

For executive producer Richard Tanaka, this has been Studio 2520, copyright 2023. 5, tackling the chicane. We'll see you next time.