Why isnt the question can haas catch mercedes in the next 12 months?

Can we rather ask when we get Crofty vs Rosberg again?

answer: no

Rosberg owned Crofty and his Merc love-in. The 'setup excuses' jib was immense

I am with Crofty on this one, I could never understand the points system, how can it be right for a team to finish 11th in every race and be on equal standing at the end of the season with a team that finishes 20th in every race. Also if points go all the way to 20th then it gives the back marker teams more incentive to fight for every point.

Even if they did catch, next year they will be again 12 months behind, Ferrari will be 15 month behind, Aston will be 18 months behind and Merc will be 4 years behind

The chemistry in the first 30 seconds is already really good!

No. Saved you an hour.

lets be brutally honest here... The FiA want more drivers to get more points because it makes them MORE MONEY! Each driver pays €2,100 for every point scored in addition to the €10,00+ for the F1 Drivers License. Your kidding yourself if you think it's for "THE FANS"!

i think Ron was right about engines 10 years ago, but not now. Things have moved on - the engines to the customer are identical, the available engine mappings are identical. There is a small advantage for the first season of a new development engine, but thats it.

It’s not just the car, the real question is will anyone ever catch up to Max? I think even if Max had the slower car, he would still win.

Of course not. To catch them you need to not only keep pace with RB’s development but out develop them to close the gap. How does a team do that when you can no longer throw money at it? The budget cap locks in advantage. The only way it will change is in 2026 when the formula changes again.

Great podcast today boys! Cheers from Chicago!

Redbull remains in charge this year

It's not just can anyone catch RB. The question is: who comes close to Max. No one really. Yes for some it may be boring while I enjoy history being written. In the 38 years I'm watching, following F1 and go to a grand prix when I can....I have never ever seen anyone as dominant as Max Verstappen. I dare to say that this lad is better then anyone in the history of F1. Name me 1 driver who has been so dominant driving a good or a great car? The only driver I can think of who did it for 1 season was Schumi. Max is doing it over and over again.

Awarding points down to 12th place makes sense, but only after an 11th team joins the grid.

The new sprint weekend schedule is much more logical

I run a Xbox F1 league and we award points up to 10th place but also to anyone in the bottom 10 1 pt for finishing the race 10th is 2 pts so u would never score less than a bottom 10…in previous seasons we also awarded pts to top 10 but decided the disparity to the bottom 10 was too large. So I definitely think Crofty’s idea could and would work.

The Honda engine is upto 1/2 second a lap quicker than Mercedes and Renault. Mclaren benefit from having 2 quick drivers but Adrian Newey's aero touch is a tough nut to crack.

Christian Hewgill: 48:40 “I rarely disagree with Crofty” Thanks for the heads up Christian. Never heard of him before, but that’s all I need to know about him.

I am amazed that Sky and Channel 4 just asked Stroll and his team what was their view of what happened. There was no challenge , just accepted what was said. Clealry Sky and Channel 4 just have presenters programmed to gloss over everything and not ask an awkward question.

They haven’t been able to catch the top team for 12 years what makes this season different

Toto inherited his team where Horner built his. I don’t think Horner is too worried about what Toto owns. Horner is more successful in f1 too.

The problem with F1 it is supposed to be the last of the late brakers, but really have designed rear wings that have taken away late braking. When last have you seen a driver brake late, lock up a little but still gain time. They brake late, lock up and lose a second, forcing drivers to drive in the limits of the car rather than their abilities to find extra time with their own skills.

"Finishing and getting points" will be VERY costly for Drivers/Teams taken out by another Driver from another Team. It would almost encourage Drivers to sneakily or purposefully take out other Team's Drivers.

Novel idea for sprint: use it for its original purpose - to make racing better. No drs, no Tyre blankets, reverse grid based on driver standing, and all the other things pundits keep talking about. Use it as a trial opportunity to try, discover, test, evolve the state of the sport and do your talking on track. At the very least we’ll see what doesn’t work. But then what would journalists speak on? I trust they’ll work hard and investigate, perhaps journalism improves for the better and there will be less podcasters who have never seen a race pre 2018.

What about having the team back up driver and junior driver race the Sprint race. The team gets constructor points, the super licenses get enough points to renew, the junior driver and back up get experience.

Lando was clearly faster than Daniel in Monza 21 and was catching him pretty quickly before the team asked him to hold station.

Top 6 drivers get points Top 15 constructors get points

f1 should have 3 car teams but 3rd car driver must be 21 or under offering a genuine route into f1 for f2 drivers and after the acquisition of MotoGP surely we need to use it's point system

if you want more fans to "write" to Matt (as asked for in Crofty`s previous podcast) PLEASE post the full address on the screen so the video can be paused long enuff to get pen and paper to write it down, even the "Closed Caption" i use does not print the correct spellings to some words due to the "accent" of some spoken words.

Small suggestion. If you want post cards put up the address in the description or on your website. Just saying!!😀

It doesn’t matter how good the car is. You need a driver who’s capable of going W2W with Max on a consistent basis. And I have doubts that McLaren have that atm.

Make that 12 days 😊

Mclaren just need a car to be there behind max to pick up the pieces should RB have a rare issue, because let's face it, they ain't going to build a better car than RB.

Ferrari are kept in as a team, can you guys see that arrangement continue into the next decade?

The title should read - 'Can Mclaren catch Adrian Newey within 12 months?' 😂

To simplify my earlier message, Scott has it right, live by the sword, die by the sword!

I haven't heard Max say thank you Christian over the radio once this season. That's very telling. Whenever Christian congratulated him Max gave a "great one for the team" generic answer. Make of it what you will

Other day I was writing comment about excat scoring system Crofty was talking about here: 1st - 21 2nd - 19 3rd - 18 so on... 19th - 2 20th - 0 just to award winner bit more and punish worst.... obviously dnf eqaul no points. A) Now days some fights in back are just awsome, there are often 3 or even 4 way battles, but they just dont seem meaningfull... B) Also by today's count, I think difference beatween 1st and 2nd is too much!? Likes of Max and Lewis just distance themself and in half a season you allready know who is winner because they have double the points from second, it also have effect on mindset of others on grid, and fans even more... For example this way Alonso who clearly doesnt have best car on grid could have chance to be champion based on his skill and performance being constantly 3rd or what ever, all it need Max one bad weekend to turn things around, and it would award better drivers rather than better car. C) Contructors and teams play more meaningfull role in championship by being consistant and how they handle race after race not just by having quickest car and that's it here you go.

We promise we'll send you a postcard for every future episode where you don't mention football.😂 It's bad enough we have to pay for multiple sports channels we don't watch - we don't need sportsball in our F1 content too. Keep F1 about F1 ❤

Can we do a 'Can Merc stop being a tractor before 2026' 😆

So by Crofty’s logic, Stroll and Magnussen get points in the race in China but Tsunoda and Ricciardo don’t, even though they got wiped out of the race by the aforementioned drivers…

Red Bull? Difficult, but not entirely impossible. Verstappen? No chance

Love the shirt, Crofty! Where can I get one?!

1:25; 2:22; 3:20; 4:18; 5:16 and the further down you finish, 2pts lower than the finisher above.

I would like to have David's t-shirt, "2secs Ted" is so cool!

Matt Baker with the legendary segue's

Well, it didn't took them too long to do it

norris can make his own way through to the front he has good skills and clear thinker he does not need all these people to become a better driver.

Max said he's going to see out his contract till 2028 a few times now... huh???

Crofty is disingenuous in saying F1 has never been like WWE in resorting to machinations of the rules…remember Ecclestone?

Normally if RedBull has no internal issues? no way. But this year anything seems possible.

Never know, considering Stella and Norris are usually quite pessimistic, i think by design. The fact theyre suggesting challenging Red Bull is extremely encouraging

I'm more interested in 2026. If Mercedes produces a strong engine (again), and McLaren applies all they have learned about ground effect, they could be right up there. Lots of 'ifs', though.

My opinion, Ferrari will be comfortably second, McLaren may be getting upgrades in Miami but Ferrari are also getting a big package in imola, and from the sound of both drivers and Fred they are genuinely expecting to put it to redbull on certain tracks

Audi sells a lot of cars in China.

'21 the rules were supposed to come in, because of the delay, F1 decided to change the regs to remove Merc's advantage, unless they do something like that to Red Bull next season, which would be harsh at is punishes success, Red Bull and lets face it Max Verstappen will win both championships again for the 4th successive season

If they could they would already be ahead. Mercedes making Mclaren development look good that's all

Points for everyone is going to make better battles in the mid-field. Imagine the competitivness throughout the grid front the driver on pole, to the driver who crashed in quali.

Two weeks ago on Sky: Can Ferrari catch Red Bull ?

Zhou should move to Aston Martin with Fernando or join Williams

Nobody seems to address the fact that this was a sprint weekend with little time to properly setup the car. At least Ferrari seemed to suffer from this to the benefit of McLaren.

Thank god it’s not Ted Kravitz on this one ! My god replace him with Nicco or bearnie the guy is cooked and ads nothing to race weekend

Points to all is stupid idea. Stroll will get a point even after taking out Riccardo and Riccardo gets none. Thats completely unfair. Drivers/Teams might play with this.

AmI tripping or did a thought bubble with a thumbs up appear when the guest said he went karting?

Actually, about f1 drivers parking… there’s compilations of Charles leclerc parking in the wrong spot or positioning around Monaco lol

Re new sprint format: As a fan I loved it. My one quibble is during race quali can the commentators try to play no-spoilers to protect fans that missed the sprint race? This is 2024, if you want to avoid spoilers there are plenty of ways to do it, but please don't handcuff the commentators and deprive of us of real analysis. That just seems silly to tell them "don't talk about the sprint results" until quali is done.

Love you guys always great 👏🏻😍

Just make the sprint a constructor only championship and make it reverse grid

Regards points down to 12th I don’t agree with it (for driver points). However I am ok with them changing constructors championship points down to 20th (but you have to be classified as a finisher to get them). With drivers though I don’t think anyone really cares who finished 7th or 14th in the championship at the end of the season.

No one will know what Lance was doing until/if Lance owns up to it, but IMO I think what he was actually doing was trying to watch the cars farther up the field to try and get a jump start on Ricciardo. He was trying to see if the cars who made it around the turn were going racing again so he could get the jump on the cars ahead. I don't understand why he won't own up to the mistake though. He's a complete waste of a seat and needs to be out of the sport but Daddies money keeps him around.

Awarding points to all finishers is going to incentivise lower teams to take less risks when overtaking. They will prioritise finishing. And we'd see teams fixing their damaged cars and sending them out 40 laps down, just to make the flag.

2:27 Daniel Riccardo

I think that you underestimate how important a good envirement is to Max. I will be very surprised if he is not moving to Merc. I loved Red Bull in their past years, but now something is broken and I think I can see that in Max. If he doesn't like it anymore, he doesn't stay with Red Bull. Despite a winning car. That's how Max is....

He needs to make the move to hass the only seat open

The answer is NO.

The Chinese GP was actually really good, Land was just awesome in the race.

If Max is finishing well ahead of everyone without having to really push, why are they pretending that it's even close. Red Bull will dominate till 2026 at the very least.

CHRISTIAN!!! 😁

If points are awarded all the way to 20th place so long as a driver gets to the checkered flag, you'd also want to set a minimum speed or pace to stay in the race... you don't want stricken cars trundling around the circuit just to finish... especially if they create a danger.

With all due respect for your numerous contributions to the sport Mr. Croft, your take on Lance and Logan is a bit off. Lance was clearly looking at the apex anticipating a restart (not his mirrors) and your appeal for him to remain in F1 (despite his obvious lack of passion and competence) when so many remarkable, better drivers are waiting for a seat- just lacks authenticity. Logan was clearly confused by the safety car line situation and asking the team on onboard audio who crossed the line first - you present it as if it were a mindless gaff or perhaps even intentional.

Why did Christian and Matt have to hear Croftys opinion on the points system to realize that awarding points for all finishers makes better sense. Just look at that titanic battle between Magnussen and Sargeant last weekend. All for what.....zero points. Madness

A bit unrelated question to the recent race.. If teams can order their drivers to swap positions on track, why stop there? Why not swap their grid positions before the race starts if it benefit their preferred driver??

It definitely shouldn't be point all the way down the grid then it just becomes a participation reward..... Down to 12th is fine though

I hope they can!!! Bruce would be so proud!!

Sure they can... unlikely but they could... the qeustion is whether they should focus 2026 to get out in front... obviously need the new regulations to be finalised but would be important.

Catching up is not the issue, you have to PASS Red Bull in order to win. But that is the paper reality, in real life everything can happen. It Verstappen would have punctured his tire in the last few laps, Norris could have won the race. I remember that one race where both Mercedes cars lost their tires in the last lap and Max was able to catch Bottas and Lewis nearly was able to make it to the finish line on basically three wheels just before Verstappen could take the win. Maybe they have more mechanical issue down the road. Only if you close when those things happen, you can take advantage of those moments. I love that Ferrari let their drivers fight, but it is not without risk as they should know as Leclerc/Vettel did collide in Brazil 2019 (I believe), a year earlier we had the crash of Verstappen/Ricciardo and Verstappen's first win in Barcelona 2016 was not possible if Lewis and Rosberg did take each other out of the race. Lastly postcards and Internet don't mix. Oh and Matt, if you are lonely and want company, there are services named after a Ford car model that can arrange stuff ;-)

@skyf1 how do I get that 2 secs ted shirt!!!!!

Sky needs more Rosberg to balance Crofty out!

Love how they all ‘surprised’ by McLaren…yet they ended last year towards 2nd fastest car (not Constructors)….then each week Lando goes ‘our car isn’t good here’….every race… then ‘surprise’ 😆😆. And yep, safety car gave him 2nd…but he did drive well and that’s just luck in the race

With a 364 day, 22 hour head start? Maybe

2:20 Can someone explain Ferrari’s latest signing?

The Lewis Hamilton fanclub on screen, great to see you guys!

points down to last? so teams won't retire their cars, run around possibly minutes off the pace, engines, transmissions blowing up and causing safety cars? don't think so!

I suspect that Newey uses 60% of his mental capacity to create the greatest cars in f1 history. If he was pushed. I'm sure he could rise to the challenge.

Chris H? Australia? That's Thor!

No

No, next question please , and be realistic.

2:29 6:42 25:49 30:40 38:33 46:23