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David Croft and Martin Brundle will take to the stage ahead of this year’s Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix as they get set for the first race in Albert Park since 2019.
The pair will engage with the audience throughout the ‘Ask Crofty’ live show, sharing all the inside stories from the F1 paddock.
Ahead of them touching down in Melbourne, Speedcafe.com caught up with ‘Crofty’ to get his thoughts on returning to Australia and the season ahead.
Speedcafe.com: What are your thoughts heading back to Australia after a couple of years away?
David Croft: I can still remember how I felt the night we got the news that the Grand Prix was being postponed, and was being cancelled for that year, and it was a massive sense of disappointment because we absolutely adore coming down to Melbourne.
As a sport and personally, as a motorsport fan, I love being in Albert Park for a few days.
Some countries host a Grand Prix, others embrace their Grand Prix, and Melbourne very much embraces everything that is great about motorsport.
It’s not just the Formula 1. I love watching the Aussie V8s as well, and listening to the sound of those as they flash past the commentary box.
We felt a massive loss as a sport not being down in Australia, which is why I’m really glad that we’re not only coming back this year, but the double bubble of Martin [Brundle] and I standing on stage and talking to, hopefully 2500 F1 fans about the sport that we love.
Martin and I wanted to mark it by making an appearance and having a chat because wherever we go in Australia, we’re very well-known now because obviously you guys take our coverage from Sky, everyone always wants to stop and chat Formula 1, because there’s a massive passion for the sport.
Speedcafe.com: What are you expecting this year, noting we’ve got new technical regulations and a revised circuit layout?
David Croft: The only downside I used to think about coming down to Melbourne was we wait a whole winter for the Aussie Grand Prix to come around and the new season to start, but we go racing on a track that wasn’t great for overtaking, especially in the modern day and age with the cars being a lot wider than they used to be.
So, I think changes needed to be made, and it wasn’t just me feeling that way. There was a lot of people wanting to do that.
I remember having a chat with various people last time we were in Albert Park, on the Wednesday at the track, as to what could be done to change that circuit.
It is a street circuit, isn’t it? It’s not a Grand Prix track that gets used throughout the rest of the year and there are other considerations that needed to be taken into account.
I think what they’ve done is they’ve come up with a very good starting point, coupled with the new regulations, where cars should be able to follow a lot more closely than they have done in the past will give us an Aussie Grand Prix to remember.
Speedcafe.com: Having been to so many events around the world, what sets the Australian Grand Prix apart?
David Croft: This event has got everything. It’s got a sellout crowd, it’s got great weather, and I hope and keep my fingers crossed that they have great weather because I know we’re a bit later than normal. It’s got a passionate feeling.
The minute you walk through the gates, everyone is so happy to be there watching something they love.
It’s got a party atmosphere towards the end of the day as well and it’s got the best drivers in the world competing on what is a ruthless track – you make a mistake at Albert Park and that is it, your race has gone.
So everything is there, the ingredients are all there, and I think this year we hopefully have put the cherry on top of the icing on top of a very nice cake to make it turn out right.
All you need now is Danny Ricciardo to get on the podium and we’ve got everything that we need.
And I’m not saying that the fans are just there for Daniel Ricciardo but it’s his home race, he deserves a bit of luck there, I think we all agree.
Speedcafe.com: Daniel Ricciardo is obviously the local favourite, what do you make of his chances this year, and those of McLaren?
David Croft: On a normal year, I could give you a proper prophecy for McLaren.
But in a sport where everything is worked out to the nth degree, one of the beauties of this conversation at the moment, and everything that leads up to the first race in Bahrain, is that we just don’t know who’s going to be where.
This is a massive regulation change, so no one really knows at the moment.
What I would say about McLaren is that they’re heading in the right direction.
They’ve had some very lean years with a Honda partnership that just didn’t work out, and it wasn’t just to do with the engine, I think McLaren will admit now that the chassis wasn’t particularly smart either.
They’ve gone with the Mercedes engine, which I think was the right move for them.
They produced a win last year that was unexpected heading into that Monza weekend, but quickly became apparent throughout Monza weekend that they had everything in place to go and produce a great result.
Lewis [Hamilton] and Max [Verstappen] crashed obviously, but would either of them have beaten Daniel Ricciardo if they carried on? I don’t think they would have.
Let’s not forget Daniel got past Max off the line and was leading that race.
Now, the one-two owed a lot, I think, to the Lewis-Max crash but the win for Daniel was well thought-out great strategy, and a team that came together and made the most of their chances on that weekend.
And what was lovely for me was it showed that Daniel has lost nothing of his ability, and his race-winning ability.
In Lando, he had a team-mate on the day who was happy to play the team game as well, and I think that shows a lot to the outside world of the partnership and the trust and the willingness to work together that Daniel and Lando have.
That should carry on for this year as well. Both are very happy, they’re very settled at McLaren.
Lando has just signed a big new deal, Danny was very happy with McLaren and not looking to move elsewhere, and so that creates a bit of harmony that can only be good for the team.
So, I don’t know how McLaren are going to do but what I do know is that they’ve got the ability and the people to make that race win last year, replicate and translate into more podiums and potential race wins this season.
Speedcafe.com: Do you think Daniel is McLaren’s lead driver?
David Croft: Interesting dynamic there.
“Obviously, Daniel was signed as the race winner, and the man with the most experience, but Lando could have won a race last year and probably should have won a race.
But I understand why he didn’t and I understand now how it slipped away from him.
Is it Daniel? Is Daniel the lead driver? Maybe not, to be fair, and maybe that’s a position that’s good for both Lando and Daniel.
On any given Sunday, McLaren have a driver line-up who are both capable of winning a race.
That’s what a team needs: strength and depth.
It’s no good having a star striker if you’ve not got a good team to back him up, and I think what we have at McLaren are two drivers that can put a lot of pressure, given the right car, on Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, who I think will be right up there as well – and an Alpine, or an Aston Martin. AlphaTauri if they come to the party, and they’ve got a good car as well.
But at the moment, who knows what’s going to happen.
Tickets for the Ask Crofty event can be purchased here.
BAM Media, a sister company to Speedcafe.com, is involved in the promotion of ‘Ask Crofty’.
