P1 with Matt and Tommy - Abu Dhabi GP Race Review

Episode Date: December 8, 2024

That's it, then - the 2024 F1 season has come to a close. Some first lap drama meant the Constructors' went right down to the wire, while Lewis Hamilton delivered a race to remember in his final Mercedes outing. Our End of Season live tour starts this week! There are still some tickets available for London, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol, so get them right here!Sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to bonus episodes, our classic race podcast series, every P1 episode ad-free, early access to live tickets and merch, and access to our Discord server where you can chat with other F1 fans!Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy live from an Abu Dhabi hotel room once again. And we've had a phenomenal weekend seeing Formula One in the flesh never gets old Tommy. I am buzzing, fair to say, maybe more so if we've got the result that was tantalizingly close. I say we because we're obviously both wearing Ferrari tops today. But how are you feeling, my friend? it was yeah amazing to be at formula one as always again if you checked out our qualifying podcast as well you know had an amazing view and just an incredible experience and yes very novel to be wearing red for Ferrari today yeah it doesn't suit you mate so go back to

red bull for next year that's all right there's only one Ferrari stand here but yeah awesome time big thanks to Shell for having us out here and yeah let's dive straight into this podcast that, well, we thought it was going to be a lot more of a, well, I say we thought, obviously, some predictions, things we put out on social, I was trying to cook up a storm with a little signs victory. You almost. Didn't happen. But let's go to my most memorable moment, which of course is the Constructors' Championship

fight and the fact it was so close. How did it get so close? You had both the McLaren's on the front row of the grid. We sort of joked a little bit, didn't we, about, oh, you know, Lack. Ando and Oscar, are they going to play games? Those two were absolutely fine. They were lovely. Max Verstappen did not get the memo.

And he, with his rather aggressive move into term one, turned kind of the constructors fight on its head a little bit, or at least there was a door-a-jar for Ferrari that we hadn't once seen at the start. Yes, I'd have, unfortunately, because we are, at the race we can't do, our usual watchalongs, but I'd have loved everyone to have seen your reactions at the start, because not only did we have the fact that McLaren had tumbled down the order, it was almost,

you know, what we spoke about yesterday of like, oh, it's never going to happen because even if science wins, Charlotte Clare's nowhere, and then Charlotte Clare has the most unbelievable start, where he gets all the way up through passing loads of cars, all the way up to where he is. And yeah, it was kind of like, oh my God, this could actually be on now. And that was the craziest thing from no expectation at all to by the end of... With one lap. Yeah. Not only just that, but then when we got to the end of the race for the last few laps,

even though, you know, tension wasn't particularly incredible race, very Abu Dhabi kind of race, if you like. We'll get into that later. but as if it was a point where one position could have won for either championship. Yep. And safe to say, I was on the edge of my seat for the entirety of the Grand Prix, not because, yeah, as we say, the second half of the race was pretty dull, but it was on a knife's edge in the sense of it could have changed very, very quickly. First question comes in from Velmara VC.

Congrats to McLaren, but having seen the car they had this season, shouldn't they have won the World Constructors Championship way before the final race? Yes, yes, they have. They should have. Definitely. I think we've, we've spoken about it a lot on the podcast, how McLaren as a team haven't been the most efficient when it comes to the car that they've built. I think firstly I want to say, because we have been critical of them over this year for certain points, which I think they have deserve criticism. They also deserve the well done and the congratulations for turning around their performance from being pretty much at the back of the grid. Only at the start of the, last year to now winning the Constructors Championship. It is a phenomenal job. And I also want to say that I think there's a man that doesn't get anywhere near the amount of plaudits and that's Andrea Stella who's come in

since the start of 2023 and turn this team into a championship winning team. I know Zach Brown obviously gets a lot of headlines. He's the one on the podium, but he's the CEO. Of course, he has his part to play, but usually the team principal gets more of the sort of, yeah, the plaudits. Yeah, the Ferrari CEO wasn't there.

Zach Brown was he? It was Fred Vassar. So it was kind of odd that Zach Brown was there, but I guess he's been there the whole time. But yeah, it's very, it would be very easy to sort of, you know, we've had this discussion so many times about, about McLaren and shouldn't have maybe gone this close, but you have to, they just deserve the credit at this moment in time. We can analyze things later, but right now, fair play to McLaren, because they have turned things around so much we never thought that we'd see a team challenge again because this has been what 15 years of either Red Bull or Mercedes winning every single year and then even the pecking order for years and years it was only ever three teams

McLaren 10 years ago were finishing races last even and it was absolutely de woeful and kind of to see that team turn around and actually win the whole thing. Never mind just be there fighting with the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull again and Mercedes. To win the championship is a phenomenal achievement. So well done McLaren. Absolutely. So yeah, as much as it's, oh, they should have wrapped it up sooner, later, whatever. The facts are they've won the Constructors Championship.

Lando has done a brilliant job at times this year. Of course, again, we have critiqued him when things haven't gone his way, but at the same time, today was fantastic. At the same time, you have to say that his qualifying this year has been phenomenal. And I think it's been something that hasn't also been spoken about a lot is the fact he's beaten Oscar 24. And Oscar Piastri is known as perhaps better in qualifying than he is in the races. So Lando is building these bricks, I would say, to then become a world champion. He's laying the foundations. he's learning what it's like to fight for a championship

and he's learnt the hard way at times for sure and he's made mistakes, he said that himself. But today was honestly the perfect way to end the season for him because I feel like he's very much a confidence driver as soon as he builds and gets a few results under him, he will fly away with races. And this is what we've seen a few times this year and I expect it to be more like that next year as well,

especially if Red Bull are on the back foot like they have been. Yeah, he got a lot of criticism and from people. And, you know, even when we got to the end of the year and Max had wrapped up the title and he was saying, well, you know, this year I proved I'm a champion and people were still going, oh, you know, have you, have you though?

But that race is the perfect way to end the season. You know, you could argue that it's maybe, you know, the first of his victories where it's completely bulletproof, mistake-free, brilliant, qualifying, brilliant race from start to finish, never looked in doubt. Singapore was closed apart from obviously nearly rocking off the car. Exactly, yeah. Because there were still a few moments there.

But what a drive from Lando and a great reward for him. He's obviously been with that team for so long for him because he did have a lot of pressure. Because we've spoken about Lando and how he has cracked under a lot of pressure this year and things. but there was pressure on him because once Oscar was out the race, he was the one that had to make sure he won and not put a foot wrong to deliver the championship for McLarence. So there was pressure there and he did superbly well. He certainly did.

There was so much pressure on his shoulders. I can only imagine what he felt like looking in his rearview mirror and seeing Max take out Oscar and seeing his teammates spinning round and a car loss right behind him. It must have been a huge amount of pressure, But he's also showed that he can take that sort of pressure on his shoulders and a brilliant, brilliant drive from Lando for sure. Next question, P1Pitchie member, Captain Ops 3-420.

Would Ferrari have won this constructors today if it wasn't for Charles's grid penalty? I don't think so. I genuinely don't. I believe, like, I know that there's a lot of Ferrari delusion on this podcast, mainly on the predictions. I try to be a little bit more level-headed in the race review stuff. I think it would have been exactly the same result. I think it would have been second and third for Ferrari.

I was monitoring Charles pace throughout the race because I wanted to see if he was catching or not. Ready for the rings. That as well, obviously. And he wasn't catching Lando and Carlos. At any real stage of the race, he was maybe a couple of tents off from what I analyzed. Of course, he was on a little bit of a earlier pit stop strategy

and he went a little bit more aggressive. But I think Carlos was phenomenal this weekend. He put it in qualifying, he put it on third on the grid, which I think is the best that he could have hoped for. And Shaal was the one, obviously, that made the mistake in qualifying and had to do one of the greatest first laps we've ever seen in Formula One.

Kimmy Rykenen obviously better in... Where was that? No. Mattel. No, no. No. Portemau. That's the one.

That will always be, I think, the greatest left one. Anyone was ever seen. But Sharve, to go from 19th to 8th, in one lap is just... I could, can you remember when I turned to it and literally went, so much Charles an eighth? And it was what? It was just so, I just ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.

But back to the question, if Charles had been right up there, I don't think so. I think Lando had it covered. And to be honest, if Charles had then outqualified Max, plenty of scenarios of ifs, but some maybes, then Max probably isn't dive bombing Oscar into term one. And if you've got two McLaren's there, they're sealing that, no problem.

Yeah, it's all, ifs, and butts, isn't it? Of course, you can say if it wasn't Fischer's grid penalty,

but of course he made the mistake in qualifying by going on track limit. So even if he didn't have

the grid penalty, he started 14th. So what's the difference? It's not. It's still had to done the recovery drive through the field. So,

but even if you get rid of the mistake and put him thereabouts with Carlos, it was always difficult for Ferrari to match McLaren. Lando had had the pace.

we saw Carlos give it everything at the front, but just wasn't enough for Ferrari. And no doubt so many people will be looking through the years, through the whole season and going, oh, look when Carlos spun off here and hit the wall. Oh, look when Shell got lapped in Canada and all these kind of things. And you can look back and in hindsight, look at every single moment. but constructors and world championships are won over everything in the season and you're always going to have a up and down moment. So you can't just pick one single moment from a championship and go,

well, if this happened, because teams have fluctuated. And that is the beauty of this in particular, this world championship and how good it's been, that one week, one team is really good. The other, you know, Max is winning. then he was barely, you know, he's buying a house. And this is happening up and down the grid. So championships are won through many, many moments. You can't just pick one thing and go,

that's where the Constructed Championship was lost. Absolutely. I think it's always fun on the flip side of that for fans to look at moments that, oh, you know, 15 points were lost there. That's crazy. That could have in itself made this Abu Dhabi Spectacle a completely different story. I think, you know, when I was chatting to you,

just watching the race, sadly, we weren't live streaming on Twitch, which we did miss you a lot. to not do our watch long as it feels weird to be at races and not be live on Twitch completely lost my train of thought but I was saying oh no that was it I was saying that if only it was like a 12 point

gap between Ferrari and McLaren and then you had this whole drama and stuff but still it was still a really intriguing race and one that could have changed and as well I think in a weird way the driver's championship being settled made for once the constructors battle in track like

actually get the focus that maybe it deserves because the constructors championship always feels like the sort of other thing. The drivers is here. Oh yeah, and the constructors. Whereas it almost got its moment in the sun for this race. I think it also helps that, I mean, this is my personal opinion. I'm sure many people will agree that for me, Ferrari are the team and McLaren, in my opinion,

are the second in terms of popularity and it being like all about the team. You know, you can tell McLaren really wanted to win this. Ferrari of course the most legendary team in Formula One as well and you've had Is that a teacher What's it doing?

Come on. But the fact that Red Bull and Mercedes have had this stronghold on the Constructors Championship for year after year I think it made it more exciting that

you had two teams that hadn't won it for years and years and there are also two of the most legendary teams in the history of F1 so that's what

made it good as well. It certainly did. We're not done speaking about Shal. P1 Patreon member Sierra underscore H. With the way Charles drove from starting P19 to finishing P3

does this show just how ready he is for Lewis next year and possibly a favourite to win the driver's title. Wow. Yeah, my name is not Sierra H. I don't even want to utter those words that just came at the end of that question. What I will say is that it's not a case of is he ready for Lewis to come into the team

and things like that. I think it's more about a case of, is Lewis ready to join Ferrari? Is he ready for the change that's going to come? Is he ready for how the car handles? And is he going to be used, is he going to take like a duct to water with the characteristics? And because Charles is embedded in that team, he's comfortable.

He knows all the mechanics, all the engineers. Lewis is the one coming into the backyard now and trying to learn everything as quickly as possible. If he was coming in in 2026, I would feel like Lewis would almost be a lot more confident in the sense of it's a clean slate, whatever Shal has learned over these last four years, it kind of wipes away now. But we're at the end of regulations here.

See, I think Sharl's been ready to have fast teammates. He's had fast teammates already. He's had Vettel. He's had a four-time watch. Four-time watch happen. Exactly. So, yeah, I am so excited to see Lewis and Shal go up against each other. They are going to be, without a doubt,

the strongest driver pairing on the grid. The Constructors' Championship, if Ferrari even deliver them a half-decent car, Ferrari will be there, no matter what, with those two drivers, in my opinion. Lewis today showed that he is still silencing these ridiculous haters around whether he's finished or not, because he's still got it in the race. Yes, there's something wrong in qualifying. And I sincerely hope next year he can figure that out because as soon as he's in that sort of top four realm, he's flying. But it seems like every single race in the last few, he's been doing last to first challenges and then sticking it up on YouTube.

Yeah, so true. I mean, Charles, with the constructors title next year, of course, I think Ferrari should be the favourites with that driver line up to phenomenal drivers. Driver's title, again, could be tricky with the fact that I still think it's a risk going for two number ones. It doesn't always work. That's something that Max has had the advantage for for a while that it's always getting the maximum from the car.

but yeah it was a great drive from charl and lewis today both doing comeback drives of course yesterday we said can they get a point and as if they've both finished third and fourth all right tommy enough Ferrari let's get on to your most memorable moment shall we well it kind of involves Ferrari because it's a driver that helped them out a little bit of a little bit of hope and my most memorable moment was one of the only major dramas of the race, which was Max de Stappen doing quite the dive bomb on Oscar Piastri. And wow. If Max ever needed to silence people that thought that he'd have a day off after,

you know, in terms of like changes driving style, just because he's wrapped up the championship, or now he's having a baby, he's not going to be as aggressive and stuff. It was incredibly aggressive. When I first saw it, I thought that is the most ridiculous move. Why has he done it? It's still looking at it now when I've watched it back.

It was closer than I thought to being on, but it was still very, very, very ambitious. Obviously, in his head he's thinking, well, one, he's maxed the step and he always goes for it. And if there's even half a chance, he'll go send it. and he's maybe thinking this is my only chance I'm going to get to race to McClarence, I've got to go for it now. But in my opinion, it was not the move to be making at that time, not just because I don't think it was on. I think it was worthy of a penalty personally.

But he's of course picked up penalty points. He's now got eight going into next season. And as far as I'm concerned, Red Bull. are not going to be anywhere near as good as they were at the start of the season or in 2023 next season. So Max won't have the luxury to be able to drive like this move on Oscar, like the move he did on Lando at Mexico, because if he does that in even just two races, he's getting a race ban. So he can't, he's almost like we talk about Max's brilliance and the controversy of it that he kind of,

placed by the rules and knows when to even admit him himself in his championship interview of when he needs to go over the line and do everything to win the title. And that's just how he is, even if it's not popular. But he's not going to be able to do that if he's going to end up with a race band. He's not going to be able to do these audacious moves and crazy moves next year because he could pick up a ban. I don't think Max gives two flying tosses about how many penalty points he's got personally I'm surprised you Tommy as a Max Verstap

and Stan reckon that he's going to drive any differently whatsoever No I don't think he will but in terms of he can't afford to He can't afford to Yeah I mean from what he will actually be What will be taken away from him yes

You know from a championship perspective I think Max today just showed the max of like, well, absolutely nothing to lose. I'm just going to send up the inside here. And yeah, I agree with you in the sense of when I first saw it. I thought that is the most ridiculous lunge. I still think it was a lunge of a driver that doesn't particularly mind whether this works or not.

And it didn't work. It was close to actually, at least both of them surviving. It was the lightest of touches which spun them both round. And I'm surprised Oscar, it feels as though Oscar, and again, we were at the track, so forgive us if there was more analysis on this. But it felt as though Oscar didn't really see him coming up the inside. And it is quite a, it's a move that you don't really expect as aggressive as Max was into term one. And Oscar just got caught out, I think, a little bit by Max being there, because he kind of just turns into the corner. There's a little bit, he doesn't hit the apex because Max is there, but there wasn't much room.

and passed that and that's why then Max understeered and then the collision happened. Perhaps also Oscar was more focused on Lando and being like, right, let's not do anything silly here with Lando, just let him go and then enter Max for Stappen. It's one of those maze where Max's done it many times and almost like Lando in Mexico where it is, I'm coming through and if you don't move out the way we're going to have a collision. And it is and it was that and Oscar didn't move so they did they did touch. Yes, it's a very much If you don't play by Max's rules

We're probably going to crash And well we saw that a lot in 2021 And it is going to be interesting to see when Max goes up against other competitors For the championship Whether he will be able to drive as aggressively As he does But yes, I think another talking point

That came from that was The consistency of lap one penalties Now it felt as though For this particular Grand Prix We had lap one penalties galore You had, of course, Max getting a penalty, which I think was fair. You then had Bottas having the slightest of touches on Perez after the long straight into the hairpin. Also got a penalty for that.

But then you look at Holkenberg, who wiped out two people from Qatar and got nothing. And it was deemed a racing incident when Nico was completely out of control and just smashed into another car. that it's not like that's two different years this is this is in the same season at the end of the season so it made me wonder why how are we coming to these conclusions here it has to be one or the other it's another it's another talk about you know how completely inconsistent things are we've said to kind of back the stewards and how difficult it is to police formula on that every incidents difference but sometimes they are so incredibly lenient on lap one and then other times it's like no it's a penalty and they've they've almost i can understand why some people will see that incident

and in my opinion you know even as a sassan fan i think it's a penalty and i think it's a deserved penalty but then equally i think holcomburg's last week was a deserved penalty yeah and that's where I think people get annoyed is where we've seen this for years now, which I don't personally agree with, that a lap one incident is somehow less of a thing, but you're still racing. Why? Why? It doesn't make any sense to me that a lap one incident should be, oh yeah, you can just do whatever you want a lap one, because if you crash, whatever. Yeah, it should just instill a level of cautiousness from all the drivers that they are being judged like every other lap. I guess they can't do it for everything, like maybe forcing other drivers off the track if they're three, four wide.

Maybe that's where the leniency could be applied. But when it comes to contact, the Holkenberg thing is utterly strange compared to what we saw today. Because Bottas, that was the lightest of touches. I think he had a car on the inside as well. And he was just trying his best not to make contact. And then Perez gets spun round. and he gets given a 10 second penalty. I mean, Bottas's race went from Hero to Zero very quickly indeed,

and really sad to see Valtry not score points in his final race for Salba. Let's go to the next question. Ellen Louise underscore 87. How much did the TV directors fumble the bag with that ending? I know it was chaotic, but we didn't know what the yellow was for for ages after it was thrown. And by the time they showed it, Hamilton and Russell and the Norris win were happening simultaneously. So I assume this was the Lawson thing Where Lawson broke down at the end of the race

It's hard to tell exactly what we missed From our perspective being at the race It was like an engine failure or something And he just pulled over from the side of the track It's funny actually, well not funny Definitely not funny if you're a McLaren fan I was obviously monitoring the intervals between drivers I do it all the time as soon as I see a yellow flag

I'm like searching I'm up and down seeing okay where Where is who's losing time to who and who's pulled over? And I saw Lando lose a second and a half. And I was like, oh my God. What's happened? And that must have been Lando lifting for the yellows or whatever it might have been.

But I just saw that. I went, it's Lando, isn't it? And then it didn't happen, obviously. But I was just like that would have been the most ridiculous ending. It was, of course, Lawson. And then I don't know how much they fumbled about it. I wasn't stood there saying, oh my gosh. The only thing that we wanted to see was the Hamilton Russell battle,

which they had to go back to Lando. I mean, they left it as late as possible. They have picture and pitch now, though. They've done that so many times. Do they do that for the race winner? Yeah, they did it. They've done it not for the, it didn't even need to, we could have at least seen the mini box.

I sympathize with the fact that two, the exact moment Hamilton was passing Russell, is and it's unfortunate for the TV directors that was the moment that Lando was crossing the line to win and I think however much we love racing you have to respect the winner of the race and show them like that is just of course you have to do that but why it couldn't have been a mini box of just like the onboard of Hamilton

because what a move by the way absolutely incredible race from Hamilton and the move that he did around the outside was brilliant because there's a little bit I know they won't personally care I don't think that much George will care

if he's about to talk about the points difference and who comes out on top in the teammate rivalry for sure I mean George has been said in interviews before like I know who would have thought a guy from Williams comes in and beats Hamilton in his first year also he'd been dining on that points gap forever yeah I mean George I'm sure would and fair enough if I was him as well

I'd be like oh yeah I beat Hamilton over the last three years experimental setups what do you mean no no no we're all good we're all good but let's not go into it too much i beat him okay i think george yeah would have wanted to keep hamilton behind for sure but it was it was a brilliant move and and again another race where russell's started a long way ahead and hamilton's uh caught up with him at the end and for all the doubters of of hamilton and saying he's finished these things kind of i know kata was a exception of like a really poor race but so many of it is qualifying just needs to sort it's qualifying out and no it's never been the strongest point of his career which is a weird thing to say

when he's got the most palsy ever but his race craft and how he manages a race is so good and that was a great example and it's really good to see actually because everything that happened yesterday with the bard it was like he's not even going to score a point maybe it's just going to be awful for him. So for him to have that drive and come back through it and then put a brilliant pass on the last lap, a very brave thing to do on your teammate as well. So yeah, really good move from Hamilton. It certainly was. Congrats to Hamilton because I'm glad he finished his Mercedes era stint, his legacy with a phenomenal drive. And of course, this next question we're going to dive into now, which is also regarding Hamilton at Purple Star 613. Why was Hamilton

the only one allowed to do donuts, who wasn't the only one leaving this team, nor is he leaving F1. I am kind of in two minds with this one. One being Hamilton is coming to the end of a legacy, a literal record-breaking legacy with a team, and I feel as though this is something that Formula One is doing more so now,

in the sense of, you know, for example, celebrating show Guan Yu, being at the Chinese Grand Prix and things that they feel the fans want to see. I'm sure Hamilton fans loved it. I personally loved seeing him do donuts in the Mercedes for the final time. It's an iconic image. He's celebrating with his car or maybe he's calling it an S-box that we don't know what he was saying under the helmet. I didn't mind it personally.

Obviously, it's a shame I would have liked to have seen as well, Bottas, drivers that are leaving the sport, especially the ones that have been around for a long time to be able to get there. own, you know, way of saying goodbye. But I guess in another way, and the flip side of that is, is it up to Formula One to say, Bottas, you are leaving the sport when Bottas might not be leaving the sport. He's just leaving Salba and he hasn't won any championships nor a race or even got a point this year with Salba. You know, should we be saying, oh, buy Bottas when he might be hoping to join the grid with Cadillac or whoever it might be. So I guess in that sense, it's a statement and a fact that Hamilton is leaving Mercedes to go to Ferrari,

whereas Bottas, Joe might be going to Ferrari as a reserve driver. We don't know. So that's maybe where I'm seeing the thinking of Formula One. Maybe it's just the fact that I'm so excited for Hamilton to go to Ferrari and the fact that maybe these last few years at Mercedes haven't gone the way he'd have liked and we've not seen him battling at the front enough. And even, you know, him rocking up to the paddock. or all red and it's even like he's ready to move on.

Kind of felt like I wasn't personally on this kind of like, oh, it's so emotional that he's going and all this kind of stuff because he is going to be there next year. And that being said, it's really cool to see him doing donuts at the end. And, you know, but what I maybe feel is that I don't, I don't know if it necessarily needs to be Formula One's decision to be like, this is the fun that's allowed. And today, this is what happens. Because if I go back to when Fernando Alonzo retired for the first time, what made that so special?

It was a completely unplanned thing. They gave him a guard of honor. And it was so unexpected. And it was like, oh, my God, this is so cool. And it was like, emotional. and it was like, oh wow, and these moments that aren't scripted and they just happen from pure emotion, what a driver wants to do themselves of, you know,

Ayrton Sena getting a Brazilian flag and waving it. And, you know, it's not like, okay, Aetan, you go on the grid now and you pick up a Brazilian flag and you do this. That, to me, loses a little bit of the magic of it, maybe. And I know that some people may disagree, but if we go back to like the Zheuan U, moment in China, I totally respect that it was an incredible thing for a driver from China to represent his country that's never done, done it before, a country that's not been

represented before. And I love that, you know, Formula One is this global sport and all around the world. But why couldn't Joe Guan Yu have just himself been like, you know, this is my moment, I'm going to grab a Chinese flag from a Marshall, wave it around, and he has his moment rather than it being this, you now have to drive on this pit board, because then equally, this might be the last race of his Formula One career, and this time he's told, well, absolutely you're not allowed to do donuts. He did do one, though. Well, yeah.

Yeah, exactly. And good on him, because I don't think it should be, well, this time Hamilton gets to do this. and Bottas who might be retiring Joe Magnuson or whatever you're not allowed to do anything because then it ends up kind of how far

do you go down the line with these things you know at the final Dutch Grand Prix Max is finishing seventh do we have a little special spot for him so he can wave to the Dutch fans one last time it could end up I don't know

I just feel like don't take the emotion of someone's instant reaction of doing something special rather than you trying to force it, if you get what I mean? Yeah, orchestrating moments like that, of course, won't go to plan every single time. And it is obviously the best when these moments happen spontaneously, for sure. And I don't mind it too much. I think that, yes, the absolute number one is we want to see.

them happen naturally. The problem is they're putting in so many rules of you can't do this, you can't do that, you can't go and do a donut, you need to come to Park Fermi, that that almost in itself is restraining all of these moments that would have happened years before these rules came in. So I guess Formula One's way of, well, we've clamped down on all the rules is, well, it's your turn to have some fun and show it. And I quite liked, you know, Hamilton kneeling by his car, and that will be an iconic image that will live with the sport forever and to have it in a in pride and place on the sort of start finish straight I liked because otherwise you would have part and gone in part fair main it wouldn't have been in front of the crowd I don't know I don't

mind it too much I think that yeah when you compare it to other moments you go that's not as not as good but we can't all have wonderful spontaneous moments sadly it would have been nice though I think for sure to allow the drivers if they wanted to come and do more donuts not just not just Hamilton. Okay, next question. Muck Rickers. With Dewan's performance today, do you think he will be dropped by Albin quick into next season? Okay, that's crazy. That is wild. He's had one record. I mean, this is the internet in a nutshell, isn't it? Of, well, Dewan didn't score points to me like you predicted. So, he's washed. He's finished. He's finished, right? I guarantee that Jack Dewan was told, go out there, learn. Don't crash the car.

car, but have a good time and we'll build on it for next season. There was absolutely no expectation for doing to go out there and do anything special, apart from Tommy, who put that all on him. That's on blaming Tommy actually completely. I think he did an all right job. He's literally come in out of nowhere, the end of a season, to drive in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. And I don't think you can judge anything. You look back to Lando's first races and how I remember him being very cautious, timid in the way he'd go about overtaking. Now look at him. He is a completely evolved driver when you get laps under your belt. So I'm not going to judge doing at all for this weekend. We'll look into next year. And if halfway through 2025, he's still qualifying P20,

then we can have the discussion of did Alpine make the right decision. But for now, let's just let him learn. Exactly. It's one race. And let's not forget that Esther Ben Ockon, and there's more to it, in my opinion. But it's pretty much fact, isn't it? Yeah, there's more to it. Yeah, there's definitely more to it. It's quite clear.

But Ocon, you know, was finishing races in 19th and things towards the end of the season and having shockers as well. So there was no expectation for doing. And the fact that he's just got a weekend under his belt, he's not crushed the car or done anything silly, which other drivers, you know, have had accidents even, you know,

very very experienced drivers like Botas has ended up in loads of incidents and things so yeah it's uh it'd be really absolutely ridiculous to uh basically be like no that's uh let's ditch him now just because he's had one race right at the end of of the season he needs to go into the new season have a testing work with the team all that kind of stuff and then we can judge him after a few You know what I didn't like, seeing as we're speaking about Alpine, is the fact that they had an end of season photo and Esteban Ocon was absolutely nowhere to be seen. Whether that was Ocon's decision or Alpine or perhaps both, or of course with the nature of the relationship and how it's clearly broken down. No, but they let him go because of her. He had a special helmet and he wasn't allowed to say goodbye to any of his employees, but it was definitely a mutual decision.

Yeah, we saw your comments on Instagram when we were talking about this. No, guys, isn't it because of the postseason test? You can go, no. I mean, come on, even Ocon himself, so he wish it hadn't ended this way and things like that. It was certainly a lot more to it than met the eye. But Ockon gave us a little glimpse as to exactly how much more. So yes, Alpine doesn't need to sack Duan in a nutshell.

Next question, Luke 4468. Is Abu Dhabi the worst track for a season finale? Worst track? I don't think it's the worst But it's certainly not the best Brazil will always be in my heart As the season finale It just delivers

Every single year without fail And that's where it used to be Before Formula One became all about the money Although Formula One has been about the money For very many years But then they were like, wait, hold on We can charge a premium for the season finale Oh, okay, here we go then

Here you go Abu Dhabi since what, 2010? It's been a long time. It has a nine. So yes, it's been the season finale for a long time. I do appreciate the Yasmarina circuit have made changes to try and make the racing better. And to be honest with you, I've been critical of that sweeping left-hander, but we did see some cool moves there and what it was intended to create with this sort of, you can take a slightly different line and maybe go around the outside of a driver that's struggling with their tires.

And to be honest with you, I think as well, with us being here and experiencing Yasmarina's circuit, it when when it's night time the track just becomes so electric dynamic alive it is quite the sight to behold i will be honest with you it is it is awesome from a if you go and we've we've met so many people haven't we over the course the last few days traveling here to to kind of see the season finale and i think from a racing spectacle no it's not the best uh but Brazil isn't going to get it no chance would I rather this or Qatar

I'd rather have Abu Dhabi I think than the Qatar track because that is definitely not promoting good racing either where else would it possibly go Saudi Vegas Vegas would be a great season finale from a track characteristic

perspective Vegas by a mile we're just thinking of the tracks that will be willing to fork up the money I think the problem for the Asmurina circuit is it's such a lack of jeopardy, you know, minus 2021, which was actually a pretty dull race anyway until the drama and the chaos at the end. Even the other championship fight there was because someone couldn't overtake. Even now with the circuit changes,

you do get a little bit of overtaking and things like that. There's just something about it that maybe just seems a little bit underwhelming. When you're there, and obviously, of course, we're lucky to be here and say how great it is, but people at home, I totally understand that you're like, well, there's nothing really going on here. And I think where the struggles lie is you look at a track like Brazil, and you've got, it's not even just the overtaking.

it's the fact that weather could mix things up or Vegas, of course, you have the unusual conditions. Even Qatar, we've seen like moments happen there. I think Abu Dhabi, the problem is just lacks jeopardy. It's a very grippy circuit

because they have the racing and just the way the track surface is because it's almost like the facilities are like too good, but it's too pristine. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's a very easy circuit to drive.

Like you don't see many people... Hello. Tom Bellingham on pole for 2025. Exactly. You don't see many people making mistakes. Huge runoff. No gravel. Yeah.

There's barely any jeopardy. So when you do see like, you know, say like Lando is a great example. Like, sort of got a very quick car and he's done a great job and he's just been able to check out. And science could never get close. and he tried his best whereas other circuits in the air it's like oh it might be a two stop or oh

you know we could do something here or there's a chance of a safety car or things like that you just don't get that at Abu Dhabi so a lot of the time it is just a one stop race where the gaps are just big

and even in a race like this there was decent number of it takes there were loads but there were things happening but it always just feels a little underwhelming because there's just no jeopardy like there normally is other tracks, I'd say. Yeah, I think as well, of course you've got the long straight, which then leads on to the shorter straight. But I also, I do feel as though, of course,

they've kind of tried to take the complexity out of the track, haven't they, to make it easier to follow and then therefore easier to overtake. After the long straight, you've got the hairpin, and then you've got that really just awful right hand of this off camber, and it's all about sort of traction out of there. I feel as though that doesn't need to exist either in my opinion. That's just that little right kink before then the next little straight because there always seems to gap the

cars a little bit too much and then we go into a sweeping left handle which granted did provide us with a few bits of overtakes but again it's not a hard braking zone so then they're trying to do something pretty crazy rather than just a late breaking maneuver which is the easiest and most common way we see

Formula 1 overtakes you don't really have that as much and you don't have that really into, well, you don't have it into turn one, two, three, four. Yeah, the left-hander, because again, it's not that much of a long run. But yeah, maybe there's still tweaks to be made, but overall,

not horrendous, but let's just rough it up a little bit, you know, put a few more bumps in, make it not as scale electrics, which is what it probably is. Yeah, that is 100% the problem that no problem if you go off, it's so

were hard to ever get things like safety cars and stuff there because when's it going to happen. Exactly. Okay, let's go to biggest winner, driver or team, I believe. It's a very easy one. Yes. Well, is it? I mean, of course, McLaren did win the Constructors' Championship. That's where you're going with this.

Lando. Just Lando himself. Best driver's career. Brilliant all weekend. Yeah. Drove well under pressure when he was the one. had to deliver the contractor

title for McLaren I can't I can't pick anyone else I think it was brilliant indeed I think

Lando is definitely a worthy winner I'm just trying to think of other drivers Ghazley

having another phenomenal weekend could have been Bottas oh my goodness me it really could have

but he might be next sadly not okay let's go with Lando Norris because yeah he was phenomenal

biggest loser Botas for me I think just unfortunately for him just a stinker of a race and for all the good he did in qualifying completely undone when that was a great opportunity

in that car that's looking a lot quicker and we saw what Jacques when you did with it last week and then just to make a bunch of errors is a sad way for him to kind of bow out if he does indeed return. We'll have to wait and see, but yeah, not the way his career would have wanted to end. You already had the contact and a poor start and then to have the contact again with Magnuson to then put him out the race, just a shocker really. Indeed, I'm going to throw into the mix

Sergio Perez, who didn't make it past. He forgot he was even in the race. Yeah, half a lap and he was out. I still don't understand to this moment why he had to retire. Of course, there was that small contact with Bottas, but I didn't realize that would have been race ending for him. Perez for sure. And also, RB, I think they've had an absolute stinker of a weekend. Of course, Eukesnode are not getting off the line, then Lawson having a problem, I think, with his tire.

It was just a disaster for those as well. So there you go. Let's now get to the most important part of this entire season. and it was our predictions and the finale. So coming into this, it was 56-54 to Tom Bellingham. And I threw everything towards Ferrari, as you probably remember. So let's go to biggest good surprise. I locked in, Charle-le-Cla.

I mean, is that worthy of a point going from 19th to 3rd? No. Going up to 8th in one lap? Definitely not. What? He was behind Carlos, considerably behind Carlos. He had a grip penalty, Tommy. She made no difference to where he qualified, really.

I think people might be with me on this one. I think people, I reckon the army. I think they actually will. Disappointing. That's because you know deep down. Okay, well we'll put that one to you because we disagree. When we do disagree, it goes over to you. So let us know in the comments, maybe via thumbs up or what, I don't know.

How ever you want to do it? Throw your support towards me. I don't think it's going to change it. anything but throw his support to me because this might just be a consolation point for me all right okay so uh you i went for yuki sunoda which definitely didn't come in at all no it did not he literally didn't get off the line because he saw you watching him i i was so i'm ignoring about going for yuki as well because i was like i'm going to jinx him if i go for him and i'm really confident he's going to have a good weekend and yeah all all went wrong so not good it certainly did okay so we went now to

biggest flop and I said McLaren and when Piastri got punted I thought goodness gracious me what have I done but then of course Lando dominated

the proceedings and I cannot claim even half a point sadly because we don't do half points for that because I went for a team which was silly of me I should have just gone for Oscar and been a bit more

tactical and I went for Lando Norris. And I actually even said, this is for you, McLaren fans, because every time we've said Landon Norris is going to have a good weekend, it's gone wrong. So I'm going to say, biggest floppery is going to win the race. And you're welcome.

Actually, Tommy, as well, our powers have actually shown here. And I feel as though it's like something in Infinity War where it's collided like that. Because I went for McLaren. It got Oscar Piastri. But did it get Lando Norris? No, because you were flopping in.

and he made him the greatest of the whole time. So it literally just evened out and then I got half. Unbelievable scenes. Okay, so no points for that either. Top three. In third place, I went for Carlos Sines and he went one better. Wait, proposition. Oh no.

Well, yeah. We didn't get points. I went for Charlotte. No. This happened. No. No, he almost did. Almost did.

It always went in the wall as well. But sadly not for you. Top three. Third place I went for Carlos Sines. Pivero and for Charlotte Claire. was correct. Yeah, it was. Another point. Congratulations. I hope you happy with the money. Second place, I went for Max for Stappen, which was changed from Lando Norris. Neither of them came in, so good for me. And I went for Landon Norris in P2, which of course was not right.

No, and then in first place I went for Charles Leclair, which was again not right. And I went for Max Stappen, which was not right. So then it means you have, well, a three-point lead, potentially a two-point lead, depending on what the comments say, going into the one crazy prediction. So unless I score four points for this or three points for this then you've won and mine was Ferrari win the constructors which did not happen but my god

did I think so hold on right so if signs had won just let's just say if Ferrari had won the constructors would I have turned that around one we'd have probably I could have flopped McLaren

yeah we'd have argued that McLaren would have flopped yeah and then then you probably would have allowed biggest maybe not Yeah, so it would be close, I reckon, yeah. Alas, no points for me, Tommy, what did you go for? I went for Jack Dew and finished in the points.

Just to wrap up our awful predictions this week. You're doughnutting right now, celebrating your predictions championship. Well done, Tommy. I did, thank you. I did enjoy the fact that you went all guns blazing and it did reflect very similar to the real Constructors Championship where it was like, oh, if only one more place than this would have happened. And that's exactly what happened.

with our prediction championship. And of course, we will go into like the predictions made at the start of the year in a separate video and things like that as well. So there'll be more reflection of our... We will be reflecting on what we predicted

at the start of the year to see just how... We've got quite a few to go through actually so that will be interesting to see if we are anywhere near close. And we'll also do our review of our driver ratings as well and get the averages and all that sort of stuff. So lots of things to reflect on. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere.

just yet. But yes, well done, Tommy. Congratulations. So you'll technically win 50, what, 50, how many did you score? 52, 58? I was like, say you've won 50p. No, you've not 1 50p, mate, sorry.

What was the score in the end? So I got one point, and you got no points. Did I score no points? Yeah, unless they give you Charlotte. Come on, right, consolation point. Yeah. I've just said chat.

That's crazy. We're not live on Twitch. But if you're listening, please. Please, get me a consolation point. Right. Finally, three crazy predictions from you lot. P1, Patreon member, Lemixion. Alpin then has to be in the points.

No, tie on points. Oh, I literally can't read. Tie on points. No. Alpine got sixth. Congratulations to them. P1 Patreon member, Heather more or less. Lewis wins.

He won our hearts in fourth place. And finally, P1 Patreon member, Joanko, Czechos scores points. Did he even make it past the first lap? I'm sure as well. We probably will have some reaction content regarding Checo at some point as well. So other than a Lecler P3 for me...

We got everything wrong. All the fans, all of us, that might be the worst week of predictions ever for just generally for the P1 family. The door was so wide open for me to maybe clutch this away from you and I went Ferrari win everything. I could have just gone for a Lando Norris win like I've gone for several times this year. and then to be fair, Lando. You did. You did. It almost paid off, half paid off. Okay, that is it. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in to this Race Review podcast.

I hope you've enjoyed it. Again, it's a late night and a slightly later upload than usual, so I hope you forgive us for that. Thank you for tuning in all the same to Tommy's Hotel Room. And what is your final thoughts, please, prediction champion? My final thoughts are we thank you to everyone that's been listening to the race reviews this year. I cannot believe the season that we've had, you know, when it started, did not expect to end up, you know, our predictions even of just how difficult it's ended up being because it's changing all the time and the amount of talking points we've had and from all these race reviews and made them even more fun the fact that it's been a brilliant season. So thank you for everyone that's joined.

But of course, that won't be, you know, we're not stopping here. because we've got a lot of reflections and things to do on this amazing season as well, so look forward to that. We certainly do. Yeah, I echo Tommy's thoughts about thanking you all for tuning in to this race review stuff.

It's, yeah, ridiculous to think how many people tune in every single race weekend to listen to our thoughts. What I will say is that we are literally returning from Abu Dhabi tomorrow morning and then from Wednesday we're on our UK P1 Live Show tour.

I need to remind everyone that we won't be doing another one until the end of next year. So we'll be making it a yearly thing in the UK from here on in. So I know that you might have got used to maybe two a year. It's going to be once a year from now on. So if you want to come and see us, enjoy an end of season, wrap up with games and all that sort of stuff,

then head to the link that will be in our description. Otherwise go to tegorep.com, I believe it is. Or just type in P1 with Matt and Tommy tickets. It will come up. That is it. We'll see you very soon back in the UK for our next bit of content, which will be funniest tweets probably. So look forward to that.

And we'll see you very soon. Let's love to take care. Bye-bye. Bye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the ACAST creator network