P1 with Matt and Tommy - Australian GP Driver Ratings: F1-to-10

Episode Date: March 25, 2024

Join us for one of the most chaotic Driver Ratings we've ever recorded - there's changing grades, NA's and several moments of UTTER DISCONTENT for the fans (joking, love you all really). Tickets for our live shows in April have almost sold out - get yours right here! You can sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to exclusive episodes you won't hear anywhere else, every P1 episode ad-free, full driver interview videos, early access to tickets and more!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. We are here once again to talk about the Australian Grand Prix. We've got some F1 driver ratings for you, haven't we, Tommy? We've been grading every driver's performance. And it could be a saucy one, Tommy. I feel like you've got a few that might rock the boat somehow. We've got the fan vote as well as traditional. now and yeah, excited to see what Logan Sargent gets.

Very excited. And we will discuss what we're going to do about Logan Sargent. But before we dive into this, I just want to shout out the P1 Live show. We are literally only a few weeks away now. We would love to have you at either Cambridge, Bath or London. I feel like Cambridge or is it Bath. One of them has sold out. Do you remember Tommy?

Cambridge. Yes, Cambridge is sold out. So Bath and London, if you want to come and see me and Tommy, get a little bit saucy on stage. That sounds weird. It's not that kind of show. Not that kind of show. but you know what I'm saying. We'd love to have you there.

So link is all over our social media. And if you just type in P1 Live Show as well, I'm sure it will come up on Google. Thank you very much. Right, let's begin with Kevin Magnerson. Qualified 14th, started 14th, finished 10th. I'm going to lock in. 7 out of 10 for Kevin Magnuson.

I think that he had a decent race. I don't think it wasn't as comparable to Holcombberg. especially when you think of Magnuson starting a few positions ahead of his teammate, you might think that, okay, K-Mag might actually do something in the race and be a bit quicker than Hulk, but no, that didn't really happen, although Hulk did actually gain some time under the VSC, but still, I think Hulk and Berg, just small upper hand. So that's why I've gone for a seven out of ten, because I did think if George Russell didn't bin it, he wouldn't score a point, and I would have given him seven out of ten.

So I don't feel like I can grade him an eight just because George crashed on the final lap. Do you see what I mean? I see what you mean. Not that I agree, because I've gone for an eight out of ten for Kevin Magnetton. I think you thought I was going to give him a six then. Well, maybe. This time, yeah, he had a good race. Yeah, got points and, yeah, what a start for Hass.

And it was a nice little battle with Albon. moments where I thought a crash was going to happen at any moment. It kind of made me wince a few times when KMAG was sticking a nose in certain corners. But he thankfully kept it clean and got some, well, a point on the board for house. Singular point. Well done, KMAG. And I also say, well done for letting your teammate through, but it's still a seven. The fans gave him an eight. Niko Holcomburg now, qualified 16th, started 16th and finished 9th.

I have gone for a nine out of ten for Nika Holkenberg. P9 in a Hasse. Yeah, it's a very impressive drive to be ninth in a Hasse. We will get on to it later in the year of Hassee genuinely quite good, and this is a regular thing. But at the moment it does feel like a win for HAST of Ian up in P9, and it was a good drive. I think he was unfortunate to get blocked in qualifying

because we know how well he can do in qualifying a lot of the time. So to have those issues and get knocked out in the first part and still end up P9 is a very impressive drive. So well done, Nico Holcomburg. What on Nico? I've gone for an 8 out of 10 for Mr. Hulk. Of course, as I mentioned, he gained some time under the VSC after Hamilton's retirement.

Magnuson was a legend and let him through and clearly this Hasse dynamic, even though there's the whole, oh, some of my balls, honey, stuff that we spoke about first when they became teammates. It seems like they are working in unison and in harmony to try and get as many points as possible for Hasse. So, yeah, a great performance from Hasse overall. And three points is something that I don't think they would have expected, well, Kamatsu, you didn't expect anything at the start of the season. But they are certainly under, under, predict, under, under, what is it?

No, no, no, but you under-estimate, no, you under-something, and you're over-performing. Yeah, they underestimate themselves. You're under-deliver. Under-de-no, no, they're over-delivering. Over-delivering. It's something. Just say over-performing. No, but it's under something and then it's over, you know, it's like a...

Anyway, well-done, Hass. Chouguan-you, qualified 19th, started from the pit lane and finished 15th. I have gone for a 5 out of 10 for Jeu-Gwe. on you. And it's going to be sort of a control C, control V kind of vibe. Copy and paste for both drivers. Because what are you doing, steak F1 team? What are you doing? You look like a bunch of clowns.

Like, do they know how to run a Formula One team? Do they know that in the pits is supposed to be the quickest pit stop possible? Bottas has probably now had a longer pit stop or combined longer pit stops for the first three races

than maybe two seasons combined what are they doing? It is an absolute disgrace. Of course he had his car modified under Park Fermé then suffered a gearbox issue during the second pit stop which cost Joe loads of time

and obviously finished ahead of Ocon but it was literally the battle of the two dustbins and who could change their rubbish quicker. Like it was, it sounds savage but I'm absolutely sick of Joe Gwguerunio and Valtrie

us to decent drivers. Joe in particular is a young driver wanting to perform, but I feel like he's always hindered by stuff. So get it together, Steak. Please. So I haven't had a pop-off like that for a little while. Enjoy that.

Did not see Steak being the team that gets it, but I think it's justified because awful from, yeah, from their pit stops. I've gone for a five for Joe Guan Yu as well. He has. had a you know an issue in qualifying where took off a bit of his wing and you can argue it was his fault because he ran over a curb but I think it was it was one of those incidents where like it could have gone either way we've seen drivers use a lot of the track limits before and not lost any

kind of parts of their front wing so it was unlucky in that sense but it was all undone in the pit stops really wasn't it so shocking Certainly was the fans gave, have I said the fans for the last few? I can't remember. Oh, yes. The fans gave Niko Holkenberg an eight. And they gave Zhuge when you were five. I definitely said KMAG is the first one.

It's fine. It's all right. I'm locked in. I'm dialed in now, unlike steak pit stops. Valtory Bottas, qualified 13th, started 13th, finished 14th. I have gone for a seven, out of 10 for Valtru Botas because I think he would have got points

without the useless pit stop I think he qualified very well for the neon dustbin as you referred to them in the race pod and he was actually running in P11 when he had his bad pit stop so you think with the way the race ran points would have been an option

he might have been up there with the Hasses and he probably would have had quite a a good race. And yeah, impressive in qualifying as well. So I can't really downgrade him for his useless team. So I'm giving him a seven. Okay. Wow.

Bottas fanboy on this podcast. Love that. Valtry, I've gone for a six out of ten. As you say, running very strongly. And then cross-threading, the will-nut and it rolling off down the pit lane. And, I mean, it's just literally something out of a comedy sketch when it comes to their pit stops at the moment. But yeah, there was a small glimmer of hope, but I can't go with ifs, but some maybes as to whether he would have scored points or not.

We're not sure, but he was having a strong race up until that point, so I'm going to go with the six. Yuki Sonoda, qualified eighth, started eighth, finished, seventh. And the fans gave Valtru Bottas a five. Yes, I definitely remembered against. I'm dialed in. Right. My brain's not fully functioning yet, okay, after the Australian Grand Prix weekend.

All right, Ferrari 1, 2 and also early alarms. Anyway, yes, Baltry was given a 5. Yuki Sonoda! Qualified 8th, started 8th, finish 7th. I am going for Yuki Sanoda a 10 out of 10. He is getting full marks for a fantastic weekend. I said this year I'm going to try and sort of, you know, Yuki doesn't have to score a podium in order to score.

to score a 10 because he's in an R.B. He flat out destroyed race winner Daniel Riccardo, multiple race winner Daniel Ricardo, and had a pretty flawless weekend, qualifying brilliantly, and then scoring, obviously, would have been eighth, but finished seventh with Alonzo's penalty.

Still, four, six points, whatever it might be, Yuki did a fantastic job, and it deserves to be commended. It sure does. I've also given him a 10 out of 10. It is basically like a victory in Formula B, isn't it? Because they never get anywhere, really, isn't it?

Because, I mean, you've got... Well, yeah, true. Red ball, then you've got... But yeah, so he's done an amazing job. He's absolutely smashing it and qualifying. He's performing extremely well. And then he had a race to back it up as well. It's actually kind of nice.

and it's not why I support Yuki Sanoda, but it is from a results point of view, I actually have kind of enjoyed the fact that he's managed to just string a normal race together where we've not really had to see him. He didn't really have to make any overtakes or do anything crazy. He just delivered the best of what he needed to do.

Normally when Yuki has a great race, it's because he's doing these amazing daring overtakes, and sometimes they go wrong and we give him a really bad grade, sometimes they go right, we give him a really good grade. this is just like a good, well, a very good drive with no drama really, which is good to see from Yuki. So, yeah, big points for R.B. Should have said, actually, he would have finished ninth,

had it not been for obviously Russell and then Alonzo's penalty as well. But either or finishing the highest by, yeah, it was definitely the best of Formula C or whatever we're going to call it from now on. Daniel Riccardo. And the fans go. Oh, my God. Matt, please remember the fans. There are grades.

I am still not used to this being power of driver ratings, but the fans gave you a nine. Yeah, put it in bold, mate. That would be a good thing to have moving forward as Ron Burgundy. Daniel Ricardo, qualified 18th, started 18th, finished 12th. Daniel Riccardo, I've gone for a 4 out of 10. a shocking weekend really you look on paper actually and he's finished 12th

so it's not it's not shocking like you should be getting a one or two out of time but I think it's justified the criticism he's getting because Yuki performed so well and he's finished the race in seventh so when you're a long way behind your teammate and we're seeing a trend this year of teammates finishing two by two

I think you do have to harshly grade someone when they finished so far behind their teammate. So yeah, it kind of all came undone in that slight mistake in qualifying. But, yeah, disaster so far. And he's got a bit of pressure on him now. I think even Helmut Marco has said needs to step up. Yeah, I think he said, Helmut said both of them need to step up. And Yuki's done exactly that this weekend.

I have gone for a three out of ten for Daniel Ricardo. It wasn't even close in qualifying to him not exceeding track limits. He went off to Narnia and came back at turn five, I think it was, which ruined his race weekend, starting 18th. Good luck at this stage. And obviously, finishing 12th, as you say, on paper, not bad. But who did he finish at higher? The two Alpines, one of which had an extra pit stop to get something out of their break duct for Ocon, the two Kixalbers that had a collective pitstop time of four and a half days. And then Gansley, who's also driving a tractor.

So for me, it's fully deserving, as shown by his teammate, that not. scoring points is not good enough, especially when you have people DNFing. You've got Vastappen, Hamilton, Russell, all DNFing. You had Logan Sargent not taking part. There was opportunities here to score a point or two. And that's what Yuki showed. And unfortunately, Daniel didn't in his home race. It's sad to watch, but he needs to pick it up. And I think the most thing, the thing that was concerning me the most was after qualifying in his post-race, post-quality interviews, he basically said that he, the only thing that was wrong was the stopwatch. That he didn't feel. feel like he was losing time within the car, which I think is the most concerning thing to say,

because then you don't know what's wrong. How is he going to improve? Exactly. So it's quite hard to watch, and I really hope he does pick it up and has a stellar performance soon, so he can all shut up and say, all right, he still got it. But until then, we have to give him his fair criticism. Logan, I know the fans, the fans gave Daniel Ricardo three out of ten. It's fine.

It's a chaotic, it's a chaotic driver. It's fine. Stop. It's all good. I had it. That was actually my sentence was Logan the fan's vote was three out of ten sergeant.

That's his middle name. Logan Sargent, qualified in sad face, started in sad face and finished in sad face. That's what it says in our document, so I'm going to read it out loud. Now we need to discuss what on earth we're going to do with Logan Sargent

because Alex Albon stole his car, stole the keys, got in it, and drove around this weekend. It's either a 10 or an NA. It can't be a 10, unfortunately. Even though the fans, the fans voted a 10, which I have mentioned.

Well, actually, it's quite amazing that he got removed from the driver of the day vote because so many people were voting for him. F1 fans, if you give them a troll vote, they will go for it. Logan sacrificed his seat for the good of the team. So what are we going to do, NA, but then we need to do it.

need averages. It has to be none, yeah, yeah, because at the end of the day, when we get to the final grades at the end of the year and our half-term report, or whatever we're going to call it, it is the average. So we have to take it as a Carlos science where, you know, you could say, oh, give him a five, but then, you know, that could affect his grade massively. That could be the best grade of the year. It has to be.

Well, exactly. And you give him a 10 and it's like, well, he's not driven. It's not really fair to give him really. It's going to skew it massively. and he might end up, you know, finishing the rankings in the P20 or so. Do it that way. We don't do that at any point. Well, it's based on an average grade throughout the races that they do.

Okay. All right, cool. So N.A is the fairest. N.A for Logan's sergeant, poor bloke. He'll be back in Japan unless Alex crashes in practice again. No cell phone crashes. No chassis again, which sounds like that might be the case, is that Williams will still not have a spare chassis in Japan.

So fingers crossed, they don't bin it again and have this problem again. We'll have to wait and see. Imagine if Logan is the one that crashes his car and he's like, well, can I have Alex's now then, yeah? Like swapsies. Like, you took my car in Australia. Somehow I don't think James Fowles will pander to that one. No.

Alex Albon, qualified 12th, started 12th, finished 11th. I have gone for a four out of 10. for Alex Albin. And that is because, well, I think we know why. But just to cover it off, he finished obviously 11th. And that is a decent result for a Williams,

good result, I'd say. Probably, you know, if that's a normal race, I'm giving him a 7 out of 10. But I think we, well, this is my opinion. I think I have to be harsh here that he has put,

essentially his team down to a one car team and also the whole criticism on Williams and all the pressure that he's put on his team I think he has to kind of suffer in the Tommy grade which I'm sure would be losing loads of sleep over but I think it has to I think it has to kind of knock it down because he's put his team been a very awkward and difficult position

and he deserves to be punished. Okay, well, we're about to get saucy here, everybody. Ladies and gentlemen, put your seatbelts on because it's time for me and Tommy to fall out. I've gone for a six out of ten for Alex Albon. It's an interesting angle that you've taken there that Alex has put this on the team. What I would say is that it's the team's fault

for not having a spare chassis. It's the team's fault for being behind in development and obviously restructuring and redoing everything which has forced the drivers to be in this situation. Yes, Alex has made a mistake, bottomed out on the curb and he's gone in the wall. That is 100%, you know, that is his fault. I'm not going to downgrade him because Williams can't offer them a spare car, which is the least that they can, or spare chassis, whatever it might be,

which is the least a Formula One team should have to do during a Formula One weekend. So I get it. I don't think Alex was probably the one going, give me Logan's car now, I can deliver points. Logan, of course, but would have had no say in the matter. James Vowles had to, as a team principal, make a difficult decision. And Alex's, as for his race, was decent.

Williams just didn't have the pace, unfortunately, to finish 11th. Of course, there were DNFs and penalties and whatnot, and even the penalties, I don't think, actually affected Alex. But still, it was an all right drive, but nothing special. And, yeah, four out of ten, that is, that's going to get a couple of comments. It's not that much lower for what is essentially. You know, I think it's a pretty solid reason.

The beauty with life is that that's your grade and no one can take that away from you. No, they can't. You said it with your chest, I love it. The fans gave Alex a six. Esteban Ocon next, qualified 15th, started 15th, finished 16th. I'm so bored of how bad Alpine are.

I've gone for a five for Ocon because he was unlucky, obviously, to have a tear off stuck in his rear. brake duct. So at the pit again. He did medium hard, hard, hard, ended up in last place. We don't see anything of them. Ocon and Galsley still seem very comparable in terms of pace and generally probably being one of the closest driver pairings on the grid. And yeah, they're right at the back languishing. So I'm not going to give them any worse than that. So yeah, five out of ten. I've gone for a six out of ten

for Esteban O'Con. A cheeky extra point for making it into Q2 with that tractor of a car which he was celebrating like it was a win which I think was genuine but also maybe a little bit of like

ha ha ha gazley I got through. 100% is nothing to do with the position but yeah it's a what might have been for him because maybe he might have you know, Gassley's finished 13th

and we've had a lot of failures at the top so maybe he could have been in the mix I don't know, a point would have been very unlikely I think but yeah, just giving him an extra point for his quality performance. Okay, wow, lovely stuff. The fans gave Oakh on a 5. Pierre Gassley, qualified 17th,

started 17th, finished 13th. I have given Piazzi. Gaisley a five out of ten and that is because it is the most normal average drive really he's he's not done particularly amazing and qualifying and while 13th for an Alpine sounds incredible he only finished ahead of essentially people that had absolute nightmares if I'm not mistaken so he's kind of last of the normal more races, if you like. Yeah, I think that's fair because

Gazley, yeah, finished about 12, 13 seconds ahead of Ocon. And that was obviously with an extra pit stop for Ocon and having to get that out of his breaks. I've gone for eight, five out of ten for Gansley as well. I don't, you know, it's by the buy. Maybe, no, actually, screw it. O'Con gets a six. You've absolutely, you've won me over there.

Sorry, editor, but I'm going to change my grade to a six for O'Con. And a five for Gassley, because I think it's unfair to grade them the same if Fokon had to go through all of those trials and tribulations and still finished about 12, 13 seconds behind his teammate. But as for Gassley, yeah, quiet race. He was up in, I think, eighth at one point. But that was, I think, without having stopped. And that was, you know, probably had a nosebleed with how high he was up in an Alpine.

But, yeah, then fell away to 13th. So a five out of ten. And the fans also gave Gassley a five. Lance Stroll, qualified ninth, started ninth, finished, sixth. I have gone for a seven out of ten for Lance Stroll. Very quiet race, but a decent one. Gained a couple of places early on, pitted quite aggressively early at the start. Obviously, then got promoted after Alonzo was a cheeky boy,

and Russell was a cheekier boy into the wall. So that got him up to sixth. And, yeah, I don't think it was anything special from Lance, but he'll absolutely take a sixth place, that's for sure. Yeah, I've gone for a seven out of ten for Lance stroll. It is more of what he should be doing, you know, not finishing too far behind Fernando Alonzo. And, yeah, a quiet race from him, really.

But P6 is a good result for Aston. Although, you know, he's been fortunate that a few of the other cars ahead of him have had issues, but it's still a much more solid drive and ones that he should be doing. And he didn't qualify terribly as well. So well done Lance. No, exactly.

Well done, sir. The fans also gave Lance a seven. Fernando Alonzo, qualified 10th, started, 10th, finished 8th. I've gone for a 7 out of 10 for Fernando Alonzo. I think his qualifying uncharacteristic that he made a mistake and seemingly damaged his car. which meant that he couldn't really fight whether that would have equated to him finishing a whopping one place higher ahead of Lance Strol probably anyway. But yeah, in the race, it was a good drive.

And then, of course, at the end, his tactics, whichever way you look at them, I've looked at them as, I think it's cheeky and naughty. I think if there was runoff at that corner and George runs wide and it's not a crash, it's not even investigated. But hey, the stewards didn't factor in. The fact that there was a crash mate. It says it in the report, which is mental because they did. Absolute BS.

Yes, it's absolute rubbish. They did. And I think that's why it's kind of been made to be this thing. but I don't think it's as bad. I don't think it's absolutely scandalous. Of course you don't. You're a Fernando. Yeah, good number seven out of ten.

I've gone for a seven out of ten as well for Fernando. He was having a great race. Perez obviously got passed him very quickly, but then he didn't fight Perez at all and then utilised those four DRS zones beautifully. Of course, he also gained under the virtual safety car as well. And he was having a great race up until the point of the joy George Russell thing, which of course put him down to P8 in the end.

It's such a, you know, you kind of just try and process the whole thing. And I can completely understand Fans is kind of questioning over why was it a penalty and then looking at other incidents that have happened over the years and how it differs. Let's say KMAG and Saudi, but we've said this before. it was more of a, in my opinion, it was more of a predictable slowing down from KMAG as opposed to slam on the brake, slam on the brake. And that is what I believe the stewards have gone, gotcha. If he hadn't a slammed on the break the first time and then a second time, he would have been okay, I think. But the problem is there was, I guess, something to say that he did something premeditated. Then maybe even more interestingly is, you know, if we're talking about slowing down and being dangerous, Perez and Hamilton 2021, Bloke was basically,

getting out the car and pushing around that final sector. And yet he didn't get penalised for that. So I can completely understand where a lot of fans are wondering, or where's the consistency here? I think in my head, I go, I understand why the stewards gave him a penalty, but I also am like, yeah, but Fernando didn't mean to put him in the wall, did he? You know what I mean?

He was just being very, very cheeky. No, he was just a bit gamesmanship. It was gamesmanship. Look at, yeah, he's done it before with Lewis Hamilton. you know, DRS chicken. Look at LeCler and Vestappen when they were hitting the brakes in Saudi 100 metre early, yeah. It's a very good point.

So they were doing the same. And that wasn't investigated because there wasn't a crash. But not that they'll admit that. And one final thing, because we've not spoken about it since the incident, the document reads like, it's like a four-year-old. It's just like a Twitter. It's literally like a fan on Twitter. It's very hard.

Yeah, where they're like, should Fernando have done this? Yes. Did he have the right to do this? No. Or whatever. Just so weird. It was very... I mean, that in itself concerns me greatly that that is the head teacher, basically.

That's the head teacher, and that's the writing that's coming out of their report and document. Very concerning, I would say. But yeah, anyway, that's... I'm sure a lot of people have their own opinions and let us know in the comments what yours is. The fans also gave Fernando Alonzo a seven. Oscar Piastri qualified sixth started fifth, finished fourth.

I have gone four. Seven out of ten for Oscar Piastri. It was, I mean it's a low grey considering he's finished fourth again. But I also feel like there was a little bit left on the table. He made that mistake at the penultimate corner, which cost him a bit of time. I think he ended up finishing around 12 seconds behind Lando, as in obviously not finishing, because there was a VSC that came out, which extended the gaps massively. But he was around 12 seconds behind his teammate come the crash on the final lap.

So there was still a little bit left out there for Oscar, perhaps, just struggling with that race pace ever so slightly. But still, a very good drive. McLaren looking very promising. And a bit of learning to do maybe on the Aussie's side. But apart from that, I think he can be relatively happy with a fourth place. I've gone for an eight out of ten for Oscar Piastri. A good drive, obviously, you know, he was running ahead of Lando,

thanks to the pit stop, of course. But, and then they did the swap, which I imagine is disappointing for him. But he is looking a lot more like he's on a better pace, very slight mistake. I don't think it cost him too much, though, realistically. and he was always kind of destined to finish behind Lando, but ahead of, well, everyone else. Although saying that, he's being in Perez, which is impressive, but I think that says more about Perez's drive, but we'll get on to that later. So, yeah, Oscar is doing a very good job this year, I think. He's looking a lot more solid and, yeah, exciting driver indeed.

Yeah, I think his lockup cost him about four seconds or so, which, you know, you could argue, if he stays there or thereabouts with Lando, he might have even had a chance to get that swap back, but yeah, no chance if he made that mistake. The fans gave Oscar an eight. Landon Norris, qualified fourth, started third, finished third. I've gone for a nine out of ten for Lando Norris.

Very good drive. A classic Lando drive of just, yeah, getting the most out of the car, very quick, probably has those thoughts in his head of like, why went McLaren competitive when Max has managed not to finally have a breakdown or why couldn't his car have broken down in the many, many times last year that he was running second. But, yeah, podium's a good result to say where McLaren are starting the year

so he can be very pleased with that. I've gone for a nine out of ten as well for Lando. I think that McLaren let him down, ever so slightly with the strategy. I feel like P2 was absolutely on the cards, but they just languished around a little bit with that one. I feel so they were looking at other teams more than they were themselves. Of course, Ferrari and Lecler went for a very aggressive strategy at the beginning, which you're not going to cover that off because it was a very early pit stop for Lecler and also Piastri. But the second one, again, it was just kind of leaving Lando out there,

maybe hoping for fresher tires and then trying to overtake, but we know what overtaking is like in Formula One. Of course, all of this is with the benefit of hindsight, but I feel as though Lando was putting in a performance that could have warranted him P2 rather than P3. So that's why I've gone for a nine over a seven for Oscar, because I feel as though there was, again, a little bit left, maybe from McLaren's side for Lando. So, yeah, but still a great drive on the podium. He said he's excited about the prospects for the rest of the season. McLaren, can they take another step forward soon? I'd love to see it so that they can battle Ferrari and maybe even Red Bull. Who knows? The fans gave Lando a nine out of ten as well.

Carlos Sines, qualified second, started second, finished first. I have gone for a six out of ten for Carlos Sines. Don't feel like he sang smooth operator loudly enough down the team radio. Didn't actually remember until his radio engineer came over there. Of course it's a 10 out of 10. Carlos, I would give him an 11 if I could because that was miraculous. It clearly, whatever went on during that surgery, they've installed some upgrades. Not only have they removed some potential bad things, but also, wow, Carlos, I cannot commend his performance more. He saw the opportunity he took it. Qualifying was where he won the race on Saturday.

Charlotte Clare's tried to win the race in qualifying. many, many times and qualified brilliantly many, many times, but the opportunity did not come up. Carlos qualifies brilliantly and boom. Max Verstappen has a crisp packet in his breaks. Obviously, that is not confirmed. That is just speculation. There is no Chris packet probably. But yet, Carlos, unbelievable.

So, so happy for him. What a way life can change in the space of two weeks? Yeah, I've gone for a 10 out of 10 as well. It's a no-brainer 10 out of 10. amazing drive it's it's funny that we mentioned

Singapore in the race review and how that was such a bangor and it was such an intelligent drive this one was still a 10 but he didn't really it's not not saying he didn't have to do anything he just wasn't under any pressure

but that was because he drove so well and was just managing the gap I was convinced that charlerc was going to catch up and make a bit of a race of it. But it was looking like he was close and based on other races we've seen.

You thought, oh, it might get a bit closer and it might be quite good and we might get another Monza, but we didn't. And Carlos just, yeah, just made it look so easy. And yeah, what a comeback. And insane to think that if he'd done the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, he could be leading the world championship.

And then the cutest thing ever, You know, as he was winning, he said over team radio to get Charles to join him so they can celebrate the one two together. My heart. My heart, honestly. And obviously he got driver the day as well because Carlos just magnificent. And the fans agreed. 10 out of 10. Charles Clair qualified fifth, started fourth, finished.

Second. I've gone for an 8 out of 10 for Charlotte Claire, which may sound a bit hard. harsh when he's finished second on the road, which is obviously a very good result. And off the roads, basically the... Finish second on the road?

Don't say off the road. No, no, but you weren't finished second on the road as if there was like post-race penalties or something. Oh, right, no. Yeah, finish second. But, yeah, it's... He's going to be kicking himself with the qualifying mistake that, like you said,

he's qualifying is where he excels and has had so many amazing results he's taken pole position and then we've gone oh he's not not there and he's not been able we've kind of and I think it's a fair thing to say that he's not had the car to win the race whereas this the time that he has had the car to win the race when max has had a problem he's made a mistake on his qualifying lap and giving him so much work to do you know not even finishing qualifying right behind carlos you know, he qualified down in fifth. So not good. So to be fair, he didn't have that much work to do.

Just had to clear Lando and he was in there. But unfortunately, just, wow, cool. Thanks so much for your input there, Tommy. I want to move on now. I don't even want to talk about my side of things. I've gone for an eight out of ten as well because sadness. Sadness has just taken over here. How many front rows did he have in a row?

Was it seven or eight? He'd had in a row. eight front rows in a row and the one time he doesn't max his car blows up that is ridiculous and there's people out there as there always are

blah blah blah about how he's overrated Carlos is better I don't know a lot of it is just trying to get attention and trying to trigger people but it's ridiculous Charles LeCler

will probably have now another eight front rows in a row and not get a win the universe just didn't align for him yesterday or the day before, whenever this goes out. And it was lost on Saturday. As you say, the one time that he usually delivers is qualifying. Well, not the one time, but the definite time that usually delivers is qualifying.

And unfortunately, that wasn't meant to be. And Carlos was on it as well. It's not just Shal not being able to deliver because of his qualifying performance, but he also had a teammate that had the match for him today. Today, not today, yesterday, the day before, whenever there's chronology. And it has to be said. That Shal has to put his hands up because I think he said

that he struggled with the tires a little bit. Of course, they put him on a really aggressive stop because he was fighting the McLaren's to try and get track position. But then that put him on the back foot as well because he was then going through a bit of traffic at the beginning. And yeah, it was on the back foot immediately

after the first strategy call and I think he even said that that he knew that it would be a really tough race after that. So yes, it's an 8 out of 10. And the fans also gave Shal an 8. George Russell qualified seventh, started seventh, did not finish. Oh my God, this grade is one of the most difficult grades I've ever had to give, and I am going to give him a five out of ten.

Because this is not Singapore last year in my eyes. The stewards also agree that there were external factors as to why George Crichton, although they did not take part any of that in their stewards report. They did not see the George Russell crash, apparently. Just to clarify. I do feel sorry for him a little bit. Alonso has shefted him and sheft him very hard, but sheffed him slightly too hard,

according to the penalties within Formula One. And it's just, it's sad because George was having a decent enough race. He was outperforming Hamilton all weekend, and then to be caught out like that, I do feel for him that's why I'm not giving him a one or a two. But I am going to downgrade him a little bit because he lost the car and crashed into the wall, despite that factor of Alonso.

So straight down the middle, George Russell 5. Yep, I've given him a four out of 10, so slightly harsher, but yeah, not Singapore harsh. I agree with you that it's not completely on his own, you know, made a mistake that it's completely, completely cost him a massive result. That's why I was so harsh on him in Singapore. This time, I think there is some responsibility of him.

You know, he's crashed the car in that situation, but it is a difficult situation to be in. It's probably one of those moments where you could replay it many, many times. And I think it's probably like 50-50 if he crashes or not. You know, he could do it again tomorrow and he might just make it through the corner fine and maybe just react or doesn't lose the car through the dirty air and just catch it. I reckon that's what they'll do. Like Silverstone 2021 where Red Bull did the replicate the incident with Albon, didn't he?

Going round the corner. Oh, yeah. They're going to go and send George out and then put a car in front and be like, see, the penalty was worth it? Yeah, imagine. But no, apart from that, it's a shame for him because it's been driving well. Hamilton's been struggling and George was on for a good result again and it would have been quite the statement based on the race that Hamilton had but instead double D&F for Merck and

boy are they not happy oh Frank's not happy either as you can hear in the background the fans gave George Russell a six Lewis Hamilton qualified 11th start at 11th and did not finish I have gone four four out of 10 for Lewis Hamilton he of course retired from the race no fault of his own however qualified poorly made a you know he went off at turn one at one point struggling he just did not look like the Lewis Hamilton that we know

throughout the whole weekend it looks like he's really struggling with that Mercedes car and and yeah he's not having a good time of things at the moment I'm not personally worried as such said it many times during the race reviews and stuff that normally has a slow start to the season. I'm sure there'll be a lot of people thinking that he's doing all these crazy experimental setups again and whatnot. We don't know. But he'll bounce back. It's just, yeah, a really poor weekend from Hamilton. Yeah, not great. I've given him a four out of ten as well, mainly because we didn't finish. I would have given him a five, but then he wasn't having the best of times up until that point either, hence the slight downgrade as well. Where he would have finished,

Who knows. He went aggressive early and started on the soft tires, which is one of the strangest decisions I think I've ever seen because they lasted. Screams desperation. It literally was trying anything to perform. It felt like it was a soft tires, try and gain some positions and hope for a safety car, which, you know, is that what Mercedes are now? Is that what we're doing here? Because no one thought the soft tires was going to be a good race tire. So anyway, four out of ten for Lewis. And the fans also gave here. a four.

Sergio Perez, qualified third, started sixth, finished fifth. I've gone for a five out of ten for Sergio Perez today because it was a disappointing weekend, a really disappointing weekend, because he should and could and would have, had he delivered a good performance, been leading the world championship. Max Verstappen out, the DNF that happened for his teammate. These are the moments where you go, Perez has to be there. He makes a mistake in qualifying by blocking Holkenberg. Had he started third, might have been a different story,

but instead it starts sixth, a little bit stuck in the pack. Then when you get into the race, he loses a position to Russell at the beginning, and it just makes his race a lot more difficult. And then, you know, we hear that he picked up some damage passing Alonzo. We don't know what quantifiably the amount of lap time he lost per lap and things like that. As far as I've seen, there hasn't been any clarification of that, just that he's lost time and he had some damage. But still, to finish 35 seconds off the win,

it's a disappointing result. After such a great start of the year, Perez has shown, ah, he's still got it. He's within Max. He's not matching Max, but he's where he needs to be. This performance was a bit concerning, hence the 5 out of 10. Yeah, I've gone for a 5 out of 10 as well. It is incredibly disappointing for,

Perez because he would have been leading the World Championship had he done a good job like you say and this was his opportunity max rarely retires rarely has problems and this is the exact opportunity he needed if he wanted to well we joked about last year doing a Rosberg or ever but it's you can't be having races like this oh you get you get a choked up bro that's it no i'm just so sad um Joan it, you're really upset by that. He should have been leading the World Championship.

He should have been leading. Yeah, just really poor from Perez. He should be up there and, you know, his comments saying that I don't think Max would have won. I do think it's just him saving his blushes that he had a bit of a bad race. And it's not good enough, really, because he had a great start to the year and hopefully he bounces back, but it makes me concerned that is now going to be a pattern

where he does start the season all right and then sort of slowly drops off and off and off and off. It is just one race, and he's still doing overall, like a good job in the championship, so it can't be too harsh on him, but this race was not good at all. I will give him the benefit of the doubt in the sense that he said that Max wouldn't have won, and he hadn't known at the time that he had damage.

So whether he would have said the same thing with the fact he knew that floor damage or whatever it was after he passed Alonzo, maybe not. But either or, I think a lot of people doubted that Max Verstappen wouldn't have won the race had he been able to continue. The fans gave Perez a five as well. Max Vestappen, qualified first, started first, finished for... Wait, that says DNF. unbelievable. Is this real? Is this real?

Can we even grade him? What do we grade him? Probably do have to grade him. Because we do grade D&F. My argument, no, my argument is no, non. No, it's not a DNF in the sense of... He started and he didn't finish him. We can't, well, no, sorry.

No, no. What I'm saying is it's a DNF. It's, no, it isn't a DNF. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a Max Verstappen fan trying to tell us that he did not DNF. The delulu. I'm on the deliolio train now. No, what I'm trying to say is I think, personally, I think that it should be a non, like an N.A. Like a Logan Sargent.

Because, and this is from both sides, because if you go straight down in the middle and give them a five. Unfair. It's completely unfair. because you're knocking his grade down enormously on the average. And equally, he's absolutely smashed everyone in qualifying, had, you know, a thing who wasn't his fault. So if you give him a 10, it seems almost ridiculous, even though it kind of is a 10 out of 10 drive,

but the guy's done one racing lap properly. Yeah. Because he got the perfect start, smashed everyone in qualifying. So if you gave him a 10, it's almost like, that's farcical as well because you're unfair either way so you just average it as like he's

not what's the cut off here Tommy what's because we graded Hamilton and he made about what 17 or so laps so how many laps is enough to grade yeah and he had and he did bad in qualifying well I mean we can argue that if like we want to give him a grade I'd give him like a nine but I feel like that seems absolutely outrageous because he's like we all know he was going to deliver a 10

we could do yeah yeah this is this is the thing right And I think the problem here is like, it's a really difficult one to grade, and it does have to be like circumstantial because if, I know I use this an example as a joke and I don't mean to like do it. But say Logan Sargent was winning the race. Oh my God. How are you always bringing Logan into this? Okay. I know. I just love the guy.

Say Logan Sargent did an unbelievable qualifying and he got. five laps into the race and he was running like second and his engine blew up. I think we would give him a 10 because you're like, well, you know, he did everything he could,

but in this situation, it does seem kind of ridiculous to give Max a 10 when he's done one racing lap. Okay, well, what we should do, right? We give two scenarios here and everyone in the comments

on YouTube can let us know because we can't comment on audio podcast. Whether it's NA or the vote we get. So we need, it's like the top comment and the top voted comment of whether it's

should be N.A. or a grade for Max Verstappen, whatever that might be. So if you are grading him up until the point he DNFed, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, is a 10. Because the only reason he lost the lead was because he, he had a problem with his right rear or whatever it was and then, and then, and went straight on. So it's either a 10 or an N.A. Let us know in the comments. And we will add that to the sheet accordingly. The fans gave him a five. Yeah, that's what I mean. Like, it's just, I'm going to have a five-for. That's crazy.

But fair. They thought he was just desperate to play eye racing and he shoved a Chris Packet in the break. I don't know why we're going to go to his Chris Package theory. Everyone's going to believe that it's actually a thing. It's not a thing. Yeah, his grades that kind of are all over the place. You know, 20% gave him a five. People gave him 10.

People gave him zero. It's just impossible to grade because he's, because, yeah, it's difficult. Whereas, you know, someone, yeah, you can hear other people going, well, Hamilton retired, but the guy did 17 laps and had a bad qualifying. Like it's enough to judge. Could see what he did. Yeah, you can judge what he did. And there is, like, you can, there's enough evidence over Formula One to judge that Max

would have got a 10 out of 10. But it almost seems unfair to give him a 10 when he's not even competing. Yeah, but we can't, we can't be like, oh, well, you know, last time out, he produced a, you know. He definitely, yeah, because he might have, you know, you might have made a mistake. Otherwise, we need to start throwing him. but he might have made him. He might have, exactly. Who knows?

So yeah, okay, cool. Let us know and we will do whatever you guys decide. Finally, who was our P1? Who's going to get P1? It's going to be Carlos signs for me. It has to be. I know that Yuki also got a 10, but Carlos, for me, absolutely, what a man.

For me, it has to be Yuki Saneda. Because it's the only time he's probably going to get a 10. So, yeah, just lock that in now, mate. It's a great drive. Yeah, both brilliant drives. Carlos's comeback was amazing. But, yeah, I think a great performance from Yuki in the midfield. And maybe, yeah, if he carries on having performances like this,

it could be very fascinating the Red Bull situation. Indeed. And what a way to end. Bit of Yuki Sonoda hype. Love that, Tommy. What are your final thoughts? My final thoughts are during that podcast, I just had a WhatsApp pop up from an old school friend.

And he just said that he was in Gales in London and he saw someone watching us on his phone. So shout out to the person in Gales in London watching our content. That is amazing. Whoever that is, thank you so much. And to everybody else as well. That's my final thought. Thank you as always for just being such a wonderful P1 community

and turning up for our podcast, for our content, no matter where you are in the world, our Twitch watchalongs. It is a dream job and one that we never get normal. We never feel normal. It's never normalized, is it, Tommy? Especially when you tell people what you do for a living,

you're like, geez, yeah, that's true, isn't it? It's mad. But thank you. Formula One is back, Ferrari are back. There's a world championship fight on our hands and let us know if Fassappen deserves a tenor on NAA. It's as simple as that. And also P1 live show tickets.

we can do driver ratings to Tommy. And we'll rate Tommy live on stage from head to toe. God, those biceps are can swole. And that is it. Thank you, everybody. See you soon. Lots of love. Bye.

And the fans gave us a 10 out of 10 for the podcast. Take care. Make sure you follow us on all of our socials. We're Matt P1 Tommy on Twitter, TikTok, Twitch and Instagram. You can also sign up to our Patreon at the link in the episode notes for ad, episodes, full video interviews and extra bonus episodes for as little as $5 a month. Finally, make sure you're following us on Spotify. See you soon. P1 is a Stack production and part of the ACAST's creator network.