P1 with Matt and Tommy - Austrian GP Race Review

Episode Date: June 29, 2025

Another surprisingly good race at Austria threw up plenty of surprises from the first lap to the last, even as several different Championship bids seemed to crumble before our very eyes... Please fill out Stak's listener survey! It'll help us learn more about the content you love so we can bring you even more - you'll also be entered into a competition to win one of five PlayStation 5's! Click here: https://bit.ly/staksurvey2025You can listen to an extended version of every Race Review episode this season over on our Patreon! You'll also get every P1 episode ad-free, early access to tickets & merch, and access to our Discord server where you can chat with us and other F1 fans! Click here to sign up now: http://patreon.com/mattp1tommyFollow 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. I did some pointing for the video just because some people still get confused as to who's Matt and who is Tommy. But we are here to reflect on what I am going to absolutely say was a very good Austrian Grand Prix. We had a wonderful battle between Norris and Piastri, something we've been praying for Tommy for a very long time, especially for the lead. like it was for fourth in Canada. This had bigger stakes. And lasted three corners, whereas this lasted many, many, many laps. It did.

How are you feeling in your fully air-conditioned room whilst I am currently sweltering with 31 degrees? Well, it was helping me get through the pain of my two favourite drivers yeating each other out of the race. So that's fun. But yeah, I was surprised, actually, the, you know, there's always always the opinion of what you think is a good or bad race. I saw kind of a lot more negativity towards that race kind of being dull and thinking maybe it's

just because we kind of got that nice little fight by McLaren and it never really materialized again but my heart was racing right up to the end and it really thought it was going to be incredibly close and always the way with Formula One you kind of just go oh just two more laps than Oscar would have had the DRS than they would have been tasty but we unfortunately just ran out of laps, didn't we? But it's still a very good race, I thought. A quick shout out to our wonderful P1 patrons who'll be getting extra chat at the end of this race review and every single race review we do this year, where we go into a few more questions and dive a little bit deeper. Of course, you get your usual waffle. You're getting it right now,

but we give you a little bit extra if you're over on the P1 Patreon. Right, let's get into it. It's my turn to start and it's my most memorable moment. The McLaren battle. We ain't messing about. Let's reflect on it. Let's talk about it. Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris going toe to toe in a race where McLaren were the only drivers, or McLaren were the only team, and those two drivers were so clear. They were the only ones that were going to win that race unless they came together, which wasn't far away at times, was it? But it was a brilliant, brilliant battle to watch. And how do I feel after this?

I'm trying to, you know, we're quite quick after the race in recording this podcast. We want to get our reaction out. And my feeling is that Lando did a really good job. I think that he defended very cleverly at times, especially the moment where Oscar Piaastri got the run. Lando, yes, there were a few small mistakes that allowed for Oscar. to get close, and that is something that is still a bit of a drawback for Lando in his overall race armor, let's call it.

However, he was put on the back foot, but he was very level-headed when he went toe-to-to-to-to with Oscar. When Oscar got ahead into turn three, he was clever in the way that he swooped to the outside, believe he may have even braked the little bit earlier, it's quite close on the DRS line, and then utilised the up and under to get back through. but not just that. I think as well he was quite clever in where he positioned his car going down the hill as well to ensure that Oscar essentially had no chance of swinging it round the outside.

So from that racecraft side of things, I think Lando did particularly well. And Oscar will be kicking himself ever so slightly, I think, as well, because Lando won out in that race-defining battle because it has to be defined as that. Yeah, I think Lando did a really good job with the way he handled the switchback. I thought that in particular was very good because I thought initially I was kind of like, oh my word, he's let Oscar through quite easily almost.

And it made me question whether after what happened in Canada, Lando could have very easily not jumped out of the way, but made it very a lot easier for Oscar and maybe overthought things and thought, or the last thing we need to do is crash again and in that sense. So the fact that he raced him again and got back was very impressive. I think a lot of people will look back at that race and feel frustrated that, you know, and particularly Oscar fans will look back and go, oh, there's the Colapinto moment or, oh, Oscar's strategy didn't really work out with the Delta.

But it has to be, has to be said, you know, Oscar got. that big moment when Lando made that and what has to be a very big mistake when he went on the on the gravel around the final two corners completely lost huge momentum and in a weird way I think Oscar was almost too clever with it because rather than diving down the inside when he had the opportunity because Lando was so slow he waited for the next two corners where often you have the better chance but that is what kind of undid it for him and eventually Actually, yeah, Lando held out, and because it's an interteam battle, Oscar then couldn't have the strategy.

Question from people on pitch, remember Thimmer. How good was that battle between the McLaren's? Will it be disallowed the next races onwards since the pit wall is now running on safe mode? I think that's an unfair way of looking at McLaren because they gave us a battle. They allowed Lando and Oscar to fight. they, I think, sensibly didn't pit Oscar the lap after Lando had come in because he'd had a 3.1 second pitstap, I think it was Lando.

Because as a team, you don't want them coming out side by side or, you know, that's when it can get a little bit dicey, especially if one's tires are not slightly up to temperature. So I don't think it's fair to say that because they were allowed to battle the entire Grand Prix. it was awesome to watch. Of course, we were slightly, I guess, frustrated that we didn't get the battle that we thought may well be race long because of Oscar going longer and having that delta.

But I don't think it's fair to say that the pit wall is on safe mode. I think that they were sensible in the way that they allowed them to race. But by no means sort of taking anything away from us. You know, Oscar wasn't able to really catch Lando with that four-lap-fresher tyres in that in that middle part of the race. And then ultimately, in the final set of pit stops, he didn't have that advantage either.

He only had one lap fresher. Yeah, and if it's a reference to the fact that they kind of came on the radio and told Oscar, you can't do that again when he obviously had that really close moment where he locked up and watching that back from the rear of Lando's car from that replay was even, closer second time watching it around than I thought so close to front wing gone for Oscar and Lando a puncher. It gave Perez for Stap and Miami turn one vibes. That's how close it kind of was, wasn't it?

It was. It was incredibly close. So McLaren had every right to get on the radio and basically say you can race but don't do that again. And I think they do deserve credit for, and yes, some people will say that the way they pitted Oscar afterwards was kind of maybe hoping that it would call that fight down, but they have every right to do that as a team, but they still let them race. And thank goodness they do, because my word of McLaren are so, so, so clear. Now, you know, they've finished

20 seconds clear of Ferrari a minute ahead of Mercedes, who were the third best car. And yeah, Thank goodness McLaren let their driver's race because it was a great battle to watch and got very, very, very close at times. Yeah, I think that saying that McLaren are clear now is, it's chopping and changing, right? This was something that worked well for McLaren, hot temperatures, Austria for some reason, it just suited McLaren's car. But I think to say that they're now, you know, by far and clear away by what we saw today, I think is, I don't know, I don't know if that will be the case when we get to Silverstone, although Silverstone, they were. pretty good last year and the year before they had this car. But I think that that's the beauty of this season is that, you know, we had George Russell win in Canada and that was on pure pace. So let's see. Let's see if McLaren have that same advantage in Silverstone. I hope not. I hope

we have it closer across the board. Question from P1 pitch. Remember, HDHP. Could Piaastri have stayed out after Lando's second pit stop? This is what both myself and Tommy discussed on our watch along. If you don't come along and watch the races with us, then where are you? We're on YouTube and Twitch. We'd love to see you there. To be fair, we won't be there for Silverstone because we're actually going to be seeing cars live in the flesh, which I'm very excited about. But back to the question, it was something we discussed. It was something that I, I think we both thought was a viable strategy, an attempt that Oscar could have made. Oscar wasn't particularly, at least from what we heard, vocal on the radio about wanting to try that.

I think it was 17 laps to go when the pit stop came around for Oscar. I don't think it would have worked out in hindsight. I think that Oscar actually got closer with what he did than what it could have been. He would have had track position. But looking at the times, Lando and Oscar were absolutely flying on those fresh mediums at the end. They were doing mid-108s. if I'm not mistaken, they were sort of lapping in the low 1-10s on those hard tires, which were degrading and were only going to get worse.

So I don't think Oscar could have won, but it would have been interesting to at least watch that unfold. It would have been. You do wonder if a more, because Oscar definitely has a more ruthless side than Lando, but if we're talking ruthless side, obviously drivers like the Stappan and Alonzo take it to even the next level. and you do wonder if like a Fernando Alonza or Vastappan had been in that position that their radio may have mysteriously stopped working as they found themselves kind of with a 20 second lead with 18 laps to go and of course Lando would have flown past but at that stage like we say it's all hindsight but that stage maybe looked like his best chance. I think for Oscar, you know, he got very, very close at the end, mainly thanks to, you know, he had pace, of course. Lando seemingly had some front wing damage as well, which he kind of mentioned on the radio and stuff, and was obviously very panicky, wasn't here at the end, kind of talking about where am I losing time and things like that. I need some pace, please help.

Yeah, which I do think maybe is being overplayed that, you know, Lando doesn't know how to drive. I don't think that's the case. You know, Formula One need their engineers and they're always asking for information. And I feel like you'd hear that from every other driver constantly throughout the race of, where can I improve at this turn? And, you know, of course, it didn't make him look great from, from the, team radio the way that they're playing that out but i don't think it was you know as kind of oh lando doesn't know what he's doing like some people are kind of jumping on um but piastri's pace yeah he uh

he got very close at the end but didn't happen and yeah maybe the maybe the one stop wouldn't have worked for him but in a weird way it's surprising they didn't try it because you look at what lorson and alonzo did and you've got to think that the mcclaren is the car that's best on its ties they don't overheat. So why that was never maybe an option for Piastri after he did eke out that, that kind of time a little bit later, maybe could have thought about it. He could have, yeah. I think it was 17 seconds the gap between Oscar before he'd pit and Lando with 17 laps remaining.

So it was a one second a lap, sort of gap and advantage that Oscar could have sort of led into or leaned into, sorry. But yeah, I think it would have been very difficult. And I think from a McLaren perspective, they're not going to push that because that almost certainly has some wheel-to-wheel action involved with Piastri staying out. Whereas if Oscar had come over the radio, I would have been interested to see how McLaren would have managed that communication. Question, Adam Peter, 2998. Did McLaren screw Oscar by not pitting him immediately after Lando as he could have come out and kept applying the pressure rather than the offset that ended up. being pointless.

Screwing him is slightly harsh, I would say. I think that if it was two different teams, Oscar is 100% diving into the pits that next lap. There is a chance that they at least come out side by side, as I mentioned earlier. If they pop a little 2.0 second pit stop in, then it's definitely game on. But as we say, McLaren didn't screw him.

Well, they literally asked him. This is, yeah, this is where, Well, they asked him... Would you rather this or that? Yeah. Neither of them were, do you want to come in this lap? This was after they'd already missed the window. This was...

Okay, Oscar, let me see how your tyres are. That's basically we're not missing with this lap. And then Oscar came back saying, I've got a flat spot, which obviously McLaren would have known, but they don't want to cause this combat right there and then. So I don't think they screwed them. I think it's a case of just managing the races ever so slightly.

But this is the problem. They are both fighting for the World Championship and perhaps it will intensify as we get closer and closer to the end where Oscar will be like, no, I want to come in. And it's going to be a really tough thing for McLaren to somehow get by. But this is what they've said, number one drivers. They're both number one drivers and they can fight to the end. Yeah, I understand that people would be frustrated as fans.

We want to watch them race, don't we? But, and there's no doubt that McLaren in that situation pitted Oscar in a way to make sure that there was a little bit of a gap there because they didn't want them continuing what they were doing at the start for the entire Grand Prix because otherwise, you know, as a team, as much as we love it as fans, they can't have that situation happening because eventually they would have probably crashed because there's so many close calls, close moments and things like that. and they couldn't continue for the whole race. But they also need to manage this throughout the season because we're only 11 rounds, is that right? It's 11 races now. So there's still quite a long way of the season to go. And it's very, very, very unlikely

that anyone's going to catch them now, in my opinion. But you don't want a massive fallout between the drivers and the team now, because you've got many races to go. And when it gets to the final few races of the season, that is the time, I think, that you can kind of say, well, you know, you guys race and maybe if you can be a bit more, more selfish and because they get into a situation

where they know that either of their two drivers are going to win the championship and they can race. But look what happened with Fernando Alonzo and Lewis Hamilton, they ended up having this massive interteam battle. It got very toxic and all that kind of stuff. And they ended up losing the championship in the very final races. McLaren don't want to see that happening. So it is about managing how much they allow to battle.

Yeah. And I wouldn't be too harsh on McLaren because how many teams in Formula One in the past have just had a clear number one driver. You know, let your teammate through. you know Fernando is faster than you or or what was the Bottas one I can't remember now at Mercedes

and all those kind of incidents multi-21 and things like that McLaren are letting their driver's race but they can't just for the good of our entertainment cost themselves massive points in a championship fight that was it, Baltria's James yeah who is now obviously Williams team's team principal I think as well I was just

processing like why McLaren would do this offset with Oscar, number one drivers, not number one drivers, but the driver that's ahead in the team during the race gets preferential treatment in the sense of when they pit, etc, etc.

McLaren full well knew, I think, that pitting Oscar later, even though he will have fresher tires, will be so hard for him to get within one second to then give him the opportunity. That's the reason why Oscar was able to attack is because he was able to utilize all of the DRS zones around the track,

which feels like it feels like DRS is open almost the entire lap with how quick it is back round towards term one again. So McLaren were like, okay, all right, Oscar, we'll let you cook with some fresher tires, but good luck going and catching Lando within that one second. Because I think it was nigh on impossible to do that. You could tell when Holcomberg was sat in front of Oscar, just how long it took Oscar to catch and pass him with Holcomburg on fresh tires, because you do get that dirty, dirty air in that sort of two, three second window. You certainly do.

And however much, you know, I've guessed Oscar up a lot this season and he's been absolutely brilliant. And the thing that we always say about Oscar and kind of what we've seen this year is he is decisive with his moves and makes those kind of passes. We saw that kind of situation. Didn't we were with Max in Miami? But I don't think it's unfair to say that, well, there were many moments in that race. Oscar Piastri fan where you look back and go, oh, the Colapinto incident was massively

frustrating what might have been, because he would have been on Lando at the end without that, or, oh, the McLaren strategy they gave him. I don't think you can deny that Oscar did not have his chance, because when Lando went off into the gravel, that was Oscar's moment to get in the lead, and then it's a very different race if he just passes him there. But unfortunately, for Oscar, he didn't make that stick. And that was the moment that he needed to have. So I do think that he himself will look back on that and go, that was my moment as much as kind of every other moment of the strategies and things like that.

That was the bit where he needed to get ahead and then he probably would have had the better strategy and things because he'd be in the lead. Yeah, and he said that after the race as well, didn't he in his post-race interview. He knew there was a moment that he could have won the race, that he, you know, looking back on it, could have done things differently. He had to get in there. Yeah, for sure. that was the opportunity and and Lando was able to to defend that lead right Tommy let's go to your most memorable moment I wonder what it might be it's not a good one sadly too much yeah it's for Stappen getting uh crushed into uh on a turn three on the opening lap and

look I think even that even in that race if he'd finish P7 I'd I'd be sat here going, it's over for Max. But it's over for Max. I don't think that if there was any chance of him winning the World Championship, and people may think it's crazy, and I know that when we got to the start of the season, it was all, you can never write off Max Astappen. You'd be stupid to write off Max.

He's overcome massive deficits in the past. The speed that that McLaren has and how good they are at every circuit, you cannot be over two race wins behind. and I know we're not even halfway at the season yet but I don't think it is even Halfway point. Yeah, I think it is. So we're not even at the halfway point yet until the next race but I just don't I just don't see it

and I don't think it's I don't think it's me being super pessimistic. I just I just can't see him winning this championship. Yeah, 61 points behind. It's massive. There's absolutely massive when I just don't see how Red Bull are going to turn it around either. It would take an absolute miracle anyone can see that Red Bull

and are on a downward trajectory and what a downward trajectory they are in as well. Crazy. And yeah, absolutely gutting for Max to have that collision because I think you would have been

an interesting one to watch in that race because he would have provided some entertainment coming through the pack. I don't think for a second he would have been able to challenge the McLarence. That was never on. But it would have been interesting to see him fight the Mercedes and the Ferraris and give some entertainment there. But instead, he was obviously out straight away. And many of his fans decided enough was enough and jogged on and went home.

Yeah, half the grandstand, I heard, that went home after the, or by half, halfway through, had gone home. They'd had enough. before I get into my thoughts Tommy I'm always talking about my thoughts when Ferrari go haywire and have problems and I start crying I really want to dig deep into your emotions right now and I want you to tell me how you feel

like what as a Max Verstappan fan you've enjoyed a lot of a lot of doubles use let's be real how do you yeah how do you absorb this moment and find thinking Max won't win this title. It is very painful.

I can see you really enjoyed asking that question. I hate you. You've enjoyed my pain for far too long. Yeah, I know, exactly. I've enjoyed much of your pain. But yeah, it is painful because it's not even a situation where I go, oh, well, Max just doesn't have it in him this year. I think he's been phenomenal.

It's still been one of the drivers of the season. he's taken a Red Bull that shouldn't be on the podium to victories this season and any time the car is remotely there he's managed to do that but he is unfortunately not a miracle worker and last year it was in a weird way exciting after years of dominance that he still had a car enough to fight and he felt a bit more like an underdog but he could still kind of do things and fight and occasionally get wins and it felt a bit more kind of exciting when he won but this year just feels hopeless for red ball which is

which is a crazy thought and you know his big advantage should have been the fact that as we made in our predictions that he is a one driver team but they're not even you know max isn't even able to get great results out of that car a lot of the time now. And yeah, he may have finished third, but they just don't have anything for McLaren, I don't think. No, they don't. Well, watch, you know, both of McLaren's take each other out at Silverstone. Max wins.

He's back to 36 points behind and you're like championship back on. You can never take, you can never take Max Verstappen out of the conversation. Now, my thoughts, similarly, I think it's a very, very, very steep uphill climb for Max for Stappen now, at 61 points behind Piazstan. Street is, you know, nigh on impossible. It'd be difficult enough if he had a similarly fast car to McLaren, but he's working with a deficit, not just with the points, but also with car performance. He doesn't know how that car is going to perform week in, week out, has no idea. Yeah, like, sorry, sorry to bring this up, but the, the, when it was Charlerclair in

2022, I'm getting you're back now, I've got what he said. When it was Charlotte McLough in 2022, Max had two mechanical failures, didn't he at the start. And it was kind of, he obviously had a massive deficit to LeCler, but he also had a car that you knew when it wasn't breaking down. A million miles faster, yeah. Would be able to win if Charles wasn't spinning off. So look, it's my birthday, Tommy. Can you not at least for one day not bring up that?

Okay. But yeah, he had the car to fight. And unfortunately, he doesn't. You know, his two wins have come from miracle, not miracles, but like really, really good drives of him over delivering rather than our Red Bull are just really clear this weekend and fast. And when you're in that situation, you can't be 60 points behind because you're just never going to overturn it. So let's talk about your, you know, the fan that you are of young Kimmy Antonelli as well. And he was the cause of Max Verstappen, not making. it past turn three of lap one.

That crash, yeah, that was a big old error from Kimmy Antonelli. I know he says after the race about he didn't really misjudge the breaking point. It's because he lost the rear brakes and then he was a bit of a bit of a passenger. It is a mistake. It is, you've got to take it easy to some degree at a hairpin turn on lap one. And Kimmy just didn't really have that. I think he was very eager to make maybe a position or two up at the hairpin. And he's misjudged it.

It is a rookie error. That is exactly the label that I would give it. It's a rookie error. It's a big rookie error. And it's taken out Max Verstappen in the meantime, which is, as we've said, massive for his title, hopes and dreams. But for Antonelli, I would say this is definitely his lowest point in his Formula One career so far. Some people might say that him crashing in the first lap and a half at Monza would be would be up there but you know he's got experience we've seen

brilliance from Antonelli at points this year and this is sort of probably the worst time to have had this kind of error just purely with all of the stuff that's circulating at the moment I don't know I just feel I don't think it'll change much don't get me wrong but it's not the greatest of time of times to have had a poor a really poor weekend especially after we were singing his praises after Canada that's the thing for me that after his brilliant performance in Canada we said god imagine what he's going to do in the future if he's doing this already and unfortunately this is the kind of moment that I thought we'd see from him maybe early in the season where a lot of people thought he's gone in too early it's too much of a risk to put him in at the front of the field in a top car at this age and he hasn't really shown that he's taking him to take him to be a risk he's a bit of time to get up to speed, but he's not made some absolutely enormous error until now, other than obviously the crash at last year, but this year, as a Formula One driver, he hasn't,

until now, and what a mistake it is to make, you know, a huge error, deserved of the kind of penalty that he's got. I'm actually surprised that it's not five places. It's three, isn't it? So it's a three-place, grid penalty, and two penalty points, his first penalty points of his of his license. Yeah, I was surprised to see three, but at the same time, we don't see all that many crashing, DNFing, both of them going out in lap one, looking for the grid penalties. I don't know exactly that it must be a baseline three-place grid penalty unless deemed even worse. But yeah, I was surprised to maybe C-3. Yeah, because what was Lando going to get?

Did they actually say what Landau was going to get from Canada? I can't remember if that was a five or unless I've completely made that. He got a five second penalty. Five second penalty, but didn't. Yeah. So, oh, sorry, yeah, five seconds. He still got it because it was classified. Yeah, exactly.

So we didn't know what he was going to get carry into the next race. Had that, had he not been classified. So, yeah, maybe it is a three place. But, yeah. Either all, I think he got off reasonably light for. for what was a pretty dangerous incident. But he will learn from this. And Silverstone, thankfully, there's no real hairpins to do that.

So he'll be all right. And I'm sure he'll, I think Mercedes would be much better around Silverstone anyway. Especially if it's colder. Although, like we were saying during the watch along for some reason. It's not cold right now. No, it's not. It's certainly not. But they, yeah, it's so strange how they were good at, in Canada,

because you look at this race and go, oh, it's the heat, and that's why they were a minute off, because that's always where they kind of struggled. But, yeah, what a bizarre situation after George Russell doing such a great job, literally winning last week and it's going, wow, Mercedes, first and third. They've got a DNF and Russell's finish a minute off the lead. Yeah, and McLeh, I'm like, okay, we're going to try now. Right, next question.

Pee-1Pet, page, remember, DK1614-44. How far off a fall from Grace has Red Bull as a team had? Lined up seventh and eighteenth, ended with the DNF and last of the running cars. Oh, we're getting into this a bit more, Tommy, and I like it. No, I don't like to see you sad. I do. I really do. But it's, of course, with Yuki Sinoda's race, I think we'll touch more upon that with this question.

That couldn't have gone much worse if it tried. He was looking quite good at the start. I think, oh, Yuki's in the points, seemed like he was making moves and making good progress. And then you sort of fast forward. And weirdly was max out the race, you thought, well, they can actually try with him now and put all their best foot forward. Oh, yeah, so, of course, you, it's not, we've got one cut.

Yuki, right, Yuki, you were going to do this. And then you sort of fast forward to halfway through the race, and he's fighting for 14th. And then he gets the penalty as well, the 10th second penalty. Well, he had two clumsy collisions, didn't he? Yeah, he did, yeah. So I think it's just part and past. He doesn't like the car, but he's also trying to overdrive to get performance out of it and also overdiving some moves. And it's causing what we're seeing at the moment.

Like it's it's so, it's actually horrible to watch for Sonoda just purely because of how much hype we had for him last year, how excited we were about him getting a chance at Red Bull to finally showcase that, okay, maybe it's you, maybe Yuki is the fix. but he is not doing better than anything that we've seen gone by. Lawson really struggled, sure, but Lawson wasn't given that much time before he was kicked out. Yuki, he's struggling just as much. He is, and of course, you know, I'm a big fan of Yuki Sonoda, but if I take my fan boy hat off and look at that race, you can't blame his result or not fully on the fact that it's just, Oh, the second Red Bulls rubbish.

And because he had an absolutely woeful race and had Lawson been in that Red Bull, you know, of the balance of kind of being fair, if Lawson had been in that Red Bull and was colliding with people left right and center and kind of ruining his own race, we'd be absolutely racing him. And I think it was a really poor, poor race from Sonoda.

The contact with Stroll, I think it was, just needs to be a bit more patient because he was running well and that's kind of what sent him down the order. But my word, the Colopinto one, was absolutely ridiculous. How many times in Austria have we seen that you need to go around, you don't, you need to easily be up the inside into that corner because you scrub wide. How many times we've seen a car, I know it was in different circumstances,

but put another one into a spin because of the way it kind of goes downhill and runs wide. And it was just an awful, awful rest. Because he went down the inside rather than swinging it around the outside as the overtaken car, and that's what usually has always been shoved into the gravel. But he's not learned in the fact that he wasn't anywhere near getting through. And then, yeah, sadly understood and caused a significant yeat, which gave him a 10 second penalty and secured him two laps down at the end. That's how that he was two laps down.

Okay, question from P. P.1, page, remember, Ruben 4.0. This Liam Lawson guy seems like a great driver Should we try putting him in the second Red Bull seat? I honestly think Lawson would rather leave Formula One than go back in that Red Bull seat This makes even more of a mucker of it, doesn't it? Exactly.

Lawson, phenomenal drive. P6 made the one-stop work amazingly. He was the last driver not to get lapped, which I think is an achievement in itself, seeing how fast the McLaren's were. But a flawless performance from Lawson, he kept Alonzo at bay the entire time. I think Fernando towards the end was just trying to stay in DRS of Lawson, so he could be towed along to then defend from the charging Bortoletto at the end.

But of course, Alonzo just, I think, ran out of tyres and then came under pressure. We will reflect on that very shortly. But as for Lawson, I know it's a joke that we're asking, should we try putting him in the second Red Bullse seat? but he's just showcasing that that RB is just a better baseline of a car. It's just a good car. And Lawson, like we saw last year and like we've seen now, does have potential, is able to extract a really good race. I mean, he finished five seconds behind Russell.

I mean, how was George Russell finished a minute and two seconds off? And Lawson's five seconds behind him, the race winner from Canada. It's bizarre, the chopping and changing of the... of the pace of some of the teams. But it's a great performance from Lawson. And I bet he is kind of strangely smiling to himself now that he's not got the issue that Sonoda is currently having with that second Red Bull seat two laps down.

Yeah, what a weird scenario that you think of after those first two races of how happy Sonoda would have been in going into that Red Bull and his new, you know, is home race and thinking, oh, could I get on the podium and all this excitement going into that Red Bull team while Lawson looks completely dejected and he's back at the team that kind of he'd been promoted from. So that drive from Lawson was absolutely incredible. You know, he was one of the stars of the race, if not the star of the race. He was so, so well to make the one stop happen because of him.

of course he actually got a little bit shafted by the Antonelli incident, which meant it kind of put him down the order a little bit as well after a great qualifying. And of course everyone will jump on, oh, should he go in the whole conversation around the Red Bull second seat and should he go back in and all this kind of stuff? Is that actually a conversation? No, well, no, I think it's more just. But people will jump on that.

but the more conversation here is that it's drives like this that are going to save him from potentially being replaced at V-carb altogether because he was under a huge amount of pressure with Limblad doing a good performance and getting his super licence and things like that. And when Hadjar was performing the way he did and Lawson not doing great when he jumped back into that V-carb, there was a lot of pressure that they might get rid of Lawson altogether. but this Ray showed the kind of Liam Lawson that we saw when he replaced Daniel Ricardo

way back in the day and thought this kid does actually have, you know, is very talented. And, you know, when he's keeping his nose clean and has good pace, he can put in great performances like this. Yeah, he's rebuilding confidence, which I don't think this performance alone is going to save his seat at racing balls because there is a lot of hype, obviously, of Arvid Limber. Blad and whether he will get the call up at some point soon. But if Lawson can have a second half of the season similar to what this performance has been like, constantly scoring points, beating Hadjar, more importantly, then racing balls

will have to make potentially a difficult decision if they are going to get Arvid in as to who they get rid of. So yeah, Lawson, this will help him massively, I'm sure, and hopefully we'll be able to see that same Lawson with the confidence of when he jumped in to Formula One last year. remember Dan Bonehill, do we still call the Salbers green wheelie bins? They're green rocket ships from now on. That's all they are. They are clearly the fastest car on the grid.

Bortoletto P8, Holcomberg P9. I'm obviously joking. But no, I don't think we can call them wheelie bins anymore. Ever since they had their upgrades, I think, in Spain, Holkenberg was even saying, I think, on the run up to that when they were horrendous and wheelie bins, that he was looking forward to this upgrade that was going to, going to come. And since then, they've been a lot more competitive in the midfield. And I know we will be, of course, speaking about the incredible drive of Bortoletto, but for Holcomberg to go from last

to ninth in a salber, I mean, goodness, gracious, he's made a strategy work there that is a phenomenal drive, honestly, from Holcomberg as well, because I think he had 14 lap older tires than Bortoletto at one point. Now, there's a lot. were times where Gabriel, of course, lost time in these DRS trains and Holkenberg not letting him through straight away, but Hulk, I guess, was also on the attack with the drivers that hadn't stopped. So there were moments which, of course, Bortoleto lost a bit of time. I thought he was set on for P6 for most of the race until these time losses happened. But Salber, I mean, when Audi take over, are they going to be, they're going to be the one to watch? Are we

going to see a Hulk and Berg podium? What are we saying? can you imagine saying I know there's more context behind this because Adrian Nui of course isn't kind of really working on that Aston Martin at this stage but I think a lot of people went into the season that maybe didn't know the context behind it

and thought well as to mine have Adrian Nui now they're going to be really quick this year and we're 11 rounds into the season and Sab are two points behind Aston Martin in the championship is quite something there only you've got to take your hat off to the local council for building that car it's a phenomenal job that they've done at salba there with the green wheelie bins put them out on a Tuesday sorry carry on exactly um but portoletto a great drive from him

unlucky not to get alonzo but i think that was more just alonzo just being the goat defensive driver that that he is and portolettito did lose a bit of time in a weird situation they probably were maybe Sabo were a bit of surprised that oh no we're not actually needing to sacrifice Holkenberg's race completely to help Bortoletto because Holcomburg is going to score really good points himself

so maybe that was the confusion there they didn't really know what to do because Bortoletto lost a bunch of time behind Holcomberg and I really think they should have just let him go and then maybe he would be a P6 or P7 but a fantastic job from both of them and I thought they'd be so comfortably last this year and they certainly are not.

This is a team. Yeah, I mean, they're clear of Alpi now. 26 points is 26 points more than I thought they'd score the entire season. The fact that, you know, the fight for P6, racing balls on 36 points, Hass on 29, Astor Martin on 28, kicks out of on 26. It is, yeah, it's a hotly contested one, and I can already see the four episodes that I'm going to watch

on Drive to Survive about this particular fight. Oh, absolutely. It's happening. They love a fight for P6 to drive to survive. They do. The P6 is, oh, it's $100 million, you know, is a really tough battle.

Or is about that prize money. Oh, wait, that's the only thing that is included in Netflix. P1Pet, remember, pizza though 12. Should Colapinto have gotten a higher penalty since he almost took out Piastri. This was pretty shocking to watch. it was I think a bit of a perfect storm

for Colopinto not that I'm not going to excuse what he did because it was a huge mistake but I'm putting it purely down to lack of awareness and the fact that he was on the attack that he just didn't look in his mirror

like again you kind of put it down to inexperience perhaps am I surprised he didn't get a higher penalty I think that would have made a difference I mean you're not that it would have mattered but I guess it's the stewards. They have, they're not going to go.

Oh, we'll give them five. We don't really matter. I think that 10 may would have been as fair, to be honest with you. But it was very close for Piastri. That was almost a 25 point swing for Lando Norris in the championship. And this is how close and quickly things can change. But Colopinto, yeah, it was a big mistake on his part. But I'm putting it purely down to, similarly to Kimi Antonelli.

It's just simple things. like break early on lap one and check your mirrors. Yeah, exactly. I do agree with you that people are really beating him up after the race saying, what an idiot and stuff. And it wasn't his, you know, it wasn't a great moment for sure, but I did see why it happened. He was racing another car.

Maybe they needed a bit more team communication of, you know, because we can't hear the radio of the literal leader is behind you, by the way, just maybe be a bit careful. But, yeah, I mean, imagine if he had to taken out piastri. I know it's not circumstances, but I don't think it would have been a three-place penalty had he done that. Yeah, it was a shocker from Colapinto and, oh my God, Alpine are just useless at the moment, aren't they? Gassley was right up. Gatsley was sick.

I didn't really understand what happened to him. He was. It started on the soft tires, which was, I think, an aggressive strategy. It was a used set of soft tires as well, if I'm not mistaken. And perhaps that caused him to pit a bit early and then put him on the back foot from there. But, yeah, Gazzley looked like, you might, I don't know if you'll share it on your social media. Your daughter was absolutely losing her mind about the fact that Gassley was doing particularly well on lap one. If you don't decide to post it, Grace was essentially just saying,

Gazley, Gassley, you can do it. you can do it go Gazley it was the cutest thing i've ever seen um but yeah i i also thought gasley could do it and at least score some points and and he's ended up p13 crazy uh you know crazy isn't it that uh had alp and suddenly started doing well it would have all been like oh way briotori well done look this is what he does he's ruthless and uh they're arguably like not very good maybe even worse, and I've not seen anyone kind of question, was it the right thing to do to bring Briatore back? Because they're certainly not doing great things, are they? They're not doing great, although what can Briotori currently do, I guess, with a car that's

already been built? Yeah, we'll see it. We'll see. It's all about 26 for them, isn't it? Exactly. There might be some role changes in Alpine if they continue to be shocking into next year. Question from P1 patron member Sophie. Did Austria show why it deserves an extent? to 2041. I am going to be 49 years old when the contract extension comes to a close.

You're going to be 53. Yeah. 36. 52, something like that. You're going to be in your 50s. Austria did show that. I'm sorry to Austria and so is Tommy

for when we did go through those tracks and I think we were just so used to perhaps the early stages of Austria existing on the calendar where perhaps the racing wasn't as great. I don't feel like it's always been a cold back. It does feel very, it feels like it's the perfect track for this regulation. So whether that continues into next year, we'll find out.

It will. It will, Tommy. I hope so. But it, but it does feel like in this dirty air regulations. The dirtiest of air. Yeah, exactly. And the way that these cars can't follow in just, just the way that they kind of with the floors being the kind of main part of it,

they do seem to suit tracks where you kind of want as very little chicanes and things as possible for them to separate out because you look at other circuits with chicanes and it just makes them really hard to follow and stuff. Whereas another track, however much people roasted it when it was announced, it's Vegas. And it's very similar in that you've just got a long stretch. very few corners. Not every track needs to be 17 turns. You just put lots of long straights and 90 degree turns. And they can just follow each other and they can stick in a DRS and basically be dragged along the whole lap.

And I think Austria has been brilliant in this set of regulations and maybe more circuits need to be kind of thought of in that way like your Austrians, like your Vegas, where not every circuit needs to be a mix of everything. or have all these high speed corners that drivers like. What barrage short showed us. Yeah, exactly. Just make them five corners and 12 DRS zones and we will get some great action. We don't need 25 corners of pure, oh, left, right, hairpin. Just make it simple. Give us DRS.

Yeah, because you've got, you've got, and people will go, oh, well, you know, it still should be like a driver's championship and stuff. And you have circuits on the calendar that are incredible. incredible challenges for the drivers and drivers will love. Well, even Spa, right? And Silverstone and things. Spar, oh my God.

Sizuka. Spa better deliver this year. I swear to God, that track, please. We love you. But this is the thing, isn't it? They just don't work however much you, you know, you'd kind of get roasted for saying Austria provides better racing than Spar, but it absolutely does.

Yeah, I don't know who's roasting you, mate. Certainly not me. Right. Biggest winner. let's head to it driver or team the biggest winner for me is

Gabriel Bortoletto is it's huge for his career to have finished eighth Lawson it's huge for his momentum and confidence Charles Leclair out drove that car stunningly well to P3

despite a start despite yeah I was going to say actually yeah that was a poor start from Shalda not his finest way at the inside of Lando or at least even shape to the inside. I don't know if that was, I think he'll be kicking himself for that decision. But I'm going to lock in Gabriel Bortoletto.

I think he had a phenomenal weekend, not just the race. He was quick all the way through practice in qualifying and then in the race as well. And I think eighth is kind of the lowest he could have hoped for in that race because as I said, I was very set on him finishing sick. Yeah, I go for just Salber in general, because they got both them in the points even despite Holkenberg's poor qualifying. Holkenberg moving into top 10 in the championship is just absolutely insane.

Our championship prediction is going to be so cooked this year. It's wild. I can't wait to reflect on that. The mid-season is coming up. I think we'll be looking into some of our predictions, won't we, I suppose. And driver ratings and things, because a lot of people after our drive ratings go, I'll show the average. Don't you worry.

Yeah, don't worry. It's coming. Don't you worry. little mid-season check-in. Okay, biggest loser. I wonder where we're going to go with this one. Williams. Oh, my God.

Double DNF. Carlos Signs literally on fire for all the wrong reasons at the start of the Austrian Grand Prix. Albon was in the fight for some solid points and then just nope, DNF as well. So mine has to be Williams.

Yeah, absolutely. It has to be Williams. It's got so many points at the start of the year and were so clear in fifth and they're kind of getting caught up now. They're still 20 points kind of ahead of that pack roughly, but yeah, they can't afford to keep having these double D&Fs because it feels like they've not really scored

big points in ages, after all that hype after something like Miami, where we were kind of saying, oh my God, they're so good, look what James Fowles has done and quite an absolute stinking run since then. They certainly have, right, speaking of stinking runs, apart from last week, of course, where I cooked, we're going to the predictions, which we made on Wednesday,

and let's reflect on how we did. It is currently 25, 22 to Tommy. A good surprise! So with the regulations, I'm really upset. Of course, yeah. Makes me feel physically sick, actually, that I was forced to change my prediction from Lando Norris to Oliver Berman, who decided to just pop it in a lovely little P-11, which, yeah, is no points.

So I can't even argue it. And I went for Lando Norris, and yes, he won the race despite everything that the jinks threw it against him. And, yeah. Absolutely ridiculous. A big flop. I went for Oscar Piastri. half a second off his teammate in qualifying and then nearly crashed into him

got beaten by Lando in the race a whopping flop no absolutely not crazy though that someone mentioned this in the watch song is first P2 of the year which is insane to think from that's floppy from McLaren okay no flop fair enough yeah and I went as my big flop

but it was actually the biggest flop so I could have even got points for that old one. Williams, and it's of course a double pointer because I went for a team. Honestly, your existence makes me really queasy. Right, thanks Tommy. Good three points you've scored already. It's got a pole position where I went for Lando Norris. The curse is broken.

Indeed. I went for Maxer Stappen and he was seventh, which looks a bit like a one. Yeah, to be fair. Even though you're scoring a lot of points, I can take solace in the fact that you're upset just generally in this podcast. In third position, I went for George Russell

and he was the most anonymous man to ever exist. I went for Oscar Piastrian P3. No, he was not. Incorrect. In second place, I went for Vestappan and he got sent to the shadow realm on turn three, lap one. PTO went for Lando Norris, incorrect again. And in first position, I don't even know how to say position correct.

because I'm so excited to announce. I went for Lando Norris and it came in. Let's go. Come on. And the curse is actually broken now because you say about pole position, you had actually got one of those right. It was the win that was 10 of 10 that he hadn't won. But now on the 11th time lucky, you got it right.

In the 11th time lucky, I've got Alando Norris victory correct. And also the 14th time lucky for me to get pole position right, just generally. Oh yeah, of course, yeah, because I forgot about that one, yeah, that you haven't got poll. So for those you that didn't know, I don't know if I said it in the podcast or The Watch Along. You did. I hadn't got pole position correct since Austin 2024.

And so, thanks for listening. Qualifying is really close, okay? Yeah, exactly. I had a shocker, and I went for Max Verstappen, who had his worst race of the six. He did. He did. He didn't even have a race, mate, did he, realistically? No, he didn't.

three corners. He gained a position on Lawson. Lawson was like, go on, mate, off you go. Off you go. And, yeah, and then it was,

I mean, maybe, maybe the Lawson-Vestappan thing was orchestrated. And had that not been, Max would have been further back and then not got hit by Kimi Antonelli.

Oh, so you're saying it's a bit of calmer there from Red Bull. Just saying, Team orders, you know, yeah, I'm just, hypothetically speaking.

One crazy prediction. I've absolutely cooked with this one. I went for the smallest pole margin of the season and it turned out to be over, Half a second. And it was the biggest of the season by an absolute country mile.

I think it was by three-tenths the biggest margin of the season. It was, yeah. It was insane. Wasn't the biggest one literally last time out in Canada? Yeah, before that. Because I got it right. Yeah, I should have just backed it and gone, now it's going to be even bigger this time.

But instead, I went to the smallest and I failed. You did. And I went for Russell Radius at some point about Vastapin incident. That did not happen. I wondered if you'd gone through the archive to be like, Oh, did Russell ask if Stappen was okay after the crash? Because then you could have cooked that with that one, but no, absolutely not. Of course, Max's penalty points that we didn't mention this in the main pod have now reset somewhat.

So he's got a couple. So he's now got a whopping three to play with for a while. That's he? Oh, he can do it every once now. Here we go. My Patreon prediction was from Georgina. Yuki points at his home race. Wow, some of these predictions have been so horrifically bad.

It's like I break the Lando curse and then it just spreads to all of my other predictions Because yuki could not have been further away from points at Red Bull's home race so zero points And I went for Glush top two on track finish within three seconds of each other And I actually don't know 2.6 oh unbelievable Oh come on Incredible Just chill out bro you weren't gonna win Imagine if he'd backed off at the end, God,

oh, it's not happening and I'd have lost that point. I'd have been fuming. Why could it not have been 3.001? That would have been incredible. Alas, you've done very well. 29 and you've got two points. So 2924 now. God damn it.

Five behind again. What a disgrace. You finally broke the Lando curse, but it wasn't enough. Yeah, the only things I got right were Lando. That's wild. That is actually. How does that work? Okay, let's go to the family top three

where it is currently 6'3 to the boring Bellingham's. In my dad was fielded for my side, your wife was fielded for yours. In third place, my dad went for George Russell, same as me, and that was incorrect. And Katie went for Oscar Piastri, so no. In second place, because my dad said absolutely not, Oscar Piastri is unbeatable,

that my dad went for Landau Norris P2 we even had a little little brawl over the phone if you remember it shot me down immediately so well done dad if you'd gone with my ones you would have been right yeah and it would have been maybe a two-pointer

Katie went for George Russell no and in first position to round out the fact that my family know nothing about Formula 1 Oscar Gashri to win and he did not and my wife Katie went for and Max the Steppen, same as me.

And, well, that won't be happening again. Yeah, and to be fair, like, we spoke about these predictions. I have, it's pretty good predictions. Not one of them came in. Not one singular point for either family. I feel like it's been six three in the family predictions for like the last four races now. Yeah, it's just ridiculous. I don't know if that's good or bad thing.

Maybe it makes Formula One unpredictable, or maybe it means none of us know anything. But either or we'll let you decide that one as we are done here for this main race podcast, the P1 patrons, we'll be carrying on, carrying on, Patreon.com 4 slash Matt P1 Tommy, if you want to have some extra chat about the race and get your premium questions in. Tommy, what your final thoughts? Final thoughts are the same as yesterday, not one track limit. And that is quite a wild thing to happen. We've been saying for years, just put gravel in and was it 20, I looked, 23 was 1,300.

track limit violations and well there you go non because they've actually used the thing that Formula 1 fans have been saying for years to do well done well done Austria well done

F1 you figured it out we are going to the British Grand Prix so if you are going and you see us let me say first and foremost you can come say hello of course we'd love to meet the wonderful P1 fan but also secondly we're going to be on the main stage at Silverstone 10.30 a.m. on the Sunday. I'm sure there will be announcements coming over the next few days.

But just to let you know that, give you a heads up so you can put it in your diary. We've asked for a slightly earlier time, because I know some of you want to get your positions and be ready for the race and all that sort of stuff. So we've gone for a slightly earlier one, thanks to Silverstone. So come see us at the main stage, 10.30 a.m. We're on for just over half a now. We're going to be giving away some prizes and doing some fun stuff, which I cannot wait for. So we'll see you very soon. Lots of love. Bye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the ACAST created network.