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

Episode Date: May 2, 2023

We discuss EVERY drivers' Azerbaijan Grand Prix in another edition of F1-to-10. How did your favourite get on? Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok.***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P-1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. We're post-Bakoo now, even though we still have to kind of talk about it a little bit. I feel like already I'm just getting over the fact that Sunday was terrible. Saturday wasn't much better. Some driver ratings will also be terrible, won't they, Tom Bellingham? They'll sure will. Thankfully there was a bang and indie car race on. last night that sued my kind of disappointment of the whole back of weekend.

But hey, Miami will be soon and hopefully it's good. Miami will be amazing. It's got to be, right? It has to be, surely, because it was such a great race last time out, wasn't it? Anyway, no, positivity. Actually, no, probably not because the first driver we're going to be starting with is Logan Sargent. So perhaps we can't start on the positivity train right now.

He qualified 15th, sprint qualified. 15th crashed, didn't start the sprint because of his crash, and then in finished 16th, my grade for him is going to be a two out of 10. Again, what's going on with Logi Bear? Not what I mean? What's happening with this guy? He had a very good start. Bahrain looked quite promising.

Tommy was apologising, P20 merchants out the window. He's already trying to grab those words back and put him back in his mouth. However, he's starting to creep back towards that level, although not being labelled the Nick Doe, sorry, the Nickla's liturtee that is Nick DeVries as getting that title at the moment. But Sergeant, again, just quite an anonymous weekend. Yeah, I've gone for a three out of ten. Maybe I'm being too generous that he's a rookie.

I feel like later in the season, if it keeps happening, I'm not going to use this. Oh, well, he's a rookie to give him a little bit. or a little bit of benefit of the doubt. If I put one positive spin on it, I guess the fact that if you're going to bin it in any session, it's probably the sprint, Quali, and not start the sprint

because they were never going to score points anyway because it goes to the top eight. So you're telling me it's a tactical crash. A tactical crash. No, no. Because obviously they could have used that as a practice session. And clearly he needs a bit more time. That's maybe why he did so well in Bahrain

that had a lot of testing. and could get used to the conditions. So, yeah, three out of ten for Legan Sijit. Alex Albin is up next. He qualified 13th, sprint qualified seventh, and then sprint race ninth and race 12th. Tommy, what did you make of his performance? I thought he did a pretty decent job, all in all.

I'm going to give him a 7 out of 10. I think he was actually very unfortunate. We mentioned earlier that this is the kind of one way you don't want to do well in because you've got no chance. And Albin was very vocal about the fact that you're only going to get points to those top eight drivers. So he was the unlucky one to finish ninth and he couldn't repeat it in the actual race itself. So he's really unfortunate that he got, I think he might have got blocked in the session

because they could have done quite well. And realistically, he wanted to be qualifying the actual. race and seventh, not the sprint quality. So unfortunate for him, because I think he could have bagged some points if he'd maybe qualified seventh, but alas, he didn't. It felt a little bit like what could have been for Alex Albin in that Williams. He was not particularly happy after the sprint race, saying about the top four teams filling in the top eight slots and so on. And clearly finishing ninth, you're going to be pretty angry as you're just one slot away from scoring points in Williams and then yeah he just got stuck in that DRS train didn't he with Holcomberg and Ockon

and just couldn't make much progress. It was tantalizingly close the cars ahead of him but just wasn't able to make the moves due to the wind not playing the right part in Baku really and also the fact that the new regulations are starting to be quite difficult for cars to follow in that middle sector in Baku and just in general. So I wonder what we can do about that. What can we do, Tommy? Do we need to launch a protest?

Do we need to get this put in Parliament with 100,000 signatures that we think that the new regs are going the wrong way? How do we get heard? I think what we can do is you give them a grade first. Seven out of ten. Perfect. Yeah, the graphic. I bet you're waiting for the graphic to come up.

But there you go, seven out of ten. Why don't you place that in? Just seven out of ten. Use that as a sound bite. Beautiful stuff. You're not here for professionalism, are you? Let's be real. Absolutely not.

No, I wasn't asking you. I was talking about everyone watching and listening. I'm not even professional. Everyone knows that. Yeah, yeah. We're complete enough of force. That's why I'm part of this podcast. Yeah, exactly.

Okay, we now move to Nick Debris. Nick Debris, whatever we want to call him. He's got some good stats from the weekend. Qualified 20th, crashed. Sprint qualified 20th. Sprint 14th. And then race did not finish is he crashed. That's going to be a solid big fat zero out of 10 for Nick DeVries.

Oh, can we do that, F1 to 10? Is that how bad it is? I think that we're going to have to make an exception here. Wow. I don't know. I've just been so upset with how he's performed. Can't get much worse, can it? I feel like if we have a table, it should normally be one to 10, but if someone has such a bad performance. Yes, people will go, he's a rookie. Well, technically he's not. He doesn't want to be called a rookie and he's a Formula II champion. He's got, he's got enough awards. He's not 20 as well. He is a decorated, seasoned racer. And I feel like if we make a table and we have colors, I think it should be like, what color should we have for zero? You know what I mean? Is it like a, I don't think it should be gold because I feel like that's a 10. Red. I think zero red. Yeah,

it's awful. Not a good weekend at all. Really not. Yeah. I've gone for a one out of 10, mainly because I thought you could only give a one. You can change on the flight, Tommy. I'll go for a one just because he managed not to crash in the sprint race. Well done. Wow. But shocking weekend. Really, really bad, actually.

Yeah, formerly champion, like you say, should be good at a street track, but crashed twice. And then also made contact with Yuki Sonoda. ruined Yuki's sprint race, which I'd argue was partly Nick's fault. He kind of drove like Yuki wasn't there. You're still giving him a one. Yeah, not great. Even though he did it to your boy Yuki. Unbelievable things.

But yes, definitely a weekend to forget for Nick DeVries. And he needs to bounce back this weekend. Otherwise, these talkings, these potential rumors, I suppose, that will come out about Liam Lawson and Iwasa and so on. they will start to snowball if Nick DeVries doesn't grab a hold of this season and really take advantage of the fact that we have got races coming up so it doesn't have to mentally just sit on what happened in Baku. Yuki Sanoda is up next.

My biggest flop and your biggest good surprise. And somehow he scored points for both. He qualified eighth, sprint qualified 18th, finished in the sprint DNF. So I didn't finish. Crasd with DeVries and had all those issues with his tire falling off. And then finished a race in 10. So we actually scored a point this weekend.

He did. And for that, he's getting a seven out of 10. The sprint is a difficult one because it's a hard thing to grade because you have to include it in this grading. Absolutely. But also at the same time doesn't mean anything for all the midfield. So if you have problems, that's the session that you really want to want to have it in. But I think part of those problems, why given the benefit of the doubt as well,

is could he have been any more lucky in sprint qualifying that he was about to cross the line and set a lap? We saw what a brilliant job he did in qualifying. So they had the pace, or he had the pace, not Nick. And yeah, could have had a really good result there as well, but he's never going to get a point anyway. So 10th is probably the best he could have hoped for, and that's exactly what he got.

So 7 out of 10. Yeah, UK's weekend was just more unlucky than it was actually him making. I know he made a mistake right at the start of FP1, didn't he way he hit the wall. But apart from that, I don't think anything else you can really say it was down to him necessarily.

You had the slight impact with Nick DeVries, which then caused a huge amount of understeer for him out of nowhere, it seemed. So, yeah, I'm going to give him a 7 out of 10 as well. It's amazing that I still managed to somehow swindle a point for biggest flop. But there were so many bad things that went on for Yuki Sanoda and he still gets a 7 out of 10.

And that purely comes down. I completely agree with you, Tommy, to qualifying, actual qualifying. On that Friday, getting up to speed within one practice session and smashing out a lap is not something that's easy by any stretch of the imagination, especially in FB1, there was slight red flags and there was times where it was delayed. And Ansonodra himself had a problem in FP1. So to then go into qualifying and qualify eighth, that actually is an unbelievable performance rather than just, oh, that's pretty decent.

So for that, yeah, seven out of ten, great job, Yuki. We now go to Nico Holcomberg in potentially one of the worst cars on the grid now, it seems. I don't know where Hass have gone. He qualified 17th, started from the pits. Sprint qualified 12th, finished the sprint in 15th and finished the race in 17th. A lot of high numbers there for Nico Holcomberg. That's why I'm going to give him a three out of 10. He didn't end up in the barriers.

he didn't end up with any wheels missing. Very close, I think, at one point to having a wheel missing, as were a lot of the drivers on the grid skating the walls at some points. So it's really hard to grade because he was just one of those drivers that just stayed out forever, caused the greatest traffic jam of all time, and then pit at the end and finish 17th. It was the worst strategy in the world unless we had a red flag or a safety car, which kind of just proves how bad of a position they were in anyway

and they just had to roll the dice. And to be honest with you, not a bad rolling of the dice considering it's Baku, you would expect maybe something to go on, but it didn't. It didn't. Not too well done, Bacu. Hockenberg, I have gone four, a five out of ten,

straight down the middle, mainly just because he beat, I think he's quicker than Magnus, and he started from the pits, but I guess he qualified better than Magnuson, but I have to just nowhere, really. Not very good at all. Interesting.

So you've gone for a Nico higher grade. All right, cool. Kevin Magnerson up next. He qualified 18th. I love for you. He outqualified his teammate. 17th and 18th they were in qualifying. Sprint qualifying 14th for KMAG.

He finished the sprint in 11th, so did beat his teammate there, and finished the race in 13th, beat his teammate there as well. So that's why I'm going to give him a five out of 10. then dog of a car. Even though it's not your go. It's fine.

It's what I may be going to give. But here we go. Tommy, why don't you go with yours first? Let's ignore that. Well, mine is actually a five out of ten. I've given them exactly the same grade because they were pretty much not a lot of separating them. I think the only reason that Holcombberg finished so low down

was because he did that weird, risky kind of strategy thing. and it didn't pay off. Interesting. So I've given KMAG a five out of ten. Yeah, I know. Same grade as you, and you never knew that before I said it. Yes, he beat him in the sprint and beat him in the race,

even though both Hasse's races were completely and utterly anonymous. And I just hope for their sake that they pick it up again because I think we both had high hopes for Holcomburg in particular, coming back into the sport and being this very good midfield runner, but it's all starting to tail off already for Hasse, whereas in previous years gone by, they've had quite a good car, and I mean, not recently when they had Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher,

but before then, they would have a few great races at the start of the year, then tail off, but it seems like a dramatic tail off is happening already. Okay, we now move to Lance Stroll, who qualified ninth, sprint qualified ninth, finished a sprint in eighth, and finished the race in seventh. I'm giving Lance a six out of ten. it did seem like towards the start of the race, the main race that is, that he was kind of sticking with Alonzo and in that sort of pack.

But when you look at how far he finished behind Fernando at the end of the race, he was half a minute behind his teammate. So six is even somewhat kind of generous if we're then looking at other driver teammate comparisons. But I'm going to stick with that because I'm just giving him the benefit of the doubt of maybe still the injuries, is maybe playing a part. And also, you know,

Philando Alonzo is sending him terrible break balances. So he's still having to manage that part. But six out of ten is just about right, I think. Yeah, I've also gone for a six out of ten. Realistically, the worst they can kind of hope for is eighth because they are now in that kind of top, top teams, in that top bracket. it. And yeah, Stroll finished essentially 8th and 7th in the races. So almost the kind of back

of where his team should be in a long way behind his teammate. So yeah, six out of ten. Okay, we now go to Fernando Alonzo, who qualified sixth, sprint qualified eighth, finished the sprint in sixth and finished the race in fourth. I've gone four and eight out of ten for Fernando. A good performance. I think actually the result, he'd have absolutely taken that result because Aston didn't seem particularly on the pace, but a good result in the end, fourth. I think he'd absolutely taken at the start of the weekend, especially with all their DRS problems. Absolutely. I'm going to give Fernando a nine out of ten. I think that the way in which he managed those

DRS problems to the best of his ability was impressive. And also the fact that he finished seven tenths of a second behind Charle-le-Claire at the end of that race, one or two more laps. And he's getting another podium in that Aston Martin. So I feel as though Aston weren't really there. And to beat your teammate by half a minute may well lean towards Lance not performing well, but also you have to give credit to Fernando is similar to how later on I'll give credit to Charles-A-Claer beating Carlos signs by 20 or seconds or however.

much it was. So Fernando deserves a nine out of ten for me. It was a really great performance. Once again, this man is on fire at the moment. It has to be said. As we now go... The break balance master plan. Indeed. As we now go to Valtari Bottas. He qualified 14th, sprint qualified 17th, finished the sprint in 16th and finished the race in 18th. One out of 10, Valtory. What are you doing? Like, what is actually happening? What is actually happening? in Valtrey Bottas's career. Okay, I need him to just come into the press and go, look, I'm doing a Kimmy. I'm having a good time.

I'm having a great time. I'm getting haircuts that I want. I'm turning up. I'm driving fast cars, but I don't really care why I finish. Because that is the feeling I'm getting right now. Valtry Bottas, can we not forget, is a man that outqualified Lewis Hamilton on his day a handful of times. He was incredibly good.

But to now be outperformed, consistently by Joe Guanyu, who is new to the sport, isn't good enough for Valtrey Bottas. He's not 41 years old. We can't even say it's his age. It's just genuinely doesn't seem like he's got it hooked up at all. So it might seem like a savage grade, but this isn't good enough from Bottas,

especially when we look back to Bahrain, where we go, that's where he belongs, not 18th and completely and utterly under the radar. I've gone for a two out of ten, and I've just seen in the drive rating sheet that I've made, that is his third two out of ten from me in a row. He's had an absolute stinker since that first race in Bahrain. And don't get me wrong.

I don't think the Alfa Romeo is a particularly good car right now, but Bottas should be that team leader that, you know, look at someone like Fernando Alonzo when he's had bad cars in the past and not saying that Bottas is anywhere near Fernando Alonzo's level, but he's an experienced driver and you have certain drivers that can punch above their weight in rubbish cars

and that car right now isn't particularly good and Botas is just floundering. I mean, he's getting out qualified by Joe outqualified by both races in the sprint quite comfortably as well and was just... Did Valtry not qualify in 14th? Sorry, I was looking at the results from the result.

Let's try that again. So, yes, so Joe, I did get out qualified by Valtrey in main quality, but then beat him in the sprint quality, 16th and 17th, and then, yeah, show quicker in the sprint as well. But yeah, very, very poor from Valtry, it has to be said. Let's go to his teammate now, Joe Guan Yu.

As I said, qualified 16th, sprint qualify 16th, finished a sprint in 12th, and then DNFed due to a car failure in the main race. I have gone for a five out of 10, straight down the middle. Classic kind of midfield car way. You don't really see him a lot. And I think he was unlucky to retire.

He was ahead of Bottas, but not much to shout about for Alpha Romeo at the moment. They're having a tough old time. Yeah, I'm going to give Joe a four out of ten. Again, just I'd like to see more from the team as well as the drivers as well. I think Joe is doing a great job beating Valtry. As I've said, this man has a decent track record, good statistics, and the fact that Jeux is on his level and beating him is great.

But it's hard to really ascertain how much further he can take that car. But yeah, it's just so anonymous for Alfa Mayo. And I feel like giving them any higher grade just doesn't really warrant the qualifying and the race performances that they're currently doing. As we now turn our attentions to Oscar Piastri in the McLaren. Qualified 10th, sprint qualified 11th, sprint 10th, race 11th. He loved attention. 10th and 11th this weekend, but unfortunately got them the wrong way around to score any

kind of points because the sprint, of course, only the top eight score points and he finished 10th and then in the race 11th. I'm going to give Oscar a six out of 10 because I think that comparatively speaking, doing a good job compared to Lando, it's nothing to write home about, I don't think. If you're an Oscar Piastri fan, you're thinking he's going to be the next champion in a few years, but he's only a few races in and not far off Lando, especially in qualifying as well, when you compare that to what Daniel Ricardo suffered with the two years prior. I think you have to commend him for that. So for that reason, yeah, a six out of ten.

I've also gone for a six out of ten. The six out of ten grade for me is like solid job, not incredible, not amazing, but certainly not bad. and yeah, I think it's a respectable performance from someone that we always had that doubt in the back of my mind. You know, could it be another Daniel Riccardo? I never had that doubt. Don't you dare? I believe it from day one.

I did. I thought Lando might be the teammate killer. But I think Oscar Piaastria has held his own pretty well, not on Lando's level, but I don't think he was expected to be at this point in time. So yeah, solid six out of ten. I do wonder if the reason why I'm not giving him any higher than a six out of ten, despite a decent performance, is just purely because I feel as though Lando getting stuck behind those two zero stoppers may well have flattered the six seconds that Oscar finished behind Lando,

just purely for how long Lando was stuck behind those two cars. Let's move on to his teammate, Lando Norris. Qualified seventh, sprint qualified 10th, finished the sprint in 17th, and finished the race in ninth. I have gone for a nine out of ten. Amazing qualifying. All he could really hope for is being back, him being back in his best of the rest slot that he's kind of occupied for a lot of last year.

Now we have this top four teams. So essentially now ninth is the old seventh that he used to have that he's hoping for. and the only down, the only kind of bad mark when you look at that, the results he's had

is 17th in the sprint, but it was essentially a practice session for him because he's not going to score a point and they were just trying different things, tried the South's didn't work. So I can't really downgrade him for essentially just experimenting and it being a practice session like everyone else in the midfield are going to do in that session.

Now, I am downgrading him eight out of ten for Lando, just purely because he did sprint qualify 10th. He's not one or two DNFs and all of a sudden that is a point. So for me, the soft tire wasn't the right choice. It was a gamble. It went the wrong way. Finishing 17th, that has to be, we can't just ignore that in my opinion. So that's why I'm going to go with an eight out of 10. But the qualifying for the main race was amazing and also finishing in ninth.

He did all he needed to do to get that maximum slot. because, as you say, he was not troubling the top four in the main race. So 8 out of 10 for me, Philando, and back to where he belongs, I would say, in that McLaren. Now can they take a further step forward and actually start challenging the Mercedes, the Astans and the Ferraris? I don't think so, but they might well have very lonely races in P9 if the teams behind them continue the way they are. We now go to Pierre Gasly.

He qualified 19th because he crashed. Sprint qualified 19th, sprint 13th, and the race 14th. I'm going to go with a three out of 10 for Pierre Gasly. Not a good weekend by any stretch for Pierre. He made up some positions both in the sprint and the race. I think gave us one of the only overtakes we saw on television on Bottas, I want to say at one point. And we were like, oh my God, the battle for 18th or whatever it was at the time. But still, no points for Pierre Gasly, doesn't really belong in that position.

It's just, again, a weekend. There's a lot of weekends to forget for drivers in Baku for sure. Yeah, I've gone for a three out of ten for Gasly. You know, he can't blame him for the fire he had in qualifying. But then they managed to, sorry, in practice, fix the car and then he smashed it straight in the wall. And then just didn't look particularly very good. I mean, Alpine did look bad. but the result flattered him that he actually finished ahead of Ocon,

but that was only because Ocon did that crazy gamble. And, yeah, Gazley just a really poor weekend for him and Alpine, so three out of ten. Yep, we now go to Esteban Ocon, who qualified 12th, sprint qualified 13th, but started from the pits. He then finished the sprint in 18th and finished the race in 15th. Alpine nowhere. It's going to be another three out of ten. for Esty Besty. It's just going to be a weekend that Alpine

wants to delete from the history books. But fair play to Esteban for dealing with the FIA shenanigans on the final lap. But yeah, just no points for Alpine is a big hit, I'd say, as we now move into Miami. Yeah, shocker. I've gone for a five out of ten for O'Con just because he was, he qualified, all right.

And then, yeah, unfortunately, the sprint, sorry, unfortunately had the pit lane start for the whole weekend, basically, by changing parts. So that kind of screwed any chance he had of doing doing anything good, but his pace was better. Yeah, to be fair, editor changed that to four out ten. Thank you very much. I'm going to give Esteban Okon a four out of ten. I just realized. I was like, that's the same as Pierre who binned it. That's probably not fair.

So you've, well done, Tommy, you've persuaded me back up to a four. So well done. Well, done, Esteban. We now go to Lewis Hamilton. He qualified fifth, sprint qualified sixth, finished the sprint in seventh, and finished the race in sixth. It's going to be a seven out of ten for me, for Lewis. He did a pretty good job in qualifying to get that up to fifth,

considering it was lacking quite a bit of pace. But, yeah, just didn't seem to be able to make much progress in that top eight sphere. that we've got currently in Formula One. And yeah, there was not really much to write home about for Hamilton. Of course, he was quite close to signs at the end, seven cents behind at the flag, beat his teammate quite comprehensively, but obviously George did pit for fastest lap. So, yeah, seven out of ten I think is fair. I can't remember a more anonymous weekend for Lewis Hamilton.

It's almost like you predicted him to win. Yeah, no, shocking. I've gone for a seven out of ten. It was a solid drive. I think he had the pace to beat Carlos, but the DRS was too short, and he's in a terrible Mercedes, well, not terrible Mercedes, but the straight line speed of the Mercedes is woeful. So he was unfortunately not going to be able to get by. So I think he was quicker than science, but just couldn't get by.

So seven out of ten. I think Frank in the background agrees as well. We now go to George Russell, qualified 11th, finished sprint quality in fourth, finished the sprint in fourth and finished the race in eighth. I've gone for a Matt definitely knew it was my turn to go. It was nearly going to go then. I've gone for a six out of ten. Basically just a little bit worse than Hamilton.

I know that George had the great sprint race, but I think it's of all the things he wants, want you don't want to be, you don't, you want the main race to be qualifying fourth and the sprint 11th really. Because, yeah, that's where the bigger points are made. So I've gone for a six out of 10 for George. I'm going to go with a seven out of 10 for George. As much as he did qualify 11th. He was four thousandths of a second behind Hamilton in 10th in that particular session. So got, I would say, a little bit unlucky, just getting the wrong rubber the green. for George there.

And then, of course, made up a few positions in the race. And then, of course, pitted as well for fastest lap. But he wasn't far off, Hamilton, had a great sprint. So I feel like it does kind of even itself out and a seven for George. We now go to Carlos Signs. You might want to cover your ears if you're a Carlos Sines fan. Qualified fourth, sprint qualified fifth. Finish the sprint in fifth.

Finish the race in fifth. Loves a fifth this weekend. And I'm also going to give him a fifth out of ten or a five out of ten. Just, I think part of me is just gutted that he couldn't be anywhere near the front to cause a little bit more chaos with his teammate and the two Red Bulls. But he fell away almost immediately, finished 20 odd seconds behind Charlotte Clare, 25 seconds just under, which is not good enough really. if you want to be not only challenging for world titles,

World Constructors Championships, but also now fending off Aston Martin and Mercedes as well for this fight for second. So as much as those results look all right on paper, I just don't think it was really good enough considering what that Ferrari could do in the hands of Charlecala. Yeah, I've gone for a six out of ten. It's a solid performance, but not spectacular.

I think the result flatters him a little bit, actually, when you look at where he finished. But he picked up points, so he didn't have a disaster. But I think Ferrari were the second best car that weekend. So you've got to think that you should be finishing fourth, really, in those sessions. And yeah, Carlos, gone for a five out of ten.

I was really hoping that I hope this is just a blip, because it did look like you might finally be getting closer to LeCla, but this very much felt like a 20-20, start of the last season, Carlos. Exactly. It's almost a carbon copy, to be honest with you, apart from the fact LeClau is not winning any races. Let's speak about Charles LeClair now.

Qualified, first. Sprint qualified, first. Finish the sprint in second. Finish the race in third. I have gone. Hear me out. 10 out of 10. A perfect grade for Shal.

I'm so glad. I just don't think. I saw you change to a nine in the sheet thinking, am I being a fan boy? Literally what I was going, my head. I was looking at. I know. Was it a 10?

So I changed it to a 9 and you said 10. Absolutely. 10. He's in the second. Yeah, the Ferrari was probably the second best car this weekend. However, the Red Bull is so far clear that you've got to think realistically. We've had four meaningful sessions. So you can only hope for third, third, third and third.

and he's finished first, first, second, third. That is an unbelievable performance. I mean, what more can he do? You were never going to have the race pace to beat them. He obviously was fortunate that Vastappen had a hole in his car to, you know, otherwise he probably would have been beaten in the sprint, but he still would have been third. And I don't think he could have got any more out of it.

And I can't even downgrade him for the little tap into the wall at the end of sprint quality, it didn't really matter. I forgot that even happened, to be honest with you. I've also gone for a 10 out of 10. Yes, come on. I'm not the only one here giving him a 10. It was unbelievable.

I put a tweet out, actually, because I wanted to defend him and his statistics because a lot of people talking about his terrible poll to win conversion rate, and my argument was that it shouldn't be seen as a negative. He's putting this car in positions that sometimes it shouldn't be there. Yeah, sometimes the Ferrari is quick over one lap and does a great job. But other times, he's outperforming. He's done it twice now, I would say, around Baku alone.

And also I found it quite interesting that Ayrton Senna was seen as an absolute quali god. And then one of his seasons, I want to say like 88, 89, something like that, he had a pole to win conversion rate of worse and was seen as like this amazing hot lap master. Charles Leclair does it. And it's like, well, you're just a bottler.

It's not the case at all. He did an amazing job this weekend, and I will not hear any slander. Thank you very much. Yeah, agreed. You can't have a go in for putting. Essentially, he was never going to beat the Red Bulls in the race.

So the only time he could really do it is with a one lap special, which he managed to do twice over the weekend. And he put eight tents on Carlos Sines in quality. Yeah. That is, Gargantuan. It was a great performance.

Clearly he needs to get some more piano music. He'll do a back to 23. Slightly more energetic, upbeat one this time. We now go to the first of the Red Bulls and the one that finished first. Sergio Perez. He qualified third, qualified second after sprint quali. First in the sprint race and first in the race.

A double victory for Sergio Perez, even though it doesn't count as a double victory, does it? It's like a separate statistic. that good stuff, but still an amazing performance from Checo, and it was a 10 out of 10 from me as well. He, yeah, there's not really much I can falter him for. Of course, he got beaten in normal quality by Max, but yeah, it was a faultless performance. He got ahead. He got a little bit lucky in the safety car window, of course, Max coming into the pits when Nick DeFries had his incident.

But Perez, again, just like we saw in Saudi, in the lead. Max couldn't make any impression on him whatsoever. And if anything, people were saying, oh, we got lucky. If it hadn't happened, Max would have won. But people are also maybe having selective memories by the fact that Perez had a run on Max with DRS into turn one if Max hadn't pit.

So that was the only time a Red Bull got within the other Red Bulls, DRS, was Perez catching Vastappan, not Vastappen catching Perez. Yeah, very true. This is a really difficult one because it's a nine and a half for me because I can't give him a perfect 10 because he obviously he didn't get lucky by the safety card because like you say he did have a run on him but I think it wasn't a perfect like masterclass. We'd have never known what would have happened if Max hadn't been screwed by the safety car. But it's still a brilliant performance and just showed that he's, you know, can a challenge, particularly on a street track.

So I'm going to give him a nine. Double race win and you're giving him a nine. That is absolutely disgusting. Oh, I mean, we've given people nine that turned before for poll and win. But that's usually a Vestappen or someone like that. But interesting. Let's see how social media takes that one. As we now go to the final driver, Max Vestappen.

Qualified second, sprint qualified third, finish the sprint in third, finish the race in second. Let me guess, 10 out of 10, Tommy? I've gone for 11 actually. No, I've gone for an 8 out of 10. I think, yeah, he may have won the race, had the saved to car, but Checo was incredibly quick. And I think Max has to take some of the blame, even though I believe it was a racing

incident for the Russell thing that it's dropped to points because he had a hole in his car and he could have easily just backed out, let Russell go. and then their ultra-mega-super awesome DRS would have just easily got past him, and then it would have had a perfectly able car without a hole in it to breeze past Charlerc as well. So not the perfect weekend for Max by any stretch, even though he may feel like he got shafted out of a win. Not a perfect or clean weekend, so yeah, 8 out of 10. I agree, eight out of ten for me as well, for Max Verstappen. I think that he, as much as you say, it was a racing incident, he put his car in that

position, which in the post-race interviews, I was very confused as to how he was sort of defending the fact he went there and that it was actually George's, I guess it is George's right to not hit him, but at the same time, there was no real like confession that he maybe put himself in a difficult situation where one small, tiny, mistake and you are getting damage and the the impact with george was very light when you look at the replay it wasn't he didn't go spearing into the side of him um so yeah max just didn't seem he seemed quite aggressive this weekend but maybe for the both on track and also um in interviews around the formats and george russell and so on so perhaps just needed to chill out maybe just had an off

weekend but yeah eight out of ten for me as well and now we finally go to our p one our driver of the weekend. And I think we both know where this is going to. It's Charles LeCler. Is it, Tommy? Well, he's the only one I gave a 10. So exactly. I just wanted you to say it out loud. I just wanted to hear you say it out loud. Yeah, unbelievable performance gave us something to hope for for this weekend until we saw a spoil of it on Saturday. But it was still an amazing performance. He should be very proud of what he managed in that Ferrari. And let's see. I don't think we'll get it in Miami because the temperatures are going to be hot and Ferrari are going to be dreadful round there in my opinion, but we'll have to wait and see until this weekend.

You sure will. Cool. No more thoughts about why Charlotte closed the goat. All right, sweet. That is it. Thank you so much, everybody, for watching and for listening to this F1 driver ratings for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. We'll be back.

There's lots of content coming your way, as you know, because we have four races in five weeks coming up. It's going to be hopefully epic, even though when you look at the tracks on paper, it might be. well be a stinker, but we'll be here for the whole of it, and you better be too. Bye! Bye!