P1 with Matt and Tommy - Azerbaijan GP Race Review

Episode Date: September 26, 2026

Baku served up an almost perfect ending for us after the mayhem across the grid. Join us as we recap everything!Come and see our live tour 'Super Podding' this November! It's a brand new show and there are a few tickets left: http:/tix.to/p1liveFancy even more P1? Well, join our Patreon for just $5 a month! You'll get access to every P1 episode ad-free, extended versions of every 2026 race review, 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 TikTokP1 with Matt and Tommy is the world's biggest F1 podcast. Subscribe for new podcasts around every single race throughout the 2026 Formula 1 season! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the B1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. Oh, Azerbaijan. As soon as I said that, I just thought of the national anthem. And that was probably one of the best parts of the weekend, to be honest with you. But look, Baku, I'm not going to say well done. I'm going to say, you woke up at the end, Baku. Yeah, saved by chaos. Tommy, hey, feeling?

gutted. almost more gutted than when you finished date. No, I am gutted we'll get into, obviously. Everyone knows why it's so close, but yeah, the race very close at the end, excitement at the end, but yeah, I really do think Baku kind of got saved again from an absolute stinker of a race. It was not quite Madrid levels, but 31, until Alex Albin went into the wall, nothing really happened, did it?

But yeah, still lots to dive into, of course, because it all went chaotic at the end, which often happens in Baku. Indeed. Nothing happened apart from the... Nothing happened, then everything happened. The thing that always happens around Baku is Charlotte Glou starting on the front row and falling back.

That's just standard things for me and my fandom. Now, before we get into everything, Azerbaijan Grand Prix related. A quick shout out to our wonderful B-1 patrons. You'll be getting extra chat at the end of every single ready for view this year, as well as ad-free listening. You get early access to P1 Live show, which of course, you need to go get your tickets, by the way, for November.

We are touring the UK. Please come and see us. We'd love to see you. We are not touring next year. And we're doing lots of fun shows. Go to t-I-X.com. Forward slash P-1 Live to go and see if we are... I was going to say playing.

We're not a band, but we are performing. Yeah, I'm not getting the guitar. I'm afraid. Sorry to let you down. Would you say you're a performer? Is that you would say you are, Tony? Is that one of your TV? I don't know.

That feels a bit much, isn't it? It feels a bit of a strange one. But yeah, anyway, go and get your tickets if you'd love to see us. We've got a lot to talk about this season. And it's always good fun at the P1 Live show, whether you've been once, five times, or never. Okay, Tommy, why don't we start with your most memorable moment and try, and the challenge is try not to make it about Max Verstappen.

It is George Russell being 0.1 ahead of Max Verstappen. Ah. So, yeah, fair enough. I understand. I mean, it is the most memorable moment. The closest Grand Prix finish since Michael Schumach and Rubens Barry Kellow apparently at the US Grand Prix where they basically fixed. It was staged, right? It was Shumi giving back the win. I still don't think he was giving that win. My understanding was that Shumi wanted to just make it as close as possible and he just won all the time. so he's like, you know, it doesn't matter if I lose.

Of course, he would have wanted to have won, but yeah, Barakala got the win that day, didn't he? So is it the closest natural finish, would you say? Well, they'll have been closer before that, because people have gone like side by side across the line and stuff back in the 60s and stuff. But, yeah, the closest finish since then, and this was actually, you know, legitimately for the win. And, you know, it wasn't staged between two great rivals. Yeah, gutting that Max got so close to it, looking back now, I do think it was his only chance,

because as much as it was painful to watch, seeing Max just almost get there, it does make me feel that had Max got by, George was so quick in that middle sector that he would have just been able to get the slipstream back on Max down the main straight. So maybe we'd have seen some yo-yo racing a little bit, but that was the opportunity for Max Lidoges. I cannot believe it. As soon as I saw Bottas in the wall, I was like, well, that's it. Game over.

And then very interesting. You, in fact, even said in the watch long, you were slandering Valtrey and were like, oh, we're not even going to get a run to the line. How wrong you were. And then it was the exact opposite. I couldn't believe it. But what a strange run to the line it was as well,

because Max got really, really close. If you told me that if I could have just like paused and told you what was going to happen when he was, I think, half a second behind going, into that final corner maybe even closer i thought that's done like surely max has got him but weirdly george opened up a big gap i think obviously once he got his turbo back going uh opened up a i do enjoy a big gap and then got the sliths more but he actually pulled like a to six i think it was

like it was point five and then it went to point six eight nine so i literally just watched it back because uh my wonderful fiancee was slightly behind so i went and watched i wanted to see her reaction she's a massive max fan as well she was like oh my god um but yeah it was like a couple of intense he gained back which I agree you know you're like and then I was like oh wait why is it why is what's happening why isn't he gaining and then obviously so close at the end like what a finish and again um maxis stepan so close to victory still hasn't won gutted about that but also can't take anything away from George because he was absolutely sensational this weekend he was perfect weekend from George exactly what he needed where is it too late we'll get onto that question I'm sure but

in terms of the the moment it's it would have come out of nowhere, let's be honest, because I feel like the race had been rage-baiting us the entire way through, like just constantly, oh, maybe, maybe this lap, no, maybe this lap, no, maybe that. And it was just constant. And before that, we just had loads of massive gaps. And, you know, of course, we had the Max versus Hadjar thing and, of course, Piastri close ahead.

And we thought that was going to be the fight for the entire race. but we were wrong about that one with how it transpired. But yeah, it was... I'd love to know how much coverage Max Verstappen got during that race because the whole start of the race was... I genuinely think it was the whole race. It certainly felt like it. We were stuck with the Piastri Vestappan-Hajar battle on the main screen,

which, yeah, felt like almost the entire race until the crash, and then just mini-boxes of occasional... And then obviously got to the end, and it was Max versus George. So I generally think Max was like probably like 95% of the coverage. Yeah, Red Bull sponsors are going to be happy with that one, aren't they? So yeah, it was a massively close moment, but I think we need to get into this question, which I am eager to get into. And it's from P1 Patreon member Sinister Logic.

If Max won that drag race to the line, do we think he would have been given a penalty for failing to slow under yellow flags? didn't seem like he slowed enough. As a Max fan, I think it was close. Now this one's fascinating, because the immediate thing we're told, and George even saying it, is that he lost boost.

But I am fully convinced that Max has taken at least more speed than George into the Valtry Bottas crash zone, as we're now going to call it. Before I get into that part, I think it's absolutely ridiculous that we didn't get a VSC when the car is sticking

out of the wall at a place. I know it's the last lap and that's probably the reason why they've done it but entertainment over safety is madness and I know there are people that will jump on it and go guys you've complained about safety cars finishing races before

but that's when we've argued that it didn't deserve that if you could have started to race or cleaning up the incident and then maybe seeing if we get going racing again. Yeah and getting going racing exactly whereas this is Valtrey Bottas crashing I think he's He was still in the car the entire time finishing the race.

And, yeah, so it was yellow flags, I assume double-waved yellows. Nothing less than that was needed. And yeah, so fine, we've got the race going on. George has definitely taken it slower. And that is the worst possible situation for George to go into on the final lap with a massive run, down towards the finish line, when the guy behind you has always been four, five-tenths quicker in the last sector. in the slip stream. But he has to show that he lifts. He has to show that he's taken caution.

Max can just go, I'll break a little bit later. I'll be able to still show, but I'll break a little bit later. And that's exactly what he did. He's half a second coming out of the Valtry-Botas crash zone. And you're thinking, oh my God, this is a run to the line. And it was. It was, it was absolutely. I would have been fascinated to know. I'd love your thoughts on this. Had Max Vastappen got George Russell on the line, would George Russell's reaction have been Max sped under yellows or would it have been, oh, my boost didn't work. I certainly don't think you'd be. It's true.

To be fair, I didn't actually answer the question. Would you've got a penalty? We don't know. We've not seen the, yeah, and we'll never get a stewards inquiry on it because essentially it didn't matter. I do think Max kind of risked it a little bit in that final section because going into that corner, he does gain a lot of time. and obviously he was kind of banking on he showed he left he also had a 10 second gap to hadjar

whether that was any of his logic thinking well if I get a 10 second penalty I'm still finishing second could he have thought about it that quickly I don't know but either way he went for it he gained quite a lot of time but the fallback from it was obviously the fact that george said well actually it was my turbo which was why why he closed in on me so much but it did look like he actually closed on him sooner than than passing the incident so I don't know if George had lost that kind of boost instantly from slowing down anticipating the fact that he was going to go past Valtrey Bartas yeah there was something that some gremlins crept in when he's with all this ridiculous boosting and everything

yeah it's so difficult to know you know software and things that are working in the program and the speed that everything that's going on in the power unit obviously something has messed up the scheduling of his boost and screwed him a little bit. I'm looking at the last lap, which I'm hoping this lifetiming website is correct. And it does suggest, well, Vestappan's best sector is a 24662, and it says here that his last lap, last sector was a 251, which would basically suggest that he's at least off his best sector. Of course, his tires aren't going to be in the best. possible condition, but also the tires were really hard and they were working just fine.

So, yeah, I don't, I'm going to say no, but I think it would have an uproar as to, because I guess we are missing that information of how much time did George lose because he lost his boost and how much time did Max gain because of him being later on the brakes. That is an unknown at the moment. But I think I'll actually say no. I do genuinely believe that Max was able to visibly demonstrate that, he did slow down to a certain degree. But I also do believe that there would have been a massive upbraw around this,

and there would have been definitely an investigation, which is mad to think, right? It shouldn't be the consequence. It shouldn't be Max winning, and therefore we then look into did Max slow down under Yellows? No, that should be. And to be honest, I would like to give the stewards some benefit at the doubt that that is something they would look at to see, because it doesn't matter if Max passes George or not. If he speeds under Yellows, he's getting a 10-second penalty, and that would have been very close with Hadjar at the end.

So I would like to think the stewards had it under control and it wouldn't have been a penalty. Oh yes, they very much did that this race. Yeah, true. Otherwise we're then going down the rabbit hole of if sputs and, you know, Well, I think this is yet another incident and obviously didn't come to this, but it's yet another incident that shows that you kind of feel like there needs to be a better rule than just lifting because it's so, in Formula One where everything needs to be kind of like black and white with the stewarding decisions and stuff. This is very much not, and we've seen multiple incidents this season. and we've seen Antone and Hungary,

we've seen George Russell in qualifying in Austria, for example, where they have actually, you know, there's been those kind of confusing for the fans, did they lift, did they're not under a yellow flag? Looking back at it again, I know you said it was half a second. It did go down to 0.3 just beforehand, down that main straight. And then George opened it up again. Like looking at it now,

He's 0.9 behind, and then as soon as he gets past the incident, he's 0.5. I do want to say very quickly before you continue, because I know some people would be like, oh, actually, that's wrong. And fair enough, I'm going to say it right now, that the time I should be measuring Maxis best versus what he did is his middle sector, because, of course, the sector comes just after the incident with Bottas. So his best sector was a 428, and he did a 442 in the middle sector compared to Russell's 446. And if we consider that George was quicker in that middle, sector generally, Max has, yes, gained four tenths.

Yes, I wasn't tripping. It's point three around the final corner. Wow. Final corner. And then as I say final corner, the final proper corner, before they get into the quick left right, then it opens up to half a second, then it opens up to six tenths. That's why I was so confused because I'm like, he is pinned to the back of him here. Surely he's going to, he's going to get it. But then George did stretch another three tenths, and then it closes up again. So what a crazy, crazy finish. You know, we almost had a moment where it was literally side-by-side photo finish for the line. It was very close to that. Yes, I'm having a look now. Yeah, so coming down the hill.

Down the hill. Yeah, Max is very late on the brakes into that left hand and makes it point three. On the exit, I guess, from what I was saying before, I measured it, I guess, from when they made it out of the corner, because, yeah, it was about 0.5. George then stretches his legs a little bit, as you say, and maybe that's where his boosts goes. Actually, no, yeah, we do need. We do need to use it on this straight for the final run to the line. But when he was there, that corner, when he's 0.3 and he's right in the back of him, if you pause that there, I don't see if there's any way how Max doesn't win the race. But then George does stretch ahead again.

And then it kind of gets the slip through and he closes up and passes him. But such is the bizarre way these rules and regs are. But yeah, what a finish anyway, regardless of, of, of, the incident that happened and, yeah, so close to a victory for Max, a bizarre race for him, really. So to clarify, yay or nay, on the penalty? I think it would have gone to the stewards, definitely, looking at how much he did gain through on George, I don't personally think that's all just a turbo. It does feel like it was underbreaking.

That's the concern, isn't it? I'm pretty sure the gap was... I hate this rule because what is slowing down, what's not, you know, it's just, it's silly. There needs to be some better way of doing this. I know it's always been the rule, but this has been happening far too much. And it's a conversation you're having too many times of like, did you lift, did you not? And Formula One drives are always going to try and gain an advantage under that. Like you can't blame Max for trying to gain an advantage in this situation because there's this chance to win the race.

but you don't want a situation where someone's in the wall in a very dangerous place and drivers are thinking, oh, actually, I could gain some time on my rival hip. That's where it just gets silly. Yeah, which is why my argument at the start of this was that a VSC should have been thrown. Oh, 100%. And it would have been. It would have. There's no way that's not a VSC other lap.

They wanted to finish. They weren't a grandstand finish. Yes, because Max was gaining time at the exact corner that Botasie. sticking out the wall. Yeah, it's definitely dangerous and one that... It's a dangerous precedent to be like, oh, don't worry. It's mad though, isn't it? I saw the last year, Mexico,

where they're rolling, I remember whose car it was, in the stadium section out, like literally threw a little gap in the wall and they flew a VSC for that. You think of like the consistency of VSCs is so vast that you just wonder what on earth are they thinking. I know that they have turnover of people, but my God, yeah, that was ridiculous. Okay, let's got another question from Kulu-Zvsky-S-ZN. Without the engine issues in quality, did Max have the win in the bag today?

No, I really don't think he did. He obviously had a lot of pace today, and it would have been interesting to see what he could have done in Clear Air. had he qualified p2 um you know it was it was quite clear um now even more so than when we recorded the the qualifying podcast that there was a big issue there with max's car they changed a lot of engine parts um obviously legally and allowed as part of the the pool before he did this race and red bull were very quick we saw that with with fastappen and hadjar this race but george was so quick had max been p2 like like i say like had had max been

in P2, I feel like it'd be a very similar situation of what we just saw with Piastri, at the start of the race and what we were seeing at the end of the race, where Max just couldn't get close enough at the right time, he'd lose time in the middle sector, and then not have enough of a slip stream to get him down the main straight. And equally, even if he had, I think George would just get him back with potentially a slip stream anyway down the main straight, because he was so quick in that second sector.

So I don't think the qualifying in a weird way had anything to do with it because also he got the safety car anyway that closed everything up again and helped him out there to kind of put him back into a position to win the race. So you can't really blame qualifying for anything. It's a great recovery drive. But the quality has not cost him anything in the result there. No, I just think you, Tommy, would have been rage-baited for the entirety of the Grand Prix. rather than just the last part of it with Max just trying to follow George because, look, George was the quickest driver out there.

It is very obviously an advantage to be the following car, I think especially with Max and the way in which he'd set up with his energy deployment, he was rapid in that last sector and he was able to just take the advantage of the slip stream as well. And, yeah, George was the quickest driver.

I would have loved to have seen had they changed positions whether George could just easily get back past. Because, yeah, sector one, sector two, he would have been basically pushing Max round. Maybe we would have even seen an unorthodox move into a corner that we don't expect, because George was so much quicker than everybody else in those first couple of sectors, especially Max. But yeah, we'll just have to wonder on that one. We're just lucky that we got to see this fight because it was something we were saying in the watch along constantly,

like, oh, I just really wish we could see what Max could have done if he was in second behind George. And we did. We got the exact fight. They were on the same tires. And George, hats off to him, soaked up the pressure excellently. You don't want anyone. Max Rastappan is the worst person you could possibly have to be behind you, especially when George has the pressure of trying to get back into this championship

and trying to have a better season than what he's had. Knowing Max is behind you, who's not won this year, a sniff of an opportunity he's sending it down on the inside into term one. But George did not make a single mistake, and he deserves all the plaudits from today. Like, yes, it was, you know, it was an incredible qualifying lap which, you know, had us going,

geez, man, that Merck engine's crazy. But, you know, I also want to make sure that it's clear that George did a phenomenal job this weekend as well. It was a package that was perfect. So Max had no chance of winning today. Even if you start on poll, I don't think he wins. No, I don't think he does either.

because, yeah, George was just rapid this weekend. And Max got presented with an opportunity at the end, which made it seem closer than it actually was and maybe feel like, oh, he could have done it. But if I kind of look at the whole picture, I don't think that he could have got that wind. The Merck in George Russell's hands was just too strong. And also there was no chance of him getting poll either.

That was very much out of reach. Even without his issues, it was Peter. at best. Okay, P1PITR, remember F1 sushi. Should Red Bull have used team orders to let Hajar pass Max? Now, a lot of people were up in arms, of course, we're doing our watch-along,

thousands of you tuning in, big up to each and every one of you that tunes into our watch-alongs. A lot of people up in arms, let him pass, Hajar's faster, yada, yada, yada. Crofty in particular was very... Yeah, they spoke about it for a good 15 laps.

I was like, guys, guys, can we talk about something? I know nothing else is going on on the track, but can we just talk about something else? But the thing was, and the one thing I was trying to highlight at the time, was that they're on different tyres. And the minute, and it was so obvious that the soft tires were better than the mediums, almost immediately when the race started. And if Red Bull, firstly, if Red Bull had swapped the positions,

and then they had the safety car, they would have then had the awkward thing of swapping them back because that was all happening at a very similar time. But obviously, right, there's a few factors to this. One Red Bull are not going to tell Max to let anyone through. There's no chance. Like, that's Max Verstappen. That's his team.

We all know that. Probably even in his contract. We don't know. But even if it isn't, it's an unwritten rule that Max Verstappen owns that team. And if, you know, if you ask that, then you're crazy. Which, fine. Like, you've built it around him. You have to almost respect what you've created.

And Max has done a phenomenal job for the team. I will say that maybe it was worth Hajar having a go. But that is in a theoretical, taking a motion. out of it, taking the fact that that's not Max for Stappen, and fine, it makes sense. But Max was so much quicker than Hajjar in that second stint that it makes this, the whole discussion, a bit irrelevant and wrong that they would have, that the right decision would have been to swap them, because Max and George were in a league of their own. They just cleared off because they were on the tire that Hadjar was on in that first stint.

Nothing taking away from Hadjar. I think he had a great... performance, podium, after three races off, phenomenal, you know, right on Max's pace and doing a great job. But in that last stint, Max was in the league of his own with George. And so I think, with hindsight now, it was the correct decision to not use team orders, apart from the team orders that they used to get Max past in the first place. A funny theoretical thing I mentioned on the watch along was if George wasn't in the race, you would, I think it would have been looked completely different because you were potentially looking at Hadjar being able to challenge for the win there

and Max not able to, you know, could he have stretched his legs? I think it would have been hard for Hadjar to pass Piastri, but I think he would have had a chance. The whole situation here though is, as you say, the difference in tyres and the fact that Hadjar and they kind of like, it justified their decision in the end, didn't it, with the safety car, that they needed Max ahead. So when the tyres were put on and switched and Max had the advantage on the tires in the second half, he's ahead. He can get Piastri and then go after Russell. And that's exactly what happened. There's, of course, a moment where Hadjar himself was asked and said, well, actually, I'm going to stay behind.

And I think he kind of changed his mind a little bit after realizing how much pace he had and how, and, and to be fair that was before Max was struggling so much. It is a rare time I will agree with Jack Villeneuve, but he was asked about it when obviously on the sky coverage that we were watching, the commentary were quite vocal about how they should switch them. And Jack Villenev, I think, was absolutely right in saying, and I totally agree, and I appreciate everyone's now probably shouting, of course you'd say that, you're Max's Duffin fan.

but for Hadjar to rock the boat with Red Bull, potentially, you know, race him or a situation where it's over third and fourth and Max is just going through a stage of struggling for his ties. It wasn't like they were costing Hadjar a chance of victory or something crazy like that and denying him. And it wasn't like a farcical situation of team orders like we've seen in the past. they would just put in quite a difficult situation and I do think Hadjar

has to think about going forward in that team as well in that situation that you are a number two or you know you're not on the same level as Max has happened in the kind of order and they will never let Max let a teammate through if there's no need to do it So I think it's the right decision for Red Bull to do it.

Obviously it paid off in the end and it became such a non-issue in the end. But even still, like for the good of the team, like Hadjar, this race proved more than any other race this year. I think this was Hadjar's best race by far this year than any other race. What a kind of great second driver he is at Red Bull, you know, he was close to Max. But you don't, in a weird way, you don't need to rock the boat. there was no need to cause controversy and chaos in that team over switching three and four when Max needed the advantage later on. Yeah, it was a very level-headed approach for Hajar, to be honest with you, because you can

very easily just let your ego take over and you're like, I'm just going to put a move on Vastappen. Can you imagine? Watch the commentary back. Hadjar down there. You know, all that sort of stuff. But he was right. You know, he didn't want to waste any time.

He didn't want the McLaren's, the Ferrarans, not McLaren's, McLaren's, Ferraris, Antonelli's, of course. He was like, I just don't want to lose time. So let's just keep pushing. Let's keep going forward. I'm sure in the back of his mind as well, he knows. I've got to go on those medium tires at some point. And I don't think they're going to be that quick if I'm all over the back of Max. So, yeah, I completely respect how Isaac basically played that entire situation.

And yeah, he got a little bit angsty going, well, actually, you know what? I fancy this. I fancy a bit of Oscar P.S. Yeah, but I completely respect how he played that situation. And he was right as a lot of it. well saying of we're just going to waste time because had Max let him through we saw how quick Max was in that final sector you end up in a mess again where Max would have got a run on Hadjar going into the you know depending on where he'd passed him and if he

could could do it Max would have got an amazing slingshot on Hajjar and they're just swapping positions and it's just kind of pointless and then they get themselves in a mess so it wasn't a case of like they were costing Hadjar this something crazy. Whether Hadjar, whether Piastri had been in the race and had Jha finished fourth and not been on the podium, maybe he could feel a little bit more aggrieved and this might be a slightly different conversation. But I think they did they did the right thing. They did indeed. Okay, right. My most memorable moment time and it's got nothing to do with Ferrari because I barely saw them in the race. It is, of course, the turn one pile up.

after the safety car. Goodness, gracious me, this has caused a storm. Well, the post-race comments from Landau Norris have caused a storm. So, to summarize Baku doing Baku things where lots of cars have lots of slipstream and they all go three, four wide and they're jostling for position into term one,

knowing that this is, even though it's not Monaco, it's not Madrid, is one of the best opportunities to make up a position. It's been even difficult round here, which two-thirds of the race was a complete stinker. But all caused by Franco Colopinto, sadly, for making a mistake, going on the inside, which of course is dustier, less grip. He snatches a break almost immediately. And at that point, after, I guess, breaking a little bit late as well, combination of those two things, you're just a passenger at that point. He tries to do his best, goes to the tightest on the inside line to try and make the apex,

but he's got too much speed, and lo and behold, he is greeted by the side of his teammate, Pierre Gazley, wiping both of them out the race and Lando Norris as well. You also have the two V-carbs, which we'll talk about. But for those three in particular, I think that's where we'll focus on for now. I love how when this happened, our first thought was, wow, you know, Flavio's going to be really unhappy. I did not have Lando Norris being higher on the unhaired,

happiness scale with some of the quotes he's been coming out with saying that some Formula One drivers don't deserve to be in the sport basically. Yeah, aimed at Colopinto, obviously, saying he should be banned, saying you shouldn't be in Formula One. Very scathing comments, I think very harsh as well. Obviously, heat of the moment, he's unhappy. Surprise you's so unhappy. I know he's a Formula One driver and wants to win, but yeah, he's not fighting for a victory or anything. Can I come in quickly with your goat and what he said on the situation?

because of course the press conference they've asked him about Landau's comments so that's why I thought I'd just come in quickly because Max said I think that as long as the driver that caused it is aware of what he did and apologises it happens I mean a small mistake or misjudgment you lock up it's on the inside low grip it's a bit unfortunate that involves so many cars but unfortunately it happens

it's not nice for anyone involved right but a race ban is a bit much completely agree even if you told me that quote and it wasn't Max for Step and I'd completely agree with that because it's true. How many people did we see lockup into that turn? Lando himself. Lando himself. Linblad did it.

It's a chance to make a move. Colopinto has made a stupid mistake, but we have seen stupid mistakes from every driver on this Formula One grid. And they happen. And Baku has always been that kind of race where there's chaos when there's a safety car restart because they know that is the opportunity. And I don't think Colopinto is even going for some crazy move.

he completely missed his breaking point and then was stuck. And unfortunately for him of all the cars that he could have gone into, it was his teammate and also, you know, spearing Gasly and interlando, you know, it's made worse. Had Colapinto locked up, gone into term one, missed everyone, you're not asking for a race ban. Unfortunately, there were cars in front of him.

He's not done anything deliberate here. It's not like he's chosen. He's like, you know what I want to do? I want to take out my teammates. want to see what Flavio's reaction would be, and also Lando Norris. Mistakes happen in Formula One. They're racing, they're pushing hard, and I think it's really unfair to sort of Ascaband.

And I do wonder if Lando, when the kind of heat at the moment, things have calmed down, well. He'll take it back, 100%. Yeah, it's so far, it's so much further than where he should be sitting, I think, for Lando in terms of the incident. He can be annoyed. And also, like, it doesn't feel like, it's not like he was leading the race. It's not like Colapinto has taken him out through an insane thing. So, of course, he can still feel aggrieved, of course.

Yeah. But I don't know, it just felt like it doesn't really match the crime, like his actual reaction to it. So, yeah, I think it's very harsh because Colapinto as well has been on a brilliant run of form of late. It's not like he's constantly crashing every weekend. You know, we've been praising him. Madrid, of course. Exactly. Last time out, seventh.

In Monsery, finished 9th, he's had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 point scoring finishes so far this year. That's a driver that deserves to be in Formula 1. Like, there's categorically, right? Yes, there's mistakes in him, and that is something that will probably haunt him for a very long time. But to say he doesn't deserve to be in Formula 1, I think, is frankly very unfair. but as we say 12th in the championship. Yeah, I do believe

Lando will regret probably going as hard as he has once he's calmed down. And also to say all of his parts were in the bin, I'm like, I didn't think it was that big of a crash into the ball either. I'm not a mechanic,

but I didn't think all of his parts would be completely out and that's it, cheers, going to have to take a new everything. So yeah, it just didn't feel like it was fair. I think he's taken his frustration out of the weekend in general.

when it's been on this amazing run thinking, you know, I've been on this amazing run, things have been going great, and Lando's had a really poor weekend. He's not been happy with the car. Where he's the fuel injection issue, isn't he? Yeah, exactly. He's been slower on the streets.

He's been slower. He's had lock-ups. Seems like McLaren was very difficult. And then getting taken out of the race, it seems like you just let his frustration get to him. And yeah, completely agree. I think I would be amazed if he doesn't apologize or kind of clarify that his comments we'll just see at the moment.

Indeed. Let's go to a question. P1Petch, remember KBrew 52. Flavio will not be happy. How do you think the Alpine race debrief will go for Colapinto? I dread to think. We had a moment, didn't we, in Drive to Survive, where Flavio was talking about Colapinto's performances at one point, and it was a very tough watch to see that level of just kind of brutality of a two principle feels quite dated when you when you look at kind of how Kimmy Antonelli has been

nurtured by Toto Wolfe this year and how well he's doing because of it it feels like a very outdated sort of view on how to make a racing driver good in my opinion and of all the team bosses to go back to after a moment like that having taken your teammate out the race as well, it's not going to be fun at all. I don't think Flavio's going to take it lightly because it just seems like the character that he is and the way he likes to kind of go about his drivers. So yeah, I don't think he's going to be a fun one for Colapinto, but I hope it doesn't knock his confidence what this has happened because as we said, I think he's been doing a lot better of a job than people think because I think Colapinto has been a driver that people unfairly have criticised.

and think he's just like absolutely useless and acting like he's some kind of like back of the grid driver but you know you're not 12th in the world championship and scoring you know not that far behind pierre gazley i know not saying that he's better than than gasley by any stretch but he's certainly not not a bad driver at all and it's having a pretty good season so i hope it doesn't knock his confidence because this will be a tough one to recover from it will um coming into this um this race they were points behind V-Carb and we're in great position to close that gap to within only a few points until obviously the crash. So yeah, I would, I don't even want to give Flavio the benefit of the doubt. I just do think that it's going to be a tough few days for Colopinto.

Flavio is not one of those people to comfort, to put in cotton wool. none of that. It will be not even like harsh love. It's just going to be harsh. That's how I see it. But Franco should be ready for it. It's not like the first time, I'm sure, that he's been given a verbal beating. So I really hope he's able to bounce back quickly

because, yeah, it'll be tough, but this is the situation that he's in. And that is what Flavia Riatoria, as you say, it's an old-school way of trying to make a team move forward, not one that either of us probably agree with in terms of how you treat human beings but hey that's what Alpine are currently in terms of their way of driver coaching

as much as they tried to have a picture didn't they after Drive to Survive to show or a video wasn't it like a oh we're all we're all friends oh yeah let's have a picture so yeah fingers crossed Franco will be all okay and to be able to bounce back for Malaysia P1 Patreon

Did Linblad deserve a penalty? If Linblad was another driver like Ocon, would he have been given a penalty? I am utterly bamboozled as to how this is not a penalty for Arvid Limblad. So Colopinto was given a 10 second penalty after the race, which commentary were considering

would be converted into a grid drop. I'm not sure the absolute quirks the regulations but if you're considered classified I think you can get away with being given a 10 second penalty or whatever without it then taking a grid penalty he wasn't classified that's it he wasn't classified so maybe it was interesting so maybe the stewards just did their jobs really quickly and went hey penalty all right well then it will be a grid drop for the next race so we'll see what comes of that avid limblad has wiped his teammate out he's put his car into a place that does not belong He does not belong there.

I know he's between two cars, and people are maybe saying racing incident, he had nowhere to go. He put his car there. He literally threw his car into term one, later on the brakes and the cars ahead of him. Liam's sort of turning in, and he's hit him out of the race,

but hit him out of the points and caused him to finish 12th, I think, in the end, and screwed me for P-Watt, more importantly. That's the most important thing for you. I'm so angry in the watch-long. But yes, 100% Limblad deserved the penalty. I cannot believe it was deemed a racing incident. He was apologising to Liam

over the radio. What more do you need? The evidence is there. It's a hundred percent a penalty because you look at how he's driven there. He's not even followed the Hass in front of him through and stepped behind the house. He's gone for a gap that just completely

closed and then and then yeah, like gone in too hot, plowed into the side of his teammate and the ridiculous thing here and is this well they're too far behind aren't they in the in the title um to even worry about it someone like has for example but then i guess they'd get more more points but but obviously lorson is never going to complain about it because this is his teammate i mean his team radio was excellent he

will complain about it his team radio fantastic and i love getting taken up i tip my team mate Sick. Yeah. Yeah, sick, mate. But it's absolutely bonkers that that wasn't a penalty. And again, it's this ridiculous situation of makes you think, like, would Collopinto have got a penalty if Lando hadn't been caught up in it? Why is it a rule that you can just plow into the side of your teammate and not get a

penalty? And of course, they will then never go into the stewards office because that does affect the race for other people. You can't say that, oh, it's a teammate, it doesn't matter. because Ocon has lost a place to Limblad on the line. And if Lindblad had a penalty, has the scoring more points with both drivers. So it does affect the other teams.

And it's absolutely, is an outrageous call to not give him a penalty. It's a penalty all day long. I don't understand it at all. And it's just, I just wonder what the stewards are watching half the time. Yeah, it felt like they were asleep for a lot of it as well. We saw nothing, like even all of that carnage,

it took them, what felt like 10 or 15 minutes to note anything before like a graphic came up. Yeah, sorry, the Lawson thing was, man, I love getting taken out by my teammate, that's pretty sick. I love that. That's a great team radio. Fair enough, he's taking it well, Lawson. Because he was running very well, was Liam.

Considering V-Cab were struggling. I don't think he'll take it well when he listens to Arvid's team radio at the end of, what a brilliant race, mate. Yeah, what? Crazy. They genuinely celebrated. I mean, I know he's finished seventh, but you think that, and maybe the radio I've listened to, they've cut the bit off where they've said, our commiserations to Liam, like, you know, he was running well. We'll talk about.

Shame about Lawson facing the wrong way because of you. But P7! Shut up on! Shame you punted your teammate, but you did well because because you punted him, it actually helped your race quite a lot. So well done. Yeah, yeah, it's tough. It's a tough one. That is one of the most bonkers decisions, I think, of this year.

genuinely this year in terms of stewarding. And obviously people are coming in saying, because he's British, you know, and obviously the question is sort of suggesting if it was Ocon, yeah, Ocon's getting a 10-second penalty every day of the week if Esty Bestie did that. Okay, let's go to another question.

If you want to be on Patreon, remember Anna Bjerk, I now know how to say that username. Thanks, Tommy, after yesterday. Was it surprising that Kimmy didn't finish higher? Yes, it was. Very surprising, actually. I expected him to be very cautious about things. we had the discussion of whether he might have even

do you even start in the pits in a situation like that and just try and avoid all the carnage but he was very tentative at the start obviously lost a place as well really just taking it very easy but I really cannot believe how slowly he kind of got through everyone I thought he'd have so much more speed

beyond the back of everyone immediately and yeah it was a very underwhelming race from Antonelli and I know that unfairly I think sometimes Kimmy Antonelli has has been called lucky this this season and kind of downplaying his achievements this one was lucky you know he he I whether he'd have finished in this position I don't think so I think he's very fortunate to finish P5 because he got through the field quite slowly obviously the field bunched back up again and then a lot of the people in front of him took each other out you know it was a it was like a botas bowling moment watching Antonelli and one of those moments that Antonelly so could have easily been caught in himself and then we are looking at a 25 point swing for George Russell. But a very underwhelming race from Antonelli. I'm surprised how long it took him to get through.

I thought he'd be flying past everyone on the straight. But there were some moments where he was behind cars like very much midfielders like Williams's and Hasses and stuff thinking, right, here we go. And then, no, he didn't actually pass them. It was bizarre to watch. Did not see that one coming because I think all the conversation yesterday was the fact that he was just going to fly through the field and easily be up to about P5 in 10 laps. But no, he took a long time to get through and I think got very fortunate in the end with some of the chaos to help him gain some even more positions. Yes, it was very, very lucky was Kimmy Antonelli. And I know the people that are hating on his championship campaign will be writing this one down furiously.

to add to the luck that he's had, whereas we've been arguing that he's also had some bad luck as well. In terms of this incident, I'm looking at the sort of freeze frame, Antonelli, should Colopinto actually make the corner and not eat his teammate out of the race and Lando Norris? He's probably,

Antonelli, I reckon, if Colopinto actually spots his breaking point, Antone is going to be behind Norris, Gassley, the two Ferraris. is he's going to be about 7th? No, no, further down. Is it further down? Of course, the gap, yeah.

Because Piastri was in the race still. Piaastri hadn't locked up at this point, he locked up later. So you had the two McLaren's, the two Ferraris, George, the two Red Bulls and the two, wow, yeah, so he's probably the back end of the points.

And Alpine's done in like ninth or tenth. Yeah, yeah. So he's scoring a point or two at this point and then just partying of the Red Sea, three cars out, cheers, thank you very much. Yeah, and as for his pace, I was also, you know, very surprised. I said pretty confidently, we all did.

I don't know he's going to finish second. No problem. I mean, we saw what happened in Monza. But the difference here, I don't know if it's the tires that have affected him in terms of the... The pace difference didn't seem that high between a lot of the drivers. You had the race pace being, you know, obviously Max and George out in front at the end. But before that, the Alpines were only going like half a second slower than what George was able to do. And Kimmy's pace was not on George's level at any point.

I hasten to add. So it just made it a lot harder. I don't know what it is about this track or these cars. It just feels like the field spread was a lot smaller in the race than it was in qualifying. It was massive in qualifying, of course, and George's phenomenal lap. But yeah, it was a shocking one to see Kimmy down in 17th.

He lost the position after lap one. If you had a bet on that one, you would have made a lot of money, I'm sure, because we were all saying 12th. 13th after lap 1. After 5 laps, you'll be in P3, mate. Didn't happen. Didn't ever get into the podium positions, which is crazy. So, yeah, a very mediocre weekend for Kimmy, of course, making the mistake in qualifying, and then not really able to make much headway in the race either, in the fastest car,

as George absolutely was able to take full advantage of. Let's go to a question from P1 pitch. Remember, KBrew 52. George makes a moderate gain on Kimmy's lead, but, Will it be enough to genuinely challenge for the championship win? I still think it's championship off, okay? Because, yes, there's a 15-point swing here, which is great for George, gives him a little bit more hope. Problem is he's taking an engine penalty at some point, let's not forget.

And one swing in the other direction, it's one less race, and Kimmy's then 75 points ahead again. So Russell, as he said after the grandkids, Grand Prix has to win every single race from here on in, which I don't think it's going to happen if he has to test off the back of the grid at one point, but maybe he'll do a Kimmy Antonelli and what he did in Monza. But what I will say, and something I'm a lot more interested in now, is has George actually turned a corner now in terms of his pace and his confidence within the car? Because this was an excellent win from George. The whole weekend, he was so, so impressive.

Like, you know, he won in Austria, but we're thinking he's on the back foot. Kimmy's looking quicker. George was quicker than Kimmy the entire weekend and that's not something we have seen since when? Like genuinely Australia and months and months ago Yeah probably the first race in season. Canada maybe Canada's similar but we argued then

Kimmy was maybe marginally quicker this was a genuine George Russell as fast than Kimi Antonelli So if this happens for the rest of the season game on let's get some side by side battling Please because I think this race would have been that where Antonelli was slightly slower but he's in the same car as George and the slipstream was amazing.

We didn't get to see that because of his mistake, Kimmy, in qualifying. But there is hope for George Russell fans that he can at least grab more wins between now and the end of the season, as long as Baku isn't an outlier. I think he could have easily gained even more points, as we say, Kimmy, I think, was quite fortunate to finish fifth. Could have been an even bigger margin that George took out of him. There's a bit of confidence from George that we've not. seen maybe at the end saying, you know, win every race, because I mean, last race, completely different saying it's over for me, the championship's done, I'm just going to drive.

There seemed a bit more of a confidence there of like, oh, maybe why not? And I think the only way George can win this title is to kind of do put Kimmy under pressure and build up the momentum. I think he said this himself in the interview afterwards of like, it's getting down to crunch time now. This is the end of the championship. A few little bits of like Yeah, and I think he does.

I think he does. I think he's got to play though. He's got to do his experience. He's got to try and throw some shade. Not, oh, we're such happy, you know, lovey-divy. Well, he needs a Canada. He needs another Canada, not him DNFing, him battling Kimmy and getting in Kimmy's head and getting Kimmy frustrated.

So Kimmy goes off because he did. And Kimmy hasn't had enough jeopardy this year from his teammate or other people. there is you know Kimmy has had an unbelievable season can't take anything away from it he's likely to win the world championship and I hate this narrative that's forming of like it's a lucky championship

and it's not impressive what he's doing it is incredibly impressive but he hasn't had enough sort of moments where he's been on the back foot and sort of like had to I don't know that's rich coming from a race where he won from like last

but but it's but it's true in that sense that we need to see George Russell putting a lot of pressure on Kimmy so he can make mistakes so he can get into qualifying and be quicker than him and start to make Antonelli worry because I know we say it's still a big margin but if George wins the next race even if Antonelli's second it's another seven points comes down then say it's another seven points it the doubt will get into Antonelli's mind of like okay this is a lot you know I was able to 51 points clear, this is mine. If it gets to like 50 points, maybe even lower, that's when the pressure builds. And we saw exactly what happened to McLaren who had it wrapped up easily. As soon as Max got in close, they crumbled. They started making errors. They were doing silly things and silly strategies and stuff. Getting double disqualified. Getting double disqualified, not pitting the freest pit stop of all time in Qatar.

No, that one I think was, that was a deeper one than what we what we saw on the surface. it turns out that there was a lot deeper of a strategy that would have messed them up no matter what. Okay, but either way, that is what George needs to do. And I think we saw a little bit of it here. We saw the confidence from him winning that race. It's the perfect time to do it. Antonelli looked poor this weekend. He made a mistake.

Didn't look particularly fast. But George hasn't had enough of those moments where he has been better, if at all, than Antonelli, other than this race in Australia. So it's whether he can continue to go into like a Sopang and completely dominate Antonelli again. Because if he can do that again, that's when I think there's a chance for the title to sway a little bit. And just get a little bit in Antonelli's head where maybe he needs to think about just finishing second and not pushing and making sure he just brings us over the line. Yeah, I just thought there's quite a lot of similarities between Antonelli this year. and Lando Norris last year in Baku where Lando had that problem in qualifying was out in Q1 I think and then had to fight back through the field and wasn't really able to do it do you remember like he

he almost last year yeah Lando finished seventh last year if it's seven then everyone was saying that it wasn't overtaking people and this is what I mean yeah yeah yeah I know the different cars but in terms of like I can't remember where Landon maybe maybe Lando didn't go out in Q1 maybe that was the year before but no he just had did he just have a poor qualifying I don't think he didn't go out in qualifying, he just didn't, he just didn't capitalize, did he, on basically Oscar's mistake. Whatever it was, he just couldn't overtake. And I just wondered, you know, just, I know that they're two completely different sets of regulations, but I wonder if there's something about Baku that just doesn't allow for someone that has the fastest car,

maybe the fastest package, to not be able to really make the most of it. I just wanted to make that comparison. Right. Let's go to another question. P1 Patreon member, the Aston Martin Payne will end. Not any time soon, I don't think. Why can't all street circuits be this good? I don't agree.

I think Baku was saved from chaos. I think we were... If Alex Albin hadn't gone into the wall, we're having an absolute stinking race. We're complaining about street circuits, being boring and not providing anything. And Baku... I'm saying it's good.

I don't... I don't think this circuit is good. Baku was like, you know what? I know Madrid was bad, but let me try. And it relies so much on chaos. Even Max, like, you know, couldn't pass someone. We didn't see it really any overtaking going on. And when it was, it was a slam-duck.

It was motorway passes. So I don't think it lends it particularly well to this track. And I want to bring up some comments from Liz Hamilton because, you know, I completely agree with him. And it was actually hilarious that he said this on the, the stage at Baku whilst speaking to Formula One and Ariana Bravo during the kind of like driver meetings. And he said, they're making some of these tracks where you just cannot overtake and it's frustrating.

I don't know who designed them. Anyone here want to design a track. I'm pretty certain there's lots of people here. They'll be able to do a better job than some of the ones we've got coming up. So that's not even Madrid. That's him kind of slandering just modern circuits. general I think and it's so true and so accurate I don't know why all these new circuits with Baku was saved here by carnage but there was very little passing

it was very hard to overtake you've got a middle sector which yes it's fun that they go into the castle section but it's single file the losing time and you can't you can't follow particularly well and these circuits are it's very annoying that Formula One is going in this direction where they're they're going all down this like entertainment route and giving people battery boosts and really wanting the races to be crazy and exciting and going to these circuits that are just rubbish and don't provide any good action and there's it's amazing that before all these companies and things that have all this data and say look this is the

circuit we're designing and it's cost two million that we've paid to a company or whatever to design it for us and yet there's all these circuits like Silverstone and like classic tracks like that and like interlagos that haven't been designed in this way and they're just classic tracks and they provide entertainment after entertainment always brilliant racing yeah yeah we just need a full calendar of Silverstone Cota interlagos someone else designed Malaysia completely agree with Lewis we need people to design tracks that aren't told you need to build it around this landmark or you need to build it around or you understand

that racing and stuff. Because they don't. They clearly don't. Like, no one. Some they do. Some, I think, just generally, you know, we've been, you know, at pain because of the regulations, the cars are too big, stuff like that. Like, I think, you know, for example, Abu Dhabi, now that it's been refined, I think is fine. Like, it's okay. Madrid is like the worst of the worst. That is like a track that you're genuinely just trying to make people fall asleep on. And I can't believe that's a circuit that was made, like,

actually genuinely built in the last couple of years. It's, for Baku, go on. I saw, I saw something quite funny from, I was watching a vlog from someone that went to Madrid, a YouTube called Mr. V, and he said something quite funny that was, he had a conspiracy theory that circuit designers put in loads of corners because it makes them justify their job, because like, if they just drew a straight, a hairpin, a straight and a hairpin, you'd be like, Why do we need to pay a designer to do that? But that would actually be a much better track than all these ridiculous corners.

And I think there's, while it's like a humorous take on a conspiracy theory, there is kind of some element to truth to that because I think it's just like, why can't we just have a track that, like the best part of Baku is that massively long straight into a heavy braking zone. But yet they do so much other stuff on all these circuits that just separate the cars and stuff. And yeah, the circuit design in general is just such a mess at the moment, I think. Every new circuit other than Vegas, ironically, because they couldn't do anything but long straights and 90s corners. And it works. It works.

Yeah, I think with other street tracks like Baku, like Monaco, there's restrictions because it is a street. You can't just go wherever you want. You can't just design whatever you want. They are fully just locked into, you know, this landmark and this. We need to go through here. So the circuit builds itself with what the street actually is, and therefore, of course, it's going to be potentially bad. And, yeah, Baku had a run of races where it was chaotic. Oh, my God, what a great track this is.

But realistically, it's just a bunch of 90-degree left and right-handers. And, yeah, the castle section's cool, but there's not really any place to overtake apart from term one. You know, the straight out of turn two to turn three is okay, but again, we didn't see many overtakes into their. today. But yeah, I am in full disagreement if it wasn't clear that this was a good race or even a good track. I think we've just been lucky. I think we've been, you know, with really high winds causing headwinds and therefore the slipstream's insane some of the years. It's stuff like that that's made Baku good, not this track is phenomenally built. Cota is honestly, I think, the best circuit in terms of what has actually been designed. Like, they've taken, they've gone, hey, that's good

from Silverstone. That's good from here. That's good from there. Let's plonk that there. Or turkey turn eight. Let's do it up but the other way around. They knew wheel, right? And that always provides a good race. Austin's always a brilliant, brilliant race. Yeah. And yeah, you look at Baku and you put a highlights package together of Baku and it's just crashes. It's not, there's not many kind of like amazing overtakes of Jeff. It's just carnage. It's just a 2.2 kilometre back straight.

that has caused lots of slip streaming and lots of speed. That knows if there's a crash, there'll be a safety car restart, and everyone knows that that's their only opportunity to overtake with a safety car restart because you get the slip stream, and if you're ahead, you're in trouble. And then everyone goes and says one, cause a big crash, there's another safety car, then you get a bit more action. There's another safety car, and you get a bit more. That is all Baku has been good for, and there'll be some races that go by where that doesn't happen,

and we say, oh, my God, that's horrible. and then you get some that are good. But even like 2021 was everyone will remember that race because of everything chaotic and you had a sprint race at the end. But all that happened in that race was Max had a tire blowout. They did a safety car, Lewis locked up, and that was it. That was all that actually happened. That does not make a good race.

I'm sorry. It makes for highlights. It makes for big championship connotations, but it doesn't make a good race. And I wonder if this question would have come in had we had the first 13 laps as the laps we saw at the end, and then we had 35 laps of just all the cars separate. I don't think so. I think this is recency bias. I think this is, oh, we had a reasonably interest again to the race,

which wasn't actually that great. Max couldn't pull a move. And generally, like, the cars just stretched out again after the crashes. So, yeah, I know people will measure and value races differently. That's fine. You watch Formula One however you want. But for me, I will, like, I never come away from a race that's had four safety cars, seven DNFs, but they've all just been crashes, as like a way in which to go, oh, you know what, that was a lot of safety cars and therefore I really enjoyed it. Yes, a safety car coming in and the restart is always exciting, but it's not the same as having like a really interesting strategy race where you have a bit of battling for the lead, no crashes.

Like that, that's my kind of vibe, all right? A little two-stop, maybe a three-stop. Just please, not this one-stop hard-tire rubbish. Like Pirelli, why did you bring a step harder this year? Geez, tough. Right, okay, enough of the ranting. We'll carry on. F-1 focal comes in with the question,

has Ocon done enough today to make Hats reconsider their position? Or potentially to attract interest from another team? I would love to, I'd love to just imagine Formula One as this really knee-jerk place where they're like, O'Connie, back in! What a P-7 from you. Come on, we're only kidding. See you later, Kamara.

Whoever we're trying to sign. No. Hasse are not going to reconsider, sadly. Esteban did a great job. He took advantage of obviously the chaos that was unfolding in front of him. Also pulled a lovely little move on his teammate to go, well, I ain't got a contract next year.

I'm coming down the inside, mate. And if you want to go around the outside into turn two, you know what happened to Perez last time. I do not do that. I do you. thing. So yeah, Ockon, brilliant drive, of course, without the chaos, he's not even scoring a point. So let's not say it's like this drive that's going to mean every team drop all of their drivers to sign him. But that being said, he took advantage of a position that was put in front of him and beat his teammate as well, which is not something he's done all too often this year.

It was a fantastic raise from Ocon. Glad he was rewarded after a really unlucky qualifying, where I think he was really strong and could have got a fantastic result. He was angry, wasn't he? He was very angry and rightly so because he looked quick and he got the reward. He was 13th at the end of the, when the safety car came in. That's crazy. Yeah, it's mad, isn't it? But yeah, a great race from him to get a good result.

But as we said before, not many places in Formula One, where does he go? You know, maybe Alonzo retires and it opens everything up again. We're yet to find out on that one, but there's nowhere to go. There's no seats this year. It's kind of happening exactly as we predicted that the only thing really going to happen after as soon as we heard Max has signed and we're not going to get this big domino effect, that, you know, your head says nothing happens, maybe Ocon loses his seat to Kamara and that's looking like it's very likely going to be the case.

and that might be the only move that we get in silly season or sensible season if you want to call it that mate i've just seen the arvid thing again i am absolutely it's mad isn't it like i just seen that whole um it's just ridiculous maybe they got so distracted by everything else they were like oh the two alpines let's not look at arvid eating his teammate but well-to-knock-on um i just there's no room at the inn is there but i hope he finds something as i said before uh yeah for sure all right Let's move on to biggest winner, driver or team. George Russell is obviously a great shout. Hasse are a good shout.

Yes, Hasse won after the safety car. Hasse don't get many points these days. They'd probably not one biggest winner either at all, have they? Not even probably been in with a shout. No, I mean, it is definitely Russell. At one point, Perez was up in like P-12. He was about to thrust himself ahead of Bottas in the championship. But alas, that did not happen for Sergio.

Red Bull is also like a small, sort of like shout just generally for being very competitive, but I think maybe signs, signs gets a point from nowhere. He was running in 17th. I was like, oh wow, Albon's going to be the one to score the point. No, Albon hits the wall. Signs carries on and scores a point.

It's got to be Russell for the amazing performance that he put in just completely dominant. Actually, no, what am I talking about? Hadjar is a great shout. Hadja. I think Russell. I think Russell just generally because of the fact that,

considering what's happened this year yeah it was a it was a week no he's he slam dunked the whole weekend didn't he did yeah so he had fastest lap he was quickest in Q1 Q2 Q3 led every lap I might go just yeah just smirking a driver of the day they someone on our patreon max which someone on a slip streamer I need to find who it is that keeps mentioning this this stat but what's the start George Russell has not got, it's Captain ofs on our Patreon. I keep saying about George getting driver of the day. He hasn't won driver of the day since Sequea 2020.

Wow. You know, in that race where he was going to win and then. Yeah, if he was going to win Driver the Day, I think this one was fully deserved. But no one that wins from the front wins. No, you just don't. It's just, yeah, they like the heroes drive and Max's going through the field and being that close to victory was amazing.

Hadjar, his recovery, fantastic as well. But yeah, it's got to be George, really, hasn't it? It was a dominant performance. Biggest loser. Colapinto, Alpine? Do we say Alpine is a collective because they're both out? True. I think you've got to give it some.

I mean, McLaren are a good shout. Because the expectation of McLaren. We're not spoken about Piastri. Yeah, yeah. That lock up. He was running so well like second. He was having such a good race. Such a good race.

Running in P2, looking like has he found something? And then, yeah, like Lando obviously locked up, but he was really struggling with something this weekend was kind of nowhere. And then of course Piaastri locking up into the same corner, going off. I'm trying to remember who was Piestri actually battling? battling um it was when he went off he was defending from had gel wasn't he that was yes he was yeah so he's defending for a for a podium and this is the thing with back who safety car resource and and it's also why they were going back to this point that like it's so harsh to like really be so in on colapinto here because like so many people lock up into that corner you've

seen so many drivers do it and he's tried to save the podium and unfortunately in doing that you lock up you go down that runoff if there's been a safety car restart everyone just goes past you because it takes so long to get back as hamilton yeah exactly you have to loop back round and get back on the track but yes McLaren awful start to their new era with their horrible new logo mm it's a historical logo isn't it it's going back to their roots but yeah piastri was yeah fully deserving of a small segment in our podcast at least to say that he was having a phenomenal race but yeah one one tiny

mistake which he owned up to didn't he said said it was his mistake yeah he did it's gutting for him really really is because he was driving so so well and yeah really thought he'd turned a turned a corner with with the kind of pace potentially because we said didn't we after after his great qualifying like well he needs to back up in the race now he was doing exactly that it was yeah until one one mistake so costly and throw away big points yes I think McLaren obviously Alpine Colapinto maybe just because it'll have to deal with Flavio Riatori and no one wants to have to yeah I mean

colapinto taking out your own teammate is it's probably the biggest loser yeah when you actually consider the rules of racing and what you shouldn't do as to Martin you team out as to Martin double D&F when I said that they're both finish as well I love that the Lardstrol prediction I've made yeah like a loophole but then actually you realize that it's just, it was never going to happen. Lap 9, gone. I also love, because I've paused it on just to see all the gaps at the end of the race, and it's come up with the auto YouTube sort of, what I'm going to call it?

Subtitles, yeah, captions. And you know how stupid they are. And I've just paused it, and it just says, Oon for 8th, B-man ahead of science. Beeman. Beeman ahead of science. Yeah, father of lost dog, they called B-man. Yeah, it just, that tickled me.

So there you go. Okay, biggest loser. Colapinto, but there's plenty of candidates for sure. Right, let's now move on to predictions, if we must. Oh, yes. It is current... I hate it so much. So to give you all context, if you don't tune into the watch for long,

I did tell people there, but Tommy, after practice, basically was like, it's over, it's done, ha-ha, and then it turned around a bit. And I was like, oh, actually, you know, maybe I will score some points against you. But I'm not liking the confidence at Tom. Tommy's having this year of just scoring points. It makes me feel physically unwell. But it's 46-34 to Tom Bellingham. And again. And let's begin with a good surprise where I went for Williams. And of course, you know, an unbelievable prediction. Signs makes it to Q3. Albon's there. Albon's then running in the points. Oh, let me just smash into the wall. And Symes was running like 17th at the time. Like, it just, it's not working out for me this year.

You do know, you can always guarantee a brilliant race from a single driver if you go for a team. That is the P1 rule. So, yes. I went for George Russell. That's got to be at least three points. Only one by zero points. Absolutely dominated the weekend. Yeah.

Well of prediction that was. Only point one of a point, I think. You win by the gap that he won by. A big flop. I went for Charlotte Clare and he went, hey, let me spawn in fourth. Let me, despite everything, all the crashes, I start on the front row of the, grid I finish fourth and oh my god Ferrari in fourth place at the moment yeah anything can have love it they can be like reasonably competitive look at a track that's maybe their kind of

thing and yeah it's so weird at the moment that you have a race like that McLaren nowhere they're out of there Antonelli's nowhere and yet he's still fourth and then you go into another one and yeah they just it does feel like Ferrari this was kind of what you were going for here about them the of like losing momentum. And yeah, this could have been worse, had, had LeClair not qualified well, and the McLaren's finished and stuff. Yeah, they are in Struggledown, it looks like. And the Ferrari hype is really dwindling now with kind of,

they feel like they're running out of steam with the upgrades and stuff. Yeah, if you'd have told me without context, LeClaire's eight-tenths off pole, I'm like a big flop loading up then. It's absolutely low. Oh, no, he's P2. It starts P2. And then I knew I had zero hope for the race. I was like, he's going to fall back.

He's going to fall back. And lo and behold, he did. So no points for me for that either, because he finished fourth. And Tommy doesn't allow P4s. So there you go. Over to you. Big flop. Went for Lando Norris.

Another pretty good race for him. Pretty good race from him. Pretty good race. Please stop scoring points. Yeah. I mean, I'm already dead. You could argue that. Stop.

Yeah. I mean, that's too good predictions. Surprise Russell flop. At this point, you just have to appreciate greatness, and that's what I'm doing right now. I'm sat back and I'm like, you know what? Just like Ferrari, 27 is our year. Okay? Pole position, I went for Kimmy Antonelli, and he went, you know what, let me rip a left front off.

I have for George Russell. Oh, fantastic. Well done. Yeah, happy of the money. Three from three right now. This is getting scary. Third place, I went for Lando Norris. And just a great sad prediction.

Really good. I went for Antonelli, which I was quite confident about the start of the race. Thought that P3 could definitely come in and no. But no, it did not happen. Finally, Tommy gets one wrong. Thank you. Second place, I went for Max for Stappen. Double. God, by 0.1 of a second, I got that correct. And I went for George Russell. 0.1 of a second, I got that wrong. Yeah. And first place, I went for Antonelli and I was 14 seconds off. and I went for Max to stop and was point one of the second off oh my God imagine

imagine Max got him on the line you would have had a heart attack because you would have seen Max win and also had two more points in the predictions it would have been that that would have been like the kind of it's over like it's done

yeah I would have got up shook your hand and said thanks for the predictions championship we're not posting another episode till next year at some point you just got to know when it's over like when like Sportsman just get like that when... Like in a chess match or something.

Yeah, the chess festival. Yeah, off you go. That would definitely happen. You know I'll be campaigning for a max penalty for the yellow flag if that had happened and he got him on the line. Yeah, yeah, very true. And actually, yeah, if Max had got him on the line, would I have got good surprise for George Russell with a P2?

Yeah, you would have. A bitable. Yeah, because you've been really strong. Because you were calling for that as well. It's disgusting. Okay, P-Watt. again, get shafted a bit more, Matt. Please. Lawson was running really well,

and I went for Lawson, obviously, for P9, which at one point was happening. When the safety car came out, he got promoted to P9, and then I was calling for a red flag for the barrier repair. That didn't happen. And I went for Arvid Lindblad,

who brilliantly whacked into the side of his teammate. He knew. He was like, I need to get P-9. Look, Tommy, I need P-War. I've seen where Lawson is. I'll smash into the side of him, and then... No.

It's true is it. Stu's a Tombellion. It could have been worse. There was a moment right near the end. He was running P9. He was not. And I was like, I was cheering him on.

I was like, please pass more cars. Yeah. So you don't get two points for that. And then Lawson was coming back through the pack and it kind of looked like it might be pretty close at one point. He eats his team mate out the race. My P-Watt.

Doesn't get a penalty. That qualifies 15th with a bit of a stinker. He crashed in practice. How have you got the point for P-9? Oh, God, it makes me so angry. All right. one crazy prediction no red flags in qualifying all right we cooked oh yeah well done well done me i scored another all right that sounded a bit sarcastic that sounded like oh well done you know no no that was a

genuine because yeah you forgot that i scored something else and uh i went for lancel ral finishes the race which no oh god over on lap nine just seen it's not the end of the pain uh our patreon prediction i went for mvk both astern martin and cadillacs finished the race and one of them did. Ouch. And I went for... Tommy, over to you. Go on.

Just tell me. George Russell will finish higher than Kimmy. Yeah, realistically. I was karma for butchering her name yesterday. Yeah, fair enough. I'll butcher your name in a minute. One, two, three, four, five points you scored. And I scored two.

So I'm 15 points behind with seven, maybe eight races left. Yes. Okay. So we need to gain two or three points the race. That's fine. It's doable. That's doable. I could have an absolute shocker for the rest of the time.

How many points did we score last year overall? We need to go back to the results. Because I feel like you're having a great season. And sometimes you just... I've been a great season. Game recognizes game. If I can call me game, probably not. Actually, one thing on predictions.

The family one's more important. No, no. Someone commented on. on our real reacting to the kind of finish of the race from the watch along. And someone said, Tommy happy if Max had won, Tommy happy if it had got the point that Max hasn't won a race. And I was like, absolutely,

I do not want that point. I want to make that very clear that I do not want that point. And I will do anything to not get that point. We need a Max win. I will, that's not, I don't want that point. Just to make it clear, this was a preseason prediction where Tommy said Max won't win a race and I've never wanted to be more wrong

and sadly it's kind of happening and we look forward as well Mercedes getting an upgrade Malaysia they'll be pretty strong Is that when the Merk is getting the upgrade? Is it Malaysia? Well yeah and it just depends if they bring it or not but Merck needed an upgrade as they qualify eight terms clearly over wrong

Are they going to upgrade their engine as well aren't they? Okay so family top three the most important championship. It's currently 10-5 to the Gallagher's and we go over to my wonderful fiancé and Tommy's mother were the two attendees for the Constructors Championship.

In third place, Ellie went for Max Verstappen. My mum went for Lando P3. Second place, Ellie went for Kimmy Antonelli. Nope. My mum also went for Antonelli. And in first place, Ellie went for Lando Norris. And my mum went for Lando-Norris. And my mum went for...

for Max Verstappen. That is mad, by the way, because when we said this, we were both like, there's, I mean, apart from Lando, where we questioned, we were like, that's a strong set of predictions. There could be, they could come in, Lando could come in P3, not first. I was surprised at the lack of belief in George,

because I thought this would be a good race for it, obviously. I mean, look, you could, that's what I went for, went for it. But actually, now I think about it, you, Ellie, and my mum all went for a variation of the same three, For Stappen, I tell you, Morris. And all of us were incredibly wrong.

So that's fantastic. Actually, no too fair. I went for Stapp and P2. That was one of my only points. All right. Let's stop talking about the predictions because I hate talking about it. Tommy, well done. 15 points ahead.

Looking forward to you just taking your foot off the gas and fielding Frank for the next set of predictions. That would be good, you know, maybe. Yeah, maybe. Just don't take part. The winner is buck. You know that three races from the end. Just be like, just take part in the predictions. episode, but don't actually do any predictions and see if you can

DNF the final three and still win? Can you imagine? Oh my god the, me just going, I've scored one point this week and I've closed the cup to 14 with two raises to go. Yeah, maybe not. Don't do that actually, please. Okay, there we go. Tommy, how do you sum that one up then? How do I sum that one up? Lots to talk about, I'm just looking forward to Sampang.

I know we've got drive ratings still to do. and a certain interview with a certain driver which will be arriving. Where is it? Where is it? Where is the Max interview? Where is it? When are you posting it?

Soon. It's coming soon. Don't you worry. It's coming soon. It'll come out as soon as we can post it, all right? Exactly. And you'll be very happy with it because I'm really excited for everyone to see that.

Don't hype them up. They might be that. It's rubbish. They might think he like confesses his undying love for you. Yeah, we had to take that out. They didn't approve it. That's just for tommies. But yeah, I can't wait to see

Sapang again is my thoughts I know we're meant to be talking about back here but bring on Spang, can I wait to see it again? Yeah, please. Can't wait. And we'll be not waiting very long because it's straight back to it, isn't it? I'll be on holiday but still there, don't you worry? Fingers across the internet. You'll be there no matter what. Exactly. Malaysia, what a track.

Right, thank you everybody. We will see you in a matter of hours, probably for the next episode of Best Reactions and then driver ratings and then predictions and then Max's interview and then Friday practice and then Saturday. going to be a lot of content. So, look forward to that. Oh, my God.

Chaos. But we love it. Hey, we wanted momentum and we're blooming well getting it. We wanted momentum, and we got momentum half a year. Yes, indeed. There you go. All right. See you soon, everybody.

Lots of love. Bye. Goodbye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the Acasts Creator Network.