P1 with Matt and Tommy - Barcelona-Catalunya GP Driver Ratings

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

Join us for another tricky episode of the Most Controversial Series in F1 Podcasting - probably because almost half the grid at the Barcelona-Catalunya GP didn't even finish!Our brand new live show 'Super Podding' is coming to the UK and Amsterdam this autumn! Get your tickets here: http:/tix.to/p1liveSign up to 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 P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. Driver Ratings, your favourite series in the world that involves numbers, is back. And not a sprint weekend to deal with. We've dealt with quite a few sprint weekends already this year. But this one had enough pit stops to claim it had many different parts to the race. And it was a very intriguing one at that. Wasn't it Tom Bellingham? Certainly was.

A lot of strategy. involved and yeah should be a good one this. Indeed when you look at like the strategy graphic which I've got in front of me there's a lot of different colours a lot of softs, mediums and hards used by a lot of drivers so that's a race that I love to see

so let's get into our driver ratings and begin with Sergio Perez started the race in P19 and finished 14th my grade for Sergio Perez

is a six hour of 10. It was a rather lonely race for Sergio Perez. I will say that. He was faster than Valtrey Bottas once again. It will be a bit closer in qualifying. And also, you know, my goat was also, I love I say my goat, like I'm the one that's been, I've been back in Bottas, but he had, he saved a fresh set of soft for the race as well. He's thinking ahead. He's like, how do I beat the Aston Martins? And lo and behold, he did because I don't think either of them finished. but he also the Botas

Perez qualifying head to head he actually had some problems with his car as well which meant that he was a little bit slower than he would because the key word the key term deployment issues because that's just

the standard thing in 2026 so yeah I would say once again the faster Cadillac driver so I'm giving him more than a five that most back markers always get on driverings I am going to give Sojo Perez a five out of ten. I think it was a good result due to obviously the DNFs that happened,

but I don't think he was as impressive as maybe we've seen. Maybe that's the fact that he has been so impressive that maybe just a more normal weekend, he's being downgraded a little more than normal. But yeah, Perez certainly didn't match the heights of what he's kind of done in recent times. So I'm going to go for a five for Paris. Okay.

The fans, they disagree. You've not, you've come into the Bottas corner by the sounds of it, Tommy, because they've gone for a six out of ten as well. Valtry Bottas, started P20, did not finish. I've gone for a five out of ten for Valtry Bottas, much more comparable to his teammate this weekend. Obviously, the big standout for him was a very scary moment, whereas breaks failed in practice, which thankfully happened.

at a corner that he could realize and go into the gravel and kind of turn in because had it happened somewhere else we could have had a very scary incident indeed. But yeah, he's much closer and signs of improvement, so I'm going to give him a five. Interesting. The fans gave Valtrey Bottas a five out of ten. You're not going to grade him. I'm not going to grade him, apparently. I just said it.

Well, who's the hater now? I went for a five out of ten, sorry for Valtry Bottas, because Perez did. beat him this weekend. Of course, Bottas had the DNF and also some problems in practice, but I can't give him the same grade because Paris did look like the faster driver. And as I mentioned, with Czechos qualifying as well, he would have had a bigger margin had it not been for an issue with the car. So that's why there's a point difference. So Valtry Bottas gets a five from me and the fans, which technically I am a fan of Formula One, also went for a five. So there you go. Franco Colapinto, started 13th, finished.

10th, my grade for Franco Colapinto is a 7 out of 10. Would have been probably one point higher, but he picked up a penalty after the Alonzo incident, which dropped him down behind both V-carbs come the end of the race. So that's a shame for him. Of course, he outqualified Gasly, which is a really sort of notable thing, and it's not something that's only happened once. He's been pretty good in qualifying when you compare him to Pierre Gasly. and overall it was a reasonably strong weekend but sadly for him loses a you know a chunk of points

from a mistake of him not slowing down under the yellow flags i've also gone for a seven out of ten for franco colapinto i think had it been without the penalty i think he would have got an eight out of ten as well you know very impressive to outqualify gazley he's done it quite a few times this year think they're equal actually if you compare all the sprints and the grand prix qualifying and yeah not as good in in the race obviously there was a few moments where he had to play the team game because they were on different strategies but it's a shame for the penalty at the end because it would have been even more points for him and finishing behind his teammate on the road but what a run of form he is on still scoring points and silencing any oh is franco going to lose his seat chat because

I think he's solidified himself now at the team with these kind of performances. The fans gave Franco an 8 out of 10. Pierre Gadsley started 14th, finished 7th. I've gone for an 8 out of 10 for Pierre Gassley. A very strong drive, I think, disappointing and qualifying. Alpine just did not seem to have the pace, thinking that they've dropped off quite a lot, but a really strong race in a car that particularly in qualifying,

I don't think, was anywhere near, maybe the V-carb. So to beat them both, he beat them both on the road as well. And yeah, very, very strong from Gassley again to bag some big points. And yeah, he's doing very well in the championship now. He really is.

I've also gone for an eight out of ten for Pierre Gassley. I think overall in the race, he was very strong. He was a little bit fortunate with the timing of the virtual safety car, which meant that he gained a little bit of time on his teammate. I think those two were reasonably closely matched across the Sunday as well. But yeah, of course, when you look at the end timings with Colopinto's penalty as well as the, as I say, the VSC timed pretty well for Gassley. It looks worse than it is between two of them. I think they were very close.

But of course, Gazzley did not pick up a penalty. So I have gone for an eight out of ten for Pierre. Great stuff. The fans gave him an eight as well. Gabriel Bortoletto. started P12 and finished 11th. My grade for Gabby Bortoletto is a 6 out of 10. P11 on the road sounds pretty good.

Don't think it really reflects his struggles this weekend. Holcomberg showed that there was a lot more on the table for Audi. Had it not been for a kill switch, we'll talk about him. shortly and how that turned off his car. Yeah, for Bortoletto just seemed to lack pace in comparison to NICO. Almost scraped a point with the late DNFs, but without that, you know, he's over 30 seconds behind P10 and in 11th and didn't really trouble the sort of bottom end of the points. So for Bortoletto, it's okay, it's all right, qualified reasonably well in P12,

but yeah, still left, I think, a bit on the table. I have gone for a five out of ten for Gabby Bortoletto. I think it's a disappointing weekend when so many people have retired, top runners, of course, retiring at the end to give an opportunity for points and to still finish 11th, particularly when we saw Nico Holcomburg what he could do in that car. So I think, unfortunately, for Gabby, he was not one of his better races. He was down kind of struggling towards the back of the field. you know, fighting, fighting with the likes of Hass and things during the race,

which I think were much worse cars than the Audi. So want to forget for Bortoletto, I think. And I will say as well, because I know some people will be jumping in going, ah, but Matt, Tommy, blah, blah, blah, had a late pit stop and went on the softs. Yeah, and did we see how quick they were in comparison to hard tyres? They were two, three seconds a lap quicker. So I'm not really considering these late pits.

as like a massive time loss because I think that there was a lot of time to be made up with an extra pitstop as we saw with a certain Lewis Hamilton and how he made that work. The fans gave Bortoletto a six out of ten. Nico Holcomburg started ninth, did not finish. I've gone for an eight out of ten for Nico Holcombberg. So unlucky, again, not to score points. Of course, we mentioned it in the race review and did a social clip about it as well, the fact that a piece of Liam Lawson's, well, not even his car, some gravel, pulled the kill switch on his roll hoop, cut the power,

and Holkenberg was definitely on for some points, challenging Lawson, and it was a good battle and qualified very well as well to get into Q3, and just, yeah, very, very disappointing for Nico, but got to reward his drive nonetheless, so I've gone for an eight. I've also gone for an eight out of ten for Holkenberg. Very unlucky, as we've mentioned. I mean, how many times is that going to ever happen? Probably only once for anyone on this grid,

let alone for many years to come probably. Although I wonder if Audi will explore a protective device around that roll hoop now, because that was ridiculous. I doubt it, because, of course, it will cost some time aerodynamically. But for Holkenberg, Q3 for the first time this season. Great performance on Saturday. On Sunday, he's fighting Lawson, as we mentioned.

That's how he picked up that random rogue bit of gravel. So he was definitely on for some points. One, maybe two. But yeah, I think an 8 out of 10 reflects a very solid, decent weekend from Holcomberg. And hopefully the first of many, but my God, is he pummeling my F1 fantasy team? Like, how has he still not scored any points? He's going to be worth 50p in like five races time. The fans gave Holkenberg an 8 out of 10.

Esteban Ocon started 17th, finished 13th. I am going to go for a five out of ten for Esteban Ocon. It's, you know, I'm having to shift where I place Haas now is only seven rounds in. But you look at the start of the season, they were picking up points, especially in the hands of Olly Behrman. And you could argue that Hass were the fifth fastest team, maybe sixth fastest team at worst. Now, I think they're only just ahead. Well, not only just ahead, but I think they're ahead of Cadillac and Aston Martin. and that's probably it.

So for Hasse, they've fallen behind. About Williams, I mean, Williams, I think I would even place probably as fast as Hass if not marginally quicker in the hands of signs we saw maybe. I mean, Ocon finished half a minute behind signs. So obviously had an extra pit stop at the end, but also had time. To be fair, not a huge amount of time. I think he had like six laps to make the most of the soft. So perhaps there was a bit of margin that he lost there, but still,

Hass are looking shocking. So I've gone for a five out of ten because it's nothing special from Ocon but also nothing special from the team. I've gone for a five out of ten for us to ban O'Con as well. Yeah, I think you do have to disregard O'Conn's pit stop in this one

because he pitted right towards the end and obviously there was a safety car and thing so he didn't get any time to make up that. But that being said, I've looked at the time he was behind Berman before Berman retired and he's 20 seconds off. you know, Behrman's put half a second on him in qualifying again. Ocon's just having a shocker and still just looks like it's going to be

potentially a disappointing end to his career if his pace doesn't kind of pick up. The fans gave Esteban Ockon a five out of ten. Olly Behrman started 17th, finished technically 15th because he was classified, but obviously he stopped. He did indeed. I've gone for a seven out of ten for Olly Behrman, which may seem incredibly generous but I think the Hass as you kind of mentioned when I'm talking about Ocon is absolutely awful he was going to finish 11th on the road

without his car breaking down as we mentioned half a second on O'Con in qualifying 20 seconds clear of O'Con he was fighting you know you mention about the fact that and I think rightly that the Hasse have just fallen off O'Con was in that

pack at the back whereas Berman wasn't he was fighting some midfielders in that race didn't have anywhere near the struggles O'Conn did with Tyadeg. And just a bit of a segue here. Formula One is all about being in the right place at the right time. And I hope I'm wrong here, but I really hope Olly Bearman, his career still continues to thrive.

And he manages to kind of get that opportunity because I think he's a really, really, really good talent. And it would be such a shame if Hasd don't deliver the car. for him to be able to deliver the hype that he had at the start of the season because of course we were talking about the fact that he's going to go to Ferrari but now Hamilton's on amazing form. Charlerclair's signed a new

contract. I hope for Ollie's sake, Hath can pick up the pace because Ollie was one of the stars of the season at the start and I think again even though you look at it on paper and go that there's nothing special I think he is overdriving

that Hask compared to in a good way like outperforming the house compared to his teammate massively. So I've gone for a seven for Ollie. My grade for Ollie Bearman is a six out of ten. I think that the margin he had on Ockon is slightly increased. What would the word be? It looks slightly better than maybe it actually was on track because Ollie had a reasonably well-timed VSC to capitalize on that.

That being said, I think he was doing very well on the softs to be taking them as long as he was because he went onto the softs at lap 39 when the VSC came out and then was extending until his car broke down. So for Olli, he definitely is the faster hash driver.

That's been consistent throughout this entire weekend. But it is such a shame, as you say, Tommy, to not be able to actually demonstrate his talents any further than sort of 20 odd seconds behind the V-cabs, which is not something we thought would be happening so quickly.

I know we were concerned about Hass and their development, but my God, it's been a poor run of races for Hass in terms of what they can actually offer for their drivers. The fans gave Ollie a five out of ten. Wow, not happy at all with Ollie's performance. Lansdroll started 21st, did not finish. I'm going to give Lance Roll a six out of ten because he outqualified Fernando Alonzo then broke down. So I can't give him a five. I know he was like three point one second slow. lower than the fastest time in Q1, but he was half a tenth quicker than Fernando Alonzo. And then he broke down.

So there you go. Six out of ten. I've gone for a five out of ten for Lance Straal. Oh, what? He outqualified Alonso. He's salty, this man. This Fernando Alonzo lover is salty. Yeah, Alonso is great, yeah.

Yeah, obviously outqualified Alonzo, which deserves some credit even though it was 0.0.05. Still outqualified him. How is five out of ten credit? It is credit because he's still He's qualified, I'm sorry, he's qualified 20 first and being his teammate by the tiniest margin. He is in a dustbin and beat a two-time world champion in qualifying for the first time in 43 races.

Exactly, to give him some credit. I have five. No, because you're giving him fives when he doesn't out-qualify him, so how is that credit? I can't leave him up defending L'Extroth. I know crazy, but no, I've gone for a five. I think it is a five out of ten performance. He didn't do a huge amount in the race.

He was ahead of Alonzo, of course. He was in the race. like eight laps. Oh, yeah. I'm not going to give him the six. I'm going to give him the same grade as like Ollie Bearman. No. Absolutely, yeah.

He's in a tractor. Yeah. Fair enough. All right. Well, I'm looking forward to a two out of ten for Fernando Alonso then. The fans gave Lance Stroll a five out of ten. Fernando Alonzo started, well, he qualified 22nd. He started from the pits and he did not finish.

It's a 10 out of 10 for Fernando Alonzo. I've gone for a four for Fernando Alonze driving obviously an absolutely horrendous car, but I do have to take into account that he was out qualified by his teammate Stroll, who is one of the worst qualifiers in Formula One. And of course, Stroll was ahead of him, joined the race. We didn't see anything from Alonzo, even though he is driving an absolute tractor, you know, couldn't do anything heroic at the start like we've seen before. And, yeah, just a disappointing weekend.

overall, even though yes, he's driving the worst car on the grid, but you can only compare to your teammate, and I can't give him the same grade as his teammate. And maybe there's a bit of stroll tax on there because we're so used to him not beating him, but that's why I've given Alonso for. Fair enough. I've gone for a five out of ten

for Fernando Alonzo, so still that point difference, but I thought, you know what, this is probably the only time Lance Charles is going to get a six out of ten this entire year, so I'm going to give it to him right now. Fernando was beating Checo, which is obviously, you know, the big, the big fight in this championship.

Although I think that Perez did pick quite a few times. So maybe that's just slightly out of sync from where I looked. But actually, no, to be fair, he was fighting him. I think actually he was probably a little bit behind. Either or does it really matter, those two were fighting right at the back.

It's just a horrible car. How on earth do you actually grade these drivers in this Aston Martin that was a second off Cadillac in qualifying. Just utterly embarrassing. So yeah, I've gone for a five for Alonzo. Shame that he DNFed, but also not a shame if you're a Lewis Hamilton fan because Alonzo essentially secured that W, even if I do think Hamilton had a great chance.

Anyway, the fans gave Alonzo a five as well. Arvid Lindblad, started 11th, finish 9th. I am going to go for a 7. out of 10 for Arvid Linblad. I think he did pretty well in qualifying. I think he had some issues with his car as well, especially on that final lap,

because we were surprised to not see him improve after that first running Q3 looked really, really strong. Deployment issues, you'd be shocked here. Yeah, I didn't want to say it again. It's just not fun, is it? But yeah, I think it was a decent enough, decent enough run.

Sorry, he didn't, not Q3, Q2, he had a good run in the first, in the first lap but then wasn't able to improve due to problems. And then in the race, I think he was, you know, slightly slower than Lawson. I think both of them are reasonably comparable. But another strong weekend for Linblad, and I think he can be happy with his current. I know he's had a few dips, but he's also had some really standout performances this year. And it's a very good rookie campaign, I'd say he's putting together so far in a very sort of predictable car,

as the V-cab's known. It's a really good car for rookies to learn in. I still don't really know or understand or even believe that if that's true. It's such a strange thing to go around. The V-cab's just really easy to drive. It's just such an easy car to do really well in. Although, to be fair, the evidence of the last few years has shown that

whoever's gone in there as a rookie or a junior has done pretty well. So, Harvard gets a seven from me. I've gone for a seven out of ten for Harvard Limblad. It's a shame what happened in qualifying with deployment issues because he was looking very quick and could have got a great result, I think, to get into the top 10. And yeah, it looked comparable to his teammate, did well

despite maybe a difficult start where he was one of those that cut over that first corner, had to give the place back to Holkenberg, but still managed to come through to finish not too far behind his teammate. And even though, yeah, he's obviously inherited some positions. but it's still strong to finish behind his teammate who's performing very well. So I've gone for a seven for Limblood. The fans gave Arvid a seven as well. Liam Lawson started P8, finished P8. I've gone for a seven out of ten for Liam Lawson.

And I can already see all the... Oh my God, seven for Lawson. You're a hater. But I looked into his race. and actually his comments about his race and he was less than happy with his result he was very honest about the fact that a lot of his result came from the fact that two cars

basically retired in front of him and colapinto got a penalty he himself said he pushed far too hard at the start which put him on the back foot and I can't be giving him a higher grade or the same grade as Pierre Gazley who I think has obviously done very well and probably maybe not a stronger car than that V car

So I'm going to go for a seven for Liam. Ooh, very interesting. I'm not going to go for a seven. I'm going for an eight out of ten for Liam Lawson. Yes, Lawson can be critical. There's still room. It's not a nine. It's not a 10.

I think it was a very solid weekend from Lawson. Yes, outqualified Limblad. We'd mentioned about the problems that Limblad had in qualifying, but that's not to take anything away from what Liam did in terms of qualifying eighth. And, yeah, I think he missed some time, didn't he, in free practice two as well? and qualifying, as I mentioned, very impressive. I don't know where Alpine sit in comparison to V-Carb.

Personally, I think that Gassley's executed really, really well, but perhaps pretty similarly paced between the two teams. It's so hard. How do you actually measure it? It's just all literally opinion. Yeah, of course, the retirement's helped him, but that being said, I'm not going to take anything away from what is. I would be more happy, Lawson, I would say,

with your performance, because that's another point score and adds to the tally of what has been a phenomenal season for him so far. The fans gave Lawson an 8 out of 10 as well. Carlos Sines started 16th, finished 12th. I am going to give Carlos Sines a 7 out of 10. Williams are absolute poo-poo at the moment. That's what I'm going to go with. PG brand safe phrase there.

Award winning podcasters. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Clip that up and put that in the award winning evidence. But yeah, I think Carlos has done a pretty damn good weekend considering where that Williams is. He was fighting Bortoletto at the end in a car that did not deserve to be anywhere near that car. Yes, Gabby had a difficult weekend as we've graded.

But I think Carlos deserves some note here for being quick for putting the car into Q2, which I don't think it belonged to be there. And when you look at how he performed compared to Albon, I think Carlos did a very, very good job. So I'm going for a seven. I have gone for a seven out of ten for Carlos Sainz. I thought that was going to be a hot take.

But no, very much of the same opinion. I think the Williams is an absolutely horrendous car at the moment. They're really struggling. that they're not anywhere near where it should be and I do feel like colour science, maybe no surprise because he's one of the top drivers in F1 is getting everything out of it.

Don't think he should have been in Q2 but got his car there, put half a second on Albin in qualifying and yeah, a very, very strong showing with no reward, but as his driver ratings, we're here to grade drivers on their performance based on their car

rather than just where they finished. We're trying out here guys. And it's opinion, exactly as you say, like, it's where you see the difference between a Williams and an Alpine and a racing balls and a has. Like, that's what makes these grades different between everyone. Exactly. The fans gave Carlos a six. Alex Albon. He started in P18.

And, well, he technically went over the line. But still got beaten by three cars that had retired because he was five laps behind. Perez, I think, and eight laps down in total. That's the longest finishing position I've ever said. An NC, technically, not classified. Not classified despite... Circulating, yeah. Yeah, very, very strange.

And a very strange race for Alex Alba. I've given him a five out of ten. Couldn't match science in qualifying. Didn't look to have the pace of Carlos. But very unlucky in the race, his FOM camera, basically the team. T-CAM on top that we get the onboard view from became loose and was wobbling all around. I've seen a few people sharing the onboard footage from his car and how it was like wobbling and going crazy.

And basically the rule is in Formula One, you have to fix that. And he had to come into the pits. They had to try and attach it, which very interested to know, like, whether that's something that Williams actually would probably not do themselves. probably was quite a difficult thing to fix because I imagine that's that's that's FOM side or F1 side to maybe put those on the car I don't know but no surely not I would I would assume you reckon the team would just put together everything right and it's just like they just get given a camera maybe yeah yeah maybe and but yeah either way the second

bizarre retirement not a retirement from from the Grand Prix for Alex Albin but I've gone for a five yeah I deliberated whether it was a five or lower, but I think I'm going to stick with a five out of ten for Alex. It was a, of course, I'm not downgrading him because he was eight laps down, as mentioned Tommy. You know, the camera thing's not his fault.

That being said, you know, the half a second behind Carlos in qualifying is a big old gap, especially around a place like Barcelona. So, yeah, that's my sort of main consideration here compared to Carlos. Maybe that's why I've given Carlos more. But yeah,

for Alex, just a weekend that can just be put in the incinerator, to be honest, because he really didn't show any pace even up until the point of the problem. So gone for a five. The fans, five out of ten as well. Lewis Hamilton started second, finished first. Difficult one, this. I've gone for a ten out of ten for Lewis Hamilton. What more can be said, I think, you know, if any,

anybody's out there giving him a blemish on his card because he didn't qualify on poll. I think that's ridiculous. I think that the fact he even put it second and so close to pole position was phenomenal. And then in the race, I have to mention it because the other drivers that also got it, I have mentioned. There was a decently timed VSC for him, which allowed him to get track position for his final stint. But that being said, I do, I strongly believe that he would have had a very, very, very, good chance of winning the race anyway because of the pace he was putting down.

The question mark, the unknown is that you don't know how he would have been following other cars and what the tire attempts would have been like in such a hot day, but that's a hypothetical. That's something that didn't happen. What did happen is Hamilton got track position and then won by 20 seconds. I was

wondering what year it was, seeing Hamilton so far out in front with nobody else having an answer for him. So yeah, it's revitalised the championship. The fact Hamilton has entered the fray, I think millions of people around the world

are going to start tuning in because can he get his eighth? I do understand how some people have turned off this season because of many, many reasons of engines and yada, yada, yada. But we've had less talk about that, which is really nice. We have more talk about the narratives

and things like that. And Hamilton joining the fray is excellent for the sport and what a performance, the best we've seen from Hamilton at Ferrari, hands down, but it's not like it's a one-off either because he has been very quick the last few weekends as well. The easiest 10 you could possibly give. I've also gone for a 10 out of 10, a very easy 10. As you say, qualified on the front row, I think you obviously you were only bantering about the blemish in the fact that he's qualified second. I think that is him overperforming

the car anyway to be that close to a pole position when Mercedes have just absolutely trounced, know, qualifying all the time this season and looked very, very good. So I think, yeah, amazing in qualifying, which has been something that's maybe let him down in the latter part of his career. And then even when, you know, he didn't get into the lead at the start, his pace was very good. He went for the aggressive strategy. And it was absolutely amazing to watch him just absolutely go for it. I think he would have won the race. I wish we could have seen it in an alternate universe to see him come through from fourth to win but it doesn't take anything away from his drive

either way because for any doubt of the kind of oh he got he got lucky because of the VSE the fact that he pulled 20 seconds on George Russell is just to kind of well watch this and it was absolutely amazing from Hamilton so an easy 10 the fans have given him a 10 out of 10

Charles LeClair started 10th finished technically classified 15th I've gone for a three out of 10 for Charles LeClair crashed in qualifying of course the only driver

to crash this weekend his race pace wasn't particularly great you know a long way off Lewis Hamilton when he did actually retire of course the retirement wasn't his fault again unusual strategies and things

but I think I counted 50 50 odd seconds off Hamilton before he retired and I think just the whole weekend has piled a huge amount of pressure on him going forward which I think is going to be very very interesting

to see how he picks himself up from it because we thought Monaco was bad kind of got worse the fact his teammates won the race and yeah he needs to turn his form around very quickly and put this one behind him and get back to the driver that we kind of know can perform. So, yeah, reason I've gone for a three is kind of looking at everyone else and the fact that he is the one that's made the mistake to crash out and underperform.

So disappointing weekend again for Charlotte. Cool. Nice guy. How many seconds did you say he was behind? 50. 50, yeah. 43, do some maths. But anyway.

Is it? Yeah, it was 43-ish. I've done the mentor. maths. I've had a look. I've checked the stats. I've gone for a four out of ten for Charler-le-Claire. There's no way on earth you're giving him a three out of ten if he finishes P6 and doesn't retire. There's no there's no chance. You've done that because he's retired as well, but that's not obviously his fault.

I think that, I mean, we're arguing a three and a four. It's really, it doesn't really matter. It's more for me that he has to be behind the drivers that I've given a four. That's fine. That's fine. And I hope you're happy with. the three because I I'm going to go with a four because you know the positives not many of them the positives were you know his his start was able to basically turn around a lot of that deficit on lap one going from 10th to 7th and then he was ahead of piastri are we giving him a 2 out we'll find out but uh for chal leclair it was it was a weekend to forget again you know the crash was was him trying to make up time in a corner that he was losing time and then

this is the pressure that I think Hamilton's putting on him. There's no doubt because Hamilton is showing that he is able to do things that perhaps Charlotte-Cleur is like, oh, hold on, wait, what? You can do that in the same car as I can. Well, I'm going to try and do it as well. I've got him in the wall. So it's a really tough pill to swallow watching Charlotte-Cleur here because there are points where I'm like, he's rapid, but he's being really inconsistent and causing, you know,

and having crashes. So the one small saving graves for me is that, yes, there is the potential. is there. I can see it. I've seen it in the sector times, but he's not able to actually deliver it. And that's the really sad thing. So yeah, it's tough. He is still 81 points behind Kimmy Antonelli. So the championship's still on because, of course, Antonelli DNFed as well. Obviously, I'm half joking, but you never know. Ferrari were fastest around Barcelona. So maybe this is the turning point. But it's a four out of ten from me. And it's a four out of ten from the fans as well.

Isaac Hadjar started sixth, finished sixth, and I'm going to go for six out of ten for Hadjar. Decent qualifying, only, I would say decent, very good qualifying from Hadjar, half a tenth behind for Stappan.

The reason I'm going for a six and maybe not a seven is because as much as he dropped, so he dropped down, and some people might go, oh, that's just a red ball, but his own comments were saying that basically it's too narrow of a window.

The procedure is too difficult. The window is too small. So for me, I'm like, so there is still a possibility of making it work, and that's what Max did in the race as well. So he's fallen back massively. He's, of course, come back through the field. So a decent recovery drive,

obviously miles off by the time he's got through. Overall, yeah, could have been a much better weekend potentially. I think Piastri was there for the taking this weekend for Hadjar. But yeah, like it's not a bad grade, but there was definitely more more to be had. I've gone for a six out of ten for Hadjar as well. His kind of top moment was qualifying to be very, very close to Max Verstappen, which we've not seen a lot in kind of Formula One in recent times,

but dropped back at the start, which really cost him, you know, fell all the way down the order and had to spend much of that kind of first start fighting midfielders which put him on the back foot and finished kind of yeah well behind his teammate on the road so not the best weekend for him but as far as second Red Bull drivers go it's more points on the board and yeah decent showing but not the best for Hadjar

the fans gave Hadjar a 7 out of 10 Max Verstappen started 5th finished 4th I have gone for an eight out of ten for Max Verstappen. I think he got what he could out of that car. He was going to beat McLaren and a Ferrari, of course, before that Ferrari broke down. And yeah, they were obviously much quicker cars, I think,

this weekend compared to the Red Bull. And yeah, it's one of those weekends where Max couldn't really do. An awful lot with what I had. The Red Bull is still just too far off. to fight, which is a big shame. Certainly is. I've gone for an eight as well for Max. I think he did a really good job this weekend. Hardly saw him the entire Saturday and Sunday, to be honest with you.

It was just such a quiet weekend. But one that was solid. He ended up fourth, decent amount of points, but just nowhere near the pace of the front, well, Hamilton and the two Mercedes and, of course, Lando as well. So Red Bull still have work to do with their best engine. And that's kind of the story, really, like how on earth do they really improve?

They need to shave off more kilograms by the sounds of it. The fans gave Max an 8 as well. Kimmy Antonelli started third and finished, technically classified, P-16. I've gone for an 8 out of 10 for Antonelli. I think it was a relatively poor display in qualifying in comparison to his teammate. Of course, he literally started third, so his blemishes were saved there. but I think that there was obviously with three tents behind

Russell there was a lot more time to be to be made up but in the race I think he was really impressive literally passing George Russell on track with that additional race pace he's shown almost all year so of course then retired so it's a shame for him and lost a lot of points

you know there are things definitely to have been improved in qualifying for Kimmy and then also it's hard to say but obviously with without the virtual safety car and also his retirement. He might have been able to put up some kind of fight against Hamilton. We don't know. But what was clear is that Antonelli was quick and a lot quicker than George come the end of the race.

So a big shame for him, but I've gone for an eight. I've gone for an eight out of ten for Kimmy Antonelli. Qualifying was a big letdown, miles off to a Dressel, kind of what we maybe saw more towards last year with his qualifying pace, but in the race much quicker showing again that he's got stronger pace in the Grand Prix than George Russell and able to kind of put George Russell under a lot of pressure and then eventually pass him. So, yeah, I can't go for any higher because we do expect, obviously, a lot from Mercedes

still very much feel like they are the best car on the grid. So, yeah, had he been on pole position? his race pace, maybe he'd have just gone away with it and won easily again, but qualifying really let him down. So I've gone for an eight. The fans gave Kimmy an eight out of ten as well. George Russell started first, finish second. I've gone for an eight out of ten for George. Fantastic qualifying, but of course, you've got to say that should have won the race with the pace that he had, and he was going to finish third on the road. Now, I have seen the Mercedes

Instagram post where they were talking about George's race and they put him on a weird wing setting for the final stint which meant he was struggling a lot more than normal that being said I still am adamant that you know Antonelli was on him

in the middle of the race as well so I do think Kimmy showed that he was quicker overall in the race but yeah I still think George had a great opportunity to win that that grand prix and it's weird mixed feelings that he's gained so much on his teammate but it's also a race win that's got away from him so a return to the podium but still not not a huge amount to shout about when he's driving you know the best the best car out there so i've gone for an eight well Tommy still back in the Mercedes being the fastest car after Hamilton dominated by 20 seconds

interesting of course slightly different fresher tires I've gone for an eight out of ten for George Russell as well. Literally the opposite weekend for Antonelli in the sense of Saturday was phenomenal. Sunday just left a little bit on the table. You know, that wing setting stuff. I'm sat there like how many times Mercedes want to mess up something to do with George Russell's setup this year? Like we had the whole debacle of Japan, I think it was, where he was on the wrong setup, the entirety of the race and now this one as well. It's not something you tend to hear all that often of like, oh, they change the setup so drastically that I'm then struggling. It would make sense as to why George was on the back foot in that final stint. But that being said,

I think an eight reflects it pretty well. And I can't really separate the two Mercedes drivers because they both had different parts of the weekend where they were very good. So eight out of ten from me, the fans gave George an eight as well. Oscar Piastri started seventh, finished fifth. I am going to go for a six out of ten for Oscar Piastri a very very quiet one indeed he was actually pretty close to Lando in qualifying but he was in that part of the

qualifying order that was bad because there was I think three or four drivers separated by like a tenth he was on the wrong end of that however the race he left a lot of time on the table he just really struggled with keeping the tyres in in good nick and i think he ended like 35 seconds behind norris come the end of the race i think partly is due to lando being really really good this weekend again when he's had a car

that doesn't break down for oscar i think he'd be slightly concerned um that being said the hot conditions i think is something that doesn't really suit oscar and just that tire conservation I'm not going to grade him any lower than a six because it was a P5, just a quiet one, but a little bit concerned maybe for Oscar in the coming race as if this is the kind of performance he can put down. I've gone for a six out of ten for Oscar Piastri.

It's close between six and a seven, but I'll go for a six because it is disappointing how far off his teammate he was in the race very anonymous you know the only kind of saving grace as he didn't do anything wrong he just didn't have any pace but he needs to find an answer to what's going on at the moment because since that amazing almost win in in Japan that he could have so easily won had he got some better luck he's not really looked on the pace of his teammate and has struggled and been quite far behind him in a lot of the the races we've seen. So yeah, a step behind

what we've seen from from Lando this this weekend, who's obviously Sean a lot. And Oscar just seemed to, yeah, just sort of kind of had we not seen what Lando had done, we'd maybe be saying that's just where the McLaren is. But because of what Lando's done, not the best from Oscar. Not the best indeed. The fans gave Oscar a six as well. Landau Norris started fourth, finished third. I have gone for a nine out of ten for Landon Norris. I think it's a brilliant drive yet again.

In my opinion, no way should the McLaren be on the back of a Mercedes and fighting them. And that's what Lando did. He gave them, of course, a headache with the fact that he was right on there. They kind of gearbox most of the race, which meant that they couldn't do the strategy they always wanted to, and they had to think about him. And yeah, he was hanging on to the Mercedes, which deserves a big amount of credit.

And yeah, his car worked the whole weekend, and he showed exactly what he can do, even though I think ultimately he is disappointed that McLaren don't have the pace compared to the others and still a little way off. But I think he's over delivering with that McLaren for another really strong result. Couldn't agree more.

I've gone for a nine out of ten as well for Lando. Not much he could have done more. You know, perhaps if he had actually got through on Russell, this would be a very easy 10 out of 10. But for Lando, just the fastest McLaren driver, of course, it was quite close on Saturday,

but on Sunday he was brilliant. You know, the fact that he was right there was quite a surprise, I think, to a lot of us just, okay, Lando's actually in the fight for this. This is something to keep a, eye on. But he didn't quite have the pace to be able to actually make the moves on the Mercedes drivers. Of course, Antonelli DNFing gave Lando an extra position, but I don't think that should take away from a really brilliant weekend. And I'm glad to see that he actually had some

reliability, especially when I predicted him to have reliability and it actually came true, because everyone was very concerned that that would be the complete opposite. So Lando gets a nine from me and the fans gave him an eight. Okay then, who is our P1? Oh, I wonder, Lewis Hamilton. Lewis Hamilton, I think, was the only 10 I gave this weekend, whereas I gave many tens last time out. So a very different weekend, a lot of mistakes out there.

Hamilton was not one of them. 10 out of 10. Indeed, the only 10 I've given is also Lewis Hamilton. easily the best driver of the weekend. Amazing performance and looking forward to seeing what he can do now with those Ferrari upgrades and maybe, just maybe we do get a challenge. The dreams alive. Yeah, Charlotte, 81 points behind.

May I remind once again, you know, didn't lose any points coming out of Barcelona. So that's what I'll say. You know, that is a safe and grace for me. I mean, that is the most. Glassar four. He's crashed four weekends. But now. He did lose Grant to Gassley though, as we mentioned.

Okay. All right, mate. All right. Yeah, such. Oh, God. I hate you so much. Right, that is it. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in.

We will see you not this weekend, but next weekend for the Austrian Grand Prix. Looking forward to that one. Tommy, final thoughts? Final thoughts? Yeah, excited to see another race at a very different circuit. I'm very intrigued to see, you know, Austria's. such a unique track on on the calendar it's going to be very power focused you'd think um so yeah very very interested to see how that kind of stacks up because we've it would be kind of the third race

in a row that we've had very different circuits in a row um to see if the pecking order switch switches up which will be very interesting for our predictions which i'm sure we'll be all wrong we'll keep Ferrari fastest please that would be great uh thanks everybody we see you soon lots love bye goodbye is a Stack production and part of the ACAST creator network.