P1 with Matt and Tommy - Barcelona-Catalunya GP Race Review

Episode Date: June 14, 2026

Well, we didn’t think it would deliver before the weekend - but the Barcelona-Catalunya GP served up an absolute banger. Join us as we recap the biggest stories from right across the grid! 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. Today is a very special day, as we all know, in the world of Formula One, Ferrari back on top. And mixed emotions, you know, for this guy right here. Insanely happy for Hamilton. So depressed for Charlotte, Claire. But lots of other things to talk about as well. in this Barcelona-Catelunia Grand Prix round-up. Tommy, you are in your little Max Verstappen World Cup football shirt.

I think I saw him for three seconds in this race. He was barely non-existent, but, you know, I love Max Verstappen, but it's not the story. The story is Hamilton and that amazing victory, and it was just epic. We saw kind of a weirdly like a reverse of Canada where all the action came at the start and then nothing happened.

And in this race, we were going, oh, no, it's a Barcelona stink and nothing's happening. And then as soon as Hamilton went on that different strategy, it all came alive. And just what a thrilling end to the race. And what an amazing story for F1 as well. Absolutely. Now, before we get into everything, a quick shout out to our wonderful P1 patrons who'll be getting extra chat at the end of every single race review this year, as well as lots of other things, add free listening, access to our Discord and so on and so forth. Lots of benefits.

Come and join the P1 Patreon. haven't already. A lot to talk about. A lot to cover as well in the Patreon segment. But right here, right now, we're going to go straight to my most memorable moment, which is Alpin double points. I'm kidding. Hamilton winning for Ferrari. It does not feel real what I've just watched. I don't know if it's because like so many things have gone on. We all know who my favorite driver is and he couldn't have had a worse Grand Prix weekend if he tried. But when you isolate that and look at Hamilton winning for Ferrari, it is such an unbelievably special moment. It was always going to be, we felt as though, especially with how Hamilton has been this year,

that it might well come at some point this season. And goodness gracious me, I am utterly just bamboozled that it's happened in Catalonia of. all places. I firmly believed coming into this that Mercedes were going to be clear. I thought they were going to be so unbelievably strong. And instead, of course, Ferrari brought a whole host of upgrades into this weekend. And they actually worked. That combining with a Lewis Hamilton 10 out of 10, Unc is back. You know, he was just on it, the entire weekend. Sensational. Combined the two, and it was an unstoppable force. That last stint from Hamilton,

I'm sat there going, all right, maybe Olly Berman's going to take Charlotte Clare's seat. Maybe this is it. Maybe my Formula One fandom of Charlotte Clow is over. I don't think it's like that. I'm only joking. But Hamilton, simply amazing.

I could not believe what I was watching, the lap times you put in at the end, just peak Lewis Hamilton. He's not going anywhere. Absolutely not. It was unbelievable. I mean, we'll talk about the penalties and things later, but there was, of course, the worry that he might have got a penalty,

but he easily, you know, pulled away and made sure that that wasn't even an issue, even if it had been in the end. It was an incredible final stint from Hamilton, just an amazing race from him to do a complete different strategy. And just in terms of, like, the victory, it was so, so special and you could see what it meant to him. And the thing I loved the most was how emotional he got, during the Italian National Anthem and it makes you wonder

how different it hits when you're hearing the Italian national anthem for you driving for Ferrari. Obviously he's heard he's won this is a 106th win. He's heard the British National Anthem so many times up on the podium being on the top step. I think why he got emotional was hearing that Italian anthem probably thinking that maybe he'd never win for Ferrari based on what happened last year looking down at the Italian flags, everyone's saying you know he's made the worst move ever to go to Ferrari. Why have you done it? He wanted to go there when championship will see. But even just getting a win is incredible and kind of we questioned whether we'd see it.

And it was just so great to watch him get that win. Also saw a lot of people mentioning and doing the rounds on Twitter that Michael Schumacher got his first Ferrari win in Spain 30 years ago. So a really cool, like, bit of symmetry there. Very nice. And just what an amazing story for Formula One. Really is. Yeah, the emotion that he showed on the podium was really special. You know, you could see the Ferrari sort of crew.

They had the flags out. They were proper, like, you know, the energy was unmatched. And you could see that Hamilton, you know, going through those trials and tribulations, having the struggles makes the victories taste even sweeter. You know, we were saying on our live stream, won't we, Tommy, that someone asked about, what's been your favorite moment in terms of when you, go to a Formula One race. Like, can you tell us a memory? And the one that always stood out to me, um, or stood up to me the quickest was the, the Hamilton win in 2024 when he finally won, uh,

again at Silverstone and for Mercedes. And again, he'd had those struggles. And it was an incredible race and he came through to win that one. That was like such a, a core memory for me. And then you look at this one as well. And it, Formula one is built around stories and narratives and arcs and journeys and things like that. And this one for Hamilton, yeah, it is kind of solidifying his move once again. People have questioned his moves throughout his career.

When he went from McLaren to Mercedes, people questioned it and look what happened there. He then has now gone to Ferrari. And I think he has silenced absolutely everybody that has said he's finished, he's washed, he just can't do it. Last year was a struggle.

We know that. But he's proven today that the minute he's able to as he's put it, put my DNA into the team and into this car. And he is showing that he can push a team in the right direction with his feedback and with working with one of the greatest we've ever seen. So yeah, it's unbelievable. I can't believe. Just utterly unfathomable that I've just seen Hamilton win by 20 seconds in a Ferrari this year around Barcelona. Like what the hell is going on?

Against a Mercedes that has completely dominated the season and a track that normally the team that dominates wins by a mile. Exactly. Maybe it's Ferrari. Next question. Or the first question, in fact. P1PITs remember F1 sushi.

Would Hamilton's three pit stops work if the safety car hadn't happened? It would have been absolutely fascinating to watch. Don't get me wrong. Of course, I'm just glad we saw Lewis Hamilton winning because it's an amazing story. but there is part of me that would have loved to have seen him come through the pack because I joked yesterday with this whole talk about the tyres.

Are we going to see like a 2012 Pirelli race where people are on different strategies and they've got such a big tire advantage and they're flying through the pack? And that's exactly what Hamilton would have had to have done where he'd have been on much, you know, fresher tires at the end. But he'd have had to have got past probably Lando and both Mercedes drives. and I think he would have done it, how much he pulled away at the end, how much you saw people struggling on the tyres. We saw, I know it was against his own teammate who were similar battles, but how much

kind of like George was struggling around that final sector. And even like looking down the pack, like some people that had tried to stay out longer, I think it was like Olly Baerman at one point and things, you just, you can't do anything through those like corners where people were just passing into corners because of the tie difference was so massive. So I think Hamilton would have had a massive advantage. It would have been amazing to see. But I do genuinely think he would have won anyway because his pace was just absolutely phenomenal this race. Yeah, we can't be too picky with how it all unfolded, but I'm going to be because I would have loved to have seen Hamilton come through because he would have had to

past at the time Norris, Antonelli and Russell to win. And I do believe he definitely could have won. And it's just an unknown, isn't it, of yes, he would have rocked up to the back of them. But how would he have negotiated three cars in the space of, you know, a handful of laps to win the race? You know, we saw probably more of a discrepancy between newer and older times. but two and a half, three seconds a lap sometimes. At Hamilton, when he went on the medium tires initially,

he was absolutely flying. He wouldn't have had that big of an advantage. Yeah, he wouldn't have had that big of an advantage, but he still would have had, I think, at least a second in the locker. And he wouldn't have come out particularly far behind, depending on when he decided to go on that final stint. But either or I think Hamilton's pace in that last stint, yes, in clean air, just showed that he had so much margin. So for me, I think he could have made it work.

And more about the strategy actually is a question here from people on Patreon member LW233. Have the Ferrari strategy team finally woken up? Now on this, I want to genuinely give a round of applause to Ferrari here. Yep, because... For doing a really obvious thing. Not obvious, because Mercedes didn't do it. They went on a three-stop aggressive strategy. I don't think that's obvious.

I think that's unfair to say that. No, I thought you're talking about the pitting him under the VSC. No, no, no. Because they didn't do that in obviously before. Yeah, but slightly different circumstances. I think it was a very obvious thing to... Yeah, yeah, that's what I thought this question was about. No, no.

But I think it's just generally, right? Ferrari get mean for their strategies and things like that. And especially, you know, there have been some very questionable moments over the years when fighting for the win of decisions they've made. But this one, the three-stop strategy, I genuinely think bamboozled Mercedes a little bit. They were, you know, basically the aggressive strategy from Ferrari and Hamilton, the first pit stop, as Russell was said after the race as well, forced him into an early pit stop. So Mercedes, instead of just continuing on their own strategy and their own plan, used Russell to, well, they basically pit Russell to stop Hamilton, from getting track position.

Russell is then, of course, a little bit angry about the fact that he's then vulnerable to Kimi Antonelli. Nothing came of that, of course. But that immediate sort of pressure from Ferrari forced Mercedes into a bit of a mistake there because Russell was then saying, well, I was actually managing the tyres quite a bit in that first. And then you pit me to keep track position,

but I didn't really want that. So I'm genuinely so impressed with Ferrari because that is exactly the strategy that allowed them to win this race. yes, there was luck with the VSC, but it opened up there potentially being some kind of luck with the VSC. They're not just following suit with Mercedes. They're not trying to beat them on track with the same tire life. They're doing something different. And with that, it worked out an absolute treat. It did, yeah. I love when teams do this strategy of just, because I think the problem

was at the start of the race and why we were worried it was going to be so boring was it was tire conservation mode and it was just yeah they were all all kind of locked into a run program and it was kind of like oh okay the gaps are opening up everyone's just thinking about their tires but as soon as Hamilton went on this aggressive strategy and could just absolutely go for it it gave Mercedes this huge headache and it put Mercedes under pressure and what was so fascinating as well is the fact that Antonelli and Russell were kind of together on track so they were fighting whilst also having to think about others as well and that's what what made it so great so yeah the initial question I thought was about the whole pitting under the VSC which obviously they didn't do in in

Australia this was such an obvious choice it was an absolute no-brainer it was the easiest thing in the world to do and but I will yeah applaud them for the for the going on that three-stop strategy because it gave them an opportunity I think it would have been interesting to see how race would have gone had Hamilton got into the lead because that was obviously a little bit of thinking of behind that was going on the soft tire maybe seeing if they could get into the lead at the start and seeing where it went from then. So the fact that they've managed to win by doing a different strategy, well done Ferrari. Yeah, absolutely. I did question that soft tire start, but it also I think very much opened up the, well, he's going to be doing a three stop

because that soft tire is not going to be able to go very far. But yeah, he did a decent stint to be fair, did Lewis, on those soft tires, considering how much they were just disintegrating after only a handful of laps. So, yeah, very, very happy to see Ferrari deliver flawlessly, it has to be said, with Hamilton and his strategy. Question from P1Pitch, remember, a chilly ninja. Do Ferrari prioritize Hamilton over LeCler now

if they have a chance to catch Antonelli? They do have a chance. to catch Antonelli and that chance they should do it but they won't and it's very early in the season of course it's a big point difference it's not absolutely enormous and it's still very early in the season but I do I do think that if it was a Christian Horner at Red Bull or something they'd be thinking about doing this and it's tough for Leclair obviously it I do, I will just say at the start,

I don't think they're going to do this. I think it is too early and the points gap isn't too much. But I could see why some people would think, and I do believe that their best opportunity, because Mercedes are going to be incredibly hard to be, is to back Hamilton with every point you can. Because Mercedes have the, how many times have we mentioned before,

that the big advantage Red Bull had was it was just one driver scoring the most points every week, And that's how Max was able to close in on the two McLaren's while they were almost going for the battle together. And they almost lost it. So for Ferrari, Hamilton, they need to go down the route of upgrading the car to suit Lewis Hamilton and give Hamilton everything you want to upgrade-wise, because Hamilton's the lead driver now and showing that he's on an amazing run of form. Charlotte Clare, sorry to say Matt, but he's on the complete opposite run of form. right now where his form is horrendous and he keeps crashing.

So, and also like doesn't have the pace of Hamilton. So, you know, if, if they think too much about giving Leclair an opportunity to go for the world title, it's tough because it could, it could in theory cost them. And Scholl hasn't exactly kind of shown that he's ready to fight for that world title, whereas Lewis Hamilton has already proved he can win in that situation. patient. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Yeah, this question... Hard to swally pills right now. Right, this question, if you are playing like an F1 manager game with with and things like that, yeah, of course, you know, you're going to, you're going to be putting

Hamilton forward for this. But this is real life Formula One. And LeCler's argument will be, I don't think Ferrari even going to ask this question to him. I really don't, not at this stage of the season. We've had, what, seven rounds? We have another 15 to go. It's the third of the way through the season. Anything can happen as we know. Ferrari of the fastest car, then my God, sign me up to the rest of the season.

But we will talk about that shortly. With Hamilton and LeCler, LeCleur's argument will be, if there ever is one. I'm 40 points behind Lewis Hamilton and Hamilton's 41 points behind Kimi Antonelli. so you're telling me I'm actually closer to Lewis and Lewis is to Kimmy like Charles closer to Gasley than he is to Hamilton there's there's a thought sorry it's true that's not even like it's just factual information just factual information there will also be factual information as I come steaming through your front door but yeah it's too early in the season to prioritize Hamilton albeit I think if we get halfway through the season and

Hamilton is within a race win of the top of the championship. Of course, we imagine that would be Antonelli. Then, yes, I think that LeCleur would have to play second fiddle. But right now we have 15 races to go. If LeCleur wins Austria,

Hamilton has a DNF, that it swings straight back towards, you know, being a lot closer between the two Ferrari drivers. That's me saying if LeCleur wins, which we can't get a break at the moment. But I do agree on the point that you said of Hamilton being in one state of mind, LeCleur being in another.

You know, this is one of the worst runs of form Lecler's had in his entire career. So to dream of him... The best run, like one of the best. Yeah, exactly. Hamilton's got the confidence. You can see he's really happy in himself. Like, of course, you're going to be...

I mean, Ferrari, yeah, that they would want to in an easy world to be able to back Lewis Hamilton and just go full pelt with him to try and win the world title. But it's not as easy as that. It really isn't. I would like to think LeCleur would help Hamilton when the time comes, but I'd also like to think Charlerclair wins the rest of the races and then wins the world title. What's the theoretical scenario then just in, say we get to Austria,

I know what I would, I think. If we get to Austria and LeCler's leading and Hamilton's second, I think it would be a case where they wouldn't do anything. No, no. I've said they probably should, but they probably should. they won't. However, I think if it was a case where LeCleur was leading, Hamilton was behind him and there was potentially risk of losing the race or something, then maybe that's where they step in and do something like that. But in terms of just a straight fight, we're not seeing

like a Charler-beckleur becoming Rubens Barry Kellogg just yet. The just yet's crazy. I think LeClaire has hearing problems if he gets asked to move out the way for Hamilton to, when LeClair has not won since the US 2024 race. So there's no chance he gives up a victory at this stage of the of the season. I think Ferrari would even struggle to do it with three races to go, to be honest with you. So lots of hypotheticals, of course, but I don't think Ferrari can prioritize Hamilton at the moment, but I also think they might not even need to because Lewis is on such an incredible run of form

that he might well be able to challenge moving forward if Ferrari can deliver a good car. Next question, trying trading one. Does this mean Ferrari is faster on traditional circuits? Traditional circuits. You know, as we've been talking about this weekend, this is the circuit that no car can hide. It's the true baseline. It's the true benchmark.

It's the test of all tests. And yet, somehow Ferrari seemingly looked fastest. I, I, I, I, Ferrari are not 20 seconds clear come the end of the race fastest. You know, this is, Hamilton had slightly fresher tires. He had a stint of a lifetime at the end. Russell was really struggling. Mercedes were right there.

Let's not beat around the bush here. Antonelli retired. He was going to be clear of Russell, I think, come the end of the race. So Ferrari were right in it, clearly, at least from this race. But I'm not going to get ahead of myself, purely because Ferrari is slightly out of sync when it comes to bringing upgrades to the car. They've brought a lot of upgrades. Other teams very minimal.

Mercedes-McClaren, I think they were very small amounts of upgrades, if any, for this race. So it might well sort of shift one way and then the other, depending on, firstly, if you can bring upgrades, but secondly, if the upgrades actually work. If you remember in Canada,

Ferrari bought a whole heap of upgrades, and they were still rubbish. So, well, Hamilton was great, but Charlotte-Clau was struggling with the brakes. We won't get on to that. So, yeah, I don't know how many traditional circuits there really are in Formula One, but it's definitely a good sign. I did not expect this.

I don't think many people did. No, definitely not. I can't believe that Ferrari have come out with a victory. I do think there's, you know, you run the race a hundred times. I don't think Ferrari is a case where Ferrari are always winning that race. There's other scenarios where Mercedes would be winning that race. looked good so it's not a case where i'm not saying that um you know Ferrari weren't amazingly quick which which they were but there was lots of scenarios there that

that allowed ferri to win that race and also by a huge margin as well but it's very very positive from from Ferrari i do i'd love to know and we'll wait to see how much this goes on longer if Ferrari do mount a charge, the conversation that we had a while back of how Ferrari have potentially been shafted a little bit by the rules and them changing it and they've built their whole car to have these amazing starts. And I think we kind of dismissed that at the start of season going, oh, well, you know, they're not going to win the championship. It's between the two Mercedes. Can you imagine? And, you know, who knows to think that maybe, you know, they did have an opportunity to kind of be challenging for this championship

when those first races, because Hamilton is well in it now, mainly thanks to some reliability from Mercedes. Why don't we go over to your most memorable moment, Tommy? Well, it has to be Kimmy Antonelli with his DNF, another Mercedes conking out. It's shocking to see again, obviously,

mixed emotions for George Russell, I'm sure because he looked like he could. There's a big old emotion of happiness for Russell. I don't know. I, well, we'll talk about that now. I don't know.

Relief, maybe, maybe relief, but it must be still a weird feeling for George that in a race where Kimi Antoninley's DNF, he's not won for a start and got the big points. Equally the fact that

in a race that I think George was looking very dominant and Kimmy looked off the boil, Kimmy Anthony was going to beat him again. It's a big thing for George. But we mention about Ferrari and whether Hamilton can go after the World Championship. The thing that could decide the World Championship

and bring Hamilton into it is that reliability from Mercedes. We mentioned, you know, they're supplying other cars up and down the grid who are having all sorts of problem, McLaren, which we mention all the time. And it's also hitting the main team at Mercedes. George Russell, not just Canada, had the problem in China as well. We joked before, I want to say qualifying where Kimi-hant-day was the only one not to have a problem.

Well, now he has. And it's knocked him out of a second place, extend, not extending his lead, but obviously, like, he's only on George Russell, of course, as well. And looking to have, like, quite a comfortable margin. but his closest competitor, Lewis Hamilton, has taken 25 points on him. So it's a big thing, this Mercedes reliability, and they have to sort it out because it could cost them, because we know that they're very, very quick.

Absolutely, yeah. I'm in complete agreement about the reliability. This is something that has caused a conversation of, can Hamilton get his eighth world title at Ferrari because of this, this Kimmy, DNF? Had he finished second, Kimmy, this is. You know, it would be a seven-point swing and Hamilton would be 59 points behind, not 41. It's an enormous amount of points that Hamilton has gained, of course.

I think, yeah, the saving grace for Kimmy is that he's clearly still the fastest Mercedes driver. Yes, he struggled a little bit over one-lap pace this weekend, but there will be some kind of relief, not relief, but there will be some comfort in the fact that he still had the pace over George, who I still ultimately will be, I think he will be the main competitor this season. As much as I'd love to go down the Ferrari hype train, Ferrari going to win it all, this, that and the other. Mercedes have been the fastest car or equal fastest car at every single race weekend so far. Ferrari haven't.

So they've yet to prove to me that they can do it at loads of different tracks as we head through this season. So for Antonelli, you know, this is a really painful DNF because he did not deserve that in the sense of like he's put down another very solid weekend and it's not got him any points whatsoever. As for George, yeah, it is a bit mystifying what he's really struggling with in the races in particular. It's not like he was miles off, but he definitely struggled towards the end of the stints in this race. And maybe that's due to the fact that he was forced on. to that early pit stop and therefore had to manage the tyres a little bit better. Of course, Kimmy did have slightly fresher tires than George to be able to go on the attack. And even sort of

two, three laps difference was actually pretty big around here because of how much the circuit munched to the tyres for want of a better analysis. Okay, let's go into another question. P1Pitch, remember Emma underscore VK, should George be concerned about Kimmy overtaking him on pace on a weekend where he looked faster. Yeah, I think you should because at the end of the day, Kimmy was going to beat him on track again. And I think he looked off the boy particularly in qualifying. He didn't have the best preparation.

He was nowhere near George in qualifying. And yet, in a race where the tyre deck was massive, maybe you think that the more experienced driver in George Russell would be better. and also the fact that Kimmy was fighting all over the back of him. I know Dirty Air is nowhere near as bad as it was, but the fact that Kimmy was able to fight George and then overtake him and stick behind him for so long and get past shows that, yeah, George struggled towards the end.

And you also look at the fact that George, that's with George obviously getting preferential, which is deserved, of course, pit stops because he was the driver ahead and still didn't man wasn't going to beat Kimmy on the road so that is a worry for George he can go away knowing that maybe the luck has been reversed a little bit and gone to the other side of the garage and he's he's kind of looking a bit better in in the championship and it's not a disaster of a weekend certainly but he's still not not quite there and it's still looking like Kimmy

Antonelli is the superior Mercedes driver at the moment. Indeed, yeah. I thought this would be the race that George would potentially bounce back. Qualifying was brilliant from him. Nico Rosberg was saying in the Sky broadcast that he has some question marks over George Russell's race pace this year. And I think that's something that we've seen at most Grand Prix this year in comparison to Kimmy Antonelli, of course.

You know, Canada, Antonelli was all over the back of him, felt like he was slightly quicker. Again, today, as you say, Tommy, you would think that the driver that has more experience with these Pirelli tires would be able to nurse them better in these tricky high-temperature conditions. But it was Antonelli, as I mentioned, obviously earlier, had one or two lap fresher tires than George, but realistically, you would still think that maybe Russell would have a bit of advantage in those kind of situations.

But I think it's just proving that Antonelli is absolutely deserving of a championship. potentially this year if he keeps this up. Like there are hardly any chinks in his armour when it comes to what Kimmy is displaying. So I think George is pretty, pretty concerned. He will take these 18 points that he's gained on Antonelli this weekend. And he has to take a step forward. He can't be being beaten by Antonelli for the next few races, especially if Hamilton's mounting a charge and things like that,

Russell could very easily just fall out of this championship fight. don't think that's going to happen, but that can so easily occur if he has another bad reliability weekend, if he's just being beaten by Antonelli on pure pace. How is he going to win the world championship if this is the constant trend? Yeah, absolutely. George needs to like find an answer at the moment. I think the biggest takeaway from that race is that he still needs to find an answer to Antonelli. It's not a case of, okay, we've got into the European season where people thought Kimmy Antonet is going to struggle now. Yes, he's, of course, the one that's come home,

Anthony is the one that's come home with no points. But there's still question marks there over George. Next question and a different team. P1Pitry member, Amy. What happened to Oscar? His pace was non-existent. Yeah, Piastri, now I'm kind of just going off my,

just generally just watching, I guess, last year and things like that. Piaastri is not known, I don't think, to be a tire whisperer, especially when it comes to very hot, very degrading races in terms of the circuit and the tires just melting. But he was, yeah, not quick, not quick at all this weekend. Norris was on the back of the Mercedes,

had a phenomenal weekend. I think he will be the unsung hero of this weekend, again, of just having no reliability issues and being able to mount a challenge to cars that, you know, if we look at Oscar Piastri, Lando I think is outperforming and out delivering that car. So for Oscar, it's weird, isn't it? Because of course, in Japan, he should have won.

And that feels like a lifetime ago now. Because we've also seen the other side as well where, as I mentioned, when Lando's had good reliability, Lando seemed like the faster driver across the weekend. We've not got many pieces of evidence to go by because you went through all of Norris's problems in the Monaco podcast. But yeah, it seems like a not the best of season so far for Oscar and perhaps not adapting as well as some people might have hoped to these new regs of cars. No, definitely not. You do wonder if there's some underlying struggle there similar to what Russell has had where the new cars don't suit him as much as his teammate because it has to

be said that after Japan where he was the star of the show deserved to have won the race without an unlucky safety car he's really not been anywhere near landau's pace and has really really struggled you know who's a long way behind him uh in this race same 35 seconds i think it was in the end yeah exactly so the same can be said about even miami where oscar picked up that podium you know he's 25 seconds down the road from from lando and canada as well uh you know he had a a really difficult race there. And yeah, Oscar at the moment is having a bit of a struggle. McLaren nowhere near where they need to be at the moment. But it is Lando, who's the one at the moment that's able to kind of salvage something for McLaren. Now, a driver that makes me sad to talk about, but we're going to

have to do it, is Nico Holcomberg, who qualified and incredibly well. Oh no, what's the information. Have you seen how Nico Holkkenberg retired from that race? I have not. It has just been announced by Audi. So if anyone wants to know how unlucky Nico Holcombberg is this year, and just generally, I guess, in Formula One, if anyone knows about it, there's a lever on a Formula One car that kills it immediately if you pull it. Yes, that's a Kill Switch. Yeah, a Kill Switch. And Liam Lawson hit some gravel and a single stone landed on that and pulled it off and it killed his car. You are joking. No. No. And he was running in the points.

That is, has to be the most unlucky thing I've ever seen. Yeah. That is absolutely preposterous. Yeah, insane. Absolutely insane. Oh, that makes me feel even worse. I thought it was just a standard Audi retirement. No. So yeah. Is there like a replay of it?

So Hockenberg, his quote was, what was it? So he complained about a lot of gravel. Somehow one stone pulled the emergency trigger on the left of the roll hoop and it killed the car, just total switch off and game over. That's absolutely insane. Yeah, that is so unlucky. That is... The Lawson quite literally deployed a banana peel.

And just move you in a green shell. Yeah, yeah. Oh, mate, that's devastating for Holkenberg, because he was running in the points. He was, yeah. Had a phenomenal weekend and then a piece of gravel, man. It's not even his fault. No.

That's tough. That's really tough. He was, yeah, fully deserving of scoring his first points of the season. He's not got any. And it's been always about reliability. And this is reliability in a very different way. So, yeah, poor Holcombberg. Let's now go to biggest winner, driver or team, where we crowned someone from this weekend.

That is in fact the biggest winner. I think, Charles LeClaue was pretty good for halfway through the race. He's putting some good laps in. Yeah, you almost beat the Red Bull tractor. It's not a tractor, mate. It's best engine, actually. I'm sorry, yeah, best engine. Yeah, they shouldn't have won the race.

So, yeah, Lewis Hamilton. Lewis Hamilton is the biggest winner for sure. first win for Ferrari and just generally I think this will solidify his motivation to stay in the sport for as absolutely long as he can because before then you never know what he might be thinking especially with some of the lows he's had obviously not this season necessarily but last year was a struggle but yeah he's he's bounced back in in some fashion yeah it's got to be los hamilton what a performance when will this narrative continue it's going to be very fascinating. I think next race is a big one, but, you know, Lewis does something special

again. It's going to be like, I'll still think it's between the two Mercedes, then Hamilton finished the second. I think it's between the two Mercedes, that he wins the race by 20 seconds. Still think it's between. Yeah, Hamilton leads by 60 points. I still think the Mercedes are going to bounce back. Yeah, we'll see. So, yeah, fascinating to find out that Hamilton easily, the biggest win, I got fastest lap as well with his amazing run at the end. Indeed. Let's now go the biggest loser driver or team. I mean, Holcomberg's a good shout for, I mean, just being the unluckiest driver by quite some margin. Charlotte.

Charlotte. It's got to be. He crashed in qualifying. He retired with a mechanical failure, and we've had a conversation on this podcast if he has to be Rubens Barry Kellogg. I think that's a pretty poor weekend. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. No disrespect to Rubens Barrack, hello.

What's God? But he was a number two driver. He was. Yes, okay, biggest loser, Charlotte, Claire, fine. I will happily, not happily. I will be very sad to accept that. Thank you so much. I will sadly accept the correct answer.

Let's now go look at our predictions that we made on Wednesday to see how we did. It is currently 2219 to Tom Bellingham, three points of the gap. And I just want to say before we get into this, this changed an insane amount with four laps to go. I was cooking like no tomorrow and things changed so badly, so quickly. So, first and foremost, a good surprise. I went for Nico Holcomburg. So look, let's talk about this one. I think I have a real shout here.

You're telling me. He has not finished because of a piece of gravel that's pulled his kill switch. He got Q3. He was going to get his first points of the season. Can I please argue this one? Hmm. Grovel some more and I maybe give you a pity point. Grovel about the gravel.

Grovel more? I just grovelled so hard. Yeah, we can open this one up to the comments because I do think it could potentially be. You think there is a shout for it. He was going to finish. Where was he going to finish? He was up there, but that is where Audi had been like kind of all the time, haven't they really? Oh, behave.

They usually lose seven positions at the start, and he didn't lose one. He didn't actually lose any. I mean, to be fair, yeah, he was seventh, actually. Go on then. Yeah? You're going to allow it? Go on. Okay, thanks.

It's only because the point swings massive for other things that you're like, yeah, yeah, cool, fine. Yeah, fair. Okay, thanks, Tommy, for the generosity. You went for. I went for Bortoleto, who had a pretty shocker of a weekend. It has to be said. P11 again. Yeah, back-to-back P-Elevens since speaking to us.

Sorry, mate. Sorry. Now, let's go to a big flop. I went for Ferrari, which was half right, but half very, very wrong. Oh, very wrong. Yeah. And I went for Hasse, which had an absolute shocker. They didn't collide.

But they were woeful. Ocon P-13 though, my goat like that's a good result for O'Con this season. Let me actually look at Ocon's results this season and see if it's one of his best ones because if it is, I'm arguing that this is not. He literally the only car he beat is a Cadillac.

I don't care. You finished ninth in the last race. Yeah, I did, to be fair, yeah, he did. And so, guys. Hasse, shocker. Huss were literally one of the worst cars out there, which is crazy to think where they were. Yeah, okay.

Struggle Town for Hasse, for sure. Oh, God's sake, O'Con. You've ruined me and not just big flop, but something else we'll talk about as well. Pole position, I went for Kimmy Antonelli, which was wrong. I went for George Russell, which was inherited correctly. Yeah, well, well, in, oh yeah, of course, yeah. Yeah, that's really annoying.

Third place, I went for Max Verstappen, which was not right. I went for Landon-Riss, which was inherited correctly. Inherited? No, you took Lando. No, no, sorry, as in like inherited because of Kimi Antonelli's car failure. Oh, I see. Sorry, I think we're talking about the blocking that we do in the prediction. No, no, no. The strategy. Yes, so that to be fair, I wasn't going to be right for that, but yes, you got up for that one.

And second place, I went for Kimmy Antonelli, which was going to be right. But it wasn't. It was going to be right until his car failed, which gave it to George Russell, who I predicted second. And in the first place I went for George Russell, which doesn't happen. I don't know for Antonelli, which was incorrect. Yeah. So that actually means as well that with Hamilton winning, he has defended Antonelli from beating his win record, a win streak. Yes, very true actually. Five each for Hamilton. I'm sure that's probably why he was crying on the podium. 100%. Thank God. Antoni didn't beat my win streak. So good. Tommy's on a nice roll of points. Let's go to P.Watt, where I was genuinely, I was buzzing.

with this with literally like five laps to go, I'm on for two points. So P-Watt, if you're not familiar, is where there's a random number that comes up today, or for this one, it was P-16. And we have to say immediately who we think is going to finish in that position. I went for Ocon. My guy was sat so drastically in P-16. There was no chance of him getting anywhere further forward or further behind and then two retirements right at the end three retirements in fact

Ocon gets up to P-13 and Tommy you went for And I went for Sergio Perez Who And it's the funniest thing as well The wheel knowledge from us by the way On display Right

Is that when it was P-16 in Ocon It was P-17 Perez It was lap 63 of 66 O'Con 16th And Paris is 17th I mean that's a W but I get the point for being closest for Perez's. I have been so robbed.

So can we just talk about, so what would it have been without those last three laps? How many less points are you scoring? You're not scoring Russell P2. You're not scoring Norris P3. So that's too eradicated for you. I'm gaining one. Yeah, it would have been a lot closer. Yeah, and then I would have had P.

I'd have lost three. I would have scored two points. You'd just scored two points. Yeah, so the swing was crazy. I'd have scored three. because Ocon was a two-pointer. A massive moment. Anyway, one crazy prediction.

I went for Norris as a clean reliability weekend and I want to say to each and every one of you that went, oh, poor Lando now, he's not even going to get out the garage. Came in, didn't it? Came in, Norris had a clean reliability weekend. You're welcome, Lando. And I went for, there's a teammate collision. Which, it almost happened with Hasse.

Well, Antonelli lost a bit of his wing in that Russell incident. I'm joking. That was off the grass. which you've not spoken about actually. Yeah, no, no, I need to talk about that. The Russell versus Antonelli kind of move. He went for the move. He went onto the inside.

Russell kind of, I mean, he gave it everything. He was a sitting duck, wasn't he, at the end of the day? But really weird that, yeah, Antonelli, just watching it again, he basically goes for the move. Russell squeezes him somewhat, and Antonelli is ever so slightly on a bump or something on the inside. And it just lifts his car up. And I mean, dare I say, is it a coincidence that his car jumps, lands and then one lap later, it goes, it breaks. It breaks.

Like, it could be very interesting to see. Yeah, I don't know if Mercedes will come out and say, oh, yes, it was George Russell's defensive maneuver that broke into his car. No, of course, they wouldn't. But very interesting, because we have seen it before where cars having a bit of a jump. Actually, I'm actually watching the... replay and his his wing is actually hanging the little end plate on his wing

is actually hanging off before he goes to the move so interesting. Oh, very strange. He's already got the damage but yeah, it looks like he jumps a little bit or there's some kind of issue then. So not sure where he got the damage. I did wonder, I was like how has he picked up

damage from that or I don't know, it's hard to tell isn't it off the off board? Yeah, so it wasn't that because you can see. Yeah, no, yeah, he's already lifted, isn't it? It's already there. But anyway, back to George's defensive maneuver. I thought it was, as Martin Brundel so beautifully says, a day late and a dollar short.

Like, that was a very strange defensive maneuver from George because he didn't shape for the defense anywhere near early enough, gave the inside to Kimmy, and that was the move done. So I don't know what George's thinking was there. Maybe he wanted to squeeze him to the inside and hope that Kimmy would make a mistake on the dirty side of the track. but yeah I did find that a bit of a bizarre defense from George and one that ultimately didn't work but if we think that Kimmy's car bounced and then at

DNF maybe it was an absolutely brilliant ploy maybe he did he did this track walk he saw a little bump and when Kimmy comes to pass me I'm going to push him onto that over the bump kills the engine that would take some planning so okay there you go that is that done we now go to our Patreon prediction where I went for Patrick's which was Nika Holkenberg makes it into Q3. Come on! And I went for... Can I really score so many points this weekend.

Yeah, you could have had a round too. Run. I went for Lex Wakeman, V-Cab to outscore McLaren this weekend, which they did not. They did not. They were on, obviously, V-Cab did well in the end, all things considered.

More points again. They must be looking pretty good. Like, Liam Lawson is 10th in the World Chairman. Championship and racing balls are P6. So yeah, 38 points. A big, big old chunk for V-Carb are doing. They've got a very good car underneath them, and they're picking up points all the time, it seems,

after I said in my entire championship table, they always leave points on the table and don't maximize. I mean, Lawson in particular has been really, really solid this year. Like, he's been a consistent point scorer. And once again, yeah, scoring some points. had it not been for, I guess, Antonelli and Lecler out, then they wouldn't have scored any points, and it would have been a P9, P10 for Alpine.

Yeah, I saw Lawson got screwed with a pit stop. He was actually running quite well. He was slow, wasn't it? Yeah, he had like a six and a half second pit stop, so that may have cost him for Colapinto. I need a beat in the Alpines. So, yeah, it's tough, but, I mean, yeah, they got their points in the end,

and, yeah, Lawson's having, in particular, Lawson's having a really good season. Yeah, he really is. And Lindblad made a two-stop work, I think, which was, yeah, he went very long in that first stint and did a pretty good job. Do you want the scores on the doors, though? Okay, all right, give us the score on the doors

if we really want to. What is the score? So it's 28. So you scored six points. And you scored three, so 28, 21. Oh, good. Oh, I'm back to seven behind. Shoot me.

Sorry, 22. Sorry, no, just... Okay, six behind. Six behind. Yeah, please, please don't rob me of any points. That would be really quite sad. Six points behind. God, damn it.

It should have been like one or two. And I would, oh, God, it's so annoying. I hate this game, but I love it. See you next time. The Constructors Championship. Family top three. It is 6'5 to the Bellingham's after a double point score for Tommy's dad, which I now feel the first ever double points.

But well done. You still deserved it, Dean. So my dad, and I'm going to get it correct this time, my dad predicted P3 Lando Norris. Let's go. W. P2, George Russell. Let's go.

Oh, wow. And P1, Antonelli. Two points. Two points from my dad. But I knew coming into this, if my dad scored points, I've had a stinker because I knew that you were going to, but I also thought it was going to be the other way around, and it was going to be Antonia and Russell that you would have scored two points with. But alas, it was.

And my wife went for the step in P3, Russell, P2, and Anthonyley P1. So we knew there could only be a. basically a one point swing and you got it so it's all level it's all level it is seven all very very close can we put seven all to the gallagher's in the sheet just so that i do read it out and i feel like uh you know okay i'll do it alphabetically it's me actually oh damn it boring belliam strike again alphabetically uh there you go right thank you everybody for tuning in uh it's been uh quite the grand to talk about.

I think I'm just looking down the order to see if we've missed anyone to discuss. I think Hadjar had a very quiet race. My goodness gracious me, finished over a minute behind Vastappen in the end. He dropped. Yeah, he dropped massively down at the beginning.

He gambled at the end. The different stop, didn't he? Because he had the chasm between. Yeah, as it was. A lot of runners actually stopped at the end, didn't they? Yeah, yeah. It's funny that, yeah, there's no fastest lap.

anymore but it were basically in that territory again where the the the basically the whoever's last of the top runners get a free pit stop just to why not throw some softs on and just have fun can we also discuss very quickly and something that we saw when Alonzo I think went out this new graphic of a car stopping on track and them showing that before the actual car on track it feels like I'm like I appreciate the graphic but just show me it you know like Yeah, is it a bit too like, is it a bit of spoilers? I like the...

Spoil that, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I feel like, this is a bad example, because it's going to make me look like I'm laughing at your pain, but like obviously it's the clear incident. Well, I am, I am, but... And it's horrendous to say, like, doesn't hit the same, but it's so true of like, if everything's going, oh, we've heard blah, blah, blah is off,

whereas that moment when it cuts to like someone's off and it's like, oh my God, I can't believe it. it doesn't it's not as exciting is it when you you see that whereas if you're just getting okay so yeah if it was a situation where it was like antonelli for example it wouldn't have been anywhere near as shocking if we'd have kind of been following on board with hamilton and you get a little graphic going antenilly's retiring by the way and we're going to see it in five seconds time yeah yeah it's so true similar to the mini sectors in qualifying that's also a spoiler where you see like, you know, who's going to go fast as who's not and that sort of stuff.

So, yeah, I'm in agreement, in agreement, actually, because yeah, that hard cut to someone. Yes. Part of the excitement. This is why I don't like the pit thing sometimes where it's like, this is exactly where they're going to come out of the pits. It's like, no, let's watch it. That's part of the excitement of Formula One. All right, cool.

I think that's pretty much it. We will sign off there, unless you're a P1 Patreon, which we're going to answer a few more questions. So please come over there if you haven't subscribed already. Tommy final thoughts Final thoughts We won't be seeing The Barcelona Catalonia Grand Prix

Until well A couple of years I think it's rotating isn't it Is that announced or is that rumoured I think it's heavily rumoured That it's going to happen There's been so many second announcements I'm trying to remember what's what with the different things

But either way Well done for delivering Because I certainly didn't think it was going to At the start and yeah just what a fascinating a couple of weeks now to wait for well a week for the next race to see if Hamilton can continue his charge

and a very different circuit I think as well with it just being very much a power track no it has been announced it was announced in February so it swaps with spa oh it's yes of course because it's because like spa is obviously such a legendary track and people are like oh you're really swamming it would We had a great race, Tommy. When there's already Madrid going to be on the calendar.

Let's see if Spa can deliver a banger. That's the big question. That's the big test, isn't it? Monaco actually was all right and it was not overtaking, but it was chaos. Other tracks you've seen very chaotic. I'm interested to see like Spa, they might have to genuinely get out and push the car down the streets because of, I don't even know how they'll be able to recharge around there. Oh, we almost mentioned the whole podcast. I know.

I'm saying it. I've got there, 54 minutes in. I just thought I'd remind her who I'm that we're interested in 2026. That is it. We'll see you soon. Lots of love. Take care. Adios.

Bye. Bye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the Acast's creator network.