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

Episode Date: July 30, 2024

We're back for our final driver ratings before the summer break - and a nice blend of disqualifications, DNFs and grid penalties mean we're in for a controversial one!P1 Live is heading to North America this Fall and tickets are now on sale! Click here to get your tickets, which are already close to selling out!Sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to bonus episodes, our classic race series, every P1 episode ad-free and access to our Discord server where you can chat with other F1 fans!Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the B1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. I felt like I've said that intro a lot recently. We've done a lot of podcasts, a lot of chats. And today, Tommy, we are reflecting on the Belgian Grand Prix and diving into our driver ratings. How excited are you to be here to share all of your numbers with everybody? Absolutely. Forget all the driver drama that we've been having in the summer break.

And this is what we're here for. Shoguan News driver ratings. so bring it on. I love how we've now just constantly said that now. Of course, there are the 19 other drivers that we have assessed as well. So let's dive straight into it, shall we, and begin with Kevin Magnerson. Qualified 17th, started 17th, finished 14th. I am going to give Kevin Magnuson a 6 out of 10.

Hasse were horrendous this weekend, awful, dreadful. And I'm giving K-Mag a bit more of, rather than just, straight down the middle five. He was on a one stop. He beat a few cars behind, beat his teammate, which is not usual for KMAG. And yeah,

I think he's slightly outperformed where that Hass was and that was nowhere near the points. I've also gone physics out of ten for Kevin Magnuson. It was a better performance from KMAG. He also did the one-stop strategy. which seemed to work very well in the end because you couldn't pass. So a good job from KMAG to make that happen.

And yeah, just had a decent race when 14th is just kind of warehouse are. So I can't give them straight down the middle because I think he has maybe overdelivered a little bit there. The fans gave KMAG a five. Nicah Holcomberg, qualified 16th, started 16th, finished 18th. I have gone for a four out of ten for Nika Holcomberg. I was disappointed to be honest with Nika Holcomberg. I know he qualified ahead of Kevin Magnuson and maybe he's a victim of his own kind of brilliant qualifying,

but in a wet quality, I know he's kind of put where like with his teammate, but I expected maybe something better from him and then he's had a pretty poor race where he himself said that he didn't have any pace and stuff so to finish an 18th, not good, so I've gone for a four for Niko. I have also gone for a four out of ten. I completely agree.

I think that it was a disappointing weekend for Holcomberg. We do expect him to beat KMAG on most occasions and just he said he had no harmony, no pace, no rhythm and just a poor weekend. There hasn't been too many of them, to be fair, for Nico. He's usually in the mix, in the fight for points. So it was a bit of a strange weekend to see from Nico, as you say, with changeable conditions. We've seen some incredible qualifiers from him in the past, and this was not one of them. So a four out of ten from me. And the fans gave him

five. So the same as KMAG. Intriging. Now, the moment we've all been waiting for. Show Granu! Qualified 20th, started 19th, but was penalised, but Salada was penalised more. And then did not finish the race. Are we grading him? I mean, do we grade him? Because he did like four laps before his problem, Tommy? I want to. I know you want to, but I'm just trying to match to what other times we've discussed this.

I think the reason we didn't grade Gazley was because he didn't do any laps and you didn't get any kind of judgment. So you fully analysed these four laps. No, no, but Gazley did qualifying, whereas we saw Joaquin you qualifying. and well, we can judge how good he's going to be. Fine. I'll give a number then. Four out of ten for Joe Guanyu, and I know Tommy's probably going to give him less,

but I'm not because he actually claimed that he's not running the same upgrades as Valtry Bottas. And, you know, qualifying P20, what a performance. But he is in a dustbin. I think it was more of a Valtry Bottas master class in qualifying. And so I'm not going to give him any less than a four, just purely because it's not like that. that salba is supposed to be anywhere other than the back anyway so

I've gone for a three out of ten for Joe Guan Yu his qualifying was abysmal to say the least and I know he's not done much of the race but yeah qualifying that far off everyone else is interesting you know you did the qualifying podcast with Max Hewtrell and he you know he gave a very interesting sort of chat about how you kind of think that rain would be the great leveller,

but actually when your confidence is so rock bottom, it can actually make it even worse. And I feel like that's exactly what's happening and happened with Che Gue Nu because he was way often in qualifying off the back of the pack. The fans gave show a three. Valtry Bottas, qualified to 14th, started 14th, finished 15th. I have gone for a six out of 10. for Valtry Bottas.

A very salber performance again, where he's just in the midfield, maybe over-delivering. He might be the absolute goat and driving just as well as he did on some of his best days at Mercedes, but he is driving definitely the worst car. Still no points for Salba.

And I am surprised with his strategy why they didn't just leave him out. I guess he did pit a little bit. He pitted later than Russell, so it could have happened. Same with the people that did a one-stop pitted around lap, between lap 10 and 13, and he pitted on lap 11. And we saw him up in the points near the end, and you think, just stay out until the tyres explode.

It's very difficult to overtake. Give it a go, because you're not getting any points this year. But they decided to pit him anyway, which was a shame. Utterly bizarre. I've gone for a six out of ten as well for Valtry. I think it was a decent performance. It would have been a much higher grade, I think, actually.

Had he just taken some initiative as a driver and gone, well, I'm not going to pit with eight laps to go. He did say after the race that it wasn't likely, probably, that they would have had a points finish anyway, but also said that they could have finished a couple of places higher. So what are we doing here? And of course, Russell got disqualified. which would have promoted him another one.

So that's where Bottas with eight laps to go, like any other driver is saying, no, I'm just going to stick it out at this point. It was just like giving up, which I was a little bit disappointed to see, as you would have seen on the Twitch watchalong, of just a very bizarre decision from Salber, but also for Bottas to allow that to happen as well.

Surely his team should be, and if they haven't, we don't have every single bit of team radio. But surely his team should be telling him information like, oh, there's people that are going to the end. We don't know if it's going to work. Do you want to do it? Because maybe he didn't know.

Because it was never an option, but the funniest thing was that how many cars, five, maybe ended up doing it. So there was a chance there to do it. Reason number one of 5,000 as to why Carlos Sines did not go to Salis. The fans gave Valtrey Bottas a five. Yuki Sonoda qualified 18th, started 20th and finished the race in 16th.

It is going to be straight down the middle, five out of ten for Yuki Sonoda. A very anonymous weekend. Of course, he did have to start from the back after having a 60 place penalty, and he was actually quite funny throughout the weekend with little comments and, you know, just a little bit more Yuki Sanoda personality coming out, which I like to see. But personality on the track was very, very bland. very sort of PG, wasn't it? It was a pretty anonymous weekend, to be honest, for Yuki.

Didn't make much progress after starting at the back and just struggled most of the weekends. That's why I've gone for a five. How dare you say he didn't make much progress? He was up 44 places, I'll have you know. Yuki's no doubt I have gone for a five, though. It was very anonymous. Of course, jokes aside with the penalty.

He starts at the back and he can still do something because the V-Carb in Daniel Ricardo's hands as well was looking pretty good. So there was an opportunity to do something, but his race just never really got going or anything really particularly interesting happened. So, yeah, a strange strategy that you look down the graphic that Pirelli post. and the only two people really, other than Perez, just to get fastest lap, that are kind of different to the field are both V-cabs because Sonoda did a one-stop but then put used hards on, which is obviously they went through him,

which is odd when he had a penalty why he wouldn't have a new set. It would be one of those, it's like Astor Martin where they do a lap and then that actually gives more life to the tyre because... So it's technically used, but it's not really used. Okay, fair. But weird that no one else did that. They always do. They always go a little bit different with strategy,

and I dare say that maybe other than Pierre Gazile's Monza win, rarely works. Indeed, the fans gave Yuki Sanoda a five. Daniel Ricardo, qualified 13th, started 13th, finished 10th. I've gone for an eight out of ten for Daniel Ricardo. I think it was a much better performance. We know now that it wasn't enough to convince Red Bull to oust Perez and put him in the seat, although you've got to think that they're going on the full season rather than just this one race, of course, but he got shafted.

Not any of that at all, and that's what we discussed in the Paris video. but the fact that he got screwed a bit in qualifying maybe he could have got even more points on the board if he hadn't have had that terrible qualifying strategy if you like and started higher up because he was looking very quick in those wet conditions then delivered a points finish but maybe he could have got Ockon and maybe Alonzo with a better strategy because they did look like they were there or thereabouts this weekend, but still a good result to get P10. Certainly, I've gone for an eight out of ten as well.

A points finish is obviously very good for V-Carb, and they are picking it up left, right and centre at the moment, doing very well in the Constructors' Championship. I can't go any higher than an eight, because obviously it was promoted into the points after Russell's disqualification, but still a solid race, for sure. Made a lot of progress, making some moves. And, yeah, Danny Ricardo was.

smiley, very happy after, and that's why we all were jumping on the, oh, he's going a red ball, isn't he? But no, it wasn't enough. But I think Danny Rick can just be happy that he's on the grid. He's performing well. And let's see what can happen at his hand for when we get back from the summer break. The fans gave Daniel an eight as well. Logan Sargent qualified 19th, started 18th, finished 17th. For Logan Sargent, I am going 4A4 out of 10. I mean, just another Logan Sargent weekend, to be honest with you. You mentioned obviously about qualifying and what Max Fue Trell said and it's very true. Just was not able to mix it.

Alex's album was up in 11th. But I just feel as though Logan is, I don't know, we've not seen one stellar performance from him where he's outperformed Alex. And it still continues to be that way. he tried to claim that he was helping Alex ahead in his second medium stint by holding people up. I mean, I think that he was naturally holding people up anyway. So I'm not sure it was an active decision for Williams to deploy Logan's sergeant. But either or, it's a four out of ten. It's just another subpar weekend for Logan.

Yeah, I've also gone for a four disappointing from Logan to be, you know, only Joe Guan Yu is saving him from being P20 in qualifying every week, it seems. and in the race didn't deliver much either, so I guess the only positive he can take is that he's not like having these moments where even if it's not in the race, but in qualifying or practice having smashes and costing the team, but of course now we know that science is going there, it doesn't matter anyway because it's going to be very difficult for him to get a drive unless Alpine are feeling, particularly bold, very bold. Alpine, wow.

Yeah, I mean, that would be... The driver move of the century, what was that? Where did that come from? Tommy, if you've just predicted Logan Sargent to Alpine, I don't think anyone's said that sentence ever. You were the first person to ever say that sentence. Well, I was just being like...

The fact that there are still seats available. Obviously, has lost his, but it's not going to happen, as it, let's be honest. No, I don't think so. The fans gave Logan a four out of ten as well. Alex Albon, qualified 11th, started 10th, finished 12th. I've gone for a 7 out of 10 for Alex Alburn. I think he's taking a terrible car to good places.

They're not getting upgrades and things. I think what I will say is that Alex Albin will be a lot easier driver to rate when he is alongside Carlos Sites and has a more comparable teammate that we know if actually, you know, he is the next at and centre and doing unbelievable things, or if it is just because his teammate has been wightful. So he's done a good job to qualify as high up as he did and finish where he did when I do think that Williams really are one of the worst cars on the grid. So that's why I've good in the seven.

Okay, I've gone for a six out of ten for Alex Albon. Yeah, I mean, he would have finished 13th without Russell's disqualification. So I think that that's probably where I would have, it's close between a six and a seven. I'm not convinced the Williams is that horrendous. I genuinely don't. I think that Logan just makes it look like Alex is carrying this team to places it shouldn't be. But I think when we see Carlos Sines go there, we're going to see that the Williams is actually, well, it's as bad as the Sal, but let's put it that way, and it does deserve to be in the midfield.

But yeah, that being said, Alex obviously made a good start, but lost some positions and ended up finishing 12th, and he sort of blamed it on not having upgrades all year, which doesn't help either when it comes to car performance. But yeah, I'm going to stick with a six. And the fans gave Alex a six as well. Esteban O'Con, qualified 10th, started 9th, finished 9th. It is a 9 out of 10 for Esteban Okon for me, not only because of the finishing position, but because he was quite possibly the star of the entire day in terms of overtakes and making things happen.

He was pulling off some audacious moves to make sure that he scored points during that Belgian Grand Prix. He made overtakes on Gasly, Alonzo, Holcomburg, Bottas, Albonne, Ricardo. The man was on the move. I don't feel like we saw all of them, but he was on the move. So yeah, that's why I've gone for a nine because I'm not sure O'Con could have done a huge amount more,

even though he himself said after the race that maybe they could have finished a position higher up had the team executed slightly differently, but I still think it was a great performance. I do as well. I've gone for a nine out of ten. A really, really good drive from O'Con. Put in some very tasty overtakes, of course, he had.

This weekend was compromised as well when he didn't even get out. in FP1, which always makes it more difficult. So the fact that he has outshone his teammate, got Alpine some points again after an absolutely abysmal run that they've had, is very impressive and just again showing that despite what most people think he does deserve to be in Formula One and have a seat next year.

Most people, would you actually say that? Based on comments on the I see on Formula One and sit just say just rather narrow. It's just unnecessary hate, I think, rather than actual his performances surely. And if so, then they are lacking severe will knowledge. And the fans gave Ocon an eight. Let's get a Pierre Gazley now, qualified 12th, started 12th, finished 13th. I've gone for a six out of 10 for Pierre Gasly.

I know he's been beaten by his teammate, but I don't think the Alpine was particularly amazing. So he's not done a bad job. for a hit to warrant like a five or a four, which is why he's getting a six, but obviously when you look at what his teammates done, points were possible. So it's one of those kind of performances where it's okay, better than okay,

and not bad, but could have done better. Yeah, I have gone for a seven out of ten for Pierre Gazley because I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt of what he said after the race where he had an engine problem and was losing seven-tenths down the straight every lap with an engine temperature issue. So I don't think you can compare apples with apples when it comes to Ocon and Gazzley there. And he was also complaining that his steering wasn't straight and things like that.

So I think Gassie did pretty well to finish 13th considering all of that. Because if you're losing that much time, then my goodness me, you're going to be struggling around spa. So yeah, I've gone for a seven out of ten for Gasley, mainly as well because I feel sorry for him for not having actually done many laps in the last few races. So well done, he finished the race, even though his car still didn't want to fancy being just 100% normal. The fans gave him a five, and that's disgusting.

That is quite frankly, really harsh. Lance Stroll, qualified 15th, started 15th, finished 11th. He's gone for a six out of 10 for Lance Stroll. Went for biggest flop, thought it was on. to be honest with you. Cashed in FP3. Very lucky to not have an absolutely catastrophic crash there. But he just sort of spun the car round in a way,

I'm not sure how much control he had over it, and then just ripped the front left off. So thankfully for Stroll, it wasn't a big incident there, and qualifying was mediocre. But as with Lance Stroll, you don't see him the whole race, and he finishes 11th or 12th or whatever it might be. So the Aston, I think, is still pretty terrible,

so I've gone for a six. obviously gone for a six out of ten. You expect more from him, or maybe you don't, because we have this conversation every week, and there's still this narrative that Lance Roll is good in the wet, and normally he does quite good. But I don't think that's happened since maybe his first two or three years in Formula One, he's been there a long time now.

We've not seen it in a very long time that he's performed. So qualifying, disappointing, to be down in 15th, And then he's had a quiet race, not matching Alonso, but it's nothing to sort of like slander him about, really. Absolutely not. The fans gave Lance a five. Fernando Alonzo, qualified ninth, started eighth, finished eighth. I've gone for a nine out of ten for Fernando Alonzo, because of course I have.

But no, he was the only person to finish in the points on a one stop. a qualified way above where the Aston Martin probably should be and yeah did a really really good job all weekend like that is the Fernando Alonzo that sadly we haven't seen for the last well probably quite a few races now we need to look back on it when we do our mid-season rankings but it feels like a long time since Alonzo I've been able to give him a good grade and say that he

pretty much got everything out of that car which is what we've expected for so long And that is exactly what he did all weekend, really. Yep, I've also gone for a nine out of ten for Fernando Alonzo, so you're not the only fanboy here. I think it was just a great drive, very quiet drive. Didn't really see him that much. But to get into Q3, outperform Lance Stroll quite significantly there,

and then just literally finish the top of Formula B. There's nothing much more he could have done. So that's why I've gone for a nine. And the fans gave him an eight. Oscar Piastri qualified sixth, started fifth, finished second. It is a nine out of ten for me for Oscar Piestri. I am becoming more and more impressed with Oscar, with every single weekend that goes by.

He is looking like a more complete driver. That being said, he did slightly eat his front jackman. But apart from that, he's looking like a more complete driver in the races. And I think Lando is going to be slightly concerned. with this teammate partnership now because Oscar is getting better and I think we forget this is his second season

he's learning every single race weekend he goes to so Spar was another great performance from him one or two more laps maybe getting past Leclerc a bit quicker and we could be looking at Oscar as a back-to-back winner but alas we haven't but it was still a fantastic drive so I have to give him a nine

yeah I've also gone for a nine out of ten for Oscar Piastri another brilliant drive no kind of issues on race pace that maybe we said so many times that once he sorts that he is going to be a very scary prospect and he certainly has been you know he's he's looking like well he's looking unbelievable already and like you say it's only a year and a half that he's been in Formula One so his moves you know he's got that aggression um which sometimes other drivers it can be like a bit of their downfall

and he has that aggression to be able to make moves even though overtaking was nearish impossible he still got that move done on Leclair did the move on Russell at the start as well and things like that so a great great job from Piaastri

and yeah he's going to be the McLaren driver going into the summer break with the most confidence definitely the fans gave Oscar a nine as well. Lando Norris, qualified fifth, started fourth, finished fifth. I have gone for a five out of ten for Lando Norris. I think it was probably the worst weekend from him that I can remember in a long time.

So many, you're going to tell me that he did something really bad recently that I've completely forgotten, haven't you? What did he do recently? don't think yeah i don't agree that it's probably one of these worst weekends i think i i i do um yeah the the you know when he's driving uh the best car on the grid uh and a very capable car to win um i think the the move at the start in the gravel was almost inexcusable really like that was a unforced error there was no need to do it um and it lost him a lot of a lot of places then You know, made another mistake, trying to pass science where he went off, made another mistake sort of with Vastappen fighting him,

and then got stuck when I know he was stuck behind Max de Stappen, which makes it more difficult, but Piastri showed that you can overtake. And the worrying thing for Lando, as I think his whole demeanour all weekend, was really low. You could tell that he just wanted the summer break to come quick, and yeah, it was a really difficult weekend for him.

And he's just, I'm sure, just desperate for that summer break. And he needs to come back revitalised because after what has been a very impressive season, it's been a lot trickier. And I think he's feeling a lot of the pressure and the expectation of having a very good car now. And it's sort of like dawned on him. Interesting. Okay. I've gone for a six out of ten for Lando Norris

So it's not too far from what you said I just felt like maybe you were slightly harsher on Lando Than when I'm looking at perhaps for Stappin in Hungary Where he was off his rails and what we gave him there Is a five out of ten really fair for Lando When he's finished fifth Like it's a That's gonna open up

I know he finished second but that's more on Oscar Piastri And doing a great job I think that McLaren weren't the fastest car clearly around spa, it was very close between them, Mercedes, Red Bullittland. They were stuck as well. So the wet qualifying didn't help with Lando and McLaren, for sure. They couldn't get in the mix. And then they were stuck.

So, yeah, I've gone for a six because, yeah, the start was everything. You have to treat that as a major error. And that's what he did. It was an unforced error as well. So that is why I've brought it down to a six. and then he's been stuck. Obviously, he has made a couple of mistakes. Lap two wasn't the worst thing ever

because he just went straight on. And then he's just trying to push and get through. He finished right behind Vastappen and Leclerc and, yeah, a weekend again where we thought McLaren would be right at the front and one of their drivers was, but Lando sadly wasn't. So yeah, six out of ten for me and the fans gave Lando a six as well. Carlos Sines, qualified eighth, started to be. seventh finished sixth.

I've gone for a seven out of ten for Carlos Sines. I think it was just the most seven out of ten performance in the world for Carlos. It was decent, but nothing to really write home about. Qualifying, he let himself down there a little bit. Because I think he was on the same strategy as Shal when it came to the last run, but only managed P8 for Carlos. he screwed from there really, but he still drove a relatively strong race. Made that mistake, obviously, which dipped him in the gravel, which lost him a few seconds.

But apart from that, it was all right. I don't think the Ferrari, as Charles showed, the Ferrari wasn't quite to the pace of the other front running teams. So yeah, seven out of ten. I've gone for a seven out of ten as well for Carlos. He was, like you say, is a very seven out of ten race, I think, that Ferrari have the fourth quickest car, if you like, in that Formula A pack. I think Carlos, to be fair to him, was quite unfortunate that he did a brilliant stint to kind of stick with everyone

on the hard ties at the start, but because, and you thought, oh, he actually might be in a really good position here, but everyone obviously realized that you could take those hards a lot longer later in the race, and that meant that Carlos, obviously, the one stop, it was never going to do that once he'd kind of pitted for the medium. So yeah, it was just

it's not a bad performance. It's just kind of like Carlos picking up good points again, which is what we've seen where he's not elevating above where that car is, but doing a solid job and that is why he's such a good driver. And the fans gave Carlos a seven. Charles LeClair qualified second started first and finished third

I've gone for a nine out of ten for Charlotte Clare for me it's actually very close to a ten is it a ten is it a ten I think the problem here no it's a ten I'm giving him a ten because when I look at that car and a lot of people

will slander me for this and call me the Charlotte Clair fanboy. But that is, in my opinion, and I think you can see that it is the fourth-ass car. And there'll be this whole talk of like, oh, he's dropped behind again. But I thought he was going to drop like an absolute stone in that race and be absolutely nowhere. So for him to be racing and only a few seconds off the lead, where I don't think the Ferrari is anywhere near, for him to essentially get on pole position, even though it was inherited, and then get on the podium, even that it's inherited.

You can't really expect any more from him. I think he is massively over-delivered in the car. And it maybe seems ridiculous to give someone a 10 when we are used to a 10 being that Charlotte Claire's winning, but he's not in a winning car, and that's what I'd argue from there. Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow. I very much enjoyed that.

I've gone for a 9 out of 10 for Charlotte Claire. Well, look, it's very close between a nine and a ten, but I think that if he'd kept Piastriate Bay somehow, maybe I would have gone for a 10, but it's hard to see a driver fall away from the front pack and be like, yeah, 10 out of 10, because you're trying to then manage your expectations of what the Ferrari can actually do,

and it's very hard to actually understand where that Ferrari is, especially in race trim, because it's just nowhere near what we came to expect in the earlier stages of the season. So I've gone for a nine. It was still a fantastic drive from Shal. To see him on pole position was a blessing and a curse, because obviously I knew that then 25 polls would then be on his record,

and I knew for a fact he would not be adding to his win tally. But to finish on the podium after Russell's disqualification, still a great result, and hopefully Ferrari just figure their stuff out in the second half of the season. The fans gave Shal an eight, which is disgusting. George Russell, qualified seventh, started sixth,

disqualified. Now, how on earth do you rate this? Because I know for a fact people will give him a zero and a ten and a five and everything else in between. So screw you all,

I love you really, please listen, keep listening. We love driver ratings. It's our favourite series in the world. I'm giving George Russell a 10 out of 10. because what I can't take away from George's performance because of a one and a half kilogram underweightness to his car, which he didn't know about. And there's so much deliberation as to whether he's actually gained time or not. Has he got an advantage? I'd say yes, because his car is literally illegal. But it was negligible. We're talking like 0.05 a lap or something like that.

So George is still in the hunt, even if his car is. is 798 kilograms. I know that Team LH are shouting from the hills, this is the reason why George stayed ahead of Lewis is because of that one and a half kilograms. I would argue, no. I would argue that Hamilton having a 0.05 second a lap or whatever it was advantage

is still not getting him past George Russell at the end of that race. That is what I will die on that hill for. So yes, I am going for that because George still drove unbelievably. Like that was one of the most shocking win. we've seen in a very long time, which isn't a win, obviously it's a disqualification. But at the time it was a win. So that's what I'm judging it on.

Thank you for coming to my Matt talk. I have gone for a zero out of ten for George. No, I haven't really. I've gone for a ten out of ten for George Russell, and it can't be anything other than a ten. And it's annoying that we have to agree on something that's quite a maybe a controversial opinion. But I don't think you can say. and this is how I see it, right? Yes, I'm not trying to defend

that George shouldn't have been disqualified. If he was one gram over, he should have been disqualified. They are the rules. Under, sorry. One gram over. Counsel him. No, if he was under by a gram, whatever it is, 100 kilos, like half a kilo, whatever, you're disqualified.

They are the rules. But when we are doing driver ratings and we are judging a driver's performance that think of a one and a half kilo weight and think that a Formula One car is nearly 800 kilos and you put that weight into George Russell's cockpit is he suddenly finishing 17th? No, he's not. He's winning the race because of his brilliant strategy and his brilliant drive on old tyres. And yes, his car was a little. legal, and he deserves to be disqualified, but it didn't, 1.5 kilos cannot take away from that he saved his ties brilliantly. He opened up LaSauce by running wide, which made it look like he was actually

doing a bad corner, but it meant he got an amazing run down the Kemmelstraight, stay ahead of Hamilton. He was driving absolutely brilliantly, and it is a shame that he's been disqualified, because it would be, without doubt, his best win, and he's not got many, but one of the best wins of the year and one of the best wins we've seen in a long time. So it is a shame, but it's called driver ratings, not result rating. So the DSQ for me is not really, like it's not judged.

And to counter, like you say, members of, you know, Hamilton, fan base that say, you know, he would have been last, and it doesn't matter, and Hamilton would have won, all this stuff. You know, Hamilton got disqualified from, I think it was Austin, when he finished second, because bargeboard. The Charlerclair also got... Yeah, they've both got disqualified. Thanks for bringing that.

But do you say that Hamilton, like, oh, you know, if his underfloor was a little bit thicker, he'd have been last? Yeah, and we, as fans, can't judge that. either. So to say, oh, well, it's this, it's that. It's opinion. And this is the opinion we're giving is that he deserves a 10 out of 10. Tommy, do you have the fan rating split that you can get up for us? Because I'll be very interested to see what people did. And I can see a ferociously typing now to get that sheet up. While I'm doing that, one thing I will say, and I was going to pop off about it. It didn't actually end up being that bad, although I still think

it was bad. And maybe people think I'm ridiculous for giving Charleclair the rating I did. However, when I looked late last night at the fan ratings, when I think a thousand votes had come in, Charlotte Claire was on quite easily

a seven out of ten. And I was like, what race are you watching? Wow, you're now the comment section, Tommy. Yeah, I know. Actually, whilst you're finding that, will say something. I saw some posts, some slander towards Russell from a member of, well, members, many members of Hamilton's fan base, basically having a go at him for saying that he takes pride in finishing the race first. And it's like, and people were getting offended by that. And I'm sat

there going, what? George still drove an incredible race and he takes pride in the fact that he drove an unbelievable strategy to win that race. How is that a bad thing? I don't. get it. Anyway, Tommy, do you have the rating? And also imagine the other way around. Like, put yourselves in, um, it picks up in George Russell. In George Russell's, what are you going to say? I didn't deserve it. I'm illegal. Say Hamilton was in the lead and George Russell was in second and Hamilton's going to drop down the order and finish in the middle of the pack or he can take a risk and then also put the narrative even though I don't think this changes it that much. But like Hamilton is leaving the team

well and they're not going to completely like no george we want you to finish six like it's a chance of them to get a one two as a team and we're always like lauding teams that let their drivers race and actually have a battle anyway so um yeah it's it's ridiculous to complain uh it's not anywhere near as bad as i thought um so uh 62 percent uh gave them a 10 28 percent gave him a nine five percent gave him an eight one percent gave them a seven uh and then to be fair it was only 39 members of Team LH that gave Missouri, so 1.4%. Okay, interesting.

Let's now, as mentioned, George got a 10 from the fans. Let's now go to Lewis Hamilton. Qualified 4th, started third, finished first. It's a 10 out of 10 for Lewis Hamilton. Unbelievable drive. Yeah, you will, you know,

the fact that he's qualified well, I don't think the Mercedes was the best. car this weekend or certainly not way ahead of people and having that advantage. He showed again that if he can get to the front early, he can win races and be unsupple. And I know Russell obviously got ahead and got disqualified. But when we're looking at Hamilton's race, I do take some sympathy that maybe like the fact that he was completely bamboozled by it meant that he never did more pace. but he had every opportunity at the end to make a pass

and he couldn't make it. But of course it doesn't matter because he's disqualified. But Hamilton's race. George was not Lewis. Yeah, Russell was disqualified. Lewis Hamilton disqualified. Yeah, that would be. And also Oscar Piazsche, Charlotte Claude.

Thank you very much. Sorry, Karen. It's another sensational drive. And, yeah, it's going to be very interesting when we get into our mid-season drive ratings because Hamilton was, on a terrible run of form, really. Like he was under-delivering.

It was kind of like people were saying he's finished. Oh, is he too old now? And he's arguably been one of the most impressive drivers of the last three or four races now and is in unbelievable form, you know, one, two of the last three. Yeah, he's in fantastic form and it makes it very exciting for the rest of the season.

It does indeed. I've gone for a 10 out of 10 for Lewis Hamilton as well. There's no other number that he deserves. He drove brilliantly. He got past Charles very early. He got past Perez, obviously, first with a good start and then got past Charles very easily, which was saddening as a Ferrari fan. But after that, he looked completely in control. There was not, well, until George Russell, he was, he looked like he was set to win and had no problems whatsoever managing the race. He even said that he had a lot of tyres left after. every stint and he was surprised to see the one less stop coming for George Russell. But that being said, Hamilton still won the race. It still would have been a 10 because I have sympathy for him that he would not have known or he at least claimed that he didn't really know that that was going to happen until it did. So Hamilton was doing everything he needed to do to win the race up until that George Russell moment. So yeah, it's a 10 out of 10 from me, a brilliant performance. And the fans also gave him a 10.

Sergio Perez, qualified third, started second, finished seventh. It is a four out of ten for Sergio Perez. Look, he had a great opportunity to do some wonderful things in the race. And I genuinely thought that he was going to be in the mix, do all right, because, well, not only was he starting on the front row of the grid, but it soon became apparent that it was very difficult to overtake. once again around Spar Frank's Champ, which works very well for drivers that are towards the front of the field,

you would imagine. And at the beginning of the race, it felt like Perez was just in the mix. Then he starts to fall away a little bit. It all starts to unravel. And next thing you know, he's finishing eighth on the road, which of course is promoted to seventh after Russell's disqualification. But he wasn't just finishing at the back of the pack. He was also off the back of the pack and then was used to pit for soft tires to get a fastest lap.

I don't get it. I really don't. I genuinely thought that it was going to be a better weekend for Perez this time after qualifying, but it wasn't. So it's a four. I have also gone for a four out of ten for Sergio Perez. I'm glad we do drive ratings because I don't feel like we've spoken about Perez much recently. So it's nice to dive into his form and his race. Do you think he's going to keep his seat?

Oh, yeah. Maybe we should talk about that some more. Yeah, you said everything there is to say that finally qualifying has been, we've seen this before with Perez. It's maybe not as, when Perez was doing wet better, it would often be qualifying that let him down and then he would come back in the races and obviously, you know, the whole driver of the day meme of qualify appallingly

and then get to fourth, fifth or whatever and have a great result. Whereas this was the opposite of that where you've kind of been waiting for him to have that moment where he is at the front and finally you can see what you can do i thought know this is your chance red bull look pretty good around here he's qualified yes he's qualified way off max but um you think second is where you want to be really starting the Belgian grand prix because you get a great run but it got muscled out by hamilton and then just dropped all the way down uh and i think i can't remember the exact phrase that helmet marco used to describe his final stint. I'm sure he said horrible or something along those lines. Pretty brutal.

It was not, not good for... Completely collapsed. Yeah, so savage from her. Marco and it's true. It wasn't doing that badly. He was in that Formula A-PAC, which is where he needs to be, and then just completely just caved. So, not good for Peres. Not good indeed. The fans also gave Perez a four. Max Verstappen, qualified first, started 11th because of the penalty and then finished fourth. I've gone for an 8 out of 10 for Max Verstappen. His qualifying was sensational and kind of showed that he can still deliver an unbelievable

performance, particularly in the wet. The Red Bull has definitely fallen off and it's made it tricky for him. Like he wasn't flying through the field like we used to see. And of course overtaking was incredibly difficult for everyone. But he made a great start and somehow, again, managed to extend his lead on what on paper should have been not the best weekend for him. But he's delivered kind of really the maximum that you can expect. Not quite, but a very good performance. And I think this is exactly why he is going to be so difficult in a championship fight, even when,

even when the car isn't there and has not been good because, you know, we saw the stat of the last eight races. He's still leading the championship, even though the Red Bull has dropped off quite dramatically compared to the dominance that it had before. So, yeah, gone for an eight. Lovely stuff. I have also gone for an eight out of ten for Max for Stappen because it was a decent drive,

but he just got a little bit stuck. and he made a decent amount of progress at the beginning. But yeah, it's, again, it's a similar thing. What was I saying about Ferrari? Where you're trying to figure out now where Red Bull actually are in the pecking order when it comes to race pace. I think Spar was a very difficult one to measure because of how difficult it was to overtake.

But look, it was, I was impressed by Max not only with his moves, but also his demeanour. No crazy team radio antics. A lot of respect. no anger. Thank you for the point, Max for Stappen, for the crazy prediction. And thank God I didn't say it for the whole weekend, by the way,

because he definitely was, I think, pretty sassy and qualifying. I think it was qualified, actually. But either all, it was a decent weekend for Max. He still extends his championship lead, which is utterly ridiculous, considering what we were expecting coming into this with his 10-place penalty. So it's an 8 out of 10.

And the fans gave him an 8 as well. So who is our? P1. Now this might well be a very difficult one. Very controversial potentially. My P1 is Lewis Hamilton because Lewis Hamilton was blindsided by his own team. And I think had he been given the opportunity to one stop or to cover off George, he would have. So it's like Lewis was racing against 18 other drivers and then one anonymous one. that he wasn't told about. So that's why I'm going for Lewis Hamilton

because I think he was driving incredibly well up until that point. So, yeah, I have to give him the benefit, the doubt that he would have covered that off had he known what Mercedes were going to do with George. So, Lewis. I've also gone for Lewis Hamilton. I think the fact that George Russell,

we will never know how much difference we've given our opinion on the fact that we think he still would have won that race, but he did have. have an illegal car. And I think Hamilton, despite, you know, even if George Russell had won the race, Hamilton was the most impressive driver, the fact that, you know, he qualified well, got past at the start, muscled his way through, and then just managed the race brilliantly.

And like you say, the only reason he finished behind his teammate was because basically Russell rolled the dice big time and it was a six but then exploded when he got disqualified. Okay then, that is it. We are done. That is driver ratings finished for the Belgian Grand Prix. I hope you've enjoyed the series so far. It's nice to see a lot of love for it after I asked whether anyone actually genuinely likes this series. So please continue the love. Please continue liking if you're on YouTube and letting us know that you do enjoy this and not that you just disagree with everything that we've ever said. Tommy, what are your final thoughts? Final thoughts? If you love this series, like I've said, a couple of times in the podcast, we'll be doing our mid-season one as well.

And that normally is quite controversial because we don't take recency bias into account. And we average up the kind of grades among the whole season. So just because one driver's doing well now, it might, like some drivers might be higher or lower than maybe we expect to, you know, just because we all forgot that people like Sergio Perez were getting podiums. What feels like about five years ago now, but it was only a few months ago. Exactly. Well, that is it. Thank you, everybody.

Enjoy your summer break, whatever you're doing. And we will still be here, ready to rumble whenever any news drops. I wonder what else. And I'm sure there'll be a lot of soon. Yeah, Antonelli, imagine. That'll be the next thing maybe. But yeah, thank you, everybody. We'll see you soon.

Lots of love. Bye. Bye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the ACAST creator network.