P1 with Matt and Tommy - Can Max Verstappen REALLY win the 2025 title? | P1 Live in Austin

Episode Date: October 19, 2025

This episode is presented by AT&T.Join us for this very special episode, recorded in front of a live audience at the United States Grand Prix in Austin this weekend! We spoke about yesterday's crazy sprint race and asked if Max Verstappen really can win the Championship, answered plenty of audience questions and chatted with a former F1 racer driver!The Delusion Tour is only a few weeks away! We're heading to North America in a few weeks and there are still a few tickets available - click here to grab yours: tix.to/p1liveYou can listen to an extended version of every Race Review over on our Patreon! You'll also access to every P1 episode ad-free, 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 TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody. Hi, welcome. How's it going? We've got a few things to talk about, haven't we, Tommy? Just a bit. Yeah, nothing's happened in the last hour to discuss. Yeah, crazy. Goodness gracious. Did that really just happen? Right, let's sit down. So my name's Matt, and this is Tommy. You may well have heard of us. We have a podcast called P1 with Matt and Tommy. We love talking about Formula One. I'm glad at least some of you know who we are, which is always a relief. But we got a lot to chat about today, aren't we Tommy? We absolutely have. Yeah. An insane sprints just happened. And you never know with a sprint how it's going to go, how much we'll have to talk about, but quite a few things to talk about. Yes, but before we do that, I just want to say thank you so much for all of you joining us here live

at the AT&T garage at Distribution Hall in downtown Austin. So exciting to be here. So much better than my bedroom, I tell you that. We're so happy to be here with our friends at AT&T, sponsor of the Oracle Red Bull Racing team at this amazing space. We've got loads to get into, as we mentioned, and we'll be coming to you later for a Q&A as well, so get thinking of your questions, where you can ask, of course, the F1 Oracle, Tom Bellingham, all of your burning questions as well as me if you want to ask anything. Plus, we'll be joined later by a US racing legend for a chat as well.

But before we get into that, as we said, the sprint race. Goodness gracious me. Yeah, that carded pretty well, didn't it? Max Verstappen just on the side. Tommy, you, of course, very happy about that as well. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, what an insane start. You know, the sprint race, as I said beforehand.

It's a very short race. Sometimes we can have sprints where not a huge amount happens. The points are very close, so you don't normally tend to get big point swings in things. But instead, we got the two McLaren's scoring nothing and Max scoring maximum points. Which is only eight, sadly, for you because it's a sprint, but a lot more than we were all expecting. And it's because of a certain incident that happened at turn one, lap one. and I can't believe I've just watched that, to be honest with you. We were live streaming in a room just over there,

screaming, absolutely screaming our lungs out, because we couldn't believe it. Because Holkenberg was like, I'm going to break quite late here. And it's funny, I think he sells his merchandise on Max Verstappen's website. So make of that what you will. I think Holkenberg is the biggest Max for Stappen fan, clearly, even more than me, and just thought, look, this is the Max. No, it was the nature of turn one,

it's such a difficult corner because they do just bottleneck into that corner. It's so unique. I love the circuit in general. Cota is an incredible track. One of the best on the calendar, if not. It is genuinely up there as one of the top two or three now.

And the way they kind of funnel into that first turn, there's always going to be incidents. It's always going to be hard how you position your car. which lines do you take? And as we saw there, you know, Oscar Piastri, Dico Holcomberg, the way you take different lines through that corner,

it just spelled disaster. Meanwhile, of course, Max Verstappen capitalised massively. 55 points the gap now, with still six races to go and two sprints. Now we've got a live audience right now by way of cheer. Do you think Max can do it now? 55 points.

So Tommy is ever the pessimist. Max could be leading by 50 points, but I'm not sure about it, mate. I just can't see it. This is now at a point where you go, this doesn't require too many more miracles to potentially happen. It's insane.

For concerts, we do some live shows and we did a live show in the Netherlands during the summer break. And Max was obviously at that point, nearly 100 points behind. And we did the same there where we asked, who believes Max can still do it? Complete silence.

And that was the Netherlands, you know, Max's home country. No one believed that he had a prayer. It was over. There's absolutely no chance. And what was that? Four races ago. And it's now nearly half that deficit already with six to go. It's absolutely insane what is happening.

right now. It's unbelievable to think that he was, yeah, nearly a hundred points behind. There's no way on earth he could possibly do it. And McLaren have been saying, you know, yeah, Max has an opportunity. We do need to take this seriously. That was when he was 70, 80 points behind. It's now 55. I'm seeing a glimmer in your eyes here, Tommy. Is that, is that belief? Is that what I see? I know. The percentage is just going up more and more by every incident, but it's insane. It's insane. The thing is though, like, yes, I do believe,

I think probably it's more possible than you do, but at the same time, it requires a perfect end to the season for Max. He can't have any kind of issue. It needs to be wins, it needs to be beating the McLaren's every single time. He can't even just finish third behind the two McLaren's, in my opinion, because that's too big of a swing with so little races left. But it's quite clear that Red Bull have continued to upgrade this car late into the season

and it's paid massive dividends with the run of form he's currently on. Yeah, it's insane because I think many other drivers, you wouldn't give them a prayer at all. Even if they were doing what Max did now, you think it's just too much. So the fact that it's even being spoken about is just, you know, it shows what a driver Max has been and he has had that inevitability over the last,

few years, you look at the kind of hardships they've had. Of course, they went on that amazing run in 2023 where he was winning almost every single Grand Prix. But you look at last year, it looked like they had a great start to the season, but then we're struggling towards the end. And then he goes and pulls that amazing result in Brazil where, of course, he won from 17th. And it's one of those where you just, it's moments like that where you just can't count him out. you certainly can't so you know you're the big big max for stappen fan

I'm sort of a newly recruited max for stappen fan because I want to see something crazy happen come the end of the season what would you say your highlights have been Tommy considering you know you've been locked in since day one of this season highlights well I mean his first race

for red ball racing was I meant this year but I didn't mean the whole of his career we haven't got that much time yeah very true And this year, I think the one that really stands out is the move at Turn 1 at Imola. That was just unbelievable to witness. I don't think anyone, we were just taken, just took our breath away. We just no one was expecting it.

It wasn't like he was even remotely side by side. And in fact, he was about to go down to third position. And for him to outbreak George Russell and then go round the outside of Oscar Piastri, it was one of the most unbelievable starts I've ever seen and I've been watching Formula One since I was a child. Which was a very long time ago as well as much as people think you're 20 years old.

Yeah, that for sure is my moment that just sticks in my mind because it was like oh he's got P2 and then he just kept going and risked it for a chocolate biscuit and Max likes to put it to the absolute limit and that was it. That was just such a perfect move. Suzuki as well I think comes to mind of like taking it to McLaren's that are quicker.

I still think, even though I saw a graphic this weekend saying that Red Bull is now the quickest car on paper, I still think Max is bringing something very special out of that car at the moment where he feels comfortable, but he's also moaning over the radio. There's still time to be found. There is. And it is about fine tuning and that's something Max has always been really good at is getting that car in that window that he wants because the start of the season. it wasn't looking good for Red Bull at all.

They were struggling quite a lot, even though Max got that P2 in the first race of the season. I think that was mainly due to the weather, and we all know how good Maxa Stappen is in wet conditions. But yeah, they went to Japan, and you thought this shouldn't be, they weren't in a position to be winning races at that stage of the season,

puts it on pole position, and when it's a track that's very difficult to overtake, led the way and yeah he's had a surprising amount of wins this year and they have really found something in these last few races how many points does he need to be behind for you to actually just just just soak it up and believe like when do we lose pessimistic Tommy and get all right max can win this now it depends how many races are left obviously no no no give me an answer how many points. That's all I want. How many points? Well, if there's more than

if he gets to within a win, obviously even going into the last race, there's a chance. Yeah. So, I guess 25 is the magic number of, okay, he's really there. But he kind of almost needs to do that with a couple of races to go rather than going into the final one and just obviously hoping

for a McLaren DNF. So, yeah, he's still got a way to go, but as we mentioned, you know, what feels like a few weeks ago we're talking about there's absolutely no hope and he's 90 odd, nearly 100 points behind. And here we are now going, well, it's actually 55,

which is, you know, just over two wins now. He's adding the spice to this championship that is absolutely needed. Like, I've struggled to fully emotionally invest in this championship, but now that Max was like, all right, I'll try now then. and just starts winning left right and centre it's awesome to see

and I think that you say within a win you still didn't really answer my question of how many points you said within a win that's when you'll kind of believe but you know if we I know we're doing a lot of ifs at the moment aren't we but if he wins every race if he wins Austin

you know it's at least a seven points swing it's then 48 points with five races to go and two sprints you were 7% sure after the sprint today what percent would you be? If that happened, I'd be like it would be more like 15%. Oh wow, that's a big jump. Wow.

Because it would feel like he's got within those couple of wins it still needs some good fortune but as we've seen today anything can happen. I mean you kind of thought after Baku there's going to be no more

you thought oh well it's not really going to happen because he needs more incidents and it just shows that anything can happen. And of course, you're going to have that dynamic where, you know, the position that Red Bull are in to back Max for the championship, they can, you know, Max can run his own race and everything, whereas the McLaren's

are both kind of going for glory. So it's how they position it. Now, this is awesome to be here. It's probably dreamy for you, mate. I mean, look at the little backdrop that AT&T have sorted out for us. You've got the Max car over there. You've got literally the... show car behind the cameras as well.

Like, you must be living the dream with the momentum that's currently happening for Max's well. Yeah. I mean, we do most of our podcast from home. And I do have a Maxisap and model car, but it's not one-to-one scale. No. So it's very cool to be here in this place. It's an awesome, awesome venue.

Now, I guess finally, before we move on to our American legend that's coming on the podcast, What are our expectations for the team next year? We're getting very excited about Max's chance, an outside shot of the championship. Next year is such a huge shake-up in the regulations, had a lot of drivers, including Max himself, questioning whether these regs are even going to work. Is Red Bull going to be right up there again?

Max has decided to stay with Red Bull, so clearly there is something there that he knows or believes in when the shake-up happens. Yeah, it's going to be a huge shake. Obviously, we've been in this regulation change since 2022. Max has won, and Red Bull have won an enormous number of races to the point where I've lost count. There's been that many races. And that's going to be the big thing that when we go into a new regulation change, can

they stay in that position? Can they keep getting wins? And of course, they're going to have a new engine supplier as well. throws a lot of things into the mix, but we've already seen that team go from 2021 and winning the world championship, and that was a completely different regulation, going into the new era, thinking, you know, can they deliver again, and being more dominant? So, you know, there's every chance they've got, you know, they are a winning team, they've won multiple world championships, not just in recent times with Sebastian Vettel as well back in the early 2010. So

there is an opportunity, absolutely, and it's going to be fascinating to see how that playing field switches, because it could be massive. It could look like a completely different sport in a year's time. It could be massive. Now, Tommy, it's been absolutely awesome to hear from you, but now we're actually going to get someone involved that has wheel knowledge rather than just us to pretend.

So it's time to welcome our special guest for today's episode. And if you want to know more about just about every racing series on the planet, you're in luck. Today's guest entered 28 Grand Prix races for Toro throughout 2006 and 2007 and was one of Red Bull's first junior drivers to reach Formula One. He has also won four consecutive global

rally cross championships. There's a lot of achievements here and has also raced in NASCAR and Formula E. He's now a Red Bull athlete and you'll probably find him somewhere around the world driving a rally car insanely quickly. It's Scott Speed! Welcome Scott. Thankfully we've got someone who actually knows what they're talking about on the podcast. Thank you for coming on.

Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me. I was catching up on some of your podcast before I came on here. You guys got such great energy. You guys, you can tell that you really love the sport. Yeah, what we wake up in lack of knowledge, we put with our enthusiasm. So thank you so much for coming on. My pleasure. We've got some questions for you, which both myself and Tommy are going to go through. I hope you're ready for that. So the first one, I'd love to get a bit of an understanding of us. What role did racing play in your early life? Well, a massive role, probably the biggest role, you know. I like to say that I got in a go-kart and started racing when I was 10, but the truth is,

it started so much before that. You know, when I was three years old, I remember going to the go-kart track, and my dad was racing go-karts, and he was really good. He was a national champion. So for me, since I was three years old, I always had this attachment and identity to racing, and that's what my dad did, and I think, you know, for me anyways, like I grew up, and I wanted to make my dad proud, right? And I knew how much he loved racing, and he was a huge Michael Schum,

Schumacher fan, we'd wake up in the middle of the night and watch Formula One. This all happened before I ever sat in a race car. And then I got this chance when I was 10 years old to drive a go car for the first time. And the first time I sat in it, I was really quick. And I thought, gosh, I'm just really talented of this, which was honestly in hindsight like a really bad way to think about it. But because the reality was like I was playing video games. I was watching racing so much from such an early age. It's just what I was into. And, you know, from age 11 to 12, I got enough success that, okay, it was very clear from 11 years old. I stopped playing all other sports.

It was just racing. It wasn't going to high school parties. It wasn't going. I missed all the proms and all the formals. And I was going on every weekend, which was tough as a kid because I didn't really connect with kids through school. But I had my racing community. And that's really what, you know, how I grew up. That's funny you mentioned three years old because Tommy, your daughter is three years old.

So when does Grace get into her first school? Absolutely. Yeah, well, hearing that, I need to start getting into karting, don't I? So, Scott, you were part of an American driver search with Red Bull in the early 2000s. How important do you think it is for the sport to, you know, look at young kids and help them raise that sponsorship money? Well, I think giving opportunities great, but I also think that, you know, if you're a young kid and your dream is Formula One and that's what you really want, then the only thing standing between. you and that is time and I just really believe that if you really want something bad enough and you put the work in you're going to eventually find a way the cool thing about motor racing is it's

not like football where there's like a very specific path to getting to the NFL you know for you know racing in general is so unique in that way that there's there's not a draft you can find talent from all over the world and and in so many cultures and specifically in Formula One with all of the different teams and cultures involved, it really makes it a special form of motor racing. So, you know, obviously for me, the Red Bull driver search that I was a part of was a life-changing experience. It gave me the opportunity to get here. And what was also unique about that was that, you know, the whole goal behind that was to build an American Formula One team in general. So, you know, they had bought Jaguar. They were going to go and build with Ford, and it was going to all be this

American thing that ended up falling apart by the time I got there. And I ended up just kind of slotting in as part of the Red Bull junior team. But the goal at the beginning was to create this American Formula One team. So to see that Ford's going to come back and link up, you know, after so many years with Red Bull. It's kind of cool to see. And, yeah, fun to at least have that opportunity with them. Now, something when we're lucky enough to have people on the podcast

that have actually experienced a Formula One race, which is rare, I love to hear the story and sort of the emotions of being on the grid. So for you, Bahrain, 2006, first time on the world. the grid, put us in the helmet. What were the thoughts and the feelings as the red lights were coming on? Yeah, well, not looking back on it now, after, you know, sort of setting psychology for five years, not good ones. You know, my, honestly, I think the way I really looked at at the time was just don't mess up. That's a bad place to be. But it was really special. You know, obviously the transition from Formula 2 to Formula 1 was a really, really big one. It's very

different to to compete on that stage. You know, Formula One's a huge stage with so many eyeballs and it's difficult. It's really difficult. It's difficult because, you know, for the first time in most people's racing career, they're not in the same car as everybody else, right? And there's lots of challenges. And then obviously the cars are so fast. They're very, very difficult to drive. You know, driving a car on the edge, you know, fundamentally what you do as a driver is no different in a go-cart than a Formula One car, but that becomes increasingly difficult when the grip level, you know, is now four and a half Gs through the corner versus, you know, maybe like a go car, which is one and a half or two.

So it does become exponentially difficult as you go up there. And then obviously the stakes are super high. You don't get a lot of practice. You show up and you have to be ready to go now. And we don't really have simulators back then. So he just kind of showed up and winged it. You mentioned about, you know, your dad being into Michael Schumacher and stuff. Obviously, you know, he was racing that time.

How was that for you and also your dad to, you know, race against someone like that. And him, you know, getting you into racing and him being a Schumacher fan and then him watching you race against Schumacher could be on that same starting grid. Yeah, I can tell you, it was so surreal to be in my first driver's meeting with Michael and then to just realize, I mean, this is the guy that I watch and idolize as a kid. And then to be in the same driver's meeting as him was super special. And honestly, looking back on it was really cool because, you know, look, Michael was great.

He was an innovator and how far he pushed the limit was incredible. To me, I didn't understand how someone could work so hard for it. The way I looked at it, I didn't feel like I had a lot of control with the cars. You know, whether or not we got a new floor or a new front wing, to me, I felt like that was whether or not we were going to do good or not. I didn't really take a lot of responsibility in myself in trying to increase my ability to drive better. right I thought that that was just like a given you know this is how good I am this is how good I'm always going to be let's see how far I can make it oh I made it to Formula One I'm pretty good the idea of getting better and improving I didn't really understand until much later in life so it was

really cool this I actually got to see what that was like at such a high level in Michael and how much he pushed and how much he constantly grew and innovated through his career that's so cool to hear because obviously I'm a big Michael Schumacher fan boy I have been since I was two years old and my dad's always been like, no, you should support Damon Hill? No, it's Michael Schiwick. Oh, no, no, those colors don't run. Absolutely. So you had to battle some difficult health problems through your young racing career.

How did you kind of overcome those adversities? Yeah, honestly is going to sound crazy, but, you know, at one point, my health was really bad. I had very low blood. I had ulcerative colitis, but realistically, for my racing career, it didn't, it's crazy to say, because at that time, like, when I won my championships in Formula Renault, I was the sickest I'd been in my life. So for me, it didn't really, it was just a piece of life that was happening that I didn't really pay too much attention to.

Eventually, like, I had some amazing support from Red Bull. I moved to Austria, and they got me to see the best doctors, and I worked through it. But for me, I was so focused on racing, it was just something that was happening in the background. So it was, like, impactful in some sense, but for me, like, I was so focused on, the racing and winning races that, you know, what was happening in my body was just kind of like

over here. So how would you look back at your sort of F1 career now? In the past, you've said that you found it challenging to be winning races all through your junior career. Then you get to F1 and you're fighting towards the back. Like, how was that? How do you look back on your time? Oh, man, just I look back with so much gratitude.

You know, I was given such amazing opportunities and I was around such amazing people. You know, at that time when we were there, I'm thinking of the Red Bull Junior team originally in Austria, you know, where there was guys like Sebastian Boeemey and Fettel, and there's just so many of us that were, you know, in the same area at the same time growing and chasing our racing careers, which is just such an amazing environment. And Red Bull had done so much for us with their training center and the people that were there trying to help. It really was a great launch pad into motor racing, something that obviously looking back, I could have taken so much more. more advantage of that I know now, but I'm still so grateful for the opportunities and the lessons that I've learned from that. And, you know, I got to travel the world and see some amazing places and be around a lot of really high-performing people and forever grateful for that. You mentioned, obviously, about Formula One, but you've raced, you know, so many different

series. How has it been, you know, jumping from different cars? You've, like you say, you've raced in in rallycross and how is it compared to the Formula One and the different series you're doing? Well, my favorite analogy is, you know, have you seen Days of Thunder? You've seen Days of Thunder. I lived, I really fully lived Cold Trickle without the wins at the end. Because I came over from F1 and I was this super arrogant, I mean, I'm one of the best of the world of racing. I come to America and watch these NASCAR guys. This is going to be easy.

And really early, I had speed. made my very first ever cup test at Charlotte. I was second fastest. The only guy was faster me was Jeff Gordon. And I'm like, cake, no problem. And I got out to my very first cup race and I finished like a lap down in like 30th. And it was literally like, all right, you got speed. Let's see how you do with 35 other guys around you. And that was the big piece that was different about NASCAR. I always could drive fast. But the racing aspect and how dynamic NASCAR races are, how dynamic racing is on an oval with the air. is something that was so new to me.

And I never, it took a long time to get used to that and to adapt to those type of cars. But an incredible journey nonetheless, I, you know, I now have a great home in Charlotte, North Carolina, which, you know, the unique thing about NASCAR racing is a lot of the, all the teams and drivers all live kind of within 20 square miles. So, like, there's a few towns where we live, where there's just so much people within motor racing here in America,

and that's a pretty cool place to live. so not only do you drive loads of cars, but you're also now a coach as well at Wise Optimization, sorry, which has coached several championship winning NASCAR drivers. How do you actually go about coaching? I don't like to.

What kind of coach are you? I don't like the actual use the word coach. I think, you know, I help racing drivers optimize their performance and achieve their goals, whatever that is. And I think that starts with understanding, you know, not only what the driver wants, but what they're feeling and what they're seeing. because, you know, the thing about racing is, you know, everybody's experiencing that car from their perspective, right?

They're feeling the car their way, where they're looking, what they're thinking about is all individuals. So anybody can look at two drivers' date and say, okay, well, you need to break later here. You need to go faster here. But like what that actually means to the person, how you actually get them to achieve that is a very different thing. And I'll tell you a quick story. When I, about five years ago, I broke my back in a rally cross accident. and I got to go visit a go-car race with my dad and my brother who's got a really successful carting team.

And I was helping one of the young drivers there, and he ended up winning his first ever big national race that weekend. And I tell you, the joy and the energy I got from helping this kid, like, achieve his goal was so much more impactful for me than any race I have ever won or any achievement I've ever had in motor racing. So I knew right then, like, this is the path I want to go. And it just so happens that my best friend from, California, his name's Josh Wise, he had just, he had like three years earlier started coaching

and going back to school for psychology and helping to develop some NASCAR drivers, which is a very bold move for a next race car driver because it's, it's, there's not really a, a company or a program that's done what we're doing before. So we really started from scratch what this, what this program is. And it started with just a, an idea of like, we want to help drivers, you know, improve and chase their dream. and then, okay, now how do we do that? And I learned really quickly that I was not equipped to do that at all. And so it became this really amazing journey through life

of studying psychology and communication and understanding how to really impact someone, which is not only helped me, obviously, impact these kids, but it's also helped me as a father, as a husband, as a human. And it's been some of the most rewarding work I've done in my life and something I'm super proud of. Question about F1 this year. Do you think Max can do it?

I sure hope so. Look, I'm a fan of a great story and I love the challenge and the resilience, the team and everybody has shown to fight back and to continue to work hard at, you know, on their cars. Formula One is an incredibly difficult sport. I really withhold judgment or opinion on how things are going because I've been on the inside and I know the big delta of information from what's happening inside the team to what everybody's talking about. It is normally very large, so I won't speculate that I know what is going on at all. But it sure is a cool story that someone is great as Maxis, obviously, is having to fight through this crazy adversity this year

to hopefully bring home another championship for Red Bull. So in short, Scott says yes. He believes. He believes. Thank you so much, Scott, for coming to join. Thank you. Thank you for my applause, please. Thank you.

Nice to meet you guys. Okay. Okay, right. Big thanks to Scott Speed for joining us. Now, before we get in today's Q&A, where the live audience you can get involved, let's hear from our sponsors, AT&T, who made all of this possible.

All right, Tommy, here's one for you. It's the classic F1 debate. Drivers are absolutely obsessed with that one blistering qualifying lap, but you always hear the engineers, the race strategists say that championships are won on consistency. So what's your take?

Is it about being the fastest or the most reliable? Reliability 100%. That's what gets you the championship trophy at the end of the day. I mean, look at Lewis Hamilton at Malaysia in 2016. Absolutely heartbreaking. The famous, oh no, no on the radio. Exactly. He was cruising to the win, about to take the championship lead, 16 laps to go and then bang. Engine goes up in flames. And that was it. A championship basically over, all just because of one unreliable part. The sport is absolutely brutal, and you know it's the same in everyday life as well, isn't it? Maybe not with flames coming out the back of your car. But if your internet connection drops right in the middle of a stream, like for us, I mean, I've had that literally happen before. Or a big meeting.

It feels like an engine failure on the final laps. And that's why I was looking into this AT&T guarantee, and it's fascinating. It's dead simple. If a network outage causes your connection to drop, they don't wait for you to call. they automatically credit your account for a full day of service. It's guaranteed. So you don't have to chase them down? No chasing, no sitting on hold, no stress.

It's just handled because they know your time is valuable. Our time is valuable, Tommy, it's done. If only Lewis had an AT&T guarantee for that race, eh? And also, teams like Oracle Red Bull Racing are actually getting guaranteed levels of support in other ways. We all know F1 is the most technologically advanced sport on the planet and a massive reason for Red Bull's dominance is that AT&&&E and a T&S, is basically their rapid response unit.

See, only 60 people from the 800-person Oracle Red Bull Racing team are actually allowed at the track. So AT&T's connectivity allows them to beam information from over 750 sensors on the car in virtually real-time back to the factory at Milton Keynes. It's like having the entire engineering team plugged into the car from across the globe. Hold on, so you're telling me they're beaming live data from a race in, say, Austin, Texas. all the way back to the factory in the UK in real time. That's got to be, what, like 5,000 miles. Exactly. And while the car is doing 200 miles per hour,

they're handling a thousand data points per second. Every team is pushing AI, data and simulations, but none of that matters if you can't trust the connection on race day. And through the AT&T guarantee, they're proving their innovation is trustworthy by holding themselves to that same standard as the Oracle Red Bull Racing team. Yeah, there's a proper partnership.

between AT&T and Oracle Rebel racing. It's not just a logo slapped on the side of the car. They're genuinely integrated into the race operations. And they're thinking about the fans too, because even if you're not trackside, if you're at home streaming the race, like us, AT&T's whole promise is that their network is so reliable you won't miss the clutch moment.

You won't miss the final lap overtake or the controversial strategy call because your stream starts buffering. Bold moves for a sport built on massive moments. That's the AT&T guarantee. This branded segment was brought to you by AT&T. Right, thanks everybody for joining us here today at the AT&T garage here in downtown Austin and for the awesome Scott Speed who has just left.

Now we've got a lovely audience with us, a lot of clapping, I'm enjoying it, and it's time to hear from you. First question, no pressure. Okay, so I'm relatively new to F1. Tell us your name first. Adam. Lovely to meet you. So I haven't got to see too much wheel-to-will race. in my F1 watching life,

would you rather a crash tomorrow, like today, Max wins, 25 points? Or would you rather see Max, Oscar, and Lando fighting for the win on the last lap? They can do that in Abu Dhabi, and they're all level on points. Well, I guess it depends what brain you're using, right? So for me, I would obviously love to see all three battling to the last lap because from an entertainment perspective, that's what we all want to see.

However, Tommy here wants a 25-point swing. And he's not going to get that if his first, second and third all fighting. So I guess from a championship context, you'd want a 25-point swing for Max, but you may well get a rather dull race tomorrow should today happen tomorrow. So for me,

Max has had a big point swing today. He doesn't need a massive one tomorrow. I want to see a good race. I think Cota deserves a good race. It's such an awesome track. It's maybe even one of my favorites now. So I think I'd choose option one. You'll probably choose option two.

Yeah, I'd choose option two just for the championship to close up. But I do get it because you want to see good races as well. There's always that kind of mix of in Formula One. Sometimes you can have great races but there's no championship fight and then it can also flip the other way. And you don't always get your way of having like every perfect scenario of an amazing championship fight and an amazing season. because we can always want even more.

So, look, if he can close in again, I think it will make the final race is even more exciting. But I do want to see a good race tomorrow. That's the PR answer right there from Tommy. We know exactly what he wants. He just doesn't want to say it down the mic. Thank you for your question. Right, next up.

Here we go. What's your name? What's your question? Hello, hello. My name is Rajiv. And I have two questions. Oh, back of the queue after the first one. How do you think papaya rules is going to shape up after the sprint?

And how much credit do you give Lauren McKees for the turnaround? Okay, you can do question number two. I'll do question number one. Papaya rules, I mean, I don't think anything will have changed after the sprint because as much as Oscar did, in theory, take out Lando Norris. It's not exactly his fault. Obviously, the whole chat this weekend has been repercussion. this, repercussions that, which has been

utterly boring, if I'm being completely honest with you, I just want to see them race on track. The fact that Lando was even remotely sort of, I know that, of course, Oscar had his right to be like feeling aggrieved after Singapore, but then to come into the next race with all of this, oh, slap on the wrist here, slap on the wrist there,

it's just, I'm just so sick of it. I want papaya rules to be put in the bin and to just let them fight for the championship now. They've got the constructors, so that's my thought on that one. I mean, yeah, he's done a fantastic job. He's come in. I think the team harmony has been great and there's probably something that's helped

the team push forward and you know he's come in and I don't think it can be coincidental that you know they've turned their performance around Max is winning races it seems happier and yeah he deserves a huge amount of credit I think it's an amazing job and he knows a lot of wheel because he was an engineer so

clearly that is the trend that we're going with with James Vowles as well and things like that so thank you for your questions thank you all right very cheek Next question, please. Maclaren. How are you feeling, sir, first and foremost? That's my question to you.

I got to say Lando has to be champion, so hoping for an Oscar DNF. Okay. But I have a Ferrari question for you, Matt. Shock. Let's say if Charles wants to leave Ferrari after 26, what team would you like to see him go to? And let's say if he wants to go to McLaren,

would you rather have Lando or Oscar be his teammate? That's a good question. If Charles was to leave at the end of 26. Yes, just based on the new regulations. If he was to leave. I'd like him to go wherever the fastest car is, ideally. That would be a good start, because we don't know with the new regulations. I think that how I see the story art going is that Charlotte Claire, I believe, is becoming very sick and tired of seeing all of his competitors, drivers.

He's grown up racing, winning races, challenging for championships. If we get to next year and Ferrari are fourth fastest again, I do genuinely think he will leave the year after. I'm almost convinced that he will try and find something better. But the thing is, if Ferrari make a second to third fastest car, which I know they probably will, there's just that little bit of hope, isn't there, to win a championship with Ferrari.

All right, one more year. One more year after that. And who would I like him to go up against? I would like Charles Leclair to go up against Lando. Interesting. Yeah, I think you're right that he needs to, if Ferrari don't deliver the car, he does need to move on.

He needs a new lease of life. We've seen that when drivers have moved teams. They can elevate themselves more because at the moment, yeah, it must be so frustrating for him to watch the drivers that he's done a great... And me, really frustrating for me. Because we know he's a better driver

than what his performances can do because you're only limited to your machinery and then the driver can obviously, you know, elevate that bit more. And I see some Ferrari tops in the building this evening. I mean, you wooed. I'm not sure if that is actually the emotions you're feeling at the moment. But, yeah, I see some Ferrari fans about there as well. Okay, thank you for your question, my friend.

Let's go to the next one. Sparkly top. Here we go. Thank you. I actually came here to ask about fashion, so my name is Emma. And though this is not a fashion podcast, beyond being everybody's favorite track on the calendar, it seems like the entire paddock just has a blast coming here. They go for the boots.

They go for the hats. They go for the new livery. So my question is, there was some discussion of a hat, and I wanted to know did Tommy bring his hat? And what will your outfits be for tomorrow? Are you wearing an outfit tomorrow? Am I wearing an outfit tomorrow? I think you're wearing an outfit tomorrow evening when Max wins. and gets another 25 point swing,

I think it'll be a very naughty outfit, to be honest with you. I mean, if that's the case, I've strangely and maybe regrettably, promised that I'll get a Maxwell stop and tattoo if he does somehow win this championship. So if it is another 25 points, we do walk past a tattoo parlor on the way home. Oh, you're going to preload it.

You might have to. It's another 25 point swing. Well, then you have to be 100% certain. You can't get a tattoo for, and then he doesn't win it. Yeah, true. But the cowboy hat, is there one? Do you have a cowboy hat? I don't have a cowboy hat.

No, no. We came last year and got one, but I don't have it with me. Yeah, didn't have enough room in the case. Thank you so much. That was a mistake, but otherwise, looking forward to the tattoo. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next question, please.

Hi, guys. My name is Sophia. Thanks for coming. Truly enjoyed the conversation. And thanks to AT&T for bringing you guys out. Look at this. super connected. She's doing my job. Big shout out to A and C and C, thank you. P1, turn one are the reasons that I watch racing. We were all glued to the television.

You know, you guys said you were, but what do you think it's going to take to win this championship? Is it going to be about speed, precision, reliability, unpredictable moments can happen all the time. We'd love to hear what you think is going to be the defining factor for a championship. Well, we've watched Formula One for so long now, Tommy. We've probably seen all of the things she just listed as reasons. like sometimes it does come down to luck and reliability. I think when it's a three-way fight, it's more about the consistency of the driver because you can't really rely on two of your championship contenders

making mistakes and things like that. How do I see this one unfolding? If you're being realistic, it's still between the two McLaren drivers. If you're looking at the next, however many races, six races, two sprints, you have to think they're going to be quickest at least a few. so for me Lando has shown signs of being potentially

having the edge again in pure pace Oscar of course had one of the worst weekends I can remember for a championship leader in Baku so I have to choose one I don't know what it would be because they both have not won a world championship I think

it will come down to a big moment where one of them makes a mistake with two little races to go to make up those points I think that's how I see it I think it's all about consistency, particularly with a championship that now there are so many races on the calendar. You know, Oscar is a great example that he has this points lead. And I know we've spoken about it, but all the scenarios for Max to win is that, oh, if Max wins every race, but of course, you know, he didn't win in Singapore. But he is obviously grabbing a lot of really good results.

but if Oscar just has that consistency, he can still win it. So it is about not making mistakes because you have moments like Baku, for example, and he loses a massive 25 points. But the gap that it is at the moment to lose five, six, seven points here and there is actually okay for him, even though the pressure will, of course, start to ramp up if that is seven points next race, seven points next race, seven points next race, seven points next race. but he just needs to be consistent he's got a car that can finish

easily top three every race and if he does that he can be world champion but it's how they're going to deal with that pressure because of course the two McLaren drivers have never won a title before and that is the thing that is sets it apart we know Max can win world championships

but you just don't know how those two are going to deliver as it's getting closer and closer and you are starting to see those kind of nerves come in and mistakes here and there. Yeah, I've changed my mind. Max is winning it all. What do you think? I can't wait to see your tattoo. There you go. Thank you so much for your question. Okay, next up. Here we go.

First of all, my name is Brendan. It's very weird that I watch y'all every week and now y'all are right in front of me. No, we're holograms, actually, mate. We're not actually real. I have a little too. So if McLaren does, because I personally think Max is going to win, Can McLaren survive if they don't win this championship? Can they survive? Like the team aspect, because right now it feels like they're so worried about each other

that they're not focused on that Max is constantly closing. I think I'm not going to be around the bush. If McClaren don't win the driver's championship, I think it is the biggest fumble in the history of F1. It's mathematically by an absolute landslide. Yeah, because it's the biggest, if it happened,

it would be the biggest championship overturned almost, I think, over double what it was before. And even that situation, it was early in the season that Max turned it around, whereas this is late, as we mentioned at the start of this show, before Zandvort,

no one, even, everyone was at 0% that Max had a chance, and now, you know, we're talking now that he could win it. So McLaren had a huge opportunity, and I'm still adamant that they should have won the driver's championship last year. There was a big opportunity there.

They had a great car for most of the season. This would be huge. And of course, as we mentioned, there's a regulation change. So I know McLaren, you know, they love to win the constructors, but if they manage to not win the driver's championship for two years in a row, and then we go into a new regulation change and they're not at the front, it would be a massive missed opportunity. He doesn't even cover how much of a missed opportunity it would be.

No, exactly. I think that they will survive, for sure. They've won the constructors, which last year they kind of made it out like that was the thing that was the most important. And we're all sat there like, like, not sure about that one, Chief. I think it's definitely the drivers. And did you say you have another cheeky question? You look like you do. Yeah.

Charles Leclair still technically has a chance at the championship, too. That's a statement. Just saying. And I agree. I'm just saying there's. There's hope. There is zero hope, my friend. Did you see them in sprint qualifying?

Yeah, I did. They were qualified by a salber that has the same engine as them. There will probably be a lot of lifting and coasting tomorrow. Lovely stuff. Thank you so much. Right. Next question, please. Hello, Matt.

Hello, Tommy. Hello. With the United States Grand Prix being extended here in Austin until 2034, I just wanted to know what you guys think about Coda. and how it stacks up against the other United States Grand Prix in Vegas in Miami and do you think we're at a good point where three races is enough in the US

versus expanding to more cities? So Cota, in my opinion, is miles ahead of the other two tracks in terms of the layout, in terms of just the character. Like it just feels like a proper race track. It's been around for a lot longer than people sort of remember. Tommy, you're an encyclopedia. Is it like 15 years or something? 2012 was the first phrase, I believe.

2012, so yeah, what's that like? 13 years. So it's been around quite a while, and it's literally a hybrid track of all the best tracks on the calendar, and you know, you got a bit of turkey in there from when that used to be on the calendar, you got Silverstone, etc. So Cota is absolutely one of my favorite tracks.

What was the other question, or part of the question? Is the United States in a good spot? Yeah, I think, like, Miami is an intriguing one. It's a very different, experience. I was there for the first ever one and I was like, this doesn't, this feels different to what I'm used to seeing. So I prefer the Cota experience for sure. And America has absolutely just taken Formula One in and loved it. So how many more? I think if they were to expand it, it needs to make sense. Let's not just chuck it around a landscape and go,

ha ha, here's a track. It has to actually make sense. And be. good. Like Las Vegas had a bit of criticism, didn't it? When it was first announced and we're like, oh, surely not. I think he's actually turned out to be quite a cool venue and it's given us good racing as well. Yeah, literally a cool venue and it's cold and that makes for a great racing. I mean, not just saying this because I'm here, like Cota is one of the best tracks on the calendar. It is right up there. I think the fan experience is amazing as well. Austin's an amazing place. we've got to go last year. The first time I'd been was last year.

I absolutely loved it, loving it again. And it's just an awesome track. It's an awesome experience. The fact that the whole, it's what you want from Formula One to go to a city and there be all these amazing things around to feel like you get that experience, just walking around and feeling like Formula One's in town, everyone's hype. You see everyone in all their merch on the streets and stuff and chatting to everyone. That to me is what Formula One's about

and that's what I think that this race does best. Right, that's all we've got time for today. Thank you everybody for coming along. Thank you for getting involved with the questions. The live audience here. Thanks so much for joining us at the AT&T garage and thank you so much to AT&T for sponsoring today's episode. Tommy, we have to end the podcast with the final thoughts.

Always. Yeah, thank you everyone for turning out. It's been amazing to be here. cool venue as we mentioned to be able to see all you guys and all the merch see the see the Formula One car here. It's awesome. So love doing these, love chatting about Formula One and thank you all for coming. Thank you so much. It's like an impromptu P1 live show, wasn't it? Just randomly in Austin. Thank you so much everybody. We'll see you soon. Thank you. Bye-bye. P1 is a stack production and part of the ACAST's created network.