P1 with Matt and Tommy - Emilia Romagna GP Race Review

Episode Date: May 18, 2025

We were sceptical, but Imola ABSOLUTELY DELIVERED! Let's recap a crazy race of changing strategies, safety cars and one of the most incredible overtakes we've ever seen...You can listen to an extended version of this Race Review podcast over on our Patreon! Sign up to also get every P1 episode ad-free, early access to live tickets and merch, and access to our Discord server where you can chat with us and other F1 fans! Click here to sign up now!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. Amelia Romagna Grand Prix edition and a race. Wow. Imola, fair play. I wasn't. A race. A race. A race.

A race. An interesting race. A strategic race. And look forward to later on in this podcast, an official apology from Tom Bellingham to Pirelli and all of their employees. So that's to come a little bit later on. But I'm buzzing. Very excited to be talking about what happened in this one. Plenty of things to analyze and discuss. Now, before we dive into all of that, a quick shout out to our wonderful P1 patrons who'll be getting extra chat at the end of every single race review this year, including this one, of course. So if you fancy that,

you fancy ad-free listening. You fancy early access to P1 live show tickets, which are coming very soon indeed plus more benefits, access to our Discord, etc, etc. Then come and join our P1 Patreon. Right, let's get into it and start with my most memorable moment. And chronologically, it makes sense in the brain, doesn't it, Tommy? It is Vastappan's lap one move. Oh, my goodness gracious me. I, it feels like Charlotte Claire did that.

That's the level of pride. and just excitement that I have for the move that Vastappen pulled on Piastri into term one, there is a clip of us reacting. Isn't there, Tommy, on social media, which went up pretty much straight afterwards because we were that excited about it. And so if you haven't seen it, go and check that out. But we were both massively just in awe of what happened. We thought, if anything, Max might be going down to third with George's start off the line.

But instead, he goes for, I mean, it turned out obviously to be one of the most perfect moves I think I've ever seen, especially in lap one, term one. But it definitely had the urgency, I would say, of Saudi. But this time, Max pulled it off to perfection. He absolutely did. Yeah, it was an incredible move. And I think what made it so good is you never felt like it was on. but when it happened it was clean, it was bold. It was just so beautifully executed. I actually just watched F1 TV's reaction to it where they were kind of going through it.

And they were talking about how Max was so clever with the whole buildup to it as well, because he didn't get a great start. I think all of us, I'm sure everyone agreed that after that initial getaway, it's like, well, Oscars in the lead at 10-1 here. Max is hoping that he is going to be at least second, not third, because George was the one that got, of course, the slipstream from Oscar, which gives him an advantage. And Max just closed that off to stop George from coming to the right.

And then Max, of course, Oscar's so kind of focused on George behind him that it allows Max to be on the racing line. And what's so great about it as well is Max Verstappen, he's a controversial driver. he pushes the rules to the limit, things like Saudi and stuff, even me as a Max fan has said, you know, it's not the side of his driving I like. This is like Maxisappen at his best when it's a late send, it's perfect precision, and it was just an absolute joy to watch.

It is, and I'm not even glazing here, the best lap one, turn one move I think I've ever seen straight up categorically. I'd obviously have to go watch every single lap one, turn one, since 19. But from recent memory, I don't remember a move where I genuinely gasped at what had just happened before my eyes. Now, of course, I know there will be some people that go, yeah, well, Oscar, you know, he braked early and this, that and the other. I'm not having any of that. Yes, we can analyze what Oscar could have done better. Oscar himself was very clear in the fact that he could have braked later.

But that was the situation and the scenario that happened. and Max took full advantage of that. Oscar, I think, thought it was done. He had the inside line. I think everyone watching at home. He was clear. He knew that George behind was boxed in, as you said, Tommy and couldn't go anywhere. And, yeah, we all believed that it was done for Oscar.

And it could have been such a different race if Piastri had just led through the first couple of corners because the McLaren had similar race pace to Red Bull, but with clean air. it would have been, in my opinion, probably a much easier walk in the park for Oscar, perhaps like we saw in Miami. But instead, Max got himself ahead and that was just the start of what I would deem a perfect Sunday for Max.

It was, yeah. I mean, of course he got fortunate with the timing of the VSC, which extended that lead. But I think the way the race was panning out anyway, I'd have loved to have seen how it had gone without that. But I think it just, it was just better for it anyway. And, you know, it was amazing to, uh, to watch Max actually kind of build that lead, catch up, uh, in the championship again because it, it kind of, it's like, I feel like the whole of the season is going to be like, is Max in the title.

Is he not? Oh, no, he's not now. Oh, no, he is kind of there. And this was, this was literally you up and down, like a little roller coaster you are with your emotions. Oh, it's done. But it's something we said before. It's something we said, didn't we?

I think in the watch along before the lights went out of, these are the races max needs to win to stand any chance because the McLaren is good at every track. We know the Red Bull isn't, and these are the races that he has to capitalize on. And yeah, he has been doing. Exactly. Let's go to a question from P1 Patriot member, Ecorius.

Was this a masterclass by Red Bull, or did McLaren bottle it by pitting Oscar? I'm not going to be too harsh on McLaren, just purely because Oscar's feedback was saying quite early on that he wasn't sure about Plan A, if I recall correctly. And Oscar clearly chewing through his tyres more so than he thought would be possible to pull off a one stop. It's strange that McLaren perhaps didn't override this decision

or come up with alternatives. It's great to have hindsight, isn't it? But it's not just hindsight now that we've seen what happened in the race, but you just have to look at previous seasons gone by where we've raced here. And it is not far away from being a Monaco. There was a headwind into term one today, which allowed for the DRS to be a bit more powerful, which I think we then saw the fruits of that by a lot of attempted overtakes,

overtakes into term one. It was great to see. And then even after that, they were fighting into the next chicane as well. So perhaps McLaren was slightly more encouraged by the first, fact that overtaking was seemingly a little bit easier, or perhaps they just thought, okay, well, if Oscar's really struggling, and we're McLaren, we're McLaren, we're great on our tires, surely nobody else is going to go and try and do a one-stop. But he pitted very early, he had a lot of traffic, and I think very quickly they realized this wasn't the call, because you actually look

at once, of course, Oscar pitted, he went on the aggressive, but he gained no time on Max, who was just chilling out on it out in front with clean air. I won't be too harsh on McLaren because I think at the time, yeah, Oscar was obviously, you know, struggled through his tires. And LeCleur pitting looked like an absolute masterstroke because, of course, he kind of projected himself from... Everybody's focused on Charle and Ferrari. Exactly, clearly.

They were the big moves. But of course, Charles was in the middle of the pack, and then he comes out the pits because you had a truce, because you had a train which was Albin I think I'm trying to remember it was early in the race it was Albon Alonzo stroll loads of people in this massive train actually it was George I think because he was struggling on his tyres

It was George yeah it was George yeah So George was creating this big train Ferrari saw a gap LeCleur made that that kind of move and it was like oh wow this is actually a really good strategy from Ferrari so it's very easy to in hindsight that if it had gone the other way you know we might be and it was the best

strategy would be sat here going oh mcclaren we're just resting on their laurels they're not they're not aggressive enough and they need to kind of you know be be braver with their decision so i'm not going to slander mcclaren too much it was just unfortunate um the way it the way it panned out for them um that being said i do think uh just had we had just a completely normal race i think max Max just looked comfortable anyway. It was the move, the turn one move won in the race. Certainly did. Question from P1 Patreon member, Matthew Cole.

Championship back on. How many times does Tommy include this question? I love it. Yes. Yes, for the championship, this has been almost perfect because you've got Max Verstappen, who's third in the championship finishing first, Lando behind his teammate,

and finishing ahead of his teammate in this race, which leaves the standing. on 146 points for Piastri. Norris is 13 behind and then Vastappen a 9 point gap further back. So they are all separated by 22 points which is very tasty indeed

as we head into Monaco next weekend which who knows, Ferrari 1-2 that's what I'm sort of banking on really. But these are the really important weekends as we kind of alluded to earlier where as soon as Red Bull are quick or quick enough, then Max has to capitalize. And that's exactly what he did.

And this is what we expected even before the season started, that Max is going to get everything out of most weekends. And that is exactly what we're seeing again. And it is funny that, you know, I saw a few people comment on the fact that I said that, look, you know, Max and Red Bull had a decent car this weekend and it absolutely, you know, they had to capitalize. And he did superbly.

and again, I want to hark back to the fact that Max Verstappen, in his situation with Red Bull, is the only driver that will not be commended or applauded for how far he's taking this car compared to his teammate across the whole grid. Anyone else does it? Wow. That driver is a generational talent, which is what we love to throw around these days. Max absolutely destroying Sonoda this weekend. and I know it says 26 seconds that Yuki finished behind him, but let's not forget there was a safety car,

and it was 10 laps to go. Max is doing things in that car once again that deserves serious commendation, in my opinion. And I won't stop the glazing if he keeps doing performances like this. And I'm going to have to get one of those orange flags that you've got behind you, Tommy, to chuck in my office as well. Yeah, you look at Max's season and the car, it is funny because you mentioned that about like there'll always be people that were never credit

drivers it happened with with Lewis it happened with you know previous drivers before that I'm sure if social media existed and you know even like centa prostera that have been people saying you know they're not they're not very good it's just the car and stuff and you know max Osteppen had a great dominant car and absolutely wiped the floor with everyone had a record number of wins and everyone's going oh it's only the car and then he went into last year still won the championship and it was, oh, we won in the first six races when the car was good. Now he's only a handful of points behind in the championship when the McLaren is definitely clear. Whether you believe that, you know, I still see the argument of people going, well, the Red Bull is quick.

It's the second best car. But even if it is the second best car, he should be finishing third every race and he's got two wins and two second places. So he's having a great season. You know, he's got the most, not the most pulse, sorry, he's got three. three poles to his name as well. And, you know, he's doing an unbelievable job. He's doing exactly what we kind of predicted in the predictions that the McLaren have the best package, but Max is just getting everything out of it. And I don't think we're going to know the answer to this question, really, until we get to that regulation change with the front wing or whatever and to see if it can

challenge. Because at the moment, the reason I'm so kind of up down, up down, up down, is because the McLaren works at every track and the Red Bull doesn't. And you know that Max will be able to deliver a tracks like Suzuki, you know, Imala or whatever, and Saudi those tracks suit that car very nicely. But I don't think they're going to have that same thing as McLaren where they can just go to every circuit. You know, McLaren won the last race by 30 seconds. Very comfortably.

There'll be more circuits like that. Exactly. Okay, let's move on to your most memorable. moment, Tommy, and I believe there is an apology on the way. Indeed. My most memorable moment was just, wow, we actually got strategy and difference in strategy. I can't believe that, you know, insert that I used to pray for times like these that we actually saw people doing two stops, because I thought the way this race was going to go, and to be fair to me, it proved my point exactly what I was going to have the rant if it didn't, that Pirelli,

We've had one stops for far too long and the answer, you know, oh, let's add more DRS zones. Let's do this. Let's do that. Let's change the regulations. We need DRS on the front wing now. Let's make the car smaller. Tires in 2012 proved that tires were the answer to lots of overtakes. Crazy strategies because in a refueling era, if there's a one-stop opportunity,

everyone will take it because you don't get variables in fuel anymore. So I thought that them bringing the softer tire would do nothing because they'd go medium and hards. But actually, that one step softer did work. And I commend Porelli for that because it should have been done way earlier. But thank you. And all I'll say is please, please, please learn from this and show that because that is as good as a race as Imala will, I think, could ever be because it's so hard to pass. And the only way

you're going to get a good race is if people are on different tyres at different time and there's differences between the tyres. And that's how, you know, you saw overtaking at the end between Lando, Oscar, Lewis, Albin, all these people, because they were on different tyres of different tire life. That is what you need in Formula One. And please keep doing it. We're going to go to Monaco next week and have this mandatory two-stop, which again is something we need to see happening. So please start bringing these softer tyres because it is the solution and today absolutely proved it's the solution for better Grand Prix. I don't think I heard the S word though, like a full-blown sorry. I'm sorry, Porelli that I thought,

that I thought it was going to be a one-stop. They chefed you, mate. I'm not going to lie to you. So yeah, it's... I mean, technically the one-stop was far superior strategy. So it still would be, no, I'm joking. Well, well done. Enjoy your one good thing you've done in the last. Whoa, God, Tommy. You can't just, you can't say sorry.

That is basically sorry, but. That's what you just did. You just did sorry, but. That's crazy. Yeah, the race kept us on the edge of our seat for the entirety of it. You don't need overtakes all the time to make a race interesting. Having the split of strategies, having Piastri go really early, can he get through the traffic, all this sort of stuff.

That's what made Imola exciting. Now, for the tyres, what I see that they've done, obviously, they went a step softer, they introduced the C6, which turned out to be a completely irrelevant tire. So then they gave two sets of tyres to the teams that were a step softer, which forced the hand of a two-stop. I would like for it to be, if we're looking to improve it, where it is still a range of three tires that are all viable, ideally, so that we have more of a range of strategy because the soft tyre was not... The C6 was, the only

reason it was good wasn't because they bought the C6, it's because the C5 was the only one they could have to use the C5. Basically giving a C4C5 and they could not go any more durable than that. So it forced this to happen which I'm sure there are some learnings there, but I guess the one thing is

softer is better, especially on less abrasive tracks like Imler, this is why they're trying it. That's why Bahrain was good. Yeah, and I think I think it's just going to be, I know they're doing it more for the less abrasive tracks to stop one stops, but we also get one stops in the abrasive tracks as well because, I mean, teams just somehow find a way. So let's just try it. Let's roll the dice. Let's keep experimenting. I like the fact that they're doing that. And overall, it was a really good race. Whether it, yeah, I'd like to see the C6 actually be used.

Because even in qualifying, you had the Aster Martins going fast, fast on the medium tires. And I still, you know, what I was going to have my rant about, well, I thought that that was going to happen, but it's still relevant, is that just make them use the three compounds. That would solve so many problems. And then you don't need, because actually I think using the three compounds

when you've got two tires quite similar, the best way, I think that the best solution for Formula One is that you have three compounds of tyre, you have to use all three of them because then you basically you're forcing a two-stop and I don't think it's gimmicky because you know you're still forcing a one stop now like and fueling you had multiple stops that's how you need that element of strategy and then you know if you want to go a step further you could make them difference between them so like you have a c6 a c4 and a c2 and then there will be those those tracks like imla that's so hard to pass

you do need a massive advantage to be able to make the move So you need that difference between the tyres, in my opinion. So a counterpoint that I believe Formula One will obviously take into account is the environmental impact of using more tires, shipping more tires. I'm sure there are ways of fixing that. But they also put tyres in the bin, don't they don't even use. Well, I know they don't technically put them in the bin for clarity. But do you know what I mean? They're not getting used.

So yeah. I'm sure there are ways of still reducing the tyres. usage over the course of a weekend. You know, we're not expecting them to be giving it each team 100 sets and just, you know, crack it on as long as you, I'm sure there are ways around it for sure. Go ahead of practice. Doom, done. Yep, and then Formula One pounds have nothing to watch Tommy.

So that'll be good. Lego cars on Friday. Okay. Done. I'll fix the sport. They're still on pro prolet tires, mate. But yeah, I'm more of the opinion as I keep thinking about it of, yeah, if the environmental stuff can be sorted and taken.

picked off. Why can't we try it? I think it's definitely a move in the future. Step softer and mandatory two stop to use all three compounds. Sign me up. Yeah, I'm here for that, definitely. A question, P1, Patreon, remember Mike Savage, should we potentially consider preventing pit stops under the virtual safety car? Mike Savage. Charles LeClaire fans. Otherwise known as a Charlecler fan or perhaps who else was screwed by, I guess Oscar P. Astry was, did he gain from him? I'm trying to remember. It was such. a chaotic race. Who really struck?

The Aston's. The Aston's really struggled. So Mike is a fan of one of these drivers for sure. No, we should not potentially consider preventing pit stops. I do not agree with that whatsoever because you never know why the VSC has been caused. It could have been debris. It could be a car having a front wing hanging off. Whatever.

Yes, this is part of Formula One. I feel like, you know, there was the whole Abu Dhabi 2021 and, you know, why is there even a safety car? Do you remember when a lot of people that didn't watch Formula One started pitching in and going, well, the safety car's not very fair, is it? Formula One just isn't fair. And it shouldn't be fair because the best race is where you have things thrown into the next. Otherwise, just give McLaren the championship now because they've got the best car.

We may as well just not race. Just have a qualifying. If we're just going to do it based on pure pace, let's just have qualifiers every day. So now, I am absolutely for it. And I think, Mike, if you were to see this unfold in front of you, where a VSC comes out and it's going to change the oh no it's not

no it's not yeah and what's the difference between VSC and safety car like why would we allow one for one and then one for not it just because you're not allowed to do that in F2 are you I believe

they ban Pits C you can't do your mandatory yeah I think yeah so they do it in F2 but we need more variables on strategy and things to get crazy in Formula 1 than less so yeah so I'm not a fan

of getting rid of that for sure because it is a it is something that can change the race slightly but from an entertainment's perspective this time also this time it did hurt the race but equally you know we have

you pitch this question when we've just the VSC has made it an absolute bang everyone to be like no of course you want to keep it so there we go there we go indeed question Prinsathi why was the safety car period so long

The safety car period was so long due to, I believe, the tractor placement. Now, there's a lot of sort of comparisons as to why the Ocon one was a VSC compared to the Kimmy Antonelli one. But he was further up the hill, parked up on a hill, whereas I believe Ocon's one could literally just be rolled. He was near an access road. Yeah, an access road. And then it was done, whereas Kimmy's was further up. And they just made the decision to do the safety car. but then I believe from what I could,

what I, you know, all the information that was being thrown around that then the tractor had to firstly be found and used and then put back where it was. It's still not great because I think it was like seven laps or so, wasn't it behind the safety car? And it felt like,

come on guys, we're under 10 laps to go now. Should there be, if it's going to take more than X amount of laps, do we just red flag it? Like there's going to be people that ask these kind of questions. And that's absolutely fair enough. because I'm not a fan of sitting behind a safety car

for laps on laps on laps because it just feels like we're robbed. In Formula E, they get the laps added on because they can recharge the battery or whatever it might be because they're allowed to do that and they're able to do that. Whereas in Formula One,

it literally is cutting down on the action. So as well, it's probably, when you look at the circuits around on the calendar, you know, the more old school ones like Imala, Imola is an old school track. Or Monza, They may not have the same processes, the same things in place that an Abu Dhabi with loads of runoff and plenty more recovery vehicles. It's not like a bog standard across all racetracks, is it?

There are some, which I believe in there is one of them, that lack that slightly. I'm not going to be too harsh on the way this was handled. It was, don't get me wrong, it was incredibly frustrating because we wanted to get going. And it was annoying how long it took, but, you know, equally. a tractor had to come onto the track to be removed and if they rushed things and we saw a repeat of I don't know even like Australia when they had that the cars in the in the pack of the safety car kind of passing the tractor would have all been slandering them for it being dangerous so it's just an unfortunate incident that happened and it just the way Antonelli was parked it couldn't

have been much worse and that's what what took so long it was frustrating but I'm not I kind of rage about it. Next question from people on pitch, remember Sierra. So how much hope does Ferrari now give us after having an okay strategy goal and really good race pace? We're so back. I got changed.

As soon as I heard the Italian national anthem on the watch-along, I was right back to my Ferrari gear. It was clear. And I think I said that maybe on Saturday that the race pace of the Ferrari looked good. It was just the fact that they were qualified. so low that it it scuppered any opportunity of a potential podium.

At some points it was looking really good for LeClaire. We mentioned his strategy at the beginning. Ferrari made an excellent call to recognize the Russell train that was being caused and jumped a hell of a load of cars to get basically to the front of that queue. So I like the strategy. I like what they're doing there. The race pace was really good. LeClair was unlucky today.

in the VSC and then pitting under the VSC as well and then relinquishing some of those positions he'd gained. But overall, not bad, but the problem is, this is a qualifying championship. We had a good race today, don't get me wrong. But if Ferrari can't get any higher than the sort of fifth place, we can't really hope for any miracles unless it is a chaotic one. So it's fine, right? If Ferrari hadn't had the qualifying that we had yesterday and they finished where they did

today, it would just be a mediocre, a fourth and sixth, whatever it's, but because it was such a devastatingly bad Saturday, it felt like a good Sunday. Absolutely. I kind of took the Mick when you were kind of saying that, oh, but the race pace is good. And it did show that, you know, they were let down in qualifying because the car did have good pace. You know, Shal looked very quick. Imagine on a circuit where, you know, he was able to put some quicker tires on at the end or you know or it's easier to pass that there is to quote fred vassar potential in that Ferrari please um but i'm going to hear that in abou dabby i know i know exactly but when when you kind of look where they were yesterday a fourth and six he'd have absolutely

taken as a friarian every day of the week and it's it's i guess a shame uh if you're a ferrari fan that you're taking a fourth and a six nowadays. But it was a good recovery drive from both of them. And Hamilton, yes, he was very fortunate. But, you know, he was chasing down for a podium at the end. That would have been the most insane thing to happen of what felt like the whole race of LeCleur being the one at the front and looking like he was doing this great strategy

and Hamilton seemingly stuck for the millionth time behind Akara Imola looking unable to pass. And then he's just spawned into fourth and going after the podium at the end. It was crazy. Yeah, he was behind Antonelli and Mercedes for a very long time indeed. But yeah, actually segueing on to James O4's question. Do you think Lewis would have ended up on the podium if there were a couple more laps? I think so.

I think Piastri was in big trouble. I think LeClaire was also in big trouble. He said that, didn't he, over the radio, that he wasn't even sure he would make it to the end, which is, again, thank you Pirelli, because I don't think I've ever heard a driver on like 17-lap-old hards going, I don't know if I'm going to make it to the end. Usually it's how many races do you want me to complete on these tires?

I could probably do the next three. So that was obviously not refreshing for me to hear that LeClau was going to struggle before the safe car even gone in with like nine laps to go. But on the flip side of that, it gave us a lot of action. And Lewis was catching Oscar hand over fist, Of course, we had Albon who attempted to pass Charles LeClaire, and it's probably worth mentioning and talking about that,

because once again, the racing rules deemed, you know, Charles did a move that very similar to Max Verstappen, and I have said how much I don't like the state of racing, and I'll say it again. I believe Albon was absolutely deserving of space on the, what would have been the inside for turn two with the move that he had pulled. He was ahead. Leclair lunges,

to the apex, fine. But from there on, my brain, let's not talk about the racing rules. And as Anthony Davidson said, let's just put the racing rules, you know, the actual rulebook in the bin for a second. I want to see those two go side by side from there on, not Albon shoved onto the gravel, even if LeClair didn't mean to. He's trying to control the car. But Albon is deserving of room, in my opinion, if we are going to have the spirit of racing. We're back to that. But as for the racing rules, I'm sure the stewards were about to say no further action anyway, because we've seen it literally earlier on in this season, almost the identical incident. Of course, it's more visibly shocking, isn't it, to see Albon go through the gravel,

and then people are like, ah, penalty, that should be a penalty for Lecler. Because if that's runoff, if that's runoff, it weirdly changes your perception of it and stuff. And this is why I think the rule. Yeah, I know. And this is why I think the rules are such a mess, because I think, and you kind of said this, that sometimes the rulebook needs to be just thrown in the bin. and we have a decision for the good of racing of what you can and can't do. We want drivers to be aggressive, don't get me wrong.

I want to see drivers be able to defend. Don't want to just see slam dunk overtakes. I want people to race hard when someone's trying to pass them and kind of push things to the limit. But equally, you want to see drivers be able to go side by side through corners. And that is not what happened. That's what happened here. So you can understand.

But then what gets messy is then, and this is the most stupid thing about it, is common sense doesn't really matter because you can take all these screenshots of, oh, this car was ahead here and stuff. And this is the letter of the law. And I just think it's a bit silly where it kind of lets you abuse the rules. And we kind of don't get to see it. So, yeah, that move, and weirdly as well. are kind of moving on to that move

but they didn't they were allowed Lecler basically like he gave up the place which we've also said in the past of why don't you just give the place back that's much rather what I'd like to see than give penalties

and that's what I thought we were having this year where the drivers and the teams get to make their own decision of like three laps you can basically decide to give it back and that's what Ferrari did, of course. Yeah, it felt as though

some conversation has been had because Ferrari decided to give the position back. I'm not sure how much LeClau even had a say on giving, like defending the position anyway on that lap, but perhaps he'd just led off slightly to let Albin through. Worth mentioning as well in the Steward's

report, it said that whilst they were essentially doing their sort of proceedings of figuring out who was at fault and this sort of stuff, the position was given back and therefore the stewards that basically said, fair enough, there you go, no penalty, which

yeah, it's interesting because I wondered whether the incident has happened and Albon has still been negatively affected by LeCleuze. There's lots of place for Hamilton as well, right? Exactly. So does that then negate

the whole incident? For me, I was kind of sat there going, surely they could still get a penalty for that, or LeClau could still get a penalty for that, because it's not as if it was, nothing happened, all good, but then we come back to the age old, the consequence does not matter.

But it's so, it's so like, it just doesn't make sense sometimes. And also you had, and also you had Albon, the Alburn Norris incident where it's very close of who got ahead in that kind of incident.

And then when LeCleur ended up ahead of Albon, if Norris had to let Albon through, would you have had to LeCle through as well? And yeah, it does get a bit mess. but one thing before we move on to the next question, because obviously this one was about, would Lewis have got a podium?

I think Alex Alburn and missed a huge opportunity. I don't think it's his fault. He's still, you know, done an absolutely unbelievable drive. I think it's partly Williams as well for not reacting quick enough because they lost the place to LeClaire as well with doing that extra lap behind the safety car to then change his tyres. And I think even Piastri in the cool-down room said, If Albon had got past Lecler

I was a sitting duck and Albin would have been on the podium and I think that was a huge, huge opportunity I mean, how good is it that Williams were talking about a P5 being like, oh, what might have been? They got a P5. Yeah, exactly.

But it was so close. It was on. An album podium was on. He had a very quick car. It was difficult to pass. Obviously, Charles, you know, pushed him off, gave the place back. But by then it was too late.

lost the place to Hamilton. And it really does feel like what might have been for Alburn, because I really do think that had he had one Williams either done the correct kind of pit stop under the safety car in the first place, or even just him being able to make that move on LeCler straight away, the podium was absolutely on. And what a story that would have been. Certainly would. I would love to have seen Alex on the podium. Can you imagine the scenes for Williams? Just midfield podiums are great when, and it's so hard to break into that top group. I mean, how many, it feels like, you know,

it's always the two McLaren's and either Max or George this season. So the fact that they could kind of break in, to have like a midfielder break into that podium ranks would be amazing. But alas, not. Fifth and eighth for Williams, and we're saying what could have been. It's crazy to see the come up. The James Vowles effect is in full force.

Moving away from Williams. Question from P1, Patreon member, Zingy 13. Did Lando show that by making that move on Oscar, that he is ready to fight, or is the jury still out? The jury is still out, I would say, because it was not a fair fight. Oscar, as we already mentioned, it was a sitting duck, his tires were finished, and it was a must-make move for Lando. Don't get me wrong, it was a great move from Lando as well to pull it off on his teammate. Oscar pinching the curb on term one, losing the car. ever so slightly. That could have ended terribly. It didn't. McClaren got away with a P2, P3 and also

both of them fighting on track. Finally, some will-to-wheel action between the two of them. But it's not a fair fight, so I can't really say that Lando has the upper hand on Oscar because realistically, Oscar had done a better job up until this point. Of course, the race didn't go well for Oscar. We already spoken about his strategy. But Lando did what he needed to do in the sense of starting fourth, finishing second, getting ahead of his teammate with a decisive move, something that we've sometimes been a little bit critical of for Lando is just going for one, just send it. But he did do that on his teammate of all people and pulled it off delightfully. He did. I think had Lando not made that move, there would be so many question marks of like, oh my word, how did you not make that move?

and he deserves credit for the way he raced because it's qualifying let him down yesterday. I think he had a very good race. You know, he did get fortunate that he could, was in like that position to leap frog Oscar. But, you know, I think even before that, he put a great move on George Russell at the start of the race when they were battling hard and made like, you know, a strong aggressive move. and then we saw that had the you know the way it panned out it was going to be very close I think between the two McLaren's

before that virtual safety car anyway and who would have come out on top there so Lando I think had a had a very good race he was the one that was making that one stop work which I think was the better strategy and yeah he made the move on Oscar Oscar hitting that curb on the inside kind of made it a little bit closer than I think Zach Brown would have liked how close the two McLaren's got to each other at that very moment.

But it was a good move in the end. And Lando could just easily get that P2 and had to make that move to kind of get one over on Oscar, even though, of course, it wasn't a fair fight. I would have been interested to see how the Norris Piastri fight would have unfolded without the safety car intermission that we had, because it would have been a fast. And I'm still just desperate to see them on the same tyres. We still not been, we finally got them on track together, but it still wasn't fair in the fact that one that was on, just please, can we just have that shootout somewhere? To be honest, it's probably the only way we were going to get wheel to will was one of the drivers having fresher tires because without that, I think they would have been.

Too hard to pass. You need it on a better, you need it on a more wide open track. Yeah, like next week. The next week. Yeah. Question for big or bit. Remember, Captain Obs 3 420. What does Alonzo have to do to score points?

He started fifth around a track we came into this, saying, going to be really hard to overtake. Our expectations for this one, the whole grid could finish where they started. Nope, no, they did not. And Alonzo finished 11th, 8 tenths off of a point just behind Yuki Sonoda. And you heard, didn't you? The team radio. He was fuming, saying he's,

incredibly unlucky. I've been the unluckiest driver in the history of F1 or something along those lines. I'm something like that. I'm so unlucky or something, yeah. Yeah. I mean, a lot of his unluckiness has been choosing the wrong team to go to at certain points in his career. But he said, he said, it's going to be torturous a wreck.

I'm the unluckiest driver in the effing world, which. Has he met Charlotte Claire? Oh, Alonzo is way unlucky than Charlotte. Clair. Alonzo's raced 5,000 races. So whilst we get to that point and there's five points off being a five time world champion.

Here we go. He is unlucky. He is so unlucky. My grandmother had wheels. Should have been a bike. I know, but he is unlucky. He is unlucky. Don't get me wrong.

Of course he is. It's another race where you know, he would have got a massive stack of points and instead, because what happened was they basically had no tires, did they at the end?

No, it was a poorly timed VSC, I think. It just basically didn't come out at the right time. They couldn't put, they couldn't pit and put fresh ties on because they didn't have any, basically. Yeah, it's interesting. You do wonder if any of the teams had C-6s left or they'd been running them for so long throughout the weekend,

like they were running them in FP1 that perhaps they didn't even have any of those left either. So it was just a case of, you've got to deal with it. Because even with Charlie Clow, when he was having his conversation with his team, you were saying, well, they were saying, we've got 11 lap old mediums. Like, how does that sound? It's not great.

So you do wonder whether the tire allocation, because I don't like to see teams restricted because they haven't got any tires left for a certain strategy. I don't know. It's, it felt, I felt quite sad. That's the bad side of the environmental Pirelli thing of the fact that you have a crazy race where you kind of want to see people taking gambles and stopping. and then you literally can't because you've gone through all your sets and things.

Yeah, I don't like to see drivers hamstrung to a certain strategy because they literally can't do anything else. So I take it back, prely in the mud. Apology. I think the argument to that is, well, you know, use your tyres more wisely. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Because they were the ones that risk the mediums, weren't they? They did, yeah. So by knocking the Ferraris out, you'll say they got their punishment in the end.

Yeah. how does it taste? There we go. Right, let's move on to the predictions where it is currently 1311 to Mr. Tom Bellingham. Let's get into a good surprise where I went for Oliver Berman who did. Well, he did finish. He did finish. So that's surprising. But he finished last. So zero points. I went for Liam Lawson. And what is so annoying and this this serves this serves me right for trying to be all like. edgy and hipster. I was going to pick Hadjar because I'm like, V-Cab would be really good. And I'd be like, no, I'm going to look like an absolute genius when Liam Lawson, like, has a really good race because I thought V-Cab were going to be that good. And he had a shocker, like really bad. Poor qualifying, poor race. Another one for Lawson. I mean, qualifying was not obviously his fault entirely.

There was another lap to be done. But yeah, yeah, the race was still pretty overwhelming from him as well. Sadly, so we go to a big four. Flop? I went for Oscar Piastri, thoughts. No, absolutely not. What? What? No chance. Finish third in the fastest cut. That's not flop territory.

I reckon if Hamilton, if Hamilton... Yeah, maybe. If he's off the podium, we were on there, I think. Oh, why? If there's anybody out there that believes I am of, you know, if I deserve that, then, you know, at the try, let's just remind everybody, you know, whilst you comment that Piastri had won the last three and it's not on part. Anyway, we'll leave that one to see if we get an influx of comments. Please help me. Tommy. I went for George Russell. Absolutely dub. Seven? The season. Yeah. Worst result of the season. I think that's a great result.

First time he's been out of the top five in any session, competitive session, all season. He beat his teammate by 12 positions. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Yeah, the ninth. session that he's done and basically the first time he's been out of the top five so oh okay god i despise your existence poll position i went for lando norris i am never predicting lando again because i've done it again i'm sure you've said that every single time i know cut to mollyca predictions p1 lando norris i believe in the lando norris dream and just doesn't happen and i went for for Stappen and he was miles off 0.03.

Yeah, that's a huge gap in F1 qualifying these days. Okay, our top three, in third position, I went for Oscar Piastri. Lock that in. Give me a point right now. Lovely. I went for Max for Stappen. In second position, I went for Max for Stappen. No.

And I went for Lando Norris, which was correct. You jammie? So and so. I don't know how it's jammy, but I'm just angry. And in first position, I went for Lando Norris. So just got Max and Lando the wrong way around. And I went for Oscar Piaastri. So no. No.

We've got one each there. That was looking pretty good. So there you go. One each. And I cannot believe my one crazy prediction has not come in. I went for Alonzo scores points. How? He started fifth.

Tommy? Fifth. Fifth at Imola, yeah. You genuinely would have given me the point before the race even started. You would have been convinced the top ten. I think we spoke about it in the watch along before the session being like, wow, you've done a good one. I was like, put the point down already.

Alas. By the way, I've seen a lot of comments about how yours slipped through the net for this week. Well, like yours last time actually in Miami, so we all get one. You're winning. One crazy prediction, pole position, doesn't it? win. Oh, what do you do? Congratulations. I hope you're happy with the money, Jane. Once again, congratulations. Our Patreon predictions, that's where if you are part of our patron, you can submit your prediction every single race weekend, and then we select one to be part of this prediction

series, and then you can score a point for us if you are correct. I went for a user called 12. Top three starting, finishes top three in the same order. No. No. And I went for Retired Ted Lawson makes Q3 No I think we are doing shockingly bad this year I think I think our prediction points

are not very good if we consider we've added Patreon we've added bonus predictions we are finished this year 1311

what was it before this round seven rounds seven rounds yeah many many predictions as well many predictions yeah so there's all the sprint

yeah that's that's one Yeah, actually, guys, please keep listening. We are. We know we'll. We know some will. Okay, let's go to bonus prediction where we said, where does Colapinto qualify? One point for being closest, two for bang on. Where did he start? I actually don't know. 16th.

It was 16th. Qualified 15th, so we can't, it doesn't change anything. Because I went for 20th, which was no disrespect to him. I just generally thought it would take a little bit longer for him to get up to speed. So that's no points for me. And you went for? I went for 18th. So one point, but not the, but not the,

double. Yeah, we're going to have to Michael Massey this next week. Michael Monaco. Grace does your entire predictions. Grace does all my predictions. I'm so keen for that. Let's do it. Let's go to the family top three then, where it's currently five, one to the Bellingham's. You drafted in your three-year-old daughter. I drafted in my girlfriend Ellie. And let's get into third position where Ellie went for Lando Norris. Oh, so close. No points. Grace went for Lance Armstrong. So close. Surprisingly no points. In second place,

Piastri. Incorrect. And Grace went for Jack Dewan, replaced by Colopinto. No points. And in first position, Ellie went for Max Verstappen,

so it gets a point for the Gallagher's. Good wheel knowledge there. She was honestly, I cannot tell you how on the edge of her seat she was, the entire race. She was praying for it to come in and it looked like it was going to.

It was going to be a three-pointer for the Gallagher's. Sadly it wasn't, but it's still a point to our name. I also, as much as you'd have loved that prediction to come in and make it 5'4, I'm not sure for our reputation, it would have been a good thing that your girlfriend just rocks up does a first three predictions. They're all correct. So, no offence to Ellie, but I'm glad that one did come in. To be fair, she's cooked with the Mustappen.

She cooked. Yeah, we'd have been on fraud watch. Let's not forget that Max was stopping, he finished, what, 40-odd seconds behind in Miami? So you have then predicted a P-1 for Max. I know, and I'm so annoyed because I should have gone for Max, but bottled it. And Grace went for Pierre Gausley.

Pierre Gausley was P-1 in three practice one at one point. He had a shocker, actually, in the end, didn't he? He really did. Not really anywhere in the end. The Alpines. no certainly not so sadly not they were yeah grace's top three were 13th 15th and 16th so more wheel needs to be had for grace she's got a lot to learn certainly does we'll bring her back in when you continue to win because you're you're still five two ahead

yeah exactly in the family top three so yeah bring her in monica bring her back in or get the dogs involved or something but yeah right that is it thank you everybody for tuning in to this amelia Romani at Grand Prix Race Review podcast. We'll be carrying on over on our Patreon premium waffle segment, which is going to carry on literally right after this. So if you want to go join patreon.com 4 slash Matt P1 Tommy. And until then, we're in a triple header. So literally content coming out of our ears and mouths and noses. Noses, not sure why. Anyway, Tommy, what are your final thoughts? Final thoughts are well done, Imala, and I'm excited for Monaco because I think you're all,

I think we're going to have a good monoco. I can just feel it in my bones. The two-stop is going to change everything. And I will be here going, yes, absolutely. I told you so. Monaco is fixable. And then you'd be like, Pirelli, I want to be an ambassador for your brand because you've fixed Formula One.

I can't wait for it. It's going to be great. So thank you, everybody. We'll be back for Monaco. It's going to be a good one. We'll be live. As always, don't you worry about that. And it's one of the best Saturday of the season.

So, yes, we'll see you then. Lots of love. Take care. Bye. Bye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the Acast's creator network.