P1 with Matt and Tommy - F1 Testing 2025 – Day Two

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

We’re back after another day of testing that simultaneously seemed to suggest that: 1) we'll have a four-way title fight, 2) Lando is washed and 3) Lando’s going to crush everyone. Weird - so we got our respective mothers on the phone to predict their own Drivers’ World Champions! Sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to extended versions of every Race Review podcast, 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!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 P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. It's day two of Formula One testing. And I know you're here because 99% of you have probably not watched all eight hours of coverage today. I'd be lying if I said I watched all eight hours of coverage. I watched the majority of it. I went out on a run at one point Tommy and I had it in my ears. So I feel that I have actually watched all of it apart from maybe getting up an hour later. Anyway, watched most of it.

And we got some learnings, I think, from today, things to definitely dive into. We've got your amazing questions, as always, as well. Tommy, what's one word to sum up your feelings after day two of testing? Intriguing. Ooh, that's a good word. Why? Well, should we get into it? Oh, okay then.

Fine. I've just seen, I've just seen that the first. question on our little doc that we have. Should you say the order first and then read it? Do I usually say the order? Did I say the order yesterday? I think for the context of the question, I think it's... You want me to say the order? What, the entire 18 drivers? Just the top three. All right. It would have been good to maybe brief me before this.

We start recording. But that's fine. In first place, in day two was Carlos Seines. Second place was Lewis Hamilton. And third place, narrowly behind was Charlecler. First question comes in from at Tommy P1. Shouldn't that be Tomp.1Beltingham? Anyway, did Ferrari fire the wrong driver? Well, look, I'm wearing Williams merch if you're watching on YouTube. So I am full Carlos Iin Stan now, apparently. Big shout out to Williams, by the way, for sending both of us a little bit of a kit to enjoy.

And, yeah, they're actually awesome. I love this top. Anyway, back to your horrendous question. You're such an honestly It had to be included Just that top three Yeah yeah yeah sure All right fine

Yeah to be fair I didn't even clock that it was signs fastest I thought you were literally just talking about the fact that Hamilton was faster than Leclair But no signs of course I mean they were quicker than everybody According to the testing day two Which apparently fastest times mean

Well they do mean nothing I just want to clarify Day two of testing Doesn't mean anything Unless Leclair was fastest Yeah exactly You know me by now But it was very close at the

top between those three drivers, 83,000ths of a second separating them, although you can't, you can't dive into it too much, as much as you'd love to, Tommy. I know you'd absolutely love to, but I don't think Carlos Seines has made one of the best moves in Formula One history and gone to a championship winning team, Williams, in 2025. Well, ironically, I wouldn't judge the order, because if I did, my driver didn't even turn up, so he's washed and finished. but yeah a great job from from carlos science topped day two this time last year in a Ferrari and you know it is a bit of a headline run do I think science is going to be the fastest driver

come the first race absolutely not but it's an impressive feat nonetheless and it's going to be great confidence for Williams who I think quite rightly will have a lot of confidence going into the season with this brilliant lineup and yeah it's going to be exciting yeah i think when you look at the leaderboard right you know that's probably not going to be it of course carlosine's being fastest but then you look at the teammate battles is jack duen faster than pierre gazley probably not is gabriea bartoletto faster nico holcombaker yes you will say yes tommy is is louis hamilton faster than charlotte there's plenty of examples right of one lap pace um so look i think obviously What we did in day one, and I think again we do with day two, is look more at the mileage.

And a lot of drivers were doing race runs and things like that. And the one team that have not really taken headlines massively, and they don't really care about that, especially today, is McLaren. Now, the commentary team, Karin Chandok in particular, was essentially frothing over the lap times that Landon Norris was putting down in his race run. He was on a step softer tire, I believe. I think Charlotte-C-C-Ler, for example, is doing it on the C-1s, Landon-Noros and the C-2s, and it's worth mentioning that there is a bigger gap this year between the C-1 and the C-2 in terms of pace,

and then the C-2 and C-3 slightly closer together. So it means that there is a slightly bigger step, whether that's one second a lap, which is what essentially Charles LeClau was slower than Lando. I'm going to say it's at least three seconds. That's big as flop territory. serious copium being injected right now. But that was probably, if I was to choose one thing,

where I would highlight that is the fact that the lap times that Lando was putting down on his race run looked very tasty. I completely agree. I think the biggest takeaway from the whole day is that McLaren look mighty. And am I surprised one bit? No. I think there's a reason that the favourites going in. I also think they will continue to be the favourites and the favourites. fastest throughout the year in my opinion just because they've got nothing to lose. They've got a

great car to build on and maybe they're not going to be so inclined to jump straight into the next season's regulations because they have an amazing opportunity to win both championships. So yeah, McLaren looking mightily impressive. Whilst we're on the subject of McLaren, I'm going to tie in this question from P1 picture and member Sophie, McLaren championship off. Now, if you look at the testing times, sure. Landon Norris 14th, Oscar Piastri, one place above him. However, when you saw Landau's run in the afternoon, the amount of cancelled laps that guy did where he was maybe three, four tenths down through the middle sector on what was

quite clearly reasonably worn tyres, you knew that there was much more in the locker than what 14th place suggests. So that is why you have to listen to this podcast, because we give you all the deep dive information. If you look at it on the face of it, yes, you'd be worried as a McLaren fan, but I can tell you right now, it was the one key takeaway was just how quick they looked. Absolutely. I can tell you right now they will not be 13th and 14th. And the onboards as well. It just looked carving a knife through butter. It was just, and I think we saw a comparison, didn't we, with Hadjar in the same similar sort of setting.

it was within sort of five minutes of each other. Hadjar, through the fast left hand as you go up the hill and towards the middle sector split into the final sector, he was wrestling the car, he was trying to get on power, he had a bit too much understeer, and then you compared that then to the McLaren, and it looked completely steady, completely settled. There was no corrections.

Of course, part of that is probably Landau not pushing, but he's not doing five, six seconds a lap slower to suggest that that would cause the stability, if you see what I mean. It's giving, wanting to change predictions. That's, that's what day two has done to me. But it's not over yet. We saw many times, Mercedes, for example, at one point, incredibly fast, at next point, change some conditions, change the temperature.

It can all, you can all throw it up in the air again. And just look what happened last year with Red Bull. We were like, oh, the championships over. And then the only one, what, one race in the last? however many. And it completely changed from the expectation of the season. McLaren are looking very, very good for sure. The car is looking very dialed in,

and they'll be incredibly confident going into that first race, which is what they need to do, because McLaren have always been that team in the last few years that have such a poor start to the year. And they can't afford to do that again if they're going to want to win the championships, because, you know, we don't need to debate again whether Lando could have, should have, would have won the driver's championship last year.

But whatever you believe is the case, they were definitely on the back foot at the start of the year. And that's what will always cost you if you spend the first kind of five, six, seven races trying to sort your car out before you get competitive. So yeah, looking very good for McLaren indeed, I'd say. And I think the biggest thing of all was when Lando was spoken to and he essentially just said, yeah, the car feels like it did last year. And McLaren have made changes. It's not like it's just a control paste into, you know, controls and control V into next.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So the fact that there's nothing crazily different in the feeling of the car is very important because McLaren, of course, have taken steps to try and win the championship this year. then by no means looking towards 26 like other teams are. Speaking of, one of them being Williams, let's go to another question about them at Lytte to the Grave. Surely a Sines podium isn't looking as far-fetched anymore now. I think that what this has done for me

has instill a bit more confidence that Carlos Sines is going to hit the ground running and he's going to be there from race one. There could definitely be some, you know, you could be quite forgiving in the senses of if Carlos was taking a little bit of time to get used to the Williams team compared to what Ferrari is like but I think this today would suggest okay he's not going to be the fastest

but he is showing despite having I think a spin at one point confidence in the car Alex Album was in the commentary box today and I found it really interesting to hear of course they say good things about the team mate they say good things about the team and stuff like that and they're very well PR trained but the fact that Alex said yeah, Carlos is adapted to the car already, it feels like.

So I think that's really important for Carlos and Williams. I think Williams have got a great opportunity to finish fifth in the constructors this year with these two drivers pushing themselves. Yeah, I agree. I think the question being, is a podium looking far-fetched? I still think it is personally. I think the top four teams are clear and will continue to be, which of course we know that will mean when you have eight drivers able to

challenge for podiums and things that's going to make it very difficult for any one other any other driver to get a podium but I could absolutely see Williams this year and particularly Carlos Sainz doing a Pierre Gasley what he did

at the end of the season where he's popping in occasional kind of like a P5 in qualifying and getting a great result where with a six or seventh place and just racking up points in the championship podium is a massive stretch but you know if he could if he can get completely dialed in

and we know how much Carlos can have those performances we saw at a Ferrari where he is just from the get-go just absolutely on top form and can deliver an amazing weekend they could score big points and have a really good year William

so yeah it's very exciting for Williams and Titans loves a crazy race as well you know podiums is his name is his name is what he's attributed to when it comes to crazy races. So I think that there is, it's not that far fetched to think a crazy race.

Some, some dynamic weather could, could really open up that door for sure. Okay, next question from Ravenco, YT. Should Ferrari and Red Bull be concerned about McLaren?

Short answer, yes. Long answer, yes, probably. It's, I'm concerned. I'm concerned. Yeah, as a Ferrari fan. I think,

that it's hard to tell you know it is it is of course you can roll that out on a bingo card for testing it's not going to be flat out McLaren are going to win every race but Red Bull had problems today as well with Liam Lawson and having some I think it was some to do the water pump or something on the car at least number of laps they did least number of laps as well they're actually the ninth best team in terms of mileage so far in the first two days with 223 laps behind Mercedes who are at the top with 306 now it's not a disaster this is not mcclaren honda era uh in spain kind of uh problems but this is this is again we will probably change our opinion tomorrow when max restappen is

clear by half a second it was leim lawson in the car who's of course trying to get up to speed with everything but yes i think the whole theme of this podcast is if you want to be a glory supporter by your McLaren merch now. Yeah, definitely. I definitely am concerned with Red Bull's pace and how that car's looking. It's looking a right handful. I know Max has been in the press conference talking about, you know, it can't be any worse than last year and joking and saying he's more confident.

And we can't look at Liam Lawson being, where did he? He was down in seventh, but can't really take. that and we know that Max will step it up and that car is built around what he wants to do and he'll push that extra thing and I still absolutely think he's going to be in the hunt for the championship but the Red Bull definitely you know it's not it's not like it was last year or they've kind of found a complete fix and they're back to being dominant again it just looks kind of there or thereabouts and I think the most fascinating thing is everyone you speak to, and maybe this is McLaren sandbagging, but everyone you speak to seems to

think that those top four are just so close and it could literally come down to like just car set up in practices that are going to decide who's going to be quickest. And that is the beauty of an end of a regulation where everyone's kind of hit that peak of what you can get out of this regulation. And it just does come down to drive a skill and getting the set up right. And that's going to be good. Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? Because on one hand, we are concerned by the race pace in particular that Lando showed today.

But on the flip side of that, the rumors are that it's the top four teams within two tenths of a second. And you think, okay, we're going to get a lot of amazing Saturdays, because of course, that's more around the overall pace of the car. What that will translate to into long run pace is yet to be seen. but yeah, if we can get 24 qualifiers with them all being two tenths apart. Oh my goodness gracious me. Sign, exactly.

Any contract, I am there. Let's go to the next question. P1PATry member DGH 11. Without being actually looking up to the pace as opposed to last year, does that increase or decrease the likelihood of doing keeping his seat? Leave him alone, for God's sake.

Why are we constantly talking about him losing his seat? Like, geez, I'm sorry. sorry. Like, the guy has just outperformed Pierre Gazley by a whopping 62,000th of a second in day two of testing. Finishes eighth. The guy is just trying to get testing done and we're constantly talking about losing his seat. Look, if he is that level, which I don't, I don't think he's going to be that level compared to Pierre Gasly, I really don't. Then Alpin have a problem on their hands, for sure. Until then, I think we just have to have. to put it to bed at this point. Alpine could and should say, well, doing is signed for the year.

That is what we're going to give him. Depending on how he does, of course. Well, yeah, obviously. But the fact that they haven't even done that to go, well, not as Jack doing performs, he's going to keep his seat. Like, they haven't even said that. So that's obviously why people are coming in with the questions and why we've spoken about it. But at the same time, nothing is going to change between now and round one.

I'm convinced now that Jack Dewin will see round one of the season. And then we go from there. I think it will literally be a race-by-race basis. So let's see. I think that with them being quicker, I think the quicker they are, the more likely doing will lose a seat quicker because they'll want to get Colopinto in quicker

to then celebrate him. That's interesting because I feel like the quicker they are, almost the more embarrassing it would be. if Dewin is kind of there or they're about to Gasly. Sorry, no, I was talking more about the car performance, not doing his performance here. So if the Alpine is quick and Gasly is showing it's quick, but Dewin is three, four tenths behind Gasly,

they're going to make the move quicker than if they're at the back of the field, Ghazly's still outperforming by three or four tens. Of course, yeah, yeah. But it would be interesting, wouldn't it? It's funny how if the Alpine was rubbish and they were finishing. My mother's calling me. We need to get her insight.

Hi, Mom. Hi, Mom. I know I was supposed to ring you back yesterday. Really massive apologies. We're actually live on the podcast right now. So we've just, let me put you on loudspeaker. So day two of testing has just ended. Carlos Sein's fastest head of Lewis Hamilton and Charlotte Claire.

What did you make of the session and overall the prospects for the season in 2025? Five. Well, A, I haven't watched it. Fake fan. Okay. What about B? And B, and I might be wrong on this, but because Hamilton has moved over to Ferrari, I wonder whether he will perform quite well.

Oh, okay. So question marks over Lewis Hamilton. So who have you got down finally before I let you go? and I will call you back shortly after this podcast. Who have you got down for Drivers World Champion? Hello? Maybe. Yeah, I'm thinking. Don't worry, man.

I'm thinking very slowly. I might actually say Lewis Haberton. Sorry, you just questioned whether he'll perform this year, and then you said Lewis Hulton's going to win the World Championship. No, I think he could. I think he could. In the right car. I think he could. Is he in the right car?

Wow, Savage. I think he is. So you know who my allegiances are towards? Yes, I do. Who would that be, Mum? Well, maybe Charles will do better than him. That's what I want to hear. Okay.

Yeah, I think, yeah, maybe Charles will actually pick him at the post. The private. The check is in the post. Thank you so much, Mum. And just say goodbye to the P1 fan. Bye, everybody. Wow, that was very, very abrupt. Okay, bye, Mom.

in a bear, bye. Wow. That is fantastic insight. So not only is she slandered Hamilton by saying that he might not perform at Ferrari, but has said that he'll win the World Championship. She actually said he's going to pip him at the post as well, so we're going to get like an Abu Dhabi 2021 between Lickler and Hamilton. Char would win, but that was just pressure from me.

Let's be real. She believes Lewis Hamilton eight-time champion in the world at the end of this year. Anyway, sorry, Tommy. We were talking about Alping. We were. Um, yeah, what I was saying was, uh, four, if Alpina kind of rubbish and they're like 14th and 15th and Duans like three tenths off and he's finishing 15th, it almost looks less embarrassing for them to put a colapinto in. Whereas if they are really quick and Gasly's finishing sixth and Dewan's a few tenths off, but he's like seventh or eighth, I think a lot of people will go, oh, that's really, really harsh. I think they'd get a lot of sort of bad

sort of publicity and press if they do put Colopinto in my opinion but it's not about being popular Alpine care about that well that's the thing Alpine like fire everyone don't they say yeah they've not been afraid to fire people that's for sure so they probably don't care

but I just think that it could be very interesting now if Alpine do have a quick car and if doing can do a good job it does sort of maybe put a bit of pressure on Alpine to not make a controversial decision maybe. And I hope Dewan does deliver because, one, because it's obviously he's literally not done a season in Formula One, he's done one race. But also the mental resilience for him to have essentially perform from Australia to a level that we think is acceptable as a fan base and as Formula One fans over the world. if he was able to do that it would be utterly incredible wouldn't it? Brilliant because if he can do that, what can he,

because like you say, it's about that mental pressure we've seen how difficult it is for certain drivers and that mental side of the sport is so challenging as well. So the fact that if Dewan can actually somehow perform despite every single question, every single week, he's going to get it in the press conference, every single press conference, every single race. Yeah, and he's not even been there yet.

Imagine he has a lot of craft. He's not even, he hadn't even taken the cover off the car yet. And he's getting that question. So, yeah. So I hope for his sake he manages to beat that all. Okay, moving on, there was, again, bizarre moments where Bahrain lived up to its name and it was raining again. But this time, we actually saw the intermediate tyres. They weren't really working, but we saw them because two teams actually brought at some kind of wet tire.

It was, of course, Hasse and... Aston Martin, sorry, yeah. Astermine brought three sets of intermediates from what I gather. And then Pedro Delarosa was like, I really hope we don't need to use them. Why did you bring them in the first place?

Yeah, tire allocation's weird, isn't it? And confusing sometimes. I wonder if that will be something they rue at the end of day three and go, oh, I wish we'd had a couple more sets of dry compound tires here. Because how much representative running are you really getting on intermediates

around Bahrain? Can it actually get wet enough to even get any data from it by the fact that they'd brought the wet tires and intermediates and didn't really use them? Not really. So we had that, which actually affected a decent chunk of running, didn't it today? Where the track was either quite damp or at least cold and slippery. So it did take a little while to ramp back up again by the end of the day. Yeah, crazy that we've had power cuts, a wet track. What's really interesting is if it had rained, and I know we're saying, like, this is a, this is a big if, but it has been raining, you imagine if it rained for these like two of the three days, and they only got one day? Because with the power cut, of course, they had the luxury,

being able to, like, we'll give them an extra hour, but if it rains, it rains, it rains. Yeah. What can you do? So, yeah, it dried out. I mean, you would be salivating, would be? I would. I'd be like, here we go, no testing. we have no idea what's what's happening going into the new season straight from F1 75 straight to the free practice one signed real

oh yes Jack Whitehall would have had as much testing as most of the drivers which would have been really great next question from P1Pitch remember Abadabby 20201 Survivor should testing remain at secure or move to a different venue no there's plenty of changes going on in Formula 1 we don't need to move testing as well I know that this this question is layered with

If you just peel that back, oh, there's entertainment. Yeah, let's get it around. And I think as well, I thought it was quite interesting when they were talking about that venue, though, and how the reason they did the testing at Barcelona is that when you look at the kind of corners and circuit abrasion and all these kind of statistics, Barcelona is basically like slap bang in the middle of everything. So it's like the perfect all rounder. Whereas they were kind of saying that Bahrain isn't, which I thought was quite an interesting point, that. but maybe it's for good thing because then it could completely change when they go to a different track.

Yeah, because there's not really any high speed corners at Bahrain, apart from that sort of the little kink after the first sector split, you have that sort of left, right, left. Apart from that, you don't, you can't really test that sort of high speed side of the cars. So look, I'm also fine with that.

If we can, you know, if teams haven't tested a certain level of it, we as fans just want complete, Get them at Bahrain short so they learn nothing. That's what I'm saying. Barrein short needs to come back full stop, to be honest with you. But I don't think it needs to change to a different venue necessarily. Of course, to help the teams.

I'm sure they might be leaning towards something. But Bahrain is where we're going to stay, I would imagine, for the foreseeable. And that pretty much sums up day two of testing. Tommy, how would you summarize it with your finale thoughtes? My final thoughts are I'm really tempted to ring my mum and ask who she thinks is going to win the driver's championship. Should we get a Mum predictions podcast? Sure.

I mean, look, if you want to do that, that's great. Let's do that right now. So she answers. This would be really awkward if she doesn't answer. I know, it really would. How dare she not pick up the phone to Sir Tom Bellingham? She's terrible at picking up the phone as well, and she's going to listen to this. Oh, she's answered.

Hello? Hi, ma'am. You're live on the P1 podcast. Please do not swear. What? I just need one prediction from you who is going to win the World Championship this year. We've already had Matt's...

No, don't tell her. Don't tell her. I'm not going to tell you who she's gone for. But Matt's... And we need yours. Okay. My prediction is... Pressure, pressure, pressure. Outrageous.

Let's go. I always thought... I always thought there were better belliums than you. Sold out by my own mother. Right, bye, man. Bye, bye, bye, bye. Wow, wow, wow. Oh my God.

Outrageous. Outrageous. Can't believe it. I'm in the mud. You are so in the mud. Well, look, let us enjoy this moment. They're backfied. Because it'll be the only time I am looking forward to that happening probably this year.

Okay, brilliant. Well, that is it. Thank you so much, everybody, for watching and listening. We'll see you very soon tomorrow, in fact, for day three. We'll be doing maybe the last couple of hours watching along on YouTube and on Twitch as well. So look forward to that. Come and join us to see the final flurry of laps and to see who will finish testing fastest. All right. Take care. Thank you to Tommy's mom as well and for my mom.

We're both saying Charlotte Clare winning the World Title Title Title Title Title. Goodbye. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Well, here we go then. Chure time. It's short time. My chore. It's not really a chore. I can't give chores to you, but I'm going to get each and every one of you listening to ask your parents who they think will win the World Title. And then messages on social media. Instagram on Twitter.

I'm Matt P1, Gallagher. Tommy, it's Tom P1, Bellingham. Yeah, send us some messages either on Instagram as well. I'm Matty P1, Tommy P1 for Tommy. Yeah, and we'll read some of them out maybe at the end of day three in this little chore section because I want to see what people have said. I want like people that have never watched the sport or know anything about it to just like. To be like Mike Tyson.

Yeah, give them like a picture of all the drivers and go which one. Well, surely the names as well. well. True, yeah. This one. Okay, thank you. Perfect. All right. Yeah. Sounds good. Fantastic. Great outro. Take care. Good dream. Adios. Goodbye. Goodbye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the Acast's creator network.