P1 with Matt and Tommy - Hungarian GP Race Review

Episode Date: August 3, 2025

An ordinary-looking race burst into life in the final few laps as differing strategies meant we had a fight for the lead, some spicy exchanges further down the grid and some awesome rookie performances. So let's get into it!Tickets to our Delusion Tour are running out! The P1 live show's coming to cities in the UK, Europe and North America later this year. Get your tickets here: tix.to/p1liveYou can listen to an extended version of THIS RACE REVIEW (and every race review this season) 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 and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. Today, it's the Hungarian Grand Prix, otherwise known as the last race before some break and how on earth are we going to survive? Tommy, what do we do over these next three weeks? Do we just stare into a blank wall? Do we sit in a dark room? Like, what do we do now? When you were doing that crying voice, I thought that was your Charlotte-Claher P-1 to P-4 voice. Thank you, everybody for tuning into this P-1 podcast. It's been a great race review, really enjoyed it. The shortest episode we've ever done.

And the end of not only the first half of the Formula One season, but also P-1 and Tommy. Thank you, Tommy. I really appreciate that. Wow, how did you manage to make that about Charlotte Clare almost immediately after the podcast? I was going to ask you how you are, but I don't care now. So you fill in like a little something before I then dive straight in because I'm really upset right now. Well, I mean, my driver finished ninth and did terribly. That's good, yeah. Charlotte Claude

half a chassis and still there. Well, we'll get into that one later. Right, but before we dive into everything, a quick shout out to our wonderful P1 patrons who'll be getting extra chat at the end of every single race review we do this year. And there's a lot to talk about, a lot to dive into. So, yeah, come join the P1 Patreon

if you want some extra waffle at the end of this wonderful episode. Tommy, let's start with you. What's your most memorable moment? And don't it be about Charlotte Claire. It's not. Don't worry. It's about the McLaren's. Again, the McLaren fight for the second time in a row is the most memorable moment.

And it has to be because I think that first lap, we didn't think we'd see the McLaren's potentially fighting for the win. Not only because Charlotte Clare got into the lead, but also because Lando Norris dropped back. but the way the race panned out and it was a proper slow burner, a lot of people complaining, oh, it's a bit boring and stuff. And it's like, they just let it cook because it was a proper slow burner. It's incredibly difficult to overtake it hungry.

It always is. But we had the perfect recipe for it to basically like all come to the boil at the end. And that's exactly what happened. And yeah, the way it kind of worked with the two drivers, that is what you want in Formula One. could there have been more overtaking? Yes. Was it incredibly difficult to pass?

Yes. But my heart was absolutely racing for those last few laps because Oscar was catching, catching and catching. Yeah. Well, no is the answer. But yeah, Piaastri versus Norris. So exciting to watch, even if in the end didn't make the move. But it's just that that tension and excitement that for me is,

I love that about Formula One and we got it. for sure. And I have to agree that, yeah, that the race itself was, was fine. Like, it wasn't great for most of it. I do get people's frustrations there, but you know what Formula One is. Formula One can turn in, in a very quick moment, whether it's a safety car or whether it's a last lap battle, which is what we had today. So, yeah, the McLaren fight is interesting. Obviously, as the races go on, these moments of tension rise. You know, there's a lot of, you know, that's why your heart rate was probably going a bit higher than usual, because you know that the connotations are bigger than if this was round three. It's the championship is on the line. We're going into the summer break, of course. We've still got a lot of races to go. But as each one ticks down, these little moments of points lost here and there

means so much more. We had on the radio, didn't we as well? Because for the first time we heard the radio going, not this exact phrase, but they were basically saying, I don't care about the win I'm trying to beat my teammate. Yeah, that was the situation that was given to Oscar. Especially Oscar. Oscar was very focused on, I need to beat Lando.

That's the only thing I'm interested in right now. Turned out Lando was going to win the race. So that kind of worked anyway in terms of the strategy of what he was trying to do. But it was still a very interesting situation of, right, they really are none of this like, oh, it's great for the team to finish one, two and all Ladi Dada and all happy. It was, we're starting to get that taste of it now where we're going to see them be more selfish and think about the championship for themselves. Indeed.

Question from P1PATry member Matthew underscore Cole 04. How exciting is this interteam strategy battle? I feel like we're not near 10 out of 10 in terms of the excitement between the two drivers. We do need a little bit more drama. We need a little bit more of a, oh, he did this. No, he did this. A little bit of elbows out. But this will come, right?

We've still got plenty of races to go. In terms of the inter-team strategy battle, this is for sure exciting to see. And the absolute reason that we have this is because McLean have won the constructors. They have. So they don't need to call off fights because a Ferrari or a Mercedes or a Red Bull are trying to catch them up in the championship. They have got probably about eight one-twos in the locker and they could just not turn up. Like if Ferrari got eight one-toes in a row, they still probably wouldn't overtake them. Yeah, and the four wins clear as well in the driver's championship now.

Yeah, so they are, they're home and dry when it comes to both championships in, well, I think it's even for you, Tommy, I know. Although, to be fair, you're quite pessimistic when it comes to. Oh, no, so. It was over in Spain. Yeah, yeah, it was. But is it, is it exciting? It's going to ramp up more and more. I'm glad we had this because it does close the championship up again.

you see little snippets and I think after the summer break is when the pressure is going to be on it's really going to ramp up then because the biggest complaint this year from people has been oh the McLaren driver fight's a bit boring and they don't seem to be like really kind of you know they just get on people don't like that do they and even at the end of that race where Oscar Piastri probably had every right to kind of be like oh how did that get away from me with all the strategy and things like that, we're still kind of like smiling and, oh, it's fine, don't worry about it. That's not going to happen with three races to go. That's when, you know, that's, it's your Rosberg and Hamilton throwing caps at each other. That's when, that's when,

that's when that comes out. We will see if it gets that far. Next question, B, Nile Zero. When will McLaren stop screwing over Oscar on strategy when Lando is consistently performing more poorly? It's actually really annoying to watch Lando get so many handouts and watch everyone make excuses for his poor performances. Poor performances aside right now. And at lap one, Lando was poor. He lost a couple of positions. And it could have been a lot worse for him had he not been able to clear

than both which he did. The McLaren was the fastest car today. Ferrari were there or thereabouts, of course. But no other team were close. For this one, I don't really know what you want McLaren to do as it's playing out live. This is an absolute example of the driver who is not, it could either be first and second fighting and the second driver will do something

different. In this case, first and second were so locked in on each other, although Oscar was, of course, checking out what Lando was doing. And Lando, with McLaren's help, decided to do something different. They did not believe that that one-stop strategy was going to be the best. otherwise they would have put Oscar on that, is my opinion. And you had Charlotte Clare also committing to a two-stop. And the one-stop strategy as well, it did work for some drivers,

but it was not deemed to be the fastest coming into this. So I think it's unfair to say that McLaren are, and this is what we spoke about in the watch-along, favouring Lando in this situation, because it very much was a Hail Mary that just played off. I think it's unfair to then downplay what Lando did in this race. Lap one aside, the rest of the race he did and pulled off that one stop is something that should be commended. It's not like he was just given the win with some crazy call that was so obviously the right decision.

Or like a VSC went into his hands. Yeah, nothing was given to him. He had to earn that with a strategy that turned out to be good, but he had to make it work. Until we see Oscar Piastri in second place or third, fourth, whatever, and Lando's winning, and he wants a crazy strategy to try and do something different to beat Lando. If McLaren say no, then this argument holds up. But until then, it absolutely doesn't, because this is just the nature of Formula One. When you are behind, that is when you can take a risk.

Charles LeCler at Monza, George Russell at Spa, where you know, you'd never do that situation when you're leading. you know, Charlerc and Oscar Piestri, drivers normally stick to that. Basically, this is the quickest thing on a delta time because you're controlling the race. When it's when you're behind. So yes, Lando got in a weird way, fortunate because his poor start

actually allowed a situation where he thought, well, I'm fourth if I'd just stuck behind Russell the whole race. or, and because of Alonza opening that absolute chasm, if this strategy goes completely wrong, I'm in exactly the same position. If it goes right, I could win the race. And that's exactly what happened. And it's all right, screaming, favouritism and all this kind of stuff.

This is just, this has always happened in Formula One. It's literally Formula One. It's literally Formula One. It's not the first time, not the last time. And this is also the nature now of what we said in the last race at Spa, where two sides of the garage they've won the championship, they've won the drivers,

they've won, we don't know who yet, but they've won the drivers, they've won the constructors, and now it's the two teams within the team for themselves to win the championship. Exactly what I was going to say is that McLaren is not one entity here.

It is Oscar Piastri's side of the garage versus Lando's side of the garage. So if you want to say that McLaren are infiltrating, they're infiltrating themselves. They're literally fighting against each other to get their driver ahead of the other one.

Exactly. And all these mechanics in the team are going to be very happy that they win the Constructive Championship. But as much as that is the case if you are a engineer of Oscar Piastri or an engineer of Lando, you want your

driver to win the championship. And this is what we're seeing here, which is why I said this at the start. Until we see a situation where Oscar is behind and they either call it off say, no, just stick to the one too. They're letting them race. You can't.

Yeah, and we want to see that. If they love Lando that much and are so desperate for him to win the World Championship, they would have called Oscar off. They would have called it off with Oscar at the very least when he did that move and said, that was too much you were about to crash into him. They still let him fight and go for that win after that.

Yeah, to be fair, if they tried to call it off, Oscar would have had radio issues absolutely. Yeah, yeah, true. Next question. Porn, picture. remember Alan Enderpe. Will Oscar make more strategic moves for future races after almost taking out his teammate from the race

seemed too eager and could have tried the next lap? It's a beautiful thing having hindsight, isn't it? Of when the right moment was going to be? And Oscar went for it. You've got to appreciate that as a Formula One fan that he went for it. He did misjudge it, and he almost wiped out Lando Norris

and gave Fernando Alonzo a P3 and a George Russell would have spawned into another victory, a la Austria when of course Norris and Verstappen came together. I don't think Oscar needs to change much, to be honest with you. I think he felt not particularly aggrieved either after the race. I think he was quite positive and complementary from what the Sky Broadcast was saying on his team radio. And he wasn't like going, God, you know,

I've been absolutely screwed over here. He just knew that it was a different strategy that ended up beating him. Had there been one or two more laps, yeah, whatever, you know, we can go down that road, but as Max Verstappen once said, if my grandmother had, what was it, ball should be my uncle. So, yeah, it's, yeah, there we go, yeah, so there you go, not grandmother. But yeah, so it's, yeah, it's, it's just something that I don't think needs to be changed. It's just a case of one strategy with Lando working slightly better. It is all hindsight, isn't it? Because I remember thinking that as soon as he'd done that move,

it was kind of like, oh, maybe he should have waited. But at that moment, you don't know, because there was so few laps to go, he was pretty close. You watch us on the watch long, we're saying, this is it, he has to send it now. Because you don't know the very next lap, it's all right to say, oh, he should have waited. But realistically, when you get behind a car, you kind of lose that advantage anyway of clawing huge percentage out. Once you get in the dirty air, it was all just kind of hope. think he said this himself, hoping for Landau to make a mistake out of that final corner. So as far as he was concerned, that could well have been, and probably may have been, the closest

he was ever going to get to make the move. So he went for an absolutely insane dive bomb. Funny reflecting on FP2 now and saying that's the closest they're going to get, there's a picture where they look identical that the rolls reverse. where Oscar's locking up the inside and just misses him. And yeah, it's, he just went for it. And we've seen so many close calls now. It was very reminiscent of Austria, wasn't it? Where that time they did say kind of, okay, Oscar,

but that was much earlier in the race, of course. There's surely going to be one moment where they collide. It's got to be, surely. Well, we said that about Charlotte, and Carlos Sines, and that never happens. So it doesn't have to happen. But yeah, they've had some close calls, which could have changed a lot of,

not just the championship table, but also the dynamic between the two of them. Yeah, of course. It is still very happy Larry at the moment, isn't it? But it won't stay that way. Question from people on Patreon member, Crazy Casper 3112. Why would McLaren risk a double DNF with that moment at the end?

Because they've locked in at the free to race. Because they are so clear it doesn't matter. free to race. That is the rules they've set down. They've got their papaya rules or whatever they're calling them these days. And that's all they can do. They either cross the line and say that you're not allowed to fight, which would end in absolute disaster, I think, for them anyway, because both drivers would then, well, the driver that would obviously gain from that, wouldn't complain as much. But they don't want to unsettle the camp. And I think they're scared of that because they have two number one drivers. There's no way that they can, in a weird way,

they don't really have the power to do anything because they've told them the rules. If they then change them, they're both going to have radio issues depending on who's being told not to do it. Exactly. This theory works, worked before the Spanish Grand Prix

when Max was 25 points behind and was occasionally getting wins and things. And of course, you go way back to our predictions where we did our table 1 to 20. We predicted Max because we thought the two McLaren's are going to fight, they're going to take points off each other.

That is exactly what's happened, but they have such a massive car advantage that no one can touch them, so it doesn't matter. If Max or George or Charles or whoever was 20 points behind, then you can start having this conversation going, we don't need to crush into each other because then you gift the wind someone else

and they're right back in it. But it's wrapped up for both of the. them and and that is the beauty of it. I said, said this in the last one. Complain it's boring all you like that McLaren are clear. Thank God that it's the team with two drivers that are incredibly closely matched and number one and we'll go for it and we'll want to win. Otherwise we would have a very boring championship.

Well, look at, look at Hamilton and Bottas when Merck were dominating. Look at Vastappen when he was dominating and everyone going, oh, the second driver can't do anything. If you're going to have one team dominate, give it the one with two number ones that are just nothing between them as well. It really does feel like 50-50. It really does at this stage. It certainly does. And that tees us up beautifully for the last 10 races of the season. I can't believe there's still 10 races to go. Plenty to happen. And I think a lot of more twists and turns from here as well. Let's move away from McLaren now and go to my most memorable moment, or I'm going to

rebrand it for this one, my most horrific moment. And it is LeCler P1 to P4. And that's it. Thank you, everybody. Oh, God. You got your scenario as well. I got my scenario where you said what we need is Charles LeClein and George Russell in the gap and that's exactly what happened. And even Alonzo was like, you know what, Matt, I'll come in as well. No problem. And he got ahead of Lando at the start. Yes. and it was playing out beautifully. It was playing out better than I'd have ever imagined in those first 20-odd laps.

Leclair was looking faster than Piaastri. He had pace in the locker. I think Piaastri was definitely saving his tyres a little bit more and I think he did close slightly towards the end of that stint. But still, it was close but Leclair looked pretty comfortable

and then it all just went wrong, didn't it? I can't believe he didn't get a podium I can't, I mean, a P3 would look like the worst case scenario at the sort of lap 20 or. I was like, okay, you know, two McLaren's might get him, but sure, you know,

no one else is going to be close. I just can't believe it. Even when he came out the pits, and then we were discussing the kind of, basically the kind of gap. And at that point, it was kind of, Charlotte Claire, can he close the gap on Norris, who had done the one stop to win the race? And yeah, you got very angry when I said he could not.

And in that situation, you kind of would thought, well, at least he's going to get P2. And then, yeah, it goes back even further. So much worse than ever anticipated. P1PATRI member Audra Pop asks, why is Ferrari team communication so bad with their drivers? Of course this is after LeCler had a bit of a rant, didn't he, in his team radio? I've never seen a team graphic. Team radio graphic be so long.

It just kept going. He was properly annoyed. And he has said since after the race that what he thought it was, very cryptic, never said what. It wasn't that. And it was in fact a chassis issue. which again is very cryptic and not a lot of information. What I loved was that George Russell after the race was interviewed and asked about,

oh, what about this Charlotte-Claire chassis issue and things like that? And his thinking was that in that last stint, the tyre pressures had to be higher on the Ferrari in order for the ride height to go up slightly to stop the Ferrari, which has had problems before, riding along the ground and having plankware. And Anthony Davidson had a look after the race as well on his skypad,

and he was showing that LeClair was, you know, on lap one, sparking quite a bit, quite a bit of dust coming up from the plank. So it is interesting what the drivers think or George Russell thinks compared to what, of course, Charles will say in an interview of, it's a chassis issue. It's like, okay. Yeah, is that then covering themselves because it is such a, well, it's a massive problem with Ferrari this year, isn't it?

Of course, they got disqualified in China and to have designed a car that basically every race they go into, they're worried that they're going to get disqualified again. They're lifting coast or they have to change something. And this is what's causing their performance drop for sure. Now, I'm wondering why they didn't just commit to it, get disqualified and at least I could have looked like P1 over the line. That would have been quite something. But back to the team communication, I don't think there's much that we can, obviously, we know the team communication is bad anyway.

But it's like, oh my God, what have you done Ferrari? Yeah, because Charle was blaming them for something. Or something, did they like? No, and Shar was blaming them for something that he then went back on and said, actually, it wasn't what I was saying. So I don't think we can really add to the team communication side. No, it's not one of those situations. It's not a, why am I on the hard tires kind of moment or all this kind of stuff that we've seen. the past

it was actually hungry wasn't it where we had that scene where Bonotto was like don't you dare say anything bad about us all those years ago

it wasn't one of those it was just a situation where they got they were there for that final stint whether it's a car problem whether it is this plankware problem

either way they didn't have the pace and that just allowed the McLaren's to just get them easily really I mean the paste drop off for Charles

Lecler in this race. He finished 42 seconds off the win. I know he had a five second penalty as well. 42 seconds! When he was... The last stop. He was ahead of pierced.

Yeah, he was. Yeah, exactly. Well, net leader, I guess if Norris obviously won. But he was in the hunt to win. And then went and had a stop and it all went terribly wrong. Next question. Oh, it's more about Charlotte Clare.

Josh W. Potts. Does Charlotte Claire need to leave Ferrari to realize his dream of a world? Championship. Five wins from 27 polls. I'd say it's more of a reflection on Ferrari than anything. I'm going to hold fire on this categorical answer until next year. If Ferrari rollout, if Ferrari rollout, Australian Grand Prix, 2026, round one,

a car that is fourth or fifth fastest, that is a categorical yes. He would need to leave. And I think he would want to leave as well. There's so much love, of course, that LeClaire has for Ferrari. I have a lot of love for Ferrari, as you know, but there will be a point where you go, what are we waiting for here? Where is this going? Now, Ferrari are deemed and potentially predicted to be one of the better teams for 2026,

but no one knows. No one has any idea who's going to be quick in 2026 and beyond, as much as we'd love to predict. Nobody predicted Braun GP coming up the blocks and winning when they did in that insane 2009 season. So, and also just to add as well, the five wins from 27 polls, the people that slander Char LeClaire for his poll to win ratio make me feel physically unwell. And just that in itself, right, is like a litmus test of do you know anything about Formula One?

And if you categorically think LeClaire is a bad driver because he hasn't converted as many polls to victories, then thank you for letting me know that you don't watch Formula One. Yeah, I'm going to, as much as I'd love to, you know, stick the knife in. I'll completely back you up on that because you look at, I actually saw something about Max's poll to win ratio recently and he's in a similar situation where, you know, he's fighting a car and he's got a lot of polls this year, but he can't convert them because the McLaren's clear and this is exactly what LeClaire's kind of had in his career where he puts in those amazing performances like yesterday, like seemingly Baku every year, where the car shouldn't be

there and then just because he doesn't win does not make him a bad a bad racing driver we'll find out yeah in 2026 how how he does because i'm sure charler le clare will be looking at and many people will believe this uh yourself uh matt definitely but looking at oscar piastri and lander norris and and many people believe this that he thinks well i'm better than those guys if I had that McLaren I could win the World Championship and a driver would think that about themselves

and I could see why people would believe that as well but he will yeah see that and kind of it's how much he favours going for like the dream is to win with Ferrari but then does he waste his whole whole career just hoping for that that dream how many drivers have

Fernando Alonzo went there, tried to win didn't Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, like how badly he's doing at the moment. And Charles LeClair, I'm pretty sure Sebastian Vettel, correct me if I'm wrong, wrote something on his like helmet, when they did like a helmet swap, wrote saying like, you've got, you're a really talented driver, don't waste it. And it's kind of almost like predicting the future here.

Because if Charles just hangs on to Ferrari and just spends all his days getting the odd pole position and finishing the championship fifth every year. It's not a reflection of his talent. It's such a difficult decision in these next season or however long because, yeah, Ferrari haven't won for a very long time,

but a lot of teams haven't won. You've got Mercedes, you've got Red Bull. Until McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull have won every single championship for a decade. Since Ferrari or whatever it was. Exactly. Yeah. So like there's not,

a lot of teams that are winning. So it's... And it's all a game in Formula One. I'm not saying it's like lucky that these drivers are, you know, right place, right time. But you looked at like, here's a great example of like Carlos Sites. I've seen some memes of like, if you'd stayed at McLaren, it'd be living the dream right now. Not only would he be in the best car, it'd also not be in a Williams. Because he'd have got made way for Hamilton and things like that.

And these moves can look great. one year and then equally flip the other way. You know, Lewis Hamilton going to Ferrari halfway through the year, we were kind of saying like, oh, this looks like a great move because Mercedes were washed or whatever. And then now you look at them and think, oh, Mercedes is actually going to be quite good. I mean, for Nana Valenzhen as well, he's the king of terrible. He's the king of terrible decisions.

Yeah. Bad driver moves. So, yeah, okay, next question. People on Patreon, remember, Hayes Ash. Why does so many teams forget that track position? is key on so many circuits this year. Triggered. I know that Tommy is going to go straight to that they love looking at the data.

I'm so triggered by this because I was saying it the whole watch along. And if I was in charge, everyone would have won the rest. If you were in charge, Formula One would be those boring sport in the world. You would make a one-stop work no matter what. What are they doing? What were they doing there? It was so, right, hungry. is, and I am going to say exactly what you said,

it's all right looking at the delta and going, well, actually, this is this much faster. The evidence was there when Alonzo could do a bloomin Monaco and basically separate the entire pack into a massive chasm. All the evidence was there, like Esteban Okon won this blooming race in an alpine. That's how difficult it is to overtake. and yet in 2025 when we say it's basically impossible to overtake they're still like oh no we can we can do it and at the end you know oscar piastri caught up and we've got this like difference in delta and all this kind of stuff but you know this is this is a very old old quote but legendary murray walker once said catching is one thing passing is quite another and it's never it's never more true than in 2025 because i'm sure they've said so many times nowadays that the actual pace difference that you need to be able to overtake a car now is massive.

And a place like Hungary, you can look at, oh, well, you'll be this much quicker a lap, but common sense says you can't overtake in 2025, and this is actually the most difficult other than Monaco circuit to pass on. And you look down the order and go, well, everyone that did a two-stop, that that front four pack, the only person that did a one stop beat all three of them, who was fourth at the time. And the only person in the next pack that did a two-stop was Max Stappen, and it worked horrendously. He was passing everyone at the start, and then did a two-stop and made no progress. Like, I can't believe he'd sacrifice track position at a track, like, Hungary.

Yeah, I mean, obviously, two-stop was something that was used last year, and it wasn't night and day between one being the fastest and one being the slowest when you look at Lando versus Oscar for example, that was a great thing of seeing the pace difference and Oscar was right on the back of Lando and perhaps could have got through. But I do agree that teams, in this one, in this race, 10 of the drivers did a one stop, 10 of the drivers did a two stop. Some teams committed with both of their drivers like Williams, they finished 14th and 15th. Other teams like racing balls they committed to a one-stop with Lawson and Hadjar 8th and 11th so the teams are are aware that a one-stop exists and yet they clearly because I mean the whole thing they kept saying

how many times have we seen this keep happening though where people go for a one-stop it's like oh my god he's going to hit a cliff and it just never happens they kept saying though and I wonder if this was drilled into their heads from Pirelli that the one-stop was going to be 18 seconds slower than the two stop. And that was something that was kept saying saying, commentary and we're like,

okay, wow, here we go. Then the two stop is going to be the way for everybody. And then it wasn't. And then maybe next year if you start buying a car

for 50 laps, you lose more than 18 seconds. Exactly. So it is fascinating to see how the strategies unfold. The teams do know a lot more than we do

in some ways. But then at times when we watch, we're like, do they? Maybe they have too much data. Yeah, because you watch it and go,

yeah, you are your, you're, you kind of need to look at history of the Hungarian ring there more than you do what it's saying on a computer because, yeah, if it was, if they were all ghost cars, Oscar Piastri or, you know, is going to win the race. Yeah, that's not. That's not Formula One.

That's not Formula One, exactly. A question for people on Petrie member, Captain Ovs 3420. Why did the stewards decide to investigate the Hamilton-Vestappan incident after the race, especially since they dealt with all other incidents, immediately. I can't be bothered. I really can't. The stewards, I don't get it. I will never get it. What do they need to hear from Max or Lewis to judge this particular incident? Is it the fact that they're waiting for more on board? Because Anthony Davidson, he was trying to show the side by side. And then he was saying, oh, the angle I've got is great up until the point that we need it, where it then goes, to the nose cam and then you're like, oh, okay, I now can't really judge from there. But then they still have the helicopter view, which he then showed. Max, I mean, Lewis has done a phenomenal job to not cause a very high-speed crash involving

him spinning off, spinning off, sorry, into probably the barrier. Because Max has put a nose in where he absolutely should not have put a nose in. He was nowhere near a long side. It was Silverstone 2021 rolls reverse, but this time, thankfully, the other one backed out. Lewis turning out, and this is quite an interesting sort of thing to analyze, isn't it, this moment, because no contact was made, but there was an element of forcing another driver off the track because Hamilton is literally taking evading action because Vastap and has put his nose in. I have no idea how Hamilton has been able to realize that this is going on. perhaps there was an element of him in his brain thinking, I'm on 15-lap-old, older hard tires than Max at the time.

Is it even worth fighting this? Also, I know as Max must happen and he's going to not back out, which is... Yeah. This was the most extreme example of Max doing his kind of thing that kind of in his driving that has been something Etton Senna did of, well, you let me through all we crash. And that was that exact...

In my opinion, that's what we saw there. It was, it relied. And I've seen so many people go, oh, well, Hamilton, you know, ran wide. You run wide because otherwise there would have been an absolutely horrendous accident. And in that situation, I am of the 100% opinion that it was Silverstone in 2021, roles reverse. That time Lewis Hamilton got a penalty because you don't. stick a nose in there. Max, you don't stick a nose in there. But the problem is Lewis Hamilton has taken that decision. You know, if they, if Hamilton turns into that corner, they crash,

Max is getting four penalty points and a massive penalty. And it's a huge incident. But, but it is that, it didn't happen. And then where do you draw the line with that as to what is deemed dangerous and penalty worthy, do you give him a lower penalty because it could have been something had it not been for Hamilton's actions? Because this is the thing we've said before when certain drivers we've said like,

it's not their fault, but it also takes two to tango and sometimes you just, I don't like the kind of racing sometimes where a driver would rather crash than give someone a little bit of space to do a move. And yeah,

maybe they delayed it because I'm just hypothetically thinking that they're kind of in a weird way hoping that Hamilton just goes oh it's fine I don't really care and they go okay they would have to deal with it might well

might well say that because after his well his interview after the race was again very similar feels of of being quite down in the dumps about it all it screams like they didn't want to make a decision because they knew it was kind of bad if that's the case.

Yeah, because you're the stewards. Like, that's not, that is literally your job. If you think it was bad, it's not made a bad move. And you can see in the regulations that that is something that you can penalise. You do it. If not, it's no further action. You don't need to, you don't need to analyze it after the race. And Lewis is probably like, I just want to go home.

Would you mean I have to come to the stewards? No, no, I'm not coming. Maybe it doesn't show up and then they just void it. Yeah. Yeah. That's what it is. Next question. P1PATRIEN-8-4.

The regulation changes cannot come fast enough. Apart from the last 10 laps, that was boring as hell. This is, yeah, I mean, have we become sort of numb to what Formula One is these days where this is, or maybe I have become numb and the fact that these are my expectations of what a Formula One race can be that can still be considered good in the fact that I quite enjoyed the strategy element that was at play. The moment that Lando committed to a one stop and we knew that LeCler and Piastri were on a two, I was intrigued. I don't need to have side by side elbows out every single lap for me to be entertained. It was a battle for the lead. We didn't know who was going to come out on top. We then had a crescendo at the end, which nearly ended in both of the cars being out with Piastri's move.

I'm not saying it's a banger. I'm not saying it's an eight out of ten. But there was intrigue. And there were still moves being made. Let's not forget, like Max Verstappen was making several moves into that chicane. and the midfield were doing a little bit of seasoning, but again, nothing crazy. I wouldn't say it was the worst race I've ever watched.

There's plenty worse that we've seen this year. It's also, yeah, it's also the best race you're going to hope for in 1, 2025 because it's all reliant on them just going for a different strategy because you need that offset. Because otherwise they're just stuck in dirty air. And two, the Hungaro rig, which is always going to be able to take anyway. if you go into a dry race at Hungary and expect them to be going side by side

every single lap through corners, I don't think you've ever watched the Hungarian Grand Prix. Have you seen the new pit building, Tommy? It will, yes. It's really beautifully crafted. But yeah, don't get me wrong. It's not a banger, a banger race,

but it got the, it kind of got the heart pounding at the end for an exciting battle. I feel like there's maybe, maybe I'm showing my age here but probably that that to me well I'm going to say the same to you

because we watch Formula One in that era pre pre-DRS where that was kind of a good race when you had two cars battling for the wind because if you think everyone's boring now my God you should have watched in the 90s because you literally had one battle for the lead every like three years

it's true though and and I still I still loved Formula One then and I still love it now and yes we've had maybe a few years of insane moments. The end of 2024 was so good which I think is correct is always immediately making people disappointed going into every single race because it's not the season we thought when we were like oh my god we're going to have a different car winning every single week and they're going to be battling and battles for the lead all the time. It's certainly not the case, but it certainly wasn't bad either.

No, and we have a championship battle, so let's just take the small wins that we have going into the second half of the year. Next question, P1PH remember MZT. Should Bortoletto start being spoken about as the rookie of the year if he keeps this momentum up? Points in three of the last four races. Well, we did touch upon this a little bit in qualifying,

didn't we? So we'll keep this kind of brief. But Bortoletto was phenomenal today, finishing P6 and Asalba. I know we keep saying inner salber at the end, but I still believe it's deserving of inner salba. They're not a front running midfield car just yet, but both drivers have been had their moments this year. Let's put it that way. But this is exactly what I said after qualifying of, okay, Bortoletto, you've put yourself in a good quality position. You now need to deliver on it, not allow for a terrible salber strategy, not fall away at the start, things like that.

and had the right strategy as well with the one stop and utilised the Hungara ring perfectly. It was exactly the race that he needed and these are the kind of breakthrough races that will solidify him not just as potentially rookie of the year but in future years and team's interests to come as well. Yeah, definitely.

We said yesterday he's incredibly underrated this year. He just needs that kind of big, Grand Prix finish, not just a great qualifying, to back up and get some big points on the board. And that's what he did while his teammate had a very, very tough race. Oh, here we go. The Max Verstappen incident has just come in. So I was keeping an eye on it on the FIA Twitter.

Oh, I love it when this happens during the pod. Max Verstappen, number one, driver, decision. I'm going to have to look at this. Disqualified from the championship. I hate you. No further action. So no further action for Max Rastappan, no penalty whatsoever. The stewards heard from the car driver of car one,

from the driver of car one, team representatives and video in-car video evidence. The driver of car 44, Lewis Hamilton, waived his right to attend the hearing. I knew that was going to happen. That's exactly what we said was going to happen. Hamilton would just go home. Yeah, Hamilton just didn't turn up. The driver of car one stated during the hearing that he had gained some momentum on car 44 out of turn three with fresher tires and used this momentum to make a move.

on the inside into term four. He further elaborated that it was in full control of his car and could have stayed further to the inside to leave space for car 44 on the exit. However, he said as car 44 had gone off track, he elected to use all of the track on the exit. The team representative of car 44 confirmed that there was no contact between both cars and further stated that the driver of car 44 chose not to attempt to remain on the track. Taking all this into account, the Stewart determined that there was no contact and that the incident does not qualify as forcing another car off track despite the ambitious nature

of the overtaking attempt and take no further action. Okay, so the stewards are like, well, you didn't try and stay on the track. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's interesting, isn't it? This goes back to what we were literally just saying of Hamilton would have had to have turned in in order for anything to happen from the stewards.

So basically what they're saying is only Fernando Alonzo allowed a penalty for a collision, a theoretical collision with another car who doesn't actually touch them. Give more context if you're going to be a bit spicy about that, Australia 24 was it where Russell crashed on his own

and they were like they gave Alonzo the worst penalty they possibly could because he lifted and gave him dirty air yeah yes yes that's that well-known banana skin of dirty air

that's given up right yes back to the Borseletto thing we were hyping him up Tommy did you have anything else to add no just glad he got that result that he deserves and

let me look at the championship now but I believe yeah because he was kind of sat lowly at the bottom 14 points so he's still in 17th but he's kind of in that that kind of packet if he if he continues to do something he you know he's only what less than is eight points behind p13 in the championship which i don't think anyone would have expected him to finish in so he's solid yeah so yeah he's that i think um salbro just just doing fantastic since there's many factors of course but Jonathan Wheatley coming on board as well that that seems to add up since very strong figurehead I think started cooking haven't they

yeah they've done very well I think obviously Audi in the future to secure Jonathan Wheatley I think he's a fantastic person to have at the helm of a team it's looking a bit more a bit more positive for Audi now isn't it going into that because we mentioned about are they a Audi just going to re-badge the dustbin and the worst car on the grid and be last, but you've got to think that maybe someone like Carlos Sites would have probably taken this album now, right? Yeah, it was so true, right, isn't it? Although you look back at the start of the year, Williams were cooking. Yeah, exactly.

And they are still fifth in the constructors, Williams, but they are being caught. Biggest winner, let's head to it, where we select a driver or team from the weekend that we believe to be the biggest winner. Mine is absolutely Aston Martin. Congratulations to them for scoring 52 points this year now. Tommy's prediction of no more than 50 points for Austin Martin. They're finished. And they finished a fifth and seven. Yeah, they didn't even get to the summer break.

I actually, biggest winner, Matt Gallagher, just to see Tommy really upset with his season prediction. It's so annoying. I'm like Alonso finished fifth. That's so annoying. It's not because I'm glad Alonzo's doing well. But that prediction was looking so good at the start. the season because they were

useless and for a lot of the races but yeah instead and Alonzo's now ahead of stroll in the championship so you'll take those small wins I'll take the small wins no no they were there they are actually on the same points but Alonzo's had a higher finish yeah exactly well done you'll take those if you've been told by the summer break Alonzo's

just got ahead of stroll on highest position well we did our teammate things didn't we where we said who's going to, which is going to be the winning teammate. And I'm pretty sure, like, we both said, like, nine out of ten Alonso. Yeah. And, yeah, they're the closest, closest match teammates this season. Crazy. Absolutely crazy.

Biggest loser. Is it Charlotte Claire? I think it might be. Ferrari. I think it is. That's definitely up there. I think that Alpine were pretty dreadful. Colopinto had a couple of terrible stops ahead.

as well, both over seven seconds in the race. Max Verstappen has got a definite shout there as well. Hmm. I don't think, as much as, you know, biggest loser is like a proper horrendous weekend. Look like I still finish fourth. It's mad that Max finishes ninth. And he is like the biggest loser,

but maybe there's just the pessimism of me that I kind of, You're just kind of like, oh, well, that's just can happen to Red Bull now because they're so rubbish. I'm going to go with Hamilton, actually, because not only from a performance, but in terms of his own confidence and everything. Yeah, the feeling he's really cracked of kind of, it's going badly. Yeah, yeah. We have seen moments where he's been very self-critical and been down in the dumps, but I feel like this was at another level to that.

So, yeah, I think it has to be Hamilton for me. Yeah, yeah. I think that's a fair shout. Hamilton kind of bit back at journalists and things, didn't he, when they were really getting about the kind of communication with Ferrari and saying that it's not going well, whereas this really did feel like that weekend where he kind of went, oof, this is, you know, it's kind of, it is going wrong,

and I'm admitting to it now it's not working. And I really hope he resets and comes back stronger for Zanvort. I really do, because nobody wants to see those kind of interviews. it is sad to watch. Right, let's go to our predictions that we made on Wednesday to reflect on those. It's currently 35, 33 to me. I love how you've put it in the sheet that it's to you, Tommy. Is that because it's been to you the entire year? So you didn't decide to update the fact. And I'm not going to run Berger to do that. I'm absolutely going to read out the fact I'm leading by two points. But will I be leading it come the end of it? Let's see. A good surprise. I went

for Fernando Alonzo. Did I cook with that one? Yes, please. Okay, you did. I went for Lewis Hamilton. God, that's bad. That's a bad one. But he's got the form round here. I'm not surprised that you went for it.

That was my logic, yeah. Charlotte Clare saying, this is my worst circuit. Lewis Hamilton, it's one of his best. I'll get poll. Okay. Big flop. We head to now and I went for Nikko Holcomburg. My God.

Qualified on the back row of the grid, got a penalty, finished 13th, was his teammate, finished 6th. Ridiculous. Sorry, Nico. I need to stop picking on you now. I went for Maxis Tappen. Yeah, he cooked with that. Yeah, that was... That was big cook. It was, he had a dreadful, both sessions, really poor from him.

Absolutely. Poll position, I went for Oscar Piestri, which was incorrect, because apparently Charlotte Clare decided to get pole position. I went for Lando Norris. Absolutely not. Oh, God, I've just read the top three. In third position, I went. I went for Max for Stappen. That is a no. I went for Lewis Hamilton, which is also a no.

In second place, I went for Lando Norris, which was no. I went for Oscar Piastri, which was yes. You've loved him there. In first place, I went for Oscar Piastri, and you went for... Lando Norris, which was a yes. Okay, so two points for you there. Well done, really happy for you. Congratulations.

My one crazy prediction was that Oscar Piastri tops every single session, and did he even top one? No, he did. FP3, I think it was, wasn't it? One quality session maybe as well. But yes, he did not top every session. And you? I went for double points for racing balls, which was close. Very close, but sadly not.

Had you finished 11th. But that meant your Patreon prediction came in before it does. And your Patreon was Bearman P11. Incorrect. And you went for. And mine was from R&B sheep. Antonelli finishes in the points. And oh, my word, we have my...

Lord Michael Massey has cooked for us. Going into the summer break, 37 all. What is going on? The spirit of Michael Massey lives on. I know that you've brought out grace for the family top three because you are clear, the brilliant Bellingham's, as we're now calling you. But this one, we have not Michael Massey this. No, we've not.

It's all right kind of joking here and there, but we do legitimately, you know, if we started going, yeah, Lewis Hamilton Goodsie. surprised because he made up three places even though he finished 11th or whatever. You could question it, but we are legitimately giving the points out that we believe. And yet we're identical. With three races to go, if Tommy's 10 points clear, then maybe we might have to go back on that. But for now, 37 all as we head into the summer break is mental. Right.

I did mention the family top three. Let's get into it now. It's 8-4 to the brilliant Bellingham's. Boo. It still boo you, though. And of course, your daughter got involved. So three points are coming for her. But my girlfriend got involved, Ellie,

and she said in third place, George Russell, which was correct. Tommy's daughter, Grace, went for... Max Verstappen, or do-do-do-do-match Vestappen. Which I was concerned about, and that did not come in. Did not. In second place, she was so close.

She went for Norris. Oh, my word. Grace wasn't close. She went for Gassley. Gassley, finish. 19th. Okie-dokey. And then in first place,

Ellie went for Oscar Piastri. She was so close. She was one Piastri dive bomb from getting the top three. A way from three-pointer. Yeah, crazy. And Grace went for Alex Albon, who qualified last.

Qualified last and finished. 15th. Just behind Carlos Sines. Okay. Well, there you go. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in to this main race podcast. We will continue our chat.

over on Patreon, patreon.com.com for Matt P1, Tommy, if you want to come join us for some extra chat, answer some of your questions. But for Tommy, for those of those who are leaving us right now, what do you have to say? What are your final thoughts? Final thoughts are that it's sad despite all the moaning about dirty air and all this kind of stuff that will be missing Formula One. But don't you worry? If you're worried about the summer break, still got plenty of content that will be be posting. We will have our mid-season drive ratings and things like that. And many other things

where we're actually going to be speaking to Alex Albin, as we've mentioned. So, yeah, plenty to look forward to still. So you're not going to be too lonely during the summer break. Don't worry. We are still going to create some bits and bobs. So look forward to that. And that is it. We'll see you soon. Thanks for tuning in as always and for being wonderfully generous if you've been watching us on the watchalongs. And we will see you for well. If this is. the only thing you watch of ours, which is disgusting, then me personally. Yeah, and we'll see you in three weeks, if not.

Bye! P1 is a stack production and part of the ACAST creator network.