P1 with Matt and Tommy - Our 2023 F1 season PREDICTIONS

Episode Date: February 10, 2023

Who will be the biggest surprise in 2023? Will we see a new winner? Who'll be a meme? We make our predictions ahead of the new F1 season!Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok.***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Everyone and welcome to the P-1 podcast with Man Tommy. Hi Tommy. Hello. Are you ready to talk some Formula One? Ready as I've ever been in my entire life. I feel like I've never watched the sport before. It's been so long that F1 it just feels like a bit of a mystery to me right now.

But I've caught up. I've reminded myself of Max Verstappen's World Tie winning year for the second year in a row. Enjoy watching it back? No. And look, 2023 is the time we change this. As Ferrari fans,

as Charle-Claire fans, it's time to budge this trend that's starting to click in, isn't it really, Tommy? Are you ready for that? Never heard this one before. Cool, cool. Yeah, brilliant.

Okay. So today we're making our 2023 F1 season predictions. We have broken. it down into quite a few different categories. We'll go through things like biggest surprise, a new winner, who will be champion, biggest meme on the grid and so on. So we'll go through each one. We've obviously both made predictions and we'll discuss and see if we agree or if we wholeheartedly do not agree. So let's dive into it. The first one is biggest good surprise. Okay, for this one, I feel like this particular driver needs a bit more positivity from social media and so on,

because I feel like he's got the track record to prove it. My biggest good surprise is Oscar Piastri. I think he is going to be better than what people are expecting him to be. I don't think that just because Daniel Ricardo had a couple of bad years at McLaren, that that means anyone that goes up against Lando Norris will immediately get absolutely smashed. Oscar Piastri has won everything in Junior Formula in his debut season.

And yes, I'm not saying that round one he is going to, I was going to say spank, I can say Spank, Lando Norris. But I still think that a few races in, he won't be as far off as people are expecting. Now, that's not to say that Lando Norris isn't an incredibly tough teammate. I think he's one of the best drivers on the grid. But I also think that Oscar Piastri is actually really good. And the McLaren's lineup this year is probably the most exciting,

both from their perspective and having two very sort of up-and-coming talents, but also from our side as fans, to see how that relationship unfolds. So I don't think it's too left field to say Piastri will be the biggest good surprise. Wow, yeah, Piastri, you can look at it two ways with Piastri. He's either got loads of pressure on him, because of what happened with the whole Alpine thing and all these teams wanting him and how much he's desperately kind of needs a drive

and teams fighting over him that he's got to deliver. But then you can look at it the other way that no one is really expecting him to beat Lando from the start. And if he does, my word, or even by the end of the season, him just beating Lando and occasional races and stuff will put him on the map as one of the top drivers. already. So this could be huge for his career and it's going to be extremely exciting to see how

it goes. I am extremely on the fence about Piastri. I cannot. I don't know which way it's going going both ways. It just depends whether you kind of said you don't think this will be the case, but have McLaren become this like red ball team where it's all about Lando and every, the second seat's cursed? I don't think so. I think he's got got a chance. And if he does well, then yeah, it's going to be a very exciting driver lineup for that one. It certainly will. And a thought that just came into my head is that obviously Piastri had a couple of options for 2023, Alpine, of course, and the whole problems that that caused, and also McLaren. I almost see it not only as, you know, Piastri screwing over Alpine slightly and

whatever happened there, but also, in my opinion, it almost should be. It almost should be a lot of, you shows quite a bit of confidence from his side and his camp as well to take the McLaren seat because realistically it could be that Lando Norris is a teammate killer and this is going to be a trend of his career in the next five, ten years. But I think it's quite a show of confidence from Piastri to go, no, I'm going to sign next to Lando Norris, who is potentially one of the best drivers on the grid and show what I can do. So perhaps they are quite confident in the Piastri camp that he can deliver. Yeah, it shows the confidence that McLaren have gotten him as well to kind of put him straight in the car and go to all that trouble with the whole Alpine situation that they were willing to go for the all through that to get him in the car.

It's been a while. I'm not speaking about F1 for a while. Getting to me ready to speak again. That is very interesting. What's your biggest good surprise? My biggest good surprise, I believe, will be Nico Hulk. And that is, I'll just get the main question out the way. Will he get a podium?

No. I don't think he will. But that's not to say that he won't be a very good surprise. I think the more I think about what's happened here with Hass, a lot of people were going, well, why would you replace Mick Schumacher, even though he had a bad, bad year and a bad time, like, you know, he's an upcoming driver with someone that's sort of done his you could say if Holkenberg never came back, he's done his F1 career,

hasn't he? Let's be honest. And to replace him with that, Hasse just need a consistent point scorer. I think they wasted a lot of points, particularly with Schumacher, but even Magnuson. Magnuson did perform very well at the start of the season,

but they missed out on a lot of points. And I can see Holkenberg kind of getting P5s, P6s, when maybe there's a bit of the race of a and things like that. And he's exactly who Hass need, I think.

And I think he's going to surprise a lot of people and just bring in a lot of points for Hass if that car's good at the start of the year. As long as he is sitting in P5 and P6, if he's sitting in P3, we'll get the barrier ready because we'll know what happens with the... Yeah, it's the perfect... Maybe it's the perfect team for him

because Hass are never in a podium spot that he never has to have that bottle. In Brazil. True. And he started on pole in Brazil before as well. But now, I would say that Holkenberg probably would be my runner-up for biggest good surprise. But this is, it's funny, because I think I wouldn't be surprised if Holkberg did well. But I know that a lot of social media and people writing him off for not having a podium

and being a bottle job, etc., potentially would. And they'll go, oh, Holkberg's actually pretty decent. When realistically, he was a very decent midfield runner and picked up loads of P-7s. when the top three teams were clear. And Holkenberg has pace, has consistency, just not when it comes to the big moments. But that's fine, because Hasse aren't a big moment team, really.

Let's scrap Brazil from our minds. They aren't a big moment team. And I agree with you, Tommy. They wasted so many points at the start of last year when they had Kevin Magnerson, who had basically just come off of his sofa a week ago and started sticking it right at the front of the grid and a Hasse that clearly was, you know,

very good at the start. of the season and Mick Schumacher who was crashing all the time. So KMAG's performances at the start, not to take anything away from what he achieved, but also showed how good that car was. And the fact that they didn't utilize it to the level of which they should have really hurt Hass, because they could have put themselves in a much stronger position in the Constructors' championship at the start of the season. Yes, it is a running trend that Hass cannot keep up in the development cycle.

but they always seem to come out the blocks firing. So to have someone like Nika Holkenberg to just bang it in in a P9, P10, wherever that has deserves to be, is exactly what they need. They don't need a driver like Mick Schumacher who's learning on the job. They need two drivers that are experienced.

I mean, I was going to say consistent. KMAG was consistently getting black and white flags on the start of racing for crashing into people. But Holkenberg isn't as crash happy, I'd say, as KMAG. and is definitely a really good signing for Hasse, who, let's be real, they don't have an endless pot of cash. They are just trying to survive season after season.

We've seen it in drive to survive. They are just trying to stay in this sport. And if they can manage a decent constructors mid sort of table at the end of this year, it will help them to continue to survive. So Holkenberg's a great signing, in my opinion. And I don't think it would be a surprise to either of us that he'd do well next year,

but I think it would be a surprise to a lot of people. Yeah, definitely. I think I can see Holkenberg. It makes you wonder with Holkenberg in the car last year how many points they could have ended up with. I think they would have been higher in the constructor's title and at the very least got quite a lot more points. Absolutely.

And it's not just the case as well of missing out on points. It's the crashes, especially that Mick Schumacher had, that would have cost the team millions to repair. And that hurts their development moving forward. So hopefully, fingers crossed for their sake, Holkenberg and Magnussen can not bin it as much and score some points. So there you go. Let's move on to the next one.

Biggest flop. So for me, my biggest flop, and this might be a bit weird for some people, is Pierre Gassley. I think that this moved to Alpine after, off the back of last year, which was poor, let's be real, both from Alfa Tauri's side, but also Pierre Gassley's side, he's going into a new team alongside Esteban Ocon, who some people don't rate, I rate him. I think that he had a great season last year.

He beat Fernando Alonzo in the Drivers' Championship. Yes, whatever. Yeah, Fernando had terrible reliability and realistically would have beaten him. But that's not to take away from Ocon's great drives that he had over the course of 2022. So I think, Gasly, coming into a team that Alpina, in my opinion, putting their eggs in one basket with Ocon and signing him with a long deal and it almost seems that he is the front man at this team. I think it's going to be tough for Pierre Gasley.

I feel like Sonoda took a step forward in terms of their pace differential last year as well. And Gasly wasn't as clear as Sonoda week in week out. It's going to be tough because Gasly, of course, has been part of this Red Ball team for so long now that he knows the inner workings of how that all goes down. It's a new team. and Ocon they don't get on I don't think Ocon's going to be like

mate yeah that button right there They sure are pretending they do they Yeah so you're asking on this steering wheel I can't tell you I don't know I don't know what button that is mate So look they've tried to squash the rumours But you don't crop each other out of Instagram photos If you haven't had bad blood at some point

So yeah I think he's going to struggle Tommy is that is that a controversial take Or is it one that you agree with It's a controversial take That I thought I was going to be controversial So I just get straight into mind because I have also gone for Pierre Gassley for biggest flop. Yeah, I thought I was being out there, but clearly not. That validates my terrible opinion, thank you.

Yeah. Well, knowing our jinxing power, he's going to win the World Championship now. We've both said this. But, yeah, I worried that Gassley might have a bit of a stink of a season. I mean, a lot of people seem to think that Gassley would beat Ockon next year. I think the total opposite. I think Ocon's bedded in that team. Ghazly has struggled before where he's changed team.

Like realistically, Gazley, if you look at his whole career, he's only done, I know he's only been to that. He's been at two teams, but he's only done well when he's gone back to his kind of safe home in a kind of lower midfield team

of Alfatari Torooso. And you could even argue not a particularly great teammate alongside him or a very strong teammate or a rookie or something like that. Yeah, I worry for Gassley that there was a lot of rumours that when he went to Red Bull, he didn't bed himself in the team particularly well and that didn't help matters. Now he's going into a team, like you say, that one, they've kind of been building it around DoCon and two, they don't like each other very much or at least didn't in the past.

So I think there's potential for fireworks there. And yeah, I can just see Gassley maybe taking a bit of time to get up to speed. And then if things don't go right, I don't think, I don't see like he's the kind of driver when if things are kind of going badly for him. And now I'm saying this. I'm like, he won in an Alphotauri after all the bad luck he had at Red Bull. But just the way it's like seasons unraveling, I can't, I kind of feel like he needs to hit the ground running or. he's going to have a bad season. Yeah, I mean, the stars did align for that particular

Monza victory, didn't it? Well, this is what I mean. Like, if you look at Galsley's career, yes, he won a race. I'm not saying he's like before all the Gersley stands come at me. I'm not saying he's a bad driver. But if you look at his career, he was right at Toro Rossi. He got the drive because he was next in line when Ricardo left. Didn't perform well against Fostappen,

but then you can argue that no one really has, but, really struggle, got demoted, had a good season, like you say, stars aligned for Monza. But the year he was really good, you had Sonoda, who was really struggling as a rookie. We don't know how good that Alphotari actually was

with a good experienced driver in the car alongside Gasly. So I think Gazley is actually quite a difficult driver to judge just how good he is. Well, we're going to find out this year. If he can... Yeah, we will. Bed himself into a new team.

Show the versatility that you need as a driver. Let's wait and see. And show that me and you are absolutely washed and know nothing. I mean, that's been confirmed many times, mate. This would just further confirm it. Right, let's move on to the next one. Loses race seat. So for this one, I was kind of broken up into two different thinkings here.

One was, I don't think anyone's actually going to lose their seat because it's going to take a lot. But if someone was to lose their seat, I basically picked someone and then who they'll be replaced by. So I think that Nick DeVries could lose his race seat to Daniel Ricardo. So he's got in to Alfa Tauri after his super sub contribution for Williams at Monza last year. And don't get me wrong, it was an incredible drive. He jumped in, smashed Nicholas Latifi, scored points on his debut.

You couldn't have done any more. But I feel like almost that the whole hectic environment of that sort of played into his hands where he didn't have the pressure really able to set in. And look, I'm not a Formula One driver, but from my understanding, Monza is probably not the hardest track to get used to and get bedded into. There are much harder tracks around the calendars, the Singapore's, the Monaco's, the Bacchus, etc, etc. That he may well struggle a bit more at. Now, that's not to take away what he's managed, but I don't feel like we're able to fully judge how, good he is. And he's of course going to be up against Yuki Sonoda, who in my opinion, yeah, Al-Fa-Tari had a terrible year last year, but I think Sunoda closed the gap to Gasly in the sense

of his actual raw speed. So I think DeVries might struggle. And I also believe that Red Bull are going to be very, very interested to see what Daniel Ricardo is able to do. So if there is absolute fire going on in Al-Fatari and DeVries is doing terrible, it's not, it's not impossible to to think that they might just go, all right, Danny Rick, I know that you're Red Bull, third whatever driver, let's just stick you in the Alphotauri

and see what you like. Because we all need to know, not just Red Bull, we all need to know, is Danny Rick washed? Is he finished? Yeah. Wow.

Yeah, that's a bold one. I think for me, DeVries would have to get absolutely trounced by Sonoda and have probably the year that Sunoda had against Gassley to be under threat but you never know.

Those kind of something like an Alpha Tauri is one of those cars, isn't it? Where, you know, if they don't hit the ground running, you're always you're sort of in the midfield near the back and you're always trying to compensate and that's when crashes

happen when you're like, you know, pushing too hard. So we'll see with DeFries. I have gone boring and I said that loses racy, I've gone for no one. I think...

Yeah, but I did that as well. Yeah, okay. If there was someone to lose their race seat, who would it be? So, it's not really loses race seat, but I think Fernando Alonzo either goes one of two ways where he's either absolutely brilliant

or in six races time, he's completely owning Lance Stroll in every single qualifying session and having a great season, but Lance is getting the better strategies and just appearing ahead of him all the time and six races in he's like screw there's some off to win the Indy 500 again

and just walks because you never know I mean Alonzo going up against Lance Stroll is going to be a very interesting one but that's obviously Alonzo walking if it goes absolutely disastrously but if someone had to lose their seat sergeant but then is there any pressure on sergeant at all?

And I think they'll probably want to keep him for the American rounds and stuff, wouldn't they say? This is the thing, the bad drivers, a lot of the bad, bad drivers, but lower drivers have a reason to be there. So they probably will keep their seat. Okay, well, there you go. You've skirted around the edge of not being boring,

but with basically no, but then maybe Fernando Alonso, but he doesn't lose it. He just sacks in his race seat instead. Yeah. Yeah, he is a loose. Canon, isn't he, Fernando Alonzo.

You don't know exactly what he's going to do or say, and that's what makes him such great entertainment

for all F1 fans. Okay, we now move on to most accident prone. So for me, I went with

Logan Sargent being the most accident prone. It's just one of the, it's not the fact that I think Logan Sargent

is particularly crash happy. It's more the fact that he is a new kid on the block. He's coming into a team

where it's probably not a guarantee that he is going to stay in Formula One for very long, unless he is able to show what he's able to do. And that will just cause problems, cause crashes. You see it so many times with rookies. And I don't think it's going to be any different for Logan Sargent personally. So I think he will have the most accidents.

I have also gone the same. Yeah, most accident prone Logan Sargent. If you look at how Formula One's played out over the last few years, remember the year that Mazel. pin, Schumacher and Sonoda came into F1 from F2. Oh my word. Did those guys crash a lot? And yeah, I just feel like he'll be trying to find the limits of a Formula One car, you know, in the early rounds in particular.

And yeah, unfortunately for him, I think that he might end up being a bit of the new Latifie about him. And he's up against Alex Albin, of course. So, you know, how you've got like the teammate killer. Is Albon the Latifie maker? Does he just make people into Latifi as he kind of goes up against them in Williams? Who knows? But yeah, up against Alex Albon, who's very up to speed and performing in that team, is going to be a difficult challenge for Sargent.

And yeah, that might also cause him to push a little bit too hard and make mistakes. Okay, we now move on to new race winner. I've gone for no. I didn't want to be boring, but when you actually look at the grid, McLaren are the only team that you could go, if it's an absolutely ridiculous race and it's turkey with an ice skating rink for a track,

maybe something crazy could happen. But the top three teams from last year all have race winners in them now. George Russell's won. Carlos Sines has won. And of course, the rest of them are won. So unless Lance Stroll is going to win in the Aston Martin,

and Alonzo is going to push that that team so far forward, I can't see it happening. Because even if you look to Alpine, Ocon and Gassley are both race winners. So you haven't got many options available for a new race winner. No, I've also gone boring and gone for no one. At the end of the day, we didn't even get a surprise podium finisher last year, never mind a new winner. So, yeah, like you, I could see the only thing I could see is a McLaren,

would be, would probably be the surprise winner. But it relies on the top six having an absolute disaster. And, you know, we saw there's not a huge change in regulations. The field will probably close up a slight bit, but I don't think will be loads. And if you think that we, yeah, we didn't see a single surprise podium finish. I think Lando got one, didn't he? And no one else even stepped on the podium because Mercedes, Red Bulls, and Ferrari were so clear of the field that you essentially, that's the first six places locked

out. F-1 cars are very reliable now. And even when they're not for all six of those cars to go out, yeah, thinking of the scenarios, it's got to be an absolutely crazy weather race or you need like a Monaco where someone's somehow a wet qualifying and Lando's put it on pole and no one can overtake. because even now with the easier ways to pass and the fact that you can follow close from the DRS, we're probably not going to have a situation again,

like an Ocon or Gassley, where they can be in a very inferior car and you just can't pass them unless it's Monaco. So I just can't see it happening. Sorry to be boring. Yeah, we should have even just said new podium sitter, and I think again we'd be like, I'm not sure.

Because when you actually look at Lando Norris's podium at Imola, you had Carlos Signs, DNFing, Charleclair spinning into the wall and losing places. You had the both Mercedes was just not being very good. I mean, Lewis Hamilton was stuck behind Pierre Gasly for 400 years. And then George Russell couldn't get anywhere near him either, but had a good result in P4. So that was, Lando was just taking advantage of the Ferrari's messing up

and the Mercedes being off the pace. So that was literally one other team essentially that they had to beat. And then, of course, Mercedes took a step forward. And then it was game over for any more chances, really. So, yeah, it's, hopefully it's not going to be like that in 2023. Fingers crossed. Manifesting a jinx. Yeah.

We are quite good at them. But it's usually when we don't mean to do it, which is the big problem. We can't channel our jinxing powers just yet. Okay, moving on. Biggest meme on the grid. My biggest meme on the grid for 2023 is going to be, Fernando Alonso. We were just speaking about how much of a loose cannon he is.

I feel like he'll join Aston Martin. Aston won't be particularly good. And we'll just have loads of amazing team radios of Fernando Alonzo having a terrible race and coming over the radio and basically talking about how bad his Aston Martin is. And maybe that links in with you, Tommy, and the fact that you think that he'll sack it off in six races. But I don't want this to happen. I want Alonzo to be right at the sharp end of the grid, showing what he's, he can do.

And maybe, maybe that'll happen. Aston Martin were actually reasonably decent towards the end of the year and scored some good results. But I don't know. I just feel like wherever Fernando Alonzo goes, the car either blows up or just is terrible. So it could be another one of those. And then he'll become a meme again, a GP2 engine, all that sort of stuff. Yeah, I mean, he's not, if you think of Alonzo's career, it's very rare that he goes four

or five races without being a meme. There's always something. There's the Piastri drama of, you know, him doing that thumbs up on Instagram. Of him going to Aston, that was really dramatic. Then Alpi and him sort of going on about crashing into Ocon or his spicy team radios and then go back to McLaren and I'm calling it a GP2 engine. Even Ferrari. He was, you know, doing ridiculous things there.

He's always been the biggest meme on the grid, really, just his whole. career. I'm very much looking forward to seeing if he's sort of going to become the main character of Drive to Survive because boy, he just sort of like, he just loved the limelight and the absolute chaos of that whole driver scenario, didn't he? So I can totally see why you've gone for it. However, I've gone for biggest meme on the grid as Logan Sargent kind of ties into most accident prone. But I also just think that if you realistically look at the grid, the drivers and the teams, I can't see anyone other than Williams being quite comfortably last.

And Alex Albans more experienced and I think a good driver. And sergeant's going to have to get up to speed. So I can just see him being P20 every session, every quali, every race. Do you know what I mean? It's just becoming a bit of a meme there. So unfortunately for him, I mean, you can only do what you can with your equipment. But I can see Sergeant becoming the new P20 merchant, if that's what you want to call it. So do you think Logan will be Logon at the end of the year then?

Logon. That was a good one. You should write headlines for tabloids. Logon. Logon. Hopefully not for his sake. I hope he has a decent season. but I can see that potentially be in the case as well

with how Latifie, unfortunately. His career went, but fingers crossed, Sergeant doesn't turn the wrong way at Suzuki. But then again, that was actually a good thing because he then scored points in that race, which is still absolutely ridiculous. Okay, we now move on to the penultimate prediction. Who is going to be world champion?

All right. Here we go. Hear me out. I have gone. For Charlotte I am absolutely I'm backing it to the hills

right so my brain is saying Mercedes is going to be back Lewis Hamilton's going to win the world title but my heart is overpowering me right now the copium the hopium the hopium the whatever else

it's got to be Charlotte LeCler because if not I'm in big trouble all right emotionally I don't think I can take another year of potential and then it's not happening. There's already been some funny stories

and I'm going to say funny because I'm not believing it yet around Ferrari making some serious engine gains and look, I lap that up. Is it legal? I shut up. I absolutely absorbed that. I was like, oh my God, I'm healed.

I'm ready for another year of pain. And look, Fred Fassur, he's going to whip him into shape. He loves Charles LeClaid. They're going to make sure that Charles gets the treatment he deserves this year. And that's why he's going to be world champion. Excellent. I am putting that straight on TikTok and bookmarking it for the end of the season.

Yeah, we'll see. I mean, it would be great. I do hope Ferrari are up there again. They tailed off at the end of last year, kind of dramatically. it was a shame because they were kind of messing up towards the start of the year, but they had the pace and a lot of the races they did have the pace to win. Even as late on as like Hungary and stuff, you know, they should have won that race. But hopefully it's just a new era because we all want a closer title battle.

However, I've gone for the world champion being Max Verstappen, which is actually rare for me because I don't tend to back. I don't turn to jinx it, but at the end of the day. That's how confident you are and it makes me sick. Exactly. You know what I mean? Like, oh, you feel like even with your jinx that Max Verstappen's still going to win the world title. That's how confident you Vastappan fans are.

I know. I mean, to be fair, it's not a huge change in the regulations. He's kind of, I think one of his big pluses will be the fact that, particularly with Mercedes, I do generally think that Hamilton and Russell will take points off each other with their competitiveness, which I think will give the step in the edge because I don't believe that Sergio

will be on his level. And he's just driving the best he's ever done. Last year, he was kind of almost cruising a lot of the time and still won. So I can just see him winning again. even me as the most pessimistic Formula One supporter and fan of Max Verstappen. But I do genuinely hope that it's a great battle and he doesn't win it. Six races to go and finding out from Johnny Herbert.

Anyway, Johnny Herbert's not doing it this year, is he? You won't hear it from Ronald. He's somehow there. Yeah, that's, I mean, look, if you're a betting person, you're going for Vastappen because he was unbelievable last year. But I think for this world champion prediction, there's definitely more things going on than just pure logic when it comes to at least my prediction.

So there you go. Just stop talking because you're going to convince yourself that you also believe it's the step in, but you just cope you. I don't care. Nope, Charlotte Clair. Here we go. Come on. 2023. Let's go. And the final prediction for this podcast

is one crazy prediction. So what one mad thing do we think is going to happen this year For me, I have gone for Alonzo will 23 and 0 Lance Stroll in qualifying. Now, this isn't going to include any mechanical issues or anything like that. Because I know that Alonzo probably getting his car, turn it on, and then it'll explode. We don't want that. I'm talking about when they both finish qualifying, okay? I think that's probably a fairer thing.

I think that every single time Alonzo will out-qualify Lance Stroll when they both take part. Stroll is weak in qualifying. Alonzo was an absolute beast last year in the Alpine, could have stuck it on the front row in Australia until he had that problem. He did stick it on the front row in Canada. There's so much pace for a 41-year-old. It's incredible.

But it's something that I think, as long as he doesn't leave after six races and go to Indy car. And become the biggest meme on the grid. Yeah. Technically, that will still be right because I said everyone he participates in. But yeah, I just see Alonzo wiping the floor with stroll this year.

Yeah, Stroll's biggest weakness is his qualifying. He's always been pretty poor, even though he got that pole at Turkey, but they were very unusual conditions. And Alonzo has whitewashed teammates before. I think I'm right in saying, and I'm sure the comments will correct me if I'm wrong, but he's the only guy that's ever done it twice to whitewash their teammate. He did it with Van Dorn,

and I believe he did it when he was at Menardi in his first season. So he is very good at wiping the floor with, oh no, sorry, no, it would have been Renault with Nelson Piquet, maybe. And yeah, he, he, I could see it happening. You mentioned about when his car's not breaking down. Maybe he only needs to do it once because he's got 21 mechanical failures for the rest of the races. He only needs to do it once. Wait, 22 or 23 races this year? 23.

So, yeah, my one crazy prediction is, you. is actually also about Fernando Alonso because he is the biggest meme on the grid and everyone, like, he is the main character energy. I've gone for he will finish best of the rest. So this is me flip-flopping and going, he's going to have the worst time ever and quit, or also he's going to be absolutely amazing

and just be best of the rest. So I'm going to be finishing, yeah, he's going to finish seventh. He's going to have an amazing year. His car's not going to set on fire every single race. and he's going to show what he can do in a car that there's no one better in a car that's kind of all right than Fernando Alonso. He almost won world titles in the Ferrari, didn't they, when the Ferrari was an absolute dog. Exactly.

So basically, our predictions are that Fernando Alonzo will be the biggest meme on the grid. He will walk out and do the Indy 500, but finish best of the rest and will annihilate Lance Stroll and qualifying. I'd love to know how yours really stack up because they seem very opposite ends of... Well, technically, my prediction of losers race seat was no one. You just pressured me into that. But if something did happen, whereas you actually think he's going to finish seventh. Fair enough.

Okay, good work. Well, that is it. That is our 2023 F1 season predictions done. I cannot wait to look back on this at the end of the year and realize how awful they were and that Lance Stroll actually whitewashes financials financial. Ando Alonzo and becomes world champion or Pierre Gasley becomes world champion. Lots of things that we have potentially jinxed.

Hopefully not the one around world champion in my prediction. But we will have to wait and see. Tommy, what are your final thoughts? My final thoughts are I'm getting that Charlotte LeCleur clip ready for when your end of season video is Vassar out, Ferrari, useless. Why didn't you pit LeClau again? why was he on inters for the first race in Bahrain and yeah it's going to be a good season

I'm excited for it I don't know what I'd rather I don't know if I'd rather than win the first race and it be like serious hype or if they're so far off the pace I just don't want to watch Formula One anymore no you don't want them to win the first race because there's that weird jinx where every driver that wins the first race

finish the second in the time All right, I'll let Vestapp and have the first race of the season then, and then we'll win the next 22. Good stuff. Thank you, everybody, for listening, watching, wherever you are, to this P1 podcast. I hope you're enjoying it. I hope you're subscribed, you've followed,

you're joining us on this crazy adventure, and yeah, we'll see you very soon for another video slash podcast slash content. Car lunch. Yes. Exciting. Hell yeah. See you there.

Bye! Bye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the ACAST created network.