P1 with Matt and Tommy - Our 2023 Las Vegas GP predictions

Episode Date: November 15, 2023

You join us in a lovely Lamborghini Urus, driving through the gorgeous American countryside – but it's that time of the week! Delusion reigns as we look ahead to what could be a chaotic Las Vegas GP...Tickets for our UK live tour are nearly sold out! You can purchase them right HERE!You can sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to exclusive episodes you won't hear anywhere else, every P1 episode ad-free, full driver interview videos, early access to tickets and more!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.

and welcome back to the P-1 podcast live from the US of A. Now, you join us quite clearly in a car because we are halfway through, maybe just past halfway through, the Grand Tauro USA brought to you by Poked Stars and Oracle Rebel Racing. They have taken us on a road trip of a lifetime and we thought we'd do something a bit special, a bit different and do predictions whilst we're on the road, didn't we, Tommy? We did. We've been going around all over the US seeing loads of amazing things and we were like, when are we going to record predictions? And probably the most time we have on this trip because we're doing so many amazing things is right like driving to our kind of destination. So little road trip. You're on our road trip with us. You're on our road trip with us. We're in a Lamborghini Euras, which is a delightful piece of equipment. I will not lie.

So I'm very excited right now. And let's get into the predictions. Biggest good surprise. All right, Tommy, hear me out. You know, Las Vegas, we've done a video already, haven't we, about how chaotic it's going to be, how crazy. That, well, we might have jinxed it, but I believe that Charles LeClaire

is going to be the biggest good surprise, right? I know it was only a couple of races ago. I went all in on Ferrari preview. was a couple of a couple of years ago? Yeah, I think so, yeah. I think the cold conditions are going to work perfectly, especially in qualifying

for that gorgeous Ferrari, which of course has a special little livery for Vegas. I think that, I think they're going to be good. And this isn't just delusion. I genuinely believe off the back of a formation lap crash, it can't get worse. So if Charles...

You predicted Charles, actually, no, you did predict Shire in the last race and then he didn't make the start. Oh, no, it was, yeah, I think that was just my coping methods to say. It was a couple of races ago. It was literally last race. However, if he starts the race, I'm arguing biggest good surprise. No, I mean, not going to lie, I was almost going to say Ferrari. And we mentioned it in our everything you need to know about Vegas one,

that long, odd straits, they were good at Monza. I could see Ferrari being good. So you're not that delusional, but let's see if Sean makes it too. the start of the race this time? I believe. I feel like they would have had a big old debrief after Brazil and gone well that wasn't in the game plan.

We have to start the race in order to score points. You know, and they were good in Baku. It just points towards a decent Ferrari weekend. And look, I timed it wrong in Brazil, clearly. However, I can't time it wrong again, surely.

Okay. My biggest good surprise and it's not just because we're seeing this glorious man tomorrow, but I am going to Daniel Riccardo. Oh. And the reason for that... I love how you've teased, by the way, that we're seeing Daniel Ricardo.

Just out of the blue, just... There you go. I'm going to go see Daniel Ricardo. Yeah. And it's because... I think Alfa Tauri, oh my word, this few, sorry. Alpha Tauri are really like on the up. After a dreadful start to the season,

barely scoring any points. They could well end up finishing seventh in the conclusion. instructors. Diana Ricardo in the last race was incredibly unlucky, had good pace. He was very quick despite obviously like the result not showing because he started to lap down. And he is going to be so pumped for Vegas. He's good on street tracks as well. He's won Monaco. I think he's going to bring his A game to Vegas. He's going to want to bring his A game to Vegas. This is the track that before there was even announced that there was going to be a Vegas Grand Prix, he said, I want a race in Las Vegas.

So surely, Danny Rick, come on. I'm here for it. I want it to happen. It makes sense. You know, I said Alfa Tari biggest flop for Brazil, and it was looking like that on Friday. But then they turned it around and scored more points, especially with Yuki Sonoda, double points finish, which is unbelievable from him. So, yeah, that would be quite something.

But as you said, we're seeing him tomorrow, and we know what that does. Oh, no. So if we film something with him. Yeah. All right. What will go out first? I'm not sure. But I like the prediction.

And I think he's going to be a very happy man because he's always wanted to race in Vegas, hasn't he? So let's hope for Danny Rick's sake, he has a great weekend. Biggest flop. Okay. So my biggest flop for this weekend is Max Verstappen. God's say. He's not winning Vegas.

He's not winning Vegas. He's not. He's not. Everything points towards it being chaotic. And surely, Sebastian Vettel's win record will at least be tied but not be beaten. If Max Vosnapp in his next two races, he will of course beat Sebastian Vettles win records. Sorry, Sebastian Vettel fans. I, look, you say for God's sake, I say I'm ready.

I say P2, it's still the biggest flop, so. Yeah, exactly. And also, I biggest flocked him in Singapore. True. And it worked. And I feel like my powers now are very strong. Especially after this road trip, I feel delusioned or I've gone for a Ferrari. It's going to surprise.

We're with Red Bull as well, so that would curse him. Yeah, sorry, Red Bull. We do love you. And we really appreciate the trip that you put us on with Bocustars because it's been unbelievable. And they've been tagging us in their stories and stuff. The most surreal thing. They put a feed post up and we were in the pit.

Yeah, I can't believe that. I genuinely, right? I was laying there last night and I went, did I pick the wrong team? Amazing. Because, you know, they're noticing us. They're, you know, they're gassing us up. When's Ferrari ever tagged us in anything? Come on, Ferrari.

I love you unconditionally. Where is the love back? And speaking of love, also, just a little sentimental thing. that feed post, the amount of people that you guys wrote in the comments, like, oh, Matt and Tommy, yeah. Like, you guys are amazing. That was so cool to see. Man Tommy should have been the first picture.

It was like, David Cawthar. Yeah, I went on the comments and was expecting, like, people to be like, who are these guys? Yeah. That was amazing. That's awesome. So my biggest flop is, well, maybe a predictable one. There's logic here. I've gone for Alpine.

and that is because there's a straight. There's a straight. A very long one at that. I think they're in big trouble. I genuinely think that if Alpine started the race on pole, they would be last by lap one. Gasly off the back of a very good result though in Brazil. That's a much straight.

But my God, they're going to have a big problem on that straight. Maybe they're surprises. We know what happens when I go for a biggest flop. They just become the greatest driver or team of all times. Did you not have flop LeCler? Come on. Can you change it? Do you want to change it? No, I'm good. I'm good. I'll let your powers do that and see what happens.

So yeah, I'm going for Alpine for obvious and maybe predictable reasons that yeah, I guess that's the form, but like we said in our kind of preview, it's a new track and that's what I love like the form is unpredictable. It might be completely different to what we expect with the cold track and everything like that. That's who knows. Who knows indeed, but I'm so ready. And I really hope we've not hyped up an absolute bore fest when it comes to Saturday evening for us, which is very weird, rather than it would be Sunday morning if you live pretty much anywhere in Europe. But yeah, for us, it'll be 10 o'clock lights out on a Saturday, which is going to be strange. Poll position now.

I think you know where I'm going. The delusion train, the Ferrari hype train. For pole position, I'm going for Charlotte. I've not learnt from Brazil, clearly, but I just think, right, I am actually using logic here that Ferrari are really bad on their tyres. They're really bad at degrading and getting heat into those bad boys. That's why they're so good in qualifying. Vegas could well be in single digits when it comes to qualifying in the race and the time it's happening. So surely they're going to switch on those bad boys. and be on pole by half a second. That's what I'm smelling.

A Ferrari front row as well. I reckon Carlos going to come in a little P2 as well. It's going to be phenomenal. And we're going to be with Red Bull. So I'll try and stifle my celebrations. I wish for Red Bull to be third and fourth. Actually, maybe not because Max will get another Charlotte Club pole to win. Well, I just want a good race.

And I think Ferrari going to be great. Interesting, because I have gone for Carlos Sines. I was actually thinking a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, with similar logic that in a cold race, they shouldn't have those problems of overheating the tyres. Well, they can actually get them up to temperature nicely. We're very good at Monza, of course.

Carlos got pole there. Singapore as well, Carlos obviously won. So I'm feeling like this could be a Carlos Sainz track. Do you see a Ferrari front room as well? as well? Yeah, I think I personally, I find it very difficult to choose between Max, Shaal and Carlos. Yeah, I didn't for obvious reasons. But I think that, yeah, that's going to be, like if I had to predict like how qualifying is going to go, I could see like those three battling for pole-lid being very close between them, but very similar to Monza, I guess. I'm here for it.

I am absolutely here for another fantastic qualifying session. I haven't looked at the weather recently, because obviously there was a little bit of chatter around potential rain. I think last time I checked there was no... Okay, it's cleared off, which is great. I'm absolutely fine with rain not being there for this weekend. Because I think it would be crazy. You know, a new track surface, the conditions rain as well. It could be turkey times 100.

We don't know. But interesting. Let's go to our top three now, shall we? Okay. Okay, let's do it. In third place, I have gone four. Lando Norris. Why? You ask.

Because McLaren have been very good. He's got very good race face. And he's always on the podium. Yeah, pretty much. I think Lando will be on the podium again. We haven't really spoken about McLaren's predictions podcast, and I feel like we do do them a slight disservice, but the way in which we predict is pole position,

and I'm like, well, Ferrari, especially in these conditions as we've explained. But I think Lando still be there. I think it'll have better race pace like we've seen than the Ferraris, but it's not a given, just purely from, as I say, the new track surface, that could spin up a whole load of difficulties. We've seen what it's been like before when we've had new track surfaces. Obviously, I've mentioned Turkey, but it can take, the track evolution can actually be quite

aggressive because it's not bedded in. So I still think that Lando will be on the podium. I fully trust in his abilities. He's in great form. He had his birthday yesterday. Happy birthday to Lando. And yeah, McLaren, still there. Nice.

P3, I've gone for Charle-le-Cleur. Podium for Charle. I'll take it. Podium for Shal. Bank. Yeah, I want it. It's hard to go into too much more detail because we've kind of already covered it

in terms of that. I think Ferrari are going to be good around here. It's a threat that should suit them with tires and high speed. Charleleur, obviously good around street tracks as well. so I can see a podium for Charles. In second place, I have gone for Charlotte. Yeah, you know what?

It's not going to be, it's not going to be, well, it is going to be a travesty in the sense of not another pole converted to a win. But this is the world that we live in for Ferrari fans. But he will make the start. He'll have a decent race pace. We'll see how the tyres go. But I envisage because it's a bit cool.

that perhaps the Ferrari won't struggle as much. They'll have to be quite careful with, well, all the teams will have to be quite careful with graining and pushing the tires too quickly in those cold conditions. Yeah, I think Charles got a good weekend in him, so I'm going for that. P2, I have gone for Carlos Sites.

Yes, you can see where my predictions are going. Wow. And yeah, Carlos, yeah, I think we'll maybe see the return to the kind of form with Carlos that we had with those three races where he suddenly just became the goat after we spoke to him. And yeah, I think he'll be good around here. Interesting. I'm now deliberating what my first place is.

I was thinking of that. I was judging where you go. I mean, he said, Charles wasn't P1. I was like, who have you predicted first? Yeah, yeah, I don't know what I'm doing it. Because my brain, half-way through, he's just gone, don't put your race in all in one basket. because I'm fighting Tommy for the championship.

In first place, I have gone for Max Verstappen. This is so good as well because we're doing this podcast where normally we have our computers in front of us. We have a sheet and we plan what we're doing. We're doing this on the fly and you can see our whole internal things of like, I think Mike's not going to win and then when Matt's delusion versus reality is just changing as we go. I just started processing and I was like, Wait, who's left? Oh, it's going to be Max, isn't it?

Yeah, look, it's fine, right? Because this is what I'm doing. I'm trying... You're not putting all your eggs in the same basket. Yeah, and yours worked. I think when you didn't do that, you split your bets, and you did all right. So what's the score in between us?

One point now. Yeah, exactly. So that's why I can't be too ridiculous. No. So I have flopped him and also, no. What am I doing? No, it's good tactic. You can sacrifice one point.

Of course you're going to say that. I don't know. I feel like you, okay. All right, Max must have to be one. My reasoning for that is he's won 17 this year. You have to give a reason. I love that. I've gone for biggest flop, which is what I think will happen,

but I also want to cover it off with a P1 max and then at least, hopefully, fingers crossed, I'm getting one point. If he doesn't flop, well, no, yeah, I am going to get a point. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you are. God, that is. You've chewed the system, actually. thinking right here. Love that.

You're like, you're doing the kind of Nico Rosberg where it's just had to finish second in every race to win the title in 2016. You're just doing that. I mean, I'm only one point ahead, so I'm not sure I could have quite that luxury. There you go. P1, I've also gone for Max for Seven, of course. And just like you said, it's almost hilarious that we have to go. The reason I'm giving a man who has 75% win ratio this year or whatever it is,

and has won 21 of the races. You've been staring at the records. Well, I saw that that record is now going to be taken, even if he loses the last two races, which is insane. And it's so hard to bet against him because I've done it quite a few times this year. And it's like, oh, this race is going to be crazy. Surely this is the time and he still just delivers. Yeah, crazy races don't equal Max Verstapp and not performing.

No. No. Crazy races equals Max Verstappen showing that he's unbelievable. Exactly. Yeah, still maybe being a bit more sensible after being a bit more chaotic in the last couple of predictions and going for Maxastapin for P1. Okay. Let's go to our one crazy prediction now and start with you, Tommy, because I've not thought. I was literally, I know you so well now that I knew that. I knew exactly what you're going to say before you even said it. I was like, you've got thought, whatever.

Okay, my one crazy prediction is that there will be a, a, you know, Pirelli Tire controversy over the weekend. I don't know how we measure it. Maybe if they do a press release or something. But I'm thinking similar to Qatar, but obviously like the opposite effect, because that was very

hot rather than it being very cold. But I feel like there'll be something where drivers will complain so much about tyres and graving or so, and then they'll have to kind of say something or do something or maybe change something during the weekend. So I'm just going with like a bit of controversy on the tyre side.

Okay. My one crazy prediction is. Also similar to tyres. I feel as though we will see a difference in the way they qualify this weekend. So whether it's a case of they don't actually do their fastest lap on their first warm-up lap, you know, we don't tend to see that all that often. But I feel like with the conditions, we might see something interesting where I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, locking in an exact thing here. So it might be that even the medium tires

might be the quickest because they're better at sort of getting a slower heat cycle into it. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, so something where they basically don't just go on a soft tire and then they do one lap and that's it. And that's the fastest, yes, as our charger goes absolutely flying, but we're not re-recording that. So yeah, that's my one crazy prediction, Tommy.

Do you see it? Do you see it in your mind's eye? Yeah, I could see them doing something maybe a little different. Like you say, they could have a number of things you could claim with that where they maybe like do a heat cycle and the tire first and all that kind of strategy is crazy from me yeah i've kept it open-ended but i won't be claiming the points okay tommy let's now go to our three crazy fan predictions and we are going to pick them right now we are so prepared uh marian e b has gone for less than 10 cars will finish wow is logey bear one of them the question. Is Logie getting some more points? Will he secure his William's seat?

That is bold. Speaking of bold, I'll just read this one out because this is very bold. Chris Hunt has gone for Holcomberg finally gets a podium. I mean, Ty, Hass actually, won't overheat their tyres? I'm not saying that Holcombberg, yeah, they'll give it a good go. I actually think that maybe like maybe my Pirelli tie contra is that everyone like can't heat their tyres up and then Hass like do a sick stop and just burn through their tyres still and you're like how are you doing this instead of 10 laps where has fall off it'll be 15 that's what canberg my goodness I mean what scenes that would be just going to shout out this one we won't include this one but Daniel Turner says Charlotte Claire will make it to the grid oh nice thank you so I just just just went to read that one thanks for you cheers uh Molsherro has gone for Alex Albin top five, which is bald, but Williams on that straight,

good quality from Albon, and then DRS train for the rest of the race. Yeah, I mean, I can definitely see that. I can only imagine how quick that Williams is going to be in a straight line for Vegas. Like, they might hit 400 kilometres now. They could break the record. Yeah. It makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

If the Williams can cope in those slower corners, then... They'll turn up with no rear wing. They actually will. And it will work for them because that's what they've done before. Well, not literally. No, really. But okay, cool.

So that is our predictions. Tommy. We've done it. We've done it from the car. On the road. I have absolutely no idea how long this was. What are your final thoughts? My final thoughts are, and I hope the lighting and everything has been all right in this video.

Yeah, our editor is going to be very, very upset with that. when we send this over and they're like, we could be horrendous. Yeah, we're not videographers. But we thought we'd take you on the road trip with us to experience it. I hope you enjoyed the kind of different experience and as doing this on the fly, the raw energy of P1. So, and yeah, just can't believe we are,

I think I may have already repeated this, or maybe it was on our Patreon one, but when we're on the move and about, and I'm not kind of sat at home absorbing Twitter and everything. I kind of don't feel like a race is happening and I'm not like got it in my head yet. And it's so weird being here. I almost don't feel like we're going to Vegas, even though I know we're driving to Vegas, but this is why we're here.

But it's going to be insane. Certainly is. My final thoughts are if you are out in Vegas, if you are near Vegas, we will be doing some kind of meetup. We don't know the exact logistics for that. but if you want to find out more about that, we'll post on our social media once we've figured out all the logistics. Matt P1, Tommy,

on our Instagram probably would be the easiest way to share, but we'll probably do it on Twitter as well. So yeah, keep it out for that. We can't wait to see some of you in Vegas if you are going. And yeah, we'll see you very soon. Thanks for tuning into this very different predictions video slash podcast and we'll see you for our wrap-up thing on Friday. No, Thursday.

Probably Friday. You'll probably see it on Friday. Yeah. I hope the camera has been recording. If not, then thank you for listening to this audio podcast of the predictions. Bye! P1 is a Stack production and part of the Acast's created network.