P1 with Matt and Tommy - Our 2023 Mexico City GP predictions

Episode Date: October 25, 2023

It's the second race of our last triple-header of the season, as we head to Mexico City. Brace yourselves for some wild predictions...You can grab our new merch right here!We're now on Patreon! Sign up HERE for early access to our December tour tickets, ad-free episodes, bonus content, and loads 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.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P-1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. It is race week once again. We are into the second race weekend of a triple header. And we are ready to do some more predictions, Tom Bellingham. We sure are for the Mexico City Grand Prix, as I've just found out, are not Mexican like I writing the sheet. But in my book, it will always be the Mexican Grand Prix. I don't even know why there's the difference, but either of all.

Before we get into the podcast, we need to remind you of our P1 Live show. Third of December, Manchester, 5th of December, Glasgow and 10th of December, London. Okay, the tickets will be released on Friday. There'll be an early access for those that are part of our Patreon. So please go and join that if you haven't already, and we can get you some tickets early if you fancy it. But please come to the P1 Live show. It is an end of season, absolute banger. You can meet other Formula One fans.

Lots of people came on their own last time, Tommy, didn't they? And they made friends when they were there. And it was such a mega experience and I cannot wait to take this show on tour. Can you, Tommy? It's going to be awesome. And yeah, we have the best community hands down. And I can't wait to see all of you in person rather than the imaginary universe of the internet screen. Exactly. Everyone is real. And it's not just our show, by the way. It's very interactive. We don't just do a podcast and then go, bye. We do much more than that. Right. Let's get into our predictions. Starting with biggest.

good surprise. I've been chefing this week, Tom Bellingham. I've stuck my ape. That's not an apron. That's a hat. And my apron. I've put everything on. My biggest good surprise is Max Verstappen. Hmm. I am going full eggs. This has to be. This man's basket. He is going, and I don't say this with a good, excited heart. But I say it with Will. knowledge that Max Verstappen is going to destroy everyone this weekend. Like more destruction than we've seen the entire year. And that is why he's my biggest good surprise. Because he only won by two seconds last time out.

So anything higher than that. No, no, no, no, no, mate. It has to be. What are we putting a... We'll judge it based on... We'll do it fairly. It has to be a crushing wind, doesn't it? It has to be a destruction and I'm sure it's going to happen.

Cool. my biggest good surprise I have gone for Valtari Bottas Why not? Just vibes, isn't it? Okay, I literally thought you might have had something No, he did actually do

He did qualify very well last year there And yeah, just Seems like a track that he's been a right at in the past And yeah, he did well last year So I'm basically being like, I hope he does it again. Do it again. Didn't he as well, doesn't he have the fastest top speed ever here at the Mexico track?

Was it him? I think it might have been him. I don't know. I feel like a very high. Yeah, I think it was in 2016. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, when the cars went to warp speed or something. So, okay, well, maybe he'll be able to do that again.

And Frank also agrees, as I heard in the background there as well. Biggest flop now. it was very powerful last week, and I'm so sorry. Alex Albon is the next person to receive the flop, which sounds very strange indeed. No other reason, obviously, than vibes. There's no attacks here, and I'm sorry Alex Albon fans that I've done this, but I sent something, and I am sorry in advance if it comes true, because it's starting to get very powerful again.

Oscar realizes this from last time out. Legger sergeant punching the air right now that you've cursed Albon maybe. Sorry, Matt. Well, actually, am I sorry because it never really comes off? Oh, you don't even need to say the driver now, do you?

Yeah, biggest flop. I've gone for Charler LeClaire, which is wild because he literally got disqualified in the last race. But I don't think it needs to be... No, it doesn't have to be worse. It's obviously just if he's had a floppy race and I just think that he might have a floppy race around Mexico.

So, yeah, I was looking into it last year and I think it was that weird race last year where Charler-Claire was like, it was like the only race all year where he just was slower than science when science was struggling with that car a lot more. So I've really gone for hoping that Mexico is exactly the same as last year. Well, the thing with your biggest flop predictions

is that the opposite happens. So I'm going to thank you for what you've just predicted. So love that from you. Poll position. No surprises. I'm going to lock in Max Verstappen for pole position. It's going to be... I was going to say exciting.

No. It's going to be great. I mean qualifying, it might be. Qualifying is going to be great. The race is going to be great for Max Verstappen. I've also gone for Maxa Stappen on pole position. Do we know how many points are between us, by the way? No, because I need to rework it.

I reckon I would have caught up and we would have been about level, but obviously my brilliant predictions just went absolutely down the toilet. Actually, you lost two. You've lost three points? Yeah. Because obviously you lost the two from the top three. Biggest good surprise is now out the window as well, probably for us. Yeah.

Although I guess we both were the same. Yeah, I'll work it out as we're coming to the final few races. Yeah, we'll have a live, we'll have a live tally so we can see. I'll catch up with it. Next year, we'll do it from the start of the season. We'll actually have something that tallies it up so that people can keep score. Let's go to our top three then. In third place, I have gone for surgery.

Sergio Perez. Yes, here he comes. The cheers of the Mexican crowd are going to get him third place. On the podium, he's back. I promise I've not seen your sheet because third place, I have also gone for Sergio Perez. No, I feel like you're looking at my sheet.

You're like, to be fair, though, you want to go for different things if you want to catch me up here, Tommy. I know, which is why it's, really annoying. I should probably change it on the fly, but no. No, we can't do that. I know. I've gone for Sergio Perez for P3. Yeah. Surely, he's had an all right race in Coathe, where not been particularly quick, but kept out of trouble, and surely the crowd are going to lift him.

You hope so? Yeah. Hopefully it doesn't work against him in the sense of the pressure that he might feel. But let's see. Second place, I have gone for Lewis Hamilton. I've actually predicted the exact same top three as what happened last year. And I feel like with your face, Tommy, you might have predicted exactly the same thing. Over to you, my friend. P2. I have changed it.

I'm going to change it because I need some point. So I'm going to go for George Russell. Ooh. Why not? Mix it up. You're going to change your fuck to Hamilton then? I had Lewis Hamilton. But I've changed it to George Russell. Let's see. You reckon George can have a good weekend? I know I'm behind now, so I do need to get some points to catch you up.

So let's see what happens. Well, you never know. I might have gone for something different for first, even though you definitely know who my biggest good surprises. So you can probably guess that for first place, I have gone for Max Vestappen. Let's not forget. were in the era of the dominance of Mercedes, Red Bull turned up due to the altitude, working better for their engine and their car

than other teams. Red Bull now dominate and are going to a track that they're very well known for doing incredibly well at. And so that is why I have gone fully for Max Verstappen this weekend. You know, if I managed to extend my lead after this, maybe I'll start, you know, chefing fully again. But right now, you know, I can see Tommy. He's about three, three and a half seconds behind at the moment.

He's been closing in. You know, he's getting a bit of a distant slipstream. Can he get into DRS? Absolutely not, because I'm starting to, I've been conserving my tyres and I'm starting to push again now. So good luck, Tommy. Thank you. P1, I have gone for Lando Norris.

I've got vibes again. What? I know. We'll get into my crazy prediction, but I've just, got a vibe, but I've had that before and Max has won by an absolute country mile, so we'll find out. But yeah, I can just see something happening and I'm hedging my bets a little bit to try something a little bit different. And yeah, gone for Lando, because why not? So I'm not going to ask you why because you're going to tell me in the crazy prediction, is that right? Okay, cool.

Let's go to our one crazy prediction then, shall we? And I feel like both of ours have something to do with Max Verstappen, because my one is Vestappan wins by the biggest margin of the year. Yes. That is a crazy prediction. I didn't say he's going to win. I'm saying out of all the races we've had this year, it will be the biggest margin that he wins.

And I will, for the first time, because I'll be securing a point, be happy that Vastappan wins by 40 seconds. Yeah, we'll have to work that one out because, yeah, I don't know what the biggest margin is. I think it's 30-od. Yeah. Interesting.

Yeah. my crazy prediction is about Max Verstappen. I've gone for Max Verstappen has a first lap incident. And yes, it's a very... You've worded this is very cheeky, isn't it? That instant could be like a small amount of overstere. Did you see here on the replay? Max was slightly sideways in turn one.

Or it just cuts over the grass or something or... But no, I don't know, I just feel like it's a very tight turn one, of course. It's very tricky. He has had contact there before with Lewis Hamilton in the past. So you never know. And of course, if he gets pole, it's actually not that great to get pole around here because you get a big old, you get slipstreamed into turn one. And if that is the case, there will be a lot of drivers that will see that as their only chance to get out of Max.

And maybe we'll see a dive bomb from someone. So let's find out. to be fair i can see how this all links together i can see what you are cooking right now tommy and i actually can sort of see it in my mind's eyes slightly so maybe the crowd going wild the mexican fans being like way max is off oh my god yeah yeah like my crazy prediction was potentially going to be like oh there's going to be a big

commotion on the podium or something but i don't really want yeah i don't want to think of the podium i don't want any of that sort of stuff but obviously after everything that happened in austin i'm a little bit concerned that not everybody will play ball but fingers crossed they're all well behaved. Now finally, our three crazy predictions from you wonderful lot

if you want to get involved check out the graphic that we put up on Twitter and Instagram, Matt P1, Tommy. First is CFC Craig. Logan Sargent to out-qualify Alex Albon. Wow. Come on, Logie. He's a bigger flop, so that one's already locked in.

There you go. Apex 549, Ferrari will get a double podium. That's bold. Neither of us put it. any Ferrari's on our podium. And finally, Pamcat 30. Max wins by 30 seconds. So what happens if it's 31?

It has to be 30. Exactly. 30.000 as well. Yeah, yeah. Not even 0.01. Okay, we'll give you 30 at any point, Pam, but not after 31. You know what I mean? So let's see.

Because it's a crazy prediction at the end of the day. Right. That is it. That is our predictions done and dusted. Tommy, what are your final thoughts? My final thoughts are, please be good Mexico, because my God, have we ever had a good race since the Mexican Grand Prix came back?

Because maybe controversially, because I think it does get a lot of praise and fairly so because of the amazing fans they have there in the stadium section is really cool and you can't deny the passion of the fans that make the race, what it is. But I think it masks

what in my opinion might even be the worst circuit layout on the calendar. I think it really does lend itself to it's a lot of clumsy slow speed corners which is great for the fans when they're there

and you know, that's great because they have an amazing crowd there but I feel like we do a banger at Mexico because it tends to be a bit lackluster I think. I'm in exactly the same opinion as you, Tommy.

The track layout itself does not promote great racing in the slightest. You know, we don't really have, you have obviously the long straight, which, if anything, if people get a good run, they are usually clear by the other driver going into the braking zone. We don't get, doesn't promote too much side-by-side action. Then the other small DRS straight is not really long enough to, I mean, if anything, that's probably the better one for getting some racing, because then they go side by side. get a little dive bomb and whatever. But apart from that, there's no real other opportunities to overtake.

A lot of 90 degree turns, isn't it? And stuff. And yeah, I totally have the opinion that, you know, you take away that amazing, passionate crowd and you put it in a different country or wherever, and it's another poor record and everyone's saying that it shouldn't be on the calendar. But Mexico deserves a Grand Prix, that's for sure.

But I just wish it was a better circuit. A better track. Yeah, absolutely. Right, that is it. Thank you, everybody, for watching, listening to our predictions, and we'll see you very soon for what happens. We'll be live on Twitch. As always, we'll have all of our content on our audio podcast as well as our YouTube channel, and we'll see you very soon. Bye! B1 is a Stack production and part of the A-cast's creator network.