P1 with Matt and Tommy - Our 2023 Singapore GP predictions

Episode Date: September 13, 2023

The circus hits Singapore this weekend for a blast round the new-look Marina Bay Circuit. And my WORD, do we have some spicy predictions for you today... #HeCantWinEveryRaceYou can grab our new merch here!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. One podcast with Matt and Tommy. Sorry, I don't know why I went so hard then. I think it's just because I'm excited. It's race week again, Tommy, which is crazy, isn't it? Oh, Red Bull have won every race. And yet we're there no matter what for another Max Verstapp and Masterclass. But maybe this weekend will be different.

What do you think? Yeah, he can't win every race, can he? Rins and repeat. He can't. We can't. But it's weird to be doing a podcast again. It feels like it's been a long time because we've just been so busy just chatting to F1 drivers.

Who are? Yeah, Tommy doesn't speak to anyone else now. It has to be Formula One drivers. But no, it's been amazing to be able to put out the Daniel Ricardo stuff and the Carlos Sign stuff. And it seems like all of you are really enjoying it as well. So we're related with that because we loved doing it. And it makes it even more sweet, doesn't it,

that people go, wow, this was such a cool podcast. It is. We're recording actually barely a few minutes after Carlos Sites posted it on his own story saying something like, had fun with these guys. I mean, that is just so surreal. Yeah, that actually maybe explains why I gave it the big balls in the intro. You know what I mean? Like I gave it some serious umph. So yeah, before we dive into our usual predictions, we have a five-star review to share. And this one comes in from Clellas from the UK with Matt and his outbursts of over-excitement and Tommy with his chilled out slightly nerdy demeaner, it's a marriage made in F1 heaven.

Every night I check for another episode and when there isn't one, I feel destined for a night of despair and F1 loneliness. I'm so sorry. The perfect balance of entertainment and in-depth F1 understanding and knowledge keep up the excellent work both. Thank you, Clellas. And now due to that review, we are now going to do daily uploads for the rest of times that you're never upset because we don't want that, do we, Tommy? We'll just upload constant podcast just saying,

don't be upset. It's okay. Right. It is the Singapore Grand Prix race week, and it's probably worth mentioning that we've got a new circuit layout, haven't we, Tommy? Forget the predictions.

We've got a change. They've decided, you know what, that third sector is shockingly bad. What are we going to do? Just delete four corners and make it straight. That seems like a running trend in Formula One really, doesn't it? You've got Spain as well doing that.

Will it change much? I don't think so. I mean, we'll see. But yeah, it does feel like ever since Abu Dhabi sort of bit of bullet and went for it with the whole, you know, people like us with our,

you know, incredible wheel knowledge when we kind of slate these circuits and go, they should do this, they should do that. It seems like everyone's kind of jumped on this trend now of like, oh yeah, we should change it to make the racing better and circuits now seem like they're willing to do it. I don't know if this is going to change that much because it still essentially goes into a very kind of, not clumsy, but like those 90 degree turns, but the less of them the better because we all know what Sochi was like. And that whole section was very similar,

wasn't it? Like, it's cool that they went under a grandstand, but the novelty wore off after like two years when no one could overtake. Yeah, it's like, oh, well, that looks cool, doesn't it? But there's no overtakes. So what doesn't really matter if it looks cool? I think that it might have a tiny bit of change in the sense of they have less fiddly, horrible corners to follow in before we get to the first sector, which is the only real overtaking opportunity in my eyes.

And then maybe the short straight, obviously in the middle sector as well. But the first sector is the big opportunity. So to have less fiddly. corners and for drivers like Max Verstappen to eke out a one and a half two second advantage, it comes quicker, right? And the DRS comes quicker over the lap and maybe, just maybe we might see a few more overtakes. So fingers crossed, eh? Yeah, especially if it's the weather's correct as well. Could be another crazy one. Yep. So for those of you that haven't maybe seen rain potentially on the Saturday and the Sunday. Now, it does rain at random times at Singapore. We know that.

but the fact that it was on the weather forecast, it makes sense, doesn't it, in this 2023F1 season? It does. It's not a predictions podcast if we don't record it early going. Have you seen the weather? It's going to rain every single week. We are typical Brits as well. Have you seen the weather?

Let's talk about it. Right, let's get into our predictions then, shall we? And begin with biggest good surprise. Oh yeah. I've gone for, I've been cooking. I've been cooking this week. Tommy. Lance Stroll.

Biggest good surprise. Oh, yes indeed. This man in 2022 as Frank enters the room, he had a good result. He beat Sebastian Vettel. Let's not talk. He finished sixth. So I'm not saying, like,

biggest good surprise doesn't mean that he beats Fernando Alonzo necessarily. But I think within one or two tenths, Mike Crack himself said that he is no worse than Fernando Alonzo. He said it, right? And off the back of that huge commendation, not because Lawrence Stroll had some kind of threat over his head, I'm sure. But I am convinced Lance is going to take that compliment and deliver this weekend. Interesting. Yeah, I mean, maybe if,

are you going to claim a biggest good surprise if I don't mention that he should be playing tennis and basically he would just be like, oh, it has actually done all right. Yeah, because that's, that's the work. He's off the back of, you know, he's been pretty abysmal. He's been pretty abysmal. If he qualifies 19th or above this weekend, that's biggest good surprise, straight out the back. Well, you and your loopholes, how dare you.

Well, interestingly, my biggest good surprise is not Lance Stroll. It's Fernando Alonso. Wow. Got to be. I'm in full DeLulu Fernando Alonzo fanboy mode and I'm backing him for a good result he's very very good around Singapore

obviously people associate Fernando Alonzo and Singapore Grand Prix with a particular incident forgetting that he is actually generally really good around there one with Ferrari around there as well and it's really really good around there and doesn't always need his teammate to

bin it in the wall and cause a safety car. So yeah. That could also go down as biggest good surprise. If Lance yeats it in the wall and allows Fernando Alonzo to win with a well-time safety car, I'm just saying on taking the points. Fair enough. Right. We now go to biggest flop.

Oh, what are we stirring up this weekend? I have gone for Max Vestappen. Yes. Don't you dare try and mind me there, Tommy. All right. Last year, he had a stinker. He had an absolute stinker. When Sergio Perez won the race, of course, Max was out of position as well, wasn't he,

after some shenanigans in qualifying, wasn't there? Like a fuel issue that he had, which meant he couldn't do his final run. And then just had a horrendous race. And, you know, he can't win every race, although he hasn't won a. every race, but since we've started saying it, he's won every race. And I just, I smell it, I sense it. And literally, it would him, him finishing second, that's the point. Fair. I mean, it's got to come in at some point, hasn't it, biggest flop? Because like you say, a flop for him now finishing second because he's won all these in a row. And yeah, last year was, you almost

forget about the race, because it feels like Max just dominated forever, but it was a rare Maxxastapen L, wasn't it? He had a very clumsy race. Even, you know, he obviously had that poor qualifying, but you can argue that, you know, he could have recovered and he made quite a few mistakes passing people and just a clumsy race from him. So, wow, I mean, if that happens again, we're in for a cracker. So my biggest flop is Valtari Bottas. And it's just based off vibes again, just think he's going to have a bit of a stinker. Saw that he got beaten last year by Joe Guan Yu by quite a big margin in Quali. And I don't feel like this is a valteri circuit, so watch him pop it on pole now.

I hope he does. Off the back of a whopping one point. He had a very, very good last race at the Italian Grand Prix, and you just want to see him fail. I don't, but... But you smell it. but I maybe smell it and you can argue that maybe Monza if you've got a point at Monza

this is a very different circuit so yeah let's wait and see how this goes I nearly actually picked Lance Strull funnily enough but wow that would have been interesting would have but to last night because I'm sure he's probably one of the only drivers

that could probably do some sort of good surprise but also flop i.e. go into the wall and allow Fernando Alonzo to win I think you could argue both cases for that Let's move to pole position now then. And I have been in the kitchen, Tommy. My ingredients have been all over the place. And I'm not sure if I'm cooking up a storm or something absolutely horrendous.

My poll position for the Singapore Grand Prix is Lewis Hamilton. Oh yes. He did one of the greatest pole position laps of all time around this circuit, the Marina Bay circuit. And I just feel like he might pull out something very special again, hungry of course this year he got pole i just i mean if i've gone for biggest flock max rastappan i can't put him on pole i could but i'm not going to uh because i i smell i smell something uh so let's see whether my nose hairs are follicles are not right interesting my pole position i have gone for fernando alonzo oh and what i've gone

serious. I told you, I'm fanboying big time on this. And it's interesting, actually, because I did nearly pick Lewis Hamilton. I think I was close between the two. When I think of Singapore, I do remember, kind of for years actually, Fernando Alonzo, Lewis Hamilton, and actually also Sebastian Vettel would just, they'd be so good around there. Like, you could argue they were like the three best drivers of that era as well. And, you know, they were always like delivering. But I've gone for Fernando. He's got to have that moment.

Come on, please. Please, please, please. I need it to happen because, my God, on the watch along, it would be quite something if he gets, if it gets pole. And yeah. You will not be allowed to stand up if we have that on the watchdog. I'll tell you that for free. It would be Peggy 18, but I'd love to see it.

I really hope because I was so disappointed in Hungary when it was that circuit that was meant to suit the Aston Martins, this should be another one. And I just hope it doesn't go the way of what happened in Hungary. And Fernando Alonzo did a really good job last year in an Alpine, which wasn't particularly great car. So surely in that Aston he can cook up a storm. Let's see. Let's see. God, we've gone. You know what happens, Tommy, when we go wild with the predictions. Vastappen wins by 30 seconds. We should have gone...

And if we say anything he wins, and if we say anything he will, and we say we don't win, he wins. It's almost like... He's inevitable. Whatever we say he will win. Right, let's go to our top three now then. In third place, I have gone for Max Vastappen.

Interesting. Uh-huh. Any elaboration? No. It's not going to... I don't know what's going to have. happened, Tommy, but he's going to finish third. That's all I know. It'll be his worst result of the year. How mad is that to think about?

And still on the podium and having another trophy to his collection. P3, I have gone for Lewis Hamilton. Yeah. Like you, Hamilton's great around here. I think he's going to have a good race. Yeah, just I'd be surprised if he wasn't on the podium. He's very, very good around here. Okay, okay. In second position, I've gone for Sergio Perez. Oh yeah. Checo is back. And he beats Max Verstappen. We all then ask, is the championship back on? Skymaker graphic. We then get the two protagonists and then the minus 170 points or whatever it'll be. Trust me. It's going to happen. This is all based on vibes. Don't get upset if you're a Max Stappan fan, you've had everything this year. No, you're not allowed to say that.

Oh yeah, you are a Max fan. I forget sometimes. So this means that Max won't be able to go into Park Fermi point at Perez's number and be like, yeah, 11 wins. He'll do that at the next race. Although it won't count because it was lost the streak. Oh, no. It's for the streak, isn't it? P2, I have gone for Max Verstappen.

We've both not predicted him to win. Oh, God. is winning by a lap. I don't know what this means. I mean, nothing's worked, so who knows. And we don't talk prior to these predictions, do we? We don't go, oh, you're going to go a bit crazy this week? Yeah, what about you?

We have no idea until we literally press record. I mean, surely, I say surely, like, if there's going to be one race he doesn't win, it's a wet Singapore where... There's no guarantees. No guarantees. No, true. But, like, that also being said, we've had, the seasons throwed pretty much everything at him and he's still won. So, look, we all love a bit of delusion from every now and then.

We've turned it up to 100. We have turned it up to 100. And finally, the winner of the Singapore Grand Prix for me is Lewis Hamilton. Yes. Can you imagine the scenes if Hamilton wins again? after it being since 2021 Saudi Arabia. That's crazy to think that was the last time he won. And yeah, if he gets pole, it's game on, Singapore.

You never know what can happen. Be fascinating race. P1, I've gone for Fernando Alonzo. Let's go. Come on, Fernando. Wow. I just want to see it so badly that I just like

let's just go for it I'm going to it's a rare optimistic Tommy and we're going to see Fernando Alonzo get win 33 and I will be just I don't know what I'll do if he clothesless

you've just literally grabbed and so have I all of our eggs and put it either on Hamilton or Alonzo for this week yeah yeah we've both gone for it

but look there is logic to our madness of course you know Max has won every race but they're two

Singapore not every race let's not forget about Checo sorry sorry it does feel like sorry

sorry sir Géperes it was a long time ago it was a long time ago I'll give you that yeah Red Bull obviously on the

on the cusp of winning everything and well we've both gone for the fact that that that win streak ends. I love the way that you're like on the cusp of winning everything. As a Max Verstappen, Red Bull fan, you sound depressed.

Can you imagine what it's like for other people that don't support Max and Red Bull? Yeah, it's not, I'm the same as you, though, that at the moment, I'm kind of like, oh, I'd love a Fernando win. It would be cool to see someone else. But don't get me wrong if, and I think even you said this, that you'd, you'd like this that when it gets near the end, if they're still on it, they've got to do the whole thing because that would be incredible to see. I don't know how many I said previously. I've now changed it to two to go.

I will then support Red Bull. So I'm sorry for Red Bull not winning the last two races of the year. Yeah. Okay, let's go to our one crazy prediction now then. I've gone for more than four DNFs. Now, that might not sound crazy, but it is in modern Formula One. and I'm using a bit of Singapore in there, a bit of rain, bit of spice,

more than four DNFs. No, four or more DNFs. Let's put that way. Four or more. The wording right. Yeah, I saw more than four. That means five, Matt. Four or more.

Interesting. I have gone for both Alpines and the points. Off the back of the worst weekend they've ever had. Well, yeah, they were pretty appalling. That being said, well, they've had worse weekends because didn't they do two races in a row where they doubled the NFD.

That's true. Alpine have not had a very good time recently, but surely they're going to be, you'd think they'll be a lot better around here, but it's not so power-focused. But hey, maybe the new layout absolutely screws them and they're awful. Yeah, they saw that change,

and they were like, no. No, corners, please. No, more corners, please. And there are three crazy predictions from you wonderful lots. If you want to get involved, remember we post a graphic on Twitter and Instagram, Matt P1, Tommy.

First is from Peachy Ken. Logi Sarge, first points. Not back in that at all. Not around a track like Singapore. I just... I love how we're literally... It's going to be the most bone-dry weekend of all time now that we're literally locking in.

It's going to be the way. I just said there's potential. You're like, no, it's wet, mate. It's wet. Fernando Lonzo win. It's like in Monaco. Yeah, Logi points is bold. Williams are actually

going to be running like a special golf livery which looks very cool but Logie needs to get a point there doesn't he? Because Album's having a great season got a lot of points

and I think it's a conundrum for Williams at the end of the season if Logan Sargent hasn't scored a point because that's not good enough in my opinion. Agreed. Absolutely agreed. You can't not score a point in that Williams now.

it's a decent enough car. Next prediction comes in from Remain underscore in underscore Rose, Piastri podium. I feel like this happens literally every week. There's a Piastri crazy prediction, whether it's a podium or him winning, I think it was, in Monza. Yeah, I don't know what to think about this. I don't think so.

I think McLaren, it's difficult to say. Like one weekend they look incredible. The next, they don't look as good. I'm not going to say that they are going to get a podium. I don't know about McLaren. They are, it's a, it's a weird one because they're like, they need the quick, quick corners, but then very fast track like Monza,

they're obviously not good at at all. Maybe this one will suit them a bit, but I don't know, this track, I think this could be one of those amazing battles, other than Red Bull, even though this contradicts what we've said, but we think it's going to be crazy. But I do think Red Bull will still be quickest,

even though I've not predicted him. Seventh quickest. Seventh quickest. Wow. Yeah. Knocked out in Q2, championship back on, KMAG on pole. Watch this space. So you're going to be one of those like Stan accounts.

You can tweet afterwards the race. If your prediction comes in, you can be like Max third in the seventh fastest car. hashtag the goat. That's exactly true. Yeah, that's exactly true. And the final prediction is from Chris underscore HNT, large turn one crash at the start, similar to 2017. Well, if we have some rain, who knows?

Because that turn one can be pretty difficult to navigate. I remember Max Verstappen last year, just cut the inside of the first corner. I was like, no, don't fancy any of that. Obviously, didn't gain any positions, but I love how you can just get away with that sort of thing. Yeah, yeah, just bail out and just go, no. It's a long race, isn't it?

I completely get why you would do that. So yeah, we shall see. That is it. Tom Bellingham. What are your final thoughts, sir? My final thoughts are good luck to our buddy Carlos Sites because now we've actually released the video. Let's see how it goes.

Because since we recorded, he's actually been on a very good run, but we've not actually mentioned Ferrari at all. No, we haven't. Ferrari, this is a very different second to Monza. I think they'll struggle, but hopefully they still pick up some points. So do I, but if we don't talk about it, it doesn't exist. I pretend not to see. Exactly.

Right, that is it. Thank you so much to everybody for tuning in. We'll be back for lots more content, as you know. Please be sure to click the subscribe button. We're very close to 400,000 subscribers. Tommy is dropping something. And we'll see you very soon for another piece of content. Bye.

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