P1 with Matt and Tommy - Our 2025 Australian GP predictions

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

Don't worry, the second-most hated series in sports podcasting is back for the 2025 F1 season: IT'S TIME FOR PREDICTIONS!Who will continue their (totally informative) pre-season testing form and who's set to be washed for the opening round in Australia? Plus, after an impressive debut from our respective mothers a few weeks ago, we debut our brand new segment: the Family Top Three!You can listen to an extended version of every 2025 Race Review podcast over on our Patreon! You'll also get every P1 episode ad-free, early access to live tickets and merch, and access to our Discord server where you can chat with us and other F1 fans! Click here to sign up now!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. 2025 has truly arrived when you know the first predictions episode has arrived. We are ready to drop some serious heat. We are the oracles for this year. I have a feeling, Tommy. I feel like we're going to be so on it because this season seems pretty predictive. doesn't it really on the face of it quite easily you can predict the world champion the fastest teams so I'm looking forward to this one clean sweep I am it's come around so

quickly actually now we're doing this it feels like minutes ago we were predicting last year's Abidabu Grand Prix and here we are ready for an amazing season of predictions actually I think it's going to be a lot of fun because of just how unpredictable it is exactly so for this season, just so that you're aware of the slight freshen up of certain names of things, as well as a small little extra segment due to something that was very popular at the end of last year. What even last year, it was literally this year, but before the start of this year. So first and foremost, biggest good surprise has been replaced with a good surprise so that we don't have everyone on social media going, well, it's not the biggest surprise.

It was like the third biggest surprise. So now it's just a good surprise. So if it's a surprising result or they've done well, well done. And then also a big flop, not the biggest flop, just a big flop. It means they've not done very well. It doesn't necessarily mean they're the worst driver of the grid that weekend, but it means that they flopped. And finally, the most exciting part of all of this,

after the success and the love that the podcast got when we were, well, essentially my mum rang me out of the blue. I then spoke to her and put her, and put her on the spot about who she thinks is going to be world champion. Well, after all of that and the positive comments and wanting my mum and also your mum to be involved,

we've now got a family top three. Yes, for the race, we will ring someone within our family... Whoever answers. Yeah, whoever basically answers. And we'll try, obviously, mum and dad first. And we will essentially accrue points

for each other's families. And at the end, we will see... We're getting points for this. Yeah. Really? Yeah, we're going to monitor it, bro, because then at the end of the year, it'll be Gallagher versus Bellingham, who's won? So this is going to be a thing, mate. Don't, you know, we're not putting in for fun.

There's nothing fun about these predictions. And speaking of points, of course, our lovely Patreon podcast as well, which we've introduced. Of course. So we have a Patriot, you said Patreon podcast, Patreon prediction. There isn't a brand new Patreon podcast where people are involved. Well, to be fair, they do get extra. Anyway, we won't get into Patreon stuff right now. But yes, there is, of course, also a Patreon prediction where we select from Discord,

one prediction that becomes our own for the weekend, and then you can help us score points across the year. So hopefully that's given you a nice refresh of the new update to this prediction series. And let's begin with a good surprise. It feels weird to say good surprise. my good surprise Tom Bellingham not you you're not good surprise you're always surprisingly beautiful is Max for Stappen

it's Max for Stappen because everyone's written them off and more recently as well Max has said the car's not going to be there they're going to be taking a few races to get up to speed all of this stuff but the thing is there's two things one it's Max for Stappen

and I do genuinely believe he's going to be right up there but two, it's rain forecast for Sunday right now which is ridiculous. Not a lot of rain and it is still going to be quite warm so whether that will actually affect the track conditions we'll have to wait and see. But even a podium, I would genuinely be fighting for a good surprise here

because everyone thinks he's going to be absolutely finished and maybe a few days after the end of the 2024 season, I also believe that. But then I woke up. But if he is terrible, then you're welcome. Well, it's interesting because I think this is the best, well, the most difficult prediction of the lot and how we, because I guess based on form right now, I think everyone in their pecking order that I've seen the highest anyone's put Red Bull is the third best team.

Yeah. So, yeah, even a podium, like Max said. I actually saw something very interesting from Max, that I've not seen picked up much elsewhere. But he was asked during a sponsor day, how many teams are going to be challenging for the World Championship? And he said, one, and it's orange. So he obviously is backing McLaren quite a lot.

So, yeah, very interesting indeed. Okay, so my good surprise, is Carlos Sainz. And of course, a lot of people are probably expecting him to be a good surprise this year. But I am kind of making the argument that he is going to have a really, really good race. I was going to say, if a lot of people think there's going to be a good surprise, is it a surprise at all? Well, it will be because I think he's going to even exceed the expectations of a lot of fans that think he's going to have a good result. it's a track that Carlos goes well at

he'll be kind of got a lot of motivation going into the new season looked mighty in testing exactly mighty from testing and we all know that testing times are 100% accurate so he will probably battle third pole position because he did the fastest testing time and yeah I'm going for going for a Carlos good surprise okay interesting stuff

had you told me that Maxisap and said there was one team in Orange or that maybe, no, I've locked it in now, locked it in because we can see special things from special drivers. We now go to a big flop. Kimmy Antonelli. Oh, get on. Yeah. We're starting strong, we're starting big.

We're starting, we're starting, I think, well with this one. Now, of course, it is his first race. So it has to be pretty bad, I would say, for it to be a big flop because you have to give Kimmy some room to grow. And I hope he does, of course. May I remind you all if this is your first predictions episode. This is all based on vibes. Okay, so this is where my vibes lead me.

My vibes are usually right when it comes to flops. Yeah, as much as you want to push an agenda on our predictions, it's not that deep. Yes, it's not that deep. It's purely fun. So yes, I've gone for Kimi Antonelli. We know he's got a little cheeky error in him. Not from testing though. So perhaps he will fight against the flop.

But that is that is a, that's a word sense. But the thing is he will have a lot of things to contend with. And another thing is the fact I've flopped him. So I'm really sorry. Just on that, this is why we could never get rid of the word flop. We undenade about how we could reword biggest. flops, it didn't have to mean biggest flop. But the word flop just has too many, like, funny moments for to get rid of that word.

So my big flop is... After you did that whole explanation, I could see your mouth wobble as well. Okay. Try good. Okay. I'm laughing too much now, and this one is actually going to hurt. A big flop I've gone for Fernando Alonso. I think it's going to be the pain train for Aston Martin.

Of course, that could be Fernando still 20 seconds clear of Lance, but that him 20 seconds clear of Lance might be a P-17. I think it's going to be very tough for Aston Martin based on their form in testing. They've not looked great unless in the 7. days, Adrian knew he's been there. He has put some amazing aerop pieces on that make them four seconds a lot quicker. I think they're going to have a tough time. So I've gone for Fernande. Okay. Interesting stuff. We now go to poll position. My pole position. My P1 from Saturday is Charlotte. He's back. Yeah, you know how he's in fourth in the championship? I had a little

sleep. I'm so back. No, I just, these aren't absolute write-offs in qualifying. And Ferrari were quick over one lap last year. Charlotte Claire is mighty over one lap, as we know. So 2022, dominated Australia. Can we have that again, please? Absolutely. So yeah, it's not out the realms of possibility. I think qualifying is going to be good and close this year. It's just whether that race pace is going to be there as well for Ferrari, which has not been the case over the course of a season for a very long time. So yeah, I'm still going, Michelle! Paul position.

Love it. Pulposition I have gone for Lando Norris, the championship favorite, as we're being constantly reminded, going into the season. I think it backed up my theory even before we saw testing. The McLaren are going to be very, very quick this year. have nothing to lose, kind of go absolutely all in on this season to try and get both championships. And I think they're going to be the team that come out the blocks firing.

So, and Lando, of course, was on great form at the end of the year with his kind of performance in Abu Dhabi. And he's always looked very quick in qualifying compared to his teammate. So gone for Lando. Okay. So you're going for the boring route, I see. Fair enough. I love how. If I don't go for Max, as boring if I go for Macs is boring.

Yeah, I'm rolling either way. Let's be real. Unless you put flipping Valtry Bottas, who's not even, you know, there anymore, then I mean, the fact that you flopped Kimmy Antonelli, it might even happen. So, who knows? Yeah, fair enough. Okay, we now go to our top three in the race, and we'll begin with third. My P3, Charlotte, Clare.

There will not be the pole to victory. And that's no disrespect to him. That's just I feel I'm scared of the McLaren's race pace, but I'm also scared of potential changeable conditions, potentially. But look, this is where I've put him. It's not a lot to judge on right now. So it is very much just sticking your finger in the air and seeing where the wind's blowing

and then going the opposite of that sometimes with our predictions. So that's where I'm going. P3, shall. P3, I've gone for Lewis Hamilton. Oh, gone for a little podium on debut for Ferrari. And yeah, excited to see what he can do on his debut with Ferrari. There'll be a lot of pressure, but he rises to pressure as we know. As he still, he rises.

Indeed. And I really hope your top two are including a certain individual, otherwise we're going to be having some serious discussions. Second place, Lando Norris. Lando is going to finish P2. going to be a very strong McLaren but I am putting some eggs in some baskets so that's where I'm going with this one.

P2 Lando Norris. P2, I have gone for Lando Norris as well. So congratulations on the victory Lando Morris. What are you cooking up here? Yeah, Gunther, Alando Norris P2

I think he's going to have a very good weekend still. I just, you just never, never know, and I think Australia as well. Always does throw a bit of a curve, curveball,

even though it's one of those tracks that's difficult to overtake. And maybe this is the nostalgia speaking, but I do think back, back in the old days when Melbourne was the opening race of the season,

it was, would tend to throw a bit of chaos and surprise, particularly, well, if I get some rain, that'll be tasty indeed. That would be very tasty. P1, not with Matt and Tommy, P1 with the Australian Grand Prix, is for me, Max Verstappen. Wow. Max wins the opening race to the season, drops a couple of middle fingers to everybody, and refuses to elaborate and leaves.

So that's, that's Max Verstappen. I do. I feel it. Everyone will be questioning. How on earth has you done it? including ourselves and this might well be very wrong and he finishes P6

but it's a bit of fun sometimes things as well some people will be like these predictions are the most ridiculous things I've ever seen in my life however one this season is completely unpredictable I'd like to see you get at a clean sweep this year and two

sometimes it's a bit of fun and I want to beat Tommy and I can't go to the same thing okay and also and also just the amount of people they get so pressed by predicting someone sixth instead of fifth is quite insane to me. Yeah, and also as well, you might hear the whole like, oh, Matt never speaks about Oscar Piastri. Like, he must absolutely hate him.

It might finish P4, but there's only a top three. So Oscar Pastery now really misses that on the podium. We don't know. Indeed. Okay, so P1, I've gone for Oscar Pastery. I knew it. And that rolls his eyes because he hates Oscar Piastri as we've discussed earlier. Joking, of course.

Yeah, Piastri, I think McLaren are going to be unbelievably quick. I don't think they're going to be completely dominant, but I think they're going to have a very good start to the season, and it will show that I could see them locking out the front row. And Piastri, with this home crowd, It caused me a lot of pressure but he's a bit of an ice man I think Oscar Piastri

he's not going to be nervous it's not going to get nervous about kind of leading a race So you've gone for a home win for Oscar Piastri First race of the season Interesting stuff We now move to a brand new segment The Family Top Three

Let's see if my dad picks up Here we go It's like he wants to be millionaire. Good afternoon, Christopher Gallagher. You are live on the P1 podcast, and you are here for the family top three, for the first time ever this is on the P1 podcast predictions. So I will need your top three, starting in third position.

Who do you have down in third, please? I have Max Verstaffin. Okay, Max Verstappen locked in in P3. Sorry, Tommy. Sorry, Tommy. He says, sorry, Tommy. I'm not even putting in my top three. I'm going for second place, George Russell.

Okay, George Russell, P2 in the Mercedes. We haven't even mentioned Mercedes so far on this place. Fair enough. And your winner, please. And I'm going for Lando. Okay, Alando, George, Max, podium. How confident are you in this? Not at all.

Okay, fair enough. Dad, thank you so much for appearing on the P1 podcast. Hi, Tommy. Hi, Tommy. Hello. I was going to say, you could say hello to everyone else as well, but, you know, just Tommy. Okay, there you go.

Thank you, Dad. Appreciate it. Love you, bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you very much. Bye. Okay.

Here we go. It's working flawlessly so far. Okay, yeah, this is where my dad doesn't answer. I'm about to find out. Get that right next to the microphone, big boy. Freddie. Hello. Oh, yeah.

Hello. I should probably give context straight to way that my dad calls me Fred. Fred. You're live on the P1 podcast, so now everyone knows that you call me Fred, but it's fine. we'll roll with it. Can you put it closer to the mic? Oh, okay. I need your top three for the Australian Grand Prix.

Start with third. Starting with third first. P3. P3. Okay. P3, Norris. Okay. Norris, interesting.

P2. Leclair. Okay. Matt's looking, Matt's doing a big thumbs up right now. I'll take that. And P1. Piastri. Okay.

We've gone for the double Bellingham Piastri prediction. Wow. Okay. I've also gone for Piastri. So I hope we're right because Matt's told me that this is actually going to score me points. So I hope these are going to be right. I hope you're right too, Freddie. All right.

Thanks, Dad. All right. Speak to you soon. Bye. Bye. There we go. Fred P1 Bellingham there. I know, exactly.

I think people need the backstory of why on earth you're called Fred, please. Just a quick one. Because I genuinely don't know. My dad's just always called me Freddy since I was a literal baby. And you know, there's the weird... The wrong name down on the birth certificate. I don't know. You know, those things that just don't make sense.

And then until you think about it, like, until then when that just happened, I was like, oh my God, that no one knows why I'm called Freddy from my dad. But it's like just so normal. I thought he called you a frape for a minute. I thought it was sort of coffee. But anyway. So interesting that my dad went for LeCler and in the predictions

and your dad went for Vastappen. And the George Russell shout as well. That's a big shout for my dad actually. The George Russell one. Because it's definitely not out of the realms. I need to write that down because I'm definitely going to forget. Write that down.

So I feel as though, let's decide live on the podcast. Is this a family versus family points tally? Which isn't to do with our own predictions. And we just say at the end, who has won as a fan? family, or does it all come in one prediction tally? Yeah. Yeah, let us know in the comments what you think, whether we do like a family prediction

at the end where we see if we know more wheel than our own parents. Yeah, and then the final episode can be live in the studio. We play Family Fortunes, and it's Gallagher v. Bellingham. That'll be unbelievable. Anyway, okay, so that's the family top three. Hope you enjoyed that little segment. I'm sure it'll be even more wild when our moms are back on the podcast. and your mum goes for Charlotte Clare winning everything.

And let's go to our one crazy prediction. My one crazy prediction is, we have three different or more, three or more, different drivers lead the race at some point. Yes, please. Yeah, just sign me out. There you go, that's mine.

I hope you're right. I doesn't need any more. I'm just praying for like the best season ever. We're finishing with the top five separated by 10 seconds. Sign me up. Okay, so mine's also in Dululu. of an actual theme that's continued throughout the season,

so I might as well go all in now to then realise that it won't happen again for the rest of the season. My one crazy prediction, it's no surprise, it's about one particular individual, and it's Kimmy Antonelli, how it qualifies George Ruslanus debut. Okay, okay. I feel like this Kimmy obsession is going to be similar to Charlotte,

for me this year. Well, my logic is, You know, if he's half a second off in the Australian Grand Prix, I can, you know, I can stop predicting it. But while there's no kind of, we don't know what's going to happen, I can go full delusion. Okay. All right. Interesting. Let's go to the final segment of this predictions podcast, which is our Patreon prediction.

So if you're not aware of this, if you're part of our wonderful Patreon and you support us, you are firstly incredible. And secondly, you get to have a prediction thrown into the mix on Discord. we will then pick one from that to have as our own prediction. My one is from Erin. One of the rookies causes a red flag. So I feel like if I could get two birds of one stone with this, big flop and that, perfect. Just to clarify, that's not you saying Erin will cause a red flag. That's you saying a rookie or a rookie.

Is that what it sounded like. Yeah, you're like, Erin, one of the rookies. I don't remember Erin joining the F1 grid. One of the rookies will cause a red flag. It was from Erin on Patreon. Thank you, Aaron, for your prediction. So yes, I do feel like that will be possible. And let's not forget that can happen in practice as well.

Thank you very much. Oh, yes. Oh, I think that's very true, actually. And Australia, and if there's rain in the air, that's probably going to see a red flag at some point, you'd imagine. My Patreon prediction is from Tony Soprano, points for Jack Dewan. So, yes, he's...

Got a good car underneath him. Still probably quite bold to go that Jack Dewin would get a point based on maybe his limited experience. But I think the Alpine will be quite good at the start of the year. So I think he really needs to hit the ground running, doesn't he? And take that the opportunity now because I think we could well see Alpine the strongest that they'll ever be all season, I think straight out the blocks. And what a place to do it as well if he did get points at his home race? I know. I didn't realize quite how team Australia, my predictions are going for a piastry win and doing points. But there we go.

Tommy, it feels good. It feels like slipping on an old pair of, I was going to say slippers, but I just said slipping. So that doesn't sound very good, does it? Popping on an old dressing gown. God knows where I'm going with this. But it feels comfortable all the same. And I can't wait for the season. Even though it is going to be a 3.30 a.m. alarm on Sunday, it's going to be, it's going to be tasty. And I can't wait for it. I hope you're all very excited at home as well. We can't wait to be with you for another entire season of chaos. We've got Frank coming in the room as well for some final words. Let's see what he has to say. He had to be in the video. He knew I was filming. He's such a star of the show, isn't it? Right, Frank. In form of yawning, will Oscar Piastri win? Yorn if so. No. Landon Norris. Well, there you go.

There we go. Frank's prediction is Landau. Lovely stuff. Thank you very much, Frank. I don't know if that came out correctly. Thank you very much, Frank. There we go. I'm trying to remember how to speak at the moment.

We can't wait for it. We'll be live on YouTube and Twitch this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. So be there, be square. All the podcast, as usual. Can't wait for it. 2025 season is here. Lots of love. Take care. Goodbye. Hi.

Hi. Hi. So, oh, okay. A bit of a stretch there from Tommy to put Frank down. May have sounded slightly weird for audio listeners. Can't believe, by the way, that our editor left in about a week ago, me saying to take your clothes off. That was absolutely ridiculous. That is purely behind the paywall of Patreon.

And I can't believe that slipped through the net. So thanks Charlie to our editor. Big shout out to him. And as for a chore, I want to see, if possible, if you have the artistic talent, a picture of Tom Bellingham, in whatever scenario you want,

just draw him, draw him and send it in. It could be a stick man, but just as long as it's clear what the scenario is, that is your chore for this week. So please get your Tom Bellingham's in and we'll see you soon.

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