P1 with Matt and Tommy - Our reaction to Belgian GP Sprint Race

Episode Date: July 29, 2023

Some poor weather wreaked more havoc over in Belgium, leaving us with not a lot of running. Is there a way we can fix all this? Let's talk about it! You 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 back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. We are here today to talk to you about 11 glorious, juicy, action-filled, laps that we've prepared the entire, the entirety of our Saturdays for, Tommy. It's insane. We have invested so much time today through delays and weather, whatever, for 11 laps of racing. And a whole qualifying session for it. It was good. It was definitely good.

is quite insane or anything about it. If you ever need to know how much we love Formula One, it's that formula, you know how like Formula One they know, when they do a new rule and we all go, oh, I don't like it, I'm not going to be watching, and we all watch. And Formula One, this is the ultimate test of, you know what, we're going to do a whole qualifying session.

There's going to be delayed. There's going to be delayed again. There's going to be delayed again. And you're only going to get 11 laps. We're going to have four safety car formation laps as well. And we're still going to watch it all the way through because we are obsessed. We are quite literally the meme I will be there no matter

Yes, definitely Now before we dive into the podcast I'm going to share a five-star review This one comes in from Bobby Knows Wheel in the United Kingdom And the title of it is will-knowledge.com I love to see that. Maybe we should claim that website

But if you want your five-star review to be read out Please do leave us one And we will read it out next time For quite a while I've been looking for a podcast With a mixture of wheel knowledge And total banter When you hear about the Ferrari pain

And you hear about Tommy celebrating when Vastappen wins and Alonslow is on the podium. It's always a good P1 podcast. I don't like that Alonso slander. That's why I threw it in there, Tommy, to get your reaction. And you took it hook, line and sinker. So we love to see it. It's a poor man's birthday. It is actually. Happy 40s and a bad enough day. Yeah, and in the gravel as well. Maybe he just wanted an early dinner. But happy birthday, Fernando. Right, let's reflect a little bit on the sprint shootout first and foremost, because we've had two sessions today, two competitive sessions.

So let's wrap up this one very quickly. It was another wet to dry session. It just, Spar was like, we will give you delays, but we will also give you the perfect format for an exciting qualifying session. And we had an epic battle for P1 between Vastappen, Piastri, and Sines, in particular. I think it was 25,000ths of a second separating those three.

But of course, why wouldn't it be Max Vastappen that was the one to take poll? Yeah, he's managed in two days to absolutely annihilate the field by eight tenths. And in the next qualifying session, he's still in P1, but this time by the tiniest margin we've probably seen all year. So yeah, incredible session makes you maybe think what we could potentially see in qualifying without Red Bull's very tasty DRS advantage as well. It might close the gap a little bit and a bit closer. but yeah, Verstappenstool, came out on top, and what a session qualifying, just delivering.

Week in, week out, multiple days, two qualifying sessions. Did I not say that at least there'll be two bangers because there's two qualifying sessions, and they were. They were really, really good again. We need more qualifying sessions. It's worth mentioning as well. Charlotte Clare made that mistake on turn nine, which he said lost in four tenths,

which actually could have been the sprint poll, which made me slightly sad to hear that post-Sprint chat. Another thing to speak about was the Hamilton and Russell incident. That was something that a lot of people started discussing. I actually saw the whole clip where there was a bit jostling for position. Russell went past Hamilton on a lap, I think, ran wide at the sort of long right-hand. Before the corner with no name the left hand. He got that long sort of hairpin right-hander.

He went off there after passing Hamilton. And then there was a bit more jostling for position. And then they get down to the bus stop chican. Russell goes past Hamilton again, but then there is this problem because Perez is out of sync with the hot laps. So he comes steaming in where all of these cars are trying to start their lap, all thinking, or at least the Mercedes team were thinking that they had no time. When it turned out they had a good maybe 10, 15 seconds that they could have used that time a bit more efficiently to get a better spot. But that caused Russell to then be unideally quite close to the car in front of him,

but also Hamilton quite close to George. George locks up into term one, blocks Hamilton out of term one, then doesn't get out of the way either down the Kemmel straight. And it just was a bit questionable, wasn't it? It was. George Russell had the worst qualifying,

like how he's managed to even get into Q3 in the first place is because he had loads of off-track moments and scraped through both sessions, actually. And then managed to make it, and all he's done is kind of, of screw Hamilton's chance at a really good qualifying result, because Hamilton had pace. He was actually running P1 in that first lot of runs that we saw. But, yeah, Russell's had a mayor, like from his side, it's kind of in a weird way,

like the Vestappen-Hamilton incident in Austria, where Russell's got every right to carry on with his lap and probably thinking, well, even though I've locked up, the tracks drying a lot, are still probably go a bit quicker. In reality, he still was 10th and it wasn't worth doing anyway. but in doing so he's also, yeah, screwed his teammate over from a potentially good result. And then, yeah, as for the Peres thing. Sorry, go on. The fact, sorry, the fact that with that lap that Hamilton did,

even because of all of that holding up, he went and finished it and only finished nine-tenths off for Stappen in the end. So it does make you wonder exactly how much time was lost there in all of that kerfuffle because Lewis believed and I do as well that he would have been right up there. Yeah, I think he would have definitely been challenging for. or, you know, nearer the front, absolutely, whether we'd have got first place, we will never know. But he did have a lot of pace and it's the conditions that he's very good at. But yeah, the Perez thing was absolutely crazy because, look, you run that risk, don't you?

It's a weird one because you go out of sync and think, well, actually, I don't have a problem with traffic. But then you kind of do because everyone's sitting at the end doing the whole after you, after you, into the final corner. And boy, was that quite the shot when you saw Perez catching that that amount of cars into the corner. It was insane. It was.

And slightly questionable decision, I'd say, as well from Perez and Red Bull to run him quite early in terms of his final hot lap because it meant he was out of sync, then couldn't do another lap at the end, and that's where everyone was improving. So it didn't really work out for him,

and he ended up at P8 in qualifying. It just doesn't seem to be. to be going well on Saturdays or Fridays or whatever day we have qualifying for Sergio Perez. Right, let's get into the actual sprint then. Or, well, let's talk about the delayed part to the sprint. We've got a question from Glenn underscore Marley.

With the formation laps and the safety car, there was hardly any racing. Do you think this format is fair on the fans who come on the Saturday? This is an interesting question, actually, and one in which I'm going to pull my seat slightly more forward and get into a comfortable position because there is less running.

There's less running on a Saturday when you think about it, because usually you'd have free practice three, a whole hour. Then you'd have qualifying a whole hour. Instead, we had sprint quali, which you add the sessions together, 12 minutes, 10 minutes, 8 minutes, so basically half an hour. And then you have the sprint actual race 30 minutes again, basically. That's one hour of running on Saturday. there was more delays than they were running

and they're trying to draw more fans in competitive sessions every single day I'm also slightly questioning whether it needs to be as short as it is if they want to do more competitive running why don't they do more why don't they do that level of running make it slightly different

we've spoken previously about having a different compound of tyre potentially for that Saturday sprint, whether it be half-race distance, two-thirds distance, whatever. But then on the flip side of that, you go into the sustainability chat and they're trying to reduce the amount of tires

they're bringing to Grand Prix. There's lots of obviously ifs and butts and things that are causing certain ideas to not happen. But yeah, the wets are useless as well. But no, I don't think the format is fair on the fans on Saturday. And I don't like really the format.

The more and more times I experienced this Saturday daytime, It is a waste of time because I'm hanging around the whole of Saturday for an hour of running. Yeah, you joked at the start that will be there no matter what. And it is true because we will watch it and we love it. It's our job. But we will watch it and we'll. We can appreciate the people that don't have it as their job. It is a waste of a whole day.

Yeah, exactly. You have to commit a whole day to Formula One. You know, and there's a lot of Formula One races now. I've said it before. you go on about the sustainability and stuff, the actual Formula One cars driving around on the track is actually nothing compared to shipping all the equipment over, all the teams over flying across the world,

all the fans flying over as well to Formula One race, just have a double header, and then maybe have less Formula One races in a season. So you get more races overall, and you're helping with the environmental side that way because, you know, IndyCar do it, formula you do it, we've seen double headers. why go to all that effort to get all the cars set up and everything and then have an 11-lap race?

Just do a race again. Like they've got everything there set up. So in a weird way, is it less sustainable because you kind of, well, it's not, but it kind of is in a weird way because you're kind of, you're not making the most of you're having this whole day. You know, get rid of maybe sprint quali and just have an actual full-on race or something and reverse the top 10. Here he is. Here he is with the reverse. But it's true. Have a full,

have a full race. What is the point of just doing a miniature, a miniature weekend condensed. And then I agree with you. There's a slap bang in the middle. Feels wrong to me. They've talked about changing it, potentially doing all the sprint stuff first,

then the race stuff, like quali in the race Saturday evening and Sunday. I don't know. It's still not quite quite right for me. And yeah, it does seem odd for the fans, not just in the grandstand, but also at home that we've just seen

11 laps of running, few behind the safety car as well. Not a huge amount, is it? No, it's not. But yeah, my biggest gripe is, as I say, the fact that it is literally just an hour of running. That's all, if someone spends two, 300 pounds, potentially,

on a one-day grandstand ticket for Saturday or whatever, or GA, whatever it is, that is not enough. I know that you get to see F2 and F3. Everyone's there for Formula 1. That encompasses and adds to the experience of the F2 and F3, and they're great. But the main priority for a lot of people is Formula 1. And you only see it for an hour.

Practice used to be an hour and a half per session. And it just seems like they're whistling it back. And as you say, Tommy, the actual running of the cars isn't the problem. It's the logistics around the sport, which is. So, yeah, not a fan of it at the moment. And maybe I'm slightly more grumpy because of the fact of all these delays for an hour of running instead of, you know, if we have these delays and then we have a two-hour race, we then at least feel satisfied. But instead we didn't. Yeah, we waited all that time for such a short race.

And well, we'll go, maybe we'll just dive into the next question because it kind of covers it. Let's do it. Let's do it. At Fergie's right ref asks, why can't F1 sort out the rain. fiasco. Go on Tommy. As you wanted it to be teed up for you, sir. Well, we said this on the watch-along that the conditions when they started was too

wet for actual running. The spray was ridiculous. We've been talking about, you know, and quite rightly, that spar is a difficult circuit because the rain hangs in the air. The visibility is awful. And I don't have any problem with the fact that, they didn't run in those conditions. The problem was they delayed the whole thing and you could see even before the rain hit that there was a big radar, you know, people are tweeting it going

there's rain going to hit in 25 minutes. So why have we delayed the start by 25 minutes? Because it was always going to happen. It was so predictable. And no offense to F2 and F3 like you say in Porsches or whatever. But after SPAR 2021, I thought, you know, they, they had to be. They, they had the kind of position now where they were going to move things to make sure that fans got value for money and that everyone like you say everyone the formula two is really exciting but everyone's there for the f1 at the end of the day and it's just a painful watch when you've got f2 going around in the dry Porsches or whatever and then you get to the Formula one it chucks it down with rain and they can't run it's frustrating it certainly is now a lot of

people sort of coming in with, you know, why aren't they? Why do we have wet tires? What's the point if they're not going to go out running? But with spa in particular and the way the spray hangs in the air, but also just in general, it is about the visibility. It's not the handling as such. Those wet tires would have worked. I am convinced in almost all of those conditions that we had if it was just one car going around. The problem is we have a race of 20 cars. all kicking up spray, you have to be able to see where you're going. And I'm also backing the fact of them doing those delays. When we were in that situation, absolutely. The FIA made the right decision to wait until the spray was minimal enough so that the drivers can sort of see where they're

going. I completely agree with that, and I know you do as well, Tommy. What I don't agree with is what you linked in and said there, Tommy, is that they knew that that heavy rainstorm was coming in for a long time. And I feel as though, look, I'm not involved in the logistics department, whatever. But that race was scheduled originally for half three. They look at the radar and go, yeah, that's, that looks pretty bad for around four o'clock. Maybe we should just carry on and just do it for half three. I know, I know it says in the rulebook that we have to have a certain amount of time between sessions,

but I really think we should maybe do it earlier. No? Okay, cool. All right, so what we're going to do instead is have a, we're going to do that time. We're then going to have massive delays. We're then going to have four formation laps in a, sorry, five formation laps in a 16-lap race. And we're going to count them because obviously we can't, because we can't not because of the fuel loads, etc., etc. So we're going to have an 11-lap race.

That in itself, the planning, the logistics of that is robbing us as fans of the short race anyway and making it even shorter. Yeah, exactly. I think they're so locked in with their ways of it must happen this way by the book. This is what we say. Three hours after here and two hours after here and yada, yada, yada. There should be an emergency decision that can be made where you go, geez, this weather is pretty mad. Let's try and find a slot.

And another argument with the sprint format is that, you know, it's kind of come back to bite them in a way that they are maybe, you know, cramming too much stuff into one day because they can't do that. and they have to go, oh, we need half an hour after this. And then Formula 2 gets delayed and there's a red flag. And then the whole day is getting pushed back. And then Formula 1, which is meant to be the thing that everyone's arrived for on that day. And the main event is kind of being, you know, in a weird way, the unfavourable slot because they knew it, like you say, they knew it was going to rain. So, yeah, it's just a bit, it's a bit silly, really, isn't it? Very silly.

Look, I'm sure there are many reasons. We're just fans sharing our slight distaste for how that went down. And yeah, it just felt a little bit meh at the end of that Saturday sprint race, if I'm being completely honest with you. But there was some amazing action that we do need to talk about before Vastappen won by three laps. And the beginning, the crazy beginning of that race where the safety guard goes in, for Stappen bolts, and he was very much in the same position. as Lewis Hamilton in Hungary in 2021 when you're the leader.

You are setting a precedent of if I pit and everyone else stays out, have I made a mistake here? Do I? Do I go for one lap and then come in? Mastappan carries on half the field. It was literally like a Formula 2 race where you have two different tire compounds racing each other. You had half the field come in for intermediate tires, which was the right decision. but also I guess it wasn't that big of a deal because the wets weren't as if it wasn't like

Max was out on drys and they were going in for inters it was still a working enough compound that Max came out just behind Oscar a Red Bull first first pit box as well yes so in a weird way Max actually pitting would mean that it would be

the most difficult release as well I wonder if that had something to do with it that yeah that's a very good point actually I wonder if the strategy team have thought about something like that. It's just literally popped into my head right now that they come in the pits and then everyone's flying into the pits. They're probably going to have to hold.

But it is an interesting theory because, you know, Max's actually just going off on his own and then being able to, because actually in a weird way, he got delayed very slightly by. I think it was Lando, wasn't it? He was in that second pack of cars. So there wasn't as many coming in the pits. the second pack of cars, he waited for Orlando to come by. And maybe if he hadn't have done that, and it was a clear just in and out,

because we know how good Red Bull are at their pit stops, it would have been very close to Piastri, probably side by side. It was very close. Not that we saw it, because I'm sorry to start with so many rants, but Formula One need to stop focusing on so much on every single person's pit stop in situations like that, when there was, it was going to be really exciting to see if a step and Piastri had got outside by side, but they're so obsessed with showing every single pit stop. It was a bit frustrating that. But yeah, Piastri took the lead in all that kind of chaos because he made the most

of the inters, didn't he? Which is another mad thing that they just want to get straight on that tire because the wets aren't any good. We saw that in Japan last year. What they would have, back to your pit point of the cameras focusing on the pits, what they could have used is there's. small box and gone Verstappen. Let's use his box.

Let's see where he comes out. At least then we have some feeling of where he was coming out, but instead we didn't get it yet, which was certainly frustrating. Question from Hawkeye Believer. Did the FIA just acknowledge that Pit Lane was going to be complete chaos and give all teams a pass on releases?

There were four to five that in any other format would have been investigated at least. There is of course a level of understanding with the fact of everyone diving into the pits that there is going to be some kind of danger there. I think definitely more leniency. But also, let's not forget, that pit lane is quite wide.

They could go side by side there reasonably easy. We saw a few people do that, yeah. Yeah, and we've seen that before as well, and them not get penalties. If they can go side by side and there isn't a slamming of the brakes or a car coming over and squeeze them into the wall, that's usually where the problem lies. Or maybe, you know, they're blocking someone to go into their pits, whatever. but I don't think there was too many that were incredibly dangerous. As far as we saw, obviously, we didn't manage to see every pit stop.

Ferrari, quite lucky. Considering it was a chaotic first couple of laps, I don't think it was as bad as it could have been. No, and it is quite ironic in a way that the FAA and the way they have the race of starting it behind the safety car and everyone starting on wets, the big irony of that being a safety thing is that then you get the really unsafe situation of every single car diving into the pits at the same time,

which is quite chaotic because they were always going to, if it wasn't the first lap, it would be lap two, that they all just want to get on the inters like we saw, like I said, Japan last year. So it was always going to happen. And then you just get quite an unsafe situation anyway, because all the teams are frantically running around. There's cars trying to get in. They've got to be like alert, all these cars are coming in. Yeah, it's a bit, it's a bit mad, really. But I do think this person, Hawkeye believer, is on something

because there were some that I think would have been investigated. Maybe they were delayed so long, they thought, oh, can we just go home now? Come on, we'll get this race done and then I want my chips and waffles. Chips and waffles at the same time. Yeah, why not?

Fair play. Next big moment in the race was Fernando Alonzo on his birthday, beaching it in the gravel after losing it through Pouan, very uncharacteristic mistake, you'd have to say, for Fernando. He was running down, I think, in 16th at the time,

an incredibly washed race for the birthday boy, perhaps maybe had a bit more too much cake this morning or I don't know, but it wasn't working for him. It's not like he was at all going to be challenging for the top eight where the points are scored. And, yeah, it, bunched up the pack, didn't it? It did. Yeah, they

made a weird choice just going a little bit back to the Sprint Utah. They were obviously 14th and 15th, and Strahl went off, but there was talk that they were saving the, maybe saving the inters or something like that in case it rains tomorrow. Maybe, I think you said as well

on the watch on that maybe they just know that the top cars, they're not in it, they're the fifth best car now, so they're not getting a point. So just putting everything in. It won't risk anything. Send stroll out on mediums. Yeah. But you have all the drivers to go off.

Fernando is so good in wet conditions. We've seen that his whole career, really. So a rare mistake, and I'm not afraid to admit that I thought it was stroll in the barrier when I first saw the shot of an Aston in the wall because we'd seen it earlier in the day. But yeah, Fernando. Force of habit. Absolute shocker. Yeah.

Yeah, it's that's Simpsons meme, isn't it? Stroll. What? So, yeah, disaster for Alonso. My God, another, we mention it every time, but if Red Bull weren't in this, the championship, like Alonzo would be leading the championship and then it'd be like, can he hold on?

Because they're having a shocker. But they are in it, Tommy, and we have to commend them for their achievements, okay? You literally support Max Verstappen. And this is why, Tommy, you get messages of people going, Who does Tommy actually support? Because I'm not sure it's Vastappan. Okay? Come on.

I know you're wearing it for Stapen top. I know, but it's just, yeah, it's just fun to dream, isn't it? It's fun to dream about your driver not winning anymore. No, it being close. You just enjoy it while it lasts, all right? Because it's not going to last forever. Charlotte Clare five times in a row. World champion.

Next question. At Cisarino underscore, do you think without the Alonso safety car, Piastri could have held his lead till the end of the the race. No, not a chance. Vastapin won by 6.6 seconds in the end. Piastri, as Max said during the race, was sliding around a lot. Front left, I think was limited for Piastri. And yeah, Max had far too much speed in that Red Bull towards the end in particular. It would have been a matter of time. It would have been maybe another lap, maybe two. But I think Max had it either way,

to be honest with you. He did. It was so quick on the straight as well. The McLaren's so bad in a straight line. Yeah, that is concerning for tomorrow. I mean, they're actually not even qualified that well, have they? No, fifth and sixth, isn't it? No, fifth and seventh.

Yeah, so they've dropped, they might even drop back even more, but yeah, it's not, it was never going to happen. Max was just too quick, too good, makes you wonder maybe why, how Perres couldn't get past, Ghazly with the straight line speed and stuff and how quick Max was but yeah Max it was never going to be even when Piastri got the lead you kind of had a couple laps and then the safety car but Max was so strong particularly in that in that first sector

it was never going to the only place that Piastri was quicker was that that middle sector but it's not enough when there's a huge humongous straight there's nothing nothing he could have Dan. Absolutely not. Let's now go to our next talking point, which is Hamilton versus Perez. Question from at Narenhawani 7. Did Lewis Hamilton deserve the five second penalty for causing the collision with Sergio Perez? I'm going to straight up say, I think it was a harsh penalty. It was a racing incident, in my opinion, genuinely. And it comes back to the same old discussion that we have around penalties and how they're judged. Because penalties are not supposed to be measured or taken into account the consequence of an action.

And if you want to look at the next 10 seconds after that incident, the consequence was nothing. Perez was still ahead of Hamilton. For me, it was side-by-side action. Hamilton loses the car slightly, taps Perez's car, and it's really unfortunate for Sergio, like massively unfortunate that his car then gets a hole in the side. But I don't see that being a five second time penalty. They were racing. And that, for me, is the stewards taken into account the consequence

of Perez falling like a stone and then going into the pits and retiring. And that's not what penalties are supposed to be adjudged by. They clearly are, though, because, yeah. But they shouldn't be. That's what it is in the rulebook. Yeah, exactly. But they clearly do because it's, like you say, Perez has retired from the race, whereas I do agree that if they'd have just carried on going down the straight

and Perez's car had been fine, it was just a tap. I don't know why that's now twice that we've seen a Mercedes just tap the side pod and it's managed to puncture a hole in it. Gaping hole. Yeah, it's mad. But I don't understand like, I've watched it back. I've watched the, I said I wanted to see the onboard before I made judgment. Hamilton doesn't have a snap of oversteer or anything.

You watch the top-down view which we saw many times. He's not cutting in, but it's two cars, in my opinion, going for like the middle part of the track where Peres could have left Hamilton more room. Hamilton could have maybe taken more of an inside line. I think there's responsibility there for Hamilton to maybe be a bit more on the inside, he is turning and he doesn't have a snap of oversteer and Perez has to sort of judge the risk of as a driver alongside me how much can I squeeze him is it really worth it um so I'm really on the fence about it because I think it could go either way and maybe that maybe that equates to

it's a racing incident but I think it to quote martin brundle's famous phrase I think it's six of one half a dozen of the other kind of moment where they're both to, they both could have given more room. It's kind of two to tango. And, yeah, I think if Hamilton had got a bit of a swapper on and really washed to the side, then yeah, I think it was a deserving penalty. But I don't think he does that. No.

It's a really, it's a really tough call. I really can't decide. I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to judge it. And we had, we had actually a lot of questions. about this incident and you know it's people going Hamilton definitely deserve the penalty don't you think and then why has Hamilton got a penalty as awful which just shows that you know it is so split it's not clear cut at all I wouldn't want to

be a steward in that decision particularly because it's Mercedes and Red Bull again which I'm sure went down very well on Twitter yes I'm sure Twitter are still going X are still going even now but Yeah, there was almost a plane crash as well straight afterwards where Perez was squeezing Hamilton. I was on the rear tire and I was like, oh my God, this is a very high speed part of the circuit.

But yeah, let us know your thoughts. If you're on YouTube, let us know in the comments. And whilst you're here, subscribe as well. Don't forget to subscribe to this wonderful P1 channel, F1 content for days. Good stuff. Next question. At Alex Johnston, one, two, three.

Do you feel that the severity of the penalties should be changed for the sprint race due to the fact that the field is much closer together as it is a much shorter race. No. No. No. I don't think so.

It's that argument, goes back to that argument of Carlos Sites in Australia when he goes, oh, well, it's a red flag and the field is bunched up and it's a three-lap shootout, so I shouldn't get a five-second penalty because it's too harsh. It's like, you know, the field could be as spread out or as close. It's changing every single race. You can't change it because then you'd say, say, oh, well, should it not be a five-second penalty if they're close?

You know, it should just be, it shouldn't, it's almost like what you say about the consequence shouldn't be taken into it. It should be a penalty all the same, regardless of it's a one-lap race or a 45-lap race. It shouldn't make a difference. Yeah, and the penalties are there to deter. They're not there to be sort of, oh, well, on the sprint, I could dive-bomb and get a two-and-a-half-second penalty. Like, they're there to deter. They should be a blanket rule. And, yeah, it might feel harsh. Of course it will for Hamilton

for the amount of places he lost and somehow managed to slot in between Russell and... Russell and... Where did they slot? Norris. Norris. I don't know how they managed that.

It was eight tenths in the end. It was eight tenths. Weird. Yeah, so it must have been the timing line. Yeah, okay. So Hamilton just beat Russell in the end to finish seventh with the five second penalty.

But yeah, it might feel harsh, but it's just the way it goes. It's the way the cookie crumbs. doesn't it? Hamilton was was unfortunate that essentially there was a train behind Gasley who did extremely well in a car that shouldn't be there and that train just meant more pain for Hamilton because it closed everyone up and meant that he'd dropped down even more positions it's just the way you know so Formula One has been like that always we've had you know look at Hamilton dare I mention it Silverstone

where he got the the penalty with Verstappen and then he drove through the field and won, and then people were going, oh, he should have been disqualified. It's like, no, you give them the penalty based on what happens. It's not basically the car performance. Yeah, exactly, because then you'd be, you'd have to make up random penalties of going, oh, he deserves a 3.5 second penalty for that. It'd just get, it just get farcical. Absolutely.

Finally, the top three was Max Bostappen, Oscar Biashtri, and Pierre Gazley. Ret Races comes in with a question How the hell did Pierre Gazley hold on to that P3? Perhaps he had a guardian angel looking down on him. That's a sweet thing to think about, isn't it? I think he actually put on his flowers where he was tributing. Tributing? Yeah, Antoine Hubert and he said,

I will prove them wrong. And quite a nice little message to put there. And for him to finish P3 in an Alpine that's... And Gassley as well, his performances haven't been great this year. What a sprint race for. from him to thrust himself up from a decent qualifying to then not finish on the podium, but to get a sprint medal is quite the achievement, I'd say. Yeah, now there's a few more points actually on offer in the sprint.

For an Alpine, six points is actually quite massive because, you know, even in the main race, you're only looking at the bottom end of the points that are available. So a big points hall for Gassley and a really, really, really. really good sprint race. The fact that he managed to hold off Perez and Hamilton and stay there was really, really impressive. And yeah, got the jump on the start, on the, you know, Ferraris in the pit stops and then just held it there.

Really, really impressive. Don't want to talk about it. Final question from at New Romantics. Why is there no F1 sprint podiums? Feels like such a waste to not celebrate drivers' achievements, especially since the sprint is meant to give more people a chance at a top three spot. Now, I don't know if I'm in the minority here, but I'm glad that they don't have sprint podiums because I would want to see personally, Oscar Piestri getting his first podium when it's actually a podium, rather than being like,

well, it's a sprint medal, but you're on the podium. And it's just going to cause even more confusion like the pole position tire award that was given to Max Verstappen. But the statistic doesn't go to Max Verstapp and it goes to Charles LeCler as a poll position in his book. So I'm kind of glad they don't have sprint podiums. It's, I think they just save it for the big thing. Yeah, I do, I do understand what they're saying though, because it does add to that whole kind of like weird flat ending of a race that, and I don't think that helps. I don't necessarily think they should do a podium and I will still, what I said at the start,

that why not just do a double header? get them on the car they had that that thing didn't they they went round the track and they interviewed them oh yeah yeah yeah they didn't do that where they had the like the laurel wreaths or whatever and it was and yeah it was something a bit different that felt yeah maybe a bit different i think so it feels like something but yeah to get up on the podium just have just have it as a double header and and get the the slot because i do i do agree that that the disappointing thing is, I kind of see it both ways. It's disappointing that Piaastri and Gassley, for example, that would have been crazy. If that was the race and they're up on the podium, it's like, wow,

what a podium. That's really unique. But you don't want it to be too much of a song and dance because it's not really a podium. It's not in the statistics. It was an 11-lap race. so yeah the sprint this is the floor with the sprint isn't it that you can have those moments happen to George Russell in a way really that you know you win the sprint

and then it's not really a victory and is it your first victory does it take away from that enjoyment of getting your first Grand Prix win or your first podium yeah it's still not still not sold on it I do think that

and maybe maybe It was just the nature of the championship. Because I think you said yourself, didn't you, that you don't mind the racing for eight points when it was 2021. And you felt like every point mattered in a championship battle. But now it just does feel like,

why have we had this whole day for 11 laps of a, of spa for a handful of points? Yeah, it's weird. Weird feeling, I think, is the thing I find most with the sprints when it finishes. You kind of almost forget there's a race coming the next day. and it just feels like a bit of a flat ending for it, just be like, okay, that was that.

Cool. Okay, but we're not going to leave this podcast on a flat ending. We're going to leave it on a hype ending, aren't we, Tom Bellingham? Because we've got a race tomorrow. It's on pole position for tomorrow's full Grand Prix,

the full fat one. None of this zero sugar sprint race. This is the full fat race thing, all right? We're ready for it. Maxis Rastap and starts from sixth. He's going to be P1 by lap five, but we are going to enjoy. every single turn, every second, every millisecond until that happens.

And we'll be live on Twitch. Matt P1, Tommy, please come and join us. Big old watchalong. Hopefully no delays. My God, the delays today. We did Formula E as well. That was an absolutely ridiculous race to watch along too. We had, I think, two red flags, another safety car in there as well.

We've been, we've been busy today. But yeah, hopefully tomorrow is going to be perhaps a sprinkling of rain, but something to just make it a little bit slippery. I actually don't mind a dry race with a bit of sprinkle. That would be beautiful. And until then, we'll see you then. Tommy, what are your final thoughts?

Bye. You've got to. You team me up to say bye and then I was like, oh, damn. Yeah, final thoughts. I don't know if I want it to be a wet or dry session, to be honest. Just please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, give us a Sunday banger

before we have this break because we're owed it. Saturdays, we've had some good Saturdays. Good Fridays. Now it's time. Come on. It's time for a Sunday banger. See you there tomorrow for the full roast. Bye! Bye.

Bangers and mash. P1 is a Stack production and part of the A-cast's creator network.