P1 with Matt and Tommy - Reaction to Australian GP qualifying

Episode Date: March 15, 2025

A dominant showing up the front left all the other hopefuls in their wake, so... Championship back off. But what a performance from a couple of underrated midfielders!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 P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. Post qualifying. We've done it. It's happened. We've had a competitive session finally in 2025. And I don't want to talk about any of it. So it's the end of the podcast. Thanks so much for coming along.

It's been a great, you know, what an alarm to set to then watch a Williams and a racing ball. Go faster than you're fast. favourite team. Tommy, how are you feeling, sir? I bet you're feeling quite good considering Matt Verstappen was supposed to go out in Q1. Yes, as we learned from our predictions of putting him first in the championship, Red Bull are finished and they were going to be nowhere and I think Vastappen was going to finish like ninth in the championship, according to most people. But he was there, although looking very dominant from one team, which we'll get into. We will. Let's get into Q1 first, though, where the five drivers,

out were Antonelli, Holcomberg, Lawson, Ocon and Bearman. Now that is a fruity Q1 exit group there. We'll begin with a question from P1 Patreon member Lossie Dogg. Did Red Bull hire the wrong driver? I'm not going to categorically say yes or no on this one because it's the first qualifying session of the year. Lawson didn't get FP3. So I would be honest.

didn't watch FB3, but I know he had a lack of running from FP3 because let's be real. Some people have to have sleep. I'm still on a lack of sleep right now. But on the flip side of that, I think we had proof before. We have proof now. That Red Bull is a disgusting car to drive. There's evidence now. And there was before.

But that's now four drivers that have gone into that second seat and struggled immensely. Now, of course, Lawson is in his first race with Red Bull, so perhaps he'll build, perhaps he'll learn. But the thing is, Lawson, again, it was a prospective talent last year, stepped in, did a decent job up against Sonoda, and he comes into this and he's knocked out in Q1. Like, Red Bull, what are you doing with that car? Like, what is Max Verstappen's driving style? It's ridiculous. It is insane and obviously everyone knows that I advocated for Yuki-Sinoda at Red Bull big time and would have loved to have seen him there. But I'm not going to go completely in on Lawson here because it is quite clear that there is a fundamental issue with that second Red Bull seat.

And it's not to say that the car can't be driven and not to say that it's like, you know, no one can get. anywhere near Max, which I think probably is the case, but he is quite clear that you can't put someone in with the experience of Perez and then go for a rookie with loads of confidence like Lawson. And it's a common trend. This has happened with four drivers now, with four very different kind of trajectories and experience and things like that. So it can't just be a coincidence. I'm not going to jump in here and say that just because Yuki Sonoda had an absolutely amazing performance in that V-Carb that if he was in that car, yeah, he might have done better, but would he be up there with Maxis Tappen? I just don't think that's possible. It's clear that there's something

so difficult to drive with that car because it's happening to everyone now. And it is just the way Red Bull go about their racing. The car is all. set up to Max of getting the maximum out of it for him to win the driver's championship. And that's just how they're going racing. And it is very much like second driver deal with it. You just don't want it. Until Max Verstappen moves on from Red Bull, goes somewhere else. Red Bull is not.

Yeah, it's not an appeal. Of course, it is an appeal in some ways because drivers are like, ah, well, it's won the championship. It's, it's, it's, you can get, get some podiums. But the realistic outlook of that is that that's not the case. Unless you have an identical driving style to Max Verstappen, which I don't think anyone really does, you're going to struggle massively. And it is a career ender.

Or not end. Of course, Albon and Ghazly bounced back, but it's a career tarnisher, for sure. So, yeah, we're not going to be too harsh on Lawson. Let's see how he gets on in the first few races. But it's not looking great for, loss and just purely, you looked at the onboard struggling everywhere. He was having three stabs at the steering wheel at some points. So I do feel for him and I hope he can bounce back

and just have a clean race tomorrow. So let's see. Let's move on now. The Paine Train 07 comes in with, will Helmut Marco ever learn to shut his mouth? Wow, that is straight to the point. Of course, this is referencing Helmut Marco saying that Bortoletto is a B-tier driver and that Jack Duhin is a C-tier driver. And yet his A-tier driver was knocked out in Q1 and Antonelli was also seen as an A-tier driver. We'll get onto him. But, yeah, Hamat-Marco does not mince his words at all. He has no filter whatsoever.

He is not the Oracle of Truth, despite Rebel being sponsored by Oracle. And, yeah, he will just say savage comments. I love the fact that Borselletto clapped back a little bit and said that if something around the drivers just seemed to fail when they go to Red Bull. But yeah. Point prison. Yeah, exactly. And yeah, Borselaetto did a great job.

Doing, I would say, did a pretty great job. Made it out of Q1. Yeah, I didn't have the greatest of Q2 drivers, which we'll get onto. But it's, yeah, it's something that we shouldn't always think that Helmut Marco knows everything. Yeah, it's come to bite him that comment because, yeah, Bortoletto was fantastic and doing as well. You know, both of them put in in great performances, a very kind of mixed bag from the rookies this year so far with that first session. Absolutely. So, of course, let's now just quickly touch upon Antonelli being knocked out. He, of course, broke something on

the car, I believe, after going wide. But still knocked out in Q1, not the best considering a certain someone on this podcast predicted that he would out-qualified George Russell. So that will be a good one to reflect on. We don't talk about that prediction. We just talk about Portle-Lefts out of Hockburg. Okay. All right. We felt only- Let's go with that narrative. Yeah, yeah, please. And then Berman, who I have clearly put one of the most almighty jinxes on possible for the first round of the season after naming him my biggest good surprise of the entire year with the fact that he beached it in FP3 immediately after going out and then his car was broken in Q1. So Bearman has had quite possibly the worst start to his Haas career around Australia. But I guess that takes,

well, I was going to say it takes the pressure of him because he starts last and there's not a lot of expectation, but he's made now, yeah, a couple of mistakes, big ones. And the fact that his teammate is alongside him on the grid, I guess is a kind of saving grace. Like, Hass, what is going on? We thought they were trundling around at testing because they just weren't showing their hand. Turns out they were going as fast as they could. Obviously, they weren't. But they are bad. They are very bad. Yeah, last year, we were going, you know, Kamatsu's the goat. He's turned them around sometimes looking like they were the sixth best team and now they look very much bottom behind even Kixalba so yeah poor poor start for for Berman a mix of kind of well

mainly errors but then the bad luck as well with the gearbox and but if I must talk about Antonelli yeah shocking you do shocking start yeah I'm going to have to on time and yeah shocking start for him. It is a difficult track to sort of go into where mistakes are punished. And he is absolutely kind of doing what I expected of him over driving the car. But maybe around a track like Albert Park, that's not the way to go. You know, if it's Bahrain or something where you can... Because he showed in FP3.

I know it's only FP3, but he did a pretty decent time. I think it was up in fifth. Here we go. Probably rolling out the FP3 times. He's got it in him. This is like stage two of him crashing a bonzo. Because Matt's never overreacted for free practice. Cut to a clip of yesterday.

And, yeah. I'm emotionally vulnerable. That was a low blow. That was a real low blow. That's ridiculous for you. Anyway, let's hurry up and get to Ferrari. Okay. Let's go to Q2.

Thankfully, we aren't speaking about Ferrari here. The five drivers out were Hadjar, Alonzo, Stroll, Duin and Bortoletto. And we might have to rename this podcast and the EJerk podcast because the question comes in from P1 Patreon member, Sophie, does Bortoleto deserve a better car? One quality session.

Get him in the Red Bull. Come on. There we go. And it'd probably qualify lower than that. So yeah, he mastered that green wheelie bin beautifully did Bortoletto. Out qualifying Holcomberg is no mean feat. It has to be said. So big shout out to Bortoleto for that. Does he deserve a better car? Let's just wait and see, guys. I know we're all very excited to come to conclusions after the first qualifying session of the year, but yeah, he does.

Put him in the rebel. It was a brilliant performance. Unbelievable save in Q2 as well, a huge moment. I thought he was going straight in the wall and would have undone all his hard work, because he then probably would have started last after changing his entire car. But to beat Holcomberg on debut, It's an awful car. I don't think anyone would have expected him to, you know, make it into Q2 at all. And, yeah, I think I'm very surprised at the comments of how Matt Marco and how much underplayed Bortoleto's been

because he did win the F2 title as a rookie and, you know, there's no mean feat. He's done a very, very good job. And for whatever reason, didn't see. seem to have much hype around him. He was a McLaren Jr. And we know that McLaren know a thing or two about good drivers. So, yeah, done a very, very solid job so far.

But let's wait and see if he can continue it for the rest of the year and score that one point to bagging P-19 in the championship. And I can take the dub. Also probably worth mentioning both Aston Martins, not as horrendous as maybe you had predicted. They're off, you know, just off the outside. skirts of the points. Alonso 12th, stroll 13th. So again, maybe not as bigger disaster as some may have predicted with the fact that we believed Aston Martin are now just full focus, 2026 from day

one. Yeah, I'm very surprised to Aston Martin, actually. I thought there'd be maybe behind the Alpins, whether they would have been if due and had got a lap, because of course Hamilton had that spin in the in Q2, which maybe would it have changed the order a bit? Some drivers got compromised. But yeah, surprising for a mastermind because I thought there'd be a lot worse. Q3 and the top 10 was Norris, Piastri, Vestapp and Russell, Sonoda Albon, Nuclair, Hansen, Gassley, Sines. First question. And here we are, knee-jerk podcast once again at Ross Bella 16. Is the championship already over? It is not over because nobody has scored points yet.

So Alex Albon still leads the Drivers World Championship by alphabetical order. But it's looking ominous from a dry qualifying perspective. McLaren are miles ahead. I'm going to say it. They are miles ahead in the dry. We saw that. The way they pieced together that last sector was unbelievable. Now, whether it is just the fact that we had quite high temperatures and some of the teams struggled in that last sector, Ferrari, and McLaren didn't, that might well have been the difference, right?

Because it was a marked difference in that last sector between McLaren and everybody else. Max was in there. It was pretty close, wasn't it? Between the first couple of sectors. So let's see. Of course, we have the added element of which teams have gone for a really heavy wet setup, which haven't. It's quite a short lap So when we get to the likes of spa

I'm quite scared of how far McLaren might well be ahead Over a dry lap But then again this is the first race of the season Drive at the teams like Ferrari They've come with a whole brand new car Which might be a question mark we ask in the middle of the season Of did you really need to change a lot of things Going into this year?

Because then you have to learn this new package Do you have enough time to learn the new package And then win races and win the championship and then go into 2026 with new regulations. Sorry, I lost my mind a little bit there. But it is looking very good for McLaren. If you're a McLaren fan, for sure. They are the favourites and they have delivered.

But it did take them the final lap to do it. Yeah, it did. It's going to be a case of can McLaren deliver under the pressure of having comfortably the best car, particularly at the start of the year. I don't think, you know, they've both been underplaying it about how quick their car is. It is funny because I watched, I think it was a YouTube video on F1 that I think goes out on F1 TV. And they're there kind of going, yes, it's the closest season we're ever going to get.

It's going to be so close between the top four as a graphics coming up of the pecking order from testing, showing McLaren a four-tenths clear of the field. And I was going, if that was Red Bull, the narrative would be the season's over, Max has won it. So they do have to sell it slightly going into the season, right? Oh, yeah, I know they have to sell it, but it is funny that kind of, because it's McLaren now, people may be underplaying it as much. And maybe, and yeah, it's more exciting because it is a new team. I know they won the Constructors' Championship, but they've not won the driver's title, obviously, in years.

they look very, very, very quick, very ominous with how quick they were in that final sector because my word, I remember thinking after that second run going no way, are we actually going to get McLaren look like they were going to be fourth and tenth. Both Oscar made a mistake. Well, they were. But then looking back at last year.

We knew they'd improve. Yeah, exactly. They need to not make as many mistakes. And, well, do they work together? How are they going to do it with Max behind? Yeah, and they didn't make mistakes in the sense of they delivered a one-two. And that's all you can ask of McLaren. So it's a tick off the checklist for the first race of the season.

Question from P1 Patreon member Alan Enderpe. Will McLaren use papyre rules to try to win against Max? No, this is the dilemma. at McLaren. Papaya rules, and Zach Brown has already been asked about this,

is essentially race hard, but respect your teammate and give them a bit of room. That is the greyest area I've ever seen. If Oscar Piastri gets a sniff on lap one, he is taking it,

and he does not care because he wants to win the World Championship. If he slots him in B2, if he works together, it's home race, there's so many factors, And Max Verstappen is going to be licking his lips over that thought because McLaren don't have a one-two driver. They have two number ones.

They both want to win the World Championship. They know that this might well be their last opportunity because of McLaren going into 2026, how fast they're going to be with these new regulations. Norris and Piastrian might think this will be their only opportunity at a world championship, and at least with this advantage as well. So for me, going into tomorrow, slippery conditions are what is expected. some people have been throwing it's going to be a wet to dry race I mean sign me up if that's the case but for me

if that is the case Max is the favourite he has to be in those conditions we don't know yet how fast the red will be in those conditions of course we saw Max off the pace didn't we in Silverstone last year when we'd had those slippery to dry

and it was a crazy race but how can you discount Max in that condition in those conditions when you just look back to Brazil. Yeah, going back to that question of, is it over? You'd kind of, it's very easy to see the gap between first and third and go, oh, this is kind of game over. But actually, I'd say that that top three is probably like,

if you were setting up a race for wet conditions tomorrow, you want max in third, you want the two McLaren, together where Lando, we know he's had problems with his starts. You've got Oscar Piestri, who is not afraid to go around the outside of his teammate, even when Lando's leading the title and is the title favourite. Never mind when it's the first race of the season and he knows this is his big opportunity to kind of, that's going to be a battle between the two McLaren's of basically stamping their authority of who is going to be the number one going into this year. So that's a huge thing. Oscar's going to want to win his home race as well. There's no way Oscar Piaastri is not

going for it on that first lap. And yeah, Max as well, even though he's so far off those McLaren's in the dry conditions, we know how good he is in the wet, and he's got the luxury of not, you know, the luxury of his teammate being an 18th and completely out the way and he can just fake his own race. I don't think that's a luxury. As much as you try and pay it. It might be if Lawson's getting lapsed on lap two and he blocks the team of Claren.

Wow, lap two is crazy from you. What I will actually say, and I'm going to take this opportunity to say it, for those of you that may well have commented on our preseason predictions where we said Max was a world champion and that he would fight at the front and then a lot of you,

a lot of you came in comments. Matt and Tommy, you know nothing about Formula One. How can you possibly think Max will be anywhere near the front? The Red Bull is the fourth fastest car. How could you possibly think that? I'm just going to let you look

at where he's starting. We can then look again tomorrow. But it turns out Tommy that our watching of Formula One over many, many, many, many years it shows that we know a thing or two about Wheel and I'm just going to straight up say it. Maxwell may well finish 17th tomorrow

and then finish 14th of the championship. But right now, I'm going to cook those haters. Thank you. It is an insanely bold prediction to think that the guy that's won the last four championships might have a sniff of the championship and be able to over deliver, which we've seen countless times last year.

And yeah, he's definitely got a chance to marry. I think Max would be more than happy with that. It'll obviously be disappointed that the gap between McLaren, but he knew that, I think it was yesterday, or maybe even predictions of Max going, it's a one-team championship fight between the two McLaren's. But that's perfect for him because, again, when we made our predictions of first to 20th, we said the luxury that Max has is the two number ones at the other teams.

They're going to take points off each other. And Max can just focus on his own race. And that is going to happen probably from the very first corner tomorrow between the two McLaren's. And I can't wait for it. Sign me up. What I don't want to sign up to is the next question. P1 Patreon member Tim Tomato 08. What happened with Ferrari?

Big wet setup. one of the biggest wet setups you've ever seen on a car. It's why they're overheating. They want to have

that good tire temperature for tomorrow. So, I think Fred's cooking here. Seventh and eight, that's where you want to be. Top six are all going to be. Get the slip stream from Melbourne.

We know he's quick on the straights. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Albon will lead us to victory. Yeah, that's what I expected to be talking about

was a Williams and a racing ball being ahead of both, both Ferraris. Charles, I think, actually abandoned his last lap as well, which doesn't help things by any stretch of the imagination. And for them to be that far back, when I am still convinced that Lando and Oscar held back slightly to make sure they got in a good lap, is quite frankly mortifying. So what happened with Ferrari is that we build from here? They created a whole new car and they clearly don't know how to make it work in the final sector without the tyres overheating.

Although it wasn't excessively hot day, give me 15 degree temperatures Ferrari back. Thank you. It's incredibly scary to see in this projected kind of greater season of all time, incredibly close that Hamilton is eight, nearly a, you know, well, yeah, close to nine tenths off pole, that McLaren around quite a short lap as well. Yes, a one minute 15 is not a long lap. Oh my word. quite terrifying actually.

Yeah. It's too early to say, but I will say it anyway and do the knee jet reaction of, I told you to say, why have they got a new car? They're going to focus on 2026, Ferrari in the bin, P4 and the constructors.

What else? What else to be said? Wow, we'd have beat a man when he's down. I'm not in a good... Anyway. I even thought he's going to say it And then I'm like, no, we're not live. I know he said it. You knew I was going to.

I'm so sorry, everybody. More of that on our P1 Patreon if you want to go join there. Next question from P1 Patreon. Remember, Chiller, when will Yuki get the respect he deserves for a Red Bull seat? Or is he better off without one? Look, Yuki Sanoda, P5, both himself and Alex Albon. Wow. Phenomenal performances, you know, beating their respective teammates quite comprehensively.

And even, yeah, that goes for even Carlos Sines down intent, sadly, for him. But back to Yuki, we kind of say, I don't think he wants it. Well, he might want it because there is that allure of, oh, the Red Bulls seems he's why I've been working for the whole time. But it just puts him in a situation where Red Bull shouldn't be his only option moving forward. Like this is, what I'm seeing with Uki. I think it could be a blessing that he's not gone there and if he does really well in the RB. Yeah.

It's like where does he then go? You know, where are the seats available? Ferrari's locked away. McLaren's locked away. Red Bull may well not be locked away. Where else do you want to go if Yuki Snowda is popping at P5 and a racing ball? So it's almost like a question of there's no room at the inn. He's kind of happy there for now.

Keep improving. And that's what Yuki's doing. He's not the finished package. He's continuously improving season on season by the looks of things. Hopefully he puts in another decent 2025 campaign. But yeah, he's kind of filling up his CV ready for two, three years time maybe when seats start to become available again. But yeah, what a performance from Yuki? I think he is better off without one, but the only problem is exactly what you said.

Where does he go? Because you've got to say that if he keeps doing performances like that throughout the year, he will, people will take note from the other teams of going, well, this is a guy that, you know, we should be signing. But the problem is you've got to think that so many of the teams made, made their kind of moves and locked in for the kind of 2026 regulations. So it kind of is probably all going to come down to whether Lawrence Stroll kicks out his own son. And the Honda deal works with Aston Martin.

and then Yuki Snowda in the Adrian Nui car, alongside Fernando Alonze, dominates the championship, and they both win every single race. I think I saw something, I'm not going to quote anything, because it might well be complete BS, but there was something around Honda

not being able to actually help Sonoda with a seat or something. Yeah, I saw that now. I'm seeing that floating around. So whether the Astermott and Dream is even a possibility now is unclear. I mean look, Yuki is less than two tenths off Max for Stappen. He's in the different second team car. So he's doing what... If he was two tenths off for Stappen in the Red Bull,

that is like massive tick. Wow. Yeah, that's exactly what they need. So maybe just stay there, Yuki. You're doing great, mate. It's all good. Next question, P1 Patreon member, Luca Cousy. Are Williams a genuine midfield team now,

or are they just good at high speed circuits? It's a question we can't answer, right now because we've had one qualifying session. But what we can say is that, yeah, with the Williams, the James Vowell's master plan is unfolding before our very eyes. He's ripped up everything, all the old rubbish,

putting in new stuff. He said it's a five-year plan or however many years he said. And the Williams is good around circuits. Because you can't call Australia similar to Mons I know that, of course, we have a lot of DRS, I think it's four DRS zones around here. It is quite quick. But there are still some very fast corners that require a lot of downforce as well. That fast left, right in the middle sector, for example.

So it's not just a go in a straight line, heavy break, we're all good. So Williams are starting to show, at least from what we've seen so far, is that they can begin to be a consistent midfield running teams. So let, but yeah, we'll see when we get to China and other tracks. But it's a very promising start for Williams. It's a very, very, very promising start for Williams. For them to kind of deliver from the hype of testing where we kind of thought, oh, is it, are they just kind of glory running?

But to be comfortably kind of into that Q3 session and then Albin did an unbelievable job to be P6, Carlos is going to be disappointed to be down in P10 based on how he's kind of looked in that car. And sorry in advance, Carlos, for going for biggest good surprise, because that's cursed him clearly.

And Melbourne's now become the goat, which we know is a trend with my biggest good surprise. That's true, actually. Yeah. And maybe we do actually know nothing. Sorry, scrap I know. We know. We don't. But yeah, great job from Williams. They can be really happy and maybe Carlos moving to Williams might just be racing the Ferraris after all and you can wave to his former team as he flies past him in the DRS soon.

So big shout out to Albon. That was a phenomenal performance from him. Considering, you know, the expectation coming into this year, Albon's finally got a teammate that's decent. We ourselves, both of us predicted signs to be to do better across the season. And Albon has has clapped back and put in a P6 performance. So, only positive sentiments and huge congratulations for that performance because yeah really really good and silencing the critics that sums it up we're done qualifying done and dusted it is 10 past 7 in the morning we won't be going back to sleep but if you are based in Australia we're going to be on an Australia today news channel thing for an interview

later on at 8.50, I think, UK time. But it'll basically be tomorrow morning for you. So anyway, thank you, everybody. Tommy, what are your final thoughts? Final thoughts? I'm so glad the race is set up beautifully for the 3 a.m. start because I will be wide awake, hopefully, based on the hype. Because qualifying, generally, my heart was like racing.

It was so good to watch. And I've missed F1 massively. So big hype going into tomorrow. So if you're based in the UK, don't be baited by Tommy saying 3 a.m. Start is a 4 a.m. We're going to be getting up at 3 a.m. I know, but let's just in case, there's one person out there that, they went, oh, it's starting at 3am.

Cool, I'll set my alarm for 250. Tommy, how dare you? The pre-race shows only just started. I would slap you around the face. Anyway, that is it. Thank you, everybody. I'm going to now go weep in a corner. And we will see you tomorrow.

We'll be live on Twitch and YouTube. If you want to come and watch along the race with us, it's going to be a disastrously early start. but just think of what the China sprint is going to be at 2.30 a.m. So we'll look forward to that. Thank you, everybody. We'll see you very soon. Lots of love, take care.

Bye. Bye. My chore is to go to bed. Okay, just go to bed and sleep because I wish I could, but I can't, because I'm now on Australian time zone-ish, kind of maybe. More so tomorrow. Tommy, what's your chore? Come on, just throw one out there.

Three, two, one, go. Don't go back to bed. You can't catch up on sleep. Just make the bed. Wow. Yeah, I'm good cop, you're a bad cop. You're like the, you like the, you won't go to bed, no. And I'm, anyway, that's fantastic.

Great stuff. And go and blow your nose. That's not a chore, is it? That's not a chore. Why would you blow your nose? That's crazy. Sweet dreams, but don't sweet dreams if you're Tommy's. Bye.

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