P1 with Matt and Tommy - Reaction to Austrian GP practice

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

We’re back racing, as the usual suspects (and one unlikely one) found themselves at the top of the FP2 standings. Plus, an incredible debut performance from a rookie serves up more questions: could teenager Alex Dunne find himself in F1 next year? And are modern F1 cars now super easy to drive? And, wait, more Max Verstappen to Mercedes rumours?!Please fill out Stak's listener survey! It'll help us learn more about the content you love so we can bring you even more - you'll also be entered into a competition to win one of five PlayStation 5's! Click here: https://bit.ly/staksurvey2025You can listen to an extended version of every Race Review episode this season over on our Patreon! You'll also get every P1 episode ad-free, early access to tickets & merch, and access to our Discord server where you can chat with us and other F1 fans! Click here to sign up now: http://patreon.com/mattp1tommyFollow 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. So the big one podcast with Matt and Tommy. We are here. Formula One returning to our eyeballs and our earball. I was going to say ear balls. It's not ear balls, is it? Ear lobes. Ear lobes.

I'm going to say earlobes. Anyway, we're here. We're back. Formula One is in Austria, the Red Bull ring. And I feel like every time we have a week off, I forget that like, how do you do this thing? You know, how do we, where's Formula One being? You know, I went on holiday. They've been on the red carpet is what they've been.

They've been on the red carpet. We have not been on the red carpet, Tommy, have we? As much as I'm wearing a red top. But it's, yeah, it's great to have Formula One back, a circuit that fingers crossed will deliver us some saucy action. And once again, very excited to see how it all unfolds. Indeed. Strange, though, that we don't have a sprint quality, because this just feels like the sprint race.

and I can't get into my head that it's not because it always seemed to be doing the sprints around Austria, but not this time. Now, before we dive into everything, Austrian GP Friday, a shout out to the P1 Live show. Well, tickets are selling fast, very fast, a bit faster than we ever imagined. We've sold out London, San Francisco, Glasgow,

and both shows in Amsterdam. So if you are available in any of the other venues that we're doing, get involved, get your tickets, and we'll love to see you in either November. or December. There you go. I remembered the month. Also, worth mentioning something

that people may not know or even care about is the fact that we do a meet and greet after the show, which is free. As much as I'd love to charge £20 to see Tommy in real life and the complexion of a 36-year-old man. I tried to charge when Matt kept me humble,

you know, he keeps me grounded. He was going to have like a skin care brand, like title sponsorship where he stands. It was going to be really bad. But yeah, just to let you know That's another thing that we do at our shows because we love to meet all of you wonderful P1 fam.

Right, let's get into it. Free practice one. And I'm going to say the top four here was Russell for Stappen-Piastri and in fourth position, Alex Dunn. Now, no, there's not been... Who is Alex Dunn? Yeah, there's not been a replacement.

Lando Norris is taking part in this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix action. However, as we all know, there are certain occasions where rookies are kind of forced to be sent out because this is now the ruling within Formula One that teams have to field young talent in free practice sessions at points throughout the year. And Alex Dunn was put in as the Formula 2 championship leader into Landon Oris's car and just popped it in a cheeky P4. Point two off George Russell's fastest time. And we're now all wondering, is Alex Dunn the next? What's happening?

Is he the greatest of all time? Yeah, of course, very close to his teammate, Oscar Piastri, who of course is leading the World Championship as well. Yes, we've seen drivers pop in because of this rule, haven't we, of having to field young drivers and things. But normally they do kind of sit around the bottom, or maybe you don't do a comparative lap time, whether that's because of fuel or the kind of programs,

because sometimes we see them don't we come in, and we don't really get an idea of how good they are because they might be doing long runs or something like that. But apparently, you know, this F2 driver, Alex Dunn has waltzed in and just been like, hi everyone, I'm here in the McLaren. Ask many questions, doesn't it? It does. Well, we'll kind of touch upon those questions

that perhaps have been raised in both of our minds seeing Alex Dunn in P4. My first one being, I don't know, it just feels like McLaren are very much. We talk about the whole Lando versus Oscar, both number one drivers. It feels like McLaren just like, Alex, just go, Alex. Just absolutely send it, my friend. Don't worry about Lando's car.

Go and do an amazing performance. And he's done this kind of free practice performance where we all sort of sit up and go, oh, okay. And I know for a fact that both mine and yours first reaction is, are the Formula One cars quite easy to drive? And also how of McLaren not on every race by a mile. Not taking anything away from Alex's performance. But it is quite funny when you think about it of like, oh, geez, this is, that's literally his first free practice one session in this current car.

And he's been able to extract that much performance so quickly. Yeah, the old man yells at Cloud in me wants to say that I don't know if I really like that people can jump in. I don't like it, that Alex is good. Yeah, and he does deserve a huge amount of credit. And we've seen this as a trend quite a lot with Formula 2 drivers that have jumped in and been very, very good very quickly. And maybe this is just the way the world is now with Formula 1 and the fact that you can prepare so much in Formula 2 and simulators and things like that. So it's not completely like blind going in and you are kind of very well prepared to do a decent job. But there is also part of me that goes like, I don't know, is it a good thing that people can just jump in and does it make the drivers feel a bit maybe less superhero-like if the kind of drivers?

But then maybe that's just the talent of F2 and how good you have to be in F2 now. God, if you didn't like Alex Dunn jumping in the car and going forth, you'll definitely hate Brad Pitt doing it. So we're doing a podcast reviewing all of the F1 movie. Well, not the whole movie, but myself and Tommy have both watched the movie in the last couple of days. And we will be releasing a podcast this weekend. And we don't know which is thoughts yet either, which I'm very excited. We've not discussed it. How we feel about the movie.

But I think it's one you're not going to want to miss. Next question. Well, actually, the first question for being on picture, remember, R&B cheap, does F1 need to give young drivers more chances to show themselves in an F1 car? I mean, I think they're doing a pretty good job, as it is. Of course, you know, we see rookies fielded at whenever the teams decide to tick off their quota throughout the year. And this is something that hasn't existed for a huge amount of time. So I think the Formula One has done a good job to be able to showcase this.

I guess that we are sat there wanting to actually know how good they are. Like how much can you really extract out of a free practice one? When everybody's dialing in, nobody's sending it to the absolute limits of the, of the track and and dialing the engine up. So I guess from a spectator side, we are sat there going, well, how good is Alex done actually? We're not really going to know. But within the Formula One paddock, within McLaren, they're going to know exactly just

how good a job Alex has done. I found it interesting that McLaren afterwards were almost immediately saying, well, yeah, fuel loads are a little bit different and this, that and the other. Because I guess from a sort of weird PR side, McLaren need to say, Piacerian and Norris are very good. Piastrian Norris are very good and Don isn't seven hundredths of a second off the world champion protagonist. Ship leader, yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

It's a weird one, isn't it? I mean, they do give the young drivers a chance and I'd rather this, you know, we've kind of maybe complained a little bit about it, but I do think it is good and fair play to McLaren for putting an actual young driver in the car because we've complained previously about, you know, other individuals that maybe use certain drivers that are. there just to kind of tick off that box because they're a rookie and they're never in a million years going to get into Formula One but it's just a way to kind of go well this person's maybe got a bit of experience going to get some data and they can jump in jump in the car so what

I would say is fair play to McLaren for actually you know letting a young talent one of their young drivers go in and actually use that slot for what it is for let's be honest absolutely a question from Mega versus Primus, do you think Alex Dunner has a shot at F1 next year or is 2027 his best shot? So we've spoken about it for as long as we've been doing podcasting around timing is everything. And I have a feeling that there are so many drivers queued up at the moment to potentially get a Formula 1 seat that next year is impossible. In my opinion, I cannot see it happening. even with this really impressive FP1, I just cannot see it going Alex Dunn's way

just because we have a queue of drivers from all kinds of camps. At 2027, yeah, potentially could be his best shot. I hope that for his sake, there is an opportunity there because we have seen drivers go by that had so much potential, so much talent and not be able to get a Formula One seat

and a driver and a person that people forget, for example, David Valseki, who is of course very funny and really hilarious on his F1 broadcast and you see the memes of him reacting to the cars going really fast. But he was a sensational talent when he was in junior formula and in Formula 2, but he never got that F1 shot. And so it is very much a case of can Alex Dunn find an opportunity in the next couple of years if he goes on to win the Formula 2 championship and he's got to do everything he can to

not be another one of those, oh, hi, camera. Hi, I'm a reserve driver for the rest of my life. I'm sat on the pit wall. Yeah, and unfortunately for Formula 2 drivers, it really is right place, right time. And that's exactly what we've seen. You know, it felt like we went after, I think it was 2023, wasn't it?

Where no driver changes happened going into 2024. And we thought, when are these young drivers going to get a chance? And then we go into 2025 and seemingly half the Formula 2 field jump up and get that nod because people were joining mid-season, you know, people like Ollie Bear. and Colapinto and it was impressing and it maybe made everyone think, no, these Formula 2 drivers do need a shout. And then all of them go in and it almost feels, unfortunately, for Formula 2 drivers, even ones that are very, very talented, that it does feel like a bit of a reset of the kind of order now.

These drivers have come in like Hadjar Antonelli and stuff and impressed. And now, unfortunately, for these ones, it's going to be very, very difficult to get a seat until maybe. a couple of years down the line when people start dropping out and teams assess more because we've just had this insane silly season where everyone started locking in their drivers now and after a big shuffle it's very difficult it's probably the worst time for a formula two formula three driver to set their sights on Formula one not just because they are drivers queuing but also the rotation of drivers isn't as high you don't have the natural retirement age because Fernando Alonzo is very much showing that you can still do it. Hamilton is of course what is considered an older driver

these days as well. But they can go on for years and they could go till they're 61 perhaps like some other people in the movie industry. Save it for the movie. Alex, Alex Dunn as well. I mean, my God, you know, finishing, it is, and this is perfect, right place, right time. On paper, what more do you have to do than jump into Formula One car for the first time and be right with the World Championship leader who's the full-time driver

and we're sat here going no he's not going to get an F1 next year and that's the game that is the game unfortunately he could have been half a second clear at the top nah I don't think Salba's going to take him no no chance it's so true though right let's go to free practice two

where it was Norris fastest from Piastri and Vasari and Vestappen. So, yep, Lando back in the car, straight on the pace. There was a lot of questions in commentary and around why would you take Lando out of a Grand Prix weekend like Austria. But I was kind of sat there thinking Lando's phenomenal around here and it's a track that he has a huge amount of confidence round

and is probably a track that he's okay sacrificing a free practice one. that's not to say that the track isn't difficult because it certainly is. There's a mixture. Even though there's only about seven corners you can make time up on, it is a mixture, so it is really hard to get the right balance with the car. But from a driver perspective, Lando was confident going into it and clearly showing that he's still got that with the fastest time as well. And also, let's not forget that the way this kind of season has gone

is Lando, you know, he's had lots of prep time. And unfortunately, it's kind of the end. of that prep time that has been his biggest struggle this season, not the fact that he's kind of missed sessions. He's been very, very quick in all the practice sessions, Q1, Q2. It's the Q3 that's obviously that there's been his kind of Achilles heel, hasn't it, this year, for sure. I did wonder, obviously, my predictions coming into this, Lando's going to win, and then I'm like, oh my God, he's not even doing FPA-1. He's not even doing FPA-1, I'm really sorry. Knowing your predictions that have gone, actually, this done guy is really good. Sorry, Lando,

you're out. Imagine that curse would have been horrendous. But yes, I have seen your messages. Thank you some Lando fans that have said, why do you keep doing this to me? It's not personal, I promise. Question, Mohammed 187-47-5-6-2. Will we see the usual cycle of Lando continue this weekend?

Fastest in practice with three purple sectors, but struggle to deliver it in quality and in the race. It's yet to be seen. I think that Lando, as I mentioned, has a huge amount of confidence around here. And I think if there is a race weekend where he can deliver, especially in qualifying, I think that's it. What I will say, and it's probably worth mentioning as a part of the weekend, is that some of the track limits areas have been tightened up so that it is pretty much now a natural track deterrent wherever you look, strips of gravel, things like that. And I like the fact that Formula One has acted upon where a driver could nail a corner, run out right to the edge of the, of the curve.

which then the gravel is there, but then still get pinged for track limits because their car, all four wheels have gone off the track by a millimeter. They've missed the gravel by a millimeter, and you're like, well, that surely is great driving. So they've changed that now

so we don't have these problems, which is what I love. But, you know, I know I'm talking about Lando here, and I think this is a really good opportunity for him this weekend. There are a lot of, I was watching just on boards of drivers,

Landau, for example, in practice, and he was on the ragged edge. I'm like one small little correction, and you are popping into that strip of gravel, and your lap's gone. So it is going to be a really intense qualifying session tomorrow. I think more so than a lot of the circuits, probably not even far away from Monaco, in the sense of one small mistake, and you'll lose your lap time, or at the very least, go in the gravel. It's a weird circuit, isn't it?

Because in a way, on paper, looks very easy because it's only a... few turns. Ten corners? Exactly. Easy. And exactly. I mean, Alex Dunner has shown that it's easy. But when you are on the limit and you're trying to find every single tenth and you're

throwing the car into a corner maybe a little bit quicker and you're just hoping that the car sticks, it is those tiny bits. And Austria has been one of those circuits that track limits. Oh, my word. You know, we had a very farcical situation. I can't remember if it was two years ago or what or maybe three. years ago now where half the grid are Ocon basically like got 50 track limit warnings and they basically finished 50th in a 20 car race.

You've had quite a lot of farcical moments at Austria. You've had this where everyone was getting pinged like an hour after the race. Yeah. They were still getting penalties. But then even before that, they were introducing sausage curbs and things to just destroy the Formula One cars. I'm so glad they've gone to this now where it's not going to completely destroy. destroy someone's floor, which we know is so important in these days, on these regulation

of cars. But, you know, there is still a massive challenge. And I think they finally figured out how to do track limits. Yeah, you really don't want to hit a sausage curb fly 600 foot in the air and then burst into flames. That's an F1 movie reference if you haven't seen it. And that's spoilers actually as well. Sorry.

We put in the brackets of the title. But, but. We'll take that F1 movie joke out. You go into the next cut. Back to Lando, though. I do think that there is a reason why this kind of narrative around his Q3 has happened. Karin Chandok shared an insane thing that Lando's been quicker than Piaastri nine times in Q1, eight times in Q2.

And then when it gets to when it gets to Q3, of course, Piaastri. is 6-4 clear of Lando. So Q3 is really where he's struggling with the confidence and things, but surely this track where he's been so good in the past, even when it's been a midfield runner, he was so good around here. I think he would really, really, I think it's panic stations if he can't do well and deliver here because this is such a Lando circuit. Question from Jason Waterfalls.

Are these floor upgrades going to make any difference for Ferrari or are they just floundering? We're finished. We're done. Like, just lock it up. Just put it in the box and seal it up and we will head to 2026. Didn't look great, did it? For at least today. And you know how I am as a Ferrari fan.

If you've been listening to the podcast for it for a while, I am so back and we're so finished and we're so back and we're so finished. And right now we're finished. A lot of teams have brought some significant upgrades and I saw a performance graphic and it very much put in, not black and white, it was in colour, the Ferrari of the fourth fastest car and I think it's as simple as that, you know, Mercedes have trajectoryed

if that's a word, themselves up to P2 and I think Ferrari are floundering. They are quite clearly still trying to figure out how to work this car that they've built from the ground up this year, kind of forgetting that next year is a complete overhaul again. So I will say probably less kind of, I don't know what the word would be,

just not hopium the opposite of that. Like I am going into a bit of a hole with this. Is the fact that, you know, you bring upgrades, some teams will be quicker than others out the blocks. Some will be sort of scratching their heads going, well, this isn't what the simulations have suggested. And some might take a little while longer

to dial it in. So it is Friday practice, and perhaps they will be back tomorrow. I will be back tomorrow. In the Ferrari shirt. Yeah, but I think, you know,

if we're talking about a Ferrari, Hamilton in particular, has looked to struggle. Of course, he had some gearbox problems in free practice. One, LeClo was even in the car.

Baganovich was. So not the easiest. The clover in the gravel as well. Yeah, brilliant. You blacked that from your memory, didn't you? I did.

I did. Ferrari, yeah, it's easy to say, oh, the upgrades haven't worked and stuff. You look at McLaren last race, you know, Piastri going against what they thought with the upgrades, with the suspension and stuff. So sometimes the upgrades don't work out. The problem with Ferrari is the car's just been very mid the whole season. And that's the biggest problem when, you know, if they were there or thereabouts with McLaren and an upgrade didn't work, you give a bit more of the benefit of the day.

out because of how they were last year, but it said there's so many times they have completely changed their whole philosophy and whole car and they're, you know, they're comfortably the fourth, fourth fastest team. I guess, you know, Fred has been saying, hasn't he, there is still more potential in the car that we need to unlock. Here we go. Ding, ding, ding. But, you know, you say they've been extremely mid the whole year. There have been times where LeCler could have actually challenged for the victory. Like, I'm thinking if my memory serves me correctly, Saudi, Shah was really quick. Canada, if he'd had, if it started further up again, you know, he had that dirty air incident.

There have been moments where Ferrari have seemingly nailed it, but it kind of... You feel like if they'd have... And Hamilton showed it in the China sprint, didn't he? That if, and this is just the way with Formula One this season, if Ferrari, by some miracle could actually qualify, you know, first and second, they would have a genuine chance to win. But unfortunately, they're not, anyway. If we could be quick on Saturday, you might be able to win.

Right, that is pretty much all of what happened in practice. Well, I know that Tommy has actively not put in the questions sheet that Lance Stroll finished fourth in free practice too. Well, we can run down the different drivers because there's a few standouts, isn't there? Yeah, no questions about last row. Yeah, but interesting that you didn't want to even mention it considering your goat is, it was ninth. And spun off. Yeah, and spun off. Yeah.

almost let that one through, didn't we? But I think the big thing to talk about that has been coming into this weekend is the Max Verstappen to Mercedes Rumors once again. They have ramped up, not just from Toto Wolf's side, but George Russell seemingly adding some spice to this as well, saying about how he's performing perfectly well

and things like that. And if you haven't seen it, definitely go and watch that interview. because it does seem as though he's open-minded to having Max Verstappen as his teammate. And oh my God, I need it. I want it. I need it. I think everybody needs to see this.

Because if Mercedes have the fastest car on 26 and it's Russell versus Wastappen as a title fight, we will drive to survive, will not have enough Netflix memory to upload the 150 episodes of that season. 100%. We all need to see that. no offense to Norris and Piastri, but they've had one little incident, and even then it was like, oh, I'm so sorry, it was my fault. Okay, well done, chap. Jolly good. That's what happens when it was literally the one. Yeah, exactly. It wasn't a contentious incident, wasn't it? But, you know, that kind of collision and moments is happening every single week if for Stappen and Russell are

going for the championship as teammates, and they're also trash talking each other in the kind of press conferences as well. So sign me up to that. That would be incredible. However, Kimi and Finnelli. Yeah, I mean, to be fair, I read the quotes and things. I do think it was maybe a little bit blown out of proportion just from Toto Wolff's answer of kind of being, well, we will explore all the options. And then he was kind of asked again, and after, you know, no surprise that the journalists have kind of taken it in that sense of going, oh, we'll Vestappen.

And then he kind of said, yeah, it is probably looking quite unlikely. but of course he's always going to say there's room at the end max i think that's just his way of saying it isn't it that that if it does still continue to get worse toto wolf and it's no disrespect to kimi antonelli and george russell would absolutely take vastappen and unfortunately that even and him himself as admitted this there's got two fantastic drivers and in any other scenario would probably be set for years because they've got youth, they've got experience, and then a young driver who's got great talent.

But unfortunately, if the Stappen chooses to go, we're seeing Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari Part 2, where, sorry, Carla Sainz, and that is whoever Toto decides of the two of them, you've got to go because you've got to make room for Max. It would have to be Antonelli, surely.

It would. I mean, it would be a horrible situation for Kimmy Antonelli, if it did come to fruition, but you have to put your strongest. To be rushed in early and then to go back when he's not done a bad job would be absolutely insane. And that would just show the mess that Hamilton had created by leaving for Mercedes, really.

And then Max was like, I want to go in that car. I mean, just seeing Max and Mercedes would just be an app like that. I don't know what is crazy. Lewis in Ferrari or Max in a Mercedes. I think it might even be Max on Mercedes. Just with everything that happens. Yeah, it's crazy. But of course,

you know, this may well not happen and it's just the rumour mill churning once more, but the fact that they don't ever shut it down, of course we need to talk about it. We're a Formula One channel. So let's see how this one unfolds. Right, that is it. We are done here for the

practice podcast. Tommy, what are your final thoughts? Final thoughts? I'm looking forward to, I'm itching to know your thoughts on the F-1 movie because we've not spoken about it and I really need to find out. So looking forward to diving into that one Yeah, we're literally about to record it straight after this.

So look forward to seeing that out on Saturday. Remember, P1 Live Show tickets are available and going fast. So get your tickets if you want to come see us in America or the UK. And we will see you very soon. Lots of love. Bye. Or Ireland. Or Ireland.

Bye. Goodbye. I just knew, like, so for the chore, not going to do a chore. I could see it in Tommy's face. I had missed out Ireland. And he was like, how do I put this in? in it. How do I mention Ireland? And then he did. Just straight out. I love it.

I love it. It's great. Yeah. My chore is to go and buy an air conditioning unit because Tommy has and I can see that he is absolutely flourishing right now. It's 29 degrees in my room. I'm sweating. I turned it off. I was cold. I hate you so much. Oh my God. Right. Let's get

off this pod. Bye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the Acast's creator network.