P1 with Matt and Tommy - Reaction to Azerbaijan GP practice

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

Crashes! Live reaction to a driver being summoned to the stewards! Super soft tyres! Join us after some surprisingly interesting practice sessions that one of us wants to trust with 100% certainty... The Delusion Tour is just around the corner! We're heading to North America in a few weeks and there are still a few tickets available - click here to grab yours: tix.to/p1liveYou can listen to an extended version of every race review episode over on our Patreon! You'll also access to 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 to the P-1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. Azerbaijan has arrived. I have arrived in my Ferrari top. Tommy, you have arrived in your Red Bull Leads. Is that a Leeds team thing? No, it's just Red Bull. I was getting confused with your football jerseys and your actual Red Bull stuff. But here we are.

It's practice. It's done and dusted. And we've got a few things. It was actually quite a chaotic Friday practice. Yeah, it was, there's a lot of incidents, lots of going down runoff areas and things, a bit of track damage and all sorts and some more papaya incidents, but not actually that controversial, but still not a good day for McLaren. Not controversial, but meme worthy, that is for sure.

Right, let's get straight into free practice one, where the top three were Norris Piaastri and LeCler. So the big talking point, at least for 25. or so minutes during free practice one was that there was a damaged curb which caused a pretty long delay, shock, Baku having problems with their circuit. Not the first nor last time we will probably ever see that. But it was

a weird one, wasn't it? Because you had a few cars, I think Signs was the last one that we saw go over it, and it was this kind of rubbery strip thing that a Marshall tried to pull out of the ground and realised that that probably isn't the bodge job that we need to be doing in Formula 1 if a curb is

literally coming out from its seems. Yeah, exactly. This is why as well that I clarified when we're talking about my red flag prediction. I even clarified, I said it has to be caused by a crash because Baku love like a, Baku, they love like a truck crashing into a bridge or like the advertising barrier falling down or something like that. And this is exactly what caused the delay. But it actually worked quite well in Oscar Piastri's favour because otherwise he'd have a lot of quite a lot of track time. Yes, so he had a pretty big issue, actually.

Ted Kravitz was saying in the pit lane, he's done and dusted, he's not going to get any track time. Thankfully, for Oscar's sake, he was able to get out pretty much at the time when they all got back out again. Yeah, pretty much. So Oscar really didn't lose much time, which was good for him. But yeah, just a lot of mistakes out there, a lot of brushings of the wall. You know, we spoke about your red flag prediction.

I can't believe we have not locked in. The crash, though. Zero points for you after these two practice sessions that we've seen because there were so many glances of the wall. There was even one where one of the McLean's, we'll get into it, was crabbing. So you are lucky, sir, but I don't think it's over. I really don't. No, I didn't think it's over. Yeah, definitely.

Yeah, it shows that, yeah, this is a circuit that punishes. We've seen that in the past. And, you know, there's a reason why it was a crazy prediction in the first place is because we do see a lot of people making. mistakes here it's very rare that we see the Baku even the practice sessions without incident because there's nowhere to go that once you kind of go off you're either going into the wall or kind of bailing into the runoff which we saw a lot of people kind of make that kind of judgment

where they decide right at the last minute and actually if I take this corner I'm going to go into the wall so I'll just bail down the runoff quite a few few drivers did that didn't you? Your goat did as well max at one point didn't he? Indeed yeah. Probably worth mentioning as well before we get into more practice shenanigans that the C6 tire is here. Pirelli have brought the softest of soft tires for this weekend, which combined with, I think, the track just generally being grippier as well,

we're seeing a lot faster lap times than what we saw, if you compare it to last year at this point in the weekend, I think it's three seconds quicker than what we had seen. So there's going to be a lot of chat, isn't there, about this new soft tire once again around a circuit that I don't think it's the highest of degradation of tracks but with that step softer I'm hoping that there will be maybe slightly more variation in the strategy perhaps a two-stop oh maybe but then again we've got rain in the air as well potentially for tomorrow it looks like there's more chance on Saturday than Sunday that

we could get a little bit of a sprinkling for qualifying but yeah it's it's interesting to see just how much faster they're going at the moment. Let's head to free practice two. Ferrari won two. What is, what? Okay, I take it all back. You're like rain off, rain off Saturday and Sunday now. Take the FP2 result.

Absolutely. Half points. I think I saw about 30% chance of rain. Red flag conditions now. That's what we need. Free practice two to be the result. But it's Hamilton, Leclair and Russell the top three. a very crazy session.

It has to be said. You had Lando Norris going in the wall first and foremost. Probably the biggest point of conversation here is that, yep, just lost the back end slightly, slapped the wall with his left rear. And that was it. So sort of suspension has collapsed slightly. And he's crabbing along the, well, grabbing across literally the entire rest of the lap. So not the best for Lando.

He said after practice that it would have been nice to get some high fuel running in. And of course, you know, you need that data, need that knowledge. Not the end of the world for him, but if you compare, say, most drivers getting in the low 20 laps completed and Lando and he did seven. Well, yeah, what a change of fortune that five minutes into FP1 we were discussing, oh, this is bad for Piaastri, he's not going to have much running compared to his teammate. And actually, you know, he's ended up with more, you know, a fair bit more than Lando in the end. because of course Lando only managing seven laps Oscar managing 22 in that session

and of course Oscar getting the kind of good fortune for him in terms of like being able to like not miss too much time in FP1 so yeah it's not ideal for Lando I'd be amazed if they are

10th and 12th I'll be amazed if they're even you know third and fourth fourth or fifth but it gives the others a chance and it certainly keeps people guessing into qualifying which is what we want to see more of isn't it? Yeah, I think collectively just McLaren in general lacking obviously a little bit of data.

Piastri was slightly on the back foot as we mentioned in FP1, only missed out on maybe three or four laps compared to the rest of the competition and then Lando missing, let's say, 15 or so laps compared to, again, the drivers around him. That's just data generally that McLaren will be missing compared to

compared to the other teams. I will say that when we look at that order, you've got Hamilton, LeClair, Russell, Antonelli and Bearman, I would love to get just completely into delusional land that Ferrari are going to challenge for pole and win on Sunday. But I really don't think this is at all representative of what we're going to see tomorrow and Sunday.

Russell had to bail out of a lap. You've obviously got Norris who made that mistake, don't get me wrong, but he was looking lightning quick up until that point, at least in free practice one, he was looking very good. And then Oscar, can you really think that he's a second off what Hamilton's put down? So I genuinely, I'd love to get

flag round me. I'm trying desperately. You put the Frosha on, but not the flag yet. Yeah, I'm actually switching my brain on for once rather than just getting carried away. Then the flag will be on. If they top FP3 as well. Oh yeah, if we top FP3, then it's game over. That's, that's pole secured. But it just, it's hard to hard to believe just yet. And, and,

And mainly as well because I know that I've predicted Char de Clare to be big flop. So I know something's going to go wrong at some point. So that's, again, another reason to just hold fire ever so slightly. Question, Dr 382. Did McLaren tell Oscar to hit the wall in free practice too? No, they didn't. A nod to the meme. Yes, of course.

Obviously not. But of course, everyone was going to jump on that. As soon as that happened, the timing was. hilarious, has to be said. The fact that it was immediate as soon as Lando had his incident, Oscar straight out on his hip on his lap and the fact that he was the first driver to then hit the wall after Lando just bought all the kind of memes back from Monsa going, oh, let's keep it fair. Oscar, you have to crash now as well. But thankfully for Oscar, you know, didn't cause anything too much. But yeah, difficult day for McLaren still.

even though, yeah, they are going to be up there, no doubt, fighting for pole position, and it's not complete curtains for them. I don't think it's a situation like a, do I say Montreal, where they were really struggling and it looked like they obviously weren't even on the podium there. I'd be amazed if that happened again. But, yeah, still difficult for McLaren. And, I mean, I'd personally take that order from, from FB2 into qualifying.

I'd love to see that. What a grid that would be. That would be sensational, wouldn't it? Hamilton versus LeCler for the win to get Ferrari's first win of the season. And Hamilton trying to literally get his first podium of the season and potentially right at the front. No, stop it, Tommy.

How dare you? Why would you even start making me believe and dream? Also, another thing to mention, as we've been saying, McLaren struggling and having a lot of problems. another one being that as of recording right now, Piastri has been summoned to the stewards for a yellow flag infringement. Tommy, do you have more on the ground? No, because they've not really talked about it. I don't know.

I didn't see it. Did you say it? No, they didn't show it. Which makes me think it's a nothing incident. I mean, this is going to age badly when he gets, you know, he has to start from the back of the grid by the time this podcast goes out. but normally with these things, you know, they don't tend to do too much. If it's a red flag, absolutely. We've seen that.

Olly Berman, of course, fell foul to that, where he had that red flag incident in Monaco and it still meant that he had a grid drop. And, yeah, if it's a yellow flag infringement, unless it's something horrendously dangerous, I'd be amazed if he had any kind of, like, penalty or anything, mainly just because I feel like if it had been something like really major, of course he is, you know, the championship leader that this would be being posted all over socials and everything and oh my God, like this is this is crucial. This could be a big, big moment. But as, yeah, as of recording, we've not really seen anything from that. It was just a kind of throwaway

comment in practice. Yes, I am just having a quick scour through to make sure that he hasn't just got a 10 place penalty for the race. But now I'm not. I'm not. seeing anything just yet. Question from P1 Patreon member, Breeze 3. How much is Matt regretting and or celebrating flopping LeCleur? It's Friday, says the man who's also been excited by Friday's.

Many, many occasions. As I said, I don't think it's representative. I don't think we can get too excited right now. Ferrari, yes, they've topped free practice two, one two. That's all they can sort of be asked to do. but they're not one and a half seconds down the road when I can genuinely feel confident

that they will, you know, they've got a step on the opposition. They brought a small upgrade this weekend, but nothing to write home about. So now, I still think McLaren Fassist. Tommy, I do. I'm sorry. I know everyone wants me to get excited just to be let down when they watch the watch along.

Oh, let's tune him to Matt. He's crying now. I'm trying to main, just trying to sort of balance out that mental health. Yes. I don't think for a second that, Ferrari going to be half second clear of the field, but you do think this kind of circuit would suit Ferrari. It's interesting what Hamilton said about, you know, going into the, at the end of the session, he was kind of saying that they tried something a little bit unusual and it works.

So maybe for the first time in what feels like forever, Lewis Hamilton kind of got a setup that he felt happy with and comfortable with knowing Ferrari. they'll probably change the entire thing for qualifying and he'll be, you know, struggling and they'll question why they changed it. But yeah, so far they do look confident. We know how good Charles is around here. He can definitely challenge for pole position, but I mean, if he does get, if he does get poll, if he does get poll, you will not be regretting it one bit. In fact, you'll probably be putting him biggest flop every week.

I don't care if the flop point goes if it means a Charlotte-Clauer win. Not a pole position. Yeah, you don't want polls anymore. I want to win. Thank you. Another question about Ferrari, of course, slosh 4,000. Do you think Ferrari will keep this momentum? I think, again, you've said about Hamilton as well.

That's an important thing to bring into this. That's the one learning I'd say from this, is that Hamilton has looked on the pace of Lecler, which is something we've not seen that much this season. Sorry, I'm actually just reading something about the Piastri incident. I've seen some more. So no, so there's no, so he has gone to the stewards as of recording. So I've now seen what the incident actually is.

So basically, Gazley had gone off at turn one. If you've watched the F2 crash, you'll have seen the crazy rejoin that happened there, where, you know, the driver goes off at turn one. They obviously yellow flagged it. And, yeah, Piastri basically continues with quite a lot of. speed through the yellow flag. So maybe this isn't over. Tommy, I need to see that.

You can't say maybe this isn't over after saying categorically that there will be no penalty from practice. Where are you seeing this? I need to do a live reaction right now. I'll send you. I can't find a video. I've just got screenshots. He's got pictures.

Okay. Let me send you. As you said, the championship leader and we haven't got a replay of it. What do we do? Yeah, like what is going on? Let me see if I can find a... We're probably looking at some parents in the pit garage instead. Okay, so yeah, Gassley's there and he's gone through.

Okay, all right. So has he set a green sector or something? Is that what the issue is? I guess the issue is that he's not slowed down. Yeah, so Gassley, yeah, is coming back. So he's... Piaastri has a responsibility to slow down for sure. It just depends on how much he slowed down

because, you know, drivers can get away with margin. sort of slowing downs. Yeah, exactly. I mean, as I mentioned about normally, it's the red flag is the worst one, but of course, Lewis Hamilton, even though that was a quite unique incident,

Zandvoort got his kind of grid dropped, didn't he? And that was yellow flags, although that was a very unusual situation, the fact that it was kind of waved yellows around the final corner. Yeah, and double-waged yellows,

was it single, where we don't know. I'm sure there'll absolutely not be any kind of calls for British bias when Oscoiastri gets a 10 second penalty for it. 10 second penalty, that's impressive because he haven't been qualifying it, Tommy. In the race.

There we go. We love Tommy and his confusion when it comes to seconds and penalties and things like that. Worth mentioning Antonelli and Behrman, I know we said about Beerman being in P5, but both of our good surprises, fourth and fifth, looking pretty strong. I'd say Beerman, of course, more so,

because he's in a hat. Antonelli, yes, he was 900s or so off. Russell, but Russell, I think, was going to get right up in sort of the Lewis Hamilton times, if not faster. So, yeah, Behrman looking good. Behrman is looking good, although, you know, this is the situation that we've got here. Yeah, as long as he doesn't crash or have any kind of incident, because, of course, the penalty points. He, of course, on the medium tyre, which we're in a very unusual situation again,

where it's looking like the medium may be quicker again than the soft tire, which we've had this before, haven't we over Pirelli's new. soft tire that ends up being no quicker and actually worse. So whether we end up with another situation, was it Imala where they were running the mediums in basically the final shootout of qualifying to try and gain some lap time? Who knows? But Bearman doing a very impressive lap, but I also think that shows that the medium tire is going to be a very quick tire that we may even see during qualifying.

I think so. And the question, P1, Patreon member Badger Sprite, what's going on with the C6 tires? Now, I guess the issue that, I mean, Pirelli have many issues when it comes to trying to make the perfect tire for Formula 1. Of course, they've taken a step softer, which is something we both celebrated, try something different, going for something that might force a two-stop. But the problem is the step between the C-6 and the C-5 is so marginal. that's why we are seeing the mediums potentially used over the softs in qualifying as well because the softs just can't hang on for an entire lap without there being a little bit of performance loss and then that's where the mediums come in as a more sort of well-rounded tire that they can rely on and to push on. So again, I know how difficult a job Pirelli have to make this work,

but it does feel like it's too small of a gap that. it doesn't really, it almost sort of whittles you down to just two compounds of the medium and the hard when we then go to racing on Sunday. Which is exactly why I will keep harping on about this rule that they need where they have to use all three compounds because then it completely eradicates that because if they're going, if their whole kind of thing to make things more entertaining is to bring a new tire into the mix and then the teams aren't even going to bother using it and it's just basically pointless. There's no point to me.

doing it, it's just a complete waste. Whereas if they had to use it, even if it would be a little bit almost comical and silly and they might have to, some people may go for I'm thinking has, because they've loved that this year, pit literally do one lap on it,

get the mediums on and go long and then you go for the hards later. That would be an interesting thing to see and it creates new strategies and things but alas, you know if we have this set rule where they can just bin off a complete compound of tyres realistically,

then it doesn't really matter what Pirelli bring and they can make all this effort going, oh yeah, we're going to get softer tires, it's going to be really exciting. We might get a two-stop because the teams will just go, well, actually, no thanks, we're not going to use them. Let's see how that one unfolds. Fingers crossed, we get a two-stop. Who knows? Every time we get predicted a two-stop strategy, somehow they all eke out a one, as we all know.

P1PATR member, Captain Oves 3420, is it an inevitability that at least one person's final quality run will get compromised by a yellow flag? Not necessarily. I mean, they normally do go a bit more extreme, don't they, in the practice sessions? Because they know that they can push it maybe a little harder, but it does show that you're going to have to,

I don't think you can kind of rest on your laurels like in other circuits where you maybe go right at the end of the session and you could risk doing maybe potentially one lap. We saw Lando last year that get caught out with something like that, didn't we, where he got caught out by yellow flag, missed the cut in practice, sorry, in qualifying, and he didn't end up going through. So, he missed the cut in practice. That's crazy. How do you manage that? Is there a 107% ruling quality? What is it in practice? But he, yeah this is the thing with with this is that drivers are going to have to make sure they do get bankers in and things because so it can it can easily happen you're not going to want to go into the final run um with with not having a lap time set because yeah it could be absolute curtains if we get a yellow or a red flag because then you're you've basically not not going to set a lap time at all and it could cost you big which we've seen in the past year yeah it's I don't think it necessarily is just Q3,

where we're obviously thinking that pole will be set, but I think Q1 will be full of probably mistakes going down the runoff and things like that, because at the end of the day, quality is when the drivers will risk the most. This is obviously where as well, they won't potentially turn out of some corners where they've had a minor lockup in order to try and set a lap time.

So that's where we'll see potentially more yellow flags. You know, that's the beauty of Baku. It's great to watch in qualifying. You have to risk it to gain lap time at certain places where, you know, it's rising over a little hill or if it's into the castle section. It's, you know, do you have the minerals? That there are so many places where things can go wrong that maybe not necessarily is the final quality run, but I just think it's going to be something that will keep us on our toes throughout Saturday.

And that is it. Teed up beautifully. Ready for the weekend ahead of us for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. will be live on Twitch and YouTube. As always, so we'd love to see you there. Tommy, what are your final thoughts? Final thoughts, I was really hoping that we'd get our lovely live reaction to some news. Because Oscar Piaastri will be speaking to the stewards right this second

because he is literally in there. But alas, we don't know at the moment. So will it be crucial for the championship? We're about to find out. We are about to, if we continue the podcast for another 15 minutes. But no, we will. but we'll react. Of course, we may even make a social video

if things do change, but until then, we'll see you very soon. Oslov, take care. Adios. Goodbye. Goodbye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the Acast's creator network.