P1 with Matt and Tommy - Reaction to Barcelona-Catalunya GP practice

Episode Date: June 12, 2026

As the dramatic fallout from Monaco continues, we turn our attentions to the Barcelona-Catalunya GP - where loads of rookie reserve drivers took part in the opening few sessions!Our brand new live show 'Super Podding' is coming to the UK and Amsterdam this autumn! Get your tickets here: http:/tix.to/p1liveSign up to our Patreon for just $5 a month! You'll get access to every P1 episode ad-free, extended versions of every 2026 race review, 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 TikTokP1 with Matt and Tommy is the world's biggest F1 podcast. Subscribe for new podcasts around every single race throughout the 2026 Formula 1 season! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the people on podcast with Matt and Tommy. Friday, Barcelona. Does it get more frantic? Well, to be fair, it actually has been. It has been a chaotic day, that's for sure. Yeah, for news, for arguments with the teams and all sorts of stuff, mainly because of Monaco, let's be real. And a lot to talk about as well, free practice one, of course,

having seven rookies on track and just generally trying to figure out the pecking order for this weekend's Grand Prix, maybe a little bit more difficult than it usually would be. Now, before we get into all of that, as I just mentioned, there's been some Monaco drama. We've actually done a separate podcast and a video on P1 Extra to talk about the Ghazly penalty, or penalties, that they were both overturned in a lovely special bonus episode.

However, it's not done. It's not over. because as of recording when we did it, of course, it was very much reacting to the news. How would the teams feel? Well, the teams feel dreadful, as we're about to tell you, because the drama has continued. McLaren and Red Bull have submitted a notification of their intention to appeal.

So that doesn't mean... They're not appealed, but they're going to tell everyone that they are going to... Yeah. So they get 96, 92, 96, 24, 48, 96 hours, four days, to basically work out whether they're going to actually appeal. They get together all of their information and evidence and so on and so forth. But this is kind of like a heads up, by the way, guys, we're not happy, and we're coming for you. And I can see why, because, of course, Red Bull, their protest is because Hajjah lost his podium.

Oscar Piastri, you know, we obviously recorded our reaction to the news, but it's come out now. where McLaren obviously appealing as well. And of course, if Piastri gets his penalty overturned, which was five seconds, he would be third place in third place. But he can't get it overturned because he served it. But he served it. Yeah. But they're obviously they're unhappy with that kind of situation.

And also the fact that, yeah, how do you overturn a penalty? Because it's been served. Also, the Oscar's been shuffled back in the order. So that's, that's an issue there. So I guess it has opened a kind of worms to a point, but the argument here will be, well, they actually serve the penalty, of course. And that's the kind of issue here. And then, of course, Russell as well, which we did mention in the video being understandably a bit peeved because of the situation there. Yeah, and there was mention of Toto Wolf, I think in the press conference for team principals mentioning that he was chatting to their lawyers about the whole Russell,

drive-through situation. That screams to me like we want to look like we're doing something about it. Yeah. Because they can't really do anything. They can't really do anything. But it's almost like a message to be like, yeah, we know. So let's go into a little bit more detail about that because we have some breakdown of what Red Bull have said and what McLaren have said. And it's slightly different between the two of them.

So Red Bull have said that the timing was consistent all weekend, that the normal process was followed, that teams are just their systems according to the process in place and that teams know the method of calculating the pit lane speed is imperfect. That's Rebel's argument, or at least headline, highlight arguments. As from McLaren, they said there is a well-known risk of discrepancies in the pit lane speed calculations. Teams coached their drivers on how to manage this. All teams adjust their processes accordingly, and there was conjecture on the issue of shortest distance. And this is a team that literally got penalized for speeding in the pit lane.

Yeah, which is crazy because they did get caught out. It's more of the argument of fair enough Oscar got a penalty. So they're not arguing take the five seconds off Oscar. They're saying, well, Oscar's served his penalty because it was possible to get a Yeah, they're basically trying to argue. They're almost weirdly saying, yes, our driver did get a penalty and we served it. And then Red Bull, of course, the argument from Red Bull is, well, we did it fine. And there's been no issue there.

and I guess the argument there is if 17 or however many other drivers didn't get a penalty and that was fine. It's a difficult one and yeah I guess the can of worms has been opened in that sense but I would be amazed if anything else changes again and of course we know

that it's not the appeal yet it's just the intention to appeal so yeah I understand why they're kind of bummed by the situation but I think this result will stay but then I thought that last time and it changed.

Yeah, the can of worms we discussed was more looking to the future of how it would maybe change the precedent that's set from Monaco. Serving penalties. Whereas what has actually happened is, you know, the teams have kicked off about this decision.

So fascinated to see what happens from here because maybe it's not over. But there's this whole talk of the trophy being transferred over to Alpine. What happens then? And if this gets overturned, then Alpine have to give the trophy back to Hadjar. And it could just be a constant game of tennis with this trophy until, you know, you repeal the appeal. They do.

Every weekend when they turn up to the Grand Prix, they keep swapping the trophy back. Be like us with our award where we were like, you have it for a bit, then you can have it for a bit. That's what it was going to be like, isn't it? So good. Now, that's obviously big news. But the biggest news of all is the change to the predictions championship. on P1. So of course,

Tommy's dad had the most insane prediction that Gazley would be third place in the Monaco Grand Prix predictions we put out on Wednesday

and it came in I, out of the goodness of my own heart, gave and allowed two points for that prediction because it is generational, which means it is now 6-5 to the Bellingham's

but no one cares about that. That's the constructors' trucking chip. The drivers has also changed The Matt versus Tommy has also changed because Oscar Piastri has now been put down to P5, which means I get a bang on what, P-Wat. So that's good.

You said P-5. So you initially got one point. Now it's two points, so the extra point. We'll take it. We'll take it. If I lose the constructors, everyone talks about the drivers, right? So that's what we've always said. So yeah, 2219 to you, Tommy.

The comeback is on and screw all of you that's head on social after a, had that absolute howling weekend and Tommy was amazing. Was it Japan? And it was like, oh, it's all over. It's done. The championship's finished. Well, the comeback is on. And I've never been more competitive in my life.

So let's get into free practice one, shall we? With the top three were Russell Piastri Lecler. But, of course, a lot of drivers missing, full-time drivers, that is, and rookie drivers in their place. So we had Dina Baganovich in the Ferrari, Leonardo Fauna Rowley at McLaren, Colton Herta, went into the Cadillac, Frederick Vestey, was in, I should say, in Kimmy Antonelli's car.

I think, so it was Hamilton that sat out. It was Lando Norris that sat out. It was Sergio Perez that sat out. Kimi Antonelli, and then you have Ayuma Uwasa, who took the place of Hajjar. Luke Browning in the Williams. He took the place of Albon, I believe. And then finally, Paul Aron,

who took the place of Niko Holcomberg, for Audi. So lots of changes, and I love to see it. I actually really enjoy. And I don't know if it's because they kind of struggle a bit, and they don't just look on rails like most of the drivers do. But I love riding on board with a rookie just figuring out a Formula One car. Like, it just is really fun to watch. Like Colton Herta in the, of course, dustbin that is the Cadillac currently. And especially around this track as well, that is appearing to be very, very difficult for the drivers to be on the limit, which is exactly what we want to see.

That nimbleness that we've discussed since the start of the season, I feel like we're seeing this more than ever around here. Yeah, definitely on board the drivers we used to kind of seeing this now where drivers make their debut in an FP1 session, but perhaps, you know, in the eras of kind of infinite downforce and the ground effect,

we didn't see as many crazy moments. And now, yeah, they're really, wrestling the cars. Thrown in at the deep end, a new era, obviously a lot of them will have been on simulators and things, but a lot of them, of course, wouldn't have driven this style of car at all. So it's fascinating to watch.

And yeah, the most part, and unsurprisingly, you know, a long way off their full-time teammates, apart from Paul Aaron, who did a fantastic job in the Audi, has to be said. Yes, he was quite, quite literally on the ragged edge. I remember seeing the lap that he put in,

or at least the off board, of him coming over the line. He finished P6 in that session, which is phenomenal work, less than the second off Russell. But my God, he was driving quite literally like his career, depended on it.

And it kind of does, right? These kind of moments are something that are so few and far between. But Aaron did a brilliant job. Meanwhile, Bortoletto was complaining of all kinds of problems in his Audi of lack of grip and so on. So brilliant performance.

I love the way of good surprise Bortoleto and he's been outpaced by someone in. I think the point, yeah, points would he go for you, mate. I'm sorry. Even if he wins the race now.

It's over. Okay, cool. And also I want to say a little heartfelt shout out to Luke Browning who had his opportunity, but didn't because there was an electrical fault with his car, which meant he did zero laps,

which is just devastating for him. You wait, It's like a Christmas day. You wake up and there's no presents. That's quite literally just that. You're building yourself up. You're ready. You're ready for this moment to step up

and try and show the world what you're capable of. And then nothing. Yes, absolutely getting for him. Williams with problems again. Carlos broke down right at the start of the session with a problem. It's Mercedes powered car again, having all these issues. But not Kimmy Antonelli.

But not Kimi Antinelli, which is something that, yeah, I've seen a lot of people mention on social media that pretty much every single car and driver combo in those Williams, sorry, in the Mercedes with the Mercedes power, have had quite a lot of issues this year. And Kimmy so far has had zero, but gutting for Luke Browning to basically have that moment where you get to go out, you get to drive a Formula One car during a, you know, a weekend. Yes, it's not a competitive session, but you're there in front of all the, Formula One bosses and everything and showing what you can do. And you look at something like Paul Aaron's lap and, you know, that is a chance to impress other teams. And people will be taking note and going, oh, wow, that's, you know, really impressive.

And Paul Luke Browning didn't get to do any of that. I'm sure he'll have another opportunity. Yeah. Hopefully later on in the season, of course, I think it's four times that the drivers get, or the rookies get an opportunity across the year. So fingers crossed Williams give him an opportunity. later down the line. And also, I'm pretty sure these drivers have to pay for this opportunity as well. So I'm really hoping he gets a refund on his money because he literally didn't do any laps.

So that would be crazy if not. Let's go to Free Practice 2 then, where the three fastest drivers were Norris, Russell and Piastri. And we have quite a interesting lineup right now. McLaren starting to stretch their legs a little bit, showing signs of oh by the way that Miami performance yeah we'll do it again but we'll wait a little bit and then we'll come back in Barcelona am I surprised to see them towards the front no I wanted to put Lando as my P3

prediction but you stole him away from me so went for Max and Red Bull don't look as good there's a question from Craig Tilly 95 are Mercedes sandbagging or are we now expecting things to be this close between Mercedes and McLaren. Couldn't it? Honestly, I think just

just, sorry, so this is probably my second most hated word now in Formula One. The first one, also beginning with S, super clipping. And then you have sandbagging. They are not sandbagging. We had Kimmy Antonelli missing free practice ones. Of course, he's kind of

building up for free practice two. And then on the other side of the garage, you have George Russell, who is quite literally nine thousandths of a second off the fastest time, Lando Norris. And also, we have seen moments where McLaren are incredibly quick. We need a new word for Sandbagging, where it's like unintentional, where they're just kind of running their own program and they're like hiding,

not hiding, but they're not hiding what they've got, but it's like we've not seen the best of them yet. Because sandbagging makes it sound like they're deliberately kind of going, yeah, they're hiding performance, which, yeah. They're not hiding performance necessarily. Yeah, I wonder what that word could be. driving around and not pushing. Not pushing.

Yeah. Let's just all say, our Mercedes not pushing, or are we now expecting? Yeah, and the answer is yes. Yeah, I mean, look, it's a very hot weekend in Barcelona,

and we know, I mean, I say we know, from many years gone by, when Mercedes have dominated back in the last sort of 2014 onward start of the hybrid era, the one thing I always remember, as when it was really hot, they weren't as good.

So maybe they're back in the pack this weekend. What do you say? Maybe it's the heat. Yeah, maybe. But McLaren, I'm not surprised either that they're as good as they are. I think at the end of the day, Monaco is a complete outlier. It's so different to anything else there. We knew Ferrari would probably be the ones more likely to challenge.

Mercedes and McLaren, which of course was the case. and as for McLaren, you know, they were improving a lot throughout the season and let's not forget that before they stuck on the inters at Canada, they were looking very good as well and we were going, look, McLaren are now the closest team to Mercedes. So McLaren have been catching up all the time. Maybe this is a case where they've found something a little more. But yeah, this is the case where like we've seen McLaren challenging for two victories this year. in Miami and Japan. So they have an opportunity to do it again if they have a great start

or can get near the front and stick with the Mercedes. It's going to be incredibly tough and I do think Mercedes still have the best package and we've not seen the best of them, particularly Antonelli, who has not had the greatest of sessions, still trying to find his form a little bit

after missing FP1. But I don't see it being a case, famous last words, although I hope for the championship sake it is that the Mercedes are kind of on the back foot I don't see that at all no I mean either but if they are if McLaren are in with a shout

then it's a great weekend ahead of us because I think we both believe that Mercedes were going to be pretty clear around here because they always say a car can't hide around the circuit of Barcelona and Catalonia because it basically tests car heavy yeah I saw some people being like

car dependent Car heavy is just, yeah. That's like us using like podcasting as a deferred. Okay, let's move on to another question. P1, Patreon member R&B Sheep. Has Russell found his groove again? I think similar to the McLaren situation here. Monaco was a crazy race where he completely butchered qualifying.

And then everything went wrong for him after that with his penalties and his drive-thru and everything. and even at the start, you know, being stuck by in Hajjar, which meant he ended up a lap down. That wasn't due to pace at the end of the day. And you go back to Canada at a more normal circuit, and Russell was challenging. He won the sprint. He was challenging for the victory.

Do you think Antonelli was fastest, like faster in that Canadian Grand Prix, but Russell was able to, you know, challenge for that win and could easily have won that race before his car broke down. So I do think, like, Russell being completely washed and finished is completely over-exaggerated this year. He, of course, isn't driving his best.

You cannot doubt that. Anthony has been the better driver. It definitely has. And it's not to discredit him, but I do think that Russell has been nowhere near as bad as people making out and obviously the points deficit in the championship. There's a lot more context to that than just Russell's ability. and driving.

Yeah, he's not been finishing on the road and it, like, it actually being 68 points behind Kimi Antonelli. He's not finished the last two races. Monaco, I mean, he's so unlucky for how it all unfolded and the fact that he scored no points. You know, without that, and the crazy pit lane speed limit of stuff, he's finishing third. Canada, second at worst.

And then all of a sudden, the points gap is, I don't know, like 30 odd rather than 60. So I think to talk about his groove, it's hard to, I don't think that's the right thing to analyze at this stage because he has shown a lot of pace this year. It's just not gone his way. So I firmly believe he'll be in with a shout of the win this weekend and is not necessarily finding his groove. I think it's just finding a bit of luck and just having a reliable car and something that he can. Yeah, exactly. So fingers crossed for him and for the championship.

he's able to do that. Next question. People on picture, remember, Alara, does Charles look more on par with Lewis at this stage with his new breaks? Okay, it's Friday, guys. It is Friday. Please, can we all relax? I love this question. This person has to be a Charles LeClair fan because they've asked,

with Hamilton down in 9th, 1.2 seconds off Lando Norris, and Charles LeClair up in fourth, three-tenths behind. It's a pretty gargantuan gap. but that being said I really I'm not going to go anywhere near this question until we've seen a qualifying session at the very least

yeah I think it's from a Shao Leclair perspective it's good in the fact that he didn't reach all the highlights of the free practice sessions today of him going into the gravel snatching brakes and so on and so forth does he look lightning quick no doesn't look like Ferrari a lightning quick

but that being said look I would love to get hopeful that Shal can start to build some confidence again in that car after the last two Grand Prix being disasters but it's it's a little too early to say I think definitely you can't compare Hamilton's Lappatoly obviously missed FP1 and equally you know there's there's no way he's almost a second off of LeClaire when they're actually you know competitive running absolutely no chance so it's more the more kind of question here is has LeClaire's break troubles kind of turned it round for him and feeling more confident. And I guess the only thing you can take from it is, yeah, we're not having radio messages

of him saying, oh my God, the brakes are awful. This is the worst thing ever like we were at Monaco. You know, he was absolutely fuming about that. And now he's changed it, which is a huge thing to do. And yeah, he's not had that kind of issue where we're hearing loads of radio messages. Speaking of radio messages, though, something I would love to bring up that was at Lewis Hamilton who felt like the rear part of his car was dragging along the straight. And Ferrari decided to give us almost another, it must be the water moment and said it must be the wind.

And it was like, I do know what they were trying to say about the wind compressing the car and stuff. But like, I did find it quite funny that it wasn't exactly it must be, but it gave me it must be the water vibes massively. So yeah, Hamilton had a few. struggles of his own trying to figure out what was going on with the car but yeah it's uh ferrari just know how to just produce banging team radios i do feel a little sorry for them that obviously because of international broadcasting they have to speak in a language that they're not chatting about all the time obviously they're all very competent english but it does mean that sometimes like things are worded in such a way in the mistranslation and and and the kind of the way it's being said

makes them very memeable doesn't it yeah I don't even have a second language in the locker, so I can't even comment. Exactly. It does make for some mean worthy moments, that's for sure. Next question, Pulski-Polak underscore 2. Is a three-stop on the cards? The tyre deck across the field looks quite bad. It was very bad.

We heard Lewis Hamilton's engineer on the radio, speaking of Ferrari radio, saying that the deck is high for everyone, three-tenths per lap. We were seeing... That's insane. It's insane. And the soft tire... Three-tenth drop-off, a lap. Yeah.

And the soft tires were going in one lap. You know, so that we could see them potentially even doing the mediums. They're not going to want to use the hards didn't look great. But obviously, equally, if the softs only last like one lap, they can't, they have to, they have to do the mediums. They can't just do both mediums because they need to use two compounds. So this is very fascinating. I think this is the most fascinating part of the race is that we are going to have a lot of strategy.

is going to, you know, if it continues to be this hot, please. And the tyre deck is as insane as we've seen it. I can confirm it is going to continue to be hot. So that scenario is out the window. We are getting hot weather. So if they don't sort the tire deck out and it is the same as what they think, you know, we could be seeing like a F1-2012 Porelli race at this rate. The one-stop's coming, bro.

After you said that now, the tires are just going to miraculously be the greatest greatest thing ever. Antonelli will win, but doing like 57 laps of the medium. Exactly. Yeah, it very much seems like the soft tires will not be a race tire at all. So yeah, it's the mediums and the hards. Interestingly, Pirelli, to try and force this exact scenario brought a step softer this weekend.

So it's in the mid-range, the C2, C-3, C-4s. So I like that. I like the fact they've done it, because Pirelli are very cautious when it comes to tire degradation. I think after they've seen today's running, they'll be going, oh God, we should have brought the harder compounds because, yeah, they were shredding.

But that's what that, from a viewer's perspective, sign me up. If we can get a two, three stop, then, yeah, we'll have a lot of moments in the race that we can look forward to. So, yeah, let's keep an eye on that one. But it does very much look like it's going to be pretty warm the entire weekend.

And that is it. That is our recap. of practice done and dusted. Of course, the chat as well about Pierre Gasly and the ongoing conversation there. Tommy, final thoughts, please. Final thoughts? Absolutely cannot wait for qualifying tomorrow.

I think we've got a really fascinating race, which is not what you normally say about Barcelona, and the circuit that's obviously been heavily criticized by us. And yeah, I'm really looking forward to it because if it is the case where the soft tires can't even do a lap, we maybe see people gambling on mediums and things, and who knows what's going to happen. So, yeah, bring it on and join us for the watch along tomorrow.

Indeed. Join us tomorrow. My final thought is pray for my inner lip because I accidentally bit it two days ago, eating dinner, and it is getting slightly larger by the day. So hopefully you haven't noticed a slight list that's going on, but I've been trying to talk around it, Tommy. God, I wouldn't even have noticed.

Okay, good. That's good. Because I notice it in my own face. So I'm glad it's not. I just thought you'd add some, you know, some lip-fills. Some work-dun. Some work-dum. Charming. Some lip-fillers. All right.

See you soon. Lots of love. Bye. P1 is a stack production and part of the A-cast creator network.