P1 with Matt and Tommy - Reaction to Belgian GP practice

Episode Date: July 26, 2024

Spa didn't throw up the most interesting of practice sessions - but there's plenty of intriguing off-track news to get stuck into! P1 Live is heading to North America this Fall and tickets are now on sale! Click here to get your tickets, which are already close to selling out!Sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to bonus episodes, our classic race series, every P1 episode ad-free and access to our Discord server where you can chat with other F1 fans!Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok.. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. We are well into now the Belgian Grand Prix FP1 done, FP2 done. And well, what a thrilling couple of practice sessions. That was. Spar really was like, Matt, Tommy, you know how he said going to deliver some action? Well, not on Friday, mate. Not on Friday. Maybe it's saving itself for the weekend where it actually matters

because, yeah, not the most amount of action, thank goodness. We've got a few interesting things off track and kind of on track to talk about. But yeah, the weather didn't arrive, did it that maybe we thought might happen. No, absolutely not. So let's dive into something that actually went off or went on, off track at Selgren 89. What's going on in Alpine? And this is, of course, in reference to Bruno Faman, leaving Alpine as team. principle.

Well, how do we, what do we? Where do we start? How do you explain? It's another high profile exit, isn't it? There's been many, many, many in the last few years. There was a LinkedIn post, I think it was from an ex-employee that was quite the explosive rant about the direction they were going in. And just as they looked like they were on a nice high in getting some points again,

having all this drama in the background and they're kind of not delivering as well. You know, Ockon had another problem at the start of FP1. And obviously, Gazley had the two problems in the last two races as well. And they look slow. And also they're turning their backs on their own engines to go with Mercedes. That's a massive thing. Yeah, that could be huge.

It's not confirmed yet, but it seems like very, very, very likely. Which is a big shock. and surely like maybe this is a discussion for another day because we could talk about it forever but an very odd choice when you're surely in Formula One as Alpine and Renault to be like, look how good Renault cars are and then they're going but we've got a Mercedes in the back

because we can't trust our own engine. It's not the best publicity is it? It almost feels as though they're pulling themselves away from almost linking their sports cars and road cars with Formula One because you lose what I think a lot of teams want, especially the manufacturers, want to do, which is push selling their own cars. So you do wonder whether this is maybe the beginning of the end for Alpine, Renault and... They're going to be Deadpool Grand Prix.

Potentially. It's a bit, yeah, they kind of, I do like the livery, but they also feels like a walking billboard, to be honest with you this weekend with the car and the overalls and everything. It's interesting to say the least. Yeah, it's a kind of movie tie-in, isn't it? We've seen them before, like Red Bull used to do the Star Wars one and the Superman one and stuff. So, yeah, it's quite cool for a one-off. It looks cool. There's a lot more paint on it by the looks of it, just at least on the nose than normally with the Alpine. And yeah, it looks pretty cool, but I do prefer the pink alpine. Let's move to free practice one then, where Max Verstappen was fastest from Oscar Piastri

and Alexander Albion. And seeing as we were touching upon Alpine very slightly there, Esteban Alcon had some great luck doing all of one singular lap in FP1. So you are wondering at this stage, what have we done? We didn't think it would go on for three races. This wasn't in the script. It wasn't in the curse. So, again, not looking the greatest out of free practice one for Ocon. But this, this, look, we all get very over, not even excited. Just we start reading things, don't we? We always do.

That's the beauty of the sport. That's the fun of the sport. We start looking into it and say, who's quickest? And Max Verstappen looked like he was going to potentially win from last after FP1. And I regretted everything about not putting him in my top three. But yes, he was looking very ominous in the first practice session. he certainly was this track is maybe more suited to the Red Bull than previous tracks we've been to. Max has always been unbelievably quick there. It's one from near the back of the field

in the last two races. So yeah, it's going to make for an exciting Grand Prix, which we'll talk about Max later and how he's going to get through the field and if we think he will. But he was looking very ominous like you say in FP1 it was like oh this is the max just up and we knew from last year yeah and the beginning of this year as well and i can almost have a voice crack there mate i think you're getting a little bit emotional i'm losing my voice uh yeah i am actually losing max winning so you're like last year yeah is that you missing the domination tommy i know i'm just it's all i'm just pretending to lose my voice because max isn't winning and i don't want to talk about it anymore yeah and you're not here tomorrow either are you no yeah i've just given up on f1

just part-time these days really. Yeah, yeah. Free practice two. Let's go to that now then, because a little bit more representative, some big push-laps, actually at the beginning of the session rather than towards the end,

which it's not usual for free practice too, but it was Landon Norris, the head of Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen. So McLaren 1-2, and looking much, much better in this second practice session. Very interested to see if they can carry that over into qualifying,

especially when qualifying looks at the moment, like it is going to be wet or at least slippery. Believe it when I see it. Yeah, I keep checking the weather, and it does look, I think it was like 80% chance or something when I looked. So it is looking like that way, and that's what teams are currently trying to figure out right now

is what do we run? What setups do we run when we've got potentially a wet qualifying going into a dry race? you want obviously more downforce in the wet you want to be trying to absolutely ace that middle sector but in the dry you want a bit more straight line speed so teams have got a decision to make going into qualifying whether they just risk it all

and they go for the wettest setup ever and then pray to God they hold on which I don't think is a wise decision because then they just get mugged on the straits but it's something that the engineers are having to very much dive into because it's not an easy choice it's not and SPAR is one of those circuits where you get that mix in it anyway it's not like Monza where you go

no it definitely has to be this or or equally like a Monaco where you shovel the downforce on you will see this and it and it's very easy to get and it's a kind of almost like a little warning tomorrow to not get baited too much when Alex Albin is probably fastest in the first sector by half a second and you go oh he's going to get it. get pole, no, it's just the way they set up the cars and the fact that you can run such a skinny wing and you might be amazing in the first sector and then you just try and survive for the rest of it. First and third.

Yeah, true. Yeah, first and third. But particularly in FP1, you know, Max was gaining all that time in the middle sector and that is where you can gain a huge chunk of time and it doesn't even really matter with the first and third sectors. So it makes strategy very interesting and of course the sprinkling of rain as well because was it not, I feel like I think Lando last year maybe had a bit of a problem with his straight line speed and it left him an absolute, you know, sitting duck in the race and had a bit of a nightmare from that side. So it can happen.

Certainly. Let's go to the first question from Nick 02662742. Do McLaren can't mess up this one too. No? We'll wait and see. Because, well, we still haven't got confirmation that Max has taken that 10 place penalty yet, have we? We have, yeah. Oh, we have? Yeah, it's confirmed.

Okay, my apologies. So, yeah, that's confirmed now. Max still has the pace to, by the looks of things, get quite easily up to third place like you predicted. So screw you, Tommy. but I'm also hoping that Ferrari they're about so they might cause a bit more problems for Max as he's coming through the field

but McLaren once again are in the pound seats oh no they can't possibly catch Max at the top McLaren have a great opportunity to won two this race and Max has to start in the danger zone going into term one guaranteed that he cannot qualify any higher than 11th when we go into the race on Sunday so McLaren

to work together. I mean, Lando and Oscar firstly have to negotiate potentially very tricky conditions on Saturday, which may bring a few other teams into play. But when you look at the gaps right now, it seems like only McLaren and Max are in, well, they're in their own league. And then Ferrari are sort of just nipping at the heels. And right now, Mercedes, not looking the best, but sometimes they are horrendous in practice and turn up.

It's not looking the best for Merck at the moment. Yeah, I think that's probably one of the biggest surprises, biggest bad surprise, I guess you could call it, from practice that Mercedes don't really look anywhere, although normally when they're one-two, like you say, in practice, we get baited and go, they're going to be amazing and then aren't. So we have seen before Mercedes just turning up in the kind of dying moments of qualifying sometimes,

sometimes out of nowhere and putting in a great performance, and it kind of all surprises us right at the end. So maybe that could happen again, but it is very much looking like McLaren have the best package along with Max, and it's going to be a case of McLaren going for the victory, Max obviously coming through the field. It seems so far, but it's only practice, of course. Next question, James Riske 1.

What do you think is limiting parents? Perez is his performance, mental or the car? Well, that's when you know it's been a dreadful practice, a couple of practices in terms of entertainment when we are going back to Perez. But when you look at both of his performances in FP1 and FP2, he only just about got within a second in free practice one, and he was 1.2 seconds off in FP2.

I think the one saving grace for him is that if he manages to claw just two or three tenths back of this over one second deficit that he currently has, he may well save his own blushes and qualify in sort of P6 because it does look like there is a big gap between the top teams and the rest of the field. So back to the question, look, I think it's both. I don't think you can say it's one or the other. Perez is clearly, you know, he was on the radio, I think in practice today saying that he had

understeer and oversteer and he didn't really understand the sort of slow to midspeed corners. And it just feels like he doesn't have a clue what that. car is going to do and therefore can't instill any confidence in himself and therefore the lap time isn't there and he's also scared of crashing and sometimes has crashed even though he's been slow so it's just a snowball procedure right now that we're seeing and it's it's sad to see because this is not the Sergio Perez that we saw at the start of seasons gone by exactly you're right that these two these two things of like mental or the car they kind of they are kind of one thing because if you're not confident in the car,

you're not going to be able to deliver. And that is why Max has been so good is because he's got supreme confidence in that car. It's been spoken about many times the way Max likes to drive. So with Perez, he got, there was a radio message right at the start of FP1 that they definitely knew what they were doing when they played it out where Peres said he was struggling in the corners

and they said what corners and he said all of them or something along those lines where he's like high speed, low speed, everything. And he is just struggling everywhere, it seems at the moment.

The more I've kind of thought about it and maybe this is just the fact that we've not had a session where he's been terrible and I might change my mind when we get to qualifying if he's out in Q1 again. But they made an interesting

point about getting rid of him when the Mexican Grand Prix is still to go and I know a lot of people would go oh well if he costs them the championship it doesn't matter but that is still such a massive call to do and makes me think that that might be the thing that kind of keeps him keeps him on board if because Red Bulls so clearly want him to do better

I don't think it's a case that they want to get they clearly don't want to get rid of him because they would have got rid of them ages ago we saw how ruthless they were with other the drivers, it's not about who they're going to replace it. They just want Perez to be better. And whether he can do that or not, we'll have to wait and see. But I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for him to do that because he's been second in qualifying, I think, in the last two times we've raised here.

So, but so far, based on practice, that's not the case. It's, um, I don't agree that. Red Bull, just because Mexico hasn't happened yet, that they are scared to make a decision, I think it's more just the fact that Perez clearly brings a lot to the team away from just, well, the odd performance, if that, if we can say that, it's, you know, he sells a lot of merch, he's very popular, and Red Bull clearly don't want to ruffle those feathers, I guess, within that fan base or whatever those decisions might be. Because Red Bull have been, this is not even, This is lenient now from Red Bull.

They are going further than some other drivers from any other teams. We used to think that Red Bull was so strict and cutthroat. They've now gone completely the other way with Perez. And it's clearly that they see the value in him. But then they're going to be having these chats of, okay, well, how much do we value what he brings in terms of merch sales and fan base? When on the flip side of that, we're not going to win the constructors. But then the problem is, as we've mentioned before,

who's the obvious choice to go in there? Is it Yuki Sonoda that's got potential but might crash five more times if he gets into a Red Bull? Is it Daniel Ricardo that we're not actually sure if he's going to be much quicker than Perez? So I don't think there's an obvious choice, like a young talent, like a, let's try

Kimmy Antonelli or whatever it might be. So that's the problem as well. Someone in finance is working out... Six five? Oh, sorry. That's the song that came to my head. Oh. Someone in finance is now has got like a spreadsheet and they're working out the gap

between the prize money of first and second versus Sergio Perez hat sales and seeing which one which one does best maybe maybe that's what it is. Right, let's move on. Next question. Next question.

B1 Patriot member Lumixion with Vastappen and more importantly Sonoda having grid penalties is the ball firmly in Ricardo's court? I don't think you can really say just because Sunoda has a 60 place grid penalty that now it's up to Daniel Ricardo. Can he do something?

thing in this one Grand Prix where Vastappan and Sonoda are on the back foot. It's not as knee-jerk as that. We know that Formula One teams take a lot more into account than, oh, well, Sonoda's got a penalty. Therefore, he's no longer in the running. I think R.B. don't look that great this weekend so far anyway. So I'm not sure if there'll be much to write home about for them. They looked like they were trying very much a very fast car in the first and third sector,

but then lost about three days in the middle sector. So, yeah, 14th and 20th and FP2 for RB. What can Daniel Ricardo really do if they don't improve from there? Yeah, we're going to, it is funny how Ricardo does seem like the red hot favourite now to take that place. I think it's all going to come down to if he has, if Per is still underdelivers and Ricardo has a really, really good race and maybe finishes like eighth or ninth, then that could, that would pile a lot of pressure when essentially you go into the summer break

where Red Bull have made those decisions before and that whole narrative will like spark up again about Daniel Ricardo if he has a good race. So yeah, I think, I think it really does. I personally don't see it. happening now that they'll swap. But maybe if Dono Ricardo does put an amazing

performance, Red Bull might just finally decide, you know what, something has to change. But I'm sure we'll be talking about this again after the race. I'm sure we will. Final question comes in from Gavin Curley 90. Can Max win with a 10

place grid penalty? Yes. I think you'd be very silly and naive to say no. Just because Max might start 11th, 12th, 13th. Is he the favourite? I would say no. I think McLaren have got a fantastic opportunity

to win this, get a 1-2, they've got the pace. Max will lose, I don't know, as estimate 10, 15 seconds, depends how quickly he gets through the rest of the field. Will he have loads of downforce in the middle sector like he was showing today? And therefore overtaking might be slightly more difficult for him

with the use of DRS. Who knows? but my thoughts are yes he can but i think mcclaren would have to do another one of their disaster classes which they've done a fair bit recently um i think he definitely can for sure he dRS will be it's not as long uh the red bull won't be as quick but i still think he'll breeze past a lot of the cars towards the start it all comes down to mcclaren and how well they can manage that situation because they're going to have piastri looks quick again even if lando's on pole by half a second sometimes you don't want to be on pole at spa because you get an

amazing run up up the hill and it's sometimes better not to be which poor lando if he if that happens again even if it is a track like spa which happens to pretty much everyone it would just continue that that damning stat, won't it? So it's going to basically be how McLaren managed their race. They've got Oscar ahead again. Are they going to start messing about? Are they going to, if Lando's quicker, will they let him through? There's a lot of questions to still be asked,

but it all comes down to if McLaren are not going to be naive and think the max is out of it. I don't think they will for a second, but they need to, they basically can't be like, oh we've got Max is kind of out the way and we'll be fine. They need to still make big bold strategy decisions because Max will be like a shark, like the shark meme coming to get them basically, I think.

Okay, that pretty much wraps up Friday practice. Sorry there wasn't a huge amount to reflect on, but that's just what today brought. Spire, you better be picking up your game for Saturday and Sunday. I'll tell you that for free. but with a wet qualifying fingers crossed, it will make for some exciting action. Tommy, what are your final thoughts? Final thoughts are I saw an interesting statistic that we're on a run of the poll sitter not winning a race.

And it's been the longest streak in 14 years, I think, they said, that we've had the pole position guy not going to win the race. and do you know who the last person that actually converted pole position was? Charles LeClaire. It was of all the people. The ultimate irony that Shal is the only one recently that's actually been able to convert his poll.

So well done, Charlerclair. Well, yeah, like, it just proves that he's the go. Anyway, thanks so much, everybody. Take care. See you tomorrow. We'll be live on Twitch. Well, I will be. Tommy is gallivanting around the world again.

And see you soon. Bye. Bye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the ACAST creator network.