P1 with Matt and Tommy - Reaction to Belgian GP qualifying

Episode Date: July 26, 2025

It's 2025, it's qualifying – of course it delivered! We look back on some excellent laps across the pack at Spa and Tommy has a (sassy) message for the TV directors. Plus, find out why we're rooting against our favourite drivers tomorrow... Come join us!You can listen to an extended version of every Race Review this season 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 B1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. Another podcast, another bit of content for your ears and eyes and everything else, depending on where you're watching or listening. And just another qualifying session. I can never get enough of qualifying sessions in particular, Tommy. We know what we're dealt with in 2025 Formula One. And it's usually the qualifiers are exciting. And they just never fail.

I don't think they ever fail to just slap this year. It is quality. Yeah, qualifying does just deliver and particularly in the races when it's so hard to pass, it doesn't matter as much and all you kind of really want in qualifying. Is it for it to be close? And I mean, in particular, the midfield is incredibly close. That's why it always seems to like chop and change. And people putting in a good lap can be a big surprise. And yeah, we do have a slightly different grid going forward compared to yesterday. despite some similarities, of course, mainly Q1, which we'll get into. Well, what a beautiful segue. Let's head to Q1 with the bottom five. Well, Hamilton, Colopinto, Antonelli, Alonzo and Stroll. No, you are not listening to the sprint qualifying podcast.

Hamilton and Anthony Lee did indeed go out in Q1 for the main race as well. First question, dive straight into it. P1 Patreon Tony Soprano. Are we allowed to criticise? Lewis yet. Gosh, I mean, that's straight to the point, isn't it? Are we allowed to criticise him?

Of course, we're allowed to criticise every driver when they make mistakes and when they don't deliver. And Hamilton had that spin yesterday, made the mistake with, you know, it's a small mistake, don't get me wrong, but it's still a driver error to have track limits on your final lap in Q1 at such, I'm not going to say an easy place to not,

you know, get it right, it's very blind and you're not playing the Formula One game, like it is still a very daunting corner but of all the corners it's probably the most I don't know it's not really a corner now is it

you can't forgive him yeah we can't forgive I don't think he's even considered a corner now is it not really for Formula One cars no yeah so the fact is it's it's not good enough from Hamilton you can tell from his own interviews afterwards kicking himself very down in the dumps

and it's been a poor weekend after Silverstone of course lauding the fact that he did pretty well in that Ferrari nothing crazy, but still did a decent performance. But it has to be said, it's been a disaster this weekend. It has. Yeah, of course, we gave him the benefit of the doubt yesterday, the fact that he made the error, but kind of mentioned that I think his kind of poor performance is being overplayed,

but for it to happen two qualifying sessions in a row, even though this one was a much smaller mistake, in fact, a very small mistake, you know, tiniest little correction going off. is still in misjudgment. You know, his lap would have put him where he needed to be, you know, just behind Charlerc. But it was an error for, you know, the track limits and he got punished for it.

And to go out, he looked absolutely devastated again, very frustrated, a very, very bizarre team radio where it almost felt like his team didn't want to tell him the news, where he was just basically going, what was going on? Is everything okay? Yeah. And then he kind of got it out of his team. Even when they said, you've got track limits at turn four,

they didn't even follow up then to say he was out. He had to then say, so am I out? And it's like, yes. Obviously we get snippets, don't we of the team radio. We don't get the full transcript.

Yeah, you know, certain websites that give you that. But it is, in your head, you're like, okay, what's happened since he's come over the line?

Have Ferrari just been like, oh no we've got a talent you know what is going on in that whole scenario the team radio has just been bizarre

the entire year with Hamilton I think Hamilton is learning that it's not easy going at Ferrari when it comes to communication between driver and team but this has been a recurring thing for many many seasons at Ferrari

but yeah it just felt like they were almost scared to tell him Hamilton had to chase up and hey guys just wondering have I made it through? Kind regards Lewis. But I don't know.

It's a bizarre. You don't see it any other team, do you? It's just Ferrari things. It is Ferrari things. Yeah, the team radio is poor, but yeah, we definitely can criticize Lewis on this one. Two mistakes. You now go into, you know, yesterday,

we were very hopeful. I know it's going to be probably different conditions. Who knows it keeps changing? We thought it was going to be rainy today. But based on what happened yesterday, incredibly difficult to overtake. We'll find out tomorrow if it's still incredibly difficult to overtake. A lot of the time it is in the wet.

He'll be hoping that it is wet because in the dry, incredibly hard to pass at this track now as we learned in the sprint. In the wet, even though you don't have that luxury of DRS, we know that Hamilton is good in the wet. So he'll be hoping that just crazy weather can throw something up. but yeah, really, really poor weekend for Hamilton so far. Certainly has. We probably have to speak about Antonelli, of course.

Speaking about poor weekends, just no pace, really, for the Mercedes in general. Russell hasn't exactly sort of spawned in P3 or something. He's qualified sixth for tomorrow's race. But Antonelli, he's on a concerning run of form now where he has to pick himself up. He has to find a way out of this rut. because it's so easy, I think, mentally, isn't it, to just start to doubt certain things, to start second-guessing yourself, especially as a rookie. So Mercedes need to get around him and really start to dive into the data of what is going on.

Because similarly to Hamilton, yes, Anthony Lee is a rookie, but it's not good enough to be knocked out in Q1 consecutively on the same weekend, especially around a track that he would have had experience on as well. Yeah, exactly. Formula 2 comes around here. Not that it's the same as Formula 1 cars, but it gives you a little bit of a feel for the circuit. But yeah, I can't believe that both of these drivers have been out in Q1 in both days.

And what's weird about it is it's not like the cars are slow or anything like that. It's weird that Antonelli went out yesterday because he spun off and damaged his floor and then today he was just slow and then the day before Hamilton spun off and then today he had the track limits thing so it's like different reasons and it's so weird that it ended up the same two kind of shock drivers going out again but yeah it's very worrying for Antonelli I think more worrying than his spin because you know I was one of the the people that was saying that I think Antonelli will be quick but mistake prone but what's worrying is his lap was just like it wasn't like he spun off and he was you know blistering in the middle sector and he was

about to easily get through and then he made a mistake and spun off because he was pushing that sector one sector three exactly yeah so didn't didn't work out for him at all and you know very worrying signs for antonelli yeah perhaps you know his driving style isn't used to now I'm giving a slight benefit of doubt with him being a rookie that you know Merck went for quite an extreme low downforce setup with both the drivers. You saw Russell as well. He's been struggling. So I wonder if, yeah, it is just a case of Antonelli not having that same feel as perhaps he's had around other circuits with different setups.

But still, you need to adapt and you need to be able to be there no matter what the condition. Question from P1 on page. Remember, Captain Obst 34020, how is it physically possible for Aston to be dead last? So they set the 19th and 20th fastest lap times which is very surprising. They brought upgrades as far as we're aware, it's still not Adrian Newey. Adrian Newey's not touching this car really with a barge pole.

He's all about next year and beyond. He might well be going a little bit of this, little bit of that, but let's be real. He might be going, make it as slow as possible. Give me all that winter all time, please. Thank you very much. That is also fine. You know, Adrian Newey will have said that.

he would have said also, can we keep under 50 points that Tommy can get a point in the season predictions that he made at the start of the year that Aston would flop. It's just, that was surprising. I'm very used to seeing a Lance Drol P20. I'm not used to seeing a Fernando Alonzo P19. And very quickly, Aston have become, at least this weekend, pretty poor. Well, they're in that midfield. They're well in the midfield, aren't they? and that midfield now is everyone.

Like the midfield includes Salba, which before they were comfortably last. But, you know, you talk about who's the worst team, but they kind of, they all have a chance when they put a lap together to be able to do something. So that does leave someone,

unfortunately, has to be last. And it's Aston Martin. And Stroll, we used to see him going out in Q1. He also, The record holder, of course. Yeah, of course, the record holder. And you kind of would excuse it a little bit as well

because he had that damage from the Holkenberg incident, which was very bizarre. But for Alonzo to go out as well, really poor from Aston. But they're just right in this year off, aren't they? Yeah, they don't massively care, do they really? I don't care. I know Fernando wants to get stuck in,

but it's small points at the sort of best weekends for them. Q2. The five drivers out. Lock on, Bearman, Gassley, Holkenberg and Sines. Now this was a bit of a strange one, of course, if we're going to talk about Holkneberg, who was 14th, outqualified by his teammate once again, which I know Tommy's going to be like,

hey, Gabby Bortoletto, I told you, coming into the season, he's going to be good. But there was, of course, that strange incident with Holkenberg and Stroll. This was in Q1, of course, because Stroll didn't make it through to Q2, where just in the pit exit road, whatever you want to call it.

They tried to sneak out, didn't they, with that salver? They all try and sneak out. The mechanic ushering him there basically in the pit exit road, going like, yeah, go, go, go, go, go. Stroll does not care. He's like, well, Daddy will pay for a new front wing. Stroll driving like someone that was born with a silver spoon in the mouth and just was like, well, I'm not going to let you through.

Yeah, exactly. No matters whatsoever. I'm a drive over your front wing. I don't care if it costs 150 grand. Put it on my dad's bill. but it's yeah it just it was a bizarre I don't know what's actually happened since then have we seen any confirmation

we've not seen anything as far we know we're recording straight after qualifying you know I'm I joked about about stroll it's not it's not like stroll deserves a penalty or anything it's just one of those things where like he's got every right to continue it's just whether you kind of risk versus reward you know we we've seen other drivers

I think I mentioned it in the watcherlon that that Lando was was someone was like pushing into the pack and he just basically waited because what's the point? Why would you risk your front wing or damage or stuff for the sake of one car being in front of you in front of qualifying? It's not going to make the biggest world of difference. But they really want to and he just went straight on. It is more on Holcomburg for trying to push in and I wouldn't. I personally think the Salver should be penalised for that in some way whether it's a fine.

I think I think the situation is ridiculous to have, you know, for all. all the safety precautions, and I know they're going very slow and they're queuing up, but to have literally like the mechanics there, like right next to the cars, like trying to usher them in, like they're in the middle of the road. It's just, it's just bizarre. It kind of makes a bit of a mockery of it, to be honest. I think it's just ridiculous. It's so stupid.

I don't think there's any driver that would have gone as far as stroll just did. No. I just drove over the front wing. I don't think there's any other driver that would have done that. So, of course, we'll wait to see what happens with that one. Stroll is well within his own right to continue driving. It is up to Holkenberg as a person joining the pit exit road to not crash into somebody. So, yeah, I'm not going to criticize Stroll for what he did.

Obviously, he just risks having a puncture. It's the risk versus reward that he's taken, but it's not his fault by any stretch. Other things to speak about from Q2, of course, both Hasse is not making it through. And I thought, I was convinced actually that both of them were going to sneak through at the end of that Q2 session. and they looked very quick. Bairman, of course, losing a heap of time after Sonoda snuck through

just as they were starting their laps. And then Bairman, perhaps a little bit aggrieved, of course, maybe lost a little bit of temperature in the tyres before he came over the line. Into term one, just lost the back end and he claimed that he lost three tenths for a second, which would have easily put him through

to the final stage of qualifying. What I will say on a positive side, Berman is starting to get his ingredients together and is cooking up a little bit of a rookie masterclass now. I'm seeing the good pace from Olly Berman of late and it's not been a completely clean, faultless weekend. I haven't seen one of those for a while, if ever, I think. Yeah, it does feel like that.

But if he does it, my God. The pace is coming, the confidence is coming and I feel good for Hasse's chances to score double points tomorrow because that's where they usually come into their own anyway. It's really gutting for Bearman and it's also very gutting because we had the same conversation in Silverstone when we saw him causing chaos having issues, having penalties and still managing to get to 11th and you go, oh my word, what would he have done if he had a clean weekend? And equally with this, he looked so quick this weekend. And in this session in particular, Ocon obviously they split the strategy. O'Conn had the setup. and had he had Berman had started his lap behind Doc on he would have got a lovely slipstream

which is what I think they were trying to do house with their teammate so because of course Berman had the the dragier setup but he would would get a nice slip stream from his teammate Berman had the no he had less drag sorry less drag sorry and then would slipstream his teammate which would give him an advantage in the first sector and then middle sector he's got all that lovely downforce to play with and he would have I think he would have a really, really good lap, but unfortunately for him did not happen and what might have been. I'm now second-guessing

myself as to who had the less drag because I feel like Ocon maybe had the less drag. O'Con had the skinny wing. O'Con had the skinny wing. He did have the... No, he did have the... No, yeah, so no, yeah, you were right. I apologise for that one, Tommy. So it's so confusing to keep up, because some of them are changed into this one. Yeah, it's changed again, it's changed again

and something we mentioned that some people may find a bit confusing is that you are allowed to change after the sprint. So, like, Max has now changed based on, you know, the evidence of what might happen tomorrow. Yeah, so how it is free practice one, part Fermé conditions then are locked in the minute you start sprint quali, and then it's locked all the way through sprint quality and the sprint race, then it opens up again after the sprint race and then it's locked again now, of course,

that we've had to qualify. So you can try something completely different for quality, which is quite a lot of drive this did. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, interesting to see the split strategies between Ockon and Behrman. Who will be the happier one tomorrow if we do get changeable conditions? I think the one with the higher downforce setup for sure. Just before you move on, one mention of Carlos Sites in 15th, you are well and truly seeing my pain of going for a team

and only one of them is allowed to do well. Literally, it's one or the other. Of course, science qualified really well in the sprint. Albonne is qualified in fifth. This is amazing. Hey, look, Science Masterclass tomorrow from 15th on the grid. see in double Williams points

Williams points and then we are we'll be arguing in the in the court of P1 prediction points but yeah disappointed to see signs

down in 15th Ghazley as well I think we may have expected a tiny bit more from Gazley in 13th as well hopefully at least

starts the race yes after he didn't start the sprint after an amazing sprint quality let's head to Q3 where the top 10 Norris Piaastri

Lecler Vestappen Albon Russell Sonoda Hadjar, Lawson and Bortoletto. P.1Patry member Alan Enderpe, could we expect an actual battle between both McLaren's for the race based on how close they are?

Yes. Yeah, we've not got any silly Max for Stappans with low downforce to get involved from P2. It is a straight dog fight between the two McLaren's until Charlotte Clare goes around the outside of the pair of them down the straight to take the lead.

Or splits one of them. Wow. Yeah. Get out the way, please. Shala, love you to bits. and if you can win, win. But P2 over a P3 to not see the two McLaren's fight,

I don't need that. I will happily, like there's no, I mean, if Ferrari might be going for second in the constructors, I don't want that either. I want more wind tunnel time.

So, Charles just finished third. We can celebrate the podium, woo-woo, but just let Norris and Piastri cook us a good race, please. I can't believe a Charles Leclair fan and a match for Stappan faner here on this podcast

going, please don't do anything special at the start. Just let the McLaren's race because you're not going to be anywhere near them for the rest of the race. So just let them go because we want to see that McLaren fight, don't we? Although if it's wet, it's a level. Yeah, true, maybe. You never know.

All right, shall I win it all, shall. I've changed it. Go down the inside of the pair of them. Thank you. What I would say about Lando is he was a long way off Piastri, wasn't he, in sprint qualifying. but in the race caught up thanks to obviously Max being ahead and it shows that despite you know whatever you think about the two McLaren drivers they are just so exceptionally close and Norris you kind of feel like it would be

odds on for Piastri to get the result there and instead Norris takes it and those two are just going to as we get later later into the season it's not going to be all fun and games however much you know last year you see like Norris gifting piastria sprint wind to say thank you and all this kind of stuff and they're a bit more friendly not everyone well not everyone is going to be a Vestappan hamilton title fight where it gets really like you know messy and and kind of ruthless when when it gets down to those final races and we're getting closer to that and they realize this could be the best chance they ever get of winning a world championship they're going to start really racing each other hard and I think we could see it

sign me up tommy where do i sign uh moving on now to alex albon who of course we did briefly mention p5 on the grid for him a phenomenal lap to beat russell of course sonoda up there in q3 as well which we will we'll get on to uh but yeah for alban we're hoping for no sassy team radios tomorrow we're hoping for just pure harmony and happiness in that williams team uh for both drivers, ideally for my predictions. But for Albon, in fifth place, I think he's got a great chance to probably even stay there with Russell's struggles. Like, it's going to be an Albon train. We've seen it so many times. We're going to see it. Yeah, it's so true, actually, the fact that you've got, like, Albon P5, it depends, again, like we say this, so many times, depends on

the weather, bingo. But if even if it is dry, yeah, Alex Albon. In P5, you're going to see a train there, I think, with how difficult it is to pass. But it puts them in for a great opportunity at Albert, just out of nowhere as well. Just at the end there, kind of just managed to get through into Q3. I think he was 10th, wasn't he? So to then make it through was a big achievement enough. And then really enjoyed watching every corner. of his brilliant lap, not.

But that's the next question. Let's do that. Next question from Favreggonton 41. Why do you think we saw more images of Norris's mother than Albon during the entire session? Now, they are feeding a lot of family stuff. I don't mind. Show the family occasionally. They're obsessed with the family.

There's a new TV director that's got a thing for mums, I think, because my God, we've seen every driver's mum. this weekend. Yeah. Or maybe it's the mum's weekend. Who knows? But either or, I don't mind a little bit of family stuff

when it's suitable, when it's, in practice, in the lulls of qualifying. However, when Alex Albon is on a lap, and it's not just the mums, it was just the general direction

was poor. Why are we going on a slowdown of Lando Norris looking at his helmet when there are drivers still out there improving? Like we literally had Albon and one of the RBs, I think it was, still on a lap. And they were improving.

They were green sectors. What, why are we, we stop when the session stops. Then we go to Lando and we say, oh, congratulations. That was a, it was a bit rubbish, actually, because Albon, of course, had nobody really improved or very small improvements, we'd get over it. But Albon to go all the way to fifth, that's a big moment. It is a big moment. I think this happens on a regular.

basis and not just this weekend when they're obsessing over showing the family members all the time. But even before that, they just, the disrespect that they showed to the midfield runners is crazy. They act like they're not even in it. And sure, you know, the battle for first is always more exciting than the battle for fifth, six, seventh, whatever. but when they are literally on a on a lap and doing a good sector you kind of want to see them cross-line you should always you should always show action over over like anything else in terms of like yeah that's that's what we want to see on track like you say I don't mind the the lulls in

kind of the session there's there's plenty of them in qualifying they all go to the pits at the same time and you know show everyone's mums for like five minutes fine whatever but when we've got actual action on track they need to show it i remember i remember there was a brilliant post online like a couple of years ago where someone actually analyzed a q3 session and showed how much actual track action they show for a 10 minute session and it genuinely was baffling it was like two minutes or something. And it's the same where like it's so disrespectful for these midfield runners that they just act like they're not even that. And they don't even show it because I feel like this is a regular occurrence that we see an album go to P5 or last year. I remember Gassley doing

an amazing run. Vegas, I think it was. And he got into P3. They didn't show a single second of it. They're just like, oh, you're a midfield. It doesn't matter. And then it just relies on the commentator, basically seeing it pop up on the timing tower. It's just disrespectful. Tommy, who gave you the keys to the Sasmobile? We absolutely love to see it. Final question from P1PITR member, Frank Siller. Do you think the change in leadership at Red Bull

will really help Yuki in the long run? I am of the sad opinion that it is complete and utter coincidence that Sonoda has got Seventh and Horner's not there anymore. as much as I'd love to say that Lauren Mecky's has literally come in, booted the second driver curse out the door along with Horner and gone, don't worry about it, Yuki. I will say from a mental side of things, maybe a small mental factor.

Yuki, of course, having worked with Loron, it might feel a little bit more familiar, but it's not going to change the way he drives the car. So, and the car's not really changed, of course, coming into this session compared to the sprint, he didn't have the new floor then he had the new floor going into qualifying and there's clearly been a marked difference

for Sonoda since that moment because I mean he only was less than four tenths behind Max which I know is in any other team teammate comparison a disaster but for for Yuki and Red Bull it's that's a win it is a win for them

you know we don't need this is the thing with that second Red Bull driver they don't need to be beating Max they don't even need to be right behind Max on the road like if Max is dragging that car to to you know the occasional win podiums fourth and fifth if yuki or whoever that second rebel driver was finishing every weekend seventh eighth whatever you'd kind of go well they're doing their job it's very difficult to be max's teammate it's better than what we've seen in the past so fingers across for youki that this is the start of a positive change and even though i agree with

you that i don't think it's a case where like horn are going it is as all coincidental maybe just having a team principle that maybe feels a bit more like they'd fight his corner a little bit more and someone that he respected and knew well from his v carb days might help him along the way but it's good to see that he's been given the same, you know, a new floor and they've kind of gone with a decent setup and he's been able to deliver a good performance. He absolutely has. And that brings us to the end of our qualifying wrap-up.

Thank you everybody for tuning in to our watch-longs if you have been. Of course, we've got one more tomorrow for the main race. Tommy, what's your final thoughts, please? Final thoughts are literally the next session is the race and I still cannot decide whether I want it to rain or be perfectly dry because wet to dry, thank you very much. Changeable. That's what I want.

Yep, just changeable. Nice. But not consistently wet. We don't want that. No one wants that because then you don't. Line of stern. No one goes offline. Yeah.

So just a small slippery track that goes and dries throughout the race. Lovely stuff. We will see you. For the watch along, we'll see you for the podcast and everything else that's coming after that. We'll see very soon. Lots of love. Take it. Bye.

Bye. Chores are, see you tomorrow. P1 is a stack production and part of the ACAST creator network.