P1 with Matt and Tommy - Reaction to Brazil GP Sprint Race

Episode Date: November 8, 2025

We react to an incident-filled sprint race over in São Paolo, which included a few scary crashes and another Championship points swing… We're currently in North America on the Delusion Tour! Some shows have sold out but there are still a few tickets available for shows next week - 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 P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. We are live here once again in Denver as we have a show for the P1 Live Delusion Tour on Monday. We are currently settled in a lovely little Airbnb. We've got a little cinema room, haven't we, to enjoy Formula One this weekend, Tommy. And we enjoyed the sprint to some degree. I think it was a chaotic one. It had a few big moments, one for the championship. So quite a bit to talk about and also a Tommy slash Matt rant.

Yes, there was, I think, a little bit frustrating because you always expect Brazil to be an absolute banger and they're overtaking each other every single lap because the expectation is so high. There were some frustrations, but there was also a hell of amount of controversy as well that we're going to dive into. We certainly will. Tickets are also available for Dallas, Toronto and Chicago, the other shows that we have coming up, New York, unfortunately, a few lot are sold out. Right. Let's get into the sprint action and begin with the biggest moment of all. Liam Lawson, Oliver. I'm kidding. No, of course, of course it has to be Oscar Piastri crashing out of the sprint. A huge moment. We talk about

sprints. We talk about how they feel quite inconsequential. It's a point here. It's a point there. but it can be massive. We've seen it in Austin in Max's sort of championship challenge charge, whatever you want to call it, where both of the McLaren's were out and he won. That was an eight-point swing. Oscar today crashes out of a slippery, wet Brazilian sprint and it's an eight-point swing in Lando's favour. It's a massive mistake for Oscar. It's a small mistake in the grand scheme of things, but it has such huge consequences for his title hopes. It really does. And it feels like more you know psychological thing more more than anything obviously the points is a is a disaster the fact that it is an eight point swing like you say this the the points aren't as

as extreme but we were talking about the fact that you know piastri he's had such poor form and looked like he's had no pace this weekend he's actually looked an awful lot better and I think even if he had just finished third finished you know he lost a couple of points and it wouldn't have been that bad because you'd have basically gone into the, you know, lost a couple of points, but he's got that momentum and you kind of feel like, okay, he's back in the game. You go into qualifying. He looks like he can challenge Lando now, but you just worry that this could take another, you know, knock of his confidence, especially after what happened in Baku. For sure, it was definitely a better Oscar Piastri that we saw, not just in qualifying that we reflected

on yesterday or sprint quality, but also in the sprint, you know, he was around, you know, as you say, finishing third would be fine. Two points swing, three points behind going into the main race. But instead, yeah, it is another confidence not for him. I guess in some ways we will, well, by the looks of things, it's more than likely that we're going to get a dry rest of the weekend. So the conditions in which he crashed out of were probably not going to see again unless we get a random rainstorm and things like that,

which could spice up the action. So, yeah, bad times for Oscar. Question. Mike 23, four, six, do you think Oscar can recover this championship? He's been so off since Baku. It's a good question. And I think a lot of Oscar fans out there will be sort of mystified as to how this has gone so badly, so quickly from being so consistent scoring podiums for fun. And now once again, we're talking about another moment for Oscar where it was a mistake. Yes, we also had Colapinto and Holcomberg crashing on literally the same part of the track, but there are other 17, 16, however many that were in the race at that time that didn't crash at that moment. So can he recover the

championship? It's seeming more and more unlikely as we see more competitive sessions. Yes, he was better in sprint quality, but he was still just under two-tenths behind Lando, which is a big margin around a one-minute nine lap. So for me, it, I, really feel as though it is against Oscar now even more so than I was saying this before the sprint race crash and now this further sort of just backs up my feelings here I'm maybe a bit more optimistic about Oscar which is rare to be the optimistic one but I do I do think it's the points gap when you look at the points gap I think his only saving grace here is the fact that it's a nine point swing McLaren are looking incredibly dominant

and it's all going to be in a few hours time how he picks it up in qualifying because if he manages to get pole position or beat Lando in that race a seven point swing it's all level again it really all does just come down to how he's going to pick himself up after this crash because he's got the it's not like a match to stepping situation where it's quite clear now like he doesn't have the car and it's a massive points difference I think that's the key thing here with Oscar, if he can just pick himself up, the problem is he's made a massive error again when he's actually, you know, been on the pace. We say like if he can pick himself up, but we've been saying this for now four race weekends

and that the points are disappearing for him in this championship challenge. So I guess what is it because the fact that the points gap isn't big? For me, it's the fact that literally, McLaren is so dominant that literally just a one-two in Oscar's favour. and they're basically a level again. Would you say they're dominant around Brazil, though? I mean, you had Kimmy Antonelli fighting Lando for the win this time round. So we're talking about quality going into the rest of the weekend.

I don't think it's a given that the McLaren are that clear that Oscar can just slot into a PT. Well, I mean, the fact that I think the conditions played a part and the tyres will see, obviously, going into the rest of it. Lando does look mighty. I'm not saying that, you know, Oscar is going to, to beat Lando. I still think the short bet is Lando to win

the championship. He's looking very comfortable. You know, I do, I'm not here saying that I think Piazsche is going to win the championship. I do very much firmly believe it's going to be Lando Norris and this race only cements it.

But I wouldn't, I wouldn't write him off. Max, on the other hand, he's gone. Oh, here we go. I love it. You're optimistic about anyone but Max for Staffen, which is absolutely crazy. next question from p1 patron member anastasia w do you think the water splash played a role in the crash or was it simply a matter of where the drivers went on the curb it may have done i think the way they i wouldn't say baited us with the radio but i think formula one know what they're doing now with how they can play team radio to give context because i think it was just generally a passing comment from antonelli of

oh Lando's kicked up a load of water here and because three drivers have just gone in the wall it's obviously like they play that and go oh that could be a really interesting thing to kind of play and then obviously with that it makes it almost you almost look at it and it feels like it's a Mario car he's dropped a banana peel and a thousand IQ move

and he's just taken piastri out the race it's not Lando's fault in any stretch he's just driving his race he's allowed to do that he didn't lose the car and every on board i've seen of the drivers that have kept on the road other than landau they've avoided that curb but the people that have gone wide um you know have lost it in a big way so it's really hard to tell uh how much and obviously we've not heard the interviews as of yet i think it was a massive coincidence to be honest with you i think we were baited by the radio because of course we see that we see three cars go off and

all of us watching are trying to figure out, well, why has that happened? And of course, the Kimmy Antonelli radio has played about the fact that Lando has kicked up a massive amount of water. And you look at the replay, if anything, I would say it's more, you know, that would maybe have been the cause had the driver's been off the curb, because the water looked like it splashed up and then kind of went onto the racing line, if anything. So I think it's very much a coincidence. You know, the drivers are picking up speed. They're gaining tire temperature as the laps go on and the confidence starts to kick in and of course I think as well like it's a driver's natural instinct to start pushing the limits start sort of going onto the curb and things like that

although it is the absolute rule number one that you don't go on the curbs and the white lines when it's been raining especially on dry tires but you know they're pushing into the S's and I think it's just purely that you know we actually saw at a camera angle as well of the water pools that were in within the sort of serrated curbs but the thing was Lando when deeper into the curves, which actually seemed to work in his favour, whereas just kissing it was the cause of three drivers out of the race in a matter of about 30 seconds. Yeah, it was a mad moment. To see three drivers go off at the same time is very rare. I think my initial reaction was like, has it just started raining or something at that turn? Because we've seen that in the

past that's caught people out. But yeah, just an insane moment. And unfortunately for, you know, Oscar, you know, the other two went in the wall. Colapinto, we'll find out later, you know, whether he's going to be all right for qualifying, because he had absolutely enormous damage on his car. Very unlikely, I think, from just what we saw, there was definitely one side of the car that was completely ripped off. Next question for people on pitch. Remember, Glush, what did you think about the rolling start instead of a standing one? Surely it could have been a standing one. all right here we go here comes the rant here comes the rant um i was in up in arms uh during our watch along so was tommy although tommy was less surprised by by the fact that we had another rolling start

um it was a decision right it was a decision by the fia by the race director of whether to go for a standing start or a rolling one i've seen theories floated around um some makes sense but i also want to still question it and and the the biggest one is the fact that Of course, we had a standing start to begin with. But the difference being that we've had a few laps and there's a racing line that's formed on one side of the grid and the other side of the grid is wetter. And perhaps that was a consideration by the race director

to not have a standing start due to that fact. What I would say to that is boo-hoo, that is racing, that's luck of the draw, that's the lottery. It's like, you know, it's a safety car fare, other things fair. Please don't let us talk about fairness again. You know what I'm saying? There's so many races around the world where like we talk about like how dirty it is offline. Do you then just do a rolling start every race?

Exactly. So for me, I was really annoyed to see that. And I can understand why so many people jumped on the fact that they were trying to help Lando. I would counteract that and say that had it been a grid standing start, it would have been even more of a benefit to Lando who was on the racing line. And it would have been drier and he would have had a much better start. Kimmy Antonelli, on the other hand, would have probably dropped to behind George Russell. So I think that argument is probably a little bit of a null and void one, to be honest with you. But it was still a shame because a standing start is the absolute best thing that a Formula One fan enjoys to see.

And we can understand, right, when we have changeable conditions, when it's monsoon conditions, or really difficult to see why they would have a standing start. But for this kind of occasion, I just think it was ridiculous. Yeah, the standing start obviously helped the kind of pack stay in order. You do wonder, yeah, that Lando, obviously it was, you're always difficult with the slipstream going down the straight, so he left it very last minute. So in a way, yeah, with this dry line theory or whatever, it was probably worse for Lando to have a standing start. but the problem is with the standing start is you want to see a standing start and I'm pretty sure that they put this in place

that they will almost always go for a standing start when there's a red flag that's what they're meant to do and I think the most frustrating thing here is we don't want to turn Formula One into this like it's always about entertainment and everything needs to be crazy because then you get down a little bit of a dangerous line but it is so frustrating when they're doing all these things like sprint races and gimmicks to try and make the sport more entertaining and then yet they're making decisions like this which makes no sense

because the fans want to see a standing site is the most exciting part of a Formula One in general and is always going to deliver the most action and you're always going to you know people are always going to benefit or it's just luck of the draw like that that is just how it works so it was incredibly incredibly frustrating to watch because we want to see it. Now another theory was the fact that F1 may have had a little bit of a phone call to say or

you know perhaps a brief prior to the race happening of like we can't let this sprint race go on too long because qualifying is coming up later and of course F1 and the scheduling and the broadcasters you know that is absolutely the prime thing in their mind of making sure it goes ahead at the right time because there's a lot of money at stake etc etc which again as fans we don't really care about we just want to see the racing and we want to see the racing and in the best way that it should unfold and this is the problem with sprint weekends if that is a sort of consideration from f1 and the race director that that you know that's a negative thing from it for a sprint weekend if you do have things like this happening so for me i'm not a fan of that either

no the argument to that is that they in much worse conditions they all behave themselves at the start so i know like there could have been a pile up but there could have been a pilot from the safety car restart, because even that is, you know, the field all gets really bunched up. The cars are really close. We saw Alonzo and Vastappan going side by side through corners. That could have been, you know, a moment. So, yeah, it's just so frustrating to watch, isn't it? Yes, it is.

And, of course, you know, I'm sure we will get clarification. Oh, wait, no, we won't. No, we won't. Right, next question. People on Patreon member, Lex Wakeman. Ollie Bearman and Liam Lawson incident, racing incident or not? Hmm. I mean, I watched that and I remember thinking, because it cut away, didn't it?

We saw Liam Lawson dive down the inside and then you saw a yellow and you went, oh no, what's happened here? But looking at it back, I think it's a racing incident all day long. Liam Lawson is completely entitled to go for that movie. was always going to go for that move because Ollie Bearman lost huge momentum in battling one of the salbers and Liam Lawson being Liam Lawson is always going to go for that move. It's a great opportunity. That one's the biggest opportunity to overtake and he's basically seen his rival in front lose a huge amount of momentum. So he's gone for the inside line. The move was absolutely on and then they've just come together. You know, I don't blame Lawson one bit. Like,

genuinely like zero percent um maybe bem and the tiniest tiniest bit of like should he back out when he's on penalty points and just let the moment go their racing drivers of course you know this is a conversation we've had before but it's not like i blame massively and i think a racing incident should be the right thing i don't actually know if they even if we even ever got the result from that yet uh no i don't think we did it was just the little the the information marks the whole the whole race because apparently it can't be decided during the race. It's for me as well as was a racing incident. I think they were both entitled to what they did.

Lawson went down the inside. Olly Bearman gave Lawson space. Didn't give him like an insane amount of room, didn't run off the road or anything like that. Lawson was in control of his car as well, importantly here. So that is the absolute label of a racing incident in my opinion. So just hard racing. unfortunate for Ollie of course to lose so much

momentum fighting another car but that is racing and yeah unless they did get a penalty which I don't think they did hopefully for Ollie's sake he doesn't because he's of course on a lot of penalty it would never be Ollie in that situation it would be Lawson or racing instant in my opinion it's not like

Ollie closed the door he was just trying to hang around the outside of a defensive move so now racing instant for me for sure people on pitch remember Sophie comes in with the question do you think Gabby will be able to start his race. That was a big crash and he'll have to have a repaired car plus be medically cleared. I thought this was going to be a question about qualifying. I think qualifying is a write-off. I think

he will absolutely have to start from probably the pit lane. If I'm being completely honest, that it's going to be a massive, massive job for Gabby's team to repair for tomorrow, let alone today, I would say. I hope for his sake, of course, that he gets medically cleared. He's looked reasonably strong this weekend. He's been in the mix of the midfield. It was such a massive crash, first and foremost, so happy to see him walk away from an utterly terrifying crash. You know, crashing into the inside wall of term one, then spearing across missing Alex Albon, which, again, is a massive sort of lucky moment for him. And so glad that he didn't go careering into the side of another car. This is Gabby.

And then, of course, ending up getting airborne into the next wall on the right-hand side. a huge crash from Gabby so yeah very very happy to see him walk away we obviously saw the team radio say I'm okay but yeah there's going to have to be more medical clearance happen because if there's like sensors in the car if there's more than a certain amount of G force then he has to be checked out

so yeah as crashes go so glad to see him walk away it's testament to F1 safety in 2025 it's an absolute miracle to be honest with you that they walk away not injured at all well, at least that as far as we're aware at this moment. It's insane. It's a terrifying crash. I can't remember a crash that big in a long time.

I think it's the scary thing is the speed. You kind of almost, when you're watching Formula One cars go around so quickly, you don't notice that speed difference, do you? And then when you see one of them go off or like career off, it's such a, such a shock. And the fact that he got airborne as well made it even. more scary. So glad he's all right.

It's such a shame that we're potentially going to go into qualifying without the two South American drivers that have obviously got amazing support at this race, being Gabby's home race as well, and obviously Colapinto. You know, so, yeah, it's a big shame for Gabby. He went for the move. You know, it was a very optimistic move when there were no points on the line, of course. interested to hear about it, you know, because it looked like his DRS was still open as he went into that, which caused the incident. But I think the most important thing is that he's okay after that because that is a really, really scary crash.

For sure, yeah, talking about the incident, you know, without the, or the move, sorry, the attempted move, its DRS was 100% still open. And in terms of the actual move itself, it was questionable to be going for such a, it was a late move, right? It was a dive bomb. It was an absolute dive bomb into term one. At the end of a sprint race, where the inside line is slightly damp as well. It's a rookie move. And you have qualifying in like three hours. Yeah, it's a rookie move.

It's a rookie error just completely, right? So that's a shame for Gabby for sure. And I'm sure he'll, in hindsight, wish he hadn't gone for that kind of move. But I guess on the flip side, he's probably feeling quite confident in the car and was running just outside the top 10, I think, at that point. So a massive shame for Gabby. and I really do hope he's able to start tomorrow. Fingers crossed, he will be able to. And finally, Joe Formula 6P,

would Kimmy have passed Lando if there were more laps? Yes, but maybe about 50 more laps when Lando's tyres would go off. Given three, four, five more laps, I don't think it's happening. It was so hard to overtake. Kimmy got very close. The DRS wasn't. It wasn't like, you know, slam dunk DRS like we've seen in certain races gone by where you just breeze past them

on the straight. It was more just keeping him close, if anything, through the lap. And we saw with Charles LeClauer and Alonzo, even when he had that big advantage, how difficult it was to pass. And obviously, LeClaire got past Alonzo eventually. But it was always going to be difficult for Antonelli to make that move. So to answer the question, obviously Lando's ties would have gone off eventually because he was on the soft so in theory you'd think would go off more and he said he was struggling with the rears um but i don't think adding an extra couple of laps he would have got him unfortunately for him it was just too hard to pass yeah the pace difference wasn't big enough and also the track conditions weren't in kimmy's favour to actually make a move we saw that with

gabby of course partly as well with the dRS open but it's just so difficult to overtake when you have a dry line and anywhere else is slightly slippery and you can't break as late of course so for me no i think kimmy would not have got through on lando and it was a great effort from antonelli you know we're talking about him potentially winning the sprint but he did a brilliant job so quick as quick as george russell managed to hold his teammate back as well during that sprint there was a couple of attempts that russell had on antonelli but but kimmy held held strong and it's a really good result for antonelli so yeah there you go i mean vestappen we haven't even spoken about him, finished fourth. Of course, he'll be 39 points behind Lando Norris now

going into qualifying and the main race. Still four races and one sprint to go. Still over 100 points remaining, 108, I think, if my math serves me correct. So Tommy, you know, is fully depressed at this point. Max, we haven't really spoken about him at all, but we just know where, the fact that he was so on the back foot after the safety car restart, by the way, you're almost happy that he's finished fourth. Yeah, he was just nowhere, had no pace. didn't look like he could challenge the Merck's, never mind the McLaren. So, yeah, it's not looking good for Max at all. I know you say there's a hundred odd points left.

Obviously, that means he has to, he kind of, he's kind of going to need a big moment again. We've seen it with Piastri. Will we see it with Lando? I don't know. He's obviously performing really well at the moment and it's looking like the pressure isn't getting to Lando. We'll find out that's the case as we're going to qualifying because what's, what's fascinating is we have all these stories of like, is the title over? Is this going to

happen? But we could go into qualifying now and if, you know, between these title protagonists that could completely flip on its head and that's exactly what we saw last year. So we're about to find out. It's funny because obviously I'm the optimist on this podcast and I'm thinking like, okay, right. Say for example, at some point, you know, Lando has a problem between now and the end of the season and a big point swing happens. Let's pretend Oscar Piastri is now the championship leader again. Max is 30 points behind Oscar. So, Gaines? You're not going to convince it.

Just let me cook, all right? No, I do, I do think there is, I'd be, I'd be a hypocrite if I said that like, it's signed seal delivered for Landon Norris because it's definitely not. You know, it's a small points gap. Anything can happen. And exactly, that is exactly why I said, like, said that because we said then, it's not over. And there's even less of a points gap. So you never know what's going to happen in qualifying.

You never know. So there you go. Trying to bring some sunshine and rainbows to Tommy's life. But there you go. Right. We will be back literally later on today for the qualifying podcast as well. Whenever this goes live, of course, we'll be for our watchalongs for quality as well. So thank you everybody for your love and support as always.

And we'll see you a little later on. Lots of love. Bye. Bye. P1 is a stack production and part of the ACAST created network.