P1 with Matt and Tommy - Reaction to Brazilian GP qualifying

Episode Date: November 3, 2023

It's Brazil time, people! Matt has got his wig on - sorry, dyed hair - and even Frank is excited! But did qualifying live up to the hype?Tickets for our UK live tour are selling fast! You can purchase them right HERE!We're now on Patreon! Sign up HERE for early access to our December tour tickets, ad-free episodes, bonus content, and loads more!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 P-1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. I tried to get Tommy to do the introduction, but he refused because he said, you have to keep these special things for special occasions. And apparently a Max Verstapp and pole position is not a special occasion for you. Tommy, if anything, Max not being on poll is a special occasion because it's been so easy for you this year. Indeed. Yeah, look, got to keep these things special, so can't be having it all the time. Okay, thank you. Please, maybe next time, we'll see.

But before we dive into our reaction to the Friday qualifying, so it's another sprint weekend, we've got a five-star review. This one from Daniel Hesom in the United Kingdom, and if you want yours to be read out, please give us a five-star review and let's know why you love this podcast. Matt and Tommy are a more iconic pairing

than Charlotte Clare taking pole and then finishing the race in P4. What? You can tell I didn't choose this one. I look forward to listening to these podcasts, almost as much as the races themselves, it's often hard to keep abreast of everything that happens in a race,

so it's very handy having Matt and Tommy break it all down afterwards. We'll be listening for a long, long time, keep it up, guys. Thank you so much, Daniel, apart from the Charles Lecler nod to the conversion being terrible. But I'll forgive you, Daniel,

because you let us know how much you love the pod. Right, let's dive into qualifying, shall we? And start with Q1. Sonoda, Ricardo, Bottas, Sergeant and Joe was out. in the first part of qualifying. And I just want to say, my massive apologies to Alpha Tauri. How do you do it?

If you tuned in, if you tuned into the predictions, I said that I never go for a team. And I said Alpha Tauri would be the biggest flop this weekend. And they're both out in Q1. I thought they'd not be great compared to Mexico, of course. But I didn't think they'd both be knocked out in the first part of qualifying.

How do you do it? Seriously. Real knowledge. Yeah. The fact that they both went out and it was by such a slim margin as well that Sonoda in particular got knocked out. But yeah,

both of them out was probably the only real surprise. Alpha went back to being a bit, sorry, the other Alpha. Alpha Amaya. Back to being a bit washed and then Logie down in 19th as well. So yeah, not. not a huge surprise even though alfutari did do well in the last race i guess exactly yes um it was a bit of a bit of a shame

logan sergeant of course not making it out in in the williams despite alex albon i think being right up there at the end of q one yeah he did a one minute 10.6 in the first part of qualifying logan got knocked out with a one minute 11 zero which you might think ah well you know that's four tenths that's not too bad but it's brazil it's a one minute 10 one minute 11 lap time that four-tenths is actually seven, eight-tenths, if you think about it at a longer track, you know, one-minute-thirty, one-minute-35 lap time. So it's a bit of an outlier, isn't it, Brazil,

how short of a track it is in terms of lap time, but it creates qualifying sessions of dreams. Well, at least Q1 and Q2 were, Q3 was, we'll get onto it, but a little bit of a disappointment. Yes, Q1 and Q2 were incredibly exciting, and T-D-Up Q3 very nicely in looking like it was going to be the most,

crazy battle between multiple people for poll, but well, we'll get into it later. We'll get into that. But what was a big thing for Q1 was the fact that the top 17 were separated by half a second, half a second, 17 drivers. And to be honest, when you look at that bottom five, you think, well, that's kind of standard.

Considering how close it was, you were kind of expecting with the fact that we had different drivers doing used runs at the start of the session and then you had other drivers going with new and then you had like Holcomberg going purple and you had that kind of crazy sort of situation that we had with Mexico as well where we had different tire compounds and different states of tire compounds being used at different times but you'd have to say that bottom five wasn't a surprise in the end when you look at it. Not really, no. Yeah, the surprises came later on I guess. Wow, let me tee that one up

and go to Q2 as it was Holkenberg Ocon, Gazzley, Magnuson and Albon out and again, you look at that and you go, well, we've just had a sensational Q2, exciting, constantly changing all the way to the end

and then you had two Hasses, two Alpines and a Williams out. Again, wasn't that much of a surprise in there. The Alpines, when you looked at them in practice, were the fastest in the speed traps. They've looked at their car and gone, my God, it's so slow. Let's strip back everything

and just go fast in a straight line. And that didn't work either. Yeah. Now it comes to it, it's actually quite crazy that on a track where it felt incredibly unpredictable and a really short lap time where the whole field was incredibly close,

you've got the top five in the Constructors Championship just locking out the whole of Q3, which is pretty wild. No heroics from Holkenberg this time, although it did look like at some points that he might somehow spring a surprise and get into Q3 and there were some moments where it was like,

oh my God, Hasl looked absolutely amazing. And then of course, going on to Alex Albin, who was 15th, should have been higher, but his nemesis of track limits, which we've said so many times this year, you can't kind of have a go at him because he's been amazing, year and he's done so well, but that has definitely been his kind of, it's just happening too

much for Alex Albin, definitely track limits. Yeah, and it's all just fine margins as well. You can't be too harsh on him, but then at the same time, if it constantly is him, it's always him. It's taking away not only qualifying results, but also in the race as well. You know, we saw in Qatar, wasn't it, that he picked up a few track limit penalties because he was taking a few too many Liberty is very much like me, really, in the Formula One game on strict corner cutting, just cannot not go off the track. It's very difficult. And it is, you know, centimetres.

Like the one that he had his lap time deleted, that was turn four, I think. And, you know, there will be arguments that going wide there doesn't gain you any time anyway, because he's sliding, he gets on the curb a little bit, the car bottoms out. We saw it with Hamilton. He had an amazing drift with the slow-mo, which looked amazing, obviously not quicker. and Max Verstappen had a less sort of spicy slide. But that was definitely a corner that the drivers were struggling at. And I don't think you could say that advantages were gained.

But those are the rules. Those are the rules. And Albon wasn't going to make it into Q3 anyway with the time. So yeah, it's weird because I'm looking at this. It felt like it was the greatest qualifying ever up until like, the end and then you look back on this and Q1 no real surprises, Q2 no real surprises and then Q3 is a bit of an anti-climax but let's get into that. No but it's fine because we were in it no Q1 and Q2 was bangers but it was just like it all delivered to a to a level didn't they and

some some drivers were on the cusp you saw like Perez I think down like 13 14th and Q1 you think oh you know it was it was that tension all the way to the end where you think something could change they had to keep doing labs didn't they yeah yeah yeah so I guess it's kind of like similar to say, you know, when a driver's leading that's slower, say Monza and Gasley and Ricardo or whatever, nothing was really happening and yet it was tense all the way to the end.

That was kind of like this qualifying in some ways. Let's go to Q3 now, shall we? Where the top ten were Vastappan, Lecler, Stroll, Alonzo, Hamilton, Russell, Norris, Sines, Perez and Piastri. Let's get into some questions because I don't want to talk about the fact Charlotte, I didn't get poll,

but I'm happy with him on the front row of the grid. at James underscore Hughish. Where did Aston Martin find this pace? They went from stroll being useless and Alonzo scraping through to Q3. Now they have locked out the second row. Well, from what I heard on the sort of run up to this and after practice is that Aston Martin

had very much just kind of gone backwards and stopped experimenting on things to try and think about next year and whatnot and kind of just went back to basics of like, okay, why were we quick at the beginning of the year? Shall we just try that again and see if it works? Because of course they have been experimenting previously with Lance being on a new sort of setup of the car,

Alonzo reverting back to an old setup and those kind of things, whereas they seem to restrict it back even further. And I would say third and fourth probably wasn't on the cards, but they utilised a crazy Q3 in the sense of the rain coming. It was one lap. They both delivered. and I'm sorry to say it, Tommy, but Lance Stroll out-qualified your goat.

Only I could predict Fernando Alonzo's biggest good surprise, then he makes it P4, which I think everyone would be very surprised about, and he's been out-qualified by his teammate. I can't believe it. But yeah, this is, and I'm actually just going to let Frank in because I can hear him at the door.

He wants to give his two cents on the Lance Roll P-3, two seconds. Okay, come in, Frank. And here he comes. The soppy little dog that is Frank with his yawn I'm sure he will make noise down the microphone and let's hear your thoughts about Aster Martin as I can hear him murmuring

there is Frank's thoughts right so yes Aston Martin yeah funny that they've almost downgraded the car somewhat by taking the bits off that they've tried to improve and not worked so yeah the fact that Alonzo was doing very well. Lance did look quick throughout the whole session as well. He was doing

very well. But I don't think there'd have been third and fourth if it had been like a normal session like you say. They were I guess fortunate as well that in a way, and we'll get into this later, that they are further down the pits. So they got to bag that nice first and second when queuing up in the in the pit lane, which is always good for this kind of, uh, Yeah, this kind of session. So, yeah, very good from Aston Martin. So that was the big talking point, Tommy. Nicely segued, which was around that Q3 session

and that the clouds coming in, Ferrari saying that it's going to, you know, seven minutes into the session and this, that and the other. And there's all these predictions around the rain definitely coming. And yet McLaren and Sergio Perez, to be fair, I'm not just going to fully go straight in on McLaren, but there were a few teams that decided to leave it incredibly late. Now, I'm not saying that there literally has to be somebody

that's at the back of the queue. Don't get me wrong. And in some ways, you know, Red Bull don't have anything to lose. They've got both championships wrapped up. Fine. They left Perrys in the pits for a bit longer. They kept the tires in temperature, whatever, right? McLaren, they had a car in both Q1 and Q2

that looked unbelievable on rails. Why are you leaving your... drivers in the pits, not only, I know it's benefit of hindsight, but look at last year. We literally had a carbon copy from last year where KMAG got pole. The rain is coming. They leave both of their drivers in the pits. It not only puts them under pressure of the rain coming and changing the track conditions when they're doing their hot lap, but also it puts them under pressure if someone else goes

off and causes a yellow flag. Oscar Piazsche was the driver. to cause that yellow flag, which screwed Perez's lap. But Lando also had an absolute stinker of a lap. I think the last sector in particular was really poor. And they had the worst track conditions. Now, it wasn't raining. But Charles LeClerc said after the quality session,

he was like, it was really strange conditions where it was slippery. It felt like it was raining, but it wasn't. And he was, what, the second driver over the line, third driver? Oh, no, it was the two Aston's. Then it was Max. I think it was, then it was Charles after that. But yeah, so he was at the front of the queue and managed to get a decent enough lap in

to be on the front row. McLaren played a gamble, which I'm not even saying because of hindsight, we were saying it at the beginning. Like, why are they still in the pits? Maybe this is just a kind of, it sounds a bit silly to say because, yeah, they'd have looked,

obviously amazing if it had worked. but part of me thinks in 2023, just copy what Massachusetts Tappan is doing because he's going to be the one that gets it right and Red Bull because it worked perfectly for them and yeah, it just didn't work for McLaren at all. Lando was looking like he genuinely could have got Paul. It was absolutely gutted afterwards.

Of course, not only, not the only time some mistimed rain has cost him a potential people. one. Sorry to bring that up. I'm sorry that I predicted it in poll. Yeah. And this has happened. So it's my fault.

So I'm going to stop predicting Lando. I'm going to just go for the biggest flop every week for Lando from now on. All two races left. It's not only that sort of reminder of the rain and obviously Russia and we won't go into it any further than that. But also there's been quite a few mistakes now from McLaren and Lando where. they could have quite easily won a race by now had they been in the mix. Qatar obviously is a massive one that springs to mind because they were definitely in the fight for the win there.

But also here, they looked so quick and yet qualifying, unfortunately, has scuppered them again. So if I was a McLaren fan right now, my heart goes out to you because I would be gutted after this qualifying session. Absolutely. And you could tell Lando was as well, and they were trying to, it's quite funny, actually, and there's just cement how drivers really feel

about sprint races, because the interviewer to Lando was like, well, you know, at least we've got another qualifying for the sprint. And he was like, yeah. Oh, he was biting his lips so hard. He was kind of, he basically. When does he keep saying,

keep saying biting his lip, biting his tongue? Biting his lip is a completely different thing. I've said that's talking. twice in the last few days now, biting his tongue. Yeah, but that's basically, if you ever needed evidence that the Grand Prix is still the one for all the drivers and even getting a sprint win is not the same. And yeah, it will and it always will be.

Yeah, it's just gutting. It really is gutting. And I have to say, as a Maxx Tappan fan, it is mixed feelings because I'm a Formula One fan first. and I think the two drivers that needed to be in the mix for this race and of course Brazil can still throw up something crazy we might get rain in the race. I'm not saying it's over by any stretches into Lagos

and you never know. But the drivers we needed at the front with Max, no offence to the others, is Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris because they're the ones with the race pace. What about Charlotte Clare? Ah yes, that's well-known driver with brilliant... Yeah, that's actually so true.

When you look at the grid, it's Lewis as well. and then it's the two Aston's that are going to not be able to challenge Max at all. And then you've got the two Mercedes. So on paper, Max has basically got a buffer of a few cars. And then it's the drivers who you think would actually be able to show that he's got a challenge. Because Mercedes is another one. Obviously, we're mentioning McLaren.

Why did Mercedes let Max go? That was a strange call. They were ahead of Max in the queue and they let Max go. well yeah George well they let George George let him through Lewis didn't because Lewis was Lewis bolted didn't he out of the pits because you saw Max make a move

around the outside of George I'm trying to remember who crossed the line first did Hamilton cross the line before Max I need to my memory of need to watch back and the highlights on up yet yeah it's interesting to see like it was pretty chaotic either way

I mean they weren't they weren't too far away from each other it's not like the track would have changed miraculously and between however far they were apart. But from what I remember, Hamilton was very much insistent of being ahead of Max before the start of the lap. But either or, it's not a massive change, I'd say. Question from 1 Pablo, SF1. If McLarence went out first, would they have gotten a better chance to beat Max?

Yes. Yes, they would have because they were quick in Q1 and Q2. Lando was, I think Lando did the fastest lap of anyone across the whole of the qualifference session with a 10-0 in Q2. Poll was on the cards. You just needed to deliver in one-lap shootout qualifying, which is what we had in Q3. And it wasn't fair conditions because it wasn't the same

for the first person that went over the line and the last person that went over the line. But that was exactly the same happened last year. So you had to fight for track position. But they did not. No, it's so weird that I can't believe that we've seen it, a carbon copy of last year. What are the chances that you get

to Q3, everyone's queuing at the pits, and it's pretty much first across the line is the best conditions and everyone else's, yeah, the drivers at the end had an absolute mare. It's so bizarre that it wasn't raining, but from the lap times looked like it was. And just to clarify, I have just seen it now that it was, yeah. So the two Aston's across the line, then Hamilton, then Vestap, and then Russell. So it's a poor lap from Hamilton then.

Yeah, yeah. You have to say, when you think that's the kind of conditions and where the master comes out and Hamilton's brilliant at Brazil and he finished seven tenths slower than Vestappen so there must have been an error in there somewhere. It was tricky conditions and I think you can't take anything away from Max I think he did a stunning job to do a 10-7 in conditions that were slippery

that was only six-tenths slow than what he did in Q2. Yeah, exactly. It's just literally another example of this season throwing everything at Max and him still comes. coming out on top. Question from P1 Patreon member Ruben. Should the teams have learned the lesson last year? Yes.

Absolutely. Now, I know that some of them might have seen on the radar. I can see why they made these decisions. Perhaps they think, right, well, actually, we don't think the rain's going to come for another few more minutes. We can keep them in the garage. The tire temperature can stay in much more in an optimum range than the drivers that are waiting at the end of the pit lane,

and we can put in a banging lap. it didn't work out. It was a roll of the dice. It was the wrong decision to do that. I think that they should have, as you said, Tommy, be copying Max Verstappen, be at the front of the queue if you can, and just fight for track position.

But they didn't. And as McLaren fans that are probably listening, we'll probably move on from that. Question from Dobie Walnuts. Are any team good at strategy apart from Red Bull? When Merck were dominating, Red Bull were always making strategy calls to maximize their results that often paid off.

now Red Bull are dominating. Other teams seem to consistently fumble the bay, bag, I assume that's meant to say, when they've got the chance for a result. Ron Bergen, then. I wouldn't say that Red Bull were completely and utterly bulletproof when it comes to strategy, but they have been the best for a long time.

And also, Max Verstappen does not let them make any mistakes if you remember Singapore qualifying. He was absolutely just lost. his mind when they made that mistake with the fuel. I mean, Mercedes have been exposed, I would say a little bit, with being able to be a bit more fluid with their decisions. We spoke about it in Cota, didn't we, where they made a decision which would have worked had they had the fastest car where they went for the

overcut. But when they have a slower car, they don't seem to be able to. And again, hindsight, this, that and the other. But we knew in the moment, and we're just plebs. So, you know, are they too obsessed with the data? I don't know. But what I will say is that apparently we need to be hired. Yeah, you did.

It's easy to say because in hindsight, but you were watching at the time going, this looks like exactly the same as last year. Those at the end of the pits are going to surely have a good advantage here. But I do think, yeah, Red Bull have always been very good at strategy. and I think this comment is very true. You know, you had races where in the Mercedes dominant era, Red Bull still picked up those wins,

Mac still picked up those wins through great driving and also brilliant teamwork and maximising the results when there's a chance. And I think the problem is Red Bull, we're lauding match to happen, of course, and I think credit has to go to Red Bull's team and all the mechanics working on the car that they also don't have a day off.

You know, there's been many talks with certain Red Bull mechanics who mentioned, you know, how annoyed they are that McLaren have been in their Pitstack record and things like that. And they want to get it back. And they, everything, like,

they want to win every single race, just like Max does. And that's why they've been so hard to beat because, yeah, they're making the right, decisions with Max at least because Perez it wasn't. I was going to say I think they hedged their bets a little bit there and they went right well if one

Perez in the pits and keep his tires warm and maybe maybe it'll work or we'll do the one that we think's going to work Max you go out of the first and try and set a lap. Yeah quite but yeah with Max in particular yeah they do

seem to get it right a lot more than they don't and when you just need, you mentioned this in the stream earlier that while we're kind of talking about the most dominance season ever, the car isn't nowhere near leaps and bounds ahead of what we've seen in the past with like a Mercedes or even when Red Bull dominating before. I look at Perez's results or just like the gaps in qualifying. It's not a case of Max just turns up and doesn't really need to do a lot and wins even though it does look like that's the case. Um,

But it is those moments where, oh, Max is not on pole or whatever, and you have to kind of deliver those moments and make the most of it. And that's what Red Bull did when Mercedes was dominating. Hamilton would have a rare off day and who's there picking up the win. It was Max and Red Bull. So, yeah, that's something they need to work on, definitely. Absolutely. And I think that pretty much wraps up our little qualifying chat.

It is exciting to talk about some competitive sessions on a Friday. flip-flop. Like, no tomorrow when it comes to spring. Because it's into Lago. I think it's more just Brazil and this hat's just kind of taking over or not a hat. Is it a week? I don't know what. I know.

Sorry, it's dyed hair. It's dyed hair. What am I talking about? But yeah, big congrats. I'd say for Lance Stroll. He was definitely the star of qualifying this particular day. As much as Tommy will be like, how? Fernando was fourth.

Carlos was a bit of a disappointment down in eighth as well. I'm just kind of looking at the other things that are a little bit disappointing. Of course, Oscar making that mistake. But it teased us up quite nicely, I think, for that. at least P2 on Sunday, definitely should tune in to all of our streams that we've got coming. Tomorrow we're streaming twice for Sprint Shootout and for the Sprint itself.

And then on Sunday, we're live on Twitch again for, of course, the race where maybe Charlotte Clare takes a lead and wins, but we will see. Because he starts P2, so maybe he has better luck. Tommy, what are your final thoughts? My final thoughts are, I hope I'm wrong, but I'm worried that tomorrow, well, it'll be great, so tune in and watch it on Twitch.

that there I say if, you know, Lando gets P1 in the sprint shootout tomorrow and does really well in the sprint, maybe even wins, we're kind of almost a repeat of Qatar, where it's like, why are you doing this in the sprint? Yeah, the main qualifying session, which kind of has summed up the year as Frank is kind of going crazy. Love that. Thank you, Frank, for your submission to the podcast.

And we'll see you tomorrow for more content. Lots of love. Bye. Frank, you're on if Lando's going to win anyway. There you go. P1 is a Stack production and part of the Acast Creator Network.