P1 with Matt and Tommy - Reaction to British GP qualifying

Episode Date: July 5, 2025

An awesome qualifying session at Silverstone separated the top five drivers by a single tenth - shame about those red cars...We'll be performing on the main stage at Silverstone tomorrow! We'll be onstage at 10:30.Please fill out Stak's listener survey! It'll help us learn more about the content you love so we can bring you even more - you'll also be entered into a competition to win one of five PlayStation 5's! Click here: https://bit.ly/staksurvey2025You can listen to an extended version of every Race Review episode this season over on our Patreon! You'll also get 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 people on podcast with Matt and Tommy. And Ellie in the Back, of course, one of the goat of the predictions series. Maybe, let's see. Let's see how the British Grand Prix unfolds. But we are here qualifying, done and dusted. And I don't want to talk about any of it, Tommy. I'm not going to lie, up until about five minutes to go. I thought you were going to be the happy one and me, the sad one.

But of course, roll over us. How insufferable I thought I was going to be on this podcast. You were all ready for it. And how emotionally drained I am coming into this. But we will reflect on Q3 in a little while. Let's get into the start qualifying and Q1. With the bottom five drivers were Lawson, Bortoletto, Stroll, Holcomburg and Colapinto. And obviously, Colapinto has to be the driver we talk about,

just purely because of the fact he had a big old mistake, didn't he? And spun off, yes. Spun off at the penultimate corner, which then took him out. out into the final corner and then he hit the wall and then eventually had to stop after quite miraculously recovering it from the gravel. Everyone was cheering, yeah, well done, woo! But the red flag was out at that point anyway, but he could not get the car back and a disaster, not necessarily, well, to be fair, Ghazley had a phenomenal qualophone which we'll get onto. I was about to say Alpine of the slowest car, maybe he didn't have much in the tank, but

there was something there for him, clearly. Yeah, and it's just another disaster for Alpine because Colapinto had that not amazing drive, but decent drive, didn't he, in Montreal? And we thought, okay, now he's really kind of showing what we can do. We saw last year what he could do in that Williams. And then you got to Austria, had the incident with Piastri. And it was just, you get into this race and just think, just stay out the news, whatever you do. And it's another kind of high profile incident under a lot of. pressure from Flavio of course as well. Oh, it's just not going well for him, is it?

So question, P1Petra, remember, Avid Reader 0907. What is next for Alpine regarding Colapinto's seat? Alpine are in a world of trouble at the moment. I don't think they've been as bad as this for a very long time. You know, they're last in the constructors' standings. They've had this massive overhaul, just as sort of Oliver Oaks took over, of course, and then they had like this big result in Brazil last year, you know, thinking, okay, maybe. Just maybe the resurgence is coming. But this year they've been poor. Of course, all their sights will now be into next year and the new regs there. But obviously, they've given up on their own engine program and just everything seems to be pointing in one

direction, which is potential sale of the team in sort of the near future. It feels like they are very much giving up in some respects. It's an absolute disaster because, of course, they were a team as well that as Renault were building their own engine, that's not even happening going into the new regulations. They're going to be running Mercedes engines. Renno had aura. It was all such a mess. Alpine just has an aura. It's just an absolute mess. The whole team, the whole situation. And it's crazy to think that, you know, we feel like they've gone through all this stuff and all these changes. But it's getting worse rather than better. Because like an absolute lifetime ago to think that Alpine

were that team that actually broke into that top four and got four within the constructors and now they're last. Yeah, disaster. Speaking of, also I would say a sort of definitely a disaster for this season for Salber both out in Q1 after

their heroics of the last few races and scoring a handful of points challenging for sixth in the constructors coming into Silverstone and both Bortoletto and Holcomberg I mean, Borteletto wasn't far off, was it? I think Lawson, who was just ahead of Watertsiletto, just above half a

second off the fastest time in Q1 and ending up being knocked out. I mean, that's just Silverstone in a nutshell, and that's just qualifying. The season, yeah. In a nutshell, isn't it? It is. It's so close. The tiniest little error, or even just a slight dip in performance, like Salba

seemed to have had, and they're not there. And, yeah, disappointing for Lawson as well after he had such a brilliant race last time. Big flop locked in. He saw that I wanted that point in predictions. He saw that I was far back and decided, you know what, we'll take one for the team. Get Gallagher back in. Yeah, I'm sure he is.

And then finally, Stroll, just literally always out in Q1 at this point. You know, he just, he is just, he's has a placeholder in the Q1 exit chapter. He's Q1 farming. He's stabbing that, that step of his most. He's extending his lead. He's Q1 exit talent. Yeah, he's off in the distance now. He certainly is.

Let's get into Q2 then, shall we? Where the bottom five were Sines, Sonoda, Hajar, Alba. and Ocon. Difficult session once again for Williams. They've very much been, as we keep saying, each weekend since Spain, just in Struggle Town. Signs 11th, to be fair, that the weekend he seemed to be putting together in free practice was, it looked like it was a stone cold car's going to break down, start 20th. But start 11th, I guess, is not a disaster. Albonne was furious on the team radio. He was fuming with the car and, you know, as much as we try to capture all the information as possible in Silverstone.

It is difficult to hear all the team radios. But the one overarching feeling I got was that the Williams drivers in particular, Alex Albon, not a happy bunny. No, because there was one point quite early in the session where he popped in very high up the order and we thought maybe we could see something very special from Albon. But again, a disappointing one. And maybe, I don't know if this is just Williams setting their sights on next year now. I don't know but yeah they've had a bit of a fall off since their amazing start of the season

they've of course locked in well not locked in but they're quite a way aren't they above that that kind of fight behind them with all the midfield but if they keep going on like this they're going to get caught up they certainly are yuki sonoda making out of q1 but not making it through to q3 sadly p12 for him and his teammates on pole in what world is 12 like all right as well and it kind of is and it's insane to say because teammates on pole in no other situation that would be it's ridiculous isn't it um but i don't think there's much to add really at this stage for yuki senoda other than he beat the vcubs which is i guess a very tiny win compared to the second highest red ball which is what he is meant to do so a half tick like a really small

tick in the box it's kind of like okay okay uh but yes not a disaster which is great and then Ocon P15. He gets himself out of Q1, but then only manages 15th with this teammate, absolutely sheffing. It has to be said in this qualifying session. It's a shame that he decided to practice a pit entry hard on the brakes at 260 kilometres an hour under a red flag. Very strange decision for him to have done that. I think it was 260. I remember reading the document. Anyway, he was going very fast indeed under a red flag. And he might well have got away with it had he not smashed into the barriers? Yeah, it's a big risk, isn't it, to go for, of course, as you enter the pits, that having a practice session, you know, when it's a red flag

is not the time to do it because of course he's already had a red flag infringement in Monaco, where he overtook, which was a huge chunk of penalty points, another massive chunk of penalty points form, you know, more, kind of the most you ever see. So they were not happy with that. And yeah, he's got a big chunk of penalty points now, and only a few off a race ban, and he's got a long time for them to reset. Yeah, he needs to stop having infringements

under the literal most strict conditions, which is red flag territory. But we were speaking about Ockon and the fact that, again, he's still struggling to harness that qualifying pace out of that house. I think the house is obviously clearly very difficult. But Olly Berman, you know, just a phenomenal weekend in terms of the pace, but such a silly error which has caused him to obviously get a 10 place grid penalty,

four penalty points. He has eight out of 12 now. So, yeah, we will be, well, he will be ruining the fact that he's going to be starting towards the back considering the pace he has. Yeah, for Berman to be behind Ocon after that amazing performance, it's going to be gutting for him. And, you know, you wouldn't, even though O'Con, you look at it and go, oh, he's 15th, he's not really anywhere.

Ocon's been the one that just does have these amazing strategies and has got great race pace. And I think that's what's going to hurt Haas so much because you've been looking all season going, if a Haas could just get up there, they'd have a sensational result. And I feel like this. By my mom. They're the best race strategy. This was that moment, though, for Bermann. It was so gutting.

It really was. Can we just stick with like the Q2 results? That'd be really nice because I'm looking at it right now and it was obviously a Ferrari 1-2 in Q2. And dreams were really alive. as we head into Q3. A question from P1Petri member Ruben 4.0. How the hell did Gassley drag that thing into Q3? I don't know.

It is a brilliant performance from Pierre Gassley. You know, his teammate struggling with the car, obviously starting last. But we know that Gassley has these performances. It's just a case of him being able to translate that into race pace. It's almost the other way around where Gassley can sometimes just slog this car round on a Saturday and get a good grid position.

but as we saw in Austria, he fell like a stone, he thought he had damage in the car when, I don't think that was even confirmed that he had damage. So it's just proving that Gassley is a real talent, which is being wasted at a team that don't really know which direction they're going. No, it continues on of Alpine just being a mess. Their performance is all over the place. And I think what's made it even worse is they haven't been able to capitalize when the car has actually been fairly decent. You look at Austria last time out and Gassley was running quite high up at the start of the race

of course the soft ties didn't really work out for him but they will be praying now that Gassley in 10th they can just bag some points because it feels like forever since they've scored and then they are comfortably last and it's not even close now. We now head to Q3 in the top 10 with Vestappen Piaastri, Norris, Russell, Hamilton,

Antonelli, Bearman, Alonzo and Gephe. Ghazley. Let's get into the question straight away because I don't want to reflect on anything that involves red cars. Jay Ashri says, how did Max do that? And can he keep it ahead tomorrow? Max for Stappan. I just, I'm so... Max for Stappen, full stuff. I'm so bored of glazing your boy. I really am. Like, he's just doing such a phenomenal job this year. Countless times we have lauded his performance. You told me a stat whilst we were in the stands of him. was it equaling Oscar Piaastri's poll record this year in terms of the amount of polls they've had,

joined most polls, and his teammate has not got any higher than eighth at any point in the season. That is just utter ridiculous. It's because we've got used to it. This is the norm that Max does, but it shouldn't be the norm. It should be celebrated. So Max, he did that because he's just,

he knows how to dial in that car to his liking and he does it to a level that we don't ever see. But also, to answer the question about can he keep it ahead tomorrow, I think he's got a great chance. The way that his car is set up, he has got a low downforce setup. You can actually see on the graphics. It's mad that he's the fastest in a straight line.

He's the 18th fastest in the corners that are slow. And then he's the fastest at high speed corners as well. So he's got everything in his arsenal to actually take it to the McLaren's tomorrow. I think it will still be difficult for him because I feel the McLaren's will be better with tireware. They can split strategy, although I'm sure that will be a little interesting one to keep an eye on anyway of who will get the preferential treatment. But I think for Max, he can, I think I have more confidence him being able to take it to the McClowns tomorrow than perhaps I did have. And then there's also rain that might happen as well. Yeah. And what a weird situation that normally you'd go,

Max Sestappen will be hoping for rain to be the great leveller. Actually, he'll be praying for the opposite and to stay dry because he's got what's essentially going to be a dry set up. If it rains, he's in trouble. So he'll be hoping that it is dry. very strangely this year, you look back at maybe like 2022, even starts of 2020 and 2023 and 24. Max, I'd always, and maybe this is unfair, but qualifying never seemed to be like Max's big strong point. It was always the races. And he'd still win even when he was qualifying 4th, 6th, sometimes even 14th, 17th in Brazil. And that's never been his strong point.

And it's really weird how it's flipped this year, where he's dragging that car to these amazing qualifying performances to get like a pole position and then kind of just praying that he can stay there in front of the McLaren's. And I feel like that's going to be very similar tomorrow. And, you know, for the good of the race, for a neutral, regardless of if you like Max or not, it's great for the race to have, in theory, a slower car ahead and the two McLaren's behind. It's going to be very, very exciting. It is. It really is. Yeah. you make a good point about it being wet and obviously having his wings trimmed down,

having a fast car in a straight line. That isn't usually the sort of setup you want when it's wet. You want a little bit more downforce on the car. So if it does rain, God knows what's going to happen. Next question, people on Petrie member, AMG Piper. Did Ferrari and McLaren bottle it or was it pure Max brilliance? Now, as I mentioned earlier, you know, we're watching it from the stands. We're trying to get as much information as possible.

The sort of judgment that we both had, I think, Tommy, was that Lando had a bit of a lockup into the final few corners. It felt like Oscars was maybe a little bit scruffy as well from what we saw. Hamilton had a mistake. Hamilton had a mistake. Charlecler was the most harshest he's ever been. Expletive, I think I've ever seen. A lot of F-bombs and saying that he is so S and so on and so forth,

which tells you all you need to know. You don't even need to watch the lap on board. You know for a fact that something has gone missing there. So Max brilliance for sure, but I think it's that level that we don't see from champions or see that all that often, right? If you've got the fastest car, it's so easy to win, it's so easy to win championships. Max and Lewis are two drivers that have shown that the car doesn't drive themselves and that they have this consistent high level. Obviously, you know, Hamilton back at Mercedes and whatnot, where they could just deliver time and time and time again, no matter what the conditions, how difficult it is. that's just something that has made them multiple world champions

and that's what gets them these kind of results obviously Hamilton did make that mistake this time but Max didn't and he's paying some serious paid serious rewards for it he was it is a bit of both this question in terms of I felt like on another day it could have been Max fifth and it's a fight between it felt going into that session that it was a fight between the two McLaren's and the two Ferraris

maybe Max could get there and in the Instead, Max is ahead of all of them. Because like you say, tiny little mistakes here and there. We were obviously in the stands watching. And we were all ready for a Lewis Hamilton pole position because two purple sectors, I think it was. He was up by 10th and my word. It's actually happening. Hamilton's going to get pole.

And then I think he dipped a wheel in the grass going into that final sector, which caught pretty much like all the top runners out. I'm not 100% sure what happened to LeClaire, but we've seen, obviously, absolutely, you know, he was fuming with his lap. He looked very quick in, in FP3, quick in, you know, he knows when a pole position was on. Yeah. And that screams to me that, like, 100% a pole position was on there. You know that Charles can deliver when the car is there qualifying is his speciality. so yeah he's been incredibly harsh on himself because he believes that he blew it yeah because the the opportunities are few and far between for Ferrari this year and yeah that sort of emotive response tells you all you need to know and I think there's a little bit of what we've said before of you know every single pretty much I think only one race this year car into turn one hasn't won the race so Ferrari it's such a huge chance to be on pole

even if the McLaren's are the best and quicker. So it's, pole is so important this year. Yeah, because the race pace wasn't bad in Austria. Like, yes, they were behind the McLaren's, but the McLaren's were clear. It was really hot. They're great with their tyres.

If Ferrari, it's always if. It feels like always if this year. Or if Ferrari were in that sort of top three, they could have caused problems. I think they genuinely could have. You know, it's not over for them in fifth and sixth. They're going to have to pray for a great start, perhaps some kerfuffling in front of them.

But yeah, fifth and sixth can quite, clearly be categorized as a disaster for Ferrari considering the pace that they'd been showing all weekend and the confidence that I in particular had with them and then they broke my heart. P1Pet, remember, MZT. With that top three, are we in for a great race tomorrow? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah, I think we are. I think as well we go into tomorrow, we have cooler conditions still. There is rain very much in the air. It looks like it's going to hit the track a little bit earlier. Keeps changing, isn't it?

Yeah, it keeps changing. It keeps shifting a little bit more towards race time. But at the moment, it's looking like sort of late morning, which is really ideal, because that's when we're on the main stage. The eBay main stage, it's called. And 10.30, me and Tommy, please, please come. I know it might be raining. I know, but just get a cagull out and come see me and Tommy.

It would be a shame if it did rain again. But we will bring the vibes. I promise you, it will be worth it. And there'll be prizes as well. Yes, we'll bring some Lego prizes. Big up Lego. They're sponsoring Challenge Tommy

and they're going to give out some Lego prizes as well to you wonderful lot who come out so be sure to be there.

But back to the question yes, I think we are in for a great race tomorrow I think that the weather question is another element that we will just have to

wait and see what happens there it could affect Max I think Ferrari will become terrible if that happens McLaren may well walk it but George Russell

I think that will play into his hands if it's more sort of slippery and things about that He's just pink four just spawns How on earth is George Russell ahead of both the Ferraris after what the Mercedes looked like all the way up until Q3? There is this meme of George, isn't there?

When he does less, he does more. And you never know if it does rain tomorrow. I don't think you can count him out for being up there and challenging. I'm sure he'll be super progressive at the start as well. Like you say, we've not mentioned him yet. And it feels very bizarre to be a Max Verstappen fan with him on pole. and I'm actually praying for it not to rain because I really do think

you still have a great chance. And it's set up so nicely to have Max on pole and the two McLaren's behind who will again like Austria, if they're behind Max as well, finding that situation where

they're going to want to get ahead of each other because if you're ahead, you get preferential treatment in the pits. So that is what they're going to want to do. raining piastri will not want that same situation where he stayed out a lap longer last year and it completely screwed his race yeah exactly they were like dicing and and swapping positions all the all the time and if we get another one of those where it's it's changing of conditions it's all going to be

about right times and right time question burkey ahern louis almost out in q1 first in q2 and then fifth overall why is he playing with the crowds emotions like that it was it was tough i think uh i could There was a lot of people around us and they were getting excited, then not getting excited. Then, you know, there's a lot of Brits in play as well. So I think there is a lot to be hopeful for if you are, you know, a British driver supporter. But yeah, that, that question or more of a statement from Berkey is just the life of a Ferrari fan summed up in one qualifying session. You know, it's so over, we're so back. It's so over. We're so over. We're so over. We're so over.

We're currently in, it's so over. It's so over. It's so over. but if Charlotte Claire makes up a couple of positions at the start of the race, we're back. We're back, baby. It was insane, wasn't it? Because after to Q1, Hamilton was 14th, wasn't he, in Q1? And he was very lucky that, you know, another couple of people getting a decent lap in, he would have been out. And from what I've read online, and again, apologies, we're at the circuit.

And for anyone that's been to a Formula One race, you know that you do weirdly, no less. It's such a weird situation. You know, maybe it's a whole topic. But how do they fix that? I don't know. Like, it just feels like we're so disconnected from what's actually happening. I know they give track commentary. We just love data as Formula One fans.

We love it. But we deserve data. There's jokes in the movie. I saw a joke about the Formula One movie of the scenes in it. And they're like, I don't like watching it because I've not got the timing graphic in the time. And obviously we mention it when the timing graphic goes down, like we feel lost. It literally feels like you don't have your glasses on. Like for me, I'm like, I don't know what's going on here.

I don't understand what's happening. This is not the Formula One I know. And yeah, same going to a circuit because from what I've read online, Ferrari were, hadn't fuelled them enough and they couldn't, you know, go out again. And that's why it was so close. And if that's the case, you know, it's a big risk because Hamilton was a lot closer to going out. And this is the fine margins of this season when you've got a pack so close. you can sometimes you know you look at Hamilton to be almost out in in Q1 and

almost get pole position in the same session it's crazy I'd love to say almost get pole position but we were nowhere near tell me come on let's be real how Hamilton was in the end at P5 but yes there was obviously that mistake at the end which cost him dearly and I think that is pretty much it we've reflected on Olly Behrman's penalty in Q2 which you know is massively gutting for here Obviously, he'll be starting 18th with that penalty. He'll be behind his teammate. Hasse will be rustling up some kind of master plan strategy tomorrow.

I hope for Ollie Behrman's sake, he can bounce back from this and maybe even try and score a point, even despite this penalty. But it's going to be a very difficult one from there. Yeah, it's so gutting because you really would have loved to have seen Behrman. He looked great in FP3 before the incident as well and kind of delivered in qualifying as well, but just not worked out for him. Alonzo of course we not mentioned him he was actually running quite high up and they've bought some upgrades here and there was a moment when he was third I think it was it in

Q1 I was going oh my god as Adrian Nui as Adrian Nui brought the is actually had a go for 2025 and gone this is what I can do but instead he's P9 but of course we'll will be ahead of Berman and Antonelli who has the penalty as well yeah yeah P7 for Alonzo that would be a nice one Gassley will be up to P8 as well That's a pretty tasty start for him. And that's pretty much it, I think, in terms of the qualifying wrap-up. Tommy, what are you final thoughts? If you're at Silverstone, make sure you come see us.

Main stage. 1030 a.m. Everyone come in to say hello as well. It's been amazing. We do a meeting greet after the show as well. To see all of your wonderful lot, we'll come take pictures, whatever you want us to do. Tommy will sign anything you want, really, so within reason. And that is it.

We'll see you very soon. We'll see you tomorrow. are here at Silverstone. If not, we'll see you tomorrow for the podcast anyway. Bring on the race. Hell yeah. Cannot wait. It's going to be good. Thanks so much. Take care. Adios. Bye. Bye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the Acast's creator network.