P1 with Matt and Tommy - Reaction to Dutch GP practice (featuring a special guest!)

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

With Matt marooned without internet, there's only one person we could turn to for a chat about one of the craziest practice sessions imaginable: it's Katy Fairman!Katy and Tommy discuss a Friday full of spins, impressive running and tricky conditions - come and join us!The P1 Live Show is coming to Australia in May 2026 with shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth! Some of the shows are nearly sold out, so get your tickets now! http://tix.to/p1ausThe Delusion Tour is also coming to cities in the UK, Europe and North America later this year. Get those tickets here: tix.to/p1liveFollow 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. As you can probably tell, no Matt today as he is sorting out his internet, which hopefully will be set up for the weekend. We promise it's not because Ferrari have had a bit of a shocker. But I am instead joined by our old buddy, Katie Fairman, young journalists of the year, Motorsport UK, had to mention it because you know, you're far too modest to not say it. How are you, Katie?

Oh, I'm really well. Thank you. lovely to chat with you, Tommy. And yeah, talk about the Dutch Grand Prix practice. Yes. And what what a practice session you've joined us for? Normally, these practice sessions, you wonder, like, how are we going to do a 20-minute podcast or video on it? And instead, we just had absolute chaos, loads of incidents, probably more incidents that we've had in any practice session through the whole year combined, it felt like. Very much so. Yeah, I don't know if that's a good luck or bad luck on my half. I'm sure the drivers won't want me doing any more appearances on the podcast

after today. But yeah, an uncharacteristically crazy practice session, like you say. Definitely. So we'll dive straight into the first question actually, which is from Nick Z underscore 1. Why did so many drivers go off? Was it due to the rustiness after the summer break or tricky conditions? Now, I think it is a bit of both, to be fair, because they are, I think it's a bit of a baptism of fire when they come back from the summer break and of all the tracks for them to go on is Zandvort which is a track that punishes mistakes we've seen it before you know this is a it's not an uncommon thing to see people going off in a practice session at Zandvort just thinking back to like the previous couple of years you had of course the the famous

uh sorry infamous i should probably say Daniel ricardo yeah going off uh breaking his hand, of course, at that turn. Oscar Pastry spun off before that. You had Logan's sergeant had a massive crash last year. Holkenberg spun off in the last couple of years as well. So we do see these incidents at Zandvoort and I think it is just a case of the fact that they're all pushing maybe a little bit of rustiness but it's just a very, very difficult track, a very kind of when we when we spoke to Alex Albin in our video he said it's like a go-kart track and it punishes mistakes if you get slightly wide it so does I know that Zanvort doesn't provide the most exciting race day there's not really many overtaking opportunities

apart from basically term one but yeah for me I love these old school historic tracks where it is really punishing and exhilarating for a driver to do a lap of it it's about one of the only circuits that I've actually done a lap of on the F1 game. And I had the best time of my life driving. It was so much fun. But like you say, it is really challenging. And yes, there could be a little bit of rustiness because of the summer break. Although, you know, I was listening to the Sky Sports coverage and they were saying that

Lando was doing all sorts of go-karting over the summer break. And I'm sure that these drivers, if they have an opportunity, will always be jumping in a car and pushing it a little bit to the limits to try and, you know, replicate that feeling. but also I think something that's worth noting might not have had an impact in today's, but the circuit is right on the beach and wind conditions can change quite dramatically. So perhaps that was a part of it. We had, I think if my memory serves me correctly, Vastappen and Carlos Sites going off at Turn 1 a few years ago because of that wind.

So yeah, that could be a factor, but yeah, it's certainly been very weird. It felt like every five minutes there was a yellow flag being way for some. somebody having a little off. Yeah, definitely. I mean, we kind of almost, it's almost comical in an elite sport to be like, oh, it's a bit windy. But look at the last qualifying session at the Hungaro Ring and how those wind conditions changed.

And it went from being, you know, a complete McLaren lockout to something completely crazy. So we'll start with, with FP1. No surprise really that McLaren, a one to, Norris leading from Piastri. Lance Stroll was a surprise piece. but unfortunately one person that did get caught out by those tricky conditions and a tricky circuit was Kimmy Antonelli. He's had a horrible run. It has to be said going into this summer break and me and Matt have mentioned many times on the podcast in this kind of break that of all the drivers that needed that summer break, it was Kimmy Antonelli to kind of rejuvenate

himself. He had a great start to the year that's kind of easily forgotten because of of how badly it kind of has been the last few races, but such a small error, but such a costly one, because any other circuit, you are just running wide onto some runoff or anything else, and you're straight back on, because you know,

you didn't damage the car or anything. You're just getting beached in the gravel. So really unfortunate for Antonelli, and it happened so early in the session. It did. I mean, when he got those early laps on, you could see the bottom of his Mercedes was sparking,

like crazy. So they obviously had the floor super, super low. And yeah, just a silly little mistake. And it's one of those things that maybe in previous seasons, if Antonelli was the only rookie on the grid, you could kind of put it down to, oh, well, you know, he maybe hasn't driven his track as many times, but we've got obviously such a wealth of rookies on the grid. And you even had people like Bortoletto up there in the Kicksauber at one point, and Bairman as well doing some good laps. So, yeah, we can't really put it down to just, oh, he's a rich, because, you know, there are people in a similar position on that grid that weren't making those mistakes. So, yeah, I hope for Antonelli's sake that he can kind of come back stronger.

Obviously, he managed to get going again with FP2. There was a little worry that it was going to be rained off entirely. And so there was worry that he wasn't going to get a chance to try his practice starts, because here where the pit lane exit comes straight out into the track, you can't really do any kind of pit lane or practice starts even. so, you know, it isn't just a case of getting that track experience, but there are other things that he wouldn't have been able to do if FP2 didn't happen. But yeah, just a really unfortunate mistake from him. But hopefully, you know, we've got Monza coming up next, a home race for him.

It's a circuit that he has got so much experience in Junior Series. So I'm hoping, fingers crossed, that maybe if it's not Zanvort this weekend, then it's Monza next weekend where he can turn his season around. yeah he's had so much experience at monza in uh in formula two but not in formula one because obviously that was the trek where he went off immediately uh in that practice session last year but it's it's it's harsh on it's harsh on uh kim y antonelli because you look at that session and and equally we'll get onto fp2 as well where loads of drivers are making errors even very experienced ones look at look at george russell he went off as well uh but

luckily for him he carried on. And another driver that went off was a certain Max Verstappen. And unlike Kimmy Antonelli, he was, in a weird way, he was fortunate that his off was at the end of the session. So he basically didn't lose any running, but it's still a pretty embarrassing error, really, to make. And very uncharacteristic. You don't normally see Max Verstappen these days going off in a completely dry session.

And the fact that it was straight after a practice start as well was pretty crazy. It was. Can I be honest with you in the P1 listeners that as soon as FP1 finished, I'm busy working, I've got other projects that I'm working on today. I turned off my TV and then sure enough went online and was like, how did I miss this during the session? And then realized it was from the practice starts. But yeah, really unusual mistake from Max. Perhaps he can style it out and say, oh, I just wanted to give the fans some more. time of seeing my car up close in the gravel trap. I don't know. But yeah, it was a very strange mistake from Max. I mean, I really hope that people won't suddenly start to say, oh, you know, is it beginning to bottle it? He's making all these mistakes because I think it was just a little

slip up. And like you say, we saw so many people this weekend make these areas, but it wouldn't surprise me if there are some people out there who were going to try and use that one small mistake to kind of make a bigger story out of it. But yeah, it was a, uh, yeah, it was a, uh, a really, really odd thing from Max. Yeah, and he's finding the limits. It was obviously the fact that it's come straight after a practice start is probably him seeing how much he can push term one, whether that's something that was quite funny, actually,

was me and Matt managed to watch the session together as we were flying back from the Netherlands of our P1 live shows. And we got back, we were watching it together. and it was, yeah, when we watched it, it was funny because Matt was like, that's Max practicing for a dive bomb at turn one. And while kind of like tongue in cheek, it is kind of true because he's finding the limits

and we know Zandvort incredibly hard to overtake unless it's 2023 and it rains and then you get the most overtakes of all time apparently, which please let's have another one of those. Yeah, that was great. the limits and instead went straight off. Let's go to FP2 then and the top three were Norris Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri. We'll start with the big moment from that session and it's a very big crash for Lance Stroll. Astor Martin looking very good indeed and Stroll had a

brilliant FP1 where he was third but a big crash at that turn where of course we mentioned earlier Daniel Ricardo crashed that that banked curve and a question from P1 Patreon R&B sheep is stroll fully okay he was showing some discomfort in his right wrist now we've I've not personally seen anything yet he's not I don't think he's been asked about it you think that He did get interviewed after the session, and you do think that had there been anything really bad, he would have probably gone to a medical centre or mentioned it during that kind of instant. But it is something that I think probably a lot of people, even I think Max came on the radio

and asked about it, because it's that first thing you think of with Lance Stroll, because he's had that issue with his wrist, even earlier in the season, and missing that race. exactly is it fair to say he's got maybe some of the most vulnerable wrists in the business i don't really yeah it's a it's a yeah unfortunate one for him and it always makes me wince whenever i see a driver fail to take their hands off the steering wheel because we've seen it you know in various championships like you say even with ricardo or in other series as well that sometimes that can relate to hand like you know bones being broken in your hand so i'm really pleased to hear that he's all right like you say to me i think if it was significant

he would have been sent to the medical center. I'm sure that Aston Martin would be quick to release a statement and say that, you know, this is a situation. So he seemed to be all kind of semi-smiles, should we say, in the garage, obviously not beaming from ear to ear after causing that shunt. But, yeah, really disappointing because, like you say, Aston Martin have been looking so quick and Lance, especially, obviously third in FP1. So to then lose out on such important running, especially for like, you know, quality

prep and everything like that. It was a it was a big knock. But yeah, hopefully he's a really big crash. It was. It was a very big crash. The fact that there's no runoff at that corner I think is what makes it so you know the the actual damage of that car was massively significant. It's very rare that you see the whole side of the car completely like, you know, torn to shreds really. Yeah. And yeah, the the way he kind of kept his hands on the wheel, you don't have tight. You don't have to really like remove them in the incident. It happens in such a split second. And the fact that there's no runoff there like on a lot of other circuits,

you're going straight into a straight into the wall. And it was a really nasty, nasty shunt. But glad to see Lance Stroll is okay after that. And I think particularly for him as well because of Aston Martin looking so good. Another driver that caused red flag was Alex Albin. He went off into the gravel. and couldn't get going again. You know, we'll say that the P1 curse,

our last driver to interview was Alex Albin. So apologies, Alex. But hopefully he's got that bad luck out the way early. But yeah, another red flag, just so many incidents in this session. It's crazy. Yeah, gravel proving to be, you know, a very difficult thing to get yourself out of once you're in it.

obviously he kept the car on, reversed a little bit to sort of give him the best angle to make that manoeuvre to get himself onto that nice smooth tarmac that was so close but yet so far and yeah, managed to beach the car and yeah, like you say, caused another red flag. Luckily, I guess wasn't far for him to go in terms of walk back to the garage. But still, you know, that's never a way that a driver wants to end a session and you could tell that normally when drivers keep their full racing helmet on, it probably means that they're not in a very good place and not to speak to them.

So he was escorted back to the garage by one of the marshals as well, which, I mean, I don't think he was going to be going and running off anywhere. I don't really know why he needed escorting or if that's standard practice, maybe it is. But yeah, a bit of an embarrassing way to end that session. But yeah, he wasn't, like we said so many times in this podcast, wasn't the only guy to find himself in that gravel. He certainly wasn't. P1 Patreon Dan has asked,

with so many cars getting beached and spinning out today, could we see less than 12 finishes during the Grand Prix? I think if it's a dry race, I do think a lot of this is that the fact that they're pushing in practice sessions and they are allowed to make mistakes. You don't see it as much in the Grand Prix. If it's raining and chaotic, yeah, we could see absolute chaos again because it is a punishing search.

it, but we have maybe seen this trend of Zandvort being really punishing in practice where they find the limits and then when they get to the race, they're all a bit more, a bit more sensible. I mean, question on the fly, do you like these kind of circuits that punish the drivers or would you much rather see them be able to be almost like pushed back in or be able to carry on? I'm a sucker for, yeah, circuits that do punish mistakes. I know that it's a bit of an unpopular opinion, but I do really like street circuits for that reason.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think they should be popping up a new one on the calendar every single year. And as a result, we could be losing really iconic special tracks. But I do. I love, you know, a circuit like Imola. I might be one of the only people in the world that's going to be sad that that's off the calendar. But for me, you know, I used to really enjoy watching some of the racing around there because like you say, if you do get a wheel out of shape, a wheel on the grass, that's it.

You're in a barrier. You're out, you know. So, yeah, I do, I do really like those kind of circuits. Although, I guess if you've got a favorite driver who's maybe been caught out a few too many times by a certain circuit, you might not be a fan. But, yeah, for me, I would much rather have it the mistakes to punish us. Why, you know, I'm always so keen for things like more gravel traps. Austria is another great one. Like, you know, that like 10 through four part of the track where they've got that gravel trap.

And if you get too far over it, you have to suffer the consequence and you might end up losing certain amount of positions. Like things like that, I think are really good for the entertainment side of things and also just reminding drivers that, you know, you're not untouchable. Stay on the track as well. Yeah. It's amazing how we don't have these really boring conversations about. about track limits and oh did you go one millimeter over the line here when there's gravel because they can't do it and when they do go off they're in the wall or in the gravel trap and they're losing time anyway I mean another driver that had a couple of moments was Lewis Hamilton yeah loving

some pirouettes very well executed has to be said both of them obviously not what he would want no but but flat spots on all of his tires absolutely but yeah he had spins in FP1 and and FP2. Ferrari, yeah, you know, I joked at the start of the show about Matt's not here because of Ferrari. They did finish FP2 in six and eight, so it wasn't as bad, but it's not looking great. And I think Charlotte Clarivan radio during FP1 saying, we are miles off. Yeah, it's not looking too good. I feel like apart from Hamilton's, you know, ballet pirouettes that he was doing in the middle of the track. They had a fairly anonymous, both, like both practice sessions. I'm pretty sure it was LeClair that came on the radio. Maybe having a go at Sonoda, I don't want to point, blame if this

isn't the case, but, you know, getting annoyed at Yuki and him not realizing that he was behind him. But apart from that, I don't really remember seeing them too much. And yeah, it's, especially with Aston Martin making this obviously quite significant jump, it's a slightly worrying time to, to be Ferrari fans. Sorry, Matt. The other bizarre incident that I thought about was the Piastri and Russell incident in the pits, which was very strange, just continuing the chaos even as they came into the pit lane. Of course, Zambor being that crazy pit lane,

there's even smaller than Monaco, which is quite a mad thing to think about for, a purpose-built track. But Piastri coming into the pits and almost just seeming like George Russell didn't even know that George Russell was there and with how there's not like that second lane that they can pull into.

He basically was getting himself into position to be wheeled back into the garage and almost just smashed into the side of George Russell. Now, as we have been recording, there has been the news. And thankfully for Oscar Piestri fans,

he has not been disqualified from the championship. It is a 5,000 euro fine for McLaren, which I'm not surprised. These kind of incidents, I do think that's the right decision to just fine the teams for something in a practice session that's not created too much harm. It's just an unfortunate incident,

but I don't think there needs to be, you know, a huge, massive clamp down and fine, or like a penalty for that. Yeah, I did think you were going to say a five-place grid drop, well, 5,000 place grid drop. That's what I should have done, the clipbait. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, that was a very bizarre incident. Like, obviously popped up on the TV. And I'd like to think that I'm quite good.

I watched too many videos on TikTok and Instagram of like dash cam, where you try and guess what the issue is going to be. And just getting a full insight into my. brain here. And sometimes I like to think that I'm quite good at predicting what's what's going to happen next. And with that, I was like, oh, maybe he's gone in too hot. He's going too quickly. No, I did not expect that at all with Oscar obviously being like trying to be reversed into the box. But yeah, I'm totally with you there, Tommy. I don't think it would have been fair to penalise Piastri because that's also like a joint, I guess, blame game between

maybe Piastri not looking in his mirrors, but also McLaren giving him those instructions So, yeah, just a bit of a weird incident. But, I mean, £5,000 is about a drop in the ocean to McLaren. So, yeah, it won't harm it too much. No, well, especially not with their new title sponsor, of course, MasterCard as well. That's true, yeah. So, yeah, they're probably not short of a penny or two. It's funny you mention dash cams.

I'm going to mention a really rogue random story that's completely off topic. I love it. This is our friendship, just tangent of tangent. This is what it's all about. but some P1 fan sent me a video this was like a couple of years ago when we just started of a channel that's just dedicated to dash cam footage from like crashes in America and someone shared a clip and in it they're listening to the P1 podcast

so you literally like have this moment where you kind of got the dash cam and you can just hear me being like Nico Holkenberg is having quite a good run of form isn't he and then crashes into a car at a junction. So there again, random off-topic thing that I love it. I don't love their crash though. I hope they're all right. But yeah, wow.

That's when you know you've made it. Absolutely. We'll go on to Fernando Alonzo now, of course, has to be mentioned. P1 Patreon Blackson Alonzo Podium, question mark. I would love to see it. I would very much love to see it. Aston Martin, of course, I said they were going to be the big flop of the weekend. so they've turned up with an absolute rocket ship.

And hopefully this form does continue because I want to see Alonzo back at the front again. Do I dare say are we going to be seeing a 20-23 season in reverse where Alonzo got all those podiums at the start of the year? Is it going to be where Alonzo is now going to start, you know, challenging at the front, you know, McLaren are clear, but there's, of course, going to be a spot on the podium. other teams may be kind of not developing as much

or that they're kind of like locked into what they're doing with upgrades and things. Maybe Astor Martin can get a podium. I'd love to see Alonzo on there. But, you know, if Stroll recovers and they get his car fixed and hoping for his sake that he doesn't have gearbox penalties and things based on the changes that they're going to have to make, I think an Aston Martin podium could be on. Yeah.

I think even if you, like you're saying, throughout the rest of the season, there's the chance that that could happen, especially like you say, if other teams are kind of really putting a lot of focus into those new 2026 regulations and Adrian New Year appears to just be doing it in his sleep. It could well be that maybe they can catch some of the others off guard, but I mean, they also were just looking really competitive. So who knows? I mean, if it does rain, which I think it's scheduled to rain for the rest of the weekend. I mean, a few years ago, forgive me, I can't remember the year, but do you remember when Fernando Lanzer had that absolutely rocket start and managed to find

the grip where basically nobody else thought to, like basically went up on the banking? It was epic. It was so good. So who knows? Maybe he can do a deja vu, like do the same again and yeah, get his hands on that trophy, which I really like the Zandvort trophy. I think it's a bit unique, the big cup. And also, like, seeing them in person, they are massive. Yeah, it's very cool. Yeah, shout out to the trophy because it is cool to see, like, a circuit. Shout out to the trophy. Uh, doing a kind of trophy based on the kind of culture, because that's, you know, like, Dutch pottery. I don't know the exact term for it. But like, it's, like, relevant to the place that it is. So that, that is cool. And I'd love to see a long to get on the

podium again. I do wonder how much Austin Martin based on their form. I know it's only practice, but based on the fact that we've had two dry sessions and they've been very quick, maybe weirdly praying that it's that it's actually going to be dry for the rest of the weekend. But not looking like it so far.

We'll move on to our final person that we have to talk about and that is Lando Norris. Brilliant job. Topped both sessions. Really good here last year, of course. won the race in dominant fashion. Very much in the championship hunt, surely he is going to be the guy to beat this weekend

based off what we saw today. I think so. It's certainly looking like it's going to go that way. I'm pretty sure, I mean, who knows what could happen, but we'll see at least one of the McLaren's on the top step of that podium, ready to give my P1 jinx to the podcast. But, yeah, no, Lando does seem to be really quite comfortable here.

although never write off Oscar Piastri No you can't write off Piastri can you? You just can't no I know it's a very boring answer and I feel like it's probably the same answer that you and Matt have had on every single podcast so far this year but yeah Oscar Piastri really has been pretty

sensational this year as has Lando but yeah if I were to go based off of the results today then I think that this could be another one for Lando which makes a championship all the more exciting so I'm all for it it would be of course yeah flando takes the victory and piastri's second we're looking at what must be only like a couple of points separating them so don't ask me to do maths live please yeah very true as we're before we head off i will just put you completely on the spot now um so sorry for that how have you found this this championship battle and who do you think is going to be the if you had to guess at this moment in time between piastri and norris

Uh, piastri, I would say. Um, I think that he has just kept such a cool level head, apart from obviously when he got that penalty in and they all start to blend into one, was it hungry? Silverstone. Silverstone, thank you. Um, yeah, apart from then when he obviously got quite frustrated and understandably so, because it cost him the victory. I think he's, you know, got a very different, um, way, like mindset to Landau. And that's not a criticism. of Lando's, but, you know, we've seen him. He's very vulnerable. He's very honest with the media. If he thinks he's had a bad race, he's very vocal about it. And I really, you know, have a lot of admiration for Lando about that. But, you know, other drivers that are maybe slightly more experienced have said that that might come back to bite him.

It's one of the reasons why we don't see many drivers like that. Whereas Oscar, you know, yes, he can still admit when he's had a bad day in the office as such. But he kind of reminds me of like a mickahakening. or a Kimi Reichen in a sense that he's just very cool, calm and collected. And I feel like maybe that, in addition to his evident talent that we've seen, I mean, he's rapid over one lap, he's very consistent that maybe he might just edge Lando in the fight, which, yeah, would be very interesting.

But let's see. It's going to be a fascinating battle. And I'm sure that we're going to see them come together at least once, more for the rest of the season. Yes, I do think we are as well. And let us have said, there's so many times we have to be grateful that it is McLaren fighting at the front because they've got two drivers that can win the race. And of course, we're going to go into this weekend as well. It's very clear, even though you look at the gap and Alonzo kind of splitting them, I think you'd be very surprised if it wasn't the McLaren's just absolute miles clear

of everyone this weekend. But it doesn't make it boring because it's the two-drive. is going for the championship. And if we're just focused on those two fighting, then that's what we want to see as Formula One fans. So we will wrap it up there. Katie, thank you so much for subbing in for Matt while he sorts his internet out. So fingers crossed, he gets all that sorted.

What are your final thoughts? Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, this is like old times. Oh, no, I really haven't thought about that. I guess final thoughts is well done to you and Matt for doing your show recently in Amsterdam. We're two shows in Amsterdam. Very proud of you both as always.

And thank you for thinking of me as a substitution. I know lots of people on the internet seem to think that we never speak to each other after, you know, departing our previous company, but we're still the bestest of friends. We absolutely are. Yeah. Thank you so much. There we are. Awesome.

Okay. Thank you, everyone. Bye-bye. Bye. See you tomorrow. We'll be live on Twitch as well. Don't you worry. And YouTube.

And all that good stuff. And a podcast. Bye-bye. Bye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the A-cast creator network.