P1 with Matt and Tommy - Reaction to Dutch GP sprint race

Episode Date: August 22, 2026

We were worried at the start of the season about a sprint around Zandvoort... And turns out we were right to be. Especially after we were literally rainbated by Mother Nature.We will not be going on tour next year! So if you want to come and see our brand new live show 'Super Podding' this autumn, get your tickets here: http:/tix.to/p1liveSign up to our Patreon for just $5 a month! You'll get access to every P1 episode ad-free, extended versions of every 2026 race review, 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 TikTokP1 with Matt and Tommy is the world's biggest F1 podcast. Subscribe for new podcasts around every single race throughout the 2026 Formula 1 season! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the B1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. Lots of podcasts coming for you, of course, because it is a sprint weekend, and we're doing a special Sprint Race podcast. Not that special. It's going to be full of rants, full of stupid, stupid rain clouds. We just got rage-baited by rain. By literal nature. Rain-baited.

How dare. Yeah, rain-baited, that's good. Yeah, some things to get into. It might be a quicker podcast than usual. but we're going to cover it all the same because Charlotte Claire was great, so we couldn't not talk about it. Just close the championship gap, of course. Stop it, stop it, 79 points, not counting. Wait, let me just triple check that.

I'm pretty sure. Yeah, he's got two on Anthony Lee, as many, so. Yeah, gain two, so let me just do the, yeah. Oh, baby. Championship back on. Gained five on Lewis Hamilton. The team orders is looking less and less likely as we go on. Russell closing in.

So yeah, we're starting with some positives. Indeed, we've just covered all the positives. Yeah, finish the positives. Now start the podcast. Right, let's dive into it in a bit more detail. People on Patreon, remember, Rosie Rangetsu comes in with a question, What the hell, Mother Nature? You couldn't have done that during the race?

We've never needed rain more in our entire lives. I was saying this on the watch-along that that was probably the worst race you could get where the times made it, made it, It seemed like we had a banger on our hands. The top four in the first 10 or so laps were all separated by less than four seconds. They were all within overtake mode and you're thinking something is going to happen at some point. But that's the problem. We were baited left, right and centre.

We were baited by the rain. We were interval baited. Like there was just so many things going on where you thought, right, maybe. They were deploying in different areas. You had Charlotte Claire deploying in the last sector. you had George Russell deploying in the most bizarre places because he would just lose and gain three-tenths in sort of the middle sector, which it was just

in that side, it's quite interesting, okay, they're going for different deployment, but it never gave us anything. And then the rain went, psych, just going to, I'm going to rain for half a lap. And only the midfield was struggling, but you won't see that. Yeah, it's so annoying because part of, I'm so pessimistic about rail in Formula One because we've gone so many years in Formula One,

and as Formula One fans, we see it a lot, don't we? Where it rains kind of after the race or something like that. And we've had it a lot this year. We've not seen a single kind of properly wet session. In terms of how these cars behave. Yeah, even yesterday, which was meant to be like the biggest chance of rain, I think they went out on Inter's straight away and we're like, it's dry. and then it was dry the rest of the day.

And for the rain to arrive, literally, as they're kind of going through that final sector, not even a fun kind of like spa 2008 where it chucked it down with two or three laps to go. And you think, well, actually, it's worth it just to slow down rather than taking the pit stop because there's not enough time. It would have been absolute cinema because it was so heavy as well. It wasn't even like light rain. It absolutely threw it down. So we would have had another kind of spa 2008 situation where probably a few cars thought maybe in one lap I gained 20 seconds

so I'll pit for intermediates and other people going, no, it's definitely not worth it because there's literally one lap left. So I'm happy to just kind of hope for the best and try and keep on the track. Oh, it's so disappointing. It would have been so epic. and the most frustrating thing as well is you just know that it's going to be dry for qualifying as well don't you it will dry up they'll be straight on the the dry tires as soon as uh k1 starts uh oh dear come on formula 1 why i'm looking at the weather forecast right now

0% chance of rain between 2 o'clock and 4 o'clock of hour time really and then there's a slight chance as qualifying ends so i think the weather is just a paid actor at this point and is here to fully rage bait us. So yeah, I'm not holding out any hope for there being raining qualifying. And hopefully we'll have this podcast out before quality starts for you guys to be up to speed. But yeah, just really disappointing. It would have been so interesting with the degraded tires as well. That can make it even more chaotic, to be honest, if we're actually thinking about what might.

Say that threw it down two or three laps before the end. Someone goes off into the gravel, safety car deployed and it ends behind a safety car. And we're all going, oh, well, you know. maybe but there's so much chaos until then you know we get like a Zunvort 2023 where it's yeah people people are going off that was some people to the race where you know you had fresh tires these guys were on very old mediums and shard-de-cler softs shall on softs would have been a good opportunity shawl would have won yes but we're not even going to talk about that we're not

even going to go into that as a possibility God yeah you're so good it could have been 78 points It could have been. What a swing that would have been. Let's go to another question from Fire Breath. Who was the smart fella that decided to make Zandvort a sprint weekend? Indeed. Yeah, when we saw the fact that Zandvort would be hosting the sprint, this was our kind of all our fears of a sprint race at Zandvort basically happened in that race, didn't it?

Because it was impossible to overtake. Zandvort has always been a track that's really hard to pass. at to say the least, you need strategy and carnage and that's where the excitement comes from with a bit of rain or someone doing a different strategy because it's really hard to pass. I'd even argue that the DRS, we've seen a lot more overtaking this year and passing. Weirdly, you'd think that the car's getting smaller and stuff would, it would be better and maybe we'd have seen a better race. the whole way of it kind of being deployment and that kind of side of it actually produce less overtaking than just classic DRS because what worked for Zandvo is there is literally only one place

you can overtake which is down the main straight and DRS worked quite well because if you got close the you know you're losing only one cars getting the the essentially the low down force it makes quite a big difference and you can make a move into turn one. But we saw for a lot of that race, it's only Charle-le-le-le-and I think maybe one other driver that managed to overtake anyone, the whole race. And even when Lecler was 0.5, going into 0.6, 0.7,

going into that final corner, it wasn't enough. It had to be down to like 0.4. Normally you think we've been looking at gaps going, in years gone by going, actually they're in DRS now, this is the opportunity. Now you need to even lower than that a track like this because of the boost and how it worked. So it was a massive shame to watch that. Part of it is the, of course, the format as well, which I've said many times I don't like. It's essentially the first half of a race with no kind of jeopardy. So we kind of saw back

to the sprint of old where you go, well, of course nothing is going to happen because, because they can't overtake each other and there's no pit stops or strategy. Exactly, which is, you know, I'm going to start with a positive, not about the sprint weekend as such, but going into the rest of the weekend and the main Sunday race, the gaps and the intervals were close enough that we could see changes of position when we get pit stops. From what I can see there, we're going to have a one stop on Sunday because the soft tires went 28 laps and Charlotte-Claire looked more than happy to continue pushing on. So on that side, it's a shame, obviously, it's going to be a one-stop.

But with how close they were, there will be an opportunity for strategy. Perhaps some drivers will go really, really long, and then go for a big tire delta at the end, or flip it and just get the track position, because it seemed like track position was very important in the sprint. So we'll keep an eye on that one. As for the sprint weekend, Sam, for, I don't buy this whole, like, F-1. I've just given it to them as a leaving present. F-1 don't think give anyone any presents whatsoever.

It's all money, and it's all... that there's a business decision behind it. But yeah, maybe it's the fact that they have thought, well, it's the last Zandvort and loads of people are going to come. So it is still a business decision of we can sell out everywhere. And actually, I want to go on to a point about the chaos of trying to get into Zanfort. There are pictures all over social media at the moment. Tommy, I think you said when we were watching along that people were still stuck in Amsterdam

trying to make it to get a train for, to get a train. So it seems like perhaps they've sold more than they should have. This is the feeling at the moment. I'm sure there will be more information coming out of it. But I just wanted to say if you're trying to get there or if you weren't able to get there, I'm so sorry because that is the worst feeling as a Formula One fan to spend all that money and not be able to get there due to logistical issues out of your control. So I'm really hoping they learn from today and put things in place for, well, for Sunday, of course, most important

because yeah, I would be absolutely fuming. It was chaos yesterday, people saying that, you know, they were waiting ages to get into the circuit. So many more people have turned up. We've seen Zandvort, you know, have a big crowd for the first races. And it's still been, you know, good attendance. But this is obviously a lot of people wanting to go to the last one. and it is just we're seeing that kind of old school circuit just not having enough to be able to cope with the level.

And Zandvort is amazing in the fact that they have this circuit where everyone can commute to there and they can shut all the roads down and loads of people cycle in and people get the trains in. So it should in theory be better. And many circuits across the world would dream of that kind of thing where everyone just gets public transport. or their own kind of or cycle in or something because then they don't have to worry about the roads. But the problem is there's just far, far too many people and it seems like absolute carnage. So I hope anyone listening to this podcast that has gone has still had an amazing time and able to get to the sessions without a problem because it's a shame to see because a lot of

things I'm seeing on social media reminds me of that kind of first year that we saw at Paul Ricard when it was very much like this circuit is not ready to host Formula One and as many people. And more recently, I guess at Monza as well, when they oversold and had too many people for the facilities that they could actually give. Okay, so if you're going on Sunday, tomorrow, leave early, I think would be my one suggestion, very, very early if you want to definitely get there. Next question, Pee-1-Pitchie member Lex Wakeman.

Will we see a mixture of tyre strategies for Sunday's Grand Prix after Lecler's impressive performance on the softs? as long as it's not wet. It's going to be a one-stop. Whether we see drivers start on the softs, probably, especially with how difficult we've just seen it is to overtake, means lap one overtakes are going to be everything. So I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of drivers start on softs

after what we saw with Charleclair. The drop-off was barely anything in comparison to the mediums, which was, I don't know if that's down to Charlotte-Clau, being one of the best of all time. I would probably lean towards that. But the data would suggest, yeah, that it was definitely possible to make something work on the softs and start on that. So I reckon we will see a lot of soft start runners on Sunday. I'm not holding my breath of a mixture of tie strategies because I think Shell-Laclair has essentially spoilt the idea of what you should go for essentially now.

Because the thinking behind LeCle's gamble, of course, was all about the start, wasn't it? About seeing if he could maybe make up a place at the start. because as we saw, it was pretty much impossible to overtake. So I think the strategy there, well, not for him, exactly. But that's such a surprise because I thought he'd, if anything, fall back when his tires went. Because that would have been the gamble, wouldn't it? The Ferrari's thinking, surely, unless this is what they've run the data on and the softs are actually better, but only LeClair and Bermann decided to do it, was the whole thinking would have been that LeClau gets a great

start hopes to get into P2 or maybe P1 and then he can hold everyone off because it's impossible to overtake. Not that he doesn't make any positions and then nearly loses a position. Nearly loses a position, exactly. And then McLaren actually really struggling on their tires and Lando in particular in that, you know, both McLaren's actually just, you know, falling back into the clutches of the other cars, allowing LeCler to make it through. So I think a lot of people, yeah, we'll go for that. And as you say, I'm not holding my breath on a mixture of tyre strategies now because of the fact that we've seen a sprint in dry conditions. We've seen how it's panned out.

You can see that you can take the softs very long. So people are going to just do that and then they'll make one pit stop and that'll be it. But you should definitely still watch. Tommy's really hyped that up to within an inch of its life. You never know what happens in Formula One. Exactly. Exactly. If we'd have had to rain.

If you end with that, Tommy. At least people aren't going to go. There's no point watching it. tomorrow but of course there is because we'll be watching along and doing silly things even if the race is rubbish yeah let's not pretend that anything that we say is gonna be like no you're right actually I'm not gonna watch it let's be Tommy as Formula One fans we are people do in Baccio will be there no matter what we're gonna be there well even if Stefano Domenicali is slandering us will be there

no matter what I hope he does that would be that would be some good publicity really so that's very quickly chat about the midfield not that we saw much of them. And I'm looking at the end of the race, by the way, and the last laps, and it makes me feel physically sick when I'm reminded about the rain as well, because I know that Ockon-Beerman and those lot are probably a couple of seconds a lap slower around Zanfort, but they were 10 seconds slower than Russell and Lecler and Norris that finished at the end. That makes me so angry. Anyway, back to the midfield. Of course, Gassley scoring a point for Alpine in the only upgraded Alpine, I will say. I think Collopint did a pretty good job in P-12, concealing.

considering the amount of things that Gazle's had changed on his car and clearly working to beat Bortoletto. Bortoletto was all over the back of him as well. But in true Zandvoort fashion, no overtakes were made. But it seems very close between Alpine and Aldian. And of course, Limblad as well in the V-Cub. I think it's definitely worth mentioning that you had a little shriek at the start of the watch-along because you thought that Lawson was going into the behind of Limblad because they were fighting very hard at the start of that race. And you just know Lawson wanted to beat Limblad with all of his being.

He did. They were battling each other so hard at the start. It was pretty epic to watch of what we saw. Obviously, understandably, they were focusing on the front and the battling there, but I had my eyes on the kind of middle of the pack, and they would look like they were kind of going side by side into corners and very close. So, yeah, Lawson would have known that that was his opportunity, of course, and equally same for kind of Bortlet and Limblad, because it was so hard to pass. Because of the fact that Lawson didn't make it yesterday, of course, that opened up the single slot for a driver in the midfield to get a point. Because, yeah, it's a 30 second gap between Hamilton and Gasley in a sprint race. Some of that, I reckon five seconds of that, four or five seconds because the rain. Maybe it was rain. Yeah, a little bit of it was rain for sure. But still an enormous gap where, you know, the top guys are all really close and then there's a big gap to the midfield. unfortunately for someone like leom lawson he probably did have the had he qualified um better we all know why he

he didn't of course and um because he's just jumping into that car he'll be thankful that it is just the the sprint only and if he qualifies better you know he's he'll have the the pace to be able to challenge it uh in that gap there's a nice gap for him to slot into there because we're still seeing a big gap between the the midfield um But yeah, the midfield battle didn't even see much of that really. I think the only overtake I remember seeing was Holkenberg getting past like he wasn't there and then you realised that actually his car wasn't working as standard Audi things. Not really a true overtake. Holcomburg was very slow down the straight.

So the only one really was Charlotte Clare, so you welcome everybody, LeClair providing all the entertainment. overtake master of the race well then with being the only one indeed I will also say and I think it's worth an absolute mention is Yuki Sanoda

P13 finished 11 and a half seconds behind Limblad and also I want to factor in that his last lap was four seconds slower than Limblad so realistically he's finishing seven or eight seconds behind had it not been for the rain

so I think that is a phenomenal performance from Yuki Sonoda and I think it's gone very much under the radar. He has never properly started this car, driven it, but had a race start as well. If you think about how many struggles drivers had at the start of the year, figuring out how to get these cars off the grid, Yuki would have had, of course, a practice start at the end of FP1, perhaps one out of the pits and things like that. But realistically, not a lot of experience and did a great job. and I would like to think that some midfield teams have maybe taken note of just how good Yuki has been

jumping into the car and being seven or eight seconds off Limblad who has had the whole season so far. So yeah, a nice positive note to end on, I would say, with Yuki Sonoda. Yeah, I hadn't really thought about that. The fact that I wouldn't have put it, wouldn't been mad about it for, for the, like, Lawson and Sonoda to, if they'd have had a slow start, would have given the benefit of the doubt. of course, based on what we've seen. So the fact that they just had a normal star, I think, deserved some props there.

Indeed. And Bottas beat Perez by two laps, but I know Perez's car broke, but I just wanted to say in the Bottas Perez rivalry in this podcast, I need to mention it. Indeed. And Hokenberg was 13 laps behind Bortoletto. So strong performance from Bortoletto there.

Very strong. But no points. Only points for the top eight. Right, there you go. That is it. We will be back literally later today for the qualifying podcast. and watchalongs and everything else, lots of content coming your way. Formula One is back.

Thank you for tuning in. Tommy, final thoughts? Final thoughts? I'm sorry to all the people at Zanvort because I'm going to say this. Please keep raining. I hope you've got brollies because please have a start to qualify because it'd be exciting. Not going to happen, mate. Not going to happen. So there you go.

I thought you were just saying sorry to Zanvort because you had to watch a terrible sprint race. And then get absentee raged. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you've got the bad of not actually seeing the entertainment and then got drenched. Yeah, that's a tough weekend. Anyway, we will see you a little bit later on. What's love. Bye.

Goodbye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the Acast Creator Network.