P1 with Matt and Tommy - Reaction to Emilia Romagna GP practice

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

With Tommy on holiday, Matt's joined by *the* voice of every F1 raceday: it's Friend of the Pod, Alex Jacques!They chat about a new tyre compound that's trying to spice up strategy decisions and wonder if we'll see a straight shootout between the two McLarens for the first time this season. Plus, are Ferrari even the fourth fastest car anymore?! You can listen to an extended version of every Race Review podcast this season over on our Patreon! Sign up to also get every P1 episode ad-free, early access to live tickets and merch, and access to our Discord server where you can chat with us and other F1 fans! Click here to sign up now!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 P1 podcast with Matt and not Tommy. Not Tommy again because he's on holiday. Yep. He's on holiday more often than we have races this season. That's not a lie. He's going to be listening to that. He's going to be very angry that I've just said that. But instead, we have a man that needs no introduction.

It's, of course, Formula One commentator Alex Jakes. He's back once again on his tinfoil microphone. It's one of those things. We're actually just got walls between us. And I'll have to just sort of put my ear in. against it to hear him. But Alex, thank you for coming along and congratulations, mate, on becoming a new dad. Thank you very much, sir. Yes, this week's commentary and next week's commentary and the triple header commentary will be done with minimal sleep. Who knows? Might

improve things. Yeah, pretty delirious first couple of minutes on air today. Didn't have a lot of sleep last night. But yeah, she's arrived. She's perfect. And being my wife are very lucky. Ah, amazing stuff. Right. Let's talk about some Formula One. And start with free practice one. Of course, we had a week off, and we're having to rejig our brains. One of the big talking points and something that is obviously, hopefully, quite exciting for Formula One fans, is the introduction of the C6 tyre, which is a brand new step softer Pirelli compound, where Formula One are hoping to God that the teams don't continue with one stops.

Of course, Imla being a slightly less abrasive track, and this is what they're trying to test at circuits, this to give us some entertainment, Alex, and we saw a lot of teams running it because they're probably just trying to get their head around it and whether it's actually worth using at all. Exactly. Is it a viable race tie? Yes or no. We know it's going to last in qualifying. We know it's a little bit quicker than the C5, but is it viable? Is it going to fall apart? Are they going to avoid it? That's what the teams we're trying to evaluate today. Upside was FP1. Drivers were pushing absolutely immediately. We saw that from Charlotte-Clair from very, very early.

The first five minutes of the session, I think it's good to try and address one-stops. It doesn't matter if some races are one-stops, but I think you'd like to see more variation. Keeps the guessing going longer during Grand Prix. So I like that Pirelli have brought it. We all love a bit of strategy. So fingers crossed.

Because with Imila, yeah, you have these races, don't you? Where if a slower car, not just in Miller, but tracks we can't overtake, if you have a slower car in the lead, all of a sudden, Gazley at Monza. It doesn't necessarily have to have overtaking, but we need to be kept on the edges of our seats somehow. Other things to mention before we get into the running, they've

tried to make Imala a bit wider and better for track limits, making the white lines a little bit wider. How did you see it, Alex, from the commentary booth? Yeah, just don't want to be talking about track limits. We want to be talking about great laps. So if those alterations to decrease, basically, you had more of a car's width on the exit of some corners, like the first Revatza. And basically they've removed that. So you can't basically nail the exit of Revazza 1 and then be pinged for track limit. So it's good. It stops us talking about it.

You don't want to get to the end of qualifying go, oh, that's an amazing lap. But track limits by a centimeter at the second Rivazza. So yeah, I'm glad they've done that. Especially with Imler, which you do feel is self-policing. It's so punishing it is. You can't be then. Oh, he's gone off the track. You're like, where?

Where has it gone off the track? It's Imola. Right, okay, let's get into some questions. Of course, FP1. Pastery Norris-Signs was the top three. The top five were separated by less than the tenth. Sign me up for tomorrow, that's for sure. First question, P1, Patreon member, retired Ted.

Is impeding on this track inevitable? Yes, my goodness gracious me, we saw some impeding today. Just drivers going slowly at points where you're going, really? Is that a team comms thing? because why are you going so slowly in parts of the track that didn't seem to be the place to do it? So it's definitely something we're going to see, especially in Q1 when we have 20 cars out on track. And there isn't this leniency, is there, Alex?

It's not like the stewards will, well, there might be a little bit, but not much in the sense of, if you impede someone in qualifying, you're getting a penalty. It doesn't matter if it's Monaco or a wider track like Bahrain. Yeah, because the rules are written that way. So they've got no choice. You have to implement the rule book as it's written. so it doesn't matter that it's an unbelievably narrow track. It's three miles.

It's not ludicrously short. It's not Monaco, as you say, Matt. But yeah, you've got to be driver and engineer communication has got to be superb. And I don't think it's a coincidence at all that a new race engineer in position at Alpine and a new driver in position at Alpine was the car that we kept cutting to, accidentally impeding all the way through Friday. So that relationship and communicating at the right times is important because there are some parts of the race track that if you're there,

it's so narrow you're just not going to be able to get out of the way. It costs Oscar Piazzaropoom, didn't it, last year, getting an impeding penalty in Q1. So yeah, it's going to carry on. It certainly is. Now, myself and yourself, Alex, I've watched Formula One for many, many, many years. So we've sort of seen the transition of Formula One being a very serious sport,

like the most serious sport of all time, to now seeing in Free Practice 1 classification graphics, Franz Herman in P7, you got to sort of tip your hat to Formula One for the memes. I think they got involved with the whole Piastri Leclair thing and the fact that they were, and I just couldn't believe it, because I was literally looking at the FP1 classification

just to talk about it, and then I saw in 7th Franz Herman. And you got to respect it, of course, that's where Max went and did some racing, and just can't get enough of it even when it's away from Formula One but I did enjoy that very much but Max himself probably wasn't in a very

meamy mood I don't know that's a sentence I've ever said a meamy mood but good sentence though I rated it very good because he was struggling a hell of a lot out there today he basically assaulted the wheel at one point because he really was not happy with how the rear end was stepping out yeah rear end stepping out in FP1

bottoming out in Aquaminorale where you have that elevation change back up the hill to the very ante altar in FP2. That car, they are very good, aren't they, Red Bull, are going Friday into Saturday. On the evidence of today, they're going to need to be because if you are striking the floor, you are losing lap time. And then he had that problem at the end, didn't he, with something loose in the cockpit once again. So again, Red Bull starting from the position slightly further back than would become used to in recent times. Absolutely. And the other things, I guess, Bortoletto was off right at the end and also noted down that LeCleur was holding his helmet down. So that's really fun. That's really, that's what I want to see. You know, as a Charles LeCler fan that he's not worried about doing lap time. He's worried about keeping his helmet on as he's going around Imler. That's what you want to see after a week break to really instill confidence and hope. But let's move on to Free Practice 2, the more representative session, of course. And it is once again a McLaren 1-2, very close between the two of them. Pierre Gazley in third. And we're going to go straight to a question

from P1Batrim member, you will not have the drink. Has Grace given Gasley some extra incentive? Now, for those of you that haven't seen the predictions or missed the social clip, Tommy got his three-year-old daughter to predict the top three and put Gasly to win with Jack Dewan, making a return after losing his seat, finishing second, and Lance Strang in third. And I could not believe, I think it was free practice one in the first sort of 15 minutes that Gassley was second on mediums and I thought grace is the oracle yeah it is I mean that's the headline from today grace grace has finally provided this podcast with predictions that make sense that's that's the that's story uh he had a great day didn't he had a great day and it it does seem in practice so that

car rolls out the box really well but last thing we're talking about red bull doing your homework from Friday into Saturday. Expect him to slip back. But Gassley is strong. There are tracks where he just has the feel, and Iminla is one of them. He's always had ability around this racetrack, so it's not a shock to see him up there mixing at the front.

But whether he can keep it going into tomorrow, listen, he started P4 on the grid earlier than he has to me. So nothing really to lose, given the state that they've been in for the last 10 days or so. Absolutely. And of course, you know, Colopinto stepping in as we mentioned, just doing there for doing. And he's not done too badly, to be fair,

because we did a little prediction, both myself and Tommy, about where he'd qualify, and I think we both were expecting a Q1 exit. But a pretty solid FP2 in 13th for Colapinto, not had any real testing in this car and pretty much settling into the team. Were you kind of impressed of how Franco did today? It's a nightmare.

It's a nightmare. Thank goodness it's not a sprint weekend. I mean, it's a nightmare to jump back in mid-season. reason the quality of Formula One at the moment is an enormously high. Everyone, we're talking about fine margins every single Saturday, even to get into Q2 for goodness sake. And then you're like, okay, cool. So we know you've tested the car with previous area machinery, but can you please get up to speed in three hours and escape Q1? It's a, it's a tall test. Around a track like Imola as well, where there's literally no runoff, nowhere to just kind of test the

brakes 10 metres later. I see how it goes. Oh, I'm in the gravel. And we saw that with two rookies today. Moving away now from Alpine to McLaren, as we mentioned, one, two in both the sessions. P1Pitch, remember Matthew Cole 04, does Oscar seem that bit ahead of Lando this weekend? It's, I look, I've backed, and I know that some people question it, go, no, Matt, Oscar's the faster driver now, it's clear. I have backed the fact that I believe Lando has a slightly higher potential at the moment, but Oscar is constantly closing that gap. And I think this was a sort of session, especially for Friday practice this weekend, where I went, wow, Oscar, Oscar looks dialed in. It's not a case of sort of hitting a 95%. This was, you know, because I know

it's not massive on the timesheets, but he lost a couple of tents in that final sector being held up on his final lap, which would have put him a quarter of a second clear. And you're starting to think, yeah, if Oscar can continue to have this advantage and keep out qualifying Lando, if we do have a Formula One season where it is a qualifying championship, that's most likely going to get Oscar Piastri the championship. But he's looked thoroughly impressive this weekend. Yeah, really strong once again. I think with Lando, there are all the way through the weekend.

There will be laps where Lando puts a lap together and you're like, there you go. Okay, so he's got the margin. But it's putting the lap together and around somewhere like Imala, where you have to strike the curbs so consistently to get performance, where you've basically got to brush the gravel, otherwise you've left something on the table. That is not the type of circuit that Lando wants on the evidence of this year, where he's been all the way through weekends, quick in two of the three sectors,

and then had a minor moment of all the weekends to turn it round, though, Matt, this would be a really, really useful one for him in the battle against Oscar, because if he's the lead McLaren again, he's only Lee McLaren four times last year, he's taken the fight to Lando over one lap and he's just able to get more consistency out of it. But I don't think on the evidence of today there's barely anything between them. So it looks like it's going to be another straight fight in Q3 between the two of them, two hundreds of a second at the end of two hours of running is pretty, pretty exciting. And you mentioned those mistakes.

We saw a few of them today from Lando, that exact example of, I think he went on for another push lap and it was literally the final corner that he lost the back end and then abandoned the lap. So it is a case of can he put it all together and it should be a pretty scintillating battle tomorrow. I can't wait for it. Tommy is back tomorrow, by the way, from Holiday. Yeah, he will actually do some work this weekend, which is really exciting.

Next question, and I know a lot of you have been, it's pretty much the only question a lot of people asked. So I'll do this one. Fergie's right ref asks, as a Ferrari fan, is there even a point of watching the races now? Or are Ferrari just going to abandon the 20-25? car.

I'm getting to the end of my tether. And I feel like people are understanding and feeling this over the last few weekends where I can't even categorically with my chest, say they're the fourth fastest car anymore. You've got the likes of Ghazley up there. You've got Hajar in the racing balls. Of course, he made that mistake at the end of FP2.

But I believe his fastest that was on a medium tire. And I'm actually genuinely worried to see whether or not Ferrari would, will even get. out of Q2 tomorrow because there are so many, it's so close as well, but there are so many teams, at least with one driver that I could say has a shout of making Q3 tomorrow. The Williams team look awesome. At what point do we announce that Carlos Sines actually got promoted to Williams? I'm genuinely wondering, because they are on the ascendancy.

Ferrari are scrambling around going, God, we built this brand new car for this year, which was supposed to win the world championship and we're actually slower than we were last year. bring out the old one? Do we just, do we just see how that one does? It's, it's not good enough. I know it's only Friday, but this has been building up for a while. It's not just this that I'm reacting to. Of course, Charles did finish sixth. I think he's been feeling a little bit unwell, hasn't he, Alex, coming into this weekend. But it's look, it's not looking great, brov, is what I'll say to that. No, it's frustrating, isn't it? Because they have an amazing driving bearing. They had a fantastic haul of points after the summer break, highest of any team.

They would have won the Formula One Constructors Championship if Carlos Sides and Sergio Perez hadn't had that crash towards the end in Baku. That's how little point swing it would have taken for them to be champions. And it's just not worth it. For me, the most worrying thing, I mentioned it in commentary today. The most worrying thing is when Charlotte Claire, after qualifying in Miami was like, that was a great lap. And then he seized the lap time.

When you're like, yeah, we need a little bit more of this. We need a little bit more of that. When you know what you're chasing, it's fine. When you feel that that's all the car's got and you're still not in the ballpark, that is when it gets properly dispiriting for the drivers. They do have updates coming. They're going to focus on the rear of the car. There's talk of focusing on the suspension at the rear of the car. But it's just when Formula One is so strong, when we have a defined big four, let's just keep it to Big Four.

I understand your frustration, Matt. But when it is a defined Big Four, if you're not doing an outstanding, job, you are the fourth fastest car. And that is, it was kind of brutal on Mercedes last year. They were able to find a fix. But as you say, the problem then becomes, do you then abandon ship and take all of your development to 2026 with that sea change of the rules? It's just a shame that in a season that promised a lot and we expected Ferrari to be mixing it with McLaren, they do not have the performance so far. But you just, yeah, let's, let's, uh, let's, uh, hope they can find something and it gets even more competitive towards the front.

We wouldn't expect Maxisdapen to be four-tenths of a second away come quality tomorrow, so maybe Ferrari can take a similar journey. I do think Miami was an outlier. I do not think William's going to be ahead of Ferrari on the grid, which means that that is almost set in stone, and I look forward to watching your reaction vid. So apologies in advance for that commentator's curse. Thank you so much for apologising for what I already believe is going to happen as well.

So thanks for that, mate. But it is tough to hear. Charlotte-Clau is one of the best qualifiers on the grid saying that the lap was absolutely fine. It was great. I want him to say, yeah, I locked up. There's three-tenths down. It's just not there. And that's where you've hit the ceiling.

And I think it's a no-brainer. Ferrari have to start looking to next year, maybe win Monaco and Monza. Then we just call it a day. Thank you so much. Let's just focus on those two races and move on. I guess just to wrap up then we had in Free Practice 2, Hadjar, of course making that mistake right at the end. I did find that slightly bizarre, that whole sort of procedure where he was in a very dangerous position

and you can throw a virtual safety car in free practice too. I know that they can also wave double, waved yellows and make the cars slow down. But the cars, at least from my perspective of watching the TV cameras, it looked like they were going pretty quickly around there considering he was side on. Do you know, or any reason why they didn't just throw a little VSC and just calm everyone down, for a moment because he also got beats because he was staying there for so long. It's always the thing they like to test

as well. So it's a perfect opportunity to test that obviously you have to test when it's working at some point of the weekend. So they like to do that in Formula 2 sessions a lot. Chance to do it there. Yeah, you don't want cars going quickly at that stage. One car has ended up in that part of the barrier. Another one can end up

in that part of the barrier. Drivers were threatening to drop it off that second apex curve all day, weren't they? And only at the very very end with the ties to greater, did Hadjar manage it. But again, over one lap, I mean, he's won around Imola in the past in FT. Over one lap, he is looking terrific. If the circuit favors a racing ball, he is getting a lot out of it. It sounds as well, I was watching an interview with him. I think it was with Rachel Brooks and Hadjar was saying that, and it's quite clear that he has that

mental strength of, okay, yeah, that thing in Australia happened. But as soon as I'm in the car, I'm focusing about the next corner and that's it. And having that sort of, of calm stillness in his head. And I know he's quite heart on himself as well, but it's good to see that he can reset as a rookie, because I think that's something that you need if you're going to have a successful career. Yeah, something he didn't show all the time.

To be honest, in Formula 3 and Formula 2, I'm really pleased to see that, you know, he gave a great quote earlier in the year where he was like, oh, I'm still shouting at myself in the car. I'm still shouting. I'm just not pressing the team radio button. And I'm like, yeah, sounds a minor thing, but then you don't get a reputation.

The team don't have to answer questions about, is Isaac's mentality in the right place? Good discipline and good speed over one lap, which is all you can hope for in your rookie season. Yeah, we all have a little quiet scream, don't we, as long as it's in a dark room somewhere. So there you go. Right, thank you, Alex,

and thank you everybody for watching and listening for this little Friday wrap up. I guess, of course, Alex, you're not going to be back for the rest of the podcast this weekend because Tommy is back. What's your feeling? What's your prediction ahead of this weekend? Are we going to see another McLaren one, two,

or are we going to see a surprise? Come on leave it with something that we can reflect on. I reckon we're going to see a straight fight for the first time between Oscar and Lando. And we've been waiting for this rivalry to have two McLaren's in the same place, basically. We had a little bit of it, didn't we, in Australia. We've had to wait since. So I think we're in for a liner stern McLaren party around the circuit name for a four Ferrari's founder. and I think that will bring its, you know,

I think that will bring its own excitement. But I think McLaren are clear of everyone this weekend. Maybe the others can find something on qualifying, but I think it's going to be Oscar versus Lando. Gloves off for the first time this year. Sign us up. Thank you, everybody. We'll be live, of course, for our watchalongs tomorrow and Sunday

on Twitch and YouTube. Thank you again to Alex. And we'll see you very soon. Lots of love. Bye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the Acast's creator network. work.