P1 with Matt and Tommy - Reaction to McLaren and Aston Martin's car launches

Episode Date: February 13, 2023

Two launches in a day! Matt and Tommy share their thoughts after McLaren revealed their MCL60 and Lawrence Stroll gave us another one of his famous speeches. Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok.***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, everybody, and to the P. One podcast with Matt and Tommy. Welcome back. It is time to talk about the McLaren-2020 car launch, the MCL 60, the 60th anniversary. And I cannot wait to see these two drivers of Piastrian Norris take to the track in what is a very similar car, Tom Bellingham, the co-founder.

Yeah, get in line. Here we go. Two of us, both co-founders. But Tommy is very much the same. There's not a huge amount of craziness to talk about, but slightly more black, slightly more carbon. Yeah, they've changed it a little bit. It's more, if you remember last year when we got the launch, there was a lot more orange

on it. However, as the season went on and this new kind of weight-saving trend, they lost a lot of the orange from the side. They kind of also had it quite big on the airbox, which they then removed to all. the end of the season, and they've kind of still gone with that. I think personally, I actually like it. I actually do like this. I really didn't like the livery last year when it was first released,

but I think they've neatened it up a little bit. It is a shame that there's so much black. Unfortunately, that's just a modern trend of Formula One, a trend that I really hope gets kind of nipped in the bud quick. by the rule makers or something because it is a shame that we're just getting down this line of in three years' time, it feels like every car will just be carbon

with like a line of colour on to distinguish what the car is. But no, I like it. I feel like there should be like a paint allowance, you know? Like, hey, you can have 500 grams or whatever the hell they need to add on some paint and be a bit more creative with it. You know, that can just be a specific paint allowance. I don't know if that would actually work or not. But either or, I, yeah, look, let's just do it.

You know, we are the owners of Formula One, aren't we? We get to be able to choose all of all changes. Teams pick their colours and then like Dulux paint deliver the thing with the exact weight needed. Yes, something like that, that, you know, just because they strip it off. No, they're not allowed to. They have to paint the entire car, even if it's with black paint. There you go. We've now fixed Formula One.

But no, I wish there was a bit more orange personally. It feels like a lot of the cars are going to have. quite a bit of carbon on it. But no, it's not a terrible livery by any stretch. I still love the chrome wheel covers. I think that's very, that's an awesome way of doing the whole Google sponsorship, in my opinion. And yeah, it's not, it's not by any means a bad livery.

I think it's a slight step back from the more orange car that I quite enjoyed. But apart from that, the car launch itself, Tommy, let's talk about that. I think McLaren have absolutely stuck a name. in it and smashed it because they did a bit of historical montage they had a bit of chat with you know Zach Brown Andrea Stella not Andrea Sidel

Andrea Stella you boss at McLaren and then of course you had Lando and Oscar as well have a bit of a chit chat with them but it's it was nicely wrapped up me and you Tommy we've been to McLaren car launches in the past and I feel like it was longer I don't know if it's because we were there we'd be like oh my God this is incredible and we were like counting

every second, but I think about car launches, especially for McLaren, were longer. Yeah. Last year they did the whole thing where they kind of got the indie car and the McLaren Shadow and the Extreme E and it went on for ages. And they had the song as well, didn't they, that Danny Rick and Lando made? I forgot about that. That was a bit cringing, wasn't it? So we've had Red Bull where it was the most boring corporate launch that went on for ages.

Alpha Tauri just revealed it very quick and we kind of had. that opposite problem of going, oh, you know, you want a bit of buildup. For me, I agree. They have absolutely nailed that. Nice historical video about Formula One that keeps you interested. Then fair play. I don't mind people coming out and having a chat because it's the drivers. It's not the CEO of Google Chrome chatting for 40 minutes about how great Google Chrome is. You know, we want the drivers come out. It's interesting. We get a nice little bit of buildup for them to talk about it. The team principal and Zach Brown came out,

had a short chat, and then straight onto the car reveal. I think they've absolutely nailed this, and I think this is a lesson to car launch, is how it should be. You still get, it still felt like an event, but we weren't there in chat going, oh my God, come on, hurry up.

Yeah, exactly. Well, good, McLaren. I think even with the hosts, Aaron Bravo, of course, is, you know, in the F1 world and does a lot of that, and I think she did a great job. and alongside Vic, Vic Star 1, 2, 3,

who caused part of the side men and all that good stuff. And as much as he was a little bit nervous, you could tell, I would be absolutely cacking my pants if I was doing that kind of thing, knowing the amount of eyeballs on there. But also, it's a good idea

in the sense of trying to bring more eyeballs fans to McLaren. It makes perfect sense from a marketing perspective to have someone like that with such a following to do that. So, yeah, he did a good job as well, considering it's not his, not his forte.

So overall, all McClaren have to do, was it fearlessly forward? What did they call it? What do they say? Forever forward? Was it forever forward? I think it was forever forward. One of those.

So that means they cannot finish fifth or below in the constructors after saying that. That's a lot of pressure. Yeah, but is it for, McLaren, they got beaten by Alpine, as you well know, Tommy, because you had to buy Alpine merch last year because you made a very silly bet that no one would break into the top four. Can McLaren, will McLaren break into the top four? because there's a big question surrounding them, not over their driver lineup as such.

Norris and Piastri, I think, are going to be a great pairing, but the fact that they've lost Andrea Seidel, who, in my opinion, seemed like he had his S together and seemed like a very good team principal. Now, of course, he's been snapped up by Audi very early for their 2026 campaign, which kind of shows all you need to know

about how people rate him in the paddock. Now, of course, you've got Andrea Estella taking his, place and you do wonder if there's going to be a teething period for McLaren, can they break into that top four? I think it's doubtful. Yeah, I'd be surprised. I'm not a hugely hopeful of McLaren making a big step forward. They, like you say, that that car launch, you know, the montage showing the likes of Senna, Prost, Hackan, Hamilton, all these champions that they had, the good years of McLaren where they were the dominant force. And then to be like, this is this is not the end this is the beginning or whatever and and a whole fearlessly forward

or whatever it's called um for yeah and then if they finish six in the constructors it would be a bit embarrassing wouldn't it so they need to make a step forward um it's where they they should be a big team like McLaren you know they've got their amazing technology center with loads of history they've got in my opinion one of the best drivers are on the grid in Lando Norris and the best upcoming talent there's been in a while in Piastri so they need to deliver for those two drivers because we've said it before. I'm going to hold on to Lando. I'm going to ask a question off that.

You didn't back my boy as much, Piastri in the predictions video. You said I'm on the fence. Have you now fallen off the fence on the side of Piastri doing well? No, I'm still as in he did very well. What I'm saying is he did very well junior. Yeah, his credentials. I still worry that he could, just more the fact that Lando could be a bit of a teammate killer and the cars built around Lando and it might be a difficult car to drive.

But yeah, you can't, even if you think that, which I do, that he might struggle or might take a little bit of time to get up to speed, you can't argue with him deserving to be in Formula One because all you can do. do is win everything. I mean, people get in Formula One without even winning a title, and he's won all of them. So he deserves to be there, absolutely. He certainly does. We're live on Twitch at the moment.

Matt P1, Tommy, if you haven't followed us already. And there's someone in the chat, Grognak, who said, waiting for Piastri to grow a personality. I feel that's savage. I think he's an incredibly nice guy who's just joined Formula One. And he's going to find his feet. If you remember when Lando first joined Formula One, he was like, he was like a deer in headlights. He was just happy to be there. Same with Alex Albin.

And then think at how love they are now. I think Oscar Piastri could still go that same sort of curve where he just finds his feet. He is innately a very nice person. I've been lucky enough to meet him and spend some time with him. And yeah, I think people need to give him a bit of a bit of time to settle in and get used to the world of Formula One. Exactly.

Not everyone can go in and be this amazing, well, you know, Daniel Ricardo. I'm sure I'm sure McLaren would much rather him be good and actually deliver results than be PR trained and he'll get there. He's a new new driver and to be fair, I'm surprised by that but then we've not really seen too much from him at the moment and naturally he's starting out and he'll get used to it. So overall then Tommy, where do you think McLaren are going to finish this year?

Fifth or sixth. Okay, I'm going to go with fifth. I don't think it's fearlessly stalemate, which is not quite the same. Fearlessly, slightly backwards. Yeah, indeed. It'll be interesting to see, though. Right, let's move on now

to the Aston Martin car launch, almost seamlessly. It's not like two hours has passed since the last time we spoke about car launches Tommy, but here we are, the car has been released, and it is hardly any different.

but at least there's not too much carbon on it that it loses its identity a little bit. You know what I mean? It's a sexy car. I'm not going to lie to you. I love the stripe on the side. I love the green. Actually, to be honest,

I'm not even going to complain that they haven't really changed it. I think it's a winner. Yeah. It was one of the best deliveries last year. The fact that all these teams now are doing the whole carbon thing, maybe by race three, it's just carbon with that little yellow stripe on. Hopefully not. But it's a great, it's a great car.

You can see why they've not changed it. They nailed it last year by getting rid of the BWT pink, if you like, and having that kind of AMR green on it. And it's just a great, great looking car. So you can't be too mad that it's not changed, even if we had to sit through half an hour of Lawrence Stroll to get here. Yeah, you're a big fan of not changing what isn't broken, aren't you Tommy? You're a big fan of the Red Bull livery, for example,

but maybe slight downgrade you think for that particular car this year due to all the sponsors. But yeah, the Aston Martin I do really like. I think it was an amazing livery last year, and it's really no different this year. And why change what is loved by a lot of fans? So let's talk about, oh, you're going to say something. I was going to say really good was about to come out of your mouth. It wasn't that good. but it was just someone.

Wait, what's happening? Chat is saying Crofti. What's happening in the car launch? I'm guessing he's just, he's just, uh, did they really, oh, just fan questions from. They're doing fan questions. I love how we turned it off.

Nothing interesting. And Crofty appears, but that's fine. It's just fan questions. I was just going to say that someone in chat mentioned, Ferrari is red, Astor Martin is green. Like that's,

that is their identity. So these are kind of, roses of red, violets of blue rhyme. But these are the kind of things where you don't expect these teams, like these manufacturers to change because that's their identity, if you like. We can understand maybe teams like Hasse and Alpha Towery and stuff. They're the ones that could switch things up at the end of the day. But Aster Martin is that kind of British racing green,

although they've changed the green ever so slightly, not that I can really tell from the pictures. But we're a fan all the same of delivery. I think it'll look nice once again. What about the launch? Now, I know you kind of spoke about Lawrence Stroll. And we were having quite an interesting discussion, actually, over on Twitch, Matt P1, Tommy, if you don't follow us already,

where during the launch, of course, we were doing a watch-along, and we both came to the same opinion that the way in which Aston Martin deliver their brand to Formula One fans is not exactly the most easy-to-love brand out there. And you kind of likened it to McLaren 20 years ago, where they were very much like a stiff, upper class, rich persons kind of brand, and you don't really have that accessibility factor to them, whereas McLaren obviously changed their sort of tone of voice

and how they approached fans massively, and they became one of the most liked teams in the sport. Aston, on the other hand, not so much. No, kind of opposite. And you could kind of maybe understand if they were that way, if they were like McLaren 20 years ago, where they were absolutely dominant winning and it's like we're the best, we make the best cars,

we don't need to sort of, yeah, appeal to fans because we are just this kind of corporate, amazing car brand. But I don't know, there's just something a bit not hugely likable about them. And this is obviously me and anyone that knows me will know that I love the plucky underdogs. And obviously they took over the pluckiest of all underdogs. when they were racing point and they somehow finished, was it third or fourth,

in a Constructors Championship when they essentially had a shed to make their car in, and now they've got this swanky new factory. So like McLaren, we were talking about earlier, we need to see some improvement from Master Martin because that five-year plan

is creeping up. It is. And I guess that is the thing, right? You have to walk the walk, if you're going to talk the talk, as Aston Martin. And I think Lawrence Stroll even said in his 20-minute monologue. And it wasn't a monologue. He did have an interview.

I'm only kidding. But it was quite a long chat where he was saying, you know, when I'm passionate about something, I win. And I'm like, so from what's happened the first two years? How much passion? Are you passionate now? Are they actually going to win now or in five years or 10 years? It's clearly something that,

for me, this five-year plan, if they don't deliver on that and start winning races by then, Aston Martin are going to question whether Formula One is even the right sport for them to be in because it doesn't match their luxury, top-of-the-pile kind of brand image that they're trying to get across. They can't be a midfield car forever, otherwise it just doesn't fit with what Aston Martin is supposedly. No, they need to start improving because this is the thing with manufacturers. is they all want to look good. And obviously Ford coming into Red Bull, that's kind of why they've joined Red Bull

because they know they're going to be top of the grid. It would look weird if Audi were a midfield team. You just don't really think of Audi as a midfielder. So all these manufacturers, only one of them can be top of the pile. And, yes, Aston Martin need to start delivering now after all these speeches about how. great they're going to be and all this stuff. Racing point won a race.

Aston Martin has nearly won a race. Unfortunately, Sebastian Vessel got disqualified, but that was close. But either or they need to start delivering, absolutely. And that is the next question. How do we think we're going to do this season? Of course, Fernando Alonzo, alongside Lance Stroll, and Lance seemed reasonably energetic for what Lance Stroll usually is. Happiest I've ever seen him.

He looked buzzing. I don't know if that was just the fact that, when they came out for the launch, Fernando was doing this very weird, like, hopping run and maybe it was just making him laugh or something. Yeah, it was strange. I don't know if he was trying to catch up or... Or he's still on buzzing at the fact that Fernando Alonzo

called him a future world champion. Maybe it's given him the motivation he needs. All I'm saying is Fernando Alonzo got some serious pay packet coming in if he's saying stuff like that to the media. I'm checking that was in his contract. Yeah, you will say 10. 10 nice things about Lange Stroll per month.

But either or, how do we think they're going to do this season? I'm not convinced that Aster Martin are going to be particularly good. Obviously, Fernando Alonso will rag the absolute life out of the car. But if you've seen our 20, 23 predictions video and stream, I essentially thought that Alonzo is going to 23 and O'Landstrol in qualifying. So I feel it's going to be very much a one-sided team in terms of performances. That's not to say that Stroll hasn't delivered in races sometimes. You know, we've seen when he was alongside Vettel, he'd be qualifying 17th and then appear in 10th at the end of the race and bag a point.

So it's still going to be interesting, but Fernando, for me, should wipe the floor with Lance. And as a team overall, I just feel like it's going to be much of the same as what we saw last year. I'm going to double down on my prediction of Alonzo finishing P7. And I'm going to say that Astermartin finished fourth in the Constructors title. they beat McLaren and Alpine and I'm moving on up Aston Martin are going to finish fourth in the constructors Yeah that's my prediction

Clip it now, chat Twitch chat are reacting to this right now saying bold That's no way Tommy And a lot of no ways and bolds Let's let's see what Bahrain has to say Yeah we'll see I can't wait to see them get knocked on

Twitch chat Fourth in the Constructors Has enjoyed that one. They have really gone against you on that one. Trash. One of them, someone called you trash and they're a subscriber as well. But okay, interesting. I think they'll finish about seventh in the constructors. And we will see though. Well done, Aston Martin. To be fair, actually, we shut off to launch early. Apparently, Crofty was asking questions to fans and all kinds of stuff. So we missed out on some serious excitement, Tommy. Are you gutted? I'm absolutely gutted. We just

pretty much as soon as the car was launched we're like no they're probably not going to say anything more interesting we sat through all that Lawrence stroll speech one thing that was quite funny if you're with us on chat you've heard this but um before we knew there was going to be that long lawrence stroll speech because they disabled comments on the YouTube video and you said it didn't you straight away Matt you're like yep we're going to get a big old lawrence stroll speech big old speech and he absolutely delivered now as you're listening and as we're are in your ears right now over on audio podcasts. Thank you so much for the support on the podcast so far, by the way, just wanted to say we hit number one in the UK for overall podcasts on

the charts, which is absolutely insane. So if you haven't already, please follow the RSS feed and all that good stuff to make sure that you're kept up to date with all the podcasts, but it's been incredible. And if you watch you on YouTube, we love you as well. Thank you so much for the support and reception over there as well. Tommy, final thoughts? have stolen them because yeah the support i genuinely feel like i'm about to wake up any moment because we've not even been started a week yet and uh the support has been unbelievable seeing you guys share um that you're listening to the podcast watching the videos and stuff from all around the world seeing where we are in the charts it's been incredible so yes exciting times ahead and more car launches

to come love to see it Cannot wait. Thank you so much for watching and listening. We'll see you tomorrow for the Constructors and Drivers World Championship car launch Ferrari. And it's on Valentine's Day as well. So lots of love to them tomorrow. Cannot wait. Frank is in the chat as well, not in the chat, in the camera, but also I guess in chat.

And he's licking Tommy's face. On that note, we'll see you very soon. Audio slash YouTube people. Frank, you're going to have asked for mine are going to finish fourth in the Constructors Championship. Frank yawn if Tommy is chatting absolute BS. No, he's indifferent. He's not even listening to you. No, he's bored.

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