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

Episode Date: May 2, 2026

As far as Miami races go, that wasn’t a bad one - and one team’s dominant 1-2 highlighted just how close this season could still prove to be. We're in Australia this month! There are a small handful of tickets for a few of our shows - get your tickets at: http:/tix.to/p1ausSign 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 TikTok.P1 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 P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. It is currently 253 in the morning, hence why the intro has a slight less bit of energy as you than usual because I really don't want to get kicked out of this place in Adelaide. And this one is obviously the worst session of the bunch. So there's not much I can really say if someone knocks on my door at 253 in the morning to tell me to shut up. So here we are. The sprint race is done. Miami. It's at F1 racing back on our street.

screens and it's a delightful sight. You know, I miss Formula One cars so much. I miss the racing, the excitement of qualifying. Of course, we have another qualifying coming up later today. There'll be a podcast for that as well, so keep an eye out for that. But Tommy, we've watched 19 laps of Miami. How would you summarize your feelings in four words? Is this 2025 again?

Okay, perfect. That's really good from you, actually. Yeah, nice. my brain trying to work work something out of this time I was saying it yeah yeah very much you know the the takeaway from that

was it was different to the other sprint there'll be a lot of discussions of whether it was better or worse I'm sure probably a lot of the latter and yeah seeing not just the pecking order but a few different kind of themes up and down the grid

felt very similar to last year actually with the changes that have been made, whether it is the changes or, of course, a track that has never really provided scintillating action anyway, has it? Let's be honest. No. And to be honest with you, as Miami goes, it probably was, well, it definitely wasn't the worst Miami race we've seen around there. We saw some actions. The buzz low. Exactly.

But you know what's not low? The amount of energy they have available to them this weekend, because it is rich. rich. Oh, baby. Right, let's get into some questions to dive through a lot of the big talking points. First one from P1 Patreon member Longo, 1996. Could this be the resurgence of McLaren again, or will any other team respond? Well, I won two is a pretty good way of going about mounting some kind of comeback. It is crazy to me that the team that did not roll out the pits. for Sunday and could not make either of their cars work are now finishing one, two, and a sprint, only two race weekends further on from that. So, I mean, the turnaround is absolutely phenomenal from McLaren.

But it's not like it's come out of nowhere. I genuinely believe if you are a McLaren fan, you have a lot to look forward to because they have steadily moved forward. Piastri could have easily won Japan, as we've said, and they have looked quick when they've been able to just hook it together. They've had some reliability issues on Norris's side. And, you know, it's easy to jump and to conclusions and say after the first three weekends, I, at McLaren, you know, they're just too far behind.

But they're not. You know, it's a 22 race season. And if they can start to do this with also other teams getting in the mix, Antonelli picking up a penalty at the end to cost him some points, Mercedes start tripping over themselves, either through mistakes or, you know, racing each other. there is a big opportunity for McLaren to be able to bounce back. I will say that the sprint is a bit of a window of looking ahead to what the race will look like. But I also think when I was looking at the pace that was being put down by pretty much the top seven,

it just made me think how important qualifying is once again. Because if we had a slightly different order in qualifying, I think we get a completely different result. definitely and you know we we saw again the Mercedes having a abysmal start Antonelli dropping dropping down the order from the start which we'll get into but onto McLaren I completely regret now saying that you know the the championship's over for them already being too far behind in this terrible start they had to the season where they basically scored barely any points while Mercedes were just romping away with what one-two's consistently and now

with Mercedes you know we need to wait a little bit because we've only had one sprint qualifying and one sprint so it's easy to jump to conclusions but if we get into

the next race as well in three weeks of time fun but if we get into the next race as well and again Mercedes are struggling with their starts not as quick as McLaren and as we've as we've seen anyway this season like struggling to get through through the pack

McLaren have a great opportunity to catch up with a lot of races still to go and the fact that yeah they've done it before where a Mercedes engine in the back they've beaten them with their car they did it last last year comfortably and yeah they could could probably do it again and they have that luxury of amazing starts we saw in in Japan even having that discussion of would Piastri have won the race? Well, now if they can actually qualify better than Mercedes anyway, with their starts compared to Mercedes, they're looking much, much better position than Mercedes.

So, yeah, what a turnaround from McLaren to think that only two races ago, we were here going, what an absolute stinker of a start. Like, neither of them have even, you know, Piastri had two DNSes to start the year. Landau's having all these problems and a clean weekend for them and they finish one too quite comfortably really. Indeed, I think we will say just on the Mercedes start

it was more on Antonelli this time. Russell had a decent one and actually got ahead of Vestappan. I think it was at the beginning of the race. So there is a good start in that Mercedes but Antonelli, he's had one good start I think the entire year, which is something I'm surprised to see that they

haven't been able to figure out what's going on there, or if it is just a case of Antonelli feeling the pressure. That's the problem again. You know, this is the slight annoyance with these new cars is because they're so technical, they're so difficult. We don't know exactly what's driver error. And, you know, because Norris got so much heat for being a terrible starter.

And yet Antonelli has had horrendous starts this year. And he kind of gets that free pass of, wow, it's the new cars, right? And that kind of feels unfair to me that he's not getting the same criticism that Lando got when the cars were more predictable, let's say. So let's go to another question from Dylan Mar 4. Have the reg changes made racing even worse

or is it just the track? I love this, the amount of questions that were like, oh, this is bad, we should go back and it's funny how we had this discussion before these regulation changes came in and we saw the new rules and it wasn't perfect but we had this whole debate

of would you rather see lots of passing even though it's artificial or is it more, do you want it more pure and there'll be less passing or maybe even no passing and it's really hard to overtake and it's a bit more like 2025

but it feels like pure F1 and it does feel like it's gone more into that, they can overtake and they can make moves but it's certainly nowhere near what it was before where people were breezing past on the straight,

which I think is good in that initial phase. It is maybe a bit of a shame that we don't want yo-yo racing where it's extreme kind of you can't even pass because you'll just get repass like that that is a bit silly. But we didn't really see it all too much

of the whole situation where it was like immediately at the next corner the next cars going past and having no power and things so yeah it's it's a difficult one and i think with all all these things and you can argue this is probably done in the first place because it's only been three races but it need to not jump to conclusions because every track is different every scenario is different you can have weird qualifiers that make a race great there's so many scenarios of why racing is good so you can't really judge the regs on one sprint race? You can't, but we will because it's the only bit of evidence we've got.

And I think, you know, there's a lot of things that I've been critical about with Formula 1, the FIA, and how they've gone about these new cars and regs. But I will say that this was the least amount of time I've thought about the energy when watching the race because it was much less prominent. And it has to be said that, you know, we don't know whether it's because it's an energy rich track or because of the changes they've made or if it's just a little bit of both, that this has happened. But the racing we saw, there were overtakes and they and they weren't repast. So I'm kind of sat here thinking, yes, that was more like Formula One than I've seen this year

because we were seeing overtakes actually be valuable. And that's something that we've all been sort of longing for. I will say that, you know, if you are someone that was hating YoYo racing saying, oh my God, I hate this. And then now, watching this and going, oh my God, why is there not more overtakes? It's kind of like, well, which one do you want right now? Everyone's not for you, maybe. We've already said that Miami, this Miami was nowhere near the worst we've ever seen. And yes, Lando dominated from the front.

We didn't really see much overtaking action. But realistically, that was very much more the formula one I'm used to seeing. So in that sense. Where you don't have pit stops and stuff, right? Yeah, well, exactly. But, I mean, we still saw overtaking. We still saw drivers hustling for position. And yeah, there were moments again where I think the biggest point where we were thinking about the battery was the marked difference between Piastri and Lecler and where they would gain and where they would lose over the course of a lap because it was LeClau was very slow in the first sector, but then quicker in the second and third.

But apart from that, honestly, I have to be reasonably positive with what I've seen, but it just depends whether this will be a consistent. because I saw something somewhere that what they've brought in is an optional thing. It's not that they're going to do this in every single race weekend. It's whether or not they think they're going to need it. So make of that what you will. So let's go to another question from P1Pitry member Thimmer. Why on earth would Hamilton not take the position immediately,

staying in the toe of the Mercedes as more of a possible defense to Vestappen? this is ah i mean honestly i think hamilton would react completely differently to every single other driver on the circuit but because it was for stappen letting him through he's like the dog with the birthday cake remembering 2021 Saudi Arabia and he has over he's overthought it he really has because he they were in the fight with the mercedes and then after hamilton was thinking are Vastappen's playing games here. He's trying to slingshot out the corner. It's almost like he forgot he was racing for like P5, P6,

and he wasn't out in front 30 seconds clear with Vastappen back in 2021 because they lost two and a half three seconds to the Mercedes. And then it was game over. It was done. So I found it very bizarre that he was just trying to slow down, trying to sort of think about what Vastappen's trying to do because that cost them a potential to, well, I say them, I think more so Lewis, who fell off.

at the end as well. I don't know. I think it was just very strange racecraft from, from Hamilton and something that I firmly back he would only do with Vastappen. Oh, 100% because, yeah, he overthought it massively. Max was clearly trying to let him through.

And there was also the kind of detection point, whatever you want to call it now, obviously not DRS. Overtake mode point. Yeah. So this, is the thing with that that they kind of saw that moment happening and then thought, oh, am I going to get the boost?

Am I not? And I completely agree in the fact that any other driver had probably just gone through and just put his foot down, but immediately probably thinks, okay, what games is for staff and playing here? And I ever thought to. And they lost a heap of time. I mean, Hamilton didn't have the pace anyway that I think Max would have got him anyway. and obviously did get get him

and I don't think it would have helped Hamilton stay with the Mercedes because he was really struggling but this is the thing I'm really surprised that Hamilton did that because it just seemed a bit unnecessary but I think it is all down

to the fact there's history there's history there and actually I've just read that because we don't get any any radio anymore which is a massive shame in modern. Modern Formula One, but Max's radio was,

why isn't he overtaking? Come on, man. Oh my God, effing, effing. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, he was very... Fair reaction, because obviously Max, he went for a move that was very late on the brakes,

wasn't able to do his standard, like, squeezing and also staying on the track at the same time. So he absolutely did need to give that position back. But I can understand the frustration of like, what are you doing? just go yeah okay i've chosen to take let you through at a point where i will get overtake mode but just go through yeah yeah exactly yeah very very weird like it is on it is on max that made that kind of obviously move in the first place of course that set that situation up but yeah

the frustration then of basically any other situation and it's not those two and probably any other pairing on the grid for any selection of other drivers if that was the situation of one car late in the other past, they just go by and they continue racing. But there's so much history there. There certainly is, and I look forward to saying much more. And also, to be fair, we're talking about them. We haven't even mentioned lap one.

How have they not both gone careering into the barrier? Because they were genuinely wheelbanging for two corners at the start. It was phenomenal to watch. And it was like neither of them wanted to give an inch. So, yeah, that was absolutely brilliant to see those two. It's just got so much aura. Just sign me up to more. Yeah, definitely.

Let's go to another question from P1 Patreon member, One Cup of Chocolate. Is Kimmy's penalty showing his lack of experience? I think a little bit. I'm amazed that, again, we don't hear the team radio. This is not an excuse for Kimmy, but I'm sure you'd hope that his team would be begging, like, you know, be really careful with track limits.

You're in a decent position. of course not where they they want to be in fourth but he he had the measure of of Russell again which was maybe a surprise that that he dropped back and could so easily pass Russell I mean yeah Russell got got him and then yeah managed to get past and then just kind of pull away but the lack of experience is these moments in the championship particularly as the other the chasing pack are now catching you need to maximize every point you know we've seen so many championships even last year and it decided by two points so this is every literally everything counts and you can look

back on these moments and think if that was different if that was different this would have changed things and it's just such an unnecessary penalty you know as far as far as I'm aware no one else got a track limit penalty in that in that race so for you to be the the championship leadership leader and throw away two positions and valuable points and maybe even if the kind of how it's gone at the start of the season your championship rival to as well to have that point swing. These are the moments that are going to be so crucial because Antonelli needs to absolutely maximize this kind of Russell blip where he doesn't seem to have an answer for Antonelli at the moment. Yeah, completely agree. I think it was lap 16, turn 11 that Antonelli picked up his final warning.

So that's that's the point where he was very comfortable in P4. He had no chance of catching the top three. So I will put that down to a little bit of, it's not necessarily lack of experience. I mean, it's kind of linked with it, but it's just carelessness, really. It's pushing too hard. It's pushing too hard for very little gain. And I mean, commentary said it was a four point swing, but my brain is saying that's three, surely because he loses two positions and Russell gains one, and it's a sprint,

so it's 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. Am I completely tripping because it's 3 a.m. There's two points, but it's a 4-point swing because it's like, as they loses 2 and Russell gains 2. Why does Russell gain 2? He gains one position. Oh, sorry, yeah, of course.

Yeah, yeah, it's not a complete switch. Even Tommy, Tommy's the same as commentary. No, no, that's the same as commentary. No, no, it's a fake news. Because, of course, it's a sprint, so I think it's a three-point swing. Because of it was Max as well, wasn't it? Yeah, of course.

They went through. So it's a three-point swing, which, as you say, yeah, it can come down to fine margins. And especially if Mercedes do continue to have a car, at least for the majority of the season to be the fastest, these moments are something that you might look back on. Because, yeah, it's a small error in the grand scheme of things, but with a big penalty.

So shame for Kimmy, because, as you say, he was looking really, really good and has looked good this weekend. And I think had he, had he kept better position at the start, I think he would have been able to take it to the McLaren's and Charles Leclair, but alas, that was not the case. Question from P-1-Pitchie, remember JT-1,

will we see a Mercedes collision in the race with neither driver backing down and more wheel-banging in the sprint? Surely it's inevitable now. I didn't see like too much of like the sass and the tenacity between the two of them. I feel like, if we're talking about, like wheel banging, it's for Stauffin versus Hamilton that was where I was really questioning it.

The two Mercedes feel like they have more than enough respect for each other at the moment. The, what was it? The move that Russell put on Antonelli, I felt was like almost a come through, mate. Yeah, don't worry about it. Yeah, Antonelli. But I think he was driving compared to Lecler. I mean, Lecler had a savage radio about Antonelli. He was so bad at wheel to wheel, which is quite,

the comment to make. Yeah, but with Russell, it did feel like he was giving him more space on the track, albeit he did get him back later on. So perhaps there was an element of strategy as well there. They're thinking about the deployment of the battery and so on and so forth. I know, sorry, trigger words and all that.

But, you know, that is part of the strategic racing that we're seeing. So, yeah, it is definitely a different Kimmy Antonelli that we saw between the Ferrari and his own teammate. Definitely. I kind of felt the opposite to this. that I thought Kimmy was very polite with Russell. And maybe it's just a case of, like the McLaren's last year,

that we'll see them and will constantly be going, oh, they're the championship rival. Surely they're going to come together at some point, and maybe they are quite respectful. But maybe it's going to take later in the year where everything is on the line for them to push the limits a bit more because I guess neither of them want to be the bad guy and start that feud this early on,

particularly with the chasing pack now as well. So maybe it's just a case of despite Antonelli doing something quite bad with the whole track limits and maybe pushing it with LeCler at the start, maybe in his head thinking that, you know, the last thing I need when I'm leading the World Championship and having such a great start to the season is colliding with Russell

and having all these headlines and everything like that. Especially in a sprint, I guess, right? Exactly, exactly. There's less points on the line. But then we can't really criticize him too much because he did get him back and he was faster.

So, but yeah, I disagree that the collision is imminent currently anyway. Next question, Ives Gw.M. Is it 2025 all over again? McLaren dominates, Hamilton loses touch with the top six and Vastapp and team mate know where to be seen.

It did feel very 2025 that race and one of the biggest takeaways from that was just how far Hadja was off and again it's only one sprint race but again in qualifying. A bit emotional way. Luth my voice this time of the morning that my word

it felt very 2025 seeing this happens to mate you know 20 seconds or whatever it was off him in the 22 seconds yeah 22 seconds okay in the sprint and the fact that

you know Mac is up there racing the Mercedes and you've got Hajar who's struggling to get past and racing the Alpines in the midfield it felt in that sense very very similar

and as the season progresses of course there's been a lot of changes in that team in terms of maybe they're not going to be so savage now Homer Marco is not there and it's a very different Red Bull to what it was, but they equally can't be,

maybe the fact that Vastappen isn't going for the championship this year at this stage and obviously seems unlikely but you never know. Hadjar being off the pace isn't maybe too much of a headline

at the moment but it is certainly one to watch. For sure, yeah. There are a lot of comparisons to 2025. And for Hadjar, the entire weekend he's been off the pace of Max by quite a mile. You know, there was a quote coming out around him questioning how he's that far behind. He doesn't know, you know, he's a good, he basically said, like, you know, I'm a great driver or something to that, similar to that. So, yeah, it's, it's a blip in what has been a reasonably good start to the year for Hadjar in terms of his comparisons to Max. but it is hard to know, as we've said many, many times in those first few races to really match up with car issues and how the drivers are extracting the most out of it.

And I think Max did a brilliant job and has done a great job so far. This weekend for Hadjar not to beat Gasly in the sprint is that's the problem, right? That's where eventually questions will start to come up. If he can't score points ahead of other midfield teams, then that's when the problem start to come in. But for now, you know, it's a sprint race. There's not, he can have an off weekend. It's not that bad. Like, he's very early into his Red Bull main seat career.

And then as for Hamilton, yeah, he was 15 seconds off Charles LeClaire come the end of that race. Very bizarre to see the drop off. Must have been tire related, you'd have to imagine, or perhaps managing some issues. but whatever it was, if it wasn't issue related, then it's a poor sprint from Hamilton. You know, the race craft we mentioned,

but also pace-wise, he's looked off against Charles. So, yeah, it's an interesting setup for the rest of the weekend. I'm really excited to see how qualifying goes down because I don't think it is just a foregone conclusion that McLaren will lock it out and drive away on Sunday or Monday morning for us.

So, yeah, I'm looking forward to it, right? It's slightly more F1 than I've seen so far this year. And that has not changed my mind entirely about what I'm watching, but a glimmer of positivity and hope. Especially if we get a case where, particularly in qualifying that we saw recently, where it isn't just two by two all the time,

and you've got Leclair at the front, Max has now come in to play a bit more Mercedes-a-mile-ha-ha-ha-Herclaren are now in it. This is what we were kind of hoping after testing that you have those top four teams a lot closer. And maybe, you know, the dream is that that just changes from track to track. And, you know, it's close between them and people on their day can, you know, put in great results. So, yeah, fingers crossed. I think there are definitely positive to take. I know a lot of people maybe will watch that sprint and go,

oh, yeah, not much happened. Let's throw the regs in the beer night. It's terrible. But I think there's a lot of positives from that and this weekend so far, just from the fact that Formula One is looking much more competitive and closer, that we can have a good championship battle and make it a lot more exciting. And let's not forget, Miami is one of the worst tracks on the calendar. Yeah, and also that.

just remind ourselves of that when we're not getting five million passes across the weekend. Right, that is it. We'll be live later on, whether this podcast goes out before qualifying. I hope it will. So we'll be live for qualifying, of course, the race as well. Thank you for joining us if you have been on the watchalongs. Remember, the super podding tour has now been launched for the UK, and we'll be having the tickets go out very soon, so keep an eye for that.

And Australia, we'll see you soon. Adelaide is in a matter of days. and then we tour around. So if you haven't got your tickets, please do. Tell me final thoughts, please. Final thoughts are on Australia, really looking forward to the tour and also I will just echo again.

Australian fans and everyone that has difficult times to watch Formula One, you are troopers and I respect you and I stand up and salute you for your dedication to Formula One. You can't say I stand up and salute you and be sat down holding a podcast, Mike.

You know what I'm saying? I can't say I've got pajamas on. Thank you everybody. We will see you literally later on today for the main qualifying podcast. Bye. Goodbye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the Acast Creator Network.