P1 with Matt and Tommy - Reaction to Saudi Arabian GP qualifying

Episode Date: April 19, 2025

Saudi qualifying was just as spicy as expected and left us with A LOT to mull over, including what could be a huge moment for both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Plus, a certain driver on the grid breaks a very unwanted record and Max Verstappen continues to defy the odds...You can listen to an extended version of every Race Review podcast 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!Matt's running the London Marathon for the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity. Click here if you'd like to donate - thanks so much!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. I don't know why I sound like a sheep there, but here we are. It is Saudi Arabian Grand Prix qualifying edition. Oh my lord. We've got some drama to talk about. Tommy is loving life right now with the fact that he flopped Vastappen and he's on pole. The master plan has worked beautifully so far. Utterly ridiculous.

Since when does your big flop have the same anti-powers as mine? Maybe this is it. This is it. From now on. Max takes it personally. Twice now. Two poles. We've both flopped in the two poles.

Either that or we just need to stop going for the best drivers on the grid and flopping them. Maybe. That's what I've kind of learned so far this season. Anyway, a lot of things to talk about. So let's dive straight into Q1. The bottom five were Stroll, Duan, Holkenberg, Ocon and Bor Toleto. First question, H.M. Peach. Not a question.

Great. So there we go. Not a question. But seeing that Lance Stroll now has the record for the most Q1 exits ever, Any thoughts, feelings? That's still a question mark at the end, so therefore it is a question. So Lance Stroll, if you miss this,

has broken the record, yeah, for the most Q1 exits in F1 history. 75 Q1 exits. That is, that is, I didn't think it was that bad in the sense of, I didn't know how many Q1 exits he would have had. If someone had asked me how many is he had, I probably wouldn't have gone over 50.

75. 75. Yeah. And how many races did he done? 170. 76. It did 170 starts, had 75 QN exits. And this is the thing.

That's a step for like a driver that might be a back marker. Well, he took the, was it Magnuson, I believe what I heard was who he took the record from. And do you understand that, that can, you? K-Mag, you know, he's driven a lot of wheelie bins in his career, he's been driving for Hass a lot of the time, who are a backmarker. But Lance Stroll

has been, I know the Ashton Martin is bad and really poor this season. But of course, you know, Aston Martin, they had that great year in 2023, where the car looked very quick, he's driven

a very quick racing point in his career. And he's scored a good amount of points finishes as well in his career. His qualifying is just genuinely awful. He is one of, we go on about Charlotte Claire being one of the greatest qualifiers of all time. Lance Roll is probably the worst qualifier of all time. I'm going to say it right here on this podcast. He is abysmal at qualifying and he always has been.

Okay, well, goodness gracious me. Don't mince your words there, Tommy, but he has been a very poor qualifier. But then just randomly pops up occasionally in P9 and you go, oh, Lance, how did you manage that? Other drivers to talk about Esteban. I can't believe we're talking about him so. And 19th, which I think is the same as last time we were talking about qualifying. Only last week where it just cannot get the same performance out of that Hass as as Ollie Behrman, you know, you blink though in the race and Hass have rolled the dice with an undercut

and he's right there fighting for the points again. But it does make you wonder just how whether there is this massive discrepancy between quality pace and race pace in the Hass or if Esteban just can't get that same feeling as he does in the race because you don't expect this from Ocon I would consider him unlike Lance Troll as a good qualifier yeah I mean

Ocon last week he crashed out didn't he and did actually better than Ben but it was the week before where he qualified really poorly and we've seen this triple-headed yeah I know there's so many races going on at the moment but we've seen so many moments where one of the houses qualify well the other doesn't do very well but Ocon you'd expect as the more kind of veteran driver that's been in a sport a long time now

would be the one that could get a hold of it and this form you know maybe we'll be having a different conversation when he spawns into P7 during the race again like he did did last week and you know gets another great result because he's got a lot of points on the board from those two amazing results but he qualified very poorly didn't he at the end of his kind of Alpine career as well and we were questioning oh maybe you know it's just that have they just kind of

don't care about Ocon anymore goodbye and it's like a Red Bull situation but it's kind of taken that poor qualifying form into his Hasse career as well yeah but we have also seen some great qualifiers from Ocon and it's not something that he lacks in his locker I would argue and to be outqualified by

Asalba is pretty much unforgivable sadly so back row of the grid for Ockon. Holcomburg, as I mentioned, 18th. Jack Duhin, it's... That's a bit of a worry

when Gassie is ninth. Yeah, it's not good enough for Duhin, sadly, around a track that is incredibly grippy. He himself, you know, came into this.

I think I mentioned this on the Friday podcast, with a decent amount of confidence, at least that's what he was exuding in his interviews, was that he feels good around this track. He likes this track. So it just feels like

perhaps there isn't that level of confidence and risk in Duhin's laps that Gassley is. able to deliver in the Alpine. So difficult for doing again. And he does need to start taking a step up now. Otherwise, his fate will be sealed.

Maybe it already is. We don't know. Let's get to Q2 then. And the bottom five in this session were Albon, Lawson, Alonzo Hajjar and Bearman. Not the craziest of sort of the lineup of drivers that've got out in Q2 there. Albon just about missing out in the Williams, the racing balls looking like they're slipping further and further away over one lap pace at least. And Alonzo, it felt like at one point was

going to be popping it in sort of P7, P8. He was looking quite strong, but I think his final Q2 lap just wasn't what he was hoping for. No, disappointing in the end for Alonzo. I mean, he's still ahead of stroll again, but yeah, not great from Asa Martin. And the thing the thing I look at there is racing bulls who we had this discussion in the watch along they should have a big amount of points on the board based on and we we even said this as they were doing those terrible strategies and we had about that rant about them in China I believe it was they have they had to kind of strike while the iron was hot there and now they've kind of very much kind of gone back as being that midfield team that

are very much just in the midpack they're going to be kicking themselves that they didn't grab a bucket load of points in those first few races when they looked like the fifth best car and Yuki Sanoda was popping at P5 and 6 and qualifying and Hadjar was up in P7. Yeah, huge kind of missed opportunity. The only kind of positive

there really is Lawson maybe picking up his form after what's been an absolute stinker to out-qualify Hadjar, maybe more what we kind of have expected from him because he has been one of the poorest drivers of the year, even after going into the racing bulls. So it's a bit more positive from him, but it's still disappointing for them not to be in Q3.

Yeah, it's a really important qualifying session, actually, as you mentioned, for Lawson, to get the upper hand on Hajjar that you would expect of Lawson in terms of experience-wise. He has more experience than Agar, albeit not a huge amount more. So, yeah, that might be a confident settler for Lawson. And finally, I just want to talk about Ollie Behrman,

because I thought he might well be cooking for a little Q3 appearance and then had a very scrappy final Q2 lap which then puts him 15th. I was feeling so confident about this good surprise. He gets into Q2. I think he was quite easily into Q2 as well after the first session. And then just wasn't able to deliver when it counted. Perhaps that has, you know, we were seeing it with Ocon,

quite a difficult car to qualify with. That's at least what we're seeing. But it's race trim. It doesn't matter about quality. When good surprise comes in and he finishes P10, I ain't going to be complaining. I don't know if I even buy the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

was slower, actually, uh, in Q2 than he was it in Q1 by, um, a tenth. You do wonder, actually, after watching testing, where they literally tuddled around the back the entire test didn't bother really ever doing fast laps. Yeah. And then they're like, why are we not quick and... Why not? Why are we quick and qualifying? Yeah. So it is so true. But yeah, this is the nature of Formula One now and that that midfield battle, you know, the people that that did the kind of same time, you know, if I look at say like Ghazley who ended up in P9 and made it through, who was only a tenth ahead of Behrman in Q1. So the time is there, just little mistakes

here and there can cost you so much because Behrman is another one that's kind of had these difficult performances and then he'll put in a brilliant performance. And that has, yeah, the performance does seem to be a little bit all over the place. Or maybe it's just how close that midfield is and a mistake here and there or a really good performance can rocket you up the standings. Right, let's get into the big one then. This is what you've all been waiting for. Q3. The top 10, as of right now, stands. Vastappen, Piastri, Russell, Leclair, Antonelli, Signs, Hamilton, Sonoda, Gazley, Norris. Okay, first question, first question, first question in this Q3 segment. P1, Patreon member Zingy 13. How can Lando iron out the mistakes as these are costing him

in what is looking to be a tight championship. This isn't, especially for just generic Formula One punters like myself and Tommy, an easy question to answer. I think coming into this weekend, it did feel like Lando's going to be struggling slightly more in terms of just locking in compared to Piastri that I would say is ice cold. He had that mistake in Australia. But apart from that, Piaastri is performing to the level that he can. for Lando, and I will maintain this opinion, no matter what anyone says,

Lando is a quicker driver than Oscar, over one lap if his true potential is shown. But the problem is, mistakes creep in. And this is where we've seen Q3 track limits. We've seen this crash today. And it is, I feel like is Lando looking to the garage next to him in Oscar and going, I've got a proper championship fight on my hands against my teammate, and obviously we'll get on to Mac shortly? where he's feeling like he needs to go to a level that he can get to,

but it brings in mistakes. And this is such a costly one, not to even have a lap time on the board to start 10th. Yes, he's in the fastest car, but this is not a given that he's going to fly through. Of course, he had a great start in Bahrain, but then he got the penalty because he was misplaced in his grid box. It's not an absolute disaster if,

when we said this again, where if he can come through in the fastest car, but he has to be beating Piastri. He does at this stage of the season because I fully see in Oscar's future with how impressive he's been at the start that he's still only going to get better is Piastri. He's in the start of his third season.

He's not the finished product. I can't believe we're in this situation where after the last race, Norris, we said, we were kind of critical of him in driver ratings and despite the P3, he made a lot of mistakes during that. You go back to Australia

and it was Piaastri was the one that went off the road, made the mistake. Lando withheld the pressure of Maxa Stappen in a race that threw multiple safety cars and the narrative after that race was okay, Lando can fight for this championship and he can deal with the mental pressure.

This is coming off the back of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as well where, you know, realistically, that Constructed Championship was all on him to win. And it was a phenomenal drive. To win. and he drove a brilliant race. But since then he's had the, you know,

the problems in the sprint in China. Then we're going to Bahrain where he's had a difficult race as well. And this is just a huge error. And it's kind of, he's making headlines for all the wrong reasons. And it's becoming a thing, sadly, for Lando. You know, I think when this started happening, I thought people were maybe being overcritical of him and jumping on him as someone that makes a lot of mistakes, but it is becoming a thing now.

And I don't know how he can kind of change that. I don't know whether it's the way he approaches his racing or maybe he needs, I don't know, like the mental side of the sport is such a big thing as well. I thought it was fascinating in the last qualifying podcast we did where Alex was talking about how he shouldn't be beating himself up after the session because you had more pressure on yourself. and that kind of thing. And you do wonder these champions where, you know, Piastri's got that mentor in Mark Weber and Lewis Hamilton has surrounded himself with like Angela, for example, who, you know, gets him in a great headspace and things like that.

And does Lando need someone like that or kind of can he work on himself on that side? Because these mistakes are creeping in and he's such a good driver and he's a quick driver. he just needs to iron out these mistakes. And unfortunately, at the moment, they're happening too frequently. Next question, P.1, Patreon member Savage Monkey 3.0. How is it possible for Norris to keep making these types of mistakes after being in his seventh season while Piastri is in his third and being a way more completed driver for the championship?

No hate, it says at the end as well, just to clarify. How is it possible? I think that we're forgetting they're all humans, they all have their own characteristics, they all have their own strengths and weaknesses. just because Piastri is performing probably at a level that we didn't expect at this point in his career does not necessarily mean that Lando Norris will never win a championship or that he is the anomaly here. We've seen drivers make mistakes for championships across most seasons.

Vettel, for example, when he was fighting at Ferrari, just one thing that comes to mind where mistakes slip in. Piastri is in a great part of his career. no doubt about that. He is solidified himself as a fantastic driver, but we don't know how he deals with pressure in the sense of leading the championship, getting all those questions, becoming the favorite, which he now is. He's now the favorite for the championship, I think, in the bookies and all this sort of stuff. We don't know yet, but all we can judge him on is what he's done so far. And what he's done is less mistakes. I still will say he is marginally slower than Lando

if they're both on good days but that doesn't matter if Lando has these mistakes creeping in where he loses handful of points every so often. The Oscar Piastri slightly slower but also still delivering at a very high level

and consistently being there it's going to win the championship nine times out of ten. So Norris, I still believe, will continue to learn about this not just from a driving perspective but also from a how does he prepare himself for a championship fight. He does need the support around him.

He needs the team around him. He needs whatever it might be, sport psychologist or however it is. That's McLaren's job as well as Lando's to find the right solution there. Yeah, he absolutely needs something like that, I think, and whether that's something he'll look into. It's not over because anything can happen. in the race tomorrow

who knows what can happen and we've seen things completely like flip on its head between qualifying and the race and you never know Lando while we're looking at it now thinking there's no chance he could still well lead the championship

at the end of this triple header stranger things have happened but he's having a poor run and I think it's something that he needs to look into in this kind of break and kind of you know get back in a good headspace because yeah it's been it's been a difficult start when oscar was the one

that made that mistake in the first race and lando with you know had a had a brilliant race and we were thinking how costly is that error going to be for for oscar but instead here we are now looking at the fact that lando is the one making loads of errors and lando's the one still leading the championship but by a very minimal margin now i will also add into that that you know we say that oscar makes that mistake in Australia. It's in the wet, of course. Exactly the same mistake, but just about half a car length, less deep. And Lando could have been in exactly the same situation as Oscar.

I will say that Oscar, of course, it was a mistake in Australia, but there was a serious level of just unluckiness to that as well, for sure, because the way he got beached on the grass and things like that, it just... Oh yeah, I'm not denying it's more worrying that Lando's mistakes have all been kind of dry, qualify I mean qualifying is the big one here I know he had a poor

poor Barang Grand Prix getting through the field and made mistakes there but how many we've gone into this weekend mentioning that Lando it feels like

for the entire year hasn't ever managed to get two qualifying laps in that always seems to one with a mistake and then he does the other and this time he's crashed in Q3 when the pressure is on

this is the bit where you do need to deliver. And I know it's drive to survive, but he even spoke about it in that kind of mentioning that he can get in his own head a bit. So that's something he needs to work on, I think. Next question, Joe Winnom. How did Max do that? People don't want to call Max a generational talent, but I think the lap in Suzuki in today shows

just what difference he can make in a car. I'm sorry, who on earth is calling Max not a generational talent? would love to know because he is categorically a generational talent. I don't care what anybody says on that because what more does he need to do? He's in an S-box delivers. He's in a dominant car. He breaks every record known to man in terms of length of wind streak, etc., etc. Max is the best driver on the grid. We have a, I know we've joked about him obviously Lance Stroll breaking the Q1 exit. But generally speaking, the grid is a very strong one in 2025 as well. Very. So how did Max do that? Because he, when the car is alive, which it became,

and they were surprised to see it, alive in Q3 especially, he will deliver. You don't see mistakes from Max Verstappen, hardly ever. So how did he do it? It's for Stappan. And the car, he's put what, nine tenths on Sonoda, I think, who I think made a mistake as well. That's the thing. People will be quick to jump on. Oh, the car's good then. He's nine-tenths clear of his teammate. Nine-tenths. And I know, I think Yuki did make a mistake on his final lap. It doesn't matter. He made a mistake. You have to just judge them. Why do people make excuses about why Max is quick, other than the fact that he is just an incredible driver that we might not have on the grid in five years time because he's only ever said, you know, I want to spend time with my family. this, that and the other. Please appreciate what he's doing. I know that people don't like dominance, for example, in the last few years,

oh, Max, always winning, blah, blah, blah, he's got the best car. He doesn't have the best car now, and we're seeing utterly brilliant performances. Just enjoy it. God, I sound like a Max fan. You do, you do. I thought, we'll reverse then.

I really like Max. I do. I do genuinely, yeah. It's true, though. You have to appreciate we're witnessing you know, if Max some miracle wins this championship, it would be one of, it would be like Fernando Alonzo in 2012, but he actually goes on and wins the thing,

because he should not be there. And somehow we're five races in, and Mattis Stappan has got two pole positions. And we're talking about the car being nowhere. Just think as well, we're talking about pressure and all that and all that kind of side of the sport and how difficult it is. This whole Formula One weekend going into this was all about Maxostappen.

Is he going to leave Red Bull? Oh, the car's terrible, isn't it? What are you going to do? You're going to leave? You're going to go to us and mine? All bombarded with questions in the press conferences and then he delivers a lap like that. Yeah, it is the ultimate mic drop. And it's just the sign of an unbelievable driver.

and one of the best drivers we'll ever see in Formula One whether you think he's the best or not. You can't argue that he's not one of the best we've ever seen in Formula One. Next question. At Northen's Hammer, was it all a massive overreaction last week when people were saying how poor the Red Bull is?

P1 in Japan and P1 again today, Bahrain was likely an anomaly. Bahrain very aggressive on the tyres. We know that McLaren are, incredibly good at keeping their their tires in a good window and that's why we saw Oscar just dominate the race and drive away

from pole position. I think it is likely to see when tracks have a higher grip, a really lovely surface like we have in Saudi, that's when the car becomes a lot better. I think we will see peaks and troughs with Red Bull. I don't think we're going to go,

yeah, Bahrain's the only anomaly here, done and dusted, Max is back, he's winning the championship. I'm not convinced of that. at all, but I think it's more likely that he will be able to thrust that car into the top three, top four than perhaps these outliers like Bahrain. The Red Bull is poor because it doesn't have a great window, and that is the thing here. We see McLaren are brilliant at every second, and even the Mercedes now,

and George Russell's again put in a brilliant lap and has been consistently one of the best drivers this season, I think he's the only driver to be in the top five in every competitive session. Hello. Someone read the graphic in practice. Someone's got the confidence. They've got the confidence that their car will work at every track. Red Bull don't.

And it is so similar to the end of last year where they would win a race and then be nowhere, sometimes even between the sprint and the main race. It's such a fine margin. And we know that when Max can get that car where he likes it, he would. will deliver and can even somehow put it on pole and even win races. But it's such a, it's such a kind of narrow margin that I would not be surprised if we go into the next race. And they're literally fighting for sixth again. Or I say them, literally max, because again, he is, he's miles ahead of his, his teammate. And yeah, it's just, that's just how Red Bull I think are

are going to go. So it's just needs to keep picking up points until that change. And whether that helps them, we have to find out. P1Betri member Blockedead 1.1. Yuckees, is that part of their name? There's apparently some crazy names in the patron. With Lewis below Carlos, did Ferrari sign the wrong driver? No, here we go. Here we go. But at least it's not about Shal for once. Usually it's did Ferrari fire the wrong driver, yada, yada, yada. But this is of course, with the fact that Hamilton is starting behind Carlos signs, which is factual evidence. Signs starts sixth, Hamilton starts seventh,

and Hamilton, over half a second off Charles LeClair, and the struggles from Bahrain have continued into Saudi, but more, I guess, apart from Hamilton in China, which may well turn out to be an outlier or Ferrari got it very right with him in the car, and he got it very right to do a phenomenon, job at the China sprint. Don't get me wrong. He did an incredible job there. But apart from that,

yeah, his poor form from just last year, the Mercedes in qualifying, has carried over to Ferrari now that it seems Charles has got a handle of the car and how he likes it. It's sad to see. I want to see Hamilton right there with LeClaire, ideally half a tenth behind. But still, you know, they're fighting around, you know, the top five. But he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, Back-to-back weekends now seem to struggle at very different tracks in terms of the abrasiveness of the circuit, et cetera, et cetera. But we've also said in Friday practice when we spoke about Hamilton even then is that he's just never really been that good around here. No. It really isn't.

And particularly in qualifying, it feels like it is becoming one of his bogey tracks, especially in qualifying. And as you mentioned, he never qualified. He's been really struggling with qualifying. That's the thing that he's really struggling. with recently. So it's just continued. And I think a lot of this, you don't need to like put a driver down, just some respect on Carlos Sites for doing a brilliant job. And this is more where we thought he was going to be this year. It hasn't happened for him so far. We saw glimpses of it in in Bahrain. And yeah, he's done an amazing job. I just wish he'd, even though it had been over the

expense of Antonelli got into P5 so I could have replied some comments that were saying, what was I smoking when I put in P5 in the top five? But alas, he did not. But a great performance from Science. And this is what we were expecting him to do this year. Exactly. A phenomenal performance from Science and Hamilton left questioning what's going on. Next question, P1 Patreon member, Cap Ted Obs 34020. I know Matt won't want to hear this. I love starting a question with that in the first part of it, but should Ferrari throw in the towel and focus on 2026? Yep, chuck it in there. Guys, the white flag is being waved from both the drivers and also the fans.

I am sick and tired of just believing that maybe this year's our year, and I know it's a meme, I know it's a joke, but how can Ferrari, the most historical winningest team in the history of Formula One, not deliver again for another year. Now I will take a Monaco slash Monza win and it will feel like a championship win once again. However, I need more than that at some point and it's just not there and it's not even,

it hasn't even looked close this weekend. I feel like Charleclair has put in a stonking lap in that Ferrari to even get forth. He's looked off the pace for most of it, struggled to put a lap together. But it comes back to what you were saying, Tommy, in the pre-season predictions that if Ferrari

aren't quick, they should just chuck the towel in and I would much rather them be really good in 26 than even try to claw back what is a massive deficit to McLaren in my eyes. I know it's what three-tenths

back to Piastri or Piastri's in front to Charle-Claire, but in the race trim they just don't have it either. So yeah, I need to go and cry in a dark corner because, you know, we both predicted Charlotte Claire pole position around

here. I thought maybe a front row coming into it would be, you know, possible, but no chance. Fourth seems kind of over delivering, doesn't it, from what that car has had, which is pretty depressing reading. You kind of beat me to it there. I was going to say, do I need to say anything here, or can you just go on after listening to this podcast, click on preseason predictions before we saw any testing and I said that Ferrari biggest flop they're going to why have they changed their car completely into a new season and they will basically sack it in immediately after the first four races when they're not winning a McLareniclair so you're welcome broken clock is right twice a day there you go Tommy well done so happy and what a way to end this podcast really

enjoyed that you best believe tomorrow watch along charlacler gets rustle at the start podium on for Stape and Piastri, you have a little ding-dong, Shaula comes through. There we go. Love to see it. Tommy, what are your final thoughts? I love how it just gone from, yeah, it's over to actually, maybe, maybe we're back. And it's funny because it's not the same. I'm not going to pretend it isn't, but I'm almost getting a little taste of that Ferrari lifestyle,

but maybe slightly opposite the other way around. rather than it being one race. It's just that kind of like, yeah, the stab and oh. Bad race and you're trying to say that you've had a taste of the Ferrari last. That's what I mean. It's the opposite. It's the opposite way around where you have one good race and you go, oh, championship back on. I should have one bad race and go, yeah, Max is out of it.

It's never happening. And now I'm like, could he? Could he? No, you haven't tasted anywhere near the pain and depression I haven't been a Charlotte. It's definitely more enjoyable, though, watching him be the underdog and deliver but deliver those moments because they feel, you know, massive to be able to take the fight to McLaren

and just a great qualifying again. And I can't wait for the race. Yeah, it's set up the race beautifully. So we'll be live on Twitch and YouTube as always. Come and watch along to the race with us. And that is it. We'll see you very soon. Lots of love.

Take care. Adios. Goodbye. Goodbye. Oh, dear. My chore is I'm going to eat dinner because it's outside my door. So lots of love.

Bye everybody. Goodbye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the ACAST created network.