P1 with Matt and Tommy - Reaction to Singapore GP sprint

Episode Date: October 10, 2026

Matt’s back on mic to react to a bizarre Singapore sprint that became F1’s craziest procession, with nine drivers retiring - and somehow it felt like nothing happened… Come and see our live tour 'Super Podding' this November! It's a brand new show and there are a few tickets left: http:/tix.to/p1liveFancy even more P1? Well, join our Patreon for just $5 a month! You'll get access to every P1 episode ad-free, extended versions of every 2026 race review, early access to tickets & merch, and access to our Discord server where you can chat with us and other F1 fans! Click here to sign up now: http://patreon.com/mattp1tommyFollow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTokP1 with Matt and Tommy is the world's biggest F1 podcast. Subscribe for new podcasts around every single race throughout the 2026 Formula 1 season! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. Lots of podcasts coming your way. I just want to apologise for not being here yesterday. I was a very unwell man. I am still unwell, but how could I miss a sprint where nine drivers didn't finish? So I knew there was a reason for me forcing myself out of bed to do this. So thank you for all your well wishes. I appreciate it.

I think it might have been my first ever session that I've missed through not being on holiday. So yeah, pretty, pretty crazy. Tommy, how are you? I'm good. Yeah, championship is well and truly back on. Of course, you know, Max Verstappen, you know, as a Therstappen fan, lifelong, obviously. I'm like, why now do the McLaren to take each other out and not last year? But, yeah, it was a very weird race of like chaos at the start. Oh my God, why on earth are they doing a sprint at Singapore and then chaos at the end. So there's a lot to dive into despite maybe the actual racing side of it. But my God, nine retirement in a sprint.

That really throws the theory out the window of, well, you know, these are Formula One drivers. I just think about qualifying. No, nine retirements, someone making a move literally on their teammate for the last, like for one point, like crazy. Yeah, it's got to be the biggest procession. That also has had nine retirements. Like it's so weird. The craziest procession of all time. Yeah, because we come out of it going,

oh, that was a bit of a rubbish race in terms of like actual overtaking action. And then they all just crashing into each other. Right, let's get into it, shall we? Because we've got qualifying in a matter of hours from recording. P1 Patreon member Sky Sierra. Who's at fault for the McLaren collision? Straight into it.

We don't mess about. We're not talking about Sergio Perez. Now we could have won if you haven't. No. We're going straight in with McLaren. And of course, Norris and Piastri coming together at turn four. Is it four? Is it turn four?

Is that what it would technically would be? It's the right hander. Whatever, whatever, whatever number, no one cares. The right hander before the long old straight. And the way in which this has all come about was because Charlele decided I am, I don't have any speed anymore. I am slower than everybody on track because his tires were cooked. and it brought all the pack together,

the two McLaren's, Kimmy Antonelli right behind as well. And Lando was visibly, I would say, looking the quickest out of that bunched pack as someone who might be able to make a move because he was always around three-tenths behind Piastri and potential overtaking zones.

And so then Lando went for the dive down the inside. Now, my thoughts on this one is that it's primarily on Lando. This is a dive, It's a risk. And if you look at the rules, at the apex, he has not got his front left tire alongside Piastri's mirror. He doesn't.

So by the way, the letter of the law, Lando has not earned space at the apex and beyond from Piastri. Now, it's a move that no one really expects. It's a move that doesn't really happen all that often around Singapore, just purely because there's a long old strait. and if you have a terrible, like, little move down the inside, you're usually not going to make the move anyway because you won't get a great exit.

But it's an enormous risk that Lando, I think, will end up, well, I think he will be regretting it anyway at this point. I know that he said, came over the radio and said, I thought I was alongside. Well, slow-mo replays suggest he was not alongside enough. He was alongside, more so, before the apex, but that's not where it's measured. Now, as of recording, of course, it's under-end,

investigation. It's two teammates, so I'm not expecting much to come of it. But if they are actually going to penalise, then they should, in theory. If they're going to follow, if the FIA are going to follow their own rulebook, I think this deserves a penalty. So it's on Lando. For people that are saying Oscar should have given more room, one, and I think Corinchandot makes a really good point that I watched on the sky analysis, and I agree with, is that I don't think Oscar's seen him at the point of him breaking for the corner. So he's kind of. kind of committed to the corner. He's seen quite late. Oh God, Landau's up my inside. But at that point, he's kind of committed to the corner. Like, where is he supposed to go as well? This is Singapore, and there's a wall on his left. And all the drivers will be throwing it into that corner to then get a great exit on, you know, out of the corner and get as close to the wall as possible. It's not like he has more room to play with on the outside with the speed that he's taking in. So I put hardly anything on Oscar there. He's tried to countersteer a little bit to give Landau room. But this all happened. happens in a blink of an eye. So for me, anyone saying this is on Oscar, Oscar had a part to play in this, I don't think so. And I think this is pretty much entirely Landau's fault. Yeah, it's definitely Landau's fault. You know, he's not, but even by before I saw the kind of slow-mo replay, which unfortunately we have to do now because it's the letter of the law and we have to pause on a certain apex to see if someone's alongside. There's so much here that just screams that it's,

Landau's fault. And yeah, completely agree with everything you've said in terms of like, he's not alongside. So the letter of the law is that it's Landau's fault. Oscar is in his blind spot, so he's turning in. Also, you know, the whole

thing that we've not really mentioned about this as well as like, this move is being done for the last lap of a sprint for one point on your teammate. It's an outrearing It is so unnecessary. I mean, the risk and versus reward is just so far off in a situation like this.

If this was Abu Dhabi, 2025, and this is Lando Oscar for the championship, you totally understand why Lando's gone for the move. But why is he going for a dive bomb at a corner that is never, it is so hard to pass that. And of course, you know, we can talk about later about how this track is. is just horrible for overtaking anyway, which we saw at the end. But he's gone for a late move on his teammate for one extra point. And even if Oscar had seen him and can dive out the way,

Lando's getting a horrible exit down the main strait, which is probably opening him up to Antonelli. And Antonelli might end up getting the both McLaren's anyway. So it's just such a unnecessary move from Lando. It screams desperation. frustration because he's seen and I get that because it was basically in Monaco that race. I was I found it painful to watch how how slow Charlotte Clerk could be almost like Daniel Ricardo at Monaco and still stay ahead of everyone and equally Lando was clearly

faster than Oscar but you can't lunge on your teammate and take him out. It is entirely on Lando to not make contact with his teammate if he's going to go for that move. So Lando's obviously not trying to overtake Oscar into that corner. I think what he's trying to do is to set up the move into the next left-hander by sort of making Oscar go a little bit wider and to force a poor exit for his teammate. But the thing is, yeah, I guess there's two conversations. There's the incident itself. What percentage are you putting it on Lando?

A hundred. Okay, yeah. Just making sure. Yeah, yeah. I don't see anything Oscar should be doing in that situation. You can say like, Oscar shouldn't have turned in, but what? Why shouldn't he? And also he needs to turn in at some point.

It's a corner and there's a wall on the exit. And he does react. So he sees Lando too late. So you understand that he's not seen him until literally the apex because he's not expecting Lando to be there. If he's pinched the apex, Oscar maybe could have played a part here. But he doesn't pinch the apex. No, he doesn't. But Lando's up on the apex and then they make contact after it.

But yeah, there's a desperate move, isn't it? In a very kind of sort of like I am so frustrated. have been sat behind you for so long. I'm so much quicker. And he's just gone, well, I'm just going to send it now. And he's got it wrong. Yeah. So this is the bigger conversation, I think, which I find is worse on Lando's behalf here.

Like the incident itself, fine, they make contact. You can sit on it how you will. But it's the fact that Lando is obviously not in the driver's championship. Neither of them are. All McLaren are trying to do at this stage is, is catch Ferrari in the constructors' standings. That's all they're trying to do. And they've gone from scoring,

what, they were fourth and fifth, so that's five and four point, nine points. They've sacrificed eight points by overtaking each other when that changes nothing in the constructors and changes Lando, who is fifth in the standings, or sixth now, because Max won the sprint.

And I just... It's the risk versus reward situation. This is the kind of thing that I think McLaren will take badly because this is like there is no point there for going for such a move it's not even as if there's a few laps left of the race it's the final lap he's not catching and passing LeCler on the same lap if he's gone for this you know daring move down the inside of Oscar so yeah I just think it was as you say purely born out of frustration

and yeah it's ended it's ended badly for them I just want to watch something because Karun is doing his moment of looking and Liam Lawson has joined him for the skypad and they're playing him the actual incident. So I just want to watch what his reaction, Liam Lawson's reaction is to it. So basically Lawson just watched the footage back. Karun sort of weirdly started talking about how Lawson and Limblad have collided this year and stuff. And Liam was like, well, he crushed into me. Wow. Yeah, but yeah, Lawson was basically saying, well, I know how Oscar feels being crashed into by your teammate, basically.

So, and also Liam, as he came round to, of course, pick up some points. He almost collided with Lando. He said he had to have like full lock on to avoid Lando from colliding. And yeah, something else Liam said, which is exactly what we've just said is like, this is, you know, this is a sprint race on your teammate. for an extra point like whoopty-do. So, yeah, it's a bad move. So did he apportion blame or not?

Did he say? He's, the way he alluded to the fact that he's like Oscar's been taken out basically. Okay. All right. Well, there you go then. That is something we weren't expecting to talk about. But it happened in a sprint race in 2026. P-1 patron member Chad Newton.

What could be the outcome of the Lando Oscar contact? Would they penalise the driver being both the same? same team. This is always the debate now and when we saw the collision with Liam Lawson, you know, speaking of and Limblad in Baku, we were obviously very vocal about how it should have been a penalty for Limblad. And one thing I said when we had that collision with the two Alpins that Colopinto caused and took out Lando, you know, if it's on his team mate, Landau is not involved, do they care as much, well, they still penalise? for example and now we've seen a situation where Landau has taken out his teammate in a sprint

again and again this comes to it like wise Landau risking a penalty for a bold move like that that's going to affect him in the Grand Prix essentially he should get a penalty for taking a driver out because he's essentially taken Oscar out of points with a with a move that shouldn't have happened but the problem is the FIA love to speak to to the drivers and love to have a chat with the teams and the representatives and everything and then come to a conclusion and McLaren are probably going in there to even probably briefing their drivers right now saying you know don't don't go too hard on him make sure he doesn't get a penalty because it affects the team yeah and as for the penalty that it would be it would

be a grid drop for the Grand Prix yeah exactly so he's risking his cost himself if it does enormous risk that doesn't even end at the sprint and losing losing the points. It's yeah. Whether it will be a penalty or not, I would probably lean on the factor that it wouldn't be. If it's not,

you can wipe out your teammate. Like that's fine. Well, I mean, literally use the Harvard Limblad thing. Yeah, that's what I was saying. Yeah, that's what I mean. Like, that is the baseline. So that's why I'm saying

that that Lando will probably not because I think this is less as much as I've said it's completely on Lando's fault I think it's

marginal as I've said at the apex like his front left axle is just behind the mirror so by the letter of the law it is deemed an illegal overtake or whatever you want to call it

like he's taken out Oscar and it's on Lando but the fact that it's marginal and the fact that it's teammates I think they won't penalise him which is

mad because then that says a dangerous precedent going forward that when you have two teammates battling for the title you know you can just take them out yeah and well yeah I don't get and you don't get penalized because yeah it doesn't it doesn't matter right I mean I guess I guess they have penalized it before I know it's very different and not as kind of crazy move but Lando and Oscar had that collision didn't they in Canada last year where Lando went for the move and I think he got classified, so they just gave him a time penalty and it didn't really affect him. Yeah. So, yeah, they do, they can penalize it.

They penalized it before, but yeah, it's going to be very interesting to see what they decide to do. And particularly on Lando right now, that, you know, he's, he's got a quick car underneath him. We saw that in the fact that, you know, he was looking very quick. but you know it's going to be even worse for him now if he gets a grid penalty because he's he's just had the whole sprint stuck behind a slower car well you're going to get you're going to be stuck behind a slower car in the main race if you end up with a five-place penalty so it all comes down to that risk versus reward which is why why I'm so amazed that he went for that that move it just seems so unnecessary so I'm seeing that Lando is I think still

confident that he should have been left more space from what I can see with his post-sprint sort of debrief post-sprint race interview said it was a big gap so I went for it I have the right to do that the rest we go review as a team so and also the other

interesting thing now is how McLaren approached this as a team as well because if it does indeed get Landau a penalty or something, or obviously Landau's being very much like, it's not me, but we all know McLaren are the most like PR-friendly team that love to pretend everything, sunshine and rainbows. Will he have? Will they force him to basically?

Repercussions. Will. This could be crucial for the championship. I forgot about the repercussions until just now. Like remember, it was here, it was here, wasn't it? He'll be having three races of unknown repercussions, slap on the wrist, all that sort of stuff. Let's go on to P1 Patreon member Amy's question. Was that the final nail in the coffin for George's World Drivers' Championship hopes?

Now, the nail had already gone in. That, for me, there was no real shot, unfortunately, for George even coming into this weekend, knowing that he's going to start at the back of the grid. Tomorrow, he's also starting at the back of the grid in the future. when Mercedes bring their new power unit. So I, yeah, it's obviously sad for George. He had a great start, took the lead. Max having another awful start in these slippery conditions.

And you would have to imagine George would have taken the win because it was nile on impossible to overtake anyone. Shah was four seconds a lap slower and still wasn't able to be overtaken. So, yeah, for George, obviously it is championship over. it has been for a while unless Antonelli goes on holiday and doesn't participate in any of the rest of the Grand Prix we have for the season

but I will not stand for people adding this to Kimmy Antonelli being lucky. Oh my God because the McLarence took each other out. Yeah that obviously George crashing. Oh he's so lucky. He's so Anthony's so lucky that he didn't bin it into the wall like his teammate. What a lucky driver

I just know I'm going to read that I've read it already. I read it in when we put the graphic out saying, does this just prove Kimmy's so lucky this year? It's like, wait, so he kept his Mercedes on the road while his teammate binned it on the wall on basically lap one or whatever it was, lap two or something. And

yeah, it's, there was no hope for George in the championship anyway going into this race. It is basically over. He's admitting that and that's why they're kind of learning with this new war as it is old car. But he made a great start.

Max's start was yeah not as horrible as uh as malaysia but still bad of horrible enough to to lose the position um hamilton's stop by the way unbelievable uh for his his move and um when we watch the replay you know you you immediately were like oh wow what's happened to george it didn't look like maybe he got on the white line but as soon as you watch max is on board and see how he just was absolutely nowhere near that part of the track and yet george ran wide, almost like a dry line, and just caught him out. Well, he said when he was chatting during, because obviously the race was still going on and they had an interview with him, he mentioned that he had more deployment out of the final

corner, which pushed him wide, you know, standard. Standard's something to do with the 2026 cars doing something the drivers don't want, you know, to experience. But that's what he said is that it pushed him a little bit wide and then maybe that's why he went anywhere near that white line. So another reason to hate these power units. but also, you know, it's also a driver error for George there. So big shame and it's been concerned about his car not being ready for qualifying,

but does it matter? No. He doesn't need to qualify, does he? So yeah, they need to repair it for the race. They've got a whole day. Exactly, although it doesn't look like a huge job. But yeah, so George, that was his chance to win something at Singapore. And sadly, it went away into the wall.

P-1 pitch, remember, Mazda Londis F1. team. Could they have gone on slicks? The track looked very dry towards the end. Yes, and they probably would have, even on those kind of laps in the sprint, but the problem is the sprint finishes so early and you don't have any laps for any kind of crossover or risk. So even if your Fernando Alonzo's or Nika Holkenbergs or whatever that were running that risk, thinking, oh, well, you know, I'm at the back, maybe I could get a sensational result. It's not worth it. And that's why you saw literally people that you could have this argument of like, well,

what have Alonzo Scyt's limb blood got to lose? They're right at the back. They're not anywhere near it. They might as well go for it. But the problem is there's no point because if they go on to the slicks, even if they're quicker, everyone will just react. and there's no net gain because if you if you if it doesn't work you you've just lost a whole pit stop and then it's also the whole risk versus reward of the sprint like what is the point because

if you bin it into the wall you you know you're worrying about your team in qualifying so it's just it's just not worth the risk for them to do it and it's such a shame because these conditions would have made for maybe a fascinating Grand Prix as a stretch, but a more interesting Grand Prix because we're certainly not going to get one in dry conditions because this track is horrible for overtaking, like really bad, like Monaco levels now it feels like. But yeah, the fact that they were, it's not worth the risk in a sprint because there's not enough time to make up an opportunity. No, exactly.

We didn't get the crossover. The sprint is too short, as you say. I will say that let's just wait and see until the dry running around Singapore. Like, I think it's very hard to judge this sort of intermediate running conditions. I think it's the worst conditions possible for trying to get any kind of overtaking. I think if you have Charles Lecler, Piastri, Norris and Antonelli all on dry tires on a dry track. and you have overtake mode available and things like that, you're going to get, I think, moves compared to what we saw today

because it's insanely difficult in those conditions where the tyres are dying. Everything's against the drivers in those conditions. You think about all the races we've had where it's those kind of conditions and you just see these massive gaps between drivers because they can't close up. So I don't know. I'm trying to be slightly optimistic that maybe it will be a little bit better

for the main Grand Prix if we do in. in fact, get dry conditions. But I think the worst thing would be having those conditions again. Although, yeah, as you say, the crossover would have been interesting for a few laps. And then, who knows? It's a trip into the unknown. It's another case of the sprint there where you're just like, oh, please can we just carry on for another 20 laps?

Because Lecler's falling off a cliff and it's making it exciting because you've got everyone bunched up, obviously in the, if that had been normal situation, he's pitting and trying to do something different. right um but then even you know two two people we've not really spoken about this this whole podcast just because of the absolute chaos behind them is for stappen and hamilton and hamilton's pace at the end was incredible um and you know we would have been treated to something really special maybe between them as well but uh the the sprint really does feel like you just kind of just as it got going or just as some excitement about to happen the classic thing of the sprint

and it's just ends and then it's like right on to quality thank. Indeed. At least we won't get spoilers because we should just have a dry race and therefore it will be a completely different experience. That's the hope of it all. But yeah, Hamilton was phenomenal, completely, you know, dominated Leclair in terms of pace. Leclair was slower than most of the midfield.

I absolutely cooked his tires. I could not believe his, yeah, I mean, the last lap of the race, Hamilton did a 145.4, Leclair did a 1.49.7. Yeah, yeah, yeah, cool, cool, cool, cool. Yeah, but it's fine. It was third place. Second and third for Ferrari, great result. McLaren scoring one point.

I'm convinced, actually, LeClaire never cooked his tires. He was trying to instigate a battle between the two McLaren's, which happened, and therefore gained Ferrari loads more points than the constructors. So actually, the biggest brain thinking. Because it would be like, no, LeClau finished third. Yeah, how much did you mean? 16 seconds behind. 14 seconds behind his teammates.

in a sprint race. And at one point, this is again, like going full circle and back to the whole Lando move. One thing we have seen from that sprint is that no matter how much we can push the narrative of like,

Air One drivers don't care about the sprint, and they certainly don't anywhere near as much, but that they won't try and they don't care, because when we saw those wet conditions, my immediate reaction was like, well, no one's going to risk a move. No one's going to do anything silly because they've got to qualify later. And we've had nine DNFs. We've had someone wipe out their teammate on the final lap.

We've had the race leader crash. Crazy. Chaos. Chaos, basically. Yeah, full-blown chaos. Processional chaos. Processional chaos is the perfect review of that race. Yeah.

Shout out to Lawson, who finished fifth after all of that. He was running in a very solid seventh up until the McCorm. Claren's coming together, had to take some avoiding action, didn't he, of Lando, which was kept him in the race. Bermann as well, battling through on Gassley and then ending up P6 for Hasse, Holcomberg as well, up in 7th. And yeah, you would have probably bet on Gassley scoring a point after where he started and with having nine DNFs, but he ended up finishing ninth just outside the points. And yeah, the Alpine didn't really have the very good pace at all in those sort of slippery conditions. Neither did Alonzo actually. Alonzo was very slow in those conditions in comparison to what you'd expect in the dry. Colapinte's Alp in particular wasn't very strong

when it just turned off completely. Yeah so let's run let's run through it all then. So obviously Piastri out the race because of the contact with Norris. Albon because he smashed into the back of Bortoletto and then Botta smashed into the back of Albon which I don't know if there's been a penalty given out for that yet. It just genuinely seemed it looked like a concertina Yeah, it was. It was. Which was mad. He's like, ah, there's been contact. Wait, Bottas has gone into the back of Albon as well.

Then you have Hadjar who decided I'm going to go take my F1 car into the Formula One fan zone. I was literally going to make the same joke. The guy for the gate for him is like, go and go and show off the 2026 car to the fans. Colapinto's car just turned off. Russell obviously spun at the final corner and out the race. Perez and Thrace was strong. Of course.

Yes, we have not spoken about that. Which happened on the same lap as Russell's spinning, didn't it? Yeah, and yeah, a very weird incident there where Perez was up the inside. Stroll, yeah, stroll in that situation, yeah, kind of like turned in and they collided. And, yeah, another weird incident where Perez went for the move, stroll turns in on him. And they both damaged their car and are out. Yeah, a lot of incidents to talk about. Let's see if we get the same on Sunday.

But of course, qualifying is very shortly. So we're going to go now and get ready for that. So look forward to that podcast as well. Tommy, final thoughts? Final thoughts? Let's hope qualifying is just as chaotic maybe. We might have rain. We might have more rain.

So we'll see. Yeah, maybe more rain. I mean, hopefully a bit more rain, but not too much so we can't go racing and delay everything. far too long. Yes, exactly. See you soon, everybody. Lots of love. Bye. Goodbye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the ACAST creator network.