P1 with Matt and Tommy - Reaction to Singapore GP sprint qualifying

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

A last-minute illness means Matt had to miss sprint qualifying out in Singapore - so Tommy has called on reserve driver and fellow F1 content creator, Tommo!Don't worry, a new face won’t stop us moaning about software problems, as cars up and down the grid were plagued by issues so severe, we’re arguing that they should REDO sprint qualifying entirely. 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. Now the first thing you're probably wondering is why am I saying that? It's because Matt is unwell. If you watch the predictions episode, you will know that his poor fiancé answered the phone very unwell. And yes, Matt has ended up with the cold, the dreaded cold as well. And you know how much Matt would not miss Formula One or this for the world. So I am joined instead by Super Sub-Tummo. Tomo, welcome again.

It's been a while since you've been on this channel. But thanks for joining us and substituting for Matt. Absolutely, mate. When the call came, I was here. I was ready as reserved driver to jump in to the car, take the wheel to P3, like Nico Holcombode in Silverstone so many years ago. Thank you for having me. Matt, get well soon.

I hope you're not faking it. Otherwise, we could have to have words. but no, Tommy. Let's chat Singapore, mate. Let's do it. Let's start with SQ1 then, and the bottom six were Limblad, Stroll, Albin, Perez, Bottas and Carlos Sainz. Wow, Carlos Sain's last. We'll start with a bit of an incident with Vastappen overtaking Hamilton under a yellow was probably the biggest story. Now, as of recording, we don't know the outcome yet. Maybe it will arrive during recording.

a big one because of course one of those drivers is on pole position and what is so annoying and we said this when we were doing the watch along is why why after the session they even had a red flag

that could have you know they could have decided what to have done about it and surely it's surely these kind of things are black and white I mean I know Max Hamilton slowed down a lot more Max passed him and then he was basically

we saw a replay didn't we where he basically said I'm going to re-let him through because you know I'm going to slow down I don't know like without getting the rule back out if that is that a kind of an option you can do can you just switch back and it's not a problem I mean how often you know the driver pleading their case which I imagine is why there's this whole look at it after the session does it actually matter because you know this is a instance of safety first and foremost, right? If it's a yellow flag, there's no overtaken. It's a pretty cut and dry rule.

So I would be surprised if Max is able to deliver any additional insight that will change the FIA and the steward's minds on this one. I mean, I don't know. Look, he obviously got polls, so I think Kroon was talking about a five-place grid drop is the standard for this kind of thing, but that is only in turn, that is a suggestion as much as it is anything else.

So, again, it's just this. limbo that we're in after the fact is a bit of a shame again this type of incident i'm surprised that they can't just make a decision themselves without listening to max thankfully max you know like he says in our our podcast we did with max this happen he doesn't care about the sprint and it's only a session to him so at least if he loses his five place uh five places and starts p6 i'm sure he'll be very gracious about it and be absolutely as for the biggest kind of disappointment, I guess, in that session looking at those bottom six. I'd say Limblad is a big shock there. And that kind of leads us on to a bit of a weird moment

from that session. Because we thought it was actually Bortoletto out, you know, as we were on an ad break here in the UK and suddenly Bortletto is up in 11th and everything's fine. P1 Patreon Amy has asked, what is going on with these software issues? very bizarre the last thing Formula One needed after the controversy in Sopang is more software problems and today

timing towers going absolutely nuts all over the place we have seen in Singapore in the past in the kind of unique kind of circuit and a lot of like the underground wiring of their subway system and stuff like radios problems and things like that

but there's is the last thing Formula One needed after the mess in Sopang, isn't it? Yeah, I've seen some talk of overtake mode being shown to some drivers and not others as well as being available. So I'm not sure how true that is. I mean, it's a terrible look. It's one thing for the cars to be stopping like they were in Malaysia. This is a bit more of a kind of, like you said,

there is kind of history with these kind of issues in Singapore, given the geography and going under the tunnel, blah, blah, blah. But it just adds to the growing narrative that this sport is far too complicated. There's far too much technology here. And also it's a pretty bad look, given all the technology partners that are involved in this sport, that we are having so many issues, right? Yeah, they all join Formula One and they're like,

official technology partner of Formula One. And then the only kind of everything you're seeing to do with technology is never, this technology is great. It's always, you only ever hear about it when it goes wrong, right? Yeah, absolutely. new situation. That's kind of what they signed up for. It's one of those jobs where you're not going to get a pat on the back when it works

because it's just a minimum expectation. And when it doesn't work, it really, especially when you're trying to live stream a watch along, but even just try to follow things. You've got the F1 official FI website just blurting out all different numbers. So yeah, mate, not ideal. No, and the timing tower, yeah, as well as the kind of potential, which will hopefully hear a little bit more of during this podcast, I think if some drivers had been getting overtake mode and others not,

like that that is the kind of thing that ruins qualifying completely because you get no kind of proper understanding of who was quick because that would be an absolutely massive advantage. And these things are so weird. And again, it shows why we're so frustrated and why too much of this sport is relying on these sort of things to make happen. And realistically, it should just be about, who's put in the best lap and the driver's going as long as possible.

Yeah, you're adding uncertainty to the competitive integrity of what's going on. Also, you know, I don't know if that was the case this time out, but drivers will back out of laps when they're like, oh, yeah, you've got through. But then what if the timing tower is doing some, you know, shenanigans and it's actually shy misleading information and then all of a sudden you're out? Like, I don't know. It just isn't good enough, like at this level with F1 being

where it is at this crest of the DTS F1 move. hype all these 11th team this year the sports should be thriving we should be absolutely loving the racing there is so much to like about these regulations but unfortunately we're once again here moaning about software i know why why um because because as we were kind of chatting about that you know when you're watching i think we saw a lap from luce hamilton didn't where it was sliding the car looks really exciting but unfortunately there's too much software and things going on which is incredibly annoying the other big kind of story if it's even big anymore because we know they've had a bad year but i'd be interested to get your take on it because

matt isn't here to defend daddy vows like normal so um the fact that williams are 19th and 22nd uh it's a track where the power unit uh you know i think that their upgrades in baku for me, they were flattered by the fact that that kind of track was so Mercedes dominant, if you like, you saw, you know, Russell on pole by eight tenths, for example. And in this, we come to a track like this. I think it's really exposed kind of just how bad that Williams is this year and just how much they're struggling. Yeah, I think there's multiple, again, as a long serving Alex Album fan, I do feel

slightly missold on Williams' expectations for this new era. Like, fair enough if they're still behind, like facility-wise, but I think, you know, James Vow certainly over-promised and so far they've under-delivered. And I imagine as well when you're fighting at the back, you know, those little, Alex said going into SQ-1 that the car felt totally different to FP1, and there's only one quality session, so that's kind of, that's a problem as well. I think it's a kind of catch-22 because the team is struggling

they would have felt this hype as well with Carlos Sines joining the team we saw how well that went down when he did sign and then all of a sudden they've stumbled and now Aston Martin have taken this leap and they're at the back with the Cadillacs

and it's just really disappointing mate because I think we all want to see that marquee performing at the front we all know what Carlos Sainz can do he held his own very very well against Shola Clara's teammates. And obviously, I think Alex has got some, you know, I'm not sad.

He's a world beat. I think Carlos is the better driver of the two. But I think he can definitely do a job on the day. And he's just not getting the, I don't know, they're just not getting the hardware underneath them. Carlos is dealing with the situation better than Alex, but it's still just not good. It's not good at all. Yeah, Williams having a shocking year.

And it's a case of, yeah, they've been on the back foot the whole year. And it really is a case of like, when are they going to be able to turn that? around. I have seen a tweet that I will read out from Rosario Gillania. I'm sorry if I've just butchered your name. I'm never I'm not good with names and reading out names as you'll know if you join us for the watch along. And it is translated from Italian so you'll have to do do my best with this this but it says serious things have been happening lately and the FA admits to a human error by race control during SQ1 in Singapore independent of the time. issues after the red flag overtake mode was not reactivated at the restart remaining

unavailable to the drivers as a result once the error was identified race control proceeded to activate it only to deactivate it again 27 seconds later the fia acknowledged that this handling affected the performance of certain cars depending on the moment they were running their lap and their position on the track sq2 and sqq3 were not affected so you've basically just ruined quite qualifying. That glitch has ruined qualifying. That's not a representative session. Surely that has to be redone, right? We literally talked. We said there was like 1.2 or 1.7 seconds between our bourne and science. And we wondered why. And I guess that's your answer. That's your answer. But I mean, can you like that's they are so lucky. Again, this is going to be one of those

issues where Formula One will get away with it because it's essentially affect the tractors at the back and not anything to do with the championship. And it's happened in an SQ1 session on a Friday. Can you imagine if something like this was deciding the world championship? And you're, you know, we had a situation like we did last year with Vastappan, you know, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. And some of them are getting a boost in qualifier and others not. And it's changing the world championship connotations.

it's an absolute joke. And it's another example of something that controls these cars that isn't within the car. That isn't within the car. Yeah, exactly. Why are they controlling this thing? Why are they controlling this? I'm surprised something like that is,

maybe I'm naive, but like manually operated, I would have just expected that to be an automatic thing, I guess. I don't know. But, look, it's just, again, it's just adding more fuel to the flames and to the lack of, that's what I said, you know, it's a trust thing.

And I feel like I trust the competitive integrity of the sport less than I ever have done because there's these anomalies that are existing. And like, what if this never came out, Tommy, as well? What, this makes me think, how many times does something like this happen? And oh, it's very minor. So they'll just kind of keep it on the download

because they don't want to create a media store or whatever. You know, like, it just makes me doubt what I'm seeing on track and it shouldn't be that way. I agreed. like it's an absolute joke and they're they're very very very lucky um that that's only happened in sq1 and hopefully it doesn't happen again um but for this for something bizarre like this to happen in back-to-back sessions essentially like competitive sessions it's ruining yeah like you say the integrity of the the sport because it's it's affecting it massively um you know these teams

they're kind of fortunate really that a lot of the teams at the back are probably not going to kick up too much of a fuss because, you know, Cadillac aren't going to be like, oh, we would have scored a point and blah blah if it happened. And they can kind of get away with it. But imagine this happened in, you know, main qualifying, for example, in the final knockout and you've got, you know, suddenly for Stappen or Hamilton or someone is a second and a half off

when you're like, you don't understand. And it's because they, someone else had more boost and they weren't allowed to use it. It's just stupid. It's hard enough to kind of follow this sport And try and analyze the drivers Because ultimately we accept that Not everyone has the same hardware

And that's pretty unique to F-World Where it's not a spec series And so you're like trying to make these comparisons To teammates blah It's hard enough as it is Let alone then you chuck in all this other stuff That is just unknown And destroys any foundational trust

That the fan base can have Especially us hard calls Who are more interested in getting into the weeds And really understanding what's going on It's just a nightmare mate And there's so much money. These teams have valued so highly as well. Like there's a lot of money on the line per constructors position.

And it's just... And I don't like factors being involved that you can't see as a fan. I think that's frustrating for everyone. Right. Let's move on to SQ2, where we had knocked out Colopinto, Holkenberg, Behrman, Bortoleto, Alonzo and Ocon. Decent performance from Olly Behrman. Must be that lucky helmet that you've helped design, Tommy.

You know, it must be right. It must be the sixpence, the lucky sixpence. For anyone that's missed that, tell us a little bit about that because it's a quite cool story. Yeah, yeah. No, so I kind of got chatting with Brandon Sieber who works with Ollie. He does all of his helmet designs and has done for years earlier in the year on a little co-lab. So I kind of came up with the idea. I saw an old interview of Ollie from like, I don't know, 2023 talking about a lucky sixpence

used to carry with him from his great grandma when he was in his car in an F4 days. And so I was like, well, let's propose that. There's like an idea for a helmet. You can have the queen, glistening, sparkles, all that kind of stuff. And pitched a few ideas to Olli. He picked that one, Brandon, put it together. And he's running it for these four Grand Prix, four night races towards the end of the year. So pretty cool to have your name on the back of an F1 driver's helmet.

Yeah, your name is flying around. around the Singapore circuit and hopefully with no software issues. As for the other kind of a bit of an anonymous session really when you look at it, the only disappointing thing, and maybe this is just my bias, is Fernando Alonzo being down in 15th because I really expected something from Ashton Martin this weekend. I thought it's a track that should have suited them a little bit more. and what we saw from Alonso in particular in Malaysia I thought

Bahrain in Malaysia and that we we could have seen something a bit more special from him but 15th is a is a disappointing one because we know Alonzo is a bit of a a master at Singapore hey listen Tommy he might have been he might have been 8th but the Tybaltas just messed it up just let's just say that you know yeah yeah yeah he should have had actually, the FAA should have given him. You know how there was this whole weird story where MBS asked Alonzo what he needed?

The FAA just press a button and give Alonzo, you know, like, just give him 27 seconds of extra boost and we're solid. That'll solve everything. Yeah, ridiculous. Right, let's move on to SQ3 where the big one

of course in the top ten were Verstappen, Russell, Leclair, Piaastri, Norris Hamilton, Antonelli, Lawson, Hadjar and Gasly. The first question coming in from P1 Patreon Longo, 1996, can Max finally break the curse he has

and win at Singapore? Now, this is obviously as the bias Max for Stappan fan here. I will say that it's an interesting one this because correct me if I'm wrong Tomo like I said as the fan boy here but it's not like this is a bad track for Max Verstappen.

It's not like he really struggles here. He's had a lot of second places, you know, second last, for the last couple of years. He had a brilliant race in his debut year, actually, in a Toro Rossi. And it's, you know, the problems have come from like, you know, he's had the, of course, the famous one was him getting knocked out by Lawson when Rebel were really struggling in that year where they were dominant, of course. But yeah, it's a funny one, isn't it, that Max has never won here. The fact that he's won at every other track apart from Madrid, of course, which is new and only had one race.

But never won here. But boy, is he looking good around this track. He looks absolutely dominant. You know, he's continued where he left off in Sopang. Well, I think that's Max's approach. He's just full send straight away. And as you got out of him in your podcast, you know, that kind of suits him a sprint weekend where he's just on it straight. away. The walls are there, so there's no margin forever and he's just, you know he's going to get

to that ceiling, like, quicker than anyone else will. And again, I guess because there's those two high profile are going to have it to bail out of quality towards the end because of the fuel. And then, of course, yeah, we've lost and getting bumped in quality. And then the race where, like, the Red Bull was just skidding along the floor constantly and he had that big lockup going wheel to land. I think because there's those high profile moments, that's what you default to. in the same way that you default to Lewis's 2018 lap where you think about Lewis in Singapore. So I think, you know, Max is looking very good for it this weekend

and can maybe make some more positive memories. But you're right. This is not a bogey track for him, not by any stretch of the map. It's just there's been a few over recent years, but haven't quite gone his way. But, yeah, I mean, the slow speed corners, obviously very good in Baku, the Red Bull was. It's a different track, but ultimately,

there's not too much at Singapore or back. in terms of medium and high speed. So we know the Red Bull works in these conditions well. And we know the power units performing well. And we know that, I mean, Mercedes as well being like George's closest. But I mean, who knows with air car? Yeah, yeah. We'll get onto Mercedes in a bit.

But yeah, Max is looking absolutely rapid this weekend. Gatsu, by the way, as well. Yes, we'll dive into a question actually from P1 Patreon, Anna Bjerk. Is the Red Bull's second seat curse back? Hadjar was almost 0.9 seconds off the Stappan before track limits. So yeah, Hadjar all the way down in ninth got his lap time deleted. He has looked nowhere near Vastappan this weekend. But we had this conversation quite briefly on the watch along

and I was talking about Hadjar and how he is so hard to assess this year. He's got the dream ticket. I think a lot of people maybe think me and Matt are being too harsh when we say that we're grading him. and stuff in our drive ratings and things where he's finished maybe like a P5 or something, but he's finished so far behind Max and Max is like, you know, even last time out, won the race, for example. And again, we're seeing a situation where because Max isn't challenging for the title,

it's not so high pressure. And of course, Red Bullets are a very different team as well with the fact that you've not got the big personalities of Christian Horner and Helmut Marco that if they were there would probably be talking about this a lot and there'd be lots of question marks and and it almost seems like you know they've signed him on again that they're happy to continue with him and and see what he can do and but yeah it's he's his way off max at the moment but the argument always is maybe that's just standard Formula One but you'd think in a new regulation that wouldn't be as

extreme now yeah I mean look the bar is lower for Isaac than any other teammate relative to their team mate because of those who came before and I guess the question for everyone to kind of think about is how low should it be you know because this is this isn't a Christian Horne Helmut Marco rebel Adrian Newey rebel anymore either right so you've got you've got Pierre you've got all of these new people as well as existing people taking kind of stepping up in terms of their roles developing the car Lauren coming in as team principal as well and so yeah I think they obviously see a lot in Isaac and we know that these regular I mean he was right there pace with Max at

times in Baku however Max definitely was the quicker of course he was right so we're just having this kind of same conversation again ultimately like Max is Max And so he is Like There's such a phrase of F1 now, isn't it? Max is Mac Yeah But he's an anomaly in the sport of

He is and he spent his entire team at Rebel Racing as well So so you know Max is as ingrained as any driver could possibly be at the team He is also the best driver on the grid right now And arguably the greatest of all time Like absolutely he's in that conversation of course he is So it's like What is a fair?

because, look, Red Bull need to, yes, he's extended his contract till 2030, but they were faced with a possibility he could have walked away from the sport. You know, that was well documented for a future without Max. And can they, can Isaac show, and I think he has shown already more than his prede prede' prede, his context to be in within that team was Max winning titles and it being in the best car and the gaps and all this kind of stuff. So everyone looks at, you know, the Albon, the Ghazli, the Lawson, the Sonoda Gaps to Max, and they're all like three to six tenths.

Well, Lawson, Lawson, like you look at this, right, and Hadjar being 0.9 off the Stappen, Lawson had that, you know, when he went to Red Bull and it puts him last on the grid and an absolute embarrassment, he's P20 and he's having to, you know, get dropped from Red Bull after the first couple of races. So it's tough. It's tough for the drivers that are probably looking on going, you know, I wish I was there now and could do a good job. EZAC's averaged within a couple of tenths of Max this season,

just within a couple of tenths, right? There's been about two tenths. And nine tenths off, like how much of this is just some random glitch with the power delivery? Like, we don't know. And maybe it's a track that Max could really excel on this weekend, because it's not always nine-tenths as well. And this is what annoys me about these regulations.

It's hard enough as it is. And then you add all of these like, oh, did the algorithm? Like you went off and then the algorithm just pooped its pants. And then all of a sudden is nine. The algorithm. Yeah, yeah. I know what you mean. Yeah.

There's so much question marks. And I think with Hadjar, the most interesting thing is going to be if, and I hope for my sake when Max challenges for a title again, maybe next year based on what we've kind of seen the last few races, is that going to be where Hadjar starts feeling the pressure a lot more when he does need to be that rig for Max? And it does mean a lot more than him being able to just find his feet because he's in a nice place at the moment where at the end of the day, we'll talk about him in a sec, or maybe we'll do it now, we'll move on to this question, but like Liam Lawson is ahead of him in a V-carb who's having this unbelievable season, of course, gone

there. We've got a question from motorized Kiwi. Are racing bulls waiting for a mistake from Lawson to justify not renewing his contract? And I think they are in a massive predicament here because they've got Solov waiting in the wings and you could argue that if F2, if he wins Formula 2, what more can he do as a Red Bull Jr? And Red Bull Juniors have always been promised that if you deliver in that category, you then get promoted. But the problem that they've got now is Max is staying. Hadja's been, howjah's staying, Lynn Blad's done a great job, and Lawson is having an absolutely phenomenal season. So what I, I worry they could get rid of Lawson and I don't think that's any, and I don't agree with, I don't agree with it. I think, I don't think they should. I

to be absolutely insane to, but I worry they could. And I think that would be desperately unfair because I think Lawson's been brilliant this season. Yeah, and I think ultimately it's a shame for Liam. There's no real other opportunity out there for this year. I think, I actually think there's a justification to keeping Lawson beyond Solov, which is Limblad, because Lindblad's clearly, clearly very, very good, right? He's very, very young.

He's not even got his practical, he's done his theory test, but he's not got his practice. He's not got a driving license. Yeah, crazy. he's been doing the better job this year. And so I think you kick that can down the road one year, give Lawson another year next year, alongside Limblad, helps Limblad's growth. And maybe, yeah, maybe Red Bull aren't going to, you know, long term that Lawson doors kind of closed, but then it gives an opportunity for a seat to open for Liam.

He's doing a superb job by every metric this year is Liam. He's been arguably the most consistent driver in the midfield. So I think, and Solov, you know, a year on the sidelines, I mean, Forneroni won back-to-back F3 and F2 titles and didn't get a seat. like there's no guarantees from junior fours anyway and he's a new generation yeah drug eviction as well he's won it so i i i think it's sensible to keep lulson i'd be surprised if they go solov um but who knows indeed right we'll go move on to ferrari now and a question from dutch swgai why is it always that on mediums in sq1 and sq2 Ferrari looks quick but then they put on the softs and sq3 and they're not as fast now i do have a little uh it sounds very familiar

if you didn't join us for the watch along and matt did send me a voice note we are going to have to bleep uh some naughty words that he's given at the end but this was matt's summary of uh the qualifying session that i just play for you now as a as a voice note it's a story as old as time Ferrari looking incredible on the mediums and then don't even get front row they put on softs. Oh, I was about to try to leave away before he said that. So we'll bleep that. We'll leave that from that.

As you can see, he's very happy about that situation. But it happens again and again, and it's just running joke now, isn't it, that Ferrari, as soon as they get there, because they were looking great. You know, SQ2, LeClair and Hamilton were up at the front fighting. I predicted Hamilton to win this weekend. he's been great around here and should be a track that suits Ferrari because it's not so much about the power unit and we've kind of seen that trend in the fact the Mercedes haven't been on it but the problem for Ferrari is as soon as they get on the softs they are just just poor and yeah Leclair managed P3 Hamilton P6 but a lot of people I think fairly you know questioning

why he only did one run yeah and had weird track conditions but yeah not not the day Ferrari would have wanted again just Ferrari being Ferrari and doing Ferrari things when the hope that kills you. I mean, even with Lewis there at the team, I mean, it's been very, you know, broadly spoken about all of the conflict going on there, him trying to bring some, I've got seven world titles everyone. Like, you kind of know what I'm talking about. And Ferrari kind of reverting to the norm.

So, yeah, I mean, the only issue is like next season, I expect. Porelli would maybe, you know, look to offset the tires a bit more to make them a bit softer because we're getting too many races that could be done on one set of tires. And to make them even softer only hurts Ferrari more because then all of a sudden the C5 becomes C3 to 5 this weekend. The C5 might become the C4 next year. And then all of a sudden there's an even softer compound for Ferrari to get their heads around. So, yeah, Tofosi, I don't know how you do it. I really don't. No, I don't either.

and yeah unusual that Hamilton was just sort of like out on his own in a weird part of the track who knows because it was a fun lap to watch yeah it was on the edge but yeah it seemed it's very weird that you know Hamilton had that run because he again looking quick he's good around Singapore and I don't think sixth place reflects kind of how he's been before we move on to Mercedes a quick note on McLaren who were fourth and fifth otherwise known as Ferrari's territory that they're always in. But yeah, McLaren, again, they looked like a pretty good shout for pole position as well,

really came out of nowhere towards the end, but nowhere near in the end. I do want to give a shout to Oscar Piastri because I think halfway through the session, I was worried that maybe, you know, Lando had like found something and maybe Oscar's good performances from the last couple had maybe just been the fact that they'd kind of Lando had had problems but they seemingly have found that Lando that they've kind of got it all things working again and Oscar's done a good job in P4 but still you know not quite where McLaren want to be when they were looking really strong in that middle part of the season and looking like they were okay now McLaren are going to be the ones challenging for

wins particularly in the hands of Lando yeah because when Lando won those races Like he won those races. It was like a decent margin. And then all of a sudden it's, I mean, that's, again, positive about this year regulation-wise. Rarely do you see what four different teams winning in the first year of a new regulation set. And it be so up and down, obviously Mercedes down this timeout. So, yeah, I mean, McLaren know how to develop a fantastic racing car.

We know this. Can they make that Mercedes power unit per like it does in the, in the daddy team. We'll see. But, yeah, I mean, Lando's just relentless. Like, he's always up to speed

very quickly and he's pretty consistent through quality. Oscar seems to kind of leave it till late, and he's still been doing that this year because the actual quality gap between them has been pretty close. But I think we'll see over a race distance, because that's typically where Lando's really been able to kind of flex and pull away from Oscar. So, I mean, we'll see in the sprint.

Maybe that won't be enough. time to actually get a proper read on them. But yeah, I'm hopeful for Oscar, but I think Lando's driving at a top level right now. Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's had a really, really strong season. Obviously, the last two races haven't gone to plan for Lando, but no, he's been brilliant. Just a little update that I've just seen Chris Medellins just tweeted about that the FAA confirming that it was human error that meant overtake mode wasn't active after the red flag.

There's a good excuse, isn't it, to replace all humans with robots and no, a human. As pesky humans. Yeah, humans ruining everything again. And, yes, I'm sure an FIA statement hearing the word human error has not triggered many people at all. Nothing comes to mind. No, nothing comes to mind. We'll move on to Mercedes. And P1 Patreon Blackson has asked, what's the verdict on the Mercedes upgrades,

George being faster on the old package is not a good sign for Mercedes. Very, very confusing this whole situation with Mercedes. And if you're unaware, Antonelli is kind of running those new upgrades. George has reverted back to essentially what he had in Baku. And of course, we all know how good he was in Baku. And what I find funny about this is people will always run with a narrative of kind of what's going on. in the sport at the moment. And when I saw Twitter basically announcing,

and the news coming out, that George had reverted to an old car, the way it was being worded was like, George gets the old car, Golden Boy, Kimmy Antoninili gets the brilliant new car, this is just classic George sabotage and favoritism and stuff, when actually, you know, when you put it like that, of you could re-wed that the other way and actually go,

well, George is much more comfortable in that Baku spec, and he's gone to that. And it's funny now looking back on that and thinking, wow, like, you know, these Mercedes upgrades seemingly have gone backwards,

or at least in George's hands, he is much more comfortable in that car that he had in Baku because he was brilliant in Baku, completely dominated the whole weekend. And, you know, he was close to pole position and, um,

or polling the sprint and Antonelli is absolutely nowhere down in 7th. Yeah, like hearing from George saying that the data for the new upgrades indicates that it's working yet the lap time doesn't lie. Like, I don't know, Tommy.

That must be so weird for a driver. If we're looking at Mercedes now who, not to overreact here, but at the end of the day, right, ground effect was... You're saying championship back on. So it's... Faye.

don't get ahead of yourself alright I might come to that maybe we'll see the mental gymnastics might get there eventually was it look ground effect was abject failure right they McLaren outperformed them even towards the end they weren't able to deliver

a consistent package and they couldn't add enough downfalls to that car and they've started this year obviously they've got the Mercedes power unit which is the best and they had the additional level of understanding McLaren complained about that earlier in the year blah blah blah like is it

are we at the point now where I think there's probably enough of a body of evidence to suggest that Mercedes simulation tools and their wind tunnel or whatever, there's something wrong there where they're not able to develop relative, at least, to Ferrari, whose car, I think aerodynamically is very good. McLaren's car is very aerodynamically good,

and of course, Red Bull as well. I think they're probably in that... But judging over the last four, five years in totality, since 2022 anyway, Mercedes probably have been forth best at developing the car aerodynamically. I'm going to call them engine merchant, so we. But yeah, I think there's some truth to that. And I don't think it was maybe there was enough made of the fact that Mercedes started the year,

like you say, with all this knowledge of that power unit and were so, so strong. And of course, have been developing their car around their power unit and knowing everything, that by when did Landau start winning like what round 13 14 something like that

within that McLaren were massively on the back foot and got to the point where they were beating the Mercedes works team again in an engine formula I think is not a good look

for Mercedes and I don't think it's complete panic stations they're going to win the world championship very easily with both of them you know

constructors and drivers title but I don't you know, there's got to be some question marks if it continues, going into next year. And if we don't see, if we don't see them continuing to win and we see McCarran take a step forward and just look how good Max has been recently, maybe there are slight worrying signs going into next year. I think absolutely. And I think, again, I think it's George being pragmatic because the championship's lost for him. Like, of course it is, right? So he needs to make sure that, because he's in a fight not just with Kimmy next year,

you know, Max and Lando and Oscar and, you know, Isaac and maybe the Ferraris are going to be a factor, I think, a bigger factor. Could be Ferrari here next year. Maybe. I've got to put him in there on our time we come. And yeah, yeah, so he needs to think, all right, well, clearly this is not good. They've been making a song and a dance of, oh, we've saved this big upgrade for, you know, later in the year where everyone else.

else has, I mean, at least the top teams, Ferrari have been iterating loads, bringing loads of upgrades. Red Bull have completely changed their car seemingly performance worse since the start of the season. And it's immediately like, what is this upgrade? Is this actually a side grade or a downgrade? We don't know. Help, which is not ideal. Not ideal. Not what you want to hear.

Sorry, before I carry on, I've just seen a quote from Carlos Science regarding the, I'll read this out because this is pretty savage. This is Carlos Sainz speaking about the software issues, which we want to talk about. Half of the cars did a lap with half a second quicker engines than the others. There was another software issue for whatever reason. The FIA didn't decide to do sporting equity again and were happy to do qualifying with half of the cars with higher power. I'm a bit confused why this sport keeps doing different things depending on who is in Q1 or who is out in lap 1. Oh, that's a dig at Hamilton then. That's a dig at Hamilton after the software issues.

And Fernando was saying it about how they basically changed everything there, didn't they? So yeah, I mean, look, it opens up a can of worms when you have these unprecedented situations and they have to fumble around with a solution and don't know what to do because, you know, it's embarrassing for Formula One. Is it more embarrassing if they completely redid the whole session, essentially? It's ridiculous, isn't it? I mean, again, like, we are, once again, as you said earlier, Tommy, they are lucky. They're lucky.

They've got away with this in a sprint quality session. They are 100%. Realistically, those top eight positions that, you know, happen to align perfectly with a top four teams with two cars each, right? So that's probably how it's going to play out tomorrow. But, yeah, it's just like, I don't know, like these issues, it feels like these things are happening more often. It really does.

Yeah, and again, it's going to get thrown under the. like it's going to get swept under the rug because just, oh, it's only SQ. Oh, it doesn't matter. It's only a Williams. Who cares? But like I say, if that happened for the championship leaders, the controversy would be off the charts. We're going to end it there. Tom, I thank you very much for joining.

Whether we see you tomorrow, whether Matt's better. I've not even asked if you can make it tomorrow and be a super sub again if Matt isn't there. But thanks very much for joining, as always, mate. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Thank you all for listening, watching. And while on, boys. I'm proud of you guys getting the Verstappen interview. Get that to 2 mil. Get it to 2 mil. Thanks. We're nearly on 2 mil. And yeah, go sub to Tomo and we really appreciate him. Jumping in last minute.

Cool. Happy to be reserved for a while. Thanks a lot, guys. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye. P1 is a stack production and part of the ACAST creator network.