P1 with Matt and Tommy - Reaction to the Stake and Williams F1 car launches

Episode Date: February 5, 2024

Williams and Stake managed to launch their cars on the same day - so let's talk about them! We're here with a first look at a couple of swish designs that will look lovely as Max Verstappen laps them.Subscribe to our brand new channel, 'Wheel Knowledge' right here!You can sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to exclusive episodes you won't hear anywhere else, every P1 episode ad-free, full driver interview videos, early access to tickets and more!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 P-1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. We are well and truly in the depths of Formula One car launches now. And we have not one, but two to talk about today. Because apparently Tom Bellingham, two Formula One teams can't talk to each other about when they're going to do car launches, so they do it on the same day. Madness. There's literally a day off to my. as well. It makes absolutely no sense. But here we are. Two launches in one day. Two launches in one day.

And first and foremost, we're going to start with Williams because they started at the first part of the day. So they deserve our first thoughts. And that is exactly where we're going to start. First thoughts on the livery. And for me, a reasonable banger. Now, Williams have chefed. They've cooked it up. Going from, you know, I like to bring it up, Tom Bellingham, only a few years ago, stating it was one of the worst liveries they've ever created, something like you'd see on an F1 game default, my team career mode kind of vibe where you just kind of stick loads of different colours together.

Now, I think it's beautiful. I genuine, I love the light and the dark blue and how that kind of combines. I have seen a bit of confusion with some people seeing renders online and thinking it's blue and black. Yes, there are some bits of black because, of course, they're trying to weight save. But the main dark blue area

that I think people are getting confused by is dark blue. blue and not black. For now. Yeah. Yeah, it is very cool. It's essentially like an evolution of last year. They've got a few new sponsors, which is great to see.

So obviously Williams doing well because they've had a very bare looking car sponsor-wise for a while now. But I did really like it last year. This year again, they've done a really good job. It's really nicely. Stired looks smart. And they're kind of going for the, which is the PR. spin anyway. They're trying to like merge all their histories together with a bit of like navy blue and white overalls and lighter blue and a bit of red and all this kind of stuff.

But yeah, I think they've done a very solid job. Yeah, I think it's worthy of a lot of praise. I really like it. There's not much I would probably change about it, to be honest with you. And obviously the race suits was another talking point because they are pretty much all white with just a little bit of blue on the arms. And I quite like that as well. I think it's quite clean, it's quite slick, and the drivers will stand out in the car as opposed to, I guess, if they had a dark and light blue overalls, perhaps they didn't, what they wanted to kind of be a little bit more contrasty and went for the white. But again, some people were complaining a little bit about it, but of course it's car lodges, liver as everything's subjective to your own

opinion. But yeah, I personally, like the white overalls as well. Yeah, yeah, they look cool, a bit retro maybe as well. Another thing that caught a lot of people's attention is, one of their new sponsors which is called Kamatsu which is the surname of the new Hass Team Principal and I saw Hass having some banter online about like why have you got our team principal's name on your car which is quite funny but jokes aside it is good to see that Williams

actually have some sponsors on the car now because they are moving on up it seems they are moving on up I almost break into song then because that's a great song but I'm not going to do that first question comes in from P1 Patreon member Ruben, how much blue will be left on the car in Bahrain? That is a big talking point. And I think it will be the same for the other car that has launched today as well.

Because we have seen over the last couple of years cars be rolled out in their launches. Oh, that's quite nice. But then they have testing and then they look at the data and go, right, we need to save every millisecond we can how much can come off the car and then they start stripping back little things and then all of a sudden there's not as much on the side pods or on the front wing

and that's just the sad state of affairs right now in Formula One. I don't know why, for whatever reason Formula One haven't gone down the route of making that change so that cars and teams can be more decorative but yes, it is certainly something that is an option for all teams

and I just hope it doesn't happen. It probably will. Yeah, it probably will. The cynic in me is saying that they've used dark navy blue deliberately because that's the bit that it will look very similar if they just get rid of the navy blue. I know that's something like if you study like the Red Bull and stuff, that's obviously a really dark blue that almost looks black

and they can take little bits off of paint off. and you kind of don't even notice that the livery's change, and that to me sounds like something that maybe that's what Williams are going for. I hope I'm wrong. And it would still fit, I guess, with the juror sale branding as well, because there's black up there. Yeah, exactly. I'm not, if you're listening, Williams, we don't want this to happen,

but we know, we see what you're doing. We see what you're doing, the James Viles master plan. But, yeah, it is a shame that that is going, how it's going, because it's just, it's just disappointing that we're, going to see so much exposed carbon again, which I thought wasn't going to be the case. We'll get onto it later, but that's now four very dark cars, although two of them have very bright colours as well with the black, but it is very much like, yeah, 50% of all cars now seem to be to be carbon, which is quite annoying when you think back to a few years ago when the

were like quite vibrant. Exactly. Next question comes in from P1 Patreon member, TVR driver. James Vowles has been making lots of improvements in the way the team operates despite the limited budget in previous years. How likely are they to challenge

for sixth position this year? Very specific there, TVR driver, sixth position. Why not first? This is what James Vowels would probably say in a team meeting. But look, Daddy Vowles, he's clearly been cooking. He's got a fantastic haircut as well.

from the car launches. And lots of compliments on our Twitch, wasn't he? I fully believe in him, to be honest with you. I did from the moment he took over and just the way in which he conducts himself, he looks like he has all the answers. Whether it's how do I cook this spag bowl correctly

to how do I build a Formula One car? I just feel like he'll have all the answers to everything. So yeah, I absolutely believe in the James Vowls takeover of Williams so far and of course some people thought that this is just the pathway for him eventually taking over from from sort of Toto Wolf and Mercedes

and going into that sort of route as well whether that will happen later down the line, who knows. But for now, there's not much more that we can say. We can't say, yes, they're going to get sixth because James Fowles is looking good and has a good presence. Yeah, yeah, we don't know until we see a bit of testing and we get a better idea, but Williams are definitely improving

year by year you think they were of course the laughing stock of the of the grid for for a few years where they were just not scoring any points and they were truly like appalling and James Vowelsers got in and that car was was good last year like we saw what Alex Albin could do with it and put it in some very good places indeed and got a good amount of points so six is definitely ambitious but I don't think it's completely out of the question. You never know. It would be amazing if they did, because I think James Vowles said this before that, you know, he's a realist with stuff. He's not expecting, you know, them to suddenly do like a Braun GP and win the World Championship. But it's that slow progress and planning for the future. And they are definitely going in the right direction. So it's good, good times for Williams. Certainly. They're on the year's sentencing. And that's all that can be asked of Williams so far. And maybe in a few years time,

they'll start challenging slightly further up. But that's the difficult thing. It's all well and good going from the laughing stock to the midfield, but then going from the midfield towards the front is that next massive hurdle that some teams just aren't able to do. So fingers crossed for Williams, though. Right, let's move on to steak now. And they've been cooking, but only to sort of like medium rare,

because that's my favourite. They've been cooking with toxic waste. Wow. Ah, because of the bright. That wouldn't be good to stick a steak in a toxic waste, would it? No. That's now reminded me of those really sour sweets at school. Did you ever have toxic waste?

Oh, yeah, the extreme chutes. My God, these are to blow your head off. Anyway, back to the livery. Oh, they've been chefing. Tommy, you give us your first thoughts. Go on. My first thoughts is stop moaning about a livery doing something exciting. I was going to say the only thing I was moaning when that came out.

Fair. Yeah, no, I like it. In a positive way, before anyone thinks of it. Yeah, it is, it's bold. Is it garish? Yes. Is it bold? Yes.

Does it look a bit sort of cheesy? Yes. Does it look a bit my team, garish? Yes. But what's wrong with that? Like, it's cool. Like, we're complaining about there's too much carbon. Hasse is a great example that, you know,

we're saying that their color palette is. is white and red. It's so unoriginal and just makes it a bit dull. But you have that pop of colour, which is exactly like what McLaren have done, and that looks really cool, like black and orange works really well together. Of course, green always divides opinion,

especially the vibrant green that it is. You know, I've seen a lot of people, like this livery, I feel like will be people giving it nine and ten out of ten or one or two out of ten. but the reality is that it's exciting and boy will it pop when it's 15th wow when it's getting lapped we'll see it yeah oh that looks good yeah max for stephens coming up to a stake here that's quite clear to see and to be fair max will be able to

see them very clearly as well no matter what the conditions even in heavy rain as yes funny because you were saying about the whole you know polarizing opinions of this obviously i tweet mostly about all the car launches at this stage and you have like someone going oh I can't explain it, but I like this. You've got someone else saying, you know, I absolutely love it. And then you've got, this green is too ugly. It's very, yeah, one way or the other. But then you ask yourself, well, what, what do you want? What would be something that's, like, so clear of an identity. And that's what you want from liveries. And I'm of the same opinion as you, Tommy. I love it. I think it's great. I think maybe I would change the way in which the green is on the car.

There's some parts of it, maybe I'm not so much a fan of where there's a lot of exposure. carbon on the side. And some of the angles, I'm like, eh, could maybe change it slightly. But overall, I'm not going to get too nitpicky because everybody's opinions are different. And I still am very happy with how they've done this because I thought it was going to be minimally green

with a lot of black. But they've put on more than they needed to, I guess in some ways, I would say. For now. That is again, they've gone, oh, social media says there's too much green. Your wish has been grunt. Here you go.

Yes. We can't come. They can't win. Teams can never win. You're not going to please everybody. But I think when we were on Twitch and a lot of people were saying they're a big fan of it, I think it was about a 50-50 split of the poll that we did

between Williams and Steak in terms of who they liked more. But they're both banging liveries. So I would say it's, you know, tomato, tomato. No, that's not that. I think as well, like probably I'd dare say, that there's probably maybe Visa CashUp if they do something crazy but I don't think that's going to be...

You think they will? Yeah, I think... Stick an ATM on the side? Like you just put a flipping debit card in there and pick a pin it in there. That's going to be interesting because they've got... From their teaser images, they're going back to the Torosso blue and white. They've kept the Allend sponsorship,

which is obviously the bright red. And Visa Cash app is bright green like steak. So that could be bold. But... So that could be crazy, but I think certainly so far at least as well, like this will be one of the launches that surprises people most. Whether you love it or hate it, I'm sure a lot of people's reaction either good or bad was,

oh, wow, that's something. Because we're so used to now seeing livery season and we all complain, don't we, when they launched the livery. It's exactly the same. And it's like, oh, that was a bit underwhelming. you cannot say that steak hasn't whelmed us. Exactly. It's solidly welcoming.

Question, Ryan A.F. At what point can we all agree that the steak car is ugly and should never be repeated? We can't all agree. I bet Ryan is a massive fan of the Hass livery. I reckon that's that kind of... Ryan is screaming Hass fan to me. But look, it's people's opinions.

I don't think... I don't agree. I don't think you do either, Tommy, and I'm sure a lot of people don't as well, that it's exciting that teams can be a bit creative, and surely that's good for the sport, even if you maybe don't like a certain colour. I'd much prefer to have 10 different kind of liveries that are similar to the steak in terms of garish and bold

and pink and green and orange and whatever it might be. Sorry, papaya, that rather than these... Someone definitely shout at their screen or listening at the podcast, as you said, orange as well, which is funny. Oh, yeah, 100%. McLaren fans get triggered with that. But you're absolutely right. And also it's like one livery as well.

So we have, we know Ferrari's going to be the same. We know Mercedes probably is going to be the same. Aster Martin will be their green like Red Bull be the same. Like these are brands. So why not have a team, like one team that's doing something a bit different and crazy. And there is definitely room for one team to do something very garish and ridiculous. and I'm here for it because say what you like about BWT and pink, it all stands out, that car will be remembered 20 years time

when they don't sponsor Formula One anymore. There'll be a lot of F1 fans going, oh, remember the pink VWT car, that was wild, wasn't it? You're not going to remember your black and white has sliveries and things like that. So it's bold, it stands out, and we will remember it, and we'll see it on the grid, and you'll have your manufacturers that look a bit smarter and more corporate. But I think there's absolutely room on the Formula One grid to have a team that just go a bit loud and ridiculous.

Yeah, why not? That's what I loved about that, like, the era when I started watching, like you had kind of a bit kooky, crazy livery. It's like, you know, Jordan would put like a snake on the front of the car and things like that. It's just a bit crazy. So, yeah, it's cool. Question from Asher win. Are Stake F1 testing all year long for Audi with all that flovis paint?

Good one. Although it might actually look even better if they just whack on more flove. And it's just a full green car. Maybe there's thinking there. And then how do teams learn what their Aero is doing if they can't see it because everything is green? So what you're saying is... This is big brain. Stake F1 to win the world championship.

or they confuse themselves and they finish last because they don't know what they're doing. Or that. The positivity, Tommy, you know. Yes, it is going to look very interesting. And I did, you know, the whole car launch I did enjoy like, oh, this is a new era. You know, we're not just staking for,

and we want to be challenging for at the front and blow it. And I'm like, bro, you're going to be here two years. Then Aldi's here. Yeah, and there's not a regulation change. Like, I mean, the only thing more, insane than that livery would be if stake finish anything higher than about seventh in the Constructors Championship to be honest like I don't see how that's going to happen obviously teams will always talk the talk with their car launches and you know you know you know

you know Hasse aren't going to be well I say HASS they did literally say they were going to be 10th but they said not a great example but yeah teams aren't going to go oh yeah we're going to be all right or like as their marketing campaign like they're always going to do something about fun and kind of unleashed or whatever this one is. A new era. A new era.

We're going to finish eighth in the constructors. But also, you know, Audi, we're all complaining now that and then Audi will come along and it'll be white, red and black and look like a hasse and we'll all be like,

oh, that's a bit dull, isn't it? Yeah, bring back steak. Bring back the bright green. But it is a fascinating era of this team now because like you say they are in between

two eras if you like Alpha Romeo and Audi and Audi talked the talk didn't they big time when they when they revealed that show car and they slandered like made a cheeky dig at Mercedes and stuff

and being like oh we're going to be this big team and you kind of like they have to deliver now and I don't think they will until 2026 but yeah going to be interesting to see if they move up the grid I'm not holding my breath no I don't think they are at all

I don't I don't think how would he because if he does go there it is literally going to be a case of like one year at a very maybe maybe Carlos be interesting to know his thoughts on the overalls and whether that changes his mind or not he's gone actually

nah I think I'll wait until 26. Yeah. One final thing I think to talk about from the car launch is absolutely how divine Valtry Bottas was looking. With his new hair, again, kind of bleached blonde. Oh yeah, we need to talk about how when they revealed the drivers, they had little like top Trump cards about them. And Joe's fun fact or whatever, sorry, it wasn't even fun fact. It was like achievements.

Yeah. was that he was the first Chinese driver in Formula One and Bottas' achievement was, as a good mullet. The guys won 10 Grand Prix. 10 Grand Prix, but he does have a great mullet. To be fair, in recent times, we speak more about the mullet than we do his wins.

And also, I feel like he would have liked that more than saying 10 wins. He probably looked at it and went, yeah, perfect. That works for me. Right, I think that pretty much sums up our thoughts for both the Williams and state car launches. Don't worry at the end of the end of all of this we will do our ratings for each and every one of them so that we can

decide which carbon car with a bit of colour on we like best yes Tommy is excited about it I promise and what are your final thoughts Mr Bellingham my final thoughts are well-done steak for doing something garish and bright looking well done steak good one yeah very clever. You think you're smart, don't you? You know? Yeah. Well done. I cooked there. Oh, God. Anyway, thank you. Thank you for watching or listening. It's been a pleasure. We'll be back in a couple of days' time for Alpine, where we will have a three and a half hour conference, followed by a pink and a blue car, and then we'll go, oh my God. And then that will be the end of that.

So we look forward to it, don't we time? Absolutely. And also subscribe to Will Knowledge. Bye! Do you not like my mistake, Jay? Was it a rare W? I was about to say that that was a rare thing. Just turn it off.

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