P1 with Matt and Tommy - Saudi Arabian GP Driver Ratings: F1-to-10

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

We're back with some spicy driver ratings after Saturday's blast around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, featuring a few disagreements between us - and a couple of disagreements between Tommy and you listeners!Tickets for our live shows in April have almost sold out - get yours right here! If you like what you heard in that teaser clip, 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.

everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt Tommy. We are here with our final reflection on the second race of the year, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and it's F1 driver ratings time. And one that Tommy, I feel as though there could be some saucy grades. I don't feel like everybody can just agree on, because Bahrain felt as though there was only one way you can really go with most drivers. This one, perhaps with different strategies and some playing risks, it could make it interesting. It is a bit more interesting than the last one that did feel like it was a bit lights to flag.

But on this one, yeah, there's a few interesting drivers that I think will be fascinating to see which way we've gone with things. Very fascinating indeed. Now, before we get into our driver ratings, we recently discussed the infamous 2021 Saudi Arabia and Grand Prix. over on our Patreon. Here's a quick clip to give you a little taster of what you get if you join the old P1 Patreon. That wasn't the end of the controversy slash drama as the whole incident that went on

between Vastappan and Hamilton was investigated. And this is when we had the beauty of Team Radio, wasn't it? This is where we could hear the FIA radio speaking to the teams. God, I bet they regret that so much. Oh my God. Yeah, having actual transparency. It made this whole thing so much worse.

It really did because we had some transcripts. So the FIA said to Red Bull, I'm going to give you the opportunity. Based on what occurred at turns one and two, we would drop you back behind Hamilton. That is my offer, said Michael Massey. Like it's a game of deal or no deal at the moment. That in itself is a wild thing to do.

That's never happened. The wording. wording of that, that is my offer. It just embarrassing, really, isn't it? No, you are the rulemaker. You are the race director. You give a penalty. You tell them what you're they going to do. And that's it, isn't it?

And the ironic thing is this was, because we probably won't mention it at the end, because there's also so much to talk about. But Christian Horner actually mentioned that Michael Massey and this whole situation sounded like, I think he described it as like a market stall, like bargaining, like kind of tactics. And Red Bull arguably were in the, you know, had the best offer here that they were getting an offer for it. Very, very weird. Bizarre. Very bizarre.

So Red Bull said, yep, we understand that. We'll accept that. We understand the order will be Ockon, Hamilton and Vestappen. And the FI said, yes, that is correct. So there was a heated debate over the team radios between the FIA, Mercedes and Red Bull. and then eventually settled the starting grid for the next standing start, which is what we got. And this time, for Stappen made a good start on the medium tyres,

to make it three wide into term one. Okay, let's get into driver ratings then and begin with Kevin Magnerson. He qualified 13th and finished 12th. I am going to lock in for KMAG, the defensive train conductor, a seven out of ten. Tommy's giving all kinds of facial expressions here. I can't give him any higher than a seven because the bloke was absolutely on it with penalties. And I feel as though that you have to take that into account. He obviously did a great job for Nika Holkenberg, got Hass a point.

But the only reason he did was because he shoved Albon in the wall, got him some front wing damage, and then overtook Sonoda off the track, and then decided to slow down the rest of the cars behind him, which was, you know, Minister of Defence stuff. But let's not forget. And also as well, you know, we were like, oh, KMAG, that was a great drive. But you can't ignore the fact that he was breaking rules in order to make this happen. So that's why I'm locking in a seven. I have gone for Kevin Magnuson a five out of ten

because yeah you know this this one is a controversial one to essentially kick things off because essentially he's done a fantastic team job but like you say it's based on his erratic driving his move on Albon was ridiculous his move on Sonoda was illegal and you can argue that he might have even got points himself if he didn't drive so badly

but then when it was his chance to defend like a lion he did everything he needed to do so he's a really difficult driver to rate because he did what he did for the team but only because he was a bit useless so how do you grade it? I love how I've like said seven because he got penalties thinking that I was saying like I'm not going to give them any higher because of the penalties and you've gone five because of the penalties. I love that. Well, I think some people will have gone crazy, crazy high with it.

And I bet it's like quite split between who actually, let's have a look. Let me, I've got the fan vote here. And I can actually tell you that, well, 24% of people gave him an 8 out of 10. So that's the fan vote, 8 out of 10 for KMAG. Yeah, 8% 5, 9% 6. So people were very generous to KMAG. You thought you were onto something there. You loaded that up expecting a bigger number for a 4 out of 10.

Basically, the fans are wrong. Why do we even do this? Oh, Tommy, don't say that. Because 12% of people have given him 10 out of 10. What? Which is, yeah. Ridiculous. I mean, look, he's using the big.

best of his abilities, which is crashing into people and cheating a bit. But yeah, it's a bit... I can't give him. I can't give him high grade. He's starting off this driver ratings with an absolute sucker punch to not just K-Mag, but everybody that watches and listens as well. Unbelievable seems. Let's go to his teammate now then.

Nico Holcomberg. He qualified 15th and finished 10th. Gone for an 8 out of 10 for Nico Holcombberg, because unlike his teammate, he actually drove a good race. And he did a good job. Obviously, he was very unfortunate, I think, not to make it through, maybe even to Q3. I had that problem and made it work.

Yes, thanks to Kevin Magnuson, but it's such a difficult one to grade Magnuson. The more I say, I'm more like, no, maybe he should get more. But I'm like, no, no, you shouldn't. Don't do that with your chest, Tommy. Yeah, no, no, I don't. I do agree K-Mag 5. And I'm going, yeah, Hulkenberg 8. Nico Hulkenberg, I am actually going to give him a 9 out of 10.

I'm going to try this year, when possible, to give slower car drivers an actual good grade. Because at the end of the day, Nicot Halkenberg has entered the top five team category, obviously with Stroll's mistake, but still, he has scored a point, which we have already said many times was very, very difficult to do. And also, you know, he's really unlucky in qualifying, where he had a problem with the fuel system, and then just drove a really solid race. And, you know, I look at that and I go, how much more could he have done? Nothing, really. So that's why I've

gone for a nine out of ten for Nika Holkenberg, and the fans have given him an eight. Jo Guanyu now qualified 20th finished 18th I've gone for a four out of 10 for Joe Guan Yu not the best of weekends by any stretch of course he crashed in final practice which then meant he couldn't set a time in qualifying he missed the flag by only a few seconds and then just had a very

very just uneventful race to be honest with you so yeah it was was his mistake, which caused him to be on the back foot into the race, although I don't sure how much high he would have actually started, but still have to grade a little bit on that as well, so yeah, four out of ten. I've gone for a three out of ten for Jeuxneau. Yeah, when on these kind of circuits, it's the risky run for having a big crash in FP3. So I have to grade it harshly that essentially has binned it in the wall, given his mechanics a huge, huge job. And it's basically cost his whole weekend from there on really.

So normally you can get away with a bit of a FP3 off, but in this case it has ruined his whole weekend after what was a brilliant performance in Bahrain. The fans gave Zhugeotanou a five out of ten. Intriguing. We're now going to his teammate, Valderipotas, qualified 16th, finished 17th. I have gone for a four out of ten for Valtry Bottas. It was a mediocre race, not much to shout about. You think with Bottas that maybe you could pull something out of the bag we saw,

like I say, Joe getting points in Bahrain. It doesn't seem like the kick Salber is miles off. The others, I still don't think it's a great car. But I'm sure Bottas, with his experience, could have delivered something a bit better than 17th. So I've given him a four. I am going to go for five out of ten for Valtry Bottas, just purely because I think this car is absolutely horrendous. And I can't give him the same grade as Joe Guan Yu, considering the mistakes that were in his weekend. So, yeah, it's just a weekend that I just love how steak and Bottas, when they did that video with F1 about being picked for the F1 driver fantasy stuff.

And they're like, yeah, we're going to be bringing a surprise this year. You should pick me, all of this sort of stuff. And I'm like, yeah, you're done none of that. Your car's vibrant, but that's all about all we've really seen. Obviously, Joe, I knew it was great in Bahrain. But from Bottas's side, have we seen anything that kind of points to anything other than him just driving a car around and then popping home? So yeah, I'm going to go for five for Bottas. And the fans gave Bottas a four.

Yuki Sonoda now. Qualified 9th, finished 14th. I'm going to give Yuki Sanoda a six out of 10. Obviously, had a great qualifying, managed to get into Q3, which is no mean feat. It was five places ahead of Danny Rick. Completely smoked him in that. Didn't have the best races, to be honest with you. Got caught out sort of battling Magnuson, said that he was on a dirty, driving, which I don't agree with at all, really. I think it was just hard and fair.

Well, not the one where Magnus obviously got a penalty, but the one where he defended into term one was pretty nice. And yeah, it was what could have been, I think, once again for Yuki, but still showed signs of pace, signs of promise. That's why I can't give him straight down the middle. So that's why it's a little bit higher than that. It pains me to say that I've gone for a five out of ten for Yuki Sonoda. It was another, it was great in qualifying. I think it could have been another points finish, particularly with someone like,

you know, Nika Holkenberg and Haas scoring a point. So there were points up for grabs. And it was disappointing that he kind of got got a bit sort of outsmarted in a lot of the racing.

For example, you know, he was battling with KMAG for so long and couldn't get past him and then his mood ended up costing him a place to Ockon and then he got stuck in the DRS train. And I do think that the points were up for grabs if maybe he'd managed to get past KMAG and hold that position. And then we wouldn't have had this big KMAG train and Yuki would have been able to get

points, I think, fairly comfortably. But alas, he didn't. Now, very quickly, I forgot to mention, as we are mentioning KMAG and the battles we had here. another thing that perhaps that's why 12% voted for 10 out of 10 for KMAG is that not only did he pick up 20 seconds

worth of penalties and hold up everyone behind him but he managed to stay on the lead lap and everyone else behind him didn't which meant that he the 20 second penalty that he got didn't mean he lost any positions because of the big brain thinking of staying on the lead well I don't think the big

I think it would probably luck but he managed to stay ahead of us to happen and everyone else behind got lap result. I did look at the race result going, wait, how has he finished that with all those penalties? So, wow, that is fair. Just did all of that, failed to elaborate onto the next race. Unbelievable from K.I. What a hilarious, troll-worthy race throughout Kevin Magnus and that. Such a troll. But yes, Yuki Sonoda, the fans gave him a six out of ten.

Daniel Ricardo now, qualified 14th, finished 16th. I've gone for a two out of ten for Daniel Riccardo. It's painful, but I think he had an absolutely awful race. It's a big shame because I thought these days that we saw at McLaren were over, but this, like I said in the Race Review podcast, looked exactly like the days of McLaren, You know, to be almost half a second off Yuki Sanoda in qualifying is not great. Spun on his own, very bizarre.

Just, yeah, it looked just completely really bad, really bad weekend for him. And I notice a lot of people trying to justify his race by saying he had a really slow pit stop, like a 40 second pit stop. But he had that pit stop during a safety car period. which meant that he was on the back of the pack for the safety car restart. So he didn't lose 40 seconds. He obviously lost like a place or something. But he still had every opportunity to make some moves in that DRS train. But instead he spun and it's a really disappointing weekend.

And I really disappoints start to the season for Danny Ricardes. It's a shame to see. It certainly is. I've gone for a three out of ten for Daniel Ricardo. Yes, I guess that 40 second pit stop, everyone's focusing on that part, but as you say, he was running towards the back anyway.

Not great pace. Obviously spun at term one, which I love how the commentators tried to be like, was there contact? Did someone hit him? No, no, he had contact with the curb too hard and spun. Yeah, it was a concern. weekend for Daniel Ricardo and everyone that loves him because it just he needed to be in

that path. The only reason he caught up to that train as well was because of Kevin Magnuson going two seconds a lap slower in that first sector. So a really disappointing weekend for Danny Rick and one that he cannot do too many more of these. Otherwise we are going to be questioning what happens to him and his seat. The fans gave him a three out of ten as well. Logan Sargent now, qualified 19th, finished 15th.

I am going to give Logan Sargent a four out of 10. Just a disappointing race for Logan. I genuinely thought that maybe just maybe, well, I didn't. I was going to say he was there. He was in the mix. had K-Mag holding up the whole train. Maybe he can get involved and get stuck in. But Albon destroyed him again with damage.

That's just not good enough. It's just, it isn't he qualifying. Obviously, you know, starting 19th, seven places behind your teammate is one thing. But then not being able to translate it really into the race as well. Logan, he's starting this season exactly how he finished last season. There's no improvement. There's no closing of the game. Albon's a great benchmark for sure

and he is a decent driver but Albon is not Lewis Hamilton or Max for Stappan either so for Logan yeah it didn't he didn't obviously end up in the wall but that's not the target right now he needs to be a couple of tents behind Albon finishing 10 seconds behind him in the race

or whatever maybe that's fine but with Albon's damage as well you can't be finishing that far behind you need to beat your teammate once at least come on yeah I've gone for a four out of turn for Logan as well. Completely echo everything you say.

I can't believe it doesn't seem like he's improved at all going into this season, at least from the start of it, which is a big shame to see because you thought with the backing of James Vowls and a bit of a reset over the winter that he'd be able to just sort of get his head back in the game and be fine. But yeah, he shouldn't be getting so comprehensively beaten by Alex Alburn. because like I've said so many times on this podcast and something you just said is with the greatest respect to Alex Albon he's not a Max Verstappen

so there's got to be the odd opportunity even if he's not you know even if he's not beating him at least be somewhere near him and he's just not at the moment which is a big shame to see certainly is the fans gave Logan Sargent a four out of ten Alex Albon now qualified 12th

finished 11th. Gone for a 7 out of 10 for Alex Albin. I was oming and I are in between a 6 and a 7, but 11th is actually a pretty decent finishing position

when, again, there's not the top teams have kind of locked out a lot of those positions. It's a difficult one to grade because, yeah, Logan's not having a great start to the season and he was kind of caught in that pack. Nothing huge to shout out about.

But it's a solid result again and exactly what someone like Logan should be doing as well, but he's not. A little bit sideways slander to Logan again, as we were talking about Alex. Fair enough. I've also gone for a seven out of ten for Alex Albon. I think that it was a decent enough drive. It was a shame that he got stuck in that pack, and I think he was, I think he definitely actually said

that he was wishing that he had a bit more top, top straight line speed to get past the Hass and obviously that train. But to still finish 11th is a decent drive and to do that with damage as well after being squeezed into the wall is great from Alex. So it definitely, he definitely deserves commending.

Had he got through earlier that train, Magnuson wouldn't have been able to do the defensive train that he was performing. and he probably would have scored a point. So yeah, unlucky for Alex, but still a decent enough drive. The fans gave him a 7 out of 10 as well. Esteban Ocon, qualified 17th, finished 13th. I've gone for a 6 out of 10 for O'Con.

I think that it was a better outing for Ockon to actually be in that pack. Where he would have been had Magneton not been slowing down, who knows, but he was obviously stuck right in there trying to get past the has for quite some time. but it wasn't an absolute disaster showing from Alpine this time. They're nowhere near the top five teams. That's clear to see. But at least they're not languishing at the back in 17th and 18th. Ocon was getting involved, stuck in there,

gained some positions in the race. And so, yeah, that's why I've gone for a six. I've gone for a seven out of ten for Esteban Ocon. 13th in, in my opinion, the worst car in the field is actually quite a good achievement finishing ahead of quite a few other cars. It's hard to reset my brain that Alpina the worst car,

but I think they genuinely are now based on qualifying and how they've done. So I think Ocon to actually be fighting, finishing ahead of cars like RBs and Williams that in my opinion are quicker is a pretty good performance. Fair enough, yeah. The fans gave Ocon a five, so they are not happy at all.

Wrong again. Pierre Gansley, he qualified 18th and then did not finish, retired with a gearbox problem, on lap one. I've gone for a five out of ten for Pierre Gassley. He's a very difficult driver to rate, of course, because... Now, talk me through his race, Tommy. Come on, talk me through each and every turn he made on that formation on lap. Let's really assess it. Yeah, the way he raised.

radioed his team to say that his car had broken down already was superb. Beautifully communicated. Great communication, yeah. But Alpine, yeah, awful, useless, many other bad words. And but I do think that Gaslia knock on, the fact that they always seem to be milliseconds apart just shows that they are getting everything they can out of that car. but alas Gazley's car couldn't even make the start

and they said it was on fire and it smelt and yeah just what more can go wrong for Alpine we will have to wait and see we'll find out yes I've gone for a five out of ten as well for Gazley as you say

four thousands of a second separating Ocon and Gasley and qualifying just shows just how closely matched those two are but they are both in dustbins at the moment and fingers crossed For their sake and for Alpine's sake, they can figure out why that is, how they've fallen so far from Grace to where they were a couple of years ago is crazy. And I'm sure Alonzo is sat back with a cocktail in hand watching it all unfold. But yeah, very hard to rate.

So straight down the middle for Gaslit with a five. And the fans also gave him a five out of ten. Lance Stroll now qualified 10th and then did not finish because he crashed on. lap 5. I am going to lock in a two out of 10 for Lance Stroll. It's a mistake that's easily done, but it's a mistake all the same. And yeah, binned it into the wall. He made Q3, which was a tiny, like, woo, for Lance, but obviously he was six places behind his teammate. And it was, I think it was over seven tenths of a second. He was slower as well. So stroll, come on, son, you've got to be doing better than that, my friend.

Otherwise, your seat's going to be under, oh wait, two out of ten. Yes, for Lance Stroll, I've gone for a one out of ten. I really don't want to slander him, but he makes it extremely difficult with this. Because last race, we were singing his praises. This is exactly what he needs to do. If he carries on like this, we won't have to have this conversation every week. and bantering about how, oh, he's rubbish, will his seat be gone? No, just kidding, because his dad owns the team and all this kind of stuff.

And then he is absolutely nowhere near Alonzo in qualifying, which is bad even for him to be that far off. I mean, Bearman wasn't that far off, Charler-Laclair. And he's not done any running, and Charle-le-le's, you know, the qualifying god. so embarrassing from Stroll and then to crash immediately and it might be a zero but maybe he just gets a one

for his amusing team radio a sympathy point for that team radio which was absolutely world class the fans also gave Lance Stroll a two out of ten so they're on my side they're being a bit more lenient than Tom Bellingham right Fernando Alonzo

now qualified fourth finished fifth. I have gone for a nine out of ten for Fernando Lanzo. Shock. Yeah, shock. Who would have thought just got everything he possibly could out of that car? Don't think it's one of the top cars. Well, it is one of the top cars, but not the top of the top.

So to deliver fourth in qualifying, almost getting on the front row, and then finishing an impressive fifth, I think is a very good job from Fernando and just more like what he did last year of just getting everything you possibly can out of a car. Yeah, I banter about you loving Fernando, but it was a nine out of ten performance because that's what I've also gone for.

I think that the Aston Martin probably isn't as quick as that. And for Alonzo to have kept Russell at bay for pretty much the entire race was a great, a great effort as well. Of course, he couldn't keep Oscar, who had a great performance, I think, behind. But to finish fifth in an Aston Martin that looked so bad in Bahrain

compared to the other top four teams, it's certainly worth a high grade for Fernando. So well done for that. The fans gave Fernando an eight out of ten. Oscar Piastri now, qualified fifth, finished fourth. I have gone for a nine out of ten for Oscar Piastri.

I think that it was an excellent. excellent race from him. He is so tenacious and aggressive on the first lap as well. I love seeing Oscar Piastri on the first lap. He's like, tire wear, no, getting the ties into a window, no, I'm just going to send it. And he's just so aggressive. And I love to see that from Oscar. And just generally, he had a great race. Of course, he got stuck behind Hamilton, but my God, that McLaren is like, it has a parachute out the back of its car down the straight line, in a straight line, sorry. He really struggled to get past Hamilton. I think there were elements that obviously he got past at one point then went in two deep into term one.

It didn't matter in the end because he was on a much better strategy than Hamilton that stayed out when the safety car came out earlier on in the race. But yeah, Oscar had fantastic pace and outqualified Lando as well, which is no mean feat. So yeah, a nine out of ten. I've also gone for a nine out of ten for Oscar Piaastri. I think it's a big statement so early in the season to outqualify Lando Norris and his race pace has improved quite a lot as well. The Hamilton thing was unfortunate, but I don't think it ultimately cost him anything. I don't think he was going to realistically battle with Charler-Claire, particularly not with

straight line speed anyway, even if he had been behind him the whole race. And I do think the racing with Hamilton, as in the Rant to that I had in the Rate Review podcast, is more the fact that these these cars are just so hard to overtake now and realistically you look at the race and Kevin Magnuson could hold up everyone going two seconds a lap slower and the only person that really did a lot of overtaking was Olly Behrman who obviously had a power advantage on the kind of midfield runners that he was passing so um Oscar did a a fantastic job and yeah he's had a very very good start to the season indeed well done The fans gave Oscar an 8 out of 10.

Oh, yeah, savage. Lando Norris now, qualified sixth, finished 8th. I've gone for a 7 out of 10 for Lando Norris. He was obviously very close to Oscar in qualifying. Still don't really understand how an earthy managed to escape a jump start penalty. Still haven't seen it cleared up anywhere other than. than maybe a broken sensor. But so he's lucky,

lucky there because it could have been worse. And of course, you know, he did a completely different strategy that didn't work out. But you normally expect him to beat Piastri and seemed, well, we won't know in terms of,

because they never did a similar, similar race, but I expected more from Lando. I've also gone for a 7 out of 10 for Lando. I think that the FIA did clear it up and essentially said that because of the there was no no, it's basically what we thought, there was no notification from the transponder that there was movement or enough movement in the grid box, which I mean you just used your literal eyes to see that. But because

in the rules it says blah, blah, blah, then for whatever reason they didn't, you know, they didn't implement it, which was ridiculous because even Lando, you could see on his face after when he was being interviewed that he couldn't believe he wasn't penalized for a jump start as well. It was baffling to say the least. But no, Lando, it's difficult to judge his race or his pace because of the fact he was put on a very strange strategy. And it was one of those strategies that was a hopeful one rather than anything else. For me, McLaren, obviously, with Oscar Piaastri, showed that fourth was possible.

And then you'd have to think that Lando could have finished fifth. But instead, they've rolled the dice for another safety car, which, I don't know, I just find that a little bit baffling that they even tried that, to be honest. with you because it was very clear, I think, that as much as it was going to be a long stint on the hard tires at that stage in the race, almost everybody went for that and pit. So, yeah, it was a weird strategy for McLaren and Lando. Clearly didn't work as well in hindsight, finishing 8th, but still good points for McLaren overall, I guess, and yeah, the gamble didn't pay off. So seven out of 10 from me and the fans also gave Lando a 7 out of 10.

Olly Behrman, qualified 11th, finished 7th. It is a 10 out of 10 from me. And I love social media. I also despise it in equal measure. But some people are saying, oh, stop hyping Olly Bearman up. Liam Lawson did this or blah, blah, blah did this. And it's like, okay, fine, they are separate examples that were commended, and Olly Behrman should be commended for a one-hour practice

and to go and do what he then did around this track, which I've said so many times is a very difficult track and very easy to make a mistake. Lance Stroll showed that, who is a veteran of the sport these days. He's been around long enough, and he's broken his front-left steering arm. Ollie Behrman did not do that. He had a bit of a squirrelly first lap, a little bit all over the show. shop, getting used to everything. But after that, and especially at the end of the race, he showed unbelievable tenacity to just lock down and not be phased by what was behind. And yeah, I think that

he did a fantastic job. Yes, he's in a Ferrari, but he lost that nine seconds to Leclair after he got through on the Hass. It's a great performance, if not fantastic performance from Molly Behrman, and I will not hear anything other than a 10 out of 10 for his performance. Well then. No, no, I've gone for a 10 out of 10. Don't worry. It's P1 with Matt. Yeah.

You can't just say it's a Ferrari. He had so much up against him that weekend. You know, he's gone into, you've got to think as well, it's not just the practice, but he's never had that race simulation. He was talking about how difficult it was to follow other cars. And that was something he was experiencing for the, first time in a race.

His start was good as well. You'd watch his onboard start. He had a good start. How many times has he done that start in that car? In a few practice. And how many times have we seen other drivers? Yeah, like get bogged down or have a difficult start. And nailed the start.

Yeah, at the start, he probably, in my opinion, I think he got maybe a bit caught out by how much quicker he was the cars around him but needed to get used to sort of overtaken. There was one point where I think it was maybe Lance Stroll that he caught in a slipstream and thought about going three wide and overtaking all of them and had to back out and then it was moments like that where he was just finding his feet at the start

and then by a few laps, of course he's got a big car advantage but he's never driven it before in a race and he had to make moves, you know, on Sonoda and Holkenberg and these drivers that he's not raced in Formula One before. He's not done any running. So, yeah, it was thrown up against him and he delivered. I even saw a screenshot of his headrest at the end that was crumpled because it's such a, you know, tough, tough on your neck and stuff. So it was a great, great performance. really, really good.

Everyone that's criticised Ollie Beerman for anything other than a 10 out of 10. I mean, everyone's necks would have folded like a deck chair, but Ollie Beerman... Wow, speak for yourself. I mean, you are swolding. The fans gave O'Iroman a 10 out of

10 as well. Charlotte LeCler. He qualified second, finished. Third. I've gone for a 9 out of 10 for Charlotte LeClair. Yeah, good podium. Was never going to beat the Red Bulls, but, well, we say that.

Peres had a penalty, but he did what he needed to do. And what more can you say, really? He is in a good car. It looks like Ferrari are the second quickest car, and he's delivered where it should be. A bit of a quiet race, really, but a good performance. Yeah, I've gone for a nine out of ten as well for Charlotte. I think he even said it was a boring race

because he couldn't really do much. But, yeah, a P3 is the absolute pretty much maximum. He could have done there. They're still lacking some pace in the race, for sure. But, yeah, it's just one of those weekends where you go, cool. We'll take third, cheers, first of the rest of the field. Oh, dear, when is it going to change? Who knows?

But yes, a nine out of ten. And the fans also gave Charlotte Clare a nine as well. We now go to George Russell. He qualified seventh and finished sixth. I have gone for a... Oh. Oh. Seven. No.

Eight. No. God, it's right in the middle. Seven. Seven out of ten for George. George Russell. I don't think it was anything special this weekend, but he beat his teammate, qualified ahead of him, scored some decent points.

It's obviously difficult to kind of fully compare Russell to Hamilton just because they were on different strategies. But I don't think we really saw much of George Russell at all, really, in this race. And for a team that is so high up the grid, you don't tend to see that all too much. But, yeah, George had a reasonably quiet race, but a decent showing. Yeah, I've also gone for a seven out of ten. He did a good job, if not spectacular, but then the Mercedes doesn't seem particularly great at the moment.

If not spectacular, are you saying that he might well have done a spectacular performance? Are you saying not spectacular? It was not spectacular. You said if not spectacular. I was like, wait, you should be getting the ten then, bro? No, it was not spectacular. But, yeah, Mercedes, I saw some interesting stories about like Mercedes

trying to fix fundamental problem with W15 and it is literally like copy and paste from the last three years of headlines about Mercedes isn't it? Why would Hamilton move to Mercedes? Yes. So yeah, Mercedes just aren't there and they're getting beaten by teams with their engine. Not good.

Not good at all. The fans gave George Russell a 7 out of 10. Lewis Hamilton now qualified 8th and finished 9th. Gone for a 6 out of 10 for Lewis Hamilton. I could argue it might even be a low 6. He didn't have a good weekend at all. Had a difficult start to the season. Didn't look particularly quick.

Yeah, George beat him in all the sessions as well, qualifying as well. And yeah, he was on that kind of bad suicidal strategy that we mentioned that Lando was on. But I think even if it was a normal run, he wouldn't have beaten George anyway based on the weekend he had. It was a bit of a messy weekend from him. Certainly was. I've gone for a six out of ten as well for Lewis Hamilton. Yeah, it was not the right strategy.

obviously in hindsight it was right with Lando and fighting there and you could see just how much they were losing in that first sector obviously some of that's down to set up and where the McLaren was good but my goodness me they were losing that almost a second at times to Norris and then Hamilton typically coming over the radio and saying wow that McLaren is impressive and high speeds and all that sort of stuff which is a nudge to the team that yeah this is not very good but I mean he actually finished last of the top five team runners

I guess, but that was mainly down to that strategy and obviously fighting Lando. So that's why I've gone for a six. And the fans have gone for a six out of ten as well. Sergio Perez, qualified third, finished second. I've gone for a nine out of ten for Sergio Perez this week. I think that it was a very solid performance from Perez, just like he did last year at this stage as well.

And I'm hoping that it continues for Perez's sake. He's not quite on Max's level, but we all kind of know that. that really. And I think Perez himself knows that. And I wonder if that actually will help him if he begins to kind of understand that he doesn't need to push as hard to try and beat Max for Stappen, because Max is in an absolute league of his own at the moment. But that being said, Perez had a great race. Of course, had that unsafe release, which I'm not really going to downgrade him for because that's on the team as much as it is on him. So, yeah, a very good weekend

It was actually his fault. Please give context, sir. So the red light was on and he chose to go. Oh, I mean, he got penalty. He got penalties. Just sent it. Fair place. Just sent it, yeah. All right, okay, it is his fault then.

I didn't know that. Okay, fair enough. I've also gone for a nine out of ten. It didn't affect my grade from him, but just an interesting bit of information that I saw after the race that it was his fault that essentially like the red light was still. on so the team hadn't told him to go and he just went Yolo. It's absolutely heated it fairs.

So, so yeah. But he's had a great start to the season, everything that he needs to do. And yeah, can't say much more than that. It's a good drive. He's not going to be worried in the slightest about people taking a seat based on the ones that are rumoured to be taking it and how they're driving at the moment. So yeah, he's doing a good job. Absolutely.

And not closer to Max actually, sorry, as well. Yeah, closer than Bahrain for sure. It's not like that 20 second gap. Minus the penalty, it was only, what, eight or something? Eight or nine, yeah. Whether Vastappen had sort of fallen asleep at that point, who knows. But yes, Perez definitely a decent performance from him. The fans gave him a nine out of ten.

And finally, Max Vassavent. Stappan. On my first. Finish first. It's another 10 out of 10 for Max Verstappen. Yeah. Dominant qualifying. Some of the screenshots from his qualifying lap are insane.

I think it's probably gone under a bit under the radar because you kind of expect him to get pole now. Whereas that one in 2021, because it was such a close fight, it looked more spectacular. but when you watch his on board, you wouldn't know that he'd been up till 4 a.m playing eye racing the previous day. And then just a comfortable victory, never looked in doubt, didn't get the fastest lap. So clearly needs to do a bit more eye racing.

Yeah, I should have gone to bed at 2 a.m. instead. But, yeah, insane. And I know it goes without saying, but when you actually just think about it that he's won 19 of the last 20 races, I think you've said it on the on the Twitch stream that we are arguably witnessing the greatest prime of a driver that we've ever seen and it's hard to disagree because he's just unstoppable. I know the car's very good, but he's just not making any mistakes and he's just making it look so easy. This is a thing, right?

you know, people would argue, yeah, but Vastappen's up against Perez and Perez isn't that great or whatever. But if you actually look at the delta times between, you know, this particular season and the last few with Max Vastappen, obviously, winning, and the advantage that Red Bull have over one lap and in the race, compare that to the Mercedes domination area,

compare that to the Ferrari domination area, like this, which was a long time ago, but they had bigger margins, and yet these records are being brought. broken by Max Verstappen, who it's not easy in qualifying. As you say, you see the screenshots. He is pushing to the absolute ragged edge within a couple of centimeters of the wall. And it's just absolutely mind-boggling that he is able to produce such metronomic consistency every single week.

And I genuine, look, people joke about eye racing. He's on until 4 a.m. never stops thinking about it. But that, I genuinely think there is a part to play with the fact that he, lives and breathes motor sport. He never switches off from it. No, never. And you might think, oh, how would I racing on a controller at 4 a.m.

really help him in qualifying for Saudi race? It's not that. It's just the fact that he is constantly thinking about it no matter what. And yes, as you may well think, I'm going to say, a 10 out of 10 is coming from me as well for Max Verstappen. Yeah, 19 out of 20 is obviously not great for the sport in terms of competition, but what we have to do is be able to appreciate what he is doing in front of our very eyes. That kind of stat, I will pretty much very confidently say will not be beaten.

Who is going to win 19 out of 20 Grand Prix ever again? We thought that Vettel's unbeatable nine wins in a row, would never get beaten and Max is on his way to doing it twice in the last couple of years. And, and, you know, you say that, you say that all he has to do is beat Perez and all this kind of stuff and there's this narrative around like Perez is a bit useless, which I don't think is unfair because let's not forget he was hyped up to the, like, like crazy and everyone wanted him in that seat. Exactly. And you never get any credit for the drivers that maybe make their teammate look.

they're a bit rubbish. And I'm not saying Peres is the go. You had Hamilton against Bottas. Bottas and Barrichello and all of these other teammates, Mark Weber for Vettel, they're not thought of as incredible drivers that have been in Formula One. And also in that time,

Barry Kellow, Bottas, you know, they had races where they beat those drivers by you. You know, there was that race in Australia where Bottas beat Hamilton by like 20 seconds. And yes, it's one race. And that's what it needs to stop. But that's what it needs to stop it. And he doesn't.

So it's an incredible thing what he's doing. And it won't get the credit because, and it's fair to say it is boring because it's not, it's not exciting as Formula One fans because you want to see different winners. But it won't get the credit until maybe he is a full-time irating driver instead and he's quit Formula One or whatever. and we really look back on it and go, wow, that is nuts. And you just see his like Wikipedia table and just one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one. It's amazing.

It's amazing. I remember thinking, like, looking at Michael Schumacher in 2004 and just seeing that small block where he won, I think it was like 13 out of 14. And, you know, like how many more is Max going to win this year? Like, it could go on an insane amount. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. How many wins he's in a row now? Eight. Nine.

Nine. So he's won nine in a row. So that record, that Vettel record that looked completely untouchable, he's done it twice. Cool. So if he wins every race this year, he'll be up to 31 wins in a row by the end of the season. So, cool. And Formula One won't exist. And then I will launch that tennis podcast.

Right. The fans also gave Max Fassab and a 10 out of 10, no surprise there. Finally, we have to decide who is our P1. And you know what, this week I'm giving it to Max Verstappen because we've just absolutely commended him to high heavens and I can't then go and give it to Olly Behrman as much as it was an incredible performance from him as well. Max Verstappen is getting my P1 this week.

I will give it to Beerman. Yeah, I thought you were just to be different. Bearman does deserve it as well. So yeah. No, K-Mag actually. Didn't even give him a 10, bro. You can't give him a P1. 12% thought that he was P1.

one. So that is interesting. But cool, that pretty much wraps it up for this week's edition of Driver Ratings. Tommy, what are your final thoughts? Final thoughts are sorry for earlier having a go at the fans, but they were wrong. You can't bookend the start and the end of this podcast with slandering the people that are literally listening to this podcast. Tommy. They know I'm only joking. Nah, straight down to the job centre in the morning for Tommy.

I, on the other hand, really appreciate each and every one of you for listening and your opinions, even if they are supposedly wrong. Exactly. Thank you, everybody. Lots of love. Be sure to join our Patreon if you want to have lots more exciting access to other podcasts that we do during the season and loads of other benefits, Discord, and you can get a one-on-one with Tommy.

Sorry, that's only for Only Fans. So, right, thank you, everybody. Lots of love. Take care. Bye. Bye. Make sure you follow us on all of our socials. We're Matt P1-Tommi on Twitter, TikTok, Twitch and Instagram. You can also sign up to our Patreon at the link in the episode notes for ad-free episodes, full video interviews and extra bonus episodes for as little as $5 a month.

Finally, make sure you're following us on Spotify. See you soon. P1 is a Stack production and part of the A-cast's creator network. Thank you.