P1 with Matt and Tommy - The BIG safety changes made to the Saudi Arabian GP

Episode Date: March 13, 2023

It's race week and F1 is back at the controversial but thrilling Jeddah Corniche Circuit. We discuss the new changes to the track and whether we'll see some more DRS chicken this year.COME SEE US LIVE! You can sign up for presale tickets for our first London live show, at Leicester Square Theatre on 6th April! Sign up here to get early access to tickets tomorrow, 24hrs before tickets go on general sale.Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok.***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Right, listen up, everybody. We are doing a live podcast show on the 6th of April in London, Leicester Square. Myself and Tommy are going to be waffling in your eyes and ears. Yes, so sign up to the pre-sale link, which is in the description, and we'll maybe see you there on the 6th of April. Waffling in your eyes. Keep it. That's brilliant.

It makes sense. Welcome back to the P. One podcast with Matt and Tommy. It's Race Week. We're finally here. And today we are going to talk about the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, a circuit that has provided entertainment and controversy in equal measure. Aren't we, Tommy?

We sure are. Yeah, it's one of those crazy tracks we've had two races there. I have to say, two very interesting races. for many different reasons. But yeah, always talking points on this circuit. Absolutely. If you're watching on video, you'll see right there. Thank you so much for the plaque.

100K, boom. If you're on audio, sorry. Okay, let's get into a five-star review, as we always do. If you want to have your review read out, give us a five-star. Stars, as plural. And then let's know why you love this podcast. This one comes in from 9-inch Wales,

from the United States. This is my request. I think this is a good one. And I can just imagine you doing it in the Twitch deep voice mod. Okay. So if anyone's listened to our Twitch streams, you've got like this voice mod. And I read this one, I put it in the sheet,

and I could just already in my head, it's the perfect one to do. Once upon a time, there were two princes who ran away from home. Bravely, they set out on their own to build a new kingdom of memes and race cars. Join them on their magical quest for glory, for wheel. Perfect.

There you go. Hopefully that wasn't too scarring if you're listening on audio. You, to be fair, only audio listeners get to hear this beautiful stuff. So thank you for still listening after that. Okay. Our first thoughts on the Jeddah Corniche circuit. Do we love it or hate it? Before we get into our thoughts, let's share yours. We did a poll on YouTube where 43,000 of you voted. 17% said they love it. 42% said they like it. 31% think it's average

and 10% of you absolutely hate it. For me, from a racing spectacle, I think it's one of the best circuits on the calendar. Danger aside. That's the key. That's the key. thing here. When we're looking at actual the spectacle, the racing, the ability to overtake, it's just a slipstream fest, isn't it really? So no wonder it's actually pretty good for racing, for overtaking. Any kind of crash can just show up a huge amount of spice. It is basically Monaco on steroids. And you know what? It has provided us with two incredible races so far. So from a racing spectacle, it is actually one of the better circuits, I would say, over the course of the entire calendar. Yeah, I absolutely love it as well.

And I kind of, I'm one of these people where when safety got introduced, things like the halo and stuff, there are a few people and even drivers before saying like, oh, no, dangerous part of Formula One. And it should always be. And I am definitely not one of those people. I want to be as safe as possible. However, there's something about Jeddah where that kind of, there's something so thrilling about it, even though I kind of, it makes me wince watching it. I can't remember how many times the Maxer Stepan lap that never was has popped up on my TikTok, the battle with Hamilton in 2021.

And every single time I watch it, it still gets my heart pumping. It's absolutely incredible. There's just nothing, I can't think of any more sort of thrilling Formula One action. that the way they sort of, because the walls are close, it's high speed. I think the camera angles really help as well because it looks fast. A lot of modern Formula One tracks have pretty woeful camera angles,

in my opinion, where the cars look slow. It just looks spectacular, got the sparks flying and stuff. And yeah, it's produced two banging races, so it's hard to fault it. I know as well, Tommy. You're probably sat there watching that lap. And then just there's part of you that's like maybe one of these, time to actually finish it.

Maybe he won't lock up at the final corner. Out of all the corners to have messed up as well. There were so many near misses over the course of that lap, but it was the final corner. Yeah, it was one of those. And you'll have those, you know, the haters going, well, it wasn't one of the best laps of all time because he didn't finish it. But up until that point, it was glorious to watch.

Okay, cool. So we've kind of assessed, yes, that it is a pretty awesome track. However, I also do very much believe it is a huge plane crash waiting to happen. And so does Formula One, because they have made some changes this year to improve safety. Well, we'll assess whether we actually think this is going to change the spectacle in terms of actually making it a safer environment for drivers. But let's go through them. Turn 14 and turn 20, the barriers have been pushed back to open up the corner and provide better visibility.

for the drivers. Now, this is a key thing. When I'm actually looking at the pictures here, that does look a lot better because it's not necessarily the, it's not the fact that it's high speed. It's not the fact that, you know, that, I don't know, there's 20,

how many corners, 27 corners, or anything like that. It's not that. It's the fact that it's so high speed and there could have been a car that goes off or is going slowly. The driver who's on a hot lap or just racing doesn't see a yellow flag last minute and just steams into the back

or into the side of a car that is maybe stricken. These pictures genuinely make it look a lot better and so I'm really glad actually that this is the kind of changes that they've made because realistically, it is a purpose-built circuit for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. They can make changes. It's in the middle of just this big sparse land

and I'm glad that they've made this change. Yeah, me too. Looking at it, for audio listeners that won't be watching on video. Basically, it turned 14 and turn 20 are two of the quickest parts of the track. And the kind of the barrier hugs the apex essentially, but they've moved that barrier away by quite a margin. So now you can actually see around the corner.

And that is the big thing from Saudi that's always made me feel quite nervous about a Formula One race is that if you did have a car going slowly or had a problem and you're flying around that corner at 180 miles an hour and there's someone doing 60 miles an hour, like Matt said, it's going to be a plane crash, whereas if you look at it now, you'll be able to sort of see round that corner and see what's coming ahead of you, which is, which much, much better because I remember the incident where in 2021, when there was that kind of start crash and it was Perez that spun, there was a big bottleneck, Mazapin, slammed into the of, I want to say Latifi,

I can't remember which Williams it was. And that was quite a slow part of the track. And it was the first lap. So the cars went at full speed. That incident happening at full speed on these kind of corners is a very, very, very scary prospect. So the fact that they've opened up those corners, people will be able to take to the runoff to avoid things.

Hopefully this is much, well, it is much, much better whether there's more, to be done. It's another question, but these two are definitely kind of two of the trigger points. So are these changes enough? So obviously what,

turn 14, turn 20, but there are many other parts of the track that are high speed, potentially very dangerous. They have pushed the walls back at turns 8 and 10, which is just before

where McSumack had crashed. So I guess that's good. Of course, that's an area of the track that I believe, was that where Hamilton and Mazepin had their moment in practice. I think that was around turn eight.

I think so. Turn 10 to turn four are basically the same. They're all really similar. So it's really hard to tell what bits were. I'm pretty sure it was turn eight, which or turn seven, turn eight that Mazepin and Hamilton had that very close free practice moment. So it's a good thing that they've been pushing the walls back to improve visibility

because that's the key thing. But is it enough? You've got turns four, five, six, for example, which is exactly the same? But then you weigh up, okay, right, when are we getting not too safe, but when do we modify it too much that it actually loses that, that element of, wow, this is quick. Because I guess the whole point of this Jedicornish circuit is the fact that the walls are close and it is a very high speed street track. That it is a difficult balancing act, but I am glad to see that turns eight and ten have changed as well slightly. as well as adding bevelled curbs, bevelled curbs.

Basically, I've read they're just apex curbs at turns 4, 8, 10, 11, 17 and 23. What that means, I don't think a huge amount. But yeah, I think visibility is the really key thing for this track. Yeah, it is. And that's one thing the drivers really pointed out the first time they drove this track. The F1 game, I remember thinking like, this is a crazy circuit. it and I can't believe that when we actually got to Saudi in 2021 seeing it for the first time, it was exactly like it was in the game thinking that it's walls lining the entire track.

You're flying into corners. You can't see what's around the corners. And that is the big sort of thing that the drivers really spoke about when we were there in 2021. And I guess the reason they haven't been able to change it is the fact that it was the penultimate round in 2021 and the second round in 2022. so they haven't had that nice amount of time to change it. So it's nice that they have actually taken that driver feedback on board when they've had essentially a year to fix things.

But what I would say, and you kind of alluded to it, that turns 8 and 10, it's great that they've pushed that back if that's where the Hamilton incident was. But then is it, do they sort of need to do that everywhere? Are they just going to react when there's an incident? because that's not what we want to see because if a really bad accident happens at 10 5, 6 or whatever,

it doesn't matter that the turn 8 and turn 10 wars have been pushed back. Yeah, exactly. I guess you could say that for some tracks, couldn't you anyway, that of course it's going to be that level of danger. Which you can't stop. So, yeah, I think it's a step in the right direction.

We'll see when the cars are actually out on track whether these pushing back of walls and beveled curbs are actually going to help anything. Another sort of change that they've made is include rumble lines, which have been placed at turns 3, 14, 19, 20 and 21 to essentially stop or try to deter drivers from running wide and to essentially slow them down. Now, it's not none of those sausage curbs like we've seen in Austria from years gone by or anything crazy like that. just rumble lines to unsettle the car slightly, slow them down,

and to keep them within track limits, I suppose, as well. Yeah, it's definitely a track limit thing, because if you look at those turns on the circuit, they're not really turns at all. They're basically like flat out straights, where you're just kind of slightly turning the wheel, but I guess people will always try and gain a little bit of an advantage and run it as wide as they can.

and we've seen in the past that people just use curbs like they're part of the track. So if you can't, can't go on them, it's going to stop people trying to get that little advantage. But I guess they're the smaller, smaller changes compared to the visibility, which is the big thing. So will it improve the safety? That's the big question. We ask some of you for your thoughts on the circuit. First one comes in from full chicanery. The track is on the edge of being too dangerous, but that adds to the excitement.

Drivers are on the absolute limit, especially during qualifying. Two out of two races so far have been bangers, and if it was in Europe, instead of Saudi Arabia, it would probably be a top five circuit on the calendar. I think I agree with pretty much all of that, realistically. I think that even with the fact that it is in Saudi Arabia, I think a lot of people, well, clearly according to the poll, at least rate this. this circuit in some way. So, yeah, it's high octane action.

We'll see if it delivers three out of three. We had, for example, Baku. Baku was insane for the first few. And then has kind of simmered out a little bit over the last few years. So we'll see. But it has all the characteristics for just a ridiculous race. We can't rely on rain, but we have the unpredictability of a ridiculously fast circuit. If it does feel like Baku in the sense that you're reliant,

on a safety car or an incident. I think even though the racists have been bangers, I kind of correct me if I'm wrong, but they have been maybe you get to sort of 15, 20 laps. And until you get that first incident, not really much is going on. You're like, oh, this circuit actually is a bit rubbish. And then you just have one safety car.

It shakes up. You get a safety car restart. Get a red flag. Get a red flag. Have grid positions being messed up. Max Verstappen taking liberties of what he could do in the first turn and suddenly get a banging race again. And then equally last year, the battle between Max and Charles was absolutely incredible.

So it's one of those races where you need a bit of spice adding to it. I feel like it will be very much like Baku, where we will get one race, maybe it's this year, where not a lot happens and you go, oh actually what's going on here and then you know the year after you might get it's always going to be one of those races where you get either six safety cars or non and that's exactly why baccoe i think has maybe changed a little bit because it's not quite been the same in recent years because it's missed that chaos and i certainly think we might need a safety car if anyone is going to catch max vastappen thanks tommy for ruining the season already for being a max fanboy unbelievable

Next comment comes in from Thomas Andrews 01. I think it's a great spectacle, and we have had two very good races there, but I just feel like a high-speed narrow street circuit with blind corners. It's just a massive accident waiting to happen. I was completely of this opinion over the first two years. I think that we were very lucky to get away with,

you know, pretty much not having an aeroplane crash, like, you know, for Lensia, all those years ago with Mark Weber and it was a Covalinan, I think it was, into the caterer. Obviously, that wasn't necessarily the track, but that's the kind of incident you can't, you may even expect from, from this dangerous circuit.

But they have made changes. And I think it is definitely in the right direction. It's just whether it'll be enough. Because I'm sure that, as you say, the driver's very outspoken that when they first race there. I'm sure they will feed back again this year as well. It's one of those things as well. Modern Formula one,

one thing that really annoys, me about modern F1 is that we get this situation where people essentially doodle around in qualifying and we saw it in Monza didn't we where people want to get a slip stream and they slow down as much as

possible and they don't really push until the last second and they build a gap and it only takes one car doing their flat out lap while another six cars are waiting at the final corner and these could be blind corners that you're going to have a really

horrendous incident and the race engineers are going to have to be like on point to let them know where the traffic is. Because if you're flying around turns 22, 23, 24, for example, and there's cars slowing down to try and build a gap, like you say, is that plane crash waiting to happen. And they're the scary incidents where you've got the speed deficit between two cars. That's when things go badly wrong. Exactly. And as you say, it was so important for the radio engineers to be feeding back to the drivers at all times. And I think as well, weren't they not allowed to slow down in a certain segment of the track last year in qualifying? Which I don't think is ever policed properly.

Every time they have put out the rule of, nope, the drivers can't slow down in this area of the track. And then you just see this litter of cars all going slowly, getting ready for their lap anyway. and it doesn't seem like anyone's ever penalized either. I suppose part of that is just the nature of qualifying. Like, okay, don't slow down in this area of the track, but if you have four cars very close to each other, you're going to naturally slow down. So qualifying, in my opinion, is much more dangerous than the race in some ways,

just purely because of that difference in speed. Of course, if in the race there is a car that's had an accident, of course, that is even more dangerous. But realistically, there's a lot more events and potential incidents that could happen in qualifying. especially in Q1. Yeah, I really hope that they managed to police that. One thing I was actually just thinking that we've not put in the sheet,

I've not actually seen yet, but I'm sure there'll be some news on it soon, is where the DRS zones are going to be, because that's quite a fascinating part of Saudi is that we had for the last, yeah, DRS chicken for the last two years. And it seemed like, oh, is this going to be a ridiculous thing that's going to happen in Formula One? But no, it's just the nature of Saudi and how it works, because realistically it's only happened twice in recent years and it's both been Saudi and it's both in Raksa.

Yeah, exactly. You'll have to have a fight for the lead to have DRS chicken. Actually, to be fair, I mean, that we would actually properly, like, stand up on our seats and be like, oh my God, is the battle for the lead and DRS chicken. Although I can't wait for Fernando Alonzo to DRS chicken, someone like Lewis Hamilton and then gets the podium and everyone's up in arms about it.

It's weird. Part of me is like, oh, it's so ridiculous. And the other part is like, well, that's just, it's just a great watch. I'm kind of split because I'm like a massive hardcore love racing, whatever.

But then on the other side, I'm going, well, if we didn't have this crazy DRS chicken, would we actually have as much controversy and drama? Probably not. Well, the Charle and Max battle, for example, it would have just been Max just going past. And it was such a ridiculous situation. It did,

there was part of me, yeah, that was like, this is a bit embarrassing. It's almost like making a mockery of what DRS is because you don't, if DRS didn't exist, you'd never see a driver not trying to pass another driver and getting essentially a pass. Like, why would you not want to pass them? But the unique kind of way DRS is, is you now get this kind of situation where you don't want to pass them because the other person just gets DRS right on the very next. And it's quite a long start, finish rate as well into a nice breaking zone.

And that's what we saw with Leclair and Vestan. Oh, let's not forget as well. Vastappen and Hamilton in 2021 caused one of the, one of the most controversial moments in recent history where Vastappen was like, no, I don't, I'd come past break. And yeah, yeah, that caused us to go into the final race level on points. So, there's obviously, as you say, been no news about whether they're going to change it or not.

We'll keep an eye on that. They might even just add four more DRS zones like Australia do. And they're just like, yeah, let's just have the whole lap as a DRS zone. That would be quite something. Would you hope they kept it? The DRS where it is. Basically just keep it exactly where it is. Yes, I think so.

I think actually this season might need it. I think if it had happened. every race after Saudi, I'd have said, no, this needs to change. They need to do something about it. But maybe that one race, yeah, one race where it's a bit silly, although we've just been complaining about the deficit between cars.

And then you've essentially got a situation where people try and go slow deliberately. We'll see. There is an element of danger for sure with it. But I feel like it's not a 200 mile an hour versus a 30 mile an hour car, is it? It's silly. Yeah, it's a weird one. Let us know, actually, in the comments if you're on YouTube or via audio, social media, whatever you want to do.

Hashtag P1 as well. Get those in because you may well feature in funniest tweets if it's a funny thing later on this weekend. So that pretty much sums it up, Tommy. The only other thing was that mentioning the incidents that we have seen at Saudi Arabia so far, and forgive us if we have missed one out. But LeClaire in free practice, let's not talk about that. Let's move on very swiftly. Mick Schumacher crashed in the race in 2021

and crashed in qualifying in 2022. I think he might actually be happy that he's not racing around the Jeddokorny's circuit this year, probably. And of course, you mentioned earlier, the pile up that we had in 2021. And that's pretty much it. Yeah, other than in terms of like high speed big crashes,

I can't think of any more in Formula 1 at least. But yeah, fingers crossed, we just get an exciting slipstream battle and don't have to worry about these smashes. For first. Are you saying a slipstream battle for first, Tommy? Wow.

You're your hopes up, is it? Yeah. I mean, it is race week. It is. If you're a Ferrari, I was actually really glad that it wasn't a race last weekend because I wasn't ready.

I needed another week just to... Therapy. I couldn't. You know, I just healed over the off-season and then boom, literally. And then let's see, let's see if Lecler gets an engine penalty for the second race of the season. If he does, you will not be hearing from me this entire weekend.

But there you go. Tommy, what is your final thoughts? My final thoughts are, I've just remembered that we need to mention that we're doing a live show if you missed it before. And you can get tickets. We'll put the link in the description for the pre-sale for them. you'll be notified when it goes like in London. You may also hear a random ad read in the middle of this saying about our live show,

so Tommy's final thoughts will be completely irrelevant because we definitely need to say about the live show earlier than at the end of final thoughts. So ignore Tommy's thing. Tommy has some great final thoughts. Yada, yada, yada. Max Verstabins amazing. Woot, whoop, whoop. Please come to our live show if you are around London or if you want to travel to London on the 6th of April.

6th of April, Lester Square. We'll have more details going out soon. But as you say, Tommy, we've got the link to signing up for the presale in the episode description, as well as on social media. It's going to be amazing. I can't wait to do it. And yeah, we'll see you very soon for another podcast.

Bye! Tommy, why are you bending over? Oh, it's because Frank's there's got a wire on his head. He was a cable's on his head. Bye. Bye. Oh, you're on if Tommy's washed. Yes.

P1 is a stack Production and part of the ACAST's creator network.