P1 with Matt and Tommy - The Legend of Matt’s Biggest Flop

Episode Date: December 15, 2023

Matt singlehandedly won the 2023 predictions because he has a gift. Or so he says. So is the curse of Matt Gallagher's biggest flop actually real? We look back through the season to find out. 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 P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. I don't know why I just did that, but just wanted to be different. Thanks Tommy. Today we are going to be reflecting on a legendary part of the P1 podcast. And it's the predictions. And within that, the biggest flop. Because we felt like something was happening every time I did a biggest flop. it kind of came true in some way.

Sometimes I didn't score points, but a lot of the time I did. And in fact, this got me over the line to win against you, Tommy. So we thought it was a good idea, didn't we, to have a little look back

and see just how many times my biggest flop prediction came true and whether I need to start putting some money where my mouth is. Yeah, it was powerful, particularly at the start of the year, it became a big old meme. And then there was some big old flops

from your predictions. And I still would love to know that without your biggest flop, if we just had that segment out, I'd probably won by about 20 points because this is where you've bagged a lot of points. But fair play. Thank you, mate.

Before we get into it, we have a five-star review from Not A C-L fanboy from India. And this was picked by Tommy, not me, just so everyone knows. If you want yours to be read out, please leave us a five-star review and let's know why you love this podcast. When you guys left your previous venture,

I felt like a personal loss and I had lost a great set of friends. But ever since you started P1, it feels like I have a new lease of life and things are good again. I listen to every episode almost as soon as it's uploaded and love Matt's enthusiasm

and frequent anguish can totally relate to that being a CL fan. I thought you weren't a CL fan boy. And Tommy's calm demeanour and ancient, ancient will knowledge. Ancient Tommy. To be fair. You are 87.

Happy to see you guys getting more and more recognition with time and wishing you all the best for the future. P.S. Shout out to Frank and his swagger, the real star of the show. I know. When Frank can finally speak English, we will have him on the podcast. So yeah, thank you so much. Not a CL fan boy. Now, we have gone through it all, especially you, Tommy, to work out what happened to each driver? And then we're going to basically judge how powerful the biggest flop curse was from weekend to weekend. So let's start with Bahrain, where I went for Esteban Ocon. Yes, so this one, you started very strong because Esteban Ocon

equaled Maldanez record of the most penalties in a single race. He lined up on his grid box wrong, which got him a five second penalty. Then as he came in for his five second penalty, the mechanic worked on his car too early, which gave him a 10 second penalty. and then he sped in the pit lane to get another five second penalty and then retired with a mechanical issue. I think that one came in quite hard.

That is... I think that's where it begun, wasn't it? Because you were like, why have you gone for Ocon for the first race of the season? Just vibes. Just feeling in the air that I had. And my goodness gracious me, sorry again, Esteban.

That was unbelievable. Yeah, I mean, the fact that he... he equaled the most amount of penalties ever in one race is impressive. And to be alongside Pastor Maldonado is quite the achievement. So, yeah, sorry about that Ocon. And of course, the biggest flop definitely came in for that one. We then moved to Saudi Arabia, where I went for Logan Sargent. So Logan Sargent spun in Q1,

then had his best Q1 time deleted because he went over that pit lane line line line. as he crossed the line. So qualified last, which you could argue is not unusual. And then finished 16th. So he definitely flopped a bit. And compared to Bahrain, of course. There's definitely some Matt Powers coming in there. So you, Tommy, with this,

said it wasn't a flop, which I felt I was slightly robbed. I think I tried to argue half a point because he did spin in Q1, messed up qualifying, a lowly 16th, but I think because there were a few other standout floppers, you weren't willing to budge, which I wasn't happy about. No, and I think now it's aged even better that it was a no, because Logan finished 20th quite a lot and had a lot of lap times deleted.

Oh, well, you can't do hindsight. You can't be like, well, 16th actually is one of his best races of the year. But yes, fair enough. I didn't get a point. Whatever. Don't care. Totally over it. It should have been back to back points.

Australia. I went for Sergio Perez. Yes, this one was a good one. He got eliminated in Q1 with a technical issue. He ran off into the gravel and started from the pit lane. And then, yeah, he pitted on the first lap after a red flag restarted. He was actually very lucky because he also went off in that restart where it went to camp back anyway, which kind of saved him a bit and he ended up finishing fifth. It was seventh on the road, but fifth after penalties. Yeah. And this one, you know, his teammates won the race. He's had a big stinker. Of course, yeah, yeah. So he was off.

This was kind of the Perez of like, oh, he's decent. He's, you know, he's winning, he's won a race. He's there. And then, of course, finishing fifth in the fastest car, this, that and the other, we kind of argue, well, I definitely argue because I was trying to get a point. He would have finished in seventh had it not been for the penalties. So, yeah, I think it was reasonably floppy. But if we look at the whole season, we probably wouldn't have given him a flop.

Flop for fifth. Yeah, he'd have taken it for some of the other race in the season, but this is where it came up because I remember, yeah, the reaction of you when he went into the gravel after, we'd already had those kind of moments and we're like, oh, my God, you've predicted Perres. gone straight into the gravel in Q1. Yeah, I mean, the reaction was like, I started laughing,

but it obviously wasn't laughing because Perez was in the gravel. It was laughing because I'd predicted him flop out of complete vibes. And then it was just a cut to him being in the gravel. I was like, what is going on? So yes, that was, so to two from three, it's a good start, you know? And we now go to Azerbaijan, where I went for Yuki Sonoda. Now this one hit very quickly because he hit the wall in practice and I remember we were watching and there's a clip actually from Twitch

where I'm like that better not be Sonoda and it was Sonoda who caused the red flag but it was only practice he did get a bit unlucky as well in sprint quality because he crossed that was when he crossed the line just as a red flag came out and didn't get to do his lap so we're like oh my God you've cursed him but then in the actual race he did end up with a point so we didn't he kind of recovered from your curse there

it's ridiculous though it flop like the biggest flop curse things happened yeah in every single one of my predictions in the first four races something bad happened to that driver so I feel as though even though you know the penalty the point wasn't given here

I feel as though it was working it was each week Ocon of course horrendous. Logan spun in Q1, then at his lap time deleted. Perez, of course, had that stinker. Yuki Snowda hit the wall in practice. We were like, you know, I'm two from four now, but I feel as though I'm not getting the recognition

I deserve here, Tommy. Well, biggest flop, yeah, if it was like something will happen to this, a bad thing will happen. You'd have been basically like 22 from 22 in the season, I think. I genuinely thought I was on to something. with Yuki as well, but then he had an amazing, well, the fact that he scored a point just literally eradicated all of that biggest flop. So, well done, Yuki.

But yeah, maybe we need to re-change the biggest flop to something bad will happen. And then I'm definitely winning predictions in 2024. Miami now, where I went for Fernando Alonzo. Fernando Alonzo, being the goat, of course, could not be hit by the Matt Gallagher curse. qualified second, finished third, and the biggest memory of this was an amazing meme that someone made where it was all the person going to the room,

which was you, and Fernando, Chad Alonso, basically surviving the biggest curse. And this was the one, the only one, really, from those first five where nothing bad happened to them. This is where I learnt that my powers are not ready

for the likes of Fernando Alonzo, Max Verstapp and Lewis Hamilton, let's not go for these big league drivers just yet because clearly I hadn't warmed up yet because Fernando just had no flop whatsoever. So well done, mate. And that was, yeah, the first time where nothing bad happened to a driver after me giving it biggest flop.

So we then go to Monaco where I just said, I won't go for any big league drivers. And I went for Charles Lecler because, well, it's Monaco. So something was bound to happen. happen. Yes, and it did to a point he got a three-place grid penalty for impeding, and it wasn't a great weekend, qualified third, finish sixth, and we actually opened this one up to the fans in the comments, and they decided no. Well, it's just absolutely disgusting. But I guess, I guess the biggest flound for the first time. So actually, you might have even

argued half a point for biggest good surprise and there was only six. But, yeah. But the penalty that he got in qualifying was again like a, oh no,

here we go again. Why have I flopped Shaula of all drivers for Monaco? Yeah. But then, of course, yeah, finished sixth.

So still on five of six where something bad has happened to them. Yep. Not bad, eh? We now go to Spain. Oscar Piastri was my biggest flop for this one.

Yeah. looked good in qualifying, made Q3, but then finished 13th, lost three places in the first three laps. But McLaren weren't very good at that stage anyway, so 13th wasn't exactly a stinker for them. Wasn't this when Oscar didn't have the upgrades as well, I want to say or something? And Lando maybe did? I don't think so at that stage. I think McClain were just rubbish. I think it was Austria where Lando had the upgrades. It was Austria, yeah.

Okay, so yeah, nothing really happened for Oscar in Spain. Now go to Canada. Kevin Magnerson. The curse is back because Kevin Magnuson qualified 14th when Nico Holcomburg qualified second. And then in the race, he ended up going off track when battling Nick DeVries and then was stuck down the runoff area for 40 seconds and finished 17th.

So you came back strong. That is actually crazy. Yeah, just as we were wondering, has Matt's powers gone? He went for Oscar Piastri and he said no. Then KMAG, you can trust a KMAG performance. And I think it was enhanced, wasn't it? Just purely because Hulk had one of the greatest qualifiers we've seen. Obviously, he got that penalty, which meant he didn't start second in qualifying,

but after qualifying. But yeah, KMAG just had an absolute. stinker and that was, as we like to compare to the GIF of the two dustbins, that was KMAG and Nick DeVries in that race, wasn't it? It sure was, but yeah, you came back strong and then it got even better. So we don't go to Austria, where I said, Esteban-Ock on again. And I think we even had a conversation of being like, are you even? going to get a point if he doesn't do anything work because he had the worst race of all time

or so we thought in that first race you predicted him you predict him for a second time and he broke his own record for the most penalties earned in a single Grand Prix where he got five penalties in one single race he got four time penalties for track limits and a penalty for an unsafe release which is still not been broken to this day until you predict a span Ocon next time. And it'll go for six. I think we all know where Barone, my biggest one's going in 2024.

But I think this was the most impressive of the lot where you just go, as you say, Matt, you've already gone for Ocon at the start of the year and he's got loads of penalties. How is he going to beat that? And of course there was that investigation wasn't there afterwards into track limits. And then you just saw Ocon, Ocon, Ocon, Ocon, Ocon.

and then however many seconds of penalties that he got, it was, yes. I think Esteban is just like, please, please stop. Please stop. Stop doing this to me. So yeah, another point for me there. We now go to Great Britain, Silverstone, where I went for Max Vestappen.

Max Vastappen at Silverstone. I think I also predicted Max Vastappen in this one, which may be counteracted to the flop, because I always failed with my flop. That sounds crazy about that. As soon as I said that, that is mad. Peggy 18. Apart from losing the lead at turn one to Lando,

that's all that really happened. He got back into the lead. That in itself was, I would consider, a bad thing happening to Max Verstappen, losing the lead. Yeah, it was like, that's only how much you can curse. Matcha Stappen apparently is just to let him lose a slight lead.

But yeah, it wasn't a flop because he ended up winning still. So again, I went for a big driver and it didn't pay off for me. Hungary now, where I went for, Yuki Sonoda. Yep, Yuki Sonoda had an absolute stinker in Hungary, qualified 17th when Daniel Ricardo just returned. Before that, he broke his front wing in practice as well. Do you remember that? Yes, he did.

Yes, good point. So got hit with the bad curse there. Qualified 17th when Danny Ricardo had just returned to F1 in his first race and was 13th. And then he finished 15th behind Daniel Ricardo, who had only just returned. And also, Danny Rick had a problem at the start where he got caught up in that show incident. And yet Yuki still finished behind him. So this one definitely came in. Yuki had an absolute nightmare.

I think Yuki had... I know drivers aren't supposed to have bogey tracks and stuff, but I feel like hungry and Yuki Snowdo. It wasn't the year before we finished two laps down as well. So I feel like I know where my flops going for... I'm here again for that as well. So another point. Go me. Now get to Belgium.

This is the first time I went for a full team and I went for Hasse. Yep. This one went well because Kevin Magnuson got a three-place squid penalty for impeding Leclair. So he should. 15th. And then Holkenberg just had the biggest mayor ever where he had got a hydraulic problem in Friday Q1, failed to settle up in Saturday because the team error meant, I mean,

you even predicted a team and then the team messed up on something. The whole of Hass saw you predicted them and went, oh, let's send him out for quality. Oh, no, we've missed the line. which was a great from Hasse and then they finished last on track in 18th. Yes, so again, like this is... And also fair play because Hasse are rubbish so they have to have it quite bad to get a plot.

Yeah, that really did come in as well. So that is honestly crazy as we're going through them all. Obviously, I'm not scoring points all the time, but there's definitely bad things happening almost every single weekend, I say, biggest flop. We now go to the Dunds. much Grand Prix with Oscar Piastri. And he crashed out in second practice.

And I think even we predicted, this was the one where we predicted that, you predicted him because we'd just interviewed him and we'd just interviewed Daniel Ricardo as well. So it was a choice between Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricardo. And in second practice, they were both in the wall. And yeah, not great. and of course it ended up not being as great

because obviously Daniel had that broken hand in the end. Thankfully recovered to continue it in the season, which is good. So yeah, good times. But he actually qualified eighth and finished ninth, so you didn't get the point. Yeah. So again, something bad happened to Oscar,

but he scored a couple of. of points and for McLaren that was actually quite good for the season to score some points at this stage. So, yeah, Oscar did not get me a point, but still apologies. Now go to Italy. Where I went for Alex Albon? Nope. No flop at all. Qualified sixth, finished. Seventh had a good race. Yeah, I think this might be one of the only ones other than Alonzo and Max that we've seen so far where like just nothing bad happened at all really to him. Max at British Grand Prix, you know, he lost the lead. I'm saying that's a slight bad thing.

And to a non-red bull. I think that was probably the first time that he'd lost the lead to a non-red bull. So, you know, I'm going to know, well, you it maybe. I don't know, we're testing. No, I think George, Jordanie in Australia. Oh, yes. Oh, that's true, actually.

That feels about six years ago now. It really does. Let's now go to Singapore, where I biggest flopped. Max for Stappen. Wow. Yeah, you went for Max for the second time in this one definitely came in. It obviously won 10 in a row at this point, dominating the season, and he got knocked out in Q2.

And then this one hit hard because, said this before, they had pace. And I think Max at the end was pretty rapid, but basically, the time they pitted, there's the safety car which screwed him because they couldn't pit, and then also the virtual came out just after. So like Max could have had a very good race, but not when Matt predicts you,

biggest flop. And yeah, finished fifth, which was his worst performance of the season by country mile finishing fifth. Yep, so I'd warmed up my powers. Only non-podium. Activated them at Singapore and gave us the only only.

only non-red Bull win. So you are welcome. We're now going to Japan, where I said Carlos Sines. This was not a flop. He just finished six in a fairly normal race. Nothing really happened for this one. And yeah, just not really much to report. Carlos just doing a reasonable job.

The Singapore one was too powerful that you had to have like a cool down period to charge up your batteries. Exactly. And I did charge them up for Qatar as I went for Liam Lawson. You did. Liam Lawson, after essentially being the goat for the previous three races, Liam decided, oh crap, Matt's produced me biggest flop. And he got knocked out in Q1, spun out in SQ2, spun out in the sprint, and then finished the race last a lap down and 20 seconds behind Yuki Sonoda and received three, sorry,

received a black and white flag as well for three track limit warnings. So yeah, he had a shocker. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, definitely back after Qatar. And I continued this run of form going into the USA, Austin, where I went for Oscar Piastri. You did, and he had contact with Carlos Sainz at the start of the sprint, which caused his front wing to get damaged.

And then in the main race, he collided with Esteban Okon at the start. start which caused a water leak and forced him to retire. Poor bloke. I'm just, I'm sorry at this point. I feel like teams might actually pay us to not put their drivers in the biggest flop predictions because it could actually work out quite well for them in 2024. So our DMs are open. Brazil, I went for Alpha Tauri.

Now, this one was looking very strong after the first qualifying, of course it was a sprint weekend. So on the Friday, they both got knocked out. And we were thinking, how on earth have you done this again? But they were unbelievable in the race and the sprint. Yuki got points in both. Daniel Ricardo was quick too. And the point that I made here was that the universe got confused with who you actually predicted in what,

because Charlotte Clare was your biggest good surprise. And he went off on the warm-up lap. Can you imagine if you'd have gone for Charlotte Club at Brazil and he went off on the warm-up lap? Like, we would never have heard the end of it. Like, it would have been just like, wow, you actually need to be like banned from doing this prediction now. Yeah, fair.

I think as well, you know, it's difficult to get a biggest flop right when you have a sprint weekend as well. I feel as though, you know, yeah, it makes it difficult. For a team, especially if it's a lower team to do something good. And Alphotari, of course, we looked, it looked really good. especially the nightmare that they had in qualifying. But they turned it around, so well done.

Las Vegas, I went for Max for Stappen. No, you used up all your powers. Nah, come on. It was a bit bad. It was like, it wasn't the best, was it? Yeah, he wasn't leading the whole race, which actually, after Singapore, there wasn't really a single race that looked like Max was ever going to have a,

you know, might not win. And particularly when Perez had that perfectly timed stop, of course, when the safety car came out and it was like, oh, Paris could actually win this. But no, Max still ended up winning the race. You went for it again, but... So close. Without that safety car, Charlotte Clare might have won. And then Max Verstappen would have got me that biggest flop

because anything other than first is a flop for Max for Stappen. So, yeah, gutted. But still, I think there's something bad that happened in that race due to my biggest flop, which was Max for Stafford, not leading. And finally, Abu Dhabi, we finish off strong with a Valtrey Bottas prediction. Oh, God. Yeah, he had a terrible race. He looked amazing in the practice sessions, finished fourth fastest in both Friday practices.

It looked like it was going to be a strong weekend, but he was biggest flop. So he got knocked out in Q1, had a rubbish one-stop strategy, starting on hard tires, finishing on the mediums, and he finished 19th, which was last on the road. And the most painful thing about this one is that

we would have drawn on predictions if I hadn't predicted an alpha Romeo points. And I nearly changed it because after you predicted Bostas for Biggest Flop, and I was like, no, biggest flop won't come in again.

And it screwed me. So, well done. Because they looked so good after practice. And I was like, oh, no, this isn't going to come in. and then he had the worst race ever finishing 19th. I've just calculated as well. So I scored 10 points,

like actual points over the course for 22 race season, which you might think, oh, it's just under half. But if you actually think biggest flop is a very specific prediction and also... Yeah, you've got to have a bad race. There's so many... Formula One now, you don't get many retirements either as well

and things like that. And yeah, the fact that... that in almost half the races, they've warranted like, you know, having a race so bad. You know, imagine it's probably what, like 15 or 16 if it's bad things happen to them, maybe not, maybe even more.

But to actually get, yeah, that many. And I think the thing that stands out for me is predicting Ocon twice and in breaking two penalty records is absolutely insane. I've just worked it out so with bad things happening it was 17 of 22 that is insane

yeah that is absolutely that is crazy you watch biggest flop next year I get none right the entire year and I'm like yeah now we've done that yeah you'll be like

biggest flop is Logan Sargent and then Leggy Bear wins the first race I mean I'm here for that I'd see that every day of the week So absolutely. How many do you reckon you got right this year, Tommy? Oh, like two. If that.

Yeah. Everything you said was the opposite, wasn't it? Yeah. Oh, there was someone that I said biggest flop. And then they had like the best race of their career. And it was like, and it happened quite a few times. I was like, oh, Alpine. Actually, Alpine was the one that landed out in Vegas where no one, like on paper,

that was going to be the worst track for Alpine. And then it's like, no, they are absolutely amazing here now. And O'Conn's going to finish fourth even though they started right at the back. Yeah, insane. Love it. Love it. Thank you, everybody, for watching and listening to this reflection on the biggest flop prediction. I hope you've enjoyed it.

I hope you're surviving the off season. Don't worry. Lots of more biggest flop predictions coming your way in 2024 and lots of other exciting things as well. Tommy, what are your final thoughts? I just to round up a prediction thing, the comments on our prediction video where we were deciding between biggest meme. The top comment was actually that Logan Sgton was the biggest meme

and Fernando Longso was the biggest memeer. But then I've had a lot of messages basically being like, you're both wrong because Formula One did a whole Instagram post about how George Russell was just like a meme throughout the whole season. So, yeah, tough. Wow. I'm going to claim it's Logie Bear there

because it was the top comment, like we said. Was it? Interesting. Well, well done, mate. So happy. I've got to win one. Yeah, you wanted to end this being like, well, I won something. So there you go. Thanks Tommy for sharing that. And we will see you very soon. Bye! Bye!

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